Time: 1:30 PM
About the time that Takahashi was blacking out, Princess Reiyuriko/Kimiko Itou sighed in relief as she sank into the warm water of the Imperial Family's private Sento bath.
It had taken her and Naru Narusegawa/Motoko Hata the better part of four painstaking hours, using every trick in their combined arsenal of ninja skills to search the Crown Princess's quarters from top to bottom for a hiding place that, they were now absolutely certain, was not there. With the return of 'Hito and Raiden shortly before lunch, the search had expanded into the other likely areas where the Imperial Princess might have hidden her means of talking with her man - whoever it was - outside of the Palace.
"Oh, yeah..." She moaned blissfully as the heat soaked her lithe body from her toes to just over the top of her breasts. "Dear GOD, all that work and nothing to show for it except for aches in places I barely knew I HAD! There isn't a crack in that room wider than a piece of paper or deeper than a shuriken's blade. It looks like I'm going to remain stuck with this damn job, after all..."
Across the way came a knock on the sliding wooden door that provided the sole access into or out of the Sento. "Reiyuriko-hime?" Motoko's dulcet tones inquired from the other side. "Are you in there?"
Kimiko Itou let off a tomboyish sigh of annoyance, blowing bubbles onto the surface of the water. Itou loved Hata like the sister the brown-haired woman had lost when she'd been three years old, but ever since she'd taken the role of Kimiko's etiquette coach and protocol babysitter, Motoko had become such a slave to the rules that it leeched the fun out their time together.
She'd sent Momo to the equipment/fertilizer shed where the red-haired woman's twin brother and Nakahito Haruno were currently searching to get an update on how well the boys were doing. Hata had returned far faster than the normally Wusha whip-wielding kunoichi had expected.
Itou let off another sigh; she'd hoped to have gotten more than a few seconds to unwind before getting back to business. "Yes, Naru-chan, we are in here. Come in, please."
The red-haired swordswoman-turned-maid slid the Sento door open the absolute minimum amount necessary to grant her access in order to keep anyone - not that there many people wandering about the Imperial Family's quarters at the moment - from even potentially catching a glimpse of Kimiko's temporarily taboo body.
While Motoko needn't have bothered to squeeze herself through the opening rather than open it wide enough for her to comfortably step into the indoor bathhouse, the redhead's calling card - both before and during the mission - had always been a focus on what was the proper way to behave in any situation a gracefully as possible.
Kimiko felt a momentary surge of envious pity for Momo: pity because the other woman never just cut loose and envy for the grace she had since, had Itou not lost her family, Kimiko would probably have learned it at an age when it wouldn't be too difficult to change her beliefs, attitude and behavior.
Motoko Hata slid the oak door shut with a barely audible THUNK and, after appearing around the corner, bowed to Kimiko; maintaining her cover as a mere maidservant. "Nothing to report yet from those two ninja from Konoha, Princess… They pointed out the fact that they've only been at it for an hour and that the equipment shed is poorly lit, even with the chemical lights they're using to allow them to see without risking the..." The woman blushed slightly as she was clearly editing what was likely Raiden's crude language. "The fertilizer from potentially combusting vigorously." Hata reported as she straightened up and began to rub at the small of her own back, biting back a moan of pain.
Kimiko Itou nodded in response as she took a long brown-eyed look at her best female friend - 'Hito, after all, had claim to the undisputed title of best friend in her book - feeling a surge of sympathy for her friend's exhaustion.
A light went on in her head as Itou recalled that Shao Fukamichu had told her a few days before that there was neither audio nor video surveillance in the Imperial Family's bathhouse and that, as long one kept their voice low, the microphones in the hallway couldn't hear anything said within the Sento.
The faux Princess swam in the pool-sized tub towards the disguised maid. "Hey, Momo..." The red-haired kunoichi looked at the brown-haired one. "Look, you've GOT to be as sore as I am; more so since you would let me do any of the really hard parts." Itou said, cocking her head in the direction of the women's changing area. "Get out of that uniform and get in the water." Kimiko gestured to the palatial tub with its sparkling crystal-clear water.
Motoko Hata flushed in embarrassment. "Th-thanks for the o-offer, Kimi-chan, but I-I-I REALLY shouldn't."
"Momo, there are no monitors in this room and, quite frankly, I'm tired of bathing by myself." The fake Princess countered. "This water is absolutely DIVINE and, honestly, how many times in your life might you get a chance like this? So I'll give you a choice: either you strip of that gaudy uniform and climb into the tub of your own free will OR I'M going to climb out here, rip your clothes off you and start TICKLING you until you give in!"
"Kimi, that's CHEATING!" Motoko countered with a sigh as she walked over to the changing area, beginning the process of getting out her maid's uniform. Hata knew Itou well enough that the other kunoichi wouldn't hesitate to carry out her threat if she detected any sign of resistance from the female half of the Hata twins.
Princess Reiyuriko beamed at her maidservant. "Isn't it, though? Just trust me, though, you'll thank me for it as soon as you get in here. I don't know what it is that's different about the water in the baths here, but I've NEVER been as invigorated by the bathhouses back in Konoha as I have been here. It's like a gift from that Goddess the people around here revere, even if they don't worship her directly anymore."
"You mean Undine Kawa." Motoko supplied as she unfastened the buttons of her dress. "But I'll be honest, Kimi, I haven't noticed anything different in the private Sento in the room Sho-kun and I are sharing." The swordswoman said as she slid her arms out of the purple-gray uniform and allowed it to crumple to the floor, leaving Hata in just her emerald bra and panties.
Kimiko blinked in surprise at Motoko's choice in underwear - it was drastically different from what she'd been wearing the last time they'd bathed together. "Wow, Momo! Those look really good on you; not to mention appearing incredibly comfortable. You seem to be developing a bit of a sweet tooth for fancy undies... I mean first that sexy negligee you bought on our trip in and now those undies? Man, if Sho could see you now..."
The other kunoichi's face turned nearly as red as her hair in embarrassment as she finished undressing. "A-Actually I was given these first as part of my disguise. It's just they feel so good against my skin that I decided that maybe a little bit of experimentation with my fashion changes might be in order... And like I said before, that nightgown was just too good of a deal to pass on. S-S-Sho-k-kun has nothing to do with it..." Motoko explained as she walked over to the tub.
'Bullshit, Momo.' Kimiko Itou thought to herself with a smile. 'Sho's had just about EVERYTHING to do with every decision you've made ever since you first laid eyes on him all those years ago. If you were just a little more confident in yourself, you might have even landed him - despite himself - by now...'
Motoko Hata slipped gracefully into the water as a look of bliss overcame her. "Oooh... I think I feel what you mean about this water being different, Kimi... It feels as if this water's almost alive, the way an Onsen's does. Maybe they took water from the Onsen spring, filtered it, and used it in here. The Sento tub in my quarters relies on tap water since it would typically go without use for months or years at a time."
"I see... Well, at least I now know for sure this feeling wasn't just in my imagination." Kimiko answered with a sigh as she began to use a face cloth to massage her skin, uninterested in looking any deeper in the gift horse's mouth. A sly smile crossed Itou's lips. "Speaking of Sho, how DID he react when he saw you in that nightie? Any change to his odd resistance towards you?"
"I-It's hard to say..." Hata answered as a fresh blush colored her cheeks. "I only wore it for the first time last night..."
