Chaos herself's note:
Hey!
I'm back with another chapter. Finally Mito appears, and we get to the poit where the real story starts.
Enjoy and have fun reading!
Chaos
...
Chapter 6: A Gift for a Gift
For once Touka was briefly smiling to herself and she was aware of it; she was all alone in her quarters so it didn't matter to her if she betrayed a fraction of her feelings right now as she was bent over her new acquirements on her worktop.
Carefully her Kunai penetrated the relenting material of the first exemplar and arched two symmetric cuts, and once she was satisfied with the result she repeated until every one of them beared the same markings and pre-dried them beneath a Chakra-infused heating lantern. In the meantime she ground and blended the necessary powders; and every jar had a differently coloured content matching the ingredients: charcoal, crimson, ivory, dark green, lime green, yellow earth, sienna, goldenrod, orange, light coral, indigo.
The remembrance of one particular evening in late summer gave Touka the idea of what she was doing now; and it suited her needs satisfyingly well.
Three days prior to the incident Kanoko had invited the older Kunoichi to some kind of festival, which was held by her clan and the Yamanakas and Akimichis. At first Touka had been more than suspicious and wary of such gatherings; they were usually prone to backstabbing schemes and deathtraps. Besides, the warrior was a lone she-wolf, anyways. But loudmouthed Inoko and roly-poly Rinshi had delightedly joined in once they had learned of the Nara brat's bidding and after hours and hours of triple beseeching and imploring Kanoko's arguments had been finally convincing enough to persuade Touka to come for a quick check.
She might find out something about the traitors or she could at least probe the three clans' trustworthiness further, had been her train of thoughts.
So, on the evening of the festival Touka had tentatively but dauntlessly entered the Nara territory of the village and stepped into a whole new world, it had seemed. The place was decorated with garlands of flowers and paper lanterns, merry chatter and music filled the air, kids were playing and laughing in the streets, young and old strolling and frolicking to and fro the wooden drinking booths, food stands and artisans' stalls. She didn't see anyone carrying weaponry or armory around but wearing hand-made pinwheels, colourful Yukatas, affectionately painted No-masks pushed up their fronts and friendly smiles.
Being there had felt so...unreal and foreign.
And yet these people had seemed to be at ease, had seemed so used to such happenings, she had observed with alienated curiosity never showing on her face. Touka had felt out of place dressed in her full battle gear; but Kanoko, Inoko and Rinshi had greeted her happily and showed her around as if she had been clad in the same feminine silken Yukata and decorum as they had.
At least she had not been the only one to be failing the apparent dress code of defenselessness. For she had managed to drag Tobirama along on her endeavor of pioneering into frienemy territory during her traitor hunt. As representative of the village and Hashirama-sama's proxy he had been welcomed respectfully and heartily and soon he had been invited to mixed groups of drinking bouts he had not been able to evade for long.
In the end Touka had found no further clues on possible traitors; but it had been quite amusing to observe stern and grumpy Tobirama getting completely wasted between the countless challenges of hard-drinking Nara and Akimichi and Yamanaka and other guests to Sake and Kirin and even more Sake and Kirin...
Touka had stayed adamantly sober to cover his back if need be because she had suspected an ambush when he would have been too drunk to fight, because the Nara were a shrewd bunch and the Yamanaka were known for their mind control. But nothing like that had happened at all; the three hosts had been equally three sheets to the wind and the kids had been immersed in their games... These guys really knew how to celebrate!
And the Kunoichi would still time and again stoically calmly chaff about how she had had to carry a totally wrecked Tobirama all the way from there to bed listening to his drunken warbling 'Ue o muuuuite arukou-ou-ou-ou...nijin daaa hoshi wooo kazoeee-e-e-te...' and refrain herself from bursting into laughter. Sometimes, only the quietly whistled tune was enough to fluster him to no end.
And he still had to scratch her back for keeping this whole incident secret, too...
Smiling to herself Touka dipped a wispy paintbrush into a jar of water, wetted the pigmented powders and set to work on the first pre-dried fictile shape. Soon, from her meticulous strokes filigree silhouettes, patterns and shades bloomed on the whitened surface. When she was finished after hours of tedious and patient brushstrokes and the transparent sealing brushed over the paint she was a bit surprised how well she had done; the close floral study had paid off in quite an unexpected way.
