As the sun rose the next day, Hashirama yawned and rolled out of bed which, having been complete with silk sheets and cushions, had quickly become his close friend and he was reluctant to leave it.

Last night's downpour was still coming down steadily, as was evident from the loud pitter-patter outside.

Hashirama groggily slid open the screen door and nearly ran into a small boy carrying a tray of food.

"Oh! Sorry, didn't see you there kid." He grinned apologetically.

The boy, who was no more than ten years old, smiled in return.

"It's ok mister, sorry for surprising you." He bowed.

"It was nothing. Need any help with that?" Hashirama asked, glancing down at the wooden tray in his hands; it held a few small bowls with different foods in them.

"No thanks, sir. I do this all the time! Miss Aroka is always happy when I bring her food." He grinned, blue eyes shining with pride.

"Oh? Aroka eats in her room often?" Hashirama asked curiously.

"Yep, she's in there a lot, I don't think she goes outside much." the boy confirmed with a nod. "Anyways, I should get this to her, I have a bunch of chores to do. Nice meeting you, mister!" He smiled before scurrying down the hall and around the corner.

"Who was that?" Tobirama asked, stepping out of his room and peering down the walkway.

"I'm not sure..." He hummed.

"Senju-sama."

The brothers turned to see a familiar brunette approaching.

"Oh, good morning Mila." the older of the two greeted with a smile.

"Good morning. Toru-sama wants you to know that both of you are welcome to do as you please during your time here. Everything in our village is open to you."

"That's great, please thank him for us." Hashirama nodded. "We'd actually like to speak with Aroka again."

"We do?" Tobirama raised an eyebrow, only to receive an elbow to the ribs.

"Do you think she'll mind?" The elder maintained a bright grin.

"I'm sure she'd be happy to have company." Mila smiled softly. "Please follow me."

The young woman lead the pair back down the hall and to the room they had been in yesterday. Stopping in front of the double doors, she knocked twice before hearing a 'come in.' She slid the doors open and moved aside to allow the brothers to enter.

"Well if it isn't my favorite Senju." Aroka looked up from her breakfast as they stepped into the room. "Did you sleep well?"

"We did, our rooms were more than comfortable."

"That's good to hear. So, what brings you here so early?" she asked, resting a hand under her chin.

"We were hoping to learn a bit more about your abilities. I think it'll be easier for us to work together if we understood them better."

Aroka nodded and put a finger to her chin.

"Well let's see… future events can usually be gleaned from people's interactions with one another, though it's not always obvious. The 'future' I see is really just the most likely timeline at the moment so it can change, though not usually by a lot."

"How can someone change the timeline?" Tobirama questioned.

Aroka looked over to him, through her eyes were slightly off from his.

"By doing something out of character. If someone usually goes for a walk every morning at the same time and one day, without any reason, simply decides not to, it's possible that action was out of character enough for the timeline to have not predicted it. It doesn't happen very often but it's not too rare either."

"You said these changes aren't usually very big?" Hashirama recalled.

"The timeline is good at predicting what people will do, and even when they stray from the norm it's usually in a small, insignificant decision. They're much more likely to stick to their gut when deciding on something important. Of course, small decisions can sometimes cause big shifts in the future, but that's not always the case." Aroka nodded to herself.

"Can you tell what people are going to say when you talk to them?"

"No, all I can see is who interacts with who and when it happens. I don't know any details of what those interactions are about besides what I can infer, of course."

"You can tell a lot about people just from their interactions?"Hashirama asked curiously. "What can you tell about me?"

Aroka paused for a moment and hummed thoughtfully.

"There's a woman you're often close to back in your village, Mito, I assume she's your wife. She gave birth to your first child around a month ago. Congratulations. You interact with your clansmen often, not just the shinobi, so I can tell you're a diligent leader. You have frequent meetings with the same group of… sixteen people, probably your clan's council or elders. Besides that, there aren't a lot of people you seem to contact regularly, so I gather you don't have many close friends." Aroka looked back to Hashirama expectantly. "So how did I do?"

"You're good! I didn't think you could actually tell so much! I guess you're the real deal." He beamed, laughing heartily. "What can you tell about Tobirama?"

The younger man shot his brother a glare and opened his mouth to speak but Aroka beat him to it.

"Well, he isn't around people very often unless it's during battle, so I can assume he has even fewer friends, if any. I suppose that's inevitable when you don't trust anyone. He tends to have very brief interactions with most people outside his immediate circle. He can stay up for days on end and spends a lot of time in what I guess is his office. He's pretty fast too, it seems. During battles his line moves so sporadically it gives me a headache just looking at it." she concluded, shaking her head. "Oh, and he has a girlfriend."

There was a moment of silence in the room.

"What?!" both men shouted in unison.

"You do?!"

"Of course not!"

"A fiancé then?"

"No! Why would you think that?"

"You spend a lot of time with Atsuko to not be involved." She shrugged suggestively. "And a lot of nights too."

"Atsuko?" Hashirama gasped gleefully, eyes gleaming with joy. "I didn't know you two were together! This is great! I was actually-"
"Brother!" Tobirama cut in. "Atsuko works as an assistant to both of us, we've not involved." he stated firmly.

"Whatever you say." Aroka sang. "But anyways, those are the types of things I can usually infer about people. It's not much, but it can be important in the right situations."

Hashirama nodded thoughtfully once he refocused himself from his moment of delight.

