WAP 20

It took about a day for Aiko to regret what she’d done. It hadn’t even been like her. Why had she been so- so imperious and offended?

(She knew. She knew the answer, and it scared her.)

But there was nothing to do about it now. The only thing she could do was decided if she wanted to involve herself.

Objectively speaking, the Senju were the aggressors in this situation. The Uchiha were defending themselves against a spurious accusation.

‘But I really only know that two of the Senju were shitheads,’ Aiko thought, guilty at the idea of letting this go on. ‘The rest are probably just getting dragged along into the conflict.’

That was how being in the military worked. She didn’t normally feel much sympathy. You can’t, not if you want to do your job and come home. But a clan felt different. You didn’t sign up for that. You were just born there and shuffled down the path your parents picked for you.

‘Is that really that different from what happened in Konoha?’ Aiko huffed a dry laugh to herself. ‘I was such a little child when I joined the Academy. I don’t remember why, but I wasn’t old enough for it to be an informed choice. Probably the Sandaime told us that it would be really cool.’

In his defense, it was really cool. Chalk one point up for the Sandaime.

‘That aside, maybe this is an important lesson learned at the low low cost of one pair of self-made straw sandals.’ Aiko was making a new pair at the moment. She’d had a spare, but living without an extra pair of shoes was too risky even for her. ‘Now I know that my tolerance for disrespect is suboptimal. I did kind of draw a hard line about killing Tobirama if he talks to me like that again and… You know, I think Izanami-no-Mikoto might enforce that.’

She contemplated that for a moment. It was almost funny to imagine that she might kill her country’s second king if he was mean to her. It was too ridiculous to be true.

‘Maybe he won’t be rude,’ Aiko told herself. ‘It’s in God's hands now.’

She washed her hands of responsibility for that. He might take her a lot more seriously after seeing her disappear via Hiraishin. That wasn’t at all a holy ability but, uh, how would he know that?

…He might already be developing it. But her version benefitted from decades of refinement at the hands of Tobirama and her father, as well her own advances. What he was inventing wasn’t really that similar to what she’d done. He shouldn’t recognize it. He might be jealous, though.

The real root of what bothered her was the suspicion that she might fuck up her timeline if the Senju and Uchiha got into a new fight because of her presence. But did she actually care? Did it actually matter?

Aiko wasn’t a philosopher. Aiko was a warrior, and a leader, and a scholar, and she was also definitely an under monitored serial criminal.

So the conclusion that she came to might have been less than sound. But honestly? She’d come to this time period explicitly to change it. So why not change it? When she was in her own timeline she wasn’t twisting herself into knots thinking that her actions might have a devastating impact on the future. She looked at the information that she had and used her best judgment to make decisions for the betterment of the people she was trying to protect.

“This is all a very nice way to say that the Senju can suck and die,” Aiko said contemplatively. She said it as light steps came down the entryway to where she was sitting on the edge of the walkway around the shrine. Little Aiko, the child one, gave her a wild-eyed look and went right back inside.

How was that even going to work? She finished weaving a straw sandal and sat it down. On to the next.

Anyway, the Uchiha and Senju hated each other, right? And they didn’t exactly have a shared phoneline. How were they setting up their next ass-kicking appointment? How did they coordinate that?

Aiko snorted, imaging some extremely awkward note passing. Or shouting across a clearing about whether Tuesday was a convenient day to die- no? How’s Thursday? Why, what do you have going on, maybe we could schedule between other appointments- where, you ask? Good question, where should we meet to kill each other? How do we start, someone just says “go” or what?

“It’s not fucking cool, that’s for sure,” she said to herself. “There’s nothing hardcore about that shit. I would never subject myself to that level of indignity. If I want to kill someone I’m just going to go to their house. Imagine coordinating a group battle… I’d feel like I was arranging a dance off.” Aiko rolled her eyes and pulled some straw way too tightly. She had to go back and redo a few centimeters of work.

If she really thought about it, using the knowledge that she’d have if she only lived now, what she cared about was Izuna. She knew him and she liked him, so she didn’t want him to die.

That might be historically inconvenient, since his death precipitated the founding of her country. But who knew, maybe this wasn’t even her timeline. Aiko brushed stray bits of straw off of her legs as she finished and stood with a stretch.

