Bondage

More people in this clan need to learn their kanji, Tōka decides grimly as she reads through the mission requests again. It's all very well the clan's researchers and letter-writers using hiragana –they are mostly women and so are their correspondents– but the vast majority of their clients are merchants and minor samurai families, all of whom write in kanji. Soon she's going to have to spend most of her days sitting in on the treaty negotiations, pouring tea for her father and grandmother and offering her opinion during meals and other breaks, and who exactly is going to be collating the intelligence and assigning the missions then?

Tobirama used to do this, on top of everything else he was doing. Either he barely slept or he was much faster at it than everybody else; Tōka suspects the latter, but the former remains a distinct possibility. It would explain why he'd been so grouchy at being roused from his –evidently well-earned– naps.

At least the clan's not flat broke after sending off Tobirama's dowry, mostly thanks to Rinzōma emptying out his house of all the gradually accumulated valuables from several generations of thieves' careers; it was a welcome windfall, but now it's gone and done and they have to keep going. She has a couple of fine new-to-her kimono and associated accessories to wear for the negotiations and plenty more have been sold, so even with the necessity of buying and making gifts for the Uchiha on a near-weekly basis once the peace-talks begin, they have funds set aside for those and have indeed already begun commissioning things.

It's less expensive to order well in advance; rushing the craftsman is a costly business.

However the clan still needs shinobi missions to bring in money for the regular everyday expenses, so somebody has to go through them alongside the intelligence and try and pick out the ones where they're unlikely to find themselves accidentally clashing with Uchiha. Which is harder than it sounds; Tokyōma helped rewrite the standard contracts to include a clause involving a very large surcharge for shinobi encounters on missions where the client did not disclose it as a possibility, which helps, but most of Tōka's strategy for preventing fights in the case of accidental Uchiha run-ins has been assigning missions to groups of no more than three lower-ranking warriors and sending experienced warriors out in pairs at most. Any Senju encountering Uchiha Squads are going to be horribly outnumbered, but that at least means they're not likely to start fights.

If the Uchiha start a fight, well the Senju get leverage. It hasn't happened yet though, sadly.

Who else can read kanji and isn't already busy? Hashirama can technically but he's a very slow reader and can't sit still, so Tōka dismisses him instantly as a possibility; if he'd been capable of doing paperwork promptly and efficiently she wouldn't have needed to replace him as Clan Heir.

Mito? It would be something, even though Mito knows nothing about mission assignments. The thing is, Mito is already coordinating the clan's now-expanded trade and correspondence with the Uzumaki; she's busy and pregnant and considerately training Hashirama into greater thoughtfulness and maturity, none of which Tōka wants to interrupt.

Tokyōma is dividing his time between fuuinjutsu lessons and ransacking the clan archives into something vaguely approaching order, another very important task she is loath to delay. He actually found the original treaty between the Senju and the Fire Daimyo a fortnight back, so his star is on the rise; the clan is finally appreciating her little brother and that needs to continue.

Rinzōma's extremely literate for a thief who's never touched a sword and dresses like a ragged casual labourer, but he's got missions to complete and apprentices to teach and Tōka is very aware of how much he brings in compared to the warriors; individual missions may earn less, but the quantity is such that he's never short of work. Even with Maki taking up a chunk of the less risky jobs, he's still not short of work. And those bring in more than just money, sometimes.

Koenma knows his kanji; Kishimi-ba insisted on it. She may have been a fisherwoman before she married Zōden-ji, but she was a properly literate Uzumaki and refused to allow her children grow up otherwise. Koenma will grumble and whine about getting dragged into paperwork, but it's not like she's going to make him do all of it; she just needs help. With help she can keep up on those days she's not required to sit in on the negotiations, and she can always bribe her ninjutsu-loving second cousin with better missions if it comes to it.

He probably knows more kanji than she does, honestly; her repertoire has been forcibly expanded by her imprisonment, but most of those were relatively esoteric characters. She's having to fit in time with a dictionary around paperwork, training and other Heir-duties, because those new kanji were unfamiliar to Tobirama and she honestly knew only half as many characters as he did anyway at that point. At best.

She's not so far behind these days, sadly, although knowing her studious cousin he will have added a good many more of the obscure ones since she escaped.

