- Paslėpta liepsna-

Heikkinen was ready to get away from his worst enemy, his living hell and nightmare; paperwork, when Markuss and Dainis jumped through his window and calmly walked in front of his desk, giving him a slight heart attack.

He was in his forties! And Heikkinen swore that the Apsauga of his village would make him grey before he saw his sixtieth birthday. Dvesma was knocked out, but Aldona -his adopted granddaughter- was staring at him with large eyes.

Dainis had a knocked-out man over his shoulder, a look of pure hatred in his eyes. There were also two daggers in his leg, placed where even a child could reach them.

“Paslėpta liepsna,” Markuss greeted.

“Grandpa,” Aldona echoed.

“This man tried to kidnap Dvesma,” Markuss told him while gently putting Aldona on the ground, allowing her to walk over to Heikkinen and sit in his lap. “Aldona got him with a dagger to the knee and hip, if she didn’t, I would have killed him.”

“Yet it didn’t come to that,” Heikkinen commented. “Aldona, my granddaughter, why are you awake and how did you stop Dvesma’s kidnapping.”

Azuloas and Aldona were Heikkinen’s adopted grandchildren, both were happy children that would smile at anyone who’d smile at him. In fact, both he and Kalwa adopted the two since they were placed in their arms after the Sins’ attack on the village.

It was too bad that they couldn’t official adopt them.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Aldona admitted. “And someone came out of the compound and I stabbed him.”

“If anyone asks, I did it,” Dainis told him.

“Okay,” Aldona agreed with a slight huff. She didn’t want the village knowing she was willing to put a dagger into someone’s knee cap. They wanted her and Azuloas dead enough as it was, she didn’t think it would be a wise idea to add to that hatred. “I wanted to protect my friend, not impress the stupid council.”

“Why not?” Heikkinen asked her,

“Half don’t understand and are power hungry,” Aldona told him, putting her arms around his torso and placing her head on his chest. “They don’t understand the Apsauga, Kareivis or Sekti units and yet, they still think they can pass judgement about their training. They have too much power grandpa.”

“I would do something about it, but I have too much paperwork.” Heikkinen knew that his exercise was weak, it sounded weak to his own ears. Dainis and Markuss just looked at his stack of paperwork with pity and Aldona just looked at him.

Like the answer to his unasked question was obvious to her.

“Doesn’t a shadow clone give their memories back to the user?” Aldona asked him remembering when Jadvyga brought it up briefly as something she and Azuloas would eventually have to learn, since the normal illusion clone used too little chakra then either twin could hope to use.

At least, not without chakra control to rival a medics.

Heikkinen just looked at her, both the Shadow and Blood Clone had been created for the purpose of spying, so it was mostly taught to the Sekti unit. But thinking about it, Heikkinen wouldn’t be surprised if the second Paslėpta liepsna used it to catch up with his and the first Paslėpta liepsna’s paperwork.

It might be the reason he had only had the third, fourth and fifth Paslėpta liepsna’s paperwork stacking on his desk. How could he had forgotten such a basic technique? Both Shadow and Blood Clones could be used to battle his worst nightmare and enemy.

“Dearest granddaughter, I love you,” Heikkinen told her pulling the six-year-old into a tight hug, to think five Paslėpta liepsna’s and a child solved the biggest problem when it came to the council gaining too much control.

“Paslėpta liepsna?” Markuss asked pointing to the man hanging over his brother’s shoulder with a bored wave of his free hand. Dvesma still softly snoring into his shoulder, his hand slowly back to rest on his daughter’s shoulder blades. “What do we do we with him?”

“One of the Apsauga will him to the Sekti headquarters, they’ll deal with him and find out who sent him,” Heikkinen told him running his fingers through Aldona’s hair as she looked at the piles of paperwork on his desk. “Is there anything else?”

“As Aldona has done me a great service, both she and Azuloas are now underneath the Spoku-Acs Clan’s protection,” Markuss told him, Dainis nodding his head as he dropped the man onto the Apsauga member that was going to take the prisoner.

Heikkinen just looked at him, Clan protection was something that was brought in after the First Major War. The second Paslėpta liepsna brought it in, so people wouldn’t take their frictions out on orphaned Kareivis members.

Attacking someone under a Clan’s protection meant it was attack against that clan in question. Those who do so, would face punishment underneath the Clan’s justice system and not the civilian system.

“Of course, we’ll tell the council in the morning,” Heikkinen told him. “Along with Dvesma’s attempted kidnapping, we’ll have to up the security around the village for a while.”

“Thank you, Paslėpta liepsna,” Markuss told him bowing even as the Apsauga member left the room with the man in their arms. If there was one that Dainis would never envy Markuss for, was having to deal with the council at least once a month.

He had heard Markuss curse the waste of time that council meeting usually turned into, since either half of the room didn’t fully understand the other half. Clan’s didn’t understand how merchants worked, while merchants didn’t know how clans worked.

“Don’t worry about Dainis, he’s not dead,” Heikkinen told him, making Dainis glad that the Paslėpta liepsna didn’t know what he was worried about. “Whoever sent him won’t be able to calm that he worked for them, nor would they be able to calm that we killed their man without reason.”

“Good night Paslėpta liepsna,” Markus told him looking at the child that was currently sitting on Heikkinen’s lap.

“Don’t worry, I’ll look after Aldona. She can help me some paperwork,” Heikkinen told him.

“Paslėpta liepsna,” Markuss and Dainis told before disappearing out the nearest window, Heikkinen didn’t know they couldn’t use the door, it would give him less of a heart attack.

“It’s more fun, Grandpa,” Aldona told him.

“I said that out loud, didn’t I?” Heikkinen asked her.

“Pretty much,” Aldona told him, giggling as she slowly pulled a piece of paper that looked like it hadn’t seen the light of day for nearly ninety years.