Kimiko's eyes widened and her jaw fell slightly agape in surprise. "What? For God's sake, Momo, WHY?! I mean, come on! You've had that gorgeous thing since the trip down and Sho's been a captive audience for nearly a full week, but you waited until just last night to show it off?!" Motoko's blush deepened. "What's the deal? You probably could have had him eating out your hand by now..."
'Or other places...' Motoko's naughty side chimed in silently.
Motoko's blush deepened yet again as she began to fidget under the combined efforts of Kimiko and the incarnation of her own desires. 'Should I tell Kimi about that run-in Sho-kun and I had in the Sento our first night here? Sho-kun said it would be my decision if the story got out or not...'
Before the love-smitten kunoichi could come to a decision of whether to share the story of her incredible - albeit mortifying - encounter with Sho Inugami, a distant-sounding THUD echoed through the steamy bathhouse chamber. Shortly thereafter it was followed by a series of barely-audible curses in the distinctive voice of Motoko's temporary - at least at this point in their lives - roommate.
"OWW! Go... ...mned, mot... ...king cables!" Sho Inugami's muffled voice echoed in the Sento. "Not... ...ing tripping hazard!"
"S-Sho-kun?!" Motoko squeaked in panic shrinking into the water and fearing that they were about to have a reversal of the encounter that kept her from wearing the nightie at first. She crossed her arms over her torso to cover her breasts in an instinctive reaction despite knowing full-well that not only had Inugami already seen them, but thanks to his perfect recall, he would NEVER be able to forget them. Her eyes darted around the room in anticipation of a new disaster.
Kimiko Itou, however, remained calm and swam over to her friend and have her a comforting hug. "Calm down, Motoko! Sho isn't anywhere nearby… While we were taking that break for lunch, I saw him take some boxes into the guest quarters he was assigned while you were fetching our food. When I asked him what he was doing, he said it was related to the project we'd discussed this morning in the library and that he needed to install some extra equipment into his room to do so. He glanced upwards when he referred to his room, so I figured he meant the room the two of you are sharing. He also said he'd probably be working for the next three hours to get it all in place."
Motoko blinked as she uncrossed her arms. "But... How can we be hearing him, then? The 'closet's' supposed to be soundproofed!"
"I think there's some kind of connection between this room and yours... It's probably an air vent; I couldn't find anything large enough to be a secret doorway. Whatever it is, it must be shaped oddly given that we can't hear what he's saying clearly. Given his tone of voice and that he's swearing, something he only does when he's mad as hell, I'd wager a guess that Sho must have tripped and hit something sensitive."
Motoko's head nodded in thought before it tilted slightly in confusion. "Why would you have been looking for a secret doorway in here, of all places, Kimiko?"
"Well, this isn't the first time I've heard voices like this in here..." Itou paused, recalling her earlier encounter with Sho in the library when Motoko was off handling her other duties and looked at her bathing partner. "The first time it happened, I thought the stress of this mess had been getting to me..."
Itou looked at Hata curiously. "You didn't by any chance scream the first night we were here, did you? I could have sworn I heard your voice in here not long after that meeting we had where we were discussing the Lord Daimyo and Sho."
In response, Motoko turned a shade of embarrassed red somewhere between cherry and beet that colored not only her face, but halfway down the curvature of her breasts.
The brown eyes of the faux Princess Reiyuriko widened in absolute surprise. "Oh, my God... You DID! SOMETHING happened between the two of you that night that shook you so badly that you were AFRAID to wear that sexy nightie, didn't it?" Motoko's blush began to shift into the purple shades as her uncomfortable fidgeting returned as a full-fledged squirm, but Itou was so focused on her chain of thought that she didn't notice. "In fact, it was something so disturbing that managed to shake the nearly unflappable Sho Inugami almost as badly as it did you, given his reaction to my question if he'd bothered enjoying any sights, like the view of the mountains..."
A rage of embarrassment, unlike any she'd ever experienced before, suddenly filled Motoko's heart. "KIMI! For the love of GOD, would you stop PRYING already?!" Hata finally snapped as she burst into tears. "DAMN IT, couldn't you, for ONCE, take the fucking HINT that I REALLY don't want to continue this discussion? Would it kill to act like a lady instead of an insensitive guy for a change?! Didn't your parents or Haruno's teach you ANYTHING resembling graceful behavior?!" The swordswoman shouted before turning away, sobbing in bitter misery.
Powerful, complex and conflicting emotions filled Hata's soul: Rage for Kimiko's incessant prodding of the private debacle between her and Sho-kun. Joy about the fact that she even had a friend like Itou who cared enough – even if she was blunt about it – to worry about Hata's happiness. Renewed embarrassment at the situation that started this whole situation in the first place.
And, most damning of all, guilty regret for the emotional body blow she'd given her friend by reminding Kimiko Itou about the loved ones she'd lost. First her clan, slaughtered before she could ever form any permanent memories of them, and more recently Nakahito Haruno's parents, who'd become sort of a surrogate family, after 'Hito had found and befriended the orphaned girl, only to lose THEM two years ago.
Motoko's words - spoken in justifiably defensive anger, but spoken nonetheless - were more than a body blow: they emotionally eviscerated Kimiko Itou.
Memories, both real and those possibly imagined from the odd dreams she'd had from the time she'd become a Genin until starting this mission, of her parents, "Uncle" Kenji and "Aunt" Aio: 'Hito's parents, and her perfect Oneesan, Reiko, who - according to her dream memories - had achieved that elusive balance between being a warrior and a proper lady that Kimiko yearned with all of her heart - now more than ever - to achieve for herself.
Kimiko Itou curled up into a tight ball of survivor's guilt and self-loathing as she also began to tear up. "I... Oh, God, I'm sorry, Motoko... I really am a horrible bitch aren't I?"
Hata sniffled as she turned back to face Kimiko, though she could not forgive herself enough to be able to look her friend in the eye. "No, you aren't, Kimiko! I AM; I can't BELIEVE that I actually threw your family and 'Hito's parents back in your face... Nothing you said gave me the right to do that!"
She pushed herself over to where Kimiko Itou was floating listlessly and pulled her friend into a one-armed sideways hug. "You're one of my best friends in the world, Kimi: practically the sister that at times I would have preferred Raiden to be. What happened between Sho-kun and I..." Her voice locked; it was too soon to talk about it after all.
Motoko took a breath as she clung to Kimiko for emotional support and tried returning it at the same time.
"What happened that night, Kimi…" Motoko began, her blush returning, "Oh, god, it's so embarrassing…"
Itou wiped the tears from her eyes, returning the one armed hug. "It's okay, Momo, you don't have to tell me."
Hata shook her head. "No, I NEED to tell someone I trust and from what you said a few nights ago, Sho apparently trusts you, too. It's great and it's horrible and… and…" Her cheeks turned as red as her hair. "I WALKED IN ON SHO-KUN WHEN HE WAS IN THE BATHTUB!" Motoko cried; her voice practically a squeal of delighted embarrassment.
Kimiko grinned widely at the swordswoman's forwardness in that situation. "So you saw…"
"A lot… Not the whole picture… Oh, God, he was so HOT…" The orange-haired kunoichi squirmed. "But…"
"But what..? You should be ecstatic! At least it beats when Nakahito accidentally came into my apartment when I was coming out of the shower… We were both so mortified…"
Motoko's eyes widened; she hadn't heard about that incident between Haruno and Itou! "Then you know what it feels like…" She said softly, curling up in a ball.
