Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
"The flame that burns twice as bright, burns half as long."
— Lao Tzu, Dao De Jing
"I think you should go, Niisan." Izuna sips his tea and feels the tremors from Niisan's footsteps echo over the walls. "It won't be such a bad idea, would it?"
The table is in front of him. There's a chill in the winter air. Outside, the wind howls.
Niisan is still uneasy, shifting from foot to foot. "It would be pointless." He's tired of it all, and he's been getting progressively worse all morning.
Izuna sets his teacup down on the table and rises to his feet. It would better than sitting here all the time.
Senju Hashirama makes you miserable. Despite everything, Izuna doesn't have much love for his brother's fixated obsession. Sure, Senju Hashirama doesn't try to kill people unnecessarily, and he's kind and popular and generally a good man. One could even say that he's a miracle, since good men are hard to find in places that used to be warzones not three years ago.
Izuna still hates him anyway. "You should take the trip." He doesn't know why Uzumaki Ashina had written to Hashirama about a daughter's marriage, and he knows even less why Hashirama would connect that to Niisan, but it is true that the clan needs a matriarch, and Niisan desperately needs someone.
I'm not enough anymore.
His brother's not looking for familial love. His heart wants something else and has been looking in the wrong place for the sheer amount of devotion needed to lighten his nightmares. The Uchiha Clan loves him enough, and Izuna loves him better. It is not enough.
No, Niisan needs someone to challenge the persistent rumors that have sprung up in Konoha in his wake.
He needs someone to distract him from Senju Hashirama, because obsession is fundamentally unhealthy. Izuna doesn't call his brother's obsession with the Senju, love. It's a longing for acceptance that he does not understand, but love, love is different. Love isn't what you feel for people who unknowingly tear you down.
Senju Hashirama has not seen who Uchiha Madara is in a long time. Senju Hashirama lives in the half awake state of believing that Izuna's brother is still the child he met by the Nakano river without taking into account that time has a funny kind of violence that kills children and leaves men in their place. If Senju Hashirama could see who Niisan actually is in the here and now, it would be different, but he can't, so Izuna doesn't find much use for him.
Love is for the people who make you warm, not leave you cold. Love is both given and taken, a circle not a line. My greatest goal in life has always been to ensure your happiness, Niisan. And to ensure that happiness, to give happiness even a possibility, Izuna has to search further afield than Konoha. At the present moment, his search is fixated on going to Uzu.
"I will not leave you here by yourself." Niisan sits down heavily on the floor.
Izuna walks over to him and sets a hand on his shoulder. "Then don't leave me here. Take me with you." He might not be as good in a fight anymore, but he's still a good judge of character.
"No." Niisan snaps and shifts. "You're not leaving Konoha."
Izuna shoves the spark of irritation down. I'm blind, Niisan, not a cripple. Other people might call him that, Uchiha Madara's poor crippled brother, but he's perfectly capable of taking care of himself.
It is not like before, like the time he'd first awoken after making the Senju transplant his eyes. The darkness around him had been suffocating then, cloying, choking off every action he'd attempted. He had been paralysed by the possibilities, unable to take risks, unable to accept the idea that sometimes, he'll just have to fall and get over it. Niisan's help had been appreciated then, even though the guilt radiating from him had been deep enough to drown in.
But Izuna's grown and changed. He's more sure footed now; his hearing is sharper; sometimes, he can feel where people are, and he can make tea and cook and walk around, and practice his katas in the courtyard, and play shogi by himself just fine. He can even go out the door for visits in the district, despite not knowing what the district even looks like.
I'm twenty-two years old, and you are terrified of me stepping out the front door.
Sure. It bothers him still, the persistent darkness where he could see so well before. It grates on his pride when he stumbles over an uneven patch of road, when he used to be able to run, that he could fling himself through the trees without even thinking before, and now he needs to keep track of where he puts his shoes or he'll have to crawl around on the floor looking for them.
He used to be his brother's right hand, and now he is Niisan's liability.
Of course, it bothers him, but he made his own choices. He didn't do this so that Niisan could guilt himself into heart-sickness. He'd done it because he loves Niisan, because the clan needs a strong leader in this era where enemies are closer than ever, existing together in an uneasy peace. Niisan and his dreams are ideal for being a leader in this new and unusual world. Izuna doesn't trust the other clans enough to be diplomatic and mean it.
Niisan could use his eyes better, so that's where they belong.
Izuna's adapted himself to the darkness.
He's not asking to go with Niisan because he's afraid of being left alone in the house. I can still take Tobirama if he's going to come around looking for revenge. He'll die too, if I have to die. He wants to go, because if Uzumaki-san is truly unsuitable for Niisan, he wants to be able to object.
