So it seems this is going to be an every Monday kind of a thing.
Compass of thy Soul
Madara is one of maybe forty people in the entire clan who has barely been ill at all, so he is arranging patrol routes and making sure everybody assigned to patrols is in good enough health to complete them. This weather has been miserable for everybody so the Senju are staying inside their own borders as much as the Uchiha are, and what few missions the clan has been offered have been mainly to do with rescuing people and livestock from floodwaters. Madara had not realised until those missions started coming in that walking on water is a skill with civilian applications that customers are willing to pay for. It's something he's sure his father will have made a note of, if it hasn't happened before already –easy missions mean easy money– for all that the weather that brings in such missions carries with it all kinds of associated problems.
The weather really is utterly abysmal; if it continues like this it will affect the rice planting by washing away the seedlings, which means in turn that the clan is likely to be hired for another trade war next year, as retaliation for the coming autumn's inevitable rise in prices and reduced availability. Madara is already not looking forward to it; they still haven't fully replenished the Outguard's strength from the proxy war between Tea and Fire the year before last. True, the Senju aren't likely to have recovered either, but that doesn't make things better. It doesn't put the Uchiha in a better place overall.
It just means that the Senju are in as desperate straits as his clan is, so are just as likely to jump at the money being offered despite the projected losses. Having more money–
Someone knocks against the shōji separating the document room from the clan house's formal reception room, then slides it open. "Madara, Father's called a meeting; you need to make tea."
Madara carefully rolls up the scrolls detailing the clan's recent finances and stores and slides them back into their respective places on the shelves. "Have you put the kettle over the fire?"
Izuna huffs. "Of course I did! I got out the good tea too; not the matcha –it's just an in-clan meeting with some of the elders of the most prominent lineages– but you'll have to brew it and serve it since I'm not invited."
Madara will also have to dress appropriately for such a meeting; his father insists on it, as formality engenders appropriate respect. "Watch the kettle while I change."
His little brother shouts, "Brush your hair!" after him as he hurries off to their bedroom to remove his armour and trousers and find his hakama. His usual coat is an all-purpose garment, so he can wear it indoors over formalwear; it is certainly cold enough that everybody else will be wearing their coats as well, his father included.
It's a very small meeting, likely because most of the people who should be here are too sick to leave their houses. There's great-uncle Moreya, the only living elder of the Amaterasu lineage, great-aunt Tamayori representing the Yatagarasu lineage, Kashima of the Raiden lineage and Akaishi, Madara's father's right hand who has no known lineage at all.
Of course Madara's father is also present as the Outguard Head, but usually in these meetings there are two people present from the main family of each of the clan's documented lineages and a pair of elders representing clan members with no known lineage. This is just three lines out of eight, each with a single representative; not even a quarter of a council and nowhere near enough people to make any meaningful decisions for the entire clan.
Madara serves tea and does not comment. He will ask any questions he still has at the end of this meeting later and in private.
"What's this about then, Tajima-sama," Elder Moreya grumbles after drinking his tea, coughing wetly into a handkerchief.
Father smiles. "I have located the clan's mysterious sealing spirit," he says lightly, evidently relishing his triumph. The brief outcry from the elders is to be expected; the business with the unknown seals popping up has been going on for nearly three years now and there have never been any leads, which is why the matter has been kept strictly confidential until now. For his father to have found the perpetrator is proof of his fitness for leadership and will force those elders who used this to question his authority to back down.
"Who is it then?" Elder Kashima demands testily. "Somebody's supposedly-civilian husband? One of Sannosawa's students playing with forces beyond their control?"
"Minami's daughter, the new Toyotama coat-maker," Father replies smugly. "I caught her stitching seals into my nephews' undershirts."
Madara nearly drops his tea. He knows who his father is talking about; she made his new coat and is making one for Hikaku to wear this year. Her name… he can't remember her name. His father's never spoken it and she's never introduced herself with it. He knows what she looks like though, can see her in his mind with a craftsperson's apron over a red kimono, her braid dangling down her back, and he's sure that she's younger than Izuna!
"Fushimi's granddaughter, little Kita?" Elder Tamayori says into the shocked silence. "Tajima, she's twelve. Are you saying we were all outwitted by a child?"
"I have spoken to her parents and examined their home," the Outguard Head says steadily. "Many seals are in evidence on their children's clothing, matching those woven into the bandages we took on campaign, and the script on her embroidery patterns is from the same hand as the seals painted under every roof of the clan compound. There are seals under their hearth-stones, seals under the edge of their wooden floor and many, many more seals stitched into the linings of the coats piled up in her work-basket. Ikoma assures me that his daughter has never left clan grounds, has never met anybody out-clan and admitted that he was aware of her deftness and precision in using her chakra despite her mediocre reserves."
Madara is reluctantly impressed. Both with the girl for hiding this for so long and with his father for admitting they have spent three years running around looking for a civilian girl who makes clothes and probably didn't even realise they were looking for her. He takes a mouthful of tea to hide his amusement at the Elders' expressions.
"I have negotiated with her parents and arranged her betrothal to my eldest son," his father continues; Madara almost chokes. "She will immediately move in with my sister, who will instruct her as appropriate for a future Head of Homeguard and wife to someone of my son's station. The wedding will take place after her coming-of-age."
Madara does some desperate mental arithmetic, determines that he has eight years to get to know his betrothed in before he is expected to marry her and breathes a quiet sigh of relief.
"The usual caveats are in place," his father continues, indicating that if either he or her –Kita, Elder Tamayori said her name is Kita– falls desperately in love with somebody else the contract will be dissolved with appropriate compensation made by the party dissolving it, "and with her and her family's needs provided for, she will be better positioned to supply the whole clan."
In other words, his father had acted immediately to gain control over the unexpected sealing specialist, succeeded and now access to seals depends on people's personal allegiance to him rather than on being able to afford her services or cajoling her into helping them. It's a heavy-handed and not at all subtle means to expand and affirm his power and influence after the elders have used this whole debacle to undermine him over the past few years; Madara's not sure how he would do otherwise in his father's place though. Possibly inform his theoretical son beforehand so he didn't choke on his tea in public at the news.
"How did she get missed?" Elder Moreya demands, coughing again. "I know we spoke to Kumami as well as Sannosawa; if Kita has such a steady hand and quick mind as to pursue sealing she should have been mentioned when this was investigated the first time!" Kumami-san and Sannosawa-sensei teach the clan's children to read and write, Kumami-san the girls and Sannosawa-sensei the boys.
"At home Kita prefers to write with her left hand; Kumami does not permit such in her schoolroom."
Madara pulls a face; he isn't the only one. A left-handed shinobi has the advantage of surprise over his enemy, so what's wrong with using the left hand to write with as well? This is clearly something that needs addressing, as without Kumami-san's prejudice this mystery would have been solved much sooner.
"Your son's betrothal is a family matter and not subject to the approval of the wider clan," Kashima says sourly, setting his empty tea cup down on the table. "My congratulations on your most advantageous alliance, Tajima-sama, Madara-kun."
