Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
"I know my worth
I've paid dearly
For every ounce of it."
— Alfa Holden
They are greeted in the courtyard by a rather unimpressed Uzumaki-san. "You two again." She sighs as she slides open the front door. "My misbehaving children, there was no reason to get Uchiha-san drunk."
She sounds fond, even if she is disapproving.
"I'm not drunk." He feels the need to defend his new friends, even if they probably don't need defending. "I just had a few cups. I'm fine."
"Are you really?" Uzumaki-san sighs. "Uchiha-san, can you walk without my sons?"
Izuna considers it. The ground has been highly uneven and harder to find for some reason, even though the Twins swear that they are taking the same path back which means that it shouldn't be hard to find where to put his feet.
"Yes."
He might regret this later.
Uzumaki-san smothers a laugh. "Well, you heard our guest, Ruta-chan, Shiro-chan. You're welcome to raise the roof somewhere else now."
"Ah, Haha." Shiro moans. "We were just about to start with more fun though."
"Boys." There's a world of weight in that one word. Izuna feels it, even through his vague haziness. "Don't make Uchiha-san regret this more when he wakes up in the morning."
So it's not quite morning yet. What a good thing to know.
"Aww." Ruta sighs next to his ear. "Well, we'll show Zuzu to his room at least."
"We're in the front courtyard, right?" If they are, he knows where they are, and there's no need to trouble anyone. Shiro makes a vague noise of affirmation next to his ear. "Then I can make it to my room without help."
He might regret this later.
The Twins shrug. "Okie dokie then, Zuzu. We'll see you around!" They vanish.
He stumbles slightly, but manages to move forward in a straight line, or so he imagines.
"Uchiha-san?"
He must not be walking in a straight line, else Uzumaki-san is likely not to sound so concerned about him.
"Yes?" He resists the urge to sit down on the stones beneath his feet. "I'm not going in the right direction, am I?" His mother had raised a polite young man, and a guest doesn't sit unless the host is sitting.
He imagines that Uzumaki-san is not sitting.
He doesn't know why, but Uzumaki-san reminds him of Haha-ue. They are not very similar women, not at all. Haha-ue had a fiery temper, and he hasn't even so much as heard Uzumaki-san raise her voice, but still, he is reminded of Haha-ue all the same.
"You've been walking in a large circle for a bit."
A large circle. Well, that is unfortunate.
"Maybe I do need help." He quietly admits. There's not too much shame to it. All people need help at some point or another in their lives, but this is only because he is blind and at least a little drunk, and if he were still—
But you are not like you once were. There is no shame in that.
He'd had to ask a Senju Healer to transplant his eyes while Niisan was recovering from his injuries. None of his clansmen would ever dare to do the deed.
Eyes are sacred.
To take another's eyes for oneself is unclean and forbidden. Niisan had not done that. Izuna's eyes were willingly offered and sprung upon him without prior warning.
But why think of this now? Why now, when all he wants is to go to bed because this day has been too long?
In some part of himself, he feels guilty. In the confusion of Niisan's injuries, the clan had turned to him for guidance, and he had nearly buckled under the weight of it all.
And in many ways, he had dodged the responsibility and stuck Niisan back under all of those weights because he wasn't strong enough to carry the load himself.
Uzumaki-san links her arm with his. "Well, your room is this way…" Her actions rather suggest that they are walking together, as if enjoying some particularly fine scenery.
It is the middle of the night, and at least one of them is incapable of observing the scenery.
Izuna tries very hard to not think of it.
"Is Uzumaki-dono well?" Neither he nor Niisan had stayed with their host for very long, and if he thinks about it for too long, that is rather rude.
And he's trying not to think of how cross Niisan will be to see him. In fact, he's rather surprised that Niisan is not storming through the house trying to find him.
Perhaps Niisan is asleep. He can dream of good luck at least.
"Ashina is going over some accounts." Uzumaki-san replies. "I'd merely seen the Twins head out with you and thought it best to intercept your party when you return."
"Would Uzumaki-dono disapprove?" He hadn't thought that the Twins would be facing much repercussion for their night out, but perhaps not.
Uzumaki-san smothers a laugh. "No, Ashina is simply not fond of numbers. He would not much enjoy the fun others have had this night, seeing as he must suffer with his least favorite activity."
She is a considerate woman, but still, much sadder than either of her daughters, at least, Izuna thinks so.
