Author's Note: This is the result of a commission from the generous @FaintlySorcerous. When it was originally posted it was done as an omake, since Noburi did not have enough chakra to summon both Toad Sages. He does now, and thus this is canon!
With great thanks to @Paperclipped who did all the work of verifying that Noburi could do it, verifying that there was enough koi chakra available, rewrote the beginning part to account for Noburi summoning the sages one after the other with a refill in between, and generally making this cut'n'paste easy for me.
Interlude: Toad Counseling
The day was cool and perfect given a heavy shirt.
"Ready?" Noburi asked, his voice twirling between nerves and concern for his wife.
Yuno nodded jerkily, hesitated, and asked, "Are you sure about this? What if they don't like me? What if they tell you that they refuse to have their Summoner be married to someone like me?"
Noburi snorted. "Then they can fuck right off. You're my wife, end of story."
"But..." Her voice trailed off and her eyes dropped. When she resumed it was with fingers that twisted together like grieving mice and a voice like wind-whispered grass. "But I'm such a bad wife that you're asking for advice on how to fix it."
Noburi gaped at her, all words gone from his brain.
"Honey...no! No, you are not a bad wife, I'm a bad husband! That's why I'm asking for their help—I don't know how to make you happy." He looked away. "I'm always messing up and making you angry or unhappy or..." He flapped his hands, trying to figure out how to describe his own failings. "Or something. I don't want to do that. I want to be better for you, but I don't know how. And I can tell you don't like it here in Leaf. Everything is different from Isan, you have none of your culture around, and I don't understand it well enough to help."
Yuno continued looking at her shoes. "You fold the napkins properly," she whispered.
Noburi snorted. "Fold the napkins properly? That's the best I can do? Honey, I'm your husband! I should be making you feel safe and happy. I should be doing more." I shouldn't be looking at other girls and thinking about what might have been, he didn't say.
She looked up through her lashes, uncertain as to whether he was mocking or sincere. The pain in his face seemed to convince her and she raised her head the rest of the way. "I think you're a good husband," she said, her voice still soft but no longer a whisper.
"Thanks for not saying 'most of the time'," Noburi said with a self-deprecating snort. "I know I'm screwing up a lot. That's why I made this one-off contract with them. I thought they could help." He stretched out his left hand in offering.
She considered it for a moment, then clasped it with exactly the degree of boundless confidence held by a baby deer coming into an unknown clearing.
Noburi smiled reassuringly, pricked his right finger on the tack that stuck down from his belt, and knelt to touch the blood to the earth. "Summoning Technique: Shima!"
A mass of purple smoke occluded the entire area. When it cleared, the tiny Toad Sage stood on the piled stones by the Gōketsu koi pond that Yuno and Noburi had cleared out for their picnic-slash-relationship-counseling session.
"This isn't the hot springs," Shima said, looking around in disapproval. "Jiraiya always used to bring us to the hot springs when he wanted to chat."
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Noburi said, feeling himself pink up as he immediately looked stupid in front of his wife. "I didn't think to ask if you had a preference. That said, this is a difficult conversation for us and so privacy would be nice. The hot springs tend to be crowded."
"Hmph," Shima said. "Maybe for the better. Jiraiya only booked out the men's side of the hot springs so he could peep on the women. He had the composure to carry a sensible conversation while he was peeping, but I'm not so sure you'd be able to keep enough blood in your head to keep up."
Noburi tried to avoid reacting to the distressingly familiar sound of Yuno's grip tightening on Satsuko's haft. "It's probably for the better then, yeah. Anyway, let's get Fukasaku here, shall we?"
Shima grunted. "Eh. If you like having dead weight around, sure. You've been around enough to know who's really carrying the marriage between us."
Noburi decided not to answer that—even if Shima could answer all his questions, he would never hear the end of it from Fukasaku if he decided not to summon the elder Toad Sage at this point. Noburi knelt down by the water of the koi pond and lowered a couple fingers into it. Immediately, chakra streamed out from the koi and into Noburi's barrel. He pulled until the weaker koi started to float, belly-up and unconscious, to the surface of the pond.
