Chapter 41: Chapter 41: Clan Heiress Arc: One
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
"So do you want to go and pick out a puppy?" I ask, standing to brush off my shorts and set my mission pack by the door.
His eyes light up. "I get to go with Neechan?"
I nod. "Of course. Do you want to go?" I offer him a hand and we make our way out the door.
"Where do you two think you're going?" We turn guiltily. Kaa-san's standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. "Kiba. I told you, you're grounded until this time next month."
Kiba's lips wobble. "Kaa-san..."
"No." Kaa-san isn't quite glaring at him, but she's not amused either.
"'Pologized to Neechan." Kiba mumbles. "Neechan said was okay."
"Well I don't say it's okay." Kaa-san points in the direction of Kiba's room down the hallway. "Go back to your room, Kiba."
His eyes fill with tears, and I can't quite take this anymore. "Kaa-san, Kiba didn't do anything-"
"Don't shield your brother, Hana." Kaa-san switches her unamused expression to me. "He's been a little brat ever since before you left. It's time that he learned things don't always go his way." Kaa-san sighs. "When you were his age we'd already enrolled you in the Academy. Right now he needs to gain maturity."
It isn't fair to compare me to Kiba. When I was his age the first time around I wasn't great either. But there's no real way to explain to Kaa-san that I hadn't been a typical child. I'd been Kaa-san's elder child. I hadn't been a child much really, but Kaa-san doesn't know that. How do I explain?
Kiba takes a huge gasping breath, and then he runs down the hallway to his room rubbing his eyes, his shoulders shaking.
"That wasn't fair, Kaa-san." I remark. "Kiba-chan isn't mean."
"I know." Kaa-san sighs. "But he has to learn that his actions have consequences. He was mean to you until he remembered that you could die on any mission anytime. He's been running Ashi ragged. He's been a brat to me for a month until I told him about what had happened down at the border today." Kaa-san pats me on the head. "Don't fault me for being harsh with him. We've coddled him too much, he won't learn that way."
I don't like it. I don't like things that make Kiba unhappy, but I understand where Kaa-san is coming from. "Stop grounding him soon, Kaa-san."
She turns back to look at me, a tired look in her eyes. "I'll think about it."
It's better that I not talk to Kiba after that. He'd always been sensitive about whether or not someone has scolded him. Instead, I slip on my sandals and step out into the street. We've never really had a full Team Ensui meeting before, Mu-kun, Toku, Ita-kun, and I. The thought in mind, I walk down towards the Aburame Compound first to check if Muta had returned from wherever he'd gone last time.
He didn't speak much about it, or about the Shishou that is in charge of teaching him the finer details.
I find him in one of the Insect Houses, tending to the kikaichu with a steady hand. "Mu-kun!"
He turns towards me, a small smile on his lips. "Hana-chan." He sets down the pitcher of sugar chakra water. "Is there something the matter?"
I laugh. "No, not this time, I just wanted to know if you wanted to go out to Mufu-an with the rest of the team?"
He steps towards me, and slides his glasses over his face. "I know that Toku's at Sensei's house." He offers me a hand. "But I'd be willing to come with you even if he ends up not coming."
"Ita-kun should be at Sensei's house too." I muse.
His lips quirk upwards. "We are bringing Itachi-kun as well?" The thought is a bit out of left field. Oh, of course, you dummy Hana. Muta isn't and has never been on a team with Itachi.
"He is a part of Team Ensui." I say. "I think we should invite him too."
Muta pokes me in the shoulder. "I did not say that we should not. He's important to you and Toku after all."
I laugh. "Well, then. I'll race you to Sensei's house." And with that I make one hand sign and replace myself with a potted plant down the street.
Muta growls. "You're not faster than me, Hana." And we make our way down the streets of Konoha like we used to back when we were genin, in a swirl of potted plants, slippers and ninja wire.
"Sensei?" I call. "Kiho-baachan?" There are no lights on, as normal, and we walk down the hallway as easily as the sunlit street because this is Sensei's house we're talking about. We've been here too many times. This is home.
"Hello you two." Sensei's sitting in the shadows of his living room, Itachi at his side. They are both still looking at various papers scattered over the low table, and Itachi is scrawling something else down furiously with his sharingan active as we peer in.
"Hello Sensei, Itachi-kun." Muta inclines his head towards Itachi. "We were wondering if you would like to join us at Mufu-an today."
Itachi's eyes widen before he schools his face back into a semblance of self control. "If Sensei is alright with it, I would like to go."