"What it feels like..?" Kimiko repeated in confusion. And then SHE got the picture and her mouth fell open. "Oh… Oh… You mean…"
Hata sniffed, fighting back tears, as she nodded. "I didn't know he was in there… I thought he'd fallen asleep in Urashima's room. I was so stunned that I didn't realize my… my…" Her cheeks flared. "My towel fell off… Sho-kun SAW me, too…"
Kimiko now pulled the other kunoichi close in a double-armed hug. "Oh, Momo… I heard your scream, so I know how YOU handled it, but… How did he handle it?"
Motoko chuckled grimly. "Far better than I did… He was a perfect gentleman about the whole thing. He tried to blame himself even as I was blaming myself…"
Itou giggled slightly. "That beats how 'Hito and I handled it… I curled up in a naked ball under my blanket…"
Hata looked over her shoulder and gave her brown-haired friend a wan smile. "Me, too…"
"…While 'Hito lost his breakfast in the hallway outside my apartment." Motoko's eyes widened and began to offer condolences, but Kimiko shook her head. "Miho-sensei told me it's because he saw me as a woman and not his best friend. We got over it… And it sounds like you and Sho did, too, if you wore that negligee last night."
Motoko smiled at Itou and swam away slightly to be able to look at her friend. "We did… But…" An odd look crossed her face as she recalled her dream this morning, before it turned into a nightmare.
Itou arched an eyebrow. "But what?"
"Something odd happened last night, well, this morning…" Hata started. "Sho-kun did that speed study thing he's been doing again and had a nightmare that woke him up." Itou sighed shaking her head. "I know, it worries me too and I told him as much…"
"So what's the odd thing?"
"Well, I had a dream that turned into a nightmare last night, too…" She began. "It was so BIZARRE; the whole thing started with me standing in a waiting room with Sho-kun's family, only I was all grown up…"
* * *
Time: 2:10 PM
"…ABLE!" A voice was shouting as Takahashi abruptly recovered consciousness thanks to a sharp pain in his left arm as it was forced back into place. "Utterly unprofessional… What the hell were you two THINKING?!"
"Ow." He grunted as his eyes fluttered open; he was in a dimly lit rock-lined chamber... The Leaf Genin attempted to move, but felt lines of pressure against his chest and right arm. His face and legs were still hurting, but it was a duller pain than before; someone must have applied an analgesic to the injuries he'd suffered. His nose also had been cleared of blood so he no longer had difficulty breathing.
"Don't bother trying to move, Leaf." The female voice that had been shouting said calmly from his left side as a hand gingerly touched his left shoulder joint as if to verify that she'd properly re-set the blonde ninja's arm. "My Genin has you pinned with his Earth Straightjacket jutsu, so you aren't going anywhere unless I permit it."
Takahashi turned his head, feeling a fresh surge of pain from his broken nose as he did so. The voice was coming from a masked woman in a black and purple combat jumpsuit with a pair of sword hilts poking above her shoulder line. The two Genin he'd fought with were visible behind her: the over-sexed kunoichi now wearing a Sand forehead protector and a bandage on her cheek while her cousin had both knees wrapped and was holding a cold compress on one of them.
The Genin instinctively felt fear from the sight of the Jonin. "Sand. Right… I got captured…" He sighed in resignation. "Takahashi, Konoha, 012609."
The Jonin shook her head. " Now, now… That's not necessary, Leaf; I'm afraid my Genin were OVERZEALOUS…" She turned her head with a narrowed eye glare that caused both to squirm uncomfortably. "…in dealing with you. And for that I do apologize. Our villages are not at war AND River Country is neutral territory, so I'm going to be releasing you… After we have a brief conversation, that is."
"But Sensei! He said…" Amaya, her ego as bruised as her tailbone, protested.
"Silence, Satou!" Kari said tersely, cutting the kunoichi off. "You and Kane are already having your pay docked to repair the shop's door and are both going to have nothing but Inverted Calisthenics for the next MONTH when we get home. Do NOT press me further or I will come up with something more severe."
Satou grimaced as Suzuki grinned at seeing his cousin shot down by the Jonin. "Hai, Sensei."
Takahashi's eyes narrowed, sensing a trap, but not sure what kind. After all, he was already captured. "We may not be at war, but our missions are clearly in opposition… I am tasked with finding Reiyuriko wa Mizuzaki and you are hiding her."
"We are? Really…" Kari asked in convincing mock surprise at the Genin's words. "Sunagakure receives more income from the Land of Rivers than we receive from the Land of Wind; interfering with the Imperial Princess would be counter-productive to us. Why would you think Reiyuriko is here?"
"My partner and I followed her here. The white and pink dye job clearly fooled the locals, but we caught Reiyuriko's scent." The blond Genin said. "From the bloody bandage on pervert girl's face," A brief bark of laughter escaped from Suzuki's lips before a glare from the Jonin cut it off. "I'm guessing he got away and should be reaching Mizumiyo Palace shortly. My Jonin will undoubtedly be coming for me before too long and then they'll find the Princess and, undoubtedly, my corpse."
"Ah!" The Sand Jonin said in realization, a hint of a smile twisting her mask. "It WAS a simple misunderstanding, then…" She looked at the duo. "See, this is what happens when you jump to assumptions! Tarnia, come in here!"
A wooden door creaked open and the woman with the fox stole around her neck entered the chamber. The woman now wore a Sand ninja plate at her waist. "Sensei. Call?" Tarnia Nakamura stuttered in confusion.
"I assume this is the person you believe to be the Imperial Princess?" Takahashi gave a slight nod. "I admit there is a facial similarity between my Genin and Reiyuriko wa Mizuzaki, but I believe I can clear up this confusion immediately. Tarnia; Inverted Routine - Ready Position."
The new entrant nodded, leaping to the ceiling of the chamber; her hands glowing with the Wall-Walking Jutsu as she clung to the ceiling. "Bara, hold." Tarnia whispered as she kicked her legs up, her feet glowing as she proceeded to stand "up" on the higher surface.
'Could Kyouran have mistaken the Princess's scent?' Takahashi asked himself as he blinked a few times. The real princess was not capable of using chakra!
"Kane, release him." The bruiser, who'd been playing with Takahashi's forehead protector, grimaced, but immediately complied with the Jonin's order. The stone bindings holding Takahashi down retracted into the stone bench he'd been lying on.
"I will admit that I appear to have made a flawed assumption." Takahashi said, sitting up as the Princess Reiyuriko look-alike performed a skillful forward flip to land on the floor. She smiled and stroked her stole before walking over by the others.
"But that doesn't explain why the perverted one," He pointed at Satou, "tried to molest a thirteen year old boy looking for flowers for his sick mother as I was pretending to be."
Amaya began to fume, but remained silent as her Jonin had ordered.
The Jonin shrugged. "It's her Clan's philosophy. While I cannot divulge the full details of our mission, as an apology for Satou and Suzuki's actions I'll at least try to help you understand why they did what they did… My team was assigned to assist a regional Prince who had his mind altered through Genjutsu clear his name in order to get Lord Mizuzaki's edict of exile lifted. As our client is not supposed to be in-country, Satou's job is to keep EVERYONE away from this, our base of operations. For whatever reason, her skills that have served us well for the last few months did not work on you and so she improvised…"
The Leaf Genin frowned. "Apparently her improv skills need work…"
"Listen you smug bastard…" Amaya finally protested, storming forward until Tarnia interposed, placing a firm hand on Satou's breastbone. If looks could kill, Takahashi would have suffered a hundred deaths.
