One Tenth of a Millimeter

She had gotten to know every smell in this building over time. The subtle differences were well explored by her nose. Ikomiki was capable of telling apart the sort of smells that a human could only dream of, her sense of smell being far beyond anything a primate could conceive of. Despite her catlike appearance the strength of her sniffer was probably closer to a dog- So when she found a particular trail in Konoha’s Mockingbird Branch Base, she would be sure to follow it.

It was like an egg hunt, sort of. Searching through the tall grass in order to find the delicious eggs and eat them. Except she was in empty hallways and she wouldn’t be eating any eggs at all, sadly. The thought of eating eggs though did make her a bit hungry. Maybe he would have some.

Across the corner, Ikomiki would come to where the trail ended - Akihiro’s location.

“Do you have any eggs?” She would ask, the first thing she said upon seeing him. “I’m hungry.”

Shifting his eyes from his desk towards the new comer, Akihiro blinked twice. He had noticed someone approaching and judging by their light footing he figured it would be Ikomiki. What he hadn't expected however was the sort of question she asked him. "Eggs?" he repeated in an attempt to make sure he'd heard that correctly. But he knew he had.

"I'm afraid we don't stock eggs here at the base. We're right in the middle of the village so we usually just go out for lunch. " He would open a drawer near the right side of the desk, and bring out an apple. "I have this tho, would you like it?"

The Sparrow was glad Ikomiki had come to see him. There was something the two of them needed to discuss, considering the daunting task which got closer with every passing day. "Have a seat, we haven't talked in a while have? How have you been?"

She frowned very visibly. It was pretty obvious she was hoping that he would give her some sort of food, but apparently not. They had to deal with ‘serious business’, although her expression would turn dramatically once he pulled out the apple. Quickly she would snatch it up from where he put it down on the desk, bringing it close to her face to sniff- It only took one sniff for her to realize it wasn’t meat, and thus lose most of her interest. It was still food though so she took a bite but she still had a craving for eggs that she would have to satiate later.

Once he told her to do so she would take a seat across from Akihiro, swinging her legs back and forth below the chair as she munched at the apple. Somewhat like a child, Ikomiki was easily distracted and satiated when food was involved. With her focus half on the apple and half on Akihiro she would be ready for whatever he wanted to talk about.

“It has been a while... Things have been boring lately… I think I’ve become too domesticated. If I keep on living a sedentary life like this I’ll just end up getting fat, like Kureji is. Hunting for squirrels and pigeons around the city just isn’t the same as it was when out in the forests.”

She crunched down on the apple loudly, juice spilling down her lips and chin. “I wanna hunt something big, like a moose. I think that would be fun.”

Ikomiki's facial expressions were not as subtle as one might have expected from a ninja, but Akihiro liked that about her. For all his intellect akihiro hadn't thought of stocking his desk with more cat-friendly appetizers. That was a mistake he would correct in the future.Alas, for now Ikomiki was reduced to eating healthy apples.

"I certainly hope Kureji isn't getting fat. He has a job to do and a duty to this organization after all." All in all Kureji didn0't seem like the type of guy who would just sit on his ass and grow fat. But Ikomiki had spent more time with weird doctor than Akihiro, so perhaps she knew him better. "I'm sorry that the village hasn't been able to keep you entertained. Perhaps I should have dedicated more time to that. I did promise I would make you strong, didn't I?" He'd smile at her. The time had come to grant an arsenal upon the Otsutsuki. And she'd need to make use of those techniques soon too. Akihiro hadn't been sitting at that desk all day because he found it enjoyable..oh no, there was an operation coming. But much of that success depended on his ability as a teacher.

"How about I make good on that promise? I assure you, you'll be able to hunt far more entertaining things than a moose."

“Kureji has gotten super fat. Trust me, I just saw him. I couldn’t stop staring at it. It was sort of disgusting.”

She was lying, but the deadpan way in which she spoke gave no indication. This was just the sort of way she interacted and behaved when around Kureji, bullying him and teasing him over little things like that just for fun. It was just how their odd little relationship was, which Akihiro would probably remember a little bit if he recalled that meeting of theirs in the hospital where Ikomiki made fun of Kureji’s testicles.

