Here's a rather illuminating chapter! Hope you like it! Thank you to LuciiChaan, Yakitori-Chan, treesofsilverleaves, smolstan, coolalexia12, His Rose bud 125, and MintyWritesFiction for your reviews! It has definitely helped me to push out chapter after chapter even when I'm feeling unmotivated haha. Dedicating this chapter to you folks!
Chapter 4: The First Memory
Mamoru opened her eyes in a daze. The soft rustle of the Mugen tree leaves reached her ears and reminded her where she was, which was seated at her tea house patio underneath the tree and the dark night sky. The spring breeze shifted, making her shiver. Her fingers wrapped around her warm cup of jasmine tea, bringing her back into focus. She watched the reflection of the moon in her cup, partially obscured by the Mugen tree leaves, and recounted how she found her way back to the tea house at four in the morning.
After Kakashi had walked her back to the tea house and bid her goodnight, Mamoru had taken an hour to prepare for tomorrow's work. Once she was done, she walked home to her apartment a few blocks away. Then she went to bed, thoughts of her dinner with Kakashi on her mind, and after a long day of renovations, found sleep easily.
But the sleep did not stay easy for Mamoru, nor peaceful.
The wind shifted again, and Mamoru watched the moon's reflection become clearer as the leaves swayed overhead.
Mamoru's thoughts wandered again and she saw images of a dark figure looming over her. Angry voices. The cold, unforgiving metal chair. The smell of stale blood. The sharp sting of pain on her face. She knew it was no nightmare. No dream. She felt those things. She felt that fear like she felt the warmth of her cup of tea.
The flowery aroma of the tea soothed her nerves as she inhaled it deeply, as if it could rid her of that smell, that memory of blood. Yes, it was a memory. So real, and so very fresh on her mind. She saw every detail, felt every bit of terror it brought her because she replayed it over and over in her head despite the frightening images it meant. If Mamoru had any artistic talent, she could easily draw every scene of that memory on command.
The grimy stone floor. The cell-like structure of her dark surroundings. The rope that bound her wrists to that painfully stiff chair, as if she had been sitting there for days.
She could draw these things, sure, but not that dark figure in her memory. Nor his low, seething voice. Demanding her, "You will tell us what you know."
Under her breath, she whispered her line from memory, "I can't. I don't know-"
Another sharp sting of pain. The barely registered sound of his palm slapping her face. The desperate cry, "I can't- I can't remember-"
Because even in this memory, she still couldn't remember anything. Even when her life was clearly in danger, she couldn't recall a thing, because this- this terrifying scene was her very first memory as Mamoru of Mugen Tea House. This was the life she woke up to, dazed and confused. Then-
The sound of heavy boots approaching her. The sudden pain of her hair being tugged in a firm grasp, forcing her to look up at the shadowed face of this man with a voice she could never forget.
"You will remember. I will not repeat myself again. Tell me wh-"
Suddenly an explosion of splinters. Dim light briefly shone through the entrance, before a shadow of another person held there in the wooden frame for a fleeting moment.
Voices. Angry. Yelling, "You bastard-!"
Everything happened so quickly after that. A surge of adrenaline made her fight back in that moment, and she could remember lunging forward to clamp her teeth on his arm in desperation. With a grunt, he jerked back to strike her with his fist.
The sound of sharp metal - kunai, her mind supplied - flew through the air, embedding itself on the man's back. It didn't stop him from dealing a blow to her temple.
Then poof- a cloud of smoke. More voices, yelling curses at the man's escape.
"Follow him!"
"Mamoru-san!"
"Thank god we got here in time!"
"Mamoru!"
"Are you all right, Mamoru?"
Everything was a blur then. The blow to her head and the fatigue of who knows how long she'd been in that cell made her vision blacken. Her memory faded with her loss of consciousness, but not before she heard herself mutter faintly, "Am I Mamoru?"
And her first memory ended there. But it had been a while since she dreamed this memory. Psychologically, she thought perhaps she was finally moving on. That, maybe, she had finally let go of a past she could not remember. Mamoru had convinced herself that the life she led now was all that mattered. Mugen Tea House. The tea house of dreams. It was her anchor to this life in Konoha. Ten years of making roots in this village. She was proud of how far she had come since then.
But that memory, that horrifying first memory, was her anchor to her past life. It was her albatross, her psychological burden. And how tempting it was to wallow in that abyss of uncertainty and fear.
