Momomi's first trip outside their family home was a week-long one, the longest Terazawa could get away with dragging her heels on. A simple trip out to the near-city that seemingly sprung up out of nowhere after the early days of Tera's childhood, in hopes of finding a peddler that might have some of the Land of Wind's almost infamous glass for sale.

Not to buy, just to see about it. Even selling her painstakingly manufactured tinctures and tonics for healing to various merchants, she wouldn't have enough money to purchase glass.

What limited glasswork there was available far outside of Wind's borders appeared bulky and warped, novice-made rather than skilled wares crafted by masters. A few jars here or there was apparently an embarrassment of riches, even if the Sekanji family had a fair few storing the really strong poisons they had in stock yet had to hunt for their dinner on most nights.

Windowpanes Tera vaguely recalled, pushing past the mentally choking haze of grief and homesickness to Erin's lifetime. She would murder for a solid wall fitted with windowpanes so she wasn't shut in a dark and dreary paper house every night.

She was always half-scared their walls would just tear apart when the rainy season came. Wet paper was not a good insulator either, and the damp probably killed more than a few of the elderly or very young every time the seasons changed.

That was a pipe dream, really. At the moment the only ones that could afford that kind of wealthy indulgence would be nobles, and she had lucked out in not meeting any so far in this lifetime and aimed to keep that going.

Sometimes, Tera became fruitlessly frustrated with this world. It was often backwards, entirely and senselessly brutal, and so… so bloody. Not really somewhere she wanted her baby sister to grow up.

The sweet and quiet girl that faithfully copied her stances and learned to manipulate water at her sister's knee on shadowy nights was slowly losing that innocent side of herself. Not by any obvious method, just wear and tear from a existence watching a few handful more of their family leave their compound and never return and feeling a sort of backlash from the indifferent cautiousness they all had for those distantly related.

The press of uncertainty and unease caused by the trickle of fighters they did have dwindling down to less than what they needed to maintain their numbers or any sense of security didn't help.

She didn't have a choice in that honestly, and their mother had seen no issue with bringing them into the world and it had been less dire when she had been barely five so passing judgement on that was something she was unwilling to do.

"Sister," a tiny brush of the hand against Tera's hakama earned the younger girl a backwards glance, especially for the way she was going to evade identifying either of them closer than just Sekanji but still give her respect as her elder, "are we expecting… anything?"

"I was not, my first visit." Murmured the older girl softly, curling her hands within the wide sleeves of her outfit so she could grab either her poisons or the bladed fans that were slowly becoming fit for her hands. "Much to my own detriment."

The literal city that had sprung up, situated squarely on a main trade road that wound into Earth and connected to Fire's less rocky highways to just about everywhere, was… not really all that impressive.

Not to someone that recalled what a 'modern' city would look like.

Tamachi, as the former collection of huts had been named sometime when she had been looking for anything else to occupy her mind with, had grown to the point it now had basic walls. Bamboo walls, from the few forests of them that broke up the grassy plains of Grass, but walls.

Which would mean what was contained within was pricy or worth it to steal, thus why they had the fragile security.

Sometimes, Tera despaired over her own self more than normal.

The older she got, the more skilled and the less time and effort she had to put into the basics she and her sister needed, the more time she had to think. Which wasn't entirely a good thing, barely mastered water clone issue and poison experimentations aside.

As she had more time to herself, the more she drifted back across long-since abandoned thoughts to how she once was. The panic attacks had died off as well as the exhausting uncertainty and disorientation, she didn't miss those in the least.

The thoughts, ideals, and problems a so-called 'modern' mind had caused her when she had been too young and in too deep to deal with were another thing.

Knowing of modern luxuries and being forced to make due without them was a torture in itself. Food preservations, the exotic cooking and spices even the middle-class could taste, near-sinful comforts that were day to day realities merely teased her memory these days. The bitter realization that Erin once had the greatest library of information at her fingertips but never put that to use learning something useful stung, and the medical advancements alone…

There was really little for it, as Tera had to survive in a world Erin had been too soft to survive in long.