She is much more comfortable here walking with him back to his room than she'd been on the dias during that party earlier tonight.
He doesn't understand her, doesn't understand the game she and Uzumaki-dono play with their lives. Uzumaki-dono does not love his wife, or he would not have a son out of wedlock. Yet, Uzumaki-san still lightheartedly tells him of her husband as though they are old friends.
She calls him Ashina, as if Uzumaki-dono is not a king.
Will Kanae-san be the same? Would she pretend at a friendship without love? Izuna would rather it not be so, if only because he finds honesty and love important.
"I see." Is all he can say to that. What can he say really? "I hope Niisan didn't cause too much of a commotion searching for me." Is what he says next.
Uzumaki-san pauses. A moment later, there's the sound of a door sliding open. They are back at his room then. "It was no trouble, Uchiha-san. Uchiha-dono has yet to return."
Niisan isn't back yet. Well, that is strange.
Kanae-san is with him.
But where are they now, so late at night? If she is still with him, then at least I know they had to have had some sort of conversation.
Izuna resigns himself to the thought that perhaps it had not ended well.
"Thank you for your help, Uzumaki-san." He says, because even if help chafes at his pride, he is still grateful for it nonetheless.
Uzumaki-san stands there next to him for a long moment. "Help is not the same as pity, Uchiha-san." She says at last. "I hope you never consider the two the same."
He freezes. It's something he's often tried to tell himself, but he's never been able to manage it. For him, help has always seemed too much like pity for it to sit comfortably on his shoulders. "I will try to remember. Thank you."
"I did not mean my words in criticism." Uzumaki-san sighs. "It is only a mother's worry that asks it of you."
And in one brief moment, Izuna knows exactly what she means. "Do you dislike us very much, Uzumaki-san?" If Kanae-san agrees, then she will leave her home and her family, and perhaps her mother will hate that quietly. He does not think that Uzumaki-san is the type of person to express her hatreds obviously, but that does not mean quiet hatred is not just as strong.
If it was Haha-ue in this situation, he knows that Haha-ue would hate him and everything he stood for.
If Haha-ue could see him now, she would be so ashamed of him. She'd raised him polite, raised him kind and understanding and good as she was, but after all these years, all he has retained is polite. He is neither kind, nor understanding, nor good.
Kanae-san had not tried to pity him, but she had tried to help all the same. Her haha-ue knows this, and more importantly she'd seen that he, Uchiha Izuna, isn't the sort of person to be happy with that sort of sister-in-law. At least, he doesn't think this makes him happy.
What I can do myself should never fall to someone else. I don't need it.
There is nothing wrong with accepting help, nothing wrong, but it bruises his fragile pride and sometimes he simply cannot stand it.
But for Niisan, Izuna can stomach many things. I can't live like that, not if I want Niisan to ever get better.
And someone who folds kindness into every word is perhaps the best sort of person for Niisan as he is now. And if that is true, then Izuna will simply have to stand it. He already has Niisan to worry over his every move. He doesn't need someone else's concern as well.
Ah, this is why he doesn't drink often nowadays. Sake doesn't loosen his tongue; it just turns him mauldin.
Two years in the dark, and already he suffers the effects of that twisting. He is certain he was able to accept help before.
"No, Uchiha-san." The words are soft. "I am merely a sad old woman who worries too much for her family, but you have told Chihaya-chan that no harm will come to Kanae-chan in Konoha." A pause. The night is quiet and deep all about them.
Far away, there is the sound of pounding waves.
"I will have to trust you to keep your word, won't I?"
"She will be my sister." Izuna says. "And family is important to us." This is a promise far heavier than anything he might have said to Okui-san. If Kanae-san marries Niisan, then she will be his neesan, and if that is so, if that is so, then Izuna will love her with every spare bit of his heart because that is what family deserves.
Uzumaki-san hums. "Thank you, Uchiha-san." Her footsteps away pause for a moment. Perhaps she turns to look back at him, sitting on the bed with his hands clasped between his knees. "Forgive an old woman for her presumption, Uchiha-san." She says. "But if you were my son, I'd be proud of you."
Her footsteps fade away, but her words had cut to the quick.
If you were my son, I'd be proud of you.
How had she known? How had she known what he needed to hear?
That he had thought of Haha-ue and how much she would hate what he's become since her death?
Would Haha-ue be proud of him as Uzumaki-san suggests she would be?
No. He decides at last as he lies there in the pressing dark. No, she would not.
