Before you begin, these chapters were supposed to pick up where Mio's chapters left off only with Madara telling the story and I planned to weave flashbacks in between the writing to show you anything of relevance to the current story, but I made the belated decision to not write it as I initially wanted. Flashbacks in bulk tend to ruin a story (especially when done incorrectly) and that is one thing I don't want to do with this one, so I've decided to turn time to start somewhere good. And I know you're skeptical, but trust me on this, it's not going to be repetitive.
The way I see it, we have reached the turning point to Mio's story and now we have to see Madara reach that point as well before I their stories become one.
Mio had been the focus because she needed to grow up and since she met Shin, she has, now it's time for some changes to come into Madara's life.
Also, I wrote up a character list, I know how troublesome it can be to remember character names and who they are or what they've done, so I hope the list helps you out. You can find a link to it in my profile. It is updated frequently so you can expect to see spoilers there from most recent chapters and a few extra revelations that didn't quite make it to the story.
Chapter 23 | On the Battlefield I
The Sun Country sat east of the Lightning Country and it took a three-day voyage to reach its religious grounds by ferry. Madara arrived accompanied by a lot of twenty Uchiha men, shinobi and kunoichi his father and grandmother spared him, and ten Ito assassins commanded by Ito Tomoji's right hand man Takuei, a rangy shinobi of ferocious reputation. There were other Uchiha and Ito in a temporary camp set to meet them on the island within the next nine days depending on available transportation, but their inclusion had not been a part of the initial plan.
Ito Tomoji, the assassin's clan leader, reached out to the self-titled King of the Sun Country in the form of a peacekeeping treaty to draw them forth from isolation and into his hidden village. He did not care much for the Motou clan as their irrelevance was aptly known throughout the main continent since they absconded in search of treaties from sea mongers turned shinobi and other unknown, nameless clans that whittled away in the last thirty-seven years since their territory wars against the Uchiha clan. Tomoji wanted their country for himself and Madara had been entrusted with the task. Takuei accompanied him out of curiosity. He had thought the secret had remained one, but Madara had overheard a joke going around their camps, specifically among the Ito assassins. All had made a bet that told Madara at fifteen would be unable to outsmart the Motou clan and with all odds against him, he'd felt inclined to show them that he'd be capable of that and much more. He'd deliver the damned country to Tomoji if it'd wipe that asinine smirk off Takuei's face.
Madara understood he was in no position to step out of line or drop his guard. He had taken this mission with suspicions to spare. He trusted nobody, not even the Uchiha that pretended to follow his orders. His wariness turned to stress and that stress manifested into a migraine that made it near unbearable to use his Sharingan at will. He disguised it well, but he couldn't stand the weakness it provoked and surrounded by men and women capable of killing him a hundred different ways gave no excuse for flaws in his plans.
"It might do you some good to rest," Takuei suggested that evening beside a fire built over white sand. He invited himself to a seat on the log to his left and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. His tangled mass of dark brown hair lay sodden around his angular face. "You don't seem to be sleeping enough. Do you fear our ways?"
He ignored the insult. "I do not tire easily."
"Hm." Takuei grinned in a way that tempted Madara to shove his face into the flames and hold it there until the skin melted off his skull. The man stared into the starless sky, the ground rumbling beneath their feet from warfare at the heart of the island where he had sent scouts to gather information. "It shouldn't be long before the scouts return. Although, do you not think it strange that there is fighting here? On an island this remote, it reads as your Uchiha situation, do you not think?"
Madara remained passive. The death of the Uchiha Elder, Eijiro, at the hands of a Mikazuki shinobi, of the mercenary clan hired by other shinobi clans, led to an unfortunate power split amongst the remaining Elders and Hikaku, the revered strongest Uchiha of his generation. The clan broke apart into five separate armies and led by a new leader, those five separate powers sought out allies in other shinobi clans.
His father, Tajima, returned to the Wind Country to continue his war against the remaining Sand Dome clans. Tajima joined sides with Sachiyo, his grandmother, who struck an alliance with an old enemy, Ito Tomoji and his clan of assassins.
Hikaku traveled to the Earth Country to conquer shinobi armies and so his name had begun to strike fear among the innocent, but he had remained inactive for the last month. His silence bothered him, but he thought nothing of it.
Hiryuu, the man that used to help with his and Izuna's training, had wandered into the Frost Country to rejoin with his longtime allies, the Mikazuki clan under Mikazuki Gouki. He betrayed the clan long ago and nobody realized it.
And then there was Taiga, his last instructor and the shinobi with infamous status in their clan, who took Jouji, the Head of Intelligence, and his twelve loyal spies with him along with Mio, Madara's own loyal spy. Their group remained out of sight and it would be for the best. Everyone wanted Taiga's secrets and Mio's—well, he didn't quite understand why Hiryuu wanted Mio, only that he overheard the conversation he had shared with Konoe that had left him perturbed and determined to find a way to salvage his broken clan with her assistance.