There's a knock at the door; Tōka glances up and manages a smile for Tanka-ba, who is all dressed up in her best kimono with the cheerful Water Country obi that was a present from her ex-lover while she was in Uzushio. Tōka's been on enough missions in Water Country to know a kimono that sedate is considered an old-man outfit there, but here in Fire where fashions are less flamboyant it's perfectly suitable for just about every occasion short of attending court, depending on whether another auntie has embroidered formal crests on it for the occasion.

As it is it's just fine for visiting Tobirama and his Uchiha bride, whether for formal tea or a picnic with a toddler.

"Hi Ba-san."

"Tōka-kun." Her aunt looks… is that unease? Not a common expression on Tanka-ba, that's for sure. "Izuna said something concerning and I wondered if you knew about it."

When is Izuna not concerning? "What was it, Ba-san?" Tōka asks, setting her reading aside.

"She said," her aunt pauses, "that her brother is a fine example of the benefits of adding some 'sturdy tree-loving peasant genes' to the family line."

Oh boy. "This is about Senju Kabema, isn't it."

"Senju Kabema?"

"About, I think Izuna said it was thirteen generations back, so maybe three hundred years ago? Anyway, about that far back there was an Uchiha Head who was a woman and fancied a Senju Kabema, so she kidnapped him off the battlefield and made him her concubine," Tōka explains, wishing she knew a bit more about the whole thing. It's unlikely to be a pleasant tale, for all that Kabema adjusted to his changed circumstances eventually. "She wrote the Uchiha clan's concubine laws that Izuna is currently taking advantage of."

"Ah." Yes, 'ah' about covers it. "And they had children."

"Seven, if Izuna is to be believed; one of them succeeded their mother as Uchiha Head."

Tanka-ba frowns. "In Madara, yes I can almost see it, but Tajima lacks all of that except possibly a bit more chakra than is mid-range for Uchiha."

Tōka shrugs helplessly. "Six other children, Ba-san; they might get it from their mother's side as well." Should she..? "Madara and Izuna have another younger brother still living; he looks exactly like Tobirama other than the hair colour."

"Because Izuna and her brothers have Hatake and Senju lineage, maternally," Tanka-ba deduces, looking troubled, "and while she is quintessentially Uchiha, her older brother is strongly Senju and her younger brother is as much Hatake and Senju as Uchiha."

"I guess?" Tōka has no real idea how inheritance works, but there're definitely traits that get passed down in families even if they're not always obvious in a particular person; she's seen enough cases of children looking like their grandparents for that, even if their parents look different. "I'm pretty sure they all consider themselves completely Uchiha though." Madara's… thing for Hashirama is very much considered an Uchiha Thing, so far as she's been able to work out. She's never actually heard anybody condemn Madara for having a Something –whatever it is– for Hashirama; they just roast him for his terrible taste or sigh and seem sorry for him.

Tōka suspects it's a similar kind of thing as what led Yufu to drag that battle-shocked kinsman to Izuna and demand a song, that made the poor young warrior break down and scream over a romantic break-up. That's not a normal reaction to getting dumped because your lover cares more about daddy's money than anything else.

Tōka knows the normal reaction to that is shock, fury, confusion, pain and recovery, generally in that order and sometimes very quickly. She knows this because she has had missions with kinsmen who engage in ill-advised dalliances, and has therefore been an unwilling witness to the fallout when those dalliances inevitably come to an end.

Looking at you, Mokoshi.

Sometimes vengeance is in there too, depending on how spectacularly badly a specific relationship ends. However for Uchiha it seems like shock might slide straight into pain without any intermediate steps then get stuck there. Or possibly bounce back into confusion; Madara's definitely mired in the 'confusion' phase with Hashirama, which is suffocatingly ironic when Hashi-blockhead doesn't seem to have noticed there's any more to his relationship with Madara than 'We're friends!'

There probably isn't any more to the relationship than that actually, and likely never will be regardless of what Madara might like. So yes, Tōka can kind of see why Izuna was so determined to get Tobirama off the battlefield so she could settle down and breed the next generation; that she decided to snag two birds with one kunai is another problem entirely.

"Clan isn't about what you look like," her aunt agrees absently.

Except it kind of is; the reason nobody blinks at Madara is that those genes have been in the Uchiha for a long, long time. The Hatake addition is evidently more recent, but it's equally clearly normalised.

And then there was Tobirama, only person with Hatake looks in the Senju clan and never quite fitting in because of it. No, it's not just about looks, but after Kikuno-ba died and Kawarama and Itama both died too before even reaching puberty, there's nobody else for the clan to look at and see how Tobirama is like that side of the family. There's just him, not fitting in.