His niisan is often a dunderhead. He might feel obligated to marry someone who doesn't suit him just because he made the journey. If Uzumaki-san is not for Niisan, then she is not for Niisan and Izuna will do something about it before it gets out of hand, which means actually being there instead of a country away.
He waits patiently for a response, but all Niisan gives him is a heavy sigh.
"I'm not a cripple."
"I know you're not." The reply is too fast, too sudden, laden heavy with guilt.
He resists the urge to sigh. "Then let me go with you. You still trust my judgement don't you? I can tell if the clan will like her."
"No." There's a note of fear in Niisan's voice. "I can't, I don't want-no."
It is ironic that Niisan's the one who fears losing. You were the one who nearly died for me. He still has the image of Tobirama's sword protruding from Niisan's stomach burned into his mind.
Even if his sharingan is gone, the images and the muscle memory remains behind. He's not sure if he wants to curse that thought or not. On one hand, he still remembers Niisan's face because of it, on another, he still remember exactly what he thought Niisan's corpse would look like too.
He'd thought Tobirama better than that, better than killing his brother's best friend, but evidently not. He'd respected Senju Tobirama once if only for his strength and for his honor. No longer.
Evidently not, and now the Uchiha are bound to Konoha through his own weakness, though if peace would work, then it really would be better this way.
The way it's going right now, peace is killing Niisan, so Izuna hates peace. Izuna hates everything that conspires to hurt what remains of his family. He's got so precious few pieces of their family left.
"I'm not some breakable thing, Niisan. Don't treat me that way."
Niisan draws a long shuddering breath, and the guilt all around them intensifies. "I try not to."
It is these mornings that Izuna nearly crumples. Nothing he does can soothe the wounds on his brother's heart, and Niisan goes farther away every day without going anywhere worthwhile.
I could really learn to hate Senju Hashirama. I really can.
"Then let me go with you." Before, before this wouldn't even be a question. Izuna would ask it, and Madara would say yes without a second thought. Now, now, it takes more. It takes guilt and threats and pleading, and Izuna burns at the unfairness of it all.
"No." So soft his ears almost don't catch it. "I can't lose you too, Izuna."
"I'll track your chakra and follow you if you don't let me go with you." He can't leave Niisan alone, ever. He can't trust Niisan not to do something rash and stupid. There's a fire burning under Niisan's skin that makes him feverish to the touch, burning him down slowly.
Peace is a skin that Niisan doesn't wear well. Izuna doesn't wear it comfortably either, but Niisan's boundless energy's turned inwards now, and there's nowhere for it to go except self reflection and Izuna knows that his brother isn't perfect, that he has a lot to be guilty for, but still, he doesn't like waiting around for Niisan to burn down.
He's almost afraid of what will happen when Niisan eventually does. Will he have to put Niisan in a coffin and make the hand signs for another funeral pyre? He doesn't want to bury another brother, but if he has to he will endure it because the clan still needs a leader even if they rather it not be a blind man.
Izuna knows that should it come to that he will be able to do it, that he'll bury Niisan and marry someone just because this is what duty says he'll have to do. He'll endure the duty, endure anything, because Izuna is Uchiha first, and that is what the Uchiha need...But I don't want to do that.
I don't want to grieve and pain and suffer and endure and go on and on and on and on. The long slow turn of years, of days like water droplets dripping down and wearing away at his mind will drive him mad.
Izuna knows it.
Izuna doesn't want it.
As of this moment, all these things weigh on Niisan. All of them weigh, and Izuna knows that his life weighs the most.
Giving up his eyes might have saved Niisan's life, but it's torn a crack right through the center of Niisan's broken heart. "I think you know which one is more dangerous, Niisan."
He doesn't like threatening Niisan, but he likes the idea of Niisan going to Uzu and drowning in the ocean even less. At this point, if Niisan gets caught by a whirlpool, Izuna doesn't know if he'd fight the water's pull, would want to keep living.
It frightens him.
Niisan wouldn't mind if he dies. That thought frightens him. Uchiha Madara doesn't find his own life worthy enough to fight for.
It is why he had been weak enough to concede to peace with the Senju. Anything for his brother's life. He didn't concede to his own weak heart so that Niisan might drown himself in a whirlpool, so he has to threaten and plead and guilt his way into this trip.
"Fine." Niisan climbs to his feet, clinging to Izuna's sleeve. "We will go to Uzu together, and then we will come back." His footsteps start fading away.
Izuna stands there for a long moment, and then he feels around the table for his teacup.
