Jack shut down his laptop, leaning back in his chair exhausted. He had just talked to his daughter on video call as he had been quite shocked when he had gotten her previous email telling him that she had gotten married.

Things were happening too fast for him to catch up to and it had taken him a few days to accept that.

Sayuri was twenty by then, she could make her decisions on her own and as he had talked to Ryuu too, it didn't seem that the man he had chosen to marry would be a bad option.

But still, something about their union struck him as strange.

It wasn't that he felt Sayuri or Ryuu weren't happy with the marriage, something just felt askew to him.

He felt that there must be a reason his daughter had decided to get married too soon and without even telling him beforehand. Perhaps she did not want to waste any time and why would she think that made him bewildered.

In each and every email she had sent to him, she would talk about her studies and her friends and normal things that should be going on in the life of a university student. But to him, it all felt like a lie.

It felt the same way when he had first met Nuriko and gotten close to her back when he had been visiting Japan with an official delegation. Back then he had felt Nuriko was intentionally showing him one side of the picture and hiding the rest and currently as he looked at Sayuri's emails, he felt the same way.

His daughter too was hiding a lot from him. But why would she feel the need to lie to him about her life with her maternal relatives was a question that he had half an answer to.

He did not know much about the rebel clans of Japan but he had heard a little about them back when he had been visiting the country. And upon meeting Nuriko, almost falling in love with her and intending to marry her but not being able to do so due to her disappearance and then her murder six years later... It all led him to believe that there was some connection between Nuriko and the rebel clans.

And if his assumption was right then currently Sayuri would be the one involved with the rebels too.

If he had enough resources, he would go to Japan himself and bring her back because he knew it was a risk to her life if she really was part of a warrior clan. But he couldn't do that and he felt frustrated at his helplessness.

But Sayuri was no longer on her own in that situation. Her husband Ryuu was standing right beside her.

Jack had a rather confused perception of Ryuu so far. On one hand, he didn't find anything troublesome about the young man; he was around Sayuri's age, he had been friends with her before she was sent to Gotham, he cared for her and was happy to be by her side. But his brown eyes were sharp as that of a warrior; vigilant as that of a man always on the lookout for danger.

And then the sentence Ryuu had said to him back when they were on call and Sayuri had to briefly leave came back to his memory. He had tried to ask Ryuu what exactly was going on and if his daughter was in any danger.

He recalled how the young man had bowed his head and spoken as if he was taking an oath, "she's my responsibility too, Mister Drake. I'll protect her with my life."

At that moment, he had realized Ryuu was genuinely saying that and it was a promise he had made. Jack couldn't see any ulterior motive or malice hidden behind those words. Ryuu definitely cared for Sayuri and would keep her safe.

But still, there was a lot going on that he couldn't understand.

He took in a deep breath, trying to regain his composure. If he convinced himself that Sayuri would be safe as long as Ryuu was with her, that made him come back to another concern.

He knew Sayuri wasn't the only one who had been hiding things from him, Tim had been hiding a lot too.

And even if he couldn't go and figure out what Sayuri was up to as she was so far away, Tim was still within his reach. He could still find out why the boy had been lying to him so much for the past few months.

He needed to find out.

Because he didn't want the only child he still had with him to end up getting in danger or leaving him.

He had to keep a strict watch on Tim.

***

With Sayuri and Ryuu's return to the base, preparations were underway for the warrior clan's attack on the League's stronghold in their country. They knew Ra's Al Ghul was using a secondary base close by in order to keep track of them and because they had been unable to break through the siege of the Sasuke clan's base, they would be planning other ways to take them down.

So the clan had to work fast and use stealth to get their message across. Infiltrating the stronghold would be the first step for them to reverse the game and instead of being wiped out, initiating a wipeout on the League itself.

During the time they had held siege and Sayuri had taken command of her clan, they had prepared their warriors in every possible way to take the dangers head-on. Therefore, the Sasuke clan was now in a much better position to fight back.

They were just waiting for the right time to strike.

And that right opportunity showed itself not long after.

Sayuri prepared a squad that would infiltrate the stronghold and she herself would be leading it with Ryuu beside her.

There was no doubt that Sayuri and Ryuu were the best fighters in their clan although their methods were quite opposite. If Sayuri could be deemed as a flame burning down her opponents, Ryuu could be deemed as a stormy tide washing away the opposition.

Both of them worked together to make the best use of their skills and whenever those two were up against anyone, it was a sight to behold.

That night too they carefully planned every move and then struck at their enemies when they were least expecting it.

It didn't take them long to infiltrate the settlement the League had there and that was the first blow the warrior clan landed at Ra's Al Ghul after years of being oppressed and constantly being under threat.

It was a message that they did not have to leave in words. Once news of the League's defeat would reach Nanda Parbat, it would be clear to the Demon Head that his intention to wipe out the warrior clan wasn't going to be that easy.

The victory was written in the Sasuke clan's favor that night.

And after that night began the slow and steady retaliation of the clan. They were rising up against the League finally to take back everything that the Demon Head and his assassins had snatched away from them.

That retaliation was no lesser than a fatal threat and Ra's knew he had to do something about it soon or else his League would be the side in danger of being wiped out due to the thunderous wave that had been formed by the Sasuke clan coming together under the command of another skilled leader.

And Ra's Al Ghul was fully aware of the chaos that could be unleashed if that leader wasn't stopped.

He had to resort to killing the leader just like he had done before with Nuriko Sasuke.

***