Reborn in the Mist

Uncle wouldn’t let me leave as I intended once I’d made that declaration. And so the room emptied out instead, leaving myself, Uncle, Lady Megumi and a lingering Lady Akane Kaguya. None of us paid much attention to her however and so she listened in to Uncle and Lady Megumi’s panicked warnings.

“Lord Fourth, please reconsider this, it really isn’t too late.” Lady Megumi begged. Her clan might have begun to empty out of the mainland but a vast majority of our elite forces were Jounin and Chuunin belonging to her clan, and thus, a myriad of abused privileges waited justice at the hands of those who now had my permission to seek it.

“She’s right, you know?” Uncle said once more. “It really isn’t too late to come up with…a better solution than a veritable Kage sanctioned civil war!”

I snorted, my Kage hat lay on the floor beside me and my feet raised to meet my chin as I poured myself a third cup of sake. “There is no civil war. This is overdue tensions being given a chance to be relieved, think about it, after these two days have passed everyone that participated will be mine to judge.”

“Judge?” Lady Megumi said, looking hopeful.

“Yes, like you all are already, but I haven’t the time or patience to leave the future to investigate the past. I leave that to the hands of those you’ve wronged.” She sneered and spilt out a row of expletives. I merely shook my head and downed my sake. “Anyone that doesn’t take this opportunity to seek their justice, whether violent or peaceful, will have to come through me.”

“And what’s the difference between how it already is and that? We still come to you to sort out our issues.” Uncle pressed, he was truly worried. I know this wasn’t what he expected my translation of his encouragement would be but this is it.

“The difference is the past. I am moving forward and I’ll leave behind, cut off or execute anyone that tries to drag me back. From my anniversary and onwards, this village will start a new history, one dictated by me.”

“It’s already dictated by you…” Uncle muttered, dragging a hand across his face in frustration. “You’re just taking the easy way out of this, Yagura, we’ve had this discussion many times. What it would take to change our village so the caste clans stand tall on their own, independent and free of our influence. But this…”

I poured more sake into my cup and tossed the fried meat into my mouth. Magnificently roasted. “There is nothing easy about this, Uncle. I realize what I’ve sanctioned even more than you. You two are frightened for the caste clans but if I were you, I’d be more concerned for the main clans.”

“What?” Lady Megumi hissed.

I nodded and washed down the meat with sake. “Yes, don’t you know? If Lady Suikazan leverages her weight as their representative…well, we have what? Over a dozen caste clans under our claw? We main clans have a lot to answer for and these two days are all I’ll permit.”

“How could you…you…betray your own!?” The Hozuki Matriarch screamed.

“Oh, this is no betrayal and I am well aware of my own clan’s oppression of the caste clans, though it's not as gross as yours and easily forgivable by the fact that I am Mizukage.” I said this while eying Uncle, he knew more than a handful of our clan members who had something coming. “I am the Mizukage finally giving mercy, justice and ushering a new era of potential equality to Kirigakure. One that has been long due.”

I shook my head and played with a cupcake. “If I were you, Lady Megumi, Uncle, I’d be gathering the most wicked of us together, spreading the news and making sure all were wary of what’s to come.”

Lady Megumi slammed her fan on the table, her glare was sharp and unrestrained—she didn’t fear what had happened to Funato happening to her, she knew she hadn’t crossed the line…yet. “This is a big mistake, Yagura-sama, but very well, I shall prepare for war.”

As she stormed off I yelled after her, “And dialogue! It’s not entirely out of the question!”

The door shut and that left me with Uncle. His worry had only grown but now there was a clear strain of guilt against his furrowed brows. “What are you thinking…Yagura? This will do more harm than good.”

“Will it? Or will it show me exactly who to trust, who to respect? Will it show me who thinks as I do? Who respects my word and law?” I snorted and poured sake in my cup for him. “Or will it ensure my next year is iron clawed?”

“Is that all this is about?” He pondered as he took the cup to his lips. “What about the lives that’ll be lost? The damage and the fresh animosity sown?”

“All animosity will be mine to withstand, there will be no cycle after this one. And if there is, I will be its target, I will be its first victim. I’ll die before I see Kirigakure’s unity broken.”

“And yet…you shatter it yourself.”

“I shatter the system that failed. I’ll rebuild another from its pieces.” I said, snatching back my cup. “Go Uncle, I believe you have some damage control to do as well, perhaps you’ll apply dialogue to whoever finds our doorstep.”

He sighed but said nothing as he ultimately left. Leaving me and the young Kaguya Matriach. I raised a brow at her. “What do you want, Akane?”

She looked my way, her white hair tied up in a thick, traditional head scarf. “Nothing.” The Matriarch had been silent up until this moment, as if practicing a strict ‘speak when spoken to’ policy and yet, I believed her when she said so.

“Nothing huh?” I murmured. “Would you care to join me?” I asked, sliding my plate of desserts an inch in her direction— she hadn’t moved from her third place on the caste clan side of the table and was a fair distance away.

She smiled. “You seem quite fond of them.”

“You would be too, just a bite and you’ll see.” I said confidently lifting up one of the cakes to my lips, it was red icing and chocolate flavoured. I swallowed it in one gasping bite. “Join me.”

She seemed reluctant, her eyes rolling in their sockets as she considered it for a moment before acquiescing to my demands. The Lady Kaguya shuffled over the pillows to sit at my left side. I beckoned her to come up the pedestal my pillow and table had been placed on and she looked even more reluctant until I made a face at her.

“Very well, at your wish, Mizukage-sama.” she said, joining me with her pillow. Her dress flowed freely for a moment, patterned in free reds that drew my buzzed attention as she sat.

“What flowers are these?” I said, poking at her thigh and the flower patterned over her dress.

“Camellia’s, Lord Fourth. They are one of four flowers my clan loves. I recall it being in our crest back when we still had a place to call ours.”

“Ha…and you don’t have a place now?” I wondered, pouring her a drink in my cup.

She winced, turned away and stuttered. “I-I did not mean to spit in the face of your generosity, Lord.”

“But…?”

She looked at me oddly, her eyes narrowed as if testing my seriousness. She glanced down at the cup of sake I offered and took it with a bow. “But…our home is not ours to govern, we are surveilled, we are taken care of, we do not contribute to larger society or even earn our place.”

I smirked at her. “It sounds like you want something, Akane.”

She chuckled. “Perhaps I do, but my wants are not what brought me here today…or perhaps they are.” she sighed and took a gentle sip of the sake.

“Tell me.”

She eyed me warily, eyes darting between the sake and my heavy lids. “I do not wish to beseech a drunken man.”

I sighed and straightened up, Isobu’s chakra flared briefly through my pathways, breaking down any and every taint of sake. “Tell me, Akane.” I said, firmly.

Her eyes widened for a moment, she swallowed and then spoke softly. “I wish for the same freedom as any of the others I sat beside or even, if you’re generous, those I sat opposite…” She began, squirming as she voiced her wishes. “That’s why I attended today, I thought, perhaps if I played the role as intended then…”

“Then the privileges that come with it would eventually be yours and your clans.” I nodded along with her. “I see. That makes sense and I appreciate the initiative. Let's discuss this in detail, but I do like the idea of the Kaguya stepping into their role and place. That freedom…I will see about it.”

Akane beamed and without any urging picked a cupcake to bite into. “Thank you, Yagura-sama!” She said, icing and cake smashed all over her nose and cheek.