"I am certain she doesn't have it, I knew it was a long shot," a man said sternly to his fellow clansman.
Suki wheezed as she battled it out with her instructor, an older branch member. Her tiny little hands far inexperienced, trying to attack the older woman who swiftly dodged all of the younger girl's attacks. One push on her chest and the princess was down with a faint cry. Suki stumbled to get up, her eyes hardy and determined.
"Lord Itsuki had a very special gift like Lord First," the other man replied, crossing his arms as he looked at the training beyond. "You can't expect it to appear just like that…"
The little girl's hands tried to block the instructor's darting hands miserably, gasping every time it came in contact with her skin. Then her brows furrowed as she moved forward, keeping up her defense as she dodged and blocked the attacks.
A female servant quickly went up to the two men, bowing deeply, "Princess Tsunade is here to visit Lady Mito," the servant said to the two men.
The larger of the two nodded once, "Halt. Princess, you're done for the day," he turned to the servant, "Get the Princess patched up and clean," he told her, to which she nodded and turned to go tend to the princess.
Suki put down her hands to her sides for a moment, panting before putting out two fingers forward to her instructor who had repeated the gesture, their fingers linking firmly before letting go. The little girl bowed deeply, "Thank— Thank you Sen– Sensei," Suki then straightened her back and ran towards the servant who had a towel ready for her.
"Princess, you mustn't run, there are visitors today!" The maid called out exasperatedly to the bouncy little girl.
"O–ooh, okay," she grinned, trying her best to tiptoe down the decks carefully. "Hey, who's here anyways?" Suki asked curiously, turning her head back towards the servant.
"Your cousin, Princess Tsunade," she replied.
"Huh? I don't know her. Shouldn't she be living here with us? I didn't know I have princess cousins," Suki mused, looking up in thought. She only knew of Nawaki, who she didn't even know that well apart from the fact that he was, well… dead. Hushed whispers and frequent prayers to his name were enough to deduce that.
The maid ushered her to continue moving, simply replying, "She's been extremely busy fighting in the war courageously," she told the little princess.
"What's the war about?" The blonde little princess asked.
The maid sighed again, tired of her questions. It was endless seeing as she tended to the child everyday, and her questions only got tougher and tougher to answer. These days she wasn't sure herself what the war was about either.
"Maybe your cousin can answer for you when you see her," the maid tiredly murmured to the girl as she led her to the bathhouse.
Lady Grandmother was very scary, Suki very rarely saw her around despite living in the same estate, and when she did, she was strictly taught to greet her with respect, never to look at her in the eye, and to always speak softly to her. She's heard rumors of her temperament, and to a degree that she didn't know, she's been affected by it as well, being able to sense a dark and afflicting chakra at random points in time for an equally random duration of time… it was a very scary sensation she's yet to bring up to anyone.
Though she was really the closest family Suki had in terms of blood, Lady Grandmother seemed more of a living myth to her than anything. And for matters of seeing her, the lady needed her rest as she was getting into her old age, but also just because Suki wasn't quite important in clan matters besides being her only direct blood relative still living in the estate. She only ever saw the old woman during very important celebrations, or if by chance, she happened to cross paths with her when they were both getting to where they need to be.
The door was slid open slowly for Suki, and she looked at the intimidating members for dinner. Lady Grandmother sat at the very head of the table, a very beautiful blonde woman with honeyed eyes sat on her right, and a male elder clan member next to her. An empty cushion was on lady grandmother's left— which was for her, and the last seat was occupied with a female elder.
Suki was nudged by her maid to continue forward and to stop staring, and the alarmed girl quickly bowed, introducing herself and apologizing, "G– Good Eve'n, I apologize for being late," she said in a small voice before rushing slightly to her place, her small feet making little pitter-pattering sounds on the mat clumsily. All eyes were on her, in annoyance by the elders, but curiosity by her cousin and her grandmother.
"Princess Suki, this is Princess Tsunade, your cousin…" the elder's voice blurred quickly as her curious eyes met Princess Tsunade's rather unforgiving gaze briefly. There was an expression her cousin held in her eyes that made her feel uneasy, and it wasn't like she was looking at Suki in a relatively nice way either. Her gaze made her want to sweat again, and for a while it lingered. When she felt her gaze lifting away, Suki visibly relaxed before she was nudged again by the elder. Her body straightened stiffly again.
"Hey, I asked you a question, and you should really answer to your elders," the older princess waved her hand in front of a now alarmed Suki.
"Y-yes?" she stuttered, her eyebrows raising.
"Do you go to the academy? Are you even a shinobi?" Princess Tsunade tilted her head, her tone was not too impressed by Suki.
The little girl purses her lips, snaking her head slightly, "No, I do not go to the academy Princess, b-but I'm being training here a-at the estate as a shinobi," Suki politely replied with more than a hint of nervousness with her stuttering.
