Author's Note: Sometimes, I have to wonder...why are you people still here?
On last chapter's question: I loved reading everyone's music recommendations. Some were songs I haven't listened to in years. Others were entirely new and now have a new home in my music library. My favorite suggestion has to be KyraReid's "Everything At Once" by Lenka. As soon as I read the lyrics, it was just all Takara.
Now here are my songs for this story and its characters: Especially when I first started writing it, I listened to a lot of Vienna Teng. Her second album Warm Strangers was inspiration for the first chapter's title. Her songs "Harbor" and "Unwritten Letter #1" resonate quite a bit with what I'm working with here.
Other songs include "I'll Keep You Safe" and "Two" by Sleeping At Last, "Wings" by Birdy, "All of Your Glory" by Broods, "Too Late to Lie" by The Night VI, "Please Don't Go" by Joel Adams, "Safe with Me" by Megan Nicole, "Cherry Cola" by Jon Kuwada, "Lovely" by Billie Eilish ft. Khalid, "Fire and Flood" by Vance Joy, "Let It Burn" by RED, "Compass" by Zella Day, "Lover to Lover", "Dog Days are Over", and definitely "Hiding" by Florence + The Machine, and "Unsteady" by X Ambassadors.
And of course, everyone has a Beyonce song. "Don't Hurt Yourself" is Takara's.
Curiosity and the Copycat
...a Naruto fanfiction story...
Curiosity and the Copycat © Mx. Irony
Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto
all songs mentioned © respective artists
Takara is a Bisexual Badass
chapter 11
Honey Bee
"The worker bees are all female and they do all the work for the hive. Workers perform the following tasks inside the hive as a House Bee: Cleaning, feeding the baby bees, feeding and taking care of the queen, packing pollen and nectar into cells, capping cells, building and repairing honeycombs, fanning to cool the hive and guarding the hive."
Ontario Beekeepers Association
"Alright, Kara-chan. Pop quiz."
"Another one, Ji-chan?"
"Yes, another one. Spending all that money on ya education, Imma see if that there school is worth its salt. Ya won't go nowhere anywhere if ya don't know the local economies." The way he pronounced "economy" came out "ee-cAH-na-MEHs". Her classmates, mostly sons of provincial merchants, would've sneered at Hinamori Nobuo with his worn shirts and half-shaved whiskers but that only showed their own ignorance. He was a better businessman with his elementary education than they would ever be with their university degrees.
"We covered that in class the other day, Ji-chan."
"Mmhmm. I betcha they covered the Land of Fire. Not Aomori."
Takara avoided eye contact, slowly closing her textbook.
Her uncle sunburnt face turned smug. "That's-a what I thought. Now let's see if ya been listening to yer old uncle, Miss College Girl. What are Aomori's biggest exports?"
"Fruit. Mostly apples, cherries, plums, peaches. Things that grow better here."
"Everyone knows that. What else?"
"...rice?" Takara made a face while she said it.
He deadpanned. "Ya can get rice anywhere. Think more local. What do people here like?"
"Tea and card games?"
"Come now, Kara-chan. You an Aomori girl, born and bred. What's our biggest problem?"
Takara's eyes lowered. "...alcohol."
"Right-o. And what is it yer uncle sells?"
"Saké."
"Exactly. Unlike them apples or cherries or tea or even rice, ain't ever be outta season. And good times or bad, even if no one ain't got any money, they always seem to find some for a drink."
"True," she muttered.
"Know why I'm tellin' ya this?"
"Why, Ji-chan?"
Nobuo gave her a meaningful look. "So ya know that wherever ya go, whatever business ya find yerself in, that ya know to look for what the locals want. What they need. Make yerself indispensable, ya hear? And don't look at me like all shocked and innocent, I know ya already planning yer escape outta here. Soon as ya's finished with that school, ya gone. Too smart fer this damned place. My little brother's in denial."
Takara cringed. "Ji-chan...please don't say anything. Not yet. I don't think he can handle it yet, not so soon after..."
Watching the way his niece rubbed at her shoulder again, the older man's expression softened. "It's been five years, honey."
She instantly put her hand down. Her spine straightened, eyebrows coming together. "I know that but still..."
"Kara-chan..."
"Please."
"Alright, alright. I promise."
"Thank you."
He scratched his chin, brown eyes serious. "Ya not a bad daughter for moving on, Kara-chan. Ya know that, right?"
"Sure."
"And it won't make ya a bad one for leavin' neither."
