The cultists screamed and charged.
Their coordination was terrible; they were coming from 11 and 1 instead of getting a proper 9-3 split the way they would have if they were competent warriors trained in working together instead of insane maniacs ready to die for their nonexistent god. Tsunade kicked the first one in the chest, her foot coming out through his spine so she was wearing him like a leg warmer. She stepped forward and down, putting all her weight on the front leg and chakra-adhering her foot to the ground. It gave her the solidity she needed to tear the top half of his body off and use it as an improvised missile to take out the second one. Her aim was a little off; she crushed his pelvis instead of his chest. Eh, whatever.
She absently snipped his head off with a heelstamp to the neck ("Always make sure!" Sensei had always said) and then turned to check on the boys. Jiraiya was cackling madly as he danced through another swarm of cultists and flicked their lives out with his Lightning Lash.
"Careful, Sunny!" he shouted. "You'll ruin your outfit!" She waited until he turned away, then punted the cultist's head at him; he dodged aside without looking, laughing harder. Good, Ma and Pa Toad were doing their jobs: Sitting on his shoulders, feeding him nature chakra, and watching behind him.
As though the world had heard her thoughts, some teenage brat with delusions of grandeur charged up and tried to chop Jiraiya in half from the side. Ma contemptuously slapped the blade aside and bit the guy's face off. Good.
Oro was hurling snakes so fast his hands seemed to blur. The small ones clearly had some sort of hemorrhagic venom, since anyone they bit suddenly gushed out of all their orifices and then fell over. The big ones were constrictors, capturing their targets for later disposal. Or, given that this was Oro, later study. He was using that creepy tongue jutsu of his, too. He'd gotten better at it; it was at least fifty feet long now, and his lingual dexterity had improved enough that he was using it to wield his sword with something vaguely in the generally approximate area of finesse. Then again, it wasn't hard to swing a sword around above your head in order to keep the fliers back.
It felt good to be beside them again. No matter what Oro had done, no matter how crazy Jiraiya made her—
A snake went past her at high speed; she glanced back to see what Oro had been targeting and then hurled herself up and away, eyes wide. Kisame had arrived.
Kisame had arrived, using those freaky-powerful water jutsu of his to pull a ten-foot wave across the battlefield. He was surfing the wave while standing on the back of a giant fucking shark, his sword in one hand and the shark's reins in the other.
A. Giant. Fucking. Shark?!
Oro had been smart enough to target the steed, not the rider; the shark twisted, spitting blood and convulsing. Kisame leaped clear, stuck the landing, and charged.
Tsunade smiled, hard and cold, and ran to meet him. This would be—
"Lady Tsunade?"
Tsunade shook herself awake. "Huh? Wha'?"
"You wanted to see me, sensei?"
Tsunade blinked away the last traces of sleep. "Ai. Good to see you again."
The younger woman smiled. "You as well, sensei. I wish it were under different circumstances."
"Yeah. Anyway, I want—"
"—to see the readiness reports for the hospital, and the state of training for all new residents?" She lifted the top third off a massive sheaf of papers and held it out.
"Hmph. Yes, and I'll also need—"
"—the pipeline for the new intake?" A quarter of the remaining stack got added to the first.
Tsunade eyed her former trainee with narrowed eyes. "Kon Ai, are you messing with me, young lady?"
"No, sensei. I would never do that." The impish grin of Tsunade's fourteen-year-old protégé still fit on the face of the forty-mumble senior doctor, which was nice to see.
"Just give me all of it," Tsunade grumbled, pushing herself up in the bed and absently strengthening the chakra sheaths that were keeping the hole in her lung closed and her left quadriceps tendon attached.
o-o-o-o
Just walking through the gates of Leaf was enough to reveal that Jiraiya had beaten them home.
The streets were buzzing, civilians everywhere stood with their heads together and shot glances at the ninja with a weird mix of fear and anger that left Team Uplift unconsciously moving under wilderness protocols: Hazō in the lead, Noburi trailing, Keiko in the middle with weapons drawn. She had even cleared her throat to catch her brothers' attention before signing
Pangolin? Hazō had looked around for a moment, then shaken his head and turned for home.