The woman narrowed her eyes at Suki, "Tsunade is fine, or I suppose older sister would be more appropriate," Princess Tsunade then put her thumb and index finger on her chin as if to think about something deeply. She turned to their grandmother, "It's strange she hasn't been put into the Academy the Second Hokage himself founded. If we don't even send our children into our own clan's establishment, how can we expect the others in the village to do the same?" the blonde said inquisitively, though it was meant to press on every hypocrisy the elders' decision. It was pretty much successful based on the stiff reactions of the two members who sat next to the princesses.
"Besides, how much socializing has she had with those her own age? Poor girl couldn't say much of anything without stuttering," Princess Tsunade continued on condescendingly. Her comment made Suki feel even more uneasy, mostly because they were directed to the elders so… disrespectfully but it was still commenting on the failure of her carefully-crafted social skills, taught by the very same elders with them. Worst of all, Princess Tsunade wasn't wrong either.
The beautiful blonde whipped her head to her grandmother, "Grandmother, how could you let this happen?" the Princess furrowed her brows, her expression darkening at her grandmother's lack of reaction. It seemed she was focused on something else, not particularly caring for the everyone else's gasps at her granddaughter's response of shifting the blame on her.
The matriarch tilted her head slightly to one side, finally taking a look at her younger granddaughter with an inquisitive expression, thinking about her response. Maybe back in the day she would scold Tsunade for being disrespectful, but she has long since worn on her and so did her most of her immediate temper.
The younger girl immediately felt more uneasy with eyes on her. Lady Grandmother really paid much attention to her before, and it was slightly weird now that she did, only because her cousin for some reason wanted to meddle in her academic affairs.
"I suppose it wouldn't hurt," Mito replied after a brief period of time. It was then that Princess Tsunade realized something that made her more infuriated.
"You suppose? How expandable is she to you? To all of you? Another mouth to feed, a little girl to raise and marry off? Is that it? Disappointed she isn't an heir for the clan to give her name off? How hopeless have you been since Itsuki died?!" Tsunade raged, her fist banged on the table, amazingly destroying it.
"Since Nawaki," rang powerfully inside Tsunade's own thoughts, but voicing it out… she would have to admit to that reality that she's since then been actively avoiding.
Suki and the elders flinched at her cousin's violent reaction, but when she turned her head to look at her grandmother, she saw no visible signs of a reaction on her face. It was amazing how well composed she was, Suki could hardly believe it.
She then heard cries of the other two, calling for the other princess' name, and Suki turned her head and saw the retreating figure of the blonde, leaving a trail of fury behind her.
Only until then did the house servants bring food, entering in and alarmed by what had happened to the table they were supposed to serve the food on. Mito Uzumaki gently stood up, informing the servants that she will have her dinner at her quarters, to which the elders took as an opportunity to dismiss themselves as well, telling the remaining princess to head back to her own quarters to complete her nightly studies.
After an hour of unsupervised study and dinner did Suki finally stop, she was too bored out of her mind given the events before dinner, so she slid out of her room and snuck out into the large gardens of the Senju estate.
There were two parts of the famed garden, the bigger part being perfectly decorated and maintained, stone steps were padded to guide people around, benches, and small bamboo fountains that were powered by the pond in the middle. The other was a more secluded and natural part, it also was covered with trees for shade, and had a more natural charm with it. All in all, both had the air of tranquility surrounding it and was very pleasant to walk around in.
Of course, being native to its charm, Suki had learned to appreciate the wilder part of the gardens. It was more natural and earthy, and she had past grown to appreciate looking at the flowers in their less trimmed way.
There was only a single bench in the wild part of the garden, an uncomfortable thing that was weathered and old, it looked like it had been poorly made in even in its original glory, but had surprisingly survived for as long as it did. It wasn't a very fun seat, but it was the only seat in that part of the garden. If one has sat in it enough, maybe they would have been able to dismiss how uncomfortable it was, with it's awkward bumps and warps in the wood that was used.
The nightly breeze was amazing and star-gazing was nonetheless perfect from the uncomfortable bench Suki sat on. Tilting her chin up, her eyes marveled upon the many stars that filled the night sky, filling her with awe. Upon many assigned readings her tutor gave her, among those were some astronomical sciences that said that the stars were the same as the sun, though in her childish mind, that idea didn't appeal to her. Suki prefered to believe that the sun was the benevolent diety Amaterasu, and the stars were Amatsumikaboshi, an evil (though a rather beautiful) god.
Her legs swung back and forth to distract herself of the lowering temperatures, still making connections with the stars and taking as much of the sight as she could with her large ruby eyes.
A small disturbance came in the form of a shifting weight and a creak in the wood of the bench. Flinching, Suki whipped her head to the direction of the disturbance, immediately seeing a cape of muted red hair, and wrinkled skin. Suki immediately jumped to her feet, bowing deeply.
"Lady Grandmother."