"Thank you, Elder," Madara manages, bowing his head politely. The meeting ends shortly thereafter, much to his relief; he had not been expecting a betrothal, especially not to a girl three years younger than he is.
He's never had a conversation with Kita-san, but he will definitely have to try. His father has gone to a lot of effort to arrange this and if he doesn't get along with her, it will probably be arranged for her to marry Izuna instead; his father will not want her outside the authority of their immediate family. She seemed polite and agreeable at his coat fittings and he heard her mother say to his father that the design was an original one, which means that nobody else in the entire history of the clan has ever had a coat like his.
Leaving his father, Madara dashes back to his room so he can take the coat off and have another look at the patchwork lining. Father always says you can tell a lot about a person by their achievements.
Izuna is of course waiting for him in the hall and has definitely been eavesdropping. "You're getting married, Madara?!"
"Not yet!" He hisses, hurrying into the bedroom. Izuna closes the shōji behind them and watches as Madara strips out of his coat, turning the sleeves inside-out.
Kneeling on the lower back is Izanagi, washing his face in the river with his clothes and accessories strewn behind him across the lower third of the right front panel. Springing from the water streaming from his eyes and nose are Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susano-o, Amaterasu in the middle of the back, Susano-o on the right panel and Tsukuyomi on the left panel. The river edge wanders diagonally from middle of the back hem to middle left, then down the left sleeve with the moon and stars glittering above it. The right sleeve is full of swirling storm clouds, complete with little flashes of lightning.
If he turns the coat completely inside out, the sun and moon will be on the backs of his shoulders and Susano-o's head will be over his heart.
It's beautiful. Madara has already admired it –multiple times, honestly– but now he's thinking about what kind of person sees this in their head, then manages to draw it out on paper well enough for it to count as art. Has the patience to sew it with such tiny stitches. Kita doesn't even have a sharingan –Father would have said so– and she made this? All this effort and care in something he's regularly getting mud, blood and who-knows-what-else on? How many times has he almost set his sleeve cuffs on fire now?
He needs to take better care of his coat.
"Who are you marrying?!"
His brother is relentless. "It's not for eight years, Izuna; we've got to both be old enough first. And it's the girl who made our coats; Father found out she was drawing the seals all over the compound."
Izuna glares. "Seriously? She doesn't even have sharingan! Who teaches a civilian girl about seals anyway?"
"She's self-taught."
Izuna blinks and his entire attitude changes. "Oh, so she's a genius? What, it's true!" He protests at Madara's dumbfounded expression. "Father's been trying to find out who was behind this for years. Kita-chan's younger than me, she must have been eight or something when she started! Not even your precious Hashirama's that good!"
"Hashirama's not my anything!" Wait a minute. "Izuna, how do you know her name?"
His little brother huffs. "She was Yahiko's friend," he says shortly, "and Hikaku knows her. She was there when Toku-chan died and screamed loud enough that Father and Uncle arrived in time to save Hijiri when the Senju raided us."
Madara hadn't realised that Kita is the same age as Yahiko would be now. It hurts; in his memories –memories that are not sharingan-sharp, so he is doomed to lose them completely– Yahiko is seven and will be seven forever. "She saved Hijiri?"
Izuna nods. "Hikaku says she gave him that Yatagarasu blanket for Benten too, when everybody else was expecting her to die. Hey, do you think she put seals in the blanket? Ohabari-oba was really surprised that Benten lived through the winter."
Madara likes the idea of a girl who will give seals to a premature orphaned baby to help them survive and never say a word about it. It implies that Kita actually cares about the clan, not just about her standing in it or in having her efforts recognised by it. That places her above quite a lot of his closer relatives. "We'll have to ask her; Father said she was moving into Ohabari-oba's house." At least she's young enough to not behave strangely about the whole betrothal thing. Hopefully.
"Today?"
"Probably not today," Madara concedes; "or tomorrow either. Everybody's still sick."
"Kita-chan isn't sick," Izuna notes perceptively. "And we're not sick. Do you think she stitched seals on our clothes too? She made your undershirts, didn't she? I saw her mending Father's once."
That is something else he will have to check right now. Seals are hard to recognise because they have no external chakra, but the sharingan reveals even the tiniest of details and now Madara knows that Kita's seals are stitched, he knows what to look for. "Let's find out."
Kita is twelve. Kita doesn't want to move away from her parents.
Kita recognises that in this matter she does not have a choice.
Kita puts on a brave face for her little sisters, who are all incredibly excited that she is betrothed to Madara-sama like the girls in her fairy stories, who work hard and do good things and get noticed by rulers. Grandma watches her knowingly, pats her hands and promises to visit in the autumn to help her with her silk. Papa hugs her and tells her how Tajima-sama has given them an entire extra field, which means Mama can expand the vegetable garden again and possibly plant a few more mulberry trees, so that when Tateshina is older she can weave silk as well as hemp. Auntie Tsuyu will also be able to make more paper as Mama plans to plant more hemp, and paper is something that is useful to the clan and sells well. They may even buy paper mulberry saplings, so the clan can start making its own washi.
Mama takes Kita aside into hers and Papa's room, opens her wardrobe and shows Kita her kimono. There's the pine green one with the wavy gold bamboo print that Mama is wearing already and the pale blue one with the big white sakura print that Mama only wears in spring. Then there's a kimono Kita has never seen Mama wear: it is a light, vivid green like new shoots painted with delicately swirling purple wisteria blossom and darker green leaves arching across the body and up the back, with additional smaller sprays hanging down the sleeves, all curving and flowing as though blown by the wind.
"Mama it's beautiful!"
"It belonged to Grandma's mother; she was more highly placed in our lineage than we are," Mama explains. "Grandfather –my grandfather– bought it when he was courting her." She carefully lifts it out, showing Kita the peach-blossom pink nagajuban that goes with it, soft cotton printed with a scattering of vibrantly blue butterflies, and the undershirt and slip in pale, purple-tinged blue.
The next kimono is familiar and very clearly made by Grandma: it is woven in deep and pale pink, with a magnificent and very complicated pattern which combines clouds with rippling water and clematis vines. "I wore this all the time after I married, right up until you were born. I stopped wearing it because I didn't want to ruin it, so it's just for festivals now." Mama only wears it a few times a year, but she always looks beautiful in it.
"Will you wear it every day once Jōnen is older?"
"Maybe." That kimono goes away again and Mama takes out a different one. This one is in pale iris purple, with a detailed but subtle pattern of plum blossom and birds. "Grandma made this one too."
"It's very pretty." It is; not many people wear purple. Purple is very hard to dye consistently as it's usually made by dyeing red over indigo or vice-versa, but this particular shade comes from water iris stems so it takes a lot of work to gather enough to dye an entire kimono. Even in a pale tint.
"Grandma made it as a gift for her mother. It's yours now; you will need a silk kimono to wear on special occasions, as you are representing our lineage to the clan head. We are giving you the wisteria kimono as well; I have a cream and gold obi Grandma made that you can wear with both."
"Mama?"