But then again, today had been full of 'quite unexpected' things... especially the reason to Touka's good mood, Mito-kun's 'unexpected' visit and the resulting conversation, had been interesting and, well, an 'unexpected' gift.
The Uzumaki had quite something up her sleeve, she mused when she remembered the 'shrine maiden's' daring suggestion.
"I think we need a secret group, one that no one knows about but us, to keep an eye on people that can't be trusted. I was hoping that you'd be in charge of it. I have Hashirama's ear, and his trust, and I can get you any information you need. I just need your promise that you'll do whatever you can to keep him safe. Can you help?" the redhead had blurted once Touka had put in her fifty yen on the Uchiha-menace.
To say Touka had been positively caught unawares was quite an understatement; and yet she had kept a straight face and had needed to quench her mistrust first, even if Mito was Hashirama-sama's wife. But if this really had been no ruse she would have found a strong ally in keeping Hashirama-sama and Tobirama safe...
So she had had to probe the matter.
"You want me to find and eliminate the traitors then?" she had concluded calmly. "You want to found a secret assassination squad, is this it? And you can't have our clan chief know about the infringement to his dream…" she had observed, then snorted. The whole situation had seemed so intriguing; and Mito Uzumaki obviously was a one of a kind Kunoichi, Touka had to give her that.
The bold suggestion had been brilliant, trailblazing...and completely in accordance with her own objective. She had inwardly applauded and she had wanted nothing more than to start this project right away. But would they be able to pull this off behind Touka's clan chief's and Mito's husband's back?
She had grabbed one of Tobirama's lemons and toyed with it in her hands, contemplating. Something needed to be done, that had been obvious.
"You're an interesting one, Mito-kun...and I agree for the need of what you suggest," she had to concede.
In this very instant the decision had been made; and just to spite the doubt of the revolutionary she had bit into the fruit without even flinching and chewed on its juicy content throwing the accursed lemon away later during the conversation.
"You're a formidable Kunoichi yourself, I see. Willing to play along as the diligent wife to your clan chief...and shadow conspiring behind his back without beating a lash," Touka had stated, stepped closer until they had been toe to toe; her chakra had flickered just that menacing bit in order to ensure she would not allow her clan chief and Tobirama to be harmed - not even by Hashirama-sama's wife.
Then she had held out her hand to seal their secret pact. "I like it. I'm game, Mito-kun," she had smiled shrewdly and happily. "This is what our clan and this village really needs. Let's give those traitors and our enemies alike what they deserve...let's fight the shadow war!"
Once the burning embers of the oven had done its deed Touka eked the finished handiworks out and placed them back on her worktop so they could cool off. In the meantime she prepared a discreet gift box with a scroll inscribed with a list of four names, encrypted directive propositions and a brief flowernote of iris, agrimonia eupatoria and cornflower.
Then she looked at the neat line of white fictile masks painted with different distinct floral patterns each: a white magnolia, green stinging nettles, an orange and yellow marigold, deep green ivy leaves, a twirly vine of indigo convolvolus, a tuft of crimson foxglove. Touka nodded contented.
She reached for the first one and placed the magnolia mask carefully inside the box, meticulously sealed the gift and attached a stinging nettle on top, certain Mito wouldn't think about the meaning but know who this package was from.
Touka was back from swiftly dropping it off for Mito to find it in her palace just in time for Kanoko Nara, Rinshi Akimichi, Inoko Yamanaka and Chiyo to arrive at her quarters like she had summoned them. Standing in front of her worktop, where the other four masks laid in wait, she grimly faced the slightly confused and excited quartett of Kunoichi. This was the first time the warrior had called them forth after all instead of them coming on their own volition.
"Ladies, since you all know by now that war is coming" the newly appointed commander of a secret assassination squad in the making grinned somberly and locked eyes with each of them, "I have a special proposition for you inquisitive Kunoichi, which I know you all will accept...and we have lots of work to do, today!"
