WAP 54

Aiko got back to her room and took advantage of the water basin to wash her face, splashing away the heat of the day. It really had been such a long day. She paused, checking in with her body. It could have been worse.

She didn’t feel tired, physically. Only emotionally.

‘Because I am not a person,’ she sang internally, a mean sing-song tone in her head. ‘I am an undying thing and I am barred from heaven.’

The usual rush of adrenaline and misery was more muted than she remembered. Maybe she was just getting used to things. Hmm. That was nearly disappointing. Aiko sighed and tried not to think about it. She couldn’t really afford to rely on self-loathing to motivate her to keep moving.

There was a distant sound. Aiko went alert– and then relaxed when she placed it as the sound of a door sliding, paired with the faint hum of an Uchiha chakra signature. 

‘I should probably be social and see what has happened.’ 

Letters in hand, Aiko stifled a yawn and made her way back through the series of guest rooms to search out Madara.

He was waiting for her in the same room she had last seen him in. He lifted his head slightly when she came in and then let it thump back down in a cloud of hair.

“Welcome back.”

Aiko looked at him, laid out on the tatami with dark circles underneath his eyes. He wasn’t even on the cushions, splayed out. He looked exhausted. She hummed and picked her way over to the cushion nearby. “Where is everyone else?”

Madara grunted, eyes following her. “Still at the table. I excused myself.” There was the faintest hint of a sneer. “There has been much discussion of how we might have handled the situation differently. I had to remind our host that a holy woman had been poisoned under his roof by someone who he hired.” His tone turned smug by the end. “You may be unaware that today he publicly turned away a local petitioner without hearing their case. In light of that, I asked if abdication of responsibilities was a personal preference we might expect from him in general.”

Aiko laughed.

“Then Hashirama asked me to leave, for some reason,” Madara added, a smirk tugging at his lips. He looked immensely pleased with himself. 

She swallowed down the urge to thank him and instead extended her hand to curl around his ankle. He went still. “I can’t imagine why,” she said lightly. Aiko gave him a coy look from the side of her eye. “I have two letters for you.”

“You- what?” He stuttered, eyes darting between her hand and her face.

Aiko produced them from inside her robes with a swish. Madara’s eyes crossed as he watched the motion. It was enormously gratifying to watch his face turn slightly pink. “I’ve forgotten the elder’s name, sorry,” she said, not sorry in the slightest. “He found me 5 acolytes. I’ve deposited them on a mountain to do manual labor.”

“What?” He sat up and took the proffered letter, looking a little harried. “Ah….” Madara trailed off as he read. “Oh.” He looked a little smug again. “The Senju sent you only four acolytes, did they not?”

“For now,” Aiko said breezily, not wanting to let him have that win.

Madara blinked. He looked affronted. “What do you mean?”

She shrugged. “There’s some children who I’ll probably get custody of,” Aiko admitted. “There’s a lot of Senju orphans for some reason.” She eyed him pointedly.

“...Aa.” Madara’s eyes glazed over. “There are many Senju orphans,” Madara echoed, as if tasting the words. He had the gall to look pleased with himself.

‘Fucking hell. Wasn’t he supposedly always opposed to violence?’ 

She slapped his leg and rolled her eyes.

“It is a tragedy,” Madara blustered. He cleared his throat and ducked his chin down. “May I see the other letter?” He took it and opened it in one motion. “Ah… He was able to get some information from our guest.” Aiko leaned over to read it.

Their poisoner was Kimiko Hyuuga, age 14. She was a cousin of the current clan head. Their mission had been to infiltrate the household and eliminate the traitorous clans. When their plan had failed, Kimiko had panicked. They were not meant to harm the priestess but she had seen an opportunity and acted impulsively. The first banquet had been dosed with an extremely slow acting paralytic that had been complemented with a sedative in their washing water.

“Yikes,” Aiko said, and frowned in the direction of her room, with the water she had just used to wash her face. 

Madra grunted. “We should have noticed.” His scowl was thunderous. Aiko squeezed his ankle again to distract him. “I-”

They both fell silent at the sound of footsteps. The soft swish of fabric heralded a shoji door sliding open. 

“We have returned,” Mito’s husky voice called out. 

