Chapter 25 | On the Battlefield III
Motou Enki exhaled, the cold clouding before his lips fading quickly, and felt overcome by emotion. The death of his brother, Jikai, as proposed by the Motou priestess, Ayuka, resulted in a jubilation that rang loudly at the foot of his tower and beyond his castle walls sounding like an endless celebration. He thought to feel deadened by the news, but he had known that only death would end the war and he'd rather it be Jikai than himself, selfish as it was, his brother was weak and emotionally unstable. The Sun Country would see better days under his absolute rule and without Jikai around to oppose him things would surely fall into place.
And they had, it was the celebration he waited to end. However, his people deserved it, so he did not want to deprive them of their prize.
The rice paper doors slid open and shut equally quiet. Footsteps rang in his ears, drawing near, when Ayuka appeared in his periphery, her long twisting hair swaying behind her as invited herself into the seat across him. She settled the giant scroll between them, the Fate Sphere the Kuronuma clan had called it and she had been in possession of it far longer than the current Shugosha had lived.
"Do you not plan to celebrate, Ayuka-sama?" he asked courteously.
"I came to ask you the same," she answered with a brilliant smile. "Everyone is asking for you."
"A shame I do not feel celebratory."
"And yet you do not mourn either."
His eyes met hers in the dark and the brightness in her face faded away. "I apologize," she said without feeling and bowed her head in mock fashion. "I should not spell out such opinions to Heika."
"What do you need, Ayuka-sama? Speak now and be gone." He pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. He did not have the patience for her drawling conversation. He wanted the peace of his dark chambers and perhaps, in the later evening, a woman's company but not this woman—not Ayuka of the Fate Sphere, the ancient and the deceptive.
Ayuka carefully unfurled the Fate Sphere, a scroll of pristine quality and great power that was said to channel through her. She drew a tiny jar of earth from between her robes and begun to speak in a wondrous tone. "Something peculiar occurred this evening. I drew pathways to our castle's new residents. Five lives I expected and only four appeared."
Interest piqued, Enki drew forward, running a hand down his jaw. "What meaning does this possess?"
"I do not yet know." She discarded the contents of her jar atop the scroll's surface and although he anticipated it might form a visible line connected to several others, it remained a small mountain of dark earth and tiny glittering stones. "It does not matter how much chakra I channel into it or if I position it differently." As if to prove a point, she dragged the dirt to the other side of the scroll. "Do you see it does not activate? Every other jar I possess functions the same, but this does not and it...it irritates me."
"And this is…?"
"Uchiha Madara."
"But you have seen his pathway before?" Enki fought amazement. "This is untrue."
"No," she said quietly, "it is not. He does not exist in the scroll and that can mean numerous things."
"Numerous things?" he repeated in question.
Ayuka brushed a long red tendril off her shoulder. "It is his pathway that I cannot read, but through glimpses at others that have and will cross his path I have been allowed to delve into his futures. He will not pose a problem, so you shall not worry, not to you or to me. I will make sure of that."
That relieved him. "Have you encountered problems with Kuronuma Shinya?" She stayed silent a minute too long and that irritated him. "Well?"
"I had a thought is all…" She trailed off quietly, "when you mentioned Shinya, I remembered he can read the Fate Sphere."
"What is the meaning of this revelation?"
"There is one other person that I have difficulty reading." Ayuka drew back her sleeves and provided a thin vial of grassy earth. "I am blind to Uchiha Mio's life as well and it is only through the pathways of others that I am able to see her. Her grandfather made it so I could not and the sphere listened to him. What if he has shielded Madara from my eyes as well?" She paused. "I wonder what his intention may be…"
"Find it," Enki commanded. "Kuronuma Shinya is not a man to take lightly and you—"
"Be satisfied that the man cannot set foot on this island or it would be your death we might be celebrating," she said impatiently. "I have been battling that man far longer than you have been alive, so I will not have you command me to do anything that has to do with that man. It is being handled and handled well and if I were to fail, then you may gather up your pathetic army and attempt against his life. Until then, leave Kuronuma Shinya and the rest of the Kuronuma clan to me."
