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Chapter Text

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Prologue.

Iga Tsubagakure, Kouga Manjidani

Two clans that are so close, so similar, that they had learned to hate each other in the purest way for so long that no human, not even the eldest and immortals remembered how it all began.

Traversing both vales without limits, it is still possible to remember for the ones that are beyond it.

That tree is certainly one of the most tragic symbols of that recurrent tragedy.

What would’ve happened if their roots hadn’t been spilled with blood?

After wandering all through Manjidani she sat on a rock at the frontier between both vales.

The sun was about to begin to rise and the morning fog would soon dissipate.

//The Sun shines for everyone.//

It wasn’t an absolute truth but it was perfectly right about this particular case.

//Iga and Kouga, we all are…//

That sure was very true. She didn’t think he would hear those magic words floating in the air so soon, waiting to be said.

Surely this would be the last time.

She sighed.

Because there would be a last time.

The fatigue started to invade her being and she condemned herself for that. As a Wandering Deity she had been witness of the beginning, and would be witness of the end as well, despite her own weariness. Even so, some years would still come to pass before that small world shook.

She stood up and dusted off her yukata. She had already seen what could be expected from Kouga Manjidani, so she would go see what Iga Tsubagakure could offer.

The sun dissipated the fog and shone over everyone.

The road was lonely again, as if no human had walked through there for centuries.

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Chapter Text

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Chapter I

Outside the Battleground. (Koshiro)

In a Ninja village nobody can be defenseless.

It’s clear that not everyone is going to become perfect killing machines, but the prospects never stopped to be searched, not among the sons of the strongest, neither among the lowly villagers that had the chance of living more peacefully but with no glory.

That’s the way they found Jingoro, Nenki, Yashamaru and Koshiro, looking for talent outside of the elite. It mattered not.

Once the skill was discovered, the parents and their humility was forgotten as long as the children had the Iga Blood running through their veins. Mom and dad, if there were any, would cease to exist for the kid and were replaced by a Master.

Neeya was a textbook example, being the befuddled woman she was, she even forgot that she once had a little child with lovely eyes, outside her marriage, and maybe to make up for this distraction, she became in the “nanny” of Oboro-sama, granddaughter of Ogen and future Clan leader.

For the kids it ended being something insignificant. Jingoko and Nenki didn’t even think about it anymore, while Yashamaru couldn’t care less, he was a ninja just as Hotarubi. The rest didn’t care either, family or not, they had their own Masters and it was definitely better that way, than to let that knowledge get lost so that the experts in the techniques that didn’t have spouses or children, it was even thanks to it that they discovered new techniques and variations of them.

Every rule has its exception.

And it’s just that on the battlefield it has no significance, it resides in other things. Like in being considered the partner of the future leader.

For old Ogen-sama’s eyes, in Tsubagakure there was no one that currently, or in the short term, deserved it and, alongside Hattori Hanzo’s suggestion, a marriage with someone outside from Iga was an excellent and very legitimate option.

The Kama* impacted on the tree, making hundreds of splinters fly in all directions.

As usual, Koshiro trains all alone. Even as a kid, Tenzen seldom watched over him and usually only called him whenever he needed a bodyguard, a soldier or an assassin.

The truce between Igas and Kougas didn’t mean they didn’t have other friends and other work assignments.

And it was all the same who you were as long as you had Iga Blood willing to be sacrificed…

The Kamaitachi* finished the job of destroying the other part of the innocent tree.

…A deadly, near perfect technique, its secrets unknown to any other Iga, including his Master Tenzen, because only he had the talent to utilize it, since he was a kid and he played with the flowers by making them dance with the wind.

And not even then was he worthy of the Princess.

And even then you spilled all his blood for the Iga Clan, your past could be forgotten and buried, but it wouldn’t fade away.

The splinters kept on flying until the tree was no more.

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Chapter Text

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Chapter II
Dancing Flowers. (Koshiro)

