Shi no Kao WIP
At the peak of drumming, several small explosions made the room blindingly light for a moment. Some people sitting in the room nervously picked their katanas at once, but the boss raised his hand, calming them down.
The smoke in the middle of the room cleared, revealing a slender young man dressed in the uniform of a kunoichi, a female practitioner of ninjutsu. Several suspicious people still held the handles of their swords. The smoke completely vanished. At a second glance, it became evident that this uniform could be barely used in real action. Its gentle, semi-transparent cloth wouldn't protect even from mosquitos.
Despite the dress, the young man still looked dangerous to many. He stretched his arms in the air, arched backwards and performed a very elegant cartwheel. His body was so incredibly flexible that he stepped on the very same spot after taking a whole turn, and without stopping he performed a few more turns with a feline grace.
"Th- this is a demon! His body is made of rubber!" screamed a man sitting next to the boss.
"Please don't listen to this nonsense, Shio-sama!" another man turned to the boss, "He is an exceptionally skilled student, he had spent almost two decades in hard training of his body and soul..."
"But we wanted a kunoichi, Shio-sama!" the nervous man cut the second man's speech, "And this is a guy! He's not even ashamed of sticking out his prick into our faces! What a disgrace!"
"This, Shio-sama, is because we wanted to show you this student's incredible ability of disguising himself as a female. He can make himself look like a woman but still have the strength and endurance of a man. He is very experienced at taking kunoichi missions and many respected people hired him in the past without a second thought! But we didn't want to fool your eyes for a second, Shio-sama, and made sure you can see what he really is... Besides, you have just seen with your own eyes how limber this student is. His body was trained for flexibility and endurance, he can withstand any pain without flinching and, unlike women, wouldn't reveal a word about his hirers if tortured. Besides, he can squeeze through the narrowest passages, hide himself in places where he would be least expected and pack himself into the smallest containers..."
"Who cares about all that?! We wanted a woman for this mission!" the first man kept screaming and pushing his finger in the young man's direction.
"It's not a problem..." Shio's deep, very manly voice cut everybody's whispering like a sharp blade, "Lead him to my room. I have a few tests for his... umm, endurance. If he performs well, I'll sign the contract."
The boss got up and suddenly gasped for air as a shuriken cut his throat. Blood bursted all over his kimono and blended together with the sound of explosions in the middle of the room. Several short knives darted at once in the young man's direction but only penetrated the smoke.
"You'll catch a cold, put this on," as they agreed, Yoko was waiting by the corner at the next crossroad.
"Thanks," Kagemaru put the robe over his barely covered body and pressed himself against the giant figure of the young sumo wrestler, still shivering from the stress and cold.
"I've ordered a bath, five minutes from here. Some sake will make you good," Yoko ruffled the young man's hair and removed the band holding his ponytail. Kagemaru's hair fell on his shoulders, framing his face.
"Mm," he nodded, looking into the wrestler's eyes, and in a moment their figures vanished into the darkness of the street.