The regrets still oozed a kind of bitter loathing within her mind, the bits of life Erin had been free to pursue but hadn't due to trivial concerns. The utter lack of such opportunities here highlighted them all in retrospective painful ways sometimes.

Like now, thinking back along the scientifically classified herbs and plants laboriously worked over again and again to refine pharmaceuticals from. The guesswork and sheer folk remedies of the now help her little when developing an untraceable poison she might use, as the underpinning reasons why they did this or that thing to the human body was all simply conjecture.

Sometimes well-studied conjecture, but the point remained there was very little solid fact to work from aside 'too much of this causes death'.

...and wasn't she a ever so pampered little princess?

Hard work never killed anyone, and if she pulled rare and entirely unknown complex poisons out of thin air she would earn herself more scrutiny than she could safely labor under. It was insultingly easy to keep the Sekanji clan out of her personal research, a false-journal made on scraps of the rice (really mulberry but who recalled that?) paper that also made up the walls of her home and a true one that looked more like the field journal she kept track of her herbology finds within.

Hidden in the sheets of paper drawings and sketches of various plant-life were the odd legend and rumor, written in a very awkward and bastardized haiku-style. Certain words and actions corresponded with her experiments in learning her trade, the longer poems that occasionally had their own pages with supposedly mythological creatures documented the few successes so far.

Contemplating her pitiful progress so far, which really wasn't all that terrible for a almost preteen young girl if one discounted the advanced understanding another lifetime impressed on her, did not distract Tera from the understanding a few more shinobi than normal were present in Tamachi.

Momo, who didn't quite have her older sister's sensory range but had leaps and bounds to grow within, stuck as close as a burr to her elder as they wandered with the flow of traffic.

Again damming the stupid 'traditional' black eye markings that made it obvious what clan the girls hailed from, she hesitated only momentarily before pulling her hair sticks out. Dark, lanky, but more importantly poisoned hair fell in sheets around her, giving her something to hide her eyes with for the time being. Momo had less issue following suit, even if loose hair in this day and age meant loose women. The tiny sips of the antidote, really a strong antihistamine to prevent any angry skin rashes from forming, stored in a metal pendant disguised in one end of the brass stick she removed was shared between them while they had the freedom of movement.

They were young enough their hair would be overlooked as a slight complication on the road.

Obviously, no ninja worth their chakra was fooled.

Tera gripped her fans compulsively as the sisters were cornered by a sudden dead end that had either naturally occurred or was produced via genjutsu, depressingly she was sure it was really a wall and that her unfamiliarity of the town's development had cornered them instead. She didn't even need to turn around to tell there were now five individuals blocking them in behind them, and instead she sighed heavily.

The hand that reached out and seized a fist-full of her lanky hair was entirely expected, as was the blade held up to her throat.

"Did you have an issue to present? Or are you just assaulting two girls for the joy of it?" Tera asked wonderingly to the sky she was forced to look at, privately suspecting they weren't going to get off as lightly as that incident way back when she was with their mother. Literally her very first truly recallable memory in this world that wasn't just impressions or murky thoughts. "I must say, I am utterly unimpressed it took five of you to corner the two of us."

It was more than overkill, especially taking into account their ages. Obviously, from the height and solid form behind her, at least one was a fully grown and likely well trained shinobi hardened by several years of conflict.

A harsh tug on her hair was entirely unneeded. "Why don't you shut that shew mouth of yours?"

This whole 'nearly being killed and wondering who would take care of Momo' thing was starting to get tiring. Tera blankly gazed up at the sky as both she and her sister were intently inspected closely, only when the shortest of the group hissed out a sudden swear word that made her little sister startle and turn wide metallic eyes on him reprovingly.

The elder blinked, slightly derailed by the sight. That was… actually kind of adorable of her baby sister.

"Ken, drop the bitch. She's Sekanji, poison users." Being suddenly released was appreciated, the shove forward was also unnecessary. "You're probably already poisoned."

