Chapter 9: Second sons


Over 30 noble families rule over the various lands and villages of Fire. Of those, only ten really matter.

Four of those houses were represented in this room today, along with a smattering of lesser nobles. If a meteor crushed the teahouse, 40% of Fire country would abruptly find themselves in the market for some new leadership.

As it was, a meteor had not crushed the teahouse, but the young heirs (and one head) of these houses were very aware that, were their plans to go wrong, their estates may be searching for new heirs regardless.

The lone head of house among them, Lord Kawagu Hinogawa, tapped his pen on the scroll that held the accounts of their forces, viewing the assembled nobles before him.

Some in the audience were young, early twenties that were far too young to have known the injustices of the Great War. He recognized the enthusiasm on their faces, the inner fire formed of youth and patriotism and dreams of glory, the look that had no doubt been on his own face when he'd fought all those years ago.

Most were his age, what remained of the samurai that had held the front-line. He knew each face well. The samurai who had been called to serve had come mostly from the western estates, which had been worst hurt by their proximity to the Fire-Earth border. As the largest noble power in the west, his father had taken command of the collected legions of samurai. Kawagu, working as his young lieutenant, had stood by as his father had accepted their oaths of fealty.

As the new lord Hinogawa, he held their loyalty by law. As the leader of the effort to correct the wrongs that had been done to them, he held their hearts.

Not a single man among the gathered was over fifty. Those lords had stayed home as their sons had gone to war. Those lords had not witnessed the devastation Earth had wreaked on the land they claimed to own, a thousand thoughtless, pointless acts of cruelty performed only because those villages were in the border that they called Fire.

It was in the war that the twenty-one-year-old Kawagu had learned the best and worst that men were capable of. And the dawning realization that had culminated at the moment the daimyo and his father had signed the hated treaty between Earth and Fire had been that the worst, the very, very worst that men were capable of was cowardice in the face of victory.

Earth had been on the ropes. Not only had the samurai forces broken through to seize Fort Nawakami, the thrice-cursed ninjas of Konoha had finally cut off Earth's supply line on Kannabi Bridge. All that had been left was to extend the push -a week's march into Earth would have brought them to the capital- and Earth would have been no more. They could have shown the world what happened when you challenged Fire. Instead the war had ended with whimper rather than in victory songs, in compromise rather than justice.

His father had called him in to his tent the night they'd heard the news of Kannabi Bridge. He'd lived that night a thousand times in his head, wondering if there had been any way to have changed how the war had ended. The men had set to drinking and Kawagu had not abstained. Perhaps if he had, they could have pressed forward that night and tied the Hokage's hands. However...

"Kawagu, Earth has lost the war tonight."

Kawagu, like the young, drunk fool he'd been, had pressed his sake cup into his father's hand. "Indeed, Father! Drink, we must celebrate! When we line the Earth dogs up and soak the mud they like so much with their blood, I want the worst hangover in the world!"

His father had laughed. "So it shall be, my son."

"It was brilliant, the move to destroy Kannabi Bridge, I'd like to sit down with the Konoha strategician one day, I feel that I could learn much." Kawagu had shaken his head in wonderment. "Brilliant!"

"I hope there will be no more use for military strategy in your lifetime, Kawagu. One war is more than enough." His father had caved to the crestfallen look on his heir's face. "But knowledge is knowledge and can be adapted for other uses. We will see about getting you some time with the man."

"An apprenticeship, do you think?" That had earned a stern tap on the head.

"Konoha is close with its secrets, child, and I will not lose my firstborn to the thankless job of being a ninja."

Kawagu had muttered, producing another cup and flask, "Doesn't sound too bad to me.."

"You'll have time to pick the man's brain on our way to the Earth capital, boy. I'm sure Konoha will send a battalion with us to defend from Iwa strikes as the battalion pushes closer."

He'd been awed at the thought. Ninja battled in the open rarely, and legends were told about the few cases that lasted longer than a few seconds. He'd shivered with excitement at the chance to be involved in one.

But.

The chance had never come, because the battalion had never come. Because the Hokage had decided he'd had enough of the war, and that his forces would only hold the line. Because Konoha was in the east and hadn't so much as been touched by Earth soldiers swarming over the lands like a black plague of locusts. Because the Hokage, a ninja, had seen enough blood. Because the Hokage was only fighting as a favor to the daimyo, because the daimyo couldn't command the Hokage against his wishes, couldn't command his vassal, for fear of Genjutsu. Because.

