Redesign

by xLilim

Complete / Life is a fickle thing, but death is certain. MadaraOC

19. Serpent Waters 2

Chapter 19 | Serpent Waters II

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Autumn is the peace before the dark days.

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Izuna didn't possess the patience to comfort Hibari and Saori after their father breathed his final breath on the battlefield. He only offered his condolences and found an empty space nearby to sit in, still armored and bloodied from the fray. His sword had broken and it sat with him, on his lap, and because of it he felt a sense of loss, though he'd broken others, this one had lasted him longer than those others.

Tomoji's death changed nothing in the agreement his grandmother made. His attempt to protect Tomoji before he received the deathblow worked surprisingly in their favor and they appreciated his resilience for all the months he spent with the clan. He didn't know how many that had been—wasn't even sure he was counting? But he was sure of something. He wanted to chase his brother to the Sun Country where the Senju were fighting for their right to reclaim the Motou as their allies.

He wanted to present the idea to Tomoji after the battle concluded, but now, he figured he might as well go. His grandmother had no reason to deny him since she wouldn't be spending much time with the Ito clan either, not since she's caught that haggard cough again. The constant weather changes seemed like experiencing a hundred seasonal transitions in the span of mere days. It either rained or didn't, but the air remained muggy and the sky overrun by gray. The winds were harsh by morning light and quiet throughout night, in between one could predict whether it rained or hailed, but most times they were surprised.

Recently, it'd been stormy, a persistent season of rain. Today, specifically, the day was dominated by torrential droplets complete with thunderclouds. Outside the rush of water washed away the footprints his men left behind on the mud, melted them into a swamp of blood, death, and other broken things.

"Izuna."

He lifted his face to Tomoji's puffy faced daughters. He rose from his seat, the weight on his shoulders too large to bear at the sight of the girls. He should have tried harder to keep Tomoji in sight, should have never strayed too far from him. War had no room for guilt. Their enemies wished to cheat Tomoji out of his claim of the Waterfall Country, driven by a clan of weapon specialists and a daimyo that no longer believed the Ito clan planned to uphold the promise made thirty years ago when the clansmen first proposed to help the country prosper. Doubtless, the land flourished, but not in the way the old lords wanted.

He rose to meet the two eye to eye and gestured for them to walk of ahead of him. Saori held Hibari on the way out to the hallway. He apologized once again after they were out of earshot from the clan members. Saori rewarded him with a brittle smile and a saddened green gaze, dismissing the pardon because she thought it unnecessary.

"Nobody is putting the blame on you," she continued, in her arms Hibari wept inconsolably. "We should thank you for bringing him home, nobody else would have. So, really, thank you for bringing him home, he'd appreciate it." She leaned to whisper soothing words into her younger sister's ear and started leading her away. "Excuse us. I'm taking Hibari to her room."

Izuna nodded. He waited until they walked out of sight to leave the building in search of his grandmother.

Sachiyo sat in front of a fire wrapped in a dark colored shawl in the sitting room of her guest quarters. She coughed into a handkerchief and gestured him over from the doorway. He had the sense of stopping by his own lodging to remove his armor and scrub the blood and mud off his face to avoid her scrutiny. He didn't change out of the simple black clothes he wore beneath it because there were some dry blood in need of cleaning and the intent of a bath once he finished relaying his thoughts to his grandmother.

"Were you wounded?" she asked, eying him critically.

"Not severely," he answered. "The medics patched me up before releasing me. I just have to clean off the blood really."

"What about Tomoji's girls?"

He thought of Hibari clinging to her sister unable to speak a word since the initial shock stabbed deep the minute she lay eyes on her father's corpse. He'd never seen that sort of expression on her, but then again, he didn't expect her to have such a reaction. He remembered Saori hurrying to take her hand and the way she held her for the half hour they remained in the presence of their deceased father.

"Better than I expected," he said finally.

"I must pay my condolences."

She made a move to stand but he reached out to place a hand on her shoulder. "Do it once you're feeling better. We've lost enough people to this war already."

Sachiyo pursed her lips. "There's no need to exaggerate. This is a mere cold. It will go away once I return to the Fire Country."

She desired to go on a diplomatic mission to stop his father from openly challenging Hikaku because it threatened their best-kept secret and other clans were starting to suspect of the changes within the Uchiha clan. Every person of interest was spread throughout the continent, pretending to be under some unknown united rule while the inner conflicts turned violent in the encounter his father managed with Hikaku.

Izuna supported his grandmother's decision because whether or not the secret spilled came down to his father's impatience. For a while, the notion seemed humorous since people like Taiga and Hiryuu existed, yet they managed to traipse around the continent without so much as rousing suspicions. He always thought Taiga would be the one to commit a mistake that would cost them blood, but he'd hoped it wasn't for Mio's sake. Now, Mio was a Kuronuma and pursuing neutral principals, so none of that mattered. And even if the ex-Elder committed the mistake, Mio probably wouldn't have cared since she proclaimed her love for him.

Recalling that made his stomach twist and his temperament a little irritable—he didn't understand. Saori told him that things like love were hard to understand and while she'd been no expert, her mother, when she lived, offered her advice on several subjects to prepare her for all the times she'd miss after death. She went onto explain the curious thing about Mio's secret affection for Taiga, unsure if hearing it would hurt him. He dismissed the mere idea, trying to tear the emotion out of his chest in hearing the tragedy that was acknowledging her feelings for another.

"She used to say one doesn't have a choice in the matter," explained Saori with a hint of ill-disguised hesitation. "When it happens, it happens, and you might not want the choice you've gotten but that choice makes you happy enough to forget it. Maybe Mio never wanted to tell you before because she didn't want to admit it to herself. If this Taiga is as bad as you say, would you want to tell anyone that you developed feelings for him? I wouldn't. What would they think of me?"

It continued to sting now with the reminder. For several weeks he wished Taiga's marriage eased the torture of rejection, but he only remembered how many different women he betrayed Sako with and in due time, his mind started to wonder if Mio could (or had already) become one of them. It sickened him to see that he was hurt enough to think so lowly of her, but he couldn't stop his mind from working. He didn't want to think of Mio in any compromising position, not in his arms, not in his bed, not anywhere near him. But he'd seen the way Taiga wrapped his arm around her with that sleazy smile plastered on his face…as if he were marking his claim. She is mine. He made that perfectly clear.

Deny it all he wanted, Izuna had seen them share secret conversations, most of which left Mio in a silent fury. Watching the two always made him curious as to what sort of relationship they had because they weren't friends. Neither one stayed long enough in the other's presence to be considered a confidant or someone reliable with a concern for the other's feelings. He figured the two only got along because they had to, nothing more, nothing less, but now there had been that unwanted revelation and for the first time in the last seven years, Mio had been in the back of his mind. It felt wrong and he endured a guilt he couldn't pinpoint, but it also no longer mattered.

"Are you still thinking about the girl?"

She didn't bother to call her Mio anymore, but at least she spoke of her. She'd seem reluctant since she stopped being angry around the time Mio showed up in Ito territory with her grandfather.

"No," he lied.

"Good." She glimpsed off her shoulder. "Did you come for something in particular?"

"I'm going to the Sun Country with Madara."

"Going?" she asked. "You don't plan to ask for permission?"

"Forgive me, grandmother," he said, bowing his head. He had no intention of requesting for her consent. If she denied it, he planned to leave anyway. "I want to go to the Sun Country. The Senju are there and Madara only has few Uchiha on his side. I want to support him because I know father won't."

"Then by all means go."

Izuna smiled. "Thank you." He rose from his seat. "I'll be packing my things."

"So soon?"

"The faster the better," he returned.

"Very well," she consented. "There are a few Ito shinobi heading to the Sun Country early tomorrow morning, go with them."

He stopped at the doorway, regarding his grandmother with a smile once more before leaving. The last year stole away what little youth she had remaining, the wrinkles on her face deepened and for the longest time, her hands seemed unsteady—always trembling, always brittle. He worried for her health.

"Will you be okay?"

Sachiyo grinned. "It's just a cold. I will be fine."