"..." Takara frowned, preoccupied with examining her textbook. Professional Communication Across the Great Nations.
"Kara."
She looked up.
"I don't know where ya going, Kara-chan, but I want'cha to promise me sumthin'."
"What?"
"You can go anywhere in the Five Great Nations. Anywhere. I know you'll be sumthin'. Ya a clever girl. Good head on yer shoulders, some common sense in there that ain't so common anymore. Ya get that from me. Ya got your mama's good looks and her fire both."
Takara grimaced at that.
Not noticing it, Nobuo continued. "And yer tough, too. Like a real born and bred Aomori gal. Ya also got that Hinamori will power that skipped a lotta ya cousins and that older brother of yours." He sniffed.
Takara flashed a look."Nobuo-ji-san."
"Yeah, yeah. Gotcha. Anyhoo. So I know that I probably don't need ta make ya promise anything but just in case..." His brown eyes darkened. "Promise...promise me ya won't go anywhere near those villages. Promise me."
Her hand went to her left shoulder again, feeling her heartbeat under her arm. Familar faces flashed through her mind, their names remembered but long unspoken. Gone. Gone for good. She would have sent a silent apology to them if she actually believed they could hear her.
"I promise."
"C'mere." Nobuo opened up his arms and wrapped them around the teenager's thin frame. Takara let herself sink into his embrace, returning it. She stared over his shoulder at the horizon where the sun set over the open field.
At the least, she could apologize to her uncle later.
Apologize for lying.
It was minutes after 4 a.m. when Takara got up from the futon. She raised her arms above her head in a long stretch and popped her neck. After rolling up her futon and folding the blankets, Takara went to the bathroom for her morning routine. As she finished brushing her teeth, she peered up at the mirror - now covered by a long pillow case rather than a towel. She spat into the sink, wiping her mouth, and - like a band-aid - snatched off the fabric.
Piercing green eyes stared back at her. They didn't even look like hers until she started recognizing the rest of her face, parts that were distinctly hers. Takara's. Still, every year, it seemed to become less and less her own. She scowled at the mirror.
Takara yanked a comb through her long hair, scalp to waist - dragging its teeth through the strands of orange. Enough to hurt. Once she disciplined her hair into a partially braided bun, she slipped into some clothes: long, light-colored pants; a worn, hand-me-down shirt with sleeves rolled to her elbows; and faded bandana over her head. She laced on a pair of old work boots and grabbed her backpack (lunch, water bottle, keys, passport - she double checked on the passport). Within thirty minutes of waking up, Takara was half down the first set of stairs.
In the neighboring apartment, Kakashi listened to the closing of the door. He shrugged on his flak vest before slipping out of the window.
The sun rose long after both of them.
Kakashi followed closely from the rooftops, cloaking his chakra as he did so. He watched Hinamori walk through the near empty streets where the few others awake shot her cold glares as she passed by. Hinamori made eye contact with every single one of them, offering pointed morning greetings to the closest ones like unspoken dares. Kakashi knew it was only a matter of time before a villager snapped. He tensed with each "good morning".
He paused when Hinamori reached the village gates and didn't stop. She briefly stopped at the open office, speaking with the guards on duty, and then went on her merry way - outside the village.
Well. This is unexpected.
Guard up, Kakashi took the trees as he continued his tail of Hinamori. The girl walked a few miles before the sun rose, lighting up her orange hair where it peeped out beneath the kerchief. She didn't once stop for breaks. A little over an hour after leaving the village, she went off the main road and on to a smaller side path.
Kakashi's eye narrowed slightly. What are you doing all the way out here, Hinamori?
More time passed. Morning sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows across Hinamori. She hummed quietly under her breath, a vaguely familiar song that Kakashi didn't quite know the words to. Surrounding trees tapered off until she passed through rice paddy fields and came to a small farmhouse. An older man sat on the front porch; he seemed in his late forties to early fifties. Kakashi observed from the forest as she approached the man and bowed politely. The distance made it impossible to hear what was being said. However, he could make out the man standing and returning Hinamori's bow. After a few minutes conversation, they shook hands. It wasn't long after that Hinamori was ankle deep in the muddy waters of the paddy fields, replanting rice strand by strand in neat rows, with a small group of people.
When they finished one field, she was in the vegetable garden pulling weeds.
After she cleared the beds of the last weed, Hinamori fed the goats.
Then she mucked the barn.
Then she fed the horses and the cows and the hens and the rabbits.
After all that - and only then - she broke for lunch and fed herself.
