Twelve Lies I Told Shingen Takeda

Chapter Forty-Eight - Two Degrees of Separation

"I brought these in from the car." Sasuke slid open the door to the bedroom wide enough to pass a few shopping bags through.

"You can come in. We're both decent." I took the bags, noting one of them was from a high-end lingerie store. That... had the possibility of going very very wrong, in a number of ways. I dropped the bags on the foot of the bed, as Sasuke settled in a chair by the window. "You let Shingen loose in a lingerie store?"

There was a rather embarrassed cough from the ninja by the window. He looked away from us.

"I was fine. He's the one who can't be trusted around women's underclothes. I may be scarred for life." Shingen shot a glare at Sasuke, who seemed to take great interest in the parking lot outside.

"I thought it was a mannequin and not a live model," Sasuke muttered.

"Nope. Don't need any more details there." Instead, I dove into the bags, finding a couple pairs of jeans, some t-shirts... "Oooh, Black Widow, nice."

"Figured Natasha Romanov would be your jam." Sasuke sounded more confident now that we'd left the subject of underwear.

"Oh yeah... and I've got about seven years of MCU to catch up on. And I don't know how many seasons of Game of Thrones." It hadn't occurred to me until that moment that I'd finally learn how some of these continuing stories ended.

Shingen and Sasuke looked at each other, then Sasuke shook his head. "Um... about the Game of Thrones conclusion... you might actually find the story of my adventures in ladies lingerie categorically less traumatic."

Huh. I returned my attention to the bags and pulled out a hoodie! I hugged it to me. It was red, not the blue-grey shade of the one that I had been wearing on the day I had initially gone through the wormhole, but it was soft and warm and felt like home in a way that no other article of clothing had. "How did you know?" I slipped it on and zipped it up.

There was a tug on the hood. Shingen flipped it up over my head. "Red hood. The better to see you with."

***

"Alright, Sasuke, are you ready for all the wormhole weirdness I need to tell you about?" The three of us had relocated to the living area of the hotel suite to eat lunch that Sasuke had picked up from one of the hotel's onsite restaurants. He'd asked me if I wanted pizza, but until I was sure how my digestive system would readjust to modern food, I'd decided to stick with soba noodles and a light soup. I was wearing my first pair of jeans in nearly seven (or was it eight now?) years, and they fit surprisingly well (Shingen: "I know every inch of your body, it wasn't difficult").

"Before we debrief, I have something else for you." Sasuke handed me a sealed manila envelope. He didn't say anything else, so I went ahead and opened it, pulling out a passport and a bank card. The accompanying account information made me do a double, then a triple take to make sure I was reading the amount correctly.

"Sasuke, do you have previously unrevealed connections with the Yakuza?" I took a second look at the passport. Yes that was definitely me in the picture – it looked like my old student ID photo, had been "aged up" slightly. The birthday was correct as well. Someone clearly had skills.

"No. Not that I am aware of. This came from a Professor I know." Sasuke glanced over my shoulder to look at the paperwork. "Holy mother forking shirtballs."

"From your advisor? The one who arranged my hospital stay?" Shingen examined the passport. "Nice picture... but not as nice as the real thing."

"No. Different professor. My advisor in Kyoto who helped get you into the University Hospital is Professor Sakaki. These – as well as Shingen's passport and bank account ... which did not have nearly this many zeros – came from a friend of my parents. I'm certain they have nothing to do with the Yakuza." He laughed off the idea. "Actually, their friend, Professor Yamaoka was the man who gave the initial idea that led me to study wormholes and their relationship to temporal anomalies."