"He is, in fact." Confirmed the elder of the sisters blandly, turning to actually take in their opponents.

'Ken', if he hadn't switched positions with someone before she could turn which she doubted he could do fast enough to fool her senses, was a tall and impressively well-muscled man that likely didn't originate in Grass. Shorty that correctly identified the girls' originating family was a native of Grass or from Earth given his broad and flat features.

There was no others in sight, but still present in senses. Tera stared hard at one such blip, until a darkly scowling grizzled veteran type popped into existence between one blink and the next.

Odd, she didn't really blink all that often. It was unnerving to not blink, so she learned to get away with it as rarely as humanly possible.

Momo had occupied herself with staring at another such discrepancy while she coaxed the first one out, but apparently her little sister didn't have the intimidation factor the elder possessed. No others magically appeared out of nowhere.

Blinking at the demanding hand held up in front of her nose, shoved there by the 'Ken' character, Tera reaffixed her gaze on him. "Antidote, now."

Blinking again earned her a truly ugly look of rage from more than just her assaulter.

"I see no reason to comply." Tera informed them in a pleasant yet passive tone, considering the situation and what she might be able to twist out of it. The poison on her hair was truly mild compared to what it could've been, her hands were free to toss even more on top of what had already contaminated the one so far, yet she still had her sister to worry about. "If I do, you could still kill us. If I do not, then at least I will have the satisfaction of taking you with me for it."

"You are not who we're looking for." A new voice informed her as if that had anything to do with the situation now, a girl slinking out of the shadows near the entrance of this blind alleyway. She wasn't old enough to be a veteran-type like the guy who probably trained this group up and was facing the possibility of losing one to his own stupidity. "From one kunoichi to another, would you not consider it? They may be morons but they're my morons."

Female solidarity? Please… as if any such thing existed before Tera had Momo pressed into her arms. "There is an antidote, I do have it. I am unwilling to supply it to someone that will likely kill both me and my sister once he is assured of his continued survival."

"Kill her and take it off her corpse." Demanded the old shinobi harshly.

Tera held up two paper wrapped packages and one of the small stone pots she kept a paste-like substance that required water to mix into. "Which one? Not all I carry are poison, not all are antidotes."

Frankly, some antidotes were nearly as bad as some of the poisons if used incorrectly.

The kunoichi tossed him a sour look, turning back to her and moderating her body language into something entreating and vulnerable. As if the sisters' chakra senses didn't give away the lie. "Please."

"No. I'm more inclined to poison the lot of you. We are immune, you are not." Tera dismissed silkily, tilting her head to peer at the group from under her overly long fringe of hair. "However… that leaves the possibility you have more of your number lying in wait…"

They didn't, the seven of them were the only shinobi in nearly a kilometer of distance.

Her words were another lie anyways. Momo was not immune to her elder sister's poisons, and likely would never be unless she expressed desire to learn a poisoner's craft. Calculating a way out of this without giving the group before her reason to hunt them down right away or getting conned out of something she didn't want to lose would be difficult.

Her family's reputation would be the hinging factor. How afraid were they of poisons?

How much could she manipulate that?

"I think… this is what we will do. My sister and I will head to the northern exit of the town, I will set down the antidote and set off a poison bomb. If your young 'Ken' takes the antidote within the hour he will be perfectly fine… aside a possible rash since immediate treatment is out of the question." Tera weighted the appearance of each of her visible opponents intently, wondering how much they knew of her craft. "I will be keeping a haze of poison around both my sister and I once we leave, any attackers will be forced into range and will die even if we do as well."

The older vet didn't believe her. Unfortunate.

Then again, they also didn't believe the girls could pick out exactly how many attackers they had. That fifth and final one had yet to reveal himself, even after both Tera and Momo picked out the closer two.

The preteen poison mistress was entirely alright with that. She had an airborne poison to test anyways.

Taking possession of her little sister's hand, Tera strode down the lane as calmly as she could. Even steps, never looking back even if she could feel her attackers melt somewhat in her senses and still follow along.

