With the Writing Prompt of "Write a story with a countdown from 10 to 1", I tried to shatter my Writer's Block and continue with the other five multi-chaptered stories I should be completing.
No such luck, but fear not! I'll find a way, eventually.
Meanwhile, enjoy my struggle against Writer's Block.
Word Count: 4287 words.
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To Overthrow A Dynasty
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10 Chimes of Silver Bells
Their wedding is by no means the gaudy, crowded ceremony Rin has feared.
It takes place in the private chapel of Susanoo Castle, of course: everyone of Uchiha blood is there to weigh up her worth by luring her into their mind-games, testing her mental mettle against the bloodiest Dynasty to have ever reigned Fire Country. What is she to have caught Lord Madara's eye?
Rin, for her part, has no idea.
She smiles and curtsies and obligingly follows after her husband, thirty years her elder. The young woman – girl, really – barely comes up to half his ribcage.
Her silken red and black kimono had been tailored for her – though she despises with all her being the blood hue of the crimson flowers on the hems, curling around her figure like vicious vines.
Rin sways to the slow tempo of the orchestra's music – classical, without a doubt – and presses her face into Lord Madara's chest to hide her grimace.
A hand sneaks up to her back, her muscles tensing as it rises and comes up to rest on her shoulders.
Its grip tightens. You are fooling no one.
Ding, dong.
Rin smiles up at the man, an image akin to shattered glass in the sunlight.
Ding, dong.
His eyes narrow on her face and she falters, but she has gone too far now – she brought this on herself to spare her sister this fate.
Ding, dong.
Rin cannot fail.
Ding, dong.
Her hands tremble on Lord Madara's broad chest. "It's just nerves, my Lord," she says, and giggles.
Ding, dong.
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9 Minutes of Eavesdropping
Obito is Lord Madara's male fourth-born.
He knows he has no chance to get a plot of land like the firstborn – Fugaku – or a relevant military position like the second- and third-born – Dainoto and Toryu. So he has taught himself to be content with what he has, and not anger his father (too much) with his requests. Heaven knows how many beatings he had suffered for his big mouth.
He's never been a good teacher.
Without any form of power he would be squashed by his ruthless relatives like an annoying bug under their boots. So if Obito can't have leverage through direct channels, what stopped him from exploring the indirect – and illegal – ones?
Getting burnt at the stake, that's what should have stopped him.
And yet, here he is, hiding under the loose floorboards of his eldest brother's office.
It's by no means comfortable – Obito has slept on stone floors softer than this – but today is the day of Lord Madara's sixth wedding and his duties around Susanoo Castle have kept him away from the chapel, but he must keep himself up-to-date with the latest news.
(The Uchiha had found a stronghold of rebels uncomfortably close to Susanoo Castle; someone must have returned to report to his father and brothers.)
Rumors. Information. Blackmail. Obito could keep his ground – and his birthright, as irrelevant as that may be with three older brothers – against the sharks lurking in his Clan because of his knowledge of secrets and forbidden relationships among their allies.
Attempting on his life would make their 'supporters' targets of Madara's anger. If their relatives tried their luck to silence Obito once and for all, there were a few people eager to tattle some secrets and damage irreparably his assassins' reputation, if not get them executed.
Very few suspected the two Zetsu twins – Kuro and Shiro – to be his spies as well. As far as his relatives cared to see, there was no connection between them: what would Obito do with two servants scurrying back and forth between kitchen and dining hall?
Sometimes, Obito did the spying himself - though it does not mean he likes it. He's still small enough to fit in the narrower secret passages of Susanoo Castle, once known as Fortress Kaguya.
Footsteps interrupt his musings.
Fugaku will receive a visit in three, two, one…
"Lord Fugaku."
See? Obito knows what he's doing.
"What have you brought me?"
There's the sound of metal clinking together. A soldier. "Lord and Lady Namikaze have been dealt with. Their rebel associates have surrendered or fled after their residence had been burnt down."
Lord Minato Namikaze? Obito frowns at the news. He had met the blond man on his first and only diplomatic visit to Susanoo Castle. He had shown grace and respect to his father, but there was unyielding steel in his voice that hinted at dire consequences should he be crossed by the Uchiha.
It seems he wasn't fast enough.
Fugaku is frowning as well, that's for sure. "Was there anyone of note?"
"The Uchiha Army is closing in on Lord Sarutobi and Shimura. Lady Senju is still on the run. Lord Hatake has surrendered. His only son is locked in the dungeon as of now. What is to be done with him?"