---

Mio memorized every pathway, public or private, leading into the heart of Mt. Hyōga in pursuit of the completion of agility training. She worked three hard months taking on shaky bridge after shaky bridge, every moment fearing it might be her last day. The black bars her grandfather molded as weights reached a final level of absurdity before he swore they conquered an ideal combined weight for a non-Kuronuma native. By that accomplishment, Mio realized she had no recollection of how things might have been before. Without the bars tightened around her wrists and ankles, she felt strange. She needed them in place to function properly, but they also caused her immense panic during bridge crossings, though the strong winds were truly the ones to blame. She lived tormented by every sway and creak the awful contraptions made and it brought on a series of questions she didn't want to address, most of which involved the nearly hundred foot drop and the amount of weight it took for a wooden plank to snap beneath increased weight. Her grandfather claimed to know everything, but he didn't know she feared plunging from any height over her modest five foot four inches, anything above that instilled an unrelenting swell of panic that propagated with every step she took across it.

Shin always pointed to the black cord holding every wooden bridge together in an attempt at explanation, but she had none of that. The only thing she wanted out of him was some form of confirmation that she would never need to cross another bridge over a fifty-foot drop again, but he couldn't provide that. Mt. Hyōga remained hidden deep within the snowy planes of Kurata for that reason. The wooden bridges became the only means of crossing to ensure no more than three individuals passed at one point, the planks whined incessantly beneath the slightest weight that it seemed natural to not attempt to overcrowd it. The Kuronuma that traveled in groups only took the bridge three people at a time, only starting once the person ahead of them hit the middle plank. She soon realized they had a system for everything, something she'd been encouraged to learn it if she planned to live in Mt. Hyōga with her grandfather.

Admittedly, she'd not yet stepped foot into the Kuronuma's snowy village. She saw it from afar, the snow dusted rooftops of several hut-like structures that dotted a plane of flat landscape, pinpointed the exact location by following the gray smoke that rose from a large bonfire, but she never approached it, only saw it through an obstructive view. The closer she stepped towards the Kuronuma population she felt the weather drop several degrees, making the area colder than humanly inhabitable and the realization that wearing all the warm clothes in her closet wouldn't save her from freezing to death.

However, Mio wanted to slip into their home world. She'd grown curious. Every Kuronuma she met outside their encampment were members from a subgroup within the systematic clan whose sole occupation was hunting the great pine forest for deer or squirrel, to search the same great expanse for edible berries or medicinal plants to bring home for storage. Once the harshest season of winter hit their home, they wanted to be ready because it was only a few months away. Some hunters were unable to use jutsu, others were only adept at the black water arts, and the rest fell somewhere in between. Shin elaborated on the subject once she questioned the system, wondering why shinobi were among the hunting class, and with a small smile, he answered her. "The hunters that are unable to use jutsu are those that have chosen not to learn it, those that learn the black water jutsu have either shown some interest before dropping it or have overly involved parents, and the rest merely wanted to be shinobi until they decided against it."

The choice to be or not be a shinobi lay in the person making the decision and not the war at their surroundings demanding more sacrifice.

"Why do you train shinobi if the Kuronuma clan has no intention of fighting any war?" she'd continued.

"We're not near as stupid as people want us to be," he'd responded with a twinge of humor. "War will come to us, whether we want it to or not, and we will be ready for it when it does."

Mio had the impression that the words her grandfather uttered were unconsciously referring to the incident that chased them out of the Iron Country. He might not have meant it in the way she took it, nor admitted that war would chase them if he knew she'd misunderstand. Except, she didn't feel she was misinterpreting them. The Uchiha-Mikazuki alliance purposely started a conflict with several shinobi clans near neutral country to disguise their intention to breach the border to take her into custody because as soon as news spread that she no longer resided in the Iron Country, the battle ended as though it never happened. It forced her to think about what could happen if they decided to invade Kurata for the same reason. Would she be acknowledged as a plague then? Would her grandfather finally see her as an omen of death? Would that mean that her parents did not die because they uncovered Hiryuu's exploits, but because she heralded the grim reaper to their doorstep?

The thoughts followed her with a distinct insistence that unnerved her.

Mio returned to her temporary home after her morning run. She'd been living in a house within the civilian village still under Kuronuma protection where she could see Sako and Minako more often than not because they lived in the same neighborhood. She enjoyed the time she spent playing with Minako and the fact that Sako no longer mentioned Taiga around her, which was a welcomed change since she practically threw herself at him in return for his wife's freedom. She'd never been so embarrassed in her life and though she fought against remembering the moment, it kept creeping back into her memory replaying endlessly until the only words she heard were her own. "I will if you leave her…and that she bears no consequence in your doing so." She couldn't look Sako in the eyes, not after that. She practically betrayed Sako even though the woman might not view it that way, she did. And she'd rather die than admit to any of it.

"I hope you've worked up an appetite," Shin called when she entered.

A dozen scents assaulted her upon doing so. She found Shin laying out plate after plate of steaming food, each more elaborate than the last. She approached the counter in search of something without meat to ingest for what remained of the morning and to stand in the warm radiating from the burning flames in the center of the room where he stirred a pot of beef stew.

"Do you have anything without meat in it?"

"Nope," he said cheerfully. "You'll just need to make room for it. You've never had a balanced diet before so you've lost a lot of weight during the first phase of your training."

"And you plan to fatten me up to make up for it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "Care to explain?"

"No," he said, pouring her a bowl of stew and holding it out in front of her face. "We don't have enough time to explain much of anything. You fell behind on the schedule and we need to start on mental training, your body needs to start healing."

Mio reluctantly took the bowl unable to stand the smell. She wasn't in the mood for any food after the workout, the smell made her stomach groan in complaint. "I feel fine."

"Yes, but your muscles are probably feeling abused. You've grown accustomed to the pain that you can now ignore it, but your body hasn't forgotten and it's never gotten a chance to heal from the constant strain you endured these last eight months."

She stared at him absently, holding the bowl of stew in both hands. She wasn't paying much attention to what he said because she figured out why he looked strange to her. He tied his hair back into a low ponytail.

"Have you always worn those earrings?" she asked automatically, staring at onyx earrings he wore. One seemed to be a half circle, worn on his left lobe, and the other was two joint hoops with a black pearl attached to the bottom was on his right.

Shin blinked. "These?" He touched the right earring and the dangling pearl danced lightly. "I've never taken them off. Then again, I don't normally tie my hair back so you probably never saw them. Anyhow, start with the food, all this won't eat itself."

Mio looked at the feast before her. "You're joking."

"I'm not."

"I can't eat this much."

"You should start."

"This is inhumane."

"It's practically a snack!"

"This is a feast. A snack is like half of one of these plates."

"You've just never been fed correctly. Now stop arguing with me and start eating. I'm going to prepare a room for you to meditate in."

"I'm going to meditate afterward?"

"What did you think mental training was?"

"Something that'd make me hate you afterwards," she blurted, having imagined her grandfather forcing her to jump off one of the hundred foot cliffs to make her face her fears even though that's how she got that one in particular.

"It's simple, really, you meditate, Okimi sits by and heals you," he explained. "Hurry and eat all you can because you'll hopefully be in meditation for the rest of the day."

"Okimi is coming? Can she?" she asked, concerned for the wellbeing of her cousin.

Shortly after arriving to Kurata, she met with Okimi, remembering her as a svelte, beautiful young woman, who surprised her by showing off her pregnant belly. She'd been incredibly excited three months ago, but these past few days, she hated the mere sight of her husband Enya, a youthful Kuronuma Elder, and refused to move because some of the younger children had started making whale sounds at her when she passed. She'd be around seven months now and she'd gotten a bit bloated, making traveling difficult. Enya forbade her from leaving Mt. Hyōga and she responded by demanding a divorce.

"Takuto and Enya are bringing her."

"Who's Takuto?"

She hadn't heard of him before, so his mention in the same sentence as Enya piqued her curiosity.

"Stop making conversation and start eating."

"Didn't Okimi want nothing to do with Enya?"

"Well, Okimi willingly married him, so they have a lot to do with one another and he is quite understanding of her pregnancy hormones."

"That doesn't answer who Takuto is," she reminded him.

"Takuto is her protégé. Now, eat." Shin disappeared behind a door.

Mio glimpsed at her bowl and willed herself to eat at least something of every platter to avoid being wasteful.

Okimi stomped into the house announced only by a list of complaints she busily recited for both her protégé and husband to take ample notes. First and foremost, she decided upon crossing the threshold that she wouldn't be returning to Mt. Hyōga because she was apparently manhandled and that she'd deliver her own child if there were no available midwife in town.

