Chương 21: Leaf and Root, Tree and Shadow - 1

The sun was going down over Konoha. Tsukasa lay flat on his back at the base of the Hokage Monument, watching the sky turn colors, and said to the dark-haired woman sitting beside him at the cliff's edge: "It's a rough stretch on the Land of Earth front, isn't it? Every jonin they have. Are you sure it's fine to be back?"

"I heard what happened," Yuki Kuriyama said, smiling.

"I told Shikaku I needed a few days and came straight here."

"You people have ridiculous information networks."

"It was a Yamanaka clan relay. I was already on my way before the village even started processing Akihiko's case." He turned his gaze up to her.

"You think I made the wrong call?" Yuki shook her head. Slowly, gently, she reached over and ran her fingers through his hair.

"I trust every decision you make," she said. Silence.

"It wasn't that big a deal," he said, after a moment.

"You didn't have to come all the way back." Then, tilting his head toward her: "Unless—you were that desperate to marry me?"

"Excuse me?" She blinked. Then her face went scarlet.

"What are you even—I never said—""You should see your face right now—""Tsukasa!" She grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled, hard.

"Ow! That actually hurt—!"

"Good." She turned away, nose in the air.

"I was joking. Forgive me?" He sat up, half-laughing.

"Come on, Yuki." She said nothing.

"Yuki?"

"Hmph." He was in the middle of calculating exactly how sorry he was going to have to be when a voice cut across the hillside from somewhere below.

"Hey! Tsukasa!" Both of them went still. Tsukasa put a hand over his eyes.

"That's Tsume," he said, with the particular exhaustion of someone who had already had too much of a day.

"What is she doing back from the front."

"She's worried about you." Yuki's voice was easy.

"Wonderful." He sat up. A figure was making her way up the hill with that long-legged, no-nonsense stride—flak jacket, dark hair pulled back and a little worse for travel. She hadn't taken the time to fix it. She saw them sitting together and stopped, just for a second. Then she kept walking.

"What's up, Tsume?" Tsukasa said as she reached them. She glanced at Yuki—once, brief—then away.

"Yuki. You're back already?"

"Just today," Yuki said warmly.

"Right." Her eyes moved back to Tsukasa, and her chin came up.

"Why did you stick up for Fugaku's father? It cost you your post. What exactly did you get out of it—""Tsume." She stopped.

"Fugaku is my friend," he said, patient.

"I couldn't just stand there."

"He calls you his friend. But does he actually see you that way?" Her voice was flat, almost contemptuous.

"All that man cares about is his clan. And before—when you got dragged into that confrontation with the Uchiha—why were you the one who had to apologize? What did you even do wrong?"

"He's the future clan head, everyone keeps saying. So is that how a future clan head treats someone?"

"Has he come to see you even once since all this happened?"

"There's more to the situation than—""I know it's complicated, you don't have to explain it." She was getting louder.

"But does that mean you just let them walk all over you?"

"And without you on the front—what happens to the Land of Water campaign?" Tsukasa looked at her. He was quiet for a moment, then: "The Land of Water situation is already settled. Kirigakure's lost—it's just a matter of time now. Orochimaru's there to hold the line. Whether I'm there or not doesn't change anything at this point."

"Tsukasa—""Tsume." Yuki's voice came in gently from beside him.

"He's made his peace with it. He has his reasons." Tsume looked between them. Her jaw worked.

"Hmph." She turned away, gaze somewhere past their heads.

"Like I care about your problems." She started to leave.

"Tsume." She stopped. Didn't turn around. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"What." It came out flat. He stayed quiet for a moment. Yuki watched him, curious. Whatever he was trying to say, it wasn't coming easily. He seemed to be making up his mind about something.

"Just say it," Tsume said. Still with her back to them. Tsukasa took a breath. Then, deliberately, he reached over and took Yuki's hand. When he spoke, there was something quiet and final in his voice.

"Yuki and I have decided. When the war ends—we're going to get married." Tsume's entire body went rigid. Then, gradually, it let go. But her hands—hanging at her sides—wouldn't stop trembling.

"What—I—you—" Yuki's voice broke into pieces beside him, her free hand pointing back and forth between herself and Tsukasa, her face completely red.

"Tsukasa—we haven't—I didn't—you—" He squeezed her hand, and she went quiet, pressing her lips together as she stared at the unmoving line of Tsume's shoulders.

"Is that… right…" Tsume's voice came out wrong. She pulled in a breath, and then another. The trembling in her hands would not stop. When she spoke again, it was with a kind of careful brightness that cost her something.

"Congratulations." She walked away. She didn't look back. Not once. They watched her go until the hillside swallowed her. Then Tsukasa let the smile drop from his face.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, to Yuki. Yuki shook her head.

"The one you should be apologizing to isn't me," she said.

"She came all the way back from the front for you." She looked in the direction Tsume had gone.

"It's better this way," Tsukasa said. His voice was distant.

"If I apologized to her, it would only hurt her more." He was still looking that same direction.

"There's only one place. Once you're in it, there's no room for anyone else." Yuki said nothing. She felt the warmth of his hand—steady, unhurried. She said nothing at all.

"When the war ends," Tsukasa said.

"We get married."

"…Yes." They stood on the Hokage Monument as the last light left the sky, and stayed standing long after it was gone. Then Tsukasa's hand moved slightly. Yuki glanced at him.

"Fugaku's here," he said, with a faint smile. She turned—and there, standing a short distance away with no sound of arrival, was a dark-haired young man. The kind of arrival that reminded you exactly what level he operated at.......

"Fugaku," Yuki said, turning to face him properly.

"Mm." He gave her a brief nod, then his gaze moved to Tsukasa.

"You're getting married?"

