NOVEL WEB As Pretty as Hozuki
Rina held her breath and the Ram hand-sign in steep concentration. She breathed in the fresh water of the medium sized pond she invaded with her presence, making sure not to lose sight of the chakra bubbling between her feet and the water’s surface tension.
She exhaled and shifted her hand-sign to that of the Bird, then with confidence switched to Hare and then another Ram. She felt her chakra respond to her [Hiden] and her body liquefied into the pond with a splash.
The marine life gave her wide berth as she joined them on their plane of existence. She looked up, finding everything massive in comparison to a moment ago but she hasn’t the time to marvel at the after effects of her technique. In this state she’s more or less invulnerable to all but Lightning and Fire release but more importantly, with her proficiency she’s as useful as a puddle of water.
Her creamy, liquefied head bobbed out on the surface of the pond as she furrowed in concentration, willing her chakra, her liquefied body to command the body of water as an external limb. She envisions releasing bolts of water or even just shuriken at the training posts nearby but she’s been at it all week and no such luck.
Even now, even after father’s gone I’m still so…
“Rina!” Nana Megumi’s shrill yell startled her before she could begin brooding. She glanced towards the house they moved into after the Kaguya attack and found the old lady looking more her age than ever.
She was hunched over with her hand clasped behind her back, a trait she’s beginning to pick up from spending so much time with Lord Funato. A deep scowl spoils her features until all Rina can see is her father’s disapproving squint.
“Come get these things, quick.” The old clan head barked, tossing her slippers as she trudged into the house with the weight of the village and clan on her shoulders.
A young Hozuki boy held onto paper bags, waterproofed files and other groceries. As Rina reconstituted herself from the water she caught his otherwise impassive, blank stare rattle with a frown and she could tell he was criticizing her technique.
Mangetsu Hozuki. Hydrification Prodigy. Second Coming of the Demon. Nidaime Reborn.
He was only six years old.
Rina took the waterproof files from his burdened hands, at a glance she spied a proposal for a promotion as well as military action among them. Her eyes don’t linger long as Mangetsu bows and mumbles, “Rina-senpai.”
If the promotion had anything to do with him she doubted she’ll have the luxury of that honorific for long. Squinting, Rina helped ease his burden further and snatched some of the groceries, “Come, Mangetsu-kun, pantry is just in here. How are you?”
The boy followed her over the corner where a separate building from their living quarters stood. At six years he looked very much his age and had very little in the way of height, yet there wasn’t much of a cuteness to him either. He had a stern, strong outlook that said he was ready to be tested at any moment.
He used chakra to hold onto and heave most of the groceries after her, she didn’t spare him any more of the burden not because she secretly thought of the six-year-old as a rival but because she knew he’d find it insulting if she did any further.
“I am well.” He whispered behind her and she nodded, glancing back at him.
“Having fun with your brother lately?” Rina thought to ask as they reached the pantry and servants shuffled out to retrieve what they’d brought. She caught his face light up for a second at the mention of his brother and a smile tugged at his lip.
“He still doesn’t walk very well.” Is his amused response as he promised, “But I’m training him, he’ll be strong soon.”
Rina was pleased to hear that, she dusted her grocery stained fingers before pulling out the files from under her armpit. Again, she spied details on the proposal, deployment of teams towards a threat in the Land of Water. Rina didn’t have to read the classified document to know what threat it could be talking about and she glanced down at Mangetsu.
She was tempted to ask, it would be obvious why she was asking and being tactful with a six-year-old felt excessive even for a prodigy like him. Instead she bit her cheek and marched around to the main house with him in tow.
He stopped at the threshold though, bowing as Rina turned around to catch him lingering. “I should return to Suigetsu now but…I’ll be available.”
She didn’t need to ask what he meant by that and simply nodded as he excused himself. She switched her sandals to slippers before stepping into the house and as soon as she did—
“Rina! Rina!”
“Yes nana!”
“What’s taking you so long? Come, there is much to discuss.”
Rina hustled into Nana Megumi’s room. It was a plain space with a shrine for her father, Nana’s son, at the edge burning with incense. Pictures of her four other children were lined up at the shrine as well as her deceased husband.