Sensei raises an eyebrow at me. "Why do I think that this is all your idea, Hana-chan."
I stick my tongue out at him. "Because it is all my idea, Sensei!" I dance forwards so that I can snuggle up to his shoulder. "I wanted to have a day where Team Ensui could sit around and drink tea in Mufu-an."
Sensei leans back against the couch and threads his fingers through my hair. "I turned you all into tea drinking maniacs. I'm so proud."
This close, I can feel the beat of his heart and every breath that enters and exits his lungs. His heartbeat, while slow, is firm and even. And his breathing is just as languid as he seems to be today. But neither are weak. "Still so worried, Hana-chan." Sensei chuckles next to my ear and I flush a dark red. Of course Sensei caught me. I guess I didn't act as unworried as I thought. "I told you I'd be fine."
"Sorry, Sensei." I murmur as I disentangle myself from him. "I won't do that again."
"You will." Sensei smiles, the corners of his mouth turning upward slowly. "But I forgive you." He waves a hand at us and pushes himself up from the floor. "Well, go on and collect Toku-kun from the Vicious Hag already." It is clearly still hard for him, but he disguises it with a surprising amount of lassitude so it just seems as though he doesn't want to get off the floor that quickly instead of it being hard to get off the floor.
We do not point it out to him. It would be insulting to offer to help him up. The three of us troop out into the hallway.
"So, we shall we go collect Toku?" Itachi asks, looking between Muta and I as if unsure of how to step forward.
Muta nods wordlessly. We turn and walk down the hall towards Kiho-baachan's makeup room.
"So how have you been since Academy, Aburame-kun?" Itachi is attempting to break the somewhat awkward silence that has fallen between us.
"Muta-kun." Muta offers, with a slight inclination of his head. "You should call me Muta-kun, Itachi-kun." He takes off his glasses and slips them in his pockets, his gold eyes flashing in the dim light, and there is his customary small smile on his lips. "You are a member of Team Ensui."
Before Itachi can reply, Toku bursts out from the open doorway. "You guys!" He slings an arm over Itachi and Muta's shoulders with a wide wide grin. "Did you all come to see me?" He sticks his tongue out at me. "Sorry, Hana-chan, I just don't have enough arms for everyone today."
I poke him in the stomach. "That's too bad, because I like to think that of the four of us, I'm the most popular."
He groans. "No, no! Everyone knows that's me because of my dashing good looks!" Itachi, Muta, and I freeze as we stare at each other in shock. Did he just imply that we look bad? Compared to his white 'all seeing' eyes?
When we turn to glare at him, he breaks out into mad cackles. "You should all see your faces!" We freeze again. Actually, our faces must be pretty funny.
We're all still cackling madly as we make our way out the door and down the street to Mufu-an. Trust Toku to lighten up the entire day. Muta and I share a fist bump. Good job, we corrupted him early.
"And Kiho-baachan wants me to dress up as a girl." Toku groans. "Isn't that just the worst thing you've heard of in your life? Kimonos? Silk ones with flowers on them? Hair ornaments?" He rests his head on the table in deep dismay. "I'm going to die a girl at this point."
I pat him comfortingly on the shoulder. "Well, you know, at least then we'll know what your long and beautiful hair really means, Toku."
Across from us, Muta laughs quietly into his tea. "Toku, this can not possibly be worse than manure."
Toku shudders without raising his head from the table. "This is a thousand times worse than manure." He wails into the table cloth. "I won't ever be able to show myself in public again."
Itachi also pats him on the shoulder. "Well, at least you'll never be mistaken for a Hyuga as long as you wear contacts."
Muta inclines his head towards him. "How so, Itachi-kun?"
Itachi turns, and with the most serious deadpan expression replies. "Because male Hyugas don't go around dressed in drag."
Toku whimpers. I pour more tea and we all laugh. "We broke him, Mu-kun." I lean across the table to shoulder bump Muta. "We did it. We corrupted a Hyuga and an Uchiha!"
Muta smiles, and surely I've never seen him smile so much in one day. "Truly we are talented, Hana." He replies. "Truly, there is something infectious in the air."
That evening when I return to the clan compound, I find everyone converging on the fire pit outside in our yard. There are more relatives here than I've seen in a very long time.
"Oh, Hana-chan." Cousin Ashi pulls me towards the center of the circle. "We've called a gathering tonight. It's really good that you made it back in time."
