Warnings: None. If bugs crawling in/on skin bothers you, you are reading the wrong story my friend.
Eran's first month working for Osamu had him being cooped up in the house. He expected to immediately start helping with more field work variety, but the old man would only gesture at his flimsy body before shutting the door in his face.
A basket laden with various kinds of scrap wood was provided along with a leather roll up of some second hand carving tools. Eran spent that month at the irori carving a new set of cutlery and dishware. The end of every week he would find his basket to be filled up again.
Riko would always be sleeping in a hand woven basket beside him while he worked. He would occasionally look up to check on her, and sometimes he would see her mouth open with a cry. When she cried just a little too long, or she was more frustrated in that moment, it would cause little green twigs to sprout out of the weavings. He would quickly pluck them off and toss them into the hearth.
...
By the end of the first month, Osamu brought in some custom orders for tools.
Into the second month when he wasn't working orders, he grew bored being cooped up, so he started chiseling various kinds of botony into the different wood workings of the house. Mostly door frames and window sills in the beginning, but when those were done and decked out, he got his hands on what furniture they had.
Close to the third month, Osamu yanked the boy away from a table leg he was working on to push him off onto Heiya. The mother 'next acre' with the two littles and a toddler.
She would come by with the daily jars of breastmilk and to breast feed Riko. When she couldn't make it over, she would send her eldest over to drop off the jars of hand expressed milk.
Osamu patted the fat that was returning to Eran and wrote a note that he was able to start paying back Heiya for her help.
Eran was glad for the new work, and the refreshing walk in the early morning when he made his way over with Riko strapped to his back.
Eran hated the majority of people, but he would always enjoy the littles. Children generally liked to hang around him cause he was easy to 'talk at' and he always gave them constant visual attention. He often would get shaken or tapped aggressively on the shoulder/hip to look over at the next sick move they wanted to show him.
Yuuto and Ryu were just like the kids from his home. They recognized him on the first day he came over to help out. They were so ecstatic when they opened the door, they looked around for Riko and tried to scale his legs to look at her.
When Eran waddled in to look around for Heiya, she was quick to appear and dump her baby into his arms and immediately head towards the opposite corner of the house to pass out.
Mei-Mei was older than Riko. He couldn't guess her age, but knew she had to be under a year old as she wasn't completely mobile on her own yet.
When he lay her on the floor with Riko, she was able to pivot around towards Riko to slap at her little toes poking from her swaddle. He would later find the toddler sucking on his sister's toes. The little boys were rolling around the floor with laughter.
Eran spent his third month going over to the tired Heiya's house everyday to take over caring for the kids and do some cleaning. He also cleared up her garden and fixed some chicken wire around the hen box.
When he was to leave after having some dinner, he always made sure to refill the tincture that he always found empty in the tea chest. He filled it with a tea blend he relied on whenever he stayed up too late. It had dried chicory root in it. He liked to roast his before brewing to get the richer flavor.
...
Starting the fourth month, he would only help Heiya during weekdays and leave after lunch instead of dinner. The reason for the change was that Osamu had Eran start helping with the harvest.
Heiya was determined to help Eran by taking care of Riko while he worked with Osamu. He was want to let her, but Riko's aura was getting bigger. It was going to get difficult passing her bark off as eczema. He also couldn't imagine what to do if she had a fit and turned the house back into a small forest.
He pacified the mother by writing to ask if she could teach him to use a drop spindle. Her mouth was open in a large throaty laugh, then she patted his shoulder and gave a nod.
After his spinning lessons started, he would go to the forest on the weekends to gather up some bast fibers from the most invasive plant he could find.
In the night before bed he spent his time separating the fiber that he needed from the stems. When he had his fibers processed and separated into small batches, he moved over to his paper stash to sketch out some simple embroidery designs that he could make with the few stitches he knew.
The day Heiya determined him to be able to spin on his own, she sent him home with his own spindle -- a hand-me-down from her childhood -- and a pack of hand sewing needles.
His new nightly routine was done more carefully and later in the night when Osamu had gone to bed. As Eran spun the plant fibers, he would carefully incorporate his aura into it. A lot of his work at the start had to be tossed into the fire because of the learning curve it was to channel his aura consistently.
His sister's stiffening legs kept him motivated. With the growing anxiety and the increased lack of sleep he was getting, emotions in his gut and tear ducts made him tremble when he would glance at the slow growing thread on his spindle.
