WAP 50

Rustling outside woke Aiko in the night. She opened her eyes and laid still for a moment to get her bearings, reaching out with chakra.

‘It’s outside. On the walls. A shinobi is here that I don’t know’

Someone woke next door, chakra signature fluttering in agitation as she sensed something. The change in signature was incredibly subtle and controlled. Aiko wouldn’t have noticed it if she hadn’t been spending a lot of time with these people.

Aiko admired that as she threw off her covers and stalked to the window, on alert. The shoji slid open behind her and the Kiroyama woman entered. Her eyes shone eerily in the darkness like those of a cat, yellow and slitted. She apparently slept in a white yukata and bare feet. She looked like a ghost.

The sound must have woken her two Uchiha companions. Aiko pulled the window open and leapt out, contorting to land on the wall crouched on all fours. She blazed chakra through her eyes to light them up with the fuel for Rinnegan. Her vision lit up and sharpened, filtered through purple eyes. The white-washed castle came out oddly yellow in the moonlight. 

Stark against the wall was the figure of a lithe woman in black, white eyes reflecting back at her. Long hair slid in a waterfall towards the rocks below, as long as the Hyuuga was tall. That was the sign of an elite shinobi, a proud and terrible killer.

“Are you the breakfast service?” Aiko asked. She stood and cocked her head to the side, trying to take in more details. It was hard to see the woman’s face at distance and in low light.

The other woman huffed. She tensed: 

And sprinted away, towards the east face of the castle. 

Aiko gave chase, racing across the face of the castle. She heard a rock fall down the side of the building, skipping and scraping to fall dozens of flights. 

The Hyuuga flung herself inside a window. Aiko was bare seconds behind her, ready to jump inside–

“Wait!” Kiroyama-san had nearly caught up to her, close enough for Aiko to hear a hiss. “That’s the Lord’s chambers.”

Aiko stopped mid-motion. “...That’s a bad place to get caught,” she observed. She frowned inside the window, but didn’t dare enter. 

‘There was definitely a reason they chose to enter right there of all the windows. And the only thing they did was run- yes. They probably wanted me to chase inside into a trap of some kind.’

“Likely that was her goal,” Kiroyama-san said. She sneered.

Whoa. Aiko blinked to refocus on her, entranced by the transformation. Kiroyama-san had first struck her like a glass doll. But now, full of anger, she was monstrous. She was familiar. 

‘She looks like Orochimaru.’ 

“Have you thought about unhinging your jaw and spitting up a sword?” Aiko asked, genuinely curious. “I think it would suit you.”

Kiroyama-san blinked at her. “Why did that occur to you now?” Her face looked very normal again. She looked up to the heavens as if for patience. “No. I deny this. We will not have this conversation.”

Aiko nodded. “Fair boundary.” She finger-combed her hair once and cast a resentful look back at the window. “Back inside, before the security sees us.”

They slipped back into their chambers unseen. Chiaki was waiting with a blank expression and a naginata that had not been anywhere in the room earlier.

“How did you hide that?” Aiko asked, fascinated. “It’s half again your height.”

Chiaki-san pulled it back protectively. “Kaede-san has gone to rouse Uchiha-dono.” Her gaze flicked over the both of them. “Has the intruder-”

Madara flung open another shoji door, eyes wild with fury and hair even wilder from sleep.

“You’re late,” Aiko told him. “Deep sleeper?” She turned back to Chiaki. “Yes, the intruder ducked into former Minister Tani’s private chambers. I declined to follow into a trap.”

“Sensible,” she said, and Madara sputtered. “Did you get a good look?” 

Aiko made a vague gesture and sank to sit on her heels. Kiroyama-san copied her. “The creeper was dressed in night gear, but with very long loose hair,” she reported. “Black hair. I assumed from their petite build that they were female, but I did not get a clear view of their face. I thought that their eyes seemed to be very light in color. They did not speak. They had no particularly distinct gait, weapon, or scent.” She pursed her lips. “All I smelled was the scent of the washing soap used here, so they are almost certainly staying within the castle and were able to get such odd clothes laundered without suspicion. The laundry workers might remember the clothing. Their chakra signature was not strongly inclined to an elemental nature, indicating they are likely not a jutsu specialist.”

The longer she talked, the more intent the looks she received. Chiaki and Madara sat as well, Uchiha red eyes gleaming in the low light. 

When she finished, Madara nodded slowly and then flicked his gaze over. “Were you able to observe anything additional?” 

