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.

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“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.”