Unlike Akira, who had more or less slept the whole way from the Hidden Grass to Konoha, his passengers forced themselves to stay awake almost the entire trip. No matter how pretty Akira's speeches, to them he remained a stranger from whom anything could be expected.
Akane had agreed to his proposal to move to Konoha not out of trust, but out of fear of what he might do if she refused. The smell of alcohol on him suggested his mind wasn't entirely steady. Still, even a strong spirit yields to dawn. By sunrise, she couldn't fight sleep anymore.
To wake up in another place - and a hospital at that - she hadn't expected. Her first wave of panic ebbed when she saw her daughter curled up, asleep, in the neighboring bed. The second ebbed when a nurse arrived and calmly explained why they'd been brought in.
From the nurse's talk she didn't pull out much, but enough to learn that Akira wasn't a nobody in the village. *They listen when they hear his name. He's known here. Important.*
What worried her most was whether they'd use her in Konoha the way they had in the Grass. No matter how she turned over the reasons for Akira's "interest" in helping, nothing else came to mind. The idea that he wanted her for bed never even occurred to Akane - not with the bite scars that marked almost her entire body.
Any man would turn away, and even shinobi on death's door would eye her skin with disgust and try to find some patch left whole. *If he wants me, it'll be to bite again. Or to sell my gift. That's all I'm good for, isn't it?*
The breakfast they brought for her and her daughter was possibly the tastiest meal she'd had since her husband had died in the war. Usually they lived on thin porridge with herbs and rice; meat was a rare luxury - and when she could afford it, she gave most of it to her daughter.
So when she noticed the carrot cake for dessert, her mouth flooded again in spite of herself. After eating that small cake, she barely restrained herself from asking for her daughter's portion. *No, no. Let the child have it. Let the child have it.*
After breakfast they met their attending physician, Kaodji-san. The gray-haired man seemed surprised to find that, despite Akane's overall weakness, her organs were fine. In fact, apart from the bite scars - which they offered to remove - and vitamin depletion, she was declared perfectly healthy.
Every woman wants to be beautiful - and, if possible, to reclaim her former beauty. Tempting as the offer was, she was ready to refuse, saying she could never afford such an obviously expensive service.
"What do you mean, Akane-san - the young man who brought you here made it very clear he would cover all your medical expenses. Don't turn down an opportunity like this," the doctor reassured her.
Even so, she chose to wait until she spoke with Akira. She didn't yet know how to feel about him - and she didn't want to owe more than he himself intended to offer. *No extra debts. Not a strand more than he offers.*
Karin, unlike her, felt more carefree. Waking in the ward, the girl's first thought was that this was their new home - a thought she clung to with both hands. Akane had to explain where they actually were. In their village, Karin might never even have heard of a hospital, much less seen one.
Both mother and daughter liked Konoha at a glance. They couldn't see much from the window, but what they did see confirmed the rumors of the Land of Fire's wealth. No one walked around with a pinched, sullen face; clothes were neat and whole, without patches; as for the smell of food… The moment they cracked the window to let in fresh air, breakfast felt like a distant memory.
When Akane firmly shut the window and tried to calm herself, her daughter's hopeful voice rose at her side.
"Mom, will that handsome gentleman take care of us now?"
Akane didn't know how to answer. She wasn't certain of their future either. But one thing gave her hope: in a rich village like this, she could find work. Back home, they had lived by her hands - weaving baskets, hats, and other straw goods. She knew no other trade, and no one would hire her to work the fields. She answered honestly that she had no idea what was in the man's head.
"Well… he didn't feel bad to me. His chakra looks like dark-blue flame - scary at first - but it's… a little warm, and kind of calm," Karin murmured, sharing what she sensed.
Akane knew her daughter's special talent. She herself was a sensor and, within a village's distance, could say where a shinobi was. But Karin's gift was far stronger. The girl could find a chakra marker not only much farther away - she could also locate ordinary people with the faintest chakra.
Beyond that, she could read a person's nature, roughly, by their chakra. From Karin's explanations Akane understood that aggressive people had chakra like storm-tossed water - it was unwise to provoke them. Calm people's chakra moved steadily, without surges. "Temperature" mattered too - the warmer the chakra, the kinder the person tended to be.
How it all worked, Akane didn't know, but from her daughter's words and her own observation, those were the conclusions she drew. *If her flame is warm, maybe… maybe we won't be hurt here.*
At lunch they were brought food again, fruit for dessert this time. Right as Akane peeled an apple, Akira stepped in.
He took in the room at a glance, looked from Karin by the window to Akane on the bed - and smiled politely.
*How do I address him? Akira-san? Will that annoy him? What if everyone calls him Akira-sama?* Akane fretted, waiting for him to speak first.
"Akane-san, Karin-chan, how are you feeling?" he asked, scanning for a place to sit. Finding none, he unsealed a handsome chair from the fūin on his forearm and set it at the foot of Akane's bed, then sat down himself.
"Good… I think," Akane answered. Karin seized the pause, hopped up, and perched on the other side of the bed.
Silence fell.
