Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"Who were you

Before they broke your heart?"

-Unknown

She watches the sunrise, and thinks about the man beside her. He is tired, but he does not sleep. "Madara-sama, you may wish to rest." She offers him a hand that he does not take.

"I will." He's still staring out at the waves.

She stands there, for a moment, and thinks that perhaps he needs the calm of the sounds. The gulls are awake now, and calling over the air. It is peaceful here, perhaps in ways that he has not known before. Knowing the mainland, perhaps he does not have quiet moments. "Yes." She agrees and leaves him to it.

She climbs over the rocks, and heads back down to check on Izuna-san.

Chihaya-chan is still in the square.

"Chihaya-chan?" She's really left her guest with her friend for far too long. It isn't fair. She'd have to make it up to her when the guests leave. "Did Izuna-san get back to the house alright?" And then she realizes that she will no longer be here when the guests leave, because she'd be leaving with them, and there's such a terrible emptiness in her chest that she is struck dumb.

Such is the fate I am handed. Such is the fate I offered to take up. Chin up, Uzumaki Kanae, you will be a princess no matter where you go.

Chihaya cracks her neck, and sighs. "The Terrible Princes took him back, Kanae-hime."

And oh dear, that doesn't sound like the happiest of things. "I hope they didn't damage him." She murmurs. The Terrible Twins really are very terrible at the best of times.

Chihaya giggles. "He's a guest, of course they wouldn't damage him."

"Kanae-hime!" It's Hojo-kun, Hojo-kun who has always tried to impress Chihaya-chan. At the best of times, this reads as posturing. At the worst of time, it speaks of overweening self indulgence. But he's not focusing on Chihaya-chan this time. "I just saw Tanaka-san drag your future husband off towards his house!"

And suddenly she's very concerned about that too.

She'd left Madara-sama perfectly serene on a beach. Tanaka-san's words come back to her. Knowing that he's a fire breathing mainlander, he probably won't ever realize what he's marrying.

And Tanaka-san is one of the few people on the Island old enough to harbor a grudge against the Uchiha visitors.

The blood drains from her face. What's he going to do with Madara-sama? She doesn't doubt that Madara-sama is strong, but he hardly knows her Shishou half as well as she does. Despite his great age, he still moved like a man much younger.

They say that Tanaka-san is more youkai than human, though Tanaka-san himself never admits to that. He is as Uzumaki as they come. Or so he says.

"Thank you, Hojo-kun," She has no time to check back on Izuna-san. The Terrible Twins are terrible, but they will hardly feed someone poison and hope that they die.

She races off for the edge of the Island.

"Tanaka-san!" She crashes over the old man's doorway, and prays that she isn't too late, that there's no bloodshed... "Hojo-kun told me that he'd seen you dragging Ma...dara-sama." But then she actually sees Madara-sama, sees his pale face, his shaking hands, and Tanaka-san's turtle soup on the table. "What happened?" Clearly her Shishou will not poison her future husband then, if he's offered him food and drink all at once.

Guest right is the most important right on the Island.

"That's what I wanted to ask you, girl." Tanaka-san slaps a hand on the table. "Why did you leave a mainlander by the sea to get wave-dazed?"

She blinks. "Oh." And then her legs give out. It wasn't Tanaka-san she had to be careful of. It was Habiki-san. Mild-mannered, normal Habiki-san who had promised her just two days ago that he'd be eating no one. "Oh, Kami, I'm sorry." I thought I explained things to him properly. I thought I told him that he couldn't-Kami. He promised me he wouldn't eat anyone. But he didn't promise me that he wouldn't drown them.

And she's forgotten that youkai promise things, but they also searched for loopholes when they didn't like to be rude. That promises are about as useful as rice paper dams against the flood.

Anyone without much youkai blood would be caught by the glamor. Habiki-san doesn't even normally bother with the glamor, there's no one on Uzu who'd fall for walking into the water.

But then, even if Madara-sama is related to any sort of youkai, for certainly they must exist even on the Mainland, he doesn't know the cautions.

"Maybe he'd tell you what he saw, but he would have walked right into the sea, and you'll be down one husband, girl." Tanaka-san climbs to his feet, and sighs. "They'll be beaching the whale at noon. I'm going down to the bay." The year's first whale will be beached, and then the Terrible Twins will gather the crew in the next month, and then they will be off to the high seas, off for adventure that they may not return from.

And Tanaka-san vanishes out the door.

Kanae feels very small. Small and scared and tired.

