Of all the clans in Taki, the Arai always had the prettiest gardens, at least in Konsu's opinion. She sat, perched against one of the support beams on the walkway that surrounded the immaculate rock garden that centered the main house. It would probably never make sense to her, the serenity of the stones, or the formation of their peace. They were rough, unfinished, ill-sized; yet in their chaos, a harmony beckoned. Each stone had a place, they were separate yet dependent upon one another, like a team. Like her team.
The upbeat face of a certain ninja was just passing through her head when she heard a loud ithump/i and a corresponding curse. Konsu sat up and looked around, wondering if she had missed someone walking by in her peacetime, but saw no one. The noise came again, not as loud, but like someone was rummaging through something. Konsu got up and stared at the wall behind her. She had found her solace in the gardens within the clan head suites. They had been vacant since the death of the last clan leader: Arai Azumamaru, and his widow had returned to her family's estate. The clan was currently lead by a steward of the Maeda clan, a subservient of the Arai, because no one quite knew what happened to the line of succession. There were rumors that Azumamaru's younger brother was going to take over but he had disappeared not a week after he supposedly took up the mantel. There was talk—hushed whispers more like it—of an illegitimate heir, but whoever they were (if they were even real) had never come to take their rightful place.
Konsu knew without a shadow of doubt that these suites had been sealed off since the death of their master, and people were not permitted to enter. Not even her mother, who managed the cleaning staff of the estate, was allowed to go into the clan head apartment. So, silently, she crept forward and placed her ear to the sliding door. It wasn't this room, but perhaps the one on either side. She tiptoed over to the room on the left and the sound of rummaging grew louder. She could hear a quiet stream of curses that would make even her father blush, and it flustered her. Before she could sputter and give herself away, she threw the door open with a ithwap/i and let the light shine on the intruder inside.
A girl was kneeling before an old hutch, with all the drawers pulled out, the contents scattered around her. She had long brown hair, but the left side of her head was shaved down to the scalp. She whirled on Konsu and threw a hand up to shield her face from the light. The room was impossibly dark, and she probably couldn't see from the sudden light change.
"Who are you?" Konsu demanded. The girl's hand fell and revealed huge gold eyes. The trait didn't mean anything to Konsu at the time, but when the girl didn't respond, she growled. "No one is allowed in these suites, and you are going through things that don't belong to you! Leave before I call the guards!" The girl blinked at Konsu and her mouth fell open a little, like she couldn't believe she had been caught.
"Wait…what?" The girl stammered. She went to stand but Konsu stepped back and yelled down the hall for the garden patrol. Taki Shinboi she may be, but room desecrator she was not. The thief could try to run but she would never make it out of the compound. The two burly guards Konsu's mother had pointed out to her came running from either corner of the garden. They both carried Katanas which Konsu thought was a little over the top, but they served their purpose as they crowded into the room.
"Where is the intruder?" One guard asked Konsu. She was about to open her mouth and point the finger at the thieving girl, but the second guard looked from one end of the room to the other, like he didn't see the burglar right in front of him, standing in a pile of Arai belongings.
And then he said—
"Lady Azreah, are you hurt? Did you see the intruder? Which way did they go?"
Konsu's heart nearly stopped cold as the girl stepped around the big guard and came to stand before her.
"Um, I think there's been a misunderstanding." The girl—Azreah—wore thick rough wear, with sandals that went all the way up her thighs. She was tan, almost the same kind of brown as her hair, but her white teeth and big eyes made her attractive.
Big igolden/i eyes.
Konsu gulped and nearly facepalmed herself. The physical symbol of the Arai clan was golden eyes. In all technicality, if anyone was allowed in these apartments, it was this girl. "We're good here guys, you can return to your post." She said. The guards just shrugged and filed out without another word.
"I'm really sorry, I didn't—" Konsu started but the girl sidestepped her to follow the guards out. A momentary rage roared through Konsu's head when she thought she was being ignored, but Azreah turned back and waved for her to follow.
"Come on. No biggie." Reluctantly, Konsu fell into step with Azreah as they started to walk around the garden.
"So what's your name?" She asked.
"Risuhara Konsu."
"How'd you find your way into the house? You're not the ireal/i intruder, are you?" She joked and Konsu sputtered.
"My mother is the staff manager! I was sitting in the garden, waiting for her to finish with the dinner preparations for tonight." She explained, catching the joke but not wanting to acknowledge the embarrassment that came with it. She'd called the guards on an Arai clan member for being in a room only Arai clan members were allowed to enter. Sylvia was never going to let her live this down!
