Hashirama was 'hatted' with the title of 'Fire Shadow', reluctantly filling in the secondary external advisor with Izuna once the former heir took over the Uchiha Clan. Shimura Yasunao, Danzō's cousin and the equally new Shimura Clan head, joined them as the internal advisor.
One head of the entire village of ninja supported as their leader, one advisor he picked to concentrate on the diplomatic and mission related affairs of the village and one for the inter-village issues.
Terazawa was a bit bemused at the entire arrangement, but eventually shrugged it off. She might be erroneously recalling how things should have gone these days, because Hashirama and Madara did have that fight which ended with a presumably dead but missing in action former Uchiha Clan head.
Besides which, the God of Shinobi was not talking about anything to do with Madara's sudden and flashy disappearance. If he, who was the only other one present for the incident and entire fight, would not say anything then it was not her place to question him. Nothing, not on his former co-founder nor why Mito had been called into the fight… nor that utterly inhuman burning surge of pure and utter loathing that Tera caught only a slight impression of yet left such a lingering insensible terror in her mind...
However much she really bitterly missed that burning ball of windy fire flirting about handling business with a grumpy and slightly dramatic intent around her. A bit of a sourpuss entirely Madara might've been, but he was one of the pillars upon which the Leaf was founded and they listed ever so slightly with his disappearance.
...in entirely unrelated news, apparently the ninth-tailed bijū seemingly had evaporated into nothing. No one quite knew where it had gone, nor why it happened so conveniently close to the fight the Leaf founders had… and from last anyone had seen it's wreckage as the nine tailed fox hunted for what it would, it should have reached the coast somewhere due east of the Leaf by now.
Recent events might contribute to how much sadistic glee she got in unnerving her darling baby sister's lover and father of her baby. Kiyosue, no clan name just yet, was a really rather interesting specimen of a male.
As Momomi had claimed, he was rather silent and had occasional melancholy moods when the whim hit him. The typical dark hair with slightly pale skin did not really speak of any native land all that well except of just a general 'northern's' coloring, and the muscles gave away a mercenary bent of lifestyle with more than enough active but ill-used chakra to make a decent shinobi or samurai if taught, but the eyes were of an interesting shade of yellow. Lamp-like, slightly shadowed due to a hard life, but clear enough.
The fact he was honestly pleased her baby sister had him tracked down and informed of his unborn child bought him only a tiny bit of leniency. Kesai was greatly amused at the entire affair and had invited herself along to the 'family dinner' just for the entertainment as both a 'friend of the family' and the tracker that had searched for nearly three months to find the male.
Momo, a bit of a belly that swelled with the child pushing her normal kunoichi attire askew as she really had little that wasn't waist-cropped kimonos or yukatas to fit into pants or long shorts, was delighted to be the only one cooking. Especially as she got to add in that her 'poison mistress' of a sister might not be able to resist spiking the food with something within Kiyosue's hearing.
Then Tobirama invited himself in without so much as dropping a word beforehand.
Pausing at the admittedly strange grouping they all made, Kesai didn't exactly stop being an Inuzuka kunoichi with the birth of her twin sons but she had missed most of their last few missions and Momo hadn't really informed any but her usual squad and the clan of her pregnancy just yet, the Senju heir blinked blankly. Looking first in askance at the new male as he stepped around the dogs lounging near the doorway, then giving the really only Sekanji heir ready to take headship if need be a glance over as he fully entered the large kitchen/living room, finally turning to Tera with a question in red eyes once he had the components in mind.
"Tobirama-sama, would you like to meet the father of my sweet little sister's new baby bump?"
Kiyosue might not have known a Sekanji from just another family that might have distinctive markings of any career path as he only just learned the black grease paint wasn't natural, or an Inuzuka kunoichi from any other ninja if it wasn't for the dogs, but even a wandering mercenary such as he knew more than enough to identify the shinobi Senju Clan's heir on sight when tipped off by the personal name.
This was the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and he had to go through one very amusing security check just to enter with Kesai once he had been informed he was wanted back by a woman he had a one-night-stand with because of a small issue of a baby conception. Three days of being detained, being held as a 'wanderer mercenary' just to check if he had any ill intent behind him by both questioning and Yamanaka, and finally Momo going to confirm that was the male she wanted invited in.