A block later, Noburi paused. "Hold up," he muttered, stepping over to where a group of civilians were gathered together while one person read out a broadsheet.
"Excuse me," Noburi said. "What's the news?"
The man holding the paper looked up in surprise and took note of Noburi's ninja headband. "Oh! Uh, good morning, sir. The news..." He glanced down at the paper, then up again, looking nervous. "Uh..."
Noburi huffed his annoyance and snatched the paper from the man. Hazō crowded in to read over his brother's shoulder while Keiko stood back, her leg jittering with impatience and frustration at her own inability.
Hokage dies! Lord Third already dead! Leaf jōnin wiped out! Lady Senju near death!
It has been revealed that Lord Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage, The Professor of All Ninja Arts, the Grandmaster, the God of Shinobi, Savior of the Leaf, has died! Months ago! Worse, the Fifth Hokage also died, mere days ago!
Lord Third has not in fact been ill these last few months. He died in battle, destroying the enemies of the Leaf with his final breaths! This fact was wisely concealed by the Council of Ninja Clans so that our enemies would not know. The Gallant Jiraiya, leader of the Legendary Three, Toad Sage, and author of the well-loved Icha Icha series, had been inaugurated as Fifth Lord Hokage and had served honorably in that role since then...but now is dead!
A horrific evil drew the heroic forces of Leaf from their victory party in the evil City fo Mist! After completly dominating the Chūnin Exams as expected, the shining light of Leaf was celebrating...until word came of a horrific evil on Nagi Island! The ancient enemy of the Sage of Six Paths had returned at the head of a demony army and in alliance with the villians of Rock and Cloud! Lord Hokage and Lady Senju Tsunade were generous enough to permit Mist to send forces along in order to observe and hopefully learn from the skills of the Leaf ninja.
Teh evil was destroyed, the Sage's Foe sent back to the Void to sleep for another thousand years but every victory has its price, and Leaf has paid in blood. The Gallant Jiraiya, Fifth Lord Hokage, leader of the Legendary Three, Toad Sage, and author of the well-loved Icha Icha series, fell in battle against fifty-seven of the Enemy's demonic forces and the Kages of Cloud and Rock. His foes had no chance to celebarte, as he dragged them down into death's cold grip as he went Lady Senju Tsunade, Supreme Medic, Slug Princess, Wielder of the Strenght of One Hunderd, was gravely wounded and lies at death's door in Leaf General Hospital. (Donations and flowers welcome!) Captains Hatakae Kakshi and Maito Gai fell as well, loyal to the end. Other casualties were heavy; some have said that it was as many as two hundred of Leaf's greatest jōnin, but reports are still confused.
But no darkness is found without a trace of light. From the sacrifice of our mighty protectors, Leaf has recovered Uzumaki Naruto, son of the Fourth Hokage and jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox!
The cowards of Mist, inferior fighters that they are, were completely wiped out. Their foul nation is defenseless, its survival dependent on the kindness of Leaf. Will the new HOkage—whoever that might be!—choose to wipe our ancient foes from the earth or show superhuman kindness and forebearance by allowing them to survive as servants of the Leaf until they finally accept the Will of Fire? (Assuming such fallen, twisted people are capable of it!)
Check back soon for the latest!
Noburi and Hazō shared a look, both of them going pale, before leaping for the rooftops and heading for Hokage's Tower at a dead sprint. Keiko followed in their wake, not bothering to ask what was going on. It clearly wasn't the time.
o-o-o-o
"What happened?!" Hazō demanded, bursting into the Mission Dispatch room so fast that the door bounced off the wall and would have smacked Noburi in the face if he hadn't stiff-armed it away.
Thankfully, the chūnin at the desk was the woman who had given them the steelback-hunting mission, not the skinwaste who had barely been able to read the mission list. She must have been answering questions from dozens of semi-panicked ninja, because the response was terse and very clearly well-rehearsed.
