Chapter 177

"I wonder if they have an architect we can hire from here?" I absently asked as we wandered through the streets of Takumi village. While the actual streets were just compacted dirt, the buildings themselves were very well made and uniform. They were white concrete with wooden doors and panelled windows with red roofs throughout. All made to the same height and set in even rows, making it easy to walk around and navigate. I saw near the top the tell tale signs of vents that huffed out smoke, probably from several different internal forges within.

"Good luck getting them to try and contract after what happened." Zabuza answered. We hadn't changed our disguises. He was still wrapped in long flowing robes with his mouth and head covered like we'd come from the Land of Wind. Because of the proximity there seemed no point for us to change now. Still, even if I didn't really like the green and beige baggy outfit, I was allowed to wear my nice comfy khakri wraps underneath rather than the lesser quality and quite frankly itchy rags. It also helped that the inn lady had done a good job cleaning it. So for the first time in about a week, we were in clean, non sandy clothing wandering Takumi Village.

The village itself wasn't hard to find once we got close enough to see the smoke, and there was a lot of it. Mostly from the trade shops that were all set up along a river which had water wheels turning something to help with their trade. I didn't know exactly what they did, but I was interested to see if I could get a peek in on it when we had the time. There was also a market near the front of the village, but it wasn't what we were looking for. The craftsman village did make weapons, but it was clear from the market we passed those weren't the big sellers. Rugs, colorful clothing, small statues, jewelry, hand painted fans, masks and other such things. Most of the stalls were stocked with things that were more artistic in quality than actually useful. Though I did see a few metal teapots we might want to come back to before we left.

Moving deeper into the village we caught more of the actual workshops. Glassblowers, forges and kilns billowed out the smoke we'd seen earlier. Spinning wheels and looms were set in rows in one building, while in the next there were buckets and buckets of dye where people dipped raw thread and fabric from the looms. The smell of ammonia singled out the leather workers, and further down still there was the very pungent smell of the chemicals of a papermill, probably making out reams and reams to use in bookbinding by a place that had large vats of people making glue.

Just about every craft you could think of, all working in close proximity together, probably for convenience more than anything. Even as someone who has only dabbled in handicraft, I understood just how interconnected every craft was. Though of course the backbone of it all were the carpenters and the blacksmiths that made the tools for all the other workers.

The forges apparently had a united shop front for blacksmithed goods. Walking inside we found rows and rows of metal goods. They were mounted on hooks in the walls, or set onto displays, shelves, racks or under glass. The last part were more delicate and smaller goods lined up. Though even as we wandered through the splendor Suigetsu let out a huff, "What is this? Where are all the weapons?"

The rest of us didn't voice it, but that was a question that occurred to me when I looked around. There were a ton of different metal goods, from scythes and plows to handmade tools, screwdrivers, magnifying glasses and the occasional furniture piece like a coat rack. There were knives and hammers, but they were smiths', jewelers' or cobblers' hammers, skinning or cooking knives. Not a single weapon made for actual combat. A voice from the back of the shop spoke out. "You're looking for weapons here?"

The four of us turned to see a young woman walking from behind the counter. She had dark teal hair with striped yellow bangs framing her face. It was hard to tell if it was natural or not, but it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't. We did just pass several dying stalls, so why wouldn't they use it on their hair? She was a tall and slender woman, with brown eyes. She was wearing a simple dress with a slightly burnt brown robe that showed the marks and burnt places of use so either she borrowed that robe from a smith or was a smith herself.

"Yeah." Suigetsu said, walking forward. "We heard this village made some great weapons and were seeking to outfit some guards for our caravan." A smooth and calculated lie that couldn't very well be fact checked.

The woman looked over and laughed, "We haven't been able to make weapons here for more than a decade."

"What?" Suigetsu looked put out. "That sucks, I thought we'd see some really cool stuff here, instead of just farm equipment."

