1.3...

All the Wolf Samurai could do for a time was stare at the man on the ground. The man wore standard ninja garb that consisted of a black face mask revealing only the eyes, black garb bound in certain places with material so as to make less noise, and a black sash most likely containing shiruken. The one thing that was not standard was the katana sheath hanging from the man's black sash and the katana currently sticking through Ashitaka. This weapon choice was done deliberately to mock the Samurai, Ashitaka decided.

"Who sent you?" Ashitaka asked calmly. Silence was the answer he received. "I know it wasn't your mother. As far as I'm concerned, she gave up that life a year ago. Unless there is something I don't know," Ashitaka looked deep into the eyes of his son. There was something strange about those eyes. Slight variations in color continually swirled in the irises of this man. Strange... maybe products of the magics that aged him so quickly?

"Master, we have to do something about that wound!" came a distressed call from Kairi.

Ashitaka just stood staring and thinking quietly to himself. My wounds can heal Kairi. They are the least of my concerns. "What is your name?" murmured Ashitaka to his son in a low growl.

Silence.

"Do I not have the right to know my own son's name?" snapped the Great Samurai.

"You don't have the right to live," came a response from behind the mask.

"I have never lived. I have only served. I will continue that way until I die."

Silence.

"I am going to ask one more time. Who sent you?"

The assassin finally stood up, his back to his father. Slowly, he pulled the wakasashi from his left shoulder and dropped it to the ground. "No one sent me. I am here of my own accord... to kill you. Today I have failed, but next time I will not," replied the attacker nonchalantly.

"Next time, my son," said Ashitaka sternly, "I will cleanse you of your dishonor."

"Dishonor?" chuckled the assassin, now staring at Ashitaka. "Like you should talk father." At that, the assassin walked past Ashitaka, grabbed the hilt of his katana buried in his father, and cruelly yanked it out. Ashitaka gave a grunt and fell to one knee. "You see father? You aren't invincible," remarked the attacker who vanished into thin air.