Noburi grimaced. "That might not be enough," he said, standing up and turning to Yuno. "Could you give me a little more?"
Yuno nodded, so he placed his wet hand over hers and started to drain.
After a moment, he released her hand and faced Shima, who had watched the byplay with mild curiosity before hopping out to the surface of the pond to prod at a couple of the still-dazed koi.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" she asked.
Noburi pricked his finger again and touched a palm to the ground. "Summoning Technique: Fukasaku!"
"Took you long enough," came Fukasaku's voice through the cloud of purple smoke. "I was half thinking you forgot about me."
"We're not senile old geezers like you, nitwit," said Shima, bounding up to her husband.
Noburi glanced at Yuno. He didn't know how she would react to the Toad Sages'... interesting dynamic.
"Ha!" Fukasaku said, jabbing his cane at Yuno. "You're the girl he's been getting all moon-brained about! I can see why. Quite the looker you've got there, boy." He used his cane to nudge Noburi approvingly in the thigh, which was as high as the ancient toad could comfortably reach from where he stood.
For her part, Yuno skipped over 'blushing' and went straight to 'tomato-on-fire red'. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir," she said, head bowed and fingers knotted together. Satsuko was slung through her belt and Noburi couldn't help but suspect that Yuno desperately wanted to feel the reassuring haft of her best friend in her grip but was holding off for fear that it might seem like she was threatening the tiny demigods.
"I should imagine so," Fukasaku said smugly, rocking back and forth from heels to toes in pleasure.
"Bah! That'll wear off pretty darn quick once you get to know him," said Shima. "Lift your head up, girlie. No one ever learned anything while staring at her feet."
Yuno looked sideways to Noburi for reassurance. He smiled and stepped close, slipping an arm around her shoulders. Her blush, if possible, got even darker, but she managed to lift her head.
"That's better," Shima said. "Boy! Platform!"
Noburi took his arm from around Yuno, braced his elbows on his belly, and held his arms out with forearms pressed together and palms up. Shima hopped up onto the platform thus formed, placing her at eye level with Yuno. She reached out and grasped the girl's chin, ignoring the way Yuno visibly smothered the urge to jump back. Shima turned Yuno's head from side to side with thoughtful
mm-hms, then tipped it up to look at her throat and tipped it down again so she could lean in practically eyeball-to-eyeball. Finally, she released her grip.
"You're a strong one," Shima said approvingly. "Not just in the muscles, either. Any nitwit can get muscles. You've got some starch and fire in you. I like that. Never could stand those noodly, limp-witted girls Jiraiya used to introduce us to." She turned to look at Noburi. "Good choice, boy. Things might be bumpy now but you can have a future with this one. Well, assuming she decides to put up with your nonsense."
"Hey!" Noburi said. "What nonsense?"
"You wouldn't be calling us here if things were going smoothly," Fukasaku said. "She's gorgeous and Ma says she's got starch and fire. If there's problems then I'm sure it's your fault."
"That's not true!" Yuno said. "Noburi is a wonderful husband!" Her hand drifted, probably unconsciously, down to Satsuko's hilt.
"Hah!" Fukasaku said, jabbing his cane towards her. "There we go! Defending your man! You must be doing something right after all, boy."
That somehow seemed to call for a response, but Noburi had not the faintest clue what it should be. He finally settled for a simple, "I hope so, sir."
Yuno seemed absolutely spun around by the two irascible sages. Once again, she looked to Noburi in mute entreaty.
Shima saw the look and bounded from Noburi's outstretched arms to the ground, landing gracefully and allowing her billowed robe to settle around her. "Well?" she demanded. "She's flustered, boy! Give her a hug!"
Noburi gladly gathered Yuno into his arms. She stiffened in surprise, then wrapped her arms around him and pressed close. He tucked her head under his chin and cupped her head with one hand and the small of her back with the other.