"Oh, your poor mom." Azreah laughed, and Konsu blinked at her. "Yeah Isao, tried to get me to go to that dinner too. If he could, I'm sure he'd chain me to the table if it meant I'd sit through it."
"Being invited to the iOsoroshi/i Banquet is an honor." Konsu murmured as Azreah slid open a door to one of the tea rooms and gestured for her to enter. It crossed Konsu's mind that Azreah was going to trap her in here like some sort of crazed cat, but she entered bravely. Azreah left the door open and proceeded around and slide open all the doors. With each panel, she exposed another of the Arai gardens that took Konsu's breath away.
"Bet you haven't seen this one before." She heard Azreah say. "Took me a week to find it because this place is so damn big and confusing."
"Azumamaru's Water Garden." Konsu whispered. Iridescent Celosia rimmed an elegant walkway of bridges and step stones that wove through connecting pools and streams. Cattails and lily pads dotted the water, and neon orange Koi swam just below the surface of the clear water. Across the yard from where the tearoom sat, was a fountain as tall as Konsu was, and the water tumbled down in into a whitecap where the rocks were smooth and just asking to be skipped.
The tranquility of it nearly overtook her.
While Konsu stared, an old maid quietly snuck in and Azreah asked her to bring the staff manager to serve them tea. The woman nodded her head shallowly before disappearing out again. In a daze, Konsu sat at the table when Azreah did, but not quite as gracefully as she would have liked. It was more of a flop, but she just couldn't tear her eyes away from the flow of the water.
"i'If you have a Rock garden, you have to have the opposite: a Water garden.' /iArai Azumi was iall/i about balance. She forced Azumamaru to build this in place of his favorite training yard because the house was unsettled without the yin. That's why it's not very traditional, because Azumamaru built it the way he wanted it, as opposed to the way Azumi felt it. I think it still achieved its purpose, don't you?" Konsu's head snapped back towards Azreah when she realized the question was directed at her.
"Huh?" She slurred before she could stop herself, but Azreah just laughed. After a few moments, Konsu regained her composure. She was seriously embarrassing herself and her humiliation was likely to get all the way back to—
"So why have I never seen you around here?" Azreah asked, absently. Her elbow was rested on the table, her head cradled in her hand. She looked almost as composed as the garden, but Konsu sensed that this calmness might just be a mask…like hers sometimes was.
"I was more or less raised in Taki, but I've since moved to a different village."
"Oh? Where?"
"Konoha. I have a nice little apartment near the flower district."
"iNuhuh./i" Azreah snorted, and Konsu blinked.
"What—"
"I haven't seen you around Konoha either!"
"Well what about you?" Konsu fired back. "Why haven't I seen you around Taki when you apparently own it?" The last part came out without Konsu meaning it to, her damn temper! But Azreah grinned.
"I was raised somewhere else. I only visited Taki for the first time a few years ago." The illegitimate heir rumor popped into Konsu's head involuntarily. "Why'd you leave Taki, though?" Azreah continued. "In terms of looks, Taki beats Konoha every time."
"There was…someone I wanted to be closer to." Konsu mumbled, and poked at the lacquered knot of the wooden table.
"Ooooh, a boy?" Azreah smirked like a mischievous cat, and Konsu couldn't help but feel herself mirror it.
"Maybe."
"Do I know him?" She pushed.
"I don't know who you know. Was Konoha where you were raised?"
"No," She shook her head. "I grew up in Suna."
"I bet you like it better here than in the desert." Konsu nodded but Azreah shrugged.
"I istill/i live in Suna."
"But…you're an Arai." Konsu said, confused. It was half a question and half a statement. The Arai clan was a fair sized clan, but only in Taki. There were no other branches in any other country.
"Well yeah, but it's no big deal. I abdicated my claim a while ago. Isao is in charge now. He'll find a suitable heir from one of the other lines."
"Oh my god, you iare/i the illegitimate heir!" Konsu cried and Azreah winced at her sudden outburst. "But why did you stay in Suna? You're royalty here!"
"I was never quite cut out for this life style." Azreah mumbled.
"Or was there someone iyou/i wanted to be close to, too?" Konsu wagged her eyebrows at Azreah playfully.
"There imay/i be a boy." Azreah grinned.
"Do I know him?"
"I don't know who you know." She tossed Konsu's words back at her. "But I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."
An older woman came around the corner just then with a tray of tea, and dango balls. Konsu blinked at her mother as she gracefully set the tray in the middle of the low table and began to serve the two girls.