Kane Suzuki laughed at his cousin's ire, throwing Takahashi his Leaf headband, which he caught. "For that comment alone I wish I could keep this, Gaki, but we didn't get to have a proper fight, so I can't."
"Satou, ENOUGH." Kari said tersely glaring at the vain girl. "He has a valid point; you rely too heavily on your Kekkei Genkai. After the Leaf ninja proved resistant and pushed you away, you should have called Suzuki to stop him non-violently and figured out that he mistook Tarnia for the Princess. Your ego caused this situation and you will pay the penalty for it." Amaya wilted before her instructor's ire.
The Sand Jonin turned back to Takahashi. "We can't completely repair your injuries – Tarnia only has a minor skill at healing that we used to re-set your nose – but I hope you'll accept my apology and tell your Jonin that as long as your team leaves us alone, we'll leave you alone. We were not responsible for taking the Imperial Princess against her will. We merely wish to try and prove our client's innocence."
The blonde Genin nodded as he tied his forehead protector in its customary location. "I accept your apology, Sand, though it is obviously not my place as the student to bind my Jonin against action. There is medical staff at the Palace who will take care of me when I get back; it'll do until I can see a full-fledged medic-nin. I'll present your offer to my sensei and my recommendation that we steer clear of each other as much as possible." He tried to place weight on his legs, but the warning pain they sent up his spine made it clear they would not support an effort to stand.
Kari reached into her belt pouch and pulled out an odd double-bladed throwing knife that had a notch in the middle as if it were designed to connect with something else. "Give this to your Hyuuga Jonin when you present my offer... I suspect it will make her more willing to agree." Her mask gave the impression of a frown. "Do you need assistance in getting back to the Palace?"
The Leaf ninja arched an eyebrow as the other woman correctly identified Hyuuga-sensei's existence, gender and family, but shook his head as he tucked the knife into his shuriken pouch. "I have already interfered with your mission more than necessary, ma'am."
He flexed his left hand to make sure that he could freely form seals with it. Takahashi had been intrigued by Ryohan, the diamond golem that Okito had permitted him to keep, that he'd asked his sensei for additional training along those lines. The Genin quickly performed the Snake and Tiger hand seals before he raised his right hand in the two-extended fingers "Seal of Confrontation."
Kane Suzuki, the only other Earth specialist in the room chuckled, recognizing the sequence. "Now I REALLY hope we meet again, Gaki. It'll be one hell of a fight…"
Takahashi nodded once. "Earth Style, Rock Panther jutsu." Under him, the bench that Suzuki had formed when he made the little cavern reshaped itself into a larger version of Kyouran – if Kyouran were fashioned out of blocky stone instead of lithe, sleek flesh – which the Genin was now straddling. The golem was not very refined and looked rather clunky, but given that Takahashi had only started learning this technique, it was impressive. He looked at the masked woman. "By your leave…"
The Jonin nodded, pointing in the opposite direction that Tarnia had entered from. "Safe travels, Leaf. I hope our next encounter is less confrontational." Takahashi nodded as the panther golem loped off, carrying the injured Genin away.
After a few minutes to ensure that Takahashi was out of earshot, a soft pair of claps came from the inner room as Kodansyo and Reiyuriko emerged. "Well played, Ninja Kari." The client said.
"I especially liked when you said you weren't responsible for taking me against my will…" The Princess agreed. Her departure from the palace had, after all, been her own idea after receiving Kodansyo's invite to run away with him.
The Sand Jonin nodded acceptance at the clients' words as she looked at her Genin. "You were perhaps a touch overly dramatic, Satou, but it seems that the rashness your wounded pride caused MAY actually have worked out to our advantage..."
"Thank you, Kari-sensei…"
Kari raised a warning finger, cutting her off. "But… What I said to you and Suzuki once we woke him up is ALSO true. You BOTH went too far for an undercover operation and you personally rely too heavily on your pheromones. Tarnia's mistake was innocent; she was not expecting the Leaf ninja to be nearby or for the Princess's scent to cling to her enough to catch his attention."
"Apologies." Nakamura said, bowing her head slightly. "More careful."
The Jonin nodded acceptance. "Both of you could have blown our cover with this little stunt; costing our client his life and bringing not only disgrace but likely financial ruin to our Village! You WILL each owe me that month of Inverted Calisthenics unless the Hyuuga accepts my offer of no overt interference."
Amaya Satou and her cousin both grimaced. "If they come back I'm going to get that ball of fur's hide tanned and turned into a pair of panties for scratching my face…" She scowled at her cousin, awaiting a crude comment involving cats and female anatomy.
Suzuki snorted. "Too easy; pass."
Kari Body Flickered behind the squabbling cousins and smacked them both upside their heads. "You are both lucky that you two are OCCASIONALLY useful or I would send you back to the Academy even now…" She gave them both an icy glare and whispered to them both. "But if you embarrass me again during this mission, I PROMISE you that when we return to Suna I will convince Baki to trade you both for Temari and Kankuro!"
Genuine terror crossed both Satou and Suzuki's face at the thought of being paired with Gaara. The first cousins looked at each other and silently made a temporary truce with each other.
A grim smile crossed Kari's lips, hidden by her mask. Invoking the name of Suna's sole Jinchuuriki usually got them to behave. 'At least that FREAK can also be occasionally useful, too…'
"We have a mere nine days to get everything organized in preparation for the Convocation." Kari finally said. "Kodansyo-kou and Reiyuriko-hime have given us a list of their fathers' political opponents, the ones whom might benefit from Kodansyo's exile, but we cannot assume that the one responsible is the obvious foe… The one who orchestrated this situation clearly has a devious mind to say the least..."
* * *
Time: 2:40 PM
Motoko Hata gave off a blissful sigh as she finished recounting the story of the dream/nightmare that she'd had; completely unaware that it had been the same one that had plagued Sho Inugami all day. Had she and the medic-nin talked about it with each other, they would have realized that they had had the exact same dream, just from their own perspectives.
Why and how it was happening, however, would have been beyond both to explain…
"That nightmarish turn at the end when that smoke monster killed me aside, it was absolutely AMAZING, Kimi…" The flame-haired young woman said as she stretched her arms over her head. "The wedding was gorgeous, the reception went off without a hitch, and the wedding night…" The kunoichi blushed, feeling so vulgar for reflecting on it, "…well, before it took a bad turn, it was LITERALLY the stuff dreams are made of. If not for the age jump so that Sho-kun and I were Iruka-sensei's age, I could have SWORN it was actually happening until Sho's shouting woke me up."
Hata looked over at Itou, who was also blushing, but for reasons other than Motoko's. "Have you ever had a dream like that, Kimi? I mean, not about Sho-kun and all that, but one that felt so real it feels more like a memory than a dream?"
Kimiko Itou had listened to the whole thing in silence and had been blushing from the moment that Motoko had said that in the dream she and 'Hito had not only been married, but were pregnant! She'd actually zoned out completely from that moment and had missed Hata mentioning the demon altogether...
If she'd had, she would have probably recalled her conversation with Sho – the one where she'd confirmed Motoko's feelings for him – and recalled his fears of there being a demon inside him.