"There we go," Shima said with approval. "As long as you still enjoy touching each other, things aren't beyond salvaging. It's when a couple can't stand to touch that you know everything's gone off the cliff."
"We don't need salvaging," Yuno said, not lifting her head from Noburi's chest. "Noburi is a wonderful husband."
"Uh-huh," Fukasaku said doubtfully. "What are you, boy? Ten? Eleven?"
"Fifteen, sir." Noburi couldn't keep the irritation out of his voice.
"Bah," Fukasaku said, waving one webbed hand dismissively. "Ten, fifteen, whatever. Still a baby. You two are both painfully young. The boy tells me that neither of you dated before, right, girl?" He waved one hand at them. "Also, sit down! Can't have a talk like this with you two standing."
Yuno took a breath and turned outwards, freeing herself from Noburi's arms while still keeping their hips pressed together and his arm around her. After a moment she shifted slightly, stepping a few inches away so that they could both settle into seiza, although she captured his hand once they were seated. "We have not, sir."
"Sir, I'd appreciate it if you would speak more respectfully to Yuno," Noburi said, striving for firmness. "If you want to call me 'boy' or whatever, fine. Please refer to her as—" He paused and looked to Yuno with an inquiring eyebrow.
"Yuno," she said, nodding politely.
"Hrmph," Fukasaku said. "That—"
"—is entirely reasonable," Shima said. "
Right, Pa?"
Fukasaku's wide mouth tightened and he snorted grumpily. "Oh, very well. I suppose. Now, Noburi says that you two are having issues. That he feels inadequate and like he can't make you happy." He snickered. "You should have seen him when I offered him some stiffweed, gi—Yuno. Practically melted. Stammered for a good minute before he managed to explain that he didn't mean
that and that you two hadn't even gone there yet."
"Ha!" Shima said. "I knew you were using stiffweed again, old goat!"
"No I'm not, you harpy! I've never needed stiffweed in my life!"
"Then why did you happen to have it around, hm?"
"It was going to be a hundred-and-fiftieth birthday present for Gamahoto!"
"A likely story! I was wondering why you've been so frisky lately."
"I didn't hear any complaints," he said slyly.
"Hrmph. Don't be crude, Pa. Especially not in front of the children."
"We haven't been physical that way," Noburi said, desperately hoping to derail the latest example of the Sages' multi-century ongoing marital spat. "In Yuno's culture that's not done until both people are over eighteen."
"Aha! And you've been looking to sow your oats, have you?"
Noburi took a deep breath and forced his muscles to relax. "Sir, I'm not sure why you're trying to embarrass me, but please stop. When I initially approached you for advice I explained that the issue was I didn't feel like I knew how to make Yuno happy. I did
not mean sexually. I meant in general. I keep doing the wrong thing, or saying the wrong thing, or—"
"—or looking interested at other girls?" Shima asked knowingly.
Noburi and Yuno stiffened and very obviously did not look at one another. Yuno's grip tightened, nearly crushing Noburi's hand, and then sprang open when she realized what she had done. He gave her a smile and carefully managed his breathing so as not to show just how much pain she had caused.
"It's not that," Yuno said, biting her lip. "He's very attractive. It's natural that other girls would seek him out and—"
"Sure," Shima said, waving one hand to cut Yuno off. "But he notices them, right? You catch him eyeing them with that expression that says he's thinking about it?"
Yuno said nothing.
Shima leaned closer so she could pat Yuno reassuringly on the knee. "I'd say don't worry about it but I know you will. It's natural to notice attractive people, Yuno, and it's natural to be attracted. I'm sure you've noticed some handsome boys?"
"Yes...but I look away and I don't let myself think about doing anything with them."
"Hmph," Fukasaku said. "Repressing natural urges, very unhealthy. A little bit of daydreaming about some sweet young thing gets the blood up, makes you want to go back to your partner and—"
"Oh hush, you old goat."
"Don't you hush me!"
