WAP Aiko 40

The night with Tobirama wasn’t as bad as she feared. He was a quiet houseguest. He accepted the futon with quiet thanks and laid down his head for the night without taking off his armor, which she sort of felt flattered by. He wasn’t that comfortable with her.

Or maybe he was just making the polite moves for her battered ego, which would be gracious of him. Aiko would accept it.

Come early morning, someone called a hello from outside. Aiko folded her futon and put it up before padding out to the wraparound porch in her bare feet and underclothes to see who had come.

“Good morning.” Furi-san stood there as if this was a normal visit from her at a busy time of day for a working mother. Aiko knew perfectly well that Furi-san did not usually leave her home for at least another hour.

Aiko lifted an eyebrow. She pointedly looked up and squinted at the sun against the skyline, checking its progress. “Good morning,” she said back in a tone. It wasn’t hostile, but she was clear that this was odd and she knew something was up.

Furi was wholly unaffected. She smiled pleasantly.

Hmm. Was Aiko losing her touch? She frowned. On the one hand, she hadn’t been ruling by fear. But it would be nice to feel that she wasn’t a toothless tiger. Aiko was a very real and dangerous tiger. Right? She was still a tiger.

While she contemplated this, a child shrieked in excitement behind her. “Auntie!” Hanako squeezed past Aiko to greet Furi. 

The middle-aged lady gathered the girl into a kiss to the forehead before giving Aiko a more proper greeting. “Priestess, I understand that you have a guest. Will you have breakfast with my family?”

“That’s very kind.” She felt Tobirama stir behind her, obviously awake but politely feigning ignorance. “I will rouse Tobirama-san and walk over. Should I bring anything?”

Furi-san demurred, but she did have her nieces come early to help. 

Aiko hung outside long enough to watch Hanako, Aiko, and Momoko follow Furi-san like ducklings out of sight into the heart of the village. Furi-san was doing this to get gossip first. The whole town was going to be asking her questions about the strange ninja man who had appeared in the middle of the night.

More power to her, Aiko decided, turning back to her room. That meant that fewer people would try to ask Aiko. What a winning situation. Everything was great. Her mood lifted with the sunlight. She indulged for a moment in watching the sun rise over the mountains. It would only be better with a hot drink in hand, she decided. 

She went back inside and discovered with a snort that only one of the girls had properly put away their bedding. Tobirama got up while she took care of it and silently mimicked her actions to fold his own bedding. 

“Wash your face outside?” Aiko asked absently, rubbing at her eyes with a finger. She yawned and pulled on a red haori to nod at public decency. “Come on.”

He lifted a white eyebrow and followed her without comment. Aiko knelt at the little private stream for this purpose and splashed water onto her face to wake up. She gargled water and rubbed at her teeth with a sprig of wood that she knew to have antibacterial properties.

Tobirama hummed, once. She glanced at him but couldn’t guess what it meant. He copied her anyway. “Will you change?” He didn’t look at her.

Aiko looked down. “I’ll put shoes on,” she decided. She yawned again. “Ugh. I’m too old for these late nights,” she complained. She struggled her way back to the shrine. “It felt different when I was 15.”

He laughed. She stopped in her tracks to cast a suspicious look back at him. “I have never enjoyed late nights,” he told her in explanation. Then he gave her a look of polite curiosity, because she had sort of indirectly invited the question of her age. “I cannot be older than you.”

Aiko shrugged. “I don’t know how old you are,” she lied. She turned in a way that closed the conversation and leapt up the deck to grab her things. “She said that we didn’t need to bring anything, but I really would feel better not coming empty-handed…”

Tobirama grunted. He seemed to think that was sufficient answer.

She pulled a basket off the shelf and put it in his hands. “Can you recognize bracken?”

His face twitched. “Of course.” 

“Fill this. Off you go.” She waved a hand at him impatiently, just to see what he would do.

What he did was give her a long, ominous look with his dark eyes. She now realized for the first time that they were sort of creepy eyes. Then he disappeared with the tight flicker of shunshin.

“...Okay.” 

She took the time to fix her hair and boil water for a cup of tea. It was done by the time that Tobirama returned with a full basket. She had him put it down and poured him a cup as well. “Feel free to speak the truth,” she advised him. He took a tactical sip to avoid answering her. “They want to know why you’re here, but it’s not protected information.” Aiko paused. “Unless there is anything particularly private in regards to Hana’s health.”

He cast a sideways look at her that came off slightly amused. He looked remarkably punchable. “I did not know that you were such an involved mentor.” Tobirama said it tonelessly. 

She still heard the tease: You are soft. 

It took all her emotional strength to smile back at him and not leap over to cause him bodily harm. “Let’s go.”

The smile must have been a good one, Aiko noticed with satisfaction, because he did seem a little unnerved and skirted away from her as they went to Fumi-san’s family home. Tanjiro answered the door, flung his arms around Aiko’s waist, and then pulled her in by the hand chattering at high speed. Aiko avoided Tobirama’s eyes. 

At least at the breakfast table, the heat was off of her. Aiko hung back and enjoyed her fish, rice, and miso soup and made no comments at all or attempts to save Tobirama from an increasingly uncomfortable interrogation about the blood toll his family had extracted from the area.

(“Is this really the first time that someone has been able to ask you about this?” Fumi-san’s husband asked, balding head tilted to the side. “I suppose you people just kill anyone who criticizes your leadership.”

“Not too dissimilar to the former Daimyo,” the elderly matron of the house said slyly. Tobirama looked like he wasn’t certain if the situation merited a weapon or not.

Tanjiro’s mouth popped open. “Hey, do you have horses?”

All the adults snickered. The three little girls looked around without comprehension, because they hadn’t been read in about all the samurai murders. Aiko batted her eyes and inclined her head, as if accepting applause for all the very expensive horses and weaponry she had confiscated from the Daimyo’s people.

“...To what would that pertain?” Tobirama asked, clearly sensing a story. “Why do you ask?”

“Oh, nothing,” Fumi lied cleanly. “But, ah. Your clothes look expensive.” She gave him a contemplative up and down.

Her father giggled.)

When they were finally released out into the morning air, her companion seemed shell shocked by the full force of personality he had endured. “That was nice,” Aiko said mildly. She adjusted her jacket on her shoulders and bounded out into the street. “It was very kind of them to accept us over. Shall we send someone to collect you?”

“I think I can take my leave,” Tobirama said stiffly. He veered away from her grabbing range. 

“I could give you a lift back closer,” Aiko suggested.

“No, thank you.” He took a step back and gave a bow. “Thank you for your hospitality. I will inform my brother that no harm has been done and that I was tasked to ensure your apprentice’s safety, and therefore the stability of your obligations to Konoha.”

“Have a nice trip.” She didn’t bother to watch him leave. She wanted to get back to her work in the countryside. As soon as she checked in with Fumiko, Aiko would leave again.