"The terrorist group Akatsuki was discovered on Nagi Island. It's unclear what they were doing there. Lord Jiraiya, Lady Senju, and a large fraction of the ANBU and jōnin forces were dispatched to stop them. A force from Mist—"
"We know all that! We were there. Survivors, tell us about the survivors."
The woman paused, blinking as the identities of her questioners finally clicked.
"I'm...I'm sorry. Lord Jiraiya fell. So did Captain Hatake, Captain Maito, and about a dozen others. The only survivors were Lady Senju, Lord Hyūga, Lord Akimichi, Captain Sarutobi, Yūhi Kurenai, Kazusa Minori, and Inuzuka Gaku."
"Is it true that Naruto was recovered?"
She frowned at Hazō's unconscious use of the familiar for Leaf's jinchūriki, but made no mention. "Yes, he was recovered. The last I heard, he was in the hospital along with Lady Senju and Lord Hyūga. I haven't heard about Uzumaki's prognosis, but word is that Lady Senju and Lord Hyūga are badly wounded but expected to recover. I don't know anything more than that."
The majority of the Gōketsu Clan exchanged serious glances.
"Do you have any details on exactly how he died?" Noburi asked. "Or who killed him?"
The woman's lips came together as though she tasted something sour. "It was a tag team. Hoshigaki Kisame stabbed him in the leg. Lord Jiraiya promptly killed him, but then he was attacked by one of his former students," she said, anger hidden under the words at the thought of a student betraying a teacher. "Konan. She uses paper jutsu. She can turn herself into a million individual sheets of paper and do things—create barrier constructs, transform into a bird form so she can fly, or give you the Death of a Thousand Cuts. That's what she did to Jiraiya."
Hazō nodded. "Konan. Good to know."
The desk chūnin laughed grimly. "Oh, don't worry about needing revenge. Lord Jiraiya did for her before he went."
All three Gōketsu chūnin brightened. "Oh?" Hazō asked.
"Yeah. Apparently, she was all around him, slicing and slicing. Took out the two summons on his shoulders, was nicking away at his face. He shouts 'Gōketsu Clan Technique: Kagome's Bliss!' and just abso-fucking-lutely everything gets blown to hell. There's this massive fireball—a hundred yards wide, someone said—and all of Konan's little paper-pieces are ash." Her face grew serious again. "He...he didn't survive, it though. I guess it's a suicide technique? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have laughed."
"It's fine," Noburi said, smiling and clearing his throat. "He was a joker. I think that he'd like the idea of us laughing about how he was still the biggest badass even when he was dying."
"Thank you," Hazō said. "I apologize for bursting in like we did."
The desk chūnin shook her head. "No problem. I'm very sorry for your loss; Lord Jiraiya was a great man. I had the honor of him guest lecturing my Academy class when I was a third year, talking about field tactics and threat analysis. He was inspiring, and his advice saved my life at least once."
Tears prickled at the back of Hazō's eyes, but he refused to give in to them. "He was. Thank you again. Excuse us." He turned and led the way out the door, Noburi and Keiko trailing behind him. None of them spoke until they were on the roof of a bakery across from the Tower, where the heat from the ovens had melted the snow off the slates.
"Holy fuck," Noburi said, half-sitting and half-collapsing, his face nearly as white as the snow that covered the ground. (But, fortunately, not the roof.) "Jiraiya's dead? How the fuck can Jiraiya be dead?"
"Akatsuki are powerful foes," Keiko said, her face and voice filled with the hollow cold of the Ice. "Tsunade is badly wounded, implying that she will be out of circulation for some time. Hyūga as well, thankfully."
"Because
of course we couldn't be lucky enough for him to get whacked by whatever was strong enough to take Jiraiya out," Noburi grumbled. "Bastard."
Silence lingered as all three chūnin grappled with the enormity.
"Hazō."
Hazō shook himself out of the brain-locked blankness with which he had been staring towards the horizon. "What?"
"With Jiraiya gone and Mari-sensei probably still non-functional, you are the Clan Head," Keiko reminded him. "What are your orders?"
