Chapter 7
Beta'd by Black Sparrow
When Shiori arrived at the address no one else was in sight yet and she took the time to check the location of the clan compound and the street it was in. From the mangas Shiori knew that a small stripe of buildings along the outside wall hadn't been destroyed during Pein's attack. With any luck the Inoue compound was outside the blast radius and the house would be still intact after the attack, which was another reason to stay in Konoha.
Shiori wasn't even waiting for five minutes when a chunin team popped out of nowhere in front of her. The leader caught the basket that she nearly dropped and apologized sheepishly, which Shiori promptly waved away and laughingly said that they just caught her by surprise.
"Shi-Shiori-san right?" asked the brunette chunin unsurely on her left.
Shiori took a closer look and then smiled at the older man. "Izumo-san, it is nice to see you again. It has been nearly four years."
Said chunin blushed after Shiori smiled at him, before he scratched his head and asked, "Yes, so what have you done since then?"
Shiori's smile dimmed a bit when she said, "I worked for Inoue-san as a housekeeper, she died only two weeks ago."
Izumo could have hit himself; he had made her sad. "My condolences."
"Thank you." Shiori just nodded with a shaky smile.
The team leader coughed and Shiori's attention went back to his form, he looked around thirty years old and had an eye patch over his left eye. "My name is Akame Iwana. These are Kamizuki Izumo, Hayase and Okei. You asked for a team to take a look at this compound?"
"Yes Akame-san, thank you for coming. My name is Inoue Shiori, my employer Inoue Mariko-san, was a kunoichi of the leaf and left everything to me. She cautioned me to hire a team to disengage the traps she had put up."
"We understand, thank you. Do you by any chance know what rank she held?" asked Akame-san.
"She was a Jounin that fought during the first and the second shinobi war," Shiori answered slightly confused.
The chunin looked at each other and sighed, before Akame-san turned once more to Shiori. "Inoue-san, war veterans are known to be notoriously paranoid, we would feel better if you stayed as far as possible away from the house until we have found all the traps."
Shiori nodded and after the chunin team had checked over a part of the lawn, the sixteen year old sat down on her picnic blanket and started to do some light reading. She could hear the clashes of metal on metal as well as the curses of the ninja that worked themselves through the three normal sized houses between the front gate and the main house and then the dojo. They returned to her picnic blanket two hours after the start slightly battered to take a breather from the flying kunai and senbon.
Shiori promptly invited them to sit with her and drink some tea and eat some sweets. At first the Chunin were slightly unsure what to do with the snacks they had never seen before but when Izumo bravely took a bite and promptly dug into his piece the rest followed suit. What followed was round after round of compliments that turned Shiori's face into a tomato.
"Inoue-san, these snacks are delicious! Where did you find the recipe?" a smiling Okei asked.
Shiori returned his smile and said, "I like to experiment Okei-san, believe me it took me quite a while to receive these results." At the last part she giggled while she thought back at her first attempts.
"Are you going to open your own restaurant? Because I know these would be a hit with Konoha's population, especially the girls," the chunin continued to say.
Shiori smiled. "Not a restaurant per se, but I would like to open a tea house. So you like them? I'm glad."
Izumo watched Shiori while she talked to his team mates. She had flourished since she had come to Konoha, her beauty was even more radiant and she seemed to have lost some of her shyness.
Shiori who had noticed Izumo's gaze, asked curious, "Kamizuki-san is something wrong?"
"No, don't mind me I just thought how much you changed since you arrived four years ago; you were pretty shy and skittish at that time," Izumo explained.
"Yes well, on my trip to Konoha I was warned to be cautious around male adults and while your friend Kotetsu-san wasn't in anyway pushy I was still somewhat wary." This time Shiori looked embarrassed onto her hands that were folded in her lap.
"Sensible, that's what it was." Akame-san snorted before he continued, "How old were you when you came to Konoha if I may ask the reason?"
The smile Shiori gave the eldest of the round was slightly forced. "I was twelve at that time. I had just lost my family shortly before and then a wealthy farmer of the neighbor village wanted to marry me. I…I didn't know what to else to do, so I sold my parents land and vanished as fast as possible."
Around her the shinobi raised their eyebrows and thought that the young woman in front of them was very lucky to have escaped her fate. They knew from stories that in the countryside such marriages were still common practice; nevertheless it was something different to hear from such an occurrence directly from one of the few who had escaped it.
Hayase, who had given his piece of cake his whole attention looked now up and said, "Well it seems as if luck is now on your side, you have inherited a nice place to live and can make your dream reality."
