A/N: We've got an interlude this time around -people demanded the date be extended- and I had other bits to fit in as well.
Aaaargh, my muse wants to write Demon Slayer and Arcane stories! Must...update...this first!
I return!
As ever, the Embers Rule persists.
If folks don't like this...well. I won't continue it.
Sorry, but its the sad truth. I don't have a team anymore, meaning I'm writing almost EVERYTHING by myself. At the end of the day, this is a HOBBY for me, one I don't get paid for. To top if off, I'm working two jobs. As such, I haven't the time to write a story no one likes. So by all means, speak up! Raise your voice! Make yourselves heard! At the en
Of course, reviewing is your choice. I can't force you.
Only a few questions this time.
Q: Have you seen the Genshin leaks for 2.5? What the Shogun becomes...
A: They're everywhere! I tried to avoid them, but it works so well into what I had planned...
Q: Are we seeing the beginnings of a revolution here?
A: On a smaller scale, perhaps.
Q: Please make this a big pairing!
A: I cannot. It would disrupt the story.
Alright, I've kept you long enough.
As ever, I own no references, quotes, themes or memes!
"What is this feeling in my chest? My face is...warm? And yet I am strangely content. Am I ill...?"
"Pretty sure you said you can't get sick, sooo...
...you are not helping at all."
~Shogun and Naruto.
A Wild Audience (Interlude)
The Shogun was restless.
Naruto could see it in her eyes, the way her gaze flitted about as she scanned the throng of gladdened people around them. He noticed it in the way her hips shifted -really, he ought to stop looking at those- while she walked, her body angled slightly into him as though prepared to yank him back should anyone attack them. Not that they would. All in all she reminded him of a skittish bird, one ready to take flight at the lightest touch. No, he decided, not a bird. She was guarding him, even if she didn't realize it.
And she was absolutely not, not, not letting go of his hand.
Naruto found himself baffled by it. He wondered what had gotten into her; if only because she'd not been like this a minute again. Indeed after her naming, Mei had been content for a bit, enough to let him lead her about the city. She'd even let her hair out of its long braid at his prodding, leaving it to cascade down her back in a flowing violet tide. But now something had her distracted - thus disturbing the hard won peace he had worked so very had to build in her head.
So, naturally, he did what any hot-blooded young man would so. He asked her what was wrong. "You alright, there...?
"I am...unsure." she hid her frown behind a stick of tricolored dango and nibbled at the treat. "I feel strange."
It was as much an admission of guilt as he'd ever get from her. Still, he wondered what caused it.
"Are you really that dense?" Kurama chimed in before he could ponder the matter further. "Naruto. Think for a moment. In all her centuries of existence, you did the one thing no one dared or bothered to do. You gave her a name. No one ever did that for the Shogun. No one treated her like a person...which is precisely what you're doing now."
He blinked. "And that means...?"
A pause pushed itself between them. "You don't know?"
Another blink, now. "Should I?"
"..."
"Did I do something wrong?"
"Fool!" A golden arm of chakra burst out his shoulder and swatted him upside the head. "You didn't do anything wrong. If anything you did something right. Too right. You're getting through to her...in more ways than one. She's waking up. And I'm not sure that's a good thing."
"Ha? Of course that's good! All the more reason to call her Mei, eh? I still don't get what you're tryin' ta tell me, though. This is harmless!"
"Oh, no, no, no." Laughter answered him. "I'm going to let this play out. I haven't been this entertained in eons."
Alright...? The Shogun was a person to him after all. How could treating her like one be a bad thing?
Mei tugged at his hand, pulling him back to reality.
"Hmm?"
He followed her gaze, only to find her gaze at a kimono-and-textiles shop.
Naruto blinked once. "...you wanna try a different outfit?
He knew at once he'd caught her out.
Her shoulders stiffened and her hair lifted a little as a spot of high color hit her cheeks. Was that a blush? Maybe. He'd never been the best at reading girls, and for all her claims to the contrary, the Shogun was very much a woman. He watched her intently, awaiting her response. Eventually, she nodded. It was a stiff, awkward thin, little more than a twitch, but he caught it all the same. Heh. Mei wasn't at all used to telling him what she wanted. It was...kinda cute, really.
"Alright, then." he guided her toward the parlor. "Lets go."
Dense or not, he immediately noticed the way her fingers tightened around his.
Ei might well prove herself a tougher nut to crack altogether, but he had faith.
Not in the gods or any of that nonsense, but in her...and himself.
It proved to be an interesting afternoon.
(.0.0.0.)
The scarlet silk was smooth against Mei's skin as she read the novel.
Truly, the Shogun thought it a strange observation to make, but there it was. She wasn't sure what flight of fancy had possessed her to try a new outfit -just as she didn't know why they'd come tho this house of so-called novels that Naruto was on about- only that one must have. Else she would not be here, sitting astride a bench, reading some fictitious piece of literature.
She'd chosen one on a whim whilst Naruto went to fetch her more dango. Truly, that treat was the food of the gods.
