Shizu Yūki was shaped like a house wife. I immediately wondered if she had a family, a husband and child. I’d read her file but at the time I was moving quick and examining only information I could use to ensure Hidaki understood how damning this all was.

She likely did, even if there was more kunoichi that nurturing mother in those glares. She made no attempt to disguise her contempt for me as she bowed and mumbled out a greeting.

Uncle was just as uncouth however, “I see you already know why you’re here, good. Let’s not waste any time then, here.” Uncle stood, his impressive stature had him towering over Shizu, both their glares thickened the already strangled tension in the room.

Shizu wisely didn’t dare stand her ground, she faltered a step back and Uncle let up as he handed her the list. With it in her hand Shizu let up her unflinching glare to glimpse at Hidaki on the couch. The clan head looked away, breathing deeply.

Her jaw clenched and she read the list, eyes darting back and forth, narrowed in suspicion as her lip curls into a sneer, “No, I am the one responsible, I sent the threats and I prepared to do more but it was all me. You will not drag innocents into this.”

Uncle Aoto snorted and fell back to his seat, shaking his head at her in disdain, “What did you think would happen? Eh? Innocents, tah!”

“No! They’ve done nothing! A threat that harmed no one doesn’t require…Hidaki! Yūki has not moved without you, we can do nothing without your support! This was me, I…I hate it, I hate them and I want-”

“Not another step.” Ao gripped Shizu’s shoulder, he came as himself so she came faced with an activated Byakugan and the katana halfway out its sheath.

She gulped and spared the space between us. I turned from the fireplace, the source of wood crackling escapism to look Shizu in the eye. She was of Kirigakure, of the Yuki, a mother and a mentor. An idealist protesting prejudices laid on her and her loved.

I wish I could spare you.

“Chuunin Shizu Yūki, you are ordered to detail all your comrades on that list, Hidaki has provided us with a preliminary but I know he isn’t part of your group, he doesn’t know them all.”

She shuddered, her knees trembled and her voice cracked, “Mizukage-sama, I alone…I..” the words die in her throat as Yagura stood, hands grasped behind his back. He took a step towards Shizu and tears flashed in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks as the intense killing intent smothered her.

Shizu blinked and knelt before Yagura could take another step, “We…I..they don’t deserve death, I do.”

“That is correct.”

Her defeated head rose, spilling tears as she looked up at me, “What will happen to them, to Hisako-chan?”

I exhaled and approached her, “Hisako will be the Funato clan’s problem child to raise, I will ensure she’s treated right. As for your compatriots, the council has yet to decide but cooperation is the only thing I ask of them, of you now.” I rested a hand on her trembling shoulder and gave her a firm squeeze, “You and I are in agreement now, Shizu, no one else has to die. Only you.”

“Only me.” She whimpered, unfurling the half crumpled list.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Yes.” Uncle handed me a pen I handed to her.

“What of my family…my boys, they-”

“Are they part of the Yūki?”

She swallowed her words, pressing the pen’s lead to write a name before looking up at me again, this time she looked pleading, “Mizukage-sama…I…don’t..” She seemed to give up on communicating with me as she hastily crawled past my feet and prostrated at Hidaki, “Hidaki-sama! Please, I am stripped of my children now, please protect them. Don’t let Kirigakure send them after their mother, keep the clan safe, please. Let me be the last! Let me be the last!”

It wasn’t long before Shizu was sobbing and snivelling, drawing even Hidaki’s turned gaze to her. Uncle hissed, I couldn’t understand how or why Shizu disgusted him so much beyond her grave mistake, I knew he had no grudges against the Yuki either and he didn’t know Shizu personally either.

Hidaki gave into the lull of her wails and knelt by her, embracing her to soothe the broken heart. He caught my gaze and nodded, “Please, Mizukage-sama, give us time, she will need to say goodbye.”

Uncle and I shared a look, Aoto immediately shook his head but I shut my eyes and exhaled, “Fill that list and I’ll permit an hour after which Ao will personally escort her to...Eiko.”

Hidaki’s defeated sigh let’s Shizu know there’s no escaping that list. He forces it into her hands, whispering something under her whimpers and embracing her once more. It’s only then she starts writing.

As I watched the Shizu sign the names of her compatriots over to the very system they thought to fight against, I thought to the ANBU squads hovering over every cranny of the Yuki compound, monitoring every in and out, watching for an attack that had never come and would never.

Shizu, Hisako, the Yūki clan, they were all right about Kiri. They were right to fear and decry it as their doom because it was or at least, it would have been. Uncle’s disgust at Shizu likely comes from his own concerns of civil conflict, as a clan head himself seeing such disorganization, the threat their splintered values posed to the whole, well it was the same feeling I felt thinking about Lord Funato and his stubborn ways.

But even then, even though Yagura, Uncle Aoto and just about everyone else who isn’t affected and couldn’t care any less can’t sympathize with the Yuki’s struggle to survive as a so-called top clan, I could. I had to.

There was no point making a promise to Shizu to protect her clan and there was no point telling Hidaki I was routing for their survival either, I was supposed to, it was my solemn duty. And beyond that, they were far too vital to Kirigakure for me to see wane into obscurity or become traitors to the village.

“Uncle, let’s go, Hidaki has things handled here.” The man gave me a grateful nod. I glanced at Ao who already knew his duties and Uncle rose to my side, he fixed me with a stare Yagura knew wondered what was going through my mind.

When we were out of Hidaki’s house Uncle spoke his mind, “They won’t be happy you moved without them, they’ll ask for those names, want them all dead if not the entirety of Yuki.”

“Lady Megumi wouldn’t go that far,” I said as Raiga landed beside me and collected the complete list. “And even if she would, she and I have an understanding now.”

I caught Uncle’s frown break into a smirk for a moment before concern took over, “Already digging out your dead end, good, hope the price was worth it. Lord Funato will see through it easily, he’ll know she’s been bought and he’s alone.”

“All the better then. I’ve done as he demanded of me, the perpetrator is known and will be punished. I am even letting him keep Hisako under his roof, this is more than enough. The Yuki will not be bothered any more than this.”

Uncle halted, “And if I&C finds out they had something to do with the Kaguya or Lord Third?”

“The Yūki did not kill Lord Third.”

“But did they let the Kaguya in?”

That, I wasn’t sure of, “There’s no proof and until there is, it doesn’t matter. The Kaguya situation is fixed.”

Uncle shook his head and caught up to me, “Is it really? They’re entangled with the Daimyo’s lords now just trying to get back.”

I shrugged, “The Daimyo’s war is…it’s something we were bound to get drawn into, one way or another. Besides, the Lord of Water is fighting the very same people I am, Bloodline killers.”

Uncle sighed, “Perhaps, but he has other enemies, rivals who are warring not for the Bloodline users, but for their political machinations. Reina’s mission, the aid from Yakubi, it’s grounds for them to pull Kirigakure into-”

“Enough…Uncle, I am tired and the day is still ahead of us. Let the council assemble and let me…let me think.”