"Yes." Shiori's smiled became bigger once more. "You are right."
Akame-san nodded before he said, "Well then, let's continue our work."
The other Chunin sighed and threw wistful glances at the bento box that was still full with sweets. Shiori noticed their gazes and promised under giggles that they could take the cake home with them. So while the Chunin were back at springing traps and disengaging them Shiori laid down once more with her book, a content smile sneaked on her face while her plan to open up a tea house started to take form. Sometime after half past five the Chunin were finally finished and Shiori walked cautiously into the main house to inspect the damage.
The main house was a rectangular building with an inner courtyard and two stories high. The damage was thankfully not as bad as Shiori had feared. The bordered up windows and doors had prevented the worst damage to the interior. Though after a quick appraisal Shiori found enough issues that it would take some time to fix the house up, as a whole it hadn't been maintained for more than twenty years so now the roof was damaged and all of the tatami mats had to be renewed completely. Furthermore Shiori would need a complete new kitchen; the old one was nearly thirty years out of date and still had a wood stove.
The black haired teenager liked what she saw as she walked through the halls of her potential home but the moment she wandered into the courtyard she really fell in love with the house. There was a coy pond without any fish in it and overgrown flowerbeds as well as an old weeping willow. A happy sigh escaped Shiori while she looked around some more, the second floor of the main house held the master bed room and ten more rooms. It didn't look like the integrity of the building was in any danger so Shiori made a mental note to hire Genin teams to clean up and repair the minor damages.
Happy with what she had found Shiori skipped back out and beamed up at the taller shinobi while she thanked them for their assistance, completely absorbed in her thoughts Shiori missed the effect her smile had on the males. Even Akame and Okei who had thought they had gotten somewhat used to her beauty, blushed bright red and felt embarrassed and proud at the same time, it wasn't that often that they got to work for such a pretty and polite client. As promised Shiori handed over the last pieces of cake before she skipped back home.
In the next four weeks Shiori hired three Genin teams who repaired the roofs, cleaned up the overgrown courtyard and the lawn area, removed the dust and debris out of the houses and painted the walls freshly inside and outside before Shiori closed them up again she didn't need them after all. Afterwards Shiori sent the Genins into the woods that belonged to the property and had the Genin collect the fallen branches and twigs as well as cutting the trees that had fallen over into sizeable blocks for fire wood.
A civilian professional checked the central heating that had been installed into the main building and attested that it was in a good condition, the pipes ran under the floors and through the walls and would keep the whole main house warm in the winter. Another civilian company connected the main house to Konoha's electricity network and after that the carpenter assembled the new kitchen for Shiori and a second company renovated or rather ripped out the two already existing bathrooms on the first floor and installed another three on the second floor, meanwhile the ten smaller bedrooms were also turned into six bigger ones.
At the end of the month, perfectly timed to the end of Inoue-san's renting contract, Shiori hired another Genin team to carry and assemble her furniture from the shops as well as Inoue-san's and her own apartment. Shiori had spent the time her house was being fixed up looking through catalogs and checking out furniture shops all over Konoha. The Genin were a big help because they could carry things more than a few times their body size and were also a lot faster than any civilian adults. And so Shiori just told them where to put which piece of furniture or group of moving boxed before she dismissed them. As nice as the young Genin were she didn't particular like the idea of somebody knowing exactly about the content of her moving boxes and so the black haired young woman spent the weekend unpacking her and Inoue-san's stuff into her new home.
Especially Inoue-san's jutsu scrolls and sealing books were handled with care and repacked into a separate container before they were moved up into the attic, after all Shiori didn't need them but the black haired woman also didn't want to get rid of them. Inoue's books on the other hand were placed into the room Shiori had designated the library. The Genin had done a great job in fitting the bookshelves together so that a cozy atmosphere was created. The room was adjacent to of the kitchen and had a tiled bench alongside one wall that was kept warm through the central heating system, beside the bench the room also contained two big armchairs, a couch and small side tables.
During the renovation Shiori had changed her mind concerning the flooring and now had parquet throughout most of the house. The only exception was the traditional tea room which now held new tatami mats as well as the thoroughly cleaned traditional tea ceremony tools that Shiori had found in the attic. In the end the parquet floor had turned out to be not only the sturdier choice but also the cheaper one, after all they were living in Konoha, there was an abundance of wood available to its citizens.