Enya pursued her, distraught, shaking flecks of snow out of his tangled mane of white hair. He towered over his wife, attempting to reason with her about the plans they made concerning the birth of their first child as Mio watched with interest from behind the counter toppled in platters of everything she couldn't stomach.

"Forget the plan," argued Okimi, unwilling to accept reason. She waddled towards the nearest cushioned seat and sank into it, exhaling deeply. She'd grown a little larger since the last they met, but she was rosy-cheeked, glowing, and more beautiful than before. "I want the plan in the trash with the rest of your genius plans because I'm not making that trip a second time. I'm staying with my uncle and cousin here, in this cozy little house, like it or not."

"Mio, reason with her," Enya begged, the look didn't suit his strong features.

Mio shook her head, stuffing her mouth full of salty meat slices.

"Mio will be my midwife, I'll teach her how to properly deliver a baby," Okimi tried, pushing strands of pale hair from her face. "How is that? It's not hard; I've done it about a dozen times."

"If Shinya-sama lets me, I'll stay," announced a new voice. The young man to whom it belonged to strode in quietly with a gloved hand tugging the hood from his head. He brushed the snow from his shoulders and glimpsed in Mio's direction with a smile that reached his dark magenta tinted eyes.

He didn't stand as tall as expected from a Kuronuma, his skin taut and lightly muscled, and his hair wasn't the usual shade of white but a dusty brown and blond that fell past his angular jaw.

She nearly choked on her own saliva, heart fluttering.

"Takuto, don't just stand there, she's choking!" snapped Okimi, gesturing wildly in her direction.

Mio waved her hand in dismissal. "I'm fine," she croaked, dreading Takuto's approach. He made it to the other side of the counter and he pressed a distressingly warm hand on her back. She kept shaking her head even though she was still coughing as though there were something lodged in her throat. Her heart no longer fluttered, it pounded. "No, really, I'm okay."

"You sure? You're turning red," he said, voice littered in the expected level of concern from any doctor. His smile changed and his carefully placed hand left her back. He lowered his tone a tad notch before speaking a second time, up close his eyelashes were pale and long. "Your ears are red."

She set her plate on the counter and covered her ears.

"Come on guys, you tracked snow into the house," complained Shin upon reentering the room. He shot Takuto a look that shooed him and stared at her progress with the food. "Mio, you haven't eaten anything and why're your ears red…?"

"Where's your broom Shinya-sama?"

Shin turned to Takuto with a humorless smile. "Outside."

Takuto stalked outside to retrieve the broom that currently sat in the small closet to her left.

As soon as the door slammed shut behind him, everyone redirected their stares at her and in unison, the room exploded in question, "Are you serious, Mio?"

She didn't understand. "Did I do something…?"

"Well, I don't disapprove," Okimi announced, arms folded over her swollen belly. "Takuto is a perfectly handsome young man and the best part is that he's her age, not like all you lot of old perverts. I'm looking at you grandpa."

Shin's mouth dropped in insult. "I'll have you know I was very concerned that my lovely granddaughter wouldn't ever see—"

"Don't finish that sentence, Shinya-sama, she'll only incriminate you more," interrupted Enya.

"Don't let these old nobodies talk you out of getting along with Takuto, he's perfectly nice if not a little cheeky."

Mio couldn't find the will to argue against the nonsense going on in the room. She merely removed herself from her seat and retrieved the broom from the closet to end Takuto's aimless search. She considered throwing in an apology for her grandfather's rudeness.

She found him rounding the house in search for it. "Takuto-san."

Takuto whirled around and seeing the broom in her hand, he laughed. He took it from her. "Thanks."

"It was in the broom closet. I apologize for my grandfather's rudeness, he did it on purpose."

She noticed without initially realizing it that she hadn't looked him in the eye since she beckoned him over. She forced herself to do it and he might have noticed because his grin widened.

"I figured as much," he admitted. "He's very protective of you. Everyone back in Mt Hyōga wants to meet you, but he wants nobody near a twenty feet distance."

"That includes you," called Shin behind her. "Come on Mio, you've got food to finish and Takuto needs to sweep my floor."

Once inside, Mio talked her way out of eating more and she walked into the empty room Shin prepared, to get started on the meditation. She took a seat in the cushion in the middle and stared at the stack of cushions set up for Okimi's comfort.

She exhaled deeply, dispelling the flutter in her stomach with each breath she set free from her lungs. She calmed her emotions after several minutes.

Okimi slipped inside the room, one hand on her lower back as she shuffled towards her seat. Mio stood to help her sit when the woman handed her a cup of steaming black liquid. She set it aside and did as she intended, making sure Okimi sat comfortably.

"Drink what's in the cup, Mio."

"What's in the cup?" she asked, taking it in her hands. It didn't have a distinct smell.

"It's a brew to heal damaged muscle tissue," answered Okimi. "Drink it slowly, I don't want you to burn yourself, but drink it while it's still hot."

Mio took a tentative sip; it blazed straight through her esophagus and spread from the core of her stomach. Every other drink she took unfurled in every inch of her body until it completely radiated in heat.

"Okay, you can start meditating whenever you want just make sure you don't let the sweat distract you. You're going to have to sweat that brew out for it to work properly."

She nodded, already feeling beads of sweat forming at her temples. "Just meditate?"

"Yes, close your eyes and just meditate. Also, completely ignore Takuto. He'll be sitting in to learn how to do this himself. He'll be taking over for when I'm indisposed."

"Okay."

She didn't know why that devastated her, but it did. The news made her furiously nervous and it translated in her failed attempt to lose herself in meditation.

"I'm going to drug you if you can't stop thinking nonsense," Okimi threatened her for the umpteenth time.

"Please don't."

"Then get to concentrating!"

Another cushion hit her upside the head.

"And you, get my pillow back!"

"I don't think it helps that you keep tossing pillows at her," eased Takuto, leaving his seat to do as his teacher instructed. He had entered around half an hour ago so quietly she nearly missed his appearance.

"I don't have anything else to throw at her and if I pinch her I'll be a monster because uncle damaged a lot of her muscular system. She shouldn't even be allowed to move. She should be in crutches. She should be carried around everywhere! I think she—"

"I think you're the reason she can't concentrate at—"

Mio heard a pillow slap Takuto in the face, stopping him short of an insult.

"Return my cushion, minion!"

She made one final attempt at meditation and failed. The failure gnawed at her confidence in successfully completing yet another trial that sounded easier than she gave it credit. Perhaps, her bloodline made it impossible to learn the Kuronuma jutsu and she was tired of working towards something that might not work out. She reached a new level of frustration and the already burning fire of rage the last couple of months had cultivated moved dangerously close to crossing the line between patience and impatience.

"I give up."

"Don't sweat it Mio, this isn't something easy to learn," said Okimi, having called it a day after three hours straight of failed attempts. "You'll get the hang of it after a couple more days."

Okimi's party wanted to make a stop at Sako's home for a short visit. She took Takuto to introduce him after blathering on and on about how she'd been in charge of his training for a long time, but as the trio started to leave, she faced Mio one last time.

"I think she'll be disappointed he's not handsome enough, though."

"I thought you weren't weighing in handsomeness," Enya argued.

"Handsomeness is always important. If you were handsomer—"

"Wait, you don't think I'm the handsomest."

"Well, it wouldn't hurt you to look prettier."

The argument persisted well into the street until their voices disappeared. The lightheartedness of the conversation did not alleviate any sentiments she had of the three hours she spent trying and failing at meditation. Once the she and her grandfather were alone, she reiterated the words she expressed to Okimi, repeating them with the conviction they lacked the first time she uttered them.

"I give up."

Shin turned. "Give up? So soon? Agility training is the hardest and you got through it just fine."

"I'm not that patient," she admitted. "I'm not that optimistic either. I can't sit around saying I can do it knowing I can't and won't be able to. I appreciate that you gathered so many people to help, but I'd rather we stop now before we are disappointed later. I don't want to get there and realize I worked so hard for nothing."

"You know, your grandmother gave me a similar speech when she dumped me the first time, then she got lazy and started recycling it."

"I'm not dumping you."

