The divorce cost Jack a lot but much to his relief, Janet didn't take custody of Tim. She left them and got remarried while Jack took his kids and vowed to start his life all over again.

Things would be hard but he was intent on making it turn out for the better.

But little did he know that just as they were settling in their life, fate had another shock in store for them. Tim and Sayuri were both at school and Jack had to pick them up as it had been their off time. But his phone rang and seeing the caller ID, he took the call.

"Mister Drake, I'm Ichiro Haga, I hope you haven't forgotten me," the voice sounded and Jack stilled.

It had been almost ten years since they had left Sayuri in his care but not asked once about her. So that sudden call didn't strike him as right.

"I remember, Mister Haga. Why did you call me?"

"I am coming to Gotham in a few days. I have to meet Sayuri, I hope you won't have a problem with it."

Jack saw that he was already getting late so he took his car keys, leaving his office, "why would I have a problem? You may visit her whenever you please."

"We're grateful, Mister Drake, you have always been very cooperative," the man replied in his usual stiff tone, "but I must tell you beforehand, we are not coming just to visit her."

"What do you mean?" He felt everything stop around him. If he had perceived those words right, it meant they were coming to take her away.

"I believe we can discuss this more conveniently when we are face to face," he remarked, "although I hope you remember that we clearly mentioned we will be leaving Sayuri in your care for some time. She had to return."

His fist clenched slightly, "she's my daughter, Mister Haga. I get to decide that."

"Certainly," the man seemed unfazed by the stern reply, "we will not take her away without your or her own consent. But I'll repeat that it would be better if we discuss this face to face."

He took in a deep breath to compose himself, starting his car, "alright. Send me the time you're coming to Gotham."

"Surely. Have a pleasant day, sir."

The call disconnected and he felt like throwing his phone ahead of him in frustration. But he took in a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

He was getting angry and that was making him act unreasonably. He had to first pick his children up from school then think about the situation clearly.

His daughter had become such a huge part of their lives that he couldn't let her go back. Things had been bad but with the three of them sticking together, they were finally reaching betterment.

He couldn't let those people take Sayuri away and plunge his life into misery again.

He had to think of a way to convince them to let Sayuri stay with him.

When he finally reached their school, Tim and Sayuri were waiting for him. Seeing his car swerve in, Sayuri stood up and took Tim's hand in hers.

It was her last year at that school as from next year she would have to be enrolled in high school. That is, if she still stayed with them.

Tim looked cheerful too and soon as the kids had gotten into the car, Sayuri spoke up, "Dad, guess what?"

"What?"

"Tim ranked first in his class," she told him excitedly, "I'm so proud of my little Timbers."

"That's great," he replied but his voice lacked the enthusiasm they would have wanted to hear.

Tim turned to look at Sayuri and silently asked her what was wrong
He had expected Jack would be happy to hear that but it didn't seem so from his expression.

He was occupied thinking something else entirely.

"Maybe Dad's tired, right?" Sayuri tried to handle the situation so that Tim wouldn't feel bad, "we can celebrate some other time."

Both of them noticed Jack's pressing silence as he dropped them off at home then told them to order something for dinner.

"I'm sorry, I have some urgent work to tend to," he told them with an exhausted sigh, "I'll come back late so don't wait for me at dinner."

"Is everything alright?" Sayuri had observed his gloomy mood so she asked cautiously.

"I'm fine," he gave his usual reply and left.

But he was not fine. Everything was about to crumble in his life for a second time and he didn't know how he should stop that from happening.

***

He joined the ranks of the many boys lined up before him, dressed in a plain black identical attire. It was his second year at the Ninjutsu Academy that he had been enrolled in for training.

The children of the higher ranking families of the Sasuke warrior clan were sent to that academy where enrollment had to be made soon after the birth of a future student. His name was in the records too so when he turned fifteen, he had joined the academy.

All those students who belonged to their clan would then impart their knowledge to the rest when they came back to the clan after graduating. That was how they managed to have all their warriors excellently trained without all of them being enrolled in that academy.

Ryuu knew he held the same responsibility so he learned everything to the best of his ability in order to be capable enough to pass it on.

There were very few girls in the academy as mostly people preferred to send their sons to get trained. It was a commonly accepted notion that the man was the fighter while the woman was the protector of the household.

But Ryuu had seen both those roles up close. And he knew that in order to survive, one had to be both a fighter and a protector.

Even though he didn't like to wield swords and would rather choose negotiation than fighting but he had to learn it for the sake of the other students of his clan that he would later have to teach.

His first year had passed questioning the norms of the academy and the contrasts it had to his own moral values. But by his second year he was starting to adjust.

He had made it a vow to perfect everything he was taught there but he paid extra attention to defensive skills rather than attacking.

As a result, he ended up convincing one of his trainers to teach him Aikido, the ancient Japanese martial art that was more focused on defending oneself from the opponent without causing and sustaining fatal harm.

Therefore after his regular classes, when he had some time off, he would go to the trainer and learn Aikido from him.

There weren't many practitioners of Aikido currently. No one else was interested in mastering that type of martial art as it didn't seem effective when used in fighting against an opponent.

But Ryuu had an opposing ideology.

Pain was what he despised being inflicted on his people as well as on others. So he wanted to learn how to fight without giving pain as well.

Many would consider his ideology useless but he knew what he was doing. He knew it would help him in not only becoming a better fighter but also a protector.

All he had wanted to do ever since he lost his mother to her sickness and kept seeing their people get hurt time and again was to protect them.

And for someone who could protect, he had to master every single tool and technique he could make use of.

Including Aikido.

***