“Welcome back.” Madara and Aiko said it in unison. They made eye contact. Aiko was caught in his gaze for a moment– and then she pulled back, snatching her hand off of his leg before anyone saw. Aiko felt oddly embarrassed and exposed. She stood up and bowed to cover her sudden mortification. “Goodnight.”

“Aa,” he said, watching her leave. “Would you sleep in the room with the Uchiha delegation?” he asked. “I think it best that no one is alone, and that we keep up a more thorough watch.” His tone had changed now to stiff formality.

“Yes, I’ll sleep with Kiroyama-san and your cousins.” Aiko excused herself before the Senju could disturb her peace, bare feet pacing quickly across the straw mats. Her pulse jumped in her throat until she was back to her room.

‘Why did I get so stressed out?’ 

“That was an overreaction,” she muttered to herself, grabbing her futon to drag next door. “It’s not like- I wasn’t doing anything wrong.” She threw the pillow on top of the bedding and hefted it in a messy roll.

She laid out her bedding as the other women came in. “Good evening,” Chiaki said, dark eyes darting over the room and clearly understanding. “I will take the first watch, and Kaede the second.”

“When do I–”

“You are meeting the lady of the house at dawn,” Chiaki dismissed. “Kaede will wake you for this at the same time she wakes Kiroyama-san for the final watch.”

Aiko nodded her understanding and started putting her hair up for the night. “Oh, check that for drugs,” she said.

Chiaki froze with her hands on the bowl of water. “This is how they dosed us?” Her thin eyebrows went high on her brow. “Topical…” She frowned at it. “I will ask Hashirama-san to check.”

Aiko snorted. “Knock yourself out.”

That garnered a curious look, but Chiaki said nothing in response before she walked off with the water in hand. She left the door open behind her.

It didn’t bother Aiko. She got under the sheets and closed her eyes. Falling asleep when someone else was keeping watch was a military survival skill and she was not too out of practice. She roused briefly at each change of the watch, just enough to listen with her eyes shut and confirm it was Chiaki waking Kaede, and then Kaede roused Kiroyama-san. Aiko didn’t need to be told. She sat up with a fierce yawn, jaw cracking open, and rubbed at her face with a palm.

“No sun yet,” she observed, and stretched her neck a little. She dressed as quietly as possible and left for her meeting. 

Senhime had sent a maid to wait for her outside of the guest rooms. She was a cringing and quiet girl who seemed mortified to be perceived. Luckily for her, the estate was still dark and heavy with silence. There was no way for the maid to hear, but when Aiko pricked her ears she could hear quiet breathing from the other rooms. 

Aiko followed the poor child up to the central staircase she had secretly climbed yesterday. The air felt cleaner and more comfortable the higher they climbed up into the cloud level. She watched the windows on every floor they passed, trying to see the first hint of daylight. 

“Here.” It was a bare whisper. 

Aiko thanked the girl quietly and went in. Her eyebrows immediately shot up. Senhime was waiting but she looked like a different person. The grand lady was barefoot, in a severe black yukata. Her hair was tied back with a piece of plain fabric. Black dye was still an indicator of wealth but it was a very odd choice for a lady.

“Good morning,” Senhime said, dark eyes inscrutable in the low light. She bowed with her palms on the front of her thighs. “I appreciate your company in my morning duties.” Her long, sleek hair fell forward with the motion.

Aiko bowed back as deeply. “I am honored to assist,” she murmured. She fell in step and let Senhime lead her to the back room with the butsudan and other family relics. 

It fell into place when Senhime slipped down into seiza and bowed to the family’s ashes. Aiko was here to help her pray. She matched Senhime’s posture and bow, keeping a serene expression. She didn’t need to be asked– Aiko started reciting a prayer she had memorized. Senhime let her eyes flutter shut and waited in perfect stillness. She might as well have been a statue. Aiko let her eyes and attention wander while her mouth moved. The sun was finally coming up to illuminate the trees on the mountains. A gong rang in the distance. Water ran. 

Aiko finished the prayer and let silence hang. 

Senhime exhaled. “Priestess,” she said. 

Aiko waited. She didn’t know what was coming but her intuition said that it was the break she needed. It was going to be important.

“I am worried for my husband.”

Aiko made a quiet sound to encourage Senhime to talk more. 

