The Cursed Woman

Chapter Eight: Contract

She stared at him her eyes slightly widened as she had taken in his appearance, she cradled the fox closer to her chest seeing the flicker of anger cross his eyes. He stepped forward his eyes wide and lips parted, she sucked in her breath staring at him. The sound of their pounding heart rates and the echo of the drifting waters had been the only thing constant, she licked her lips, she wasn't sure what to do, what to say? She was puzzled.

However, she kept her lips pinched tightly watching as Kawarama stepped forward, "y-your alive." He breathed out, Akari stared quietly and kept her body calm. He didn't reach for his weapon meaning she was almost certain that Tobirama hadn't mentioned that she was an Uchiha, for what? She gulped. He his eyes briefly ran over the fox in her hands and stepped forward, he wanted to say million of things, what she was doing here? How was she alive? But the loudest question he had was, why she had left them?

He was confused. He didn't know what to think over the series of months and simply continued on with his life, he had always thought about her shocking and bright eyes and her amazing skills of medical ninjutsu, eventually, his older brother Harishima and his father, Bustuma, had heard his mumbling thoughts about the young girl and seemed intrigued. Yet, through all the rumors from both him and Itama, Tobirama had been the one silenced whenever her name appeared.

Simply all he could and watch his older brother continue into his habits and constantly train, he had never pulled him away ask about the girl. He had always felt a string of guilt in his chest and his overwhelming nerves would overtake him whenever he had finally made the decision to bring her up. Regardless of how many times he thought of it, he had never done it. He had already gotten used to the feeling of keeping his mouth shut and acting like nothing happen, so he continued on.

Explaining to his father would mean revealing the nature of the those cursed dungeons and the horror's they had exposed on the group of children. He remained docile and ignored it. Though the experience he had felt would always remain at the back of his head, as he could remember the sounds of his own screams echoing around him. He couldn't relive the experience by trying to tell someone, he was a Senju someone who had pride in who they were and strong, not a weak boy who complained about his problems.

"Yes, I am." Her voice was smooth and gentle as she slowly stroked the fur of the animal in her hands, she looked down to the fox and kept her lips sealed as she heard Kawarama step forward. His eyes dancing along her small figure as he gulped, he curled his fists at his sides and gulped feeling his racing heartbeat as he struggled out the single question. Licking his lips he quickly raked a hand through his hair, "y-you left us-Why?" He questioned his emotions all over the place.

She took a deep breath and looked at him, her eyes clear with any thoughts, "I couldn't go with you." She leaped off the tree gracefully, her hair drifting in the air as the locks of her hair cascaded down her back, he sucked in his breath as he stepped closer to her, a part of him feared she would vanish like before. She sighed softly stroking the fur of the animal in her hands as she looked into the forest deeper, she wanted to reveal everything to him, but even she knew the consequences of her actions wouldn't be her favour.

Pinching her lips together, she walked towards the forest deeper, hearing the light steps of Kawarama behind her. He gasped as he looked around and suddenly gripped her forearm, finally managing to make her fully face him. He felt his heart jumped, he had thought she was beautiful from before, but now it only seemed like she was more pure, stronger and determined. Her delicate features doing nothing more than given that she was an innocent child.

"Stop." He breathed out, he felt his cheeks flush, was it from the confusion? Or was it from her? He didn't know what to think. All he knew was that she was suppose to be with them, his family, the Senju, she glanced away for a moment before fully staring at him. Her eyes cold and the tip of her nose slightly red along with underneath her eyes, was she crying? He leaned forward watching her carefully, "were you cry-" He watched the flicker in her eyes, "I was not." Her voice was strained.

He could easily see that "listen-come with me. You can be with me. Safe. Together with me and my family, Tobirama, Itama, and our older Harishama, will be there. We will protect you." She smiled softly at his words as his brows rose in confusion, she gently pried his fingers off of her arm, "Kawarama. You are very sweet to offer me." She smiled softly, making the slightly older boy shocked at her actions, it appeared like she was older than she actually seemed like she was mature.

"I am safe. I am with my family. I can't just leave them because we have our problems, you understand?" He stared in her eyes. He knew what her words had meant, he had his problems with his father whenever they had sent children out onto the battlefield, he could remember attempting to fight his father about one of his cousins from going onto the battlefield. She was merely only 8, a beautiful and bubbly girl, but she had been killed alongside with her father and brother in battle.

