WAP CH8

The sun was beating down on her neck. Hana felt sweat begin to trail down from her hairline onto her brows. She grimaced and heaved her weight into her work again. Her arms were shaking with the strain of grinding.

"Good morning," called out a cheerful, male, and unfamiliar voice.

She flinched and looked up with wide eyes. How-

A young man was standing far too close for comfort. She stared up at his grin, confident and calm despite his status as an intruder in her village.

"Good morning," she said cautiously. Hana took her hand towel and wiped at her face. "Are you here for the shrine?" Now that harvest was done, there was more leisure time to travel and visit family in other villages. Surely some of the people who heard about their shrine would come to see it.

He blinked. "Ah, no. Shrine?"

Oh. Disappointed, she slumped a little. It had seemed a little early for anyone to come from other villages, but why else would someone new come here?

"The shrine to Izanami-no-Mikoto." Hana glanced down the road, but the man seemed to have come alone. "The Priestess welcomes visitors and students."

"Perhaps I should visit." He gave her a smooth, practiced smile. He was very handsome and diplomatic.

She didn't like him at all.

'He's humoring or mocking me. He isn't a believer.'

Hana felt her expression turn tight. "Perhaps," she repeated. "Have a good day."

She turned back to her work, deliberately ignoring him. Now that she knew he was there, she could see his shadow. He wasn't moving.

"Ano…"

Hana ignored him even harder.

"I was sent to talk to your village leader."

Hana looked up at him sharply. "Why?" She narrowed her eyes. "Who are you? You're younger than me. You can't be anyone important."

The stranger reeled back at that gem of country honesty. His mouth dropped open and his cheeks flushed red. "I'm 24!" He blustered. "I'm plenty old to be important."

He was 24 and he was running errands?

"I'm not impressed," Hana said in her flattest voice. She crossed her arms over her stomach, which was still so odd to feel round. "I'm 22 and I'm apprenticed to the Priestess."

"You're a miko?" The man's gaze wandered over her pregnant stomach.

'I wish.'

Her face was hot. "No," she snapped, offended by the rude scrutiny of her body. She did not elaborate. "Is anyone expecting you?"

He tilted his face and looked at her as if she was a new species. "No," he said slowly. Some kind of tension left his body. She hadn't noticed he was tense, but she saw the way his hand moved down, away from… away from…

'He's armed.'

Her breath caught. She couldn't actually see a weapon, but the cloth bundle hanging from his obi didn't look like any farm tool she'd ever seen. And wasn't that the flat line of a knife hidden in the obi itself?

'Another one to attack the Priestess? Did the Daimyo give up on samurai and send some- some ronin?' Heart beating fast, she really looked him over for the first time.

He was handsome in a way that put her hackles up. His skin was as clear as the Priestess', and his build was strong and lean. He just looked different. His hands had thin scarring and there was something brown dried under the nails on his left hand. It made her think of old blood.

'Shinobi,' Hana realized. The shock curdled to anger in her gut. 'The Daimyo hired burakumin to come and kill the Priestess.'

The audacity.

"You should go."

His eyebrows flew up.

"We don't want you here." Hana scowled at him. Her fingers clenched around her tool handle. "The Priestess won't see you."

He cocked his head to the side. "The Priestess?" He repeated dumbly. "Is that your village leader?"

Hana scoffed in disbelief. As if he didn't know.

Well, he wasn't getting any information from her. She stood up to turn her back to him.

"Hana-chan."

She jumped.

Slow footsteps scuffed in the dirt quietly as Grandma Kasumi made her way over. Hana turned back around.

The interloper dropped into a deep bow.

Bemused, Grandma Kasumi squinted down at him.

"You must be the Priestess," he said to his knees. "May I trouble you for some conversation? I've come on behalf of the Uchiha clan."

Uchiha. Hana had heard that name. They were one of the two rival warlords.

Grandma Kasumi made a small, confused sound in the back of her throat. As she began to speak, Hana lifted her face and saw the Priestess.

She was staring at the Uchiha in profile and her face was white. She stumbled a step backwards.

'I need to keep him away from her.'

