To Entertaining: Thank you for your review, dear! I'm glad you liked Silk and Machinations enough to read this sequel. Oh, don't worry, I have no intention of abandoning this story. :) I missed NejiTen scenes, in fact. I'm trying to find a way to make it all work out as planned while adding more of them together. I will find a way. ;)
To Chisa Chispa: Ah! Thank you for your understanding and your review! :) I missed them too to tell you the truth. I'm trying to find a way for them to reunite sooner than planned without throwing off the narrative. .'
To Guest: Hahaha! Yes, now that you mention it, I think you are right. :P Thank you for your review! ^_^
Summary of Chapter 2: The chapter began with Naruto and Sakura arguing about his leaving for the war. Naruto pretended he was ready to claim the Japanese throne when part of his reason laid in killing the friend who stole his wife's heart. As a double agent, Yamanaka Ino met with Shimura Danzo. He ordered her to spread the misconception that Uchiha Sasuke killed the Emperor of Japan, marking him as a traitor to the throne. Tenten tried to run away from Katsuo of the House of Dragons and Maito Gai to meet with Neji, but Katsuo shot an arrow through her shoulder. It was hinted that Katsuo didn't kill Tenten only out his love for her mother, which he considered his sister. Her weapons were then taken away so she wouldn't try to run away again.
-X-
Circle of Allegiances
by Clementive
-X-
Morino Ibiki felt the abrupt halt of the bodies in the Subaku castle. Servants froze, irregular statues of the sandy air, their bodies hunched a broken hurried manner. The sand rolled under their dress, on his skin, the sun hotter than he remembered, as they cleared the path for him and his cousins. His gut twisted, a tingling sensation spreading in his veins as the scars engraved across his left cheek deepened. He had always missed the harshness of the sand, the unforgivable sun that the welkin needed to shallow for it to disappear. The burning caress of the wind soothed him back in his rightful place and his cousins bowed as if he had never been gone. One could never really escape the wrath of the sand or its savage storm spinning in their chest.
In his first days in Konoha, Ibiki often snorted at the snap of a fan hiding the expression of the princesses of the North or at the way northern lords swore through their teeth. The history of the shogunate of the Wind was carved in open threat and visible daggers. The sand was their blanket of blood, they willingly tucked under their chin. In the South, men died staring back at their enemies. No facade. No jerk of the wrist to snap a fan open. The Law of the Sand let them wash their hands in the blood of their enemies and let them gather it in the palm of their hand when they needed to drink. The Law froze their bodies in a perpetual war that never stopped the sand from clotting at their feet.
Morino Ibiki missed the brutality that jerked his hands and propelled his muscles in a fight.
Even he tried to keep it buried inside him, there was also Sora. There was an irregular pressuring reminder of her in the caress of the wind, in the way the branched blended and flowers withered. He saw her in the ripe apples rolling at his feet at the compound and the fluid movement of the birds reaching beyond the top of the skeletal trees.
His cousins knew. The Morino knew the secrets of everyone, their breaking point, the second they would shout and scream rather than face pain. The truth before the pain, they would utter, shrugging. Morino grew up by the rules of the truth and pain.
Just like Sora did, in her own way.
His throat closing in, his eyes fell on the absent flag of the emblem of her father's house above the tower. She wasn't here, hadn't been in years. Yet, Ibiki breathed her in everyday since he had been back. He breathed her in the tension of the other lords, in the way they twisted their neck and expected Hyuuga Hoheto to spring on his feet. He let the hushed voices run off his skin as he took in the elongated room that assembled the heads of the twelve tribes. Gaara of the Sand sat on a higher platform, his pale green eyes calmly shifting across the room.
Ibiki almost laughed at the idea of the child of a monster ruling over them. When he was exiled, Sasori was sitting on the throne of the Sand, the tribes were killing one another and blood seeped out of the walls.
Slowly, he kneeled on the cushion marked by the emblem of the Morino clan and two of his cousins sat down behind him. The other lords of the Sand smirked, snarled mouthing the words that have sent him in exile almost thirty years ago. He smirked back, nodding stiffly at the disapproving stares. The Law stated kinslayers were to remain untouched if honour led them to lower their katana. He finally locked glance with Hyuuga Hoheto. His hand defiantly closed around the handle of the katana resting at his side.
In the North, it would have been a threat but in the South, it was a promise.
'I will make you pay.'
