Honōka dreams of Tomoe standing in the koi pond next to the Benten-sha on her family's land.
She watches her former self wade into the water, pushing aside a budding lotus and scattering red, white, black, and gold koi fish. Her favorite dress, pale blue, floats on the surface of the pond, opening around her like a blooming morning glory.
The water ripples all around her and Tomoe leans over to scoop up a rare white—albino—snake from the pond. Her long black hair forms a curtain around her face and the snake, silky strands shining like oil on top of the water.
Honōka knows how this memory plays out. A lifetime ago, she climbed into the nearly waist deep pool to save what she thought was a still living, still struggling, snake. What she pulled up was an albino rat snake, blood-red eyes clouded over in death.
She remembers showing her father the dead snake, how he clucked his tongue at it and told her to throw it out with the trash. She remembers putting it in an old shoe box and burying it behind Benzaiten-sama's shrine instead. She remembers the bank calling constantly all spring; the long rainy season that never seemed to let up; and then a single shoe hitting the pavement. She remembers the bad luck that never really went away; an ill-fated karma that followed her from one life to the next, like a shadow.
Admittedly, mixing life with death might not have been the most respectful thing to do at a Shinto shrine. But, at the time, she thought she was returning Benzaiten-sama's sacred messenger to her. And, in her defense, she thought snakes and Benten-sama could supposedly navigate the underworld, heaven, and earth.
Tomoe straightens and the rippling water stills around her. She turns to face Honōka, and Honōka feels the awareness of not just watching, but being physically present, sink in. She looks into the face that she can no longer recall and blinks.
It's her face, but not; shadow, but not. It's Tomoe's face, but not; light, but not.
Not-Tomoe holds her arm out, beckoning Honōka closer. The limp albino rat snake hangs over the other. Honōka takes a first step, then a second, and another. She steps onto the glassy surface of the pond and approaches her former self.
Tomoe smiles at her and she recoils. Tomoe didn't smile often, and never so… widely. Or with quite so many teeth. Honōka retreats too slowly and the thing wearing Tomoe's skin grabs her by the arm, long nails digging into her skin. She panics and struggles to pull away with all her might, which isn't much. She feels like an ant trying to move a mountain.
They extend their other arm and the dead snake suddenly rolls over and coils around their arm to avoid falling back into the water.
Honōka stops and stares at the writhing, living, breathing snake. It's alive! She thinks.
The immovable grip on her arm releases and she numbly steps back.
The thing wearing Tomoe's skin doesn't speak, just offers their arm out again. The arm with the snake coiled around their wrist and open palm.
"…Are you giving him to me?"
They crook a finger at her. Come closer and see, they say.
She steps forward and offers her left hand to the snake. He flicks his tongue at her and sways his head uncertainly.
She looks into his eyes, red pupils on red irides, the self same red as her own eyes. He's beautiful, she thinks; antique white scales and ruby red eyes.
She holds her breath and keeps her arm absolutely still.
A wind blows, and the snake shivers, finally deciding to crawl onto her arm. He's cold to the touch from resting at the bottom of the pond for seven, almost eight, years.
And Honōka is warm.
He coils in the crook of her arm, and she smiles at him, releasing her held breath. She cradles him to her chest for extra warmth and looks up to thank Tomoe-but-not-Tomoe.
She's gone.
The wind blows again, stronger this time. The leaves rustle and the branches creak. She glances all around, looking for Tomoe; but it's just herself, the snake, the pond, and the shrine.
"Thank you!" she calls over the wind. "I'll take good care of him this time, I promise!"
Honōka wakes up. She feels stiff. Her mouth tastes terrible. And she really, really, needs to pee.
She bolts upright and Kakashi dives out of the way to avoid being brained. He learned his lesson the first and only time she headbutted him—her head is much harder than his.
She throws opens her bedroll and pats around for her snake. She could have sworn she just had him… she checks her left arm for good measure, pulling off her armguard with her teeth. Honōka scans her bare arm.
He's gone. She gets a panicky feeling in her chest and forces down worried tears. She promised… she promised…!
"Honōka-chan?" Minato asks, concerned.
"Toilet," she utters and stands.
Kakashi moves to go with her, and she glowers at him.
"Right, sorry. My bad." He sits back down. "Don't fall in."
She grunts at him and heads to the nearest outhouse. Obviously, she doesn't fall in. She's not a baby.