"I'll hush you whenever you say stupid things! Just because you're a randy old sock and I have the self-confidence and patience of a saint doesn't mean that's good advice for other people. Especially not people as young as these two." She turned back to Yuno. "When he notices those girls, does he do anything about it? Seek them out, sneak off with them?"
"No. But they come up to him and they act so..." She swallowed. "So feminine. They twirl their hair and make eyes and..."
"And?"
It took long seconds for Yuno to speak again and when she did her voice was wobbly. "And I can't do that. I'm not...I'm not feminine, or...or..."
"You're not feminine
yet," Shima said. "Thoughts confine your reality child, so make sure you aren't confining your thoughts."
"What?"
"If you say 'I am not feminine', you are implying that you can never be feminine," Fukasaku explained. "If you say 'I am not feminine
yet', that means that you could choose to learn it if you wanted to. Don't allow your thoughts to be constrained by false assumptions. The future always has more possibilities in it than it feels like."
"In this particular case," Shima said, a knowing smile hiding in her words, "I believe Noburi has mentioned this 'Mari' person who apparently knows rather a lot about being feminine. If it's something you actually wanted to be then I'm sure she could teach you how to twirl your hair and make eyes and paint your face and all that."
Noburi's brain tried to picture Yuno taking femininity lessons from Mari. His brain immediately ran gibbering into the darkness.
"Honey," he said carefully. "Let me be clear about this: if learning that stuff is something that you want, I'll support you. You don't have to; I didn't—" He caught himself before saying
I didn't start to love you because you were feminine since that was the entire core of the problem. He paused to pick his words but the tension in his stomach from Yuno's waiting eyes made the words run away. "I love you. I love you the way you are: dangerous and strong and powerful. If you want to have Mari teach you to...I honestly have no idea, but whatever it is I'm sure I will like that about you too. But if you want to do it then make sure you're doing it for you, not for me."
Yuno's smile was watery. "Thank you, Noburi. I don't think there would be much point. Can you imagine me in one of Mari's dresses, or with makeup on? I would look like a pig in a priest's robe. I'm not beautiful enough for that."
"Hey!" Noburi said, reaching out to her. "You are
very beautiful!"
"Tell her that often, do you, boy?" Shima asked.
"Um..."
"You should," Fukasaku said seriously. "Too many people treat marriage as a destination, not a basecamp. They think that once you're married the relationship is secure and you don't need to bother with it anymore. That's not true. All the things you did while you were first dating, you should keep doing them."
"We, uh, didn't really date," Noburi said.
"Nonsense!" Shima said, bapping him on the knee. "You told us about those walks on the river and stolen glances and all that. Sounds like dating to me."
"It was only a few days," Noburi said apologetically. "And it was a, a trick. Politics. A thing that Mari and Yuno's clan elders worked up. I was supposed to date Yuno to justify her clan and my team getting closer together, but it was basically an I&S mission, not a real relationship. Mari even explained it to me in those terms. And then my team left, and I was stupid about it and said hurtful things. And then when Yuno came to Leaf both us and the Hyūga wanted her to marry into their clan and there was a question whether she was going to marry me or Neji and I messed it all up and she was going to marry him but I got there right at the end and she married me." He ran out of words and looked away, suddenly fascinated with the view in every direction except the one where Yuno kneeled, her eyes cast down.
"Did you marry her just because your clan needed it?" Shima asked. "Did you
want to marry her?"
"Yes!"
"Why?"
Noburi finally looked over to Yuno; his smile was a small thing, full of quiet moments and gentle touches. He squeezed her hand lightly, just a quick pulse that made her look at him. "Because she's beautiful, even if she's too gormless to notice. And she speaks her mind. And she's patient when she teaches me Isan's customs, and even more patient when I screw them up. And it makes me feel like a man when I can help her with Leaf's customs. And she's a great fighter. And she cares about other people. And—"
"See, Yuno?" Shima said, touching Yuno gently on the knee. "Listen to all those reasons and how fast they came out. The boy is utterly besotted. You should have seen how cow-eyed he was when he asked us for help. He's a young man, which means he's an idiot, but he really does love you."