Ibiki felt his lips curled over his teeth, the room still spinning, still drinking in the hatred of two old enemies finally reunited for a final battle. They dipped their heads, whispering about how Hyuuga Hoheto should have killed him when he had the chance. The ghosts of the Sand never showed mercy, he should have known better. They never rested until revenge oozed, holes agape with burning flesh and billowing arteries.
The Hyuuga's cheeks coloured and he shifted his gaze toward Gaara of the Sand.
'Coward, I will have your head on a pike and Sora will drink from it whenever she sees fit. When I'm done with you, even scavengers won't want anything to do with your carcass. When I'm done with you, Sora will smile.'
"My lords, the council will begin," Gaara rose and in the sunlight, his hair appeared darker. "We must decide on our allegiance for the next Emperor. The Crown Prince's body has been found. There are two potential heirs to the throne: Uchiha Sasuke or Uzumaki Naruto."
-X-
His arm now moved on its own, blocking the blade midair.
The echoes of the battle rang of slashing flesh and thumping cadavers. Hyuuga Neji had forgotten how a heavy death could weigh down a man. With the muscles contracted around his eyes, he could see the sharpened edge of their muscles, the curves of their weakness running alongside their aorta.
His arm moved again and the head rolled.
Neji didn't even wait for the flow of blood to reach the ground before he sprang again, his katana darting through flesh and bones. His vision shifted, searching for the Uchiha heir. He saw the movement of the mass of bodies retreating and he cursed under his breath. It fell short in his dry throat but he pushed forward. Amid the slowing pace and echoes, he heard Shikamaru's shout. The banners whipped the air before stilling.
His chest heaved on the edge of the battlefield. His foot hit an arm and he removed his helmet in a frustrated sigh.
"They retreated again. This is getting troublesome."
They were on the border of the shogunate of the Wind and the Rock. They were on the edge of the carcass of canyon with the wind burning exposed skin. They were on the verge of oblivion, stinking of death and gore.
"He's never on the battlefield," Neji's jaw clenched and he turned narrowed eyes towards the Nara.
"I would do the same if I were to inherit a throne," Shikamaru panted unclasping his armour around his arms so he could move more easily.
His mind reeled, the air thick and moist with death. Every night, they stopped panting with soldiers retreating and others blinking as the silence replaced the shouts of pain and victorious war cries. Every night, Nara Shikamaru lost himself in comparing this war with the previous ones. Often, they meddled, took the body of a continuous battlefield that never ended. His glance landed on the grey stiffened arm nearly gripping the older man's shoe and each intake hurt.
He was alive and they were dead. At times, he wanted to lie on his back with the dead and watch the clouds hurried by a bleeding sky.
"We need to get him out of his lair."
Shikamaru jolted, feeling the weight of Neji's hand on his shoulder. The world stopped wheeling and his glance left the arm alone. Slowly, he nodded. They needed to win in order to keep their heads. A new emperor could never afford to let an enemy live. An emperor held their lives in his palms and could crush them whenever he wanted to.
"Naruto," Shikamaru muttered. "Sasuke is probably waiting for Naruto to be here before appearing. He can't afford to take a change with us closing in on them. It will all come down to the two of them fighting."
Neji felt his blood boil, his voice rasp and thick when he levelled his glare to the ground.
"It will always be like this; them fighting and us watching them fight. When they wave the strings, we follow. When they die, we die. Nothing has changed. I may have the shogunate of the Fire, but nothing has changed."
The horizon blurred and he contracted the muscles around his eyes, refusing to see the colours that strained in red and streaks of blue. He still saw faith.
"This has nothing to do with faith." Nara said slowly.
The words rang hauntingly to his ears. He wondered if he had uttered them in the same way on another battlefield years ago.
"I know," Neji answered bitterly through clenched teeth. "It's a cage."
Shikamaru spun on his heels, leaving the shogun with the first watch. 'No, it's a circle, Neji. We are trapped in a circle.'
-X-
Three days passed, but Neji felt his body was constantly drenched in sweat and blood. It stank, raw, moving fluidly because it had learned the dance years ago. It was the same echo of muffled exhausted bodies dragging their foot in the dust of the South. It was the same katana, over and over again that he needed to polish. He found that blood was more resistant than memories. He found that despite Tenten sharpening all his weapons, they were now weary and dull.
His arm kept moving. Heads kept falling, rolling, a miserable tongue hanging beneath loose teeth. He kept fighting because that was what he knew best. At times, he would shake his head, smirk and hear Tenten's disgusted snort at the way the enemy would block a blow only to leave his chest or neck unshielded.