She washes her hands, face, and neck at the washing station and considers detouring to the bathing tent, but she's way too hungry for that, and Kakashi or Minato or both of them would come looking for her before long. She heads back to their tent.
Kakashi is already reheating left over miso soup and congealed rice porridge. Minato cuts up an apple, taking the time to give each slice little rabbit ears. He's surprisingly good at it for someone who can't cook.
She sits at the table and looks for Sensei. He's not nearby. He's not even close to nearby.
She checks her chakra levels first (which are miraculously full) and expands her sensory-field until it's just shy of interacting with the nearest enemy camp. Just the thought of using Shōkyo again so soon makes her feel nauseous.
Kakashi puts in front of her a bowl of miso soup, a bowl of rice porridge, and a whole grilled fish. Minato presents to her his ridiculously cute apple slices and a cup of plain tea.
"Why is Sensei in Kusagakure?"
Kakashi (gently) thwacks her over the back of the head.
"You're not supposed to be using your chakra yet!" he scolds, pushing her soup closer.
"Honōka-chan, you were out for two days with chakra exhaustion." Minato says. "Take it easy, okay?"
She sticks her tongue out at them. "I'm better now." Pause. "So, what's Sensei doing in Kusagakure no Sato?"
Minato scratches his head. "Well, you know. Reconnaissance and stuff."
She gives him her best unimpressed look.
"Sensei's getting reinforcements, isn't he?"
"Duh," Kakashi says. Minato sighs.
She scarfs down the food, glancing to the southwest again as she eats.
At this distance, she can just vaguely tell that Sensei is satisfied about something. In sharp contrast, the whole ambiance of Kusagakure feels… pissed off. She hums.
"What happened while I was asleep?"
"Do you want the full story or the abridged version?" Kakashi asks.
"Abridged, please."
"The Child Snatcher screwed us over."
Minato facepalms. She feels her eyebrow twitch.
"…not that abridged." She says.
Kakashi shrugs, and Minato carefully picks his next words.
"Okay. For… various reasons… Orochimaru-san expects we won't be getting any reinforcements from Konoha, no matter how we plead our case. It's also likely that the enemy knows a four-man team is going to attempt to rout them. And, considering they're prepared to fight an entire army, we don't stand a chance."
"All of which can be blamed on the Child Snatcher." Kakashi reiterates.
"More or less, yeah."
"So," she says. "Sensei is in Kusagakure trying to get them to rebel against the occupation of the Iwa forces."
Minato scrubs his face and nods. She eats an apple slice.
"Kusagakure barely has a thousand active shinobi—"
Kakashi goes to smack her again and she bats his hand away.
"You're not supposed to be using chakra!"
"I'm not! I learned that from class!"
"Right." He lowers his hand. "I knew that."
She rolls her eyes at him. "I can't sort out numbers that fast at this distance anyhow." And it's not for a lack of trying.
She takes a sip of her tea and listens to the border camp instead. Everything seems normal, except…
"Uwah. Kōmori-san is in a mood."
Minato cringes. "Like, a Tenko-sama mood?"
She laughs. "Maybe if his chakra was exponentially larger—but no. I think it's a combination of too much caffeine and… impatience? I think he yelled at one of the chūnin sensors, too? Hm… there's a word that describes him really well right now… upset… no, but it's close."
"Uptight?" Minato offers.
"That's the one! Kōmori-san is being very uptight!"
Kakashi snorts. "I wonder why."
She's sensing a story there, but she has more important things to figure out.
"When's Sensei coming back?"
"Tomorrow morning, most likely." Minato says.
"Eh, that's like, fifteen hours from now." She frowns. "What am I supposed to do until then?"
"You could rest, like you're supposed to." Kakashi says.
"But I'm not tired anymore and I have questions."
Kakashi and Minato share a look.
"Why don't we save the questions for Orochimaru-san and do something else like—"
"Light experimentation?" she asks.
"—play cards." Minato finishes, lamely. "Kakashi, we brought cards, right? You shuffle and deal first."
Kakashi finds a deck of cards and starts shuffling. He's eye-scowling at her.
"You guys are no fun. Sensei loves my experiments."
They make a point of ignoring her.
"Are we at least playing with stakes?"
"No. You count cards and cheat." Kakashi says.
"You're just mad you lost your lucky kunai last time."
"You can't even use it!"
"It's lucky—I don't need to use it for it to benefit me."
