Terazawa's soon-to-be husband sent a few people to 'help' prepare his future bride.
Both sisters utterly despised them upon meeting the group.
With the added scrutiny on her person and behaviors, Tera planned to lose them all by either taking over the bulk of poison making or grinding herbs into remedies for hours. It kept her indoors, which had already slowly lightened the tan she once had and proudly wore until she approached something almost like 'pale'.
It was also, at least the healing herbs part of it, declared as suitably 'feminine'.
The two guardsmen, the older servant male, and the personal handmaiden all gave the 'lady's tutor' looks for that. The sisters' uncle politely pretended ignorance to the slight and focused his flat black eyes on the horizon visible over the walls of the compound.
Eventually, the fact that the Sekanji family sold both poisons and herbal remedies to those that would buy them made by men as well as women permeated the utterly ridiculous and heavily waxed hair piece the older woman wore on her head. Two dots of red high on her cheeks, not disguised by her caked on makeup to hide the wrinkles, burned momentarily.
Tera and Momomi exchanged a set of utterly bland looks.
The elder sister slid one of the almost too long to be wielded fans out of her wide sleeves, snapping the heavy wood-clad steel frame open to use the red, green, and white silk that fanned out to hide the lower half of her expression. Then she smirked wickedly at the group, while safely hidden. "Tea, perhaps?"
Seizing almost desperately onto the offer, the older woman sniffed haughtily and gave the sisters a short nod. "Please. Hopefully your tea ceremony will not require too much correction."
"Not many like to indulge me, unfortunately." Tera informed the woman as the group gathered together to skirt around the drooping willow tree half hanging over the pond in the middle of the compound. "Not to mention my little sister refuses to correct her elder."
Fanning the fan a few time to hopefully remove the nauseating scent of overly perfumed yet unwashed flesh from in front of her face, they likely had been on the road for some time, the poison mistress allowed her little sister to run ahead and find the china set they inherited from their mother.
The fact it was still intact was something of a marvel for Tera. Momo had a liking for getting into everything as a baby then toddler girl, the additional fact the tea set was rarely used and usually only for the younger sister's birthday probably helped.
A curious facet to being a master of poisons, poisoning yourself tended to be a fairly common fascination shared by all of them.
Especially to build up resistances to your own poisons.
There were a few Tera would never dose herself with, but a few were consumed in tiny partial bits.
The snakeroot oil was a topical toxin, and thus wouldn't be something one built up resistance to unless it was through repeated exposure. Mountain laurel was entirely too toxic to be of any beneficial use. Wolfsbane was another matter, as while concentrated or even slightly diluted it could still be poisonous… tiny amounts diffused over a large amount of water could be used to calm hysteria or lower high blood pressure.
What helped was that the correct poison in the right amounts were actually beneficial as long as conflicting or compounding herbs weren't being used at the same time.
As long as one was careful and crafty about it, you could end up immune to a toxin and drink it with minimal or no issue alongside your assassination target.
Not that Tera had solid intentions of getting that close to someone she wanted to kill enough to assassinate them, that was how one got scars and while she may not want a husband right now… that didn't mean she refused all male attention.
Just… a few more years would have to pass before she'd consider it.
The point of the mental wander was that Tera had been teaching Momo about how to poison a tea ceremony using the set they had and refreshing their decorum lessons at the same time, which likely meant the set was still a tiny bit toxic. Enough to discomfort but not truly poisonous to suggest more than just upset stomachs or irritable bowels to those without any built up resistance to the childhood-safe Sekanji family poisons.
The sisters, the 'tutor', and the older gentleman male all sat around a tiny table neither sister recognized but made no mention of in the double-roomed house they had made their home within. The handmaiden seated herself on the edge of the wooden walkway that spanned the house, politely far enough to not be involved in an interaction of those with a higher 'class' but at hand if called upon.
"I implore you to forgive the lack of a view, this place wasn't chosen for the aesthetics." Tera started with while Momo fetched out their implements from the box they had been kept in, setting a slightly beaten copper kettle to boil on the embers of their banked fire pit. It kept them decently warm in the winter if they curled up close enough, and rarely saw use aside boiling water or reducing poisons into concentrated forms. "We also do not cook here, the family shares that duty and we eat communally… because otherwise we would have the unfortunate impulse to poison one another more often than we already do."
The smile she gave her guests was maybe too blandly accepting of such things, given the gentleman paled a few shades and from what skin could be seen around that facial mask the 'tutor' whitened almost to Momo's nearly unnaturally pale skin color.
Building up a tolerance for the toxins they used was a Sekanji family fascination, and a fair warning should probably be issued.
From the sound of it, and the jump of their pitiful chakra stores, the guards standing right outside the sliding door weren't happy to hear that either.