.
.
.
To say the Uchiha compound was in disarray would be an understatement, whatever this was, it was nothing short of chaotic. The rumor of Eijiro's death spread from the council room to the rest of the Uchiha in the compound, which presented itself to be a reasonable excuse to summon the entire clan to three buildings that could barely accommodate half of them. If Eijiro had indeed been killed, everyone was in trouble. Eijiro kept the clan together and peaceful without having to call himself its leader and with him gone, there were others vying for his position which made an inner war inevitable.
The bit of information he'd gathered by staying behind to talk with Katsura, his father's student turned right hand man, was that the situation was especially bad for a certain pair of individuals. The first turned out to be Taiga, the Nameless One and Eijiro's eldest grandchild, who held all the Uchiha clan's secrets. The little power Taiga held in the Council of Elders he owed to his grandfather and Jouji, who would without a doubt follow him if the Uchiha clan split apart. Hiryuu and Hikaku wanted to stay in Taiga's good graces to attain his support if the rumors were true and a power shift came into play.
Taiga seemed to be a prudent choice in ally. He had secrets that included stone tablet Tajima and Sachiyo wanted to get their hands on. The clan's biggest secret was supposed to be there, but it had to be deciphered and from the information he'd gathered while eavesdropping on his father and grandmother was that one needed a Sharingan, which he hadn't had the pleasure of having then, but he did now. So, Taiga made sense in the list of most desirable Uchiha allies, but he didn't see how Mio came into play.
Mio had a talent for espionage and a good memory, but apart from potential, she'd been a mediocre kunoichi since he'd met her. Although, he had to admit, her aim was getting better and she did have a Sharingan (not that she knew how to use it), so she wasn't a lost cause, but he didn't see the appeal to any of that. That hadn't been the most shocking revelation of the day either. It turned out that Hiryuu had been the one determined to snatch her away with the help of that hawkish aunt of hers who had suddenly seemed to care that Mio was her niece.
Madara left the council room with the others, but fell behind upon realizing Hiryuu and Konoe remained inside. He watched everyone else take the flight of stairs to their lodgings above to wait on news of Eijiro's wellbeing, something to dispel the rumors or instill some truth into them.
He peered through the aperture of the two partly open shoji screens to the dim orange light within.
"You are not to think of leaving this compound without that girl," said Hiryuu, the sturdily built shinobi came into sight as he crossed the room. He reached Konoe and stared her down. "She is imperative."
"You think she wants to come with us?" Konoe remarked sarcastically. "You've tried to kill her and I never cared for her."
"If I'd known she'd be valuable to Gouki-san, I would've acted differently. You as well."
Who is Gouki?
The kunoichi let out an exasperated sigh. "I don't understand his obsession with that girl," she complained. "It's as reminiscent as that whore mother of hers. Everyone wanted Kikyo, even you, until she chose my brother instead."
Hiryuu's hand shot to her arm, grip tightening around it until she winced in pain. "Kikyo was one of them," he said with peculiar emphasis, "or she was supposed to be. Do you not see the benefits of such an alliance?"
Konoe laughed in response. "No. I do not. To be in the company of cowards would bring great shame to the Uchiha legacy. We should be happy there isn't an alliance between us and that clan of recluses."
Madara grimaced.
"Speaking to you is useless. You do not understand the value of a Shugosha." Hiryuu stepped past her, heading in the opposite direction.
Shugosha? A protector?
He only stuck around long enough to hear Konoe curse at the man before leaving in the same direction. He waited until her footsteps faded before calling Mio from out of Sako's room to see if she discovered anything from Taiga's wife.
Mio followed him up the staircase and into their room where they exchanged information, although he kept the conversation between Hiryuu and Konoe to himself. If she knew anything about Hiryuu's odd interest, she'd avoid the topic and they'd fight over it. His grandmother specifically told him to let Mio recover from what had happened in Kurata and he'd planned to because he didn't want any more consequences. Sachiyo had started to run out of ideas—cleaning out animal pens, helping plow the surrounding farmland for the neighbors, rebuilding broken things, and other grunt work had seemed too easy a penalty that neither he nor Mio were bothered by which obviously meant it wasn't as severe a punishment as she wished. They'd gotten so used to the labor that they'd learn to manage it with little to no fighting. There'd be no telling the sort of plans she'll have if he let something happen to Mio.
However, Madara thought of taking a risk, of using Mio for all she was worth to ensure their own safety. He understood his father and grandmother wouldn't follow the likes of Hiryuu, Hikaku, or Taiga and through them, he had learned the clan was of the utmost importance. Keeping it together and staying strong no matter how headstrong and uncontrollable the Uchiha tended to be or how difficult it seemed to stay united—Madara saw that only together would the clan persist. Internal wars had ended more clans than any other wars. So when he told Mio that they needed to do something, he meant it and he used her attachment to Taiga's wife and daughter to coerce her into secrecy.