Faint light filtered through the leaves of the Mugen tree, and Mamoru brought her tea cup to her lips. She realized with a soft sigh that the tea had long gone cold as she sat lost in a daze, reliving her first memory over and over again. How many times has she done this so far? Too many times to count. Rena-chan always got so angry when she found her nearly frozen like this.
Mamoru lifted her gaze to the canopy of leaves and closed her eyes. She imagined the soft light of dawn washing over her skin as if it could cleanse her of this burden.
A new dawn was a new day, and a new day was a new memory to make. One day at a time.
Mamoru stood from her seat and stretched her stiff joints with a satisfying yawn. She exhaled deeply, and took a step forward. Then another.
One step at a time, she reminded herself, for that is how a life is forged.
Mamoru walked into the cafe area of her tea house, shifting the blue fabric that divided the patio hall and the cafe aside with a gentle hand. It was still too early for the genin to arrive, and Mamoru had a strong desire for another cup of tea. She walked behind her bar to pull down a familiar red clay teapot from its place on the shelf and set about her daily routine.
Placing the teapot on a bamboo tea tray she pulled from under the bar, she began to heat up the water to a nice temperature for green tea. As a rule of thumb, red clay teapots should only brew the type of tea they are first used with to avoid destroying the integrity of the taste of tea itself. This is because the clay will absorb the flavor of the tea, and mixing other teas like black and green tea would ruin the teapot as well.
For Mamoru, the teapot she used in her daily ritual was specifically for green tea. It was her favorite teapot since it was a gift. The teapot was masterfully engraved with camellia flowers and leaves that were lightly painted with flecks of gold. It was a beautiful thing that could easily fit in the palm of her hand. Moreover, she simply loved the delicate neck of the spout and the easy grip of the handle. Functional and beautiful. It was a style she liked to emulate when she could.
As the water heated, Mamoru reached over the shelves to pull down her favorite green tea. The loose tea leaves were rolled into little pearls that gave the tea its name: jasmine pearl tea. She had fallen in love with the tea when a merchant from the Land of Tea came by with a sample.
The rich aroma of the jasmine flower was infused with every leaf, and the that was something that could not be taken for granted. Good jasmine tea was difficult to craft. Ten thousand jasmine flowers needed to be picked and left to mix with quality tea leaves overnight so that the fragrance would infuse with the leaves. Then the blossoms would need to be removed by hand so that all that was left was the jasmine scented tea. Not to mention that the tea leaves themselves needed to be handpicked as well. It took good eyes, and a legion of efficient pickers to make even a pound of quality tea.
When the water was ready, Mamoru gently poured some of it over the teapot to wash and wet it. Then she poured some inside the pot to warm the clay. She poured the water back out and put a few pearls of tea inside. Pouring a touch of water in, she let the hot water open the leaves to make it easier for the flavor to come out. Once the leaves opened, she poured the water out again, leaving the slightly open tea leaves in the teapot. Finally, she poured the hot water into the teapot again and let the tea brew.
About two minutes later, the tea was ready. Mamoru poured the tea out into a teacup and took her first morning cup of tea. The cold tea from earlier didn't count. She sighed with deep satisfaction. Tea really was the best after all.
As she took another sip of tea, she heard a knock at the entrance window. A figure leaned forward, cupping his hand over his eyes to look inside. When he saw Mamoru look his way, he smiled widely and waved.
A muffled voice called out, "Mamoru-san, it's me! Sanjuro!"
Mamoru blinked in surprise. She placed her cup down and walked over to unlock the entrance. Peeking outside, she greeted him. "Sanjuro-san, good morning. I'm... surprised to see you here…" She frowned, thinking of the last time she heard from him.
He looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry. You must think I'm such a jerk. I really am sorry, I didn't mean to stand you up like that a couple nights ago. Something came up, and I sent a message to you so we could reschedule, but I recently found out the message never came to you. So I came to apologize in person!" He bowed deeply. "Please forgive me!"
"Oh-" Mamoru said, well she supposed it wasn't his fault then. Especially since he looked really guilty. "Well- um, it's all right. I understand." It still irked her, but she couldn't blame him. "Would you like to come inside?" She wasn't sure how to go about this. She wasn't necessarily interested in another date, but he was an acquaintance and she didn't want to be rude either.
"Thank you! Actually, I was hoping we could take a walk." He beamed at her brightly. "The reason I wanted to reschedule was because of business with this tea merchant. I'm not really in the business since I'm more about silk, but I thought you might be, so I- well, why don't we take a walk and I can tell you all about it?"