Yet, later, the wind drifted harshly. Instead of mud and blood snaking between their feet, they were on rocks and sand. The war cries carried them there. His pants hit the back of his closing throat, the soreness of his arm visible as he lowered it. His body tensed. There was something different that day in the way the soldiers moved, in the way birds spread above their heads. He was used to the routine; he could count the arrows that were shot everyday and the blows that were exchanged. The heat crushed him and his eyes searched beyond the enemies three feet in front of him.
Neji froze when he saw the blunt contours of a horse on the opposite side of the battlefield.
He didn't flinch when Shikamaru's katana sneaked around his arm to push back the line that had formed before him. He didn't flinch when he felt the shout against his skin. He decided the battlefield was too quiet for the scream
It was Tenten's mare and there was blood on the saddle.
The Nara kept shouting, but his feet moved on their own. His blade bit and cut his way through the Uchiha soldiers.
He flinched, his chest hollow and contradicting when he reached the edge of the thin forest. His hand brushed the heavy content of the saddle bags. Tenten's weapons gleamed and darkness closed around him.
His hand didn't release the bag when Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino joined him. He didn't notice the silence falling on the battlefield below him. He only noticed the strain of blood, only calculate if she could have survived.
"Neji-sama," Ino called softly, her blue eyes wide.
He felt cold, his eyes reflecting the fright in hers. Dulling the tremors of his body, the shrill that still rang in his ear, he watched her blankly mirrored the emotions he felt inside. He watched fight for words with a mouth filled with bile. He watched her reached for her husband, the way he wanted to reach for Tenten.
"We can't afford you to lose focus. We can't afford to send a rescue team after her, Neji."
"I know," the muscles of his neck bent, baring the same pragmatism as Shikamaru. "Send a message to Morino Ibiki. He will handle this. Tell him to name his price."
They hesitated, glancing furtively at one another before leaving him.
"Tenten will be fine. She's always fine."
Somehow, it sounded weak, weaker than the whisper in his mind, freezing his heart in place. His hand didn't release the bag when they were gone.
-X-
"They are both too young! We should sit someone else on the throne. There ought to be another more suitable heir in the imperial family three."
"They are both older than me," Gaara snapped coldly, knowing the tribes would not recoil.
The Law of the Sand stated clearly that he was the judge who didn't bow, he was the sand reaching above their ankles. However, they decided, they voted, they argued. The Emperor took hold of the lands of the South after they had inhabited them for centuries. If they became part of a country they never belonged with it. They reminded him of that fact whenever they sat before him refusing to bow. For them, in the South, they either broke or resist. Bowing didn't suit the brutal sun and the crushing wind. Bowing never suited them.
"I have an idea," Ibiki spoke above the rising voices as he locked glance with the daimyo. "Why don't we ask Hoheto-sama to provide us with a heir? I hear the third branch of his clan is full of little royal heirs with no other purpose of providing Hoheto-sama with wealth and lands. It's my thinking that one of them should have an adequate purpose for once," his tongue coldly let go of the words one by one as he enjoyed the petrified stature of the Hyuuga.
There was the briefest moment of silence before the tumult of voices raised in chaotic waves. Ibiki let a smirk ease the brutality of his features when Hoheto's hand closed around the handle of his katana. His neck reddened he remembered why he insisted on the Morino's banishment. He handled information the same way any noble man would handle a katana; with a flick of the wrist to dry a man until he limped as a corpse.
"Silence!" Gaara shouted above the cacophony but the anger of the other lords shallowed it whole. "I said silence!"
"I have the right to give the hands of the women in my clan to whoever I see fit!" Hoheto snapped flushed with anger. "It is not to any of you to meddle with my business. The Law states-"
"The Law states you can't meddle your women's blood without our approval." His voice lost its mocking tone, abruptly whipping and cold. "Besides, the last time you gave one of your women's hand to a Chinese Prince, we had to lock the city down."
"Quiet, Morino! You are just a vile insect who killed his own father! Why has he returned, Gaara-sama? Why is he even here?"
His face darkened, his smirk revealing his sharp teeth. Gaara's green glare rested on his face and he saw the scarred face of a bear. Appalled, he watched his face gave in to the demon who killed his father without a shed of regret.
"Because unlike you, pompous moron, I have soldiers instead of princesses."
-X-
"We should let the call of youth guide our journey!"