"Madara-sama." She asks, in a small voice when they are well and truly alone. "Will you ever forgive me?" Her head bows forward, and her hair comes to hide her face, which is for the best really, she's not sure that she can meet his eyes at the moment. I nearly got you killed. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry.

He's in his rights to void the contract. To leave without her, and while that would bring her relief, it would be truly terrible for the rest of them.

"What is there to forgive?" He asks her, as if he really doesn't understand. There's a shake in his voice, and he sounds more fatigued than ever.

It is horrible.

He doesn't know how close to death he'd come.

She'd have to explain to him. She has to, because honesty is important, and she's promised him the truth.

Her shoulders are shaking as she pokes his leg, and then carefully takes one of his hands. She squeezes it to check that it is solid, and she sobs in relief when it is. Normally those who are touched even a little bit are not always the same. "Y-your life. I didn't tell you that on occasion the youkai come too close, and that a mainlander-"

His eyes narrow. "Mainlander?" He sounds more offended by that term than anything else she's said.

"You don't live here, you know." She pulls herself together, piece by piece, and wipes her her hair away from her face. "You're a mainlander. They drown quite often without attention. I just didn't, I didn't think that you would be wave-dazed. You seemed-" Too strong for that despite your fatigue. I forgot that you have the same education as every man from the mainland. How could I have forgotten?

"What." He doesn't sound amused. But it's still a question, and she is still bound to answer him.

"The youkai," she says at last. "Hold court off the shores of Uzu. And they often lure people away if they can get away with it." She frowns. "But Habiki-san promised me that he wouldn't do anything. He knows you're supposed to be here. What did you see that made you step into the waves?" She doesn't know why Habiki-san would bother. Is it to keep her on the Island? He has to know that she'd hate him for the rest of her life if he did something like this. Is it because of something else? She doesn't know.

She doesn't know even if it's specifically Habiki-san. It could be someone else, playing a practical joke with the visitors.

"Hills." He tells her.

There are several members of Habiki-san's court that can be described as hills. But if it is Habiki-san, they'd be red and blue hills. Red for a death, blue for a sorrow.

"Blue hills?" She grabs his elbows, and scans his face. "Where they blue or red hills?"

"Blue." He looks mildly ill. So it was Habiki-san then. It was Habiki-san, but he wasn't looking to kill, only to scare. She breathes a mental sigh of relief until his next sentence appears. "The youkai aren't real." He sounds like he's trying to convince her.

She snorts at this, a hysterical laugh bubbling up. "Please don't say that, Madara-sama. Not here." She pulls him to his feet, and they exit the house together.

"Izuna-san is safe." She says quietly, sitting on the hardwood floor. "Or safer, because you can't see anything you know. Just don't follow any strange voices, and you'll be fine." Her hands twist together in her lap. Kami. I thought they'd be safe. A small wave of anger threatens to overcome her heart. "I should have told you earlier, I should have-"

"Kanae-san? What is going on?" Izuna-san adjusts the band over his eyes with a hand. He sounds as though he's been up all night.

If the Terrible Twins had had charge of him, he might have spent the entire night playing games with them, despite his lack of vision. He might also have lost whatever valuable items he brought with him if they decided to break out the dice and cards.

The Terrible Twins are notoriously good cheaters at dice and cards even when their opponent isn't blind.

She thinks about this, because it is infinitely better than considering the alternatives.

She sighs, and runs a hand through her hair. "Our island shares a delicate balance with the Habiki-san's court, the one under the sea." She rubs the hand down her face, and considers how to explain this to the two mainlanders who hadn't an ounce of sea sense because they needed none in their forests of leafy trees. Don't they have youkai there? Ones that lure them into marshes, ones that drown them in lakes and rivers? Or are the youkai so gone now that it is just Habiki-san's court now? It can't be. Lady Biwa's wing city still exists somewhere up in the mountains of Water Country. Niisama lived there for much of the year. "We have a peace accord with them, so they won't take us, but visitors aren't always so respected."

"But youkai aren't real." Izuna-san protests, and he's so ignorant, so ignorant. His brother had nearly been drowned, but he won't believe it until he sees it, which is, for him never.

