21 - "Enjoying a Moment For Once"
It Seemed Like the Right Thing to Do...
Taiki waited for Takeshi to leave as well before clearing the remaining few dishes away and tidying up the kitchen, returning everything to its rightful place while lost in his own thoughts. Completing this task, he went back to the living room where Kotori still sat slumped at the table, glowering into her cup as if she were trying to pry answers from its mute clay. "Anything you need to talk about?" he asked her, softly settling himself across from her again and watching her for a response.
"There's nothing to say." The words were hollow and unconvincing, but Taiki knew better than to force the truth from Kotori at this point. "Besides, I'll be hearing it all again tomorrow, so save your breath."
Taiki nodded. "Fair enough." Pause, then, "How much of that little speech do you think Takeshi-sensei really meant? He has to be hurting as much as you are, and I wasn't expecting him to get so wound up."
"How should I know? Working in a cell with him is the first real contact I've had with the man, unless you've forgotten." Kotori drained her cup, set it back down on the table in barely concealed agitation, then abruptly got up from the table and moved for the door. "I need some air." She then left and was gone before Taiki could get a fix on her path, leaving him alone to once again ponder a course of action.
-------
A small light shining in the window welcomed Naeko back to her family's place of work; with a sigh she pushed the tailor shop's door open and walked in, barely responding to the cheerful greeting given by her mother who sat behind the counter piecing together a custom order. "Why the face, Naeko-chan? You look like you just swallowed a bug."
"It's just been a long day, that's all." She debated for a second her mother's reaction if she were to share her experience in the forest, then decided against it. "I don't know if you knew her, but Ren of the Yamataki family died today. She was the grandmother of one of my teammates, and Takeshi-sensei's mother."
The older woman frowned around a mouthful of pins. "That's a shame. She must not have been very old either..." A snip of scissors parting thread from cloth. "Now that I think of it, that family never has been very large. Who does that leave – Takeshi?"
"And Kotori. You know, the girl who was raised in the Mist Village?" Naeko crossed to the counter and began to rummage, coming up with a pencil and a few scraps of paper upon which she began to sketch a few ideas.
The frown was tinged with disgust this time as Mrs. Kurogata began a new line of stitching. "Oh, that one. I don't have too much confidence in her – I mean, why did she even come back in the first place, and why did they accept her? She could be a spy, for all we know." Naeko shrugged but did not reply. "And what about that other one in your cell, the one from Hidden-in-the-Clouds? He might be the Raikage's adopted son, but from what I've heard he's a pretty boy and not much else."
Remembering what she'd seen in the fog-shrouded clearing, Naeko shivered. "You haven't seen him in action, Mother."
"Whatever you say, dear. I just wish you hadn't gotten into that nasty accident – I heard you worked so well with your old team, and look what happened? You take a break to recover, and then you get stuck with the charity cases."
"I wouldn't exactly call them that," the girl grumbled under her breath, focusing on her drawing until she was satisfied. "Mother, do you think I could make something like this?"
Green eyes almost identical to Naeko's studied the sketch, an outline of a plain yet elegantly cut tunic with subdued embroidery around the cuffs and hemline. "I think you could. It might take some doing, but it would be a good test of your talents." A blink, then a squint as the older woman re-examined the sketch. "The measurements are completely off, unless this is for someone else?"
Taking the drawing back, Naeko nodded with a quiet smile and replied, "It's for a friend."
-------
The sun had begun its downward arc towards the horizon, signaling the end of yet another day in Konoha. Kotori silently trod the streets of the village, listening to the sounds of ordinary people continuing their lives just as they did any other day, returning to their homes and families or reuniting with friends to relax and unwind and tell a story or two. Restaurants, bars, and homes sparkled with evening activity, laughter and music and snatches of conversation that the girl did her best to ignore as she wandered and tried to soothe her mind. The people that did recognize her tried not to look at her directly and muttered their opinions in barely hidden whispers, but Kotori's eyes did not see them and the only sound she truly heard was the quiet beat of her heart underscoring dark thoughts. Even the demon was silent for once, reserving comment unless solicited to do so.