"When you are more settled you can buy yourself a plain obi and embroider it any way you wish," Mama tells her quietly, pulling out a deep charcoal nagajuban with a plain collar, the body printed with green-grey bamboo stalks and rosy orange crickets. "You are going to be the clan head's wife, so once you are married you will wear the kimono of the Amaterasu lineage. Your spinning is fine enough that you can make yourself a plain obi of wild silk, or even a whole kimono if you wish, although it will be impossible to paint on so you will have to limit yourself to embroidery. I expect you to keep your cotton kimono for everyday for the time being, then a plain or printed silk kimono once you begin to be comfortable in your new role; one made from spun silk is less formal than one from reeled silk. The woven kimono is for informal gatherings, tea ceremonies and festivals, the painted kimono for formal occasions where you must stand before outsiders as the clan heir's betrothed. You may well be given other kimonos for such occasions," Mama adds, "but these are part of your dowry. As will be your great-grandmother's Toyotama kurotomesode and matching accessories, which you are not to try on until after you are married."
"I promise Mama." Kita sniffs; she is trying not to cry but it is hard.
"Hush my little winter's child; you're not going so far away. You will see all of us around the compound and nobody will keep you from visiting."
"But I won't be able to come home anymore."
Mama hugs her and lets her cry into her kimono. "You will have a new home, north-star," she croons, stroking Kita's hair, "and you are such a strong, clever girl to have caught Tajima-sama's eye. He came to us to ask for you, despite you being so young and our place in the clan lowly, and he wants you for his firstborn. This is your opportunity, a way you have made for yourself. Don't hesitate."
Kita wipes her eyes on her apron and tries to settle. "I'll work hard, Mama."
"I know you will, north-star." Mama smiles at her. "The gods have blessed me with such a dutiful and thoughtful firstborn."
Kita giggles. "Thank you, Mama." This is going to be very hard, but she can do it. Even though she's never had a proper conversation with Madara before and is going to be buried under new kinds of lessons she doesn't even want for several years.
"And don't think this will get you out of making coats," Mama mock-scolds her. "You have the eye for it and Naka is much less attentive than you were at six, so she will not be nearly good enough to take over for at least eight years. Our quilted coats are a jewel of the clan and you have far too much talent there to squander; I will be sending you off with all my scraps and threads and designs."
"But Mama!"
"Naka is not you; she will take better to learning to dye and paint and quilt first and those skills will serve her better in helping me make and maintain the coats of the wider clan. It will also give Tateshina the opportunity to work with silk, which she has earned, and give me time to nurture some new saplings so I can breed enough silkworms for both weaving and patchworking in a year or two. Barring unexpected disaster, it will be years before any new patchwork coats need to be made and by then I will have replenished my scrap bag. The designs are better off kept safe with you; I have always fretted about them, what with this house not being as fine as my grandmother's was. If I ever need one I know where to find you."
Kita realises this is Mama giving herself excuses to visit and stops protesting. Things will be different, but that doesn't mean they will be bad.
Just because her whole world has been upended does not mean Kita is getting out of looking after Hikaku's younger siblings and Ohabari-san. So after kissing her own siblings goodnight and agreeing with Mama that it's best not to move her trays full of caterpillar eggs until the rain stops, she heads back to Ohabari-san's house to watch over Hijiri, Hidaka and Benten for the night.
This time however she takes her bag of sealing notes and practice scraps. If people know, she can switch between sewing Hikaku's coat and trying out new seal ideas. The rain is lighter now –barely more than a drizzle– but no less wet, so she makes sure to wear her hat and her own coat. It's not a proper warrior coat, double-quilted with a heavy cotton outer layer and a coarse canvas core, but it's still warm and keeps her dry.
A hydrophobic seal would be a good idea. Something to make water roll off the outer layer of the coat rather than soaking into it. Well, would be a good idea for a rain cover; a coat you can't get wet would be a very bad idea in battle when people are throwing fire around. Even with fire-retarding seals; no Uchiha would ever be foolish enough to oil or wax their coat. Also, how would she ever be able to wash it?
Arriving at Ohabari-san's house, Kita takes off her shoes, hangs up her hat and coat to dry in the genkan and makes her own way inside, stopping dead after opening the shōji that separates the front hall from the main reception room.
"Kita-san. Come in and sit down," Tajima-sama invites, inclining his head towards the side of the table closest to her, tomoe spinning gently black on scarlet in his eyes. He is sitting beside Ohabari-san, his second to his right and Grandpa Yamasachi on Ohabari-san's left, all four of them watching her over their tea. Grandpa Yamasachi is the head of the Toyotama lineage that Kita belongs to and insists on everybody in the lineage calling him 'grandpa,' despite Kita being rather distantly related to him. She thinks he is Grandma's cousin or second cousin, maybe.
Kita closes the shoji behind her and shuffles up to the table, carefully seating herself seiza as appropriate for such a formal occasion, taking off her apron and setting it down beside her under her bag. "Yamasachi-jī-san," she says, addressing her lineage's elder first as protocol demands, "Tajima-sama, Ohabari-san. Sir," she adds, glancing at the man whose name she does not know.
"We need to discuss your sealing, Kita-chan," Grandpa Yamasachi tells her firmly but not unkindly. "Tajima-sama knows your parents were unaware of your experiments, so they will not be censured for allowing you to pursue such a dangerous art unsupervised, but you must provide the clan with a list of all the seals you have created, their function, how rigorously you have tested them and where you have placed them."
"I was made aware of sealing placed on clan buildings three summers ago, when Akaishi" –Tajima-sama gestures towards his second– "witnessed a lightning strike on the clan hall that revealed a seal channelling the strike into the ground, leaving the roof intact. His discovery led to closer inspections of other clan buildings, revealing many more seals but a limited range of designs." Akaishi reaches down to the floor beside him and produces a stack of sketches, laying them out on the table. "Over time, more seals were discovered."
Recognising her cue, Kita leans forwards and gingerly spreads the drawings out. The top sketch is a very dramatic rendition of the instant a lightning bolt hit the suzume-otori on the clan hall, sizzling energy clearly visible snaking along the grounding line around the edge of the roof and down a corner pillar to the ground. "This is a grounding seal," she murmurs as Ohabari-san pours a cup of tea and places it in front of her. "It has two parts: the head, which is painted in a high place to attract lighting, and the tail which connects the head to the ground so that the lightning can be discharged harmlessly. The lightning is attracted to the head, rather than striking another part of the building likely to be damaged. The seal creates an area around the object it is placed on where lighting cannot do damage, so that whatever the head seal is attached to doesn't catch on fire." She reaches out for the edge of the teacup, fingers grazing it nervously. "I have painted this seal on every suzume-otori in the clan compound."
Tajima-sama does not give away in either body or chakra whether or not this is a surprise to him. Akaishi takes notes as she speaks, occasionally scribbling diagrams that have the same shape as some of her gestures and illustrate her words.