She had found wolfsbane on her ill-fated stint in Earth, one of the highly virulent poisons her family kept on hand and expressly gathered in the wild instead of cultivate to grow near home. Picking it, when it was so highly poisonous she recalled the information well into another life and got repeated warnings to never bother the purple flower if she ever saw it in this one, had required a fair bit of creativity.

The reward was a natural fast-acting poison that was already contact-based. More than what she could pass up at this time.

Tera hadn't packed it into a smoke bomb, wolfsbane was too strong to risk it blowing back at her. Of course, a powder was equally as risky to employ.

Her long neglected wind affinity would be getting a workout, and if she harmed herself that would just be her due for never honing the double-edged ability.

She'd take that over harming her own sister by accident.

The antidote to the snakeroot oil that weighed down Tera's hair was in the brass hair stick of her mother's and the topical treatment in her geta, yet she reached for a tiny stone pot of powdered and concentrated mountain laurel extract. It was one of the more pleasant poisons the Sekanji family produced, but took a significant amount to actually kill with. Fishing one of the also Sekanji family secret smoke bombs out of her other sleeve, Tera glanced backwards at their armed and rather hostile escort.

Already, a raised rash was becoming apparent on Ken's fingers and palm, a strip also showing up on his wrist. It wasn't to the point of cripplingly painful, would never get that bad, but he should already be feeling sickly as the poison seeped into his blood and attacked his heart.

"Take this with a mouthful of water." Murmured the elder sister softly, peering around her long fringe again to take in their various stone-faces and the slight hints of body language that spoke so much more when any of the refocused on each other. "Wash the affected area with water… preferably with milk, but if you are unable to secure a supply then ground chalk will also help. There is poison in the smoke bomb, but it should disperse within half an hour."

Frankly, what she was handing over would only exaggerate the symptoms the male was suffering. On top of the snakeroot sap oil, it would hasten his death so it wasn't long and agonizing.

It was really the only mercy she felt up to giving, they did assault the sisters for no reason as they weren't the target anyways.

Besides, with the concentrated wolfsbane powder she was about to throw… it was very nearly overkill if any evaded that.

Tera didn't have to fight when her enemies would poison themselves. They probably correctly believed she was of no match for any of them, and with the added complication of her little sister she wouldn't be able to move fast enough to prevent any backstabbing.

"Little sister, up on my back please." Momo used the little chakra boost she needed to get the height to grab onto Tera's shoulders, planting her geta shod feet on the older girl's barely noticeable hips for the stability. Her hair was a complication that was already accounted for, but the sisters would stop to treat any rash that appeared the moment they crossed one of the creeks near home.

"This will cure him, right?" The kunoichi asked blandly, but still with enough of a specific intent behind it that she sounded a touch desperate anyways.

"I hold you all no ill will." Explained the budding poison mistress calmly, as it was true enough. She just was a bit of a icy bitch when her little sister was dragged into things… as well as a bit proactive when it came to future threats. "The delay is only so I may ensure the safety of my own while you do so as well. Do not expect an immediate cure, it will take a few hours."

Gathering the wind chakra to make use of, it was so fickle and hard to direct but all she really needed was a breeze not a weapon, did at least get the elder of the ninja opposing her to reconsider his apparent assumption she couldn't do as she said she would.

It was entirely too late.

The packet of wolfsbane in her hands was already spilling out of her sleeves and drifting on the air currents, thankfully away from the sisters and into the faces of the five loosely grouped ninja. Tera had to invest in leather gloves sometime soon, because trying to hold even heavy waxed paper in a way that protected her skin from the fast-acting poison was entirely tricky.

Kneeling to place the pot on the ground, and rising back to her feet, while her sister was balancing on her back was just to buy time. Once she was fully upright again, her opponents were already experiencing the slight nervous disorder that appeared as a tingling sensation that categorized wolfsbane poisoning.