...
When Eran was finished with his first completed set of embroidered clothes for Riko, he cried his eyes out.
Osamu peaked into the room to check on him. Eran proudly showed off his work, shaking it in the air. Osamu gave a snort and a curved brow in response.
Riko was all dressed up in her newly decorated clothes when he dropped her off with Heiya before work. She was happy to finally take his sister off his hands. She even swatted him away and sent him back home with dinner when he came to pick her up.
He had the longest sleep he ever had that night.
Osamu let him sleep in the morning after too. When Eran greeted him with the sign for 'good morning' Osamu mimicked the sign back.
Eran cried his eyes out for the second time in front of the old man.
...
The fifth month Eran and Osamu had all the tea and herb leaves dried and packed into neat pouches tied off with hemp cord.
The first batch of pouches were stacked into towers on a wide cut cloth that was bundled up and tied to rest on Osamu's back. Eran held his share tied up on Osamu's old wood back carrier, and had Riko strapped to his front.
The old man led Eran down the road and into town.
Eran was picking at his knuckles when they got nearer and the foot traffic started to increase.
Before they were to pass under the main gate, Osamu looked over to Eran and took one of his hands into his. He steered Eran to walk along the far left side of a street way, and didn't let go until they reached a building where the corner was completely open with only a wall across the backside.
Wooden benches were lined from one wall to the next in an arch. Various bowls/baskets of ground and raw dried plants were placed, with some of them hanging from the ceiling hooks. Bookcases that lined the back walls and reached the ceiling held numerous shelves laden with an assortment of boxes with various colors and sizes. Each had a white note strip with kanji scribbled across.
The shop had a sour and earthy scent.
Osamu stepped up onto the raised ground interior and sat seiza before dropping his bundle to the side. Eran followed suit behind him but sat just right enough to look around his shoulder.
The pharmacist there was shoveling pouches into customer hands and shoving the exchanged en into his sleeve pouch. He took a quick glance at Osamu before rattling off instructions to the customers. Eran could only see his flapping hand and flying tongue. He was too hard to lip read, either from this angle or just in general. Maybe he was foreign, as Eran's eyes trailed back up to the interesting black mesh hat.
As soon as the customers left, the old pharmacist immediately plopped down before Osamu while fanning himself vigorously.
A conversation was being exchanged between the two, and Eran only refocused when the pharmacist dragged out a scale from under one of the benches. Each pouch was weighed, then signed, and finally placed in a large crate behind the fellow.
He passed over his stash when the bag was finished.
Finally some well used record books were pulled out between them and had the transactions added in. The pharmacist untied one string of coins from his belt and thumbed through them before passing it over. Along with a folded up paper.
A collective bow was exchanged.
When they stepped out, Osamu looked over the paper that turned out to be a list.
Osamu continued to lead Eran by the hand the whole time they navigated the market. Osamu purchased various clippings and little cloth sacks full of seeds from numerous stands before Riko signaled the time to head home.
Her cry vibrated against his chest. When he tried to soothe her, her head pulled out from under the strap and wailed up at him. Fat tears were squeezing out from her eyes.
He pulled her from the sling and cradled her head into his neck. Osamu tugged Eran along to the town entrance by his back carrier strap while he patted Riko's back.
He could feel her tears and saliva collect on his shoulder.
--
A ways down the street behind them, a group of figures dressed in matching full black clothing and woven bamboo hats that obscured the top portion of their faces stood somehow hidden among the weaving crowd.
One of their members was turned towards the wailing infant, seeming transfixed. Another shorter member leaned closer in,
"What is it" a voice chewed out.
"My hive is stirring.. they moved quicker with the increase of that child's cry. I can not tell if it is an excitement or that they are unsettled" the failure in the tall man's composure caused small insects to scurry across any patch of skin that was laid bare. I small soft humming could be heard if close enough.
"Whatever is happening will need to wait until after our mission. We will be passing back through again, and you can look into it then"
The group, all but the one swarmed in the increasingly disturbed insects, flickered away.
He stood alone, trying and failing to entice his swarm back underneath his skin.
He assumed the infant was far away enough when his insects finally returned.
He flickered away to join the others.
A/N:
This chapter is a bit short. I wanted to get something out since its been a while. This is also where the original hand written version ended anyways. The story will begin to link into Konoha towards the end of next chapter.