Aroka frowned as she stared at one of the white lines before her. It was strange, she had never expected to see anything like it, especially not here of all places. In fact, it surprised her quite a bit when she first noticed it this afternoon.
She wondered if she should tell someone about it. Mila? Tobirama? Hashirama? But then again, what could they do? No, this likely wasn't a problem they could solve, not without more information, anyways.
She turned her attention back to disturbance. The line that held her attention was her own, and it told her she was going to die in four days. More specifically, she was going to be killed, and by a person she had never heard of. What in the world could she have done to anger a stranger so terribly? Luckily for her, she didn't have to wait to find out.
Aroka felt the familiar, jarring shift in her consciousness. She waited for it to subside before spreading her chakra out into her surroundings which instantly materialized around her.
The scene she saw was not an unexpected one, it was the same room she was just in: her bedroom inside the Senju compound. Just a few feet in front of her lay an outline of a person. The figure, whom she recognized as herself, was the only one in the room, sleeping soundly.
A few moments passed before the door slid open, a figure entering the room. The man was rather tall and of medium build, he wore the clothes of a commoner with a stretch of cloth concealing the lower half of his face. He gripped a curved blade in his left hand.
The man rapidly stalked towards the sleeping form, who showed no signs of stirring, and stood over her, pausing for a moment before raising his blade and slitting her throat in one swift motion.
Aroka shook her head to rid herself of what she had just seen. Her skin was alive with goosebumps and a hand rose to cover her neck unconsciously.
It was all too quick. It only took a moment; she wasn't even able to put up a fight! She wasn't going to let it happen, of course not. She was going to put a stop to it. But why would that man want to kill her in the first place? They had never crossed paths before, of that she was certain. He must have been under orders.
She looked back at the man's line in the days leading up to the… encounter. He didn't interact with many people at all, but the ones he did seemed to all be ordinary people, probably local merchants or businessmen judging by their patterned behaviors. None of them seemed likely to hire an assassin, especially not to target her seeing as she didn't recognize any of their names.
He couldn't have met with the hirer directly, perhaps it is a similar case to the ambush and there was a middle man involved? She didn't have time to search through all the familiars of everyone he had interacted with and she knew Detailing was unlikely to yield anything useful, perhaps it would be best to get the answers from the man himself.
Tobirama glared down at the sweating man being held down by two shinobi on either side. It took all he had to suppress the rage that threatened to overflow whenever he looked at him. He leaned back in his seat and folded his arms tightly.
"Matsuo Suzuki," his voice dripped with malice as the said man began shaking visibly, "Former hitman, skilled sensor, disgraced by his own clan, imprisoned for the murder of a nobleman before escaping. You have a lot of courage to show your face in this place."
"P-Please, I'm only p-passing t-through, I haven't done anything wrong!" he sputtered weakly, eyes wide with fear.
"I'm not interested in your excuses. I know why you're here and if you don't want me to lose my temper, I suggest you start answering my questions. Who sent you?"
Matsuo's eyes widened even further, it only took him a second to weigh his options, "I-I don't know their name, we've only ever c-communicated through letters, I didn't want to do it but the money they offered was enough to pay off my debts and if I refused my family wouldn't have been able to-"
"Shut up," Tobirama barked, instantly silencing the trembling man, "What exactly did they tell you to do?"
"Well… I-I was supposed to track down a woman, all t-they told me was that I should look for a "strange" chakra signature and that I w-would know when I found it."
"Were you given a name?"
"No..."
"When did this person first contact you?"
"Less t-than a week ago."
"How was the payment to be transferred?"
"They said they would know i-if I was successful and the money would be delivered to a meetup point the next d-day."
Tobirama leaned back in his chair, brows knit in concentration, and mulled over all he had learned so far. He sighed forcefully before signaling the guards, the man would be held in the underground cells until they decide what to do with him. Though Matsuo struggled and pled for freedom, he was quickly dragged out of the office. As soon as they were gone, Hashirama entered from an attached room, a similarly contemplative expression etched on his features.
"He said "they would know" if he was successful, could that mean they're from Konoha?" Hashirama questioned worriedly, taking a seat across from his brother.
"It's not impossible but no one here knows about Aroka beside us and the Uchiha two. It's more likely the culprit has contacts here. We should start by looking at everyone who has entered the village since Aroka came."
"That's going to be a long list. In the meantime, we'll continue to interrogate the Suzuki man. It's strange though, isn't it? If I recall, he was relatively infamous for a while but a few years ago he just stopped altogether, not a single trace of illicit activity at all."
"Until now."
"Right, and he said he only accepted the job because of the amount of money offered, so it's likely the person behind it knew about both his past activities and his financial issues and used it to draw him into all this."
"In that case the payment couldn't have been an insignificant amount; why not hire a better hitman? He's been out of practice for years and even back then he was nothing noteworthy, why him?"
"Perhaps they've hired him before: they trust him?"
"Even so, you saw him, he was shaking the whole time not to mention how easily he confessed. He clearly had doubts about taking the job, it must have taken quite some convincing to get him to agree. Does that sound like a reliable hitman to you?"
