Chapter 11 - Naniwa

Everyone knew the time would come when they would eventually arrive in Naniwa.

And today was that day…

A whole week or so of travelling finally brought them in sight of the Uesugi camp after getting out of Taki's clutches. Not a soul spoke, for each was filled with pending doom. All except K because he didn't fully understand why everyone seemed so ill at ease. But even he felt the vibe within the group and it made him wonder.

After all this was the last place he imagined he'd end up. What was going to become of him now? What would happen to Hiro now? It was a heavy reminder that he was very much the outsider once again. Even though for a little while he felt like he actually belonged when he was with Hiro's group.

They'd travelled so far…

A shaky hand searched for his and K looked over to see it was Hiroshi's. Tenderly he took it and held it firmly, wondering why Hiroshi was so nervous suddenly, feeling the dampness on his palm. K looked questionably at his companion but he knew naught. They'd been together for little more than one whole moon cycle, but this last full moon had past. And in that time he learned a lot of their language and Hiro had learned quite a bit of his too. K studied ahead of him as they neared the largest mountain range he'd seen yet on these lands. He could see a large cave and surrounding that was a multitude of mound homes just like Taki's, made of mud, clay and covered in grass. In the distance the sun glimmered off a large body of water and from the left side of the mountainous area steam rose into the air from the Uesugi spring. It was a vast valley with numerous types of areas surrounding it. And inside all of this, milled more people than he ever seen in his whole life!

As they got closer, everything was becoming alarmingly apparent. There was something strange about this picture. Among the Nakano's and Uesugi's were a group of people that looked suspiciously a lot like K.

"CLAUDE?!!!" A piercing cry rang.

It couldn't be?

Huh? Looking around to locate the voice, with eyes roving K finally saw her…he saw his mate Judy! She was getting up from a fire close to an earth lodge, where it seemed she was sat with a group of women crafting clothes. He blinked a few times before his mouth hung open in shock, unable to utter any words.

Hiro blinked at the woman that came from the direction of the Uesugi camp. Not only she odd, but she had hair as blonde as K's! In fact there were quite a few people that had the same hair and skin colouring as K did. Did they end up going the wrong way? He looked back at his friends in question.

They all shrugged.

"It's not the wrong place Hiro," Yuki assured him, looking around with wonder also.

"What's going on?" Sakano wondered. "Who are all those people?!"

It couldn't be…Hiro felt his tongue glued to the roof of his mouth.

"Winchester clan," said Suguru diminutively.

"Oh Aurora has brought you home!" cried Judy who was followed by many people when they'd realized that Hiro and everyone had arrived. She launched herself on K, tearing his hand out of Hiro's in a fierce hug. "I thought you were dead!" She began to sob and many of K's clansmen bowed to him.

"Our chief has returned. Aurora guided your spirit. Reiji helped us find you." Many of them said.

Completely rocked off his foundation K slowly put his arms around his mate. "Are you for real? Is this some dream? H-how?" he faltered. But the anger came bubbling back as he realized what was really happening. "HOW JUDY!?!" he suddenly yelled and grabbed Judy by the shoulders, holding her in a vice grip.

"Claude, don't be angry!" Judy whimpered. "We went looking for you?! But where'd you go, huh? Where?!"

K moved his mouth to reply but then he thought of someone else, his eyes narrowed.

Ark…

Looking to settle things once and for all, K moved Judy aside and held his spear up as if he was ready to kill. He scanned the crowd for the man and saw him returning with an armload of wood that he was dropping next to a pit when he saw him. "Ark!" K bellowed.

One look at Claude and Ark's eyes widened and he held up his hands. "Claude!? Wait, w-what's the matter?" he cried.

K ran after him, charging like angry bull.

"Eee-yahh!" Ark ran to save himself. Messing with an angry Claude was dangerous! He'd fought with him way to many times and always Claude was faster than him. It wasn't fair. Looking back, he watched Claude launch his spear that came straight for him. He ducked and the whistling object flew over his head, barely missing him. "Claude, stop it!" he hollered. But K caught up to him in no time and into the grass he was tackled down hard.

Everyone watched K and Ark in momentary stunned silence, Hikaru giving Hiro a testy look. Hiro balked and swallowed hard.

"K's a chief? What's going on?" Shuichi asked, "Who are all these people and what's the matter with K? Why's he trying to kill that man?"

Befuddled, Hiro shook his head, "I don't know Shuichi, but it seems as if his family has found our family all while we were looking for them, heh." How ironic. It was almost hard to believe if he wasn't seeing it with his own eyes. As the drama unfolded Hiro watched the one K called Judy, run off towards the fighting men with tears. He had an uneasy feeling in his stomach…this wasn't how he envisioned his homecoming at all.

"Argh! That buffoon is back!" hissed a voice close by.

