In which Robert Burns is ripped off, among others. Spot the shout-outs!
Bondage
Tobirama opens his eyes to light, birdsong and an armful of wife and takes stock of his situation. First of all, he refuses to just cower in the house whenever Izuna isn't here. He did it this time yes, but he will not do so again. Yes, he has wronged many Uchiha, but closeting himself away from them will not improve matters. He needs to be seen, to do normal things like take walks and buy fish and visit acquaintances, or else his life here will be small indeed. He has committed to Izuna for the rest of his life, so he needs to start making an effort to integrate into her clan.
If they spit in his face, well they spit in his face. They will at least not be spitting in Izuna's face.
Izuna shifts in his arms, chakra sharpening slightly. "Hn?"
"Just thinking about what I'd like to do today," he murmurs, kissing her hair and letting his fury fade. Kiso will spend the afternoon being babysat by Midori-chan, so he needs to decide if he'd like to go out first thing while it's cooler and possibly take the toddler with him, or not risk the toddler witnessing the potentially hostile reception Tobirama is likely to receive. Izuna had told him the Uchiha Trading Branch would be coming back to the clan compound for Tanabata, but he hadn't actually realised until Katsuma barged in what that would mean.
The clan's warriors either tolerate him or avoid him; he hadn't expected confrontation to come from civilian clansmen, but maybe he should have done.
No wait; he did have problems early on, with the trapped bento boxes. It was just that Izuna dealt with the issue swiftly and apparently very finally, as there were no further attempts thereafter. However the Trading Branch weren't here for that and did not experience those many weeks of acclimatisation to his presence in the Diplomatic Quarters –or the shock of the assassination attempt– in which come to terms with him. They have simply come home to find the killer of their kin comfortably ensconced in one of the clan's finest houses, and have reacted accordingly.
"And what would you like to do today, Heart's Treasure?"
"I think," Tobirama decides, "I would like to visit Azumaya-ba. First thing after breakfast."
"In a pretty kimono?" Her voice is thick with sleep, but there's a hopeful note in her chakra that makes him smile and press another kiss to the top of her head.
"Just an everyday kimono I think, but I need practice with that hanging bow knot you showed me so I'll wear the bridge obi." He will wear the mulberry purple leno-weave with the wave-crest pattern, because that is his favourite and will contrast well with the figured damask.
"My treasure will look very fine," Izuna drawls, sensual heat fluttering in her chakra. Tobirama considers the light, calculates how long it will be until Kiso wakes for breakfast –not for a while yet– and decides that yes, there's time for this:
"Would my Lord-Wife indulge me with her body on this fine summer's morning?"
She tilts up her face to look at him; brown-black eyes blink languidly as she smiles. "I am entirely yours," she murmurs, shifting onto her back, "to enjoy as would please you best. Unless you would rather I do the pleasing?"
"No," Tobirama rumbles, reaching for the belt and ties holding her sleeping yukata closed, "I am in the mood for a little early-morning exertion today." He bends in to kiss her mouth, deep and deliciously messy. "What would please me," he murmurs darkly upon pausing for breath, "would be my brilliant, powerful wife completely yielding herself to me, so that I may savour her body at my leisure." He smirks, slow and wicked. "We will have to hope Kiso-kun does not wake early."
Since the rains began he has made good on his resolution to have sex with his wife in every accessible room of the house, so the only spaces left undesecrated are her study, the kitchen... and the tea-house in the garden.
The kitchen is not truly their space, being more the domain of Naka-Dragon and Hayami-chan, so he will leave it be. His wife's study is barred to him, so he will have to wait for her to make good on her own promises there. The tea-house and the garden more generally however… he has plans.
"Such a dreadful tease," his wife sighs as she goes lax on the futon beside him, "so cruel, threatening to leave me unsatisfied."
