A/N: Hope you enjoyed your dual post from Kishi. :)
Quick side note: I'm over on An Archive of Our Own (as I've mentioned) under the same pen name. Over there, there's only one more chapter to go, which will be posted tomorrow, so if you're wondering what happens, you can consider looking me up over there and reading ahead.
In total this story is about 106,000 words and 38 chapters, so there's still a ways to go over here on fanfiction dot net.
Chapter Twenty: Release
Momoka was with Hashirama the day that Mito's mother arrived.
The visit was entirely unexpected. One day she was simply there, standing, hair like a living flame, wild and in disarray as if her head were on fire. She looked so unlike the woman Mito had known, alive and bright, that she had to do a double take to make sure she wasn't seeing things. However, the unmistakable red of the Uzumaki bloodline was not a trait among the dark haired, dark eyed Uchiha and Senju, and Uzumaki Nanami stood out as if she were a flame… on a black backdrop. "Hello, Mito," was all that she said, her voice clear and steady, richer somehow, than it ever had been during their lives together in Uzushio.
Mito stared. The last time she had seen her mother, Uzumaki Nanami was weeping and inconsolable, a useless woman who had done nothing for Mito except give her birth. It was really the only gift that she had ever given her that she could say of a certainty that she had wanted. Early in her childhood, Mito had dismissed her mother as an unfit parent, and it had been her father's duty to raise her. Harsh and insensitive as he was, at least he provided some level of discipline and upbringing, a moral compass by which to set her path. Uzumaki Nanami had not even been that. If anything, Mito might have hated her mother more so than she hated her father, for her mother should have known her restless heart best, and was indifferent anyway. "Why are you here?" Mito asked, sounding colder than she had intended.
The tone of her own voice was enough to shock Mito. She had not thought that she could sound so powerful. Her own mother had shown up on her doorstep, and not only had Mito demanded an explanation, but she was reasonably certain that she could send her mother away, even have her forcibly escorted from the walls of of the village, and exiled to boot. The thought thrilled her, but she stayed her hand. An explanation would be payment enough, she surmised, and even if it wasn't…
…there was still the small matter of just how… different… her mother seemed. Mito was at least curious. "We need to talk," Nanami stated flatly. She crossed her arms and cocked a hip, the very picture of a woman of strength and position. The person Uzumaki Nanami should have been all along, but not the person she had been.
...Interesting.
Mito thought about it. She took a moment to consider the block of time that she had available and whether it was worth wasting, calculating from his schedule that Hashirama would be away most of the day. She had intended to spend the day reading—ironically enough, about the history of the clans of the world, the lesson her father had tried to impart. She wasn't particularly keen on the idea of entertaining her mother in their home, but it was an awfully long way to Uzushio, and she figured that she at least owed her mother the conversation for which she had traveled. She bit her lip and gave her mother a once-over, adding the bizarre and unexpected appearance of Uzumaki Nanami to the balance of value versus time. "Come in," she allowed with an exhalation of displeasure, disappearing within to prepare tea.
"Look at you," Nanami proclaimed proudly as she followed her into the kitchen. Her voice had the husky, breezy air of mature confidence, a peculiar change from the keening, whiny voice from before. "So self assured now! A lord's wife, who knows how to be a lord's wife."
"Well, if it were up to you both it would be the only thing I'd be good at," she clipped out, choosing the tea that was not special and tossing the leaves into the pot with irritation.
She drew her lips into a thin, disapproving line. "It was up to your father, not me, though it suited my purposes," Nanami replied cryptically.
Mito retrieved the cups and set them between them while the leaves began to steep. "Frankly, I don't know what you're talking about," Mito urged, trying to hurry the conversation along so she could hustle the other woman out of her house. "But you've come all this way, presumably alone. You didn't come just to pester me, I take it. Whatever it is you want to say, say it. I…" She tried to think of an excuse to get her to speak swiftly and then leave, and failed. "I'm—"
"—not particularly fond of me," she finished for her. "I know." Mito blinked, waiting for the excuses. "I can't blame you, Mito. I've been rotten to you. I've never been there for you. Ignored you, even. I let your father raise you the way he wanted to raise you, all the while letting you hurt, alone." Mito sipped her tea silently, her silence accusation enough. "I'm not ashamed. If anything, I'm quite proud of myself, actually." She sat up straighter and smiled as if amused at some private joke. "The results are far better than I was hoping for." She leaned over the table and winked. "It was an act, Mito."
She paused in the motion of teacup to lips, considering carefully. "What do you mean, 'an act'?"