She had been reluctant and incredibly hesitant at first, but she had offered her help by becoming his spy and swearing fealty to him. He'd seen that she had bent to easily in their favor, so quickly he nearly felt guilty about having used Sako and Minako, but not as much as when he had involved his brother. Mio had looked helpless then, so unpredictably helpless that it shamed him and he had never felt as though he had hurt her before. Today it had seemed as if hurting her was the only thing he was capable of doing and she had hurt in silence—staring firmly into his eyes without emotion in her face, her restlessness had shone through her dark gaze. And he'd hated how he could see—and feel—that inner struggle going on behind that awful mask she'd worn since he'd met her.
"Mio."
The wax melted away with the flame, hardening against the brass plate beneath it. She pulled her eyes away from it upon hearing her name fall from his lips and met his stare. Under different circumstances, he imagined she would be crying, or rather, pinching bruises into the inside of her arms to shed a few dramatic tears. Truly, he didn't know what to expect from her anymore. Was she the girl Hiryuu warned him about (the one he remained wary of after six years)? Or was she Izuna's quiet friend?
"I'm going to betray Sachiyo-sama," she said suddenly.
"What?"
"I was thinking about my options," she elaborated. "Konoe is telling everyone that she plans to take me under her wing, but that's because Hiryuu wants something from me—"
"Do you know what he wants?" Madara interrupted.
"No, I don't, but I thought of finding out for myself, but he's too smart. If I suddenly decide to go with Konoe on any presentable excuse, he'll be suspicious the entire time. He'll know that I'm there for information and that will get me killed." She paused as his frown deepened. "I don't want to die."
"I didn't say you had to die."
"You look awfully disappointed that I don't have a death wish."
Madara didn't deny that. "Well, you don't look like you would not have a death wish."
She reached over and twisted the skin above his wrist. He swatted her hand away in retaliation and rubbed the reddened flesh. "That hurts," he hissed. "What is wrong with you?"
"If you wanted to control the direction of the plan you should have thought of it yourself, but you made me do it, so deal with the fact that I want to live long enough to turn fifteen."
"That's not a good goal—"
She pinched him again, this time he felt her nails digging in. He cursed and shoved her. She kicked him in the shin and tried getting away while the pain distracted him. His arm shot forward, grabbing her by the ankle and pulling her down. She fell face first into the tatami mats with a loud thud that startled them into silence as the two waited for any shouting to emerge from beyond their room.
Madara felt he might hear Sachiyo asking why they were making a ruckus and she'd appear to find them as they were before smacking them both on the head while trying to drill in their heads the importance of camaraderie. It would have been a recycled speech, one Mio used to recite word for word in a deeper baritone to match his grandmother's voice that had made him laugh because she'd sounded ridiculous and because she'd even bothered to learn it.
Mio glanced over her shoulder. "I half expected Sachiyo-sama to burst in shouting for disturbing the guests."
His stomach twisted. "And recite her famous speech?" He scoffed, letting her go. "Like we haven't heard it a hundred times."
She sat up with a small smile and the good humor lit her face. "How long have we been together?" she begun, mimicking Sachiyo's deeper voice. "How long have we eaten like a family? Madara, tell me!"
He tried not to laugh as he went along. "Six years."
"Do you hear that Mio? Six years! It has been six years since you became a part of this family! Did you hear that Madara? Six years! Six years and the two of you continue to act like animals! Would it kill you, Madara, to be a little kinder to Mio? And Mio would you stop picking fights with Madara? He's stronger than you are and he doesn't care if he hurts you." He found himself sniggering. "What are you laughing about Madara? Mio might one day just break all the bones in your body!" A chill strummed through him, this was frighteningly like one of his grandmother's famous rants. She gasped in exasperation, pushing back the hair from her face as his grandmother often did. "Well, if you want to continue fighting like wild animals, why don't you march yourself out of this house and sleep with them!"
She burst into laughter, dropping back down and rolling onto her back.
"That was too eerily similar," Madara commented once their laughter subsided.
"I've been practicing my Sachiyo," she answered humorously. "I plan to use it on her when she gives us the updated seven years speech next year and see if she has a reaction."
"She will skin you alive," he warned.
She looked at him. "And it'll be worth it."
Madara fell into silence. Her words finally reached him and when he lifted his face to see hers, it seemed she realized it too. If Eijiro had fallen and they were forced to carry out their plan, there wouldn't be a seven-year rant next year because everything would change.
"I will go with Taiga," she said in continuation. "If something happens, I'm going to betray Sachiyo-sama to go with Taiga. I can protect Sako and Minako as well as earn his trust. Maybe after some years I can get that stone tablet from him. But this is only if Eijiro-san is dead."