Hiro frowned and peeked over his shoulder at the voice that spoke in Winchester tongue. She was a small woman with a heavy air of dominance. She had red figwort markings on her face that made him think of a warrior, a hunter. She was muttering to herself out of earshot from the rest of her clan. Didn't she know she could be heard by him?

Reiji caught Hiro looking at her and snapped, "What do you want?! Oh, wait, right, you can't understand a word I'm saying." She laughed at him.

Hiro stared at her blankly.

"I almost feel sorry for you having to deal with him." She nodded in K's direction who at the moment busily strangling Ark. "What does it take to get rid of that guy?"

What?! Hiro almost gave himself away, he understood enough of that but he forced this revelation to stay inside of him. What a stupid girl, Hiro thought. Her assumption that he didn't understand her let him know that she'd been the one that tried to kill K! Was she the one that pushed him into the river? Hiro glanced back at her in disbelief, and then he looked over at K who was attacking the wrong person!

He couldn't let an innocent man die; he had to let him know! "K, stop it!" he cried and was about to run over until someone grabbed him by the scruff.

"HIRO! NO, YOU STOP!" hollered his father. "Enough of this, you are not involved in their dispute. You're in enough trouble as if is," Hikaru growled.

Suguru tried to intervene, "But chief Hikaru, it wasn't Hiroshi's fault we had to stop and tend to an ailing man. Without Hiro he might've died." Suguru cut a look to Yuki, Sakano and Shuichi as if to tell them to not say a word. So what? Hikaru didn't need to know the entire truth, so there was no 'dying' man.

But Yuki's own father had come out of the cave as well, dark robes swaying over the ground, his dragon totem prominent around his neck. He was followed by his daughter Mika and Yuki's brother Tatsuha, both watched their brother with worried faces. Papa's footsteps moved swifter than usual and he levelled his dark eyes on Yuki, bald head gleaming under the sun. "Son, you disobeyed me and now the gathering is ruined. You have angered the gods and the spirits are troubled. No amount of prayer will rectify this...I have every intention of casting you out…"

Everyone gaped, but Yuki held a deadened look. "You wouldn't believe me even if Kiyoshi told you the truth," Yuki snapped.

"Uesugi sir, it was my fault…" Hiro cut in.

"Quiet!" Papa demanded, "I offer to both of you the chance to test your spirits, ask the gods for repentance. Only then will I let you both re-join this family, live upon this land, fed upon our nourishment. You have dishonoured us! I already know Hikaru agrees with me!"

The Nakano chief nodded.

Hiro and Yuki eyes flashed at each other. Yuki flared with aggravation and Hiro hung his head in shame. But off to the side, Hiro caught a glimpse of Ayaka and Sakura watching in them in the distance. She found his gaze and pressed her face into her hands and ran off. He sighed heavily as Sakura chased after her.

Cho—Hiro's mother—finally caught up to the two fathers handing out the punishment. "Oh thank Gaia!" she cried and gathered her son up in a fierce hug. "I should be so angry with you Hiroshi for what you've done. But something tells me that you had your reasons. Son, please obey your father and find Gaia and Kiyoshi's forgiveness." Tears leaked out of her eyes…this act for forgiveness was indeed a trial that made most mothers cry. But there was nothing she could do.

Finding clemency meant torture to Yuki and Hiro. It meant climbing up the Hotaka Mountain without food, water or clothing. It meant getting to the top and finding Gaia's voice, all which would take about four full sun cycles. Many people died testing their limit on the face of that mountain, where temperatures at the top still froze human limbs.

Hiroshi grit his teeth in a mix of resentment and shame. "If that's what will make you happy, then…I will do it," he spoke through clenched teeth. What choice did he have? If he didn't go, he'd be exiled but if he went and came back, then all would be forgiven.

Yuki looked like he was about to be sick, he wasn't cut out for this task. Shuichi knew it too and began to wail. "No! You can't make Yuki go up Hotaka! He'll die up there! Hiro will die too! Nooo! We're very sorry, we're sorry!"

"I'm afraid we have no other choice," Hikaru spoke coolly, "Hiro and Yuki know the dishonour they've brought to this family, and they will stop angry gods from bringing the end to our clan!"

And on the other side of the camp…

Ark tried in vain to remove the pressure of K's grip off his throat. Judy also tried in vain to plead with K to listen. He blindly listened to her, her voice but a buzzing sound in his ear.

He was furious!

"I looked everywhere for you!" K roared. "How could you take off so quickly? Why did you try to kill me?! I know it's because of Judy eh? Jealously is a nasty thing Ark, but I trusted you and all you had to do was talk to me! So you just tried to get rid of me…you, you bastard!"

Ark was turning blue.

"Claude! No, it's not like that!" Judy jumped on K's back and tried to haul him off.

She failed miserably.

