xl note: I owed this IzunaOC story to everyone that was rooting for Izuna and Mio in Redesign because he deserves his happy ending (and myself because I was rooting for him so hard)! Will this be it? Well, we'll have to find out, won't we?
Anyhoot, welcome to "Of Ivory Lies and Blackened Hearts!" This is a spin-off (or sidequel, if you want to be accurate) of Redesign/Kintsugi meaning it takes place in the same universe and will eventually come to intertwine with the events of Kintsugi. However, this does not mean you have to read Redesign to understand this one, though you can do it if you want even though it's MadaraOC and 58 chapters of sadness. You can get through this virtually ignoring Redesign and Kintsugi because I will tell you everything you need to know. Cool? Awesome.
To my Redesign readers, you can expect Kintsugi to be posted in December, until then, let this calm you with references to characters you know and events you might be anticipating. This takes place about six months (I think, I'll double check) before the start of Kintsugi.
So, I hope you enjoy the chapter even though it's a first one and the end is a little cliche (because I learn nothing in writing class, ha). I promise that everything will connect back to what is happening there to the bigger picture.
I'll see you in chapter two (of which there will be a preview available within the end of next week at the latest)!
By the way, you can find a preview for the next chapter at my livejournal, there's a link to get there through on my profile here. Check it out of you'd like.
01 – The Kimono Maker's Apprentice
It started to rain. Suddenly. Quick as a blink. The clouds clustered into a gray mass that covered every inch of blue sky, and overflowing with water, shed it with an inconsolable wail that flashed light and thundered.
Terashima Itoko ran across puddles and muddied roads using her arms in a futile effort to shield herself from the downpour. She arrived at the kimonoya [1], but did not enter as she tried to catch her breath underneath its wooden awning, lungs burning from several minutes of non-stop running. She was drenched to the bone, her silk kimono ruined by the water and the mud caked at her feet and bottom of her skirts. She lamented its ruin as it had been given to her by her master on her seventeenth birthday, one he had constructed himself of a fine violet silk suited for the fall. It was one of her few prized possessions along with the kit of sewing tools she received when she first became an apprentice.
The wooden doors behind her slid open and Shintani Koji appeared, hands on the threshold, as she grabbed a hold of her sodden ponytail and wrung the water from her white hair. The graying man preparing his smoking pipe was married to Hidemi, the Kimonoya owner, and his presence made her aware that she just missed his wife, which only added to a growing list of misfortunes that had occurred in under an hour.
"Afternoon, Shintani-san," she greeted disappointedly.
Koji sat down on the wooden bench in front of the shop. "Afternoon, Terashima," he answered with a kindly smile and crossed one leg over the other. He brought the metal mouthpiece of his kiseru [2] to his mouth and took a deep draw from it, the scent of the kizami [3] reached her in her close proximity, strong and putrid—she never liked the smell of tobacco. "You caught the storm, it seems."
"It caught me," she corrected, wrinkling her nose as she squeezed the rainwater from her sleeves. There were few others rushing through the streets trying to take cover, though equally, a number of the townspeople remembered to carry umbrellas. She never anticipated rain.
The old man laughed. "It did," he said, but his mirth was short. "Hidemi left an hour ago. Emergency."
"Is everything all right?" Itoko asked, hoping this had nothing to do with her sick brother that lived in a neighboring province.
Koji shook his head. "Isamu got worse overnight," he replied mournfully. "He might not make it through the day."
Itoko bit her lip, feeling a twinge of sadness in her chest for Hidemi's grief. She knew the kimonoya's owner since she had become an apprentice and had wished life could spare her the sadness of losing a loved one. Her brother was her last living relative.
"She left your order prepared, though," Koji added, surprising her. "I'll get it out for you."
After hearing that she had an emergency, Itoko did not expect her to have had the time to finish preparing her master's request.
He took several puffs of his kiseru before emptying out its contents atop a small dish beside him and stood. He turned at the door. "I hope you won't be offended if I don't invite you in."
She shook her head. She would not have accepted an invitation in fear of tarnishing the fabrics with even a droplet of water.
He smiled and disappeared inside the shop. She could see rows of tanmono [4] of different shades and patterns sitting side by side atop the displays. She loved to venture into the shop when she had the time and admire the fabrics. She liked the smell inside, crisp, and clean, like the air in the morning after a frosty night.