Perhaps if she'd heard that, she would have realized that there was something connecting Hata and Inugami on a psychic level and could have given it voice…
But the swordswoman and the medic would not get such insights today; the ersatz Princess's mind had gone down the rabbit hole that Motoko had pointed out to her.
As much as she cared for Haruno, Itou had never CONSCIOUSLY considered the possibility of him and her… like THAT. 'Hito was her rock and the thought of risking what they currently had for what Hata had given voice to – as amazing as it sounded – terrified the young woman who seemed to constantly lose everyone important to her…
And the fear of even broaching the idea with Nakahito and potentially having him reject her would destroy her… Better to leave such flights of fancy to those who could survive a broken wing, like Mokoto-chan.
"Mizumiyo Sento to Kimiko… Are you there?" Motoko asked her friend, concern in her voice as she shook the chocolate haired woman's shoulder.
Itou took a deep gasp of surprise as Hata snapped her out of her headspace. She looked down pensively at the steamy water of the pool-like bath, fidgeting the way the swordswoman in the bath with her or their friend Hinata Hyuuga did when either were thinking about the men they loved. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm here, Momo…" She blushed with a different kind of embarrassment. "I'm so sorry, what did you ask me?"
"Have you ever had such a too-real seeming dream like the one I told you about?"
Kimiko nodded. "Yeah, I have… But mine…" A sad look crossed her face as she remembered the dreams she'd told Inugami about. She hadn't had one since she had to take off Reiko's necklace in order to pretend to be Reiyuriko, suggesting that it was somehow responsible for the dreams like Sho had thought. "There was very little pleasure in them… And they were of the past, of my family…"
Feeling a touch defensive from the thoughts Motoko's story had dredged up; Kimiko lifted her hand, looking at the wrinkles from having been in the bath for over an hour.
She blinked in mock surprise. "Ugh; I've been in the tub too long – I'm starting to prune up!" Using her statement as an excuse to kill the conversation, Itou turned to the edge of the tub and pulled herself out. She ran her hands through her mid-back length hair and then down her slim body to strain as much water off as possible; avoiding eye contact with Motoko the entire time.
Motoko could feel the discomfort coming off her friend as if there was a bank of roiling blue fog surrounding her body. The swordswoman's heart swelled with compassion for her friend and hopped out of the water. "Hey, Kimi, hold up a minute… You've been there for me far more times than I can count; both when I needed you and when I didn't think I needed anyone. I know you normally turn to 'Hito when you're feeling down, like you clearly are now, but with this mission's rules and the roles you and he are playing, I know you can't... Let me return the favor and stand in for him this time... Please?"
Kimiko grimaced openly, knowing Hata couldn't see. 'Great... I've triggered both her empathy AND sympathy: she'll NEVER give up now... And she just HAD to mention 'Hito…'
Itou began to walk towards the changing room when Hata gently put a hand on the milk chocolate haired girl's shoulder; stopping her. "Please? Don't shut me out, Kimi... It'll make the job you have to do that much harder if you bottle it up."
"Thanks, Momo..." The faux Princess Reiyuriko said sadly, patting her friend's hand before pulling away and walking over to reach for her towel to finish drying. "But I'm afraid you can't help me on this one… I doubt 'Hito could either..." She shook her head. "Iruka-sensei and Naruto-kun are really the only ones who'd truly understand what I'm feeling enough to get it." The lonely woman sighed. "Unfortunately, they're nowhere nearby: Naruto is probably still in the Land of Waves and Iruka's back home."
Motoko Hata sighed in exasperation as she instantly made the connection as to what the two men Kimiko had mentioned had in common with the brown-haired kunoichi. "Damn it, Kimiko... Just because I haven't lost EVERYONE doesn't mean that I can't at least be supportive or help you vent that negativity before it tears you to pieces inside. Come on... Tell me or I'll..."
"You'll WHAT? Huh?!" Itou interrupted as she whirled on her friend; eyes filled with tears of grief that she hadn't wanted Hata to see, knowing that it would only make the other woman more determined to help.
The kunoichi's voice cracked several times under the feelings of rage and hopelessness as she wept bitterly. "I've got nothing! Just fuzzy half-real memories of a long-lost family and a burning desire deep in my bones to avenge their dishonorable deaths that came from the Cloud's effort to kidnap Hinata-chan..." She clutched at her breastbone. "My entire existence revolves around a group of virtual strangers who gave me life… Until I can put them to rest, I have no future, damn it! I don't – I CAN'T - dare to hope for a future for myself like the one you dream of having with Sho Inugami. So with that in mind, what the hell do you think you could POSSIBLY do to force me to talk, Motoko?!"
Motoko's emerald green eyes looked at Kimiko in stunned sadness. "I was just going to threaten to tickle you, like I usually do..." She whispered faintly in the face of Itou's explosive demand for a response. The irony of the reversal of their earlier situation, when Kimiko had been pressing her about the incident between her and Sho-kun in their Sento, caused Hata's cheeks to burn in mortified embarrassment.
"Oh, hell…" A mortified Kimiko Itou gasped as she realized she'd snapped at Motoko the way Ino had at her the night Kimiko had her first odd dream after learning her older sister's name. The guilt that she felt for doing so made her realize just how badly Yamanaka must have felt until she'd forgiven the slight.
The faux Princess's head fell as she slumped onto the small stool typically used to allow someone to scrub the dirt and crud off their bodies before getting into the Sento. "God, Momo... You were right earlier; I AM graceless! You were only offering to try and ease this thousand kilo burden off my back and I not only slap your hand aside, I do the emotional equivalent of ripping off your arm and beating you to death with it!" She wailed miserably, putting her head in her hands and then shaking it. "How the hell did someone like me end up with such a great friend like you, Momo? Someone kind and sweet that I totally take for granted most of the time..."
"I like to think of it as Kami's balancing act, Kimi-chan..." Hata answered softly as she picked up the towel that Itou had been reaching for and draped it over the brown eyed young woman's shoulders, sharing the warmth that she felt for her hurting friend; her time making it evident she'd forgiven the other kunoichi. "He balances misery with joy, strengths with weakness, and so on. It's up to us to choose how we deal with both the good AND the bad that defines our fate. I decided a long time ago that accepting the punches when I can't block or avoid them is far better than complaining about getting punched."
"Unless it hits somewhere really sensitive; like the one I threw earlier." Kimiko sniffed as she gave her friend a wry smile over her shoulder.
Motoko Hata blushed faintly at how badly she'd reacted earlier as she took the seat facing Kimiko and began toweling herself off. "Well, I'm good… I'm not a saint."
Itou giggled slightly at the other woman's unwitting joke: it was generally believed by the students of the recently graduating class that Hinata Hyuuga and Motoko Hata had been angels in their previous lives.
"And I'm also my brother's twin sister, after all. He may usually be the manic one and usually I'm the calm one, I DO have a little nugget of that same mania buried in my heart that comes to the front on occasion. But enough about me; what were your too-real dreams about?"
The brown eyed kunoichi sighed as she began to use the towel to dry her hair. "Mostly about my family... But in the dreams I wasn't myself like you were in yours."
"What do you mean?" The green eyed young woman asked in confusion.
"Okay, you know how in your dream you were older, but it was your mind in the body of the older version of yourself?" Itou asked, getting a nod in response. "Well, in my dreams I could see myself at age three or so, but at the same time I was also there as the me I am now... It was like I was a ghost or something. I could watch the events unfold and I could move around to see things the three year old version of me wasn't around for."