Or there was; ironic that Tobirama is now living with the largest group of Hatake-adjacent people in this part of Fire Country. Izuna never seemed to have any trouble with her cousin's various foibles, which yes could just be her knowing him far too well but could equally be that she's familiar with what being part-Hatake means.

"Any other questions?"

Her aunt raises an eyebrow. "No questions, Tōka-kun, but Okaasan would like you to join her for tea and a chat. I believe she does have questions."

Tōka quickly neatens up the piles of paper and grabs the locking seal key for the office door from its little tray on the desk; it has to go on the shelf outside the door, but can only be activated by somebody who has been keyed in by somebody else authorised, unless all authorised persons are dead in which case it defaults to the Clan Head. Simple, practical and secure enough to prevent mischief; only Senju can be keyed in, so anybody attempting to honey-trap their way into sabotaging the clan is doomed to failure in this particular respect.

"I'll go change; I won't be long!" She has succumbed to keeping her fancy kimono here in the Clan Hall, for practicality's sake.

"I'll let her know, Tōka-kun."

"Fingers like so; keep your wrist loose, it's for slashing not stabbing." Madara demonstrates the movement, flicking the tessen open and shut as he slowly rotates his wrist. Tobirama stares at his hand, frowning slightly as he tries to emulate the movement.

"It takes practice; it's not like any other weapon Izuna's mentioned you using." Sharingan may have helped him get started on the tessen, but it didn't save him from sore and protesting muscles unaccustomed to the forms. Only practice can counter that.

"Hn." Madara firmly smothers a grin at that deeply Uchiha sound from his brother-in-law and obligingly demonstrates the movement again. "Fingertips a little looser; yes like that, that exactly. Repeat that twenty times."

Tobirama does so, eyes now staring thoughtfully into space as he manipulates his gunsen without looking at his own hand; the best way to learn a grip is by touch and he clearly knows it.

Madara eyes his brother-in-law's stance, but he's steady and his shoulders are loose, so there's nothing to critique there. Good; a lot of people forget that footing is the most important thing when starting out with a new weapon. Admittedly most people don't start learning a weapon while wearing a kimono, but given Tobirama's unlikely to be wearing hakama if he ever uses the tessen, it is practical.

His brother-in-law completes all twenty repeats; "Now change hands," Madara tells him. Tobirama does so, gaze falling back to Madara's hands as he also switches hands to demonstrate the grip in his left.

Izuna is sitting by the fusuma, half-watching and half-meditating; Madara really hopes this does help. Pregnancy is hard on the body –he's seen strong, capable warriors retire to have children then die from complications either while giving birth or not long after it– and while his sister is strong, sensible and dutifully attending regular visits to the medics, being stressed because she's been trained all her life to see her spouse as a threat isn't helping. Tobirama is, unexpectedly, everything Madara could have hoped for in a brother-in-law, but that's not where the problems are. The problems are in Izuna's head, as a result of her Amaterasu training. That their father is actually helping resolve that says he is concerned as well; it's reassuring that despite very much not approving of her choices, their father is still supporting Izuna. Things could be so much worse.

"Spread your fingers a little wider. Yes like that; can you feel how the movement is more stable? Now repeat twenty times."

Tobirama repeats, more slowly and frowning in concentration. It is indeed not a motion that comes naturally in the left hand, unless you are Izuna and left-leaning ambidextrous. Though then again, Izuna only started learning the sword after getting her sharingan, so it might just be that she's naturally rather more left-handed and made herself ambidextrous via heavy sharingan use during that intensive first year of training. She certainly does all her writing left-handed after all, and it's her left she holds knives in when cooking.

He will have to ask her about that. But later; what she's doing right now is more important.

"Now with your right hand twenty times again; fingers!"

Tobirama pauses, scowls at Madara's hand and then corrects his grip. "That's much faster than last time," Madara encourages him. "You're making very good progress."

"Hn." Tobirama's eyes slide to Izuna, then to a fixed point in the middle distance as he repeats the half-open-and-close movement of the gunsen.

"Slowly," Madara reminds him; Tobirama obediently slows down. Really, his brother-in-law should give himself more credit; he's an excellent student. Madara might try and persuade the man to come out and spar with him on the fields, or else maybe allow some of the younger Outguard –or possibly some of the teenagers hoping to join the Outguard– to watch his tessenjutsu training, to impress on them the importance of developing good habits.

