Maya - a Naruto Fanfic

15. The Chapter That WOULDN'T FREAKING WRITE

A/N: THIS CHAPTER WOULD NOT WRITE I HATE IT SO MUCH FUCK THIS CHAPTER FUCK THIS CHAPTER FUCK THIS CHAPTER

I'm exhausted by the time I reach the bathhouse. From meeting Kakashi's team to taking Hana to the vets to meeting Naruto for Ichiraku which neither of us could pay for. We are officially the first people to open up a tab at a Konoha ramen shop.

And as it turns out that, while Kasumi runs the bathhouse, it's actually her daughter Kaoru who does most of the work.

This isn't really a bad thing, I suppose, in fact it's pretty good for me. Kasumi's so much like my grandmother it scares me. I keep half expecting her to break out a traditional tea set and give me a lesson in ceremony. But Kaoru's really nice.

"Maya? Are you listening to me?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah, sorry."

"That's alright. I know it's a lot to take in, but try to stay focused, okay?" Her smile is so pretty that when she focuses it on me, it brings a dark flush to my cheeks.

"Okay." I nod quickly, and focus back on towel folding. It probably won't be as interesting as helping with the ninja training, but at least it won't be nearly as dangerous.

Or strange.

I try not to sigh as I tuck my stack of folded towels away on the shelf.

"You've got this, right?" Kaoru checks, before leaving once I nod. Once the bath opens, Kaoru explained, the towels will come flooding out, and back in again as they're used, washed and dried. For now, the more difficult jobs will be left to the real employees, and I'll be doing the easy ones. Like stacking towels.

"It kind of seems like a stupid job, but you'll get used to it." With that, she leaves to help out the other women at the bathhouse. They're all really sweet, but more than a little odd, from 10-year-old Ema who, for whatever reason, insists on wearing her kimono inside out, to Amaterasu who could be anywhere between 80 and 200, and who seems to spend most of her time reorganising the bath tokens.

"Always ask Ama for a token, even if you have to wait." One of the other women told me when Kaoru showed me the system.

"Why?"

"It changes regularly. It's impossible to know which system is coming next."

"Doesn't she fall into a pattern?"

"Ama used to create the codes for Konoha during the war. To this day, not a single one of her codes have been broken by the enemy. Even though she's retired from active duty, they still call on her from time to time to create a new code and cipher for the military."

"Holy crap."

"Yeah. Long story short, AAA."

"AAA?"

"'Always Ask Ama.'"

I guess this motto applies to everything, because before we left Kaoru stopped to ask Ama about the best way to sharpen a kunai, whatever that is, just after another woman asked how to cook a chicken.

My position folding towels isn't far from Ama's place at the tokens desk, where she sits quietly shifting tokens from one box to another. I don't think her hands have stopped moving since I got here.

"So, uh... What do you do when you're not working here?" I ask when the silence gets too much for me. Ama smacks her gums before answering.

"I work in... The Aviary."

"The Aviary?" Ama smacks her gums again.

"Where the... Messages from shinobi... On missions come in."

"Oh, right. That must be interesting work."

Smack.

"Lots of... Waiting."

"Yeah, I suppose there must be. Do you enjoy it?"

Smack.

"It passes... The time."

"Until when?"

Smack.

"Until I get to... Come back here."

"You must really love working here."

Smack.

"Reminds me of... The past."

"Oh yeah, someone said you used to write codes."

Smack.

"That's... Classified."

"I guess it would be. If you did, would you say working here is anything like that?"

Smack.

"Wait till you see... Rush hour."

"Rush hour?" Suddenly, Ama starts making this awful, hacking noise, like she's about to bring up a lung. After a moment of nothing short of sheer terror, I realise that she's actually laughing.

I have a bad feeling about this 'rush hour'.

A/N: you know how you always get those old people who seem really boring and then someone says something like 'yeah they used to smuggle Jews out of concentration camps in world war 2' and you're just like whoah? That's Ama. There is no planning behind her and she is already my favourite. Also, I've started writing these mid-chapter which is weird as fuck but I needed to do this while it was still fresh in my mind. Thank you @OkaiJai for your lovely comments! They make writing this so worth it! Seriously, your last comment almost made me cry. Jesus fuck this one's long, sorry.
Ta-ta~