Chapter Forty-One: The Past is Revealed

When I finally detached myself from the mess of people beginning to clog up the house with congratulations for Hanzo and well meaning questions for me, Chiyome edged her own way out, no-one quite brave enough to stop her swollen belly from getting between them. Finding me leaning on the fence, she gave a shallow breath, easing into a sitting position on the deck. Clutching at her burden with both hands, she avoided looking towards me until I took a seat next to her, sighing into my hands, "At the risk of sounding like everyone else, how are you?"

"Fine in body, but if I get fussed over one more time…"

"It's just their nature Sayomi, I know that a lot of the mothers in the village were worried."

"Mothers? I'm talking about bloody Nobu!"

Laughing loudly until she was gasping, Chiyome wiped at her eyes, "I should have warned you. He and the others have started this year's batch. I suspect that they're just making sure it matches last year's." Waiting for her to catch her breath, I took a glance back in at the party, wondering if anyone had noticed me missing yet.

Slowly though, Chiyome returned to full form, suddenly taking my arm gently and lifting up the sleeve, revealing the bandage wrapped round it. Inspecting the binding carefully, she finally set it down with a nod, "I'm not a fan of battlefield physicians, but I suspect you found one that knows his job."

Rubbing my arm nervously, I only glanced up when Hanzo plonked himself down next to us, swearing under his breath, "Apparently rescuing one of our own isn't enough to get into the booze."
Looking at each other in alarm, Chiyome and I turned to look at him, dissolving into laughter when we noticed the bruising beginning to form around his eye. Scowling at us and flicking up his middle finger covertly, Hanzo merely grunted when Chiyome went back in to talk to her husband, leaving us alone outside. "It's worse than it looks, by the way."

"Good to know."

"I'm not getting any sympathy, am I?"

"Not a chance." I said, submitting to my giggles again, "Besides, you should know better than to get between Nobu and the brew!" Batting my head playfully, Hanzo drew his legs up to his body, hugging them tightly, "You okay?"

"What? Yeah, I'm fine." He sighed quietly, looking out into the garden, "The Elder cornered me though. Wanted to know how much you knew."

Looking at him squarely, my eyes met his, an intense look passing between us, "Do you want my story first, or do you want to get it over with?"

"Ladies first, as Saburo loves to say."

"Do you want me to give Asuka's response?"

"I already have a black eye, Yomi." Hanzo grinned, nudging me as much as he could without losing his balance. Keeping my smile plastered on, I turned back to stare at the garden, focusing solely on the shadows as I began to speak.

For his part, Hanzo relaxed his pose, shuffling closer when he realised my tone wasn't going to get louder, "My father and Takenaka served the same lord, in Mino. When they decided they didn't like how he ruled, they began to think about a small scale mutiny. Of course, I didn't know that. All Tadashi and I had to do was take letters to and from our father, handing them to shady guys in the market near our house. It was just a game to us. But next thing I know, my mother's coming into our playroom, blindfolding us because Father wanted to play another game with us. We didn't stand a chance."

"Tadashi…your brother?"

"He was." The past tense didn't go unnoticed, Hanzo stiffening as he realised what I was implying, "She would've done the same to me, but something stopped her, kept her distracted for so long... I remember thinking it was a yokai. If I'd bothered taking off the blindfold, I would've known the truth. But, my mother was playing with me, and I wanted to be good so that she'd come and play again.

Then someone screamed, and my father was picking me up and taking me away." My nose scrunched up, and my fists bunched, remembering my mother's face with a fury, "Rather than face judgement for what she'd done, she'd turned the knife on herself. So long as her precious son was safe from dishonour, the spare didn't matter."

Shaking my head, I realised I was playing with my hair and quickly dropped it, looking down into my lap, "The rest's pretty simple. Father was allowed to commit seppuku for his treason, I went to my grandmother and then my uncle, all while Takenaka searched so that he could take me so he could look my father in the eye in the afterlife. Then, a few months down the line, I woke up in the tavern alone. We were in a big city, so I wandered for a while, trying to find my uncle, and was nearly mowed down by a horse. Guess who pulled me out of the way?"

"Oda?" Hanzo whispered in shock, obviously trying to match my image of the Demon King with his. Coming up blank, he just shook his head, tilting it back in wonder. "Geez."
His next question made me tilt my head in confusion, "What'd she look like?"

"Why?"

"So I know who to punch when I make it to the afterlife."

