Chapter 2 – Calm before the Storm
"Oh he's so CUTE!"
"Such big blue eyes,"
"Awee!"
"You named him after a type of tile?"
Kaho stood rather dumbfounded by the group of women around her fawning over the baby in her arms. She was beginning to get a little claustrophobic.
Gotta love the Spring Festival, She mused.
With the birth of a clan heir the Spring Festival that year was more highly attended. Even some of the cautious village members ventured inside the Aburame clan walls driven by a curiosity to see Shibi's son. Everyone was sure he would grow up to be an especially formidable ninja, as was the trend with the Aburame clan leaders.
Shibi blinked as he and Kuroji stared at the group around Kaho (from a safe distance of course), who could only be seen because she was so tall.
"Maybe we should…help her?" Kuroji said silently to Shibi in insect language.
"We…should."
"…"
"…"
"Well?"
"What?"
"She's your wife."
"No, really I insist, go right ahead."
Kuroji shifted his weight to his other foot, and sighed, before walking up and gently pushing past the people, "Please excuse me, Kaho-sama's presence is needed," The people backed off and complied. Kaho gratefully followed him off to where Shibi was, leaning against a tall ash tree.
"Thank you!" She smiled.
Kuroji nodded.
"And NO thanks to you." She struck a look at Shibi.
"…" Shibi sighed.
She thought for a moment, then calmly said, "I would have wanted to avoid that mess myself actually..."
"Da-da!" Shino voiced.
"At least he's enjoying it," Shibi stepped up closer to her and put out a finger, which Shino promptly grabbed. He smiled behind his ceremonial coat's collar.
Kuroji looked behind them, "I think they're about to begin the concert."
"Ah."
The sounds of insects who liked to make music always filled the Aburame tree grove. Of course, your average person would not call it 'music' (they call it NOISE….obviously). However, sometimes at the Spring Festivals the more musically inclined Aburames would arrange for a music circle (like a drum circle but also with strings and wind instruments). They invited any villagers who could/like play an instrument to join in, and during these times perhaps the 'noise' of the cicadas, crickets, and katydids would not be heard as noise to the listening public.
This is because all the insect musicians would chime in harmony with the playing villages.
Perhaps then, they could see its music.
"It's been a while since the last time you did this," a woman said to Shibi as she sat near him. It was Mrs.Yamanaka, the flower shop owner.
"It has," he replied, looking down to see her stomach showing obvious signs of pregnancy.
"I didn't know you were pregnant!" Kaho said to her.
She smiled nervously, "We were just as surprised as you are! But it was a pleasant surprise I guess. I'm due in September."
"That's wonderful," Kaho looked down at Shino, who was quiet and listening to everyone playing their various instruments. Yusuro was knelled behind a koto.
"I didn't know Yusuro played koto," Kaho nudged Kuroji, who was kneeled just to her right.
He adjusted his posture, "She is still learning, but it is a hobby of hers in-between missions and training."
"She's okay at it, I suppose," Tesuro tilted his head. He himself was getting rather tall for his age. His 10th birthday was just two weeks away.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kaho asked.
"I just have to hear her practicing, that's all."
"Heh."
"I'm not too late am I?"
"Tao, I was wondering where you were," Shibi voiced with surprise as an Aburame wearing rectangle-lense sunglasses and a dark brown, mandarin-style-collared coat ran up.
"You're not too late. Sit." Kaho almost seemed to order him.
He complied and laid his cane down on the ground before taking off his bowler hat and placing it on top of it neatly.
After a longer-than-comfortable pause of silence, "Of all people I would think you'd be the last to miss the concert." Kaho said.
He quickly turned his head to look at them, seeming slightly defensive.
It was pretty well-known in the clan that Tao was courting Jima. It had been going on for almost a year now. However, she seemed less than interested. No one knew exactly why she was so resistant to him. Everyone thought they made a pretty good match. Even Sakuya had gotten involved in the situation recently (so you know it had to be juicy). But still, Jima politely rejected his advances for anything past friendship.
"Don't play dumb with us," Ussa grinned. He sat with three year old Yesetteru in his lap. She was wearing a long-sleeved ceremonial-type coat typical of females in Sakuya's family line. Sakuya was with the people in the music circle also playing a koto next to Yusuro.
"I'm not, trust me," Tao said with a low sigh, "I just feel like maybe I should give up on this battle, because I'm losing it."
"Mommy looks so pretty!" Yesetteru said cutely.
"She does! That's right honey," He smiled. Sakuya indeed looked nice in her dusty lavender, long-sleeved jacket, and with tasseled flower clips in her hair.
"You're not losing anything," Shibi said softly.
Tao looked right into his sunglasses, which were reflecting the fire near the center of the circle.
"The battle of trying to gain the affections of someone you love is never a waste of time." He thought, "Besides I've seen you and Jima, I think there is another reason for her avoiding you. Talk to her more deeply on the matter."
Tao nodded his head inside his collar and looked back to the circle of people.
"Closet romantic," Kaho whispered in his ear.
As the festival ran later into the night than it had ever had before, Shibi and Kaho retreated to the top of the village wall, and overlooked down on their clan like masters of their domain. Shino had long since fallen asleep, and was being watched over by Ussa and Sakuya, whose own daughter had asleep by now as well. Their two children most likely nestled together like kikaichu larvae.
They stood not talking for a long time. They listened to the sounds of silence all around them, which was not really silence at all, but a chorus of usually unnoticed voices. The insects, the wind, the leaves rustling, plants growing, and the light reflecting off the houses of the village. The silence heard above the music and voices below told them something. The unsettled buzz of their kikaichu in their guts backed up their suspicions.
"It's like a calm before the storm." Shibi said finally, not looking at his wife.
She nodded, "Something is coming."
"Ah."