The little kid was left alone in the garden by the temporary nanny, quite carefree about the fact that the Tsubagakure garden was rather a small forest.
He had been brought from Edo by some Clan members that had gone to the capital to fix some matters of no importance for the Iga. The child, no older than 5, of rowdy black hair, didn’t say a word through all the trip, he didn’t oppose either when he was taken from the room that he shared with his mother. The Iga that engaged with him up until then had no relation with the Ninja heritage of the Clan, although they were definitely abiding by Ogen-sama, everyone in Tsubagakure did so.
The woman that was supposed to take care of him just saw him from afar while grimacing. She still remembered that child’s mom, who six years earlier had escaped from the village to marry a man that didn’t align to them, without her parent’s approval. Since that young woman didn’t have relation with the secrets of Tsubagakure Ogen-sama, she didn’t send to look for the woman, despite of the parents being frantic for her escapade with that young man, who, to make things worse, was a failed Samurai. Maybe that aversion and shame was what rushed their death, since they had died a couple years ago still being very young; anyway the reckless girl didn’t get away with it, her husband died shortly after their first and only kid being born, so she had to work before getting sick and dying herself.
The little kid had turned into a pariah, if he wasn’t thrown out of the house by the landlady was because she knew his mother was an Iga. For Kami! The child, bearing that hair and that look, looked like a stray dog that was left on and abandoned on the street.
The woman denied with her head disapprovingly. He had Iga blood and wouldn’t be abandoned, but who knows what future awaited him. Who the hell would want to take care of him?
The son of a deserter Samurai and a vagabond, in a village of Ninjas, that was what was left to see in this world.
The kid was busier observing his surroundings in the same way that he contemplated everything in the road from his old home. The narrow streets of Edo didn’t look like that wide place and he realized that’s where he would live from now on, what escaped him yet was the why.
//Because you are an Iga.// They told him and he didn’t protest.
Iga was a term that he heard on very few occasions from his mother’s mouth, with a weird tone in his voice. Was he an Iga despite having their last name and being a foreigner to them?
The men that brought him didn’t have any interest in explaining anything or saying a word besides using him as his messenger. It was the same treatment that his landlord gave him after his mother died, and he didn’t argue, he already knew it wasn’t worth it to cause any problems.
Looking at it all he ended up realizing he was all alone. The place was quiet, he could hear the singing of the cicadas and the birds, but not the bustle of the people like in Edo. Besides…
Something seemed to catch his attention and suddenly he rushed to the woods with an unusual confidence in a kid. He wasn’t ordered to stay still.
He walked between the trees, disregarding the marked path, besides unknown, everything seemed huge in comparison to him.

In the place where he was supposed to stay soon appeared the woman and Tenzen who quickly reprimanded the maid, she barely excused herself reminding him that he had given instructions of not allowing the kid inside the house, Yakushiji Tenzen told her to shut up and ordered her to look for the kid while deciding to search himself since he considered her a total incompetent. Ogen’s request-order to evaluate the potential of the newly arrived kid had him in a bad mood, especially because with only five years old and raised in Edo, he was sure to encounter a most ordinary kid, unworthy for the severe Ninja training. Wasn’t he the son of a bum? Ogen shouldn’t make him lose his time with something like this…

It wasn’t until he arrived at a glade that he stopped to look while lying beside a tree. He had walked a lot.
Despite being early autumn, the place was full of white flowers that he didn’t know and that had a soft, sweet and very nice smell. He was almost certain that what had gotten his attention at first came from there, but he couldn’t find it.
He took one step forward; the glade was somewhat sunk to the point that during rainy season it would fill up with water and become a swamp; that’s why when he stumbled upon a root he rolled through the slope, landing on his face.
He fell on something soft and warm.
He rested his hands on his cushioned savior and raised his view to see what it was, sensing some familiarity about it, almost like the hug of her mother before she turned into her bony shadow, but different at the same time…
It was a young woman, about 7 years older than him, dress with an immaculately white Yukata, sleeping peacefully in the grass between the white flowers, with her long black hair scattered along the plants. She was sleeping until she was woken up by the hit, but she didn’t seem mad about it judging by her calm and kind smile, despite the unfortunate spot where the child rested.
As soon as the black-haired kid took notice, he took his hands off the young woman’s breasts, startled and falling on his bum trying to step away as soon as possible. He might still be a kid, but he knew very well that it was an insult to touch a girl without her permission.
– Excuse me! –.
– Mm… –She mumbled, still smiling. – It was an accident, don’t worry…
The kid watched her before assenting. She really was not upset.
– Are you new around here? –Asked the young girl, without averting her eyes away from him. – I don’t remember seeing you around here before.
– I just got here. –He answered briefly before asking her. – Are you an Iga?
– Please don’t treat me like an adult, I’m barely older than you. –She asked leaning slightly towards the child, who noticed her eyes were blue. “You’re not a little girl.” He thought feeling a weird tingling on the palms of his hands. – No, I don’t belong to the Iga family, I’m just a traveler who stopped to take a rest. Please don’t tell anybody or they’ll scold me…
The kid nodded again and she picked up some of the flowers showing them to him.
– Do you want to see the flowers dance? –She invited him with all seriousness, and he did a slight noise with the throat as if agreeing.
The young girl then shortened the distance between them and kissed him on the lips surprising him so much that he opened his mouth, making the kiss complete. He swallowed something before she slightly moved her head back and fondled her fingers through the boy’s hair, who stayed with his lips slightly open, tickling him the same as his hands did just earlier. The girl smiled.
And the flowers started to dance.

