A strange new life

5.8

Between mouthfuls of cupcakes, pudding, and sweets induced squealing, Linlin spilled all her secrets. Which didn't amounted to much more than what her questions had already revealed. This Sasame was an older girl — or perhaps my age, given the way Linlin tended to exaggerate everything related to this girl. She was this awesome ninja, capable of beating anyone — or maybe just bullying the normal annoying kids. She could fly between trees and hide in plain sight — pretty normal for a trained shinobi. Sasame-chan belonged to this family of legendary ninjas — maybe just a small town shinobi clan?

In the end, what I learned was that Sasame was a two meters tall girl, unrealistically super strong, with a penchant to bully normal kids when they were being annoying, and that all of her family — a hidden shinobi family — were legendary people that lived somewhere close but obviously hidden. All in all, the only thing I was certain of was that this Sasame was a girl, and she had orange hair.

Even so, the kid was cute. I mean, it was pretty funny how much she went gaga for the sweets, like she never ate any before. Not even her forehead escaped. Not sure how she managed to splash pudding there. It was like the kid was on fire. She ran, she yelled, she even puppy eyed me into playing tag.

“Please? No one plays with me anymore, ever since Sasame-chan left months ago.” From running and yelling to on verge of tears in seconds. I was sure the kid was yanking my chains, but I didn’t have the heart to deny it. So I played. Tag, hide and seek, ken-ken-pa, Nawatobi — No idea where she got the rope from. I might have gotten too much into playing. The sun started to dip behind the mountains in the distance, Linlin began yawning. I felt a bit ashamed of enjoying it that much. Crazy good ninja I was. This was just an act. I was just doing my part.

I might not have learned much, but I learned some things. There was a shinobi family in this town. A lot of them disappeared months ago, the remaining fled or might be hiding from Orochimaru, or perhaps working with Orochimaru. I’d report that to Yamato.

I patted the kid’s head, she leaned into my hand. Still not sure why people liked doing that to me. She yawned again. I took my board again. “It’s getting late, should I take you home?” I poked the girl after I finished writing.

Linlin eyed me with sleepy eyes, nodded. Her movements were slow, like she was almost asleep already, which surprised me. She yawned once more, then raised her arms to me. The sacred gesture of kids everywhere begging to be carried. I rolled my eyes, stowed my board, extended my arms to the girl.

Linlin moved closer, draped her arms around my neck. Gently, I coached the girl until I was carrying her piggyback style. It was a bit awkward because, even though she was young, she wasn’t small. Carrying her took some adjusting, more because I didn’t want people to see how easy it was to carry her.

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Under sleepy instructions, and a few gentle shakes to keep Linlin awake, we arrived at her house. Not one bit surprised to learn she lived in the same place as the town’s headman. If my history lessons didn’t fail me, the correct term was shoya, or nanushi depending on the region, but I was going to call it what it was: the mayor’s house. Was Linlin the man’s daughter? That would explain the nice clothes and why she knew how to read. I stepped forward, the guards at the door already moving toward me. At the same time, the gates opened and out stepped Yamato, Sai and a portly man, followed by a gamut of servants.

We looked at one another for a moment, when the portly man laughed, and patted his belly. “Oh my, it seems someone took care of finding my runaway daughter.”

There was this moment of quiet, where I think the man expected me to say something. I looked at Yamato, held back an eye roll, shrugged. What did he expect me to do here? Drop the kid to take my board?

“Apologizes, sir.” Yamato finally intervened. “My daughter hasn’t been able to speak since her mother passed away.” I nodded. Looked at the portly man, then at the sleeping girl.

The mayor took it in stride, looked behind him, yelled for someone. “Come and get Linlin.”

Out of the gates power walked a young woman, dressed in simple but clean clothes. She approached, gave me a small bow. Took Linlin from my hands with a small fond smile on her face. Gave me a nod before disappearing inside the house with the sleeping kid. I walked to Yamato’s side, pretending I wasn’t paying attention to everything around while the “adults” talked. And talk they did. I got only the last dregs of their conversation, but the fatso kept asking about the destroyed village we saw on our way here.

It still took a few minutes until Yamato managed to ditch the man. Together we left to meet Hayase, with one of the mayor's servants accompanying us. We arrived at the agreed place to find the chunin was already there.

Yamato looked at us after we were reunited. “The mayor was kind enough to provide us a place to sleep and someone to lead us there.” He indicated the man that had been following us all the while. “The day was long and we best rest for tomorrow’s journey.”

Hayase nodded, Sai shrugged. I think I missed something there. That was out of character even for Yamato. ‘Dad’ turned to the man in question. After a brief exchange of words, the servant led us away.

The place the man guided us to stay for the night wasn’t far from the town center, or the mayor’s house. It wasn’t exactly a dilapidated house, but it was clear the place hadn’t been maintained for a while. The door stood ajar, the front lawn was infested with weed and vines and other types of vegetation you didn’t see on a cared for house. He didn’t follow us inside. The servant bowed and left after delivering us.

The inside of the house wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Even if the outside wasn’t in good condition or cleaned in a while. The interior was clean-ish, with just a fine layer of dust sprinkled over the furniture and floor.

While the boys looked around, I went searching for lamps to light and fend off the night’s darkness. The house wasn’t bad, all things considered. I wasn’t sure what Yamato said to the portly man to warrant such treatment or accommodations. I was pretty sure no random travelers were escorted to a house where they can rest for the night. Had Yamato paid for any of this? Did he come to some sort of agreement with the mayor? In the end, it was kind of funny, because I was sure that if it wasn’t because of our disguises, Yamato could conjure a better, and cleaner, house for us to rest for the night. The things we ninja did to keep on our disguises.

Shaking my head at the useless thoughts, I got to work. After a cursory examination of the place, I plotted how to do it in my mind, then moved back to the entrance. The rest of the team was still there, looking around, and talking in low voices. Bunch of lazybones.

I took my board, wrote things. “Hayase, you go back into the market, see if you can find any merchant still there. Buy fresh vegetables and meat, if you can.”

Hayase scratched his head, looked at Yamato, but when the jounin didn’t say anything he shrugged. “Anything in particular?”

I thought about it for a bit. “No mystery meat?” Hayase scratched his head again, nodded, left the house. I looked at my next victim: even after days, I couldn’t put away my dislike for Sai Everytime I looked at the boy, annoyance bubbled in my chest. I wasn’t sure what his deal was, but he didn’t seem to like me either. It was in the way his dead eyes kept following me. Or the veiled contempt in his voice. Or it was just my imagination because I didn’t like him. My bias toward the fictional character I disliked.

Mulling over things, I wrote on my board. “Sai, can you check the bedrooms and clear some of the dust?”

Sai didn’t agree, or disagreed. His emotionless eyes stared just for a fraction too long, smiled without feelings never reaching his eyes. He turned round, moved inside the house.

The last one was Yamato. I didn’t want to order him around, but since he hadn’t said anything, I kept with my original plan. “Yamato, can you clean the living room? Meanwhile, I’ll clean the kitchen and get started on dinner.”

The jounin smiled, nodded, then started on his task.

I turned around and went to do my part as well. Had to clean things off before Hayase returned. I wasn’t sure yet what to cook for dinner, that would depend on what Hayase managed to find, but I’m sure it would be better than anything we could come up with on the road. My stomach rumbled. I thought back on the day. Linlin kept mentioning this Sasame-chan, and given everything, it seems she and her family left the town a few months back. Had they really left? Maybe there was an answer there that I wasn’t seeing.