The Salt Must Flow

Mission Specs:

The life of nomads had fascinated Hayami beyond anything she had ever experienced. As a former Konoha ninja, familiarization with the lives of nomads had been eye opening experience ripe for flourishing the desert survival skills that would assist the dark haired beauty in her travels through the harsh uncaring sands.

One of those skills was knowledge; after all, knowledge is half the battle. The other half is usually unrestrained violence. Today's bit of knowledge was getting acquainted with local cave systems, or sietch, as a cultured person might know it as. Cool during the day and warm during the night, caves are the perfect desert habitational system for the nomadic people, as they served as the basis for their young and inferm which could not travel, the gestating mothers and elders who had issues with travelling. They also included secluded rooms where couples could be unfaithful without their spouses knowing.

Hayami had been here for two days, and she noticed a peculiar thing happening on the first morning in the sietch. Among the many people that made a nomadic caravan, goodbyes were being exchanged, and one woman in particular caught her attention; she had a beautiful hairpiece, as though a golden butterfly with jewels making up the main body, holding her hair in a bun at the back of her head. She passionately kissed who Hayami assumed to be her spouse. However, within a few hours, she and another man exchanged looks and made into the cave system; Hayami though it was interesting and followed, and found them in a room where a water purification system operated, passionately… erm, passionately expressing their affection for one another. Hayami blushed at the sight, half curious and half jealous. This deserved more investigation.

Hayami would take up chores while in the sietch; no one liked a free loader, after all, and while helping out in the kitchen or scrubbing floors, she took note of all the people the enamored couple interacted with, and how. There was a particular woman that the enamored gentlemen interacted with that drew Hayami's attention: a comely girl, yet she gave him lots of attention and brought food and tea plenty of times. Likely a spouse. Hayami would have to wait for the enamored girl's other spouse to return.

Within the week, the caravan returned, and as Hayami assumed, the enamored girl met one of the men with a passionate kiss. Now all the jigsaw pieces were present; Hayami needed only assemble the puzzle. She found out where the betrayed wife worked, deep into the cave in the looming station, which explained why the cheating couple was able to meet without fearing a surprise from the betrayed wife. Other people within the sietch must've known of the affair; highly unlikely that the cheating couple could've remained secretive if Hayami caught up to it within days. But she cooked her plan.

On the one day, she made sure to catch the two red handed; or wet handed, however you want to call it. She made sure to put on a little act, blushing and stuttering, hand to her chest but admiring the man in particular with attentive eyes, lowering her head to give the impression of looking up to; the person wouldn't see it like that, but the brain would.

In the next couple of days, she made sure to draw her eyes all over the lover boy; the female attention he already got on the side of the relationship made him confident, and Hayami's attention made him even cockier. One day, she invited him into the same room she had caught him cheating on.

When he arrived, Hayami sat with a disappointed look on his face, while his worried wife saw him and broke into tears. The caravan merchant brought in his wife by her arm; she was crying already, likely having been confronted by the husband. The situation escalated, insults were hurled, accusations flew, blame was shifted. Hayami thought it all too rich for her and took the opportunity to pay a visit to the rooms of the fighting couples. She was sorely disappointed though, as it appeared they had very little. Hayami would've actually felt bad in stealing anything, the poor saps "wealth" was dried meats, jars with water, pots with teas and dried lemon zest. "Poor as the dirt they walk on."

Disappointed in herself that she spent so much time stalking the couples without knowing if they had anything worth swiping while they were all too busy, she resigned herself and decided to move out of the sietch and back into the desert; maybe another sietch would have something worthwhile to offer. However, as she made her preparations to leave, such as buying dried meats and a sturdy canteen, she was approached by the cheated husband. He appreciated her for bringing the cheating to his attention, and handed her the golden butterfly pin. It had been a gift to the wife as a token of love, but having been betrayed, he took away the gift and would now be moving from the sietch into another. He wanted Hayami to have it, as compensation for freeing him from a relationship in which he was disrespected behind his back.

Hayami almost had half a mind to refuse; it left a sour taste in her mouth to be compensated for doing something good. However, Ryo was also good. She took it, pecked the man on his cheek, and wished him luck before leaving the cool sietch into the blazing sands.

***
WC: 925 words
[Exit]
Claiming 500 Ryo + 1AP
Claiming 2 Stamina
Claiming 925 words into Hazy Genjutsu