It takes him long to fall asleep.
He's woken by the sound of feet and quiet chatter. Kanae-san, and...Niisan. He decides.
They've finally come back from wherever they had gone last night then.
He sits up and starts pulling on his boots. Likely, them being back means that they will have to go somewhere soon.
"The mere thought is ridiculous." That's Niisan. He sounds...huffy about something, which means Izuna will have to smooth it over soon.
"I am perfectly serious." That sounds like Kanae-san. She does sound perfectly serious.
He would laugh, but this argument confuses him. It doesn't even sound like the sort of arguments Niisan normally has. It's made mostly out of bafflement than black rage.
Then again, maybe he's been listening to Niisan and Senju Tobirama argue for too long now.
"Good morning, Izuna-san." Kanae-san seems to beam with her words as she comes in. Her feet are bare.
Even in this cold? He found it chilly as he pulled on his boots a little earlier, but she isn't even wearing shoes.
"Good morning." He replies. "You didn't come back last night, Niisan."
Niisan merely grunts. "Hn." Clearly, Kanae-san needs to agree with him about something before he's satisfied.
Kanae-san plops down to sit on the floor. "Izuna-san is safe. Or safer, because you can't see anything you know. Just don't follow any strange voices, and you'll be fine." What? "I should have told you earlier, I should have—"
"Kanae-san? What is going on?" He crosses his left leg over his right.
This sounds like something is dangerously the matter. Yet, if they are in a peaceful village, surely there aren't any enemies about to attack, so he is quite at a loss.
Kanae-san sighs, one long slow breath as if she is a little bit exhausted with trying to explain. Izuna wonders how long she and Niisan have been arguing about this something dangerous.
There are fair few things in this world Niisan has to be afraid of. Well, that is not exactly true, because Niisan's heart is frail, but his battle prowess always has other people calling him strong.
"Our island shares a delicate balance with the Habiki-san's court, the one under the sea." Under the sea. She's talking about...youkai? "We have a peace accord with them, so they won't take us, but visitors aren't always so respected."
"But youkai aren't real." Youkai are children's tales, marsh sprites and forest spirits ready to steal young children. How would they pose any threat at all?
Kanae-san laughs, though she sounds rather like she wants to cry out of frustration. "Mainlanders." She doesn't know many people from Fire Country, then. That's not a particularly favorable reaction. "That is a portrait of a youkai." Izuna cannot see this portrait, but he rather suspects that this portrait is one of those fanciful descriptions of youkai. For someone who has been so sensible in all other respects, a belief in youkai isn't something he expected. "Her name is Iruya-atawa no Kanae. She married Uzumaki Ishiro five hundred years ago to keep the peace. From her, we get our red hair." The Uzumaki…
Hadn't the old legends always said the Uzumaki weren't completely human?
That's what the oldest legends of Uzu had always said, that their chakra and their inheritance spoke of a blood shared with what is not human.
Kanae-san continues. "But if you don't believe me, that's alright."
A sudden gust of wind has him wrapping his blanket tighter around his shoulders.
"That explains nothing." Niisan finally cuts in.
"If you truly don't believe me that the youkai exist, then why did you step out into the water?"
Niisan decided to walk into the water? Not onto it?
He hasn't time to consider it. Chakra surges like an uneven tide, and the room warms. Kanae-san's chakra is quite deep. The feeling is almost magnetic.
"What did you just do?"
"I turned on the heating seal, Madara-sama."
She called him Madara-sama. Why? He's certain Niisan wasn't arrogant enough to ask it of her, so why does she talk to him so deferentially?
"Thank you, Kanae-san." Izuna leans forward. "But I still don't believe you." She can't just say things like 'that is a portrait of a youkai' and expect him to believe the local legends. No one in Fire Country really believes in youkai.
"Well, then you can just wait around to see Niisama then." She leaps to her feet, bare feet loud against the wooden floorboards. "Anharaya-atawa no Kyoya is half albatross." What. He barely has time to quiet his thoughts before she continues. "But of course, that will have to wait for the turn of the wind, in six month's time."
"What?" Niisan sounds as disbelieving as him.
Your eldest brother is half albatross? What the—
She giggles. "It's the worst kept secret on the Island: Chichi's first love was Anharaya-atawa no Biwa, the Lady of the Iron Claw."
So she has actually met a youkai then. That is a whole different kettle of fish.