"I promise not to leave for my outing before bringing you to your peak, Izuna," Tobirama croons, kissing and nibbling at her throat as his hands roam lightly over her body inside her open sleepwear, "even if that means cornering you in your bedroom after breakfast and pinning you to those nice sturdy tansu, since apparently the fusuma won't take my weight."
She chuckles almost soundlessly, head tilted back of the pillow and chest shaking; smug at her reaction, Tobirama tugs his own sleeping yukata open and sets about making today a really good morning.
His wife is still laughing joyfully as she peaks, and he has long since joined her in her mirth by that point.
Azumaya-ba does not have her own house; Tobirama isn't sure why he's surprised by this. The Uchiha are a much larger clan than the Senju and their compound is far more compact, very little in the way of unused space between residences, gardens and variously farmed fields; it follows that they'd also share their homes with other relatives. He really should have expected this; he already knew Takao shared a house with his sister-in-law and her children.
It makes his visit a little awkward though, to arrive where Azumaya-ba lives and find the farmhouse is also home to her niece and nephew-in-law and their children, as well as another widowed niece-in-law and her children. Tobirama is greeted as 'O-Neko-san' by a gaggle of cheerful under-tens, several of whom are faintly familiar –though seeing as he's never sensed their chakra before he might be mistaken there– and endures the wary gaze and fearful chakra of the woman boiling long, thin branches in a large shallow trough over a fire.
Azumaya-ba thankfully emerges very swiftly; Tobirama is then introduced to Kanemi, the woman boiling branches –who is the widowed niece-in-law– Tae the niece and her husband Inasa, who is a blacksmith enjoying a few days off, before being firmly corralled and taken around to the orchard between this house and the neighbouring one, which is full of nashi trees and chickens.
It is of course raining, but Tobirama has his umbrella and also the new michiyuki raincoat Izuna bought for him, oiled silk in blue-grey with a large diagonal lattice pattern in blue-white. Very traditional Rain Country colours, she'd told him with a laugh; it is certainly proving a very good coat, protecting his kimono from mud splatters. It's a little difficult to manoeuvre an umbrella in an orchard populated by chickens, but he manages. He just has to not get caught in the trees or step on the birds.
Azumaya-ba, wearing a raincoat of her own and a wide-brimmed hat, props a short ladder against one of the pear trees and climbs up to examine the leaves. "I'm checking for caterpillars, Tobirama-kun," she says as he tilts his umbrella up enough to keep her in view; "they can be hard to find in the spring, but when it rains they like to retreat to the drier parts of the tree, making them easier to catch and remove."
"Why not just squash them?" Tobirama asks. Azumaya-ba laughs at him.
"The chickens will enjoy them, Tobirama-kun! That way they won't go to waste. Now tell me what brings you to my doorstep on this fine soggy morning." She throws down a caterpillar, causing a brief scuffle among the glossy black hens congregating around the base of the trunk.
"I feel I should better get to know my wife's kinsmen," he says, "and wondered if you could provide some introductions."
"Hn, does Izuna-bi know you're asking me?"
"No," Tobirama replies honestly, "but I have noticed how her presence tends to affect people's reactions." Izuna is Manifest Amaterasu Head, and thus the most powerful person within the clan despite Tajima leading their warriors. She is still in training –as far as he can deduce– but once her elders have pronounced her capable she will be de-facto Clan Head, with her father and later her brother managing the clan's military and diplomatic arm.
An odd division of power for a shinobi clan, but one that has doubtless grown from their unusual roots as an Imperial Ministry gone rogue.
The auntie cackles. "So true! Ah well then, I will happily make introductions for you. In the meantime, how about you fetch the other ladder and help me weed out the caterpillars?"
"I am not sure I can juggle an umbrella and a ladder, Ba-san."
"Good point; let me find you a hat."
Two hours of caterpillar-throwing wins him the eternal devotion of Azumaya-ba's hens; they follow him out of the orchard afterwards and a good way down the street before all but one of them go back to worm-hunting under the trees, awaiting his no-doubt-inevitable return. The older lady sniggers at him as that last hen marches after him, making soft self-absorbed chicken noises in between pecking at the road dust.