Testicles were sort of like eggs.

Back on topic, she would return her focus to Akihiro. While she didn’t want to sound too ungrateful to him she couldn’t help but say how she felt. She gave a small nod to confirm what he had said, although the ending he gave her altered her interest again. Curious now, she couldn’t help but ask.

“Better than a moose?” The interest and excitement was clear in her eyes. For all her strangeness Ikomiki could be a simple girl sometimes. “Yes, that’s… Yes. Please, I want to be strong. Finally. I thought you had forgotten.”

Now with the expression of an expectant child Ikomiki would stare at Akihiro, interest and curiosity perked. She was ready for anything.

Akihiro raised an eyebrow at the thought of Kureji being fat. Surprisingly he could not tell whether the girl wasserious or not. Perhaps it was due to her alien origins, but this was a rare occasion for Akihiro and he was having a hard time dealing with it. He'd adjust his position in his chair to a more comfortable one. "I don't often forget things. But when I do, it's usually how long I can last without oxygen underground." Not all of the Sparrow's adventures had been pleasant. Some had been straight up nasty.

But Ikomiki was right to be anxious for power. It had indeed been a while, and Akihiro hadn't shown her anything new. He wished he could extend the duration of the stare he got. It wasn't often Ikomiki would look like that, and it amused him a little. But alas, a promise was a promise. Akihiro blinked and where once were deep dark eyes were now a pair of red sharingans. In the moment Ikomiki's eyes met his, he imparted her with the knowledge she needed to be able to learn a set of exclusive techniques. After it was done, he blinked again and the sharingan was gone.

"It seems you have a lot to work on now, yes? I can show you how to get strong, but you'll still have to put in the effort."

The Sharingan.

It wasn’t the first time she had seen it. Even though it wasn’t foreign to her she couldn’t help but be wrapped up in its majesty. It was beautiful. No matter if it was the first or thousandth time she saw those eyes, Ikomiki would always be caught in awe. While they were a genetic descendant of her own Rinnegan it was clear to anyone familiar with the eyes that the Sharingan were no degenerate lesser on the genetic scale. They weren’t equal to the Rinnegan, but even so these eyes were something special. What she saw in them now was the same as what she had glimpsed the first time.

Power.

In a moment her eyes would flash. Reflexively her own dojutsu would appear, eyes turning purple with a single ring orbiting her purple. The Rinnegan. In that moment the information would stream into her mind faster than thought. A million memories spreading through her central cortex like lightning with the power of a raging wildfire.

A small smirk would curl up across her lips. She had already been addicted, so this was just one more indulgence. A sweet taste of the sort of power that he had promised her, it was like suckling at a teat. With that coy grin and those purple eyes she would nod.

“Perfect.” It came out as a whisper by mistake, her consciousness still stuck in those memories she had just been fed. Despite her intense look she was giddy, like a child on a sugar high.

“I’ll master this all… I’ll work hard. You’ll see. I’ll make sure you’re proud, but... What do you want in return?”

Akihiro was used to deal with the Sharingan. Perhaps this was why it didn't spark as much fascination in him as it did in Ikomiki. The Rinnegan on the other hand, was a completely other subject. Just as Ikomiki was fascinated by the three tomoed eye, Akihiro was fascinated by the Rinnegan. He'd seen a million sharingan before, but the Rinnegan was far rarer and perhaps one of the few bloodlines more coveted than the Sharingan itself.

He was glad she didn't deactivate it after having new memories inserted into her brain. "There's nothing particular I want in return." He'd start by saying. This was true. He had rescued Ikomiki from a rather dire situation and ever since then she had stuck by his side naturally and the Uchiha Clan leader had grown fond of her. She had even joined Mockingbird and began working with the organization. What more could he ask of her?

"Just make sure you get stronger. We are likely to have dangerous operations in the future and I'd hate to see you in danger. Speaking of which, how is the mastering of the Senju bloodline coming along?"