So many new Outguard are in such a hurry to prove themselves; so determined to impress their Squad Leader and their Mentor that they make mistakes they could have avoided by pacing themselves. Izuna pointed out to him once that the reason he was never desperate to impress was because the only person whose opinion he cared about was their father's, which is true, but he still can't quite get his head around that desperation. You don't need to impress your Mentor or your Squad Leader; competently-completed missions speak for themselves and everybody in the Outguard gets training from their Squad regardless of how 'impressive' they are. Everybody staying alive and well is what matters, not being impressive.

Getting training from other people is dependent on a Mentor's approval though, so maybe it's that?

Well, there's hero-worship in there too; he did not need Izuna to point that out, thank you. That part always makes him uncomfortable though; he's not heroic. He's just keeping Hashirama busy as best he can and regularly feeling a bit guilty about the fact that he's not doing his best to kill his sort-of-friend.

No, he will be honest: his treasure. He's not trying to kill his treasure. He wants to keep Hashirama engaged, so that Butsuma doesn't think to order him elsewhere, because if Madara wasn't engaging him absolutely every moment he possibly could, Butsuma–

–is dead. He's dead now. But Butsuma would have ordered Hashirama elsewhere, if he could have. And Hashirama isn't careful about how hard he hits people, even though he does also really and truly want peace.

It's a relief to not have to fight his friend –his treasure– every week, sometimes twice a week, and Madara has been enjoying the break. He's not run into Hashirama on missions recently either, so either he's being sent well away from the places Madara is or the Earthshaker –Tokonoma-san– is keeping him close to home now he's not the Senju Heir anymore.

Tobirama finishes. "Good; left hand again now," Madara tells him. "Middle finger a little –yes, there. Mind your shoulder. Good, like that."

This is the first lesson, so it's all about grip and stance. The second lesson will be too; only once Tobirama is comfortable with all the ways to hold the fan and switching between them will Madara move on to demonstrating various moves for his brother-in-law to learn. There's no point in teaching him a parry if his grip is poor; he'll just drop the fan and be worse off than when he started.

Grip and stance are the most important things; if you don't have them then a weapon is just a liability. But if you do have them, then even if you don't know any moves you can still fend off an attack. The Outguard hopefuls rarely ask him for lessons because they don't want to be repeatedly shoved into the dust –or the mud, depending on the time of year– because their stance is weak or repeatedly disarmed because their grip is flawed. He's not a fun teacher; he doesn't show them how to do clever jutsu or flashy wire tricks or any of the things that make wide-eyed children want to join the Outguard. But he's had more than a few older, wiser Outguard come back to him for those lessons during their first year of missions, so he makes a point of ambushing the hopefuls semi-regularly to 'offer' –insist upon– lessons. They might whinge about him bullying them, but if a little harshness now will save their lives later then he will bear it.

None of the Mentors have ever told him to tone it down, which is approval enough, and his father hasn't chastised him for 'behaviour not befitting a warrior' –which Father would if he believed Madara was genuinely abusing his authority– and that's tantamount to encouragement.

Tobirama doesn't need any of those lessons, although there are some Senju who would definitely benefit from a little more focus on their footwork. Then again, if Tobirama possessed weak footwork at any point ever Izuna will have ruthlessly exploited it, so perhaps it's not entirely a virtue. Either way, he's good and that's something it's a relief not to have to teach.

If he spent several days chasing Tobirama around a practice field his sister would probably kick him in the shins and Kiso would get very upset at him, even though his brother-in-law is practical enough to appreciate the opportunity for self-improvement. Well, even without doing that he can still invite Tobirama for a spar, hopefully. He'll check with Izuna first, to make sure her fuuinjutsu would allow such a thing and she's comfortable with the prospect of her now-spouse and former-enemy being out in public with field weapons.

If Izuna's fine with it she will talk their father around. If she's not, well there's no chance and no point in getting Tobirama's hopes up only to dash them. That's cruel and Madara tries not to be cruel.

Tobirama finishes. "Good; how are your fingers?" Cramps are likely at this stage, given the new grip and new movements the muscles aren't accustomed to.

His brother-in-law tucks the fan through his obi and cautiously flexes his hands. "Sore," he admits shortly.

"Take a minute to stretch them," Madara orders; "cramps won't help you."

A raised eyebrow. "Yes, sensei."

Madara rolls his eyes at that dry tone but refuses to be embarrassed; he is teaching, so he is sensei right now, and yes Tobirama is a very capable man only about a year younger than him, but Madara is usually teaching teenagers so he can't afford to get out of the habit of making everything explicitly clear.

