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As he hammered away, a voice rang familiar in the white-haired man's ear. It was that of the one who could be called his ward, who, judging by her actions upon arrival, had come to craft something. "Konbanwa. I meant to be finished, but I got caught up on my own end of the events earlier. Oh, and then Mariketa came back. She tried to have at me. Go figure, all I wanted was to fix Okuyasu-jii's scythe. So, that's my day. What's life been like for you?"
Aiko smiled as she was greeted and by the time she'd started warming up small pieces of metal the man known has Youko had given her a run down of his day, which included an apparent run in with the Kazekage's younger sister, among the other things which were happening in the village. "Oh? Mari-nee? That's different, you don't sound too happy though. Your day sounds a bit too busy considering what you wanted to do." She commented while turning a small piece of metal over in the fires. After a few more seconds eyes keenly watching she decided how to phrase what happened with her day. "Eh, I was playing with Haku-chan earlier when everything started. We noticed the start of the craziness when several people surrounded us, so I decided to get captured so he could get some experience fighting in a good situation. That went well, Onee-chan appeared, so we got to play targets. Haku-chan used the water dragon jutsu, but it took him a while to make it... too many hand seals. And I killed a guy who had a kusarigama, and it looks like you made it. I kept that by the way." the young woman said as she took out the piece of metal and began hammering it into the triangular shape she was going for. "Also that guy I killed mentioned strawberries in reference to our clan. He apparently thought I'd be weak without a guy with me and I got no idea what the hell that means, so... yeah... fill me in on that, in a second." she said turning the small piece of metal. This looked to be a Kunai about 25 percent smaller than ones meant for adult hands. "Oh, and then we went with Onee-chan to the Elder Council and I beheaded the coward Toda, Haku-chan technically beheaded Yagi, and Onee-chan went a bit dark and killed Usui. I then took Haku-chan out for ice cream, he left without me." she summarized her day while finishing up the shape for this small kunai then she began more finely tuning the shape. This had been the young girl's day for the most part, and even given the events it was mostly normal.
"I heard you had an encounter with the person that got that one. I was saying earlier that I wish I had made that kusarigama a bit better. I would have, had I known you would end up with it on a trophy wall." While hammering his scythe to shape, Youko glanced in the direction of Aiko's work. "A bit small, isn't it?" he asked. When the girl mentioned Strawberries, a reference made by one who apparently encountered some of their clansmen in the past, Youko took pause. This was a strange thing to note, and something Youko hadn't seen in full form for quite some years. "Strawberry Moon. It's a rare form of Oborozuki that requires a link between two people for its power to show. For someone to think that's the root of our Kekkei Genkai, the country must be ruled by them now... or it was recently."
"Iie, it's fine. It's actually been quite a while since I've seen one~ It's nice. I picked out a really good spot for it." The young girl said of the most recent trophy she'd taken. She had nothing bad to say about it's craft, and at present she didn't think she would have done a better job of it. Beside that, it was simply a memory for her, something to help her remember in the future this day she'd won. Moving right along there was a comment on the size of her work, there was a deep bit of concentration in the girl, and as such she didn't immediately respond to that bit. Instead she perfected the size she intended before quenching the piece and moving on to make another of identical size. As she punched out this one as well, she heard about the Strawberry Moon which was apparently rare and likely belonged to whoever was in charge of their clan presently. "Sou ka, that makes a great deal of sense." she said then she remember. "Oh and they are small, but I am doing it on purpose. Haku-chan wants to be a ninja, I remember being small, and finding weapons to be clumsy until they were made for me. I figured I'd cut him a bit of slack, it'll make him a good present... and a couple of other things to help him out. He's way smaller than I was when I was his age..." she said. The girl was uncommonly kind, and often found herself looking out for the child of Youko and Benihime. She'd in fact been a major caretaker of the lad when she was younger and it'd helped her get over her own trauma a bit. She was in all actuality just as invested in his developments as his parents.
"Well, as long as you're satisfied with it. I guess it'd be pointless to try and sneak in a better version while you're not looking, huh?" he asked, mostly in rhetoric. Apparently, the smaller size of the kunai Aiko crafted was something she'd done on purpose, intending them to be given to the young male of their clan. This was understandable, and let him continue to believe in the girl's craftsmanship. "That's a relief. Here I thought you were losing your touch. That's very thoughtful of you, though... but I guess you've always been that way. Must be nice to be so empathetic." As he shared these words with the lass, Youko quenched his own iron, and moved toward where he'd placed the original scythe of Okuyasu to retrieve its handle. As he had no other wood of such size to spare at the moment, he figured the old man would simply have to deal with it. After all, the original intention was only to make repairs.