It's gone cold. Figures. Life's just a mess right now.
"Is it true?" Elder Sayuri asks over tea a day later. "The Whirlpool King wants to offer Madara-kun his younger daughter?"
Izuna can see her in his mind's eye, an old woman with crow's feet around her eyes and hair pinned up in a severe bun. He can feel the bright, inquisitive spark in her eyes. Age hasn't dulled her concern for her clan members.
"Uzumaki-dono has made an offer, though not an overt one." Izuna hedges. He does not mention that Niisan has no desire to accept, and indeed, no desire to go and that it's really Senju Hashirama's meddling that's caused this whole chain of events. If he can sway the Elders to his side, then Niisan will have to at least go, and if Niisan goes this situation has a possibility to turn out for the better.
"That is extraordinarily strange." Elder Asahi rumbles from his corner. He blows a cloud of smoke from his pipe as he does so. Izuna smells the half sweet tang of it. "He only has two daughters, and the elder one is married to the Senju."
"The Uzumaki haven't married to the mainland in a lifetime." Elder Yuko murmurs. Her voice hitches. "Why would they allow two of their princesses to marry out now?" She pats his hand. "Izu-kun, do you know?"
Izuna has a few ideas, but none of them are concrete. Mito-san married Senju Hashirama for love.
Uzumaki Kanae is clearly not marrying for love. What is she marrying for? It can't be her father's ailing health at all. That's a reason to stay close, not go a country away.
"I don't have any ideas." Izuna says at last. "But I don't think they're doing it to hurt Niisan or the Uchiha, Yuko-baasan." Uzu has been an isolated kingdom for as long as he's been aware of the world.
In twenty-two years of life, Senju Mito was the first and only person from Uzu he has ever met. Now though, now he'll be visiting the city. They call it the eternal city, the city unmarked by time. It reads like a fairytale, a children's story, and Izuna is fascinated. He won't be able to see it, but he'll still be able to feel it.
They say that Uzu is what real peace looks like. Maybe there, Izuna will be able to learn what to expect of his brother's experiment.
"Konoha has yet to gain a clear and decisive leader." Elder Asahi shifts in his seat, the wooden chair creaking just a bit. "Perhaps they want to hedge their bets. No matter if it is Madara-kun who wins, or the Senju they'll have a woman in a place of power to direct the course of events in the Land of Fire."
"Uzumaki Ashina doesn't care about the Land of Fire." Elder Sayuri counters. "Asahi-kun, the last time he even stepped foot on the mainland was over thirty years ago, and his father died here. He didn't want anything to do with this place then."
"That doesn't mean he didn't grow ambitious in the meantime." Elder Yuko rises and closes the window. There's a wooden creak as the hinges protest, and then the sun on Izuna's face is gone. The discussion is getting more serious then.
"I don't think that's it either." Izuna picks up his teacup and brings it to his mouth. The steam stings his face a little, but it doesn't hurt that bad. There are many more things that hurt, and he can take little pain for hot tea. "If they are really so isolationist, it is because Ashina-dono who is their king, is an isolationist at heart." At least, he thinks so, because surely a nation can't be much different than a clan.
The clan is lost because Niisan is lost.
Uzu is an isolated land, because Uzumaki Ashina does not like to meddle in other people's business despite having the power to do so. It is simple logic.
Still, his offer of marriage for Uzumaki Kanae-san is very strange.
"At any rate," Elder Sayuri decides. "It cannot hurt to urge Madara-kun to go and see. The Uzumaki are rumored to have strong chakra reserves, and if they are offering, then they will hold to their own code of honor." The clan would not be amiss to add a few more children with above average reserves. It is one of our weaknesses. We don't have many larger than average reserves among us, just very good control. "They don't harm guests in Uzu."
And yes, that is also a consideration. Quite frankly, Izuna wouldn't mind several nephews or nieces. He likes children. He just, just doesn't think that he'll ever have any now that he's, at least on the outside, mostly crippled.
There won't be a clan who would want one of their daughters to marry him, and Niisan would be incensed until forever if he married a civilian, and he really doesn't feel like marrying a cousin.
He's not sure he wants to marry a civilian anyway. Civilians are too different. They wouldn't understand him, and he doesn't understand them.
So Izuna himself is fresh out of options. No children for me.
I can live with that.
"It's not as if our Madara-kun has that many other marriage prospects unless he wants to court a Senju." Elder Asahi sighs another cloud of smoke in the general direction of the door.
Oh, if only you knew. Izuna thinks quite sarcastically to himself. How badly Niisan would like to court a particular Senju. The sweetness of that poison would turn your stomach.