She frowned thoughtfully as she dredged up the memory. "No one could see or hear the current me, with one exception though... Every now and then Reiko, my older sister, who for the most part was as oblivious as the others, would pause and seem to look right at me. She never said anything, but she'd smile at me as if she could see the ghost me." Kimiko explained as she finished drying her hair and moved on to dry the remaining bathwater from her milky skin.
Motoko Hata frowned thoughtfully as she sopped up the water residing in her cleavage. "So it was like a time-traveling out of body experience sort of thing?"
"I guess." Kimiko shrugged, feeling a slight surge of jealousy as she watched Motoko dry her breasts. Previously the red-haired kunoichi's bust had been the same size as Itou's own, but it looked like Hata had blossomed significantly since the last time they'd bathed together… Momo was easily half a cup size larger now. "I started having the dreams around the time we graduated the Academy, but I haven't had any since we began this mission... Maybe because I'm so stressed from focusing on my role that my mind doesn't want to interrupt what little sleep I'm getting. I'm really thankful for that, too."
"How so?" Motoko asked as she set the towel on her lap and ran her fingers through her hair to make sure her red-gold tresses were properly dried.
"Well, as weird as the other dreams were, the last one was far odder than the rest combined. I dreamt of this shadowy figure; I think it was a woman but I could never really get a good look at 'her' to be certain. Anyways, the figure was stalking a ninja from the Hidden Cloud Village: one of the ones responsible for killing my family, either directly or indirectly.
"I somehow knew that the Jonin being chased in the dream was one of the ninja centrally involved in the massacre. He wasn't one of the ninja that did the killing, but he was the one who orchestrated the plot that resulted in the murders from behind the scenes. The Cloud ninja knew he was being hunted, but he seemed to be unable to see the shadowy figure at all.
"As the dream progressed, the ninja would take greater and greater measures to try and protect himself, but every single time, the shadowy figure chasing him either defeated or bypassed them. She eventually made her way to the bedside of the mastermind as he slept. The figure reached for the sleeping ninja and, without using any hand signs I could see, its arm sort of... Distorted."
Motoko raised an eyebrow in an unspoken question. "It's kind of hard to describe, Momo... It was like the figure's forearm turned into this animated surge of translucent water that wrapped around the Cloud ninja's neck like an arm-thick snake before its ends split: one slipping up his nose and the other cramming itself down his throat while the figure's other limb broke both his hands." Hata grimaced at the visualization.
"I know, creepy, right?! Anyway, the sleeping ninja's eyes snapped open as he began to drown, but he couldn't call for help or pry the water/snake thing away so he could breathe; his hands just passed through without disrupting its efforts. The figure attacking him then leaned forward and whispered with this feminine voice as faint as a babbling brook and spoke the only words in the dream: 'The Itou clan sends its regards.' The Cloud ninja's eyes widened in horror and he thrashed harder for a few moments, but eventually his body fell limp. The snake-like water recoiled and the shadow's arm returned to normal before it vanished and the dream ended."
Motoko Hata shivered - and it wasn't just because of the cool breeze that suddenly passed through the scrubbing area. "Geez, Kimi... I'm not sure how to respond to something like this. I don't know if I'd ever be able to sleep again after having a dream like that... Or WANT to for that matter."
Itou nodded; Motoko lacked the ability to become cold-hearted when it became necessary - a trait that was problematic for a ninja, but a quality great to have in a true friend. "But as sick as it sounds... I felt kinda torn between savoring the Cloud ninja's execution: the satisfaction of knowing that my family's deaths were one step closer to being avenged or running away screaming as fast as I could. I mean it's what I always wanted - or at least I thought it was - ever since I learned about the clan I share a name with."
"And now?"
"Now? After that dream I'm not so sure anymore..." The brown-eyed young woman sighed. "You have no idea how much I envy you and the others like Sakura, Ino or even Hinata sometimes; how much I wish that my life was more like yours. You guys seem to have it all: home, family, the whole works."
"Well, as the saying goes, the water in your neighbor's well is always sweeter than your own..." An older man's steady voice echoed in the Sento, startling both Kimiko and Motoko. "Pardon Our eavesdropping, Beloved Daughter, We did not realize You were in here at first." He said, stressing the We and Our; a sign of a nobleman's mindset.
Hata and Itou threw each other a dumbfounded look as they scrambled to try and cover their naked bodies without reflexively shrieking in dismayed embarrassment. Their new companion was none other than the Lord Daimyo Mizuzaki himself!
Kimiko Itou/Reiyuriko wa Mizuzaki coughed as she struggled to gather her scattered wits. "Honorable Father! You'll forgive us if we say that it is less than delightful to hear your voice at the moment, we trust." Itou called back - forgetting the appropriate royal stressing of the pronouns - as she quickly used the Henge no Jutsu to cause her girlish body to assume Reiyuriko-hime's more womanly curves that still thrilled Kimiko to see when she looked down.
While the Lord Daimyo knew that the women pretending to be his daughter and her new maidservant were ninja, by unspoken rule they were to stay in character whenever Mizuzaki-sama was around - a process Kimiko completed by pulling on the Reiyuriko-sized robe she'd worn into the Sento bathhouse.
Lord Daimyo Mizuzaki the 27th laughed with a good humor which echoed through the bathhouse. He hadn't felt light-hearted pleasure for several months until "Keitaro Urashima" and the two Jonin had alleviated the psychological alterations that the still unknown ninja had placed in him. Since that had occurred five days earlier, there had been no further attempts to attack the Lord Daimyo's mind: whoever had done the work had either considered their job complete or had been called away for reasons as wrapped in mystery as to by whom, how, and why Mizuzaki had been affected.
"We are always forgiving of the apple of Our eye, Dearest. We had been certain We had finally determined when the Sento would be unoccupied according to Your new schedule."
Kimiko winced in her usual tomboyish fashion, cinching her robe closed tightly. 'That's right! Between searching the Princess's room and this rather long talk with Momo, I'm here when I would normally be doing something else... Like being up in the Ballroom on the second floor performing some of my Ocean's Fist Taijutsu katas and trying to pass it off as an intriguing dance I'd seen performed during my Fire Country trip I was trying to duplicate in case anyone wandered in.'
"Kimi... Help!" Motoko hissed; her hands shaking fiercely as she tried pulling herself back together. The redheaded young woman was so unnerved at potentially being caught in the buff in a bathhouse – AGAIN – that she'd actually managed to put her bra on wrong: one of her breasts was in a cup and the other hanging out over the top.
"We should have realized Your dilemma, Tousama..." Itou called back as she pulled the bra's under wire forward, allowing Motoko's "headlight" to fall into place. The feel of the bra's silken material between her fingers reminded Kimiko that she would want to buy some just like it… They would need to hit the sexy clothing boutique before leaving Kawa City at the end of the mission. "We fear We lost track of time while in the bath…"
Motoko picked up the combination miniskirt/blouse that Naru Narusegawa had to wear. The faux Princess grimaced ungracefully as she helped the faux maid back into her complex uniform. 'Crap... I nearly forgot; in just over a week I'm going to have to start wearing ceremonial outfits easily a hundred times more ornate and twice as hard to change between… Why the hell did I have to look so much like Reiyuriko?!'
With the extra pair of hands, Motoko quickly got back into the character of the demure Naru Narusegawa. She glanced in the mirror and nodded. "I think everything's in place... Thanks, Kimiko." The maid whispered as they stepped out of the changing area.
