After my friends left, it was hard walking back alone from school. I would have to pass by the old construction site and the painting Z and I had made. I couldn't even eat chocolate without feeling sad.
I was moping over a bowl of ramen noodles, Jonathan and Maria patting my back, when Otoha came back to the apartment.
She looked bothered by something.
I was about to ask her what's wrong, but then pouted and went back to poking my noodles. It was Otoha. Even if there was something wrong, she'd just tell me to mind my own business or ignore me. We'd barely spoken a word to each other since our fight.
So I was surprised when she spoke then.
"About that boy." She gritted her teeth.
I stiffened.
"I've noticed you're spending nights at his hotel. If you absolutely must, just… just bring him here." she said, defeated. "I'm not going to attack him."
Otoha thought I'd be happy she was making peace. She didn't expect me to burst out crying.
"The boy is gone," Maria told Otoha gently, rubbing my back.
"What?"
"He was just an exchange student," Jonathan explained.
"You chose a boy that was only going to be here for a month?!" Otoha demanded.
She threw her arms up, like she couldn't believe she had wasted her time on this.
She stiffened when I sobbed louder, throwing myself into Jonasan's arms.
"I miss him! I miss all of them!"
Jonasan patted me.
"We know, we know," he said.
"Poor child," Maria said sympathetically.
"For heaven's sake, you knew that boy for a month," Otoha said, pulling open the cabinet. "Just drink some choco—"
Jonathan and Maria and even the cat tried to warn her. It was too late.
I wailed.
.
Two days later, I was coming back from weekend groceries when I found Otoha waiting for me at our apartment table.
She had something for me. It was a book.
"Eh? Thanks?" I took it, not expecting a sudden gift. I flipped through some of the pages.
"You don't…" Otoha struggled. She closed her eyes and tried again after a deep sigh. "You don't need the boy."
I blinked. "Which boy?"
Otoha closed her mouth.
She looked ready to hop over the table and strangle me.
I laughed. I was messing with her.
My heart was warmed that Otoha cared for me. She even went out of her way to find something to cheer me up.
The book looked like a good story. Fiiru might like it. He was at the age where he should be learning to read. Everyone had been trying to teach him, but it was hard without anything fun to read from.
Maybe Jonasan could help Fiiru read it, as the rest of us listened along at the campsite.
"Oh, by the way, Otoha," I said, unloading the groceries. "Have you picked up the mail by any chance?"
It felt like forever since I heard anything from my family.
Otoha remembered.
She stood up and got out a big stack of letters.
All of them were from my dad, except one, which was from Tamaki.
I was surprised there wasn't any from Aunt Mikoto, or Shisui, or even Michio, even though it had been a while since my last letters to each of them. Itachi never wrote back either, I thought glumly.
Putting the groceries aside, I opened my dad's letters one by one. They were all the same, just his daily hellos and I love you's, telling me what he ate, how work was, how Doku was doing, what new spring bird or alley cat he saw that day. He'd also ask how I was eating, how my dance was, if I liked my new friends. At the bottom were his hugs and hopes to see me.
Then I opened Tamaki's letter.
Once I finished, I looked up at Otoha.
"Otoha?"
"What?"
"Do you think I should go back?"
"Back where?"
"Go back to Konoha."
It was only a two day trip. I didn't even need to get my hands on any money to join a wagon ride. I could walk. Heck, I could run.
"You haven't been here more than two months and you already want to go back?" Otoha deadpanned.
"Yes," I said. "I miss my family."
Otoha stared at me, but I wasn't fazed. I didn't look embarrassed.
"And school?"
I shrugged. "I'm their best student. I'd already won them the Expo. My teachers should be okay with me taking a week off."
Even if they weren't okay, I wouldn't care. It was just dance. They could expel me if it made them happy.
I kept an innocent face.
Otoha was starting to get annoyed. "Don't be an idiot. Did you completely forget about that performance that you've been whining at us to come see? Your dad is coming up for that, isn't he?" She went back to her own book. "You miss him so badly, you can see him then."
I said family. She said dad.
So Otoha knew my clan wasn't coming to the Royal Spring Performance. What else did she know?
Quietly, I looked back down at my dad's letters.
About three weeks ago, the letters had changed. At the bottom was no longer, 'Can't wait to see you at the performance.' It was, 'Hope to see you soon.'
My dad might not be coming either.
Dated three weeks ago was also Tamaki's letter.
I looked back at Otoha, who was fully reading now, conversation done.
"Fine," I said, pouting. I went back to putting groceries in the fridge.
Otoha untensed.
Once I was done, I waved to Otoha at the door. "I'm off to the camp!"
.
Hi Ayae!
Hope everything's going well! I never heard back from my previous letter so I assume it got lost in the mailing system.
Anyway, I just heard some horrible news. You know my crush on the cute senior class rep, the one I wrote a love letter to in second grade? Apparently, the rumors are true: he DID kiss a boy. Am I that much of an undesirable, that he'll kiss a boy before me?
Ugh, I wish you were here so bad right now. I'm so confused about what to do.