Disguised by readying themselves for the next few seconds and whatever nerves they had facing off with someone who had already poisoned one of their number, which had their hearts pumping and pushing the toxins further into their bodies as the wind whipped around their forms.

Learning how to concentrate a poison was probably the best help her family could've given her, even if it was done grudgingly and mainly only so she could learn how to condense healing herbs for improved effectiveness and better storage.

Tera thumbed the smoke bomb idly as she waited, inspecting each thoughtfully as she waited to see the results of her work. The breeze she had guided twisted and pulled in her grip, which for now wasn't a sign of an ill-experienced wind user but a kunoichi playing with it to give her the benefit of the doubt about when she would move.

The kunoichi hit the ground first, closely followed by the still hidden one, as they had less body mass to be worked through. Paralysis and the beginnings of a heart-attack slowed the veteran and the two younger but still fit men, Ken worse of the three of them, but all the other two could do was stagger weakly towards her.

"Really now," observed Tera thoughtfully as she watched them succumb to her handiwork, tucking the bomb away, "why ever did you think you could operate here without us knowing?"

A throw of something sharp and pointy went way too wide to ever have the hope of connecting, she might go after it later for good steel wasn't something she could easily pass up. On the other hand, it was probably toxic right now and a few rainstorms would risk rust but not her own body's integrity.

Stripping them of shinobi tools to repurpose would take a few days to accomplish, hopefully a last rainstorm would pop up so the greater concentration of poison would wash away without killing anyone else.

Returning her gaze to the only one even conscious enough to prove interesting, the eleven-year-old girl thoughtfully considered the amount of concentrated wolfsbane and his greatly more solid body mass. It was a ridiculously powerful poison for any small amount, if she wanted a more quickly working toxin then maybe an even more concentrated variation was needed.

It also increased the risk of poisoning herself through unlucky or unwary usage, but… death wasn't a stranger to her and wasn't truly feared. Her only regret would be Momo's fate.

Tera would spend the effort to find a shatter-water proofed container first, the waxed paper had worked and would be used for future slower variations… but working safer would never be a silly concern. Perhaps she should work it into a cream or oil instead, and use it with protective wax to protect herself from it's deadly touch.

Speaking of, Momo slid off her back and to the ground but remained at her side for however poisonous her sister may be the opposite side of the road was downright toxic. Turning to doctor her brushing contact with her poisoned hair took all of a few moments, the compartment in her geta was half empty by the time she was satisfied she had protected her little sister from the truly painful rash that would've resulted otherwise. "Do not touch your yukata, I will find you something new in town to wear."

Her little sister turned solemn eyes to her elder, speaking a world of concerns in a glance through the eye coloring they shared.

Tera smiled back at her wryly, never really sure if she was padding her baby sister's intelligence with her own assumptions or if they really could communicate complex thoughts with the bare minimum of words. "Our lord uncle will be most irate to learn of our little adventure, little sister. Especially as we were here to investigate what supplies we may have purchased come fall."

Tamachi had walls, which meant they had guards. Guardsmen that likely witnessed the assault, and more that beheld what even a slip of a Sekanji poison user could do in revenge once removed from highly trafficked urban areas. The consideration of not poisoning a section of their town may earn her family something, as well as the reminder the local shinobi presence for hire was not random foreigners.

Either way the subtle manipulation in her words, pitched to carry no matter how softly spoken, might just earn them a slight discount on finding Momo something untainted to wear for the day. The rest was on her family to follow up on.

(The head of the Sekanji family started mentioning marriage even more often to Terazawa once they returned with the news, earning him both sisters' ire and the pointed avoidance of the elder. Mainly to replace the wolfsbane supplies she made her best poison from that took down the unwary far beyond her skill level to otherwise fight off. Their stepmother tried only once to sound the budding poison mistress about what kind of marriage she was aiming for, only to stumble away from them suffering a heavy rash and becoming mildly ill in the following days. Tera accepted the punishment for poisoning a fellow Sekanji gracefully, terribly proud of Momomi's revenge for the perceived threat of trying to separate the sisters.)