The three of them head out. He does his best to ignore Kanae-san's hand on his elbow. "Come, I need to yell at Habiki-san, and it is better if I can point and gesture at the guests that he is not supposed to touch."
They are standing on the rocks, facing the sea, for he can feel the spray on his face. The water is cold, but Kanae-san continues walking.
"Ichiro-usahaya no Habiki-san!" She roars, louder than any wave could hope to aspire to, with a voice heavily enhanced by chakra.
The water moves, as if pushed by a very large body.
What is that? Beside him, Niisan has gone stiff, tension frissioning in the air.
It reeks of bloodlust, and the chakra is huge. Going by the outline...this is not a man.
"You called, Lovely Girl?" There's a hiss at the end of the sentence, the air suddenly warmed as if by a breath.
Whatever has just spoken, it is far larger than any man.
The shape of the chakra isn't even remotely human and most of it is still beneath the water.
"You promised you wouldn't harm our guests." She sounds like she's pouting. She doesn't find this frightening at all, despite the overly large amount of bloodlust saturating everything right now.
Air suddenly rushes away as the chakra becomes even more compact. The being is man sized now. "Oh, I wouldn't have, Lovely Girl."
So the world was wrong. There are still youkai living.
But who is this Habiki-san exactly? She said that Uzu shares a treaty...she had called the youkai court his.
Uzumaki Kanae-san has just casually summoned a youkai king who speaks of her fondly.
Kanae-san, how many other layers do you have? The daughter of one king, and evidently, friend of another.
"I don't believe we've been properly introduced." Habiki-san says, displeasure heavy in his tone. "But I think I know who you are." He is closer now, on the rocks perhaps. "You are the ones who have arrived to take my lovely girl away from the Island."
Niisan moves in front of him. He would be upset with this, Niisan doesn't have to protect him as though he doesn't understand the danger himself, but there's no time for that.
Habiki-san...likes Kanae-san, far more than just as a friend.
"Habiki-san!" Kanae-san cuts in. "Why can't you be polite to them?"
"Oh Lovely Girl." Habiki-san sighs. "Women like you drown oceans. But what will you be without oceans left to drown?"
"Nothing gold can stay." So it is decided then, despite the argument they might or might not have had about the existence of youkai, Kanae-san is willing to marry Niisan.
It's better than he hoped for honestly, so Izuna tells himself he is quite relieved and leaves it at that.
"The sea will miss you, as the earth misses his sunrise." Poetry. Habiki-san is gifting Kanae-san with poetry as a parting gift. They were very close then, before we arrived. "Fear not, Little Storm, I will not trouble your human suitor any longer."
His chakra vanishes out of the range of Izuna's sensing ability.
A large wave sloshes water onto the rocks.
Kanae-san splutters half sad, half angry. "I hate you, Habiki-san."
"Do you believe me now?" She asks when she is done with the water.
"Hn." That is 'I agree, in Niisan-speak, but Izuna gets the feeling that she knows that already without him needing to translate.
He decides against it, if only because he hates being told things like a small child who can't do anything himself so he really ought not make other people feel the same way.
That, and things between Kanae-san and Niisan are even progressing well if this is what leaving them alone for a night has wrought.
They take lunch with Uzumaki-dono's family sans her eldest brother.
It's a pleasant gathering, and the seafood is uncommon but still quite tasty.
Niisan has regressed into an unwelcoming and awkward silence once again. Izuna tries not to too upset about this.
Niisan will do what he does, and Izuna will do his best to make sure his brother at least appears like a functional human being until they leave the island.
He has just had a small discussion with the Twins about the merits of playing shogi with people you know too well, when Uzumaki-san asks a question, the first time she's opened her mouth since greeting the guests.
"When are you leaving?"
Niisan did not say when they were leaving or when he'll need to get back to not miss anything too terribly important going on in the village government. "I'm not sure." He replies and takes a sip of his soup.
He misjudges the distance between his mouth and the bowl. The porcelain clinks loudly against the stone table. He winces and decides now would be the best time to ask Niisan to cover his own issues. "Niisan?"
"Tomorrow." He sounds so tired, but Izuna knows, knows, that no one else has heard it.
Trying to act normal isn't Niisan's strong suit — No, his strength is setting his own hair on fire — but this is bad, even for him.
He does have a few suggestions for how to get out of this, but as it turns out, Korui-san has several things to say about this, mostly angry.
