ROSE TYLER, NINJA ASSASSIN

Chapter Eight

When they reached the bottom of the mountains, the ninjas rode their horses into the forest and hid them among the trees.

"We're not taking the horses then?" Donna asked as they got down from them.

"Too noisy. We use them to get away after the fight," Rose said softly. "We climb up in the trees and ambush them from there."

"Climb?" Donna said incredulously before she looked at her own hands. "Look, I know the Doctor refers to us as apes but that doesn't mean I can climb trees."

"We use shuko," Rose said, handing her some from a small pack behind her horses saddle. "And foot spikes."

Donna looked at the small metal bands that had four spikes sticking out of them. The climbing claws were designed to fit on the hands and the foot spikes slipped over the tabi socks so the claws were underneath the toes. Rose handed a set to the Doctor and they watched as she slipped the metal bands around her hands and tied the spikes to the bottom of her tabi socks. The Doctor followed her example which shocked Donna.

"You're going up in the trees?" she said.

"Yes, aren't you?" the Doctor said.

"Um…no, I can't climb trees, I'm not a ninja," Donna said.

"And I am?" the Doctor said.

"Yeah. But…you're you. I'll look after the horses, you go be Jackie Chan for a bit."

"She's not helping?" Rose said to the Doctor after Donna moved away.

"She'll look after the horses," the Doctor said.

"But the horses are trained not to move," Rose said.

"Yeeeeah, don't tell her that," the Doctor said.

He finished putting on his shuko and foot spikes. Rose nodded her approval and the Doctor watched, impressed, as she went up the tree like a cat.

"Like to see my Rose do that," the Doctor muttered before he followed her up.

He was a bit slow at first but got the hang of it halfway up and quickly climbed up to a large limb.

"Very good," Rose said when he stepped out onto the limb and looked around.

"So now what do we do? Jump from tree to tree like squirrels?" the Doctor said.

"No, we have ropes between the trees, we use them. Go up to that large limb near the top."

"Okey-dokey."

The Doctor climbed up the tree trunk towards the limb Rose pointed to. When he reached up and stepped out onto it, he noticed a rope was tied to the trunk a foot above his head. He followed the rope with his eyes to a tree about fifteen feet away. He stepped out further onto the limb when he felt Rose coming up behind him. But she kept going and the Doctor watched, impressed, as she climbed up past the rope, stepped onto it and began to walk across it.

"My, my, you're full of surprises," he said.

He grinned when Rose got her balance and dashed across the rope and into the other tree. The Doctor reached up, grabbed the rope and used hand over hand to get across. Rose was waiting for him when he reached the other tree and put his feet on another large limb.

"You can't walk on the rope?" she said.

"Not as well as you can. I'm afraid if I tried it, I might slow you lot down. I'm not quite that nimble so I prefer hand over hand to get across."

Rose nodded and beckoned to him to follow her. She climbed up to another rope that was connected to another tree and the Doctor did the same. He could see the other ninjas were sprinting across the ropes and noticed they were falling behind but Rose didn't seem to mind. She went across and patiently waited for him to follow her. After the fourth tree, they heard startled yells in the distance.

"Some of the ninja found the samurai," Rose said to him. "Wait here, we might be able to ambush a few."

The Doctor nodded and he sat down on a branch a few feet above her head. He used the shuko on his right hand, embedding the claws in the tree trunk beside him so he could steady himself. They heard the sounds of battle in the distance and then heard the sound of horse hooves and panicked yells. The hooves were coming closer and Rose took her tanto out and held onto the trunk with her shuko while she crouched on the limb. Through the leaves they could see a samurai coming through the trees on his horse. When he went under the tree, Rose dropped down behind him. The Doctor used the claws to shimmy down, taking his katana out when he hit the ground but by then Rose had shoved the tanto into the samurai's neck, severing his jugular. The samurai fell to the ground, gasping and gurgling before Rose shoved her knife into his windpipe, killing him. The Doctor kept his thoughts about Rose killing the samurai to himself, realizing that she had been brought up to kill samurai and not show them any mercy. He and Donna were already on tenuous ground among the ninja without him lecturing them on the value of mercy. Rose stood up and grabbed the reins of the samurai's war horse. She led it over to the Doctor and got on. She motioned behind her and the Doctor got up on the horse. Rose took her katana out and rode the horse back towards the battle while the Doctor held on to her.

By now, the sounds in front of them were filled with chaotic yells and horse hooves. They saw a fleeing samurai riding towards them and Rose aimed her katana at his head. The samurai used his own katana and they hit one another's sword. Rose looked over her shoulder as the samurai went past and both she and the other warrior tried to turn their horses in the dense forest.

"Damn! I hate these huge horses," Rose cursed as the horse tried to turn around. "No mobility. The stupid fools, bringing them in here like this. Hey!" she said when the Doctor slid off the back of the horse.

"Keep going!" the Doctor said, withdrawing his katana and running towards the samurai.

He blocked a downward thrust of the samurai's katana with his own and ran around the back of his horse. The samurai yelled out in shock when the Doctor put his hands on the horse's rear end and vaulted up onto the back. The samurai grunted when the Doctor seized his head from behind and tried to get him in a headlock. The large metal helmet fell off, revealing a shaved head underneath. Once the helmet was off the Doctor tried to jerk his head back since the samurai was wearing a metal neck guard. Rose rode forward and seized the samurai's arm, wrenching his katana from his hand and throwing it away.

"No, wait!" the Doctor said when Rose raised her tanto to stab the samurai in the face.

The Doctor jerked the samurai's head forcefully to the side and sent him into unconsciousness.

"We can take him back to the village and get some information from him," the Doctor said. "Find out what they're doing here."

Rose nodded. She got down from the horse and helped the Doctor lay the unconscious man across his saddle.

"You're a lot stronger than you look. You'd make a good ninja," Rose said.

"Well, I've had martial arts training before," the Doctor said.

After the ambush was over, the samurai that the Doctor and Rose captured was the only one left alive. The Doctor was angry that some of the returning ninja wanted to kill him as well but Rose told them the Doctor's idea and they agreed to let him live for the moment. They led his horse and the other horse back to the ninja's horses. Donna was sitting under a tree waiting for them and she jumped up when they came near. The Doctor could hear a couple of the ninjas muttering angrily about her staying behind and calling her a coward and he quickly moved in front of her in case they got any ideas about killing her for her cowardice. Akira, sensing the ninja's mood, told them to get on their horses and go back up the mountain ahead of them. The ninjas glowered at Donna as they moved past her but Donna gave them a defiant look and backed away when they got on their horses and headed back towards the mountain.

"I'm not popular anymore," Donna said dryly as she watched the ninjas ride off.

"Don't worry about it. If they try anything, they'll answer to me," the Doctor said.

"So you managed to capture one?" Donna said, looking at the unconscious ninja.

"Yes. Hopefully he'll talk before this lot start carving him up," the Doctor said, grabbing the reins and tying him to the pommel of his horse's saddle.

"You don't approve of killing them?" Rose said, tying the reins of the other horse to her pommel.

"Not if I can help it. I believe there are better ways besides killing someone. Killing someone, to me, is always a last resort."

He noticed Rose was thinking that over and it pleased him. He hoped that perhaps he could influence her the same way he influenced Jenny and show her that you don't always have to kill someone on sight. For the moment though, he was glad the battle was over. He waited till Akira moved past him and then he, Rose and Donna followed him with the captured samurai and horses back towards the mountain path.

Back                         Home                              Doctor Who Main Page                          Next

Your Name or Alias:      Your E-mail (optional):

Please type your review below. Only positive reviews and constructive criticism will be posted.