It was chilly in the Land of Clouds
They strolled along leisurely, hand-in-hand. No one gave them a second glance, just another shinobi couple on their day off. "What do you think Sensei's expression will be like?" Katsuo whispered in Kurai's ear, his breath raising goose bumps on her neck.
"I think she just may have a heart-attack. Or she'll kill you. Or she'll just thank you for taking her poor, beat up little niece as a wife."
They were dressed in their normal street clothes, minus the Torakiba yin-yang symbol on the back of Kurai's jacket. They both wore their jounin vests to blend in with the rest of the adult shinobi population. It'd been four weeks since they'd last been in Kumogakure. A simple gold ring glittered on Kurai's left hand and she constantly ran her thumb over it as if she couldn't believe that it was there.
"We also need to tell the rest of my family," Kurai said ruefully. "And your family. Haruka's been after you for a while to get married to a nice, sweet girl."
"But you're not exactly a nice, sweet girl, are you, Karai Kurai?" Katsuo asked. They exchanged wicked smiles.
"If you wanted that you should've gone after some merchant's daughter," she admonished, flicking the tip of his nose. "You could have a mild, meek little mouse that would make your meals and worry over you incessantly and try to keep you from being an AnBu."
She chortled at Katsuo's grimace. "I'm so sure that you'd want that."
"I'd rather have a tiger than a mouse, thanks all the same," he said, kissing the backs of her fingers. "And the AnBu was getting too tame, anyway."
"So married life and a honeymoon in Fire Country are wild enough for you?"
"Sweetheart, I think that it may almost be more than I can handle."
"I'd better go and soften up my mother, first," Kurai sighed as they got to the split in the main thoroughfare. One way lead to the Raikage's office, the other a quiet road going to the private residences. "But we should tell Sensei first, as Raikage. But Grandma is the head of the family and she would disown me if we didn't tell her first…"
"How 'bout we go separately and tell them each at the same time?" Katsuo suggested. "They're my family too, now, claws and all."
"Are you sure?" Kurai asked, looking up at him. "But-" Katsuo kissed her sweetly, arms winding around her waist and pulling her closer. Kurai gave into the fire that raced through her veins at his touch.
"You're worrying again," Katsuo said after they'd broken apart.
"And you're kissing me again to shut me up," Kurai retorted, but she didn't move her arms from around his neck.
"I'm sure Sensei will want to have a word with the family. I'll see you in an hour at the Torakiba home?"
"Of course."
They kissed again, as if it was their last. They walked as far as they could together before going their separate ways, holding on until the last step when their fingers escaped each other.
She strolled along in a rare good mood, savoring the crispness of the air. She even found the need to hum some silly tune or other, but fought it back. She did have her dignity, after all. What would people think if they saw a Torakiba whistling, of all things?
She stopped suddenly, ears pricked and claws sliding from their sheaths. She knew that scent; knew it like her own. She dreaded that nearly-silent footfall, that swish of cloak and hiss of claws. She lashed out, wrist caught against another's.
"So, Nee-san," Hikaru Torakiba purred, grinning at her sinisterly. "How've you been?"
"Hikaru!" Kurai breathed, paralyzed. Then wrath took hold. "How dare you show your face here again!" Her pupils shrank to tiny slits and her incisors lengthened to become fangs. She struck again but Hikaru danced away, seemingly unhindered by the long cloak she wore: black, patterned with red clouds and bordered in white.
"How's that for a greeting?" she asked, her exaggerated tone suggesting that she had been betrayed. "Now, now, sister dear. I've just come to see how you've been."
"Like hell you have." Kurai slid into an offensive Taijutsu stance, claws poised and head down. "I thought I told you to never show your ugly mug around here ever again. In fact, I believe I insisted upon that most forcefully."
"Oh, nothing could keep me away from my darling twin!" Hikaru cooed, leaping over the buildings in the direction of the pine woods.
"Don't turn tail and run just because I'm winning!" Kurai took chase. Hikaru suddenly spun around, making hand-signs. A great gust of fire blew right where the brunette Torakiba had been a split-second before. They met with a clang of kunai against kunai, Kurai grimacing in rage while Hikaru grinning at her foe and one-time sibling.
"You were always so full of that lovely rage and hate," Hikaru purred, standing on her toes to bear down upon her sister. Kurai stood firm, staring her right in the eye.
"And who made me so hateful and angry?" she snarled.
"Oh, dearie me. Did I hurt your precious feelings, Runt?" Hikaru leapt back, hands ready to form defensive seals. Kurai just stood there, actually looking disappointed.
"You haven't changed," she said quietly, almost sadly. "At all. We've all grown up, Hikaru, except for you. Childish insults won't work anymore as, quite obviously, I am no longer a runt."