It would spread rumors of the Sekanji Clan head's little sister was pregnant by outsider about to become another member of the Leaf, but Tera really didn't mind all that much. The truth was not something she was ashamed of, and it was a legitimate way to broaden the genepool of an inclusive shinobi clan. The sire was not normally contacted in such instances, the samurai of the clan were all very bemused if thankfully mainly alright with the happening after so many years working alongside shinobi, and as she couldn't carry a baby to term then fudging a bit with the truth and claiming it was at least planned would keep too much vicious gossip about Momo's character from taking root and lingering long after the baby was born.
Besides which, while she might very well be semi-sure all her half-siblings were accounted for… the purple lines that marked the clan head's line of blood in the Sekanji Clan might be more recessive than the rest of the colors… or more dominant. Not being able to check that, Tera had at least widely encouraged the next generation seek companionship or at least sires outside of the clan.
Tricky to do, poison users and all, but not impossible.
Tobirama, apparently bored of staring down the really nervous new male, inclined his head shallowly and glanced at Kesai next.
"I'm fine, squad leader. The boys are driven me up a wall, or seven, but they're alright. I was looking for a bit of work that would be decently distracting and mostly safe just ta get them used to me leaving for a bit, the hime was very accommodating to point her little sister my way." Grinning in that wild way of her clan, the Inuzuka kunoichi slouched even more against the wall while petting Nori absently. "What brings you by?"
"A query."
Blinking the coppery eyes she shared with her little sister, the Sekanji Clan head tilted her head to the side questioningly. The albino Senju stared back at her blandly.
"You did not inform brother nor I, or Mito, of such developments, Tera."
Ah… he had picked up on it.
Using one of her bladed war fans to hide the smirk, the poison mistress hummed lowly. "Well, you three are most certainly invited to the wedding. If there is to be one. A funeral is not too out of the question either."
Kiyosue was not a slow man, for all he was of few words. Already on his feet given the rank of the newly arrived really important shinobi guest, he slid with slightly clumsy stealth more to where Momo was cheerfully humming herself as she plated up various foods to serve as dinner.
"Momomi, by chance, is your 'lady sister'...?"
"The Sekanji Clan head? Why yes, we were trying not to alarm you too much with more information than you might like… sorry for not telling you myself. I had planned on it after this, but… well. Duty waits for no one."
Tera smirked wickedly now, half folding her fan so the rest of her 'usual squad' could see.
"She might not be a 'nice' woman, per say, but she loves me so." Continued the youngest kunoichi in the room, placing two plates of fried rice and some kind of stir fry into his hands to set on the dining table. "The baby will also be clan heir, Kiyosue. I'm… sorry, if that's a bit much to take at once."
"No. Merely… just… surprising."
Tobirama very blandly rolled his eyes. An impressive ability, given the usual use of such expression. Echoed half a second later by the triplicate snorts from the canines or canine like kunoichi in the room.
Ah well, the male would learn. Eventually. Lying to shinobi or just trying to deceive them was a difficult thing to accomplish if you had little experience with ninja or the act itself.
"Dinner then, little sister?"
"Stay over there, lady sister. I know better."
"Would it be too much trouble to include another, Momo-chan?"
"Of course not, Tobirama-sama. We would be honored."
Hmm… fuck. Tera hadn't quite figured out her feelings on the matter of her squad leader and teammate.
"You know, I would be a poor Sekanji indeed if I had to touch anything to poison it."
"...poison?"
"Well," Momo admitted to her hopefully future husband in a bit of a faked embarrassed manner, "we are a clan of ninja poison users. I can use them, as most other Sekanji, but my lady sister is a master of such things. She's truly toxic."
"Made missions a bit of a bitch." Kesai recalled fondly in a conversational tone. "Either it was over with too quick, or you had to hold your breath for a while as the enemy dropped dead all of a sudden around you. Then there's that toxic blood issue."
"I believe that was what my beloved baby sister was speaking of, Kesai-chan."
"Ah. Right." Pulling a faked thoughtful face, the other kunoichi shrugged. "Did come in useful a few times, when they thought to ambush us while they tried distracting the squad leader with some kind of trick. Especially your poisonous hair."
"It is rather amusing when they will poison themselves without my aid." Allowed Tera as dishes were transferred to the rather small dining table by a still cheerful Momo and one slower and highly wary Kiyosue.