Akira's eyes dropped to Akane's forearms, peeking from the hospital gown sleeves. Flushing, she tried to tuck them out of sight - not an easy task. *Hide them. Just hide them.*
"First… I should apologize for last night," Akira said after a beat. "I don't know if you noticed, but I was under the effect of a… mind-altering mushroom, which I ate by accident. Don't get the wrong idea - I should have thought twice before putting into my mouth whatever mushrooms a drunk friend offered me…"
"Did the villagers in our village… eat those mushrooms too?" Akane interjected gently.
"Oh, no! I was the one under the silly spell - and I gave such a fiery speech I made a deep impression. A revolutionary one, as you gathered," he admitted with a self-conscious rub of his nose.
"People heard one speech, grabbed pitchforks, and decided to overthrow the daimyo?" Akane asked, baffled. Karin stayed quiet, understanding she shouldn't jump into a grown-ups' talk without being asked.
"It seems ordinary folk had a very hard time of it in your village," Akira shrugged, choosing not to dig deeper. "Either way, it was wrong of me to foist my 'virtue' on you," he said, sketching air quotes with his fingers.
"As I recall, I promised to pay you - Akane-san - 50,000 ryo for my treatment and only handed over 30. By way of apology for my actions, I'll add compensation of 100,000 ryo." He pulled out his checkbook, tore a page where the sum and his signature were already inscribed with his personal seal, and set it on the bed's edge.
"You can cash this at any bank in the Land of Fire - there's one here in Konoha."
"So we're going back?" Karin blurted, unable to hide her disappointment. In just a few hours of staring at Konoha's streets, she had fallen in love.
"That's for your mother to decide," Akira answered with a smile. He turned to Akane. "You can go back - or stay. If you do return, I'd advise you to wait awhile, until the dust settles in the country."
"And… if we decide to stay?" Akane probed carefully, as if testing the ground.
"If you choose to stay, I'll handle your status in the village and provide a temporary place to live until you find work and get on your feet." It sounded ideal - which made Akane all the more alert for the catch. *Where is the hook? There's always a hook.*
"Would we… get in your way at your house?"
He waved a hand. "No worries. I have an apartment I don't live in - that's the one I'll offer. As it happens, a good… friend of mine lives next door. She's Uzumaki too."
Akane's eyes widened - and then, as if she'd put a few pieces together, she nodded toward his forearm.
"She's the one who put that seal on you, isn't she?"
"Yes. She's a master of fūinjutsu," he answered, and his smile warmed.
A lovely prospect began to take shape for Akane: a safe roof for herself and her daughter - and a chance to meet another member of her fallen clan. For the Uzumaki, another Uzumaki was almost kin. Centuries of blood ties made them all cousins - second or third, at least.
Their genes were sturdy and rarely warped; incest, in their clan, was traditionally accepted. Now and then they would "dilute" the blood to avoid pitfalls, but they tried to preserve the inheritance - red hair and life force. *To see our colour on the street and not hide it… could that really happen again?*
"This… I can hardly believe it," she murmured by accident.
"For me it's nothing," Akira reassured her. "If work is hard to find, I can offer you a job, too. Openings in my restaurant, the bookshop, the clothing store - or in my home."
He did not mention the spa - it required actual skills. It was, after all, a premium place.
Hearing this, Akane understood Akira wasn't poor. Not many could toss around sums like these. It also made clear where his money came from. What drew her attention most, though, was the job at his home. She wanted to know if this hinted at something else.
"How much would I earn in each place?" she asked - an easy way to draw out more about the home position.
"The restaurant needs a cleaner - salary is… sixteen thousand ryo. The bookshop and clothing store need shift staff - that's higher, thirty-three thousand. Personally, I need a housekeeper and cook - that pays fifty-five thousand."
"So I'd just keep your house in order and cook three times a day - and I'd get… four and a half thousand a month for that?" she asked, pleasantly surprised.
Akira hid a laugh behind a cough. "Ahem, no - you misunderstood. Fifty-five thousand is per month, not per year."
Akane was struck speechless. So was Karin, who had started calculating, on her fingers, how many chickens they could buy with that money. The sum must have been huge - her eyes went wide and round as she bored her gaze into her mother, silently yelling: *Say yes! Say yes right now!*
"Akira-san, I think we'll stay - but… is it all right if I decide on the job a little later?" Akane kept herself from agreeing to everything in the heat of the moment.
"Of course!" Akira sprang up, resealed his chair, and smiled. "I'm not rushing you. You can look in the village too, if you like. I'll drop by later and show you the apartment. By the way, did your doctor say when you could be discharged?"
"Yes, I asked," Akane nodded. "Kaodji-san said tomorrow he can let us go with a clear conscience."
"Good. I've already covered the medical bill - if you need anything, or get bored, call the nurse; she'll bring what you need. See you tomorrow." He waggled his fingers at Karin, who wavered shyly and tried to imitate the gesture. At the door, something jogged his memory.
He turned back.
"Akane-san, your body is your choice - but I'd recommend you accept the scar-removal. Konoha is hot this time of year. Wrapped head to toe, you'll be uncomfortable. Until tomorrow." He dipped a light bow, slid open the shōji, and was gone.