Chaos herself's note:
Hey! A lot of things are going to happen in this chapter.
And I advise you not to read too much into it (unless you really want to see it that way) - it's just a Gen-Jutsu.
Also I want to address a comment a guest has left on chapter 9:
Yes, you may very well label Touka and Mito 'backstabbing bitches'. Naruto is full of deceit and liars; think about people like e.g. Danzo, Kabuto or the whole Akatsuki organisation, who are basically all traitors. And yes, Touka and Mito are ready to kill a child. Thank you for pointing this out. Because this is what Naruto is like: a lot of characters are kids who (are trying to) kill other kids. Which is pretty worrisome and sad if you think about it. So I'm glad this is just fiction.
Anyhow, have fun reading! Chaos
...
Chapter 10: Betray the Soul
Touka was occupied with devising and meticulously mapping another attempt on the man aiming to set the village ablaze from the shadows when Tsubaki appeared at her threshold.
"Well?" she demanded impassively without letting her inkbrush stop scribbling on the parchment.
The Kunoichi lifted her heavy hood so the Aburame's trademark dark almost-afro sprang free around her face but she kept her camelia-mask in place. "Irakusa-taichou," she addressed her politely and remained where she stood. "Mission accomplished," Tsubaki informed taciturnly.
Stroking a straight black line across the map and adding a footnote Touka calmly urged her on: "Go on, report."
"As instructed I stayed successfully hidden outside the Uchiha district," she began quietly, "while I sent fourteen of my Kikaichuu inside to search for the target object and return with the intel." Tsubaki fiddled with her long sleeves so a few of her curious Kikaichuu could crawl along her pale fingers and catch some air. "There were..." she briefly hesitated, "two casualties. It seemed their deaths were mere accidents, though, and not due to detection of their intent."
"And what did you find?" Touka probed without pity for Tsubaki's loss when the Aburame heiress went silent. As soon as the ink had dried she sealed the scrolls for later and opened another one to continue her work.
"Ah...could I please borrow a piece of parchment for a second?" she asked and the squad commander simply motioned for her to go ahead. Soon a pair of Kikaichuu buzzed over and started scuttling in curious patterns over the blank page for a while before flying off to their mistress again; the parchment remained disappointingly blank though.
Touka shot Tsubaki an unimpressed glance and arched a brow.
"If I may, Irakusa-taichou?" the Kunoichi murmured behind her mask, approached her commander and produced a little glass jar from within the folds of her sleeve, which she unstopped and cautiously tipped over so a fine powder, maybe pollen, dusted over the page. Gently she waved a hand and the faint air circulation and turbulences were enough to blow it off again.
What remained, however, stuck to the trails the Kikaichuu had left on the parchment with their invisible secretion and before Touka's scrutinizing eyes the exact recreation of a document in a distinctive hand unfolded. Interesting.
"Well done, Tsubaki," she murmured while she still studied the intel. "See you for tea then; unless anything else comes up, of course. Dismissed."
Tsubaki nodded, placed the jar on Touka's worktop and donned her hood again before she disappeared as quietly as she had come. This was the difference when employing seasoned Kunoichi instead of half-baked brats; and so much for the Aburame's initiation mission...
During the following weeks a lot of things happened.
After stewing for a good while Tobirama, predictably, came around; somehow he seemingly couldn't stay angry with Touka for very long, anyways; and she exploited on that fact ever so often. Of course it had taken her another flower message of peach flowers, ivy and the ever present chrysantemum to propitiate him and have him relent without even appologizing to him.
And by the time Touka was calmly humming 'Ue o muite arukou' when Tobirama arrived at her quarters, and he was therefore thoroughly flustered again to her secret amusement, all of his previous anger had completely fizzled out within a heartbeat.
So she could brief him on the latest attempt on Madara's life and explain her past scheming better this time; and he finally seemed to understand because he left in a quite calm mood even though he apparently was still worried about the Uchiha's possible backlash.
The honest assassination attempt had been another failure but that had been perfectly according to Touka's plan...
This one's purpose had only been to leave the impression that it was only a lone warrior's doing, who couldn't come to terms with the peaceful situation and who still couldn't lay her hatred for the Uchiha to rest, that a war veteran like her wouldn't associate with 'peacemongers' like Mito Uzumaki. Madara's attention would surely be pulled in her direction now but Touka was prepared for war. It was a pity, though, that she hadn't killed the fire-breather for good this time. Regardless, the mission was still in motion and the Kunoichi would simply stick to the plan she had come up together with Kinsenka before deploying the Nara brat to her first solo mission.