Fukasaku harumphed. "Not so sure I like that business about
all young men being idiots, but this one is, so I'll let it pass."
"He is not an idiot!" Yuno snapped, glaring at the ancient toad.
"He absolutely is, girl—Yuno. If he was smart then he wouldn't be making you feel bad." He shrugged. "Not completely his fault. He's frighteningly young and apparently he's never dated that much so he doesn't have the experience to know what to do." He glared at his Summoner. "Still, you can tell that he's an idiot because he didn't ask for help before things got so bad."
Noburi looked away, ears pink and stomach leaden.
"Don't worry, boy," Fukasaku said, patting Noburi's knee. "Youth is a condition that cures itself in time and you are fortunate enough to have the benefit of my great experience with romance to—"
"Great experience? Hah! Like you could find romance if it was served up to you in a silver casserole dish!"
"I'm very romantic, you old bat! It's why you fell in love with me in the first place!"
"Well,
someone sounds a little sure of himself!
I chose
you, dingus!"
"That is so not true! Our first day at school, I looked over at you on the other side of the mat and said 'I am going to marry that girl one day' and then I did! Ha!"
Shima raised a finger and started to respond hotly, then visibly remembered that Yuno and Noburi were there. She lowered her finger with a sigh and a glare at her husband, then turned back to the two humans.
"Noburi," she said, "you can't assume that Yuno knows you love her. You need to show it, and in ways that are meaningful to her. Yuno, you can't assume that Noburi knows what you need. You need to talk to him about it. When you're feeling insecure or unhappy, tell him. He wants to please you. He wants it so much that he humbled himself enough to ask for help from two grumpy old toads that he doesn't know very well and whose good opinion of him is critically important in his ability to remain the Toad Summoner."
Noburi bit back the words 'Wait, what?' just in time. Jiraiya had been in his life for far too short a time, but one of the bits of hard-earned wisdom that the Sannin had conveyed:
When your partner is giving you unearned credit for a good relationship move, take the win. Similarly, if someone else might be spinning your actions in an undeserved good light, don't jog their elbow.
"Oh," Yuno said. She glanced over at her husband and stroked her thumb lightly across the back of his hand. "Thank you, Noburi. I...hadn't thought about it."
"You're important," he said simply.
"So! What does she like, boy?" Shima demanded.
Noburi had been drowning in Yuno's eyes to the point that the rest of the world was background noise. His head snapped around as Shima's barked words jolted him out of it. "What? Huh?"
"Pay attention, boy!" Fukasaku said, thwapping Noburi on the thigh with his stick. "Ma asked you a question! What does the—what does Yuno like? When you want to make her feel good, what do you do?"
Noburi's mind, usually a darting swarm of silver-tongued thoughts and fancies, went completely blank.
The two Toad Sages and the Satsuko Wielder stared at him intently, their eyes demanding.
"She likes chocolate," he said, and immediately winced at the clichéd nature of the statement. He flailed around for something else. "And she likes it when I tell her that she's pretty. And when I fold the napkin properly at her place for dinner, and when I walk on the streetside."
"Good," Shima said, nodding. "Maybe there's hope for you yet. Yuno, what else should he know? What else could he do that would make you feel loved and valued?"
Yuno's face almost literally lit on fire. She let go of Noburi's hand and hunched in on herself, both hands in her lap and her hair falling in her face. She mumbled something incoherent.
"Speak up, g—Yuno!" Fukasaku said, poking her in the side with his stick; she yelped in surprise and jolted upright.
"Come now, dearie," Shima said, hopping forward so she could take both of Yuno's hands in her own. "If you can't tell Noburi, tell me. Look right at me and say something that Noburi has done that you liked. Just us girls."
"I... I like it when he touches me," Yuno whispered, her eyes wide and staring into Shima's. "He'll walk past to get something and trail his hand across my back without thinking about it. If I sit beside him on the couch while Hazō is having one of his meetings, Noburi will put his arm on the back of the couch and stroke my hair. I'm not sure he knows that he does it."