It was hard to understand sometimes. She was used to tit for tat. Gifts, at least of things that had actual value like power, were hard to rationalize as being truly free. Initially she would just stare in response to his question, looking back into his eyes as he did into hers. It was a rare luxury to be able to stare directly into the eyes of an Uchiha’s Sharingan without fear of consequence, and so she would intend to bask in that rare occurrence for as long as possible. After a few moments Ikomiki would nod her head, finally accepting that she wouldn’t have to do anything in return. At least not yet, although the debt inside her mind would grow.

“I’ve made some progress in secret, but there’s still a long way for me to go. You’re still the only one who knows, still.” Extending her hand, Ikomiki would show her palm to the man before her. In a moment a sprout would begin growing, rising up several inches before growing a small leaf. It was only a minor display of elemental proficiency but it was enough to show off the fact that she was more than capable of manipulating Mokuton chakra at will.

“I was thinking about trying to figure out how to grow fruit. It would be nice.” It was an off handed comment, thoughts spoken aloud. Even if she wasn’t the fondest of fruits and veggies they did well to fill her stomach, which was something Ikomiki increasingly thought about.

Akihiro watched in fascination as the sprout grew from Ikomiki's hand. Surely this was something basic for a Senju but for someone who had the bloodline implanted onto them, this had to count as progress. Rarely did he ever have the opportunity to watch from upclose how the Senju wood release functioned. He attempted to study it with his sharingan, but the eyes revealed nothing of the process behind the technique. He could see the chakra being molded and taking form, but he could not replicate the process because he was obviously missing something. His own natural chakra was unable to take that form. It was truly hard for him to understand because his own bloodline came in form of an organ, not in the form of a special type of chakra produced by each and every one of his cells. Truthfully he was kind of jealous. Not of the bloodline in particular, but of the experience one goes through to cast it.

"Oh? Perhaps we could have an infinite amount of apples then." Akihiro was still mourning the apple he'd so quickly lost to Ikomiki. "But I have a feeling you'd be happier growing meat. Although if you do that, you'll miss the challenge of the hunt won't you?"

The idea of an infinite amount of apples… Not something Ikomiki was particularly excited for. The way her face scrunched up right after he said that made it pretty clear how she felt about that. Ironically this was coming right after she absolutely devoured that apple she had received from him earlier. When she was hungry anything was fine, but obviously she had some clear preferences.

“It would be interesting to grow meat. I wonder if that’s possible…” She would divert to that thought again, not wanting to imagine the earlier pyramid of apples that her mind had conjured up. “I think it would be nice to hunt still, even if I have my belly full. I’d just hunt for fun instead of food if that was the case, I think.” Just like how house cats still hunted even when they were nicely fed. Maybe if Ikomiki didn’t have to worry about food anymore Aki would receive some nice presents from her? Nothing would show her gratitude more than a dead bird at the end of Akihiro’s bed as he wakes up.

“But.” She ended that speculation fast too. “Dangerous operations? Is this related to the war?” It seemed even someone like her was at least vaguely aware of the political situation between villages.

Iko's reaction to is suggestion made it pretty clear that Akihiro wouldn't have his dream apple garden anytime soon. Alas, not all dreams in man's life came true. By the end of the war or perhaps when he retired he could dedicate himself to such pursuits. But considering his young age that day was a long time from now. And considering his profession, it might never even come at all.

"I am not entirely sure there's much fun in hunting. But perhaps it depends on the company. You'll have to take me moose hunting sometime, so I can see for myself." He'd smile. The prospect of going moose hunting with Iko was even better than the prospect of an apple tree orchard.

She would shift the conversation towards another darker and more serious issue and Akihiro's expression aggravated a bit. "Yes...war. It's troublesome business, but with the nations at war we're bound to be flooded with requests for operations. That isn't to say we'll take anything we can get, but we're likely to find ourselves in unpleasant scenarios where things could get ugly. War is, after all, an ugly business." he made a pause, considering his next words. He didn't want to imply he would throw her into the midst of chaos, but Akihiro worried chaos would throw itself at them. "Which is why you, and me too...we need to get stronger and be prepared."