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Chapter Text

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Chapter III

Bad Feeling. (Ogen)

Ogen puckered his frown slightly when he saw Tenzen and Rouzai speaking; evidently the first one was bragging about something to the second one.

She had a bad feeling when Tenzen asked for the child’s tutorship, but still she agreed, time would soon confirm that that guy would never do anything that wouldn’t benefit him.

Against all prejudice that kid turned out to be an obedient and extremely talented pupil, to whom Yakushiji Tenzen could have the luxury to leave alone for hours. The old lady smiled.

Tenzen didn’t oppose when she mentioned that Koshiro would become Oboro’s game partner, staying within the precinct of Tsubagakure that was reserved for the leader and the strongest Ninjas among the Igas, of course Tenzen was allowed to get in, but he preferred to live farther apart to avoid constantly meeting with Ogen. From his point of view, it would be perfect for Koshiro to stay, no doubt the kid’s nature was something of no importance for him.

Walking at a slow pace she didn’t take long to find her granddaughter and the kid, being watched by Neeya, who was feeling a bit sick, and by other of the talented young Ninjas, Akeginu.

Oboro saw how Koshiro was carving one of his wooden figurines, a skill he learned in Edo and that everyone ignored how he could’ve learned with such perfection.

Ogen sighed.

On those peaceful times it would be OK if nothing changed but conflicts came back…

The old lady got on her way at a slow pace.

In Tsubagakure everything stopped that day, but time would keep on passing cruelly.

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Chapter Text

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Chapter IV

At first sight (Yashamaru & Hotarubi)

Yashamaru followed his Master and Tutor through the outer lanes of the precinct where Ogen-sama lived. Upon arriving at her room, his Master, a lady of middle age that never smiled or joked, ordered him to wait for her in the garden while she was inside. It was 1611 and he was 12, he had been taken by his Tutor since he was 4, and she had shown him the secrets of the Kokujou* technique. That method was a secret for enemies and for the rest of the members of the Iga clan, even if they already knew what would be the outcome in battle. Only Ogen-sama, leader of the Clan, could know it for sure if she asked for it.

Yashamaru yawned, he was restless by nature, which made him often disobey, but his Master was surprisingly tolerant and she often overlooked his mischiefs.

He heard steps and stood up from the grass to greet the two women who went towards the next house.

Barely did he notice the eldest one, but his eyes froze on the young one, jaw half open, a young girl about his age, straight hair dressed with a purple kimono. The girl noticed it and she got nervous seeing how that kid was contemplating her without even blinking, she got obfuscated and ended up blushing a lot.

– Hotarubi? –Akeginu called her noticing she was slowing down. – Hurry up, we need to arrange your things.

The Ninja of the Butterflies startled and sped up her speed, Yashamaru’s first instinct was to follow her, but his Tutor held him by his shoulder.

– Let’s pack up. Starting now, your training with me is over, you’re moving here. –Announced the woman with a slight hint of pride. The kid nodded and looked at the purple-haired girl that was moving away.

He smiled wide.

– Of course! It was about time.

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Chapter Text

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Chapter V
Little chaperone. (Yashamaru & Hotarubi)

“Stupid snake.” Yashamaru grumbled internally.
It was the last straw. It was so hard being alone with Hotarubi, without having anyone meddling and being a bother just because (Nenki and Jingoro do it all the time and even Rozai and Tenzen have done it) just so that animal keeps an eye on them constantly. Why? Why did Hotarubi’s Master had to gift it to her?
A Ninja Snake, with the habit of biting each and every man that dared touch a hair of the lady.
He had already been bitten several times and he was sure that the poison of that damn bug was excellent even when Hotarubi sucked his wound. Upon remembering that last part, he smiled like a sucker right away.
Being bitten wasn’t that bad despite feeling the effects later, but lately he wished to develop some immunity after having bitten so many times.
Once he thought about telling Akeginu to see whether she had any method to become immune to the poison.
//– It’s a matter of luck, some people can spend their whole lives handling toxic substances and never obtain that skill… –The Ninja denied, feigning sadness for the kid.
– Agh! Why did her Master had to gift that thing to her? –He exclaimed with frustration. Akeginu couldn’t resist laughing.
– Birth control. –.//
As he remembered that bad joke of Iga’s “elder sister”, he wanted to knock his head against a wall.
Was that the impression he gave?
– Yashamaru-dono? –Hotarubi called him, with his back facing her, and he immediately turned to her. – Are you alright?
– Of course! –He exclaimed, with a little shine of determination in his eyes.
That stupid snake couldn’t be at her side at every moment, one day it must need to eat, hibernate or die, and he would be there, waiting.
– Want to go for a stroll? –.
– Yes! –Hotarubi nodded and the white snake hissed hiding from within her clothes.
Such insistence.