"Uhh, mom?" Konsu started but Azreah interrupted her.
"Mrs. Risuhara, thank you for accepting my request and granting me the honor of serving us. I know you're probably busy with the preparations, but I wanted to meet you." Konsu's face flushed as her mother went to bow, but then stopped half way, straightened, and merely bent her head. What a huge dishonor! But Azreah just smiled at her and Konsu's mother returned it. "I told the serving staff a long time ago that bowing was unnecessarily. I'm not the clan leader, yet somehow Isao has still convinced them to keep calling me 'My Lady'. iPsh/i, like I need any more titles."
It was then that Konsu decided that she really liked this girl. She was down to earth, and even though she was practically royalty, she iinsisted/i on not being treated as one. And aside from the extensively colorful language Konsu had heard her use in the apartment, Azreah seemed like a normal girl.
A normal girl that was the daughter of Arai Azumamaru.
"So are you gonna tell me or what?" Azreah snapped Konsu back to attention as she sipped her tea. It was a dark roobis that didn't really have any business being served in a tearoom such as this, but again, Konsu liked the audacity of her choice.
And then she didn't.
iTell her?/i Azreah wanted Konsu to admit her crush in front of her mother? Was she crazy? But there was no need for big reveals, because Bushy Brows himself threw the only door left closed wide open and strutted in like a peacock.
In all honestly, it had been a working vacation. Lee and Konsu had come from Konoha to retrieve the research her father had been conducting in his archaeological dig on the other side of the plateau. They'd only been in the village for two days and were supposed to leave that night.
Lee's wonderfully round eyes blinked at the women, before grinning a blinding smile.
"Oh! Hello, Daagana-chan. I did not know you would be here!"
"Hey Lee." Azreah waved cheerily. The name took a second or two to register, but all the pieces fell into place as Konsu slammed her hands onto the table.
"iDaagana? /iAs in Daagana of the Sand, the fiancé of the Kazekage!?"
"Yeah, did I forget to mention that?" She shrugged it off like it was no big deal. Lee gave Konsu a bright shining thumbs up.
"Yes, it is she! The one who has stolen the heart of the fearsome Sand Demon! The beauty who slayed the dragon of sand with love! The—"
"Alright, that's enough." Azreah—iDaagana/i groaned, and the smoky black outline of a hand appeared behind Lee's head, and slapped him upside it. Lee's background of roses blew into the water garden along with all of his bravado as she slumped to the floor with a lump on his beautifully round head.
"But…I don't get it." Konsu cocked her head, for the moment, forgetting about her precious Lee. "You're Arai Azreah. How are you also, Daagana of the Sand?"
"iThat/i is actually a really long story." She pointed begrudgingly at the air, like she was poking the story, and it might bite back. "But before I even touch that one…I was wondering if I could ask a question." Konsu sat up straighter as Daagana took that as a sign for yes. "You grew up in Taki, right?"
"Yes, I graduated from the ninja academy here." Konsu said.
"We have come and left more than once." Konsu's mom added.
"Did you ever…meet Azumamaru?" Daagana said quietly and Konsu felt her heart go out to her. She never knew her own father. So, she gave Daagana the only comfort she could:
"Yes, I met him several times. He was a very kind man."
"If you would like, we could tell you about him over breakfast. But right now, I must finish the preparations for the feast." Konsu's mom said.
"Oh, of course." Daagana said quickly, like she was trying to hide the disappointment on her face.
"But Konsu and I are to report back to Konoha this evening. I am sorry Daagana-chan, but perhaps you can hear her stories another time." Lee sat up groggily, and rubbed the back of his head with a wince.
"Go on ahead, Lee. I'll port her to the Konoha admin building tomorrow morning. No need to wait." Daagana said, with just an edge of finality. She ireally/i wanted to hear what Konsu and her mother had to say. Konsu felt jitters creep up her spine. She'd heard more rumors about Daagana's powers. They weren't even Jutsus anymore, not after the experimentation Orochimaru had conducted on her. Daagana was the only ninja in the world who could actually teleport, and apparently she wanted to teleport Konsu. She wasn't entirely sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
"Well…I guess that would work. But please do not let her be late. TenTen will have my head if we are late." Lee shrugged and got to his feet.
"You let me worry about TenTen." Daagana purred, and Lee trotted out, satisfied. There was a moment of silence that followed as Konsu's mom collected the tea tray and took her leave as well. When the two girls were alone, Daagana finally smirked and said,
"So you like ol' Bushy Brows, huh?" And Konsu turned bright red.