"Orders?! Keiko, you can't—" He stopped and took a breath. She was right. Jiraiya had given him the leadership, and there was precisely no time to wallow.
"Right," he said slowly, thinking. "Okay...Okay, right. We need to secure the clan. Same things we asked Jiraiya about before he left. We need to ensure that our income is solid. That our political alliances are strong. That we are defended against physical threats. It feels unlikely that Hyūga would actually send people to kill us, but I'm not ruling it out.
"Keiko, the Pangolin gold is still solid, right? Any problems likely to come up with that?"
"No. However, according to the letter of the law it could be argued that the money is mine and not the clan's directly. It comes from a source that I developed, with whom I did all the negotiations. Essentially, it could be viewed as me buying seals from the clan in order to resell them to the Pangolin. If so, then when my marriage to Shikamaru went through the money would follow me to the Nara."
Hazō rubbed his face to cover up his appalled expression. "Right. Okay, we need to deal with that. Figuring out how to make sure we stay solvent once you're married is your first job. Start with how to let us keep at least the majority of the Pangolin gold. If you get it or decide that there's no way, start investigating other options. If you need help working around the Ice, talk to me, Noburi, or anyone else you judge useful and safe." He waited for her silent acknowledgement, then nodded to himself, one finger tapping a rhythm on the knee of his uniform trousers as he thought. "Noburi, you suggested politics. We need to talk to Tsunade, Naruto, and the ISC contingent. Nara Shikaku and Yamanaka Inoichi are dead; who are the new Clan Heads? Who is taking Nara's place as Jōnin Commander, and what authority does that person have over us as chūnin?"
"Forget Jōnin Commander," Noburi said. "Who's the next Hokage? Because it sounds like it's either Tsunade or Hyūga, and I know which of those I would pick."
"She didn't want the job. Jiraiya said that she wouldn't even want to take the Senju seat on the Clan Council."
Noburi shrugged. "We'll just have to find a way to convince her. You remember what Jiraiya said: If Hyūga gets the hat, we're all dead."
"It is possible that he was overstating the case. Or, alternatively, that Hyūga's feud was with Jiraiya personally and he will care very little about us."
Hazō shook his head grimly. "A thousand ryō says we aren't that lucky. Either of you want to take that bet?"
"I do not."
"Hell no."
Hazō rubbed his face again, already feeling the weight of leadership that Jiraiya must has struggled under as long as they had known him. "We need Mari-sensei functional. I don't know if we can wait for her to come out of this funk."
"Good luck with that."
"Yeah." He absently turned his hand, symbolically casting away the topic. "Okay. Kagome-sensei. We need to get him briefed. We need Jiraiya's will and any seal notes he might have had so that Kagome-sensei can figure out the most valuable ones and start researching them. Whatever is there, it gives us more utility, more firepower, and more options for things to sell. Beyond that, we need to adopt Naruto if he's willing, although that might be tough without Jiraiya."
"Yeah, he doesn't know us from a hole in the ground. What do we have to offer?"
"An association with Jiraiya and the fulfillment of Jiraiya's desires as passed on through Lady Tsunade. A clan compound, substantial income and other resources. An extant, albeit small, clan, three of whom are close in age to himself and therefore well situated to serve as a peer group and support network while lacking the negative traits exhibited by so many of Leaf's other clans—Hyūga's xenophobia, the Inzuka's boorishness, and so on."
"I like that," Hazō said. "Good spin." He paused, thinking. "'Albeit small'," he murmured before falling silent again.
Noburi and Keiko waited semi-patiently until Noburi eventually broke. "Yes? Reality to Hazō?"
"'An extant yet small clan'," Hazō said. "That's one of our biggest problems. We're only a half dozen people, so we're sharply limited by manpower. Also, the three of us are young enough that we aren't going to command a lot of respect, but I'm more worried about the numbers right now. We need to expand our roster. What would you guys thinking about adopting some clanless ninja?"
Keiko cocked her head, one eyebrow rising.
"Who were you thinking of?" Noburi asked carefully.
"Well...what about all of them?"