She gestures to the older man leaning against the wall of the house. "That's Uncle Kegawa, he's the most prominent of the Inuzuka men ever since Otou-san died, and right beside him is Uncle Teiru." I glance up at her. Her father had been my uncle. He'd died before I was born. His name was...Kouga?
"Uncle Kouga, right?" I squeeze her hand. "So he's Kosshi-baasan's elder brother?" He is the uncle that had never visited me, not even as a child, and the other one is my aunt's younger brother, a mere five years older than Kaa-san. He hadn't really visited me much either.
"His daughters are the ones that you'll have to defeat tonight." She whispers. What? What are we talking about? "They're over there." Cousin Ashi nods towards a group of three girls. "Kotsuzui, Kihaku, and Kosha." She squeezes my shoulder. "You have to do this for us, Hana-chan. Our pride is on the line."
"What's going on?" The writhing mass of people and dogs in the red firelight is strange enough, but to know that I have to 'defeat' family members is just strange.
"We're calling-" Cousin Ashi trails off.
The Triplets wriggle out of the crowd towards me. "Bad news, Hana!"
Ichi rubs his nose on my thigh and licks me. "They're here to challenge your position in the pack." What? I don't have any idea what's going on. He growls.
"Bad news! Bad news!" Ni and San chorus.
Ni plants himself in front of me and growls every hair on his back standing on end as Uncle Kegawa approaches. "Get away from Hana!"
Uncle Kegawa laughs. "Call off your dogs, little pup."
I smile politely at him. "I always trust my brothers." I set a hand in Ni's fur. "You may stand down if you wish." I murmur at him. I don't know what's going on, but there's something moving in the air. What's going on?
Uncle Kegawa is still smiling rather indulgently at me even as he examines me from head to foot. "You do look much more like Little Tsume than that foreigner." He murmurs.
I bristle. "Tou-san wore Konoha's hitai-ate, Uncle Kegawa." And I do not like him. Not one bit.
He merely chuckles. "You cannot become what you are not, little one. And you are half Iwa." He turns towards the group. "It's time we decided on an Heiress!" Is this what it's all about? The vacant position of clan heiress? And suddenly the idea that I'd be defeating someone, one of his daughters, makes much more sense.
"As Tsume's daughter is unfit to simply ascend the position." And here he glances at me, a gleam of something dark in his eyes playing in the red firelight. "I'm calling a Long Howl." He throws his head back and howls.
All around the camp fire, men, women, children, and dogs echo his call. Our howls ring out loud into the night.
Kaa-san's upon Uncle Kegawa in a moment as soon as the howl ends, grasping handfuls of his shirt front, eyes blazing with fury. Kuromaru is right beside her, growling louder than the Triplets had been earlier. "What did you say about my daughter, Aniki?"
Uncle Kegawa merely smiles, that same infuriating smile he'd pinned on me. "I merely pointed out the elephant in the room, Imouto." He spreads his hands wide in a placating gesture. "You chose to marry the man, and for that your daughter is half foreign. If she wants to earn the title of Clan Heiress she'll have to go through my daughters to get to it."
And he makes me sick, so sick, because Kaa-san looks smaller beside him. Kaa-san looks frail beside him. She's his little sister. He should be helping her up when she falls down, not kicking her down to begin with.
"You can't displace the Clan Heiress when there's no proof that she unfit for the position, Uncle Kegawa." I turn to find Cousin Gaku standing behind me. He gives my shoulder a squeeze.
"The male child of the former clan head can't say much about the decision for a new Heiress." Uncle Kegawa shrugs. "But if you have something to say, let's hear your piece."
Cousin Gaku turns to the gathering, his hand still on my shoulder. "I was there for Cousin Hana's birth." He announces. "And I saw how much she was an Inuzuka even then." He takes a deep breath. "She connected with her partners at a few months old." He gestures to the Triplets. "The Haimaru Triplets are three months older than her." And Inuzuka dogs bond with their partners when they are fairly young. Had I been born a few months later they would no longer have been available to partner with. "Everyone knows that I lost my memory when Kaa-san died during the Kyubi Incident. Cousin Hana was the one to help me collect what memories I now recall." He squeezes my shoulder. "I throw my weight with her, and if I am your friend, then you know what your choice is."