But while her sweet tooth craved more, it was her mind that craved knowledge now.
Paper turned easily beneath her fingers as she thumbed to the next page. Her brow writ in a frown. Confounding. Utterly confusing. Yae Publishing House held all manner of novels for her to peruse at her leisure. Too many, some might say. From tales of classical literature to grand yarns of other worlds; it was almost impossible to choose. But choose she had, and while she did not...regret said, choice, it was beginning to baffle her.
Naruto's chin came down over her shoulder. "Found something you like?"
Mei's body betrayed her and she found herself unconsciously leaning back into him. A hand came down to steady her while the other set her recently acquired desert down on a plate beside her. The Shogun tried to turn her gaze toward it, but her body wouldn't. Her blood sang at his touch, heating to a near feverish degree. Why was she overheating?
The answer, for once, came swiftly.
She was coming undone. She had already begun to realize the truth, but recent events had...expedited the process. There was nothing she could do to stop it. The collapse had already begun. Here in this moment, with her hair down, wrapped up in a kimono that she'd never worn before, she felt almost human.
It was terrifying. Frantic, the Shogun flailed for something, anything to say.
"I do not understand." she held her book up for his inspection as he sat down beside her." What is this "harem" that this novel speaks of?" pages fluttered as she waved it before his eyes. "And why are the women in this novel so fixated on the male character? Surely he cannot please them all. Two should be the limit.
Naruto choked on his dango milk. "Urk!"
She did not understand that, either! More than anything, she wished to learn, and for the most part he seemed eager to accommodate her. But there were times such as these when he refused to answer. Why? Was he keeping secrets from her? Was he trying to hoard all the knowledge for himself?!"
Her lips pursed in a thin line; he must've seen it, because he hastened to explain.
"Well, I only know the definition, but I guess you could say a harem is...
He told her. A spot of high color roared through her face.
Such indecency!
Her eyes sought his. "Are you...fond of such things?"
Naruto slammed his drink back, refusing to choke this time as he guzzled it down. Upon swallowing he shook his head. "Nope! Never had one!"
"Oh." she looked away, mouth curling ever so slight. "That is...good, I suppose."
Why? Why was it good? She didn't understand.
Her right ear twitched.
Movement in her peripherals commanded her attention.
A band of rough looking men in worn traveling leathers approached, more than half a dozen in all. She ignored them.
They did not ignore her.
"Hey, little miss." one of them called out. "Why don't you leave that skinny loser and come with us?"
Naruto quirked a mild blond brow. "Well, that's rude."
He didn't have to take offense. She did for him. "...you would speak such to the bodyguard of the Shogun?"
"No way that's the shogun." one of them muttered to another. "She wouldn't come all the way out here. Can't be. And besides, her outfit's all wrong. Who would wear red in this season?"
That tore it. A muscle jumped in her jaw. "I suggest you leave. Before you are made to leave."
"Oi, do you even know who you're talking to?"
"Should I...?
"There's ten of us! We outnumber you!"
Enough. She sighed and rose to her feet in a languid motion. "That does make things more difficult...
"Hear that, boys?" the leader brayed. "Told ya! She's scared! Now why don't you-"
Mei summoned her polearm unto one hand.
...to decide if any of you should live."
And she blurred.
A/N: There we are.
Things are heating up, and then some!
As ever, the Embers Rule persists. So? Should this continue? Or fall into oblivion?
By all means, speak up! Make yourselves heard!
So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...Would You Kindly?
And enjoy the Previews!
As ever:
SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
PLOT DETAILS AHOY!
YE BE WARNED!
Read at your own risk!
As ever, these are from the far flung future...or are they~?!
(Previews!)
She was awake.
Why? Why was she awake?
She did not know. She remembered death.
Yet here she was. Something had awoken her spirit...
"Ei...think very carefully about what you're doing."
"..."
Her stride was calm, almost eerily so as she descended the dais. Faint light flickered under her feet, forming platforms of violet light as she strode forth to meet him. There was a noticeable swing in her hips that hadn't been there before. She didn't walk or stalk. She strutted.
"You are an enemy that requires special attention."
He could see the light stemming from her chest...light without her sword.
Kurama was the first to voice his concerns. "I really don't like the look of that...
"Thus," Ei continued on, unabated, "I had to reclaim something which I forsook long ago." A hand rose, drawing forth a blade of purest light from her chest. There was something wrong with it. The weapon was sharper than he remembered, warped by some fell power. "Centuries of power." she intoned softly, and the very air seemed to shimmer around her. "Of governance done in mind, if not body. Now...
Her arm swung down.
...face the lightning directly."
And the heavens answered her call.
Naruto's arm snapped up, batting the bolt aside.
"Admirable." She commended him. "But you will find that I am not so easy to defeat now...
"I already said I won't fight you!"
"Then you will die."
"I...want to live."
Kujou Sara was a loyal warrior. She did the Shogun's bidding in all things.
But not this. Anything but this."Why am I being given a baby?!"
"It is the Shogun's will."
"But why me?!"
R&R~!