"Actually," We turned to see Haku, who was holding up a scythe he'd taken off the wall, "These are pretty high quality." Taking a test swing, there was a ripple as it cut through the air in a swoop. I blinked and looked at the scythe. Reaching down, I picked up one of the cooking knives and felt the edge of the blade. It was well sharpened to a fine point, but putting a little chakra in, I could tell the metal was folded in on itself, much like one would fold a katana, making it much stronger than normal and perfectly crystallized. "You're right." I said, "How much for a set of cooking knives?"

"Are you serious? We came for weapons and you want to buy cooking knives?" Suigetsu asked.

"I need a set of cooking knives." I replied simply, which was true. While we were trained to just use kunais or tantos for our utility work, it'd be nice to have knives actually made for cooking. Especially since all the shops back home only had second hand sets. "I could use some new pair of scissors as well." Walking over I looked over to the glass, "And oh, they have frames for goggles, I've been meaning to get a fitted set."

Suigetsu held up his hands in defeat and stalked out of the store in mock dramatics. Zabuza followed with Chojuro presumably to look at other shops while Haku and I looked for things to buy in the shop. This wasn't a coincidence in the slightest. Haku was disguised as a girl, so that made it clear that two girls were left behind to talk to the woman shopkeeper in hopes she'd be more open to talk, especially with just the two of us here, if we were all the same gender. While it varied, it always did, it was a standard interrogation ruse to leave behind who was as alike to the person as possible to make them more comfortable talking to them.

When I brought up the cooking knife set as well as the goggle fittings the girl behind the counter looked up at me before glancing at Haku. "You only have one arm, and yet you're the one who does all the cooking?"

"We alternate." Haku offered as he perused some of the other tools. Reaching over, he grabbed a pair of scissors from the wall. He walked them over to the counter and set them down to be purchased as well. "Kyoko's better at sewing though, so we usually leave that up to her."

"But again, one arm." The woman said, gesturing to me.

"We do what we must." I said as I looked at Haku, who reached around and pulled out a coin purse which he started to use to count out money.

The woman looked at me, "You're pretty handy for someone so young. Do you mind if I ask, how did...?" She just gestured to me.

"I don't mind, but can I ask you a question too?" I said.

"Go ahead." The woman answered.

"Why can't you guys make weapons anymore? I heard that Takumi Village made some of the best weapons out there?" I looked at her. The woman smiled at the compliment but then sighed.

"It was after the shinobi war. Our village was singled out for selling weapons to multiple sides and the other daimyos put pressure on the River Daimyo to ban us from making any more weapons because they said it gave an unfair advantage to our neighbors." The woman said as she took the items to the back and wrapped them up to finish the order

That sounded like bullshit, but I didn't comment on it. Weapons alone wouldn't turn the tide of a shinobi war, even particularly well made ones. "I see, well the answer to my arm is I got blood poisoning, and by the time we got to the hospital half my left arm was dead. They had no choice but to cut it off." Haku set the money on the counter, we didn't try to haggle, not at something so good in quality.

"That's terrible." The woman said as she took the money and did a quick count herself before she moved it back behind the counter. "How long ago?"

"About half a year now, it's been an adjustment, but again, we make do with what we have." I replied.

The woman set the wrapped packages on the counter. "That is true, Kyoko-san, that is very true."

"What's your name anyway? I know you got mine from Yukino." I said.

"Kujaku." She said.

"Kujaku-san, like a bird, I think it suits you." I said.

"Why thank you Kyoko-san." She leaned forward, "Well, I hope you guys have good luck with your caravan. Even if you won't find what you need here."

I picked up the package of scissors while Haku grabbed the set of knives. Presumably because it was much bulkier all wrapped up. It came in a nice wooden case too.

"I hope so too, you have a good day!" I said waving as we walked out.

"There's definitely a black market." Zabuza said as the four of us sat in the local inn. It was much bigger and much nicer than the one at the little waypoint we went to before. But we still all shared a room, for security and convenience purposes.