Koji returned with her master's order, two tanmono: one carmine colored and the other a patterned blue piece. He packaged them properly in brown paper and yarn-like cord.
"I wrapped them thrice to keep them dry," he told her, then reached behind his door and produced a red umbrella. "It's best you do your best to do the same."
Itoko bowed deeply after taking both package and umbrella. "Thank you, Shintani-san."
"Run back to your master, now. Get something warm in your belly before you catch a cold."
She opened the umbrella—hugging the package to her chest—and held it over her head. She stepped out into the rain again and returned home.
Itoko made it to the entrance of an old minshuku [5], a two-story wooden structure with blue roof tiling, but Koike's assistant, Akiyoshi Kaoru, redirected her to the back entrance. Kaoru appeared to greet her with a towel when she pulled open the door, the squeak of its rusted hinges drowned by the sound of rain.
"This is the order," Itoko said, handing the brown package to Kaoru.
"I'll take it right up," Kaoru told her. "I drew the bath for you soon as the rain started. I'll bring you a change of clothes."
Itoko stepped into the small square area through the back door to remove her sandals and sodden socks before going up a small step to follow a short hallway on her right into the bath. Kaoru had taken the pair of shoji screens across the back entrance to a staircase.
Inside the bath area where the round tub was full of steaming hot water, Itoko peeled off her ruined kimono and tossed it along with the rest of her clothing into a basket outside the room. She scrubbed the mud from her legs and washed her entire body. She shampooed her hair until she removed the dirt from it and left it scented.
Kaoru knocked at the door to inform her that she was leaving a change of clothes for her outside. She heard the older woman tsked, which only meant she was handling her filthy laundry. "I don't think you'll be able to salvage this," she said through the door. "I'll try to dry it, but you take it to Koike-san and see if he can fix it."
"N-No!" she said suddenly, heart skipping a beat. "I can do it! Don't tell master about this!"
She wanted to keep its ruin from her master. It was a gift. It was his finest gift to her. He had never made a kimono for her. Since he had bought her debt from the teahouse, he had told her she would be making the clothes and kimono she intended to wear for everyday use and for special occasions. The daunting task had been a horrifying experience the first two years, full of pricked, bandaged fingers and articles of clothing that better resembled sacks of potatoes. Every year after that had been an experience, picking up a new skill and perfecting it, and producing better, wearable clothes.
He had instilled the fact that he would never be making a kimono for her by saying, "I handle only the finest silks and make beautiful kimono from them. The women that wear the kimono I design and craft with these hands"—and he had made a gesture to make his point—"are wives and daughters of lords and daimyos. You are a girl I found working as a servant in a brothel."
He cut a clean difference between her and women of status then, a reality she was aware of, despite her cognizance making no difference. But she would be making kimono for those women one day and they would be beautiful, and it would not matter that she came from unfortunate circumstances.
However, her master made her a kimono, one he constructed with the hands he prized, and it was beautiful, more so than any other she had seen him craft. It was made of the finest, most expensive silk printed with a stretch of apple blossoms surrounded by a soft tone that enhanced their beauty. It was the greatest gift she had ever received.
Staring down at it inside the rectangular basket, Itoko mourned its loss, but she withheld her tears though they fought to break free.
Itoko took the kimono to her master's workspace, a spacious room upstairs that had once been two before the shoji dividing them were removed. There were two long worktables and shelves holding different colored tanmono.
She set the square basket in front of her master and lowered her head in shame once she took her seat on the cushion across him. Koike Tetsuo peered into the hamper, raising a quizzical eyebrow. Her master was a stout man with gray hair and a squared jaw.
He reached into the basket to draw the kimono up for closer inspection and clicked his tongue, a sign of evident disapproval.
She felt mortified and equally anxious to hear a verdict on the ruined piece. Her stomach twisted into painful lumps as her hands gripped the fabric of her plum-colored workpants.
"It can be dyed," he said, finally, in a voice that sounded neither optimistic nor angry. As relieving as that was, she feared a possible misinterpretation. "The color will set if we take it apart, but it will lose its print."
Itoko pressed her lips together and nodded firmly, unable to speak a word.
"The weather is a deceptive thing, Itoko," Koike began, setting the sodden dress back into the basket and folding his arms over his wide chest. "I have leftover tanmono from a previous job. I will make you another. Better than this one."