"No, but you're dumping the efforts I'm putting on you and that hurts just as much," he said with a disapproving frown.

"That's why I said I appreciate it," she countered, trying hard to keep her voice firm. "I do, I'm not just saying it because it's a pretty word. I'm saying it because I mean it and I don't have any other way to express how sorry I feel that I can't do what you wanted me to do—that I thought I could do, but I can't…and I feel so stupid for not saying it from the start. I just—I knew it was a terrible idea, I felt it was, I wanted to follow my gut, but I hated what you said about me being shipped off to be married for convenience and I don't want that to happen—" She took an exasperated breath, lifting her eyes to him. "I can't do this. It's too hard."

Shin sucked in a breath like a father about to unleash lecture hell on his hellion daughter and dragged a chair over to sit on where he easily stared her down until she shrank into an insignificant blob.

"Honestly, fine," he started. "I listened, I understand. I see the temptation in giving up early on to avoid the crushing disappointment later. I know how it feels to reach that point, when you've worked harder than you've ever worked before, when you've pushed yourself past the limits you've set for yourself to have someone dismiss your efforts and say you aren't good enough. You're humiliated, completely humiliated and disappointed. There aren't any pretty words to say this, but the feeling is complete shit. You've worked hard so some giant asshole can tell you you're efforts were worth shit. You don't even get a pat in the back; you get a bunch of snarky, unnecessary comments and an old hag calling you lazy when you tried harder than she did walking her fat ass from one stupid seat to another."

She remained speechless. The lecture sounded oddly personal, too personal to use it to draw in her nonexistent motivation. It died with the last of her confidence.

"You know what I did? I gave up. I didn't have time for it. I gave it a shot and it turned out my parents didn't try hard enough in the sack to produce a son that rivaled the likes of all their other perfect guardian children that could do absolutely no wrong."

She thought of interrupting him before things reached some extreme confession she could live the rest of her life never knowing, but she couldn't stop him. Despite the initial cringe she experienced when he likened his failure to his conception being a byproduct of laziness from his parents, the "perfect guardian children" stuck a cord in her that startled her curiosity awake.

"Nothing ten brothers and three sisters could say convinced me to assume my responsibility, so I asked my father to respect my decision to give up and while he doubted any other could replace me, voiced it and all, he conceded. So, I pursued blacksmithing as a profession and good merciful god was I in heaven. I made it to apprentice faster than the others in the same group and was probably an official blacksmith before I turned seventeen. And let me tell you, I became the most sought after blacksmith you've ever seen—"

"Why is this relevant?" she interjected, thoroughly confused. "Do you approve of my quitting or what?"

"Hell no," he retorted. "And I won't. I humiliated myself in front of every echelon in the clan and my entire family, but at least I gave it a shot. I worked hard and it didn't work out for me. It took ten years of blacksmithing and the deaths of my oldest brothers to understand that I shouldn't have given up, that I should have probably tried as hard as they did. And you know what? Maybe my grandmother had been right in calling me lazy because I can forge metal with my bare hands, always could, still can, just feels better when you do it the fancy way—turns out better too. Blacksmithing was my way of giving up and yours is going back to being a terrible liar, a horrible manipulator, a bad marksman, and just a girl that follows orders."

Every one of his deductions stabbed like a knife. She felt every twist of the metal as if she actually experienced an actual stabbing than a line of verbal insults demeaning fifteen years of Genji, Kikyo, and Sachiyo's hard work and the effort she provided to excel their standards.

She swallowed thickly, eyes stinging.

"One day, you're going to be having Madara's fifth kid because he's realized your DNA is more useful than your skill as a kunoichi and you're going to look back on today when you gave up on mental training because you can't meditate long enough for Okimi to heal your body."

"Why does it have to be Madara?" she cried.

"Because if I said Izuna, you'd probably wouldn't mind as much," he argued. "If I said Taiga, you'd have broken the chair on the counter and stormed off. If I'd said Takuto, I would have sounded as though I encourage any budding relationship, when I shouldn't, and if I said some random person, civilian or not, it might still sound like a good time to you."

"And why five?"

"Uchiha women are very fertile and—"

"You're disgusting! What about your mother and her fourteen kids?"

"My mother wasn't human, but that's not the point!" he stated, then dropped an octave. "The point is, I don't want you to regret this decision when you're in the middle of labor pains for a fifth kid you can't think of a name for."

"This isn't a convincing argument," she said, drawing a line with his shenanigans. She left her seat. "I'm not changing my mind just because you automatically assumed an outcome of my future. If this is a mistake, I want to commit it and regret it when the time comes, even if it's during the birth of my fifth child with Madara. I want to make mistakes and I want to get out of them on my own. You offered me the type of freedom I didn't think I had any right to after years of servitude to Sachiyo-sama, but now, you're taking it away by trying to manipulate me into doing something I won't achieve for a reason as ludicrous as becoming Madara's first choice in procreation."

"Wrong," he said haltingly. "Completely wrong. I can tell you exactly where this pathway of yours leads. I can try to frighten you with the truth, but really, I just want to save you the trouble of coming to terms with any of that because I saw your potential firsthand without having to consult Hag about it and I knew from that moment that it had to be you. You were the one. You had enough Kuronuma blood running through your veins to make you the perfect candidate for this training. You want to know the truth of the black water jutsu? It's not a secret and it's not that hard."

She awaited the answer with strange curiosity by the doorway.

"You only need one drop of Kuronuma blood in your veins. A single drop. Anyone can use it. Anyone with a drop." He lifted his index finger to stress the point. "And do you know why the Sharingan doesn't work on us? Why the Kuronuma mysteriously null the Uchiha's Kekkei Genkai? It's because the Kuronuma ingest the black water in all its burning, disgusting glory and it courses through our bodies, becoming one with every chakra outlet the human body possess and creates a physical barrier in the canals by feeding from it constantly. The black water is the Kuronuma's Kekkei Genkai and it protects us from dōjutsu."

"That's…that's—" she uttered incomprehensibly. A Kekkei Genkai should have been expected from the isolated Kuronuma clan, it had been rumored for generations (though none of the sources were reliable), but a part of her simply wanted to think nothing of the sort was involved. Blood…ingest the black water…nulls dōjutsu... It sounded preposterous.

Shin walked around the counter and pulled a knife from a drawer. She panicked, following his movements. She stopped when he position the knife to his wrist. "Look."

"Don't—"

He sliced open his wrist and turned it over so a thick flow of blood dribbled from the self-inflicted wound. Large drops splashed onto the ground, each smelled strongly of blood, each accompanied by a sizzling sound as slowly but surely they burned through the floorboards. She stared in complete awe.

"The Cursed clan, the Demon clan, the Hermit clan, the Sacred clan, the Blood clan—the Kuronuma came into possession of a thousand names in the past and only few survived. I am offering you this clan's best-kept secret because I believe you can endure the training and because I know you're not going to be just another nobody spy that dies in some recon mission. Mental training is about healing. Once you start healing, it'll get easier. Agility and strength training are the hardest, but they're not impossible. For the black water, you only need a drop and a quarter of the blood running through your veins is mine, you only need a smidgen of conviction because this is not impossible for you."

He sucked on the sleek wound on his wrist and the steady flow of blood stopped.

"If you want to give up, fine, we can study maps and read books and go on information gathering missions. We can improve on your genjutsu and ninjutsu and taijutsu and your overall jutsu because even I expected more out of your parents. They gave you an underwhelming upbringing into the shinobi world, and Sachiyo, with all her former fame and glory, only improved you to an adequate level. And I understand, look at you, you're small—"

"I don't need to be a freak of nature to be intimidating!" she countered.

He rolled over that insult as though it never left her lips and continued his argument. "Takuto is a prime example of this sort of training. He's a bit like you. His father is half-Kuronuma and his mother is a civilian. He lived outside Mt. Hyōga for a great portion of his life before making the transition over and he's been learning medical jutsu with Okimi. Granted, he's still learning it, but he's pushed through the hardship."

"Anyone can learn medical jutsu, anyone with sufficient chakra control," she countered.

"Kuronuma medical ninjutsu is as unorthodox as everything else this clan does and it mostly uses mediums to correct certain wrongs," he explained hesitantly. "Okimi planned to use a shrewd combination of her own blood and the unusable muscle tissue in your body as a medium to regenerate it. That mug of steaming black liquid she made you drink—blood concoction."