The afternoon followed a similar pattern, more tasks thrown in than before: spreading fertilizer, adding to the compost pile, bottle feeding the kids, chasing after one of said goats, collecting eggs from the hen house where she then found a hole and proceeded to repair said hole.
Kakashi had witnessed people in every sort of condition make the journey back to Konoha on their feet. Yet he was still slightly impressed that Hinamori made the same long walk back after all of that.
She made 1,115 ryo that day.
It was dark by the time Takara returned to the village and darker still when she got home. As soon as she entered the studio, she shucked off her boots and stripped herself of her pants. She just barely managed to roll out the futon before flopping down onto it face down. Five minutes in, she fell fast asleep. She stayed asleep throughout the entire night until her alarm clock went off at four a.m.
Then she did it all over again.
"Nee-chan, when's dinner gonna be ready?"
"Hirakkun, when's your homework gonna be done?" Takara asked without turning around from the stove. She stirred the ladle through the stew and watched the hearty broth boil.
"...I dunno."
"Funny. I don't know when your dinner's going to be ready either," the fourteen-year-old retorted.
Hiraku grimaced. "It's just history."
"History's important."
"Why? Everyone in it's dead."
"So's your grade."
"I have a B!"
"Mmmhmm." She sprinkled salt into the stew. "B as in 'Better work harder and get that A.'"
"I can't do all that work on an empty stomach."
Takara glanced over her shoulder, eyebrow raised. "That excuse isn't going to work when the teacher sends home the next report card."
"But Nee-chan!" he complained. "I'm starving."
Eyelids lowering, Takara turned back to the pot on the stove top. Nikujaga, an old family recipe. It was an old recipe brought from the Land of Fields where the farms were known for its cattle ranching. Filled with aromatic onions and homegrown snow peas, slices onions, carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms bobbed on the surface. The shirataki noodles were just added before Hiraku's nose lead him into the kitchen. Takara remembered the first time the beef stew was made after that one long, cold wnter shortly after trade was cut off when the bridge was destroyed.
"Little boy, you don't know what starving is."
From his lazy perch, Kakashi turned a page in his book as Hinamori plopped down in the tree's shade. He enjoyed his reading on that hot summer day while Hinamori (finally) rested after her employer, a local farmer named Tachibana Hanabusa, strongly insisted. She took the kerchief off her head and wiped down her forehead. Sweaty strands of her fringe stuck up every which way. "Phew..."
One of the younger farmhands walked up to her, offering her some rice balls which she politely rejected. "You certainly know your way around the farm, Hina-chan."
She laughed lightly. "Once you've been to one, you've been to most. And I've been on a lot of farms, Ohtori-san."
"You can use 'Kenji-kun', Hina-chan. We're the same age," he told her for - Kakashi mentally counted - the third time.
"But we don't know each other well, Ohtori-san," Hinamori retorted.
"Let's get to know each other then." The boy was nearly as tall as Hinamori but twice as gangly. When he sat down, it was more like an awkward pile of limbs on the reminded Kakashi of Hinamori in a lot of different way: they both asked a lot of questions. However, where Hinamori was annoying but earnest, the farmhand was only annoying. He asked his questions not because wanted to get to know her as Hinamori did; he had an objective. The way his eyes lingered gave Kakashi a hint.
Kakashi watched Hinamori sit up straighter.
"I heard from the other guys that you live up in Konohagakure. That's a walk right there. You must be so tired."
"Not really."
"You ever think you might want a ride?"
"I like the walk," Hinamori said bluntly, startling Ohtori. She sweetened her smile. "But the thought's very sweet."
Ohtori backpedaled. "Uh... So, I heard you moved here all the way from Aomori."
She tilted her head. "Yes, I did."
"How's it been in the village...with you know."
Kakashi arched an amused brow.
"With the new climate?" Hinamori asked innocently.
"Um, that too."
"That and what?"
"You know, the..." Kakashi wondered if he intentionally lowered his voice. "The shinobi."
Hinamori took a long drink of her water, delaying her response. She finished the bottle off with a contented sigh. "The weather hasn't been bad. Definitely some getting used to but the people there are super nice."
Ignoring the grocer that refused to sell to her yesterday evening and the dirty looks from most other villagers, Kakashi would have easily agreed with Hinamori on that. He wondered why she was acting deliberately obtuse however.
"Yeah, I guess... Some of them are okay," Ohtori said. "They're not real keen on outsiders, though, aren't they?"