He bristled, but swallowed his pride. The Kuronuma trusted Ayuka and that had been enough for him to believe her capable of handling the reclusive clan. "That girl is the Shugosha, is she not? His granddaughter?" he asked, changing the subject. "How does it go with that one?"
"She is on the correct pathway as we speak, but I cannot see beyond what Shinya has allowed me to see," she admitted, her beautiful face marred by the crawling shadows cast by the firelight. "If I can put her on the same path as Mikazuki Gouki…she will be in possession of the Life Sphere and Black Sphere. The rest will surely follow. You may do as you wish with the girl."
"If it will bring me the ten artifacts, I would not mind taking a second wife."
"You needn't give her a proper title," Ayuka stated.
Enki felt no remorse for the girl, though it seemed to be a more appropriate emotion to the one he was feeling in that instant. His stomach knotted in anticipation.
"Is she pretty?" he asked wondrously, attempting to imagine the girl.
"She resembles her grandmother quite a bit."
Chiho. The name called back memories of the woman, jet black hair that fell below her chin like a curtain of silk and dark eyes, heavily lashed and profound. Her face was sharp and her cheekbones high and her lips were spectacularly curved. Wonderful.
Enki left his seat with that image in his mind and started towards the door. "If she is anything like Chiho, I will give her more than a title."
"If you seek a replica of Uchiha Chiho, you will be disappointed." Her voice forced him to a halt. "Chiho was all strength. Mio is the exact opposite, all weakness…I'll be surprised if she lives long enough to see the artifact war end."
"I do not mind it," admitted Enki, pulling open his doors. "Weakness is a sign of submission and when she comes to the Sun Country, I want her to submit to me."
He glimpsed at the piercing eyes staring back at him and the sinister smile she donned. "I do pray she does not herald your death, Enki Heika," she said, gathering her things to leave. "She has a tendency of bringing death to those that love her."
"I will not love her."
She let the Fate Sphere fall over her shoulder on a thick leather strap. "No, but you will love her gift and there is barely any distinction between the two."
Ayuka emerged from the calm, her two attendants trailing behind her as if they were her shadows. "I have not yet had the chance to see you since the battle ended, but you were impressive."
Madara spared her a cutting glance. He did not mean to discuss the subject of the battle any more than he had in Enki's tearoom after the strange developments in Jikai's chambers gave root to more suspicion and discomfort. He had successfully killed Motou Jikai (or so the story had been told), although it had not stopped his second-in-command from attempting to regroup to expel the Ito shinobi from the Southern Castle after only a week of occupation. However, their attempts failed and Sone Kazushige had been imprisoned. It had not been Madara's intention to let the Sone clan live. He had predicted their betrayal far longer than they may have considered it, but Enki had wanted to extend a helping hand as they had been the clan his wife once belonged to when she had lived as his brother's wife.
Enki summoned him that morning and he knew that today marked a new day of listening to him prattle on subject to subject without reason. He liked to talk. Incessantly. He spent four hours talking about printed fabric he hope to give to a dressmaker to make a dress for a daughter he had not yet met, but would according to Enki.
"Have you heard news of the Waterfall Country? It seems the Ito clan is experiencing some hardships," continued Ayuka, flicking back her hair. "They are not the only ones, either. I hear The Nameless One and Uchiha Mio are absconding in the Iron Country, I wonder what might occur if the samurai become aware that there are shinobi among them…or if the neighboring battlefields reach them."
He stopped and she did as well. "What do you want?"
"I am merely engaging you in conversation," she replied, smiling.
He was especially wary of this woman. "I'm not interested in your conversation."
She gestured her attendants away, both girls moving on forward looking back to him before disappearing up the staircase. She stepped forward, chin up and eyes sharp. "Let me make one thing clear to you," she begun, voice tame. "I am not on this island as your enemy. I would not be on this island serving under Motou Enki if you had not been here. You are the only ally I seek."
"I'm not interested," he repeated, turning towards the staircase.
"Uchiha Mio is in danger."
He halted, facing her. "Why should I care for that traitor?"
"Because she's not a traitor," Ayuka said calmly, eyes bright with the light of the torches on the wall. "She is faithful to you. She works for you. You have contacted her during your stay and she has answered you. Do not think to make a fool of me, I see things in a different light and read them in all their circumstances. That girl is in danger. There is a man called Mikazuki Gouki that wants to collect her and if he accomplishes that, there will be no stopping his ambitions."