Mio suddenly felt sick, her stomach twisted and groaned in protest. "What?"

"She made you drink her blood," he whispered evilly.

"I'm sorry, your whole argument just became invalid," she said, power walking to bathroom. "Excuse me while I go throw up."

"At least I'm not keeping secrets anymore!"

His honesty had been convincing enough until he went into oversharing with Okimi's creepy medical ninjutsu. Even with the information, the rest roused her curiosity. His confidence shown through despite the awful stories he thought up to persuade her into continuing the training, but what really made her clung to the possibility was that he care enough to assure her she was worth the trouble. He wanted her to be at the forefront, not in the shadows, as everyone else had.

Maybe, she thought as she discarded the contents of her stomach, she could make a difference. Maybe she wasn't just good enough to be a spy, maybe she could be more than that. Shin gave her that possibility and tempting as it looked to give up this early on in the game, she'd try it a second time for her grandfather's sake.

And then, maybe she won't have to wait for Madara to fulfill his promise. Maybe she'll find him. Perhaps, she could look forward to spending more time with Izuna and if she hadn't ruined her chances with the "in love with Taiga" lie, she might pursue some modicum of happiness alongside him because Madara told her she could do it if she wanted to. Now, she had something to look forward to—a future with Izuna.

---

For the first time in two weeks, Mio meditated for three straight hours giving Okimi and Takuto enough time to begin the healing process. With that nudge of encouragement, Shin told her she'd be dealing with every day sessions with the two healers until she could stay in a meditative state for at least twelve hours. Once she managed that, they'd cut the time back to once every week because she needed plenty of rest to complete the process itself. With the right mindset, meditating came easy, but sometimes it was hard to concentrate when she could hear Enya talking nonstop in the other room or Okimi snacking on food in the middle of a session.

Mio paid Sako and Minako an overdue visit. She caught the mousy haired child running around the street playing hide-and-seek with several other children near her own age. She risked being found by barreling towards her to wrap her chubby arms around her legs, asking her to swear she'll stay into the afternoon so they can try playing some board games, and then bolted to find a new hiding place as many other young children stared at her in awe from behind boards or atop rooftops.

She smiled at the children, turning on her heel, and entered Sako's home just as a stranger was on his way out. She flattened her back against the wall giving the man room to pass. He looked surprised by her presence, but offered her a sweet, dimpled smile. He wore a pleasant countenance that suited his facial features, but not his large build. He'd look threatening enough if he tried to be, but she immediately knew he wasn't a shinobi, soldier, or hunter or that he was native to the village.

She glanced at Sako accusingly, the blond woman smiled mouthing to her that she'd introduce them another day.

The stranger kindly bid her farewell and left.

Sako stepped away from the small foyer.

Mio shut the door behind the man and followed the woman into the living area where Sako had taken a seat and now stared dreamily at the ceiling. She'd need to be blind and deaf not to see the sort of emotions that developed between Sako and that man.

"You're being foolish," she blurted.

Sako frowned, defensive on the subject. "Why is this foolish?"

"How is it not?" she tried strongly, angry that she had to bring Taiga up in a conversation after many months of radio silence on his front. "You're under the impression that Taiga won't ever see the difference because his visits are rare and short and because Minako's the only reason he even bothers to do it, but you don't understand—"

"I don't think you understand, Mio," Sako interjected. "I think you're trying to do so, but you can't. You're not in my position. You're not married to Taiga or are mother to his only child. You've never endured with his mood swings or feared for your life in his presence; you've never had to see a man you once loved sleep with another woman or lain beneath him as he calls you by another woman's name. You once told me I deserved so much better and I think I do too, so why can't you understand that I am knowingly taking a risk because I want to be happy."

She was right. None of that applied to her. She was an outsider in a life she always perceived as wrong, but one that she could do nothing about. She shouldn't go near it. Involvement went against many of the things she believed in. She should have remained the outsider and simply ignored it as it went on, but she couldn't do it from the moment she first saw Sako, lost in a dangerous world that never suited her. She needed protection and Mio thought herself strong enough to shoulder it, the burden of it all.

"He'll kill him," she said slowly, taking possession of her attention. "He won't do it because he's feeling humiliated by an infidelity, no, he'll do it because deep down inside, I think he's been waiting for you to fall in love with man so he could do it. And it won't be discreet. He'll tell you when, where, and how. He'll take you there and make you watch. He's disgusting enough to chop him into pieces and give you a new one every year on your birthday until he's grown bored of it. He will make you suffer. He will make you hate him. But do you know what? That's what he wants. He wants you to hate him because that'll make it amusing enough to keep you longer. I once told you that because you're Minako's mother you don't run the risk of dying, but I'm wrong. Minako's young enough now to lose her mother in some freak accident and grow out the loss. You're not permanent, Sako, so you shouldn't be foolish with what time he's granted you. He can take it away when he pleases. You need to choose, Minako or that new man."

Sako steeled herself, but her eyes were watery. Reality hurt.

"Because if you can leave Minako and run off with that man, live under the radar for the rest of your life, please do it. Be happy and be sure I won't let Taiga do as he wishes with your daughter. But if you can't leave Minako, abandon your hope for this new man and cherish what you have. I can ensure you will live to see your grandchildren. You can't have both, so don't be foolish."

The woman's whole body trembled. She shook her head. "It shouldn't matter," she whispered shakily, glassy blue orbs dripping angry tears. "I'm allowed to live my own life because he's not in love with me, he's never loved me, not even for a moment—our marriage is a sham and if he can defile it as he has, if he can sleep with me while thinking of you why can't I pay him back with his own coin?"

Once more, the pull of nausea assaulted Mio at the mere mention of the nights she recalled so vividly in her mind. She sucked in a breath, reminded of how she'd made a fool of herself by attempting to buy Sako's freedom with herself. She didn't need to see Sako crying over anything because it affected her in a way she couldn't control. She wanted to put a stop to it, her suffering and the probability of a dark future for Minako, since there could be a way. Maybe Taiga urged her to take Sako's place as a joke, to see her reaction and toy with her in some other way, but perhaps, she might find a way to strike a deal and make it a possibility.

She contemplated in grim silence for as long as Sako stared at her furiously with tears running down her cheeks awaiting some form of response, another reason to put an end to whatever feelings she had invested in that stranger.

"You better love that man," Mio said crossly. "He better be the one or you'll regret it!"

Sako's blue eyes widened, palms wiping the droplets tumbling down her cheeks. "I do, but—what do you plan to—? Mio—"

"I'm going to do something I'll regret for the rest of my life, but I'll be doing it for you, for you and Minako, and if this new man turns out to be worth shit, I'll kill him myself," she responded, startling her. "So he better be worth it and you better be happy and you better not regret it."

Mio started for the door because she couldn't stand the sight of her, but heard Sako's scrambling behind her. She whirled around once her hand was on the doorknob, eyebrows knitted in frustration.

"Whatever you know, whatever you learn, whatever you hear—everything, you keep it to yourself," she said warningly. "You'll keep it to yourself, understand? I've been nothing but kind to you and you won't betray that kindness by telling my grandfather anything, do you hear me?"

"What do you plan to do?" Sako questioned, reaching for her. "What're you thinking of doing?"

"To some degree, I agree," Mio continued, drawing her arm away before Sako's hand could touch it. The act of rejection further upset Sako, but Mio didn't care. "You're allowed to live your life because he's not in love with you and because it's not something he hasn't done before and if he thinks he can monopolize you simply for being his wife while he goes on being an asshole behind your back, I'll show him. I'm leaving."

She stepped into the cold as a quiet storm raged inside her. It seemed every plan she made turned into an impossibility wherever Sako or Minako were concerned. She felt so annoyingly foolish rushing back home with only the foundation of an idea as to how she planned to make anything work in her favor. Whether she regretted it or not, no longer mattered. She made a decision and she'd honor it as she would an order spoken to her by a superior.

---

Takuto was a character she didn't comprehend. He had a friendly aura of him she could easily misinterpret and she hated being unable to read a person. In turn, it seemed Takuto wasn't the type of person one understood in a single glance because he talked in a somewhat calculating way, an uneven mixture of professional and mischievous wrapped in a colorful package of surprises. It intrigued her in a way that made her cheeks go pink, heart accelerate, and her surroundings seem a little more claustrophobic than she last remembered them. But if she disliked anything about his presence, it was Okimi's inopportune departures that left the two in an awkward situation once she realized he was the only person in the room. She couldn't concentrate enough to slip back into a meditative state…until he suggested conversation.