After Tobirama has carefully flexed his hands and stretched his joints to fend off cramps, Madara makes him do the grips again. "Good, you're getting it right first time now," he says approvingly; "make sure you practice these."

"Yes sensei." Tobirama's tone is fonder this time.

"Now I'll show you the open grip; this is the most important offensive grip." Madara holds his tessen in front of him at chest level and demonstrates the grip he has just drilled into Tobirama, then shifts his fingers to allow the fan to fully open and holds the metal tines so that they can't close again. Then he turns his hand around, to give Tobirama the view from the back. "Like so."

His brother-in-law half-opens his own fan, then tries to shift his grip for the full form.

"Just the open fan grip first; I'll teach you the transitions afterwards," Madara says firmly. "Yes, like that; press with your thumb, keep the fingers curled." He rotates his wrist slowly, showing how the fan stays completely steady. Tobirama copies him, growls under his breath and shifts the fan vertical again.

Madara leans in. "Move your thumb just a little to the right." Sure enough, this time when Tobirama rotates his wrist the fan doesn't shift. Madara showcases a full half-rotation of the fan, from upright to upside down and then back up to vertical. "Twenty half-turns, nice and slow."

Tobirama obediently complies. "And then the other hand, sensei?"

"Yes, then the other hand," Madara agrees, narrowing his eyes; that was a tease. "And when you've done two twenties on each hand maybe you can change into something you don't mind wrestling in." Somebody needs their face ground into the tatami.

"Lord-Wife?" Tobirama asks, still careful to keep the fan rotation slow but gaze dropping eagerly to Izuna.

"It's entirely up to you, Treasure; mind to keep to indoor wrestling rules though."

"No throws, no external chakra use," Tobirama confirms, eyes sliding back to Madara and sizing him up. Madara grins threateningly at him; he's really good at wrestling and can pin Izuna two times out of three.

Time to see how his brother-in-laws measures up. Well, once the lesson's over; he's not about to rush through the last bit just because he's been promised a treat at the end.

On Tuesday morning Madara gives Tobirama another tessen lesson, this time with Kiso watching. The toddler soon loses interest however and heads out into the garden with his toys. Knowing Naka-Dragon will keep half an eye on the toddler and that there is more than enough fuuinjutsu over the garden to curtail serious accidents, Izuna turns her full attention to today's lesson, letting her thoughts meander as they choose and confronting them accordingly.

She is committed; she made a commitment, made it knowingly and willingly for her clan –and made it again after that for herself and for Tobirama– and that there is so much to be done will not discourage her from doing it. She may be chipping away at a mountain with only a utility knife, but she is doing something. It will help.

It may take her years but it will help.

It is helping already; she feels steadier, even as every movement from her husband-not-yet-but-soon jangles on her instincts and brings up memories, memories of fights and feints and attacks. He is moving with purpose, focused on her brother and determinedly learning this new weapon.

It really is all she can do to chop up the never-ending stream, sinking into a meditative state to give herself more inner time to reclothe each event and incident, knowing she will have to go over them again later to re-index them and break them down. Her dreams lately have been… dense, but that's actually a good sign. Dreams are about processing, after all.

By the time the lesson is over and the fans are put away she is already slightly fatigued, but she keeps going: now the formal part is finished her treasure will challenge her brother to a wrestling match, to try and make up for his repeated defeats after the previous lesson. Having his face ground into the tatami evidently awakened his competitive spirit as well as providing Izuna with many, many more memories to re-outfit –a small avalanche of them– as he hissed and snarled at her smug asshole of a nii-san while trying to push him over.

Izuna could have told him it was futile; Madara has some of the best footwork in the clan and when he doesn't want to be moved he might as well be an Akimichi. Or a mountain.

In today's wrestling match Tobirama is far charier of allowing Madara to lay hands on him; he dodges more, diverts blows rather than blocking outright and keeps moving, never allowing his opponent to settle and hold a stance. It brings to Izuna's mind battles from much longer ago, when they were both much smaller and weaker so had to pace themselves far more diligently and could not risk allowing a blow to land. It's almost fun, to re-experience these long-ago memories of Tobirama when he still had baby fat, earnestly glaring, stringy from growth-spurts and wielding a sword much too large for him.

Threshed of emotional context, these barely hurt at all; she is far more skilful now, and could defeat the Tobirama of then swiftly. It's easy to re-dress them in the warmth of kinship and camaraderie, to tie them to the memories of teaching former subordinates and coaching Saburō through his kata.