"Not until the war ends." Tsukasa's voice was easy.

"And the Land of Earth front is going to take another two years at this rate. Iwa doesn't break easily—prolonged campaigns are exactly what the terrain advantages them for." Fugaku nodded. He agreed with that assessment. The Land of Water was different—an island nation, fighting across open sea, where Konoha held every logistical edge from the start.

"I'll spend a comfortable few years waiting around in the rear, I suppose." Tsukasa stretched his arms behind his head.

"Yuki actually gets to do something useful. I'll just be here." A beat of silence.

"Actually—" It was Yuki who spoke next, tilting her head.

"Is Mikoto close to term?"

"What?" Tsukasa blinked.

"She is? I didn't know."

"You never notice these things," Yuki said, with the practiced patience of someone who'd given up expecting better.

"Fair point," he admitted.

"The Sharingan confirms it's a boy," Fugaku said. Tsukasa grinned.

"A father. Look at you, Fugaku."

"Have you decided on a name?" Yuki asked. Fugaku nodded.

"I settled on it yesterday."

"What is it?"

"Itachi." He said it plainly. Itachi Uchiha.

"Itachi…" Tsukasa rubbed his chin, working over the word. Weasel—quick, light-footed, an animal that crossed your path only to vanish.

"That's a choice with some weight to it. I clearly have no talent for names. When the time comes, I'm commissioning you, Fugaku." Yuki had gone quiet. There was something uncertain in the way she was looking at Fugaku.

"Fugaku," she said carefully.

"Why that name specifically? Did something happen with Mikoto?"

"No." He shook his head.

"She's fine." Tsukasa glanced between them.

"What am I missing?"

"Itachi," Yuki said slowly. A messenger of misfortune. An omen. The silence sat there.

"Yuki." Fugaku's voice was very quiet.

"I'd like to speak with Tsukasa. Alone." She studied him—the flatness of his face, the stillness that hadn't shifted once since he'd appeared—and felt something settle uncomfortably in her chest.

"Is there something Yuki can't hear—" Tsukasa started.

"Tsukasa." The word stopped him. She met his eyes, shook her head once—small, deliberate—and said, soft: "I'll head back." He watched her go. Then it was just the two of them on the hill....... Fugaku turned. He looked out over the village spread below them.

"How do you see Konoha?" he said. Tsukasa blinked.

"What's this about, all of a sudden?" He turned to look at the village too. He was quiet, thinking it over. Then: "A home. Something the people before us built and left behind—something precious. Something worth protecting." He smiled a little.

"Naturally."

"Is that right," Fugaku said, low. He went still.

"Fugaku." Tsukasa's voice was steady.

"The decision the village made—I don't have strong feelings against it. The Land of Water situation is nearly wrapped up. Command would have transferred after the war anyway. They just moved the timing. And maybe the Hokage made this call to protect you all—move the culpability somewhere more convenient. It isn't a bad solution. Everyone comes out ahead." Fugaku's expression darkened.

"Tsukasa—" He looked out over the Hidden Leaf. His eyes took in the whole of it.

"The way I see it," he said, "Konoha is a tree."

"An enormous tree. Thick with leaves. Its canopy blots out the sky. The idea that the other great nations could cut it down—it's a fool's dream." Tsukasa felt something in himself quiet at those words. The smile cooled.

"But—""Even the strongest tree can't survive," Fugaku continued, "if there are insects eating through its roots underground." The silence held. Tsukasa looked at the village below and said nothing.

"Fugaku," he said at last.

"Look over there." He pointed. Fugaku followed the line of his arm.

"The Academy?"

"A tree feeds its leaves," Tsukasa said, and his voice had gone soft.

"And the leaves absorb the sunlight the tree needs. When they fall, they become the tree's nourishment. Life cycles that never stop. People die—and when they die, the darkness they carried dies with them. A new generation picks up the work. The Will of Fire passes on."

"Tsukasa." Fugaku's voice came in low and certain, cutting across the quiet.

"Power breeds new darkness. Leaves don't grow faster than roots rot."

"…"

"Help me," Fugaku said.

"Fugaku—""Konoha's roots have been eaten through." Not a trace of doubt in his voice.

"The only answer is to tear them out entirely. Plant something new. Something clean."

"Come with me. We'll rebuild this place together—a Konoha built on your ideals. One you'd actually want to protect." Tsukasa's gaze went careful.

"What exactly are you planning to do?" Fugaku's mouth curved. Something cold in it.

"What else? First you eliminate every parasite. Clear the ground for what comes after."

"Are you out of your mind?" He realized something, the words cracked out of him,"Tsukasa—" Fugaku stepped forward.

"Listen to yourself. A new village—with you rebuilding it and me as Hokage? Is that what you're offering?"

"And why not?" His voice was rising now.

"Do you understand what you've already been? Following orders—you've been a blade turned against the very people you think you're protecting." Something in Tsukasa shifted. Some ground he'd been standing on, struck somewhere it had no armor. Fugaku's eyes didn't move. The silence stretched out a long time.

"Fugaku," Tsukasa said, very slowly.

"This has all hit you harder than you're admitting. You need to step back and clear your head."

"I am completely clear—""The path you're thinking about is dangerous." His expression was flat, serious, the easy warmth entirely gone.

"If you actually go through with this—""Fugaku." He met those burning eyes.

"I'll stop you."

"…"

"Tsukasa—""None of this happened today." He let out a long breath.

"Go home. Sleep on it." He held Fugaku's gaze one moment longer, then turned and walked away—the setting sun pouring over his back, red and long and slowly fading. Fugaku stood alone. He looked down at the village below. Wait, then, Tsukasa. When I bring everything that's yours and lay it at your feet—you won't be able to refuse me.