In that raspy voice of his, he simply told her, "Talk about yourself. Something you can focus on long enough to get lost in it."

"I don't think that hard," she blurted.

He observed her flabbergasted, but ultimately laughed.

She obviously couldn't form a coherent explanation or a reasonable thought in his presence and in recognition of it, she wished she never acknowledged it from the start. "I can't think of anything."

"Well, how do you normally focus?" he tried.

"I've never thought hard enough to develop a system," she continued, making a complete fool of herself. Her ears could probably be visible in a ten-mile radius about now.

"Okay. Let's try this." He took her hand and to her great mortification, her palm started to get so sweaty it was slippery. She wanted to die. "Are you okay? Your hand is shaking."

The first clear emotion she saw twinkling in his magenta eyes was a distinct playfulness that snuffed the breath from her lungs and a different realization. Takuto was fully aware of his effect on her, though she barely understood it herself.

"Yeah," she said, taking her mind off the contact. "Can we move on?"

The problem with it all was that they couldn't move on. She was unable to push all thoughts of him to the back of her mind where they could exist along with other irrelevancies in her life. Not with his temporarily staying in the guest room of her grandfather's home in the Kurata village, or a combination of Shin and Okimi hinting at the possibility of a raving teenage romance she wanted no part in, not even with Enya's long list of reasons why he'd be a great boyfriend—she simply wanted no part in it. Takuto, spectacularly sculpted as his physique was, brilliant as his eyes were and wonderful as his dirty blond hair felt on her fingertips, or how every conversation she had with him consisted of many near-breathless responses on her part.

He fed off her emotions and it confused her. So she acted wary in the times Okimi thought she should be more honest with her feelings.

"I'm sorry," she answered once. "I wasn't aware I had any."

"Look at her," countered Shin with an impudent grin. "She's got a lot of fire in her. I just wish you were always this snappy."

Mio exited the room without addressing the comment, deciding against feeding the subject any longer, and into a hallway where she found herself alone with Enya after it became some universal law for any adult in the presence of Takuto or herself to leave when they came together. It started off a bit uncomfortable, but it got annoying fast. Takuto did not share her views.

"I genuinely like you," he responded when she voiced her opinions of the adults' now annoying ploys. "Even without Okimi-shishou or Enya-sama excusing themselves to leave us alone, and I want to talk to you more if you'd let me."

She stopped herself short from saying something inherently stupid and nodded. He only wanted to talk and she made a Taiga-related decision she wouldn't change because her emotions were going haywire for a boy she just a couple weeks ago. At least, that's what her new mantra consisted of—ignore useless feelings towards Takuto. Of course her subconscious liked to dream of all the conversations they shared from the minute she nearly choked on her breakfast after seeing him for the first time.

---

Okimi removed herself from town unable to stay longer due to an unforeseen complication with her pregnancy. She returned to Mt. Hyōga with a worried Enya in tow, but not before the two warned them of the upcoming dark days.

Takuto stayed at her side willing to indulge her curiosity on all things to do with Kuronuma medical ninjutsu, even though every explanation partly made her squeamish. Since Okimi came down with her entourage several weeks ago, Mio came to the quiet realization that she unconsciously spent more time with Takuto than without him.

"I hope you realize Shinya-sama is staring at us through the window," he whispered, jutting his chin in the direction of the window behind her.

Mio took a spoonful of yogurt. "Please ignore him," she said absently. "Your hero image of him might live longer that way. Okimi told me the Kuronuma on Mt. Hyōga hero worship him."

"He's an important part of the clan."

"But he's not an Elder."

"No, he's a lot more important than that."

"I have reason to doubt it's because he's the clan leader's son."

"No, it's something completely different, although, now that I think about it, his behavior is no different from the Shugosha's when Shinya-sama is on Mt. Hyōga."

Mio cast her grandfather a frigid look and he went on pretending to be cleaning the window. "Are you saying its hereditary?"

"I don't think it's hereditary. I just think he's more like his father than he himself believes. Have you met the Shugosha?" he asked, drawing her attention with a curious tone.

"Not yet, but I will soon," she replied. "Are the dark days really something to worry about? I heard since trade's been reestablished with the Iron Country that Kurata received a hoard of supplies intended to survive for at least half a year."

"Firstly, they don't last that long anymore, but we order the same quantities to ensure there's enough supply to last the amount of time it does. Some years it's shorter than others, this time we're predicting a short stretch of darkness, approximately two to three months." Takuto finished his warm tea and reached for the kettle to pour himself a second serving. "This'll be your first time on the mountain, right?"

"Anything I should be worried about?" she asked, taking a bite of bread.

"Bats."

Mio slowed her chewing. Bats. Great. Bats of all species of winged animals. Bats.

Takuto snorted. "It was a joke. There are no bats."

"That wasn't funny at all," she deadpanned.

"If it makes you feel any better there are absolutely no winged species on the mountain. All you'll see is bears, but they're the least of your worries, most are docile."

"I've never heard of a docile bear."

"They're the Shugosha's summon. Since the clan is secluded throughout the final storm of the year, they are used as our only means of communication to the outside."

"And the Shugosha, that's what you call the clan's leader?"

"No, Musashi-sama is the only Shugosha that has been the clan leader. It's unusual for a Shugosha to be in a position of power when they normally serve as a…well…it's difficult to explain or rather know if they are to be viewed as advisors or simply the keepers of a natural balance."

Mio scooped what remained of her dessert, deciding the subject of Shugosha was too complicated to explain in a single sitting. "Should we start meditation?"

"No, I think we should laze around a while longer. Let's see how long it takes for Shinya-sama to notice."

"Should I feel inclined to accept this challenge?" she asked curiously. "I quite enjoy failing at meditation and you're a shitty medic."

"If I wasn't a shitty medic, I would almost be insulted," he said. "But if you'd prefer to be boring, we can go into the other room and fail, and then play word games with what's left of the hour."

She rolled her eyes and left her seat, barely rewarding him with a smile.

"At least wait for me."

Takuto scrambled after her.

The two locked themselves away in the empty room where she took her seat on a cushion and he offered her a steaming mug of black liquid. She drank it with ease and felt the familiar spark of heat bloom from her stomach before it spread onto the rest of her body.

"Ready?"

"Yes, so stop talking."

Takuto laughed.

"No laughing either."

The silence did them no favors. Even the slightest sound set them into random fits of giggling that disrupted her attempts at calm.

She tossed a nearby pillow at his face. "I can't with your giggling," she admonished. "Stop it before I lose it."

"Lose what? You've never lost your precious composure," he teased. "It is forbidden, Mio, I forbid it! Nobody in this land should see your secret smile!"

She threw a second one, which he blocked with a swipe of his arm. Among the Kuronuma, it seemed, her reputation consisted of a serious character with great composure and she thought that sort of talk gave others the wrong impression, which is why delinquents like Takuto were prone to teasing her for the amusement factor. He, in turn, entertained her.

He laughed harder. "I bet the last time someone made you laugh this hard was tickling you."

"I'm not even laughing!" she retorted, trying not to burst into a fit with him.

"Should I try it?" he asked, wiggling his fingers in her general direction.

"You put your hands near me, I break your fingers."

"That's fine. I can set them right just fine. So come on." He tapped the space beside him. "I think it's best if you come to me unless you prefer I go to you."

"I'm supposed to be meditating."

"Mio, I could write you an entire scroll full of everything other than Kuronuma training that I did at fifteen," he told her, inching closer. "There are mountains to scale—"

"I don't climb."

"I've seen you climb."

"I don't climb without it being absolutely necessary," she corrected, eyeing him suspiciously. "Please stop moving."

"Are you wary of my tickling fingers?" he asked, giving her a strange look. "How can I manipulate you into climbing a mountain with me? You know, Kurata is a clutter of mountains within bigger mountains, there's no real telling when you won't be climbing a mountain. I mean, you climbed one to get in this village and you go up and down it every morning you run."

