The Hoshigaki clan compound was as uniquely decorated and built as all other main clan compounds. Where the Hozuki had ponds and small streams of water rivuletting throughout their compound, the Hoshigaki ensured they had a section of the beach to themselves.
They sat near the edge of Bar Beach yet not too far off from the ports they claid dominant control of both legitimately and illegitimately. Piracy was an undeniable source of inco for both the Hoshigaki and the village, it was also where much of the Hoshigaki’s suppressed subjects were plucked from.
Strangers from other lands, sotis in a handful and other tis by the boatful. Labour sold off to slave fascinated noble lords of the Daimyo’s court, the warlords of other countries or even…Kirigakure.
ANBU had more enslaved orphans than it did loyal denizens.
This was how they’d proven themselves over the decades, a streak of ruthlessness, looting, raucous celebration and a greed inspired loyalty. The clan wasn’t so much a clan when Kirigakure was ford as much as it was a fighting force, and even now their numbers stood lower than so caste clans who’d scribbled their signatures onto the unbelievably heavy scroll i brought with her.
Her grandaunt is the reason she knew anything about the Hoshigaki or the main clans. The old woman baking pastries for strangers stuffed into her living room whispered tales of the Main Clans, the overlords of Kirigakure, of every caste child's lives.
She startled her sleep with scenarios of simple, harmless mistakes judged with the highest of punishnts. Of girls as cherub as she was sold as pets for bulbous, tobacco stinking masters. Of boyhoods replaced with war and violence and all of it sanctioned by the very people she stood shoulder to shoulder now.
i let out a strained breath as she racked her head about what she should say, what would be the right thing to say. She paced right outside Junko Hoshigaki’s expansive ho, the floors of her humble palace were charcoal black, its pillars jade as the curved rooftop tiles punctuated with grand, water spitting krakens. A dozen eyes watched her every move.
i had been just about everywhere in the village in the course of her service as a shinobi, missions taken from all clans, orders taking her places she ordinarily had no business being in. Just like now, except, she did have a stake in being here.
Those whispers that had turned into nightmares, she’d long tad them, seen the truth behind it all— Power. And she had quite a bit of it. She clutched the scroll of demands and radical changes the Suikazan coalition had burdened her with. It was a burden she gladly accepted but it was a burden nonetheless.
How do I convince any of these clan heads to give up their power? She stared at her feet, still strapped and comfy in her shinobi sandals, the ones she wore to battle the chaos stills spreading in the street, though at a much more subdued manner than she ever expected.
Do I have enough strength to do this?
“Co.” Kisa’s voice was like a splash of cold water. i froze mid step and turned to the frowning Swordsman.
Sahada clipped to his back, docile, undisturbed…yet. He grunted and walked in without another word, leaving i to catch up. She gulped, seizing deep breaths as she took her place beside him, they walked down a long hallway furnished with relics and artifacts of significance i could only imagine.
The air was salty, like sweat but without the body odour. Kisa led her down two corners before they arrived. Kisa looked down on her, his eyes cold, unfeeling and distant. “Take off your sandals.”
He slid the door open and walked in, his feet already sock sleeved. i sighed and hurriedly took off her sandals. The room was dark, quiet, the only source of light was the warm blue of a massive tank, a shark with the Kirigakure headband tied around its fin swam within and in front was a lounge.
Junko sat on a velvet couch, the exotic taste of her smoke filled the air and stained i’s taste buds the closer she ca. Whatever that is, it's not tobacco.
Unlike outside where eyes and ears crawled around trying to be unseen, there truly wasn’t anyone here besides Kisa, Junko and herself. i supposed between a clan head and the wielder of Sahada she’d find herself troubled enough.
Junko hadn’t shifted her gaze from her summon in its ocean lit tank. She blew her smoke and dusted the ash into an empty wine glass, her nails clinking against it before she took another drag.
i glanced back at Kisa, the sharkman stood guard in a far corner, his eyes never eting the confusion in hers. Was she to sit? Introduce herself? Pronounce her purpose? i gulped and simply took a seat opposite Junko, it was soft cushioned and perfud with a spicy fragrance.
Junko’s eyes cornered at her before giving a proper look. Her eyes were red with substance and i couldn’t predict what mood or word would co of her until she spoke.
“i Terumi, the Boil Release Princess, or is it the Lava Queen?” Junko started, she tapped the ash off her pipe and continued to smoke as i sat silent. “Why are you so scared? And don’t lie, I can read it off you. Sll it.”
Junko took a deep whiff of her from more than three tres away, her scent drew the clan head straight as she sighed satisfactorily. i didn’t answer imdiately. The fact that she was afraid was never sothing she intended to hide nor was she ashad of, but the reasons for her fear…what she answered now would decide how Junko saw the rest of this eting.
Fists balled against her lap, i answered with a hiss. “Because I’m desperate.”
Junko raised a brow as her pipe hissed, the stuffed substance crackling as she fed the fla oxygen to burn.
“This needs to work because the alternative is much…much more frightening for everyone. I don’t want that. I don’t want anyone to have to suffer for no reason.”