Katsuo growled, his disgust blatant on his trembling lips. Tenten just hissed in pain in return. She had taken into glaring at the back of his head. She had snapped, cursed and let her tongue unleash her boiling anger. She didn't know if it were directed towards herself for thinking she could hide from his eyes or towards him for letting her weapons disappear. She merely enjoyed the set of his jaw, whenever her words forced him to look at her. His visible calmness would falter, quiver and she would catch the hint of guilt meddled with annoyance. She discovered quickly that his frown deepened and his gait slowed whenever she mentioned her mother. She felt like a mischievous child throwing her toys in the corner of her room. She felt victorious, even if the stale sickness dulling her senses.
"What is she going to think of her sweet older brother when she sees this wound?"
He would blanch, pinch his lips and she smiled with pretended innocence.
"We should-"
"Quiet, Gai," Katsuo snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose. "We are doing exactly as planned. Do you hear me? The port wasn't clear at the village, so we are going to the city, as planned."
"Will you shoot an arrow through his shoulder too if he disobeys?"
Irritated, he glowered at her, noting that the pain in her shoulder had subsided enough for her to ride with a straighter back. Her forehead was moist and her breath, laboured. The greenery danced before her eyes at times, the movement of the horse below her unbearable. Tenten jolted when he gripped the bridles off her hands, his eyes already searching her face.
"We need to stop," he admitted reluctantly, wetting his lips. "She seems to have an infection."
"I'm fine. Just a tiny hole from a Hyuuga who can't control himself."
The grip tighter and she wished she could take back her words when his eyes narrowed into slits. She remembered that it was the worse insult within the House of Dragons. She remembered the secrecy of one's surname and the importance of the ceremony when one chose to give it up.
"I am not a Hyuuga," he murmured darkly while Gai oblivious smile didn't reach either of them.
He dismounted in a fluid motion before helping her down. Tenten clenched her jaw, not trusting her mouth to move according to her will. The monk hummed to himself in a tune that has become familiar. She became vaguely aware of the repetition of the tune that stirred something in her memories. Frowning slightly, she leaned back against the trunk of a tree as Katsuo's stiffly removed the bandage on her arm.
"Why does he sing whenever we stop?"
Her vision cleared and her question floated between her and Katsuo. She waited for him to understand, for his jaw to clench like whenever he tried to prevent cascades of emotions from shaping his features. Instead, his fingers ran over her wound, his face disinterested. The hole turned pinkish and pale overnight around the wound, with the blood already coagulated.
"This isn't infected, but you seem to have a fever."
"Why does he sing?"
Her left hand reached for a kunai in his open robs when realization damned on him. The tune ceased abruptly and Gai calmly reached for his katana.
"Because the realm comes first."
She yelped, the rough edges of the tree imprinted oh her cheek. The pain shot through her arm mercilessly, his nails sinking in her shoulder. Tenten fought Katsuo's arm holding her in place, but they went limp against her crushing her heaving chest. The blood soaked her front before she could stop the scream from erupting guttural and wild in her throat.
Flashes of the forest of the shogunate of the Earth ran through her mind. However, the leaves that surrounded her turned yellow and red as she tried to run. The blood weighed her down. The branches moved like arms, circling, grasping at her until they became solid, and holding her down with too much force. She smelled the earth and the overwhelming presence of silver around her. It froze the blood in her veins, it increased the thudding in her chest filling her head instead of reassuring her.
Her glance fell on Gai uncharacteristically stoic, the assault of nausea suddenly stronger.
"What-" She fought it, rising within her, her freed locks hiding her face. She couldn't think of the proper questions, the proper sentences.
"I didn't mean for Katsuo to die, but he wouldn't have let me do this," his voice flat and falling with in rhythmic Chinese intonations. "You see, to him, Princess Sora came first but to me, Prince Chao comes first. He wants to meet you and his daughter wouldn't let that happen."
Her laughter was dry and scorched, tears welling at the corner of her eyes.
"My father was a peasant," she shouted stubbornly in Japanese while still fighting the iron grips on her arms. "My mother is no princess. Princesses don't marry peasants."
The pain came back stronger, hurling her back on trembling feet. Tenten panted shaking her head.
"Oh, they do when they are ordered to," he locked glance with her, answering in Chinese. "They do whatever it takes for the realm."
-X-
I'm biased but this is one of my favourite chapters. :P I will try to update one more time before leaving Canada. For now, review? ^_^