"Excuse me? It sounded like you just said 'all of them.' Like, adopt every single clanless?"
"Sure. Why not? Bring them and their families into the clan. There's...what, a couple hundred clanless in Leaf? We've got the space. It would make us a major military power, provide alternate forms of revenue, and give us deep connections into the community."
"Are you insane?! You can't just adopt every single clanless!"
Hazō frowned. "Why not? When the Nara offered to adopt Keiko they didn't seem to worry about permits or approval of the Council. Seriously, what's stopping us?"
Noburi stared at him, jaw dropped. "Hazō...you would destroy the clan. I mean, sure, some clanless are fine, but most of them just don't have the skills. No, hear me out. Whether it's in the blood or just down to lesser access to training, it's still the case: Your average clanless ninja is signficantly less skilled than your average clan ninja. We'd be bringing in a bunch of second- and third-raters and splitting our resources across all of them. You know that most clanless live in poverty, right? That's because they don't have the skills to take the well-paying missions, so they don't bring in enough mission income to cover their costs. We'd be losing money on all of them, meaning we'd go from a tiny wealthy clan to a huge poor clan."
"As well, there is only a sixty-two percent complete literacy rate among clanless ninja, meaning we would need to spend money on remedial education, unless things are very different here than in Mist. In addition, clanless account for thirty-seven percent of the ninja forces in Mist, yet seventy-one percent of all disciplinary action. Clanless ninja are approximately the same percentage of the population here, meaning roughly five hundred individuals. I have not investigated the precise figures for crime or disciplinary hearings, but other facets of military service are essentially the same between the two forces, so I have no reason to think they are different in this respect. We may debate the causes if you wish, but the fact remains that clanless ninja are far less respectful of authority than clan ninja. You are a teenager who has been a chūnin for three days and official Clan Head for under an hour. Do you believe that a collection of clanless ninja with no ties to you, many of them older than you and senior to you on time-in-service, would follow your orders? Would you want to pay the reparations for the damage they would cause when engaging in tavern brawls, or the fines for when they disobey orders on a mission or fail one or more of the objectives?"
"Let's not even think about the reaction from the other clans," Noburi added. "Five hundred ninja is more than any other clan, by a long shot. The numbers would look like a threat, and their lack of quality would make us look stupid. Or naïve."
"There is a reason those people have not already been adopted, Hazō. They are not worth the trouble because they would not generate positive value. Opening our doors to so many would effectively mean abandoning the concept of a clan—that is, a group of ninja bound together by blood or marriage, with a common set of values and a body of unique knowledge, skills, or bloodlines, who have a voice is the political structure of the village. Adopting all of the clanless ninja is an extremely poor idea. It will not have the positive elements that you are seeking and it will open us to enormous political, economic, and public-perception harm."
Hazō sighed. "Fine. What about just a few of them? Let's say Tenten, Lee, Akane, and Nakano's team."
"You want to adopt...Lee. Rock Lee. The one who prattles constantly about youth while offering homoerotic innuendo at the drop of a skintight green suit."
"Say what you want about him, he's a hell of a fighter. We could use the combat power."
"Absolutely not. Under no circumstances will I allow his adoption."
Hazō cocked his head, eyes locked with Keiko's as he considered her words.
"Keiko," he said at last. "Let's get this out of the way right now. Do you accept my authority as Clan Head or not? Because if you do then you can advise me, you can argue with me, but you cannot ever tell me that you 'will not allow' something I've proposed."
Keiko's eyes narrowed and the winter air grew even colder.
"Uh, Hazō," Noburi said nervously, only to cut himself off when Hazō raised a hand for silence.
No one spoke as Hazō stared his sister down.
"I need an answer, Keiko."
Keiko struggled with herself, lips pursed in anger, before finally nodding. "Fine."
"That's not an answer."
She glared at him. "Yes, I accept your authority as Clan Head. In future, I will not offer flat rejection of your proposals."
"Good." He smiled, nodding respect and thanks. "Still, you're not wrong that Lee would be a pain, so let's table that discussion for now. What about Tenten?"