"My, my, what will your wife say about your young admirer?"
"Order her ritually slaughtered as a warning to others," Tobirama says blandly as they turn a corner, the inky hen at his heels making a short dash so as to keep up with the little patch of shelter provided by the back of his umbrella.
"Not going to plead for the life of the first member of your harem?" Azumaya-ba teases him.
"It is my wife's harem," Tobirama says firmly, making Azumaya-ba snort, "and the only individual in it is me."
"All rivals to be summarily done away with, I see how it is," the older woman cackles at him, then throws back her head and laughs louder when he smirks sinisterly at her.
They turn another corner, cross an intersection –Tobirama's feathery admirer still clucking along behind him– and head down a narrower, less-travelled path between two farms. Then as they turn into the yard of the left-hand farm a startlingly large black rooster rises from the edge of the vegetable patch where his harem are vigorously slaughtering the local pest population and wails, charging forwards.
Tobirama stands his ground, because showing weakness to poultry is never a good plan. His immobility prompts the rooster to stop, puff itself up and wail again for a startlingly loud and interminable moment.
The hen comes up beside him, comfortably under the shelter of the umbrella, and also ignores the male posturing taking place at knee-height.
Daring to glance over at the house, Tobirama sees a door open and somebody lean out, wave then dart back inside before reappearing again a few moments later in sandals and a wide-brimmed hat. "Azumaya-ba! Lovely to see you," the man says as he walks into reach, smiling warmly and shooing off the flouncing rooster, which squawks in offended outrage but does retreat back to its harem.
"And you much be Tobirama-sama," the man adds. Tobirama eyes him; he has the weathered skin and muscles of a farmer, but is on the more solidly-built end for an Uchiha. He's also decently tall, and meets Tobirama's eyes fearlessly.
"I'm Haruto. My wife's told me quite a bit about you," the man goes on amiably; "she was Izuna-bi's first Squad Leader, so she saw quite a lot of you those first few years."
This might well be the 'Haruto-ji' that was mentioned regarding the 'Naka-ba' that Izuna visited before her heart-to-heart with him; Sakuya-chan's parents. Tobirama racks his brain; the Squad Leader he remembers had the looks of a somewhat classically handsome man, but with Uchiha that apparently means very little. "Wields two swords, likes to banter?" He checks.
Uchiha Haruto beams at him. "That's my wife! She'll be delighted to be remembered; come inside and drink tea."
Well with an invitation like that, how can he refuse?
The chicken, thankfully, stays outside. It might even wander back to Azumaya-ba's orchard while he's out of sight.
Naka Two-Swords, as Haruto introduces his wife as, is even more ebullient than Tobirama remembers and utterly without anything resembling a grudge; in the first five minutes of forceful chatter he learns that she had to retire upon taking a disabling shoulder injury shortly before the daimyo-demanded ceasefire that he took advantage of to spend half a year in Uzushio, and is too glad at still being alive to take personally against the Senju warriors who were responsible for that.
"I'm alive, Tobirama-kun," she says earnestly, laugh-lines creasing the corners of her eyes and tone warm, "and that's everything that matters. So they were trying to kill me; it's not like I wasn't trying to kill them right back, so it'd be terribly hypocritical of me to hold it against them, wouldn't it?"
She's also pregnant; a few months further along than Izuna is by the look of things. He doesn't comment, but his host easily notices his glances at the curve of her abdomen through her working indigoes and rattles off a cheerful monologue over the brewing tea:
"I always wanted to be a warrior –my mother and aunt were both warriors before marrying– and since I had strong chakra and people to get me started, I was in basic training from eight and joined the Outguard at fourteen, as you do. I was a Squad Leader by nineteen, and when I was twenty-four I got Sukeari-kun on my Squad; he was sixteen then, but he's a grown-up Mentor now with a Squad of his own to guide. Anyway, having Sukeari-kun on my Squad for two years meant meeting his family, which of course included Haruto-san," she grins at her husband, "since he's Sukeari-kun's big brother. And he decided to court me and didn't expect me to retire and keep house for him, so I married him! Then Sakuya-chan came along two years later and I took a year off, which was just as well because Tajima-sama saddled me with Izuna-bi right about then, so I had time to slowly work up to peak fitness on easy missions." She grins, inviting him to share the joke: "You certainly kept things interesting though, Tobirama-kun."
