Schemed Against

Natsume returned to Hikari's room and saw that it was empty. The fire had already been restarted with plenty of fuel, and the water buckets were replaced. Since she didn't see any servants walking around, Natsume guessed that the apprentices did errands too. She sat by the fire and took the piece of coal out. It had a vague fan marking on the surface that anyone else would have overlooked. She broke the piece in half and took out a small, rolled paper.

'Starting tonight'

'Impressive,' Natsume thought after reading the note. She placed it in the fire and poked at it until all of it was turned to ash, then she spread the ash around the bottom to mix it together. It was likely that Daichi wasn't instrumental to this revolt but was able to take advantage of the situation. It seemed that the Itto-ryu dojo was already thinking of making a move. There would be a lot of chaos on the mountain, which was the perfect opportunity for her.

Despite being a samurai for so long, Daichi's espionage skills did not wane at all. It made her wonder how much she could trust him. Perhaps his whole backstory was fraudulent. It is not impossible to know the connection between Uchiha and Fuma clan, and stealing the identity of a dead clansmen was fairly easy if the body was never recovered. The skills he portrayed, although difficult, could be learned with enough practice.

Natsume ticked her trust for Daichi a step backward because he was too skilled. Even if he was loyal now, that didn't mean he would be loyal in the future. This world was just like that. Unfortunately, she could not be like the Asura reincarnations and blindly trust their friends and even enemies on occasion. She sighed and wondered where that white bunny had gone.

Seeing how late it was, Natsume decided to sleep tonight. After changing, she stuffed herself into the futon hugging her sword and quietly drifted off to dreamland. Normally, she would go through the night without dreams. But that night, she dreamt of the Konoha of the future. The clan children running around playing without worries. Adults of different clans eating together. Although the peace was paper-thin, it was still peace.

"Meme… Meme…" She woke up to Hikari nudging her shoulder. Natsume opened her eyes and grabbed the hilt of her sword. She didn't detect any threats in the room but continued to grip her sword underneath the thick blanket. The little rabbit seemed to have snuck into the room without her realizing. Natsume furrowed her brow and remembered the first time they met; she didn't detect her hiding behind the pillar. It was as if she didn't have a presence. "Sorry for waking you… Ojjisan said not to leave the room tonight."

"Mm." Natsume acknowledged with a low hum. Hikari bit her lip and nudged Natsume before she fell back asleep. "Something else?"

"Meme-chan, I'm scared… Can I…" She looked down at the futon that was big enough to accommodate an adult, let alone two children. Natsume was curious about Hikari's physique and why she was able to move around like a ghost. She decided to give in a little and build some trust. Besides, there was not much difference with sleeping next to each other and sleeping in the same futon anyway. Natsume sighed to indicate she reluctantly gave in to her request while rolling over to one side, her back facing Hikari.

"Hehe!" Hikari's frightened face disappeared like an illusion as she snuggled up against Natsume. Since she was on alert, her sleep was rather light and didn't dream again. Hikari had no reservations with her sleeping posture and stuck close to Natsume all night. Since it was rather cold at night, the shared body warmth was a rare comfort in the mountain.

The next morning, Hikari woke up by herself. Natsume had already left to the training ground. She would occasionally see armed Samurai walking the halls and looking into rooms. No one bothered Natsume, and some even nodded toward her. Whatever happened last night seemed to have been resolved. The current operation seemed like cleaning up anyone that escaped. With how magnetic misfortunate is to Uchiha, she was surprised that nothing forced her to get involved.

Natsume held a wooden sword and internally reviewed her experiences. She had some doubts and decided to focus on those during her practice. After her warmup, a familiar figure called out. "Meme-chan, can you teach me?" Natsume furrowed her brows again and turned to look at the little white figure sitting on bundle of fur. Judging by her posture, she had been there for a while. It seemed that her ability was improving.

"Hime-sama, how could this lowly one teach you?" Natsume kept up her previous attitude. This was part of her overall scheme to build a close relationship. Hikari had an aggrieved expression and was on the verge of tears.

"Meme-chan, we already slept together. Father said that whoever sleeps with me has to be responsible for me in the future. Are you going to abandon me?" She sniffled at the end of her monologue.

Natsume felt her chest tighten a bit and cursed her irresponsible father. The situation was clearly not as severe as Hikari made it out to be, but Natsume felt bad for the little girl. Having experienced the death of many loved ones already, Natsume was sensitive to Hikari's circumstances. She relaxed her expression and turned around. "Fine, I will show you some tricks. But you can't say things like that anymore."

"Yay! Don't worry Meme-chan, I'll protect our secret." The girl's attitude did a complete one-eighty, making Natsume suspect that she had been tricked.

'This girl… is not simple. She hides her intelligence under a naïve and innocent guise.' Natsume realized that behind those pure eyes lied a calculative mind. She was even more curious about the identity of this girl's mother and the origin of her abilities. As for teaching her kenjutsu, Natsume had no such intentions. Her family was more than able to teach her kenjutsu. Instead, Natsume planned to secretly teach her shinobi techniques.