Senju Hashirama, my brother's too good for you.
"He hasn't fallen in love with any of the women he's met in the red light district, has he?" Elder Yuko pours him more tea. "We haven't ever heard him mention anyone, but with how little we go out these days, we can't be too sure...you would certainly know."
The very idea is enough to make him choke on his tea. "W-what?" He gasps. Niisan fall in love with a woman from the red light district? Do you have eyes in your head? I don't have eyes in my head and even I know it will take someone extraordinary to pry Niisan's attention away from Senju Hashirama.
Elder Asahi pounds his back and Elder Sayuri offers him a handkerchief. "Come, Yuko, don't surprise the poor boy so." She smooths his bangs away from his face. "But now, Izu-kun, we are very curious. An Uchiha doesn't just evade love until he is twenty-four. Has our Madara-kun fallen in love?"
"Ah, no." He finally manages. He means the relationship between Niisan and his various women. He avoids the thought of Senju Hashirama. What the Elders do not know...may very well hurt them, but he's not going to throw Niisan to the wolves.
He sets the teacup down. With his luck, they'll ask him yet another unanswerable question about the nature of things, and he'll drop the poor teacup on the floor. That would be hardly fair to the teacup. It's just doing its job. "He doesn't care about any of them. He hasn't visited in months."
Sorry, Niisan. Izuna wails privately. It's very hard not to be a gossip when all they want is your wellbeing.
That, and when my life's at stake. I don't put it past them to eat me alive if they don't hear some sort of news.
At least I didn't spill all of your secrets.
"Well, that's good at least." Elder Asahi sighs. "Let's just hope that finding him a wife he doesn't love right away won't get driven into a scandalously drawn out affair for all of us."
It sounds like they've already made a decision for Niisan already. Niisan is going to go to Uzu, and he is going to get married whether he likes it or not.
Izuna would prefer that he likes it, but the options are few, and things must go on, so. Well, Izuna will do his level best.
"I'll be going with Niisan to Uzu." Izuna offers. "And I'll be able to dissuade him if Uzumaki-san isn't a suitable candidate."
There's a quiet murmur of assent around the table. None of them bother to forbid him from going to Uzu with Niisan. They know that he's dangerous.
They know he can take care of himself.
They don't treat him any differently than before.
He likes that really, sitting here with the Elders, drinking tea like the days before everything is dark.
"Izu-kun." Elder Asahi says suddenly. "Take care of yourself more. You worry too much for Madara-kun. He'll be alright."
Will he though? Will Niisan be alright?
Niisan hurts so much all the time. He buries himself in self reflection, and at night his dreams make him toss and turn and strangle sobs into his pillow until all his sheets are soaked with sweat. He doesn't know what Niisan dreams of, only that it is something close to death and loss and bitterness.
Izuna doesn't even know if it's a memory or just a horror conjured by the depths of his brother's mind that robs the sleep from his soul.
He wants very badly for Niisan to be alright, but he doesn't trust the truth of it. "Of course, I'll take care of myself. I'm Uchiha Izuna, when have I been bad at taking care of myself?"
"Your entire life perhaps. You've always been a selfless dutiful boy, and you've grown into a selfless dutiful man." Elder Asahi makes the quip, and the other elders join in the laughter.
It's warm sitting here, even without the sun.
The trip to Uzu is fraught with complications. For one, Niisan is unduly...agitated the entire way. Izuna didn't know that Niisan could get so nervous to meet a woman, or that a woman's scorn or judgement meant much at all to Niisan, but apparently, Uzumaki Kanae is a woman who can make even Niisan...nervous.
It might be the titles.
For another, an agitated Niisan means a overly controlling Niisan, and Izuna is getting tired of being pulled about by the hand. He can walk perfectly well.
He can even step over tree roots. He is fine.
"Niisan." He pulls his hand away. "Niisan. I can walk by myself."
It'll be enough for the next few minutes. Niisan will forget again, as is his nature, and Izuna will have to remind him, as is his own nature.
"If she is a princess like any of the Daimyo's daughters, we're leaving." Niisan says rather suddenly after a brief moment.
Privately, Izuna would like to agree with him. If she is a pampered whiny child then they will be gone posthaste. Outwardly, he can show no such signs. "Niisan, she will not be." How could she be, when she is the daughter of a warrior nation? Uzu is built on centuries' worth of raiding the coastline.