I nodded in agreement, as did the others. It was unreasonable to think that a place that apparently had such a long history of making quality weapons just stopped. Sure, it was clear other craftwork had helped to fill the niche of this village, at least publically, but this village was founded a hundred years ago by an expert weapons crafter.

Plus, you know, there would always be a black market for good weapons.

"Well, we've already dropped a hint, so now we just wait?" I asked as I poured tea for everyone. I was able to purchase a lovely new teapot on our way out of town, it was light pink with purple cat paws on the edges and the tea itself was a local citrus blend. As Suigetsu picked it up he took one sip, paused and put in about four cubes of sugar.

"Depends on whether or not they believe us." He said, stirring the tea a bit before taking another sip.

"They don't exactly have a reason not to, not yet." Chojuro said as he thanked me for his cup.

Haku was last to get his tea before I poured for myself, if only because he was seated next to Zabuza, who got served first since he was the most senior. It was a very light etiquette thing that I only really followed since it wasn't that inconvenient that I felt the need to buck against it. He added just a bit of sugar before stirring, "It may take some time. Usually you would make an approach like this by sending in someone local to vouch for you. Except how to get that is hard to say. We could bribe someone, but of course doing so directly might make them think we're insulting their integrity."

"Sounds way more complicated than just going in and busting heads." Suigetsu said after a sip.

"Busting heads is a good way to get a bounty." Zabuza said after he picked up his tea and only blew on it a bit before taking a sip, "The best way would be for us to act like we are who we say we are. Tourists, which Ume seems to have the hang of with all the purchases she's made so far." He said, gesturing to the teapot.

"It's a cute teapot." I said with a huff as I made my own tea. Blowing, I took a deep sip, "And this is a nice blend. Besides, it's not like a few trinkets will weigh us down any."

"Just don't go ordering anything that logically speaking, a group our size wouldn't be able to move. If they get the impression we're using storage seals, it'll tip them off." Zabuza said, finishing his tea.

I made another face but let out a huff. I had been in fact seeing if I could get any bulk orders of dyes, glasses, spices, candies and teas to send back home with a rabbit. They wouldn't help much with feeding people, but having some seasonings and sweets would definitely help increase morale. Nevermind some more color availability for clothing might help. Same with the dye, most of the dye used in Land of Water was either the violets made from clams, or the blues made from local plants. Blacks were mostly just the other two layered to make it dark enough to be a black. "I have a question, we said we were from a caravan, can't I just say it's for that? Plus, what if they check the woods to see if we actually have a caravan there?"

Ostensibly, we'd be the people sent from a caravan camped out a little bit out. The reason they'd be camping as opposed to in an inn is just pragmatism. Putting up that many people would be costly, plus the main draw of moving in a caravan is just having a lot of people with the carts at all times so things don't get stolen. Still, if they were prudent they could in fact check.

"I'd assume they'd have better things to do." Suigetsu said this time.

"If we really need to, you and Chojuro can make some henge to show from a distance. We'll only be here for a few days at most anyway, if we get an approach we'll see what happens, but otherwise we'll be doing our due diligence to see if they have any leads." Zabuza said as he looked down.

I shrugged as I reached down and pulled out a sandwich from my bag. I ate it with my tea as I dispersed the small air bubble around us. We didn't use full silence seals on the doors, because it would seem suspicious if they couldn't hear anything. The air bubble just muffled the sound and drinking tea while we spoke was a good excuse to cover our mouths so someone couldn't read our lips. This wasn't something taught at the academy per se, this was a stealth technique Zabuza told us about. We might not actually be watched at the moment, but it was good practice for when we would be. While myself, Suigetsu and Chojuro weren't terrible at infiltration, it was far from our specialty and strange as it seemed, Haku and Zabuza were way better at blending in.

It wasn't that surprising since Zabuza was former ANBU, but still, the practice wasn't a terrible thing to do while we travelled.

"I'm definitely checking out the glass blower though." I said, laying down, "Maybe I can get some sunglasses if we have to go back to Wind."