The white haired girl would scoff just a little, even rhetorically the question was completely unnecessary. "Nope, would drive me crazy. It isn't a decoration piece someone actually tried to kill me with that one. I actually clashed against that one. I actually won against that one, not that I ever doubted that would happen in the first place." She said, giving reason to why she collected these trophies off people she killed, aside from being a smith's apprentice and simply having always enjoyed bladed weapons.
Moving right along, it seemed that Youko had thought she'd initially lost her touch, making such small weapons, but when she cleared up her reasoning seemed to find it to be solid enough. Even going on to comment about how thoughtful the idea was and a commentary on the amount of empathy shown in it. While she finished up the second of some dozen or so kunai she intended to make at this reduced size for Hakudoshi she laughed at his words, and chided him. "Right? I thought it was pretty good, I've been thinking about it all afternoon, and thinking about other things to hide it from him. I shall see if it works later..." she responded first to the commentary about her work, the last bit though, she found odd so she responded to it as well. "Empathy is learned Onii-sama, and it is something I learned from you." She stated as she continued her work making another of these having found her groove. Her statements about this true, Youko was by far the nicest adult she'd met in her life. And since she'd known him, he'd shown her nothing but kindness and empathy, it had to rub off somewhere. "So, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself, everyone has bad days after all." She mentioned, making an assumption given what he'd said about his rather chaotic day.
"Calm down; I'm not plotting to swap it with another or anything. I mean... I thought about it, but I wouldn't actually do it. I'm just saying, it would be nice if these mercenaries stated that they were going to fight you when they had weapon orders made at my forge. It's almost rude otherwise." All jokes aside, Youko thought Aiko's trophy collection was a solid idea, and one befitting of one who followed the way of the sword. It was apparently thought by Aiko that this empathy of hers was inherited from him. This was something he couldn't quite agree with in his present state, but to each their own, he figured. "Try bad year so far. I haven't been very good at seeing things from other people's perspectives lately. Maybe I'll have to relearn that from you."
A smile was on the girl's face as Youko joked, and clarified about his intentions with her trophy collection. "Oh yes, because it's totally a thing for people to tell the smith who they plan to attack with the weapons they have made~" she mentioned sarcastically. A bit of a snicker would come from the lass as she reached the half way mark in her dozen, and took to addressing her calmness in this situation. "Hai hai~ I'm just making sure you don't ever have the idea again." she said in her final jest. As she worked it seemed that Youko didn't necessarily think that he was seeing things from other people's perspectives lately. And he even went so far as to class himself as having a bad year so far, as such, she couldn't help but chuckle at him again. A mock bit of excitement coming to her face as he stated he might need to relearn his empathy from her. "Oh? I don't get many teaching moments! I'll be a stellar example, make sure you take notes!" she joked as she got down to work, she wanted to finish this set before she went to bed, would devote a great deal of her attention to it, even while chatting with the man who'd taken her in as a young teen.
"I'll be sure to do that. All I ask is for short lectures. I can't be bothered to sit in class for any more than half an hour," he said to continue the apparent joke going between the two. These two had always seemed to have a very casual/relaxed relationship with one another, sometimes akin to parent and child, but most times akin to close siblings. A situation such as this one was certainly the latter among their interaction. Since Aiko was halfway done with a standard set of kunai, Youko figured he'd step aside and leave her access to tools he would otherwise make use of.
"Grindstone's yours. If one of us should get any sleep tonight, it should be you, so use all the equipment you need first," he said, choosing to post up against the forge with crossed arms. "Besides..." he trailed off, yawning between his words. "It's always fun to watch you work. You seem so focused."