"You must do whatever it takes to take it from him," Madara added, taking her by the wrist. "Whatever he wants. You will do it so long as it doesn't jeopardize Izuna, Sachiyo, or Tajima. Understood?"
"Anything," she complied with a firm nod.
"Anything," he repeated. "Uncover his secrets and bring them to me."
.
.
.
"They have returned."
Madara turned away from the flames, standing to meet his scouts halfway with Takuei half a step behind him. "What do you know?"
An Ito man was the first to speak, a stout male with a beady eyes, a flat nose, and a round face. "The Motou clan is at war," he revealed, pausing to catch his breath. The four other scouts looked as weary as this one, which made him question the distance they traversed to come across any information.
"What?" Takuei asked, bemused.
"Obviously the Motou clan is at war," said Madara, annoyed. "The amount of chakra radiating from the center of the island is blatant proof of that." He tried not to glare at the older Ito assassin and turned to the flat-nosed male. "Did you find out anything the least bit relevant to our interests?"
One of his Uchiha stepped forward, a sensor shinobi with choppy brown hair and a prominent face. He stood taller than the other scouts that had accompanied him on the mission. "There is a village about twenty kilometers west of the war's epicenter that claim the war has been ongoing for the past twenty years and it is reminiscent to our clan's inner conflict," he explained smartly, his words piqued their interest. "The villagers say that after the Motou and Uchiha clans' war, the Motou arrived here where their leader took the title of king after subjugating the allied clans that invited him. He ruled a few years before dying and passing on his title to his eldest son, Motou Jikai, who faced opposition from his younger brother, Motou Enki.
Enki gathered support from several allied clans with the promise of freedom, something his brother refused to resign after their father conquered them and placed them under his complete control, and eventually titled himself king. He and his brother have since been at war for the rightful claim to do as they want with the island and those that inhabit it for the last twenty years. Both sides only have one allied clan remaining and by the looks of it, it won't be much longer before the war ends. There are many dead and many more dying. If we must act, now is the time, Madara-sama—"
"Kyouya?" called Takuei dubiously.
Madara sensed others as Kyouya had when he'd fallen into sudden silence. Drawing shuriken from the pouch at his back, he threw five that sang against the sandy winds and stabbed in a row three meters where his men stood. With his Sharingan activated, he saw the jutsu the five heavily clothed strangers wore come undone as the outlines of their bodies appeared out of thin air and bit by bit came into sight. A black sunburst was sown on the flap of cloth spilling from the front of their strange clothes and he knew it was the Motou's insignia. But which side.
"We come without intention to fight," the man at the forefront began. He was bald and wizened with a missing front tooth and pale robes that swallowed him whole. "We are priests of the Northern Sun Temple, we were sent by Motou Enki to invite you to his castle. I am Aoto and am in your service, Uchiha Madara."
His stomach twisted in discomfort that showed up as a scowl on his face. "What does Motou Enki want with me?"
"Only that you listen to his story," Aoto claimed. "You may bring all your men if you deem it necessary or come alone."
Madara took a moment to think, then gestured to Kyouya to accompany him forward. He glimpsed at Takuei. "You may bring as many men as you want," he said before turning to leave the other Uchiha under another's command, Roka.
This was a necessary risk. One made on impulse that might have normally earned him an earful from Izuna, who was not here or in good terms with him. Sauntering up to the Motou priests, he wondered if Mio would have had an opinion to express, or would she have thought it was necessary to approach someone of power. He came under the guise of extending a proper alliance to the Motou clan seeing as several notes from Ito Tomoji resulted in failure. It normally took two leaders coming together face to face to discuss matters, not through letters, and if the Motou refused, he was supposed to subjugate them with Takuei's help. For any of that to happen, he'd need to meet with someone and instead of sending his own men to find that someone, Motou Enki sent for him. It was a suspicious action and he planned to get to the bottom of it.
Takuei brought along his flat-nosed companion, Fumio, and a gaunt woman called Mako, through a stretch of tropical settings that went far beyond a raging battlefield struggling to quiet under the veil of night. When the ground shook and a giant serpent leapt into the air snapping its fangs at a woman with vibrant hair, he found himself pausing to observe whether she lived or die. She retaliated with a strange technique that seemed to twist through the scaled monster with a disturbing crunch until it blew apart in chunks of cold meat. He watched pain show in her face as her arm snapped back as if the technique used had been done against her, but he knew better than that.
That was kinjutsu, forbidden techniques.
Fumio whistled low in observation. "That must've hurt."
"Do the Motou clan use kinjutsu?" Madara asked, evening his tone.
"Where do you think kinjutsu originated boy?" Aoto chuckled darkly. "The Motou clan has been around as long as the Uchiha and some say even further back before the Sage of Six Paths came around to save the world from the Ten-Tails."
