Disclaimer:

Did shinobi regularly go through traumatic events, without having any required therapy or mental evaluations? If so, I don't own Naruto, or any of that universe.

Chapter Two:
Matters of Trust

Tayuya woke in a cold sweat.

Her heart was beating rapidly, thudding in her chest, blood pounding in her ears. The dream (nightmare?) she had been having quickly faded into a haze, and she grasped vainly at the few threads of it that remained.

All she could remember was a man with off-color red hair leaning over her, whispering something, and then inky darkness. She gripped the sheets of the bed tighter, searching for any sort of remnant, anything, but there was nothing.

Sitting up in the bed (bed?), she tried to remember where she was. This wasn't her room at any of Orochimaru's various bolt-holes, as those all had futons in the rooms for simplicity's sake.

Suddenly very awake, she glanced around the room, scanning for potential threats. And then the previous day came rushing back. All of the things that had happened.

How she had been sent to ferry that Uchiha brat with the rest of the Sound Four. How Konoha's retrieval team (which they'd been trying to avoid completely by doing this at night) had slowly split the group up. How she had gotten paired with another Yin-chakra user, a shadow-wielder. How she had almost defeated him before her emotions had gotten the best of her, and that wind-bitch came in and sliced up the forest.

And that wasn't even the weird stuff.

How she had woken up, with her legs crushed, and couldn't even feel pain. How the curse seal was suddenly gone, as though it was never there. How she was instantly willing to turn her back on Orochimaru. How, after extracting her legs from beneath the crushing weight of the trees, she had been healed, better than before. How she had traveled for hours non-stop (had she really not stopped?), and then arrived in the capitol of Waterfall Country. How she had found this inn… place, and had decided to stay after only a few minutes in the company of the owners.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. That was a rookie mistake.

She knew better than that. Never trust strangers in unknown territory. Luckily, she hadn't been drugged or anything (that she could tell), and the owners seemed sincere enough.

The conversation from dinner floated to the front of her mind, and Tayuya groaned as she realized that she had given them her real name. She really should have been more careful. A seasoned ninja shouldn't have done those things.

It appeared that all of the events yesterday, while not outwardly traumatizing, had left her off-balance and vulnerable. At least it seemed that she hadn't gotten herself into a situation she couldn't handle one way or another. Especially now that she was on her own, without the others to deal with.

Shifting her legs off the mattress, she stood and walked quietly over to the window. The sun was just over the horizon, so it couldn't have been too early. The grass in the backyard glistened in the warm light, and she allowed herself a brief moment in the sun, letting it warm her arms and face.

Muffled sound came from the floor, and she decided it would be best just to get this over with. Her clothes from yesterday (old shirt, new shorts) were on a chair in the corner, and she went over and put the pants on. The oversized white shirt that Yomi had shoved into her arms as Tayuya had been going upstairs after dinner would have to do for now.

Going out into the hallway, Tayuya almost tripped over a large cardboard box sitting just to the side of the door. Cursing under her breath, she bent down to get a better look. In large, bold characters, it had "Seikyo's Old Clothes" written on the top in some sort of permanent marker.

By this point, if the owners hadn't tried anything, she was probably safe.

Opening the box, she was stunned by how much was in it. Formal and informal kimono, a couple beautifully patterned yukata, some simple tops (long-sleeve, short-sleeve, and sleeveless), and three pairs of divided hakama. And that was just at the top of the box. Reaching in and pulling out one of the tank-tops, she moved back into the room.

She removed the rather large t-shirt, and frowned at the bit of black that peaked out of the top of her chest wrap. Yesterday when getting ready to take her bath, she had been shocked silent upon finding a rather large diamond-shaped thing on her chest.

It sat between her breasts, reaching from just below the top of her sternum to the base, about four and a half inches by her estimate. It looked like some sort of stylized knot, with no beginning nor end, but was made up of absolutely minuscule kanji that she hadn't even come close to being able to read.

If she hadn't looked closely, she would have mistaken it for a tattoo. But the teensy characters had given it away. It was some sort of seal. But far more complex and compressed than anything she had ever seen, even in Orochimaru's research.

