ROSE TYLER, NINJA ASSASSIN
Chapter Twenty Two Donna crouched down beside Akira and Hattori when they reached the lake surrounding the castle. They were staying in the shadows, all of them dressed in dogi while they surveyed the castle, the windows and their surroundings. Akira spied the boat and pointed it out to the others. "The boat normally stays tied on the castle side," Hattori said. "Someone must be doing an errand or sent on a mission." "We can use it, yeah?" Donna said. "Run over, get in and go across before anyone notices." "What if someone does notice?" Akira said. "If we go across and the guards see us, they can shoot arrows down onto us, we'll be vulnerable." "There is another way," Hattori said. "There's a hidden entrance that leads to an underground tunnel that goes up into the castle. Samurai use it to get in if the castle is under siege and it's also an escape tunnel for the same reason. Not every samurai knows about it but I do. I can show you where the entrance is. We'd have to go back over the wall since the tunnel leads into the woods but it's not far." "What about the Doctor and Rose?" Donna said. "Should we wait for them?" Hattori scanned their surroundings and shook his head. "I don't see them. I don't think we should wait too long. The moon is rising and we won't have the shadows for long. I…" He trailed off when the Doctor and Rose suddenly dashed out of some trees and ran towards the boat. "Aiya! Stop them!" Akira hissed. "How? I can't yell at them and their backs are to us," Hattori said. They watched while Rose leapt into the boat and the Doctor quickly untied the rope, pushed the boat towards the water and got into it. He grabbed a large wooden paddle and began to propel the boat away from the moonlit part of the water into the darkness. "Hattori, let's use that tunnel and get inside. We can find a way to let them in," Akira said. Hattori nodded. He said a silent prayer for his friends in the boat while Akira got his grappling hook out of the pack and put on his shuko and climbing spikes. Rose glanced up at the windows while the Doctor quickly guided the boat into the part of the lake that was still shrouded in darkness. So far she couldn't see anyone at the windows but she still felt uneasy. "I don't like this," Rose said. "I feel too exposed out here." "So do I but we'll be across in no time," the Doctor said as he glanced up at the windows. "Just keep alert for any sort of movement." Rose looked all around her and she suddenly gasped. The Doctor jerked his head around and looked where she was pointing. He saw Donna on the far side of the bank gesturing to them. "Ah, there they are," the Doctor said. "Well, once we're across I'll take the boat and…" He frowned when he saw a rope come down the wall beside her and he noticed Akira on top of the wall, sitting in the shadows. The Doctor stopped paddling and both he and Rose watched, confused, while Donna grabbed the rope and Akira pulled her up. "Where are they going?" Rose whispered to the Doctor. The Doctor shrugged. He watched as Donna and Akira jumped down the other side. "They found another way in?" the Doctor said. "I don't know Akira or Hattori that well but Donna wouldn't abandon us. They must have another plan. I need to seriously consider bring walkie talkies along with me everywhere I go for moments like this. We'll just have to keep going and trust that they'll meet us somewhere in the castle and…" Rose gasped when an arrow suddenly thunked into the front of the boat. "If we live long enough to get inside the castle," the Doctor said as he rapidly paddled the boat away from the assault. Rose looked around for the source of the arrow and found one lone samurai in a window near the corner of the castle. She cursed the fact that she didn't bring her bow and arrows but it would be almost impossible to hit the assassin from her vantage point. "Doctor-sama, we need to get away from here. They're gonna sound the alarm and…" The Doctor looked up when she pointed and saw another samurai bringing a cauldron on an iron stand to the window. The samurai lit a signal fire and he cursed as he paddled faster. He knew that a sentry on the other side would see it and samurai would be waiting for them on both sides. Other samurai were now at the windows, shooting arrows at them. "Rose, use the breathing tubes. We'll swim for it and hope we outwit them," the Doctor said. Rose nodded. She pulled her breathing tube out and the Doctor did the same. They stood up and both of them dived into the water while one of the samurai shouted to the others that they were in the water now. XOXOXOXOXO Hattori, Akira and Donna stopped when they heard the shouting and looked back at the castle. "They spotted them, they're sounding an alert," Hattori said. "Damn it! We should have waited and brought them over to us," Akira said. "We can't do anything for them now. The samurai will surround both sides and try to capture them. We need to get to the tunnel and get inside, that's their best hope for survival now." "Well, get the lead out, you two," Donna said. The three of them ran hell for leather towards the forest while the shouting increased. XOXOXOXOXO The Doctor swam through the murky water with Rose towards what he though was the riverbank. Rose was beside him, her reed tube sticking up slightly out of the water just as his was. Rose got his attention and pointed off to her right. The Doctor followed her, trusting that her ninja training gave her a good idea what to do. The last thing he wanted to see happen was this Rose being tortured or killed in front of his eyes. After losing his other Rose, he doubted he'd survive the shock of seeing this one killed. Towards the riverbank was some patches of reeds and floating algae. Rose directed the Doctor to swim to it and they stopped amidst the reeds and treaded water just enough to keep their position, hoping that their breathing tubes would be concealed among the other reeds. The Doctor kept his eyes up, watching the riverbank. He saw one samurai run past but he didn't stop to check the reeds. Then he saw two more that were slowly walking along the bank, their katana drawn while they looked more closely at the water. Rose pointed towards the underwater portion of the riverbank and both of them swam more closely to it, trying to hide directly under the reeds and algae. Both of them held onto the wet earth beside them, holding their bodies still while they tried not to breathe through the reeds too loudly. From this vantage point, the Doctor couldn't see much, although he could make out the faint outlines of the samurai as they bent over and looked at the water. To his relief, they moved on but he knew they were stuck for the moment. They couldn't get out of the water without attracting attention. He could only hope that the samurai would assume after awhile that they had drowned and things would calm down enough for them to make their escape.
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