That's one way of putting it. Kakashi still remembered the reproachful looks Kushina of all people got from Konoha's older, more conservative residents (well, until sensei became Hokage - no one wanted to be on the bad side of the Hokage's wife). Even coming from Uzushiogakure, Konoha's closest ally, Kushina was still branded an outsider. It was an unfortunate fault about his village, just one among many, but Kakashi attributed this more to the general wariness that shinobi life dictated rather than actual xenophobia.
That said, it didn't matter that Hinamori was from a prefecture from within the Land of Fire or how well she could accumulate to Konoha. An outsider was an outsider. Unless by some strange, laughable stroke of fate she herself also married a future Hokage, Hinamori would always have that against her.
Hinamori gave Ohtori a wry look. "Really?"
"Um, yeah."
"What makes you say that?"
Yes, Kenji-kun, Kakashi thought. What makes you say that?
"Just...stories I've heard. Strange stuff happens around here and I'm not saying it's because of ninja or anything but they're kinda well, secretive."
The corner of lip twitched. "Ninja, secretive?"
Kakashi rarely heard Hinamori use sarcasm but each time came as a delightful surprise. As amusing as that was, he made a mental note to look into the "strange stuff" Ohtori spoke of.
"You know what I mean!" the boy exclaimed, turning red in the face.
"Yeah, I know." Hinamori's expression gentled. "But really, it's fine."
Fine enough to get evicted.
"If you say so...what's it like?"
Kakashi lowered his book, dark eye focused Hinamori. Her expression distant, she stared out into the open rice paddies. The green in her eyes seemed lighter, reflecting the sunlight. "It's...like I imagined it and not."
Ohtori tilted his head. The ninja from said village above them listened attentively.
She turned to face him and smiled slightly, sincere. "But I like it."
"Huh... Why did you move there anyway?"
"Hmmm..." Hinamori tapped her bottom lip. "Well."
Kakashi leaned closer.
"I heard rumors that their dango is why shinobi protected the village so fiercely and you know what? They are absolutely right."
Kakashi sweatdropped.
"Uh...what?"
"The dango, Ohtori-san. The dango alone are worth it all."
Kakashi didn't slap his forehead. It just fell straight into his hand.
Hinamori sprang up, suddenly energetic. "Anyway, Tachibana-san mentioned something about needing new fencing on the east side of the property. Imma go take a look."
Kakashi sighed to himself. While this was definitely the easiest surveillance job he would ever have, it was by no means the most productive. For such a chatterbox, Hinamori was rather tight-lipped about her personal ambitions. Sometimes, it was hard to pin down a clear motive in the things she did. Her flippant response matched her ditzy outer personality, enough so that it'd fool anyone who took her at face value, but anyone who spoke with Hinamori enough one-on-one (or observed her from a comfortable distance) knew when she was just screwing with somebody.
Takara stood outside the bedroom silently. She breathed in slowly through her nose, shoulders rising, and then released. Raising a hand, she lightly tapped the door with her knuckles. "Tou-san?"
Silence.
Her heart skipped a beat.
"Tou-san?"
"Kara-chan?" a sleepy voice returned.
She sighed softly to herself. When she spoke, her voice was bright, chipper. "Dinner's ready!"
"Dinner?" The door swung open, revealing a bleary-eyed Hinamori Nobuyuki. His shirt hung loosely from his body; his pants were barely cinched to his thin waist with a belt. The growing stubble on his chin had progressed past the light five o'clock shadow, growing into a premature beard. His glasses were missing. "This early?"
Unphased, Takara gently corrected him. "It's past six, Tou-san."
"Six..." he mumbled. "P.M.?"
"Yes, Tou-san."
"I didn't realize that it... I'm sorry, Kara-chan. Where are the boys?"
"It's okay, Tou-san. You need your rest," Takara assured him. "Hota's just washing up and the boys are setting the table. You didn't keep anybody at all."
"But I shouldn't have... Never mind. Thank you for making dinner again, Kara-chan. But you shouldn't have to be doing all this."
"I told you it's fine, Tou-san. I don't mind."
Nobuyuki shook his head, distracted. It had been awhile since his last shower. He was barely awake as it was. "It's not fine," he muttered. "None of this is fine."
"Tou-san. Come on. Let's go eat dinner."
"I think it's time I called your aunt around again. See if she'll come by and help out..."
A knot formed in Takara's throat. "She - you don't have to bother her, Tou-san. Chores are taken care of. Everyone's done their homework. It's fine - we're fine. We're running everything fine. Oba-san doesn't need to come all the way up here again."