"Whatever happens to that traitor is on her, not me," he stated, refusing to admit to it.
"Surely you have questions about her," she continued. "There is a mystery surrounding that girl. She is special, even for a Kuronuma. People like her are not born often enough in the world…"
Madara walked on ahead with an exasperated sigh. He did not need to listen to this woman or her assumptions, no matter if there existed a shred of truth in her words, he would not pay them any heed.
"Mikazuki Gouki will kill everyone around her if he deems it necessary. That includes your brother."
He rounded on her in an instant. "What do you know about my brother, witch?" he hissed, grabbing her by the front of her robes.
"Your brother wants that girl and if he wants her, it is already a hindrance to Mikazuki Gouki," she said quietly, removing his hand from her clothes and smoothing out the crumples. "I can tell you why he wants her, why she is so imperative to his cause, why he would kill anyone and everyone around her to get his hands on her, and why this involves that precious brother of yours. Your issue is not listening when you need to."
Ayuka passed by him, walking up the stairs ahead of him. He watched the flutter of her robes disappear and after a moment, he followed her. He had not been the only one summoned. He had been told that Takuei and Seiko would also be present, as well as Ayuka and the attendants that never left her side. He had learned that they were not simply her attendants, rather her students and they learned everywhere they went.
Madara was the last to appear before Enki and it earned him pointed looks from the priests summoned from the temple. He did not bother to sit even though the king insisted with a look that dared him to oppose.
Enki retracted his gesture with a smile that dispelled any worry for consequence, but the discontent remained etched in his narrow eyes. He awarded the room with his undivided attention, expecting to captivate his summoned audience. "What remains of the Sone clan will no longer be a burden," Enki begun. Apart from the Sone clan that fell during the battlefield, he spared the rest as homage to his dead wife who hailed from the once noble clan of faithful shinobi. He kept them in the northern castle under complete observation by Mikami shinobi and Ayuka, who put forth her efforts to reform the priests and priestess from the northern temple. "However, Ayuka-san plans to travel to the mainland for a few seasons." Turning to the redheaded woman expectantly, he continued, "Have you decided on whom you plan to leave at the temple? Aoto-san, perhaps? Maybe even Kousei-san?"
Kousei, the newly appointed and overweight Head Priest of the Southern Temple, stood smug at Enki's left, giving Ayuka a purposefully lewd stare that did not go unnoticed or unmentioned by the dark-haired attendant at her back. "Pig, eye contact," she said, gesturing to her eyes, "learn it."
The man turned bright red. "Forgive me, Hidenka-sama."
"Apologize to Ayuka-sama."
Ayuka raised her hand to silence the girl. "There is no need," she said, directing her eyes to Enki. "I will be leaving all temple affairs to Yayoi-hime and Kikumi-san." She gestured to the dark-haired girl first before the taller attendant. "I hope you will see no issue with my decision."
"No," said Enki, a tad tight-lipped. "No, I do think Yayoi is capable of taking over your work while you visit the mainland. Ah, but if I may, I'd like to assign someone to watch over her…if that is not too much to ask. She is my only daughter after all."
Takuei shot Madara a look, as if demanding if he knew about Enki having a daughter. The truth was he didn't, he only knew about the son called Ikki, a similarly dark-haired boy with the face of a snake, who eavesdropped on all important conversations in Enki's castle believing himself to be stealthy. Compared to any trained shinobi, he knew little about moving in silence and made unnecessary noise.
His response turned out to be a shrug.
"Madara," Enki called. "Would you mind?"
"Yes," he answered immediately. "I plan to head to the mainland to aid the Ito clan in their war alongside my brother. I leave in three days."
The door burst open behind them and a messenger came scuttling in, bending the knee to Enki as he offered a scroll for him to take. Enki took the offering and dismissed the man, smiling upon reading the news in the writing.
"Something wondrous has occurred," he said, voice dripping with delight. His shining eyes met with everyone in the room, but settled on him. "They are finally here."
"Who?" asked Madara, eyebrows drawn together.
