In the comfort of Tajima's office and secured behind closed doors, Kai had his eyes clenched shut, lips pursed against intertwined fingers and elbows balanced atop the only mahogany floor desk present. His complexion was ghastly, with pinched eyebrows and beads of cold sweat clinging unpleasantly on his forehead and neck.
Indigestion caused by anxiety and stress was a miserable thing to experience, Kai bemoaned. Breakfast sat horribly inside his stomach, heavy and disagreeable, and Kai could not even pop a couple of digestive pills to aid him with digestion. Why did he have to transmigrate into a body that was born in this time period, where remedies came in the form of herbs, roots, and barks rather than genetically and chemically engineered drugs?
Less than 48 hours and Kai was already missing modern Earth. He had not realized how privileged he had been until he was yeeted into Narutoverse during the Warring States Era. Although he loathed Boruto and what it represented (Naruto, a neglectful dad? No, just no), he would rather be transmigrated into a body born in that era despite knowing nothing of the plot. They have electronics and technology such as computers and gaming consoles, at least!
After a brief period of lamenting, Kai's stomachache lessened considerably enough for him to concentrate on other more important matters such as Tajima's current situation and duties.
Kai cracked an eye open. Stacks of scrolls and a mountain of paperwork greeted him. His stomach rolled in despair and he had to squeeze his eye shut again to fight off the twinge in his abdominal region. Yeah, no. It would not be Tajima's relatives that killed him one day, it would be his extensive workload and stressed induced irritable bowel syndrome.
Kai took a deep breath for four seconds, held it in for seven, and exhaled for eight. He repeated this breathing exercise until his anxiety lessened somewhat and he could finally function like any other decent human being. He reached for the first scroll of the day and began to fulfil the administrative part of Tajima's responsibility. No point delaying the inevitable.
As the most promising candidate out of the five eligible heirs, Tajima oversaw mission allocations. And whilst allocating, he was constantly vigilant of sabotage attempts from his fellow concu- heirs and other relatives pining for his prestigious position.
As the person who took over Tajima's body, Kai knew to keep an eye out for foul play, which dropped his efficiency tenfold and brought forth counter productiveness.
He abhorred how dumb the other heirs were behaving; they were putting the cart before the horse, and their supporters oblivious to their harmful ploys. If he were to accidentally allocate a mission to the wrong person or team due to false or forged information, it would hurt the clan's reputation more than his.
Furthermore, it has the potential to reduce their manpower if casualty arises, which could prove fatal to the Uchiha clan's continual survival, especially when it concerns their current state of stalemate with their archnemesis. Any indication of weakness and the Senjus would readily pounce on them before they could even finish wiping their own asses caked full of shitty mistakes.
Such heirs were unfit to be leaders if they could not even discern that their greed was endangering the masses they were obligated to protect. They overestimate themselves and underestimate how desperate their enemies were; their short-sightedness appalling, akin to the mantis that stalked the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
The current members of the Uchiha council, the five elders especially, have remained in the position of power for far too long, their greediness extending to their successors, and they were stagnant, their views conservative. They needed to be replaced; it was common sense back on modern Earth for every man or woman who was in a position of power to not stay in the office for too long as absolute power corrupts absolutely. There were systems and protocols to prevent corruption, though some stubborn politicians tried to find loopholes around them. After all, nothing was foolproof.
Sighing, Kai shook his head and got to work. The shinobis would be trickling into his office soon enough and he would rather get a head start. There was no point lamenting about how backwater and barbaric this clan's governing system was. It was not as if he planned to change them, anyway, since he was far too busy trying not to get himself and his instant sons killed by overly ambitious relatives.
The first shinobi came not long after Tajima's concubine left a tray full of assorted wagashi and a pot of hot tea on the tatami mat to his left. Kai eyed the sweets and steaming cup of tea warily, unsure if they were safe for consumption or if they could be considered his last meal. What an experience, to mayhap live with someone who wanted him dead at all costs. He should start an investigation on Tajima's concubine soon; he needed to know if she had been bribed and who the mastermind was.
"Kazue reporting for duty, Tajima-sama."
