closed

[sekihan]

Who: Ashiko and Itachi
Where: An inconspicuous little village in the Land of Rice
When: April 15
Notes: A friendly encounter. Sort of. Mostly, he's just happy she's alive.


'Perhaps you should take it easy, Ashiko-sama,' a few of the lower-ranked servants had suggested, meek and worried. 'It was such a stressful situation. You deserve a rest.'

Honestly. It was as though they didn't know her at all.

Ashiko could never be happy cooling her heels, even if the alternative was being away from her master's side. Since the caravan debacle he had elected to keep a low profile, which meant that Ashiko's little errands resumed, with more frequency than ever before. Otogakure had no shortage of skilled medical ninja, not the least of which was her esteemed Danna-sama, so it wasn't as though she was even on the mend; she had been patched up as good as new by the day after their return, and had only her own bruised pride to pain her.

She didn't care that Orochimaru had stabbed a person through her, really; she was upset that she had hindered her master to the point that he had even had to do such a thing in the first place. It was a similar sentiment that had kept her from using her scroll to make contact with any Konoha shinobi. How exactly did one broach such a strained social situation? 'My master and I are in good health, I hope that none of you were fatally poisoned after we defended ourselves from your highly unwarranted attack,' seemed ill-put.

But even Ashiko could nurse a grudge, if one on behalf of her master.

The woman sighed softly and ducked into the inn and tavern that would be her lodgings for the night, sliding into the last available booth and leaning back against the old, lacquered wood tiredly. She was in the pink of health, but the weather and the long hours she had chosen to undertake had worn her out for the day.

Comments

[dangodragon]

Itachi stayed close enough to grab her if he needed to, but as she stayed afloat, he pushed himself backwards in the water. "Smooth your movements. You're disturbing the water too much. It's easier to stay above the water if you're calm about it."

Itachi couldn't remember when he'd last taught someone something that didn't involve killing. It was a very nice sense of accomplishment.

[sekihan]

Little by little, she did so. And little by little, she actually managed a feeble sort of locomotion. It wasn't very notable at first, and she was more concerned with the suggestions for improvement he had given her. She wasn't so far gone that she didn't notice when one of her strokes ended up brushing her fingertips against bare skin.

She floundered slightly and stood, head ducking in reflexive apology. "I—forgive me, I should have been paying better attention!" Holding hands was one thing, but touching somebody's body—especially a shinobi's —without permission was a mistake most people only ever got the chance to make once. And generally, afterwards any other mistakes were impossible; mortally so.

[dangodragon]

Itachi would be lying if he said he didn't feel a very electric jolt when Ashiko touched his skin, but he was more concerned with her not going under as she floundered. He was in the process of stepping closer and reaching for her, rising out of the water with the intent to pull her up when she stood. Itachi stopped in mid motion.

For a moment he wasn't sure what she was apologizing for. He'd grown up with a younger brother who's demanded hugs, and two older cousins who were had been very affectionate--and in Obito's case still were. Itachi might flinch if a stranger touched him, but Ashiko...wasn't. She was comfortable and familiar, even though she shouldn't be.

Itachi shook his head. "There's no harm done." He could feel no burning or pain where she'd touched him, so he didn't bother to glance and see if the touch had been somehow intended to hurt him. It didn't take much more than a touch with some ninja, but Ashiko was a civilian woman. She posed no danger in just a touch.

Would that be relaxing? Knowing someone who touched you couldn't kill you as easily as breathing? Would it make touching them more desirable.?

"But, I think you have the gist of it. All you need now is practice," Itachi said as he pulled his hands back to himself.

[sekihan]

Her hands were folded together beneath the water, but she slowly straightened from the half-bow of repentance se had flown into. She offered a tentative smile at the praise, and slowly it gained strength and warmth. "Thank you, Iori-kun. I never would have gotten around to learning something like this if you hadn't insisted; I'll be sure to practice when I next get the opportunity."