"The Senju clan. They have answered my brother's final plea." Enki rose from his seat. "We should set out to meet them, Madara."
The bile rose to his mouth and his hands reflexively clenched. He was being played for a fool by a terrible liar. If there was anything he was certain about, it was the fact the Senju clan dropped the Motou as allies because they were problematic and that no matter what form the call arrived, they would not appear. That was unless the war that severed their treaty ended. He learned enough of that from the old priest, Aoto, who seemed too honest for his own good.
Madara took Katsura with him as he was not given the option to object and if the Senju clan did arrive, it would not be long before the mere presence of his clan and theirs sparked the next great battlefield in the Sun Country. Katsura had arrived two days ago with several more of their own, so they would not be short on capable shinobi, and though he did not yet trust them, Takuei and his Ito shinobi were present.
Enki traveled with a small entourage of priestesses with Ayuka at the forefront and her attendants struggling in the back where Madara and his group had dropped their speed to accommodate the two. It took too little time to reach the Southern Temple where envoys from the Senju clan awaited his arrival and lesser time for Madara to recognize Senju Hashirama from the quartet of travel-worn shinobi standing at the high, blackened gates in search of answers.
"Welcome Senju clan," Enki greeted from a distance. Ayuka stood to his right and Mikami Seiko at his left. "Unfortunately, you have arrived too late. Uchiha Madara has already killed my brother and I have no need for an alliance with you if I have the Uchiha and Ito clan at my back."
Hashirama spotted him with dark eyebrows knitted in concern, eyes wandering to the destruction left behind from two decades of war and Madara wondered what sort of thoughts ran through his mind at the sight of it all. However, in hindsight, the interesting bit of this development was that he would be fighting someone strong and perhaps, during said fight, he might be able to try a number of new jutsu he picked up since the last time he had faced off against Hashirama.
"It is our duty to protect the Southern Temple and Castle," one Senju announced.
Madara looked towards Enki, face void of the emotion stirring within him. Someone called the Senju clan here and that someone had not been Jikai that had asked him to kill his brother. This was one of his games and he was one of his pieces.
He clenched his hands into fists, knuckles whitening until he released them. He did not have time to fool around. He arrived to the Sun Country with the sole purpose of creating a treaty between the Motou and Ito clan, which he had been accomplished alongside other requests he had made that included an alliance with the Uchiha clan and free use of the island for whatever they saw fit. The sudden involvement of the Senju clan was unreal. The alliance they once had with the Motou clan fell apart because their inner conflict became a hassle they wanted no part in and it looked suspicious for them to arrive unless it had nothing to do with the Motou clan and everything to do with the Sone clan.
"Too late a duty to stay true to," Enki toyed, "unless you intend to wage war against myself and my allies." Turning to Seiko, he added a soft, "And what a sight it will be to see the Senju and Uchiha do battle. I hear they are always the bloodiest of fights."
Ayuka stepped forward, alerting the Senju across their group into a defensive stance. "I am Ayuka of the Fate Sphere," she announced. "I am resident to the Water Country where I am known as Hag."
Her confession eased the tension and she gestured to her attendants. Kikumi and Yayoi were quick to react to a call, but as Enki's daughter stepped past him, Madara's hand shot out to grab her by the arm.
Yayoi jerked around, dark hair whipping across her face. "Let go!"
Madara made eye contact with Ayuka, who smiled, and he let Yayoi go. He needed to do something if he planned to get off Enki's island alive and the structure of a plan appeared in his head as soon as Yayoi crossed his periphery.
Ayuka and her attendants walked up to the four Senju, but only forced one to step aside. Hashirama stared on as the redheaded woman gathered the earth where he once stood and trapped it in a jar she handed to Yayoi. She smiled to them all before trailing away with her girls, going further past their own group to return to the Northern Temple.
"I hope you find the remains of the Sone clan, they may serve you well," Enki said mockingly, then made a gesture to everyone. He turned to the leader of the Mikami clan. "Seiko-san, make sure our people leave the castle and temple. Bring everyone worthy. Everyone else, we are going."
Madara followed along reluctantly.
"I did not think you so obedient," Takuei commented, meeting his stride halfway along the treacherous road that had brought them to the Southern Temple from the start.
