Little White Lines

I Spy

Aroka frowned as she stared at one of the white lines before her. It was strange, she had never expected to see anything like it, especially not here of all places. In fact, it surprised her quite a bit when she first noticed it this afternoon.

She wondered if she should tell someone about it. Mila? Tobirama? Hashirama? But then again, what could they do? No, this likely wasn't a problem they could solve, not without more information, anyways.

She turned her attention back to disturbance. The line that held her attention was her own, and it told her she was going to die in four days. More specifically, she was going to be killed, and by a person she had never heard of. What in the world could she have done to anger a stranger so terribly? Luckily for her, she didn't have to wait to find out.

Aroka felt the familiar, jarring shift in her consciousness. She waited for it to subside before spreading her chakra out into her surroundings which instantly materialized around her.

The scene she saw was not an unexpected one, it was the same room she was just in: her bedroom inside the Senju compound. Just a few feet in front of her lay an outline of a person. The figure, whom she recognized as herself, was the only one in the room, sleeping soundly.

A few moments passed before the door slid open, a figure entering the room. The man was rather tall and of medium build, he wore the clothes of a commoner with a stretch of cloth concealing the lower half of his face. He gripped a curved blade in his left hand.

The man rapidly stalked towards the sleeping form, who showed no signs of stirring, and stood over her, pausing for a moment before raising his blade and slitting her throat in one swift motion.

Aroka shook her head to rid herself of what she had just seen. Her skin was alive with goosebumps and a hand rose to cover her neck unconsciously.

It was all too quick. It only took a moment; she wasn't even able to put up a fight! She wasn't going to let it happen, of course not. She was going to put a stop to it. But why would that man want to kill her in the first place? They had never crossed paths before, of that she was certain. He must have been under orders.

She looked back at the man's line in the days leading up to the... encounter. He didn't interact with many people at all, but the ones he did seemed to all be ordinary people, probably local merchants or businessmen judging by their patterned behaviors. None of them seemed likely to hire an assassin, especially not to target her seeing as she didn't recognize any of their names.

He couldn't have met with the hirer directly, perhaps it is a similar case to the ambush and there was a middle man involved? She didn't have time to search through all the familiars of everyone he had interacted with and she knew Detailing was unlikely to yield anything useful, perhaps it would be best to get the answers from the man himself.

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Tobirama glared down at the sweating man being held down by two shinobi on either side. It took all he had to suppress the rage that threatened to overflow whenever he looked at him. He leaned back in his seat and folded his arms tightly.

"Matsuo Suzuki," his voice dripped with malice as the said man began shaking visibly, "Former hitman, skilled sensor, disgraced by his own clan, imprisoned for the murder of a nobleman before escaping. You have a lot of courage to show your face in this place."

"P-Please, I'm only p-passing t-through, I haven't done anything wrong!" he sputtered weakly, eyes wide with fear.

"I'm not interested in your excuses. I know why you're here and if you don't want me to lose my temper, I suggest you start answering my questions. Who sent you?"