A difficult clan, Madara thought, but he could learn a thing or two from them.
Aoto waved a hand ahead where near the bottom of a mountain he saw the structure of a temple bearing the black sunburst insignia and further above the road in an alcove near the center, the castle came into view with its dark blue roof tiles and tall protective walls.
He followed the wizened man's lead, casting one final glance to the battlefield to see the Motou struggling against their own kinjutsu users in a war that pit two sides of the same clan against one another. Regardless of the similarities, it seemed less like the struggle going on between the Uchiha powers. This was two decades in the making. This seemed more like what he imagined would be the conclusion of the Uchiha conflict if Mio didn't achieve what had been asked of her. Although, he didn't doubt her, he worried for her position. She'd never done a long-term mission like this before and she'd admitted it then that it'd be troublesome.
Madara entered through a massive gate into a heavily defended yard with Takuei and their three men following close behind, the center of attention to an audience of robed strangers and distinctly armored shinobi. His eyes traveled forward to the castle tower in the middle, five stories tall and fortified. There were several short buildings surrounding it with slim walkways that housed the more important members of the Motou clan and their royal family.
Far beyond the primary structures, he spotted barracks where he suspected their shinobi resided, but despite the tower's splendor, another edifice, small and near insignificant, sat off to his immediate right. It seemed to have been modeled like the temple at the foot of the mountain and from its grand wooden doors carved with the black sunburst of the Motou clan, spilled dozens of men and woman, even people younger than him. Unlike the pale robes Aoto and his priests were, these were bright red and lined with gold, they bore jewelry that weighed heavily down their necks and around their ankles and bare ankles they wore thick steel cuffs. Each wan face looked upon him and his men with scorn and he turned his back to them, ignoring their whisper insults and suspicions.
Aoto dismissed his priests, the group of five slipping out of sight behind a crowd of bright red robes, and followed a path towards the inner circle of the castle's territory that brought them through another gate, much smaller than the one that they first crossed. They climbed several steps and finally entered the elevated tower where a massive room awaited them illuminated in orange light provided by the torches along opposite walls.
A broad man with reddish brown hair awaited them in front of the first slim staircase. Standing perfectly still with both arms at his side donning imperfect armor a burnt orange color that consisted of broken or damaged pieces barely linked together. The dark clothes underneath were torn or singed as though he had emerged from battle a second ago.
"Seiko-sama," Aoto greeted with an inclination of his head. "Where is Enki Heika?"
Seiko pointed up with a gloveless hand. "Expecting the boy for tea." He redirected deep blue eyes to Madara and gestured to the stairs with a jut of his chin. "Come. I will take you."
"Only him?" asked Takuei curiously.
"Only him," Seiko answered. "Aoto-san, you may take the others downstairs. I will join you all shortly. Uchiha Madara, come with me."
Madara split away from Takuei and the others to follow Seiko up the staircase in silence. He led him up two floors from the bottom to a smaller space where rice-paper doors welcomed him into a finely decorated room. There he found a narrowed-eyed man awaited him seated in front of a short-legged table. There were scrolls hung from the wall, calligraphy on one side and ink painting on the other with matching flower arrangements flanking the two.
The new man stared at him with a crooked smile plastered on his pointed face and mussed brown hair slicked over his head, showing a receding hairline. He peered at him momentarily before his attentions went to the battered Seiko.
"You look terrible, Seiko-san," he said in greeting.
"I wouldn't if you bothered to get your fat ass in battle," Seiko retorted in an even tone. The insulted man laughed awkwardly as if attempting to dissuade the genuine offense as mere word play between old friends. "Need I remind you the state of your clan and your brother's? One, he has more men, and two, the Sone clan have more men."
"Yes, yes, my dear older brother has more people on his side," said the man with a wicked smile, "but I have that old witch. Ayuka has certainly helped, no? She is our strongest priestess and she has already given us good news. What do we have to worry about?"
Frustrated, Seiko's right hand fisted. "Pathways changing," he remarked stiffly, turning on his heel and storming out.
The shoji screens shut noisily in his wake and his stomping feet could still be heard even after he'd reach the middle of the staircase.
Madara stood with his arms crossed. "What is it you want from me?"
The decorated man chuckled. "Let me introduce myself," he begun, gesturing to the seat cushion across him, "I am Motou Enki, king of this humble country. That man you saw is my second commander, Mikami Seiko, leader of the Mikami clan of the Grass Country."
Madara knew close to nothing on the Mikami clan only that it existed.
"I would introduce you to my first commander, but she is in battle—stunning woman." Enki grinned. "You shall meet her later on, no doubt, and others as well. You will have much to do here."
He grew frustrated with his knowing tone. "Yes," he answered, forcing a smile, "once you and your brother are dead and gone, I will have plenty to do."