So many excuses. So much cowardice. Could he not see that letting Earth escape this war wholly unscathed was an insult to all the good men that had died to protect Fire? That saving a few more lives now opened Fire up to fresh assaults from would-be conquerors in the future? It had been the hardest thing in his life, staring at the border between Earth and Fire, to turn away and go back, go home. To go to the capital with his father, and watch the old men, who hadn't seen the battles, or the burnt villages, or the children with their backs slashed open as they turned to flee; to see these old men decide how and when and on what terms the peace between them should be.

They'd tried to marry him to an Earth princess. He'd thrown a fit that the servants still whispered about. Kawaru had been betrothed to her instead, marrying her five years after the peace accords were signed. She'd died after she'd given birth. Kawagu'd been glad.

And now, he could feel the net tightening. The older nobles were moving to silence them. Kiyo was gone, in a brilliant, yet unthinkable move that could only be Konoha. The Hokage acting on his own incentive, or hired by another noble, it didn't matter.

There was only one way forward, one that brought a peaceful sense of calm with it, the kind of calm that comes when the right idea does.

He'd been silent for a long time, but the assembled showed no signs of impatience. They were far too well-bred for that. Though Kazuki did start a little, as if waking from a nap, when Kawagu finally spoke.

"I stood by as others acted before, that is a mistake I shall not make again. I had hoped for more time before it came to this, to demand recompense without war if possible, but the opposition gives us no choice. I thought previously to fight to stay here at court, but I have reconsidered."

He raised his pen like a sword. "Earth is not ruled by weak, fearful old men. Earth will respond appropriately to insult."

The nobles shifted uncomfortably on their seats, uneasy at the praise of the enemy.

Kawagu continued. "I will go home. I will then strike Earth. They will be sure to follow, baying for blood. The daimyo will have to fight, if only to defend the border. The cowardly Hokage too."

He looked around at their shocked faces.

"This war will not end like the last."

Eyes blinked, unnoticed. Their owner pulled closer to the ceiling, willing the shadows to draw tighter around them.


Naruto and Sasuke, upon being left abruptly by their sensei, elected to stay where they were. To Sasuke's surprise, Naruto was quiet.

Sasuke occupied himself for a while throwing senbon into the frames of the paper doors, aiming for the sections where the wood overlapped to form a cross. There were about forty. When Naruto hadn't interrupted him by the twenty-seventh one, Sasuke grew antsy.

He went over to where the blond was lying on his back, looking blankly at the ceiling. Sasuke kicked him.

"Hey, what are you doing, dobe?"

Naruto didn't even respond properly to that, a half-hearted frown crossing his face only briefly.

"Leave me alone, teme, I'm thinking."

Sasuke kept tapping at the blond with his foot. "No."

Naruto flapped his hand at the foot vaguely, but didn't put any real effort into it. Sasuke frowned and sat down next to him.

"Did you think too hard? I think you might have broken something."

Silence from the blond, until those blue eyes turned to him.

"Hey, do you think being a ninja is a good thing?"

Definitely broke something.

"What are you talking about, dobe?"

"Like, we're pretty awesome, right?"

Sasuke flopped down fully so he could study the ceiling along with his teammate.

"Yeah."

"Like Kakashi-sensei can do all kinds of things, and the Third probably knows how to do a ton of jutsu, even if he acts like just a perverted old guy, he's probably secretly really cool."

Sasuke pushed aside the question of why Naruto held the unshakeable belief that the leader of their village was a lascivious old coot. This was no time to try to destabilize the blond's mental state.

"Yeah."

"So doesn't it make sense that everyone should want to be a ninja?"

Sasuke considered this, not following the premise of the question.

"Everyone does want to be a ninja."

"Right!"

Silence fell again. Sasuke felt that a huge chunk of the conversation had been skipped over.

"So? Why's that got your pants in a twist?"

"Well, I'm just wondering why the hidden villages have got to be hidden. I bet there are people out there that would make really great ninja, they just don't know it. Like Haku."

Sasuke's mouth twisted to the side. The defeat at the hands of the other boy had been a humbling one.

"Dobe, we can't let our secrets out like that."

"But why not?"

Sasuke turned his head to look at Naruto incredulously.

"You realize our entire job is getting hired by people to do things they can't, right?"

"I mean, yeah, but..." Naruto hesitated. "...like, Konoha feels a lot happier than these other places, don't you think?"

Sasuke went back to studying the ceiling. "Yeah, so?"