The next sketch is of her umbrella seal. Kita sips her tea –really fine sencha, possibly even a first picking– then explains that one too, followed by the fire prevention seals, fire dampening seals, anti-vermin seals and the seals against decay and physical damage. She explains how the decay prevention seals can interfere with the pickling and fermentation process, so have a very limited effective range and need to be applied directly onto containers of fresh foods rather than on entire buildings. The seals on the buildings are to prevent the wood itself rotting.
She finishes her tea. Ohabari-sama pours new tea for everybody as Akaishi gathers up the sketches and changes scrolls.
"What about these seals?" Tajima-sama asks, laying a roll of bandage and one of Madara-sama's undershirts on the table.
Kita starts with the bandage. "The sharingan eye seal strengthens the body by proximity, improving its ability to recognise infection and fight it off. It encourages the immune system to be like the sharingan, alert and attentive to all possible threats in order to swiftly counter them. The skull and crossed bones is a sterilisation seal, to reduce the possibility of infection developing at all. Both of them draw on ambient chakra, so they're not very powerful and do run out after a while, but they can draw more chakra in and start working again if they are left unused for a little while. The integrity seal is meant to draw on the body's memory of its condition before the injury, to encourage everything to heal in its proper alignment and reduce scarring. I don't know how well that one works as I couldn't test it."
Tajima-sama turns back the collar of the undershirt, revealing where somebody has smeared ash to make the seal stitching stand out. Washing that off is going to be really irritating; she hopes she's not expected to do it. "There are glands in the throat which swell when a person is fighting an infection," she explains, one hand rising to her own throat. "I felt that putting the sharingan seals close to those glands was a good compromise, as they are discreet yet reasonably close to both the mouth and nose; many illnesses are contracted through breathing." She opens the undershirt, revealing another ashy seal stitched into the armpit. "The sterilisation seal also prevents bad smells developing," she admits with as much aplomb as she can manage. "I heard all kinds of complaints about mouldy clothing and persistent smells after the last campaign."
Akaishi hastily sips his tea to disguise his smirk and Tajima-sama's chakra sparkles with amusement despite his stony face and intent gaze.
"Also, the sharingan seals might not be good for pregnant women," Kita adds scrupulously. "Since it might encourage their body to attack and miscarry the unborn child. I didn't put any on my mother's clothes."
"A wise precaution," Grandpa Yamasachi assures her gravely. "You have shown appropriate caution and been admirably responsible, although you properly should have approached myself or Fuji-san before even attempting a seal. They can be extremely dangerous. However as it has been determined that you were never actually taught that," his tone sharpens abruptly, "you will not be punished for your ignorance, but only because nobody has been harmed by it."
Kita bows. "Thank you, Grandpa Yamasachi."
"Are there any other seals you have made?" Tajima-sama asks mildly. Kita can't tell if he's found more seals he wants her to confess to or if he's admitting he doesn't think he's found them all. Best not to risk it; getting in trouble for lying would be very stupid right now.
"I stitched a lot of seals into the canvas lining of Madara-sama and Izuna-sama's coats," she admits, "and into other people's coats as well. I have a calming seal –it's not very strong but it helps a person think through anger– a seal to sharpen reflexes that mostly works when a person is tired, so it's more of a reflex maintenance seal than actually improving them, a seal that improves dexterity –I don't know how that one works but I haven't dropped anything since stitching it into my sleeve cuffs– and a seal that reduces nightmares."
"How can a seal reduce nightmares?" Akaishi asks, abruptly interested.
"Um, what makes dreams scary isn't what you see in them, it's how you feel in them," Kita explains cautiously. "I've had scary dreams where nothing actually happened and dreams where really terrible things happened but it wasn't scary. So the seal sort of dampens painful emotions while you're sleeping, so you don't feel scared or angry while dreaming. That one definitely works," she adds, "I tested it on myself a lot before stitching it anywhere else."
She sips her tea as Akaishi and Tajima-sama exchange significant glances. She's not sure what that is about.
"I, there's another seal," she goes on, "I put it in Izuna-sama's first coat, along with the fire dampening seal, and in Madara-sama's coats later. It's a strengthening seal; it works on the coat itself, binding the fibres in each individual thread together so they are less likely to break. I mean, it's probably not going to stop a sword but it could cushion a glancing blow, maybe? I know it works at least a bit because I tested it with Mama's kitchen knives."
"A very useful seal," Tajima-sama agrees; the spinning tomoe in his eyes make being the focus of his attention even more intimidating than usual. "Could you teach others to apply these seals, Kita-chan?"
"Maybe?" she prevaricates. "Um, my seals make sense to me, but if they don't make sense to other people then they might not be able to get them to work. Um, and my stitched seals are only stitched, so the person I was teaching would have to learn to embroider too. Stitching seals is completely different to writing them, as you have to hold the entire seal in your mind until it's finished. Because thread is continuous, but an inked seal is written in separate strokes and only comes together at the end when it's activated."
"Something to revisit later," Tajima-sama decides, setting his tea cup down on the table. "For the time being you will continue to apply and maintain these seals in bandages and on the coats of the clan, and keep written notes of other seals you are developing. Once you have a new seal, you will approach Akaishi if it has a martial application or Yamasachi-san if it is a civilian seal, and they will supervise the testing process. Should the seal pass testing, it will be submitted to myself for approval. From now on you are only to apply approved seals to clan structures and materials. Your current seals save the integrity seal are all approved; Yamasachi-san will speak to Yumiori-san about testing that one on volunteers or animals, so we can be certain of its effects. You are to unravel every instance of that seal from the clan's bandage supply as punishment for your carelessness."
"Yes, Tajima-sama." Kita bows; he is right, she was incredibly thoughtless there. She should have known better.
"Ohabari will teach you what you need to know to become a good wife to my son and a proper Head of the Homeguard," Tajima concludes, sharingan fading from his eyes as he rises from the table. "Given the intelligence and skills you have already shown, I do not believe it will take you very long to learn."
Then he leaves, Akaishi right behind him with an armful of papers and the soiled undershirt. At least they aren't making her wash it.
"That went tolerably well, all things considered," Grandpa Yamasachi says dryly after the front door closes. "Have another cup of tea, Kita-chan; Tajima's attention is not good for the nerves."
Kita accepts more tea. Something about both Grandpa's and Ohabari-san's non-reaction to Tajima-sama's statement that she will be Home Head is making her uneasy. "Grandpa?"
"Yes, Kita-chan?"
"I thought being Head of the Homeguard was a position reserved for a member of the Amaterasu lineage. I mean, that's what Grandma taught me." Surely Ohabari-san should be Head of the Homeguard, being the most senior member of the Amaterasu lineage after Tajima-sama?
"When Tajima-sama became Head of the Outguard he insisted that his wife Hitomi become Homeguard Head," Ohabari-san replies mildly. "Since her death the clan has not had an official Home Head, as Tajima deemed it unnecessary. My brother Niniji took on some of the responsibilities for a time, but he too is dead now."