Kanae laughs. "Mainlanders." She gestures to the scroll hanging on the wall behind them. "That is a portrait of a youkai. Her name is Iruya-atawa no Kanae." And remembering the first Kanae-hime reminds her of how eerily similar they are, from their hair to their eyes to their faces to their fates. Chichi had thought to pay tribute to their ancestor with her name, but written in different Kanji to avoid the fate of the first Kanae. It doesn't seem to have worked very well. "She married Uzumaki Ishiro five hundred years ago to keep the peace. From her, we get our red hair." She married a man that she did not know, and did not love. She lived in a kingdom that was not her own, and gave up the one that she loved. Once she left the sea, she never stepped foot back in it. "But if you don't believe me, that's alright."

Izuna wraps the blanket more firmly around his shoulders. He's cold, she realizes. She tries to test the air with her hands.

She doesn't think that it is cold, but it's not about what she thinks.

"That explains nothing." Madara-sama does not seem to believe her impromptu history lesson. If he'd been one of her brothers, she'd grab him by the ears and scream at him until he listened. Alas, he is not one of her brothers, and she has not enough control over his life at the moment to grab his ears and scream in his face.

"If you truly don't believe me that the youkai exist, then why did you step out into the water?" She taps the sealing array on the floor to heat up the room. Izuna-san doesn't need to be cold during this discussion.

"What did you just do?" He sounds curious, like a cat might be, by a shiny new toy.

She blinks at him. You ask the strangest and least useful questions, Madara-sama. "I turned on the heating seal, Madara-sama."

"Thank you, Kanae-san." Izuna-san leans forward. "But I still don't believe you." It isn't a matter of if you believe me. It's a matter of life and death.

She throws up her hands. "Well, then you can just wait around to see Niisama then." She stalks across the room, and then turns to look back at the two of them. The two idiots the both of them. Her mind decides for her. Why else would they be so foolish? "Anharaya-atawa no Kyoya is half albatross. But of course, that will have to wait for the turn of the wind, in six month's time."

"What?" Madara-sama asks. He looks so shocked.

He looks so shocked that she has to laugh. Surely he's heard of her Niisama, the strongest warrior that Uzu has ever produced. "It's the worst kept secret on the Island: Chichi's first love was Anharaya-atawa no Biwa, the Lady of the Iron Claw." It seems to shock the two of them into silence, so perhaps they don't know.

That's alright. They'll learn by demonstration.

She guides Izuna-san to his feet, and out the sliding door. "Come, I need to yell at Habiki-san, and it is better if I can point and gesture at the guests that he is not supposed to touch." Yes. Answers an angry little voice in her head. He needs to answer for his actions, for I do not like them.

She ignores the thought that she is potentially courting his disapproval for forever and ever over two mainlander men who aren't even her friends.

Habiki-san is one of her oldest friends. She'll do it anyway. They don't deserve to get eaten.

She strides out onto the waves a single purpose on her mind. "Ichiro-usahaya no Habiki-san!" She yells, above the crash of the waves, hands on her hips. There's enough chakra laced in her voice that it carries, booming into the deeps below.

And then the water moves and parts, blue hills rising and slipping back down into the depths, and then red coils, and then finally, a head. So it is a dramatic day then.

She wonders what she has done to ever deserve this.

His head pauses before her. "You called, Lovely Girl?"

"You promised you wouldn't harm our guests." It is not exactly as he said it. He promised not to eat them, which is not the same as not harming them, but she isn't in the mood to debate semantics with him at the moment.

He shifts into his human form, so that he can stand on the water at her level. "Oh, I wouldn't have, Lovely Girl." There's such sorrow in his voice, such regret, that she almost forgives him, right then and there. I have hurt him deeply. She realises with a pang of guilt.

I have not promised him anything. She reminds herself a moment later. And he has made me a promise.

Habiki-san turns away from her, towards the two Uchiha men on the shore. Something roars in her ears, and it isn't the waves.

If he sets a hand on them, she'd do her best to rip it off though she'd likely die in the process. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced. But I think I know who you are." He steps out of the water, and onto the rocks, but he doesn't touch them. "You are the ones who have arrived to take my lovely girl away from the Island." There is an edge of displeasure in his tone, but his hand twitches behind his back, and she knows he feels her rage.

Madara-sama takes a step, and places himself firmly before Izuna. It cements the idea that he truly cares, truly loves his brother, deeply.

More deeply than he ever lets on. In the face of an impossible enemy, he chooses to sacrifice himself first.

She understands the action. She'd do the same for Neesan.

"Habiki-san!" Kanae sets a hand on her eldest friend's elbow and pulls him back before he does something untoward. "Why can't you be polite to them?" I'll forgive you if you promise not to hurt them.