"Not all of those encounters were intentional," Tobirama admits. His sensing range had not been as wide or precise then –if still respectably large– but when running missions solo or just with one other warrior, it had been sensible as a pre-teen to avoid Izuna's Squad whenever possible off the battlefield.
Unfortunately however there'd been a number of mission overlaps which retrospectively he suspects were orchestrated by clients at least half the time, and he had clashed with Izuna on numerous occasions, with varying degrees of success.
He'd also gone through a regrettable number of mission partners before finally being given Shurō, whose finely-tuned sense of when to retreat has kept him alive to this day.
"Ah well, missions," his host shrugs her left shoulder, the right one evidently a little too stiff for the movement to be fluidly comfortable, "it's what brings in the money. Anyway, Tajima-sama moved Izuna-bi when she was thirteen and life went on, if a little less interestingly without her commentary and your regular visits." She winks playfully at him as she passes him a cup of tea. "And then five years later I get my shoulder hacked open during a border skirmish and almost die, but manage not to lose the arm thanks to Yori-chan and her experimental chakra healing, so I take it as the sign it is and retire to teach kenjutsu and learn coopering from my Nee-san. And then a year later I'm pregnant again! Not at all expected, but very welcome; never thought I'd have another child after Sakuya-chan, what with choosing the battlefield over the kitchen, but I can't wait to meet them."
Sakuya-chan, sat across the iori with her father, is carefully embroidering a slightly worn indigo blanket with brightly-coloured flowers, dogs and other auspicious patterns by the light coming in through the open kitchen shōji.
"And of course, being retired from the field means more time for the finer things in life," Naka Two-Swords continues cheerfully, "like theatre! I'm helping arrange a production for Tanabata; several productions really, as with the trading Branch being home there's enough of us theatre-lovers to put on two separate full-length plays. We're doing 'Curse of the Black Pearl' again, of course, but I'm getting the impression the other one is going to be 'The Life of Biei-Fuji' so you might want to give it a miss, Tobirama-kun."
Yes, that is probably a very good idea; he doesn't want to see that. Especially not now.
"Don't worry, nobody's going to write a play about you and Izuna-bi until you're both dead. Well, won't publish it until then," Naka Two-Swords corrects herself scrupulously, "but I suspect people are already writing poetry. Izuna-bi potentially included; she's very musical."
"I noticed," Tobirama agrees dryly.
Azumaya-ba cackles from her seat on Sakuya's other side. "Won't publish until they're sure there's unlikely to be more action they might miss," she corrects wickedly, "so give it a decade or so; if you ask Izuna-bi nicely she might put out a veto."
Tobirama very much does not want to ever see a dramatisation of his abduction and subsequent experiences. Bad enough that it's probably already being written down for historical purposes, given that a suspension of the feud between their clans is almost unprecedented in all the centuries it's been going on; having it turned into entertainment leaves a bad taste in his mouth.
"Well, look on the bright side," Naka Two-Swords says, patting his shoulder, "no longer being in the field means Izuna-bi's going to have a lot more time for her own composing, and that should keep everybody entertained for a bit."
"You say that like any of what she writes is fit to be sung in public," Tobirama retorts dryly, cradling his teacup.
His host throws back her head and whoops with laughter.
"I assure you, Tobirama-sama," Haruto says from across the iori, eyes dancing as Naka Two-Swords continues to laugh uninhibitedly, "Izuna-bi has written a great many songs and even several plays, all perfectly suited for performing in public. 'The Secret Garden' is very popular with the clan's children, for instance, and there is no Uchiha anywhere who will argue that her Farewells are less than achingly, cathartically heartfelt."