Speaking of said mission, the squad commander had been skimming and burning Kizuta's and Jigitarisu's own initiation mission report with an approving nod to herself at their successful infiltration into the stronghold of the Tsuchi clan, killing the infant heir in his sleep with one of Jigitarisu's poisons and returning back to the village safely without being noticed when the tattered and torn fawn had stumbled into Touka's quarters and had simply fainted in a heap of misery once a frail "Mission accomplished, Irakusa-taichou..." had escaped her too pale lips.
Touka had clicked her tongue, swept the teenager up in one decisive movement and carried her unconscious form to the cot as soon as the seasoned Kunoichi had observed the girl had run a fever due to the severe condition she had been in.
Efficiently and calmly she had tended to the numerous wounds and various kinds of bruises littering the lanky fawn's shivering and whimpering body, which had silently told a detailed report of the week-long interrogation that her squad commander had demanded of her to undergo; Touka even noticed the successfully retrieved target object clasped tightly in Kanoko's chafed and multi-fractured grasp.
Briefly Touka had summoned Kinka to make sure Kinsenka had sustained as had been asked of her and not leaked any intel at all. And only when the Yamanaka brat had confirmed from her fellow squad member's mind and memories that this had been the case, if barely, Touka had decided to send for Kanoko's mother.
The stern Nara matriarch had paled a couple of shades when she had learned of her daughter's condition and while fussing over her fawn she had quietly listened to Touka's calm words.
"Well," Kadohime Nara had drawled over tea later when Kanoko was taken care of and sleeping peacefully, "I already knew my little girl has been up to something when she has been returning from 'play' all battered and bruised but undeniably stronger day after day...but to think she has chosen the fiercest Kunoichi of the Senju clan to be her Sensei-"
Touka had slightly inclined her head in acknowledgement of the compliment and kept sipping on her own blend calmly while two pairs of shrewd eyes had measured each other between the quiet clicking of wooden Tori Shougi pieces.
"What exactly is it you are training her for so eagerly, though?" the grey eminence of the shadow wielders had considered her with a wary hooded stare, which her daughter seemingly had adopted from her.
The younger warrior had then cruelly captured the Nara's Phoenix with her Eagle and faced the other Kunoichi with a serious glance of her own. "For war," she had stated gravely, "because war is always coming...and the least I can do is preparing my allies as much as myself."
For a brief moment the two Kunoichi had kept staring impassively at one another but then Kadohime had leaned closer folding her elegant hands in a zen-Buddhistic way on her lap. "I'm listening, Touka-san...", she had breathed conspirationally.
And from then on Sanzashi (hawthorn) had been in on the plans and had been contributing even more brilliant strategies than Kinsenka to finally bring down the root of all evil.
The icy flames of the early evening sky were already setting the defenselessly nude winter trees ablaze when Touka was still in the middle of beheading and stabbing imaginary enemies; her Chakra blade swished through the cooling air blurring with a steely hum as she soldiered coldheartedly through her more complex Katas.
She didn't stop her swift motions even though she noticed the fur-coated figure with a silvery shock of hair stroll towards the training field by her lair. "Touka..." she was greeted and stern crimson eyes trained on her while he waited and watched with arms crossed.
A swing, three measured steps on the frost-hardened soil, a half-turn and she faced her visitor alongside the risen blade of her favourite weapon. "Since I know you are not who you currently impersonate you can drop the Henge and state your claim right on," Touka calmly stated; she was ready to strike.
"Hn, would've thought this appearance was a safe bet for at least a few moments...What gave me away?" his voice shifted to its true colour while the Jutsu smoothly rippled away to reveal the one she had expected to be beneath. Ah, could have been the audacity, the arrogancy, the antics... and she knew both men much too well to ever confuse them.
"Tobirama-dono simply wouldn't come to me like this," she settled for an answer that betrayed nothing. Her blade was just as anticipating the bloodshed as she was.
"I see...so you're not as close as I thought you might be, my mistake," he grinned cruelly while bloodred eyes bore into her deathglare, "but all the better for my case." Then he took the liberty to consider the encompassed surroundings of Touka's quarters before he continued: "You have holed up quite a bit since the foundation of this village, haven't you, Touka Senju? It actually took me quite some time to find your little 'stronghold' without being obvious...suits you."
Touka's eyes narrowed a fraction but otherwise she stayed deathly calm like a snowfield and lay in wait. "What do you want, Uchiha?"