She bit down on her lips, trying to keep the emotion at bay. It threatened to overflow as her eyes brimmed with tears and her hunched shoulders begun to tremble. She did not wish to speak and sound like a whining child, so she steeled herself. She breathed in deeply and out, feeling her chest rise and fall, until the worst of her anxiety subsided.
However…
"I am unworthy," she bawled, too emotional to keep up appearances, and bowed deeply. "I am unworthy, master."
She heard him sigh audibly before his large hand settled atop the back of her head.
"There's no need for your dramatics. Get up, girl," he said gruffly. "We have work to do."
She apologized for wasting his time before gathering herself to help in whatever manner she could. Her master handed her a piece of a torn scroll with a list of new orders, which she skimmed finding several familiar names that belonged to the nobility within the country. There were a couple of new names.
"There is a priestess in the Fire Country in need of new robes for a ceremony," Koike started. "I am going to need"—as soon as he spoke these words, Itoko reached for a brush and scroll to jot down everything—"white and red tanmono. I need sheer silk in both colors as well."
"What kind of ceremony will it be?" Itoko asked curiously. There were many kinds of ceremonies a priestess performed, and in those cases, her master was known to receive enough orders to keep him busy for months. It struck her a bit strange to hear only one priestess was asking for new robes.
"She is performing a marriage ceremony," Koike answered, sifting through a flat drawer filled with tanmono. "There isn't a set date, so we have time to make it."
"Can a priestess perform such a ceremony?"
Koike waved his hand in dismissal. "She is of the Sun Country where things are done differently."
"Did she say anything about a wedding kimono?"
Itoko asked only because she had never seen one made and if her master had the opportunity, she would have requested to see, though there was little chance he would allow her to be present for that sort of job. He liked to shoulder the complicated jobs on his own, preferring to teach her at a moderate pace so she would not be overwhelmed by harder work.
"No."
"Do you think there will be?"
"I will tell you if there is."
Koike gathered two tanmono of the same shade with different patterns. "I will need you to make a small journey to Okui-sama's castle in the west. His daughter requested I make her a new wardrobe. You will be taking her measurements and offer her your services in choosing fabric."
"What about the tanmono you need for all these orders?"
"Leave the scroll there for Kaoru-san."
Itoko nodded dutifully. Lord Okui's castle sat in the neighboring province and the journey would take five days to complete on foot from the small town where the minshuku resided.
"Fujihara-san is taking merchandise to the west," Koike informed. "He offered to take you all the way to the castle. He is leaving tomorrow morning. Go ready your things. Pack enough for weeks. This should accommodate you for some time."
He placed an envelope bulging with money into her hand.
She stared down at it oddly before meeting his brown eyes. "Will you need me for anything?"
"No, go."
When she did not budge, he ushered her to the door and rushed her out.
"Do not stand there like a fool! Go!" he ordered, sliding the door shut in her face.
Itoko jolted and ambled to her room down the hall to start packing a bag for an extended stay. She folded several changes of clothes inside with all her necessities along with her sewing kit and the money her master had given her. Once she finished packing, she set it aside on one of the shelves in her closet and went back to her master's workplace. She offered to help, but he dismissed her.
She walked downstairs to help Kaoru prepare supper and to set the table once it was done. She also brought her master's share upstairs as he preferred eating alone in the tiny adjacent room beside his workroom.
Itoko ate with Kaoru in the kitchen downstairs where the staff used to eat when the minshuku had been in business.
"Are you excited to go?" asked Kaoru. "This is the first time you travel on your own, isn't it?"
"I am a little nervous," Itoko admitted. "I have never traveled without my master."
"I think you should see this as an achievement. He trusts your ability enough to send you to do a fitting. You have come a long way, Itoko." Kaoru covered her hand, brushing her thumb against it. "I'm proud of you."
Itoko smiled, embarrassed. "Thank you, Akiyoshi-san."
Kaoru taught her what she perceived would have been a mother's love had Itoko been given the chance to meet her own.
"Have you packed all your necessities?" asked Kaoru. "Bring me your bag. I want to make sure you have everything you'll need."
"I promise I packed everything," Itoko assured.
"Itoko."
Pouting, Itoko rose from her seat to retrieve her pack and discarded it in front of Kaoru.
She was as overbearing as one expected from a mother. She was a complete worrywart that would have followed Itoko to Lord Okui's castle if her master had not forbidden it earlier.
As soon as she opened her bag, Kaoru found she forgot to pack a handkerchief.