Mamoru hesitated. "I'm actually expecting some genin later today to come by to help with my renovations. If it won't take that long, I don't mind hearing what you have to say Sanjuro-san."
"Great! It won't take long, I just think it would be such a shame to talk business inside when it's so beautiful outside today!" He held out his arm and grinned at her. "Shall we?"
She sighed, but smiled. There was a reason why she agreed to a date with Sanjuro. He wouldn't take no for an answer, and it wasn't like he was a bad person. "All right, we shall." She said as she locked up the shop. She took his arm and they walked down the mainstreet together.
Naruto skid to a halt before the Mugen Tea House entrance. A wide grin spread across his face and he crowed, "Did you see that Sakura-chan, I won again! Eat that Sasuke-teme!"
Sakura and Sasuke walked up behind him at a more languid pace. "Sasuke-kun wasn't even competing with you Naruto."
"Only because he was too afraid," Naruto mocked.
"As if." Sasuke said as he reached for the entrance, only to discover it was locked. "It's not open."
"That can't be right, we're just on time." Sakura said, she looked up at the sky for a moment, then went over to the window to peer in. It was dark. No one was inside. She called through her hands. "Mamoru-san? Are you in there?"
"Mamoru nee-channn!" Naruto called loudly. "We're heerreee!"
No response. The genin looked at each other.
"I don't think she's here yet." Naruto said.
"What should we do?" Sakura asked, "Sensei won't be here for hours, and we can't just sit around doing nothing. Not to mention it's kinda….weird right? Something feels wrong."
Naruto frowned. "Well, maybe she just overslept? That can happen." He tried the entrance again. Maybe teme just sucked at opening doors.
"It's locked idiot." Sasuke shook his head. "She doesn't seem like the type of person to forget or be late to an appointment anyways. We should try asking around."
The genin looked around the stores on the mainstreet. Several shop owners were setting up their displays and putting out their signs. Some were sweeping the entrance of their stores, while others were busy watering the plants lining their shops.
Sakura walked over to one of the nearby groceries. "Excuse me, have you seen Mamoru-san today, the owner of the Mugen Tea House?"
The man shook his head. "No, I just barely came, but try asking the dango stand over there. The owner Yukari-san is usually early, and she's friends with Mamoru-san." He pointed to a small dango stand a few yards away. A woman with light brown hair was quietly watering her plants.
The genin approached and Naruto called out, "Excuse me, have you seen Mamoru nee-chan today?"
The woman turned with a curious expression. An early morning customer with purple hair, seated at one of the outdoor benches, turned as well with a dango stuffed in her mouth. She watched the interaction with vague interest.
"Good morning, if you're talking about Mamoru-chan from Mugen, then yes. I saw her just a little while ago."
"Where did she go?" Sasuke asked.
"We're supposed to help her with her renovations, but she's not at her tea house." Sakura added politely.
Understanding dawned on the dango stall owner. "Ohh, you're the genin she hired." Then she pointed down the mainstreet. "I saw her walking with this man she met a little while ago, otherwise I would have called out to her. I didn't want to interrupt anything though."
"Wait, is that man and Mamoru, like this?" Naruto held up his pinky finger.
Yukari chuckled behind her hand. "Well, a date had been arranged. I haven't heard yet how it went though."
"Poor Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura exclaimed. "Who knew he had competition!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "That doesn't matter. Who was that man? Do you know how long ago they left?"
Yukari frowned. "His name is Sanjuro, that's what we know him by. He's a silk merchant from out of town that comes by every once in a while. It was maybe thirty minutes ago that they left. I would have expected her to be back by now, Mamoru-chan wouldn't forget about her renovations."
"All right. Let's go." Sasuke said to the genin.
"Thank you!" Sakura said.
"Yeah thanks!" Naruto added.
The genin took off down the mainstreet. Yukari watched them disappear around the corner with a frown.
The purple-haired customer furrowed her brows, taking another bite of her dango. "Sanjuro, you said?" She stood and threw her dango sticks into the trash bin.
Yukari turned to her frequent customer. "Yes. I'm starting to get a little worried now. It's probably nothing though, right Anko-san?"
Anko hummed thoughtfully. "We'll see. Thanks for the dango, I'll be taking off now."
"Thanks for stopping by!"
Anko shunshinned away, intent on informing interested parties about what she had just heard. She took off towards the memorial stone, where she knew a certain copy-nin was located at this time of day.
Well what do you think? Whose POVs did you enjoy seeing the most? Things are indeed getting curious. Let me know what you liked and what you want to see more of!~ ^^