"What? And here I thought we were on different terms already...Where's the whispered over sweet Sake 'Madara-senpai' gone?" he mocked and carefully started circling her; their bloody dance to death seemed imminent while the black and bare forest around them sang the intro to their mute battle tune.
"You must be aware of which terms we are truely on," the Kunoichi replied grimly, the image of a recent series of assaults and brief clashes vivid on her mind. She answered his lurking beast's pacing with her own; and they both became each other's hunter and prey at the same time.
Madara's angry Tomoe flared to life, betraying that he knew very well how much she wanted him dead. "That's why I'm here to change it," he announced somberly.
"By 'change' you mean 'end'," Touka more stated than asked as she twirled her blade in fast accelerating motions, which blurred her outlines behind them and made her seem like a ghostly apparition of a warrior.
The twilight sky ripped open and faded to dancing shades of snaffling black and burning red, aligning and overlying her Gen-jutsu with a layer of his own.
"It could lead to an end. Even though you live holed up like a hermit out here, I'm sure you've heard about Hashirama's merry schemes of fastening the inter clan 'peace'..." the fire-breather said while he kept adjusting his cautious but determined steps as he tried to find an opening. But Touka wouldn't give him what he was seeking.
"You implying?" her voice echoed from the thousand needle-drops of napalm rain she drew from his flames and converted them to her own weapon.
"I'm implying," Madara replied unpertubed, extended his mantle and swung the black cloth like a torero to both deflect the attack from above and briefly disappear from sight in another shrouding Gen-jutsu, "that this time I'm willing to indulge his whim if I get what I want..."
"Revenge in the form of my death? The extinction of the Senju? Seeing this wooden village and Hashirama-sama's dreams crumble to fallen embers beneath the wrath of your Amaterasu?" Touka countered coldly not skipping a beat to unleash a windmill of blows.
The black mantle billowed in the non-existent wind and Touka's Chakra blade seared right through it like a hot knife cut butter to dispel his cover; but he was right there in front of her and caught her sword arm's wrist in an iron grip. "What if I want to continue where we left off at that party? Before you tried to poison me..." he grinned; his bloodred Sharingan were glowing maliciously.
The Kunoichi deadpanned: "Then I wouldn't believe you, obviously." Her free hand came up to flurry through a series of handsigns and break this layer with so much as a 'Kai'.
But Madara was already close and his grasp wouldn't loosen as he bent her arm behind her back until her shoulder protested in strain and threatened to dislodge from its joint; she refused to let go of her blade, though. "What if I want to have you succumb to me so I can claim the prize you promised but withheld on that night, Touka...?" she felt his hot breath have the hair at her neck stand on end.
Touka nimble-footedly twisted out of the too tight hold even if her hand was still stuck. "Bullshit," she retorted icily and used her rotation to swing her free arm in a horizontal slash while it transformed and elongated into the sharpness of an adamantine blade with the intent to decapitate.
He ducked through his own spinning move and forcefully hurled her along until he stopped her right against his chest when they were face to face again and grabbed her other wrist, too; his Sharingan cut through her Gen-jutsu this time and fixated on her. "What if the mere thought of reducing this strong-willed and battle-bred Kunoichi to the confines of a duly obedient wife, my wife, actually gives me a hard-on?" he breathed too close into her ear.
Inside Touka was seething with killer intent and by now it was starting to seep through her countenance of steel as she could feel his body press against her to put emphasis to his outrageous provocation. So she actually let it out and gave it a solid form of a nightmarish spectre flaring tall from her body before viciously leaping at Madara to devour him and shred him to bits. "In your dreams!"
However, he just laughed ludicrously and tore through her attack like ravenous claws stripping off scraps of cloth with swirling Mangekyo. "Yes, in my dreams," his mocking voice rang in her ears, "...but I'll generously share them with you, my dear Touka." The bleeding horizon dipped and fell into blackness until her back hit the frozen soil of her training grounds when the weight of his tackle squeezed the air out of her lungs.
Instantly she twisted and wiggled her fingers at odd angles with the intention to break one or two of them; unless Madara wouldn't let her and wrapped his hands tightly around hers. "Now, now. Easy there...can't let my bride get hurt, can I?" he chid sardonically, knowing he was intercepting her attempt at escaping his next Gen-Jutsu.
"Why would you even think...I'd ever be your bride?" Touka gritted her teeth and bent her legs to kick his offending privates tenting against her abdomen until he would have to search for them inside his nose for weeks.