Who wasn't yet looking as if he regretted accepting the invitation to be part of his child's life in a ninja village. However they poked and prodded him for his limits and the elements that made up his character in probably unkind ways.
Interesting.
Perhaps her little sister's rather romantic nature was shared somewhat?
Or was the male just really duty-bound and seeking to make the best of things he could?
(ooo000ooo)
"He's not bad. Bit green."
"Kesai-chan, he isn't shinobi. Dealing with us takes either long experience or a shared interest in our fields of study." Terazawa reminded the Inuzuka kunoichi idly, walking with the other woman through the darkened streets of the Leaf to give her baby sister some time to calm her male down after a fraught dinner with shady characters as Tobirama's occasional yet partial mission squad. "We are a murderous, inclusive, rather shadowy, and utterly unapologetic of such. Even our own civilians, the supporting families that have dedicated their lives past and present to aiding us through the warring era of loose clans to the now of coexistence, are sometimes not understanding of our ways."
They never really did find a fourth squad member they all liked equally well, and they had a lot of those.
"Kiyosue-san at least was mainly honest in remaining still." Commented the Senju heir equally as absently, merely following along for reasons of his own. "Interesting for that at least, if not practiced as some would like."
"Exactly. Hime, I don't think your baby sister could do better than him. Sure, might be better fighters and shinobi around these days… but really, strength isn't everything." Kesai waved a clawed hand in the air between them, then shrugged. "If she's gotta live with him, that kind of grit and perseverance while raising a ninja child would be… ideal."
"For all that he is merely a mercenary sell sword, he does have an interesting amount of untrained chakra to him." Allowed the poison mistress after a moment's thought. "Not that my baby sister is a bad kunoichi in and of herself, she had not taken a reassessment since the Sekanji joined the Leaf and could probably reach my own now, but even untrained power that can show up in a non-shinobi or samurai mercenary can only improve the child's own stock later in life."
"Perhaps," Tobirama interjected a touch wryly, "she has not done so for her elder sister and clan head has not done so either. You have improved as well, Tera."
"I am fine with my rank. I made it to tokubetsu jōnin on my own, mainly, before we joined the village."
It wasn't like getting the full rank advancement would do much for her. Clan heads didn't really often go on missions all that much, it depended mostly on if they felt like it or if a specialty was needed and none of the others of the clans could fill in.
Or they were requested by rank or name.
Tera had a few rare ones like that, occasionally around the Land of Fire yet more often for noble-things as Tobirama had dreaded all those years ago when accompanying her back to the ancestral Sekanji Clan compound. More when the plague outbreak earned her some unwanted fame in those circles, less often from distant villages fearing the emergence of other illnesses that might murder off their entire population.
...so they hired a poison mistress to come out and inoculate them against such. Yet again, ninjas and logic tended to have a merely passing acquaintance whereas common sense was normally scorned.
Tokubetsu jōnin also suggested she was merely so for either the clan head rank or for her poison specialty, not for any real combat or assault specialty. Which made her winds, sharpened for death or blunt for shock and laced with so much death or illness as they could be, all the more surprising.
"...has it been half a decade already?" Questioned the poison mistress after a moment of more thought, oddly circling back to that very point.
Kesai snorted with good humor. "I know, right? It seems… kind of like yesterday we were out there and running around desperately to hold things together for just another year or so."
Tobirama made his 'I'm not entirely paying you all much attention but keep the conversation going' hum, snagging his kunoichi subordinates' attentions even as they continued in an aimless walk he was now subtly guiding by merely distancing himself so they could have 'girl talk'.
"Desperately would be the word for such. You realize, that had Hashirama-sama and Tobirama-sama not been there with their students that last raid… we would have had to kill you."
The Inuzuka clicked her tongue, getting Moto and Nori to pick a woman each to shadow and 'guard'. "Yeah… we knew. You were the only ones in range that would have what we really needed after a bad scuffle for most of Earth, however toxic of a revenge you left behind it might've been worth it if we could just have surprised you all into not reacting as quick as you usually are."
"Were you on the field that day, Kesai-chan? I will admit, I did not closely inspect all but that last… oh."