"Wave was so unhappy until we got Gato out of there, and you didn't hear the story but Zabuza saved Haku when he was starving and alone. Even here, there are beggars everywhere."

"So?"

"So, Konoha doesn't have beggars. Like we have richer people, sure, but even me, I always got my stipend from the Third and so did everyone else in the orphanage. We don't have to pay for ninja tools, or clothes."

"Good thing too, or you'd be naked in a week."

Naruto snorted and went to jab a finger into the Uchiha's side, which was easily deflected.

Despite the jibe, Sasuke couldn't deny the blond's argument had points. Though the massacre had technically left him fabulously wealthy (as one was wont to be as the sole heir to every asset a large, landed clan had owned) those assets had been locked away until he became a genin. He'd been housed, fed, and clothed on the village's dime. The money hadn't been begrudging, either, just a service that was considered a matter of course for a village with money coming out of its ears. Money from...

"Konoha's only better because the village gets the money to do that from our missions, dobe. The village is taking in half a million ryo for just our week of work. That only works in a ninja village. A ton of other hidden villages don't even bother."

"That's what I'm saying though, why doesn't the Third rule everything? Like all of Fire Country? Then we could just keep working, and the Hokage could use half the money we earn to make sure everyone at least gets food and shelter, and we don't end up with people struggling to get by."

Sasuke could see why Naruto'd had to lie down for this. The blond's brain had probably overheated.

"Ninjas feed everyone in Fire country? You want to die from overwork? Who would we work for anyway?"

"Well, we'd have a lot more ninja, if more people had the opportunity. And we'd work for the richer people in Fire country, or for people outside...or if the Hokage ruled everything, then... then maybe we could work for each other and not need money at all. We could just make things and share?"

"What the hell are you talking about, dobe, the Hokage can't just command people to hand over things they worked to make."

"Can't he? He can order us to do D-ranks where we make things though."

"Right, which is why he pays us."

"The unranked missions aren't paid."

"That's because those are too important to put a price on."

"Wouldn't keeping the country running be a mission just as important?"

The uncharacteristic seriousness from Naruto was making Sasuke start to wonder if he should check for genjutsu. But no ninja in their right mind would play Naruto as this serious, somber child.

"You can't run a country like that, without any reward for being better."

"Why not?"

Sasuke frowned at the ceiling, trying to find the words.

Sakura had the words.

"That's...like communism, and that didn't work out for Earth Country."

"More benevolent dictatorship than communism, Sakura-chan. But yes, this seems to be along those lines."

Sasuke looked up. Sensei had returned.

"The thing about having the power of a kage in a hidden village, kids, is that the kage can make the difference between the village being like Kiri or Konoha."

Their sensei smiled under his mask at the budding philosopher, who was clearly still deep in the throes of contemplating social revolutionary theory.

"And if this was sparked at all by conversation with anyone associated to Lady Hinogawa, Naruto, I'd put their suggestions out of my head. Danger lies that way."

Naruto pursed his lips, an action that didn't go unnoticed by Sasuke.


The lady that was the cause of Naruto's amateur socialist theory was at that moment presenting herself in the daimyo's private chambers, discussing distinctly non-socialist things.

The daimyo leaned back from the cluttered desk he'd been peering over as she updated him on the state of the Hinogawan estates and the tax she'd brought with her train.

"I must say, my dear, I'm impressed. We'll need to build another storehouse for the amount of grain you brought with you this time, how do you do it?"

"Would you believe, my lord, that no one had viewed the tax accounts in our household for decades? It was but a moment's work to realize whole villages had risen since, resulti-"

She stopped. The lord was already blankly nodding, in a gesture she'd become all too familiar with from the seven years she'd spent in her stewardship of the estates. She smiled instead. "Thank you for your praise, my lord, I am unworthy of it. Kawagu will do even better, I am sure."

The daimyo smiled back. "I would not be too sure of that, child." She did not miss the flick of his eyes to a page on the table before him. The daimyo continued. "It is refreshing to see a young noblewoman care for the minutiae of government, but I would caution you against taking too much care."

She kept her smile fixed, though his phrasing worried her. He beckoned her closer. She complied, seating herself gingerly on the edge of the table in front of him.

"With time and wisdom, you'll find, my precocious young child, that all people truly desire is for things tomorrow to be much like they were today. People speak of grandiose ambitions, but even within them, they want things to be…orderly. Things coming after the other, the sun coming up in the morning, knowing there is food today, and that there will be food tomorrow."

She nodded.