The way Ohabari-san says that has really uncomfortable implications, considering Niniji-sama died right at the end of the proxy war between Fire and Tea. "I don't feel qualified to be Home Head," Kita attempts. "I wasn't raised in my lineage's main family, so do not know the people or have any concept of the pressures involved. Yes, I am likely to become Madara-sama's wife, but that is in itself a full-time position; I do not wish to neglect my duties to him. I also have my sealing, which requires me to consider the needs of the clan as a whole, Homeguard and Outguard." She hesitates. "It would be inappropriate of me to take on more responsibilities than I am capable of devoting my attention to."
"A most wise observation for one so young," Ohabari-san muses into her tea.
"Of course, it is only proper that I know about the Homeguard and its inner workings, since Madara-sama is likely to succeed his father as Outguard Head at some point and will need a neutral perspective," Kita continues, feeling slightly surer of her footing in this very perilous conversation now, "so I have no objections whatsoever towards learning whatever you can teach me about the clan, Ohabari-san." Hopefully her implications there are sufficiently clear.
"Call me Auntie; you are marrying my nephew after all," Ohabari-san says, fondness infusing her tone ever so slightly. "I agree that you will need a very thorough education on the clan to be a good wife to the future Head of the Outguard, and that your sealing should of course take precedence over any additional responsibilities that might be offered to you. Once everybody's health has improved and the weather is better I will begin introducing you to the relevant individuals and provide you with suitable context."
"As will I and your Granny Fuji, Kita-chan," Grandpa Yamasachi adds, tone arch. "Having multiple perspectives on past political upsets is very important to achieving a full understanding of events."
Ohabari-oba snorts. Clearly they know each-other very well to tease like that.
"Finish your tea, Kita-chan, then go and sit with the little ones," Ohabari-oba concludes, producing a handkerchief from her sleeve and coughing into it. "I will be turning in shortly as well; I will speak to Yumiori about the bandages in the morning."
"Shall I make breakfast in the morning, Auntie?"
"I would be most grateful, Kita-chan."
Kita spends the next two days unpicking seals from the clan's bandage stock and explaining seriously to Hijiri and Hidaka that she did something she shouldn't have, but that since nobody had said she shouldn't have and nobody got hurt by her mistake, she just has to undo what she did rather than being punished. Both boys accept this explanation as logical and ignore her thereafter; they're both much better but still very tired, so spend most of both days sleeping and eating. Kita makes sure to cover them up again when they throw their blankets off; the fever might make them think that they're hot, but if they chilled now that could get very dangerous for them.
Uchiha are not as vulnerable to high temperatures as regular civilians, being a clan fire natured due to chakra affinity, so fevers are less dangerous. Exposure however is a real killer, so keeping everybody warm is essential.
Active chakra circulation helps there. It means she can sit still on the engawa wearing two layers of padded undergarments under her kimono and her coat and not be cold despite the freezing rain bucketing down within arm's reach. The shōji behind her is open a crack to allow for air circulation, but the boys are buried under six layers of blankets on the futon inside and Benten is strapped to Kita's back between her padded layers.
She looks ridiculous, but the toddler is warm and that's what matters.
The next day she has to cook a more substantial breakfast for ravenous recovering boys who run around the entire house, their enthusiasm and energy punctuated by hacking base coughs that Ohabari-oba finds very alarming indeed, so after breakfast Kita dresses then in all the warm layers she can find, adds coats on top and lets them loose in the garden. The rain's not very heavy at the moment and they clearly need the exercise.
Neither Hijiri nor Hidaka falls into the koi pond inside the first five minutes, but it is a very near thing. Kita watches then from the engawa, busily stitching the silver-wrapped thread in lines emerging from the moon above Tsukuyomi's head and lightly reflecting off his bloodied sword. More silver accents will be added to the dismembered goddess lying at his feet; Hikaku had argued for silver only, which meant objectively more metallic thread overall and Tajima-sama had liked because this way only he and his sons have gold thread embroidery in their coats.
Well, sooner or later some other lineage's heir is probably going to want a coat, but they won't have the main pantheon on theirs; that is for the Amaterasu lineage only.
She senses Madara-sama's arrival before he even takes his shoes off in the genkan; unlike his father, his chakra presence is neither quiet nor subtle.
"Good morning, Madara-sama," she says as he steps into the room behind her. The sudden scrape of the tatami against the floor under his feet suggests she has surprised him.
"You're a sensor?" and that is not Madara-sama. Izuna is evidently much more subtle, in chakra terms at least. Kita half-turns, so as to look at her guests without losing track of the boys.
"Only barely, Izuna-sama; your father snuck up on me very effectively a few days ago. Your brother however has very loud chakra."
"Loud?" Madara-sama asks, walking past her through the open shōji and carefully settling himself on the engawa, his chakra swamping the area around her like a faintly sizzling cloud and obscuring her senses. He is wearing his coat reversed, showing off her patchwork.
Kita hums. "Maybe 'looming' is a better word," she muses, daring to tease a little. "Like a thundercloud, visible from a considerable distance and exerting pressure all around you."
Izuna falls over laughing on the tatami. "It's like she knows you, brother!"
Madara-sama reddens, glaring daggers at his brother before his gaze slides back to hers. "My father's chakra is quiet?"
Kita pauses in her embroidery. "Tajima-sama is very contained," she explains, "he keeps most of his emotions and motives hidden within himself, where they can only be guessed at, and when he wishes to pass unnoticed he obscures his chakra entirely, sliding behind the background hum of the wider world. Madara-sama is highly expressive; everything is visible and external and written very large."
"My brother lacks subtlety," Izuna agrees cheerfully, "and drop the 'sama,' Kita-chan; you're going to marry him, you can definitely be personal with both of us."
Madara shuffles, radiating acute embarrassment like sunlight through mist, but echoes, "I would prefer it, Kita-san."
"Madara-kun then." This is a very confusing conversation on multiple levels. "You may also be more personal if you wish, Madara-kun."
"Thank you, Kita-chan." The gangling fifteen-year-old hesitates, the chakra billowing around him undirected and hesitant. "Um, do you think I could learn to be quieter? With my chakra, I mean?"
"It's your chakra, so yes," Kita agrees candidly. "Your reserves must be gigantic, for you to be able to bleed it all over the place like that and not notice."
"He's a huge great lump," Izuna confirms wickedly, leaning over Kita's shoulder to peer at her embroidery. "Hey, is that Tsukuyomi?"
"Yes, having just killed Uke Mochi," Kita confirms. "Hikaku wanted the same pattern as Niniji-sama had before he married."
That causes a sudden lull in conversation; considering what Ohabari-oba implied after the meeting with Tajima-sama, Kita can't admit to being surprised. It also makes it clear that whatever happened, these two saw it.
"So, any ideas on how I could make my chakra quieter?" Madara asks after the awkward pause has stretched for several seconds too many.
"Well, two ways," Kita admits; this is something she's thought about a lot, since different people are more or less expressive and it's not entirely dependent on chakra levels. "Firstly, you could make an effort to keep your chakra under your skin rather than flaring all over the place. Secondly, you could learn to separate your emotions from your chakra, so you don't project everywhere all the time."
"Those are two different things?"