Counting how many dogs were to one Inuzuka was a tactic for getting to recognize one on sight, not a very good one but one used anyways. Even taking into account one or more dogs might be sick or otherwise impaired and not following their master around. It was honestly impressive how much just removing the dogs suggested one wasn't an Inuzuka Clan member.
"Oh indeed." Mocked Kesai with good humor, patting the canine padding along at her hip. "Moto was injured and not able to run, hime, your backswing tactic took both me and Nori out in an instant."
"...I suppose, in hindsight, that was why Hashirama-sama was so very pleased with us not picking a fight with each other while on mission."
"I figured you didn't really hold grudges at all, hime. That, and ya let me pick fun at you yet would share the joys of the mission with me if you could… well, wasn't much of a point. Really. And you're great fun to have, if a little wordy and a bit of an icy bitch if you're distracted or something needs to be done quick."
Tera dropped one of her fans in hand just to tease the other and because it seemed it would be used in short order as she picked up on what Tobirama was more focused upon. "My, my… Kesai-chan. You should choose your words a touch more carefully… such scandalous meanings could be taken from such frank assessments of my… virtues."
Catching on that they were getting in range, the Inuzuka cackled as she tilted her head back and took subsequent sniffs of what might be drifting on the air. "Virtues, is it now? What of our ever so and equally icy squad leader? Got any… virtues for him?"
Damn the woman.
"He… is one of those strong yet silent types, is he not?" Evaded the Sekanji Clan head wryly. "And, as with many shinobi, so very pretty."
"That's all you got?"
Tera eyed the other kunoichi from over her open fan with a large dose of exasperation. "Do you really wish to do this, now?"
Kesai, even knowing the younger woman would get her revenge eventually, grinned lavishly at her. "What, embarrassed hime? I'll admit he's tasty to eye up, won't you?"
"Of course." Forced the poison mistress in a faked even murmur through clenched teeth, striving to control the stupid blush as she was not a blushing maiden. "But… well, he is right there."
And… not really moving as far anymore, even if this tactic called for him to 'leave' the kunoichi pair somewhat 'obviously' on their own as they did wicked woman things no male liked to put up with.
...oh dear.
The numbers hadn't changed for a few moments, making it unlikely he was changing what tactic to use. They had frankly sprung too many traps with this before such a night, a well-working maneuver for just this sort of incident he had not made any mention of changing to them before heading out to intercept.
The only real change, from any number of previous occasions outside their village's walls much like this one, was that Kesai was being very blunt and nosy about what the other kunoichi thought of their team leader.
"See… there's the thing. We got ourselves a good working pair of betas. Hunter types, not the ones you want to find down a dark alleyway staring back at ya with bared teeth, gentle if need be but more suited for the chase and fight. One's keen of sense the other wickedly intelligent, for all they're both smart and able to pick up what the other does. By nature, it'd be smart to breed such a pair… wouldn't it?"
"Well… if it's by nature… the bitch isn't a breeder." Tera informed her silkily, rather put out by the entire conversation now. "That kind of thing… just sometimes doesn't happen."
"And if the male sticks around her anyways? 'Cause it sure as shit ain't my gorgeous self, pupped already with another mate."
"Are we discarding the allegory already?"
"Give over, Tera-hime." Coaxed the Inuzuka wickedly with a few snapped fingers to signify how many she picked up so far. "What is there to be afraid of?"
"Temptation." Tera refuted stoutly, probably a bit stronger than she really should have done and a wave of her fan to confirm the numbers. "Opening that door leads to more. I am not a 'good' woman, if there was another to lead the clan and now with my little sister finding her own family away from me… there would be little in this village that would hurt me by dying or leaving. I would be free to leave, to do as I thought as a child and become a hermit herbalist happily away from others that delight in making issue with myself or how I live."
Kesai clicked her tongue again, getting her dogs to reposition themselves to be waist-high obstacles to any sudden rush. "Never took you for a coward, hime."
"I am, a rather craven one in truth. I do not have a large heart, it is a twisted and very small wretched thing. Easily shattered, you know."