"Now, I'm not saying your-" he waved vaguely at the stack of accounts she'd presented to him at the beginning of the meeting. "-tax collection is to be discouraged, but I've seen the damage the young and idealistic can do in their efforts to correct the wrongs of the world."

The rising horror-the daimyo knew, he had to know-made a lump in her throat that she had to force a response through. "My lord, I would not dare presume to-"

The daimyo raised a hand, cutting her off. "I know, I know, child. I just speak of it since your father and I spoke of marrying you to our Hiro-kun once." He studied her face carefully as he spoke his next words. "Of course, that cannot be now. But nevertheless, you shall be wed to some other deserving fellow and rule over some new estates, and this old man only wishes to help you navigate this treacherous world of governance."

That was a lie. A flimsy excuse to deliver this warning which could only be about her activities, though she couldn't imagine how she'd been so lucky as to receive one. She had been acting in the palace to ally with the few abolitionists of the court, something that could easily be construed as treachery against the throne. Between what was no doubt a poor effort on Hiro's part to conduct an interrogation, and this warning, she was known.

She calmed herself. Had the daimyo meant her harm, she wouldn't have been alive to suspect it. The daimyo's affection for the old Lord Hinogawa had likely stayed his hand from more drastic action, though no doubt that could only stretch so far. She nodded to the daimyo, averting her eyes. Conveniently to the sheet he'd looked to before.

The glance was brief, but what she saw gave her a thin ray of hope.

The lord raised her chin.

"I hope you understand, my child."

"I do, my lord." She hesitated. She had to turn the conversation, play innocent.

She pouted lightly.

"Is Hiroyuki aware he will be marrying that Water princess?"

The daimyo's lip curled with a touch of amusement.

"This is the destiny of a second son, my dear, to step into the shoes of their elder brother if the call comes. I would be disappointed if Hiro failed to understand he must fulfill the one purpose he serves."

She upped the petulance a touch. "That's not a yes, my lord."

He sighed. "Hiro will be told in due time, though he'd be a fool not to know already. I must request that you put some distance between the two of you in the meanwhile."

Rubbing his temples wearily, he glanced to the grand clock that dominated the study.

"Now, off with you."

More than happy to comply immediately, she left, taking care that her steps were measured and unhurried.

The name on the sheet had not been hers. Her prayers had been answered, but in the worst way.

What was that fool of a brother hiding from her?


"Hayao."

"Kimuhara-san."

The chief attendant to the Hinogawas had arrived in the capital with little pomp or circumstance. Nevertheless, the sight of her meager travel guard at the gates of the Hinogawa townhouse had caused more flurry and consternation in the household than the return of the younger Lady Hinogawa had. No fewer than three slave girls had burst into tears already, and she'd been back for maybe half a day, if that. Kimiko had been sent sobbing when she'd been unable to account for the lady's whereabouts.

Now in the unenviable position of being seated across from the old hag, Hayao bristled at the look she sent him, though he kept his eyes focused on the tea in front of him. Kawaru, at the head of the table, eyed the tension between them with some amusement. The younger Hinogawa siblings had never faced the sharp end of Kimuhara-san's tongue. Rumor was that when the Lady Hinogawa's breast had run dry a month after Kawaru was born, Kimuhara-san had nursed him—and Kawane after that—at her own teat.

Hayao'd have staked his honor that the rumor wasn't true, since any milk from that woman would obviously have poisoned the infants at the first drop. Nevertheless, it was true that the younger Hinogawa children were the one soft spot on the true mistress of Hinogawa affairs.

"I hear you'd made a mess of things."

Hayao didn't respond. It was true, though it didn't make it any easier to hear it from a bat in human form.

Kawaru cut the silence diplomatically. "That's not fair, oba-san. You know no one can change Kawagu's mind when he's set on something."

"I can. And I have. Who do you think the first person I spoke to when I heard of this mess was? I got the boy the moment he was back from his little teahouse shindig. He shouldn't have believed he had the choice. This situation was unthinkable."

Kawaru raised his eyebrows. "He...agreed to go home?"

"I barely had to mention it. Your efforts must have been laughable."

Kawaru looked to Hayao, bewilderment clear on his face. Hayao's own face had gone hard.

Only one thing had happened that morning that could have changed Kawagu's mind.

"This is bad. I know what happened."

Kimuhara san looked at him with no small amount of distaste.

"What are you blithering about?"

Hayao made no attempt to code his language; the company in this room was perhaps the only group in the world that he could speak freely of this matter to.

"I spoke with Kawagu-sama this morning, and suggested he abdicate to Kawaru."