He fought and fought. The only thing he could remember was feeling the palm of his father's hand against his cheekbone, as he would be placed in a cage alone and isolated from the rest of his clan as a part of recognizing his punishment. But, he loved his father. He had hated the ways he had done his stuff, but he knew that his father had hated it too, sending small children onto a battlefield and only to be killed. It was something cruel that both the Uchiha and Senju had done, but that didn't stop them from continuing.

Harishama had been the eldest of them and had constantly preached about peace, and ending the war with the Uchiha but it seemed that both sides had been serious and didn't want to give up as they fought the other side for the revenge of those they had loved dying. Kawarama had always looked up to his brother for that, and because of that, he had constantly tried to be like him, to follow his ways, to get stronger and be noticed by his clan for abilities.

He gulped, "I-I understand." He nodded as he gently removed his hand from her forearm, she smiled brightly and laughed softly, her voice was gentle and soothing, he couldn't help but simply stare at her. She was so calming something of what fresh air had felt like, whenever she had smiled it seemed that everything around him had vanished. In the cage, they had been held in he was sure one of the reasons he held onto his own sanity was because of her because she had allowed her troubles to evaporate.

"Now. This will not be the last time we see each other, two days from now I will be here at sunset. Do you think you will be able to come again?" She craned her neck as he stared at her, he slowly nodded as he bit the inside of his cheek, she smiled softly and pressed a soft kiss onto his cheek. Slowly she turned around and was soon engulfed by the thick trees.

Akari felt her footsteps echo around her with the chirps of birds fluttering into the sky, she took a deep breath and remained silent. Breathing out the tight feeling in her chest she glanced at the fox in her hand, she had never seen such a thing before and therefore when it had awoken she would question it, if possible, somehow she knew this was a sign, a sign of something. Feeling the crisp breeze against her arms she watched as Okita had landed in front of her.

She blinked unfazed at his actions as she passed him, his hard eyes glued to her body as he quickly followed her, "are you okay?" He asked softly, Okita hadn't favored talking but when he did it happened to be very soft. His father, Katsu, had always claimed that his son had enjoyed speaking with his swords than his lips, her father loved that and added him to the collection of cold-blooded soldiers, but Akari knew he was trained to be like that. Trained to be someone he didn't want to be.

"Oh, yes. Getting hit by your father? Perfect fine." She clicked her tongue as she narrowed her eyes ahead seeing as the maids had been panicking, Okita remained close behind her as she walked within the distance of the maids, who had been rushing around with towels and buckets of water. One of the maids cried out as they seen Akari, "my lady! It is terrible! Lady Sayora has gone into early labor!" She cried out, Akari increased her pace as she stopped in front of the nurse.

She nodded, "gather everything I will meet you in her room." This had been common for Akari, ever since the rest of the clan had been able to find out about her medical skills she had been tossed around easily. Especially the Elders had favored her skills, claiming that she wasn't as "useless" anymore. She could only scoff at the words of her Elders, they had known nothing about her and still had judged her for being a woman.

Once reaching her room she had wrapped the fox underneath the covers, making sure to not stifle it and rather keep it warm, she felt the smile slip her lips as the fox had let out a small mewl as it was wrapped in blankets. Behind her Okita had simply watched and kept his lips pinched tightly, Akari had wasted no time as she heard the scream from Sayora's room, she had been an aunt of her's and was heavily pregnant. Arriving at the room she was surrounded with a stressful environment, maids shaking, mess decorating the floors and the screams of her aunt.

She breathed out as one of the maids darted up to her, "Urahara. How is she doing?" Akari asked softly as she approached the screaming woman, she had been granted with the ability to become a doctor in one of her lives and was very much blessed with the knowledge she had gained from her past lives. So approaching something of the sort was something normal for her, somehow the nostalgic feeling of helping someone had always been in her blood. After dying for the third time she had thought that she wanted to help those that could continue to live, and after that, she was determined to learn and grow more.

Akari had gone to the legs of the woman and gently placed the palm of her hands on her knees, "Sayora. Breathe, you can do this." Her aunt shakily nodded as the beads of sweat had rolled down her eyebrow, Akari smiled softly. If she had shown how calm she was, she would be calmer, she could feel the heated looks from the maids around her, the rumor had been that she was excellent with the hands she was given, but she could feel the judging gazes.

