Tobirama runs the whetstone over the blade of his kunai, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

It won't help anyway.

"… and then!" Anija waves his arms wildly, radiating enthusiasm and awe in equal measure. "He nearly took my head off!"

"… please don't tell me anything else." Tobirama can't help wincing. Knowing that Anija's sparring sessions with Madara-sama are the equivalent of sex makes listening to all this rhapsodising even more horribly awkward than before the two of them got married. "I really don't want to know."

Ichika's stomach growls and she rubs it absently as she tucks herself into a darkened corner between two buildings. She ignores it. This is not the first time she's gone hungry.

One of the first things that Mito-hime taught her was never to falsify what could be real. Never fake what can be felt. Cover a lie with a layer of truth and the target will swallow it whole.

As such, she is exactly the same as all the other urchins in this town.

She doesn't just look like them, she is one of them.

She's been here for a month, joined a gang, and has been stealing food and coin along with the rest of the children. They're a nuisance to the local merchants, but nothing more than that, and she knows better than to try and beg a meal of any of the more prosperous locals. No, they won't give her so much as a glance.

Which is exactly the way she wants it.

Because her target has just arrived.

A minor official of the daimyo, he's of no particular importance to anyone at court except for one.

His wife.

Though a much higher ranking woman than he, she can't get rid of him while he's in favour.

It's Ichika's job to make that happen.

Oh, it would be much simpler to kill him and be done with it. A knife in the dark as he slept, and she could go home, shedding the experiences of her time here like a snake sheds its skin.

However, that's not what the wife wants.

She wants him disgraced.

Ichika reminds herself never to cross this particular client - vengeful patrons who nurse grudges are never worth it.

Still, Ichika has some ideas about how to go about this.

Her target has been sent to negotiate a business agreement, something that those more important than him disdain to do. Contact with a merchant is something for their juniors, and they would never dirty their own hands with it.

As a Senju, Ichika scoffs at the attitude. Money is necessary, and the courtiers who disdain merchants publicly take out loans to maintain their lavish lifestyles. It's hypocrisy of the highest order. As a member of the gang, however, merchants are her rightful prey and there's nothing sweeter than the feel of a fat purse in the palm of her hand.

In any case though, she sees no reason why she should not take advantage.

And he's made it easy for her.

For her target is desperately in love with a geisha in Ponto-chō, and geisha are expensive.

The man that he's been sent to negotiate with is already planning an attempt to bribe him. All she needs to do is make him short of ready money, and he'll take it.

The amount will be more than enough for him to pay for a moment of time with the object of his desire, before evidence of his corruption will be laid out publicly by none other than his wife.

A demonstration of her loyalty to the daimyo of course, and nothing more. Putting her fealty to her lord above her marriage.

What an honourable woman.

Ichika's role is thus very simple.

Steal his purse, leave him penniless, and then bring evidence of the bribe to the wife. Her client will take it from there, and good luck to her.

So Ichika settles down to wait.

However, her stomach betrays her.

A boy barely older than her walks by, munching on some dango, and her eyes follow him unconsciously. There should be nothing unusual about that - there are many children eating dango in this town, and many hungry eyes upon them.

Unfortunately for her, this boy is a shinobi.

It's in the way he walks, the weapons pouch at his waist, and - most of all - the Uchiwa embroidered on his back.

Uchiha.

And he's well trained enough to feel her eyes on him.

He snaps his head around and gives her a hard stare.

She remembers Mito-hime's words.

Feel, react, don't lie.

She focuses her gaze on his dango and lets hunger take over her expression. Saliva pools in her mouth and she swallows it.

It works.

His face softens, he looks at the second stick in his free hand, and he hesitates before holding it out. "Here. You look like you could use some food."

Ichika bites her lip, chewing on it nervously, and he waves the dango at her. "Come on, little one! I promise that it's not poisoned or anything! Look!" He demonstratively bites into one of the balls, pulling it off the skewer with sharp teeth. "It's good." His words come out garbled as he chews noisily, and that decides her.

She darts forward and snatches the stick out of his hand, before scuttling away into the shadows.

The boy shakes his head, smiling, and turns on his heel, striding off down the street.

Ichika is careful not to watch him go, and resists the urge to knead chakra in an effort to be prepared in case he comes back for her. Without a weapon as she is, she'd be easy prey and she knows it.

And yet... nothing happens.

He's gone, out of her life, as if he had never been.

She stares at the dango in her hand, thinking it over, and then takes a large bite.

Food is food, even if it's from the hand of an Uchiha.

She's a shinobi after all.

Practical.