Silence, again.
Obito holds his breath.
"Give him no food or water for five days." His brother is stapling his fingers, no doubt pleased with himself. "Let's see how the 'Hound' fares then."
The soldier bows. "By your leave, Lord Fugaku." Metal clinks, and he retreats.
Obito waits until his brother leaves – not too long after – and wriggles out of the floor.
He needs to know more about this 'Hound'.
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8 Steps of Stone
Light footsteps echo in his prison.
Kakashi's gaze is glued to the bloodstained stone floor for the eight steps it takes the newcomer to stop in front of him – he counted.
There's not much else to do but count and ponder when you're bound in chains for days on end.
He sees a dusty pair of leather boots, so dark they might as well be black. They're small but sturdy, and their heels make too much noise as they scrape hesitatingly near a puddle of scarlet liquid.
Then, silence.
"Why's your hair gray?"
Sixteen, Kakashi estimates. Nervous. His split lip twitches. "It's silver." His voices comes in a hoarse whisper, grating on his throat and showing how weak he is at the moment.
"Really?" The teen's voice is incredulous, then becomes higher-pitched as he blurts out, "Are you the Hatake?"
Anger swells in his chest, growing with each heaving breath. Kakashi grinds his teeth and slowly (painfully) raises his head to glare through his silver strands.
Short spikes of black hair top a young face, so disgustingly similar to the Devil's itself he growls and viciously enjoys his startled step back.
The Uchiha stares at his swollen, bleeding face like a doe caught in a beartrap. He licks his lips. "What… what will they do to you?"
Kakashi snorts and jerks his head to the right. "Ask them, Uchiha."
"I'm- I'm trying to help, Hatake," he snaps, flushing red in the dim light of his prison. "Are they going to draw it out, or…?"
"Neither." Kakashi shrugs as much as his shackles and aching muscles allow. "Breaking me would be a greater victory for your people." There is no need to make him a martyr.
The Uchiha clenches his fists and bares his teeth.
Kakashi draws back his lips, showing the red rivulets staining his sharp canines.
The black-haired teen stiffens at the sight, gulps down his shock and says, "I can help you if you don't try to kill me."
Kakashi would kill him – like he's been trained to – but this Uchiha wasn't there when they burned Minato's house to the ground, he didn't sever Sakumo's head from his shoulders as he pleaded for his son's life to be spared.
(His father, defeated. Never in his life he had thought the stern White Fang would fall to his knees for him.)
And for all his fervid imagination, Kakashi cannot picture Obito sneering down at him.
He looks at his dubious frown and the hopeful flicker of reflected light in his dark pupils.
Earnest, he thinks, and his mind drifts to sun-kissed hair and an ocean ensnared in two mirrored orbs.
The Hatake nods. "Please do, Lord Uchiha."
"I'm… Obito," the teen whispers and fiddles with his thumbs behind his back. Even Kakashi isn't sure whether he has been sarcastic or not. "Not just an Uchiha."
"I'm Kakashi." He smirks. "Not just an Hatake."
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7 Seeds of Virtue
Minato is, by all rights, a dead man.
Alas, he's still breathing – an arduous task, each heaving of his chest fanning the searing pain in his lungs. Each step jars his bones, jolting the crying bundle he's clutching to his chest in a vice-like grip. He's hurting him, he knows.
But he's learnt long ago to hold onto the scattered pieces of himself, and he's not letting this one go.
The forest had slowly bowed to a grassy plain, a handful of shrubs and bushes littering the ground at his limping feet. There are lights in the distance, so fickle and dim Minato mistook them for dying fireflies in the night.
It's a building, he realizes. A village.
He barely limps to its weathered wooden porch before slumping onto its steps, his son's cries muffled into his bloodied robes.
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Tenten Nohara finds him the next morning and tells him her sister is gone.
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Minato heals, hides and plans.
His home is a pile of ashes and debris, his wife's charred remnants unburied for vultures to feast on. His people are gone – killed, enslaved – and his young apprentice has disappeared, dead or captured and Minato knows which is worse.
He does not cry. There will be time for that later, when he has stabbed Madara Uchiha's head on a pike.
Minato was an assassin before he became a Lord – one of the best Fire Country had ever trained.
He only needs one chance, one small knife or even a needle, and the Uchiha will fall. Their claws have sunk too deep into his country, their roots run where not even he can touch – for now.