"You just want an excuse to go shopping for new clothing." Suigetsu teased, "What's wrong with your current clothes?"

"Other than the fact they're old and torn, they're ill fitting, itchy and not my color." I said.

"Having another set of clothing wouldn't be too bad." Haku said, leaving out the part that having clothing that wasn't much too high quality for me to be wearing as a normal traveler, which was a point I had to concede since besides the current outfit all my clothing was very high khakri and in a town full of merchants might actually be noticed as being odd for me to have. "We'll check out the shops tomorrow then, Kyoko-san."

"Sounds boring." Suigetsu said, "Daisuke, why don't we spar by the river?" He turned to Chojuro.

"Is that a good idea?" Chojuro asked.

"No weapons." Zabuza said simply.

"What?" Suigetsu said, "But that's boring."

"We can't have any accidents." He said, "You should work on your grappling anyway."

"Boooorrrrrinnnnng" Suigetsu drew out the word and fell back. I let out a snort but rolled my eyes. Suigetsu was terrible at grappling because it was damn near pointless to try grappling him at all. But I suppose that was the point, just because ninety nine percent of the time no one could grapple him, didn't mean he wouldn't be boned the other one percent of the time. Same with him learning to do more proper blocking.

I was just glad since I was a girl they wouldn't expect me to train in grappling too. I was terrible at it, even before I lost half an arm, and touch was still an issue for me. Still, shopping in a non arid, non depressed country with Haku. Guess that was alright for the moment.

I'd take the distraction for what it was for the moment. Besides, maybe I could buy some clothing in my actual favorite color. You can never find anything in orange back home.

"I don't know about the yellow." Haku said as he held up the dress from the store we'd visited.

"It's not for you, so it doesn't matter." I said simply as I pulled it back into the bag. "It's her favorite color, so your cousin will love it." I said as I walked around in my own pumpkin orange dress with a cream colored coat to cover my arm. I had a matching ribbon holding back my hair as well as some slippers. Haku had gotten a dress in a lovely emerald green and ribbon as well, though his was tied around his neck like a choker to cover his adam's apple. "Did you want to pick out something for your dad?"

"He actually prefers buying his own clothing." Haku said.

"Really? That doesn't sound like him." I said, a little surprised.

"He's a bit broader than the average person, you noticed how most of his shirts don't have sleeves. Not an accident, he tends to tear them because they feel restricting." Haku said.

Thinking back I actually noticed that no, most of Zabuza's outfits were in fact sleeveless. He did occasionally wear arm warmers, but never sleeves. Except for his Wind outfit, but that was so baggy in the sleeves it probably wasn't as restrictive. "Okay, fair enough. But he could use a new color pallet, maybe something in green as well, he is a winter." Plus, it would definitely blend in better while we're traveling through the forests.

"Maybe," Haku said, "Or some browns. He prefers neutral tones overall."

"If we go deeper into fire, he'll want it, even if it is fall, it's still pretty hot, I've heard." I said as I looked through my own bag. I got some light peach clothing as well as some paler greens, and of course a nice red dress. But that was for special occasions. Red was considered a lucky color in Fire. It'd be nice if I could wear some gold with it as well, but gold was restricted to the nobility, wearing it meant either you were disregarding them (Yakuza often wore gold) or considered high status yourself. Still, I got some new clothing for Chojuro as well. We'd need to change colors and cuts to blend in with different regions as we travelled. Currently we looked like we were from Wind, which was fine since we were in a border country but might grab some suspicious glances once we moved over towards Fire and Earth country. Fire because Wind just invaded them, Earth because, well, Earth was suspicious of everyone.

I'd get some clothing for Suigetsu as well, but he'd just wreck it if we got into a fight. Only full khakri would transform with him. His clothing was fairly plain overall even if the colors were indicative of the Land of Water, but it wasn't like we had a monopoly on blues and purples. Walking towards the river bank we saw a small group of people standing around. As we approached it became clear why as we saw two familiar boys rolling around the banks. Suigetsu wasn't immediately obvious as he had his normally distinctive hair colored brown instead of white, but the curse when Chojuro managed to get control of the roll and pushed his head into the dirt left no room for doubt. Zabuza was sitting to the side, the cloth over his face moving as he spoke though we couldn't hear him over the crowd.