Her steps took her the width and depth of the village, past the quiet Academy and even to the heights of the Hokage monument, but it did nothing to still her unsteady musings and Kotori moved onward. Shopowners in the market were closing their establishments, locking doors and dimming lights as she passed by and seeming emblematic of coming times according to the dire predictions humming through Kotori's mind. I exist only by my own merit from now on, she mused as she approached one shop from which a light still shone out onto the street. Any mercy given because of my grandparents' reputation will probably vanish after the memorial tomorrow, and I'll be on my own. With a start she realized that the shop she passed was the tailor shop run by Naeko's family, and she found herself stopping for a moment to peer into the window.
Naeko and her mother sat behind the counter, the younger woman deep in concentration as she labored over an unfinished garment while her mother offered guidance and occasional correction of a missed detail. Even so, there was pride on the older woman's face as she watched her daughter work, and Kotori's heart sank. I don't even have that shelter anymore. All I have left is whatever protection my training can offer. Biting down on her lip to stop the burn of fast-approaching tears, she spun away from the view offered by the window and dashed off into the darkening night. I have to pass my exams, no matter what! It's the only way to prove my worthiness to these people.
-------
Taiki sighed and put the newspaper down, glancing up at the wall clock for what seemed like the hundredth time since Kotori had left. "It's been almost four hours. Is she all right? She'd better not have gone and done something irrational." Folding the paper and pushing it aside, he got up from the table and walked to the entry. "But then again, irrational seems to be the common theme for this past week, so it would only fit. Now to find her and see what's going on..." He closed his eyes and focused his senses, tracing the faint stirrings of emotion on the edge of his consciousness to get a bearing before leaving the house empty behind him.
-------
It was when she stood in front of the memorial stone that Kotori finally realized her fatigue, and she paused to gather her energy while gazing at the names inscribed into the solitary block. As usual her eyes stopped at one particular name, and this time the tears came in earnest no matter how hard she tried to stop them or wipe them away with an aggravated hand. "Damnit! I can't... If my teacher saw me now, she'd smack me upside the head and tell me to quit acting like a little kid." Sinking to kneel on the ground, Kotori let her head drop in shame. "But that's what I am! A little kid that didn't ask for any of this, who tries to act like the adult she's not. I walk around with that sword and try to act tough – hell, I call Taiki an idiot but it's me who's the idiot, crying at stupid things when there are bigger things to worry about."
Hearing the words that now spilled unchecked from Kotori in front of her unlikely confessional, Taiki could only shake his head as he stood in the shadows amongst the foliage. Takeshi was right when he said that none of us chose the path we now walk, and hers must have been exceptionally difficult. One of her closest remaining relatives dies, and she calls it a stupid thing to cry over... He frowned as he watched her back heave with unchecked sobs. Yet with that detachment she is closer to the shinobi ideal of emotionless perfection than most I've seen. At what cost perfection, though? She's given up or lost almost everything that a normal person would value, and any normal person would be a wreck.
Squinting at the stone, Taiki read over the names and finally came to the one he'd been told of. "Yamataki Katsuo," he murmured aloud, stepping out into the pale moonlight next to where Kotori knelt. "He must have been quite the man, willing to give up his life for the people he loved."
Kotori stopped crying long enough to look up in watery startlement, tears turning into a glare as she saw who stood next to her. "Go away, Taiki. This isn't your place."
"You're wrong." Taiki likewise kneeled down on the turf, close enough to touch. "My place is with you, wherever that may be." Carefully wrapping one arm around her shoulder, he reached out to wipe her face dry with his free hand. "Even if you don't want me to, I'll always be here." Without quite knowing why he did so, he leaned in and brushed her lips with his own in a light kiss, lingering long enough to feel the flare of heat from the blood rising in her face as he did so. When Taiki at last sat back, he looked at Kotori's face, frozen in shock and disbelief, and could not help but smile. "You know something, Kotori? When you aren't pissed off or running in kill-mode, you really are pretty."
This seemed to snap her out of her daze, and she looked away from him with a disdainful snort. "Are you saying that because you mean it, or just to make me stop crying?"
"It worked, didn't it?" The glare returned again, but Taiki waved it off dismissively. "And yes, I do mean it. I do try to be honest, unless I have a damned good reason to lie." Savoring the flat stare this statement received, he ruffled Kotori's hair affectionately and added, "So, are we going to sit here a while longer, or do you feel like going home yet?"