[X] Pinocchio
It takes Ami approximately twenty minutes to catch the attention of the festival's organizers, and by the time they arrive she is surrounded by tiny children hugging the various gigantic stuffed animals she's won and calling her nee-chan.
Turns out if you win every single game you play in a casino town, eventually someone invites you to their office to say hello. You wonder if this isn't just a convenient way to snatch you for the pickpocketing, but Ami waves off your concerns.
"You have to take care of your big winners," she says authoritatively. "It makes sure they'll come back and give you more money. And when someone wins a lot, it's important to know what they look like, in case they turn up later. That way you can keep track of who the cheaters and troublemakers are."
Well, it certainly worked today, you think with a smirk.
When you inform Mom, she takes this whole thing in stride, inspecting your fingers for the remains of cotton candy and wiping a non-existent pizza stain from the corner of your mouth before instructing the two fellas sent to fetch you to lead on.
You're initially annoyed at her treating you like a kid like this, until something occurs to you.
She's treating you like a normal kid because as far as these guys know, you
are a normal kid. For some reason, she doesn't want you to stand out to this Kurioka guy.
Kurioka's office is impeccably furnished, with tasteful millwork and fine silk curtains. You conclude almost immediately that his wife must have approved these touches, because Kurioka himself could not look more out-of-place or uncomfortable if he were wearing a Kumo hitai-ate at a Hyuuga family reunion. The only thing in the room that really looks like it belongs to him is the drinks cart; it's made of fake bamboo with frosted glass shelves and green paper-umbrella hubcaps on the wheels. It is adorably kitschy and goes well with Kurioka's floral shirt.
The bottles on the cart are all full, which makes you wonder if he's trying to project the image of a good host while not being a drinker himself, or if he's an alcoholic with a mickey stashed in his desk drawer who's trying to look like a more temperate man.
"Ah, Takae-sensei!" Kurioka says, grinning as he lays down his cigar and stands to greet the three of you. "How wonderful to have you in Tange' once again, how." Hm, your guidebook was wrong about the local nickname, sounds like. Noted.
"It has been a while, has it not, Kurioka-san?" Mom murmurs with a bow that you echo perfectly, wondering what's going on. "Please convey my congratulations to Oshibe-san on your recent good fortune."
"You are too kind, sensei," he says, returning the bow, then turning his attention to Ami. "And this young markswoman who swept the fair is with you?" He extends a hand, and Ami shakes it. "Kurioka Yoshihiro. What might your name be, ojou-chan, what?"
"Kuwabara Ami," she says with a nod.
There are the usual hangers-on lounging around the room (rent-a-ronin, a lawyer, a beautiful woman in a dress that would be almost cartoonishly oversexualized if it weren't so well-made), but the ones who catch your attention (and Ami's, from the look of things) are the Konoha-nin.
There're three of them, all in their mid-teens, two of them in glasses. Well, three if you count the sunglasses Mr Cool over there is wearing so he won't be left out. The black-haired ones are a pace behind Kurioka, but the one you're interested in is the one behind you, by the doors. You tried to pretend you didn't see him when you came in, but you're pretty sure he knows you know he's there. He's quite a bit stronger than the average genin, after all.
"Kuwabara Ami," Kurioka says in a considering tone. "Now that wouldn't make you Saito Sumire's little girl, now, would it?"
"You knew Mom?" Ami asks hesitantly.
Kurioka gives her a proud nod. "Mm.
Everyone knew Saito-san; she was a great lady. I was sorry to hear she'd passed. You look a lot like your dad, otherwise I'd've worked it out when I saw that purple hair. Anyway, how's old Rei doin' these days, anyway?"
"Quite well, thank you," Ami replies through gritted teeth.
"I guess he'd have to be, puttin' his daughter through the Ninja Academy," he replies, oblivious. "Good. That's good." He grins. "Maybe when you graduate I can hire your squad for festival security. Kabuto-kun, ne, whacha think, Kabuto-kun?" he calls to the genin by the door, making Mom and Ami turn in surprise (and you in 'surprise') to look at him. "Does she have what it takes?"