Aiko kept working and joking with Youko, soon enough finishing the actual creation of a dozen small kunai, while Youko joked that he wanted short lectures only. A laugh would escape the girl but her concentration would be rather high. She couldn't help but notice by the time she was finished that the older male of her sort of sibling sort of parent relationship, seemed to have stepped aside to give her free range of the tools she would need to clean up the set of weapons she was creating. His commentary about her potential sleeping made her laugh all the more. "Oh? Really? Me sleeping? We aren't going to go into why that isn't really a thing and ya' know it. You're yawning, you should be the one sleeping..." she mentioned as she moved the set of a dozen over to the grind stone and began work on the first one. The wheel spinning at maximum speed as she began grinding the first down bit by bit and making it perfect and sharp to boot. "You'll end up sleep where you stand. But somehow I feel like arguing with you about this isn't gonna work out." She stated plainly. Her eyes were focused and her fingers perfectly placed to avoid accidental injury. "Also if I looks like I am focusing it's because I am, not all of us have decades of practice in you know~"
As Aiko spoke of sleep, Youko yawned again without even realizing it. Still, he had resolved himself to finish this scythe before nodding off this night, and he would see to it that he did exactly that. "Urusai. You've gotta sleep more, or you'll start slipping. Anyway, you've got a trip to bed to make. I'm sleeping out here again tonight," he concluded. Quite some time had passed since Youko slept in his own bed. As of late, he either slept at the forge, or took rest breaks in areas wherever he happened to be on a mission.
"Decades?" he asked when Aiko addressed the amount of focus she put into her work. He seemed a bit perturbed by this word in particular, and in fact, he was. "I'm thirty. Saying it like that makes it sound like I've been at it for half a lifetime or something."
"No you!" the girl said, she was about five or six in on her grindings. All of the perfect ones were launched towards a wood pole which stood in the distance with an accuracy that only required a moment of thought, mostly so the girl could make sure they were properly balanced. "I'm not going to slip, I intend to sleep as I always do. You're the only one slipping, almost into unconsciousness." she said, choosing to keep to herself any commentary she had about him not sleeping in his own bed. Her eyes only flicked up for a moment, as she thought about what these two adult people in her life were like, but it was them so she decided it was best not to comment. Before she could properly comment on his statements he seemed to take offence to a comment made which kind of hinted at his age. The statement that he was thirty made her laugh a little. "Well, I'm 19 and you've been at probably for longer than I've known you... so at least a decade, that's about half my life anyways~" she said with a smirk as she threw another kunai with the same concentration she'd had the entire time. And took up another on the grinding stone. "Oh, ya' know, sleeping out here is probably bad for your back, Ojii-sama~" she teased, bring up his sleeping choice at the last minute for a jab. He could at least sleep in his own bed, from what she'd seen when she'd passed the Kazekage, the woman was sleeping on top of the desk in her office instead of in the bed she normally shared with the man before her.
"Pehh!" This noise was made by Youko when he chose to have his tongue protrude from his mouth, and point it at the young lass. "The amount you sleep isn't enough. You should get more. Listen to an old man once in awhile!" he said. In this, he was simply running with the apparent ongoing joke about his age. "Who am I kidding? I haven't had a good night's sleep in ages; I can't lecture you about getting one."
Aiko flicked her gaze across at Youko as she finished another of the kunai, and the man had his tongue sticking out at her as she had recently pointed out the contradiction of his statement to his actions. When he went further to say she should get more sleep she scoffed, he then recanted stating that he also didn't get enough sleep or good sleep. She chuckled just a little. "Yare yare, only Haku-chan and I get good nights sleep. And I include myself in the general sense..." she said as she finished the last of the kunai against the grind stone. She'd found the weight of all of them to be what she wished for and cleaned up nicely and as such she went to collect them. After gathering them up she wrapped them up, choosing to take them with her tucking them into her obi and picking up her sword, finally a yawn would escape the young lass. "S'all good though..." she said as she headed out of the forge yawning once more. "I'll set a good example for ya'. So you relearn them sleeping habits.." she giggled. She wondered how long it would take for the leaders of the village to properly make up, to her knowledge neither of them was quite themselves.
"Hai hai," he said to Aiko's mention of setting an example. When it became apparent that the girl was done with her craft, he claimed the grindstone and worked on sharpening the scythe blade. As the lass walked away, he spared a glance in her direction while continuing his work. "Sleep well. Ja ne," he said. When all was said and done, Youko finished sharpening the blade, and applied it to the handle. Eventually, he completed the work, and fell asleep against the wall with his swords leaned against his shoulder.