"Well, yes? You could flare your chakra without projecting through it, probably; if you did that it would just feel like your affinity. But if you can separate your emotions from your chakra you can glare holes in the back of somebody's head without them realising you're doing it."
"Is that why you learned?" Izuna asks, all solicitous interest.
"I leaned because once you can keep your feelings out of your chakra, you can deliberately imbue your chakra with a very specific feeling or intent," Kita explains, side-eyeing him warily, "which is a necessary part of my stitched seals. If I'm not completely focused when making them they fizzle out." Izuna feels like he's fishing for something.
Izuna looks even keener. "If I learned to do that, could I make seals out of wire?"
"Probably. I mean, I've made seals out of wire." Mostly to see if it worked like thread. It's actually easier; Uchiha-made steel wire conducts chakra very well indeed.
Izuna looks gleeful. Madara mostly looks –and feels– confused. There is confusion billowing everywhere. "How do I do that?"
"Meditation helps?" Kita offered a little helplessly. "I mean, I mostly just do it so I'm not sure how to teach it. Does the clan have stealth specialists? It sounds like something they should know how to do. I mean, it's not about ignoring your feelings; it's just about recognising that they are not necessarily relevant to what you are doing right now."
Madara still looks confused. Izuna is frowning like her words only partly make sense.
"Okay, say you go on a mission and people die," Kita attempts, "and then you come home feeling terrible about it. But it's not anybody else's fault that you feel terrible, so you pull the feeling under your skin so they can't see it. You help your fellow shinobi to the surgery, because that's the right thing to do. You offer to carry a sack of rice for a passing granny because it needs doing and she shouldn't be made to feel bad because you messed up. Then when you're in private with somebody you trust, you let all those feelings out but keep your chakra contained, because emotions are messy and that's fine, but putting chakra behind them makes them invasive and that's not a good thing to do to people weaker than you are, who can't defend themselves from you."
The lights come on; both Madara and Izuna look like she has just kicked their whole world off-kilter. "Does keeping your own emotions in make it easier to wall other people's out?" Izuna demands, actually looking at her properly for the first time. Kita feels vaguely exposed by that sharp gaze.
"Yes? I mean, once you get used to keeping yours in, you can tell when it's somebody else's feelings being pushed in your face, so they're easier to disregard. It also gets easier to tell if people are being manipulative on purpose."
Izuna turns on his older brother. "We are learning this," he says firmly.
Madara is projecting a mess of pained doubt, determination and the particular delight that comes from learning a new thing. "Meditation helps, you said?"
"Meditation is a tool for increasing your familiarity with your own chakra," Kita recites, quoting one of the scrolls that Kumami-san has made her copy dozens of times in an attempt to improve her right-handed calligraphy. It has only been marginally successful; Kita is not ambidextrous and doubts she ever will be. "Once you are familiar with your chakra, how it moves and circulates within you, how it responds to your moods and your will, you can mould it more effectively."
"This is how you got good at sealing, isn't it?" Izuna points out shrewdly. "You don't have much chakra, but you know it very well so you can do a lot more with it than most people who aren't shinobi."
"That is part of it, yes."
Izuna's eyes take on a slightly wicked gleam. "Could we practice with you? Not all the time of course, but regularly? So you can demonstrate how it's supposed to be done and we can gauge our progress?"
He most certainly has an ulterior motive but Kita can't quite pin it down. It's something more than an excuse to keep visiting, but beyond that she has no idea. "I see no reason why not, so long as my other duties aren't interrupted."
"I'll sort it out with Auntie," Izuna assures her sincerely, mischief still gleaming in his eyes. "Can you get us started now?"
This is a trap. However she has a feeling the trap is for Madara, not for her, which explains Izuna's mischief far better. Far be it from Kita to thwart good-natured sibling teasing. "Well, the best way to start is to sit comfortably in a position you can keep indefinitely without developing pins and needles."
Both boys settle cross-legged on the engawa.
"Rest your hands on your thighs or your knees, whichever is most comfortable, then close your eyes and focus on the feel of your chakra inside yourself."
They both settle. "What do we do once we've found it?" Izuna asks, eyes closed.
"Sink into the feeling. Does it move? If so, how? Is it steady or erratic? Where can you feel it most? It is in a specific area of your body? How does that feeling compare with other areas of your self?" Kita asks tone soft and steady as she glances out at the garden again; Hijiri and Hidaka are busily crawling through the muddy shrubbery, playing ninja. "Breathe slowly and explore the sense of your chakra."
Madara's billowing cloud almost immediately contracts around him, trailing edges lingering on her throat and hands as they retreat past her. He twitches, but settles again fairly swiftly. Izuna is actually detectable past his brother now, hot but fiercely contained like the fire in a forge rather than Madara's rampaging wildfire.
The contrast is oddly comfortable; Kita picks up her embroidery again, half-slipping into a similarly meditative state as she continues highlighting Tsukuyomi's slaughter of the goddess of food with silver accents, half an eye on the ongoing game in the garden.
It's a very pleasant way to finish off the morning.
The weather finally improves and missions start up with a vengeance; lots of merchants want their goods escorted to cities as quickly as possible despite the flooded roads, so they can sell their goods before anybody else and make a larger profit. Madara is sent on one such escort mission to Tanzaku-gai, along with four older members of the Outguard, while Izuna is on another to the fire temple.
Izuna's party is also taking along Uchiha trading goods, including a respectable quantity of pale green silk which no silkworms were killed to make. Silk that Kita has spun, from cocoons she raised herself. Izuna has been firmly instructed on what the silk is worth, what price to offer first and what lower limit to accept on the haggling. He had clearly found her seriousness adorable; Madara suspects Izuna will do his best to get a good deal for her, if only to lord it over Madara later.
Izuna is very interested in Kita, possibly because she seems to be developing a habit of surprising them both. First it was the sensing, then it was the fantastical and original bedtime stories provided for their younger cousins' amusement. Most recently their newly-developed meditation habit has started to bear fruit: people no longer tense or turn around when he walks up behind them. In fact several Outguard members have jumped when he has spoken up from behind them.
It is amusing. It is also embarrassing that he never noticed this was an issue until Kita pointed it out. His cousins are far less wary of him now, as though his efforts to rein in his chakra are perceptible to them even though they are too young to really recognise what they were feeling.
Madara is also starting to notice other people's chakra at close range, probably because he is not hopelessly fouling up his own senses anymore. Izuna is bright and hot and contained; Kita is a much gentler glow, moving with steady purpose and radiating subtle warmth.
He can feel her chakra when they meditate together and it's almost like being curled up by the iori on a winter's evening, comfortable and soothingly soporific.
He accidentally fell asleep last time and started drooling. Izuna laughed at him.
He should buy Kita a present in Tanzaku-gai. She is calm and pleasant and not giggly or overly fearful, all of which he appreciates very much, but he wants her to like him as a person. As a friend, even. It is hard to talk about personal things when Izuna is always there poking her with words –which Kita handles very gracefully even when she is telling his nosy little brother to mind his own business– so maybe a gift would help?