"She's very skilled for someone so young, Kurioka-sama," the boy answers.
Ami stares at him. "Thank you for your kind words... Kabuto-san, was it?"
"Say, there's a thought," Kurioka says, and you almost - almost! - roll your eyes. There is no way in hell he didn't plan to suggest whatever he's about to suggest from the moment you walked in, probably before. You've met genin who were better actors than this guy.
"Kabuto-kun, I want you to show these ladies the sights," he continues. "Misumi-kun and Yoroi-kun can protect me for a few hours by themselves; I'm sure they're more than capable of keeping me from accidentally strangling myself with the... the
swags, or whatever trouble it is my wife thinks I'll get into in here."
"It would be my pleasure, Kurioka-sama," Kabuto says, smiling at Ami.
=
Kabuto, as it turns out, is a pretty good tour guide. You'd almost think he was a native of Tanzaku Gai.
First off he shows you the rooftop park on top of the Mishima Zaibatsu building and the collection of sculptures on display there. The view is amazing, and he points out all the parts of the wall around the town that've had to be rebuilt over the years, thrice from Uchiha raids (Ami preens in borrowed pride at this).
Then he takes you by the birthplace of Himekawa Ayumi (tokubetsu jounin, infiltration specialization, 200 D-rank, 150 C-rank, 228 B-rank, details of A and S-ranks undertaken not yet fully declassified), because you've wanted to pay your respects there for a while.
It's a small traditional home, behind an Udon shop. Now converted into a museum of her life in drama, its tiny rooms are crammed with display cases and hung with photos, postcards from famous fans, and other memorabilia. In the living/bedroom she shared with her mother and two sisters before she was sent to Konohagakure at age 6, the juunihitoe she wore in her first starring role as Tsubakihime has pride of place, as vibrant and beautiful as it must have been on the night she wore it. Your fingers itch ever-more uncontrollably the longer you look at it.
But no treasure, even such a lavish one as that, can surpass what is easily the saddest and most impressive thing about Himekawa Ayumi.
In the whole museum, there is not one mention of her shinobi career.
No documents. No rumours. No urban myths. No ghost stories.
If you hadn't read that biography all those years ago, you'd wonder if they really were the same woman; the kunoichi, and the most famous actress of her day.
You spend a little time at the small shrine to one side of the house, not really praying, just thinking, hoping Ayumi got the recognition she deserves in whatever passes for an afterlife for ninja. Finally, you drop some coins in the offering box and clap your hands together once.
Please let my jounin-sensei be even half
as cool as you.
=
"Ne, Kabuto-san," you ask a short while later, "where do the lights and things go during the day?"
The four of you are walking down Castle Boulevard, but the only thing that indicates this is true is the streetsigns. To all appearances, this is a perfectly normal traditional street. Quaint, even, if it weren't so crowded.
"Ah, if I recall correctly that is the result of an agreement that was reached between the Tanzaku Gai Cultural Preservationist Society and leaders of the business community," Kabuto says. "The town council has ruled that all neon signs and other modern illuminations are prohibited on the streets until sunset, and must be constructed to attach or detach from a building's façade as events may require."
"The town council can do that?" Ami asks with a frown. "Do civilian villages not have someone like a Kage to make decisions?"
"Well, the council has a president," the grey-haired boy says, adjusting his glasses. "But his decisions have to be ratified by a civil majority in the case of purely local affairs, and two-thirds majority in the case of tourism-related endeavours."
Ami looks blank.
"He means they have to vote on what to do," you whisper.
"Oh. Wait, a
vote?" she asks in disbelief. "They have to put everything to a vote? How do they get anything
done?"
"Ah, by the standards of a Hidden Village, they... don't, in all honesty," Kabuto says, sounding almost embarrassed on the council's behalf.