In addition to the restoration of his normally jovial mood since receiving treatment for his affliction, Lord Daimyo Mizuzaki's appearance had been restored to something resembling kingly authority from the haggard look that Kimiko had seen in passing between her arrival at Mizumiyo Palace and Inugami's recklessly drastic effort to heal the man. The deathly ill pallor of his skin from hiding indoors and the sunken, haunted look in his eyes had mostly disappeared, but there were faint traces remaining;
Inugami's diagnosis was that Mizuzaki might never be completely rid of the somatic effects of his psychological wounds, but they could at least be hidden with cosmetics, like the ones that normally concealed the "Protected" kanji on his forehead – the only visible sign of her teammate's and the Jonins' efforts. The Lord of Rivers was almost immaculate in his blue-tinted golden robes of office. The Lord Daimyo had been standing in the doorway in a position where he couldn't see the changing area when Kimiko and Motoko stepped out.
As they did so, he smiled at both of them; stepping into the Sento and closing the door behind him to prevent the auditory bugs from hearing them talk. "So, are you still finding it difficult to fill my daughter's slippers?" The middle-aged man asked with a questioning smile, indicating that he wasn't going to make her stay in character since no one would be intruding on them here.
"Oh, you have NO idea, your Majesty..." Kimiko breathed in equal parts frustration and relief as she released the transformation technique to return to herself. The bathrobe was now a few sizes too big and made her look like a child in their parent's kimono. "I've never had much interest in the high society lifestyle; I was orphaned at a young age and my tastes in - well, pretty much everything - lean more to the simpler side of things. In fact, you normally couldn't have paid me enough to do this job, but my uncanny resemblance to Princess Reiyuriko didn't give me the option of bowing out of it."
The daimyo nodded looking at her with a genuine smile. "Yes, I must admit I was rather surprised by the similarities between you and my missing daughter when my majordomo showed me the picture he'd taken of you and proposed the idea of getting a stand-in through the Convocation." He sighed, shaking his head, "In the mental haze I was in I didn't think much about it when Shao-kun returned and informed me he'd made the arrangements to hire a young kunoichi from Konoha."
There was a glimmer of a tear in his eye. "But it wasn't until Keitaro Urashima – I know that's not his real name, but if that's the only name I have for him, I can't slip up – treated my condition that I'd remembered that there had been a SECOND survivor of Konoha's legendary Itou clan… I was mortified at my mental lapse to say the least! Absolutely unforgivable..."
"Another survivor?" Kimiko Itou's eyes tightened around the edges, uncertain as to feel insulted or curious. Was this true or was the Lord Daimyo's mind still scattered? "I was always told that I was the only one left of my Clan's ninja; that no one else had survived the Massacre."
"Oh, that's the absolute truth; you are indeed the only one to survive the betrayal by Kumogakure and are the last of the Itou ninjas." The Lord Daimyo agreed to her objection. "But you weren't the last of the Itou..." A wistfully sad look crossed Mizuzaki's face. "Well, technically, I suppose now you are; at least for a while longer…"
Kimiko's curiosity warred with her desire to throttle the Lord Daimyo until he started giving straight answers for dominance over her mood. "Just what do you mean by THAT?!" Motoko Hata winced at Itou's outburst and nudged her into gritting out. "Your Majesty?"
"Forgive me; I've tread on sensitive feelings, Kimiko-san..." The older man apologized as heard the tight steel in the kunoichi's voice. "I'm still having a hard time getting out of the habit of simply speaking my mind - politically correct or not - as I have for the last few months. What I mean to say is..."
He paused. "Well, let me back up a moment here. You, know of course, that when a Lord Daimyo and his Queen are crowned here in River Country they abandon their birth names save for moments that they are with their closest of childhood friends, right?" Itou and Hata both nodded. "Because of that, it's not commonly known – I, Fukamichu, and Hiruzen Sarutobi are, in fact, the only ones who still live that know this... You see, my late wife and the mother of my daughter was born Nodoka Itou of Konoha."
Kimiko's jaw nearly hit the ground. "W-What?! Queen Mizuho the 27th was… An Itou ninja married..?"
"My wife was not a kunoichi." Mizuzaki corrected as he raised a finger to still Itou's question. He gestured to the waiting area benches, intended for those with pressing business for Mizuzaki but under a restriction to keep out of sight as he bathed. "Please have a seat and I'll explain."
Motoko guided her mentally overwhelmed friend to a bench and then took a seat beside her; holding her hand. The River Lord took a spot opposite them. "You see, unlike her older sister Konoka, the woman who would become the love of my life, my precious Nodoka, was born without the ability to mold chakra so critically necessary for one to become a ninja. Because of the Itou clan's high social standing, however, Nodoka instead became a courtier in the palace of the Lord Daimyo in the Land of Fire when she reached adulthood, where she worked to benefit her hometown and her Clan."
The Daimyo leaned against the wall of the Sento as his mind slipped into the past. "About twenty years ago now, when I was still merely the heir to the Aquamarine Throne, I met my lovely future wife when I traveled to the Land of Fire to handle a negotiation for my father, Mizuzaki the 26th."
The Lord Daimyo sighed at the bittersweet memory. "It was a storybook case of love at first sight for the both of us. After a lengthy year-long courtship - as mandated by the Law of Succession for the Aquamarine Throne when the Goddess's blessing is not involved - Nodoka and I were married. Our beautiful Reiyuriko was born just over a year thereafter. When Reiyuriko was two years old, my father passed away; my Queen and I became Mizuzaki and Mizuho the 27th forever after."
"Between political etiquette that prohibit the ruling Lord Daimyo or his Queen from traveling outside the borders of the River Country except for critical need and the last two Shinobi Wars, Nodoka would only return to Konoha two more times in her life… First was when her niece, Reiko - Konoka's daughter - became a Jonin at the age of fourteen. The second was for the memorial after the Itou clan was assassinated four years later; an event even I was permitted to leave the Land of Rivers for."
A tear crept into his eye and he turned away. "After that... Well, my dear Nodoka never recovered from the grief of losing her entire Clan… We did not have any further children and she passed away from grief five years ago next month…"
Mizuzaki wiped the tears away and looked deeply into Kimiko's brown eyes. "That's what I meant when I said that you are – for now – the last of the Itou. My daughter is technically half Itou, but like her mother she cannot use the magical arts necessary to become a ninja. Presuming that you will have children when you grow up and they CAN become ninja, only then you would no longer be the last Itou."
Kimiko's eyes had become exceptionally wide when the Lord Daimyo had named his wife's niece as her mind scrambled to wrap her mind around his words. Finally she managed to gasp. "R-Reiko? But… But that was my Oneesan's name!"
Mizuzaki blinked in surprise, a genuine smile creating his lips. "Oh, you remembered that? You were so young back then... Nodoka always wondered if you would remember them, but was always afraid to ask Hiruzen."
"We've met before?" Surprise after surprise was causing the kunoichi to go weak at the knees.
"Only once and very briefly after the memorial for the Clan..." The Lord Daimyo nodded. "The reason for the visual similarities between you and my daughter, Kimiko-san, are readily explained… It is because my sister-in-law, Konoka Itou, was your mother. My daughter, Reiyuriko, is your maternal first cousin."
Kimiko Itou's jaw felt as if it were suddenly on the ground; to say that she was shocked would be the understatement of the century.