Noburi struggled not to look surprised.
Had he done that? Well, yes, he had, but it wasn't something he was intentionally doing as part of his Be A Good Husband efforts.
"Did your family touch?" Shima asked, keeping her voice calm and eyes on Yuno's. "Did your parents hug you, did they hold your hands?"
Yuno jerked her head in the negative. "No. My f-father died and I was the cursed child. Unclean. No one touched me. They barely spoke to me."
"Oh, sweetie," Shima said, pulling the girl gently forward and down so that she could wrap tiny green arms around Yuno's neck. The tug was gentle and slow, easy to refuse, but Yuno went with it. Her arms went around Shima's robe-swaddled waist and hugged tight. Noburi winced, knowing the power of his wife's muscles, but Shima might have been made of stone for all the notice she took.
"All right," Shima said, once Yuno finally released the hug nearly a minute later. One web-fingered hand stroked the girl's hair and then she allowed Yuno to sit up properly. "Now, did you ever tell Noburi that you liked that?"
Yuno swallowed, glanced guiltily and briefly at her husband, and then shook her head at Shima. "I'm sorry," she said. "I know I'm stupid about these things, but—"
"Bup!" Shima said, leaning forward and stretching so that she could put a batrachian finger over Yuno's lips. "You are
not stupid, child. Don't be running yourself down like that."
Fukasaku snorted. "Probably brighter than this one, that's for sure. Honestly, boy, how can you leave such a sweet child unhappy? Have you made no effort whatsoever?"
"Stop," Yuno said angrily, her uncertainty and hunched posture disappearing. "Do not insult my husband again."
Fukasaku grinned. "Good. Good. Angry at the mean old toad and defending your husband. Much better than doubting yourself and feeling awful. Now. Take some of that fire and use it to defend yourself. Woman up, because I'm sending you and Noburi into battle. There's a deadly enemy that you two can bond over killing together. The battle is on unfamiliar ground and your normal weapons won't do anyth—er, your normal weapons are unsuitable. You'll need to learn a new combat style. A secret technique taught by the Toad Clan. It's exhausting and uncomfortable and you'll probably curse my name for sending you into the field with it, but you'll need it in order to win this fight. What do you say? Want to learn?"
"Yes!" Yuno bowed deeply, a full dogeza, and sat up, her eyes fierce. "Please teach me!"
"Ha! I told you!" Fukasaku said to his wife, poking at her with his cane. "Told you this was the way!"
"Shut your fool yap and point that thing someplace else," Shima said, batting the cane aside. She sighed. "Fine. Go ahead and look ridiculous."
"Hrmph." Fukasaku strutted up in front of Yuno and studied her carefully, a master sizing up a potential disciple. "All right, child. I accept you as my student. Now, listen carefully as I share with you the ancient Toad Clan marital art."
Yuno blinked. "Wait,
marital art? Don't you mean—"
"Bup!" Fukasaku said, thumping her on the head with his stick before she could defend herself. "Don't interrupt your sensei! As I was saying, this is the ancient Toad Clan marital art. We call it: Standing up for your Sagebedamned self and telling your partner how you feel and what you want."
"What?! That's—" She broke off, raising a forearm to deflect a blow that did not come. When it didn't, she settled back and glowered at the giggling toad.
Fukasaku's giggles were rusty and grinding, like wheels that hadn't been greased in far too long. Shima's eyes rolled.
"He's being his usual overdramatic self but he's not wrong," Shima said. "Yuno, Noburi loves you. He wants to make you happy, he just doesn't know how." She looked to Noburi. "Noburi, Yuno loves you. She's uncomfortable in Leaf and insecure about her place here but she doesn't know how to express that in good ways. You're both going to need to work on it."
"Talk to each other," Fukasaku said seriously. "Use 'I' statements that tell the other person about how you feel. Don't use 'universal' statements that talk about how the world is or what your partner thinks. Ask for what you want, don't make them guess. For example, Yuno, don't say 'you always look at other girls' or 'you never look at me like that.' Instead, try saying something like, 'Noburi, when you seem attracted to other girls
I feel unsafe and unwanted. When you have those feelings, it would help me feel safer if you would take my hand and smile at me."