"You wouldn't." I frowned, the image of her reappearing in my mind, "She was too much of a lady, and carried herself like it. She'd make you feel guilty about even looking at her in the wrong way, as if you'd committed a diabolical act." My eyes closed, blocking the image and replacing it with my father and Tadashi, "We took after our father, in looks and personality. Only, Tadashi had curlier hair, just like hers." Every morning his hair would start in a topknot or tail, and by dinnertime it would be loose, the tie lost in the garden for eternity. He'd take the lectures with a dour face, only to laugh and run away once it was over. What would he be like now, I wondered idly, would he still be a jokester eager to tease his little sister, or would he actually grow up a little bit?

Smiling despite the situation, I looked up at the stars, tracing the constellations. Looking across at me, Hanzo returned the expression, the reluctance falling off him in waves. "A trade's a trade, I guess."

The party had settled behind us, Chiyome's voice clearly intoning anyone sober to help deal with those who were less so, and leaving him with no noise to hide behind. Winking impishly at him, I moved closer, capturing Hanzo's lips, "Come on you, I haven't given you your proper reward yet."
I could feel his grin as we kissed, Hanzo's hands moving to run down my sides…Just as the Elder popped his head around the back door, "My dear boy, I take it she took the news well?"

"Haven't told her yet." Hanzo murmured, pulling away slightly to glare at his boss. Taking it in stride, the Elder simply nodded, looking between us,

"Have I made this awkward?"

"Little bit."

"Good. You should be telling her." Leaving us with those words, the Elder shut the back door behind him, giving us enough privacy to get back into our positions, fumbling to keep a small distance between us.

Casting a glance at the closed door, Hanzo's eyes narrowed, even as they turned back to look at me, "Well, I guess it's my turn now."

Tucking my legs back under me, I rested my head on my knees, watching as he tried to gather the tale in his mind before sending it out of his mouth at me, "One day, I'm out on a mission, nothing serious, just a quick bit of larceny. Suddenly, a friend of mine, Aizawa drops down onto my branch. 'We've got to go back.' He kept saying, 'Oda's razing the villages. We're doomed to fall.'" Dropping his head into his hands, Hanzo slowly began to shiver, "Nothing we could've done would've helped. By the time we got there, everything was gone. Mizu and Chihiro had managed to smuggle out most of the kids, but the adults had sealed the entrance the second the wall was broken through. I was only thirteen, and I remember asking where our parents were..." Swallowing deeply, Hanzo began to look up again, but his eyes were unfocused, and I turned so he could discreetly wipe his eyes. "We tracked down as many of the kids' relatives as possible, but we were found by villagers on the road and brought here. The orphans were quickly snatched up, but nobody seemed to want Mizu or me. Sure, Chiyome cooked us food sometimes, but we were too young to earn our keep in the fields, our bodies too unsuited unlike the adults. So me, Asuka and Saburo got to talking, and eventually Aizawa got back in touch with me. He promised to send missions our way, and soon we had a regular network back up and running."

"But you wanted more." I whispered, not sure how to feel when he nodded.

"Every ninja in this place did. When we first found it, the only thing of worth was the land, which was pretty much under the control of the first settlers, and protected by Itsuki. People just began to drift in until we got the bustling community we are today. Of course, we wanted revenge for our fallen, angry that the few villages he did manage to get, out all the ones he could've succeeded with, were ours. So me, Mizu and Nobu got permission to go to Gifu, to try and kill Oda. We didn't manage it separately of course, but the final assault was good enough for us. The past was finally behind us."

"And then," He sighed quietly, "We found you and Ran on the road. Nobody knew much about him, but you…everyone knew who you were, and how much you hated shinobi."

"That's partially because the one ninja I ever interacted with was a sadistic bitch who later tried to turn me insane, and then kill me." Ashamed, I looked down into my lap, staring at the scars Gracia had left me with, "I've met enough since to realise that she was one of a kind."

"Either way, we didn't know how far we could trust you, or Ran. Even Chihiro and Itsuki were sworn to secrecy, and we weren't going to tell the kids until they were older anyway. As time passed, it became harder to admit the truth to you. I guess," Hanzo mumbled, "We at least owe Takenaka for doing that favour for us."

"I guess so."

Later that night, after Hanzo had said goodnight and followed his sister home, and the three of us left behind decided to clean up the party in the morning, I lay awake listening to Itsuki's breath, thinking so many different things that my head began to whirl. It felt wonderful to be back in my own bed, and as much as the quilt was patched, I couldn't help but snuggle closer into it; barely realising I was curled up until my knees were touching the underside of my chin.

Would things be able to spring back to what they used to be, or had they changed too much this time around? Had something happened while I was gone to make Ranmaru and Itsuki blush around each other? More to the point, would they ever learn to stop burning the bloody fish?