She nodded again, this time with a slight smile on her face rather than the emotionless expression she had been wearing earlier. Going moose hunting with Akihiro sounded like a wonderful time. Definitely better than any stinky old apple tree orchard. Mooses were made out of meat, after all, and apples weren’t, so the comparison was obvious.

When the discussion turned to the war she would make sure to listen closely. As ignorant as she could sometimes be about the human world, war was something she keenly understood. Pack against pack, tribe against tribe- War as humans understood it wasn’t all too different than how animals did. It was something she was familiar with, although only in the cultural sense. The way she had panicked and reacted when fighting against that boy… The fact that she had needed to be saved by Akihiro made it clear that she wasn’t the sort of in control, cool kitty that she liked to pretend to be. There was still a lot of room for her to grow, and a lot of experiences that she needed to still experience.

“I’ll be ready. I want to…” She would trail off for a moment. “... I want to kill again. So I’ll make sure I’ll be prepared this time. I’ll get stronger, and I’ll…”

She seemed to just realize the entire contents of what he had said.

“You’ll get stronger? Is that even possible? I thought you were the strongest already.”

There was a moment when Akihiro felt a bit uneasy at Iko's words. Actually wanting to kill and missing it was not something normal in a human. But then he quickly remembered that she wasn't really a human in the most common sense of the word, was she? Her instincts were similar to those of a cat who hunts for sport and her DNA was alien. Ikomiki was a fascinating character no matter what angle you looked at her from, and Akihiro would try to fight he habit of putting people he knew in a type box. There was no box in which Ikomiki fit and that itself was amazing considering Akihiro had at least 1200 categories for people. Sometimes he'd mentally chop them up and distribute them through his mental boxes according to their revealed personalities. To him this was a fun game and a nice way to catalogue people- an aid in predicting their actions. But he had never found a way to explain this without sounding weird.

He smiled at Ikomiki's question. It was cute that she thought that, but Akihiro wasn't so certain. "Who knows if I'm the strongest? It's hard to say. We all meet our matches sometime, both in love and in war don't we? It never hurts to be prepared, for both. Speaking of which... have you found either of those matches?" He teased her a little, curious to know how she'd react.

She had been staring in curiosity, almost a bit shocked before at the implication that he could still get stronger. Akihiro was so strong already that she couldn’t even comprehend it, much less the potential for more room for growth. True power was still so far outside of her reach. She aspired to it one day, to become as strong as Akihiro, to be so strong that she would never have to be afraid again- But increasingly it felt as though she was still an impossible distance away from that even with all the power she had gained.

That expression shifted more into confusion as he continued speaking. ‘Meeting your match in both love and war’ wasn’t something she had expected him to make a connection between. She couldn’t see the relationship. Meeting your match in warfare would be terrible, likely resulting in your own death. Meeting your match in love… That meant meeting a mate? What was he asking her exactly?

She looked down, staring at her stomach for a moment, before returning her eyes back up to Akihrio dumbfounded.

“No… I’m not pregnant.” She would respond, a bit stunned by what she assumed was the implication behind what he was saying. Once again Ikomiki would look down at herself, wondering for a second if she had gotten fatter. She had been able to eat a lot more food lately than usual due to Kureji introducing her to the pleasures of human food…

“Do I look fat?” She would continue that train of thought to the next logical conclusion. “I don’t understand.”

It wasn't often that Akihiro found himself dumbfounded but yet again Ikomiki had managed to surprise him. And yet again he had tried to put her into a sort of box only to have her claw her way out of there. He couldn't help but chuckle a little, but kept it at a minimum as to not offend his friend. "No no, you're not fat at all. That's not what I meant. I meant more of-" he interrupted himself. A new possibility had just crossed his mind, one which normally applied to cats and not humans...and thus one which would potentially apply to her.

Did Ikomiki go through heat?

This was an important question. Akihiro had grown with cats in his home-wonderful animals who usually knew how to respect private space until they wanted to cuddle...or until they went through heat. Suddenly he was a bit anxious, and mostly unsure of how to approach this subject. "I assure you, you don't look fat at all. It's just that I'm curious about your world just like you're curious about the human one, you know?"

