"Hey, got a—whoa!" Noburi spun around, putting a hand over his eyes for good measure.
Mari lifted her head from where it had been reclined on the headrest of her bathtub. Her sybaritic bathtub that had been a birthday present from her son, the Gōketsu Clan Lord and Dragonslayer. It was huge, far more than the tiny woman needed. Huge enough that she could have comfortably shared it with her former not-official husband, the Gōketsu Clan Lord and Fifth Hokage, Master of the Bedroom Arts, Author of blah blah blah.
"Noburi," she scolded. "What do you think you're doing, walking in on me in the bath?"
"I wasn't! What do you think
you're doing, leaving the screens down while you bathe?! Seriously, why did you set this thing up in your sitting room?"
"Don't try to make this my fault. What would Yuno say?"
Noburi had survived in the wilderness, faced down enemy ninja of greater number and higher rank, and stood on air two thousand feet in the sky. He was no coward, right? Surely not. Yet, somehow, his knees were a little wobbly right now and his stomach was trying to emigrate.
"Ahhhh..."
Mari laughed. "Don't worry, I won't tell her. To answer your question: it's in the sitting room because it means the servants can get the water out and clean the tub without having to go into my personal room. As to the rest, I'm covered up. What have you got for me?"
Noburi risked a glance over his shoulder and found that Mari had taken the towel off her hair and draped it over the inappropriate bits of herself. The ones that floated above the soapy bubbles that blanketed the rest of the tub. He turned around and extended a packet of papers.
"I just got back from training with the Sages," he said. "Hazō dropped by as we were finishing and he gave me a bunch of stuff to give to you and Gaku. He said yours was something about an intelligence-gathering thing he wants done."
"Oh? Interesting. Let me see." She extended a glistening arm for the packet. Noburi handed it over with a smile and turned to leave.
He was barely halfway down the hall when Mari called him back with a sharp word.
"What?" he demanded, entering the room more carefully this time. Fortunately, Mari was already out of the tub and was vigorously toweling herself off behind a screen.
"Where is Yuno?"
"Downstairs, last I saw. She was making a snack."
"Ooh, that sounds good. Would you mind asking her to dig up one of the sweet'n'sour barbeque seals for me? I ran out in my daily carry collection and keep forgetting to restock. I'll meet you both down there in a minute."
"Uh...sure?" Odd request, but whatever. He headed back the way he had come, half expecting Mari to call him back again just to mess with him.
Yuno was indeed still in the kitchen. Noburi passed on the request and helped her look through the drawer of meal seals until they found one that matched Mari's sudden craving. In part this was Noburi being helpful and in part it was an opportunity to stand close with his wife, shoulders and hips together as they rummaged in the drawer. The heat of her body spread through his jacket and into his arm, focusing his entire awareness onto her. He felt her stiffen slightly, just for a moment, and then relax and go back to rummaging around in the long pull-out drawer of storage seals, each seal holding a bento box filled with a freshly-cooked meal that had been timelocked moments after plating and tossed in a drawer to satisfy whatever random craving a Gōketsu ninja might come up with months or years later. A quick flick of the eyes revealed that yes, she was blushing furiously. He grinned.
Yuno spotted the relevant seal and plucked it out of the pile, only to freeze in place when Noburi took her hand and pulled gently so that she turned to face him. He looped his arms around her waist and leaned his cheek against hers. She was too stunned to react for several seconds, after which she hesitantly put her arms around him and squeezed slightly.
He chuckled, a deep rumbling sound in his broad chest, and pressed a kiss to her temple, then went back to simply holding her.
"You're a really good wife, and I love you," he said quietly, lips almost against her ear.
Yuno had been blushing since the moment he stood next to her but now her face was so red it would have worried the medics. She leaned back slightly so she could see his face, but she did not seek to escape the circle of his thick arms, nor did she take hers from around him.
"Why?" she asked. The soft hesitation, the sheer uncertainty in her voice made Noburi's heart want to break but the hope that also lived there made him feel like a hero of legend.
"Because I do," he said, smiling down at her in amusement. "Because you're caring, and loyal, and smart, and funny in your own very weird way that I'm still learning to understand. And you're beautiful, that's always a bonus. And because you're absolutely terrifying on the battlefield and you use those skills to keep me and those I care about safe. Because you want me, and you see me, in ways that no one else has. Because I feel comfortable telling you things like this and knowing that you won't laugh at me."
"I would never," she promised.
"Oh, I think you'll laugh at me eventually," he said with a chuckle. "I'm sure I'll deserve it for something."
Yuno's red lips parted to reply but the words went unsaid as a faint scuff of a shoe in the hallway presaged Mari's arrival. The warning was just enough time for the two of them to disengage and step back from one another so as not to be seen doing anything so inappropriate as hugging in public.
"Hey, guys," Mari said, sauntering in. She was wearing fuzzy slippers and a loose house robe, something comfortable but far too shabby to be seen in outside the home. It had once been a brilliant green but had faded to tepid teal over the course of many washes. She was plaiting her hair into a loose updo as she walked, but her face lit up when she saw the barbeque seal. She tossed the loose hair over her shoulder and hopped up on one of the stools that ran along the counter.
"Thank you so much for this, guys," she said, activating the seal and conjuring forth the contents. She lifted the lid off the bento; her eyes drifted closed in feline pleasure as she inhaled the spicy scent of the meat. "That's the good stuff."