In a flash of crimson light a small red haired woman would appear. She was still wearing her shorts and fishnets, but her appearance would be markedly different from the norm, with hashed in whiskers on her cheeks and claws on her hands and feet, her eyes full of the moon bestowed to her by the man she was actually seeking. "Do you know the ridiculous shit your son is capable of?!" She questioned immediately, pacing back and forth with a hand in her hair like an annoyed cat.
When Benihime appeared, Youko had barely woken himself. In fact, he still sat against the forge wall, only having recently moved his swords to the side of him. "Ugh... huh..." he mumbled while dragging himself into a standing position. "Mmm... what did he do now?" he asked. As he rubbed his eyes in this moment of waking, he formulated a query related to the current topic, which he asked soon after his first question. "Wait... Why is he only my son when he's doing something you don't like? You're the one that cooked him up."
Benihime was still pacing, having noticed the grogginess the man had, she took a moment to gather her thoughts before she spoke again. Still, she seemed agitated beyond normal reason, but that being said, she wasn't actually upset with the child that they had together. She couldn't rightly but a finger on this newfound emotion she'd been associating with her first born, but whatever it was... she blamed Youko for it almost completely. She had a flippant reply for his final query which had to do with why the male child was referred to as his, and the commentary about her having cooked him up. "Sure! I cooked him up. And he still came out looking like you, and doing ridiculous shit like you, your son." she said still pacing. This conversation would go on from this point, as the small red haired woman would rant her way into explaining her current state of disbelief. "Let's start at the fact that he can just use senjutsu chakra. That is something I can barely do while trying. He fucking throws Rasengan. That's a thing. The shadow clones he makes, multiply his chakra, not divide it... and... he just made a Rasengan so big, I could barely see the end of it, and it took two of him just to hold it up. Did I mention he didn't use any chakra doing it? That he can probably just keep going, if I did that shit, if I made one that big, I'd be tired right the fuck now." she sighed turning to look at the man were he now stood. "He didn't get any of that shit from me." the woman concluded her final rant and still felt a tinge of something she couldn't explain in her chest. She was quite proud of her son in this moment, and each of her statements beamed with parental pride, though she didn't think she could take any of the credit for it. Thus the conversation she was having right now, which would clearly show anyone who had a normal understanding of emotion, the mixture of parental pride and the unnamed jealousy at the child's astute abilities.
"Well... yeah," Youko replied while rubbing the back of his head. "Everyone in my clan looks like this, though. And I don't know what you mean by ridiculous, but I don't do anything insane," he defended. Moving on, Benihime properly began the tirade about their son's apparently ridiculous abilities. Youko had to agree, these feats were quite inhuman by his own approximation. Mostly, the seemingly infinite chakra reserves was a troubling discovery. "It's possible that his mutation of Oborozuki makes him able to draw natural energy more easily than the rest of us. I have no idea what to say about how much chakra he has, or how he can multiply it, but... in my defense, I don't even use Rasengan. That one can't be anything but you."
"Everyone in my clan looks like me! You overrode me, my baby doesn't even have red hair!" The annoyed pacing of the Kazekage continued as Youko went on to explain how it might be possible. She was a bit relieved to know that her husband didn't know of the ridiculousness of the feats their six year old was capable of. But it still didn't change the fact that he could do these things. Beyond this, Youko felt the need to mention that he didn't even use the Rasengan so that was something that their young son had to have gotten from her. She sighed, stopping completely and turning towards the white haired man. "True, but he still did a you. I taught him that yesterday, and he already has variations on it. Or don't you remember learning Chidori?" Youko had learned the assassination technique directly from the red haired young woman, during a time period where she'd sworn to herself that she wouldn't teach them to anyone. He then went on to make several different versions of it, much to the woman's surprise. Her son did the same thing, thus the activity was one connected directly to the man before her, the thought of it, made the red haired woman a bit pouty. She ran her hand through her hair once more and tried to get rid of the static like feeling that had built up in her while she was pacing. A slow exhale would follow. "Okay, it's cool... random mutation thing... probably. Don't know about the chakra reserves, okay. Still, it's pretty cool." she finally concluded. A smile growing across her face. "Gomen, you were just waking up, that was a lot to just throw on you. Ohayou gozaimasu~" she offered. "I should get back to him, I kinda just ran off without telling him where I went, and since he isn't reading my mind right now... that was probably a bit shocking."