"You WHAT?" Kimuhara-san screeched. Kawagu's face immediately blanked, though a sharp interest entered his eyes.

"I thought the suggestion would push him to claim his birthright, he's a proud man."

Kawaru nodded.

"I see, that's would certainl-"

"It worked a little too well. Kawagu-sama flew into a rage, and accused you and Lady Kawane of being bastards."

Kawaru flapped a hand. "He does that all the time, the man has no vocabulary."

"Accused you of being my bastards."

Kawaru's hand stopped mid-flap.

"What did he say, precisely?" They could have sharpened steel on Kimuhara-san's stare.

"That he would never let you or the young lady control the house while he lived. He also said he would kill me the moment Lady Hinogawa passes, though that's less germane."

Kawaru sat back with an exhale. "I'd hoped the issue would die with Father. He'd seen fit to bury it."

"The lord never let himself believe it." Hayao whispered.

Kimuhara-san looked at him without pity. "Pull yourself together, man. This changes everything."

"This is your fault too, oba-san. You sending the ninja with her and Hayao. It must have reminded him. He'd been away from home so long, I was almost sure he'd put it out of his head."

"Me?" The woman looked livid. "What harm did the ninja do?"

"Didn't you commission them?"

"Commission them for the trip, yes, how would Kawagu-sama even have found out about that?"

"You mean, other than the fact that they were standing right behind her in the Great Hall?"

Hayao raised his hands to stop the rapid-fire back and forth.

"The lady chose when we arrived in the city to continue their tenure with us."

"Why in God's green earth would she do that?" Kawaru rounded on Kimuhara-san. "And why would you hire a ninja at all if just to accompany her on the way? What's wrong with our guards?"

She was rubbing her temples. "Who was I to deny her? You know she'd grown up hearing stories of ninja from the Lady all this time. i couldn't deny her this when she was begging so."

Hayao view her skeptically. This woman had once had a man's finger cut off for making a rude gesture at her.

Kawaru suddenly paled. "Oh no."

"What, child?"

Kawaru raised a shaking hand to his face.

"I-I thought Kimuhara-san had sent the ninja here for a reason...I commanded him to-" They waited, but the next words didn't come.

Kimuhara-san was by far the more impatient between them.

"Spit it out, child. Not saying it doesn't change what happened."

The sentence came in fragments.

"I thought you'd intended, for the ninja, to do with Kawane and Hiroyuki, what Mother and Hayao..."

Hayao closed his eyes at that, memories of the worst nights of his life flashing before him.

Kawaru finished helplessly. "If the ninja tells the daimyo, or any of the Guardians, we're done for."

"You're a fool. That was foolish." Kimuhara-san's statement was the last for a while.

The three of them sat in silence in the chamber.

Kimuhara-san smoothed a hand over graying locks. "Did he succeed?"

"He didn't listen to me," Kawaru said through the hands he'd buried his face in.

"You're a useless child, Kawaru-sama."

"I know," Kawaru moaned.

To Hayao's surprise, Kimuhara-san put a comforting hand on the agonized noble's shoulder. "But Kawagu-sama has many enemies, and I know many would prefer to see you in his place instead. This isn't unsalvageable by any means, Kawaru. The daimyo is not unreasonable."

Kawaru peeked out between his fingers. "Is that true?"

"I swear it. No harm will come to you while I am here." Kimuhara-san dusted off her clothes. "Come, forget about this. Show me your son. I haven't seen him in years."

Hayao stayed in the chamber awhile after they left. Then he finished his tea and left.


A/N: Like there's absolutely no way ninja have to buy their own gear. In Kakashi's anbu arc, we see a distribution scene that yes, probably assigned his mask only once, but I betcha they go back to it every time they rip their shit to get a new one. Otherwise ppl would be going around in torn-ass clothing all the time. Our favorite cheapskate Kakashi would certainly be stitching up his own stuff, and everyone and their mother knows his time's too valuable for that. In every military ever the clothing, weaponry etc are always provided by the state. We know there's a decent welfare situation there from all the ninja orphans we follow, we know the Hokage is the absolute commander of everything, and can command both ninja and civilians within Konoha at impunity.

Just saying, sounds like a perfectly functional benevolent dictatorship. As long as you could be guaranteed that all future Hokages would remain perfectly Third-esque, I'd buy into that.

Thank you all so much for the reviews and follows! Each one makes my day a little brighter in these weird-ass times. Sorry this one was so Hinogawa-heavy, next one should have more Team 7.