"Farewells?" Tobirama asks cautiously.
"For singing after funerals," Sakuya pipes up abruptly; "to say goodbye, so our kin know it's okay to move on."
It is somehow unsurprising that in addition to desperately inappropriate love-songs, Izuna also writes laments. He is not so crass as to ask her to sing any of those for him, though.
"What's your favourite of Izuna-san's songs, Sakuya-chan?" He asks instead. The pre-teen pauses over her embroidery, frowning thoughtfully.
"I like 'I See Fire,'" she decides eventually.
"That's a rather sad song, don't you think Sakuya-chan?" Azumaya-ba asks.
The girl nods. "It's sad and hopeful and determined all at once," she says firmly, "and I like it. It's a good song: it's real."
"It is very real, kitten," Naka Two-Swords agrees quietly, "and it is a very good song. But I think what Ba-san means is that it's not restful."
"My favourite restful song is 'Green Grow The Rushes Oh,'" Sakuya-chan says, grinning mischievously.
Haruto laughs. "The sweetest hours I ever spent, were spent among the ladies, oh," he sings, voice rough but mostly tuneful.
"A mission song if ever there was one," Naka Two-Swords agrees, shaking her head. "But a sweet one and perfectly decent, for all that." She gets to her feet in an easy graceful movement. "Just let me grab my biwa, Tobirama-kun, and Sakuya-chan can sing it for you while I play."
It is indeed very sweet:
"Nothing but toil on every side, in every hour that passes, oh; what would be the life of man, if it were not for the ladies, oh? Green grow the rushes, oh; green grow the rushes, oh-oh-oh! The sweetest hours I ever spent, were spent among the ladies, oh." Sakuya-chan's voice is high and thin but clear, and the song is a slow one that leaves plenty of space for the biwa's melody.
Azumaya-ba's voice shakes a little, but is much stronger. "Worldly men may riches chase; riches still outpace them, oh; and though at last they catch them fast, their hearts cannot enjoy them all. Green grow the rushes, oh; green grow the rushes, oh-oh-oh! The sweetest hours I ever spent, were spent among the ladies, oh."
"But give me a quiet hour or two," Haruto sings with a smile, "my arms around my lover, oh; and worldly cares and worldly men, may chase the wind without me, oh! Green grow the rushes, oh-oh-oh; green grow the rushes, oh! The sweetest hours I ever spent; were spent among the ladies, oh."
Naka Two-Swords voice is clearest and strongest, showing off vocal training and also considerable practice: "You so great you sneer at this; you're naught but foolish duckies oh! The wisest man the world did see; he dearly loved the ladies, oh. Green grow the rushes, oh; green grow the rushes, oh-oh-oh! The sweetest hours I ever spent, were spent among the ladies, oh."
The last ripple of notes fades away as his host quiets the biwa strings.
"That is a restful song, Sakuya-chan," Tobirama concedes, "and very pretty." Also very definitely a song that has been sung for both geisha and noblewomen and on multiple occasions, if he is any judge of his wife.
The girl looks pleadingly at her mother. "Can you play it again? So Tobirama-nii-san can sing along this time?"
Naka Two-Swords hums noncommittally, glancing at Tobirama; Sakuya-chan instantly turns wide, hopeful eyes on him.
"How about you sing and I join in for the choruses," he concedes; it's not like it's a terrible or embarrassing song, after all, and it will pass the time.
By the time Naka Two-Swords is willing to let him escape Tobirama has been coaxed into discussing his recent reading –in which he has it confirmed that, classical literature or not, 'The Great Sage of Evil' is not popular among Uchiha– and leaves with a pair of new novels as well as several recommendations, including for 'The Chronicle of Enki Palace' which he has the first two volumes of already, so does not need to be given.