Tobirama manages to kick one of Madara's feet loose and throws himself at her brother with a triumphant yowl –very definitely a yowl, not that she'll tell him that, he'd get self-conscious– and when Madara tries to roll keeps rolling, managing to twist around her taller and heavier brother like water –or indeed like a cat– and pounce on his shoulders, pinning him face-down to the tatami.

"Ha!"

That's so adorable, for all it brings to mind a teenage ambush to filter through. Madara tries to wriggle out, but Tobirama is stronger now than he used to be –all that dedicated exercise while his chakra was restricted– and manages to keep her brother pinned.

"I yield," Madara rumbles agreeably. "That's what, one to five?"

Tobirama gets up off him. "Another match?" he offers with a feline smirk.

"Why not," her brother rumbles back, firmly in the mental place that makes him so nerve-racking to his enemies on the battlefield. Her darling brother conflates combat with play unless he genuinely detests his opponent, so a good fight fills him with cheer and sass. It also energises him, leading to dramatic jutsu and devastating violence when he's mostly sure his opponent can keep up, which is most of what's kept his attachment to Hashirama going; the other man never seems to tire and has a remarkable capacity for healing himself.

And so the games go on.

Tobirama also wins the next match, but after that Madara has his measure and the third fight drags long, then ends abruptly with Madara wrestling him to the floor. Her husband notably does not demand a fourth match; he's learned better. Madara's stamina is genuinely unfair to lesser mortals and that he's also very quick at picking up a new trick even without sharingan; Tobirama will have to come up with something else to beat him next time.

She's sure her treasure will enjoy thinking up that 'something else.' He does so appreciate a challenge.

She smiles at him as he walks over and offers her a hand up. "Have fun, Treasure?"

"Plenty of fun," he agrees smugly. "I've not beaten Anija in a wrestling match since I was twelve."

Madara laughs loudly, deep and faintly manic; Izuna grins cheerfully. "It's no fun wrestling if you can't win sometimes," she agrees lightly. She won't tell him that Madara doesn't really take wrestling as seriously as he might; it's fun, not a competition.

Won't tell him yet; she's sure he'll get there, given a little time. And by then he'll hopefully be enjoying himself too much to feel offended.

"Now you've both had your fun, Nii-san needs to go deal with the paperwork before noon," she reminds him.

"Duty calls," Madara agrees, still grinning, then darts in to ruffle her hair and then makes a dash for the genkan; she charges after him, Tobirama at her side –fear-thrill-enemy-ally-comrade-caution-beloved– and between them they wrestle him to the boards so she can thoroughly mess up his rats-nest hair in retaliation for the slight.

Her dreadful brother cackles throughout and her cat-tempered spouse is also smirking, but it's all good.

Heaven forbid her father ever give her something easy to do. It's fair, honestly –she is the one reminding her father than when the clan buys from a supplier they endorse that supplier, so the clan should be aware of the business practices of their suppliers and exercise their influence to promote better practices, so of course he makes a point of handing that work on to her. She has to sort the intelligence gathered by the Inari Lineage and the Trading Branch, dividing up the suppliers by type and location and weigh what has changed this year, in terms of practices and ownership and production, who has died and who has fallen into hard times and who has come into good fortune and what everybody is doing about all that, then make decisions.

Some of the clan's suppliers are legacy craftspeople, families who receive the vast majority of their income from the Uchiha. Those suppliers are almost vassals and supported accordingly, yet also monitored in case a new generation seeks to take advantage of the relationship. Admittedly that doesn't happen often, but the thing about being a kuge clan with a very long history is that it has happened and those instances tend to be very well-documented, so that future generations can spot the signs and make it clear early on that The Uchiha Clan Will Not Accept That Kind Of Behaviour.

Izuna's lips twitch at the internal capitalisation; a whole new lifetime with a script that doesn't even have the concept of capital letters, yet the memes linger.

However most of their suppliers aren't longstanding family relationships but contracts negotiated year by year or decade by decade, contracts that may be terminated early if either side deems it having been broken, and with associated penalties. They may also be brought to an early closure in a negotiated manner, or simply not renewed because the clan has found another supplier in the meantime who has made them a better offer.

The Uchiha do deal with some merchants, especially locally, but most of their larger and more long-term supply-lines are directly from the primary producers. Yes, the clan buys lengths of patterned indigo cotton from the wholesaler down in Kōgei-gai for their yukata, but the fabric of their battlefield garb is either linen woven and dyed in-clan with bricks of indigo dye, or bought in ready-dyed cotton bolts straight from the mechanised weaving sheds of Hayakawa.