"Tomorrow? How could you take Shiko-chan from us by dawn tomorrow?"
Izuna winces again. There were better ways to broach this subject. I shouldn't have asked. I shouldn't have.
"Korui." Uzumaki-dono makes his displeasure known.
"No." There's a click as Ashiro's bowl hits the table. "Chichi-ue you have to tell him that he can't do that. Shiko still has to—"
"Ashiro-nii." Kanae-san sets her chopsticks down across her bowl abruptly. "Madara-sama has said that he is going tomorrow. So I will go tomorrow, and that is all." She still calls Niisan Madara-sama. He knows she doesn't fear his brother, but still hearing such formal address grinds across all of his nerves. You cannot have asked her to call you that, can you? You've never done something like that before. Are you so determined to dislike her?
"Excuse me." Kanae-san gathers up the porcelain bowls, the sound of earthenware placed one atop another with a hasty hand is unmistakable. "I must visit everything once this afternoon, and then finish packing. Please enjoy the meal, Madara-sama, Izuna-san, Haha, Chichi, Obaasan."
"Well, boy." Uzumaki-dono's mother rasps. "You've made a mess of things, haven't you?"
She doesn't sound impressed.
Izuna isn't either.
"That wasn't Niisan's intent." Oh how to explain? He cannot say 'my brother is weary of your company' such a thing can only make everything worse. "I'm sure that he only thinks that there is much to do in Konoha still."
Uzumaki Masato grunts. "If only she were marrying you. At least you have social tact, and you speak politely."
That's what Izuna's always afraid of. They're not supposed to find him more palatable than Niisan, but at least one of them has to not set fire to their own hair so this gathering parts on amicable terms.
Niisan leaves the room, his chair nearly falling to the ground in his haste to exit the scene.
Izuna catches it with one hand, wincing slightly when the wooden back smacks the inside of his wrist.
The silence at the table is deafening for exactly one moment, and then Aruta's all the way around the table. "Do you need someone to look at your wrist? I know for a fact that Korui-nii is good friends with several people in medic training."
"Don't look at me," Korui-san protests. "Do you know that the last friend I asked for advice about healing seals gave me webbed hands for two straight weeks? I had to go to Naosu-jisan to get that fixed, you know."
"That's because it's you, Korui-nii." Ashiro singsongs. "They love pranking you because you're just so nice that you'd never blame anyone at all. Doormat Niisan, don't be so easy to bully and no one would give you webbed hands for two weeks."
"I'll show you a doormat—"
"Boys." Their obaasan's interjection cuts through their bickering. "Just someone see to Uchiha-san's wrist."
There's another silence that falls as they presumably try to figure out the situation.
"Bah." Masato-san mutters. "You lot are useless."
A different set of hands takes hold of his wrist. The chakra overlaid on his wrist is placid on the surface, like a lake frozen under ice. "Don't go catching things that are half stone again when you can't see them." Masato-san grouses at him as he erases the inevitable bruise and swelling. "You might be a mainlander barbarian, but if we're going to be related, I'd hate for you to die so stupidly."
His words are intensely unkind, but the touch of his chakra is tender and light, careful, for a healing done improperly by inexperienced hands can cause injury.
Oh. Oh. So this is Kanae-san's third brother.
Izuna smiles. "Thank you very much for your reminder, Masato-san."
Uzumaki Masato huffs at him. "I just didn't want to explain to your nasty tempered brother about how we broke you not two seconds after he left."
And then he supposes Masato-san excuses himself because Ashiro decides that it's a great day for a good game of shogi even with someone who is blind, and the three of them excuse themselves — he is forcibly kidnapped without his prior consent or much ability to apologize for the situation to the others — to go do just that.
The next morning, as Niisan had so unceremoniously dumped into the conversation at lunchtime like an unwanted piece of baggage, they take leave of Uzu.
Kanae-san hugs every person in her family tightly, while a crowd turns out to bid farewell to their princess.
"Kanae-hime." One small girl, by the sound of her voice and the angle from which it comes from, Izuna places her at about six or seven years of age, sobs. "Kanae-hime's leaving for forever and ever and never coming back."
She is much loved then, here among the people she grew up with and knew well.
These words only prompt an unfortunate amount of crying from the other children in the crowd.
"Chiru-chan." Kanae-san crouches down in front of the crying girl. "It'll be alright, you see. Sometimes the change in our lives leaves space for something better."