"Reiji insisted we leave the day you never came back from the river! She said she knew where you went Claude! That, you where on the other side of the river! So we packed up and went looking for you. Then we came across these two clans here and they let us stay…they seemed to have accepted us, I think they even knew who you were! So we stuck around. We're still unable to talk to them properly but a few have told us about things that made me think you were here with them. ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME!? DON'T BE SO STUBBORN!" Judy wailed, still attached to K's back like a monkey.

Suddenly K let go of Ark's neck and sat up straight, still sitting on top of his friend. Judy fell off and crawled around to face them both.

"Claude, aren't you listening…?"

"Are you saying that Reiji had you all leave and come looking for me?" K questioned puffing with exertion, eyes still wild in his head.

"Yes…" Ark garbled his hands massaging his neck, colouring returning to his face.

"She did and we went because we wanted to find you. She said you'd fallen into the river and—"

"—I see," K said cutting her off. He stood up and offered his hand to Ark. "I apologize friend…I think I was wrong."

Hesitatingly, Ark took K's hand and got up off the ground. He coughed as he tried to get fresh air into his lungs.

Now an eerie calm resided inside of K. He sighed and looked at Judy, "I'm sorry too my mate. Please forgive me?"

"Of course Claude darling…" she whispered.

Smiling a little, K marched off towards the main cave to deal with Reiji. The woman saw him coming and rightly wore a worried look. "Reiji!" he barked, "I'll give you one chance to explain yourself, but even then you're dismissed from the clan," K said with decree.

Reiji eyes widened. "What? You can't kick me out. You're not a leader, you don't deserve that title. Why couldn't you just die?!" she cried venomously.

Everyone, including Hiro and Hikaru, Papa and Yuki heard her raised shrill. They stopped their drama to look.

"You have no tact Reiji," K said coolly. "Your plan was weak and it backfired on you. You're lucky I'm giving you the choice to run, or else it'd be satisfying to fight you right here," K challenged the pesty woman.

"Oh yeah, try me old man!" Reji countered. "What do you got that makes you so confident you'd win?"

K smirked. "Something you wouldn't understand Reiji. Aurora herself has provided me with a spirit…a mammoth spirit to guide me." K pointed at Hiro, "He saved my life…She brought him to me."

Everyone glanced at Hiro now.

Reiji paled, she couldn't beat that. She knew very well how significant a mammoth spirit was to Claude. She knew the childhood tale of a mammoth saving Claude as a child, and she knew that if he'd been helped by one in spirit now, that she had no hope at all. "I guess Aurora really did bless you then," she said quietly, defeated. "Perhaps I was wrong…"

"Still Reiji what you did was wrong," Judy pointed out. "I can't believe you made us travel all the way down here."

"But I found you these two clans!" she tossed back and waved her hand in the direction of the people behind her. "They accepted us and have helped us survive!"

"That might be true, but you're still dismissed," K said solemnly. "Perhaps it's your turn to go on a journey and think about it. The land is beautiful and there are many things to see. I will not change my mind," K said with finality and walked away.

Judy chased after K and before Hiro's eyes, K leaned down as she whispered something in his ear. K began to smile, placing his hand on her belly, kissing the woman lovingly like two might if being blessed by Kiyoshi. His heart sank, no…this wasn't the kind of homecoming he had in mind at all… A slew of questions filled his mind. Why didn't K ever mention he had a mate? His eyes travelled over them as they held each other, he studied K's woman intently. She was a breathtaking mate, even as a foreigner…K was a lucky man. Then he blinked and noticed the swell on Judy's belly at this angle, the deerskin frock not hiding much—she was with child. Hiro smiled genuinely at that, nothing was more wonderful than the blessing of new life. The gods have been gracious in respect to the clan's tribulations.

Still, something inside of him hurt, he felt himself feeling an emotion he rarely felt, jealousy. He watched K's clan all milling around him, all talking to him at the same time—all anxious to hear his story. Hiro felt a tap on his shoulder but he ignored it as he watched his blonde friend. K's eyes looked up at him then, they shared a silent moment…the contents unknown to anyone else. The look gave Hiro hope, but he broke it and turned to watch the woman called 'Reiji' walking off into the horizon. Behind her one person followed. He did not know his name but he sense it was her one true companion, exiling himself willingly for her…

A/N: Well, they made it to Naniwa. Everything and everyone is apeshit now. sniff I feel bad for Hiro...the next chapter you'll also feel worse. But, I promise it will be alright Rules were meant to be broken, you'll see :P I tried to lighten the angst with a touch of humour with K and Ark XD But still I'm sorry for the angst.

Reviewers: Thank you Dancing Coconuts, Estelle Stafford and chocho!! I hope you continue to enjoy the tale, even if it's strange lol I'm having fun writing this though, everything will be merry in the end. --Hugs--