Junko snorted, a puff of smoke escaping her nostrils as she barely kept from choking. “So what do you want? What have you co to ask for?” Her eyes flickered to the scroll clutched in i’s hands. “Equality?”
“Respect.”
“Hahah!” Junko laughed. “That is earned.”
“It can and has been bought.” i challenged, this was it. “It can be negotiated for.”
Junko rolled her eyes. “Perhaps, but I’ve bled all I will for the weak and conquered. I will not cut another wound.”
“This won’t be sothing so hurtful as a wound, Lady Hoshigaki…living as we envision will bring—”
“What? Unity? Yagura-sama must have you fooled too if you think this village can ever share its wealth, its history with slaves.”
“We are not slaves.” i barely restrained herself from screaming at the impassive woman.
She shrugged. “Caste clan, servant caste, slaves. What difference does it make? You aren’t worth the sa as us and that was decided long before you ever ca into existence, little Lava Princess.”
i took a breath to steady herself. She straightened her posture and said, “That’s why I’m the one who’s co. I am the future that won’t abide by the present.” Junko didn’t look convinced. “And no matter what fantasy you tell yourself, the fact is Kirigakure wouldn’t be where it is without us, without our sacrifices, the blood we spilled to protect and ensure this village stood in the world it was born. And it has.”
Junko giggled. “I once made that sa argunt, long before I was ever a competent shinobi. Do you know what my grandfather told when I asked….why, oh why did the other Main clans look down on us, call us stinking fish, call us rn and sneer whenever we stepped into the room…”
“He said…those who call for sacrifice and those who sacrifice will never be the sa. We were the latter.”
“You never sacrificed as much as any caste clan has had to.” i sneered, unwilling and perhaps a little unable to shore up a shred of sympathy for the Hoshigaki’s marauding history.
“No, but will we ever be thanked? No. Do we ask to be thanked? No. You caste clans have a place here because soone thought to conquer you, you built this village because soone thought to use you to do it. There’s no credit due to the bricklayers and labourers when a house is built, all the glory belongs to its master.”
At this point i was grinding her teeth, her hands gripping the cushions like they owed her money. She knew it would be difficult, she expected resistance but she’d started with Junko Hoshigaki because of all the main clan heads she was the youngest, the most ‘sympathetic’ and yet…
“What’s it worth to keep an unhappy servant? The kind seeking to bury a blade in your back.”
Junko shook her head. “There isn’t a person living that I trust, not anymore. Servant or no, you all seek to destroy . To destroy the Hoshigaki!” She smiled and let her pipe clatter into the glass as she uncrossed her legs and leaned forward. “But Yagura-sama…he owes sothing and I know what side he’d want to take in this matter.”
Her eyes fell on the scroll again and her smirk grew. “That’s why I cleaned up in-house. The Poison Mist can have whatever they demand, the Hoshigaki don’t want them anymore as servants, bad rep spreads quickly you know?”
i scrunched up her face in confusion. “But…the Poison Mist isn’t the only clan whose demands are listed here.”
“They’re the only one I have any involvent with outside these walls…and they can keep whatever freedom you manage to get them…that is, if you manage to.” Junko stood, beckoning i to follow as she strutted out the way they ca.
i had little choice but to follow, tempering her frustrations at the woman’s strange uncooperative attitude. It felt like she wanted to help but didn’t believe it would an anything.
“It sounds like you’ve given up.” i said as they marched down the hallways Kisa brought her through, the glitter and gold of the Hoshigaki’s pirated wealth allured around the jaded Matriarch, an odd contrast i couldn’t stop noticing. “There’s still a chance you know? For everything to go as it should.”
“Hah! Everything? I might have been convinced if you were honest and said few things but all? You’re living a dream aren’t you?”
“I might as well, I’m going to make it a reality you live in too.” i retorted.
Junko smiled back at her. “Only if you win.”
“Where are we going?” They’d stepped out into the open and were speed walking out of the compound entirely now. “All I need is for you to show your support by signi—”
“I’ll give you sothing better than a flimsy signature.” Junko winked, a devious toothy smile forming on her lips. “Right now, the Hozuki and Funato are negotiating their own little peace deals so Yagura-sama doesn’t have anything to chomp on once this is said and done. We’re going to crash their party.”
“What?”
Junko raised a questioning brow at her. “Isn’t a seat at the big boys table what you want? Then take it and make sure you hold it.”
“But I’m just the…Lady Suikazan would be a much better choice to—” A single look from Junko silenced i’s self doubting words. She swallowed, took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay, let's go.”
Junko smiled. “You’d have had to anyway, at least this way…you’ll be respected. They’ll have no choice.”
Maybe they wouldn’t or maybe she wasn’t cut out for this at all, maybe she’s been all talk and no bite— urging and pressing others to take action where she won’t, couldn’t. i’s gaze lingered on Junko’s forward marching form, the woman had no hesitance in her step even as she hauled what would be chaos towards the two most powerful clan heads in the village.
Respect…freedom. Maybe we can have it.
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