"Yes, and the boy also has a Kekkei Genkai that's been constantly on since the moment he was born! That doesn't happen in my clan, so there's obviously some heavy influence from your people in there," was the man's retort. When his learning and development of the Chidori technique was brought into the discussion, he switched from rubbing his head, to scratching the side of it with his forefinger. "Uhh... well. Yeah, that might have happened. Oh... as for the chakra thing..." Youko paused there, taking a moment to yawn and collect himself before moving on. "Did you check his chakra? Maybe he's using Senjutsu Chakra to keep boosting it back to the normal amount?"
Benihime started to argue with the bit about the constantly active Kekkei Genkai. "That's..." she paused, because given her present predicament she couldn't really argue. "Fair. Okay." She said, the man then seemed to remember a bit about his own training, and haphazardly took a bit of responsibility, though barely. This made the small redhead chuckle just a bit, but she wasn't sure why. As he went on to question the boy's seemingly endless chakra reserves the red head smirked. "Of course I checked. And there is no difference. He uses 'the green chakra' as he calls it, specifically to put it around the Rasengan so it stays together. He showed me how to do this." She said beginning to pace again but much more slowly, and explaining her current sage state. "But I watched the entirety of this new technique from start to finish with these eyes. And I felt the differences in the chakra after I figured out what he was doing with the Rasengan. He isn't taking any in and converting it. His pool is just seemingly endless. His body shows it is there, and the amount doesn't drain, but he also just isn't using the Senjutsu chakra for the whole of the techniques. I really don't get it." she said thoughtfully. "I mean obviously he's still only six, so I could probably just beat him with physical fighting, his body likely couldn't take it, but I'm not gonna beat up on him, just because I won't win the jutsu competition, that'd be mean." She finished this statement realizing she'd already thought about it, and talked herself out of it, for whatever reason.
"So it's not Senjutsu. That's very strange. Even the most hyperactive kid shouldn't regenerate chakra quickly enough to make it seem like it's not going anywhere. Hell, even the Nine Tails' Jinchuriki shouldn't be that incredible. We might want to look into that, if for nothing else, then for a bit more understanding about our own kid." Youko yawned once more, moving himself toward the forge as he did. From the knowledge he had of his own clan, there was nothing to go by. But, he knew there were secrets that only the clan's royal family possessed. Perhaps they could be of use. "I may be heading home soon."
Benihime looked at the man before her, and he didn't seem to have any real answers. Of course, parenting didn't really have a set of rules, and their child was far from ordinary. Still, she couldn't help but shrug. "Yeah, I figured something like that might be necessary. Actually, I should probably just figure out where my parents went. With the way his Kekkei Genkai manifested, it might be something they know about. And since I can prove I am an adult now... they'll have to tell me." She said, thought this wasn't really something she looked forward to. This conversation had taken several moments and she still had to get back to Hakudoshi. "Oops, I almost forgot. I really gotta go finish up with Hakudoshi. I'll be back, lunch?" she offered, so they'd have a bit more time to speak, in a less taxing situation. Beyond that just talking to this man without their usual closeness was a bit taxing for the young woman, she'd even abandoned sage mode in her lack of concentration. Not that it really mattered at this point.
"Mm. That's why I need to go back. Whoever the royal family is now, they would have inherited all the clan's secrets. Even if they don't know for sure, they might have some connection," he clarified. Of course, his success in this endeavor was completely dependent on what branch of the clan was considered royalty at present, and how the overall clan viewed him since the fall of the Blood Moon Cult. He would simply have to find out when he arrived. It seemed Benihime was keen on returning to the boy of whom they spoke, which virtually cleared Youko to move on with whatever he had planned to do. Before her departure though, she spoke of an eventual return, and offered to meet for lunch. "Sure. I don't think I have any major orders today anyway."
A nod came from the woman as the man agreed to lunch. Even so, she was used to such things meaning very different things. So she decided she needed a clear head before returning her attention to her six year old. "Hai hai. Ja." She mentioned before she disappeared in a crimson flash of light. Though her teleportation wouldn't take her directly back to her son, and instead, to the top of the oasis so she could take a quick dip, before teleporting form beneath the water, back to where she went.
"Sayonara," the man said when the woman chose to vacate the area. Once she was gone, he began a series of morning stretches to wake himself a bit more. A quick use of Hiraishin took him back to the mansion to bathe himself, after which he would return to the forge again. As he thought, there seemed to be no requests of any significant quantity. So, he went about a very relaxed pace in crafting tools for the day.