She was clearly lost. The way he laughed after she asked that only served to continue to increase her confusion. If anyone else had said these sorts of things to her she would have reacted very differently. A sneer, a dirty look, or just straight physical assault- But obviously she was a lot more tolerant and submissive around Akihiro. It made him pretty unaware of how nasty and toxic her personality could be at times, but perhaps Kureji would be able to fill him in at some point.

He would reassure her that she didn’t look fat, and Ikomiki would look down at her body once again as if she wanted to reaffirm herself with her own eyes. Previously, around the time they had met, she had been rail thin. That was what happened when you sustained yourself entirely with the products of your own hunting and gathering. While she still had the same toned musculature as before the underfed thinness had almost entirely disappeared, giving her a much healthier appearance.

“My world?” She would ask another question, still getting nowhere in this conversation. She was different from these humans- That was something she understood clearly, but to be honest she was just as ignorant about her own world as she was about the human one at times. Ikomiki had been dumped here as a baby after all, along with her brother…


“I don’t know very much about where the Otsutsuki come from. I was sent here when I was very young, with my brother. We just spent most of our time living in the forests, away from humans.” She shrugged a bit, rolling her shoulders and avoiding eye contact now as she looked to the side in thought.

Akihiro smiled. He wasn't looking for information about the Otsutsuki world. He was looking for something else. But it was only natural for her to assume that was what he was asking, so he decided to clarify. "It's not the Otsutsuki world that interests me." He shook his head a little. "It's your world. The time you spent in the forest, hunting. That's what I want to know about." he'd make a vague gesture pointing at things around him in general.

"Me, I've only ever lived in the village. The only things I've hunted were people and even then not many. So I'm curious to know how it was for you out there. Were you happy in the wilds?" Akihiro felt they had come to an important point in their friendship where he was able to slowly unfold Ikomiki's mysteries (hopefully without getting slapped in the face or kicked in the balls in the process). By pure chance he had been able to befriend the girl, and for some reason she really did treat him differently. He was glad.

A bit of understanding would come to her. He really was actually just asking her about what her life had been like, not some strange esoteric questions about the Otsutsuki or anything else. It felt odd, but she couldn’t exactly put her finger on why. Nobody had ever bothered to ask her about this sort of thing before. It took her a moment to collect her thoughts.

“It was… We were hungry. All the time. There was never enough food. Most of the time we had to spend looking for more. Most of the time we ate anything we could find the exact moment we found it. The best was always whenever we could scavenge whatever humans left over.”

It wasn’t honestly a time she dwelled on very much. Ikomiki was a person who very much lived in the present, not devoting much of her thoughts to the past or future.

“For a long time we stayed just in the forest, but eventually we found an abandoned town. Humans used to live there, or something, but they were all gone. So we stayed there until eventually we came to Konohagakure. There isn’t very much to say, other than that.”

Akihiro listened with care to everything she said.It sounded like a hard life to live. His had been too, in its own way. But at least he had never had to worry about what he was going to eat tomorrow, or even if he was going to eat at all. Knowing this sort of backstory made him even more glad to have helped Ikomiki. She could be a bit odd at times from a human perspective but ultimately all of her actions were justified by the nature of her being and her past.

She didn't seem particularly interested in talking about the past however, as if her distant memories didn't matter as much as the ones she was currently creating. "I see, still to me that's quite an interesting story." Akihiro would say, and it was. As much as Iko seemingly tried to make it seem plain, she simply couldn't shade the layers of amusement from Akihiro's expression.

"May I ask what happened to your brother?" This one was a risky question. He didn't know whether or not she would want to talk about it and if these issues could be sensitive and complicated with humans, there was a chance for them to rise to a whole new level with Ikomiki. Still, he felt that if they were to be a team they'd need to be able to talk about anything.So he risked it.

“Oh. Nikoban.” She said his name, tilting her head a bit. It had been a long time since she had thought about him as well. She had to control herself now or else she would end up lost in thought. “We’re twins. I used to have to take care of him all the time. He was scrawny and small and weak. Even though we’re the same age I was always bigger than him. It was annoying that he could never pull his own weight.”