"It's not fair." Chiru sniffs. "How can he love you more than us?"
Izuna winces. Niisan does not love Kanae-san.
"Chiru, that is very rude. Apologize to Madara-sama."
"'M sorry." She doesn't sound sorry, but it doesn't seem like Niisan cares.
"Hn." Or maybe he just didn't even hear, he feels distracted.
Oh, he wishes he doesn't have to do this, that he wasn't compelled by too much love for Niisan to do this. He does not even know truly if the clan will love her.
Ah well. If the heavens have to damn anyone for this, they can send me to hell and rake me over coals for the rest of eternity.
If it saves Niisan, I don't care.
That's a lie, of course. He cares. He cares far too much, but he cares about Niisan more. So he'll live with the guilt of doing this and maybe, just maybe someday far into the future, Kanae-san will be happy in Konoha, and he won't have to feel guilty anymore.
Still, the people of Uzu do let Kanae-san go.
This trip over the waves, they go boat again, though he hasn't the faintest idea how it is propelled across the water.
"I suppose he won't be coming." They've made half the trip in silence, and Kanae-san only speaks now, a little sad, a little resigned.
"Who?" He asks. Who does she expect to see here where there is nothing but wind and water?
"Kyoya-niisama." Her eldest brother had been absent for this entire visit, and by the inflection of her voice, absent for a long time. She misses him, Izuna decides. "He won't be here until the turn of the wind, and that is not today."
"Oh." He sighs. "It's irresponsible of him to not come and see you off." She loves this mysterious hanyou so, but does he love her at all?
Her bright laughter rings out across the crash of the water. "Izuna-san, you can't judge him the way you judge men. He isn't a man, you know."
"Why not?" Niisan asks.
It's true in a sense. A hanyou by definition is half human. He is both human and youkai, and he ought to have been here unless he has pressing tasks at hand elsewhere.
"He doesn't think of time the same way." The boat bumps against the other shore. They are in Fire Country again. "It might as well be a few hours to him for all that years pass for us." How long does a hanyou live? Legend says that youkai live immortal lives, but her eldest brother isn't entirely youkai. How long does he expect to live? "Violence takes on a different hue for him too. He's fond of catching intruders and cutting them apart for shark bait."
So her eldest brother doesn't act like a human even in front of her, and she is entirely fine with the fact.
How odd that Uzumaki-dono has never even attempted to discipline his eldest child.
Such penchant for cruelty can be dangerous, even in shinobi realms.
It's official, he decides when he finally returns to the conversation at hand. Kanae-san improves Niisan's mood.
Currently, they are having a discussion about the difference between trees and bushes.
"A bush is shorter than a tree."
Wow Niisan, really? A bush is shorter than a tree.
"And it doesn't have a trunk." He has to try hard not to laugh. That's the main difference between trees and bushes after all, bushes spread out more without real trunks into a mass of branches. Trees on the other hand, grow straight up until a certain height with many branches after that. "Most trees have trunks."
"I don't understand any of it." Kanae-san sighs. "I will leave you to your discussion about types of trees and flowers and such."
A mile out from Konoha, he remembers that he has to get the house ready.
Kanae-san does not have a room yet, and there's no furniture in the one which their relatives had decided would be suited for Niisan's wife since it has large windows and is not too terribly far from Niisan's room.
He hadn't held out the most hope for this venture to Uzu, but considering that Kanae-san is going to be living there from today onwards, it would be rude to ask her to sleep on the floor.
Who can I ask to permanently borrow some furniture from? He ruffles through the list of names with furious pace. Inami? I will have to call in that favor from Inami.
What will I need?
He thanks his lucky stars that Niisan and Kanae-san seem to be taking the scenic route.
He takes leave of them. "It's so I can get the house ready for when you arrive, Niisan, Kanae-san."
This is true. This is true, and he also wants to leave them alone for another bit.
Perhaps Niisan doesn't know about that part. He does let Izuna go with minimal fanfare, distracted by Kanae-san's question about such and such flower.
Izuna politely congratulates himself on a job well done.
A.N. Izuna tries to course correct on certain things. It sort of works.
Tomorrow, I start spring semester, so I'm not sure how fast updates will go. Still, several chapters are incredibly close to completion, and I had a brief spurt of productivity on the next chapter of Bloodless rewriting scenes that were deleted earlier, so who knows, I might see you all soon after all.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed and favorited and followed!
~Tavina