But Minato's heart throbs, his hands itch and his eyes water, and he knows the demon within him will only be sated with Uchiha blood.
He stares at his newborn son. Tenten's mother will take care of him, whether Minato returns or not.
Naruto deserves so much more.
Kushina deserved so much more.
The blond closes his eyes and breathes out. He reaches into a pocket of his dark clothes and pulls out seven different seeds, placing them around Naruto's tiny – so tiny, so young – head. One for each major virtue of the Namikaze.
Courage, the unyielding will.
Generosity, the helping hand.
Loyalty, the steady sword and shield.
Acumen, the sharp mind.
Balance, the delicate harmony of the soul.
Strength of Body, to protect your own from your foes.
Strength of Mind, to protect your own from yourself.
A blink later, and Minato is gone.
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6 Wilting Flowers
Lord Fugaku had given her a bouquet of flowers for her wedding.
She had giggled and curtsied and locked her door behind her and cried.
After that, Rin had placed six of those beautiful flowers – yellow gold for prosperity, lilac for her beauty, red for good fortune – in an ornate blue and gold vase filled with clear water.
Seven days have passed, and their delicate petals have withered and their stems have bent.
Rin stares at the wilting flowers, her back straight and face blank, and wonders what blooming buds will replace them.
There's a knock at her door. She turns. "Please, come in."
A mop of black hair pokes into her private room. Her gut clenches when she recognizes the contours of her husband's face on this teen her age.
He's handsome, there's no denying that, but Rin focuses on the differences between him and Lord Madara. His eyes are wider, his cheekbones and chin less defined: this Uchiha is younger, still a boy compared to the others of his Clan – but Rin is a girl, and finds a smidgen of relief in finding someone her age.
There's another young man trailing behind him.
His hair is a wild silver, almost white in the morning light, and his clothes are the slick black all servants wear. But there – there, on his neck, the girl sees an iron collar, and from it depart little chains that disappear into his vest. If she focuses, she can hear him lightly clinking with each step.
Rin smiles at him.
He averts his lone eye, the other covered by a black cloth.
The Uchiha clears his throat, and her face is once more a blank mask. "Ehm, I'm Obito." His cheeks steadily turn redder with each passing second. "He's Kakashi. I, uh, I missed the wedding." He scratches the back of his head, not even managing to keep a straight face. "Sorry, Lady Nohara."
Rin bows at him, hiding her surprise. Yet another difference: to everyone, she was Lady Uchiha. "There's no need to apologize, milord. If I may be so forward, might I ask you why you've entered my chambers?"
A blush takes up his whole face. Obito glances at every little trinket in the room – most of them way more expensive than her best kimono back home – and his attempts at stammering out an answer grow quieter and quieter.
Endearing, she thinks, and quite unusual.
Kakashi sighs. "What Lord Obito is trying to ask, Lady Nohara, is if you're free to visit his modest chambers in the Kamui wing, every once in a while."
The young Uchiha splutters, turns redder, and wrings his hands behind his back. "E-Exactly. That. I'm sure Father won't mind – he's always, well, away…"
Something Rin greatly appreciated in her first days of captivity inside Susanoo Castle. She needed time to pretend everything was alright and Lord Madara wouldn't demand a heir from her. An illusion, a golden cage of sorts, where there is no famine or war and she plays her flute to her heart's content.
(At least until her husband returned with his sword soaked in rebel blood.)
The young woman smiles, the first shred of sincerity since her wedding. "I'd love to, milord."
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Rin finds a bright spot of joy in the flattering web of lies of Susanoo Castle, and her pliable mask slides off her face every time she visits the young Uchiha and the Hatake.
Obito listens to her pain – he knows she is a precious flower, wilting – and promises they will be free.
All three of them.
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5 Guards Eluded
Kakashi is weird, Obito has long since decided that.
Paranoiac doesn't cover his behavior. Deceiving doesn't cover the cowed façade he plastered on himself whenever other Uchiha are present. Cunning doesn't cover his insight to Obito's plan to overthrow his father.
Cheeky, sarcastic, smug bastard aren't enough words to express how much he wants to slam Kakashi's face onto the nearest table on a daily basis.
And yet, Obito does not regret demanding that Kakashi Hatake be his personal 'slave'.
His father had been dubious at best – why would his fourth-born son even know of their prisoner? – but he had more significant things to deal with, and let him have his way with a wave of his hand. Obito thanked his grand generosity and told Kakashi how things were going to go.
The silver-haired man raised an eyebrow at him and let himself be collared without a word.