This would likely end up to be some painfully awkward few months, and worse yet she had to leave with these people to go see who she had been sold off to without so much as a 'by your leave'.
Tera eyed the heavily made up woman thoughtfully as their deceased mother's tea set was arranged on the table.
Perhaps… a slight preview and test run of her plans would not be amiss.
Could she get the woman to die from stress or fright without even inducing a slight fever?
The sister exchanged another look as the tea ceremony set was criticized for the few chips Momo accidentally inflicted on it before she could control the utensils fully.
It might amuse her little sister as well… it was likely to become a temptation they would both want to do themselves.
Tera fanned the heavy weapon in front of her face again, earning herself a slightly narrow coppery gaze under purple crests from Momo as the breeze whipped by the elder and not the younger.
Taking pity on the awkward silence going on over on the other side of the table, the elder sister smiled blandly as she turned back to her guests. "It was our mother's, one of the few things we have left of her. I will be leaving it for Momo-chan, mind you."
The male's only reaction was a tightening of his features, suspicious eyes peered at the girls from the woman.
So high strung, that one. If she felt embarrassed over her criticisms of a long deceased mother's things, then perhaps she shouldn't open her mouth to give them. This was no pampered princess' household but a shinobi one. As far as Tera knew, there were differences between noble run homes and samurai ones… so expecting differences when visiting a ninja one should've gone without stating.
Maybe she should play the 'composed' one, Momo the 'hellion'. The reversal would be interesting to see, both now with the Sekanji family's reaction and the eventual household of her husband's reaction.
Snapping the fan closed, Tera smiled blandly at the pair as she slid the wind user's weapon away again in favor for less obviously lethal utensils.
(ooo000ooo)
"I am going to kill her." Momomi informed her elder sister viciously, helping with the decanting of the syrup made of boiling wolfsbane flowers and leaves to a tray to dry out. "I am sorry if you wished for the privilege, but you will have more in time. I want that one."
Eventually, when the last of the liquid evaporated, the whitish-tan powder would be carefully scraped up and packaged into easily utilized waxed paper packets. That was in a few days, right now the deadly liquid just had to sit.
"So vicious, little sister." Terazawa murmured with audible amusement, gracing the irritated little sister with a small smirk as she temporarily set aside her tools so they could be boiled and scrubbed with chalk while whoever was unlucky to get 'dish duties' wore heavy leather gloves and a full face mask.
The remains were usually poured into a pit at the far end of the compound, and a day or two later whatever was in the hole would be torched with the single male they had with a fire affinity.
"I am not jesting, sister."
"I did not think you were."
Momo puffed out her cheeks in irritation behind the cloth masking her nose and mouth, much to her elder sister's delight.
It was rare that the girl behaved childishly, now she was almost seven. As if that was a mark of maturity.
Tera reconsidered the thought, as she had not been much older when she took her little sister and they went off to live by themselves. It was entirely possible, with this betrothal mess and the fact Momo had replaced Tera as one of the family's herb and animal hunters, that her younger sister did consider seven or eight to be the age when one had to pick up their own responsibilities and pull their weight.
That was… unfortunately true in this life, the earlier you could start giving back the better things became.
"As long as you wait just long enough so I can play with her for the next month, you may have her."
"So generous, big sister." Momo snarked back with a cutesy tone, helping with transferring the tools they had used to the basin sitting on the ground waiting to be purified from the toxins they were used to create.
The thin and nearly cracked leather encasing their hands were also pulled off, and Tera wondered if they'd survive another scrub down as she planted her slightly sweaty hands on her hips. "I can afford to be so, that handmaiden girl is equally grating in a less obvious way."
"What was it this time? Your marks are natural? That your hair is real?"
"...something like that."
Tera had actually been accused of having tattoos, and by association all the children and babies being born were tattooed within days of being born. Not a stain of color applied to the lid of her eyes, and the rest of the family as well, just that they all had tattoos. It wasn't a straight out accusation, but the implication could've been caught by a deaf person.
Aside the utterly impossibility of tattooing a solid colored swath stretching from the bridge of the nose and over the eyelid to the temple, especially on squirmy babies that would not sit still for such a thing, the fact an accusation was tossed her way at all was rather… vexing.
The handmaiden had been equally disbelieving that the heavy and lanky hair she had was unaltered. Other than the fact all of it had to be washed every time Tera had a bath and any artificial extensions would've fallen out then… the semi-casual mention of the preteen cutting the bulk off to make it more manageable had nearly induced a stroke in both 'borrowed' women alone.
She wouldn't really cut it, it was a badge she earned to wear long. However, they didn't need to know that.
Next, the girl will likely suggest the coppery eye coloring was some kind of ninja illusion trick and not really naturally metallic.