Minato chuckles awkwardly. He lost his whole tool pouch to her last time they played with stakes. His custom made kunai aren't cheap either, and she has six.
"Okay," she sighs. "What are we playing?"
"Old Maid." Kakashi declares, removing a random face-down card. "You can't cheat at Old Maid."
"Fine. Loser buys me the special manjū set from Ichiban Manjū when we go home in December."
"No stakes, Honōka-chan." Minato reminds her.
"If you win, I'll give you back two of your custom kunai."
"…three."
She offers her hand out to shake, and he reluctantly takes it.
Kakashi pounds the table a couple of times. "If I win, you give me back my lucky kunai!"
She offers out her other hand to shake.
"And, if we both win, you take us out to lunch for the price of the special manjū set."
Minato looks worried. "How much is this special manjū set worth?"
"Twenty-five hundred Ryō."
"Twenty-five hundred Ryō! I could order two and a half Hiraishin kunai for the same price!"
Honōka laughs. "You can't order half a kunai; but if you win, you get three back. Sounds fair, yeah?"
Minato side-eyes Kakashi. "No hard feelings if you lose, right, Kakashi?"
"Sensei! We're supposed to be a team! Just think, if we both win she has to buy us lunch, and we get our stuff back!"
"Sorry, Kakashi, I don't think both of us can beat her—and Kushina's home cooking is the only food I need."
"Minato-sensei, you jerk!"
Twenty minutes later and the most intense game of Old Maid she's ever participated in, she emerges victorious.
Kakashi and Minato stare at their unmatchable cards in confusion. Minato looks crushed.
"Honōka-chan… there's only supposed to be one Old Maid…! Did you steal a card and rig the game in your favor?! How? When?" He throws down his card, the Queen of Clubs. He's mad.
Kakashi just looks regretful.
"You're not allowed to break games! The rules are sacrosanct!" Minato yells.
She cackles and jumps on the table, pointing down at them and wagging her finger, because they shook on it and they both lost. Now she gets to keep all their stuff and they both have to buy her the manjū special. Win, and win, and win.
"Wouldn't you like to know how I did it, Minato-san?" she taunts.
Kakashi, who was showing zero indication of planning a surprise attack, abruptly jumps on her and they go tumbling across the flimsy folding table.
Naturally, the table breaks.
"Sensei! Now! Her feet are her only weakness! She's insanely ticklish!" He wrestles her into a headlock. "Honōka, you'll cough up the winning card if you know what's good for you…!"
Crap! She took off her shoes while they were playing. She struggles to get free, but they've trapped her, holding her down with their combined weight.
Minato lies across her knees and produces a calligraphy brush to tickle her feet with, because fūinjutsu-shi are never far from the tools of their trade.
Anyone with sensitive ears might thinks she's being murdered, which is probably why Kōmori comes to investigate.
He takes one look at the broken table and scattered cards and their strange torture methods and turns around again.
"Monsters, the lot of them."
They dissolve into giggles.
"Alright, Honōka," Kakashi pants. "Cough up the winning card. I want to know who gets back their kunai."
She reaches for it and bursts out laughing again.
Kakashi narrows his eyes at her. "What's so funny?"
"I lost it!"
Minato gets off her and starts picking up the cards. "Where? They're all here… here's my card, and Kakashi's card… here's the card we discarded at the beginning. So… you should have the Queen of Spades. Ha! I'm the other winner then! Kakashi, you're the Old Maid!"
Kakashi groans and rolls over her, bony hips digging into her stomach as he does.
"Check the bottom of the table for the card, Sensei. She can stick it there with her spit."
"Gross, Honōka-chan…! Modified bubble blowing jutsu?"
She holds a hand up, 'so-so'.
The card isn't there, though. Minato says as much.
"I told you, I lost it."
"Yeah, but where?"
She points at her lower dantian. Kakashi looks horrified.
"I know I said 'cough it up', but you actually swallowed it? What the heck is Orochimaru-sama teaching you?!"
She flicks one of her discarded shoes at him, which is ducked by Minato instead.
"Oh! She means she put it in her lower dantian, Kakashi—behind the nexus." Minato considers. "You lost it, though? Lost track of it?"
She nods.
"I was holding it, but then you guys attacked me and I forgot all about it. Now I have no idea where it went."
They take a moment to digest that.
"Probably don't put anything important in there that's not attached to you in the future?"
"Good idea, Minato-san."