She rubbed her shoulders, ignoring the chill of evening air on wet skin for the moment. He was right, in a way; at the moment, she posed no danger whatsoever. It might have been a different story if she had the full arsenal of her sleeves at her disposal, but even then she had little reason to strike out at him without some show of hostility on his part to put her on her guard.

But no, that wasn't the issue at hand. The issue at hand was the fact that they would, in short order, be out of the water and shivering in the cold. Ashiko tilted her head to the side, her eyes meeting his thoughtfully. "...if I promise to keep my eyes shut and ignore you for a little while, is there a way to get us dry fast?"

[dangodragon]

"I'm glad your acquaintance with me has been of some benefit," Itachi replied with a bit of sarcasm. There didn't seem a point in being Iori anymore. They both new and there was no one else around. He might as well be himself, or stop trying to put on an act.

In theory, he could create a giant blast of wind to dry them off, but that would likely be noticed. More subtle would be less effective, but he could try. He could keep himself warm with chakra.

"Perhaps." Her clothes would be hardest. "But I'll have to touch you, and it will work bets if you're out of the water."

[sekihan]

Her smile turned a bit wry as she began making her way back to the edge of the pool. "Well, fair is square, as I believe the saying goes. I'm certain I can trust you to be a gentleman about it." Or at least as gentlemanly as a man could get, while touching a woman in her underwear. At least, since the mask of Iori seemed to be dispensed, he wouldn't be stammering out apologies.

She stood on the grass, wrapping her arms around her stomach as she waited for him to follow suit. She now saw the allure of summertime beach trips; then, at least, the coolness would be refreshing. Late spring evenings, however, lacked the same appeal.

Perhaps she would try the more traditional option after she had practiced a little more.

[dangodragon]

Itachi didn't think he'd ever been called a gentlemen. He followed Ashiko out of the water, instantly feeling goose bumps rise on his skin. "There's one way to look at it, I suppose." Itachi stepped up behind Ashiko and fliped his hands through signs, taking his time. The cool water made his hands ache a little. Gently, he placed his fingertips on her back. Despite the cool air, her back was warmer than his fingers, and he had the urge to place his palm flat on her back.

Water, he found, was easy to work worth. Is was intensely malleable, but drawing it from where it lay hidden could sometimes be a chore. His small chakra reserves meant Itachi always had to precise, and that made it easy to gently wick the water away from Ashiko's skin, drawing it back as he moved his hand away and pulled most of the water off of his own body with a little more ease before letting it slap into the ground and drain away.

[sekihan]

He could have done so very easily; she would have simply assumed it would maximize the effect of whatever she was doing. She kept her eyes shut despite being turned away, true to her word, and only opened them once she felt the chill disappear and his fingers pull away.

"Thank you," she said simply, with a sweet smile, before moving to the bench that held her clothes and carefully beginning to redress. Years of practice meant that she was back to her normal immaculate self fairly quickly, though the alcohol still in her system was probably to blame for the slight crookedness of her obi's bow. Only one thing was missing; her hair comb was still in her hand, rather than tucked in.

"Ah...your braid came slightly undone," Ashiko explained before he could ask, gesturing to his hair. "I could...fix it, if you'd like."

[dangodragon]

Itachi had moved to redress, forgoing his normal Iori outfit in favor of something less threadbare, darker in color, and that would probably scream ninja to most civilians. The clothing with generic, but as he intended to leave here quickly via trees and other less civilian ways, he didn't want to risk getting something snagged in the looser clothes Iori wore. he had just pulled his bun out, which had partially destroyed his braid when Ashiko spoke.

Itachi actually felt the need to sit down for a little while. The water might have sobered him a little, but he thought that might be a clever illusion. His brain felt a little muddled.

"You...don't have to. I can get it." Even if his fingers twinged from being in cold water and felt stiff, and he didn't want to waste chakra warming them. Itachi took a little extra time trying to get the hair tie out of his braid. His fingers had been nimble enough for the signs when taken slowly, but not so for hair tie removal, it seemed.

