AN: Okay! Here we go! Not much plot advancement and still awfully short, but I'm trying for it to be so on purpose. I was hoping for this to go in 'small flashes of time' fashion. No idea how I'm succeeding so far.
Enjoy!
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"Dialogues"
'Thoughts'
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Chapter 3: One step forward, and two back
***
Uchiha Sasuke had spent a month at the Daimyo's mansion by now, the last two weeks in which he'd taken to following the chambermaid Mibuchi Naruto with great discretion. And to be quite honest, he was doubting his own suspicions now.
So far, the only places the woman had visited was the personal rooms of Junichiro-sama, the maid's quarters and the kitchens. The major part of her day was spent around the young master, dutifully following him everywhere he went. He had been slightly surprised to know that she also sat in during his study time with the royal tutor, but dismissed it as the idiosyncrasies of the nobles.
'Really, what should have I expected?' Sasuke thought morosely as he trudged back to their base.
The shinobi serving the Daimyo had been given a whole five story house to themselves at the edge of the grounds. It was a perfect place to set up headquarters; switching for border patrols and keeping an eye on every entrance to the property was also easier due to the minute distance they had to travel. Plus, they could take to the roofs and scout the woods better by being so close to the edge. No sane ninja liked walking when they could jump across trees.
"Sasuke! Change in patrol timings," Misaki called out as he entered the house, "Team 2 will have to go out with the Daimyo's serving staff to the village this evening!"
Sasuke blinked. Then he sighed, taking a seat at the kitchen table, "My team was to be stationed in the court today. Not follow a bunch of gossipping maids to the market."
Misaki grinned at his tone, "Yeah, no. The old geezer's gonna be having a meeting with the Hokage today. All shinobi are to be outta the court, only the Hokage's guards allowed."
Ryo snorted, entering the room and nosing around in the fridge, "It's the usual. A bit of showing off, ANBU vs Twelve Ninja Guardians."
"I never knew that people took it so seriously," Sasuke commented dryly. "And make yourself useful, Ryo, pass me a tomato."
"We don't," Ryo corrected, gulping down half a bottle of water in a go and tossed the requested tomato at the raven, "They do – there's a difference. If your team returns early enough, you might even see it. A couple of the Ninja Guardians are gonna be on patrol duty today – the tension between them is insane!"
"Hn," Sasuke replied, narrowing his eyes as he bit into the red fruit. Then, he tuned out of the conversation and the others let him be, by now knowing his methods of recuperation after a tiring morning.
Sasuke spared a thought to wonder why the Hokage was coming in person. All the way to the capital to meet with the Daimyo when he could send a message with those "trusted" ANBU. Then, deciding he cared little about it, he cast it out of his mind.
***
"Why are we doing this again?"
Haruka, one of the two kunoichi in Sasuke's team, groaned as they walked through the market crowd, a bag of groceries in one hand, the other intertwined with his. Sasuke agreed with her statement, but refrained from saying so. Hidden discreetly behind their hair, a communication device crackled in their ear.
"To make sure none of the servants gets switched by imposters and sneak in."
"I didn't mean that," Haruka grumbled, "Why do we have to dress up as civvies? Can't we do the whole secrecy, cloak and dagger thing? This yukata is terribly hot, I'm boiling here –"
"– put up with it, koi," another voice, softer, sweeter – Kouki's – answered.
Sasuke automatically tuned the following conversation out. The two lovers, Haruka and her girlfriend, Kouki, had absolutely no shame. From flirting to kissing to groping; they had no problem doing it in full view of their teammates. Sasuke supposed he should be thankful they were serious on missions, at least; but they got so sappy that most of the time, he and Touka (his only sane and not-driven-by-libido teammate) often pretended not to hear any of the saccharine and sweet talks exchanged on the mics.
Haruka curled her arm around Sasuke's, blindly letting him lead her as she continued a conversation in soft tones. To others, it might just appear as his companion was talking to him, so he found no reason to stop her; she was a damn good kunoichi, both of her and Kouki, so he knew that they were still alert and aware of their surroundings.
"– and when I go into the room, there he is! Lazing about like a good for nothing lay-about!" An elderly maid's voice traveled back to them.
One of the others must have replied something, because there was a chorus of laughter following it.
Sasuke gave them a mental head count, 'One, two, three...six...where are the other two?' A movement in the corner of his eye showed them lagging behind, one of them having broken the strap of her sandals.
"Ne, Naruto-chan, help Chie-chan out a sec. You can fix her sandal, no?" A maid called out.
