The Nets of the House

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The empty basket was still on Tsunami's table when she took the first drying net down. Its knots had stiffened with salt. She had meant to mend the torn corner after the next catch, when there was a next catch worth spreading over the rack.

Inari had carried two jars of water to Mina and returned with a marked scrap. Tsunami had put the receipt beside his inventory, counted the water left for the house, and sent him to bed. The spear remained near the kitchen door. She could move it without waking him. She left it where it was and carried the net to the rear room.

Naruto looked up from a cup of cold tea. Sasuke sat across the table, one arm held close to his ribs. Between them lay a scrap marked with the kitchen doorway and two small circles.

"Those are my hooks," Tsunami said.

Sasuke set down the charcoal. "We haven't used them."

"You drew them on my wall."

"On paper," Naruto said. "Much easier to repair."

She laid the net over the drawing. "You asked about hanging something here. These are the two nets I use to dry fish. You can use them for a barrier that comes down, if I can take it apart afterward. I am not giving you the doorway."

Naruto studied her face before he touched the net. "What do you lose if they're here?"

"Drying space. The next catch can't sit in a basket while you decide whether the house needs defending. And the knots will stretch if you pull them against the rack."

"There may not be a catch tomorrow," Sasuke said.

"Then I lose nothing tomorrow. I still own the nets."

He accepted that with a small dip of his head. Tsunami had seen boys argue over courage all week. She liked the rare moments when one stopped before the argument turned into a claim on somebody else's property.

"Show me what the circles mean," she said.

Naruto pointed to the kitchen threshold. "One on each side, above the rack. If the net hangs too low, it gets in your way now. If it sits too high, it catches nothing but dust."

"Don't make it sound so certain," Sasuke said. "The wall on the left isn't as solid as the right. It will take less pull."

"You just said two equal heights."

"Equal height. Not equal tension."

Tsunami folded her arms. "Before you argue about force, tell me where my son goes."

Both boys looked at the drawing. Naruto moved the paper a handspan to clear the edge of the real table.

"He and you go through the back passage," he said. "Tazuna knows the step."

"The back passage catches on that cupboard when it opens wide. If Inari is carrying anything, or if my father thinks he can help by following, they'll meet here." She tapped the narrow turn by the kitchen. "This stays passable."

Sasuke picked up the charcoal. "Then the net cannot cross the turn."

"It can reach the threshold," Naruto said. "It doesn't need the whole hall."

"Not if the rack drops inward."

"Then it won't."

"You can't order gravity."

"I'm taking suggestions."

Tsunami lifted the net off their drawing. "I can show you the floorboards. You can decide after that."

The kitchen was quieter than the room where Kakashi rested, but not empty of sound. A loose cup tapped the front latch in the wind. The kettle settled on its iron ring. Naruto waited for Tsunami to point out the boards that complained under a heel. Sasuke did not step on one after she named it.

She walked from Inari's room through the kitchen turn and out by the back passage. She walked it again carrying the empty basket, broad enough to catch a cupboard handle if she misjudged. On the third pass she stopped at the turn and faced the boys.

"This is the width you leave me," she said. "Not the width you think a frightened person ought to fit through."

Naruto marked the edge with a piece of charcoal. Sasuke checked it from the other side of the threshold. The line was farther from the rack than either circle on their paper had been.

"That slows it," Sasuke said.

"Yes," Tsunami replied.

"It also keeps you out of it," Naruto said. He looked at Sasuke. "That's the trade."

Sasuke ran a finger along the grain of the left support. "One hook here. The other has to be higher or the line grazes the cupboard."

"Higher means you pull harder," Naruto said.

"Then we pull harder."

"With that side of your ribs?"

Sasuke's hand left the wood. "The line won't care about my ribs."

"The installer does," Tsunami said. "If it needs a hand you can't give tonight, choose a different place."

He looked at her, irritated and unable to deny it. Naruto did not grin. He found a firmer part of the support and held the net up while Sasuke checked the opening beneath it. They moved the mark twice. The third position left the back passage clear and kept the net within the kitchen threshold.

They fitted two hooks without asking Tsunami to surrender another beam. She held the lamp so they could see the wood; she did not give them a speech about trusting shinobi. Naruto worked slowly enough that the metal did not split the support. Sasuke checked each position against the mark and, once, made him back it out and try again. The work took more time than either wanted.

"We could have put the first one in the pantry wall," Naruto said when his arm ached.

"It would be faster," Sasuke said.

"It would put the pull across her exit."

Sasuke glanced at Tsunami. "I know."

She handed Naruto the second net. "Then don't revisit it because you're tired."

They hung one empty net from the rack. The other stayed folded beside it. No fish weighed the mesh, no person stood in the opening. Tsunami stepped through her route once more, basket in hand, while both boys kept clear. Only after she had passed did Naruto give the line a short pull.

The net came down crooked. One corner stayed caught on the edge of a hook, and the mesh swung against the cupboard instead of settling across the threshold. Sasuke stopped it with his good hand before it could strike the crockery.

"There," he said. "Too much tension on the left."

"Or the knot caught," Naruto said.

"Both can happen."

Naruto crouched and lifted the caught edge free. The cord had rubbed a pale line against the wood. He tried again without anyone in the doorway. The net fell farther, but one loop twisted around itself and slowed the drop.

"That isn't a promise," Tsunami said.

"No," Sasuke answered. "We can leave it looser."

"Then it may miss the middle," Naruto said.

"The middle isn't yours to fill if she needs to get past it."

He looked down at the line she had marked on the floor. "Fine. Slower and clear."

They altered the hang, not the route. A third empty test cleared the cupboard and did not cross Tsunami's line. It was not quick. The cord still rasped once at the upper hook. Naruto put his hand on the rope, then took it away without pretending he could make that noise mean reliability.

"If it jams?" Tsunami asked.

"You use the passage," Sasuke said. "We don't make your exit depend on this."

"And you don't ask Inari to stand under it to prove it works."

"We didn't ask," Naruto said.

"Good. Keep it that way."

They lifted the test net back onto the rack. Sasuke folded its loose edge so it did not trail into the walking space; Naruto gathered the cord where it could be reached without pulling it by accident. The second net remained folded. A person entering the kitchen would see drying mesh and an old rack, not a victory waiting to happen. Tsunami could still take both nets down, if there was time and if she chose.

"You can sleep now," she told them.

Naruto looked toward the yard. "Kakashi will have us on the trees in the morning."

"Then that's one reason to stop."

Sasuke flexed his sore hand. "We spent too long on two hooks."

"You spent long enough to leave us a way out," she said. "Those aren't the same complaint."

He did not reply. Naruto collected the scraps of charcoal and the bit of cord they had cut away. Neither boy asked when Gato's men would come. Tsunami could not have answered, and she would not let a guess become the reason her family walked through a blocked door.

When they left the kitchen, she looked at the empty drying bars. If she brought in fish tomorrow, there would be less room for it. The two nets were hers, and she had put them to another use for a night. It was a cost she could count without calling the house secure.

She checked the back passage once, in the low light, before going to Inari's room. It remained open. From inside came the small, uneven sound of a child who had carried a full basket and finally slept. Tsunami left the nets where they could be lifted off again. Nothing fell.

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