"It's only a handkerchief, Akiyoshi-san," Itoko reasoned. "I would have remembered to pack an extra tomorrow."
"You forgot to pack herbs for your stomach," Kaoru said. "You know how nervous you get in new places."
There was no sense in arguing with Kaoru, so Itoko let her go on about everything she had forgotten and suggestions on what would be a good idea to take with her. By the end of the day, Itoko heaved her bag up the stairs and onto the shelf in the closet, knowing it weighed twice as much than it had when she prepared it.
The following morning, Kaoru saw her to the neighbor's house where he awaited her arrival. Fujihara Eishi was a small old man with barely a wisp of hair atop his head and a bristly gray mustache. He was taking his eldest grandson, Ryuuji, a tall, lanky boy with broad shoulders and a crop of brown hair he pulled back into a low ponytail. Itoko had shared several years of friendship with Fujihara's grandson, though they had had their tumultuous start, they had eventually learned to become good friends to one another.
Ryuuji greeted Itoko and helped her onto the back of the wagon where she would ride with him and the merchandise.
"Wouldn't you prefer riding in the front with your grandfather?" asked Kaoru, as the two men made final adjustments to see that everything was strapped properly.
"Grandfather can be very stubborn," he answered, smiling. "He wanted to have complete control of the reins."
Kaoru nodded. "Very true."
"You don't have to worry about Terashima," Ryuuji assured. "I'll make sure she makes it to Okui's castle safely."
"Thank you, Ryuuji-kun."
"I could even go with her into the castle," Ryuuji suggested.
"Oh, I would never ask you away from your duties," Kaoru said. "Your grandfather will certainly need your help."
"Take him!" Fujihara grumbled. "He wasn't even invited!"
Ryuuji grimaced. "I offered to help you, the least you can do is appreciate it!"
"I refused you!"
Itoko prepared herself for the journey, certain the argument would continue throughout it.
Kaoru guiltily shrugged when Fujihara announced they would be going, promising to see to it that Itoko made it safely to her destination. With one final embrace, Itoko said her farewells to Kaoru, who stood off the side of the road looking as if she were biting back tears.
"It feels like I am going away forever," Itoko said, hoping she was imagining things.
"Well, you never travel without Koike-san," Ryuuji replied. "Akiyoshi is worried someone might kidnap you and that she will never see you again."
"That can happen even if I am traveling with my master."
Ryuuji shook his head. "Koike-san is too harsh looking. People would likely believe him to have done the kidnapping."
She almost laughed and covered her mouth to keep her from the temptation of doing so as she did not wish to disrespect her master by it.
"You have nothing to worry about with us," Ryuuji said. He jabbed his thumb in the direction of his grandfather, who sat in the front of the wagon guiding the single horse through the winding road west of their town, and finished, "With that old man's face, nobody would dare kidnap you."
Fujihara defended his honor, and though, Itoko had predicted their earlier argument to persist throughout their journey, it was the one about his face that prevailed over all the minor ones that followed. Truth be told, traveling with Ryuuji and Fujihara meant there was never a dull moment, but it ended faster than she anticipated.
One minute they were leaving their hometown, and the next Fujihara was pointing to high castle where Lord Okui and his family resided before dropping her off.
Itoko stood in front of the gates of Lord Okui's castle, a traditional structure with two shorter interconnected buildings, each with black tiled roofs. Fujihara had given her directions to a nearby inn where she could stay at a cheap price and a map if she came to need it.
She startled when the doorway through the heavy wooden gates opened and a short, balding man with a hooknose appeared.
"What do you want?" he demanded with a glare. She noted the hint of an accent, though he seemed to be disguising it, making it hard for her to discern it.
Itoko clutched her luggage in front of her, aware that its weight was making her slouch. She straightened. "I'm Terashima Itoko," she introduced, bowing deeply. "I'm Koike Tetsuo's apprentice. I am here—"
"Ah, the kimono maker," he said gruffly, "Come in, come in, Kameko-sama has been expecting you."
The balding man rushed her into a wide courtyard where a pair of women in plain kimono and white aprons carrying buckets toppled with laundry bowed their heads, greeting him as "Motoki-san."
Looking around, Itoko noticed the presence of men dressed in dark hues wearing the symbol of a red and white fan on their backs wandering the courtyard. She saw more men wearing the crest walking past her and Motoki to reach the entrance after she entered the castle. The sight of them distracted her from admiring the intricate structure within the castle, though she had visited many castles since her apprenticeship began, but this one in particular was especially well crafted from the inside out.