"You think you can manipulate me?" she challenged, she placed her palm flat on his chest, making him stop. "Takuto, I'm serious, don't." He gave her a childish smile. "The only reason I go up and down the mountain is because I need to be productive in the morning. My grandfather only wants me to sit around and do nothing and he has the gall to say I'm undertrained. He's a slave worker!"

"He's a perfectionist. Everyone is undertrained to him, and there are some Kuronuma up in Mt. Hyōga that'd tear you apart if they heard you calling Shinya-sama that, some people are quite feral when it comes down to his capabilities." Takuto didn't press forward or move back, he remained half-hovering over her, the rhythmic beating of his heart drumming against her hand. The next words he spoke were whispers, in a creamy tone that she imagined might feel great against the flesh. "We need to climb a mountain, swim in an ice cold lake sans clothing, and we have to do something about this tension because it's killing me."

Mio swallowed thickly. Her stupid heart skipped a beat. She considered what any of the propositions meant, dissected them until she made some sense of it all, but her face only grew warmer the deeper she dug. She blamed that strange concoction, but she didn't plan to act out of character. She pressed against his chest gently, pushing him back. "No," she started firmly, avoiding eye contact. She hated the way he stared at her. She read the emotion in his eyes far too clearly and sometimes it didn't say anything she approved of. "No. I have someone."

"Someone you like?" he asked curiously, easing away.

"It's not like that," she corrected, relieved by his understanding. "He's someone I want to be with. He was my only friend growing up and he told me he's in love with me."

He sat back on his haunches and cocked his head to the side. "So, he's in love with you, but you don't like him and just want to be with him? Are you doing this guy a favor because that's what it sounds like? No offense."

She bristled, reminded of everyone's doubt in her capability to have romantic feelings towards Izuna. "It's not a favor. I have feelings for him, real feelings, and I'm not doing any of this out of obligation. I think I can be happy with him and we've been friends for so long that I don't think it's impossible for me not to love him the same way."

"Are you even attracted to him?" he persisted. "Have you ever thought of kissing him?"

"I have kissed him before," she confessed. "I always did."

"On the mouth."

"That wasn't appropriate, I worked for his grandmother."

"So?"

"So it was inappropriate for myself to lose my professionalism, which is what you're doing right now and you shouldn't be. I'm your patient and we're supposed to be learning off each other, not discussing my private life."

"You talk like an old lady!"

"I'm being realistic."

"Like an old maid that's never felt any real attraction for the opposite sex because she's too concerned with keeping things professional!" he retorted passionately. "Have you ever looked a man and just wanted to kiss him?"

Yes. "No! I haven't met a man that made me want to do anything because I don't want that! I want to be serious about what I'm doing and I don't need any distractions from men like you!"

Takuto laughed with a shake of his head. "Well, that answered my question."

"Good!"

"I'm the only one you want to kiss, aren't I?" he said shamelessly. "No need to deny it with another of your "professionalism is key" lectures because your face is red. This boy you want to spend forever with doesn't want to just be your friend. He's going to want more than that. Are you prepared to do those things with someone you're not even attracted to?"

"I know what a marriage requires! Don't talk to me like I'm ignorant about the subject!"

"Answer the question, Mio. Are you prepared to do a wife's duty with someone you're not attracted to?" he asked. "I guess it's perfectly fine in the beginning if you're fooling yourself, but what's going to happen when you become attracted to someone else? If that someone else tries their hand at seducing you, do you think you'll be able to resist for the sake of this friend you want to appease?"

When she took the questions into consideration, processed them at least twice, it wasn't Izuna she was thinking about and that only fueled her anger. "It's none of your business," she spat, hurrying out of her seat.

Takuto caught her wrist as she passed. She didn't bother turning, but she felt his steady gaze on her. "I'm sorry, Mio," he said, exhaling deeply. "I just wanted to kiss you and it made me angry that you probably won't let me, ever."

Would she ever have another opportunity like this? No, probably not. But did she want to risk it? She should get it out of her system at least, then it might be easier to ignore. She debated both sides in the short time it took for her to extract her wrist from his hand and stare down at him.

Mio took his face in her hands and planted one on him, a mere peck on the lips that could hardly be considered a kiss. She stared him straight in the eyes, something changed inside her. "We kissed. Let this be the end of it."

It seemed whatever she sensed in that smack of the lips he did as well. "Fine."

She left the room knowing the attraction ended alongside the temptation of a kiss. She breathed in deeply, feeling as though she were finally able to concentrate.

---

The only light is the fading winter storm.

---

The mornings no longer provided the clarity she remembered every time she did her usual exercises. The clouds clustered and deepened in color until it looked as though they were about to experience a terrible storm nobody prepared for and yet, at this time, her grandfather decided that they would migrate to Mt. Hyōga to sit out the shadow storm under a stretch of impenetrable darkness surrounded by the Kuronuma clan. She worried endlessly about Sako and Minako being alone for an undetermined span of time since the skies darkened for a mere couple of months or half a year, each new storm was different, but Shin assured her that Jouji would be sending one of his men to provide extra protection. And while it alleviated her upstart of emotions to some degree, she hated the idea that the new man could uncover Sako's affair.

Shin sensed her preoccupation and the day before they absconded to Mt. Hyōga, he decided to address it. "Do you have any unfinished business here?"

"Sako and Minako," she answered without preamble. She tried distracting her clutter of thoughts by tying different knots in a long rope. "No, Sako mostly. Minako will be fine. Taiga, he isn't so—"

"Inhuman, yes, you have quite an opinion of him," finished Shin, fixing a display of perfectly curved or jagged daggers he treasured since the start of his career as a blacksmith.

"You have your opinion of him, I have mine," she countered. "I don't pretend he's a saint, but I don't think he's completely rotten."

"Even the worst of people have some shred of humanity left," he agreed. "I've seen worse than him, so he it's not like he's unredeemable. I do think Eijiro-san should have beaten his ass at least once because it could've helped, but it's not his fault his parents were assholes."

Mio regarded him with an impatient look. "How much do you know about Taiga?"

"Enough," he said, "but it's not my story to tell. You were going to say something about his wife. Is this about that man she's been seeing?"

"You knew about him?" she asked, flabbergasted. "For how long?"

"From the start, Mio, it's my business to be this knowledgeable about the things occurring in Kuronuma territory."

"Why didn't you tell me? I promised to protect Sako and I should have stopped her from even coming into contact with this man," she said fervently. "Taiga will kill him when he finds out."

"How sure are you that he doesn't already know?" Shin challenged. "If he's known about your loyalty to Madara and you're somewhat of a professional, how do you think a pair of civilians can hide from him?"

Something snapped insider her upon hearing his confession. "You knew he knew about my agreement with Madara?" she demanded, trying not to sound as betrayed as she felt because after all the people she wronged in one year, she didn't want to say it was undeserved. "Why didn't you say anything? If I knew—"

"If you knew, nothing," he refuted, prepared to end the discussion in a minute if necessary. "Didn't you argue with me a couple months ago that you wanted to make mistakes and deal with the consequences on your own? Here they are. You're making mistakes left and right. You've committed so many you probably haven't even realized most of them, but I'm not going around cleaning your mess, am I? No, and even if I did, you'd just throw it in my face like an ungrateful brat."

He successfully silenced her.

"You're nearly sixteen, Mio, and if you were anywhere else but here you'd be dead or with Mikazuki Gouki. Open your eyes, realize that in the warring shinobi world your childish ignorance is and will be your only downfall. You're nowhere near Madara or Izuna's level because they've been exposed to this world far longer than you have. They've been fighting against the Senju clan when your parents were teaching you how to read a map and they lost more in these battles. You, on the other hand, never fought a Senju, your Sharingan is weak, Sachiyo employed you as an assassin to punish rotten clan members and even your methods of killing were underhanded (granted, your victims were idiots as well), and the only loss you experienced served to justify your own selfish desire to retaliate against everyone who's hurt you. So tell me Mio, can you make any demands of me?"

Mio's heart clenched. The corners of her eyes stung with tears and she hadn't needed to pinch herself. "You're an asshole," she spat. "You're such an asshole. There's something called subtlety and tact you know! And I'm trying hard, I have been, all this time, all these years, I've been trying nonstop! I know I haven't done anything near as dangerous as they have, but I'm not comparing myself to them. I don't want to be like them, I just want to be useful to them."