'Crane Startles Kunlun' is one he's heard of –it's by the same author of 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' and that book has been a classic for centuries– but the second one, subtitled 'the tale of Minglan,' is unfamiliar. Possibly because it was written for a female audience, so nobody ever thought to mention its existence to him; Naka Two-Swords described it as political court drama, not so different to 'General Stands Above Me' except that 'General Stands Above Me' is a comedy as much as a political drama.
As distinct from 'Enki Palace,' which is a harem drama. The differences are a matter of scale, dictating the reach of the players involved. However they're all classics, many hundreds of years old and reprinted regularly, so even if he decides he doesn't like them he will still be able to talk to people about them, or even read commentaries if he decides he wants to know more about the settings and subtext.
It's a little odd to be reading books older than the Elemental Nations, stories that have outlasted the empire that preceded it. There's nothing really left of those times except the stories, the occasional ancient settlement –towering buildings of exotic yet hardwearing materials looming far above the treeline, usually deserted due to their sheer impracticality and lack of amenities– and the vaccines and laboratory-made materials that past medics and chemists put so much effort and care into preserving the production methods of.
Unfortunately, stepping outside the house reveals that Azumaya-ba's enamoured chicken has not wandered off or –as he had hoped– forgotten its newfound fixation with him. It having stopped raining only means there are now more people moving around the compound to see him walking home with a determined black hen strutting at his heels, Azumaya-ba cackling into her sleeve beside him.
By the time they get back to the Amaterasu Residence Tobirama is thinking vindictively of oyakodon and rain is spotting once more; he arrives to find Izuna and Kiso in the garden. The toddler immediately runs up to him to hug his legs, then pauses and draws back as he notices the attendant poultry.
"Cluck-cluck?" He asks, leaning sideways to try and see more of the crow-feathered bird currently pecking at the dust behind Tobirama's ankles.
"Yes Kiso-kun," Tobirama agrees, the childish sweetness of the epithet softening his irritation, "it's one of Azumaya-ba's chickens."
Kiso looks up at him, then at Azumaya-ba, then back at the chicken. "Why cluck-cluck here?" he asks curiously.
"Is that Ganko-chan?" Izuna asks, wandering closer.
"It is indeed, Izuna-bi," Azumaya-ba says gleefully; "she's taken a shine to Tobirama-kun."
The hen being named 'Stubborn' is not promising.
"How does a chicken get a name like that?"
"By firmly turning her beak up at every last rooster in the compound," Azumaya-ba says, voice wobbling slightly with glee, "and also showing up in my garden at less than two months old then refusing to leave. Until now."
Tobirama turns to his wife. "I was thinking we could have oyakodon," he suggests hopefully.
Izuna laughs. "You want to turn poor Ganko-chan into donburi? What did she ever do to you?"
"She's been following me around all morning!"
His wife shakes her head at him, eyes dancing with suppressed laughter. "Now now, murder just because she thinks you're the sexiest thing on two legs is a bit excessive; how about we put her to work in the garden instead? She can eat the caterpillars and provide breakfast eggs while admiring you from afar."
"You think this is funny," he accuses.
"Hilarious," his wife agrees with aplomb, "because chicken drama is very entertaining. We had a young rooster once that refused to court hens; it only had eyes for the fancy chrysanthemums in Tsunimi-ji's garden. Five days of wailing and prancing in front of a flowerbed of crimson rangiku, trying to win them over with freshly-caught insects in between assaulting any gardeners who got to close, before Shizue-ba lost her patience with his stupidity and turned him into hotpot." Her eyes drop back to Ganko the hen. "Maybe he and Ganko-chan are siblings; evidently she likes white rather than red though. Did you feed her? If you did then you're never getting rid of her; bringing food is how roosters do courting."
Tobirama covers his face with his free hand as Azumaya-ba erupts into cackling again. "I was just throwing caterpillars off Ba-san's pear trees! None of the other hens cared!"