The other woman's eyes twinkled with intrigue. "I have something to tell you. And I won't ask you for your forgiveness… but I do hope that you will understand the reason for my actions by the end of it." She took a breath and a sip of tea, then reclined onto one elbow over the ladder back chair. "Among the Uzumaki, there is a secret lineage of exceptionally high pedigree known only to a select few, and we possess a power that would be extremely dangerous, if it were to fall into the wrong hands."
Mito was immediately confused. Her mother had never displayed any kind of aptitude for a ninja lifestyle. In fact, she had turned up her nose at any mention of chakra and seemed to disdain Shinobi. Mito herself, apprehensive of the potential to accidentally hurt herself, had never sought to be powerful in any respect… had only studied the kinds of skills that would most help the people she cared about. To hear her mother speak of a special power felt… odd. She was, after all, still trying to wrap her head around her mother simply not crying. Believing that Uzumaki Nanami was some kind of badass wasn't happening any time soon. "What kind of power?" Mito asked carefully, trying not to seem too interested. She didn't want to pay for this story, and it had been a long, long time since she had trusted either of her parents not to put hooks in their generosity.
"The kind of power that could protect the world… or enslave it," Nanami declared reverently with grandiose gesticulation. "It is the most important responsibility of the Uzumaki to make sure that our power is passed down to only those who are wise enough to wield it properly. And that, my daughter, is where it all begins." Mito leaned forward as Nanami began to tell her story. "Our line is a dominant, matriarchal lineage, more ancient than the foundation of Uzushiogakure-the Village Hidden in the Whirlpools-older even than the Sage of the Six Paths himself. There was a time when demons walked among us, wearing our faces, starting wars and devastating natural disasters, on a zealous mission to wipe out mankind. Our ancestors worshipped the Shinju, the god tree, and begged for its mercy, and in doing so were given its permission to allow one among them to climb the god tree as the flower bloomed. The freely gifted power within that being was chakra, though centuries later, chakra would be 'discovered' by another, who greedily stole it for herself.
"Using this miraculous new power, our people learned to identify and imprison the demons, over time becoming known as wardens. Our ancestors were very wise, though. They recognized that others would be jealous of this power, and went to great lengths to ensure that no one ever knew. It is our best kept secret. Every new generation is raised without knowing of their heritage, and no one knows every person among our number, to avoid betrayal and therefore extinction. We may only know our own line; I know my mother before me, and now I know you."
"Me?" Mito squeaked timidly.
Nanami continued as if she had not been interrupted. "Our talent is known as fuinjutsu, the art of sealing. It has many mundane uses, many of which have been uncovered by others since. Fuinjutsu to the Uzumaki, however, is especially used to sequester and control the powers of evil. When our children are born, the full extent of all of the knowledge that we have attained in our lifetime is copied and implanted within our children, sealed, of course. That seed of knowledge exists within you now. If I wished it, I could leave it there indefinitely, and you would never know. Of course, in doing that, I would end my lineage, and our art would be lost forever, and I cannot even be certain that I am not the last."
Mito stared into her teacup, troubled. What her mother was saying sounded like a madman's tale: demons with human faces and god trees and the power to imprison spirits? It all sounded just a little too fantastic. It was too farfetched, though, for the mother that she knew to have made it up, and that thought was even more disturbing.
"Mito," Nanami continued, excited now. "Do you understand what I am telling you?"
Mito shook her head. "Oka-san… forgive me, but I don't understand any of this."
Nanami frowned petulantly, pouting for her story needing extra explanation; apparently, her flair for drama was not entirely a fabrication. "Mito, you're a warden. Within you, dormant, lies the power of fuinjutsu. And, I have another secret. I'll tell you later. First—"
"Forgive me for interrupting," Mito piped up suddenly with a swipe of her hand, "but why are you only telling me this now? Why didn't you tell me before?" Before her father had named her whore to her face. Before she had run away. Before she had been stripped of all of her confidence and will. Why had she not learned of this supposed power when her spirit had been stronger? When she had had the desire and the drive to master it properly?
Nanami's smile slipped, and she looked away. "I wanted to," she said quietly. "But our abilities are too dangerous. If you'd have seen half the evil I have seen in my lifetime…" She trailed off, shut her eyes, remembering. When she opened them again, they were pleading, begging her forgiveness. "Would you give your child the power to play with monsters?"
Mito thought about Momoka, playing with her fireflies in the jar. She was just a child but… she had captured scores of them, had understood that she was enslaving them and bending their power to her will... Even when they had all died the next morning, all she did was go out the following evening and catch more. Too curious by half, Momoka had no understanding yet of right and wrong. "No," she admitted.