The clan elders still tell bloodchilling stories of when Uzu last marched in Fire Country. The Drowning March, over thirty years ago is still the stuff of nightmares for those old enough to remember. The Aguda Clan had taken Uzu's king, and now there is no Aguda Clan to be known in Fire Country, or indeed, anywhere else. Uzumaki Ashina had seen to the drowning of every last man, woman, and child in their beds. Uzu's armies had sown blood and salt in the fields left in their wake.
Even now that patch of shore is an uninhabitable wasteland.
And then Uzu's armies had left the mainland, never to return. Until now.
Uzumaki Ashina is a man who dislikes waging war, so surely he is different from a weak-willed daimyo, which must mean that his daughter is different as well.
His brother falls silent, but Izuna feels the energy in the air pull taut like a bowstring.
By the time they leave the forest and arrive at the shore, Izuna is absurdly grateful for the relief. The air is sharp and cold for a morning in early spring, and they are both wearing padded armor. He's grateful for the extra warmth that the padding provides even if he is decidedly not grateful about the weight of full armor when they come in peace.
The sea is cold, and the winds are harsh. No, Uzumaki Kanae will be nothing like the pampered daughter of a Daimyo. The crash of the waves, the cries of the gulls, the cold wind blowing off of the water, it speaks of a bleak land.
No one survives in a harsh environment without losing what makes them spoiled. She might be prideful, might be cruel, but she will not be pampered.
Far away in the distance, he hears the boom of thunder rolling across the sky. In his mind's eye, he can picture the overcast sky, the occasional flash of lightning. They are not at the water's edge, but a ways away standing in what feels to be sand.
But now that they are here, Niisan is more indecisive than ever.
"Niisan, we're close aren't we?" He prompts his brother kindly, because perhaps all it is is that Niisan has forgotten.
Niisan shifts on his feet. "Yes." Still, he doesn't take the step forward.
Izuna takes a deep breath and breathes out. "Then we should go across?"
"No."
Oh, I did not arrange this trip for you to turn around and go home. "Then why did we travel all this way? If you aren't going to meet your bride, what's the point?"
Niisan is silent for a very long time, as if he's fallen into his own thoughts.
A chakra signature breaks from the waves. He's not a good sensor, not like Tobirama is, but still, it is hard to miss the rather large pull that has just appeared from the water.
It feels like a hot spring. Izuna decides. A very warm and deep spring, so deep that he's not quite sure where the bottom is. Whoever that is, they have chakra to spare.
Niisan absently guides him down to the beach. So he's chosen to go to Uzu after all, that's good. "Do you know how we might find passage to Uzu?" So whoever they are, they don't look like a fighter.
A civilian doesn't have this much chakra, this hard sort of pull. A whirlpool. He realizes suddenly. This isn't a hot spring; it's a whirlpool.
"Perhaps." The voice that replies is clear and sweet. A woman. She can't be a civilian, can she? "And who are you two?" If civilians in Uzu had chakra reserves this large, what did that mean about the warriors? What did it say about the younger daughter of a king?
Yet, Niisan doesn't speak to her like she's a shinobi. "Not your business." If you want the princess to like you, you can't be rude to her like you are with this woman. Inwardly, Izuna pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs.
For someone so nervous to make a good first impression, Niisan is certainly starting it off on the wrong foot by insulting the person who was most likely sent to get them.
No one's seen the inside of Uzu in a great many years. Well, no Uchiha, Senju Hashirama had gotten married in Uzu.
"If you insist." The woman moves away, though the pull of her chakra is still a song like a siren, humming some sort of ditty under her breath. "The fairest seaweed in all the land, the biggest pearl to wear in your hair, would that I love you strong as the riptide..."
"Niisan." Inzuna says at last, after another ten minutes of dead silence from his brother. She just wants to know if they are guests, it isn't such a hard question to answer. If they aren't guests of course she isn't going to let them in. "Stop being like this." He turns towards the direction of her humming. "Miss? I'll tell you who we are."
"Oh. So you must be the reasonable one." She giggles, and it echoes sweetly over the rocks. "I know who you are, Uchiha-san."
"Then you must be?" Izuna comes to crouch beside her, at the edge of the waves.
She is doing something with the water, no, not the water, sand and...wood, a boat maybe? "You can call me Shiko." His brow furrows for a moment. "It's short for Arashiko."
"Little Storm." His brother says. An odd name to give a child.
"Yes. It is what Chichi calls me."
"We're here to see Uzumaki Ashina-dono." Izuna says cheerfully, his voice deceptively light. He rather suspects that this young woman who has come to meet them here on the border between Uzu and Fire Country is more than she first appears. "Do you know him?"
"I can't really say." The boat hits the water with a plop. "Can anyone be said to really know anyone else?"
That is purposefully evasive. She does know Uzumaki-dono then.