“But, I didn’t mind having him around.” She added that last part at the end, unwilling to end with those harsh words hanging in the air. Ikomiki would close her eyes, and when they opened again the Rinnegan would be gone and replaced with those same emerald greens that had been present before.

“He had the Rinnegan too, and the same powers even though he was so weak. Although it wasn’t like as kids we could really do much with the Rinnegan. Most of the time we were too busy trying to find food to experiment with our eyes.”

“Well. He had the Rinnegan. There was… Something bad happened.” She chose her words carefully there, a bit of tension being injected into her formerly calm voice. “He got hurt. It was an accident. His eyes broke, and he ended up losing the Rinnegan. After that he left, and I haven’t seen him since.”

She would shrug now, dismissing those emotions. “He’s probably still somewhere around Konoha. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Akihiro blinked twice, deactivating his sharingan as she deactivated her own dojutsu. The reason he did it twice was because he was surprised. "The Rinnegan...broke?" he'd repeat the words as to make sure he'd heard the correctly. The fact that the Rinnegan could break with an "accident" was news to him and made him worry about Ikomiki.

"And you don't feel the need to go look for him?" he genuinely asked. Akihiro didn't quite know how the relations between Otsutsuki brothers worked. Especially these two in particular. If it were his brother, he'd probably want to go look for him. But this was Akihiro once again putting Ikomiki in a human shaped box.

Still it was odd. Could there be something more to this story, something that Ikomiki wasn't telling him? He didn't want to push her too hard, or at all.But he felt the question he asked was natural enough to not cause distress. This conversation was going well, he was learning quite a bit about Ikomiki. And even better, she was asking no questions at all which meant he wasn't being put in uncomfortable positions.

She frowned now. It was a complicated and uncomfortable story. There was a lot that she wasn’t telling him right now. Half of it was from her natural way of speaking in getting straight to the point, but there were parts that she just simply didn’t want to talk about. It was hard to speak about certain things, even around someone like Akihiro.

“It was my fault.” She finally admitted, more than a bit reluctant to say those words. “It was an accident. He got hurt badly. Then he ran away.” The specific details of what these revelations meant were left up to imagination, but it didn’t exactly paint a pretty picture of the situation. There was a natural desire for most Otsutsuki to just kill each other, and so she understood how such a story would sound. Even if it wasn’t the truth people would immediately assume it was some attempt on her brother's life by her out of greed, driven mad by the Rinnegan, as soon as they heard the details.

“I thought he would come back, and to just give him time, but he never did. So I let it go. If he wanted to leave me I didn’t want to stop him.” She shrugged again.

Despite all of her intricacies and mysterious ways, sometimes Ikomiki was also rather obvious in demonstrating how she was feeling. It seemed akihiro's questions were upsetting her, which was precisely the opposie of what he wanted to do. there things needed to be done little by little and while today he had pushed a little further into getting to know Ikomiki better, he would have to wait until another day to get the whole story.

First of all because she was upset, but also because he glanced at the clock in the wall and realized what time it was. Then he had an idea to cheer up little Iko. "Hey, how would you like to come on a trip with me? Leave this village for a few days? We can both enjoy fresh air and perhaps you'll be able to teach me how to hunt a moose down. If we can't find a moose, maybe we'll be able to find something else to hunt." To be honest Akihiro wasn't entirely sure of what they were going to do, but knowing Hana he was certain it'd be interesting. And Ikomiki had expressed interest in going out of the village for a while.

If she said yes, he'd extend his right hand and let her take it. And then he would place a Flying Thunder God formula on his desk and the two of them would vanish from the place.

Used:
FTG

[Exit]

It took her a moment to think, but eventually she would nod her head. After thinking about all of that now she had the urge to get away from Konoha, if only to get away from all those memories that had been kicked up. She wanted to take some more time to forget, and getting as much physical distance between yourself and the memories was the best way to go for that.

“Okay…” She said, her voice uncharacteristically quiet. “I’ll go with you. Wherever you want to go. I don’t mind.”

Her eyes were averted, looking down. Slowly Ikomiki extended her hand, taking Akihiro’s, and then she would vanish with him.

[Exit]