"Well Ganko-chan does, so congratulations you have a devoted chicken concubine," Izuna says blandly. "We can sort her out a crate under the edge of the engawa in the kitchen at night and she can keep the caterpillars down in the garden."
"No oyakodon?" Tobirama asks, pouting.
"You just want to be able to tell people I eat my romantic rivals, don't you?"
"The thought never crossed my mind," Tobirama lies flatly, sulking under his umbrella. His wife laughs at him.
The rain trails off again in the afternoon, so Tobirama spends most of it on the engawa, enjoying the breeze, the intermittent sunshine and the luxurious freedom of taking notes on his own writing desk with his own brush and inkstone. Izuna catches up on her own correspondence in between idly plucking at her shamisen, present and sharing tea and snacks with him but not demanding anything serious in the way of interaction. It's restful; Tobirama can almost ignore the quiet clucking of Ganko-chicken as she explores the garden and feasts upon insect pests.
It's… interesting perhaps, that the words the Uchiha use for chickens are not the words the Senju use. He was taught that a chicken is 'tori,' but the vassals call the birds 'kake' –cluckers– which is also the word Kiso used, doubled in typical childish fashion. But Azumaya-ba calls her birds 'usubedori' –alluding to the mortar for grinding grains and the chickens' inevitable vicinity to it in their search of scraps to steal– and Izuna used 'niwadori,' literally 'garden birds'.
At least 'ondori' for the roosters seems to be universal, and Izuna also used 'mendori' –hen– when speaking of the rooster's refusal to court anything other than scarlet flowers, but still. That their clans are so different that even livestock are referred to with different words, then that is not particularly promising for the treaty negotiations. There will be all manner of misunderstandings, which will bog down the proceedings and set off accidental trip-ups and delays of every possible kind.
Setting his notes aside, he reaches for the higher-quality paper. Izuna added it to his living room –as she persists in calling it, and Tobirama feels inclined to do likewise– a few days after his other belongings were delivered, and while he hasn't used any of the fine, sturdy washi for anything yet, he has a few ideas.
His calligraphy is solid, and he's learned a lot of new characters lately; has been using them all meticulously in his notes, even. It would be nice to do a hanging scroll for his living room; several scrolls perhaps, so he can swap them regularly as the seasons change.
He might try some ink paintings as well, but that is a more long-term idea; he is by no means the artist Izuna is.
But if he is to create a calligraphy hanging scroll, it becomes a matter of what to write. And he is not entirely sure there.
Unless he writes 'niwadori.'
Tobirama frowns vaguely at that thought. Why chicken, and why the Uchiha word for it? He'd have to check with Izuna what the characters used are. There are several sections in the Uchiha Legal Code relating to livestock and the rules for keeping it, but nowhere is the word 'bird' used. Instead there are specific references to uzura –quail– and to 'tōmaru,' which he'd found completely opaque as a word and had to ask Izuna about.
Tōmaru, it had turned out, are the type of chicken the Uchiha keep. Tobirama hadn't realised there were types; surely chickens are just, well, chickens?
That had been a fun conversation actually, as his wife had fetched a bunch of art prints and showed him several fancy chicken breeds, one of which had truly ridiculous tail feathers and basically existed purely to be decorative.
But again, why 'chicken'?
Tobirama breathes, eyes drooping closed as his mind turns the thought over quietly.
Garden bird; garden fowl, more accurately. But Izuna's kami stories revealed that roosters are associated with Amaterasu, no doubt due to their tendency to wake with –and scream at– the sun, and their cries are supposed to protect against evil forces.
The chickens may go where they wish; if one wandered from the compound, nobody would stop it. But they all stay here because the food is here, they are protected from predators and also very possibly because here is all they have ever known. If there is no need to go elsewhere, why would they? Here is comfortable and these birds have not been wild for a very, very long time.
He is not his wife's garden rooster any more than he is her jessed hawk. And yet a certain similarity of circumstances remains.