"I assumed you were from Uzu, Arashiko-san." Niisan interrupts before he can ask her who she really is. A civilian woman wouldn't be evasive about knowing the King. Her identity is very curious. "Can you take us to Uzu?"
"Get in the boat, Uchiha-san." It would be an imperious demand, except that she sounds more amused than anything.
Someone who's used to other people doing as they say.
Izuna's beginning to suspect something very uncomfortable. He hopes quietly to himself that it's not true, that this isn't the princess Niisan is supposed to be meeting, because right now, all Niisan has done is set fire to his own hair.
Niisan does help him get into the boat though, which is appreciated.
Izuna doesn't like boats.
"Uchiha-san?" He feels her hand over the cloth band he's tied about his face. "Are you?"
"Blind, yes." Izuna smiles politely. He might be used to the darkness, but that doesn't mean he likes it when other people mention it.
He supposes that he will have to get used to that too, being considered a cripple when he's still a perfectly functional human being.
"How," Niisan interrupts the silence for a moment. "Are you planning on getting across the sea?"
She laughs, and it sounds like the ocean. Her swirling chakra is tinged with great amusement and a variety of giggles. "How do you think I got here, Uchiha-san?"
There is a splash as something hits the water, and then the boat shudders forward.
They are on the water now.
She is...swimming against the current. How much strength does it take to do that? The water pushes them back, but the boat moves forward steadily without regard for the tug of the water.
Something else settles into his stomach. It is very likely that Niisan has ruined everything and Uzumaki Kanae-san is only being polite about this whole endeavor.
Izuna would bang his head against the side of the boat, but that might lead to him falling out of the boat altogether which would be embarrassing and not in his best interest. Niisan can you try any harder to make your life worse?
It's succeeding.
The boat bumps up against something hard, and Izuna is offered a small hand so that he might find the other beach. Rocks.
It's rockier here than it was on the shore of Fire Country.
Her hand is calloused and slightly damp. A warrior despite how much she might not look it at the moment.
"Come along, Uchiha-san." She says. "We shall go and see my Chichi, yes?"
"You are Uzumaki Kanae." Niisan says flatly.
Oh, well, all of this could have gone a lot better.
"Yes." She says without a hint of fear or anger or secrecy. "And you are Uchiha Madara."
"But you said that you were Arashiko." Izuna is so very frustrated to be right. Niisan will most likely want to turn around and leave now. "And now you acknowledge that you are Uzumaki Kanae?" Could it not have waited until later? Couldn't this introduction have happened when Niisan doesn't have the option of turning around?
He's not upset with Kanae-san. In fact, he rather likes Kanae-san, likes the clear feel of her chakra and her unobtrusive consideration for others, but this whole situation is very frustrating.
I did not arrange this trip and prod you along all this way for you to put your foot in your mouth and set your hair on fire with such rudeness as to be almost unfathomable, Niisan.
Except of course, he had. That makes him want to hide his face in his hands and weep for the next year. I shall have to kiss my dreams of a happy Niisan goodbye. How can I ever do that?
Yet, Niisan doesn't leave, and Kanae-san doesn't seem to notice the dip in his mood.
"Chichi calls me Arashiko." She says and leads him along. "I did not lie to you, Uchiha-san."
Her hand on his elbow steers him about gently. It is slightly less irritating than it could have been. "My apologies, Uchiha-san." She says with little fanfare. "It has been a snowy winter. The streets are not yet packed well."
Niisan is silent, so it falls to Izuna to make some form of conversation. He utters some inane platitude, and focuses on not bumping into someone else in the busy street.
The hustle and bustle of the city feels more like a clan border outpost. People sound so friendly here.
"And here we are." She sounds like she's introducing something grand.
It is where the King of Uzu lives, so it might indeed be rather grand.
"Kanae!" Another voice cuts through his musings. "I told you that today was the big day! How could you go running off-"
"Obaasan." She sighs as Niisan is still completely silent. "They are here already. And they would have left if I didn't head out to greet them this morning."
So her obaasan is still alive. Uzu is a place of peace. Izuna reminds himself of it. If there are no enemies about to kill you, it is likely and very probably to live well into ones twilight years. Half a century of life is not unusual.
"You're Uchiha Madara, then?" The elderly woman asks. Izuna isn't sure if she's looking at him or Niisan. He hopes it's not him. He's well aware that the black band over his eyes makes him decidedly not marriage material. "Hmmph." The verdict doesn't seem particularly pleased, but it also doesn't seem completely displeased. It's a relief. She's looking at Niisan then. "Well, what are you waiting for? Ashina-kun is waiting to see them."