Aside the two women, who were not entirely accepting they were now tending to a utterly indifferent kunoichi type that could care less about their sensibilities, only the elderly man showed any censure at anything the sisters did.
He was stealthier about it. Not enough to get two girls, who while not really abused were certainly neglected enough to have put real and constant effort into reading body language and were trained at least half-heartedly to identify threats to their persons by the family, to overlook it. It earned him an equal amount of indifference as the women did.
The guardsmen, on the other hand, Tera rather liked them.
As much as she could when it came to people she had no intention of dealing with for long.
She still didn't know their names. They didn't interfere with her duties either, or just be snippy little shrews over the harsh lifestyle that made the sisters into what they were.
Tera looked down at Momo's softer features, getting slightly derailed by contemplating her sudden height over her little sister when for years the norm had been the both of them being nearly or close to the same height.
She was no longer surrounded by giants, in fact she was one of those giants to Momo now. It was barely two feet of height, but it was so disorientating when barely a few month ago it hadn't been that drastic of a difference.
"Well…" trailing off a little uncertainly, the fact that in as little as five years her little sister might just be married to whoever fathered Orochimaru hitting her hard when her dearest wish was to prevent it and possibly lose the Snake Sannin making her suddenly doubt her plans, "are you sure you want me to come back?"
Ironically, or not considering the contents of this room were toxic enough to cause sudden death of all residents of any mid-sized village, this was the most secured part of their compound. With the attendants and guards watching her movements at all hours and being nearby at night, really the only place the sisters could have a conversation that wouldn't be overheard.
A warm body impacted Tera's abdomen, thin arms wrapping around her waist in a strong hug. "Please. I can do a few months on my own, sister. As long as it will end. I do not wish to lose you yet."
Wind users ended up with rather toned forearms, just simply from the strain of trying to conduct gusts to one's will which was normally done by arms or hand movements. Fan users as well, although that was due to the wind resistance against the cloth. That required more force to circumvent than in most weapons.
Water users, which they both shared an affinity for, tended to have rather strong core muscles as they pulled water up from the ground into their hands which put strain on the stomach and back. Swimming, a decent excuse to hide water manipulation lessons within, also built up the back muscles.
Earth users had rather strong legs, oddly.
Tera wasn't entirely sure how Momo could manipulate the earth all that well, just as how the girl tended to have a mystified look on her face when she used the wind. Still no actual jutsu, even the water clone was without hand signs, all they had was the innate manipulation anyone with an affinity could do with enough experience and risk.
"You might just be better off." She continued her thought, because as much as she could fake it she really was a cowardly woman at heart. "You could find you like your arranged husband and not want to follow along with your big sister's silly worry over being forced to marry too young."
Orochimaru was… an orphan. By a young age. That was basically all the personal early life information she ever had on her possible son/nephew. Tera might not survive her trip into the courts of the Land of Earth, just as Momo might not survive the separation, and they both might die with whatever awaited them beyond that.
"I believe you more than any of the males in this family." Momo insisted strongly, slightly muffled by the plain cotton yukata that they had swapped their clothing for so if a spill happened nothing important would be lost. Pulling her head away from Tera's stomach, the girl gave her elder sister a hard look. "Second thoughts?"
"...I will likely be killing my supposed husband in short order." Dismissed the taller sister shortly, as that wasn't a question since it wasn't likely the man would accept a four or five year pause before 'consummating' the marriage. "If I come back, are you sure you will not resent me? You have just as much right to live as you would like as I do."
"And who here would allow that, beyond you?"
Likely not their so-called father, nor their uncle.
Then again, with how few men there were left… it was likely she'd come back to an entirely or almost female dominated Sekanji family.
That might just end up highly interesting. Would leadership fall to their step-mother… or to Momo, until Tera could come back?
Tera pulled in a long, deep breath. Letting it go, and wishing it would take that squirming sensation in her belly as the air left her lungs, she huffed wryly. "Right then… less than a month now, then I am to go off and live in a life of luxury."
"...is it bad I wish the family fails to pay your dowry?"
"I kind of wish the same sometimes. Then both those sour little bitches could be given an ultimatum to leave already." She smirked at the insulted huff her use of profanity earned her. "That old man too."
(Terazawa would almost change her mind about allowing Momomi some of her 'toys' she was being sent, nearly three separate occasions in the remaining month she had left as an 'young girl'. The second group, which held more guards and another handmaiden on top of a runner for the elderly man, were nearly poisoned in their entirety when they showed up without prior warning. Tera was slightly disappointed the entire gaggle of 'normal' people weren't drowned via pond water by the sisters' father, however little she thought of the man. At the very least, the second handmaiden found herself the favorite of the pair much to the first's ire. Tera would never recall either's name until well after she left the Senkanji compound, and never learned the 'tutor's'.)