When buying wholesale for a clan of over half a thousand, it's better to cut out the middle-man. Individuals buy from merchants; families large enough to be a respectably-sized village all by themselves can't really afford to. Hence the Trading Branch.

Of course, the incident with Nukabira back in the spring means they have recently ceased buying from one particular local merchant, which has caused no end of shuffling from their various suppliers and no small amount of gossip. The why has inevitably come out and the sadly short-sighted Aiba family have found it necessary to seek new suppliers and better prospects elsewhere; none of the local craftspeople want to risk being shunned by the Uchiha, so stopped dealing with Aiba-san very quickly. Of course some of the local craftspeople cater mainly to the Senju, but an ambitious and wealthy merchant such as Aiba-san cannot garner prestige from selling basic ceramics, cheap cotton and moulded steel, especially not when other more pragmatic merchants are filling that niche already.

Aiba Motohiro-san should probably have taken the time to find out what young man it was that his heir was carrying on with, rather than assume from Nukabira's practical civilian clothing –worn to deflect Senju attention when spending time with his lover– that he was a labourer or an apprentice. But he did not and Aiba Yoshiyuki either didn't think to mention it or never realised his father would care, and thus brought his own misfortune down upon himself.

Motohiro-san, realistically speaking, would have loved a personal connection to a kuge clan; he has other sons to carry on his family name. But alas his prejudice and his son's thoughtlessness denied him the opportunity.

Nukabira is much better off without such a partner, although if Yoshiyuki had possessed the spine to follow his heart no doubt the young man could –and likely would– have also improved himself further. But he did not, and now his self-improvement must be born of the shock of what he has lost, rather than the joy of what he has gained.

There's a scuffling in the genkan and a familiar chakra signature. "Izuna-bi! Guests!"

"Guests?" She abandons her desk and opens the shōji leading to the front hall. "Who's visiting us unannounced at this time of year, Sato-kun?" Sato is the youngest of her Yatagarasu cousins, only recently fourteen.

"Hatake, Izuna-bi," her cousin says, sounding utterly baffled, "Tiger Hatake, to see Tajima-sama."

"Not Obaa-san or her siblings?" that is even stranger. "Very well then, I will host them on my Lord-Father's behalf; once you've shown them in ask Asuka-ba to air out the Diplomatic Quarters and inform Umeno-baa, Rutori-jii and Urushino-baa afterwards, please." Her grandmother has two living siblings out of four, her older brother and youngest sister; Rutori-jii used to head the Lightning circuit but his children were all rather sedentary, becoming craftspeople or warriors, so he retired in favour of Kenashi-ji-san before Izuna was even born. Urushino-baa is… a character and married very late, so her children are in their twenties rather than their forties –or older– like her siblings' surviving children are.

"Hai, Izuna-bi!" Sato leaves again at speed.

"Tengu-bō, get out here and help me move the shōji." Hosting a Tiger summoner indoors requires quite a lot of space, so she will have to remove the partition separating the front hall from the iori. Fortunately she's smartly dressed enough to host in her father's house, as she's wearing her full-width orange obi with the maple leaves, carnations and grape vines over her usual daylily-gold spun silk kimono for everyday; she wasn't expecting to have to carry out any such duties, but fortune favours the prepared.

Her baby brother emerges from their father's office and obligingly helps her remove and hide the panels and gets out more tatami while she heats water, unties the tasuki holding her sleeves out of the ink and retrieves the emergency hosting supplies; her father's response to her umbrella bag and food preservation seals has been to stockpile everything, but she does kind of understand where he's coming from so she leaves him to it. It is convenient to have boxes of dumplings and daifuku paused in time for unexpected guests, and Asuka-ba and Shige-chan replace them on a monthly basis to ensure they remain seasonal.

Sure enough, when Sato arrives with the two Hatake there is also a Tiger.

Hatake Junsai, senior Tiger Summoner, is accompanied by Hatake Warabi, who is probably about a decade younger going by general level of calm. Or rather, the absence of calm. The Tiger is introduced as Ru-ō, and after being introduced she promptly sprawls on the tatami and closes her eyes.

"Tea, Oji-san?" Izuna offers; she can tell neither man expected that to happen.