Kai disregarded the refreshments and quickly dug into Tajima's memories. Five seconds passed and Uchiha Kazue, 21 years old, above average in melee combat, specializes in stealth, not trained for bodyguard duties, has rested sufficiently for a hazardous and gruelling mission was retrieved from Tajima's memory chamber. Nodding, Kai picked a specific scroll, double-checked its contents for any sabotage, and handed it to Kazue, making sure that their fingers would not brush against the other even by accident. It was a copy, as the originals were needed to be kept safe as records.
Kai wet his lips, slightly nervous. This was the first person he would converse with outside of 'family'. Even if it was for a short moment, his heartbeat still skyrocketed. He hid his trembling hands inside his billowing sleeves and stared stoically at the man half kneeling in front of his desk.
"Our client, a concubine in the daimyo's harem, hired a hit. Make sure your affiliation with the clan remains unidentifiable, your identity must not be compromised at all costs; we cannot afford to deal with their court politics. She desires it to be clean and swift, an in-and-out job, but do not use poison. Once you finish, remain in the capital for three days, do whatever you want, think of it as a vacation, even. On the third day, meet her maidservant at the location written inside the scroll for collection of payment. Burn it after you have left the compound and memorized its contents. Questions?"
(It hit a little close to home, this one. Was the universe trying to tell him something?)
During Kai's monotonous briefing, Kazue unrolled the scroll and skimmed its contents, confirming the client, the target, and her requests. Once the latter was done, he nodded and pocketed the mission scroll.
"None. I have received your orders and shall take my leave now, Tajima-sama."
"Yes, return safely, Kazue-san."
"I will return in a fortnight."
The shinobi bowed one last time in respect and strode out the door at Kai's dismissal. Kai did not even get a minute breather from social interactions as the next in line entered a second later. This time, it was a group of returning shinobi with their mission report scrolls in hand. Kai withheld a shudder at the crowd and their proximity, his social anxiety spiking tenfold. It was most fortunate that Tajima's poker face and discipline surpassed Kai's need to flee.
"Team 4 returning from a successful escort mission, Tajima-sama."
"Welcome back, team 4." Kai received their scrolls and a pouch full of coins whilst asking, "Any complications during the mission?"
"None," the leader of the group answered on their behalf. "The clients have not been harmed, our members have shallow injuries at most, and the full payment has been received."
He skimmed their reports and pulled out the original mission scroll to double-check. Everything seemed to be in order. "Good work. Here are your earnings. Your team will be off the mission roster for a week, be sure to rest."
"Thank you for your consideration, Tajima-sama. We will be taking our leave now."
The morning went by in that fashion but the pile of scrolls on his desk seemed to never diminish. He blamed it on Tajima's aid (Uchiha Kaen, thirty-two, crippled at twenty, loyal to Tajima who provided him with this job) who continued to replace every one scroll with two more.
When afternoon arrived, Kai could not be more grateful, his nerves shot to the high heavens. Tajima's mission allocation office closed at one o'clock on the dot daily, and only urgent missions would see his doors open after hours. Stretching to a stand, he welcomed the relief it brought to his rear end. If he had to do this every day, he would not be surprised to see pressure sores on his sacral region one day. And maybe haemorrhoids too. The floor cushion hadn't helped in the slightest.
The next on his agenda was lunch, followed by Madara and Izuna's training. Kai grimaced; he was not looking forward to both. He gave the untouched refreshments one last, parting glance before making his way to the kitchen. He was parched from all the talking, but he would not risk drinking the tea even if he were dehydrated. He would ask his aid to prepare the refreshments starting from tomorrow.
This time, he made sure that the kitchen-dining room was empty prior to entering.
Maou was the only one present, lounging lazily next to the stove. There were some inconsistencies with the furniture in this world, a mixture of modern and historical; but Kai has long come to accept Kishimoto-sama's Narutoverse oddities and left them alone.
The stove was akin to a ceramic cooktop but rather than run on electricity, it was run by heating seals. Kai was unsure of the exact details pertaining to this appliance, but convenient things should be left unquestioned anyway. That was Kai's modern Earth mentality, and it would have undoubted driven scientists and researchers (couchTobiramacough) mad if heard.
Idly patting Maou on the head as he passed by, which earned him an irate growl, Kai began looking through the fridge (a rectangular cabinet made of bricks that had cooling seals inside) for available ingredients. He ignored the meal already prepared by Tajima's concubine and started cooking the most basic of dishes a Chinese man could make; fried rice with egg.