"Noburi," Shima said, "you might say 'Yuno, when you attack or threaten other girls just because I looked at them, it makes me feel afraid and unmanly. I'm trying not to do that, but if I do then could you please tell me so that I can reassure you that you are in fact the one that I love and want to be with forever?"
"'Unmanly'?" Fukasaku demanded, glowering at his wife. "Making some assumptions there, aren't you? Maybe the boy feels very manly about having girls fighting over him."
"Listen, you—"
"I really don't," Noburi said quickly. "Unmanly is exactly the word. I feel weak because I couldn't control myself even though I know it makes Yuno upset. It...it..." He trailed off, wincing.
"Go ahead," Shima said. "No matter what it is, you need to get it out or it will fester."
Noburi swallowed and turned to face Yuno, taking her near hand in his own. She turned to match him so they were knee to knee and Noburi was able to take her other hand as well. Noburi licked his lips before taking a deep, calming breath and proceeding. "Beloved," he began, visibly uncomfortable with the word but choosing it with intention, "when you get violent with Leaf citizens, it makes me afraid. I'm afraid that it will cause trouble for the clan, and it makes me wonder if you might someday get violent with me."
Yuno jerked back as though she'd been slapped. "I would never! Noburi, please—"
Noburi smiled and recaptured her hands, squeezing them reassuringly. "It's okay. The fact that you're here today, going through this excruciating process with these grouchy old busybodies"—("Hey!" said the toads in unison)—"tells me everything I need to know about how you feel. I want this to work and I can tell you do too. I promise that I love you and that I'll do my absolute best to stop noticing other girls, and that if I do then I'll make a point of reassuring you that it's just hormones and you're the one that I want. The one that I
chose."
Yuno couldn't take her eyes from his despite the tension through her shoulders and fear on her face that shouted how much she wanted to run. She swallowed and her head twitched in the affirmative. "Noburi, I love you and I want to be with you. I promise that I'll try—I promise that I'll
stop hurting other women just because you seemed attracted to them, and that I'll tell you when I'm feeling insecure or threatened. You are the one I chose and I have wanted to be with ever since we first met."
"You should have a secret sign," Fukasaku said gleefully. "Like we did."
Shima's eyes widened. "Don't you dare, you old goat! Don't you dare!"
"I'm daring."
"No you're not!"
"I am. I'm daring." The ancient toad's face was a green copy of Honoka's after she successfully stole cookies and ate them despite parental scowls.
Shima purple-stained lips pressed tight together. "Fine. Only because it will probably be helpful to them."
Fukasaku cackled gleefully and turned back to the two baffled humans. "See, when we first started courting, Shima was a frail and shy little flower who—"
"I was not frail! I kicked your ass every time we sparred!"
"Hush, woman! Who's telling this story?"
"No one! The fable you're telling is nothing like what happened!"
"Hrmph. Fine, well, Shima used to be shy when we first started courting. She was convinced that a toad of my masculine virtue wouldn't want to be with someone like her, so—"
Shima smashed him in the belly with a stomp kick that sent him flying two dozen yards. He hit the ground, rolled several times to bleed off his momentum, came back to his feet, and leaped all the way back to them in one bound. Just before he touched down, a corona of blue fire burst forth around him and slowed him to a feather-light landing.
"If you're going to tell it, tell it truthfully!" Shima snapped. She faced the humans again. "He's right about one thing in that self-aggrandizing little fantasy he's spewing: I did used to be shy. Given what a giant tool he is, he often made me feel diminished or unwanted. So, we came up with a secret sign that meant I was feeling insecure and needed reassurance." She faced her husband and tapped one finger on her lips. Fukasaku stepped close and kissed her, then leaned his forehead on hers, arms at her hips.
Yuno turned to Noburi with a shy smile and tapped her lips. Her husband smiled back and leaned forward willingly.