"Thank you, Izuna-kun," Junsai-oji says; he's technically a cousin a few times removed, but he was Karifuri-ji's favourite relative once upon a time and Umeno-baa has various stories of the mischief the two of them used to get up to on visits north.

Warabi –whom she only knows by distant hearsay, his not being a direct in-law– also sits and accepts tea and a dumpling; Ru-ō accepts three dumplings, eyes still closed, and eats them one after the other.

"We have heard… concerning things from Katsuma-kun regarding your new spouse," Junsai-oji says blandly, not bothering with small-talk, "and wished to know your reasoning for dishonouring our shared kin by wedding their killer."

Rage roars in her ears for a long second, then chills to bitter ice. "And what did my loose-tongued cousin say exactly regarding my concubine?" Izuna demands, carefully setting her cup down so she doesn't throw it in anybody's face.

Junsai-oji watches her through his controlled mask, but his eyes betray surprise. Warabi answers, less skilled in concealing his feelings; he feels betrayed and wishes to provoke:

"Senju Tobirama, one of Butsuma's sons. A cold, meticulous killer your clan call 'the Drowning Breath' who murdered Kenashi, Katami, Ryu, Kayami and Mitomu and all their cubs, and thought nothing of it."

Izuna feels her teeth grinding and stops. "I see he failed to mention that Senju Tobirama is the son of Hatake Kikuno and a Leopard summoner," she says acidly.

Pure shock on both their faces; the Tiger however is unmoved; she could likely smell as soon as she entered the house that her summoner and his kinsman were gravely mistaken, but couldn't be bothered to put them straight when Izuna was here to spare her the effort.

Tigers. So lazy, right up until they aren't.

"He was unaware of anybody in that group being either underage or civilian; he hunts by chakra-sense more than by sight, and in winter scent can be less than clear. And not all are dead; Katami's Kiso was left here last summer due to having chicken pox, and Kayami's newborn survived her ordeal and is now named Keigetsu. My spouse has willingly taken on the duty of caring for both."

"These things were indeed not mentioned," Junsai-oji says mildly.

"Katsuma was very angry when he left," Izuna concedes precisely, "but I would have hoped that a man of your superior experience would be wise enough not to take as unvarnished truth the words of a furious and bitter man only recently twenty-five, Junsai-oji." Which is as polite as she's prepared to be right now.

"Maa, so cutting, Izuna-kun."

"You insult my spouse, Junsai-oji; you also insult my intelligence and my integrity, as a woman, a warrior and as a leader." She still does not dare pick up her teacup. "Either apologise or get out; the Diplomatic Quarters should be ready by now if you truly need to see my father." Her tone is level and that is the best she can do right now.

Ru-ō rises to her feet and yawns. "He's taking good care of you, Izuna-chan," she notes. "I'd like to meet him, if I may?"

"He might be in the Amaterasu residence, or indeed anywhere else on clan grounds," Izuna says, making an effort to mild her voice for the Tiger. "I am not his jailer, after all; he will have Kiso-kun with him." It is Wednesday morning, if nearing noon.

The Tiger ambles out through the genkan, leaving the doors ajar in her wake.

"My apologies for my poor judgement and for Warabi-kun's hasty words, Izuna-sama."

Izuna raises a sharp eyebrow at her almost-uncle. "Warabi-san can speak for himself."

The younger man stares at her for a long, long moment. "I do not know you, Izuna-sama," he admits eventually, "not like I know Katsuma-san. But I am Hatake, and I know enough of Leopards to trust their judgement over my cousin's. My deepest apologies to you both."

Izuna nods sharply, picks up her tea and takes a slow, steady sip. "Is there anything else I might help the two of you with on my father's behalf?"

Junsai-oji shakes his head. "We merely wished to remember our kin –his kin by marriage– with him, Izuna-kun. It can wait until this evening or tomorrow."

There's a knock at the doorframe. "Izuna-sama?"

"Yes, Sato-kun?"

"Umeno-obaa-san wishes to offer her cousins the hospitality of her home, Izuna-sama."

"We would be most grateful, Izuna-sama," Junsai says, bowing lackadaisically.

"Sato-kun will escort you then." The sooner they leave the sooner she can scream into a cushion for a few moments, work through her rage and then get back to work. How dare Katsuma misrepresent Tobirama to outsiders! Outsiders who trust him, no less! How dare he vent his spleen where anybody might overhear and tell tales! He doesn't have to like her choices but he could at least be honest about them, rather than deliberately omitting pertinent details specifically to garner sympathy!