In an almost involuntary movement, Sasuke's head turned to track Naruto when her name was called out. Sasuke disliked how attuned he was to her... though, he swallowed, that was only natural since he'd been spying on her, right?
"What the hell did you do? Twist your ankle in a rut? Geez, be more careful, wont'cha?"
Sasuke bit back a snort. For being a maid in the Daimyo's mansion, she sure was crass, completely fine with speaking in an "unladylike" manner.
"The rest of you go ahead," Naruto said, holding the sandal up for better inspection, "Chie-chan and I will catch up soon. The rice store closes in half an hour, ya know."
When the rest of them agreed and walked on, Haruka detached herself to follow them, leaving Sasuke behind. Convenient, the Uchiha thought, wondering if he might finally see her doing something suspicious. It would be the perfect opportunity to do so, after all, having fewer people to shake off if she wanted to disappear for a bit.
However, Naruto and Chie did not part ways. The blonde led her fellow maid to a bench placed outside a dango stall and set about fixing the broken sandal. Sasuke took up an inconspicuous post next to them, shamelessly eavesdropping.
"You can sew pretty well, Naruto-chan," Chie said, "I never know what to do about broken sandals. Just go to the cobbler and hope he fixes it."
"Well," Naruto shrugged, pulling out a needle and thread from an inner pocket and using her teeth to cut off an appropriate length, "Shinji keeps tearing his clothes, ya know. And burning them. So it was much easier, and cheaper to sew them than buy new ones." She grinned, "If I didn't know myself what a good cook he was, I'd say he was a novice with how easily he tears his tunic."
"Did you learn to sew for him?" Chie gasped, stars in her eyes.
Sasuke sighed, the thought that any woman would learn to sew (or become proficient in 'domestic' work) just for a man, was something he never understood. In shinobi lifestyle, any skill you had could prove useful someday, why not learn if you could?
Naruto laughed, "No! I knew how to before I married him. I used to work part-time with the seamstress in my village, ya know. Picked up a few useful skills here and there."
'Married?!' Sasuke choked on air, 'That – that... air-headed, blonde-haired bimbo – and married?'
Sasuke didn't know why this shocked him so much. Perhaps it was because she was so young...? How old was she, though? He'd guess somewhere close to his age group...
"It's been a year since your marriage, right?" Chie asked, watching as the blonde stitched a final loop and tugged hard to tighten the string.
"Eight months," Naruto corrected, cutting the thread off with her teeth once more, "I moved here because he works for the Daimyo, ya know. It would be better to find a job here than back home."
"So he helped you land this job then?"
"Something like that – there, wear it now."
Accepting her footwear, the two ladies stood up to continue their shopping, "I was a bit surprised to know you were Shinji-kun's wife...I mean, both of you are so young! He's only twenty and you're... what, eighteen?"
"Seventeen," Naruto corrected, "Got hitched when I was sixteen."
'I was right,' Sasuke mused, 'She is the same age as me. But, sixteen is an early time to get married, especially for a civilian. Though...she could have married this Shinji fellow because he was a cook in the Daimyo's kitchens. It puts her in a good position if she wanted to get close to the noble family... Very less info for now, however, to make any sense.'
Chie apparently had the same concerns, for when she voiced them, Naruto shook her head, "Age didn't really matter. Shinji's a good guy and I knew I wanted to get married to him, so I did."
"Hmm, well, I'm not saying anything, Naruto-chan," Chie smiled, "It was just an observation. You see plenty of people marrying early in shinobi villages, but that's not so much out of it...short life, with what they do. Get married early, they do, you never know you may die. Why, my brother lives in Konoha – fell in love with a kunoichi when she'd come to our village for a mission. So he followed her back and got married! Can't say no to true love, my old man couldn't. And he was so young too! Five years younger than me, and see, I'm twenty-five and still a spinster..."
Chie prattled on a bit more about her brother and Sasuke soon lost interest. Haruka met up with him when they joined the group and he went back to performing his duties on auto pilot. For some reason, he couldn't shake off the feeling of something being wrong. Something about the way Naruto had said what she had –
'...Shinji's a good guy...'
A young woman. Seventeen years old. And married.
'...and I knew I wanted to get married to him...'
Happily. Love marriage, by all accounts. No family pressure, either, doesn't look like.
'...so I did...'
Her own choice. She desired to marry him. Independent. Family, possibly deceased.
Yet. Yet...there was something. Something about the way she said that one sentence that put Sasuke on edge.
What was it?