“I think I’ve adopted that himbo,” she said contemplatively to the morning air.

What a strange choice she’d made. His head was empty and he looked like Sasuke- no, actually, that made perfect sense. He was the exact type of person that she was destined to like. “I had better go and find him.”

He was a lot easier to find than that stupid shrine had been, that was for sure.

She could attribute that to her cleverness and attention to detail. But honestly, she’d brought him to the Uchiha complex a couple of days prior. She remembered where it was. Even if she hadn’t known where it was she could have taken a wild guess given that Konoha was placed in the historical Uchiha home grounds.

Aiko went to the outer bounds of their settlement and waited politely for someone to come over and investigate.

The Uchiha home guard that came over was a pair of women, one in her late 20s or early 30s, the other one a teenager. They could have been sisters. They were dressed in plain, worklike yukata with only simple weapons at hand and identical hairstyles. Interesting. So that was how the Uchiha did things. She supposed that you can’t wander around in full armor all of the time.

Aiko lifted a hand in a polite wave.

They exchanged a cautious glance when they saw Aiko perched neatly on a rock waiting for them.

She cocked her head. She let them speak first.

The older woman was the one to break the silence. “Good afternoon.” Her voice was surprisingly husky. On reflect Aiko glanced at her throat to see there was a mass of scar tissue. “Are you the priestess of the valley shrine?”

Aiko took a moment to regret not coming up with a name. That wasn’t terrible, but it was low on panache. “Yes,” she said, instead of ‘Please call me something cooler.’ “I wish to consult with Izuna-san.”

The younger woman opened her mouth and then shut it just as quickly. She had pretty good control but Aiko caught the flash of indignance. Aiko smothered her own amusement.

‘I wasn’t respectful enough for her tastes. That’s cute. I suppose that we were informal together. He’d probably be in trouble with his brother if Madara knew about that. But he didn’t tell me to use a higher form of address, so I’m not going to.’

They didn’t take long to think about it. The older one dropped into a low, respectful bow that her kohai immediately copied. Most people wouldn’t be able to notice that the timing wasn’t in sync. “Please follow us.”

“Thank you,” Aiko murmured, and dropped down to her feet. She kept a polite few feet of distance between herself and the- kunoichi? Were they truly kunoichi, or were they just combat-trained clanswomen? She was pretty certain that there was a meaningful difference.

There was a hushed discussion with a man at the gate to the actual compound. Aiko pretended that she couldn’t hear it. It wasn’t interesting, anyway. The only information she found out was that someone was going to run to get Izuna. She could have guessed that. She followed placidly into the compound itself without any trepidation as the heavy gate closed behind her.

It was… familiar, actually. Aiko glanced around as she was led down unusually wide streets. The compound layout hadn’t really changed. She was going to the site of Sasuke’s house. It was with a slightly odd feeling of unreality that she walked past the same fishpond she’d fed koi at as a child in the future. It was almost like coming home in a dream.

They did take her to Sasuke’s house. Aiko found herself smiling slightly. It was nostalgic. She half-expected him to throw open the door and tell her not to linger on the step.

The door did open to show an Uchiha. This time, it was Madara. His gaze caught on her and cycled through a quick series of analysis and emotions. If she hadn’t known Sasuke so well she might have thought he was inscrutable but no, that had been irritation, realization, curiousity, and now deliberate emotional control.

“A guest, Madara-sama,” murmured Aiko’s guide. She didn’t take a step forward to introduce Aiko like a Konohan would have. In fact, she ducked her head.

“Thank you, Koharu-san, Iyami-san,” he said, looking to the women one at a time. “You may leave us.” He turned his full attention back to Aiko immediately as if dismissing his home guard had made them disappear immediately. “You’re the priestess that my brother has been consorting with.”

Aiko blinked. She narrowed her eyes.

Madara flushed a little. “Collaborating,” he corrected, a little too hastily for dignity. “My apologies. A priestess does not consort.”

Iyami had backed away already, but Aiko saw Koharu pause for just a moment, clearly curious. Then both guards were gone.

“Madara-sama,” Aiko said, electing to ignore his foot-in-mouth syndrome. “I had wished to speak with Izuna-san. Thank you for receiving me at your home.”

It was his turn to blink at her. He looked her up and down so quickly that she almost missed it. “Would you like to wait inside?”