Kiroyama-san had her hands meekly placed on her thighs. “I believe the intruder was about 2 cm taller than hime-mikoto-sama.”

It took Aiko a moment to parse that honor name was referring to her. She blinked hard, trying to look unaffected by the extreme deference.

‘That woman thinks I am a literal demigod. I am the best scammer I have ever heard of.’ 

“The intruder had not been there long. She didn’t set off any of my traps.” 

‘...What traps?’ Aiko eyed Kiroyama-san with intrigue. She realized for the first time that Kiroyama-san slept with her white yukata on backwards, the way that only corpses were supposed to be dressed. Exquisite.

“Thank you.” Madara let out a sigh and seemed to deflate. “I apologize for my failure to waken.” He sounded ashamed, voice scraping lower. “It was inexcusably sloppy.” 

“That’s odd, isn’t it?” Aiko frowned. “Hashirama and Mito and their household are still asleep? Izuna is still sleeping after people ran on the wall?” She lifted an eyebrow. “Do we have a medic with us?”

“What do you- sedatives?” Madara hissed and rose to his feet. Anger put spots of red on his face. “I will see if Hashirama can be roused.”

“Ugh.” Aiko rubbed at her temples and stayed seated as Madara rushed away. It took a few moments to start waking people up. Hashirama woke up, but he stayed in his room with Mito as Madara stalked around shaking people awake without making any sounds their hosts might hear on the floor above. Izuna came to meet the Uchiha ladies with his face contorted into a snarl. His sleeping yukata was…suspiciously loose.

Aiko kept her lips together and ducked her gaze slightly, choosing not to form any hypothesis about why he hadn’t been in the same room as Madara. 

Hashirama came into the room like a storm. “Blood.” He held out a piece of paper. 

Aiko waited for elaboration. 

“Give me a blood sample,” Hashirana explained tersely, as if she was the idiot here. “A few drops. Mito-hime and I have both been dosed with a sedative. I wish to confirm if everyone here has been dosed and if there is anything else in our bodies.” 

She used a clean senbon to prick a few drops for him, which she quickly labeled with her name and started scanning with green chakra. It was so aggressively fresh that it sort of hurt her nose. 

‘The feeling sort of makes me want to brush my teeth.’ 

Aiko wrinkled her nose. 

Hashirama gave her a sharp glance. “Kiroyama-san. Blood.” He repeated the process with the two Uchiha women and Izuna and then asked Aiko for a second sample. She raised her eyebrows but complied. Madara came back in with a fierce scowl as Hashirama was finishing up. 

“We have all been drugged, to varying degrees.” Hashirama glanced around the room. “There may have been an element of chance in dosage, or it may have been deliberate.  I cannot explain why the person with the highest dosage of sedative was the first to wake.” Hashirama gave her an unimpressed look. “Are you a horse?” 

Madara lunged at him. 

Aiko leaned back and ignored the hair pulling and insults that followed, frowning to herself. “Should I be flattered or insulted?” She asked out loud. 

“Likely they did not intend to kill you, as you are a member of the clergy.” Izuna sniffled. “No matter their personal feelings, it would cause civil unrest.”

The room at large, aside from the tussling clan heads, gave her a sidelong look. 

Aiko frowned. “What?”

“Nothing, you’re perfect the way you are.” Izuna stretched exorbitantly and yawned wide enough to flash teeth to the whole room. “Anyway, I suppose we were meant to die in our sleep and you’d wake up in a suite full of bodies. How charming. Shall we go back to bed?”

Madara sat up onto his knees, pausing his attempt to grind a cushion into Hashirama’s face. “Yes, there is no point in losing sleep.” He huffed and tossed the floor cushion to the side. He kicked Hashirama’s ribs when he stood up. “Thank you for waking us all.” He gave Aiko a rather courtly bow and then towed Izuna out of the room. “I’m looking forward to seeing who is disappointed to see us come to the promised meeting tomorrow morning.”

“Everyone,” Hashirama muttered, so quietly that Aiko was fairly certain she was the only one that heard him. She sighed and helped him up. 

“Thank you for confirming my hypothesis. Do you have any idea what type of drug we were dosed with?” Aiko asked. She stifled a yawn. “And method of delivery- I assume we ate or drank it at dinner, but it could have been something else…”

Hashirama eyed her strangely. “Please leave this to the shinobi, priestess.” He bowed on his way out. “Rest well.”

Aiko gaped after him for a long moment. 

…Right. They didn’t know that she was culturally shinobi.