Enki chuckled hesitantly, once again trying to make a joke out of a threat. "Ambitious boy," he commented. "Have a seat? My story is a journey. You must listen attentively." He raised a teapot. "Would you care for tea? Or do you prefer sake?"
"I will have neither," he said evenly. At the thought of the mission objective, he reconsidered his tone. Failure would not be taken lightly by either Ito Tomoji or his grandmother and he did not plan to fail. This might as well be the first country he had ever conquered, but it would be conquered and he told himself that it would become the first of many to fall under him. "Tell your story and I will listen."
A knock disturbed the start of the tale and a servant woman with red hair crossed the room to deliver a scroll to Enki. "This came from the mainland, Heika." She bowed deeply and quickly retreated from where she came.
Enki stared at the scroll a moment too long before setting it atop the table. A distinct explosive tag sat at the seam of the scroll, one he easily neutralized and removed. He sat with the coded scroll humming with interest. "It seems the Uchiha clan is quite active in the mainland. Treaties with the Ito clan and the Mikazuki clan, I'm impressed," he commented, "but I do see why anyone might deem this necessary with the Nameless One off his leash."
He stayed perfectly calm even though it was strange to hear any news from Taiga's side. "Oh?"
"He is a dangerous one, I admit," said Enki, still reading the message. "How did your clansmen ever let him walk away without killing him? Now, the great Hiryuu is going through great lengths to capture him alive."
That came as no surprised. It had been predicted from the start that Taiga would become the most targeted player in the power game, but only Hiryuu would go after him so quickly…unless…
"Speaking to you is useless. You do not understand the value of a Shugosha."
The memory was fleeting and only Hiryuu and Konoe's voices echoed in his head arguing over Mio.
"You want to capture the girl as well," Enki said finally, he lifted curious eyes to him. "What is so important about this girl? Was she entrusted with some great secret?"
He wondered the same as well. Sometimes it had seemed Mio knew more than she let on, but mere observations had not provided the proof to confirm it. "Have you heard of Uchiha Genji and Kikyo?"
"No, not in great lengths," Enki admitted. "I do, however, know of Uchiha Chiho, Kikyo's mother." His eyes returned to the open scroll in his hands, a new smile playing on his mouth. "Do I have reason to believe this Mio is Chiho's granddaughter?" When Madara nodded, not showing his hesitation on the subject, Enki continued, "This is excellent. Undoubtedly so. It is not the Nameless One you want, it's the girl. What is her name?"
"Mio."
"Mio," he repeated in disappointment. He rolled up the scroll and tucked it away in his robes. "That is not a name to remember. Uchiha Mio. It has a strange ring to it, too common. Perhaps, there is another that suits her better."
"You promised a story," Madara interjected before Enki went on about Mio's name. If he paid the matter too much attention, he might suspect something was up. The news was as big news to him as it was to Enki. Hiryuu wanted to capture Taiga and Mio. It happened too early on. That ruined their plan.
"Oh yes, the story." Enki paused to have tea. He served Madara a cup and slid it over the round table in his direction, but he made no move to take it. "The story begins thirty-seven years ago during a time when the Motou clan and Uchiha clan started a war over land. History records it as being a decade-long war, but that is a twisted retelling. Truth be told, the war ended quickly. You see, a man descended from the mountains of Kurata, a Kuronuma intervened in the conflict and ultimately sided with the Uchiha clan. They say he had fallen in love with an Uchiha woman and as a gift to her and her noble clan, he offered to her clansmen his strength and it took him one day to completely obliterate the Motou shinobi on sight forcing the rest to pull back."
The Kuronuma man and Uchiha woman would be Mio's grandparents. On his deathbed, Eijiro had confessed that she had a grandfather whom she assumed would be a Kuronuma because he had explained that whomever her relative was, he had every intention of taking her to Mt. Hyōga, the residence to the elusive Kuronuma clan. He wondered if that was the reason Hiryuu wanted her. Did it have anything to do with a Shugosha?
"Of course, none of this appeared in any records," Enki went on. "It is simply said the Motou clan left and sought refuge with its allies on a nameless island off the Lightning Country's jurisdiction after a ten-year war. The truth is we had no allies here, only enemies, but after the defeat the clan had suffered at the hands of one Kuronuma, my father refused to face another. For the next two years, the Motou clan warred with the native shinobi clans here until each and every one of them subjected to our rule.
We established this as the Sun Country to honor our gods with clarity and my father ruled for a few years before passing and leaving his throne to my older brother, Jikai, and his wife, Miwa. The title should have been mine, so in opposition to Jikai, who was incapable of leading this country to anything but ruin, I gathered allies from a pool of subjugated shinobi clans with the promise of freedom, but to be…frank, the war did not start over my ambitions.