Love,
Tamaki
.
I hadn't lied. I did intend to go to the camp. I just needed to make a quick stop at the post office.
"Ah, yes, there is a letter. Takahashi, 106E. Here you go, miss!"
"Thank you!" I said, taking the mail from the postal clerk.
.
Dear Doctor Takahashi,
We need your help on something that is confounding us right now. One of the rabbits at our clinic recently died of a mysterious illness, and we're uncertain if it may be a disease that would affect the rest of the brood, or transmit across species. Just the day prior, it had been healthy. The owner is, understandably, very upset by this news.
I apologize for disturbing you on your vacation, but given the time sensitivity on this matter, your presence would be greatly appreciated. We don't anticipate you'll have any difficulty gaining entry to our village, but please request our clan if you do.
With respect,
Hana
.
"You're leaving? Now?" Maria asked, confused.
I dropped off the basket with all the rest of everyone's groceries. "Yes, do you know the best way to leave the city?"
"Where do you need to go?" Maria asked.
"Will you be back for your birthday?" Saimon asked seriously.
"Saimon," Jonasan said.
"It's her thirteenth, Jonasan! We'll need to prepare for the feast!"
I sweated as everyone talked all at once. Fiiru came and hugged me.
"You're leaving?" he whined.
"I'll be back," I assured. I handed him Otoha's book. "Here, a gift!"
His eyes widened.
"Won't you read it for me when I get back?" I asked him, smiling.
Fiiru nodded excitedly.
My camp family was very supportive. They told me all the information they knew about the city's trade district. As long as I talked to the people they mentioned and followed the right merchant wagon out of the city, I'd get wherever I needed to go, no problem. They even packed me some dried food for my journey.
Unfortunately, I didn't get very far.
I had barely made it to the merchant center when my instinct went on high alert. There was someone following me, but I couldn't tell who or from where.
It wasn't until it was too late that I realized whoever they were, they were ninja.
I didn't even feel the blow coming.
.
I woke up groggy.
Well, this was bad. And I had been so good about the not-getting-kidnapped part.
To my confusion, I was looking at the ceiling of my studio apartment. I was back in my own bed.
When I turned my head, I groaned.
"You're a ninja?!" My head fell back on my pillow. I should have known.
"No," Otoha said, not looking up from her book. "Not any more than you are."
She caught me by the ankle before I could leap out the window.
"Let me go!"
"No."
"Why do you care if I go back home or not!"
Otoha snorted. "I don't."
"Then let me go!"
"Can't. Orders."
My eyes widened.
I glared.
"Someone hired you to trap me here? Look, I don't know what kind of revenge you want on Tomoe, but you must have a death wish if you think you can mess with my clan."
Otoha didn't look very scared.
And that was when everything came together. Everyone pushing me to leave. Otoha suddenly getting fired. Itachi refusing to write.
"My clan? My clan sent you?" I shrieked. "You've still been working for her all this time?!"
No wonder Otoha had been acting as my babysitter. She was!
Otoha threw me down on the floor.
I crawled back up.
"What the hell is going on?!"
Otoha wondered if she should tell me.
She decided it was too much of a hassle to keep it a secret anymore.
"Your clan is conducting important business. They decided it's best if you don't end up getting in their way and becoming an unwelcome liability."
"What business?"
Otoha shrugged. "Confidential. Don't think too much. Best case scenario, they finish quickly and you can go back in a few months."
"Worst case?"
Otoha became unreadable.
From a drawer, she pulled out a big envelope. She threw it at me.
Inside were important personal papers, complete with stamps and passports. I had seen these family photos before, in a forest some years ago. They had been taken from deep inside my bedroom desk drawer.
"You die, and your teacher finds another dancer to take your place."
Shakingly, I pulled out the birth certificate. Makkuro.
My head spun.
No…
No, no, no.
Whatever weird prank Otoha was pulling right now, I didn't like it. Faking your own death was some real ninja shenanigans. Excuse me, but I was no ninja.
"I'm going back," I said. "I'm going to see my dad and Aunt Mikoto."
"Lady Tomoe had made it very clear there's only one condition under which that'll happen."
"And what's that!"
Otoha had this look of, do you really need me to spell it out.
She didn't. Sasuke had already done that before I had left. If I wanted back in my clan, I had to be stronger than Tomoe. Stronger than the strongest of the Uchiha.
… yeah, screw that.
I didn't have time for dumbass tests, as I threw the passport papers out the window.
Cursing, Otoha grabbed it. I used the chance to bolt for the door, only to slam straight into a solid body.
I looked up.
It was a woman. Her face looked familiar.
It wasn't until I tried to escape her that I realized it was impossible. She, not Otoha, was the ninja who had been following me in the merchant center.
It was no use trying to fight her either.
It was no use getting out of the city at all. As I was dropped back on my bed like a misbehaving kitten, I realized where I had seen this woman before.
She was a maid of Miyako.
Leave it to Tomoe to have trained all her maids as kunoichi.
And of course she'd have an army of them, all now residing at the Fire Capital with exactly one order:
Keeping me here.
