Chapter 21 #2
“I’ll settle for a hot bath,” Aimee muttered, her voice low as she stretched out on the ground, arms arching over her head.
Kiba’s gaze flicked toward her, his eyes hovering on the curve of her neck before quickly looking away.
“A bath?” Taiga’s eyes lit up. “Now that sounds like a reward!”
Oba-chan huffed a laugh, drawing their attention. “You’ll be happy to know my village has some of the best hot springs on the continent.” She paused, her voice growing softer. “Before all of this, my husband and I would go there every other day.”
“Hot springs?” Taiga sat up straighter. “Why didn’t you mention that earlier? We should definitely go there!”
“Perhaps.” Kiba’s voice was calm, but Aimee thought she noticed something in his eyes as they met hers again across the fire.
You’re imagining things. She frowned, stretching out her roll and pulling the blanket over her head, determined to ignore the man. Just focus on the mission.
On the second day, the landscape continued to change as they moved deeper into the foothills. The air grew cooler, and the trees became more frequent, their leaves rustling in the breeze. The river remained at their side, growing wider and swifter as they climbed higher.
That night, they camped again, this time beneath a canopy of trees, the scent of pine mingling with the smoke.
“We should reach the waypoint tomorrow,” Kiba-Sensei said. “I don’t expect any challengers, but the Tsuchi shinobi can get...overly enthusiastic about their duty safeguarding the site.”
“The Tsuchi shinobi?” Momoka asked.
“Yes. Tsuchi and Hi Haven alternate guarding the waypoint every five years to ensure it's not being used by enemy forces. It’s their turn now.”
“But what if they’re the enemy or working with them?” Iruka chimed in, his brow furrowed.
Smart kid, Aimee mused, leaning in, interested in Kiba’s answer.
“We hold a hostage of theirs while they guard, and they take one of ours when we guard,” Kiba explained, poking at the fire with a stick. “Usually, it’s a young member of the Seishō’s family.”
“A hostage?” Taiga scratched his head. “Why do we need a hostage?”
“It ensures trust between the Havens,” Kiba replied.
“But that’s terrible. Taking a kid away from their family?” Taiga’s face twisted in frustration, his hands balling into fists at his sides. “Why can’t we just work together?”
Kiba hesitated, his mouth opening and closing before he finally scratched the back of his head, clearly at a loss for a better answer. “That’s just the way it is, I suppose.”
“It’s stupid.” Taiga crossed his arms and scowled at the ground.
“You’re a good kid, aren’t you?” Granny Oba-chan smiled sadly to herself, turning on her side to sleep. “Who knew I’d find a good kid among the shinobi.”
The next morning dawned cold and quiet, with the soft rustle of wind through the trees as the group broke camp. The fire had long since died, leaving behind only the faint scent of smell wafting in the air.
With the camp packed up, Aimee found herself walking beside Kiba as the others trailed behind, jostling each other to see who would carry Oba-chan's bag.
She glanced sideways at him, her steps in rhythm with his. “We were the only team available, weren’t we?”
Kiba looked up, his eyebrows lifted, and his hand rose almost instinctively to rake through his silver hair, which fell back loosely over his face as he collected himself. “Was it that obvious?”
“No,” Aimee said, shoving her hands into her pockets. “Just a guess.”
“Good guess.” He snorted, then paused, his eyes darting briefly around as if checking their surroundings, before leaning in slightly. “Can I ask you something?”
“Uh, sure.” She glanced sideways at him.
Kiba’s voice was low, careful. “What did you mean? Back at the ramen shop? About not really being sixteen?”
She squeezed her eyes shut, tilting her head back. Shit. She hadn’t expected him to just come out and ask her like that. “Maybe I was just messing with you.”
“Maybe,” he said, studying her closely. “But I don’t think so. There’s too much about you that…doesn’t exactly scream youngling.”
“Beyond the…” She trailed off, but before she could finish, he cut her off.
“Yes.”
Aimee shoved her hands into her pockets again. “Maybe I’m just mature for my age.”
“Aimee.” His voice was firmer now, and she felt the warmth of his hand as it rested gently on the small of her back, subtly guiding her to face him.
“Level with me. It’s not just about what happened between us.
I need to know who I have in my squad, especially now, when we’re heading into something dangerous. ”
She looked at him from the corner of her eye, lips tightening in contemplation.
He’s right. She had opened the door for this question with her big mouth, and now she owed him an answer. The problem was, she had no idea how to give him one without spilling everything.
“Fine,” she muttered, shifting uncomfortably.
He waited.
