The man that walked through the door laid eyes on Rei the moment that he entered. He was a stringy middle-aged man who looked as if he suddenly wanted nothing more than to be elsewhere. "Oh my," he exclaimed quietly. "The master didn't mention that he was having guests."
He rushed to her side, and Rei could tell immediately that he didn't mean her any harm. He reminded her of a panicked bird, flitting from here to there with no real purpose. After a few moments of indecision, he asked permission to help her to the living area.
She stuttered out a yes and let him take her hand. No one had ever asked for permission to touch her before.
The couch in the living room was softer than anything she'd ever rested on, and the man raced away to light the fireplace. The room filled with a comfortable warmth, and Rei felt her eyes closing of their own volition. She'd nearly dozed off when the man let out a startled cry and appeared back at her side.
"Miss, what has happened to your neck?" He seemed to be putting puzzle pieces together in his head for a moment before a look of absolute horror overtook his expression. "The… young master didn't do this?"
Rei blinked at him for a moment, unsure of what he was talking about. "Oh! No, he was helping me."
Obvious relief. "Miss, I am sure that the master would insist that you reside in one of the guest rooms for the night. Please allow me to prepare one for you."
Rei was tired of making decisions for the day. Her body, mind, emotions, and spirit were all exhausted. "Fine."
The man made to rush away again, but first he stopped by the kitchen and delved into a cabinet. After a bit of rummaging, he pulled out a tin of butter cookies. "Please help yourself." He deposited the tin her lap and disappeared down a hallway.
What was even going on anymore?
Rei nibbled timidly on a cookie, checking over and over that she wasn't dropping any crumbs. This sofa cost more than her whole life, she was sure. Her mind was growing increasingly fuzzy. The only sensation that seemed to belong in the spotlight at the moment was pain. Her neck throbbed, and she feared what she would see when she next looked in the mirror.
"Miss, if you would follow me?"
Rei didn't sense any chakra at all from the skinny man as she traveled the hallway behind him. Not only was he definitely not Shinobi, but he probably didn't have a developed chakra network. That would be unusual for the Mist Village.
He handed her a linen parcel as he gestured to an open door. "In here, you'll find the necessities for a lady. There is a connecting restroom off to the right. Would you like me to arrange a wake-up call for you?"
Rei shook her head wearily, hugged the parcel to her chest, and barely made it to the bed before collapsing. The man, whose name she hadn't even asked, wished her a good night and shut the door gently.
When Rei slowly rose back to consciousness, it was full dark, and she didn't make a move before she assessed her surroundings. There was no sound save for the quiet rasp of her breath and the beating of her heart deep in her ears. Her arms were folded underneath her, wrapped around a solid object, and it took to a few agonizingly tingly moments for her deadened fingers to determine what that object was.
Oh, right. She was at Utakata's house. That knowledge didn't quiet the pounding of her heart, but she still needed to get up and get into the bathroom immediately. She couldn't see anything but the dull outline of furniture around her, but she managed to find the connected bathroom after only stubbing her toe one time.
She blinked in the harsh light of the bathroom, no longer surprised to be faced with opulence. She didn't bother looking in the silver framed mirror until she had taken care of her body's basic needs, and she was pleased to discover soap, shampoo, fresh underthings in roughly her size, and sanitary napkins in her parcel. She set the light nightgown aside.
As she was toweling her hair dry, she finally caught sight of her reflection. The mark on her neck wasn't dark purple like she had feared, but it was still visible, pale red, and very obviously the evidence that she'd been restrained by a large hand.
She threw her uniform back on over the new underclothes, pocketing the sanitary napkins and her old underthings. She needed to get out of here and back to the safehouse. She didn't know exactly where it was, but if she could find the Headquarters Building, she could find her way from there.
The moment that she cracked the door to the guest room, she could feel several familiar chakra signatures, and she exhaled away the anxiety. Niko Sensei, Koichi, Utakata, and the skinny man were in the kitchen/living room, all of them holding steaming mugs, and they turned their heads all at once towards her when she exited the hallway.