"Kara." His tone turned serious, stronger than it had been in a long while. A little more like his old self. "You're fourteen. You're not supposed to be 'running' anything. None of you are..."
Unable to outright argue, Takara swallowed. Her eyes started to sting.
"Now how about we go eat that wonderful dinner you worked so hard on? Afterward, you and your brothers can go play while I ring your aunt."
"Yes, Tou-san..." Looking at the floor, Takara put her hands behind her back to hide their shaking.
Since taking over her surveillance, Kakashi learned a great deal about Hinamori Takara: She was chakra sensitive. She wrote to at least one person back in Aomori every day, usually alternating between her immediate family, a "friend" named Yasano Rima, and a select few childhood friends. Shortly before she turned eighteen, she moved out of the Hinamori farm to live with her mother's sister for two years in Aomori's biggest village, Aya. There she attended a small college (the only college in Aomori prefecture), the first in her family, and was the first woman graduate from its business school.
Recently, Kakashi also discovered that Hinamori was a different person while she worked: She didn't ask questions or make much conversation. She hardly looked up from any assigned task, solely focused on her work. While she worked with the same group of farmhands every day for two weeks, she barely spoke with them outside of lunch breaks. She stuck out among the farmhands, many of them older men twice her age. The Ohtori boy continued trying to chat her up which Hinamori politely evaded. It was interesting to watch the same girl who badgered Kakashi for company weeks on end dodge someone else's advances.
That said, Kakashi had little doubt as for the cause of Hinamori's uncharacteristic aloofness. The man easily noticed the occasional leers from one or two of the workers that Hinamori undoubtedly felt. The girl could follow a trained assassin's at his heels with little concern for her well being but knew enough to avoid other strange men. Interesting was one word Kakashi might use to describe that.
He mused over this while Hinamori stacked hay, the hot summer day made hotter within the humid confines of the barn. Hair in a messy bun with straw sticking out, the usual kerchief was retied as a loose bow to keep sweat from running into her eyes. This did nothing for her shirt, perspiration soaking through the fabric. Even with her pant legs bunched up and sleeves rolled past her elbows, her face ruddied in the oppressive heat. Her arm muscles flexed with every swing of the pitchfork.
Before Kakashi saw Hinamori as awkward and clumsy, all sharp angles and no finesse, but there was confidence in her familiarity with the work here. Her long limbs weren't so much gangly but trim, sinewy rather than thin. Hinamori's strength was downplayed, hidden behind modest clothes and polite mannerisms - so much so it came as a surprise when she hefted and tossed bales of hay or carried an adult male down several stairs (which Saeko liked to bring up every time she saw him).
Hidden high in the barn's rafters, Kakashi regarded her. This Hinamori Takara, a walking contradiction. Honest but not open, earnest yet sly, kind while still being firm. She talked little about herself yet seemed to want to know everything about everyone. With an education in business, she could work near anywhere in the Land of Fire yet here she was laboring on someone else's land. It would be better, smarter, for her to cut her losses and move a bigger city - one that typically drew in young, ambitious people with quite frankly larger economies.
So, why? Why was she here? Why did she insist on staying in a village where she was resented? Given Aomori's own history with shinobi, why did she move to a Hidden village? Why did she keep trying to befriend him of all people when there were kinder, warmer neighbors in the building?
What did she want?
Kakashi knew some of the kindest, most selfless people and even they had objectives. Everyone had a goal, a dream, a reason - whatever the word, there was always a motive. And he couldn't pin down Hinamori's quite yet. She wanted to start a business in Konoha, that much was obvious from the business plans and extensive research found in her apartment. But what kind? Why here?
And oh, what did the Ohtori boy want?
"There you are, Hina-chan!"
Hinamori paused, muscles coiled and the pitchfork dangling mid air. Ohtori slowed his approach, giving her a thorough once over. It reminded Kakashi of the way men looked at kunoichi outside of the village, all too appreciative of their beauty but ignorant of their lethal strength; how kunoichi were immediately underestimated because of their gender.
Green eyes narrowing, Hinamori straightened and held the pitchfork like a staff by her side. She stood casually but Kakashi noted how her knuckles whitened where she gripped the pitchfork. Again, he thought of his comrades - how underestimating them always ended up being opponents' last mistake.
"Where else would I be at work, Ohtori-san?"
"What?"
"Hi-ya, Ohtori-san! What brings ya over my way?" She smiled brightly. Kakashi recognized this one as her "Fuck off, I'm busy" smile.
