Chapter 7

Isamu helps build houses in the Uchiha compound alongside the other men while the women prepare meals.

"Isn't she the famous Tori no Akuryo?" The girls whisper.

Evil spirit of the Bird? She thinks, filled with mirth. Is it perhaps because of the chirping of her chidori?

"She needs know how to cook, not to kill," an old woman says disapprovingly. Izuna carrying wood beside Isamu shoots the lady a glare and she shrinks back into her seat.

"Do they bother you?" He asks her and she shakes her head.

"Far from that."

Izuna nods, convinced because warriors who have lived through life and death moments on the battlefield have greater things to worry about.

"Where will you live?" He asks.

"I have been assigned to a house three blocks from the entrance."

"Who will you be living with?"

An image of a curly haired boy comes to mind before she replies. "No one, Izuna-sama."

It is silent when Izuna spares her a glance from the corner of his eyes.

"...You can live with Madara and I," he says before hurriedly saying, "if you want."

A silver of shock she feels must've been apparent to the man who had spent years watching her back on the battlefield because he has the gall to smirk.

"Why?"

Izuna shrugs. "We're practically a family, don't you think so?"

Family. Isamu feels giddy at the word.

Has she finally found a family?———

She finds a field of daffodils right outside Konoha walls and she falls onto it, face staring up at the sky. A daffodil playfully brushes her cheek.

Her heart beats steadily and her mind is free from worries.

Isamu decides that she likes that feeling.———

"Did you love him?" Tobirama asks her, eyeing the hairpin on her head.

"I would die for him."

But Kenji is already dead, and she can only hope she is lucky enough to cross paths with him in another life.———

"We will have to decide on a leader. No village should be this chaotic when it comes to decision making," Nara Shidai says, and the others nod.

It is an unspoken agreement that the leader should be from the Senju clan or the Uchiha clan.

"I nominate Senju Hashirama." A voice says.

"I nominate Uchiha Madara." Another voice from the clan head table says.

A thoughtful look crosses Isamu's usually expressionless face. "I nominate Nara Shidai."

All eyes turn to her but her eyes remains fixated on the Nara clan head. It is not her fault that his calm personality and dexterous mind draw her in.

———

In the end, the whole village vote for Hashirama and Madara after Shidai had humbly declined the nomination.

Tobirama and her count the votes and Hashirama wins by a landslide.

That night, she sits with Madara at the park bench, offering comfort in the silence that fills the air.

"I didn't win."

"Losing a battle is normal in a shinobi's career."

"What does Hashirama have that I don't?"

"Compassion, Madara-sama." Isamu replies, looking at the stars that hide behind the moon's brightness. "But it is not a bad thing that you lack it. It is who you are, and you two are suited for different things."

"What am I suited for, then?"

"That's for you to figure out yourself."

Madara stands up, his sharingan blazing in the dark and Isamu automatically activates hers.

"Fight me."———

Their Susano'o clash and a ripple shakes the whole village.

Her katana meets his gunbai, her lightning meets his fire, and her spinning mangekyo meets his raging ones.

They fight until the Sun rises and all the wrath and disappointment and resentment leave Madara's body.

He carries her home because she is chakra exhausted and they return to Izuna's disapproving stare.———

"When I die, I want my ashes in the garden of our main house," Izuna tells her one day when they are both sent on Konoha's very first mission from the daimyo.

Isamu shakes her head, corner of her lips tilting upwards. "You're not going to die."

"I mean, that's the best place, isn't it?"

"...I want mine in our old compound." Isamu says softly. "Next to Kenji's."

Izuna swats the back of her head but she doesn't move away even when she sees it coming. "You're not dying on my watch."———

Hashirama marries Mito and Isamu attends the wedding in a kimono she doesn't know she would get a chance to wear in this lifetime.

"Congratulations Hokage-sama." She says, giving the two a small smile. "I'm truly happy for you."

"You must be the famous Uchiha Isamu he always talks about." A gentle smile spreads on Mito's face. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Likewise, Mito-sama."

She leaves the two alone to enjoy the wedding, and runs into Tobirama drinking sake alone.

"You seem awfully unhappy at your brother's wedding." She seats herself beside him.

"Hashirama hasn't stopped talking about her for the past two years. If anything, I'm glad he will finally shut up."

"I'm happy he finds his true love." Isamu agrees.

Tobirama turns to look at her. "When are you getting married?"

"Marriage is the last thing on my mind."

———

"Our Isamu is popular with boys, isn't she?" Izuna flips through the numerous scrolls scattered on Madara's table. "Marriage proposals from the Hyuuga, the Inuzuka, the Akimichi and even the Nara? They must've loved the fact you nominated their clan head as the Hokage."

Madara arches an eyebrow. "I doubt Isamu wants to live with the boisterous nature of the Inuzuka."

"I'll marry whoever you think will benefit the clan best, Madara-sama."

The two men fall silent at her words, before Madara speaks up once more.

"No one, it is."

———

Tobirama, Itama and her are assigned as teachers to a group of clan children. Three boys, from ages of seven to nine, immediately approach her the moment she steps into the training field.

She teaches Uchiha Kagami the giant fireball technique (ignoring the way his curly hair is threatening to dig up a memory that is locked deep away), teaches Hyuuga Akio senbon throwing with the accuracy that can take lives of five men with just a flick of a wrist, and teaches Akimichi Nobu the earth techniques that have once swallowed up armies of men.

Five weeks go by before they finally succeed in their techniques and Isamu buys them ramen, smiling behind her chopsticks.

———

"You want my help with the Hiraishin?" Isamu questions Tobirama because she is far from knowledgeable in fuinjutsu.

"Mito and Hashirama are enjoying their newly wed period, I'd hate to disturb them."

She agrees because she too doesn't want the two to be disturbed. Together, they spend nights going through fuinjutsu scrolls and tweaking multiple seals before Tobirama gets it right.

———

Isamu sleeps in her bed as soundly as a shinobi could, but this time, there is no kunai under pillow.

———30 May 2021