The maids had been women, and just like everyone in the world, there had been a good kind of women and the bad kind of women. The maids she had been surrounded in the room had been filled with the negative type, who only wanted to gain from the Uchiha's though there had been a few who Akari had personally grown to love, Urahara, being one of the few she admired. She faced the woman and took a deep breath, she looked up steerly to her aunt.

"I need you to push." Her aunt bit her inner cheek doubting her niece, her elder brother, Taijime, had the one to say all types of nonsense about, from how she was powerful to being blessed with medical knowledge. When she had first come to the realization her niece was missing, Akari had been four, but when she returns she becomes strong and knowledgeable. There had been something that Taijime wasn't telling her, yet she didn't question it, he was the head of the clan and her older brother. She trusted him. She had to trust him.

Sayora moaned in pain as she struggled to control her breathing, "I-I can't!" She shouted helplessly, Akari pressed the palms of her hands on her knees again as the older woman struggled to keep her humanity. She was stressed and in pain, "you can." Akari smiled brightly at her with the tightness in her voice, she gulped in fear and she shook her head and Akari's eyes grew darker as the woman had only shaken her head and denied everything.

"I-I-can't!" She screamed out even harder, the maids around began to whisper as they had watched the movements of Akari. Who took a deep breath, "would you like me to pull the baby out myself by opening you up?" She raised an eyebrow, feeling the tension in the room as the maids stared at her in shock. She was so young to be saying such things, yet, it may have seemed brutal it was something that would help Sayora fear and forcefully push the baby out.

Sayora shook her head in fear, "n-no." After multiple attempts and screams that echoed along the Uchiha household, eventually attracting her dad and fellow brothers who had arrived, she had delivered her cousin who is a light and happy voice was named, "Naoki." The maids had toweled her little cousin and let Sayora hold him, Akari could only smile at the action as she turned to wash her hands and instead felt the beeding eyes of her father.

Ryuusuke and Kanato had congratulated her while Izuna had poked him, resulting in him giggling and Madara scowling at the baby. Akari had quickly exited to the room to clean herself completely, she felt the need for a hot bath and some relaxing time for herself. She needed to relax, especially after seeing Kawarama she was unsure of what to do, but all she know was that she had wanted to continue to see him. He had been kind to her along with his brothers.

"Akari." The soft voice echoed in her ears as she turned to see Izuna behind her, his eyes narrowed as he played with the tip of his fingers. He averted his eyes as he looked to the ground and then around her, Akari's eyes fell on the short sword on his back that was still attached to him, she sighed softly before crossing her arms over her chest. Izuna than finally took a deep breath and stared at her, his dark black eyes locked with her's as he stepped forward.

The creak of the floorboards briefly heard as he had done so, "are you okay?" He asked softly, she nodded as she turned away walking down the hall, "I am fine." She brushed the strand of hair behind her ear and continued down the dark hallway. She wanted to avoid hearing her brother give her the 'talk' about apologizing for her father's action if anything she was going to assume that he would come to her and talk to her himself. It wasn't the position of her elder brothers to apologize for him.

Akari sat on her futon as the maid gently rubbed her head with the towel, she looked up staring at the maid, "hm, Milady?" She was a teenager, Rika, who had taken care of her for a while every since she had returned. With beautiful deep chestnut hair and light brown eyes, she was clearly someone from the outside, seeing as she hadn't sported the famous dark-haired and dark-eyed Uchiha look, nevertheless Akari never questioned it and simply relished in the attention of the maid.

"Rika." Her voice was low as she stared at the inked words on the paper in her lap, "hm?" She softly responded as she reached around wiping the top of her head aggressively to ensure no water was left, "have you done anything, you didn't wish for?" It was a random question, but the thought had sparked Akari, she had wondered how people in this time-period had acted, that if their instincts had gotten the best of them and they had fought harder for their survival more than anything.

She paused for a moment halting her hands and coughed slightly as Akari looked up to her. Her eyes blank, "I-I have." Akari kept her lips sealed hearing the pain in her voice, she decided it was best to keep her mouth shut and let her maid take care the rest of her night duties. Akari wrapped her fingers around her body as the blanket covered her body, she pressed the side of her head into the pillow as she watched out the small window in her room.

She had met Kawarama today, would she meet him again in the next two days?