Kuro and Shiro take great pleasure in pestering him whenever they can. The 'Hound's fingers twitch and his eye narrows, but he can't do anything without jeopardizing his position – however unfavorable that may be – and stays silent. The twins find that hilarious.
When asked, Kakashi trails after him like a shadow. Fugaku hates that, but ultimately it's Obito's choice whether he wants him to do that or not. If his smile turns into a smug smirk every time he meets his elder brother, well, Father isn't there to beat him senseless and Fugaku is too haughty to complain.
The other Uchiha look down on the 'Hound', but dare not speak a word: they know Obito knows their most guarded secrets. A few words from him and heads would roll.
The only times the Hatake doesn't follow him – either rolling his eye at his behavior or keeping up their farce – is when Obito takes a much needed leak, a bath, or sleeps.
The Uchiha had been adamant that Kakashi does not mingle with the other servants – except the Zetsu twins – by nighttime, "so I can always order him to do whatever I wish, whenever I want."
To ascertain that, there are five guards patrolling the Kamui wing of the Castle, especially his chambers. Even if an assassin were to sneak around them, Kakashi was just a room away: being a naturally-light sleeper, he'd be into Obito's room in a blink with a pilfered needle in hand ready to stab.
Obito wakes one night to a dagger to his throat.
He can see nothing but a large shadow looming over him, and his heart beats erratically in his chest.
"He attempted on my son's life," the man growls, pinning him down, "not even a minute after he was born."
Obito wishes his mattress would swallow him. When it doesn't, he wishes his father did not severely piss off the most dangerous people of Fire Country.
"Lord Namikaze," Kakashi says, probably just for Obito's benefit, "he wishes for him to be gone, as well." After a second of hesitation, he adds, "Obito saved my life after he heard what happened."
Secrets, right? That's what always kept him balanced on the razor-sharp line between dead and alive.
"They believe you're dead," the Uchiha blurts out.
Namikaze leans forward, and Obito can see hard eyes narrowed on him. "Let's keep it that way," he threatens and moves his dagger away from his throat. Without a sound, the man gets off his bed and faces Kakashi. "What did you plan?"
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A few days later, when Shiro's cold body is found floating in the nearby river, Obito, Kuro and Rin will mourn – but there's no way to find his murderer, and they focus on becoming murderers themselves.
They will regret it.
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4 Whispers in the Night
Minato returns a week and a half later with a phial of clear liquid.
Kakashi bows to his Lord and mentor, as do Obito and Rin.
The four of them are barely visible in the flickering candlelight in the Uchiha's hands. The Kamui wing is silent, the guards sure there are no enemies in their Castle.
Presumptions are deadly, Kakashi knows.
"Is it…?"
Minato nods at the young Uchiha, his black cloak fluttering weakly by the room's open window. "Everything checks out. Everyone I've contacted is ready." He lays the phial into Rin's pale hand. With a determined frown, she tucks it into her kimono. "Second thoughts?"
Obito slowly shakes his head. "Who'll deal with the others?"
"We will." Kakashi gestures to himself, his mentor, and the Uchiha. "One each. Any suggestions?"
There is silence.
Kakashi waits patiently. If the weeks he spent stuck to Obito Uchiha taught him anything, is that he needs time to plan his next actions. He's by no means obtuse, but he does not possess Kakashi's logic or Minato's quick thinking.
Rin is an excellent actress. She curtsies and laughs and hides their ploy behind a demure smile, not one misstep in her intricate dance with the Devil. A woman holding her own strings in a world of deceitful men.
"Fugaku won't suspect you to come," Obito tells Minato, "but he's had experience fighting off assassins. You'll need to be careful. Dainoto likes having an excuse to drink, though he's a lightweight – Kakashi, you'll only have to stick around for twenty minutes at most." His face twists into a deep frown. "I'll… I'll deal with Toryu, and find Rin after that."
Rin nods. "I'll wait for you, Obito."
The Uchiha smiles at her, and Kakashi shares a look with his mentor.
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3 Drops of Poison
Rin's eyebrows pinch together. She tilts her head. "Is something wrong, my love?"
Madara stares into his golden cup of wine, moving his hand in circles and watching the red liquid slosh around.
The young woman tips her cup to her lips and drinks. It's the sweetest wine she has ever tasted – though she hardly has the expertise to claim it's the sweetest – and it pools in her stomach, its warmth spreading and her knees growing weaker. She leans back on her luxurious pillows.