"Oh, Lovely Girl." Habiki-san murmurs, and he sounds like he is very much a fool for love, standing here, acting angry with two men who aren't even his rivals, over a seventeen year old island girl. "Women like you drown oceans." He turns to her. "But what will you be without oceans left to drown?"

He is worried for me. She raises her chin and straightens her shoulders. "Nothing gold can stay." I am sorry Habiki-san. The next life perhaps, I'll be yours.

He runs a hand through her red hair, nostalgia and melancholy in his eyes. You will not. Our fate is not to meet the way I wish. "The sea will miss you, as the earth misses his sunrise." He steps past her, back into the ocean. "Fear not, Little Storm, I will not trouble your human suitor any longer." And then in an instant, he is far out into the ocean.

The last they see of him is the flap of a red tail, which knocks a wave back to land so large that it drenches her completely.

She splutters, and shakes herself off angrily. "I hate you, Habiki-san." But he's done enough to hide her tears. She has no more to shed for Ichiro-usahaya no Habiki-san, king of his sea. She turns back to Madara-sama and Izuna-san. "Do you believe me now?" Will you not wander off into the ocean if you see random hills now?

"Hn." Madara-sama sounds perturbed. She isn't sure she blames him.

Her entire family, except for Niisama sits down to lunch, and eats with the guests. It is important to eat together; it is important to dine with visitors.

Guest right is older than the sands, and just as commonly offered, but more than that, it is sacred. Those who eat together, do not slaughter or shame each other.

"When are you leaving?" Haha asks, with her gentle voice, but her eyes are dark and sad.

"I'm not sure." Izuna-san replies, and takes a sip of his soup through the spoon, and then misses the bowl as he tries to dip the spoon back into the bowl. The porcelain clinks loudly against the stone table. Kanae wishes she could help him, but so does everyone around the table.

But it would be rude, and imply that he cannot do it himself. No one moves.

Izuna-san winces and turns to his brother. "Niisan?"

"Tomorrow." Madara rumbles, and something about his voice sounds like a death knell anyway.

She is undone for a moment. Tomorrow. She thinks blankly. I have to say all of my goodbyes today.

"Tomorrow?" Korui-nii almost shouts, as he leaps to his feet."How could you take Shiko-chan from us by dawn tomorrow?"

Chichi glances sharply at him. "Korui." Chichi is far less lenient with his sons than with his daughters, but this isn't him at his most disapproving. It has shocked him as well then, this decision that has been made.

"No." Ashiro-nii sets his bowl onto the table. "Chichi-ue you have to tell him that he can't do that. Shiko still has to-"

"Ashiro-nii." She cuts in before one half of the Terrible Twins can work themselves into a tizzy and cause an all out brawl at the table. "Madara-sama has said that he is going tomorrow. So I will go tomorrow, and that is all." She stands, gathers up the empty bowls, and starts her retreat. "Excuse me. I must visit everything once this afternoon, and then finish packing. Please enjoy the meal, Madara-sama, Izuna-san, Haha, Chichi, Obaasan." She cannot keep the sorrow from her voice, as she leaves. Just a day to say goodbye.

How can I say goodbye?

The next morning, Madara-sama and Izuna-san wait for her, as she hugs everyone once, tightly, and then turns to the horizon hoping against hope that there is a black winged shape there. That Niisama is coming home for her, and fixing all of her problems. But it would be cruel of her to expect it. She shakes herself once, and straightens her shoulders as she steps onto the water. "I suppose he won't be coming." She says it to comfort herself, but Izuna-san has sharp ears.

"Who?" He asks.

"Kyoya-niisama. He won't be here until the turn of the wind, and that is not today." Niisama has a schedule that he does not break from. It would be odd of him to come back just for her.

The heavens will bend before Niisama does.

"Oh." Izuna-san sighs. "It's irresponsible of him to not come and see you off."

Kanae guides him away from a whirlpool and laughs brightly. Oh, Izuna-san, that is a a silly thought. "Izuna-san, you can't judge him the way you judge men. He isn't a man, you know." Niisama can do a good impression of being a man having learned from his brothers, but he really isn't one.

It would be unfair to expect him to keep time like a man.

"Why not?" Madara-sama cuts in, and strangely, he sounds quite cross.

Perhaps he is tired. Perhaps the thought that Niisama isn't a man is personally offensive to him. She isn't entirely aware.

