DFS Chapter 14.
Water is brutal.
Water has been known to score the very life from the land. A giant steel wool pad dragging along the earth.
It has also been known to seep into the earth, and cause pockets that swallowed homes like giant gaping maws. Everything gone in a quick gulp.
Here, it was an element Eito could harness.
And it seemed, so could his sibling.
0o0o0
She watches the child pace the halls, forbidden to leave the estate.
Every year the council gets uneasy when the academy exams begin.
The girl looks at Tsubame as she passes again. Her sweet face marred by the frown. "You really won't tell me what happened eight years ago, anbu-san?"
Tsubame shakes her head. It isn't her place to tell the child.
She hardly likes to remember being frozen in place, warm puss running down her legs. To scared to move as Momochi knelt in a pools of her friends blood. Tears streaming down his eyes. The Mizukage standing before them in all his glory.
Shouting at the audience, the council that he understood some death was necessary to make the children stronger, to inspire them, but not this pointless slaughter. That this was the reason they were losing valuable ninja.
That this kind of ignorance, and arrogance the boy displayed only made the village weaker. Vulnerable.
That they needed each other to survive.
Strength alone wasn't making the village prosper, he had continued. It was them working together, those with strength and those with potential, for a singular purpose. A better world for their precious people, for those who were important. For all of them.
Idealistic crap that pulled at Tsubame, even as he offered his hand to the future demon of the mist.
Told the boy he was more than a tool.
0o0o0
The man is tall and lanky, but Tsuru still fits behind him.
"Was that Awadatchi Touma?" Biwa-san asks as she presses herself further into the back of his knees. "What did you do?"
"I haven't done anything!" she whispers furiously. "The old man keeps hunting me down. Wanting me to sit his wife and their friends while they have tea."
Normally she would enjoy this, but Awadatchi Ren tended to bring her grandchildren along, and they were awful. Really awful. Constantly trying to pinch, and kick her when no one was looking.
"Your brother does not seem worried," Biwa-san points out. Watching the other man look him over suspiciously as he passes.
"Big brother thinks its hilarious," she whispers again when the Awadatchi clan symbol is out of sight. "He laughed at me, and said I needed to learn to suppress my chakra better. That this was good practice."
"He's right you know," the man says, stretching his arms up. The mist around them damp, and cool as they move together.
Tsuru wraps her fingers in the cloth of Biwa-sams pant legs, matching his shortened stride. "I know."
"It's just hard," she admits, her forehead wrinkling. "I think I have to much."
0o0o0
Ao avoids the child, because being near her feels like drowning. Like the current that pulls you closer to the rapids, and a waiting waterfall or a rip tide lurking under the surface, ready to drag you under.
So focused on the swift current, it rushes down your throat. Chokes you. A dreadful cold seeping into your bones.
The feel of the chakra had gotten better in the last few months, as the child's control had increased. A feat for someone so young, and with such large reserves. They are not as overwhelming as the Hoshigaki, true but far to large for child from a clanless background.
The Hozuki heirs seem to enjoy being near her though, subconsciously standing closer to the child.
He tracks from a distance, watching them leave the Mizikage's office.
The man inside like a beacon, whose light touches them all. His chakra calm, and steady and Ao always finds it reassuring. Though he would never admit that aloud.
And across the village, lies another one almost as large, but more like slime on a rock jutting out of the water, making it hard to grasp. Bubbles rising up, around it.