Balance of Power
By Aoluas Anminti
-
AN: The reason this Introduction is not taking place at the Lord's home is for two reasons. Number one, if it were, Hyuga Neji-sama would already have met Ahana-san and it would take time out for her origins to be explained. Numbert two, the Hyuga have a slightly different way of organizing their family in this fic (this is an AU, after all, so I can do that! HA!) and I'm just lazy, so I didn't want to go into that right now.
-
16/3/06 edit.
-
-
-II-INTRODUCTIONS -II-
Hyuga-sama, Nara-sama, and Illiatha
He really hated rain. He disliked the incessant sound it made against anything and everything – the waterproof cloth of a tent, the tiles of a roof, the metal of armor, and the rippling surface of a river – plopping and plitting and splattering in a messy, haphazard way. He disliked the smell of it, or maybe the fact that it didn't have a scent of its own but rather borrowed from what was around it, suppressing some things. It intensified hot, wet smells, and nullified cool ones. It made a battlefield reek. The most bothersome thing, though, the thing that really got him in a foul mood, was the way it obscured his senses – sight, hearing, smell. It made things slippery and the ambient temperature iffy. He half supposed that it made food taste worse.
It was raining when they brought her into his tent.
She wasn't one of the slaves that he'd brought with his army as a nurse or a cook, because she was obviously foreign – that was the first thing he noticed about her. No one native to the main part of Hokoku had skin so tan. No, not tan, her skin was brown. No one native to Hokoku had skin that dark, with hair so bright – white, even. He couldn't see her eyes; she was looking away and down, and her white hair hung in dirty clumps over them. He looked expectantly at the two officers who had brought her in. The older and more highly ranked one on the right, Shoji, spoke.
"Lord Hyuga!" the man bowed deeply from the waist and rose again. "We have captured a young woman." Did he think Neji was blind? Of course he could see that. Instead of gracing him with a reply, Lord Hyuga stared at the soldier. Shoji squirmed, shifted his weight, and tried to hide the fact that he was fidgeting. Finally, he seemed to realize that he was expected to continue. "The woman is from the village that we just overpowered. She's our prisoner."
Lord Hyuga suppressed an agitated sigh. "…and?" he drawled.
The younger officer, Fujii, looked at Shoji briefly. The senior man gave him a short nod. Fujii cleared his throat nervously and bowed deeply. "W-we… we wanted to… t-to…" He cleared his throat again, and then a third time. He flicked his gaze up to meet his lord's, then bowed again. "If your soldiers could have her as a pleasure slave, they'd – we'd – be very grateful! Lord Hyuga!" the last seemed like an afterthought; something that the man had only added to try and flatter him, as if the repetition of his title brought him joy.
Lord Hyuga stared at him both, then gave the girl a long look. Finally…
"No."
Shoji looked very disappointed. "But, sir,"
"I said no."
Again, Shoji tried. "Sir, she really isn't good for much else, and…" He fell suddenly silent. Most people tended to, when Lord Hyuga glared at them with his byakugan. Fujii looked furtively at Lord Hyuga and put his hand on Shoji's shoulder. "We should leave, Shoji-san." His comrade mutely nodded and turned toward the exit. Fujii lingered and hesitantly bowed to Lord Hyuga. "Sumimasen, Lord Hyuga."
"Send for Lord Nara."
Fujii nodded. A few minutes later Nara entered Lord Hyuga's tent. He briefly glanced at the girl who was still standing by the door, head down, then nodded at Lord Hyuga. Lord Hyuga twitched. "What kind of advisor are you, not to be availiable when I might need advising?"
Lord Nara shrugged. "It's too much work to stay in here."
Lord Hyuga frowned. "All you have to do is sit next to me – sit, not even stand – and give me advice when I ask for it."
Lord Nara moved his mouth in a way where it wasn't quite a pout, but looked more like his lips were stuck in the position that comes right after a sigh. "Too troublesome. All the people who come in here complaining, and asking things, and reporting, having to listen to them and listen to you and then even toss my own two cents in - too troublesome."
Lord Hyuga frowned deeply. "Shikamaru…"
Shikamaru interrupted him. "Neji… It's not like you really need me here anyway. All we're doing now is building the outpost and taking care of the natives."
Neji continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "…what were you doing that you couldn't spare the time to fulfill your duty?"
Shikamaru frowned. "Don't say it like that…"
"Shikamaru."
"I was watching to see if weather conditions were all right for our return journey home."
"You were cloud watching in the rain?"
"I wasn't cloud watching. Looking at dark clouds isn't enough to make up for the trouble I'd have to go to to get the mud out of my clothes."
Neji decided to give it up. "Whatever, Shikamaru. What do you make of this?" He gestured to the dark girl by the entrance.
Shikamaru looked at her for a minute. "The soldiers wanted her for a slave, huh?"
Neji nodded. "They didn't tell me where or how they got her."
Upon closer inspection, Shikamaru's eyes widened – just barely. "She's a priestess. See the tattoo over her left shoulder? And the one around her right ankle. You shouldn't just let the men have her – she's important to the natives, and they won't follow any of your orders if you kill their priestess. Or one of their priestesses. From the reports I looked over, if this is who I think she is, she's also the daughter of the second in command."