An hour and a half after she'd left the previous time, Benihime, reappeared in the forge, with a basket of food in a crimson flash. She was sitting atop her usual place when she visited one of the work benches. If one took a gander at the young woman, they might notice her change in attire, now she was wearing general purpose clothing, pair of shorts, a small tube top which was laced in the front, but still no shoes. Though she'd brought food, and herself, she was still quite nervous about the conversation she should have with her husband. Something about the bluntness of the way her son said she should fix it, still made her feel weird. She wasn't used to conversing in such a way, particularly since gaining access to her clan's Kekkei Genkai. This was such a preoccupying thought she didn't even bother announcing her presence.
It seemed Youko had underestimated the quality of some orders he'd received on this day. One in particular - the weapon he worked on at present - was a Zanbatou of great girth. This weapon was large enough to consume his entire forge with its blade, while still hanging off the edge. He even had to use Water Release techniques to cool it, which he ended up doing shortly after Benihime's unannounced arrival. After doing this, he took a breather and wiped his brow, turning toward the workbench when he did to see the redhead once again at the forge. "Right on time," he said. "Madoka decided he needed a Zanbatou, so I happen to have worked up an appetite. What's on the menu?"
Benihime looked up in time to see the man slaving over what happened to be one of the largest swords she'd ever seen. She was quite surprised and even so, she seemed to chuckle at the mention of Madoka having decided on such a thing. "There's a joke to be made about requesting a sword so large... but I feel like I shouldn't make it." She said thus making the joke indirectly. Moving right along when asked what was on the menu for the day, and since she'd given the kitchen staff so much time, it was a surprisingly large meal. The basket she brought today, was huge compared to what she normally had. "Umm, I think the kitchen staff were having a bit of fun, Tempura, Sashimi, Miso soup, pickled veggies and rice. Like a full spread, it's kind of amazing. Oh, and there's Anmitsu and Dorayaki for dessert." she said. Her listing was basically a three course meal, but an old woman had once told her whenever husbands and wives fight, a large meal should be made and consumed together, because everything can be properly discussed if everyone is full. And thus the young woman had figured she'd have a bit of an easier time moving on that.
"It wouldn't surprise me if the joke ended up being accurate. Poor guy couldn't even swing a tanto properly," Youko asserted as he moved closer to the workbench, ultimately taking a seat atop it next to the red-haired woman. Apparently, the cooks in the Kage's mansion were quite busy on this day. For a simple lunch, the amount of food listed was quite the hefty amount. "That's a lot for just lunch. They must be bored in there today."
Benihime couldn't help the snicker which came from her at the white haired man's assumption. She didn't know for certain, but the joke was in her head already. Soon enough her second in command was joining her atop this work bench where they would ultimately share the meal prepared by the Kazekage's cooks. At the mention that the meal was quite large, she couldn't help but smile and nod. "It wouldn't surprise me. And it makes me fearful of dinner." she said offering a bit of a shrug. She soon broke open the large basket setting between them different bowls full of the necessary food stuffs in their orders in their portions between them. There were also dipping sauces and bowls of white rice, in addition to the actual eating utensils. It took a couple of seconds to get it all set up, but once it was it was a pretty sizable looking meal. "Sugoi!~" she said before picking up her chopsticks. "Itadakimasu~"
"With a spread like this, I doubt they have anything left for dinner," he commented nonchalantly. With that, Youko retrieved a pair of chopsticks for himself, and waited for Benihime to finish digging through the basket for the various pieces of the meal. When she was done, he chose to begin with a bowl of rice, taking it upon himself to add the sashimi to it. "Itadakimasu," he said while mixing the two, immediately following this by taking the first bite. He was relatively silent otherwise, seeming to have indeed been made quite famished by the day's work thus far, as there was hardly a moment taken between bites.
His commentary about there being nothing left for dinner spawned a small chuckle from the young woman, who soon began to eat, while casually glancing in the man's direction from time to time. Even with the idea of them sharing a meal together, she hadn't quite figured out how to broach the subject of the oddness between them. She ate consciously starting with the Sashimi and rice which she didn't mix together and instead had a bite of each occasionally dipping in soy sauce as she did. Not to her surprise the food was amazing, but as Youko seemed to be enjoying his meal, she wouldn't interrupt with a conversation which might spoil it. Her gaze would flicker away from him, and she'd keep eating. 'You are an adult, the least you can do is converse with your husband.' she thought to herself, trying to hype herself up to speak with him. She was more than halfway through her bowl and finishing a bite as she finally let a single question fall from her mouth, and it would likely seem a bit random. "Do you hate me?"
