A strange new life

5.9

Hayase managed to find eggs, a chicken, potatoes, cabbage, and rice. I won’t say dinner was the best affair out there, but it was decent. The team sat in the living room around the table with the food spread over it. Egg fried rice, chicken with potato, stir fried cabbage. I still wish I had packed more than salt.

While we devoured dinner, we talked and talked. On the surface, we’re discussing the day of travel, the food, how our day was in the city, all that boring travel talk. Meanwhile, we also talked using Konoha’s standard coded language to convey actual information.

Between bites of rice and chicken, Yamato ordered through a coded hand movement. “Hayase, report.”

Hayase, eating a mouthful of rice, replied “Trade all but ended with nearby towns and villages. People are too scared to leave the walls. Rumors of a man-eating monster outside the walls started a few days ago. There’s something most people are too afraid to talk about with a stranger. They might have been threatened by someone. I was followed to the market and back, but didn’t see anyone that wanted to attack.”

He looked bored on the outside, but the signs were all there. The way his mouth kept curving up in almost a smile, the movement of his fingers, just a bit faster than necessary for the message he wanted to convey, the gleam in his eyes, his posture, just slightly forward in anticipation. Our eyes met, I held back the smile. Another one that understood how coded messages were cool! I gave him a thumbs up, barely containing my anticipation at my turn to report.

My turn was next. “Hinata, report.” Coded Yamato.

“There was a shinobi clan in the town. I don’t know what the clan’s name is, but they left, or moved out a few months ago. I couldn’t find where their base of operations was, but according to what I managed to find, while the clan had a base of operations inside the town, a shop or bar, most of the clan lived somewhere outside the town.”

Yamato nodded, ate another bite, turned to Sai. “Report.”

“The mayor has someone watching the house, and as Hayase said, followed him to the market and back. They don’t look like trained shinobi.”

When Sai didn’t code anything else, Yamato moved on with his own report. “The mayor seems to be up to something, but I don’t think it is anything related to our own mission. The attacks started a few days back, like you already reported, and while he didn’t say specifically, he complained about people that were supposed to protect the town leaving for no reason. Overall, the man seems more interested in the state of things outside, and his own fortune.” Still eating, he turned to Hayase, coded the next question. “What are your thoughts on the situation, Hayase?”

Hayase sucked on a chicken thigh bone. “There’s not enough information for an accurate assessment. Normal people are used to feeling threatened, which can be explained if Orochimaru took over the Land of Rice Fields. The shinobi clan leaving might be related to that: They either fled because of Orochimaru, or tried to put up a fight and were wiped out. This monster might be something out of Orochimaru’s lab. The timing is too coincidental to what we expected from his operations. The remaining troops from Konoha’s attack might have fled here, released the monster as a distraction, maybe for any other number of reasons, or the creature broke out of whatever prison it was in when no one came back to check on it.”

While out loud Sai talked about the Mayor’s house and city in general, he coded a different message. “What if we go looking for this hidden shinobi family? They might know about Orochimaru’s lab’s whereabouts, and have vital information we can use.”

Yamato considered. Out loud, he spoke about the food they ate at the mayor’s house and how quaint the town was. Meanwhile, his code spoke of something else. “We cannot risk it at this moment. We don’t know this shinobi clan’s disposition, and if possible, I still want to maintain secrecy over our presence here. Going after this monster is a gamble, but one that might not alert others to our presence.”

All around the table, we nodded at Taichou’s decision. I shuffled, uncomfortable. Remembered how I lost my cool, almost beat up that bully, and let Linlin see the storage seals. Even if that led to learning useful information, it was a huge mistake that a competent kunoichi shouldn’t make.

Yamato nodded, eating the last of his dinner. “Good work everyone. We’ll go after this monster attacking the nearby villages tomorrow. If Hayase’s conjecture is right, following its trail might lead us to the hideout. I’ll take the first watch, followed by Sai, Hayase and Hinata.” He stopped, placed his chopsticks down. Spoke out-loud. “Thank you for the meal, Hinata-chan. It was delicious.”

Hayase didn’t miss the opportunity. “Thank you for the meal, Hinata-chan!”

I scratched my cheek. Pretended my face wasn’t burning in a whole different type of embarrassment.

Waking up to someone shaking your shoulder was never pleasant. I wasn’t one to sleep until noon, but years of living alone and making my own routine and keeping my own hours made me grumpy in the dark hours before dawn.

In front of me, Hayase yawned, waved his hand, then crawled inside his sleeping bag.

The four of us had set up our sleeping bags in the living room. Hayase and Sai wanted to sleep in the bedrooms, but I argued that it was a risk factor when we didn’t need to risk being separated. Now, I know, I did send Sai to clean those bedrooms, but I never claimed I wasn’t petty, and that my dislike for the show version of Sai wasn’t influencing my decision making. Thankfully, no one called me on that. The decision to not split apart was always a good one.

I yawned again. Cleaned crust from my eyes, wiped away a bit of drool with the back of my hand. Still on sleep mode, I got to my morning ablutions.

It always surprised me the mix of modern commodities and charming medieval customs the world of Naruto had. I finish cleaning my mouth, spit out the mint flavored mixture, put away my toothbrush. All this while, I keep my senses honed on the outside.

Ready for the day. I step through the room with my sleeping teammates. A quick look and I move on. Nothing here to see, aside from Yamato sleeping like he was in a coffin, with his back on top of the sleeping bag, instead of sleeping inside it. He even kept his hands clasped over his chest. I think he does that on purpose. Creepy.

Checking the other rooms in the house didn’t reveal anything, which was expected. I would have sensed chakra if there was someone hiding there. It was good practice to not get complacent, just because I could sense chakra. Done with the inside of the house, I did a tour of the outside.

The town was as quiet as a graveyard. In the darkest hour of the day, just before dawn, it had a sinister look, and I all but expected the town destroying monster to jump on me. Nothing of the sort happened. The place was quiet, only the cold wind breaking the silence.

My steps almost faltered midway my patrol route. There it was again, that feeling of being observed. I focused on the sounds of the night, or the lack thereof. The only thing I could hear was the wind and rustling of leaves. Night animals, insects and the many noises you usually hear were not there anymore. I didn’t remember when they had stopped. For all my focus, I hadn’t been paying attention to sounds disappearing. 

Like the other times this happened, nothing jumped at me. There was no sound, no presence, no chakra, nothing. I wasn’t going to report it again. I reported the first three times. The rest of the team went on full alert, and we spent hours scouring the surroundings trying to find what was the cause. Cadaver pale Sai dismissed me as being paranoid and over reacting, Hayase was on the fence about the whole thing. Yamato took me seriously and didn’t dismiss my concerns. But each time I raised the alarm, it disrupted the whole team, and at this point, I was starting to believe annoying Sai might be right on some level. Maybe I was just paranoid.

The sensation of being watched disappeared when the sun showed up on the horizon and the voices and buzz from the waking town heralded a new day. I wasn’t sure if going monster hunting was a good thing, but I was itching to do some cool ninja stuff. I mean, infiltration mission was cool and all, but it had been a while since I trained or even used my jutsu. A smile crept on my face. My fingers twitched in anticipation. You can’t blame a girl for feeling anxious because she’s been separated from her explosions for too long.