"Yes," Hana interrupted, making sure to sound as grudging as possible. "As I said, the Priestess doesn't have time for a shiftless 24 year old with dirty nails."

He puffed up, clearly on the edge of snipping back at her. From the glare he sent, she knew he'd have said something rude if there wasn't an elder right there.

"Hmmm." Grandma Kasumi gave Hana a sideways look. "I have time to listen. Don't be rude, darling. Uchiha-san, you're a tall boy, aren't you?" She squinted at him until her eyes nearly disappeared.

The idiot looked stunned.

"Come," Grandma Kasumi said imperiously. She began shuffling away from town at her highest speed. It was still painfully slow. The man struggled to keep pace without overtaking her.

Hana looked back at where the Priestess had been standing. She was gone.

'She looked like she'd seen a ghost.'

Grandma Kasumi would keep him busy. As soon as they were far enough away, heading towards the orchard, she lifted her yukata hem and ran into town.

"Hana!"

She didn't slow at the disapproving shout. Her eyes were open wide, darting from side to side, looking for either the Priestess or for the headman.

She found the headman first. Ichirou shaded his eyes against the sun and let out a confused "huh," when she came skidding to a halt.

"There's a shinobi," she panted.

"The woman the Priestess drinks with?" He sounded bemused. Shinji jumped down from the ledge above, obviously listening.

"Not her," Hana dismissed. Her heart was thudding after her run. "A man, and I think he has a big knife."

"A sword?" Shinji asked very quietly.

"How do you know he's a shinobi? Did he say so?" Ichirou looked around as if the scoundrel might be on a roof. Of course he wasn't. Grandma Kasumi probably had him up a tree picking persimmon.

"He said he's an Uchiha messenger boy," Hana reported. "We have to keep him away from the Priestess!"

The village headman opened his mouth and wrinkled his brow. "It seems like she can take good care of herself," he said doubtfully.

"He's filthy," Hana hissed. "It would shame us all if we let him near the holy woman."

Shinji nodded his head.

She felt relief that someone else understood. Of course the Priestess could dispatch this boy if she had to. That didn't mean that he should have a chance to attack her.

"I'll go, I'll go." Ichirou dusted his hands on his legs. Dirt flaked off. "You want me to tell him we'd like him to leave?"

"Yes, please." Hana straightened. He hadn't listened to her.

Ichirou sighed and started down the road. "He's this way?"

"With Grandma Kasumi," Hana confirmed. "He thinks she's the Priestess."

Ichirou snorted.

She scowled at him.

The middle aged man put his hands up defensively. "Not very bright, is he?" His eyes crinkled in a smile. "She's not dressed like a priestess." He walked a little faster.

"I think he mistakes age for importance," Hana said sagely.

She broke off, making meaningful eye contact with her fellow apprentice. Shinji  nodded back, a silent promise to try to run off the intruder. She felt lighter when she doubled back to the shrine.

"Pr- Aiko," she called with a wince. It felt wrong, even with permission. But it seemed like bad luck to call out her title now with a dangerous man in town.

"I'm back here."

The Priestess's voice floated over from the garden. Hana shoved her feet back in her shoes and walked around the outside of the building. She had to hug very close to avoid the thorny brush.

The Priestess was seated on a rock, facing away.

"Hello, Hana."

There was something terribly vulnerable in her voice. Hana stopped in her tracks. "Priestess," she said uncertainly. "Is everything alright?"

The Priestess ran a hand through her lovely, foreign hair. "...Sit with me."

Hana sat on the edge of the engawa. She swallowed.

"That man was an Uchiha?" It was a tone that she'd never heard before.

"Yes." Hana nodded slowly. "He didn't say his personal name. He's 24 and he's rude."

The sound that resulted would have been called a snort, if someone less elegant had made it. "That sounds like an Uchiha." Her voice was dry.

"Ichirou is telling him to leave," Hana said fiercely. "He won't bother you."

The Priestess turned her face to look at Hana. She tilted her head to the side. "That's sweet. Maybe he'll leave."

They stayed together in the garden for at least an hour, when Grandma Kasumi rapped her knuckles on the entrance and had a child haul in a basket with some recently harvested fruit.