"Well, it's nice that more than one person gets a say," you remark.
"But if more than one person gets a say how can you make sure people do their jobs?" Ami asks you, frowning.
You shrug. "They'll do them because they want to. Why else does anyone do anything? You aren't friends with me because I ordered you to be, right?"
Eventually, for whatever reason, Mom steers the conversation away from politics and onto dress shopping for tonight. Apparently the clothes you brought aren't good enough for a night at the theatre. When you ask why mom didn't just pack nicer dresses for both of you, then, she and Ami share a look of exhasperation.
You find yourself dragged into multiple stores and forced to go through the endless purgatory that is clothes-shopping. Easily the worst part of caring about your appearance. You like to look your best, sure, but why does that have to involve hours in dry, overly-warm stores with Mom asking to see every single thing you try on? Especially this formal stuff!
You quickly pick the first acceptable green dress that fits and doesn't itch (Mom doesn't like seeing you all in red, for some reason), and move on to a much more fun task; choosing
Ami's attire.
Enlisting the ever-patient Kabuto as your beast of burden, you tear through the store, Ami in tow, grabbing dress after dress and throwing them over your shoulder at him. By the time you make it back to the dressing rooms, he's a pile of satin and taffeta with feet.
And thus begins the sorting game. You pull a dress off the pile, and hold it up for Mom. "Yes, no, or maybe so?" you ask.
"Ino, Ami is far too young to dress all in black," Mom replies reproachfully.
Sighing in disappointment, you remove about eight of the thirty dresses you chose and hang them on the discard rack.
In rapid succession a blue velvet dress joins them for being too warm for late September, two yellow dresses are rejected for being too flimsy for a formal event, and ten get veto'd on the grounds of being shoddily-made, though your Mom doesn't come right out and say so with the staff in earshot.
The remaining dresses come under scrutiny as well; you're dismayed to find Ami has no appreciation for halter-dresses or mock-turtlenecks, two of your personal favourite necklines.
You're not discouraged, though - you have a trump card.
(Found on photobucket.)
"Ja-jan~!" you sing-song, holding the dress aloft.
Ami appears to be thunderstruck. She reaches out a hand, but then draws back, as if afraid to touch it.
"C'mon!" You shove it at her. "Go try it on!"
When she re-emerges, your mother outright gasps. "Oh, Ami-chan," she says with feeling, "you'll shame the stars with your beauty."
You blink. Mom is... not far off.
You picked the dress mostly because you knew Ami would love it; she's got a frills-and-flowers mindset, despite what she usually wears. But seeing her in it, the way she walks in it, the way her shoulders sit... it's like she was made for evening gowns. She doesn't just love sage tales and romance manga; she breathes them.
"... exquisite," you say, hands clasped before you, eyes sparkling. "My only worry is we'll be kicked out of the theatre for outshining the actresses. Isn't that right, Kabuto-san?" you add, and smirk as he stops spacing out and realizes that yes, he's still trapped with three women on a dress-hunt.
"Mm!" he says with a smile (nice recovery, man, full points!). "A very well-suited choice, Ami-chan. You look lovely."
Ami's eyes widen, and the lightest of blushes rises in her cheeks. "... thank you, Kabuto-san."
... wow. Rejoice, Uchiha Sasuke. Despite all previous evidence to the contrary, Kuwabara Ami does not
have single-target sexuality.
----------
What show did your mom buy tickets for?
[X] One that she says concerns the ancestor who founded the Akegami school of koto-playing; she's probably hoping it'll get you more interested in practising.
[X] An adaptation of a sage tale that Mom remembers loving as a child
[X] Washi the Listener
----------
I am aware the dress may not be to everyone's taste. However, I would like to point out it is really really difficult to find a dress that fits the qualities 'princess-like', 'evening-appropriate', and 'easy-to-pack'.
Oof, good god this took a long time to write.