I looked at Haku, who shrugged. Looking at the crowd in general it looked less like visitors and more like some bored teenagers cheering at the fighting, and a few adults who were clearly exchanging bets. One of them, a boy with short bright blue hair jumped up screaming for Suigetsu to kick out Chojuro's knees to get him off. That was easier said than done because Chojuro had a knee pinning one of Suigetsu's legs and the other was stabilizing him. Zabuza called for them to tap out and the two of them, now dirty from a bit of brawling, walked over to sit down on the side while the bored boys surrounded them to ask questions about their fight.

Guess they were making friends. Or at least somewhat interested onlookers. I wondered when it would, oh there it was. Chojuro started to visibly shrink from the attention. Looked like he needed some extraction. Walking forward, I started pushing a bit through the crowd when I heard Suigetsu's first, "So he jumped from the top of the tree and dove into the lake because there was no way he was leaving his little sister behind to drown." When I moved forward I saw Suigetsu holding Chojuro by the shoulder, the smile on his face mischievous even as it was clear Chojuro was uncomfortable with the loud and false story. Not that I could call him out on it.

"I wasn't drowning." I said, trying to sound offended, "Just a bit stuck."

"Those assholes kept ducking your head under water and he just cannon balled onto the top of them so you could get away." Suigetsu said with a grin.

"To be fair, if Moko didn't set off fireworks on the shore to distract them it definitely wouldn't have worked." I answered.

"Sounds like a bunch of bullies." The boy with blue hair and, hey, green irisless eyes. What was with that? Maybe he was a distant relative of the Hyuuga. "Did they get in trouble?"

"Eventually." I said with a shrug as the people shifted interested toward me , "We didn't have any proof initially, but one of the older kids managed to convince the adults and they got punished."

This got some sounds of agreement from the small group. The boy with the blue hair reached out and rustled my hair, "That's great to know." I blinked as I felt in the back of movement a jolt, my eyes fluttered as I tried to sort- Was that... anger? Residual anger?

I felt another tap on my shoulder as Haku moved through, "We should probably go get some lunch." He looked over to Zabuza, who nodded. Of course, they didn't have to do that, but a session of wrestling for a relatively short amount of time would make normal people tired enough that they'd want to rest and eat.

As we walked away, my eyes trailed onto blue haired boy as we left.

Well a month into the new year, and I have to say, and I hope all of you agree with me.

What the absolute fuck?

But enough about that. This story isn't abandoned, there is very much a lot more ground to cover even if writing it takes a bit more time than it used too. There is of course, a plan, there always has been and that hasn't changed. Keep in mind though it's not as simple as A + B + C = D, there's a lot to happen between A and B, as well as between C, never mind all the build up to D. I know some people antsy about the story focusing on these slower parts, or about me catching up with what you'd considered DoS proper.

Again I should point out, the point isn't about catching up this is about the journey, not the destination. I know it shouldn't feel like I have to explain this, I assume if you've even gotten this far it's because you care about these characters and their journey, not how it relates to Shikako's journey. Especially since I think this needs to be said, this is an AU. Certain events will happen differently because Ume is there, some of you are even looking forward to the nearest upcoming milestone related to that. Which I can confirm, I will in fact be writing Golden Week attending the Grass Chunin exams.

Keep in mind though, I'm not simply going to skip to that part. Lots of important things happen inbetween.

With that in mind, I thank you all for reading as far as you have and for all the support you've given me. I have been busy, but that doesn't mean I don't want to work on this. Quite the opposite really. But I've also been doing other projects. I might tell you about them later, but until then.

Stay safe, stay warm, stay healthy, and please, leave reviews.