Licking her lips she closed her eyes, she would soon wake to find out that answer. However, as she soon felt the pull of sleep she gasped as she had forgotten something, forgotten she had brought the fox into her room, she gulped as she sharply lifted the covers up sending it scattered across the floor. She peered around the room, keeping her heart rate low and prepared herself for anything to happen. Her fingers wrapped tighter around the sheets as she looked around the room, in search of the small animal.

"It certainly took you long enough." The smooth voice echoed in the room as she watched the small animal creep from the shadows in front of her, she stared with wide eyes as she looked at the beautiful creature who was fully healed and appeared healthy. She gulped as she stared at the animal moved closer and closer to her until it was simply a few meters away from her. She gulped and stared into the sharp grey eyes, her instinct was automatically to defend herself, however, she didn't feel threatened at all.

She remained still as she watched the creature walk into the moonlight lighting the figure of the creature up, she clenched her fingers around the blanket and stared silently. How was she supposed to react? Cry? Run? She shook her head at her thoughts and remained calm and still, "you talk." The creature laid at the edge of the futon, resting on its bottom as the two tails behind swirled in the air gently before resting for a moment, it tilted its head for a moment.

The fox's lips spread wide as if grinning in amusement, "yes. I suppose. You are the only one to hear me so far." Her eyes widened as she felt the cold breeze against the back of her neck, "who are you?" she spoke out loud. She was sure if a maid were to pass by they would think she has officially gone mad, but somehow she was more interested in her current interaction with the being in front of her. She had faced something of the unknown, and her interest in learning everything had been almost contagious.

"They call me Kitsune b-" Without holding back she burst into the laughter, feeling the heat rise in her cheeks and the tingling feeling explore her stomach. Her mere laughter echoing in the walls of her room, the fox simply stared at her confusion, he didn't say a joke? He may be old, but he wasn't old enough to mistake his very own words. However, despite him feeling the urge to shout at the child, he felt a wave of peace, maybe it was the sound of her laughter one that had appeared innocent and light-hearted.

After all, he did keep himself in isolation for many and many years. Only being washed up on a shore of rocks, and magically being healed by this child was he granted to hear something peaceful. One that hadn't belonged to the sounds of swords clashing, or the cries of people around him. It was peaceful. He bit his tongue as he stared at the child, watching as her long black hair curled down her back and her bright alarming blue eyes lock with his for a moment as she gently wiped the tears from her eyes.

He continued to stare at her as she slowly calmed down, he had never heard a child of an Uchiha with blue eyes, it was abnormal. They were always viewed as the dark and gloomy type, but she appeared to be different, completely from what he had expected. He expected to die on the rocks, and not be saved. But, he thought he saved of a strong being, but what appeared in front of him was a child, a little girl, in his very own words.

"S-Sorry." She breathed out for a moment as she huffed gently placing her hand on her chest, "but-seriously-Kitsune?" The fox tilted its head in confusion as she giggled lightly, "don't you have a real name?" The fox lowered its eyes for a moment, name? He was never given a name, he was simply called as Kitsune, no-one had thought of a name for him, but calling him a 'fox' appeared to be something of the norm for him. He shook his head as she raked a hand through her hair, she spoke with a slight smile.

His tails wiggled as he looked at her face, she appeared more mature and calmly, however, he had noticed how easy it appeared that she would laugh and not care about manners. He felt the tilt of his lips upwards, she was different, "you need a proper name, one I can call you." Her voice was more gentle now, soft like sheep's fur and smoother than any feather he felt. He was certainly intrigued, she lifted her hands in the air and smiled brightly, one that seemed to shine upon him.

"Gekkou." He paused for a moment, "moonlight." She smiled, "for you have come to in bathe in moonlight." He felt the giddy feeling in his stomach as he looked at her, "Gekkou." The name rolled off his tongue slowly, he wasn't use to it, but it didn't hate it, instead, it excited him. He hid his smile as he stared at her, her eyes bright and gleaming from a strange form of happiness he wasn't known too with, he took a deep breath and stepped forward.

"Child," he paused watching her features change, "I am an creature, one that doesn't need to be treated like a human." The treatment he was receiving was strange to him, but somehow he was saying things to push this person away from him, the person who might just change his entire life. She narrowed her eyes but remained silent, he took a deep breath, "in order to pay for my debt I wish to form a contract." She raised her brow certainly intrigued by his words.

"Contract?" She crossed her arms over her chest, "yes. A contract."