Summary: An elder visited Michiko.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.
"Michiko-sama?" A sagely familiar voice bought Michiko out of her musing. She shifted her head slightly in a direction that a voice originated from. She already was aware of her vistor's chakra signature long before she called her name.
"Come in!" Michiko called out. A person walked in, it turned out that it was an elderly woman.
The elderly woman wore the black eye-patch decorating with their white clan crest on her right eye. She lost her right eye in the battle when she was young. Despite a loss of her right eye, she still continued her ninja career for an impressive 60 years until she decided to retire decade ago. She was shorter than her Clan Head but more bulkier. Her hair was completely gray. Her face had the wrinkles along with the slightly sagging cheeks. She lived up at the impressive age of 72 and still had the plenty of years left in her.
Michiko greeted, smiling warmly, "Greeting, Kaede-obasan. Would you like to drink tea with me?"
"Michiko-sama, I am glad to see you doing well after your daughter's birth. And yes, I would like to have a tea, please." Kaede returned a pleasant smile. She was glad to see a younger woman who seemly recovered well after her labor few weeks ago.
Kaede Shihoin was a popular elder and well-liked by the majority of their clan. Her practical sensibility and wisdom were very much appreciated by her younger clan members. She was once nicknamed "The One-Eyed Hawkeye" by her clan and enemies alike in her youth, for she was a deadly, talented archer whose specializing in extremely long ranged offense. She was also accomplished healer. She currently had the two apprentices under her. Her feisty granddaughter, Kagome Shihoin and a cocky youth named Seido Shihoin. They both were very gifted in the art of archery. Although her granddaughter was more tending toward the art of the healing which Kaede did not mind. In other hand, Seido was more superior to Kagome in a term of the marksmanship. For this reason, Kaede chose him to carry a part of her moniker, Hawkeye.
"Come here, you can sit there, please.' A younger woman waved her extending hand downward to the empty seat in a front of her, inviting her to sit down.
Kaede slowly walked across the room from the entrance doors. Her walking was steady and confident, but, at a same time that she was mindful of her old body's limit. She gracefully settled down on the empty seat where Michiko gestured her to sit on. Her sharp nose picked up the familiar aroma of the green tea. A cup was already filled with a hot tea. Her slightly winkle hands reached out the tea cup.
She bought it to her lip, savoring the taste of the green tea. She sipped her tea a couple times, then lowered her cup on her lap. Her eye was on a younger woman firmly.
"I assume that you're not going to tell them about her yin chakra, then?" Kaede spoke softly. She referred to the few elders whose their personalities left a lot to be desired. Her sharp, experienced eye noticed that Michiko halted her drinking for a second in response to her statement and resumed drinking her tea afterward.
"I believe that I told them, it's none of their business." She said as she continued to sip her tea.
In simpler words, she politely told them to back off or else she'll sack the Terror Triplet Sisters on them. Michiko covered her smirk with her tea cup as she recalled the priceless blanching expressions on the elders' faces. After all, the disgruntled elders still hadn't forgotten that they received the end stick of that triplet's so called "tender hospitality".
Fortunately for her, the triplet sisters really liked her because Michiko was, they quoted in their exact wordings, "not stuck up in her ass" or "not shoving her big nose into others' businesses" unlike to these nosy elders.
"I see..." An old woman eyed her with the amusing glint in her knowing eye. Her fellow elders groused about Michiko and her threat to sack the triplet sisters on them. She secretly rolled her eye at their bemoaning about the Clan Head's refusal to share the information. Honestly, why did her fellow elders not understand that everyone in her clan entitled to keep their personal secrets? Oh, right. 'Knowledge is Power' was the Shihoin Clan's motto and entrenched deeply in their mental thinking. Some of her fellow elders took their clan motto little bit too far.
Unlike her fellow elders, Kaede was not snoopy person by the nature. She was not going to demand her Clan Head about her daughter's condition. Still, she had a slight suspicion about Michiko knew a reason behind Masumi's unusual condition. She could ask Michiko but, Michiko told her that she refused to answer the elders' inquiry about Masumi's strange yin chakra. That would mean that Michiko will not verify her suspicion about her daughter. So, no answer, then. She respected her decisions as long as it did not involve the endangerment of their clan.
Well, I suppose I could trust her. She did the admirable job to handle the Clan Head position along with the stress and the pressures from my fellow elders for the past few years. Kaede mused thoughtfully.
Kaede exhaled the lovely scent of the green tea. A peaceful silence settled between them. They did not need the words sharing between them.
After all, the proverbial saying, 'Silence is golden' was certainly appropriate for this current mood.
A/N: Well, so far we learn that there are some elders in the Shihoin Clan are very nosy and possibly...control freaks. In the clan politic, there always are some elders disagreeing with the clan leader. Sometimes they would be compared to the vultures looking for a weakness moment. Michiko was not a person to be pushing around by the people.
And, yes. Kaede and Kagome were the characters from Inuyasha. They were grandma and granddaughter. Let's saying that Kaede was considering 'the cool and badass grandma ever with a capability to kick the people's ass' by the Shihoin people. ;) As for Kagome...well, you'll going to learn more later in the upcoming chapters. ;) And yes, our first Shihoin guy named Seido, he was based on Clint Barton aka Hawkeye from the Marvel Comic. His name meant accuracy, for based on his extraordinary marksmanship. Cool eh? Mmm...though I might mention he was coming with a package in a form of a foreign, badass assassin. *wink*
Mmm, it appears that the Shihoin Clan have their own pranksters - the triplet sisters whose everybody called them, "The Terror Triplet Sisters." Yep, these sisters inspired by the Weasley Twin from Harry Potter. No doubt that these sisters triplet were the ones of the mischievous relatives that Ishiko mentioned back in a previous chapter 15. ;) I hope that you enjoyed the badass women (and Seido, too) in the Shihoin Clan. Please review this chapter, your reviews boost my motivation to write more!
Translation Note: Seido meant Accuracy. Kaede meant Maple.