"He doesn't think of time the same way." She shrugs. "It might as well be a few hours to him for all that years pass for us." Niisama will still be alive long after her bones are dust, and given enough care, he'd still look as young and beautiful as he does now. "Violence takes on a different hue for him too." She guides Izuna-san around another whirlpool, and makes sure that Madara-sama watches his step. "He's fond of catching intruders and cutting them apart for shark bait."

This is one of Niisama's favorite hobbies when he is home, but perhaps it's one that outsiders wouldn't understand.

Neither Madara-sama nor Izuna-san respond to this statement.

"And what is that type of tree over there, Madara-sama?" She asks, because even if it isn't the first time she's been in the Land of Fire it's still the first time that she's had a native guide.

"That is not a tree." He's being surprisingly patient with her, but still, she thought it was a tree.

She blinks at him. "It isn't?"

"It's a bush." And yes, this is strangely patient of him. She likes it. She decides that even if he is frustrating later on, it really wouldn't do to accidentally kill him.

For one, Izuna-san is very nice, and for another, Uchiha Madara has a heart that isn't buried very deep at all. She can live with him.

She thinks that she'll be happy.

She huffs, because really, there aren't any differences between trees and bushes. It's just words anyway."What's the difference?"

He seems to consider it. "A bush is shorter than a tree." That isn't really a good reason.

"And it doesn't have a trunk." Izuna-san adds. He sounds amused. She doesn't know why, except, perhaps that he finds her ignorance funny. "Most trees have trunks."

She throws up her hands. "I don't understand any of it." And none of you would know the differences between types of turtle anyway. And their differences are quite vast unlike the differences between trees and bushes.

Madara-sama's mood gets gradually darker the closer they get to Konoha. She's starting to believe that his fatigue has something to do with Konoha. Has something to do with how this place seems to weigh on him, like a boulder or an unclean stain.

"Madara-sama?" She slides her hand away from the crook of his elbow, because maybe it's just that he doesn't like to be touched in public. "Where are we going?" She smiles for him, because he needs the smile.

"The Uchiha District." He seems surprised, but his mood has lightened. She'll take it.

"Is everything made of wood there too?" She bounces forward on her toes. Across the way, a young man pauses, and stares at her, with something like lust in his white eyes.

Immediately, the mood becomes intolerably dark. Madara-sama stiffens, and his scowl darkens. He is concerned for me? That is awkwardly sweet of him. She thinks she likes that too.

"Yes." He corrals down the street, and away from the man. That he didn't start a fight in the street is a good sign as well.

She'd bet that any of her brothers would have started a brawl over an insignificant glance. If it offended her, she'd like to take care of the perpetrators herself in such a way that they'd never do it again, not just be afraid of her brothers.

"Good evening, Jiisan!" She calls out to a passing older man, and he blinks and looks twice.

His gaze also falls towards her legs, but there's no lust to it, just surprise. He does not respond.

She frowns slightly. "So unfriendly." No wonder Madara-sama doesn't like it much here. The people don't act like they live in a city at all. She tucks her hand back in the crook of his elbow. She knew everyone at home, in Uzu, and they all knew and loved her. She would make it the same here, given time. There has never been a heart that she could not win, given time. "I was only being polite."

"They were distracted." Madara-sama says, a dark growl in his voice. He doesn't say why, which is also sweet of him, but she's already noticed. Her clothing is hardly normal here, from what she's seen, though she'd not change it for other people.

If he asks her, perhaps she might consider it.

"Wow." They pause, in front of what must be his front gate, and she runs a hand over the varnished dark wood. "You must be rich, Madara-sama." She laughs, and his darkness lightens. She promises him in her heart that she will laugh often, and perhaps he'd be happy. "This is such a fun and beautiful place."

And for the first time, she sees him smile. It is small, and tugs at the corners of his lips, but it is a smile. She tucks the mental image away. He is beautiful when he smiles. "I am rich?" He pushes open the door, and leads her into the courtyard.

"You have so much wood." There is so much wood here, and it's so strange that they'd choose something like wood to build houses of, but here the trees are many. Here there are forests and other such things, and she can almost forget the disconcerting silence.

There are no waves.

"And only rich people can afford to build their entire house out of wood, and it's everywhere in Konoha." When she turns to look at him, his expression is so befuddled that she has to laugh. "Didn't you know that?"

"Hn." He steps forward. "I will show you the house."

There's a hint of pride in his voice. It is quite enough.

A. N. Arriving in Konoha, Kanae-style.

Thanks so much to wyteeth, fernandfeather, Miss Nanami-chan, and LittleMissSugarLess for reviewing!

And everyone who favorited and followed.

~Tavina.