The silence between the two allowed Youko to progress virtually uninterrupted, though this was sure to change momentarily. He was within a few bites of finishing his rice bowl when Benihime spoke, and her choice of words caused him to take pause just before another bite was brought into his mouth. He had no choice then but to lower his chopsticks back into the bowl, and heave a sigh before responding properly. "Now why exactly would you go and ask a question like that?"
Benihime had let a very odd question fall out of her face, and she'd be the first to admit that. But Youko's response was no less strange to the woman than her own question had been. She seemed to be thinking about it, and as such had stopped eating while figuring out how to word her query. Surprisingly enough, the Kazekage, didn't have much experience in having these sorts of conversations and immediately became a bit flustered, speaking fairly quickly. "Well, I mean... I would understand if you did. But this is kind of confusing, and things are really weird between us." she said, and then realizing that this likely sounded strange she continued. "I mean, you feel strange, but I don't really get it, and I don't know what to do... so I had to ask... I guess." the woman had gone red in the face, and was now looking down into her rice bowl like it'd defeated her. The truth was, she was very unsure of how to take Youko's emotional output, and she really wanted them to be like they were before, but she wasn't sure how to fix what was broken between them. She figured if he hated her, at least she'd have a clear answer, and she'd know not to bother him. "I mean, if you hate me, I get it, and I won't bug you anymore. I just really don't know what to do with myself when I'm around you, now."
Suddenly, the otherwise vague purpose of Benihime's original inquiry became clear. Frankly, this was a topic that had indeed been troubling the white-haired man for months on end, and he was having his own problems resolving the issue within himself. Only now did he consider that this had been an obvious thing outside of his own mind. "Yare yare," he said as he placed his bowl on the workbench. He went silent for a few moments, using said time to cross his arms and shut his eyes, seeming to be in thought. "Gomen. No. It's just that... well... Even when I have access to the Blue Moon, my other self still retains consciousness inside. I have few memories of what happened when I was in that state the first time, but there is one in particular that shows clear as day. I think... maybe if I hadn't shown up when I did - if I didn't see what I saw that day - things would be different."
After she finally finished making her statements, she seemed unable to look up from her dish. She didn't notice Youko's shifting, and beyond this the closure of his eyes. Her own were glued to her remaining rice as she finally heard his voice. It seemed that her husband had returned to fetch her at a very bad time for him. And that he retained the memories of the event, and something about that crushed her just a bit. "Sou ka," she murmured. In all actuality, Benihime also remembered when he'd shown up, and knew what she'd been doing in that moment. She hadn't known how badly it would affect him, though it'd also taken her a little while to get over it. Still, it made a great deal of sense of why he couldn't talk to her, and why things were odd between them. Still, there was nothing she could do about it now, that it was already done. She spent several minutes staring into her bowl.
"Hai," he said with his eyes opening slightly. It was never that he had anything against the woman next to him; he simply could not unsee the visions. It was not quite the all-consuming thing, but whenever he laid eyes upon his own wife, the visions return. "I can see it right now. It's almost laughable. I killed the entire Blood Cult, save Aiko and Hiei, without a second thought... but this is the source of my nightmares." At that moment, the white-haired male actually snickered, though it did seem quite forced. "It's funny, you know? You didn't even know who I was at that point."
The woman still stared at her own bowl. His words about what he saw, and the things his nightmares were made of, made her nod her head. She at least understood this, to be fair, she'd been having a similar problem. She felt the bitterness of his laugh at this situation which was kind of horrible, even now. "Yeah, I know. It was the source of my nightmares too." she finally spoke again, her voice rather small. "And you're right, at the time, I had no idea who you were..." she commented. "And then I did, and I knew everything. And it was horrible, because I couldn't explain why I did that. I drowned trying to figure out why I couldn't just stop myself." the young woman said. She realized in this moment, that her husband likely didn't hate her, but that their interactions were tainted by something that had happened between her and the man Uchiha Yuichi. "I was weak, and fell to something that shouldn't have been able to control me anymore."