"I did not imagine you so mouthy," Madara retorted, going on ahead of the Ito clansmen.
Somewhere behind him, Takuei cursed.
Let the fools be foolish, he thought.
Madara returned to the Northern Castle to a message from his grandmother updating him on the situation in the Wind Country. There had been word that his father, Tajima, had encountered Uchiha from Hikaku's band of traitors scouting the new territories he had conquered in the last year. In her correspondence, his grandmother mentioned that Hikaku seemed to be following everyone indiscreetly with the exception of Taiga's group, which he found abnormal since he had been trying to ally himself with Taiga before the power split.
"Is there news from the Wind Country?" asked Katsura.
"Only that Hikaku's scouts are no longer there," Madara answered, handing the scroll to him to read. They were standing in one of the courtyards surrounded by silence after the messenger that delivered the scroll scuttled away.
"He has been following Hiryuu's steps more intently than others," Katsura mentioned. "I expected it to be Taiga, not that man." He paused, rolling the scroll closed. "I wonder why Hiryuu is so determined to capture Mio."
"I wonder."
"Do you question her betrayal?"
Madara stared at him strangely. "What?"
"She lived with you and your brother for six years; do you not question why she abandoned her loyalties to you?" Katsura elaborated. "She does not seem herself following Taiga."
"Hiryuu always warned us to be wary of her," said Madara placidly. "If Genji and Kikyo ever knew anything, she will know it now and she will know it all. Be sure she never caught you doing anything strange, she doesn't forget."
"Would not that be a better warning for yourself?"
Madara thought about it before leaving without answering. He never did anything strange or worth mentioning around her. Although, if Izuna were present, he felt the answer would have been different…but that would be if his brother were talking to him.
Madara ran the misfortune of being followed by Enki's daughter, the raven-haired priestess that worked as Ayuka's attendant, and though she tried again and again to beckon him into some empty corridor or room, he went about his day ignoring her efforts to chase pursuits of more importance. That had gone on for several days with quiet unrest emerging from the Southern Temple where the Senju had settled prepared to aid Sone Kazushige after they released him from his imprisonment. Although, he had openly declared war on them, Enki chose to ignore their actions and forbade everyone within his castle walls to act against them. Madara conceded with the request to appease the amount of angry correspondences he received from his grandmother on his progress. He won Enki a country, but that did not make it Tomoji's country as it was meant to be, and quite frankly, he was growing irritable with all the nagging. He believed that if one wanted a country, they went out there and conquered it themselves, not send someone else to do it for them. If by the end of his trip to the ravaged Sun Country the country fell to him, it would be his, damn Tomoji and his assassin clan. He'd kill them all if he needed to, but if it would take this much trouble (enough to bring Senju Hashirama across the sea with a horde of his clansmen), he might as well keep the cursed island for himself.
However, the day finally arrived that in her frustration the Sun Country's princess assaulted him going up a staircase and dragged him into a cramped space with strength unbecoming of her stature. The hazel-eyed priestess huffed grasping bent knees as she caught her breath, her pale cheeks were flushed and her hair fell in fine silk strings across her face.
"What is wrong with you?" he asked tersely, glaring down at her.
Yayoi reached for his shoulders and he stepped away, his back hitting the wall and her grab becoming successful. "Who…who…is that…man?" she asked between struggling breaths. "Uchiha Madara…I want to know…who that beautiful man is…please, tell me?"
He stared on, taken aback. She shadowed him day after day until she finally stuffed him in a cramped room alongside herself…to ask this stupid a question. "Who?"
"The one you were with at the temple this morning."
"Katsura?"
She broke into a dreamy smile that vanished in the split second she tightened her grip on his arms, her expression changing into one with more determination. "I need you to introduce Katsura to me. I will accompany you on the next meeting you have with him and you can do it nonchalantly, I don't want him to know what my intentions are."
"He has a wife."
"Is she beautiful?"
He shrugged. He never met the woman. The marriage had been a fairly recent affair.
"I can be his mistress. It matters not to a young maiden's heart." Yayoi dropped her grip on him, slid the door open, looked both ways and scampered out. She popped her head back through the entrance. "Can I call you Madara?"