What should he get though? What kinds of things does she like?
Well, sweets might work, but they've not talked about favourite foods yet and he doesn't want to assume. She likes doing embroidery –she's said as much– and she likes art, so maybe some prints if he can find some? Something legendary, or else of a play or story?
It is that or clothes; Kita is very careful of her everyday brown cotton kimono, but surreptitious glances with his sharingan active have revealed lines of wear that imply it is at least second-hand. Probably inherited from her mother or grandmother; kimono are frequently passed down families like that. He can't buy her a new kimono –that would have implications and she is twelve he is not going to do that– but he could probably get away with an umbrella or a new set of obi cords. Something useful but not too personal, that says he is paying attention and wants her to like him. That he isn't taking her for granted despite his father having arranged the betrothal without asking either of them.
If all else fails, an omamori will at least say he's thought of her while away from the clan.
Kita wears kimono when embroidering, because the slow, delicate work of piecing patchwork and adding decorative details requires a lot of sitting indoors in good light and keeping the work clean. However gardening or helping in the fields is messier work, especially in this muddy late spring, so she changes into the everyday outdoor outfit of every member of the Uchiha clan –dark long-sleeved shirt with the clan crest embroidered on the back of the neck and matching ankle-length trousers– to weed Ohabari-oba's flowerbeds and help Hikaku clear the koi pond of winter debris, bandaging the trouser legs around her calves to keep warm and reduce the amount of laundry she will need to do afterwards. Fewer changes of water to soak the laundry in if the mud is only on the bandages; they can be rinsed separately in the river first.
Ohabari-oba does not have a vegetable garden at all; the only regularly harvested plants in her entire garden are the plum tree, the persimmon tree and the bamboo. Everything else is selected purely for aesthetic reasons.
Kita is utterly baffled that such a thing is even possible; Ohabari-oba doesn't even do the harvesting herself. At least several of the trees in the garden are oaks; she will be able to trim branches off them for her caterpillars, which are due to hatch soon. Now the weather is better Papa has moved the trays over and Ohabari-oba has let her clear and air out the loft for them.
Ohabari-oba's loft is very large, so only a quarter of it is needed for the covered caterpillar trays on their stepped stand. Kita is given another quarter to keep her dowry in, which so far consists of a loom, a reeling rack, a spindle and a chest containing the kimono Mama has given her that she is not allowed to wear yet, the pattern scrolls of patchwork coat lining designs and all the silk scraps and threads. The silk scraps take up much more room than the kimono do.
The remaining half of the loft contains things that belonged to Niniji-sama and his wife that Hikaku and his siblings will probably want to have and use later. Furniture, kimono which Kita knows she will be helping Ohabari-oba air out in the next week or two before carefully folding back into storage for another year, private correspondence, even a biwa. Stored separately are other things, possibly things that Ohabari-oba has inherited from hers and Tajima-sama's mother. Another smaller set of drawers containing carefully wrapped kimono, a lacquered wooden case containing a koto, and a chest filled with a range of other objects carefully wrapped in cloth and paper, making identification impossible.
Kita only knows about those things because after she cleaned the loft, Ohabari-oba had her bring the koto down, carefully setting it up in the room that used to be Niniji-sama's study.
"A lady should know how to play an instrument," Ohabari-oba tells her, "so I will be teaching you the koto."
Music lessons however do not begin immediately; Kita guesses this is because Ohabari-oba wants to refamiliarise herself with the instrument before demonstrating its use. It's nice, hearing the music drifting through the house as she cooks, cleans and finishes up the quilting on Hikaku's coat.
It's also nice to be in the garden feeding the koi to musical accompaniment.
Two weeks after the weather changes, while Madara and Izuna are both away on missions, Sannosawa-san visits to discuss sealing with her in more depth. Ohabari-oba turns hosting the clan's scholar into a teaching experience, so Kita sits at the table in her pale purple silk kimono and cream and gold obi, her hair piled up on the top of her head and held in place by borrowed pins as Ohabari-oba performs an informal tea ceremony.
While Tajima-sama was more interested in what her seals do and that they are reliable, Sannosawa-san is primarily interested in how they work. Kita brings out all her notes, which is a little embarrassing when they are scribbled on mismatched paper scraps and offcuts, bits of bark and the occasional old roof tile. She should make a fair copy of everything on good paper now she has the time and means to do so.
More embarrassing is when Sannosawa-san starts asking what all the little notations mean.
"What does this scribble mean, Kita-chan?"
Kita squints at it. "I think that's the ideogram I came up with for the little things that cause infections, Sannosawa-san." It's her mental picture of a bacterium, a blobby oval with fine cilia sticking out, making it look a little like a deformed gear.
The middle-aged man blinks at her. "Firstly, the word you are looking for is 'germ,' Kita-chan. Secondly, what do you mean by a 'thought picture'?"
That isn't a word? She was sure it is a word. "Um, it's a symbol that represents an object or idea," she tries, a little wrong-footed by having to explain something she just knows. "Kind of like a kanji, but there wasn't a kanji so I made something up."
Sannosawa's face does something subtle but interesting, as does his chakra. "Firstly, there are in fact kanji for writing 'germ'," he informs her firmly. "Secondly, do you use many original symbols in your sealing?"
Kita thinks about it. The problem with kanji is that there is a separate symbol for every concept, rather than a small collection of phonetic symbols that can be assembled to form the word of your choice. It is also only possible to teach these symbols at a certain rate, and a teacher who thinks that your calligraphy is insufficiently legible can significantly hamper your progress in learning said symbols. She could have used hiragana, but in Japanese homophones are written identically and sealing is not a discipline where it is safe to confuse meanings. "Probably; Kumami-sensei held me back in the advanced script lessons over my poor calligraphy, so I only know a few hundred of the less common kanji." It is compulsory for all Uchiha children to know the thousand common kanji, but no more than that; Kita stayed on out of choice, hoping to learn more, but has thus far been hobbled by her teacher's poor opinion of her calligraphy. She does have a wider vocabulary than she did two years ago, but not by as much as she could have.
The scholar frowns; so does Ohabari-oba. "I will take over your education there," Ohabari-oba says firmly. "There are a great many kanji and as wife of a Clan Head you will need to memorise them all, as you are likely to be required to see and use them in correspondence, politics and poetry. You will also need them to read the clan's histories."
"Start with the histories," Sannosawa says firmly. "She can memorise them by rote, which will allow her to learn to recognise the individual kanji more swiftly. Calligraphy is less urgent, and can be fitted in around her other duties." He paused. "Madara-kun's calligraphy is very fine and his sharingan has placed him well ahead of his peers in memorising characters. I will inform Tajima-sama that I am assigning him to tutor Kita-chan for his schoolroom hours."
"That will work well," Ohabari-oba agrees. "Madara-kun can help Kita-chan become aware of the gaps in her understanding, as well as assist her in filling them in. It will also give them something to talk about."
So Ohabari-oba has noticed that it is Izuna who always carries the conversation whenever her older nephews visit. Well, this will at least give Kita time with her betrothed without his younger brother intruding.