It begun over Miwa. Jikai's wife was a beautiful woman and I wanted her. I loved that woman to madness and though she was torn between my brother and I, she chose me. She ran to my side, but Jikai assumed I took her away as some ploy for revenge. With that, he gathered his men and plotted his first assault against me.
The beginning of the war was twenty years ago and in those twenty years; Miwa gave me two children before passing. In those twenty years, our shinobi allies whittled down to two and we have been in the same standstill as last year and the year before. I yearn for this war to end, but that is still my brother on the other side. However wretched I have been to him or however he has retaliated does not change the fact that we remain bound by blood."
Madara understood all too well. "I will do it," he announced, earning a skeptical glance from the sullen Enki. "I will kill your brother for you, but you will need to do something in return."
"A bargain?" Enki said gruffly. "Well, let's hear it."
"You will agree to an alliance with the Ito and Uchiha clan and we will have complete access to this country."
"You mince no words, young one," he responded. "If you can do what I have failed to accomplish these last twenty years then you may have your alliance and this country for all it may offer to you."
The conversation concluded there and Madara was escorted out to extravagant lodgings within the inner circle of the castle alongside his five traveling companions that were raving to engage Enki's enemies in proper battle after having watched the battlefield from afar.
Madara stood in a stuffy room with a window overlooking the water garden at the edge of the courtyard, observing passing strangers with fascination before turning away to find something to write on. He had not yet left anything for Mio to retrieve and he had planned to wait a while until he accommodated to a new setting before doing so, but now seemed like the right time. Until, he dug too far into his luggage that he discovered a wooden box.
He set it down on the tatami, staring at it trying to remember where it came from when the memory resurfaced in his mind, reminding him how long it has been since everything had begun.
.
.
.
Madara had watched Mio wander into the first room to her left and she had stayed inside, noiseless and nonexistent inside the broken cottage that had once been her home. It had been a bit of a surprise to learn that her parents had been its last inhabitants and even more that they had died there protecting her. He hadn't listened to the details of her arrival at the countryside home, only that she had been orphaned and that she'd become a spy for himself and Izuna (if not their servant).
Today, he'd mocked her parents by calling them weak and had seen her steadily grow anxious in her attempts to defend them. He had seen that mask of hers crack and for a split second, he'd felt shame. She'd gone away before he thought of something nasty to say and now, she was simply silent and it felt as though he'd been alone the entire time, like she had been imagined, a phantom of the past or a mere figment of his imagination.
He walked up to the room, the first to the left in a short hallway with only two other entrances, and touched the handle, pressing down and then forward. The weathered wood dividing them opened noiselessly and through the tiny aperture, the interior was the same as the rest of the house, a home so lost and neglected the forest had spread its arms to it, swallowing it under a mantle of green that bloomed across its broken roof and flowers sprouted from between the floorboards. Tangled vines slinked up the walls and drooped from the ceiling, stretching its long limbs to the damaged, lopsided mattress and Mio lying atop it, the water soaked into her clothes fell away into the lumpy surface beneath her.
She slept, he noticed by the sound of her breathing hidden away by the pelts of heavy rainfall above. The holes in the roof spilled streams of water onto the plants budding from the ground. She was in a deep sleep if she hadn't made a move to show the door opening had woken her and perhaps it had something to do with the house. She lived here nine years before having to leave it; this had been her home much like the countryside had been his for the last fifteen years. She must've felt safe enough to rest here. She hadn't fully recovered from that Kurata fiasco that left her asleep for weeks and he couldn't imagine waking up after so long wanting nothing but sleep. The medical specialist that had looked at her condition said she would need to rest after regaining consciousness, but she hadn't had time for that since they were summoned to the compound.
Madara frowned, abandoning the subject mid-thought and the room at once. He didn't care about any of that. Not enough to worry over it like Izuna. Mio was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, so he stepped away from the entrance and ventured into the room to his direct right.
This one was smaller and near empty. He suspected it might have been the neatest room at one time and that thought, without a doubt, told him that this room belonged to Mio. When he ventured in, he noticed both the bed and chest had been pushed from what must have been their places judging by the hollows in the wood underneath. He crouched down to touch the white lines etched on the ground, feeling bits of soft grass under his fingertips. His eyes swept to the rest of the flooring, blooming from between the cracks were dozens of undisturbed white flowers swayed quietly. The rummaging had happened long ago.
Someone had come looking for something they were sure would be in Mio's room.
Those parents' of hers seemed to have trusted her with some big secrets.
He straightened out to leave and stepped on an odd floorboard that creaked under his weight. He looked down, pulling his foot away before stepping on it a second time. It wobbled. A loose floorboard? It seemed so obvious, even for Mio.
Madara pulled it from the ground and found it hollow. Lodged inside, he found a wooden box and tugged it free of the plants growing over it. He stared at it, as if trying to will himself to feel a little shame for going through Mio's things, but it wasn't something he hadn't done before. He opened it.