Maou, once again, judged him for his lack of culinary talents and turned its nose up at his finishing product. Kai's onyx eyes were blank as he gazed into the abyss (burnt fried rice) as the abyss gazes back.
... It was fine. It might look inedible, and the taste might be indescribable, but Kai would improve, eventually, and with practice.
He somehow soldiered through lunch after having deposited a handful of minced meat into Maou's feeding bowl. Both human and cat ate in silence, and once they were done, he briskly walked towards the backyard with Maou at his heels, mind already formulating a new training regimen for his instant sons. Hopefully, their relationship would improve enough to one day prevent patricide from occurring.
There would be no violence and harsh punishments, nor would there be verbal belittling and emotional abusiveness. Kai, although he absolutely hated the idea of being a father and was forced to accept his new paternal role, planned to become a good role model(?). Which meant he could not neglect them even if he would rather not see them. He was already mentally and emotionally drained from working at the mission allocation office.
When he coincidentally saw Tajima's concubine inside his bedroom taking care of Tajima's wife, Kai paused. Might as well solve the issue of food right now. He did not want to continue second-guessing his meals. He entered the room and cleared his throat; causing the pregnant teen to startle and drop the wet cloth she has been using to nurse the unconscious older woman.
"T-Tajima-sama!" She squeaked. It was followed swiftly by a subservient bow that nauseated him more than he would like to admit. "Is there something you need me for? Please, order me as you wish."
His hands that were hidden inside his flowy long sleeves balled, fingernails biting into the skin of his palms and leaving crescent imprints. She acted more like a slave than a concubine, which made his disgust for the original goods heighten to new extremes.
"From now onward, you will only prepare meals for yourself and..." Fuck, what was Tajima's wife called again? His silence continued whilst he desperately searched for her name within Tajima's memory bank. Finally, after his internal clock hit one minute, Kai lamely waved at Tajima's wife's sleeping figure. "You will not provide any sort of consumables for my sons and I, and you will only use the servant's kitchen, understood?" He finished stoically as if he had not paused in the middle of his sentence to awkwardly try and remember the sick woman's name.
He knew his orders were harsh, but he held no pity for someone who would poison even children and pregnant women. Guilty until proven innocent, as they say. Better safe than sorry.
Her eyes widened and her complexion blanched. She started to tremble and prostrate herself, forehead knocking on the tatami floors as she began begging for his forgiveness. If those were not a sign of guilt, he would eat his own socks. She didn't even try to deny it.
"Who?" Kai asked, onyx eyes frosty. He wanted to know who the mastermind behind the poisoning attempt was. She did not seem the ambitious and manipulative type. "Was it Hyouta-nii, Ikuma-nii, Suzuki-nii, or Inari-nii?" All who were Tajima's older brothers and fellow concubines in the harem. What was his life?
"I-It was me. Please, mercy, Tajima-sama, grant mercy, please! This foolish one did not know what came over me – to dare try and poison the father of my child, I must be sick in the head. Forgive me, please, mercy, Tajima-sama!" She continued to kowtow, banging her forehead to the tatami mats as if her life depended on it, which it did if the original goods had control over this body. Her action only made Kai want to leave. "Punish me as you deem fit, this foolish one deserves it! But spare me until I gave birth to our child, please, Tajima-sama!"
Alright, here goes nothing. He took a deep breath and prepared his mind to start exposure therapy.
"Do you take me for a fool?!" Kai sneered.
He pinched her chin with an index finger and thumb and forced eye contact upon her, his sharingan spinning intimidatingly. He withheld a shudder of disgust at having to touch her bare skin, almost wrenching his limb away. Fortunately, he managed to overcome such desires and continued to try and intimidate her into revealing the people behind the poisoning. He hoped that the sharingan's compelling properties would be enough to beguile her. He would rather not send her to the clan's T&I department even if she were guilty of aiding and abetting. After all, she was pregnant.
"Who gave you the poison, wench? I won't ask a second time."
When she continued to plead, ignoring Kai's mercy, the line between acting and reality seemed to fade, blurring in front of his eyes and creating a layer of frost in his soul.
He wanted this wench to hurt, to scream in pain, to beg for her life. For daring to lie to him. For daring to hurt the tools he made for his succession. For daring to tarnish his reputation. She needed to die.