"Hm, you're right. Something's up with this whole situation, we just have to find out what it is."
"Easier said than done," Tobirama's frown deepened as he sighed once again, lifting himself up off the chair, "We'll begin searching first thing tomorrow."
Hashirama nodded, "I'll have the records ready by then. For now, you should check on Aroka, make sure she's alright," he suggested, mirroring his brother's motion.
Tobirama scoffed indignantly, one foot already out the door, "Where else would I be going?"
The sun had long given way to a cool, deep night. The moon's pallid face shifted in and out of view with the passing clouds, offering little light to the sleeping village below.
Tobirama was headed back to the Senju sector of the city, not far from the Hokage tower where he spent so much of his time. He thought about Aroka, he hadn't seen much of her lately as there haven't been many matters that called for her assistance. The last time they spoke had been two days ago, right after he learned about tonight's assassination attempt from Hashirama.
Tobirama stormed through the halls of the Senju compound looking ready to kill anyone in his way. Upon reaching his destination, he threw open the unfortunate door to reveal an expectant seer smiling at him from her desk.
"Tobirama, you're-"
"Is it true?" he demanded, crossing the room in a split second to leer down at her.
"Huh? Oh, you mean the thing about me dying? Of course it's true, why would I lie about that?"
"Why didn't you tell me?! I had to hear it from Hashirama just now!"
"I know you've been busy with work, I didn't want to bother you. Hashirama came to visit me earlier so I thought I'd just tell him first."
"It doesn't matter how busy I am, you should've come directly to me! You don't think I would have dropped everything to help you?!"
"I knew that's exactly what you would do and I didn't want that," she stood and put a hand on his arm in an effort to calm him down, "It was going to work out regardless, I didn't want to worry you."
"Worry me?" his brows furrowed sharply, "How am I not supposed to worry when you're supposed to die?!"
"Ok, ok, I'm sorry, I should have come to you first," she conceded gently, "Just don't be upset, ok?" she pleaded, squeezing his hand.
Luckily, her placation seemed to have worked as he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"...I was just worried."
Aroka smiled and put her hands to his cheeks, leaning upwards to plant a quick kiss. Before she could pull away, however, an arm wrapped around her waist and drew her back in. Their lips moved passionately, as if starved of each other's touch, until finally they had to pull away for air, panting and flushed despite the cold night.
"Thanks for worrying."
Maybe he should try to visit her more often.
"Tobirama!" a voice called out urgently from behind him.
"Mila."
"I heard you caught him, the man who… Did you get anything from him?"
"Nothing for certain, we're still looking."
"Oh, okay... Oh by the way, Aroka is in the garden right now, she's probably expecting you."
Tobirama nodded and thanked her before starting towards his destination.
When he spotted her, she was sitting at the edge of the lotus pond, leaned forwards and apparently staring at something in the water. He approached with silent footsteps and stood beside her for a moment before sitting down as well. He glanced at her hand that brushed the surface of the water.
"I hear you haven't been outside in some time."
Aroka smiled, "I've been tired lately, I suppose."
"Why are you out so late?"
"The water's cold."
"That's not exactly an excuse."
"Not to you."
"You seem awfully calm for someone who's supposed to be dead."
"It's nothing I can't handle. Besides, it's not much different from so many other things I've seen: just another future that will never be."
Tobirama's lips ticked in amusement at her reasoning, though he wasn't entirely convinced it was so simple.
"So what's he like?"
"Who?"
"Matsuo Suzuki."
"I'd rather not talk talk about him," his anger flared at the mere mention of his name.
"Come on, I think I deserve to know. I'm the one he tried to kill, you know."
With a sigh, Tobirama retold what the captured man had confessed to during the interrogation. Aroka listened quietly, occasionally swishing her hand back and forth across the water.
"I thought something was off about him when I was looking at his line, he really didn't seem like a criminal."
"That's what we thought too, we're looking into who his benefactor could be and why he was chosen in the first place."
"I'll look into his activity for the past week, maybe there's something there that could help us."
He nodded and a thick silence fell between them. Two koi fish swam towards the edge, circling Aroka's hand curiously before drifting off in opposite directions: one back towards a small grouping of golden fish and the other into the shade of a water lily.
"I'm sorry."
Aroka turned towards him in surprise, "What for?"
"I know I haven't been around much, ever since you came to Konoha."
Now it was his turn to be surprised when a pleasant laugh escaped the blind seer.
"It's nice to know you've been thinking about me, but there's no reason to apologize. Besides, if I was clinging to you all day, who would do Hashirama's work for him?"
Tobirama's lips pulled into a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, "You should go inside and rest, the wind isn't good for you."
"Ok, but only because you're asking me to."
"You should take care of yourself without me asking."
"What's the fun in that?"
"...you sure are something else, you know that?"
"Of course! And by the way, if I have to go to sleep then so do you, don't even think about work until morning, ok?"
"I don't recall taking orders from you."
"Well you'd better get used to it," she grinned, wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace, "I'm not going anywhere."