"But there's the rub. You do love, in your own twisted way. Otherwise you wouldn't put the fear of the kami into your little sister's mate, in informing him just being 'somewhat interesting' ain't going to be enough for her. Not to you, nor your people or those you befriend." A lascivious start or not, the other kunoichi's smirk was bitterly wry now. "It ain't going to last, hime. Scorn it now, and be lonely forever, or take a chance-"
"And what? Break when it's over?" Tera shot back a bit scathingly. "Because it will be over and I will break in the end, for I am the foolish sort who will not look back once I take such risk. My toxins, my poisons, my sister, my clan, this village. I may not like them all equally, in truth some tax my patience in full, but I have put my faith in them and we all made out so much better for it against the odds. When will I take a risk that will not pay out so well? The next one? Once I press my toxins just that little bit more to see what I can become? In trying to handle yet another infectious disease, only for that one to be one that cannot be cured?"
"Hmm…" Rocking back on her heels, Kesai gave her a much reduced but utterly less irked grin. "...interesting that you didn't put anyone but your little sister on that list. 'The village' is it? What about those peppy brats you keep sighing over? Your apprentice? The Senju Clan's head, the alpha, who ran that risk on ya? You were ever so slightly depressed and mopey once the news broke that Madara, the other alpha, left us just out of the blue like that. I hadn't thought the two of you were friends… for all you delighted in teasing him."
"...it is painfully obvious for those with a sense for chakra that Madara-sama is… not here. I live next to the Uchihas, Kesai. I spent nearly every night of those last few years with him also unwinding for the night in his own home just on the edge of what I can feel. With a sense of his burning windy fire stalking about, in his very grumpy but also very prideful care of duty to those he invited into this village with Hashirama-sama, it was comforting in the early rocky days. As you are right, we were not the greatest of friends but I saw him as a part of my life anyways through sheer proximity, his loss is still a gaping hole in my day now. Do I make that worse with the next one, when Hashirama-sama is already yet another of those that I can feel at nearly all times? His wife? All things die and end, Kesai. It is the only single truth I will never question."
"So what about me? Our little pack's alpha over there?" Waving a hand at Tobirama, who somehow managed to turn around without Tera noticing the movement for all she was rather taught with nerves given the topic and what was moving against them, the Inuzuka kunoichi sighed rather deeply. "You let us fuss over you, ban your pert noblewoman's ass from your own labs even if we really don't have the right to tell you no. Not when what you do tend to end in life-saving ways that letting you do as you please might advance a day or two quicker. You won't even give us unsightly rashes from touching you without permission. Do we already count in that wretched thing you're trying to pass off as a heart?"
"I think." Announced the poison mistress flatly. "We should get to work."
Seizing the first of the non-Leaf ninja attempting to both eavesdrop on the conversation yet also avoid notice, the Senju Clan heir hoisted the heavily garbed man off his feet to dangle in the air for a few moments. "Welcome to the Leaf."
A heavy fist knocked the man into the far wooden fence that separated the neatly regimented housing district that was a completely civilian sector of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
...a touch hard, for all he was one of a pair of ninja sneaking about the village without really being one of them. Additionally, one needed to be kept in good condition for the Yamanaka Clan to… 'process'. As the other one was a bit occupied trying to dodge two canines intent on ripping out his tendons, which included a lot of unfortunate blood loss and gnawed limbs, meant that one should've been the one painlessly restrained to be sent.
A shine of metal, four squiggly markings set in two rows of two columns, and the Sekanji Clan head sighed.
Mist, so nine 'ninja villages hidden in something' now existed.
The last of the 'Great Five Shinobi Nations' were now established.
War it was, then.
(Terazawa, using the activated charcoal that her clan used for generations to get around their children swallowing nominally lethal amounts of their parents' poisons, created a kind of half-mask affair that would filter about two hours' worth of breathing air no matter how finely pulverized the poison used against the wearer would be. It took most of two months, keeping her out of the house and more importantly in her private labs, while Kiyosue adjusted to the fact his to-be-wife and mother of his baby was a very content kunoichi poison user. And that his very new to-be-sister-in-law was a not particularly nice poison mistress that ran their clan, meaning his yet-to-be-born baby would be the heir because Tera was utterly tired of being clan head so regardless of gender the baby would be next and that would be that. Tobirama very pointedly snatched the prototype half gas mask away from Tera to toss at a confused Nara instead of let the Sekanji Clan head test her own invention, hauling her off in a not particularly nice manner to be yelled at by both Mito and Hashirama for attempting to do it herself with something highly toxic instead of by level headed Naras and by grades of toxicity in a slower method of sensible testing.)