Madara was not expecting to be scheduled calligraphy lessons the moment he was back from his mission, barely giving him enough time to visit the clan bath house and change clothes. That he is giving the lessons only clears up part of his confusion; yes, he has taught Izuna most of the more complex kanji –mostly by writing them out so his little brother can copy them with his sharingan– but that doesn't make him a teacher.
That his kōhai is Kita only adds to his questions. Thankfully his betrothed has the answers; he has been tasked with helping Ohabari-oba get her up to speed on vocabulary and kanji. Seeing as Madara used his sharingan in every single script lesson he had after activating it and swiftly completed all of Sannosawa-sensei's available material in a manner the sensei described as 'competent but uncreative,' he can't really say he's surprised that he's being expected to help. He has more free time than most people, being his father's heir.
It also provides the perfect opportunity to give Kita his present, which he has been worrying about all the way back from Tanzaku-gai. He has been consoling himself that even if it doesn't go down well, the furoshiki is fancy enough to count as a gift all by itself –it's a cotton and silk blend painted with a vibrant asymmetric pattern of koi and ripples and floating leaves– but he really wants her to like his present. It felt like a good idea at the time, despite how much he's been second-guessing himself all the way home.
The rest of the squad teasing him didn't help.
"I bought you a gift," he blurts out as she opens the shōji to the room that used to be his uncle's study.
"Thank you, Madara-kun," she says reflexively, eyes dropping to his hands, which are empty.
"It's in my bag," he adds, waving at the canvas sack slung over his shoulder, which has his calligraphy set and the old, worn dictionary of kanji that is one of the few actual books handed down from Outguard Head to Outguard Head in it as well, along with a book of haiku than had been his mother's. It is more fun to practice calligraphy with poetry than just endlessly copying out single characters.
"Do I make tea?" Kita asks abruptly, suddenly looking as awkward as he feels. The reminder that she doesn't really know what to do about their situation stiffens his spine; he is fifteen and knows what is expected of them both, so he is responsible for helping her learn what she needs to know.
"No: I am here to teach you, so your mind should be on the lesson, not on hosting me. Ohabari-oba will bring tea, because she is hosting me and arranged for me to teach you."
Kita nods, visibly relieved to have clear instructions. Madara gently herds her into the room, closes the shōji behind them and sets his bag on the floor by the table. "Sit on my left," he tells her; "I'm going to show you the kanji and then you're going to write them out." He has waxed boards for her to practice on, easily wiped clean, so they do not waste paper. If he uses chakra to recover the ink he can even reuse that too.
He starts by having Kita go through the book telling him what she recognises and having her write random ones to prove it. Seeing how the kanji are shaped by a person holding the brush in their left hand is fascinating –he uses his sharingan while she's not looking, so he can replicate it if necessary on a mission– and the characters are well-formed and recognisable, if a little idiosyncratic. Not that there's anything wrong with having a visible style.
She knows the basic thousand plus another two hundred and sixteen, as well as about fifty additional characters relevant to fabric, dyeing, embroidery and the Shinto pantheon; not surprising considering her training and that a lot of clansmen have homages to their lineage printed in their coat lining. It's a solid foundation for a twelve-year-old; yes, she could be further ahead, but she is not behind.
Teaching her is slower than teaching Izuna was; she has no sharingan, so he has to coach her through the brush strokes several times, and being a girl she knows hiragana not katakana so he has to read her each character's definition so she understands what it means. She's very focused though, reciting his instructions under her breath to herself as she writes and obediently coming up with short sentences involving each new character, so she can fix its meaning in her mind along with its shape.
Ohabari-oba brings tea while Kita is using the four new kanji he has taught her in haiku describing them. She has a surprisingly quick mind for counting the syllables, although her creations are not particularly elegant.
They are amusing though. He has her write them down on paper at the end of the session along with the definitions, to help the lesson to stick and to preserve the poetry for posterity. Describing a loom as having jaws is a novel mental image, as is a tea bowl being menacing or describing a muddy puddle as a lagoon for a spider to sail across.
Still, he is looking forward to the next lesson: the next eight kanji all have exactly the same pronunciation and it's going to be very funny.
"Here," he says after she has documented her ditties and carefully set the paper aside to dry. "Your present." He sets it on the table, then busies himself with his lukewarm tea.
Kita carefully wipes her hands and her side of the table so they are clean of stray ink splashes before sliding the parcel towards her, face softening into amazed delight as she takes in the patterned furoshiki.
Madara slides a little chakra into his eyes to preserve her expression in his memory forever.
It takes her moments to untie the knots, revealing the pair of indigo house slippers with a cheery print that he'd originally thought was baby turtles in water but the salesperson had told him was little spools with trailing threads.
"I thought you'd like your own pair rather than using one of Auntie's guest pairs," Madara said hurriedly into the sudden hush. "They're printed with little spools, so I thought you'd like them?" Does she like them?!
Kita looks up at him, eyes shining with tears. "I love them," she says a little hoarsely, then leans over and hugs him tightly around the ribcage.
Madara experiences an instant of blind panic, then remembers Izuna's various instances of being utterly overwhelmed by random emotions when he was younger and hugs back. This isn't like all those courtship horror stories he's overheard various older cousins exchanging; Kita is only twelve, not twenty or even sixteen, so she's still a child in body and heart –if perhaps not in mind considering she's a self-taught sealing master– and children need to be hugged.
It's just, he is not usually the person being approached for hugs unless the child needing hugs is Izuna, and Izuna has recently started insisting he's too old to be fussed over like that.
"I love them," she repeats, voice muffled by his shirt. "Thank you so much, Madara-kun."
Madara is abruptly reminded that Kita has only been living with Ohabari-oba for a little over a month and probably misses living at home. She has five younger siblings –living younger siblings– and Madara can't imagine living in a separate building to his little brother and not being on hand whenever Izuna needs something. Her parents' house is barely a ten minute walk away but she's very clearly homesick all the same.
Having her own pair of house slippers will make this house more like a home for her. He's helping her feel more at home, helping her be more comfortable with the changes his father has imposed on her.
He's been over-thinking things, hasn't he? Kita's just a child and children want to know they matter to the people who are responsible for them. Madara can do that.
He hugs her a little tighter and leans his face against the top of her head. "You are very welcome, Kita-chan," he assures her. "I want you to be part of my family." She has always been part of his clan, but clan is not quite the same as family.
That sets off more shaking and sobbing, but that's okay. He's honestly surprised she's managed to keep it all inside for this long; the Uchiha clan is infamous for fiery tempers and strong emotional reactions. Any other clan child would have done this weeks ago.
More proof that she's more intelligent than average. He's going to have to keep an eye out for this, isn't he? He doesn't want her hiding her feelings and making herself unhappy when it might be something he can fix for her. They're betrothed, he's supposed to be looking after her. How will he ever manage to lead the Outguard if he can't even care for one girl?
He needs to get to know her better. At least the calligraphy lessons will give him an excuse to do so without Izuna interrupting all the time.