“Ummm…” Aimee’s mind raced, her thoughts twisting in every direction as she tried to find the right words. Her lips parted, but nothing came out immediately. How do I even start this?
“Aimee,” he pressed, his voice more insistent now. “Your age really shouldn’t be a mystery. Are you sixteen or not?”
“Not really...no, not at all,” she exhaled.
Kiba's expression darkened, his jaw tightening. “Why the games?”
“I’m not playing games,” she sighed. “It really is just…complicated.” Her eyes darted toward the ground, then back up to him, searching his face for understanding.
How the hell am I supposed to explain this without sounding crazy? Should I just say I lied about my age? That would be easier, though it would break the fragile trust she’d built with the others if they found out.
“Do you believe in past lives?” she asked, her voice softer now.
She might actually be insane, going with the unfiltered truth, but instinct told her this man would demand no less…and that she could trust him.
“Come on,” he snorted.
“I’m serious.”
Kiba’s brows furrowed, but his gaze sharpened, studying her with growing intensity. “Okay…explain.”
Aimee swallowed, taking a moment to gather herself.
“I came to Hi Haven playing the role of a sixteen-year-old.” She glanced around as if the forest around them could somehow help her articulate what she barely understood herself. “This is the life I’m living. Every day. A Tanshi of Wolf Squad. That’s who I am. What I am. At least to an extent.”
“And?” he asked, urging her on.
Aimee inhaled deeply, her chest tightening as the words formed.
“Underneath that role, I also have the experiences and sometimes memories of other lives...other versions of myself.” Her palm pressed against her chest, fingers curling briefly before falling away.
“But it’s still the same me. Same body.”
Her gaze stayed fixed forward, the corner of her mouth quirking. “Which is not sixteen, by the way. The pervy Hi Haven elders came up with that one.”
Her gaze dropped. “Anyway.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, thumb rubbing once before releasing a tired huff.
“So you see—I’m not sixteen. I’m not really anything.
Just a jumble of lives stacked on top of each other, all blurring together in a body that never seems to make it past thirty.
Sometimes forty, if I’m lucky, before I get yanked into the next round. ”
Kiba scratched his chin. “Are you sure you're not insane?”
Aimee paused, then let out a huff of laughter, shaking her head. “Well, Kiba, I suppose I might be. But if I were insane, I probably wouldn't be the one to answer that question, now would I?”
“I suppose not.” He sighed, the corner of his mouth pulling up. “You could have just told me you lied about your age. That would have been easier.”
But then he grew more serious, reaching up to pull the Hi Haven bandana away from his left eye, revealing a striking silver wolf’s eye beneath it.
It was rumored to hold the power to see through deception, to peer into the truth of things.
There was something almost magnetic about the way he studied her now, the eye gleaming in the fading light.
“I don’t know what to make of this, Aimee,” he said quietly. Both eyes, one dark, and one silver, locked onto her, examining her as if trying to strip away the layers of mystery.
She swallowed and looked away. “Me neither these days,” she admitted.
“Usually, it’s easy. I just…meld into my new life.
The memories of what came before are blurry and distant.
I carry the skills with me, but not much else.
” She paused, her gaze drifting to the horizon.
“Hell, I’d probably have ended up with Iruka or even Momoka if. ..” Her voice trailed off.
“If you hadn’t met me that night,” he finished for her, the tension bleeding out of him as the last word hung between them.
“Yeah,” she replied. “And now I’m having a harder and harder time reconciling the sixteen-year-old girl I’m supposed to be playing and the woman I know I am.”
“It sounds crazy.”
“Yep.”
“But it’s the truth. At least as you know it,” he said, holding her gaze as they walked.
“Yes.”
“And you're loyal to Hi Haven?”
“As long as nobody starts trying to destroy the world,” she said with a wry smile, though, in truth, she was deadly serious.
Kiba let out a soft grunt, and, after a moment, a quiet acceptance seemed to settle over him. His shoulders relaxed, the tension easing from his face as he came to terms with what she'd said.
With a small nod, he reached up and pulled the bandana back down, covering his silver eye. “I have more questions, but—”
Before he could finish, Aimee stumbled over a tree root, pitching forward into his arms just as a shuriken sliced through the space where her head had been. The blade buried itself in the ground behind her, narrowly missing Momoka’s feet.
“Where’d that come from?!” the girl shouted.
Aimee barely registered her squadmate’s words as her gaze locked onto Kiba’s wide eye. His arms tightened around her for a moment, and she could feel his heart thundering beneath her hands.
The realization hit them both at the same time. They were under attack.