Reborn in the Mist

“Let me do that for you, Yagura-sama.” Reina Yuki said only after snatching the sweeping brush from my grasp. I thanked her and allowed myself to relax as she swept up the remainder from my explosive attempts at creating my own multifunctional seal.

Rice, gunpowder, and tofu had exploded out of my failure, well, it wasn’t technically all a failure because I managed to trigger the explosive effect of the seal when it’s faced with tampering. I intended for it to explode with some effect but the presence of gunpowder in the seal was meant to magnify that explosion to radical steps.

Of course, my mansion’s dojo wouldn’t be the place to suffer such magnitudes and I was simply at the early stages of this brazen idea of mine so the explosion that would trigger would be small and easily diffused if needed. Still, it exploded but only to eject the contents of the storage part of the seal while the explosive part sizzled and burned in rather anticlimactically.

Nevertheless, it had made a mess of the dojo and while Reina was here reporting her progress no one else could be, not even the maid that helped keep my practice area and test animals clean and fed.

I glanced at the menagerie of animals I’d acquired for [Bind Seals] and the occasional daring at higher forms of Chakra Sealing. Monkeys, a ton of snakes, rats, hawks and I had a leopard locked up somewhere on the grounds. It was more than plausible to seal living creatures in other living creatures and Jinchuriki like myself were simply the epitome of that Fuuinjutsu practice.

Still, the art was a tough one to master as sealing a living thing meant splitting their being into what I’ve learned well to be Yin and Yang, their spirit and their physical. Success would mean tapping into Yin chakra and becoming familiar with the energy Isobu insists I’ll require to advance training with his chakra.

Reina threw the rubbish away and kept the brush aside before submitting herself in a right up posture. She didn’t look like she brought good news but I had quickly learned to stop expecting that as Mizukage.

“Sir?” she said, asking for permission to begin her report.

I set the animal squeaking and wing flapping to background noise and my fidgeting ideas for multifunctional seals to a halt as I nodded, “Tell me.”

“The Kaguya have begun opening up, little by little. I’ve seen ten couples away to start living by themselves, they are very…attached to each other so I call that a success. The growing physical distance between living families is helping the community develop instead of simply managing. They’re gradually testing the bounds of their freedom but have only explored around thirty percent of the compound space given to them, still, the space is quickly being filled up with activity and the independent adults have even begun strolling into the Yuki side of the Estate.

“Helpful as the Karatachi have been, they aren’t especially friendly with either Kaguya or Yuki, they’re curt, to the point wearing a façade even the children can see through. But, their help is appreciated.” Reina said with some heat at the edge of her words.

I couldn’t blame her and I couldn’t blame my clan members either. They’d got roped into helping the Kaguya and Yuki grow into themselves because Uncle and I asked them to. But like Uncle had confessed to me, I haven’t been especially tender and dear to my own clan, not to say I was hostile but I was just as unapproachable to them as I was to every other clan.

It was reasonable they wouldn’t be jumping at their feet to cater to a Bloodline wielding clan, two that are under immense scrutiny by the general populace for criminal incidents during my reign. In an odd way I believe my clan was nicer to the Kaguya than the Yuki.

I inhaled and asked, “What about the Yuki?”

Reina shifted her weight, “They’re in the same position but…they’ve had enough of it. They aren’t like the Kaguya who are overwhelmed by the smallest luxuries, the Yuki, they’re accused and they have too much pride to be gilded prisoners.” Her eyes danced past mine as she said this, testing the bounds of her free speech. I said nothing and let her continue.

“Right now the Karatachi handle every facet of both clans, from feeding, housing, even tending to the Estate to ensure everything is working. They aren’t ignorant of the ANBU still watching them either but much like the Kaguya they are grateful for Yagura-sama’s mercies and don’t want to squander it.”

I raised a brow at her, “Squander it?”

Reina straightened even further as she urged a request, “They’ve always earned their keep, most are shinobi but even the civilians are too prideful to simply…exist. They want to work for themselves and are even open to socializing with the Kaguya, mostly those that were previously merchant class but they don’t want to be caged birds kept under…pardon my tongue, Yagura-sama.”

She fell to a knee and bowed her head but I wasn’t the least bit concerned and usually, neither would she. The Yuki clan had suffered a paralyzing blow to their prestige and one that only grew steeper with Lord Funato’s assassin wearing the face of Shizu Yuki, the courage clan’s very plausible martyr.

With a bored tone I asked, “What kind of jobs do they want?”

“Just simple ones, things that could help them feel useful if not to Kirigakure then to this slice of it.” Reina had come prepared and as she stood she produced a scroll from her pouch and handed it over. I unfurled it and quickly understood the table of numbers and affiliations to be a population census for everyone living within my Estate, specifically the clans themselves.

With it I discovered there were more adult Yuki which made sense given the initial population was formed from the arrest of every single name on the list Hidaki and Shizu Yuki had written in compliance. The immediate families of those named Yuki were then brought along to live with them here, wives, children, siblings or dependents that lived together.

It was the fairest situation so as not to split the Yuki clan in two but also not to undermine the effect of their separation. Like cutting out a tumorous growth.

The Kaguya on the other hand were mostly old people well past the age of learning anything useful to Kirigakure or even themselves, retirement age basically. The youth and children they had were saddled with the responsibility of tending to their ailing family which was a wasted resource frankly but one of the table’s columns included a few mentions of what jobs the Yuki had in mind to work.

Cleaning, gardening, communal cooking sounded like a pleasant idea to bring the two clans to mingle and some wanted to set up shops as they still had limited access to the funds they had before their lives changed.

I set the scroll down and held my chin in thought, “Hm, jobs…might not be a bad idea at all. It would help both clans grow comfortable around each other and set the mood for the others yet to come, yes…cooperation and perhaps eventually a giant clan of Kekkei Genkai with offspring wielding unpredictable power.”

Reina had a scrunched up and moderately disgusted look when I turned to her and said, “Draw up a plan for it, I want the two clans to break out of their shells, the children to grow up with each other. Make it feasible and likely to accommodate more clans.”

The Yuki ANBU Commander wiped the look on her face with a bare trace as she nodded and rolled up the scroll, “Of course, you will have a report on your desk soon.”

I nodded in thanks and though I hadn’t dismissed, the intention was there yet she lingered, “Speak.” I said, free thought was of absolute importance to me when it came to my shinobi, I wouldn’t tolerate mutiny of course but discourse with subordinates of her rank and level was worth every word.

She exhaled, not hesitating once given permission, “Yagura-sama, do you intend to force the Yuki to copulate with the Kaguya in hopes of producing a stronger Kekkei Genkai?”