WAP 43

Her assailant did not enjoy that assessment. They narrowed their eyes and lunged in again. They were close enough for her to note that they were slightly taller than Aiko, with a narrow build that didn’t carry a lot of visible muscle. She dodged again, this time whirling a few feet away to look at them. They didn’t pursue immediately this time, moving into a classic 10-strike stand, hands lifted.

‘I’m sort of relieved that the Hyuuga are finally making a move’, she had time to think. ‘Better that they want to hunt me here than try to use civilians against me as leverage.’ 

She weighed up the attempted assassin critically. The other shinobi looked young– early 20s, she bet. It was impossible to know their level. She had paid attention to the tactical discussion about the personnel assets in different groups, but there weren’t any particularly famous Hyuuga in that age group. The current clan head was older, and no one else had been mentioned.

They cocked their head slightly at her in a bit of calculated intimidation. Their long and loose hair was a flag, a taunt, a brag about their ability. That didn’t necessarily mean they were that strong, especially by the standards of a modern soldier who had trained against Hyuuga before. Aiko blinked docilely at them, waiting for the stand-off to end. They paused for an oddly long time, long enough for her to feel their chakra. 

‘If I compare this guy to the Hyuuga I knew by chakra sense, I’d guess they’re about a chuunin’s level?’

Perhaps they were giving her a chance to surrender, given that she was a holy woman. But as time passed and she said nothing, they narrowed their eyes and attacked.

Aiko was not looking to experience blocked tenketsu, so she dodged and weaved. It was not easy, exactly, but she was just plain faster than her opponent. She indulged in a bit of meanness by keeping her expression flat and unimpressed. That would piss her off, personally.

It worked on the Hyuuga as well. They opened their mouth just enough to show a hint of set teeth and threw themselves into further into jyuuken. She couldn’t tell if they were a man or a woman, which was pretty characteristically Hyuuga. They were also disciplined and silent.

Well. Maybe if she was just a gigantic asshole, she could break that self control and get some information.

“What’s the play?” Aiko asked conversationally. Her hair flew behind her as she weaved around the other ninja’s hands. “Your clanhead can’t think you’ll win. They have heard of me, right?” 

She knew that was an unfair assessment. They would have heard that she was an infidel, probably. There wasn’t really anyone outside of the Senju, Uchiha, and Mayumi who knew that she was an elite shinobi. So it made sense that the Hyuuga was infuriated enough to break and curse her with what sounded like some antique misogyny. Probably a male Hyuuga, then.

“Gauche!” Aiko went on the offense for the first time, taking a bit of sadistic pleasure in batting her opponent’s hands down at the same time she went for a blinding eye jab.. She enjoyed the widening eyes as she lunged in and the Hyuuga realized that he couldn’t block before she would connect. He flung himself backward and recovered with a flip. She let them get distance and took a moment to widen her stance and just blink at them. “You’re not good enough to fight me,” she said sympathetically. Ha, they were pissed. 

‘What should I do? I could kill him, but the Senju and Uchiha wanted to avoid conflict, the last I checked in. Granted, he is trying to kill me so I could call it self-defense.’

She wholly dodged his next attempts with Hiraishin, because it was funny. It was something she had learned from Obito– she knew damn well that it was demoralizing to be on the other end of the tactic.

‘I don’t want to undermine what my allies are doing,’ Aiko decided. Besides, it was probably funnier and more insulting to leave the Hyuuga alive. He scrambled to get her again and again, visibly stressed as she simply avoided him with no visible effort.

She could just leave, of course, but– hmm. Her lips twisted with dissatisfaction. She didn’t like the idea of letting them have the small win of pushing her around their territory. 

Aiko took a moment to feel through her rather pathetic spread of hiraishin seals and think of the furthest and funniest places she could drop this loser off. Would the Uchiha or Senju like a hostage? Might that escalate things, or would it just give them leverage? Ugh. 

She didn’t know, so she played it safe. The next time he frantically sprinted to her, she reached out and grabbed a handful of his beautiful hair. He roared in fury and whirled to cut her hand off, but she was already letting go of him in Tea Country. She gave him an unpleasant smile and pulled herself away.

The road where she had been ambushed was dusty now. She sniffled and pushed hair off of her face, turning a circle to check for anyone else laying in wait. There were no other shinobi visible, but there was an old woman sitting outside of her house who had clearly been watching the entire altercation.

Aiko nodded at her.

There was a long pause. The elderly civilian’s face twitched. Then she nodded back. “Good afternoon,” she said, clearly deciding that whatever that episode had been was none of her business.

“Good afternoon,” Aiko returned cheerfully. She let her eyes crease with a natural smile. “Have you heard the word of Izanami-no-Mikoto’s blessings?”

The lady turned out to not be interested, so Aiko excused herself. She sort of wanted to continue on, but the niggling thought occurred that she should update her allies. She could not bear to look at the Senju right now, so her options were limited. With a sigh, Aiko took herself to the Uchiha compound and nodded to the woman on home-guard duty. “Is Madara-sama home?” she asked.

“...Follow me, priestess,” said the other woman, who was really a good sport about how Aiko popped in and out. 

Madara was home, but he must have been doing something that had him filthy, because she was kept waiting an awkwardly long time while he was fetched and then made presentable.