It hadn't been there yesterday, which gave some weight to the theory that it might be responsible for that weird healing had occurred. And at the same time, she somehow knew in her gut, that this was not a seal she wanted undone. Unlike the curse seal, which she disliked while it was present, and hated now that it wasn't, she knew that somehow, this seal was important for her well-being.

It seemed to be only benevolent or benign.

Her cautious side warned her that she should still seek out someone who knew what the fuck they were doing with seals and see if they had any ideas on the what the hell it actually did. She wouldn't want them messing with it, but it would be important to get as much information as possible. Regardless, it looked like she was stuck with it, and she could probably handle not knowing for a short while.

Not to mention, sealing experts weren't exactly commonplace. She knew of one. Jiraiya. And there was no fucking chance she would ever willingly go to him after her role in all the shit that had happened recently.

Relaxing from her momentary concentration, she reached for the tank top and put it on. Delicious smells wafted in to the room from downstairs. Breakfast. If it was anything like the dinner she'd had last night, she really didn't want to miss it.

Walking down the stairs, the sounds of Shin and Yomi talking about something (miso paste thickness?) came from the room where they had had dinner the night before.

She walked in as silently as she could, but Shin still perked up and turned around to greet her.

"Well good morning, young lady. Get enough of your beauty sleep?"

Tayuya just nodded. If one of the boys had said that to her, she would have punched their lights out for it. She didn't really know how to respond to someone like Shin teasing her though.

"Come on and sit down, we just started eating." Shin said, motioning at one of the free seats around the low table. Unlike the front room where they had had tea, this room had a short table at the center, and a recessed floor beneath it where you put your legs. Cushions sat around the table, so that you didn't have to sit on the hard floor while eating.

She moved around the table and sat down cross-legged, serving herself some rice, miso soup, and a piece of fish from the dishes surrounding her.

"Oh good, I'm glad you found the clothes", Yomi said. More like nearly broke my fucking toes on them. "So how do they fit? Do they work alright?"

"Uh, yeah. I think so. You're really giving them to me?" Tayuya asked. There had been a lot, and she hadn't even gone through the whole box.

"Well yes, I don't see us using them. And Seikyo-chan outgrew them a long time ago." Yomi frowned. "So really it's up to you if you want to take them all or not. Do you not like them?"

Tayuya backpedaled. "No! It's not that! I'm… It's just, there was some really expensive looking stuff in there." Some of the clothes had been more than a little flowery for her tastes, but beggars can't be choosers. And those were really only the more formal pieces she had seen. Everything else looked like they were more to her preference: solid colors, greys, whites.

Yomi's expression softened. "Yes, they're for you. Every girl needs to be able to dress up every so often. Even ninja like yourself."

What.

Tayuya's blood froze in her veins, her heart suddenly beating three times as fast. Her face hardened, and she wondered if she could kill the two of them, and then get out of town before anyone noticed.

A wave of killing intent rolled over her, making her gag and freeze where she was before it let up just as quickly.

"Tayuya!" She unconsciously moved to grab the knife next to her on the table. "Whoa! Easy there." She noted that the pair of them hadn't even really moved, other than Shin holding his hands up. Why weren't they fighting back?

"Calm down. We're not doing anything. See? Nothing's wrong, nobody's going to hurt you." With no small amount of effort, she moved her hand back to where it had been resting at the edge of the table. What was going on?

Shin sighed. "Jeez, it's like you're on a hair trigger." Seeing that she at least wasn't about to attack them, Shin brought his hands down. "You really could have brought that up a little better, ya know?"

Yomi tittered away behind a hand, while her eyes twinkled. "Allow an old woman her simple pleasures."

Shin rolled his eyes in exasperation. "She was half a second away from attacking us. I don't think that's worth it."

"You could have handled her." What? Shin didn't look like he could hurt a fly, much less a kunoichi in her prime.

"So? Doesn't mean I want to, this early in the morning." he grumped.