He lost his patience and succumbed to mindless brutality.
His body reacted by unwittingly raising a hand high into the air. When he brought it down, just centimetres from violently landing on her cheek, Maou jumped onto his shoulders and hissed into his ears, loud enough to wake the dead. The shock factor made his entire body still, and the desire to hurt flushed from his system as he regained his bearings, feeling dizzy and disorientated.
Kai blinked. In front of him was a pregnant teenage girl, cowering and sobbing, huddled into herself as she babbled for mercy and forgiveness, to not hurt her please Tajima-sama, and Kai could only stare at his hovering hand. His expression was carefully blank.
Slowly, Kai rose to his feet. His muscles ached from how tensed he was, and although he could feel Maou's soft fur against his cheek, the feline rubbing its head against his as if to calm and comfort him, he was numb.
(What was that? What the fuck was that?!)
He left the bedroom without looking back. Leaving the house, he entered the detached building where his office resided. Inside was his aid, who was hobbling about using a crutch as he deposited a few scrolls onto one of the cabinets behind Kai's floor desk. At Kai's arrival, Kaen turned with a smile, before it dropped, a look of concern etched across his features.
"Tajima-sama? Are you alright?"
Kai's face remained eerily blank as he responded, voice devoid of emotion, "Launch an investigation on the concubine. I want to know all her movements from last year up until today. Move her to the servant's quarters and always have a guard on her. With effect from now, she is forbidden from leaving her room and seeing my children."
"If I may ask, what happened to have brought this?" Kaen carefully asked, even as he put aside the scrolls and began writing down Kai's order on a notepad.
"My concubine is under suspicion for poisoning my wife and children. Her attempt has caused my wife to miscarriage." Kai placed a hand on the doorknob, ready to leave. "And before I forget, send a maidservant to care for my wife. Let them prepare her meals until she recovers."
Kai left the compound entirely, his feet thoughtlessly bringing him to the place where he had previously found Maou. The kitten was in his arms, for once docile. Kai sat underneath a tree and curled into himself, hugging Maou closer to his chest. With his face hidden by Maou's fur, he was free to express the horror and dismay he was feeling.
Kai had just been about to physically punish a pregnant teenager. His body had moved on its own, the desire to execute violence concerning. If Maou had not stopped him, he would have beaten the concubine until she was black and blue. The revelation that he might be fusing with Tajima's barbaric personality was equal parts horrifying and disturbing. He did not want to be a cruel and abusive man. He didn't.
When the sun began to set, Kai compartmentalized his breakdown whilst forcing his limbs to move. Scratching Maou under its chin in silent apology for crying into its fur again, he carried the kitten back home and gently placed it next to the stove, where it sat quietly to watch him prepare dinner.
Kai did not have the energy to try and cook anything complicated, so he prepared egg fried rice again. The result was the same as his previous attempt, but he did not have it in him to care. After setting the table and depositing fish meat into Maou's feeding bowl, he waited for his instant sons to make their appearance.
An hour he waited with Maou, unmoving, and despite the kitten's pawing and meowing that he ate, he remained seated with no intention of moving. The two chakra signatures of his instant sons remained hidden outside the kitchen, equally unmoving. It took another hour before he finally picked up his chopsticks and began eating.
Kai was not disappointed at their absence.
"I'm not," he quietly insisted to himself. "Their fear is understandable."
Maou continued to watch him with unnervingly intelligent eyes, as if it knew he was lying.
He wasn't.
Character Status
Name: Liu Kai / Uchiha Tajima
Age: 35 / 20
Race: Chinese / Japanese
Circumstances: Transmigrated person currently in Narutoverse Warring States Era.
Goals: 1) Become the Uchiha clan head. 2) Find out the mastermind behind the poisoning attempt. 3) Complete exposure therapy. 4) Learn how to cook*. 5) Form a bond with Madara & Izuna
State of mind: Greatly disturbed
Standing within the clan: Prestigious
Standing within the household: Precarious ++
Standing within the clan's main branch: Pugnacious
Latest outstanding accomplishment: Made a plate of fried rice that could be mistaken for the portal to the abyss
Inner complains: "I'm going to develop haemorrhoids and pressure sores on my butt from prolonged seating one day."