"Of course, Obaasan. I shall bring them to Chichi directly."
"How old is your grandmother?" Niisan seems to have found his voice again, even if it is for silly questions like the age of Kanae-san's grandmother.
"She is seventy seven this year." She chirps and leads them on.
"Seventy-seven?" Izuna asks, unable to hide the tremor of surprise. "That is a great age indeed." Seventy-seven. That is more than three times his lifespan. He'd have to live his life three times over only to get to sixty-six.
Three and a half lives is a great age for a shinobi to have lived.
She muffles a giggle. "Tanaka-san is the oldest person on the Island, and he is a hundred and thirty-eight this year. Obaa-san's young compared to him." Izuna's mind stalls for a moment. "And how old are you?" She asks.
It's on the tip of his tongue to reply, but Niisan beats him to it, which is good. "Twenty-four."
"Do you not fear being...attacked?" Surely an elder of such advanced age would have to worry about enemies.
"By Tanaka-san?" Kanae-san laughs."He might be an old grump, but he's not in the habit of attacking his clan head's children." She's misunderstood him then. It must mean that they don't have enemies that her mind goes to immediately. She lets go of his elbow to slide down the hall in what sounds like her bare feet. "Chichi!" She calls, freely, laughingly, as if there's no respect she must offer, to her clan head, and to her father. A beloved child then, or her father is a lenient man, which I can't believe is true. "The Uchiha are here."
Uzumaki Ashina-dono's chakra feels like a massive well, like the slow slide of water over stone.
"Uchiha-dono." He murmurs. "And your brother, do sit." Ashina-dono has a hoarse voice, like stone worn down by the waves, but in no way does it sound like he is failing health at all.
Izuna supposes that this is the first clue that the letter they'd received did not tell the whole truth about the situation. Uzumaki Ashina, it would seem, lied to his son-in-law.
"Uzumaki-dono." Niisan offers.
It's polite enough. Izuna will let it be.
"Arashiko." So that is what Ashina-dono calls her on a daily basis. Little Storm. She must be more precious to her father than even I first assumed. "Where are you going?"
"Pearl diving, Chichi." She sounds resigned. And that is the second clue."It might be the last time I ever enjoy the activity. After all, there are no oceans in Fire Country."
Kanae-san believes that she will inevitably end up in Fire Country.
Why?
"My apologies, Uchiha-dono." Uzumaki-dono sighs. "She is young still."
"Yes." Niisan sounds like he's considering something, and that that something has incensed him. "She is young."
Izuna thinks about how Kanae-san had sounded, how she had acted.
She doesn't seem young enough for Niisan to make such a big deal about it. Izuna would place her at somewhere between eighteen and his own age.
It's not as if she's a child.
"If she were any older, she would not be willing to leave with you." Ashina-dono, too, speaks as though they are going to accept the offer. "And I assume you have no desire to live among us." It is very strange.
But then, they are here to speak to him about a daughter's marriage, so they ought to be polite about it. There's no reason to spark arguments with the in-laws before anything has even occured.
Of course, because Izuna has thought this, Niisan opens his mouth and puts his foot in it before setting his hair on fire yet again. "I have no intention to accept."
Izuna's desire to bang his head on the table is even worse now. Why? Why? Why, must you make this so difficult for yourself?
Kanae-san is a nice enough girl.
Luckily, Ashina-dono doesn't seem to have taken this as a personal slight. "Then why, if you have no intention to court Kanae, are you sitting before me?"
Niisan doesn't say anything.
"Forgive my brother." Izuna raises a hand and gently feels around the table for the teacup. He's sure his tea is around here somewhere, and if he can get to it, it will make his whole day just a little bit better. "Of course, he doesn't mean that." He jabs Niisan in the thigh with an elbow.
Say something, Kami. Please. Just say something that can't be interpreted as an insult, Niisan. Please.
"Of course." Ashina-dono sounds like he's smiling. "Uchiha-dono is merely concerned about marrying someone who he has not met before this morning."
He is giving me face. Why? Why does Ashina-dono want this marriage contract to go through so badly?
Izuna doesn't know, but it does leave him with a sense of unease. It can't be anything about Kanae-san, can it?
No. He decides a moment later. Uzumaki Kanae-hime is very unlikely to be defective in any way. Her father loves her dearly. She had been perfectly kind and gracious, and Niisan hadn't reacted like she had half her face burnt off.
Besides. Izuna thinks. Even if she doesn't look very pretty, that's not to say that she's not a worthwhile person.
So why? Why does Ashina-dono want his beloved younger daughter married a country away from him?