Tayuya attempted to regain what little sanity seemed to remain in the situation. "B-but. Wha-. When? How?"

"Girl, we knew you were a ninja the second you walked in the door. It changes how you walk, how you act. Not many shinobi know how to blend back in with the normal people after living like that for very long. You stood out like a sore thumb."

"Then why the fuck did you just let me in? You could have turned me in or something!" That made no sense! Why wouldn't they have done that?

"Because you didn't give us any reason to." Shin replied. Yomi nodded at this, and Shin's eyes hardened.

"Oh, don't think I wasn't prepared. If you had shown any signs of intending to hurt us, you would have found yourself dead quicker than you could blink. I wasn't known as the Shi no Shinigami for nothing." He rubbed his head, looking a little embarrassed at the admission.

"Maa. Those days are behind me. Thank Kami I was allowed to retire after the last Shinobi War. Point is, this is an inn. We help people. When you showed up on the doorstep yesterday, you needed a place to rest. And that's what we do. I like to think that helping people now makes up for all the shit I had to do in the war."

Tayuya deflated. There went her conspiracy theories and (seemingly justified) paranoia.

"To be honest, you seemed pretty lost. Dazed. Still do." Yomi made a sound of agreement. "Now that you know about us, well, me at least, and that we're not gonna hurt you, maybe you can tell us what's going on? See if we can't seem to do somethin' about it."

Tayuya opened her mouth to tell them to fuck off. To tell them that it wasn't their business, their right, to pry into her life. She was cut off by Yomi, who got up from the table and went to the kitchen. When she came back, she had a cup of hot tea in her hands. She set it down in front of Tayuya. "When you're ready, dear." she said, sitting back at her place.

Tayuya's mouth clicked shut. They had been nothing but kind to her. Letting them into their own home when they didn't know who she was or what her intentions were. They had trusted her.

She hadn't trusted anyone enough to talk to them, really talk to them, since Tanzaku Gai. She abhorred the level of exposure and sense of vulnerability that relationships like that entailed. She'd learned about the sort of pain they could bring the hard way.

But these two strangers had done more for her in the past twelve hours than anyone else had for her. Ever. Could she trust them? Trust them not to abuse that trust? Maybe… maybe she could just start with talking about something small and see how far she got. Like how she got to the city.

"I was in a fight yesterday." Shin's face shifted into a deadpan expression, as if to convey 'you don't say'.

"I-I guess that was pretty fuckin' obvious with my clothes, huh?" Her hands felt uncomfortable not doing anything, and she moved to continue eating her rice. "Well, uh, that fight brought… a lot of things I believed in into question. Like my employer." The fucking cunt.

"You didn't know if you could trust them anymore." Shin said, nodding. "Lotta missing-nin feel the same way when they defect." His eyes narrowed. "But I get the feeling you weren't affiliated with a village."

How did he guess that? "I wasn't. Not really." Ugh. This was easier than she expected, but it was also uncomfortable. But she knew that if she didn't work through the discomfort, she'd never be able to find out if she really should have trusted them or not. And she got the sense that that deciding not to try would be a decision that would haunt her the rest of her life. So she continued on. "I worked for some-one not some-where" She fidgeted, twirling her chopsticks.

"Who?" Yomi asked. "Anyone we'd know about?"

Tayuya snorted in amusement. "More than likely." She took a breath and let it out with a sigh. "I was with Orochimaru."

Shin whistled. "The snake Sannin? I heard stories of him in the war. Before he dropped off the radar. There've been some nasty rumors about him coming out of Fire Country."

Tayuya put her chopsticks down, and reached for the tea Yomi had brought her, now that it was cool enough to drink. She was trying to keep a straight face. Not to let her emotions boil over. Her feelings about Orochimaru were more than a little raw right now. "All those fucking rumors? They're true. And then there's the shit you don't hear about." Yomi's face became questioning and Tayuya took a sip to calm herself.