"I'm about to go on break, wanted to know if you wanted to join," Ohtori said rather than asked.
"I still have this to do."
Piss off so I can finish it, was Kakashi's approximate translation. He wondered if he would get to see the spitfire from the grocery store today.
"Maaah, you work too much, Hina-chan."
"That is what Tachibana-san is paying me for."
Ohtori's expression stilled before relaxing into a smooth smile. "That old man? He hardly notices. Why don't'cha come by the river and we can - ?"
"No, thank you."
The boy stared. "No?"
She's not the least bit interested, Kakashi inwardly answered. That's what "no" typically means.
"I do not believe the Aomori dialect is that different from the one here, Ohtori-san." Even saying that, Hinamori inflected her speech into a clearer, more fluent tone. There was still a uniquely Aomori twang to her words but now weaved into a neutral dialect. Less rural and more urban, worldlier. Educated.
Ohtori's good nature evaporated. "What, you think you're better than me, Hinamori?"
"Not at all, Ohtori-san," Hinamori replied mildly.
Good for you, Hinamori.
He scoffed. "Yeah, right. Then how come you don't deign to honor us with your company? Or even say hello? Don't they have manners up in Aomori?"
She barely contained a wince. "This work is just very important to me."
"Yeah, well, work isn't everything. You're too uptight."
Hinamori mulled this over for a moment. "How about after work?"
Kakashi blinked. Eh?
"Really?"
An indecipherable curve to her lips. "Surely you boys know a decent spot around here to take a load off."
"You think you're up for that?" Ohtori asked.
Hinamori, what are you doing?
"Why not? Like you said, I need to loosen up." She tilted her head. "Why don't you show me what Tachigi is all about?"
Ohtori wasn't about to question his unexpected luck. "Well, I think there's this one tea house nearby that - what?"
"Oh...nothing." Hinamori leaned into the pitchfork, looking wistful. "It's just...well, there was nothing but tea houses in Aomori. They were nice and all but I was hoping for something a bit more...um..."
What the actual hell was going? Kakashi's eye narrowed.
"Exciting?"
Exciting? You live in a Hidden ninja village, Hinamori. You grew up in Aomori prefecture. Kakashi knew exactly how "exciting" Aomori was not even ten years ago.
"Oh. Ooh. I gotcha. I know just the place! It's the most popular bar here but it can get a little rough. You sure you'd be okay with that?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked, honey sweet. "You'll be there."
It was by the far the most obvious manipulation Kakashi had ever witness and the Ohtori boy bought it. Hook, line, and sinker.
His surveillance job just got a little more interesting.
Author's Note: Let me just tag on the disclaimer that in no matter, shape, or form does the way someone speak - whatever their accent, dialect, syntax, grammar, anything - make someone more or less educated and it definitely has no bearing on anyone's intelligence. This is often a classist or even racist form of thinking that is all too prevalent in our society. I wanted to add it into this story because class plays a big part in the Naruto universe (daimyo, peasant, merchants, etc) and I wanted to explore that. Takara comes from a poorer background and she really is proud of her family and her community. But she knows that certain ways of talking get further with different people. You've seen in previous chapters where she's put on the full Aomori drawl like Morioka's to make herself seem "dumb", just to make things easier for her. In this chapter, she spoke in a more "educated" way to put some distance between her and Ohtori - an unspoken "We're not on the same playing field, buddy." This makes Takara come off as though she think she's better than him and is an immediate turn off for hormonal country boys. Or like a slap in the face.
Code-switching. It's an interesting thing to play with in characters. If anyone of you are linguistics geeks, DM me so we can geek out together. Or better yet, if you have any thoughts or opinions!
Thanks for staying with me and Takara. It's been a crazy past couple of months. Since you've last heard from me, I've traveled cross-country via bus; visited five new cities on the East Coast; promptly moved to the Pacific Northwest with five strangers; dated a girl (I think?) and broke up (damn queer relationship and their ambiguity); got accepted into a new school which I'll be starting this coming fall (which means - you guessed it - another move); been to the airport five times; started a new job and just quit last week; starting another job next week; creepy rando has been night knocking next door the past couple days; I just bought a new taser; and I am very tired. :)
I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter. It was mostly a way to get my feet back in again, so I made it less about plot or true development and more of you (and Kakashi) learning about Takara. Don't worry. There will certainly be action in the chapter 12 which will include grown men crying, Takara's dark side, and Kakashi in a dress.
Question of the chapter: What's your Beyonce song?