Keiko paused, eyes flicking nervously to the side for a moment. "I have no objection."
"I'm glad to hear it. Do you think it's a good idea?"
"I...believe that Tenten's skills would be a positive contribution to the clan."
Hazō smiled. "Good to know. Noburi?"
Noburi glanced at Keiko, clearly struggling to keep a knowing smile off his own face. "Yeah, I think that would be a good move. As to Akane, it would be great to have her but I'd be worried how it would work between the two of you if you're Clan Head and she has to follow your orders."
"We'll manage," Hazō said. "She offers combat power, a sunny personality that will help us all stay balanced"—he carefully ignored Keiko's disgusted grunt—"and good advice."
"And," Keiko said grudgingly, "her family has a successful business that can likely grow given additional funding, thereby giving the Gōketsu an alternative income stream and connections to the civilian economy and rumor mill."
"Good point. Thanks, Keiko." Hazō looked between his siblings to see if there was anything else, then nodded. "Moving on, what do you two think about Nakano and his team?"
Noburi looked at Keiko; both of them shrugged.
"No objections, I guess. I don't really know much about them, but that chick...Genda? She seemed pretty hostile to us at games night, but she handled it. Might be an issue, might not. We'd want to spin it carefully so it doesn't look like the rich clan kids offering charity." He paused to think about it. "Tenten, Akane, and the three kids from Nakano's squad. Five. That doubles the size of the clan. That's pushing it a little—it would be better if
we outnumbered
them so that they were motivated to integrate. We can probably make it work if you insist, although we definitely shouldn't go beyond that or adopt any more for a good long while. Also, I agree that Tenten and Akane are top picks, but we might want to think about whether Nakano and his team are the right ones. No reason to choose them just because we know them. If we need to bring clanless in then we want to get the absolute best that we can find."
Hazō nodded. "Good point. That's your job, then. Go to the Tower and figure out who you need to sweet talk in order to find us a top squad of clanless ninja. Take into account their combat skills, utility jutsu, disciplinary history, and anything else you think is relevant."
"As well as their economic profile. The ideal candidates would be poor enough that our offer will be maximally desireable, but have families with some form of revenue that could be grown with investment. Avoid anyone with a history of serious disease in the family. As few as we are and as difficult as the next few months will be, we cannot afford sickness."
"Makes sense." Hazō thought for a moment longer, then stood up and absently brushed off the seat of his pants. "Let's get home. We need to talk to Kagome-sensei and Mari-sensei about what's been happening." He smiled. "And then I want to go find Akane and give her the invitation."
o-o-o-o
"Kagome-sensei! Mari-sensei! We're home!"
By now, the younger generation of the Gōketsu knew what to expect. Noburi had already closed the door before Fifi arrived.
o-o-o-o
Minutes later, the newly-frocked chūnin were sitting at the kitchen table with Kagome-sensei. Fifi had been very disgruntled about the door being closed and her subsequent inability to go somewhere that the thumbbeasts did not want her to go. Regardless, she had been mollified by a large bowl of cream and an appropriate amount of petting from Kagome-sensei. The noise she was emitting was a bit too deep and echoey to be considered a purr, but that was the closest Hazō could think of.
"Keiko, Noburi, could you please brief Kagome-sensei on everything? I'm going to see if I can roust Mari-sensei and get her to join us."
Kagome looked sourly at the stairs. "Good luck. She's been crying ever since the news about Jiraiya got here." He sniffed in pretended disapproval. "Stupid Jiraiya. Getting himself killed like that without even thinking what it would do to Mari. Stinker."
Hazō chuckled. "I doubt he did it on purpose. I'll be right back." He started for the stairs, then paused and turned back.
"Kagome-sensei, has anyone told you exactly how Jiraiya died?"
Kagome-sensei was busy stabbing his fork angrily into his mushroom and pepper risotto. "No, why?"
"He was fighting a paper user, and he knew he was going to lose, so he used a suicide technique to take her with him. He called it 'Gōketsu Clan Technique: Kagome's Bliss'."