She lifted the chopsticks out of the box and then paused. "Oh, hey, Yuno—Noburi brought some messages back, and one of them is a letter from Kei for Fujisawa. Would you mind running it over to her before it finishes getting dark? I would do it, but I think it's better from you." She held out a bulging envelope.
"Of course," Yuno said, glancing at the clock on the wall. The gloaming was already upon them; she would be coming back in darkness even if she hustled.
"Thanks."
Yuno took the envelope and disappeared on ninja-rapid feet out of the manor.
"Heard your foot scuff the rug," Noburi said with a sly smile, reaching for a tea seal as he spoke. "You're normally quieter."
"I figured you would appreciate me not walking in on you two canoodling," Mari said, her words staccato and incisive as she pushed the bento aside and stripped off her house robe to reveal a field uniform, complete with dozens of pockets loaded with seals of all stripes. She kicked off the slippers and pulled a pair of battle sandals from one of those seals, sliding them onto her feet and knotting them in place with rapid fingers.
"What are you—"
"Codeword: Riptide," Mari said. "We are going missing again, full explanations later but it's because Hazō said so and he said so because Akatsuki is likely to be after us. Get your stuff, get Yuno's stuff. Everything. Every seal, every book, everything you or Yuno care about. Get into field gear, get hers ready. Anything sensitive, bring it or burn it. We are exfiltrating two minutes after she gets back. You, me, her, no one else. I'm going to go loot Hazō's office for the ninjutsu scrolls and burn anything that seems appropriate. Go!"
"But— Right." It took his brain a second to catch up but he dropped his unopened teapot seal and sprinted for the stairs. It could take Yuno anywhere from four minutes to twenty minutes to reach Fujisawa's house, depending on how fast Yuno was traveling and how. Two to fifteen minutes before she started back, depending on whether she simply dropped the letter off and left or if she stopped to chat over tea. (Fujisawa's writing-only communication tended to be slower than speech.) The return trip would probably take longer than the outbound since it would already be dark and Yuno would know of no reason to rush. He had anywhere from ten minutes to an hour to pack up everything he and his wife cared about.
Mari had better have a
really good explanation.
o-o-o-o
The door opened the way ninja open doors: a small crack at first, with the opener standing to the side and bracing it with one foot before opening it the rest of the way once the person knocking was revealed as not a hostile.
Miyuki nodded a welcome to Yuno and tipped her head inquisitively. She stepped back, gesturing an invitation to come inside. Yuno bowed politely but shook her head.
"I apologize," she said, holding out the packet. "I am only here to drop off this package from Kei. I really must get back."
Miyuki packed an entire 'I understand the need but regret the necessity and hope you return again soon' into one brief nod and a slightly crinkling of her eyes. She accepted the packet, bowed her thanks, and closed the door as Yuno turned away. She had the packet slit open and the contents extracted before she had taken three steps back to the fireplace. Three envelopes and a top sheet.
She read the top sheet with a frown.
For my two lights. Please be together when you read these, and know that I regret my absence from you with true pain. I still look forward to eating pea soup and drinking spiced tea and all the other things we discussed as soon as I return.
Kei had been in an unusually affectionate mood when she wrote that, Miyuki thought. There had to have been other phrasings that would have allowed her to hide the code words without being so schmoopy.
She looked out the window, considering. It was fully dark now, and Miyuki wasn't sure if Tenten would be at her apartment or at the Nara estate. Unfortunately, the two places were in opposite directions and the night was chilly already, as well as damp. She had been drawing by the fire when Yuno arrived. Nothing in the coded message stated that the letters were urgent...
She glanced from the sketchpad on the table next to her chair, where there was warmth and light and toasty blankets, to the slivered-moon darkness outside the window. Tenten would be annoyed if she decided that Miyuki had kept the letters from her overly long, but she likely wouldn't be bothered if Miyuki found her first thing in the morning. Which wouldn't be hard, since she would undoubtedly be training at her favorite field.
On the other hand, Miyuki couldn't read her letter until she caught up with Tenten. Did she really want to delay gratification that long?
She looked back and forth from fireplace to window, frowning uncertainly.
o-o-o-o
"I'm back!" Yuno called as she came through the door, scraping the mud off her sandals before toeing them off and replacing them with house slippers. Mari had undoubtedly finished her barbeque by now, but Yuno hadn't eaten yet and was definitely ready for something. Maybe fish? She remembered seeing a nice salmon filet with ground pepper among the meal seals. That sounded g—
Noburi and Mari were there, wearing full combat gear and skywalker sandals. Noburi had his finger to his lips as he approached and handed her a field uniform before twirling one hand in a 'gather up, time to go' gesture. He turned away and started emptying the bowl of explosive notes that lived on the shelf by the door, stuffing handfuls of them into his pockets and leaving none behind.
Yuno was too well-trained to demand answers in what was clearly a time-critical situation. Instead, she started peeling off her clothes and handing them to Mari to be sealed up while Yuno pulled on the combat gear and the skywalker sandals. Mari handed her a bandoleer of quick-load inserts for the sandals and gave her a quick check-over, tugging on straps and inventorying to make sure that everything was in its place and settled, then standing still so that Yuno could check her as well.
Ninety seconds after Yuno had entered the house, the three were climbing into the nearly moonless sky, chakra swirling constantly through their systems to hold off the exhaustion caused by essentially running up a very steep staircase that happened to be half a mile long.
Behind them, Kei's envelopes remained as unexploded tags that would either earn them two new recruits or a swarm of ANBU racing after them.
XP AWARD: 0 The vote was for '[x] Interlude: The Rest of the Gouketsu Go Missing Again'.
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