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Chapter Text

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Chapter VI

Elder Sister. (Akeginu)

Among the youngest ninjas from the Village that lived close to Ogen-sama and Oboro, Akeginu was the eldest.

She had already finished her training with her Master six months before Koshiro arrived at Tsubakagure and he entered under the tutelage of Tenzen-sama, two years had already gone by when Yashamaru and Hotarubi finished their training and before that, she was there when Neeya died and Oboro cried mournfully.

Ogen decided to give the little girl some time, Nenki and Jingoro looked after her and tried to make her laugh or cheer her up, Rozai had brought her a toy back from Edo, Tenzen was the only one who was cold with the girl’s pain, reciting one of his speeches about the way of the ninja.

As for herself, Akeginu did everything that she could to support Oboro, thinking that what she needed the most was to know that she would never be alone…

She couldn’t help smiling when she caught the moment that Koshiro gifted the first of his owls to the princess. Despite the girl always praising his crafts, he had never dared to gift one to her despite it being obvious that was always his intention when he made them. That time was different.

The owls were Neeya’s favorite animals.

Oboro thanked him almost crying and Koshiro, blushing a lot, couldn’t do anything but whisper a //You’re welcome. //

She was also witness of the second owl, gifted to her on the second death day of the “Princess’s Nanny”. That time he couldn’t make himself to give it to her directly and he only left it in her room, beside the other smaller one. Akeginu spied on him as she saw him enter and then leave the room.

That was one year before someone popped up the idea about a marriage between Oboro with Gennosuke Kouga, since then Koshiro spent less time with Oboro and followed his master Tenzen more closely, starting to escort him almost all the time. When she saw him, she tried to distract him so that he could spend more time with Oboro, but she was more self-absorbed with the idea of her next marriage, and Koshiro noticed it right away and excused himself and left. He didn’t have any interest either in talking with her, or with anybody else about this…

Akeginu didn’t have other option than resign herself to the idea, since Oboro was happy with Ogen’s decision and even if she would like for it to be easier for her childhood friend there was nothing she could change, including how said childhood friend felt that way about the princess…

Often times Akeginu imagined herself talking to him, and that surly man looking back into her eyes instead of looking at Oboro in the distance, instead of the formal treatment that they had as comrades in arms that had replaced his old treatment towards her as the elder sister.

However, that’s exactly what Akeginu was still for Oboro, and most certainly for Koshiro as well…

And Oboro would forever be the princess.

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Chapter Text

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Chapter VII

Weaknesses. (Ogen)

In a war it is always most prudent to judge your weaknesses first and your strengths after. Ogen tried to keep that in mind while he wrote the names of the ten ninjas chosen by the Iga, even if she couldn’t cast away her pride and the hate of those brush strokes.

Nenki was more than capable in a fight, but his hate was reckless, even with a clear strategy based on the known weaknesses of the enemy, he would lose sight of it due to his own self-confidence that the enemy also comes to corner you and end you.

For Jingoro the surprise was crucial, without it he would die.

Rozai was trustworthy, he was loyal to her and to Oboro and he even had the cold head to hear a good idea, even if it came from Tenzen, he was dubious in battle and would be merciless and cruel with any Kouga that crossed his path. His Achilles Heel was his nature where his wrath wasn’t as controlled as it should be for a Ninja of his skill. And that would be his doom.

Yashamaru and Hotarubi were experts in their skills, but they were not more than a couple youngsters in love, be as it may, if one of them died first, together or apart they were an easy target…

Tenzen was a demon that would kill each and every Kouga at the expense of all the Iga blood and life, without exception or remorse, Ogen sometimes even thought that he hated the Igas as well and they were no just collateral damage. However, the moment Ogen wrote the name of the immortal, that heavy load fell upon the shoulders of Oboro.

Akeginu was strong, sharp and centered enough to keep her balance and see her mission through… However, she was so maternal for Oboro, that she would hesitate, and for Oboro she would most certainly give up her own life.

Koshiro was the strongest of them all physically, but she doubted about him as he was someone that, despite trying to suppress his wishes all his life, he had never had the integrity to do so. He followed Tenzen as a blind man, and was capable of losing his head very easily. In the best of cases he would protect Oboro with his life, just like Akeginu.

Oboro would try to dissuade them, when she saw how impossible it was, she would undoubtedly seal away her eyes so as to not have any use in the battle against the Kouga, maybe not even if Gennosuke himself tried to kill her. However, she was the only one that could bring an end to Tenzen.

And lastly, the Leader of the Iga clan, an old lady so full of bitterness and resentment for the past, the most worthless of them all as she was going to die right then and there alongside Kouga Danjo.

And this time she would make sure that was the case.

End of Part One.

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