"Your father would have had you cowed and pliable, a tool to further his legacy," Nanami went on bitterly. "I had to know you were right for this, and that you would not let him control you and the immense responsibility entrusted to you." Suddenly her smile had returned again. "Did you know that I ran away from home when I was fifteen?" she asked suddenly, completely changing the subject, jarring Mito from her gloom.
Mito's eyes widened, and she gasped. "No! You?"
"Oh yes!" Nanami laughed. "I was much more willful than you were. We Uzumaki are extraordinarily headstrong. The warden lineage is a domineering personality. I had hoped that, no matter how hard your father pushed, that it was my genetics that would claim you in the end, and in this you were marvelous, my daughter," she declared, exultant, reaching for and squeezing Mito's hand. "There is no one in the world who deserves this power more, for in your hands you might protect the world better than the rest of us combined. There's so much more! But first, I need to unravel that seal. It is your birthright. It is why I am here."
Mito felt breathless. All of this sudden talk about god trees and demons was rather disconcerting. Before today she had not even known that such things existed. She hadn't read a whole lot of fiction as a child, but the legends about tailed beasts and vengeful gods had always frightened her. Did she even want this mysterious power? She was finally starting to feel contentment as a clan chief's wife. There was solace to be found in gardening, cooking meals, and hearing about the small victories of Hashirama's ultimate dream. She wasn't sure she wanted it to change, particularly not if those changes involved all manner of evil . "Do I have a choice?" she asked.
Nanami frowned. It was clear from her disconsolate expression that she had never considered the possibility that Mito would not want her power. "Yes, Mito," she finally said with grim reproof. "Though I would hope you would not be so foolish. If I die before releasing this seal, my fuinjutsu dies with you. You do not have to use it," she offered with a shrug. "I never have. But it would be better to have it in case it is needed, wouldn't it, rather than to need it and be powerless?"
Powerless, she repeated internally, tasting the bitterness of that word. She had known powerlessness, watching people choke on their own mouthfuls of air or try to hold their bodies together when the insides spilled out. She had known powerlessness when she had submitted her happiness to the whim of a man whose name she had never known who had never found her. She had known powerlessness, and she would not know it again. She had a hard time imagining what kind of need she would have for such a power but… she had a responsibility to Hashirama, and Momoka, and indeed, the whole village to consider. If there did come a time when she needed to intervene, how would she feel if she had turned down the power to do so? "Yes," she said unpleasantly. "You're right."
Nanami smiled ruefully. "It's not easy, is it? To know that you can save the world, but to also know you possess the choice to let it burn." Mito shook her head slowly, and Nanami squeezed her hand again with an outpouring of sympathy. "Those who desire power the least are those that should have it the most."
She thought immediately of Hashirama, and readily agreed. That was all it took to finish convincing her. She sat straighter, feeling the burdensome weight of responsibility "Alright. Unseal it." There were people that depended on her now. The time for selfish decisions was behind her.
Nanami would not give her the chance to change her mind; she stood and walked over behind her. Mito heard the rush of hand signs and the rustle of her mother's sleeves, and then her cool fingers upon the nape of her neck. Then, with a sharp gasp of ice cold air, an awareness flared within her like the opening of a magnificent flower. She froze and burned all over at once, a screaming agony that was also ecstatically sweet. She thought her heart would burst from the force of it, but just as quickly as the feeling had come, it rapidly ebbed, releasing her from its icy fingers until nothing remained but a trembling presence in her heart and a dull but insistent headache. I'm still here when you need me, it seemed to say, a meek presence that meant to serve her faithfully. "It's done," Nanami said calmly, as if she had needed to.
Yes, Mito could tell that it was done. She suddenly had the knowledge of a host of different sealing techniques, all stored as memory as if they had been there all along, and she had just forgotten that she knew them. "Wow," she uttered automatically, unable to contain the word as she hesitantly began sifting through the new techniques, laid out in her head like a lovingly organized library.
Nanami, back in her chair now, smiled brilliantly, a child who had finally gotten to tell a treasured secret. "Isn't it wonderful?" she exulted, breathless. Mito nodded, dumbstruck.
"Now, for that secret I promised," she announced. All of the jovial qualities of her voice were gone. Something dark and feral glittered in Nanami's dark eyes, a thick layer of intrigue that was so devious that she might never get to speak its equal in her lifetime.
And as Mito listened, she wept, for hers was a secret too terrible to comprehend, and keeping it would surely set Mito on a path into madness and chaos.
Total destruction, at least, was a surety.
And another A/N: I know you were probably hoping for the inevitable encounter between Madara and Mito... but I realized randomly one day that I didn't give Mito the sealing abilities she absolutely needs to have for later, so I came up with this random asspull to solve that little problem.
In the end, it worked out quite nicely, though. Mito needed some good kunoichi role models. ^_^