He nodded skeptically.
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow, Madara. Don't forget!"
Yayoi hopped down the staircase and left him in the closet feeling thoroughly confused.
After what seemed like a lengthy moment, Ayuka's freckled attendant appeared at the doorway staring at him oddly. If he remembered correctly her name was Kikumi. She was fairly tall and slender in scarlet robes with pale curls and dark eyes.
"I'd apologize for Yayoi's behavior if it was unusual," she said, sounding apologetic, nonetheless. "Ayuka-sama is searching for you."
Madara stalked past her. "Tell her I'm not interested."
"She insists," she called after him.
He wanted to keep a distance between himself and the woman. It felt better that way, despite her knowledge of Mio's loyalties and her cryptic mentions of Izuna. He preferred knowing nothing to knowing half the things she wanted to tell him, so if he could avoid her, he would, and he planned to turn down every meeting she attempted to schedule with him. He'd rather wait on the right opportunity to get rid of the Senju clan than listen to her ramblings. Enki and Takuei were enough of a threat to keep him on his toes; he didn't have the patience for more.
Madara left the castle tower and walked straight into his accommodations where the shadow of a woman greeted him.
"I said I wasn't interested," he informed Ayuka as she came into view. "When do you plan to leave for the Water Country?"
"When you decide to trust me and accept what I am trying to say." Ayuka strode closer to him, carrying the gargantuan scroll at her back. He watched her movements. "You have questions and I have answers. Do you not worry for your brother's life? His is an interesting life. What about your inquiries on your spy? Hers is a lengthy journey. What about your own pathway? Have you never been curious of what might become of you? Will you achieve your ambitions? Will you die an early death? What do you suppose my Fate Sphere has in store for you? Would you like to see?"
"No."
"You are a trying person, Uchiha Madara."
"I am not here to please you," he replied, and he gestured to the open door. "Leave."
"Enki Heika wants Mio as well." Ayuka strode to the entrance, reaching for the door to close it. She whirled around and pacing back to the center of the room. "So long as he wants her and you promise her to him, he will let you stay unharmed. Use her to your advantage, sell her to him if you'd like…it might do you well to rid her of your path and your brother's."
"Mio is of no importance to me. She is of no importance to my brother, either. Understand that she was a spy that betrayed our family and there is no room for traitors in our clan," Madara said strongly. Although if Enki wanted Mio as she claimed he didn't act like it when they spoke about her during their first meeting.
"How many times do you intent to repeat that question before you start to believe it?" questioned Ayuka. "If you won't ask questions, shall I? Well, let me start. Do you or do you not want your brother to die?"
"No."
"Do you want to know his pathways?"
"There is no dirt here for you to collect and my brother is leagues away," he responded, waving an arm over the space between them. He heard Aoto say that her readings came from the earth and it made sense after she had gone around collecting it when she first made his acquaintance.
"This is a different reading," she explained, drawing her gigantic scroll in front of her. She seated herself by a candle and unfurled the scroll. "You and your brother share blood. I can peek into his pathways through your bloodline. Bloodlines are a lot clearer than dirt pathway readings; you can say they are more attached to your sense of being whereas the other is based solely on decision-making. All I need is a drop of your blood and from it I can pick apart even the lives of your ancestors or your children or grandchildren should I choose to do so."
Madara broke the skin in his thumb with his canine and held it out for her as a bright red bead formed. She gently took his hand and guided it to the pristine center of the scroll, smudging it red. Instantaneously, he felt a hard tug from the object beneath his thumb taking with it a great quantity of chakra. He attempted to draw back, but Ayuka kept his hand firmly in place.
"You have more than enough chakra to spare, Uchiha Madara," she told him before releasing him. "That is enough."
He stared at red dot in the white center and saw Ayuka place both hands to either side of it until the droplet smudged across the page, sprouting long red tendrils that tangled into one another until the entire thing was filled with overlapping lines that he was certain no one would understand.
Ayuka's eyes scanned the strange crimson web and she traced a finger down a line that fell into knots as she hummed in wonder.
He found himself feeling like an idiot for allowing her to do the reading, but had it not simply been curiosity? He did not need to believe anything she said, even if she said Izuna was in danger, he would find a way to keep him safe.