Every time Rina saw it she felt a pang of heartache spear through her, the sight of her father, the uncles and aunts she knew for a brief moment in her life but most of all the thought that despite all her strength as clan head, Nana Megumi was alone.
Rina was Hozuki, yes, but her Funato clan mother had raised her with her father. Nana was always distant, busy running the village beside her son, taking account for losses in the clan and looking out for everyone. She was more clan head than grandmother and Rina suspected that’s why Megumi and her mother never quite got along.
Nana Megumi half-laid on a tatami mat, several pillows scattered around it to help prop her back however she wished. She sat up straight and shifted to the small table that already had some brewed tea settling on it.
“Pass that here.” She gestured for the documents as she lifted her cup for a sip. Her grip remained strong all these years but with only a month passed after outliving her last child and a week since surviving the Kaguya, Rina forgave the slight tremor in her wrist.
Rina curled her feet under her and sat with a straight back as befitting of a Hozuki woman. She hated sitting like this. At home, with her mother, they had chairs with back rests and arm rests and couches too but with Nana, there never seemed to be a chance to breathe.
She sat in silence, patiently waiting for her grandmother to finish reviewing her work. It didn’t take long; she only took out a couple documents from the folder to glaze over as she sipped her tea but when she looked up at Rina again she settled a confused frown at her granddaughter.
“Is jasmine tea not good enough?”
Rina blinked at the still steaming kettle like it just materialized. She motioned to pour some but—
“Leave it, you can drink yours with the Mizukage.” Nana said as she slurped and set the documents aside with a sigh.
Rina perked at this, eyes wide an eager, a look her grandmother approved of with a smirk. “I noticed the two of you together last week, a lot of time spent.”
Last week she’d gathered the courage to ask him to train her and he said yes. She expected less than a disgusted grunt but he actually said yes and spent time training her. Sure it was nothing more complex that fine [Shurikenjutsu] but they sparred a few times and she had a lot to learn from the pointers he gave afterwards.
Rina was already feeling stronger for that alone.
“Yes, I begged him to train me.” She said meekly minding her fingers, she had blisters from where she braced her kunai against his Bo-staff’s hefty blows. “I think I’m getting stronger already and he’s a master of Water Release, like, a true master.”
Nana Megumi’s reactions to her words varied from a kindly, amused smile, confusion and then her all too familiar scowl, “He’s training you?” Rina felt her gaze pierce like she was suspect of a frivolous crime, “Why? Hmm, no, maybe…”
Her grandmother again sat with her thoughts, a shrewd gleam came alight in her eyes as she sipped her sweet jasmine and turned, “Good work, but you can do better. This makes things easier though, go to the Mizukage at noon tomorrow, wear something clean, pretty but don’t try.”
“Nana?”
The older woman pulled and tilted Rina’s chin, examining her features as she instructed, “You’re there on my appointment, tell him I took a day to sit with your mother instead but if you dress up well he won’t even ask.”
Unable to bury her dignity another second, Rina pulled away and gritted, “You want to sell me now?” She’d understood the need to broker a deal with the next Mizukage whoever that would be and out of the two Kage-candidates Rina chose Yagura.
Not only for the prestige of his clan as one of the five but because the chances he’s still got some child left under all that shinobi was greater than Fuguki’s. If she’s to be betrothed it’s better her spouse has the potential for goodness and over the last two months, since Yagura became a Jinchuriki in fact, he’s had a far more approachable demeanour, he didn’t radiate killing intent and didn’t look like he had something to prove anymore.
It made for a good strategy against enemies, a cherry persona, no matter how fake paired with that childlike form of his would get most people to drop their guard.
A slight but perceptible contrast to the faux gentleman persona she and other shinobi in their grade had observed about him. And it was doubly proven when he said yes to training her, he wasn’t a mask waiting to reveal horrors, he was genuinely a calm, charming and impressive person to be around.
It all makes what her grandmother is implying she do that foul, “He isn’t that type of man. I won’t just…present myself and he’ll leap at me like a vicious beast! He’s a nice guy!”
Her grandmother stared at her with a disappointed mope. She shook her head, “All men are beasts. The Mizukage is no different but he is an exception.”
Rina got confused, “The exception?”
Nana Megumi nodded and smiled at her interest, “Because you can’t sell a Kage what is already his, you can only show him which to value more.”