Motoki took her up three flights of stairs, remaining at the top of the stairs when they reached the third floor. He gestured her forward. "Kameko-sama should be in the room at the end of this hall. You will find her personal assistant, Aine. She's a small girl with yellow hair. She will introduce you. Go on now."
Itoko nodded, feeling anxious as she walked on ahead while Motoki descended the stairs, grumbling to himself. There were more men on that floor with the two-colored fan on the back of their dark clothes, but she was still reeling from the beauty of the building's interior—the rice paper doors along the hallway, the seemingly endless stairs going upward, the spotless, wooden beams above her head, and the long hallways.
She reached the end of the hall where she found a small girl with short, golden hair slumped against the wall sleeping. She looked over her shoulder to see the area behind her cleared and placed her hand on the girl's shoulder, startling her awake.
"Who are you?" asked the girl.
"Terashima Itoko," she answered politely, "I'm Koike Tetsuo's apprentice. I came to take Kameko-sama's measurements."
The girl stood abruptly with a gasp. "We were not expecting you to arrive this quickly," she admitted. "I'm Aine."
Itoko bowed. "Nice to meet you."
"The young mistress should be in her room," Aine said, moving to stand in front of the doorway next to her. She reached for the shoji as she was looking at Itoko. "I'll introduce you."
She slid the shoji apart, formulating the sounds in her mistress's name while turning fully to the room, and giving Itoko the first glance at the woman in question, except, she was naked and wrapped up in the passionate embrace of an equally naked man.
Itoko's face flamed as Aine screamed in horror, distracting the lovers from one another. Itoko covered her eyes to spare the mistress any more humiliation.
"Mistress, I apo—"
"Will you shut the door, you stupid girl!" Lady Kameko shouted, hysterical.
Aine sunk to her knees to beg for forgiveness, apologizing to her mistress religiously while Kameko's lover burst into laughter.
"Why are you laughing?" the lady demanded. "Get out! Get out this instant!"
"Oh? You mean me?" asked the laughing man.
"Yes, you! Out!"
Itoko heard a lot of movement blending in with Lady Kameko's screeching and Aine's groveling, followed by the sound of footsteps rushing past the entrance.
She felt a hand on her shoulder, push her gently off to the side. "Excuse me."
Itoko pulled her hands from her face, catching a glimpse of the man's eyes, dark like onyx and powerful, likely capable of reading a person as one read the contents of a book. She unconsciously lowered her eyes only to pull her gaze up to the back of his dark head as he reached for the two shoji screens and slid them shut before one of Lady Kameko's pillows slammed against it.
The lady yelled in her frustration.
Aine sat by the door bawling, pleading for her mistress' mercy between sobs, while the naked man in front of Itoko turned to her with a smile.
"Can you hold this?" he asked politely, holding out his crumpled clothes.
Itoko dumbly reached out to take them, nodding.
"I'm Uchiha Izuna, by the way," he introduced as he tugged on his pants. "Do you have a name?"
"Terashima Itoko," she answered slowly, surprised to have found her voice despite her shock. She wasn't aware Lady Kameko was married. She also wondered why the name 'Uchiha' sounded familiar.
"Kameko-sama!" Aine wailed.
"Go away, Aine!" Lady Kameko yelled from within the room.
As Izuna took the last article of clothing from her hands and pulled on his high-collared shirt, Itoko became aware of the white and red fan printed on his back.
"Uchiha," she murmured, drawing his attention.
"Hm?"
"Oh!" It finally clicked in her mind why the name sounded familiar because the Uchiha clan was one of the deadliest shinobi clans in the world and as the thought dawn in her head, she looked at him worriedly. "Are you taking over this castle?"
Izuna laughed, clapping her on the shoulder before he walked away from her and Aine.
Itoko felt her face burn in embarrassment, unsure whether his laughter meant he was or wasn't.
[1] A kimonoya is store that sells tanmono.
[2] A kiseru is a Japanese smoking pipe.
[3] Kizami is shredded tobacco.
[4] Tanmono is the fabric roll used to make kimono. The bolt of fabric comes at about 12 meters in length and 36 centimeters in width and it is enough for a single kimono.
[5] A minshuku would be the Japanese version of a bed and breakfast. It is usually a family home with spare rooms and can be found in towns or villages that are too small for a ryokan (a traditional inn).