The moon was high up in the sky, illuminating the small but thriving adult business venture below itself. The Siren’s Den had many beginnings and many endings, and then even more beginnings after that, but many people didn’t care about that. They just went to the place to hang out, to get a lay, to have a good time… Of course, with several times more sacrilege slipped into their past-times than if they had just gone somewhere less morally questionable.

Why Aizou found herself here, she really had no idea. Her prostitution days were long, long behind her, and she really didn’t see the point in returning to a place where she could be recognised, inviting the ghosts of her pasts to haunt her… but here she was, sitting at the bar, one hand resting lazily on the counter while the other lazed by her side, her figure elevated off the ground by a wooden stool attached via a metal pole to the ground, with a rotating top so customers could lean back and enjoy their beverages while still enjoying the suggestive performances being given on stage at the far front of the room. Her body was currently sitting lazily, halfway facing the counter and the stage, while her eyes lazily watched the sleazy performance that went on in Siren’s Den.

Either she’d picked a really bad night where all the professionals were out of town or the standards had really fallen. Even so, as her eyes flicked from the stage to the crowd, watching how men and women alike threw wads of hard-earned paper cash onto stage in hopes of encouraging more carnal displays, either between the dancers or with the audience itself, she felt… conflicted. She’d thought that coming here – felt that coming here – would help her clear her mind. Maybe immersing herself back into a place where she knew she was comfortable would be more than enough to help calm her nerves, but it wasn’t. It did nothing to help reduce the anxiety she was feeling in her chest.

Leaving Kirigakure, even with permission, was a new experience to her. The few friends she knew of suggested she do so. They encouraged her to join Maigo on his trip to Konohagakure, albeit not really knowing the real reason behind it other than that she was doing it as an out-of-the-village tour with her boyfriend. She, however, knew better. They were going to hunt for Maigo’s father, who for all the boy’s life had attempted to hunt him down. They were trying to turn the tables on them, but she couldn’t settle on the idea that she simply wasn’t ready. She wasn’t equipped, with the skills or the talents or the equipment to handle something like this. She wasn’t a ninja in blood, just in name.

Of course, she wasn’t going to back out of it. Hells no, but she was still damn well worried, but of what, she didn’t really know. Maybe she would find out, should the buzzing in her stomach, likely from the drinks more so than her fears, ever subside.

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