Something boiled in the twisted miasma that was Hikaru's soul. Was that pity she heard in the bitch's voice? How dare she use such a tone. Some tiny part of Hikaru that wasn't quite as malice-ridden as the rest acknowledged that Kurai was right. Let bygones be bygones and leave the past to the past. Quit looking for revenge and grow the hell up. But how could she, when she had devoted her life to it?
"You ruined me!" Hikaru screamed, rage erupting out of her like lava out of a volcano. "The back-lash took me and even now I fall into madness!" She made hand-signs far faster than Kurai would have thought possible and disappeared into a miniature maelstrom of fire and spite.
Kurai turned tail and ran, running for all she was worth towards the Raikage tower. Sensei would know what to do. Sensei always knew what to do...
I'm sure you know what happened next. That was the last I saw of Katsuo alive. Hikaru came back and killed him and sensei, wearing my form and framing me. I got my vengeance soon after. But… that is another story. Please stick around for that, ne?
Epilogue….
She leaned back on the front porch of the home of her ancestors, looking up from her journal. The cloudy afternoon sky was punctured here and there to allow sunshine to fall through like liquid gold. She rapped her knuckles against the wood of the porch distractedly, staring up into the sky.
"Mama!" a shrill voice cried. A little boy, about five, broke into a run when he saw her, a broad grin on his face. He wore the Torakiba yin-yang symbol on the front of his shirt. He shared his mother's amber cat's eyes but his face was his father's.
She smiled, swinging the small child up into her lap and planting a fat kiss on his cheek. He grimaced, wiping off the light lipstick imprint she'd left. "Ugh! I'm five, Mama."
"So you are," his mother responded mildly. "Is there something in particular you wanted besides telling me your age?"
"Kage-ji said you're Raikage now!" the boy bounced in his mother's lap, looking excitedly up into her face. "'zit true?"
"Oy! So the secret's out." His mother cried with mock grief.
"So you're gonna rule the village like Zuma-ba?" (Auntie Zuma ('Zuma' short for 'Inazuma'))
"Yes, I'm going to rule the village like Zuma-ba did before you were born. You know what being Raikage means?"
"What?"
The Raikage set her son down beside her on the porch and adopted a lecturing tone. "Being the Kage of any village, especially Kumogakure, means that I am the strongest shinobi here. That I am the best protector, that I will be reliable in an emergency, and that I will crush anyone who wants to harm us."
The little boy's mouth formed a perfect 'o' and his eyes grew wide. "So you're the best of the best?"
"That's right."
"Then… I want to be Raikage someday!" he said resolutely. "I'll be the best, too, you'll see! I can already cloud-walk."
"I'm sure you will be a very good Raikage someday," Kurai told him. "Katsuro Torakiba, the Hachidaime Raikage!" Katsuro nodded energetically, kicking his legs.
She watched him run off, going to see if his friends wanted to play at being Kages. She smiled slightly, eyes half-closed and enjoying the sunshine.
"Can you see him, Katsuo?" she murmured. "Can you see your son? Can you see how much he is like you?" She leaned back until she was lying down on the porch, gazing up at the sky. "Can you see me? Can you hear me? Can you feel how much I miss you, how much I need you?"
She reached up to touch the clouds, so near yet so far. "Can you feel how much I love you?" There was no answer, though she was not expecting one. She turned on her side and cushioned her head on her arms, hair out in a black fan around her head.
A Raikage needs to be strong; needs to be tough. A Raikage needs to be an awesome sight to behold. A Raikage needs to have power and wisdom. A Raikage must listen and must speak. A Raikage needs to bury her own personal feelings for the benefit of the whole. No one individual must stand out to them. The whole village must be his or her children.
Kurai stretched out like a cat. Sometimes, you could trust people who you have no relation to further than those who shared your blood. Sometimes, your friends were more family than those whose clan you were born into.
"Hey, Raikage-sama." She sat up, looking at the blonde woman who owned the voice. "Let's go."
"Getsu, it's still Kurai," she said wearily, standing up.
"Then I'll stop being Getsu and be Takumi again." The blonde said, grinning crookedly. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jounin vest. "Shall we?" The two friends went off down the road together, reminiscing of their old days and the memories that included those who could only live in their memories. Thinking of the two others that had once made up their little quartet.
The beloved Betrayer and the betrayed Beloved. Dying as they'd live:
as Shinobi.
AN: Oh my gawd it's finally over. –praises Kami- I kinda sorta hated this piece. I mean yaaaaaay Katsuo, Shizuka, and Getsu and all, but… rly. The ending sucks more than anything and I just want to get it out of my hair.
My apologies. Go check out my FullMetal alchemist page, then, kay-kay?