"C-Cousin..? My Kaasan... Mother's name was Ko-Konoka?" The flabbergasted kunoichi stuttered in an effort to wrap her mind around this startling new revelation. Kimiko had always had a "family" of sorts: "Ojisans" Hiruzen Sarutobi, Hiashi Hyuuga and Kenji Haruno... "Obasan" Aio Haruno... Nakahito and Konohamaru... Hinata and Motoko... She loved them all like the family that had been stolen from her when she was three.
But this was different...
The thought that there was still someone alive in the world tied to her by blood that wasn't diluted a thousand times over was a concept that had never entered the young woman's mind! It was beyond the pale to Itou's way of thinking.
But to find them HERE, in the Imperial Family of River Country, out of all the possible places in the world, during this INSANE mission, was incomprehensible.
Then an unsettling thought entered Itou's mind.
"Why..?" Kimiko croaked at last, her voice rough with a rage that shook her to her very core, as a blazing shock of pain ripped through her eyes that she mentally pushed aside. "If I had family, why did I grow up alone in Konoha rather than here with Reiyuriko and Obasan Nodoka? Why didn't Sarutobi-ojisan tell me this before?!" She demanded of the Lord Daimyo.
The Lord Daimyo - no, Uncle Mizuzaki - sighed. "That's the same question I asked Hiruzen ten years ago when I met you. You had a death grip on a strip of the kimono my wife had given Konoka in your little hands. Nodoka and I were prepared to adopt you on the spot… But Hokage Sarutobi advised against it and, after hearing his reasons, my wife and I were forced to accept his recommendation; painful though it was for us."
"Reasons?" Itou asked in disbelief; feeling betrayed by the man whom she'd looked upon as a grandfather her whole life.
"Hiruzen explained that you had been tested at birth and confirmed as having been born with the ability to mold chakra. Sarutobi recommended that you be left in Konoha where they would be able to help you utilize that birthright. After all, you would have a power that neither my wife nor I could ever truly comprehend, to say nothing of be able to help you develop it. Nodoka always regretted having not been born a ninja – that is until our daughter was born – and said that she could not in good conscience deny you that opportunity.
"Sarutobi's other point was that, if anyone made a connection between the fall of a major ninja clan and our decision to adopt, you could be exposed to less ethical ninja who would try to steal you and run experiments to try and acquire the Itou clan's Mizugan… Just as Kumogakure tried with Hinata Hyuuga; the cause behind the murder of the Clan…"
The feeling of betrayal faded and a feeling of shame for doubting Sarutobi-ojisan for even a few moments turned Kimiko Itou's stomach into a squirming knot. Motoko sensed her discomfort and gave her a comforting hug. Even after learning of the Mizugan from Sho, Kimiko had never even CONSIDERED that it would be something that people would be willing to kill for…
A frown appeared on the Daimyo's face. "Hiruzen even recommended that Nodoka eliminate any remaining traces of a connection between Queen Mizuho and Nodoka Itou to prevent anyone from trying to kidnap her or our daughter. While neither of the special ladies I had in my life was capable of becoming a ninja, they still carried Itou blood and that meant there was an element of risk. I think that having to bury that part of herself, along with everyone she'd ever loved before we'd started our little family, was the part that sealed my wife's fate. She was as much a victim of the Land of Lightning's treachery as her sister was; it merely took her longer to succumb."
He looked at her. "As for Hiruzen not telling you… Would you have been content as a child to live alone if you knew you had family down here? Is your life so sad that you would have preferred we take that chance and deny you the chance to honor your family in the truest sense, Kimiko-san?"
The pain in the kunoichi's eyes was replaced with her heart taking flight as she realized the truth...
"No, I wouldn't and no, it isn't..." She straightened up. "In fact, even if you offered me the chance to change the past right here and now, I think I'd pass, Ojisama. I'm PROUD to be an Itou and a ninja of Konoha. Do I wish my life had been a bit easier at times? Of course I do, but, honestly, who doesn't? But I can't imagine a life where I don't know 'Hito or any of my friends." She gripped Motoko's hand with a happy squeeze; her blue mood finally dispelled.
"Well said, Kimiko-san..." The Lord Daimyo said with a wide smile. "After I came to my senses and realized who you were, I had planned on telling you all of this before you returned to Konoha. Or at least once we recover my daughter so I could tell her as well… There had never seemed to be a point in telling her such things before, but my recent brush with madness has made me realize how foolish I've been; and not just for the past few months…"
He gestured to Motoko. "I'd been on the verge of opening the Sento door earlier, assuming you were elsewhere, when I heard you yell at Naru or whatever your real name is, young lady. I could hear the despair in your voice and decided not to wait any longer that it took for me to tell that you had entered the changing area."
"How did you know when we had done that, by the way?" Motoko Hata asked, barely managing to keep the chill of fear at nearly having a second incident out of her voice at how close she'd been at being caught in a compromising situation again.
Lord Mizuzaki smiled at the kunoichi, hearing the shock thanks to years of being able to read people's body language. "From the time my daughter turned 8, it was no longer socially appropriate for us to bathe together as a family." He gestured to the room around them. "The carefully trained ear of someone who knows the acoustics of this bathhouse – such as mine – can listen at the door and tell precisely where a person who is talking is standing. My wife and I spent many hours at developing this skill as part of a game between us back when we were still hopeful that we might expand our family." He winked at the kunoichi. "I'll let you use your imagination as to the rules for the game and the mechanics involved."
"Oh!" Motoko blushed as she had an intuitive flash of the Queen in the bath while the Daimyo stood behind the door and how they could turn it into a game that involved attempting to have more kids.
'Naked hide and seek… I like!' Hata's naughty side giggled. 'Maybe we can get Sho-kun to play it with us…'
'Shut up, you!' Motoko cried internally, turning a deeper shade of red. AGAIN.
The Lord of Rivers turned back to his niece-in-law. "It lifts my spirits that you've turned out as such a strong young woman despite the choices we made so long ago, Kimiko-san. I have no doubt that my wife and your family looks upon us from the Pure Land every now and again and are proud of what they see in you and my daughter."
"I hope it will help heal some of that sadness I heard in your voice to know that as long as my daughter, her future children, and I hold power here in Kawa City, you'll have a home if you decide you want it; that you have family here, ready to welcome you - indirect though we may be."
A feeling of giddy joy began to bubble up in Kimiko Itou's chest and outwards until her blood practically sang 'I've been reborn - I'm no longer truly alone!!!'
Tears fell from the eyes of both kunoichi at the simple beauty of Mizuzaki's comment. 'A home; a REAL home...' Itou's thoughts were like fireworks of pure bliss exploding in her mind. 'Deep down, I guess always believed such a thing would be forever denied me; my Clan's vengeance would always take priority over trying to settle down and have a family... God, I wish I could run to 'Hito right now and tell him... I can actually see a glimmer of a real future for the first time in my life, but I'm not sure whether to be scared or excited!'
Kimiko Itou wiped the tears from her eyes and bowed gratefully to her unknowingly long-lost Ojisan Mizuzaki. A fresh determination added some steel to her backbone that her nervousness had stolen from her previously.
"I'm going to pull this off for you perfectly, Ojisama..." She swore fervently to him. "This isn't just a mission anymore - not for me at least… This is for FAMILY!"
Mizuzaki gave her a solemn bow of gratitude.
* * *
To be continued