The kitchen was Shiori's favorite room in the house, the young woman had been a fan of open concept since she had seen Eliza's old apartment in her dreams and now that she had the choice Shiori had let it be done in her own home.
For this the blue eyed female had chosen light grey granite kitchen countertops while the kitchen furniture was crafted out of a dark red cherry wood. The kitchen isle that stood at the transition to the living room also had a breakfast bar with four bar chairs in silver and black. Her new appliances fit seamlessly into the color scheme thanks to all the shiny silver surfaces.
The rest of the big room contained a sitting area near the center consisting of a large brown corner sofa out of leather with matching brown leather armchairs and a glass coffee table on a light brown carpet. The civilian situated some potted plants alongside the walls while a solid wood table with six seats had been place in one corner of the room. Beside it was a display cabinet situated that showed the beautiful chinaware Shiori also had found in the attic. The black haired woman had discovered the fifty pieces strong set in her second week of exploring. The delicate and beautiful pattern had endeared it to her instantly and so she had decided to show cast fifteen sets in the living room, alongside with various serving dishes of the set. The rest of it was washed carefully before it was put back into the attic, like this it was easily on hand should she ever have more guests. For her day to day meals Shiori had decided to use the simple plates Inoue-san had used in her flat, her own china had been sold at a second hand shop.
To be honest Shiori had sold most of her belongings before moving to the Inoue compound. The only things she had kept were her clothes and some of the baking utensils she used to make western styled desserts. Furthermore most of her house furniture was either newly bought or taken from Inoue-san's belongings.
The main entrance was aligned with the compound gates and it opened into an anteroom where two cupboards for shoes and slippers were situated to hold foot wear. The room itself had four doors, the entrance door from outside the compound, the door that lead to the courtyard that was directly across the main entrance as well as two doors in the remaining walls leading further into the house. The right door led into a spacious traditional tea ceremony room with appropriate furniture and utensils. Through left side door on the other hand you walked into the staircase which led up to the second floor as well as the cellar. In the corner of this room was also one of the two baths of the first floor integrated. The room following the staircase was the living room with the open kitchen. It was the biggest room in the house and the wall leading to the courtyard was completely made out of floor length glass panels with a sliding door in one of them. The room that connected next contained the library, followed by an empty room that contained the door to the back yard, Shiori was still unsure what to do with and so the young woman left it alone for now. The last room in this circle was a guest room with an en suite. This room contained a simple but comfortable bed with a wardrobe as well as a desk and chair combo in front of the window looking over the courtyard, Shiori felt prudent to at least have one even if she was unsure who would use it.
On the second floor Shiori had left nearly all rooms unfurnished, only the Master bedroom with its en suite and the two other bathrooms on the floor were fully equipped. The Master bedroom was situated conveniently right beside the stairs for easy access. Because Shiori had slept most of her life on the floor she had taken extra care in choosing a king size bed for the Master bedroom. Furthermore her new bedroom contained a walk in closet. The en suite was equipped with a Jacuzzi bathtub alongside an extra shower, a toilet and two basins. Shiori had enjoyed indulging herself like this at the public bath and deemed it a worthy investment. Her bedding was in a light green color with white and dark green blades of grass scattered over the cover and cushions. On both sides of her bed were small side tables that held bedside lamps and on Shiori's side an alarm clock. There was also a little dresser along the outside wall of the bathroom which only contained Shiori's jade comb and a nice pair of pearl earrings Inoue-san had given her as a sixteenth birthday present.
Shiori was content with the momentary state of her house, it didn't feel completely empty anymore and she was sure that she would find a way to fill the other rooms with time. The following two weeks Shiori spent in the garden behind her house where she replanted her cinnamon tree and also started a small vegetable and herb garden. Her former lifestyle as poor farmer daughter had taught her to always have a backup food source just in case and getting rid of such an ingrained habit now that her situation was secure was a lot harder than the civilian had thought it would be.
For said garden Shiori also purchased a plethora on garden tools, which in the end led to her filling the last empty room on the ground floor. Because she didn't have a garden shed Shiori hired another Genin team to set up some more shelves in the empty room that led to the back yard for said tools before she converted another corner of the room into a work area which contained her storage place for her tea leaves and experiments.
The courtyard was also cleaned up by those Genin and Shiori bought Koi fish for the pond and spent quite a few hours trimming the old weeping willow into an acceptable state. After finishing with the courtyard the black haired young woman started to spend her evening on the patio in one of her new lawn chairs while she enjoyed the fresh breeze that came with the night, unlike Kawa Konoha was unbearably hot and humid in midsummer.