There were three scrolls surrounded by junk.
The rain came to a slow halt as he was about to rummage through the box and shut the lid, carrying it out with him. He left it near his things and ventured out into the cold. The storm clouds remained in the sky, casting a deeper darkness in the surrounding sylvan, but the worst of the rain seemed to be over. He suspected the worst they could encounter would be light rain, which made this the best time to continue traveling.
Madara returned inside, checking the contents of his bags before repacking his dried clothes in. He cast a glance at the wooden box he took from under the floorboard when he heard a loud creak and stuffed it into his bags, dropping everything to stare straight into the empty hallway. He was sure Mio had woken up.
Annoyed by his own sudden reaction to the sound, he decided to go wake her. He dug through her bags for dry clothes and headed straight into the larger bedroom. They would need to take advantage of the weather.
He stopped midway, remembering something. A long time ago, he'd heard his father mention that two spies used to live alone in a cottage in the forest. He'd been complaining about how odd it'd been before a kind-faced Uchiha had appeared from behind the door and had said, "I'd be a lot more worried about living in this snake nest."
Madara had been three when his father introduced the stranger as Uchiha Genji, the clan's finest spy. From then on, he'd always think of him as being the man that lived in the cottage in the forest because he'd never cared to remember his name.
"Weren't you living in this snake nest before?" Tajima had asked, grinning.
Genji had laughed. "Yes, it was terrible," he'd answered, "but I've got a little girl now. She's a ridiculous little thing."
His mother had been alive then. She had appeared with Izuna in her arms yawning, having heard the conversation. "I never imagined Kikyo as the type to have children," she'd commented.
His older brothers had been alive as well. "Yes, she didn't either," Genji had replied.
"What's the girl's name?" his mother had asked.
"It's Mio."
Mio was Genji and Kikyo's daughter. Why didn't anyone mention it before?
.
.
.
The box was full of junk and sloppily written notes. Madara never understood why a bunch of junk meant anything to Mio until he began sifting through it. Every item came from a different area in the mainland; he recognized the clay dolls sold exclusively in the Wind Country and a chipped cup that bore the insignia of an inn he had stayed in when a job took him to the Lightning Country. There were colorful beaded bracelets he could never imagine on Mio and twin glass bottles of red paint that he saw no purpose for. He discovered broken shards of a wooden handheld mirror underneath most of the paper scraps, pulled an ancient deck of cards, and a silver hairpin encrusted in metal petals surrounding tiny blue gems.
He started picking up the notes next, reading them to find each signed by "mom" or "dad," all headed with a jolly "Happy Birthday, Mio" followed by the date. Every note was dated December 14 when Kana and Izuna had been celebrating her birthday in the spring, nearly three months from the actual day.
He wondered why she kept the information to herself. Why wouldn't she bother to correct them? He questioned himself for paying her shenanigans any heed—why did she do anything, really?—but it piqued his curiosity.
She did.
She worked in her own secret ways, keeping more bottled in than out. She had one stupid expression for everything except the rare smile she gave whenever Izuna came around. She also liked to be alone more often than not. He always wanted to know what she was thinking because he thought he needed a reason to justify her preference in no company. Maybe there were secrets there, maybe she saw the world differently, maybe she didn't think at all—he wanted to know.
It didn't take a genius to see why the box was important. For every birthday she received two presents and notes from the parents that died for her. It meant something. There were feelings here, feelings he tried to understand but couldn't, so he shut everything back inside (untouched scrolls included) and thrust it back to the bottom of his luggage where he planned to never look through it again.
He thought about tomorrow and decided to rest, pushing lingering thoughts of Mio from his head.
xl: Okay, there were two flashbacks in this, I couldn't help it. Basically, if anything was ever muddled in Mio's chapters you will learn it Madara's chapter.
Also, I'm trying something crazy, so please bear with me on the strange updating schedule I'm about to embark on. I'm writing on ahead in this mini arc of sorts, so I have the next chapter finished and the one that follows that in writing (that I hope to finish soon). Expect and update in 3 to 4 days. I intent to join Madara and Mio's story lines as quickly as possible so that's the reason for the crazy updates (the delays were due to outlining and some time line stuff).
Moving on, thank you to that0nelittl3girl, YamiKitsuneKami, Loteva, Aries01xD, crazyuser, HushedFable, surugasasa, Child from Chaos, VKLover13, RimaHatake, Frau Mannelig, and Tananna for leaving reviews. I appreciate you taking the time to read this humble story of mine enough to comment on it! And thank you to the new favorites and follows I've received as well, I appreciate you just as much silent readers!
A preview to the next chapter is available on my LJ. Tomorrow morning I will post a detailed post breaking down this chapter on my LJ like I did for "The War of Kurata."