Except her feet melted into the frozen ground that suddenly felt so heated against her spine as if the sungoddess was grazing her bare skin with aethereal fingertips. "What if I told you your clan chief has already agreed to this union?" Madara grinned smugly while he pressed down harder onto her body.
"Lies," the Kunoichi hissed while trying to free her limbs and conjure another Gen-jutsu to throw him off and gain range again. Hashirama-sama wouldn't do that to his longtime advisor and warlady; and Tobirama would surely intervene, too, wouldn't he?
'Just be careful not to look too deeply into his Sharingan...' his warning voice belatedly echoed through her mindscape like a dim lighthouse flashing in the thickness of icy mist. "Enough of this folly!" her Gen-jutsu experienced mind rebelled against his strong illusion.
"Ah...but I can't wait to have you, Touka, my proud and strong Senju warrior-bride, bear me lots and lots of black-haired and Sharingan-eyed Uchiha babies," Madara silver-tongued hoarsely and invaded her mouth before she could bite off her tongue.
Instead Touka froze for a second when her violently dispelled shadow clone's memories seeped into her; quietly something inside her heart froze, too. Then she continued to stoically drink her tea as if nothing happened. But as soon as her cup was empty she stood.
"Something the matter, Touka-san?" Youko sniffed and blinked curiously at her while Hotaru calmly nibbled at her tea biscuits behind her huge silken shawl draped around her face as if she had the flu. Kadohime narrowed her shrewd eyes on Touka from across the table but stayed silent and only barely nodded.
"Excuse me for today. We'll continue this another time," Touka calmly inclined her head in a faint gesture of greeting to the clan ladies; then she left the Kissaten in decisive but unhurried strides.
When she arrived at her quarters a few minutes later the place was deserted and seemingly untouched, she perceived after a long look around in the twilight. Yet still she shivered as her cold breath condensated to chilly clouds and she crouched to her knees where her blade lay lost and forgotten in the hoarfrost.
Gen-Jutsu or not, the fire-breather would pay with his life, the seasoned Kunoichi silently swore when she picked up her steel with aching cold fingers. She would win this war no matter what!
Touka didn't sleep that night; and she didn't sleep the following nights either until the point where she was bordering on being insomniac. Instead she lay awake on her cot plotting her counterstrike until she became restless enough to get back to work.
Whetting her blades was a soothingly meditative motion, that was filled with a cold and deathly purpose.
In the meantime her daily training regimen became fiercer and fiercer, and Touka didn't care if it was hailing in storms or in the middle of the night when she was out there soldiering on until her limbs were frozen numb until it hurt when she soaked her body in the steaming baths afterwards and curled her icy hands around her midsection for warmth. She took her Kunai to the Onsen nowadays, too, and made sure to leave for more training before Youko and Hotaru even arrived.
When she patrolled the streets of the village she saw hundreds of traitor-faced legions pass her by like ghosts haunting the place and looming like a guillotine above Hashirama-sama's and Tobirama's heads; and Touka just couldn't have that. She would keep the both of them safe from everyone, even her own subordinates or kin. Second thoughts blooming with the poisonous ice flower of doubt turned familiar faces into strangers, possible foes-...traitors.
Before the (in her eyes too soft) secret assassination squad crumbled like melting snowflakes beneath her hands and became infested with the germs of treason something needed to be done, and soon.
The civilian blacksmiths became her only 'shopping indulgence' and quite soon they knew her by her first name; she brought a new weapon every time she went to town, which became a scarcer and scarcer occurrence the more she alienated herself from the community, mentally and physically. And she had already hoarded enough weaponry to equip a small army, Tobirama opined the last time he visited.
He seemed to have the impression that something was off but Touka nonchalantly thwarted that with donning him a wreath of venus hair, corn flower, poppies, iris and peach blossoms and whistling the one tune that would forevermore make him embarrassed. Tobirama quickly left her to her schemes after that, but not before dropping off another damned gift basket of lemons.
Glumly she bit into one of the yellow fruits without flinching to gather more resolve for what she realized during one of these sleepless nights... Finding what she needed her gaze turned even colder and she chucked the lemon into her pail.
But who could Irakusa use for her even darker purpose? Who could she swear into her secret allegiance and hers alone?
Jigitarisu, Sanzashi, Tsubaki, she decided for now after another few insomniac nights of standing silently sentry over the sleeping village. And thus she summoned the three Kunoichi to a most clandestine midnight-gathering at her quarters from which they would either emerge sworn into her circle or as a neat puddle of mush solubilized by acid...