She lifted her face to his and touched the center of the red web making it fade into white. "It is troubling."
"What?"
She smiled, almost victorious. "Mio."
"This was supposed to be about my brother," he snapped. "What does Mio have to do with anything?"
"People are born with bonds—individuals that will make a difference in the mapping of their lives," she begun. "It is simply said that you are connected to these individuals in one form or another, their appearance in your life or decisions concerning these people will open or close pathways for you."
"How does this relate to Mio?"
She rolled up her scroll. "Mio has the most pathways out of everyone I have ever read," she answered, set on pursuing the subject as if that would make him admit she was on his side. If she knew so much, why should he have to confirm it? "Of course, I have only seen as far as her twentieth year and there are thousands of pathways branching from the original and many more to come. Mio is very connected to people, but that is because she is Shugosha. Shugosha are naturally connected to people, they are surrounded by people."
"Shugosha?"
The memory of Hiryuu and Konoe arguing over her came to mind and the term echoed in the back of his mind. He kept returning to the image of the two in his mind, the threatening tone in Hiryuu's voice and the determination in Konoe's expression when she said she wanted Mio dead. He trusted she wouldn't give up until Mio died or she did.
"You have heard the term Shugosha before, have you not?"
"What about it?"
"A Shugosha is the protector of the Kuronuma clan's secrets and they are as supremely talented as they are rare." Ayuka drew a long thin box from her robes and slowly begun to prepare her smoking pipe. She smiled lightly. "Excuse me, it is only that I normally cannot see Mio through the Fate Sphere and I was a bit overwhelmed when I saw her through your bloodline."
"We don't have a blood connection," he pointed out.
"Ah, but you could. If you allowed Izuna to marry her." Ayuka puffed out a stream of gray smoke that slithered in the space between them. "The possibility is there, but as I said, if you want him to continue living you must not allow it. Mikazuki Gouki will kill everyone she loves and that will include your brother one day and he will have what he has always wanted."
"Why does he want her?"
Madara disliked the knowing smile the witch gave him in response.
"She is a Kuronuma, for one."
"She is an Uchiha as well."
"Oh yes," she drawled, tapping the ash from her pipe, "she is, but it is more important that she is a Kuronuma before an Uchiha. She comes from a special family in the clan itself and she is important for that reason alone. Remember? She is the Shugosha."
Madara frowned, shifting his weight on his left foot. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Only that she needs to be protected and Shinya of the Black Sphere will go through great lengths to accomplish it," said Ayuka, brightening when she uttered that name. "People will lay down their lives for that girl—that is the importance she possesses in this world. She is everything and she is rare and it has nothing to do with what she will do, but what will come from her."
"Come from her," he repeated in understanding.
Ayuka rose from her seat, hoisting her scroll onto her back. "I should be going now."
"You said nothing of Izuna," he reminded, forcing her to a halt.
"I told you to keep him away from Mio if you don't want Mikazuki Gouki to kill him." Ayuka stood at the entrance, facing forward. "Would you like some advice for yourself? There is a time and place for a deception as bad as you are thinking, only that you are committing the offense against the one person in the world you will regret your entire life."
"That tells me nothing."
She laughed. "Ah, but I have what I wanted. I hope we don't meet again, Uchiha Madara, but if we do, bring Mio to me, I want to see how your lives will intertwine in the future."
And she was gone.
Honorifics
Heika, "your majesty." I often write out Enki Heika and that would be something along the lines of "His Majesty, Enki" which sounds weird...but it feels right.
Hidenka, "your highness."
xl: I feel like you should from now on expect everyone to be conspiring against the Kuronuma clan over Mio. Well there are exceptions, but you can count those in one hand, so let's not.
I updated that discussion post on my LJ, check it out if you have the time. It'll be a day or two before a preview goes up. And the next chapter will most likely be out within the next 4-5 days.
Thank you to Rimahatake, Aries01xD, Loteva, HushedFable, MaxFlyFan, and YamiKitsuneKami for reviewing the previous chapter!
Finally, thank you for reading. :)
P.S. I added a bit on the honorifics used above the note and apologize for not doing it before because I kept forgetting.