[sekihan]

"Please," Ashiko said, her voice quiet but firm as she shortened the distance between them and reached out with her free hands, her smaller, warmer fingers stilling his. Those clothes made the parting—the finality—much more real than it had inside the tavern. "I want to."

She took over loosening the tie, extricating it in the quick and painless way that only a life time of fussing with fluffy, curly, rebellious hair could properly teach. She wound it around two fingers so as not to lose it in the gloom of the evening, and carefully drew her fingers through his hair once, twice, three times before using the comb. It was, perhaps surprisingly, just as functional as it was decorative, and helped her take care of the smaller knots her fingers missed.

A little more forward than she would be under normal circumstances, yes. But this wasn't normal, by any stretch of the word, and was probably the last chance she would ever have.

[dangodragon]

Itachi had to resist the urge to grab her hands. As a rule, people didn't touch his hair. When he felt hands on his hair, normally someone was trying to get a strong enough hold to yank. Itachi made himself still, slightly disturbed that his reaction, which should have been instantaneous when she touched him, had been slow enough to stop. Itachi tried to push the tension out of his body.

The sensation of Ashiko's fingers through his hair sent chills down his spine. It wasn't comforting, as when Shisui was persuaded into helping Itachi with his hair, but it wasn't really alarming either. It was a curiously sharp awareness of Ashiko's hands and even her body behind him. All the things she could to, standing behind him to close to his neck with his hair in her hands, melted away before he could really contemplate them.

It had to be a conditioned reaction to someone brushing his hair, because he could feel himself relaxing.

[sekihan]

It was irony at its finest; Ashiko was intimately familiar with how to destroy a man from this angle and distance, but unlike Itachi's earlier contemplations, her own thoughts were as far away from murder as could be.

Instead she was thinking, vaguely, of how silky his hair was, and how jealous she was of that, and of a little boy with similarly silky hair from years and years ago. She severed that last line of thought immediately, before the old grief could creep back in, and leaned up on her tiptoes with her forearms braced against his shoulders for balance as she divided his hair.

The braiding was firm and almost mechanical, but not tight enough to hurt his scalp over time. She pinched the end and wound the tie around it, before breathing out a decidedly rude word he was likely surprised that she even knew when it snapped.

"Sorry," she murmured, adjusting her fingers so that her work wouldn't go to waste as she delved into a sleeve with her free hand. The replacement tie was a dark purple and soaked in the faint, sweet scent of daffodils and jasmine—the current bottle of perfume she was working her way through.

[dangodragon]

He really should have sat down and let her do this, Itachi thought, but things were really moving to quickly for his muddled brain. Ashiko braided quickly, without pulling on any one or few hairs as some people did. She had a relaxing competence that made Itachi want to relax, even thought he knew he couldn't. Shouldn't.

She could kill him right now.

Itachi flinched as the hair tie snapped. And supressed a laugh that Ashiko would swear like that. She was probably more accomplished than he was.

Itachi smelled the perfume on the tie she'd given him as he pulled the braid over his shoulder. It was neat and even, all the way down. A good braid, but Ashiko had immensely graceful hands, didn't she? It wasn't any wonder her braid had come out even better than Itachi's braids did.

Itachi turned and gave the woman a deep bow. It made him dizzy, and he stayed where he was, uncertain what he wanted to thank her for, and knowing he should thank her for nothing. He should come up with a blade in hand and gut her. Yank her to him and stab her.

"One day...." Itachi stopped not knowing where the nebulous thought was even going as he pulled himself up, taller than her and yet somehow oddly powerless in this moment. He was stripped of his personas, and Uchiha Itachi would never have anything to do with Ashiko, unless to kill her.

Itachi realized he had never said a permanent goodbye to anyone he'd really cared for before. How exactly were you supposed to sum up a farewell like that into a few simple words? The regrets, well wishes, wistfulness of everything.

"Practice your swimming," Itachi said instead of many other things he could have said, wanted to say, didn't dare say. He turned and walked away, grabbing up his pack and settling it on his shoulders. He would be in Konoha in a few days. Oddly, it seemed very far away right now.