"I want you to be useful to you and everything you believe in." He exhaled deeply; aware he hurt more than her feelings. "I told you that I wanted to give you a gift for all the years I couldn't, but I can't do that if you continue resisting training because it gets difficult or because you're too involved in other people's lives. You defending Sako will only make her more dependent of you and she'll eventually start using your concern against you. She'll manipulate you into situations you don't need in your life because she's never had the self-respect to get up and voice her concerns. Do you think if she would have gone to Eijiro about Taiga's treatment that he would allow his grandson to continue it? No. He would have ended it. If she had the sense of tell you that she wanted to escape instead of being submissive, you would have told Sachiyo and she would have done you that favor."

"He'll ruin her life," she persisted. "He'll make it impossible for her to ever be happy. He'll kill that poor man."

Shin shook his head, prepared to leave the room. "Be stubborn, Mio, get in or out of this mess if you want. I'm not going to stop you."

"You're supposed to help me!" she said dismally, the first tear rolled down her face. "You said you'd help me!"

"I'll help you when you want me to help you," he returned. "You don't want anyone's help, Mio, because you're under some impression that you can do everything on your own. So do it. Solve your problems or regret them. But if you truly want my help, my advice, anything at all, you ask me for it personally, I won't ever deny you that."

Mio choked back a sob and sinking into the nearest chair, she held her face and wept. He insulted every inch of her life before him. He criticized her parents and Sachiyo, even Sako. He called her subpar in the form of cutting lists that wounded more than her pride, but everything hurt more because she felt the same. He made her cry without her needing to pinch the inside of her wrist, he forced the tears she should have shed nearly seven years ago for her mother and father but didn't because it was true, she wanted to retaliate against the people culpable of the act. She wished to see them suffer because they took the only thing she knew in life, despite her mother's last words being the exact opposite.

.

Whispering softly in a voice that was no longer her own, Kikyo remained in place, shielding her from harm. Her bloody fingers were in her hair, twisting it gently as Mio experience the worst of her mother's death as her temperature started to drop with every delayed beat of her heart.

"Breathe, Mio," Kikyo urged, unable to do it properly herself with the weapon still lodged between her ribs. Mio obeyed her orders as they were delivered. "Come on, Mio, in and out." Again, she took a deep shuddering breath that elicited a small laugh from her mother as the towering man behind her ransacked the house for an object neither of her parents could name. "Slow and steadily, Mio, just breathe. Don't stop okay."

Kikyo forced her body off her for a short instant and tears dripped from her bruised, bloodied face. "Don't be afraid. You're still alive. We did our job. You're safe."

But you're not, she wanted to say, but she couldn't find her voice. She shook her head dumbly.

Her mother took her face in her hands and planted one last kiss on her cheek. "Run. Go now. Into the forest. He will find you. Just don't stop running and don't think of avenging our deaths. Please, Mio."

She begged and begged, each time more hysterically when the sound of the intruder's footfalls sounded near. Mio couldn't move and she couldn't pretend she processed any of the words uttered to her. Regardless, her mother continued urging her into the forest, asked her to stay silent and not go after the instigators of the crime. She named them. Uchiha Hiryuu and Mikazuki Gouki.

"We don't need to be avenged," she said lastly, clinging to her like the last breath she would breathe. The man, Mikazuki Gouki, asked her one last time for what he'd been looking for, an object or something that sounded like one. She stopped listening a while ago, unable to tear her eyes from the blood on the wall. Kikyo didn't answer, no, she looked Mio directly in the face and spoke her final words. "We love you, Mio."

---

"You are harsh with the girl."

Shin jolted the second the words reached his ears and his own father appeared in his periphery. He faced the bearded Shugosha petulantly. All around their quiet outdoor setting, a slow sheet of snow begun to fall. "Should you be wandering the mountain, father?"

Kuronuma Musashi grunted. "I wanted to see my great-granddaughter."

"Well, you've seen her, and she's crying."

Musashi scowled disapprovingly. "Is it that difficult for you to be kind for once in your life?"

"Is it that hard for you to mind your own business?" he asked with a saccharine smile. "You approved of her being in my custody, so please, don't try to rescind the permission just so you can baby her. She's going to have to grow out of her teenage stupidity soon."

The Shugosha said nothing in turn.

"I am not being unkind," Shin explained, urged on by the silence. "She's a difficult child going through a difficult time who doesn't want anyone's help. I have made myself available to her if she wants to set aside her personal feelings and admit she needs some adult guidance, but until she can understand that I'm not being a villain, she can keep crying about it."

"She is right about one thing, there is a thing called tact and it wouldn't help for you to learn it."

"I'm not going to be lectured by you."

"It was only a suggestion. She's one of our guardians and I hate to see them hurt." Musashi leveled his pale rose eyes with his. "Will she be ready in time?"

"How long does Eito have?" he asked, curious of the fate that was his father's heir.

"Until the summer. If neither one of Okimi's twins turns out to be my successor, I will need to find a temporary retainer," Musashi confessed, his eyes fell to the clear sphere strung from his neck on black cord. Within the transparent glass, a tinted grey mist spun restlessly. "I cannot elongate my time. You and Okimi were rejected, but there is still Mio. My bloodline ends with her."

Shin shot one final look at Mio through the window. She sat curled in an armchair, still sobbing and ignorant. She knew not what was needed of her. "Purify the springs in Mt. Hyōga. Ask every medical-nin to make healing waters out of them and I will give you a successor before the next year is out."

She was the one. The sphere would chose Mio, not now, but it would. He knew from the first time he'd seen her.

Musashi clapped his hand on his shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. He smiled. "Thank you, Shinya."

---

xl: Takuto! I feel a need to explain him. That chunk of text from where he was introduced to the starting point of the winter piece is the only time he will be romantically relevant in Mio's life. It's one of those strange mutual crushes that happen while you're young, but it's the fantasy that make it great because once you act on it (which they did to some extent), it is forever ruined. And that is all.

I'd like to thank Charisasori, YamiKitsuneKami, and crazyuser for being quick to review the last installment. I also apologize that the few hours turned into more, but I hope this equally long chapter was worth the short wait.

Things to expect in Ch. 20/21/22, The War for Kurata:

- The conclusion of mental training and the start of heat training.

- Some shadow storm coverage in the mountain as well as Mio's exposure to the Kuronuma lifestyle.

- Shin POV.

- A formal introduction to Senju Hashirama and Tobirama.

- Taiga and Mio deal.

- Gouki, Konoe, and Mio interaction.

- Someone actually has the gall to wage war on the Kuronuma and guess who the peacekeepers plan to hire for protection?

On a different note, I'm playing with the idea of expanding on certain important details of this story that are cut off the outline because of constraints and posting them separately as side stories. Some ideas floating about include: the tragedy of Mio's parents' death, the trigger to Taiga's interest in Mio, the time Taiga spent training Madara and Izuna in Hiryuu's stead, Sako's time in the countryside manor with Mio, why Kana (you remember the cook) hates Taiga, Madara's arrival to the Sun Country, Izuna's friendship with the Ito sisters, and a detailed trajectory of Izuna's feelings.

That should be something to look forward to. Of course, things will be written and posted out of order, but I'll provide you a proper placement for each. There's a scene in the opening of the previous chapter that I wrote completely in Mio's POV when she and Izuna ran to each other and it was beautiful, but I cut it off and rewrote completely in Sachiyo's POV, well I saved it...and I will post it if anyone's interested as a collection of oneshot chapters/excerpts that didn't make it in here...and other nonsense that didn't make it at all like that conversation Madara and Izuna have about Mio being a girl.

Also, I'm going to go back and do some subtle changes to previous chapter to match with what occurred in the latest flashback chapters provided in the manga, I started applying them in these last two chapters as you probably saw with the conversation where Yayoi reveals Hashirama knows about Mio because Madara told him and Izuna is angry about it (because they were friends before an' all). Also, Madara and Izuna's father has a name, Tajima, and he'll be referred as such, instead of my lame alternative (Jiyuu). His description will be changed and his personality a bit as well.

Everything will be altered by the time I post the next chapter.

Now I've bored you to death, I'm sorry. Thank you for taking the time to read these two chapters and I hope you've enjoyed your treat.

The April poll is currently open and Redesign seems to be in the lead once again, have at it everyone!