Neji smiled slightly. "You actually worked to research this, Shikamaru?"
"No, I used my power as your advisor and strategist to order other shinobi to work for the information. All I had to do was read the results."
"Even when you work you're lazy."
Shikamaru shrugged that comment off. "At least I make sure I have what we need. I mean, what point is there in trying to expand if you don't know what you're expanding into? If your men get in trouble with something they weren't prepared for, it's my fault, since you always give the responsibility to me. It's such a nuisance though, you know? I know more about the people between Hokoku and Kazekoku than I ever wanted to, now."
"It'll help if there are still conflicts between peoples once this area is assimilated. Go check if the men have taken any other women from the village as slaves."
"Why?"
Neji glared.
"Yare yare, can't you send one of your lesser servants to do it?"
"You're too lazy to make the effort to decieve me about the results or try to take a woman for yourself."
Shikamaru snorted and turned to leave.
"Nara," Neji began, "before you go, tell me: do these people speak japanese?"
Shikamaru replied, "Perfectly – just a little accent." and left.
When Shikamaru was gone, Neji turned his attention to the girl. After a few minutes she finally moved, but that was only to sit down. A short while after that, she took off her sandals and began to massage her feet. She proceeded to wring out her hair, try to wipe the mud off of her person and inspect her nails. Neji was becoming annoyed – she acted like he wasn't even in the room.
"Come here." He ordered.
She glanced up at him and he caught sight of eyes a color he'd never seen before – a dark but vibrant green-yellow. There was a rebellious and scornful look in them before she cast her attention back to her nails.
"Woman… come here."
She looked at him again, as if guaging whether or not it was worth her effort to follow his commands. She looked at him as if he were below her, and it infuriated him. It reminded him of the looks he used to get from the old Main Family, especially the looks he received from his uncle, Hyuga Hiashi. He made an almost visible effort to reign in his temper. Women were not meant to be insolent, they were meant to obey. That was the way of the world; who did this savage priestess think she was?
Finally she rose from her sitting position and walked over to him. He looked at her from the ochre-colored tattoo on her right ankle to her torn, dirty white dress to the black tatto around her left shoulder, and finally to her face, twisted into a less-than becoming frown. "What's your name?" he asked.
She hesitated. "I come from the Ahana line." Her accent was just thick enough to be definitely noticeable, but not so much that her speech was unintelligible. For all that her expression tried to convey strength and arrogance, her voice tremored just slightly when she spoke. "…my father named me Illiatha."
"Iriaza? Strange name."
"No, Illiatha. It not a japanese name, you can not say it that way."
He ignored her comment, but made a mental note to pronounce her name correctly the next time he said it. "You're coming back with me as insurance for your people's loyalty, but understand that this does not mean you will be treated any differently from the other women."
"I betrothed.You can not take me." Illiatha said, stiking out her chin.
"That's the second time you've told me what I can't do. I have the authority and the power to do what I want with you. Do you understand?" Neji growled.
"I say you can not…" She snapped her mouth shut as his hand flew towards her face. She recoiled, but realized that while his hand had been close, even if she hadn't moved, it wouldn't have hit her. She felt a slight tingle on her cheek, but ignored it. She tried to open her mouth to speak again, but found that she couldn't. She looked confused, then scared, and then very, very angry.
Neji looked nonchalant as she glared at him and made a slight gesture off to his side. A demure girl with short black hair pulled into a tight ponytail and downcast eyes crept forward and took Illiathat's hand, leading her out of Lord Hyuga's tent and into a smaller, sparsely furnished one, obviously meant for his servants. The demure girl left and returned shortly with a lukewarm bucket of water and towels and helped Illiatha wipe the mud off of her skin – her clothes were done for. As she was helping Illiatha into a plain, dry white kinomo, she whispered,
"Welcome to life as a woman in Hokoku." A light, timid chuckle followed.
Welcome, indeed, Iliatha thought.
Hokoku – literally 'Fire Country" … wonder if it should be Kakoku…? Nah.
Fujii and Shoji – These are both Japanese surnames (last names… I got them from my nifty Essential Kanji book LOVE LOVE!), not first names. Fujii contains the kanji for wisteria and well (water well), and Shoji contains the kanji for countryside and administer. They're just random names, really, but seeing as these guys are named now and all, they might show up later somehow.
Sumimasen – Excuse me, which, I have been told, also means 'I'm sorry,' as in 'Please excuse my behavior." Fun.
Kazekoku – "Wind Country"
Iriaza – This is basicllly what 'Illiatha' looks like when it's put into japanese characters (they don't have an 'l,' so they substitute it with 'r' and they don't have a 'th' sound, either, so they use 'z' instead) the katakana characters would be i, ri, a, and za.
End Author's Notes
I feel like I got Neji and Shika out of character here – they're hard to write, you know? And I went way way way over the size limit for the Intoductions… Shika actually wasn't even supposed to be here, but… ahg. But if this chapter sucks, don't blame me. I went off on a little tangent and got carried away and by the time I got this done it was basically agreed that it'd just be cruel to make you guys wait any longer, just because I wanted to write the whole thing over again (which I've already done, three times…)
As always, I'd like you to review…it does help with speed, y'know.