He is watching her.
Rin blinks as obliviously as she can.
"What is your game, Rin?" His black eyes burn into her, so unlike (and yet so akin to) Obito's she nearly drops her half-empty cup.
"I play no game, my beloved," she says and smiles. Just a few minutes more. "I have only duties to you – to honor you, to adore you and support you. I plan to fulfill them until my last breath."
Madara raises slightly his chin. Rin's eyes rove over his chiseled chest and the scars sneaking across his ribs. "You have met many times with Obito since we married."
She nods, and her smiles is a bit more genuine. "I have, my love."
The man stares at her, glances at his cup. He smirks but does not drink.
"You love him."
Rin looks at him, all doe-like and shocked. "M-My love, why, I…" she deflates, hiding her relief behind a weary sigh. "…I'm afraid it's the truth, milord. I've found companionship in Obito, but we've never given in to carnal pleasure."
His hand grabs her chin, and she smiles coyly to his predatory grin. "Let's share this wine together, then, and keep the world outside our chamber tonight."
Madara offers her his cup.
Rin thinks of a genuine grin, a lone dark eye and sun-kissed hair, and takes it.
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Obito thinks of warm chocolate-brown eyes and two mischievous boys with hair of opposite color, and rams a dagger in his brother's gut as his guards drive their spears into his flesh.
Toryu had known too much.
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2 Sharpened Blades
Susanoo Castle discovers slaughter that night and howls its anguish to the moon.
Scared, the sun is late to rise – too bloodied are the stone hallways, too sullied are the departing souls of the Uchiha, too cold are Rin and Obito's bodies as they lay on stained marble floors.
Kakashi glances at the twisted sheets, the broken bottle and burgundy mixing with rusty crimson on the cold floor and he knows.
There's blood on Rin's temple, a corresponding stain on the table beside the large bed. But her face is lax, her eyes closed as if just asleep, and Kakashi prays to their indifferent God she finally found peace.
He hooks his arms behind her shoulders and knees and brings her out of the room.
He has no right to do this, not after all the blood dripping off his fingers and drenching his soul. But there's only one other person he would trust her body to inside the Castle, and he does not know of Rin's smile and laughter and the melodious sound of her flute.
Kakashi is bringing her outside when he crosses his mentor, splattered with drying blood and holding the skewered corpse of Obito Uchiha, as if he were his altered reflection on a cracked mirror.
The two assassins bring them to the Kamui wing, silent guardian of their budding friendship, and lay them side by side on the boy's bed.
Blood seeps into the blue fabric, soaking the Uchiha Clan crest with its scarlet liquid.
Kakashi looks at their ashen cheeks and rage rises like bile in his throat, his heart thrums to the rhythm of war drums and his drenched hands cry for more blood.
Vengeance has never tasted sweeter.
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1 New Leader
Susanoo Castle is a tainted ruin in the landscape of Konoha, robbed of its rich silks and marble and deprived of the power it once held.
Once Fire Country had been purged of the last warmongering Uchiha – a task made easier by the deaths of Madara and his sons – Minato Namikaze became the new leader of his land, uniting the various surviving Clans under the same banner and devoting his effort into healing and strengthening their army.
Wind Country claimed Fire's mines near their border; Mist Country hurried to plant spies into their new chain of command, and Rock Country had gathered their forces – knocked back multiple times by the Uchiha – to try another attack. Cloud stayed suspiciously inactive, merely asking to renew their trading contracts.
Peace was no closer than before.
But Minato still held hope – against his better judgment and experience – that, eventually, peace would bloom and reign in the years to come, be they far or near.
His son Naruto dashed into his room inside their newly-built Leaf Tower. Lady Senju looked on with hidden fondness as Minato scooped up his child, who shrieked with laughter and tried wriggling out of his father's arms.
Kakashi rolled his eye from behind the well-endowed woman. Minato had known him long enough to see his faintly amused smile stretching the dark fabric of his mask.
It had been a nigh impossible feat to make him smile after his father, Kushina, Obito and Rin's deaths. Minato had been no better – war still hung over their heads like the executioner's axe – but, over the years, knowing Obito and Rin were free from their mortal burdens, the new leader came to accept their fate.
Minato's apprentice, instead, could still be found standing by their graves in the outskirts of Konoha, his gaze lingering on their carved words:
"Here lay a pair of star-crossed lovers
Whose souls in Heaven live still,
In hope this tainted realm recovers
By either words of mouth or quill."