The shop Katsuko ducked into was a comfortable middle ground between the two. She didn’t recognize the maker’s mark stamped on the weapons display, but she nodded approvingly at the ebony naginata standing in pride of place. One half of the store was devoted entirely to martial staples: shuriken and kunai, blank seal tags, blunted practice weapons and basic training armor. Something to lure in customers unwilling to take the chance on an unknown weaponsmith’s personal wares.

The shop counter was empty, but animated voices came from the storage room in the back. She ignored them and headed straight over to the practice swords.

“You’re right-handed, yeah?” she asked Kakashi, who ambled along behind her with the air of a man who was only heading in the same general direction and was definitely not tagging after her.

“Most of the time.”

“Cool. Hold out your arm. I promise I won’t chop it off.”

His eye roll was such a familiar sight by now that Katsuko felt an actual surge of fondness. He straightened up from his slouch and begrudgingly extended his arm like he was doing her an enormous favor. She beamed, as much from genuine delight as to see his face change from exasperation to faint apprehension, and carefully measured the length of his reach. Then she handed him the first of the practice swords.

Her glee quickly morphed to disappointment as they started to filter through the selection. Several swords she rejected outright as too short for his reach; others were either too heavy or too light. Kakashi bore it all with surprising patience, moving as she directed him and offering his own input on the balance and weight he felt most comfortable with.

Finally, she sighed and motioned for Kakashi to put the last practice sword away. “Too much to hope we’d find what we’re looking for in the first shop, anyways. Come on, there’s a few more places we can check out.”