Niko Sensei's eyes hardened and he looked down at the floor for a split second, then he immediately apologized. "I shouldn't have dropped my guard."
The unnamed man scurried over to a coffeepot and opened the cabinet above it to find another mug. "Shoda, don't bother," Utakata said from his place by the mantel across the room. "We're about to leave."
"Maybe," Koichi said from the couch. "What's Leo say?"
"He doesn't say anything; he's a dog." Utakata looked to Rei. "Sorry for rushing out like that. I'm glad to see that Shoda took care of you."
"Of course I did." The man known as Shoda offered a new mug of coffee to Rei, having ignored Utakata's instructions. It was black, so Rei took a sip, suppressed a wince, and used the cup to warm her hands. "I was certain that she wasn't a target, so I treated her like any guest of the house."
"Hey, come sit," Koichi said, scooting over. "It's like one in the morning, and you still look like you could fall over." He did a terrible job of pretending not to look at her neck as she took the spot next to him. She pulled her legs up on the couch and hugged her knees with one arm, resting her mug on her kneecaps, ensuring that her hair would fall around her shoulders and shield the marks from view.
Niko Sensei moved over to the window by the front door and pulled back the curtain an inch or two, peering out carefully. After a moment, he shook his head. "Leo's restless. Someone's lurking around. We're not going anywhere until morning."
Utakata turned to look out the window, hip resting against the stone fireplace, one arm still folded across his chest, mug in the other. "It's probably someone on my mother's payroll." When everyone but Shoda looked at him questioningly, he continued. "She's been trying to contact me for a few weeks, but I've been busy."
"Then just go out there and talk to them so we can go home," Koichi said. "I'm already sick of your house."
"No, thanks." Utakata took a leisurely sip of his coffee.
"Does she know what we're part of?" Rei's voice was quiet, and goosebumps pricked her skin when her teammate turned his eyes on her.
He didn't answer, but Niko Sensei did. "Utakata's family does not know about the foundation, and it would probably be the end of us if they found out." Utakata's gaze fell to the demure flames of the fireplace as Niko Sensei murmured, "They are cousins to the Mizukage, and they are sympathetic to him."
No one else looked surprised, so Rei kept any emotion from her face. Why would a wealthy noble's child seek out the ungrateful life of a Shinobi, and then plot to destroy his family's position? Utakata's face was completely closed off, allowing no insight into these questions, and Rei hugged her knees a little tighter.
"What's keeping them from just coming in?" Koichi asked. "It's officially your mom's house, isn't it?"
Utakata motioned at the front door with his mug. "Wards. A more informal version of what Headmaster Iwa has at the bunker. It's worked so far."
"You're going to have to face them sooner or later." Niko Sensei peeked out the window once more. "They're liable to abduct you if you don't willingly speak to them. Your mother has more than enough influence to accomplish that."
It took all of Rei's concentration to keep her mind from boiling into overpowering anxiety. Shoda hadn't stopped moving since Rei had entered the room. Even in the moments when he had no task to complete, he was wringing his hands or pacing from one end of the room to the other. "He's right about that, sir. The Madam doesn't like to be kept waiting, not at all."
"Believe me, I know. I've lived with her." Utakata joined Niko Sensei at the window for half a second before turning away and moving into the kitchen to dispose of his cup in the sink. "But I'm not going out there in the middle of the night."
"So I've got to spend the night in your overdone, ugly house?"
"Yes." Niko Sensei smacked the back of Koichi's head. "We appreciate that Utakata isn't going to throw you out into the street to be harassed by his mother's thugs."
While Koichi continued to complain, Rei shut her eyes and focused on the heat seeping through the porcelain mug and into her fingers. With a quick mental assessment, she confirmed that the wall trapping her ability was still intact and strong. She hadn't used it on Zane Sensei, but she had no idea what a real violent encounter would do to her barriers.