Niisan is still silent.
Well. Izuna laments. This is useful. I could accomplish this better if I came by myself.
Isn't that sad? It is very sad.
It is so sad that even Izuna doesn't want to think about it too closely, and Izuna knows that he overthinks everything constantly.
"Uzumaki-dono?" Izuna asks. "Why do you want your daughter married?"
Ashina-dono coughs. It sounds rehearsed and faked. His lungs and airways do not sound blocked by any means. "I am not a young man, Uchiha-san. Surely I would like to see all of my children happy before I go anywhere."
"Your mother is still alive." Izuna counters gently. "And your age cannot be so great as all that. Besides, none of your sons are married, nor do you seem to care about this." This is a mess of bullshit. What does he want?
It couldn't be the politics of Konoha could it? The Whirlpool King wouldn't be so heartless as to sell his own daughter for political finangling would he? Izuna comes from a family that never would have stomached such a thing, not truly.
Chichi-ue had never thought to do such a thing.
The Uchiha value love. What does that make me, now that I am angling to marry Niisan off without his whole-hearted approval?
He is doing this because it is a last desperate attempt to save his brother's life, but does that make it right? It doesn't.
I'll burn in hell for this. He has chosen his brother's life partner when it ought to have been Niisan's choice and Niisan's choice alone.
Ashina-dono sighs. Cloth rustles on the other side of the table.
Silk. A silk scroll. Maybe two.
"The contract is here, if you would like to see it."
The people of Uzu write on silk and not paper. It seems like an unnecessarily opulent gesture to make for two visitors who are used to living in tents.
Niisan sucks in a sharp breath. "You want to establish a trade connection through marriage?"
"Before you accuse me of selling my daughter," Ashina-dono replies, his tone measured and firm. "Let me tell you a story."
A daughter for a trade connection into Konoha. Why does such a wealthy man need something like this? There's something that he isn't getting. Everything about Uzu seems nestled in opulence.
The streets had been busy.
People had been cheerfully working together.
Age doesn't hinder the elderly from their daily lives.
Kanae-san had gone pearl diving. They wrote their contracts on silk.
He is missing puzzle pieces to the full picture. Why lure someone here under the guise of illness when it is trade that is to be discussed?
"Tell your story." Niisan drawls, half boredom, half slow burning anger simmering beneath the surface. Clearly, this grates on Niisan's morals.
Izuna places a hand on his arm. Don't, Niisan. You don't know why yet.
Izuna doesn't feel good about this either, but Niisan is prone to visceral emotional reactions. That is not what they need right now.
"I personally buried fifty-seven citizens of my kingdom this past winter." The statement hits like a gut punch. Fifty-seven.
There are only a hundred and fifty or so people in the entire Uchiha Clan. What must fifty-seven…
"There were more that died on other islands that I could not oversee."
More.
More than fifty-seven.
The very thought is horrifying.
"A trade agreement doesn't ward off enemies from without, Uzumaki-dono." Niisan shifts in his seat.
"There were no enemies that we fought this winter, Uchiha-dono." Ashina-dono's slow tread makes its way across the room. "None except hunger."
"That's impossible." Niisan snaps. "This place is filled with riches. You handed me a marriage contract written on silk and expect me to believe that your people are starving?"
He might sound confrontational to a stranger, but Izuna knows that he is caving. He doesn't sound half so certain as he did before about this whole affair.
"You can't eat silk." Ashina-dono sighs. "And without a trade partner, you can't turn silk into food."
Izuna considers what he knows of the situation. Why this? Why now? He's inclined to believe Ashina-dono's reasons for the contract.
Uzu doesn't meddle with affairs in the Land of Fire. No meddling means no trade either. This last winter has been harsh.
"The lack of raiding has increased the food shortages Uzu experiences in the winter, and any added unforeseen circumstances lead to starvation." He didn't entirely mean to say this out loud but…
Well, it wouldn't be bad for Niisan to hear it. At least now Niisan might be persuaded to actually talk to Kanae-san to see if they got along.
He feels Ashina-dono's gaze linger on him for some time before it moves on.
Izuna doesn't think he'd mind if Niisan marries Kanae-san.
He'll reserve his judgement for now.
A.N. Izuna's POV for the Sunfall/Moonrise/Scarlet Flower 'verse. I'm sure this will be updated far less frequently than everything else that I have as works in progress seeing as I write everything beyond Sunfall/Moonrise primarily as character studies to flesh out the background and world build some more.
Still, seeing as I wrote it, and I'm rather fond of some parts of it, I figured it wouldn't hurt for everyone to be able to read it as well.
~Tavina