Not just 'chicken,' perhaps; Tobirama picks up his inkstick. How was the name of the long-tailed breed written? If he is to be a fancy chicken he may as well include a sly reference to his fine draping silks and increasingly long hair while he is at it, and he knows there's a white type. Better to own the joke than to be the butt of it.
Izuna, predictably, thinks his topic choice for his first calligraphy project is hilarious. She even offers to buy him a fine white rooster-damask kimono come autumn, with a nice long draping hem, suitably mid-length sleeves and an even longer obi. Once she finally stops laughing, that is.
Tobirama does not say that he is against such a thing. Maybe he should have said it, but it would have been a lie: he thinks an onagadori outfit would be an extremely amusing thing to own and wear.
"Sing me a song, Izuna," Tobirama asks after Kiso has been tucked up in bed that evening.
His wife eyes him, warm and faintly mischievous. "Any particular song? Or do I get to choose?"
Tobirama thinks about it, idly straightening his sleeves. "A koto song," he decides eventually, "and something that's true, not just a tease." It can be a tease as well, but he'd like it to be sincere rather than just his wife messing with him.
"Hn." His wife's eyes go distant. "Give me some time to set up, Treasure."
"Of course."
The shamisen goes away and the koto comes out, but Izuna does not immediately start singing; instead her fingers move over the strings, playing scraps of melody then pausing and starting again, occasionally simply hovering over the strings and bridges and twitching as though playing in her mind. Tobirama watches as his wife's lips move soundlessly, brow furrowed.
Is she adapting a tune she's only ever heard before, only caught snatches of in passing? Or is this a spontaneous composition? Tobirama waits patiently, squashing his curiosity but allowing his anticipation to rise. Izuna has never been disappointing, either as an opponent or as a spouse, so he is sure this will meet the standards she has set.
Then she purses her lips and whistles a slow melody, high and clear like a flute, and Tobirama focuses completely on the present as more notes ripple into being under her fingertips.
"There is something that I see, in the way you look at me," his wife sings, slow and soft at the higher end of her range, "there's a smile, there's a truth in your eyes; in an unexpected way, on this unexpected day; could it be this is where I belong? You were first in my heart all along." She smiles, meeting his eyes. "No more mystery: it is finally clear to me, you're the home my heart searched for so long. You were first in my heart all along."
Oh, he asked her for truth, but this? This terrible, beautiful vulnerability, this aching openness? This is all Izuna.
So much, given so freely you are almost tricked into believing it isn't anything of consequence at all, lulled into barely glancing beneath the surface.
"There were times I ran to hide, afraid to show the other side; alone in the night without you; but now I know just who you are, and I know you hold my heart! Finally this is where I belong; you were first in my heart all along."
She means every word and it hurts, but in a wild and desperately hopeful way, like the burn in his lungs after a thrilling hunt or the first successful completion of a difficult jutsu.
"No more mystery: it is finally clear to me: you're the home my heart searched for so long; you were first in my heart all along." She shifts to a purely instrumental section, the melody clear but with added riffs and clever changes in key.
"Again and again I am filled with emotion; your heartbeat thunders in my breast; and I am filled with the sweetest emotion, as I look into your precious face…" Her eyes meet his again and she smiles; the warmth, the knowing steals his breath, leaving him dizzy, hot and entirely unable to articulate any further thoughts as she repeats the refrain was last time and then ends the song.
Tobirama stares at her, blinking stupidly and head empty of anything more complex than feeling.
His wife watches him for an interminable instant, then moves her koto aside. "Come to bed with me, husband?"
"Yes," he agrees instantly, then remembers something important: "not your husband yet."
"Not yet," Izuna concedes, nodding as she gets to her feet –Tobirama also rises hurriedly– "but still my treasure and my equal."
He wraps his arms around her and kisses her; he wants to feel her chakra against his, wants to feel her pleasure and her peak, not just sense it–
"Soon, I promise," she murmurs against his lips and Tobirama is utterly, blissfully lost.
He surrenders himself to Izuna's ministrations without another thought.