Kagome-sensei's head jerked up and his mouth gaped. "He...he called it what?"
"Gōketsu Clan Technique: Kagome's Bliss. It apparently involved absolutely
enormous explosions and a huge fireball."
Kagome-sensei started to cry.
Hazō blinked in shock, then hurried to hug his teacher.
"Stupid stinker," Kagome-sensei mumbled, choking on the words. "Stupid stinking Jiraiya. What kind of giant...stupidhead gets himself killed like that?!"
Hazō's eyes were starting to leak too. He hugged tighter, forcing himself to blink the water away. The Iron Nerve kept his breathing regular and even, preventing the incipient sobs from racking through him.
"I know," he murmured.
Noburi and Keiko sat, silent and uncomfortable, as the two sealsmiths processed the loss of their senior.
"Go," Kagome-sensei said at last, pushing Hazō away. "Go get Mari. We'll need her." He swiped the tears from his eyes and offered Noburi and Keiko an utterly unconvincing 'Everything is fine' smile.
"Noburi, Keiko, fill Kagome-sensei in on what happened in Mist. I'll be right back."
o-o-o-o
"Mari-sensei?"
There was no sound from beyond the door.
"Sensei? Sensei, it's Hazō. Can I come in?"
He was pretty sure that the whimpering noise was not an actual invitation, but he chose to take it as such.
The room was dark, the windows covered in heavy curtains that blocked out the tiny bit of moonlight that might have made it in. No lamps or candles were lit, but Hazō had brought one. The candle's flickering light was enough to reveal Mari-sensei, huddled in her bed with the blankets pulled over her head. The covers did nothing to disguise the quiet sobs that had her curled into a tiny, shuddering ball.
"Mari-sensei. Please look at me."
"Leave me alone."
Hazō took a breath, debating the best response. Was there simply nothing to do here? Should he just leave? The Sage knew, there were plenty of other issues to deal with.
No.
No, the Gōketsu needed Mari-sensei, and Mari-sensei needed something to focus on that wasn't pain, guilt, or self-loathing. And Hazō, the Gōketsu Clan Head, was the only one who could offer that.
Clan Head.
Sage, was he ready for that? Who was he kidding, thinking he could actually do this job? The family stood on the edge of doom, and
Hazō was supposed to guide them around the shoals? It should have been Mari-sensei...well, it should have been Jiraiya, but both those options were off the table.
No. He could do it. He would do it, because there was no one else. And the first step in being in charge was to act like he was in charge. Mari-sensei needed him to be her strength, and that meant leaving behind the student/teacher relationship that required her to be the strong one. There could be no more Mari-sensei.
"Mari. Look at me."
There was a pause and then a head poked out from beneath the blankets.
Mari's eyes were nearly as red as her hair, her face was blotchy, and she was wiping at her eyes in order to be able to see him.
"Listen to me, Mari. With Jiraiya dead, I am the head of Clan Gōketsu. Kurosawa Shinji will always be my Poppa, but Jiraiya was starting to become a father to me. I miss him too. I would give almost anything to have him back, but that's not going to happen. Right now, we need to focus on surviving as a clan. The Hyūga are coming for us with knives drawn and some of the others won't shed any tears if we're destroyed. The Gōketsu need to survive and we need you for that."
He waited to see if there would be a response, but there wasn't. She just looked at him blankly, her lower lip trembling, tears and mucus streaming down her face as she cried.
"Mari!" he said, sitting down on the edge of the bed and resting a hand on her shoulder through the covers. "I need you—
we need you to snap out of it. I order you to protect the political interest of the Gōketsu. You're worried about manipulating people? Fine. Do it to our enemies. You want redemption, do something to earn it instead of just wallowing in your own self-pity." Lashing out at her like this felt like driving a knife into his own soul, but it was all he could think of. They had given her space, they had given her time. There was no more time.
He studied her for a moment, waiting to see if his words would bring forth the iron or shatter the glass.
"You want redemption, to feel like you're doing good? Help me protect Keiko, and Noburi, and Kagome-sensei. Please."
There was no response.