Cousin Ashi stands up. "Uncle Kegawa, I have something to say as well." Before he can acknowledge her right to speak, she turns on weakened legs towards the gathering. "When Kaa-san died, you all turned to Tsume-baasan. She didn't want to take the position, you all, besides Kaa-san, had cut your ties when she married Kaito-jisan." She sighs. "You passed over me, and I understand that I am no longer fit to lead the pack, but I ask that you follow precedence." She throws her head back, and stands, tall and proud for the first time in a long time. "I ask that you respect the traditions of our ancestors. The position of clan head passes mother to daughter. Sister to Sister, not Aunt to Niece especially not an Aunt to her brother's daughter." She glances across the fire at me and smiles. This is what I do for you, little cousin. "I throw my weight with her, and if you still follow the traditions laid down by our ancestors before us, you know where you stand."
Another boy stands up from beyond the firelight. "That's Cousin Shin." Gaku whisper next to my ear. "He is Uncle Teiru's eldest son."
"I counter your argument, Cousin Ashi." He inclines his head gracefully at Cousin Ashi. "I would have supported your claim before the Kyubi Incident, but I cannot look at precedence when it would lead us to the path of ruin!" He points dramatically at me. "While Cousin Hana is indeed a cousin, and Tsume-baasan's only daughter, she is only half an Inuzuka." I feel my blood boil and then run cold, freezing into ice beneath my veins. This isn't about me. This is about discrediting Kaa-san. Uncle Kegawa set this up so that Tou-san comes into the discussion. "If you stand with tradition, Cousin Ashi, then you stand with me." Cousin Shin smiles his fanged smile in the firelight. "You'll stand with our Cousin Kotsuzui."
Uncle Kegawa set this up to make sure that he is the next ruling power inside the clan. Perhaps he really thinks that I am unfit to rule the clan. Perhaps he does think that Tou-san's blood in me, Tou-san's influence in the first five years of my life, makes me unfit for Clan Head. I had never thought of ruling the clan before, but I cannot let them discredit Kaa-san.
I step forward, my hands still entwined with the Triplets' fur. "A word, Cousin Shin." I call out above the firelight. "Did you ever speak to Tou-san?"
He looks uncomfortable. "I wouldn't speak to a foreign ninja, Cousin Hana. That would be treason."
I've got you. My answering smile is poison in the red light. "Then of course, you weren't observant enough to notice that Tou-san wore a Konoha hitai-ate, and worked in Konoha's Research and Development Department. He lived right here in the Compound, Cousin Shin." I step forward another step towards him on the other side of the fire. "And if you weren't capable of noting that rather blatant detail, I wonder what other clan traditions you've forgotten to notice?"
There are a few chuckles in the crowd, but no one stands to speak for me. This fight, I will have to fight alone. I turn back to Uncle Kegawa. "You mistrust me for my blood, Uncle Kegawa, that is fine." I incline my head towards him. "Yet, I still do call you Uncle." I muse. "Which means that we must share blood, so it is your own blood that you are mistrusting. What will you respect from me? Is it strength?" I tug at the bottom of my flak jacket. "I graduated Academy two months before my seventh birthday. I killed my first person by age seven and a half. I made it to the final round of my first chunin exams at age eight. I stand here before you, a chunin at age nine. Is it my strength that you question, or is it just my blood?" I lean towards him, the mockery of a bow. "Or is it Kaa-san's judgement that you are questioning? Did you think that your imouto chose a traitor?" I do not want to throw my achievements in his face, but if it strength that he wants, then it is strength he will find.
It is steel forged with the blood of my enemies. It is the love I have for my family. And now I know why Cousin Ashi said that our pride is on the line. "If you do not think me strong enough," and here I turn to the gathering. "If you think me weaker than my Cousin Kotsuzui, then we should fight. Here and now." I draw a line in the dirt at my feet. "I'm willing to fight."
Another howl goes up from the gathering, as one of the girls from before steps forward. She's got wild hair, wilder than mine, and a fanged smile, and she's at least eight years my senior. But the marks on our cheeks are the same. These proud red fangs. I am proud to be an Inuzuka. Her dog at her side is a dark brown, so dark that in the dancing light of the fire, she seems almost black.
"Well met, Little Cousin." She inclines her head at me. "I will make sure that you do not end up in the morgue."
I smile back at her, the same smile Kaa-san uses when she's using enemy bones to pick her teeth. "I offer you the same amount of sympathy."
Beside me, the Triplets array themselves in a line, and they look more vicious than ever.
"They dare. They dare to question the queen." San growls. "They will learn the error of their ways."
