After a few moments of this silent battle of wills, Nobuhira coughed delicately. “Amaya-chan, who would you take money from?”

Amaya considered this with all the ferocious intelligence of a girl who was going to run either a country or a very successful business one day. "The teacher," she said at last. "And I'd make the student do a chore for being rude." She went up on her tiptoes to whisper loudly at Kakashi, "If'n you're rude to your teachers, they only teach the boring stuff, y'know."

Kakashi transferred his stare from Katsuko to Amaya. Amaya countered with an unimpressed look. Katsuko was honestly unsure which one would win.

Nobuhira used the distraction to draw Katsuko aside to wrangle out details. She made small talk with him while they scribbled out a quick promissory note and learned that he’d moved to Konoha after his wife’s death recently; before that, he’d made his living as a smith in one of the major trade cities in Wind Country.

“Konoha is very different from living in the desert,” he said. In the background, Amaya had broken her staring contest with Kakashi in order show him the right way to wrap a Wind Country katana. She was also attempting to sell him sword oil at the same time. “But it’s a good change. There’s much more green everywhere, for one.”

“A lot less sand in your underwear, too,” Katsuko agreed. She finished writing her signature on the promissory note and handed it to Nobuhira with a smile. They shook hands and went to rescue Kakashi from Amaya.