The other woman’s hands trembled. “Lately, he is not himself,” she said. Senhime swallowed. “His behavior has been- strange. He will not meet with me. He will not accept guests, not even our family and friends from the capital. Is…” She cleared her throat. “Perhaps this is silly,” she dismissed. Her face turned a little pink. “I feel as though he has been possessed. It changed after…” She trailed off, but she put a hand on her stomach. Aiko followed the gesture and saw a bump that the loose junihitoe robes had concealed before.

‘That sounds a bit like what Madara said. Possession is an interesting question. I don’t know about that, but it could be a genjutsu or imposter. Avoiding people who know the target makes sense in an infiltration. Did the Hyuuga replace him?’

“When did he turn away visitors?” Aiko asked quietly.

Senhime inhaled with the slightest shudder. “Two moons ago.”

‘That could line up with the Hyuuga… Well. It’s…’ Aiko frowned. ‘If she’s telling the truth, it seems too early for them to have decided to lure the Senju and Uchiha here. Is there another player here? Or did they want something else– maybe the Hyuuga didn’t want us here. The invitation came from Minister Tani, supposedly.’

Out loud, she made a thoughtful sound. “You must be afraid,” Aiko said. She kept her tone solemn to avoid making it obvious that she was trying to activate that emotion. “You… Forgive me, Senhime-sama. Does he know that you are pregnant?”

She opened her eyes, but it was like Senhime didn’t see the butsudan in front of her. “No.” She said it with a dull, unseeing stare. “He has refused to meet with me alone. He says I have not displeased him, but he turns me away. So I… I have found it difficult to tell him.”

Aiko inclined her head in acknowledgement. “I am sorry. I will pray for his health, and I will see if I can help you.”

Senhime was silent for a long moment. She swallowed. “You are very kind.” She looked at Aiko, her pale face solemn. “Please let me know if there is anything I can do.” She sniffled. Aiko blinked, surprised by the break in composure. “I am… I am very sorry that you nearly came to harm in my home. My… Narahime is very dear to me. I would never risk her.”

“...Is Narahime your heir at the moment?” Aiko asked quietly, for the first time wondering if the teenager was a potential threat to the lord of the estate.

If she was, then… It was not inconceivable that an incompetent country lord could lose his title to a more talented in-law. The family would like to be rid of an embarrassment. Killing her could have been a way to protect his position. 

That theory didn’t line up with what Hyuuga Kimiko had said, but the kunoichi could have lied. Or perhaps it was the truth, but if Senhime was afraid that her husband had tried to kill Narahime, there was something there to investigate.

Senhime avoided her eyes. It was as good as a yes. 

Aiko went back to the guest rooms with a dozen plans churning in her mind. She should investigate it alone. She should tell only Madara. Someone ought to go to the village. Everyone needed to know. Perhaps one of the men had noticed something odd about Minister Tani?

‘They’ve been saying he’s odd,’ Aiko remembered. ‘He refused to fulfill his obligations to a petitioner. He denied responsibility for a poisoning under his roof. They said that he seemed to not even know why he had invited us here– perhaps this man did not. Perhaps the real Minister invited us, and then this imposter felt trapped.’

It was good enough for a working theory. 

She rapped her knuckles on the door before she opened it in the hopes of not startling any jumpy shinobi. 

It seemed that their whole party was awake. Hashirama and his bodyguards were lingering, along with Madara, Izuna, and the Uchiha ladies. Hmm. Actually, she sort of wished they had reacted. She waited a moment for them to realize that she had big news. They didn’t all stop talking, so Aiko re-opened the door and slammed it shut to get their attention.

The bodyguards jumped. Hashirama instinctively made the cross handsign for his favorite jutsu. All the Uchiha had red eyes.

Mito looked appalled by her poor manners.

“Minister Tani is dead,” she announced, enjoying that she suddenly had the floor. 

Izuna inhaled deeply. “Shit,” he said passionately. He put his hands over his mouth. 

“I think it’s recoverable,” Madara said. He flung his hand out to rest on his brother’s chest. “We can contact-”

“I have to talk to another civilian.” Izuna was inconsolable. “I had convinced him, I swear I had–”

“He died months ago,” Aiko interrupted. “The man impersonating him is incompetent. Also, he might want to kill Narahime.”