Ichi and Ni only offer their wordless agreement expressed in the forms of growls harsher than I'd ever heard them. The enemy is different this time. The enemy also has fangs and claws, and they wear our blood and our name but they are not ours. They will pay.
We tense together, and then we spring, dogs, four legged beasts all of us.
I'm rolling around in the dirt with Cousin Kotsuzui, and while our vision is red and we are swarmed with the lust for blood, the lust to defend and conquer, we keep hold of our minds enough to avoid the flames. She pins me beneath her, and she's bigger than me, stronger than me when we're fighting with brute strength, her jaws snapping mere inches above my throat.
I drive my knee into her stomach and follow her arching body upwards to reverse our positions. I'm snapping at her throat only a few moments before she flips us over once more. I'm too light. Too light to pin her and make her submit.
I channel chakra towards my hands still wrapped around her forearms. This time, I do not care if it burns all the skin off my hands. I don't care if it burns my hands until they are nothing but bone. You've always defended me, Kaa-san. Tonight I will defend you.
She shrieks in pain and I flip us over again, and we roll over and over, heading straight through the flames. The fire singes my eyebrows, catches on my hair, the coals burn through my flak jacket and dance over my back, but I do not care.
I cannot fight Uncle Kegawa and make him pay for his sins, make him pay for questioning Kaa-san and pulling apart the seams of the Inuzuka family dynamic, but I can make her pay. And through her obvious pain I can make him pay.
We roll out of the fire, and I get to my feet, swaying drunkenly, because now it hurts. She doesn't, but she's still alive. I made good on my promise to you Cousin. You're not ending in the morgue. There's skin cracked and peeling off of my hands from where I'd channeled too much raw lightning chakra and held it for too long. Burst and darkening blood vessels wind their way up my wrists.
My hair is no longer on fire, but the long dark hair that I'd grown out so carefully so not to be mistaken for Nohara Rin is gone. It falls again, chin length, and that feels right, it feels like it should. I shouldn't change myself so I become less like someone else that I've never met before. It didn't stop Kakashi from thinking so anyway.
I open my mouth, raise my face to the moon, and I howl my victory. This is where I belong. And you will accept me.
And now, in the dark, from all around the graying coals, the clan lifts their voices in song. We've chosen a leader. We've chosen a queen. A new pack mother.
I smirk at Uncle Kegawa. "Blood answers blood." My eyes start sliding shut, and Kaa-san's racing out of the darkness towards me.
"Hana!" She cries. "Hana! Musume!" Daughter.
"And pride goes before fall." I murmur and then I crumple, and all around me, the dust rises, gray as ash.
A.N. And we get the meeting of all the students of Nara Ensui. They get along pretty well, all things considered, and both Itachi and Muta are clearly trying to have a smooth and happy friendship. And one of my absolute favorite things, Clan Politics. Clan Politics everywhere. Now, none of these people who question her loyalty are bad, because they aren't really.
They don't know her very well, and loyalty is important to the pack, and Kaito never quite understood pack as much as he understood family. (I also kind of feel that this is sort of how a meeting of the entire Inuzuka Clan would go: the firelight, the moon, the howling, the packness of the entire affair, coupled with their matrilineal lineage. They wouldn't be stuffy about it like the Uchiha or the Hyuga, but they'd have their own traditions and their own formalities.)
Thank you to Guest (Kakashi will make his appearances as he makes them. He keeps demanding more screen time to be troll-like in, so I assume that he will attempt to teach her something sometime. It might blow up spectacularly though.), LadyScatty (Kakashi is opaque as usual, but he does have semi decent motivations. And yes, he definitely has some very serious issues. Kiba is adorable. He's also four which means he will be bratty, it's a sign of being four.), Fuchslady (We don't see any Kakashi appearances this chapter, but there's supposed to be a lot of him next chapter...I think. I can't tell yet since he's being a troll. ._. And thank you so much, your comment made me blush really hard. I'm glad Hana's a human and not a Mary Sue.), the yeah (No we will never explain why Hana's where she is. She just is. It's a mystery of life and death that she does not contemplate very hard.), Sis (No that's not what happened, but Hana sure was distracted.), WhiteFang001 (Yep, Orochimaru is a diva. For sure.), libraryrockerr (Yes, Kakashi is trying. It's just that his trying is for lack of a better word...irritating? and also since Hana looks nine years old it's kinda hard for people to take her seriously.), and snidekick (I love Yugito too!) for reviewing!
And to everyone who favorited and followed!
~Tavina
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