"You can predict battles then? That must be why your clan has avoided war for so long…"

"That's right." Aroka nodded. "It happens every so often, the latest attempted attack was a bit less than two years ago."

"What happened?" he asked, intrigued.

"A few dozen men tried to invade from the North side of the village one night. They were strong but they didn't expect an ambush." She smiled, pale eyes darting around the room briefly. "Well, as much as I love speaking with you both, I have a meeting with someone in just a few minutes. It'll take a while but you're welcome to come back later if you have any more questions."

"Oh, of course. We'll get out of your way." Hashirama stood, followed by Tobirama. "Thank you for your time, please excuse us."

The pair bowed lightly and retreated from the room, nodding to Mila as they passed by.

"Did something happen with you two?" Hashirama asked casually as they turned down the hallway.

"What do you mean?"

"Her chakra wasn't touching you back there and I doubt it was by accident."

"Really? I didn't notice." he answered halfheartedly.
"Well whatever it is, just try to stay on her good side, alright? We need her help."

Tobirama only hummed at his brother's concerns.

Just then, the two noticed a familiar blonde approaching from the opposite direction.

"Oh, Samaru, right?" Hashirama recalled the woman from their first visit. "Nice to see you again."

"Senju-sama, I heard you were staying here." She bowed respectfully. "The storm might not clear up for another few days." She glanced to the heavy curtain of rain that showed no sign of easing up, deep gray clouds hanging overhead.

"That's what Aroka said too. Hopefully we won't be a burden." Hashirama smiled gratefully.

The woman's eyes widened.

"You've met Aroka-sama?" she asked, surprised.

"A few times, actually." He nodded. "Is something wrong?"

Samaru hesitated for a moment.

"No, not at all. She usually keeps to herself is all." Her eyes cast down briefly. "Oh, I can show you around the compound if you'd like. These halls can be a bit confusing." she offered with a smile.

"If it's no bother, that would be great!"

The trio trailed through a number of corridors, stopping every so often for Samaru to point out something notable. They passed by the council's board room, the silk weaving chambers, and the garment storage space which the brothers remembered from their first visit. As they reached a walkway that faced the east side of the village, Samaru pointed to a series of adjacent buildings that were connected to the main compound by a narrow hall.

"Those are the silkmakers' living spaces. Right now we have just under thirty weavers. There are others in the village that don't work directly for the main family, but the ones that do have access to some the best tools and materials there are."

"How do you choose which silkweavers are employed here?" Tobirama questioned, glancing at the building that looked remarkably similar to main compound.

"Every year we hold a test that anyone can participate in. Those looking to join our silkmakers are asked to bring one of their finished garments to be examined. Then they are given three hours to make a length of silk that will also be judged for quality. Our current team of weavers will choose the five best garments and the five best pieces of silk, if both of someone's submissions are placed in the respective top fives, they'll be able to join our ranks. Over a hundred participants come every year, it's very popular as the village has a lot of independent silkmakers." She finished with a nod.

"How many people usually make it?" Hashirama asked.

"Usually one, if any. The most I've ever seen is two, but that's only happened once before."

"Must be a difficult test." Tobirama mused as they continued to yet another part of the compound.

"Silk is hard to make, not everyone can do it." Samaru agreed.

"Do you know the weavers well?"

"Some of them, yes. My mother used to be one, actually, she was one of the best we've ever had." She smiled sadly. "She died three years ago."

"I'm sorry for your loss." Hashirama frowned sympathetically.

"It was a long time ago." She breathed. "Anyways, right ahead of us is the kitchen and dining rooms. We have some very talented kitchen staff, they make enough to feed all of us everyday and they never disappoint!"


"Please turn around, Miss." one of the medics instructed.

Aroka compiled and shifted in her seat.

"I need to examine your back please."

She sighed quietly and undid her kimono, allowing it to fall to her waist. She felt the cold sensation of metal against her spine as the medic slowly dragged the instrument up and down, left and right.

"Open your eyes wide."

She did so and the women, clad in white, shone a light into her clouded pupils. They watched closely as they moved the light away, then back again, then away again before clicking it off and scribbling something in their notebooks.

"I'll need to take a blood sample."
Aroka held out her arm and soon felt a tiny prick. After about thirty seconds, the discomfort dulled as the medic pulled out the needle and quickly wrapped the area in bandages. She slid the small vile of blood into a white cloth bag and tucked it away.

"That'll be all for today, Miss. We'll let you know if we need anything else."

The four medics stood and bowed before slowly filing out of the room, shutting the door behind them.

Aroka sighed and pulled her kimono back over her shoulders.

'What a pain.' she thought as she rubbed her now bandaged arm.

She didn't like being studied under a microscope, something that these medics, given that it was their job, were very good at it. Every week they would check her pulse, check her heartbeat, check her eyes, check her hands, check everything they possibly could. But as much as she disliked this weekly poking and prodding, she did it willingly so Toru wouldn't try to convince her to. Believe it or not, arguing with him was more tiring than being micromanaged by those doctors.

Today's session was not unlike any previous ones, though one thing did make it a bit more interesting: one of the team was missing. Being the curious mind that she was, Aroka found and traced the fifth medic's line which, surprisingly, lead her straight to her favorite red-eyed Senju. What were they talking about? Sure, they could just be old friends catching up, but somehow she knew that wasn't the case. Resisting the urge to Detail for answers, Aroka decided to leave it alone for now; if it was important, she would find out soon enough.

Reaching out to her right, she tilted her head lazily as her fingers brushed against the now wilted flowers.