She felt something wet at the corner of her eye, and hastily wiped it away. "He uses a seal, similar to the enslavement seals that were outlawed a century ago. I had one. It literally invades your body. Becomes impossible to remove. I thought that was all it did. Heh." She laughed at herself darkly in self-depreciation. A trail of warmth rolled down her cheek.

Tayuya took a shuddering breath. Why the hell was she telling them all this? And why the fuck was she crying? She wasn't some weak little girl. Right?

She didn't really know anything anymore. Her entire world had been tore apart yesterday. But it felt good, telling someone. Someone who wouldn't judge you. Who wouldn't care. It was the first thing she was doing that felt right to her in a long time. And she didn't want that to stop.

"Yesterday, I found out it fucks with your mind too. Turns you into a sycophant. The 'perfect little soldier'. Not a mindless puppet, but pretty fucking close. I just didn't care while it was happening."

At least we were only influenced towards being better tools, instead of becoming mindless experiments, she thought bitterly. She quickly wiped the hot trails on her face away and took another deep breath, trying to calm her thoughts and emotions, even if just a little.

"I can remember thinking that he was amazing, like he was the greatest man on earth, before I started fighting it. And yesterday, after my fight, it just disappeared. The seal was just… gone. And I could think for myself again."

Her thoughts immediately became angry, furious. "How could he do that to us? I gave him my fucking life!" At this confession, her emotions boiled over, and the tears started flowing on their own. Whether they were in anger, or weakness, or self-disgust, she didn't know. This wasn't weak, right?

Yomi moved around the table and started rubbing her back as droplets fell from her eyes on to the white porcelain plate in front of her on the table. How long had it been since someone had comforted her? Eight years? At the least.

Shin looked very old at all of the revelations, and seemed to be in thought. Yomi just held her, soothing her. It was so embarrassing, but it felt so right to let it all out.

After that, her walls crumbled, and the rest of the story slowly came out. What it was like growing up, being slowly groomed by him. How hard the training had been. The deathmatches. All the years that she could remember, up until the incident yesterday. She left nothing out.

She didn't think she could have.

Once everything had calmed down they had a simple lunch, as Yomi didn't have time to prepare anything special. Plain rice with steamed pork and vegetables. Leftovers from the night before. Tayuya didn't mind. She didn't really pay attention to the food anyway. She was more focused on the couple across from her. They communicated with almost no words, just a movement or a glance, and Tayuya knew that they must have been married for a long time to reach that level of familiarity.

She'd never allowed anyone to get close to her, instead maintaining an abrasive, caustic personality to keep them away. Her frequent cursing was part of that, a trait she'd picked up from living on the streets. Not that she really cared what anyone else thought of her language. As Jirōbō knew better than anyone, the sexist pig. She'd never sought the approval of anyone other than Orochimaru, and he hadn't cared. All he had cared about was how effeciently they worked.

They finished lunch, and Yomi took the dishes out to the kitchen to be washed later, before returning to the table and sitting to the right of Shin.

Shin started off. "So. It looks like you've got a couple options, and a few choices to make." What did that mean? Were they going to kick her out or something? They must have picked up her impression, because Shin immediately went on. "You're more welcome to stay here for a while, but that may not be the best option. For one, if Orochimaru hears about you staying here, there's no ninja corps in Se-shi. You'd be on your own for dealing with him. Despite what I like to think, I'm in no shape for a tussle with Sannin." She frowned. He had a point that she hadn't thought of.

"In that line of thinking, I can send message to my friend in Takigakure, the one I mentioned before. Then you can travel up there a couple days later. That way he can vouch for you, and you'd be in a pretty safe area if anything happened. Taki wouldn't take too kindly to Orochimaru showing up, and I doubt he'd want to deal with open conflict in a hidden village, despite, no especially with what happened in Konoha." She had told them how he had lost the use of both his arms, and now had to rely on Kabuto to do almost everything. "You'd have a job, and be protected at the same time."

There was no decision for her to make. This was the only choice she really had. The only one that would keep her alive for the next few months.

"Alright. I'll take it."

A/N:

As always, please review! Tell me what you like, dislike, etc. Every little thing helps.