What else? She couldn't do it for herself, she couldn't do it for Keiko or the others. Was it simply a lost cause, a problem with no solution? Was she truly that far gone to self-loathing?
Wait. That was her issue: Hating herself because she couldn't handle the responsibility of what she'd done.
"It's all on me, Mari. As your Clan Head, I am ordering you to help, and anything you do at my orders is my responsibility. Not yours. Do you understand?" No, that was wrong. You didn't ask questions when asserting ultimate authority. What was it that Mari-sensei had said to Akane after Akane ran herself to chakra-exhaustion?
"Mari. I have given you legal orders. Acknowledge your understanding."
"Please...."
"Acknowledge your understanding, Mari."
She turned away, the tears coming harder. "Hazō, please don't ask this. I can't. I just can't."
"Why not?" he asked, as gently as he could.
Her voice was pure pain when she answered, "I wasn't there."
"...What?"
"I could have been there. If I hadn't been hiding, if I had been doing my job instead of scrubbing floors and being silent, I would have been there when the call went out. I'm an elite jōnin, Hazō; I could have made a difference on the field. Truth Lost in the Fog...one glance and I could have shut down whole swaths of the enemy. I could have covered Jiraiya's flank, kept that fish bastard off of him. He'd be here now, taking care of things and keeping the city together, if I hadn't been such a cowardly failure."
"You are not a failure! And you are not a coward!" He forced himself to stop, fists clenched as he got his temper back under control. "Mari. You are not a coward. Yes, Momma hit you hard and you've broken. You can bring yourself together again, and you will. I know you will, because we need you to and you have always been there for us. Could you have helped Jiraiya if you'd been there? Maybe, maybe not. As powerful as you are, you aren't on his level, and the enemy was.
Maybe you could have made a difference, but more likely you being there would have distracted him, made him focus more on protecting you than on protecting himself."
"Why?" The word was a barely audible squeak. "Why would he care? He wouldn't even marry me."
Hazō paused, thinking about that one. "Tsunade said that he was afraid of commitment, and I think a wedding ceremony was just too visible a sign of that. I know you wanted it, and I wish I had been able to stand up with you, but it wasn't the important part. He loved you; he said it himself, remember?"
"He...he was probably lying. Just to make me feel better. Just manipulating us. Me. He was the only one who could do that, the one I couldn't manipulate. The only person who was safe from me, and now he's g-gone." She curled up tight, sobbing hard into the pillow.
"Mari. He loved you. He said it. He wrote an entire novel for you, just to make you happy. He could have just bought some nice jewelry or something, but he ran himself ragged to make a really thoughtful, personal present. He did love you."
The sobbing slowed, turning over time into mere sniffling, but she said nothing.
"He really did, Mari. Now come on. I need you."
"But...."
"No excuses, Mari. As your Clan Head, I am ordering you to get on your feet and protect this clan. Whatever you do, the responsibility is mine."
There was silence for about a second, and then a reedy, high-pitched keening that converted back into sobs.
Hazō sighed and stood up. "My responsibility Mari. Not yours." He turned and left the room, closing the door softly behind himself.
o-o-o-o
The sun was drooping to the horizon, throwing gaping shadows across the wind-sculpted snow outside the house. Inside the house, the fireplace was roaring, the tea was hot, and the stories were flowing as the kids caught Kagome-sensei up on the less earth-shattering things that had happened at the Chūnin Exams. Keiko was taking entirely too much glee in relating the story of setting Hazō on fire, when she suddenly stopped in midword, looking over Hazō's head with wide eyes.
Hazō spun around in his chair to find Mari standing on the stairs. Her hair was washed and brushed. Her makeup was perfect, all trace of redness gone from her eyes, and her clothing and jewelry were elegant and understated.
"Your responsibility," she said, nodding to Hazō. And then she walked out of the room and out of the house without another word.
"Hazō," Keiko asked carefully. "What did you do?"
XP AWARD: 4
It is now about 5 o'clock.
Vote time! What to do now?
Voting ends on Wednesday, May 8, 2019, at 12pm London time.
