SFF: 039 - To Love is to Sacrifice… (Patreon)

NADESHIKO VILLAGE

Shizuka was unsure if she was stupid, or just insane. Her heart thundered as she led Sagiri up the tower towards the Uchiha’s temporary abode. She had not seen her presumed sperm donor since her last meeting with Lady Marika, nor could she claim to have any sort of handle on his temperament. Confronting a shinobi of his calibre over a matter like this seemed to her the kind of thing she should not be allowing her beloved to do, but, alas, he refuses to see reason.

Shizuka stopped at the door her hand reaching for it but falling short. She glanced back at Sagiri, shooting him a pleading stare. He smiled in a comforting, nodding for her to proceed. Shizuka sighed as she turned back to face the door.

Lady Marika would have my hide for this…

*knock* *knock*

“It’s open,” drawled a disgustingly silken voice within.

Shizuka pulled the door open. Inside the room, her eyes met Yusuke-san’s. The medic’s expression displayed relief as he saw it was her. However, his elated expression quickly morphed into confusion, then disapproval as Sagiri entered the room behind her.

The Uchiha he was tending to stared at her expressionlessly. “What do you want?” he asked as Yusuke deactivated his medical ninjutsu. Shizuka was shocked to find the gruesome scars on his face had disappeared, healed away by the experienced medic. It wasn’t the transmogrification that surprised Shizuka—after all, such procedures were common in Nadeshiko where the majority of battle-ready personnel were Kunoichi whose future literally depended on their ability to retain their beauty—what surprised her was the fact Lady Marika approved the technique be used on him…

Only members of the village were allowed that privilege.

The realisation thickened the feeling of despair in her heart.

Ignorant of her thoughts, Sagiri walked forward to address the former Konoha-nin. “Good afternoon,” he said, amusing a respectable stance, “nice to meet you. I am Sagiri.”

The Uchiha glanced at her beloved before looking back at her. “What do you want?” he asked again.

Rudely.

Shizuka’s eyes narrowed as she realised what he was doing. Too bad she wasn’t in the mood for games at the moment.

‘I want you to call off this farce,” she spat, glaring at the shinobi

“Why are you here then?” the Uchiha asked, much to her surprise. “Get out. Go find your aunt and pester her about that.”

Shizuka exchanged glances with Sagiri as the Uchiha turned his attention back out the window, clearly dismissing them. Yusuke glanced at them before shrugging as he reactivated his medical ninjutsu and returned to transmogrifying the Uchiha’s appearance.

“...N-no?” Shizuka said hesitantly, unsure of what to do. “I… I want you to tell Lady Marika you have no interest in me and she should choose someone else.”

The Uchiha ignored her.

“I am not leaving here until you call it off.”

That elicited a response. The Uchiha sighed, gesturing for Yusuke-san to halt the procedure before turning to face her again.

“...Do I look like I have any interest in you?” he asked blandly. “Even scarred and crippled as I am, my list of potential spouses dwarfs the number of people you have seen since your birth… and that’s putting it modestly. I have no use for you, no desire for you, and no vested interest in having you mother any of my children. The only reason I agreed to this is because I weighed the value of going through all of this, and concluded it was, in the long term, worth the hassle involved. If you have any complaints regarding this arrangement I have with your village, I suggest you take it up with Lady Marika; I did tell her it didn’t really matter who the girl was after all.”

“That’s a lie,” Shizuka snapped. “Aunt said it was agreed upon that it had to be me.”

“Of course, it was agreed upon,” the Uchiha drawled impatiently. “It was agreed upon between herself and your village elders that it had to be you … Did you really think, for one moment that they would let you two be together? If so, then you must be more naive than I thought you were.”

“...What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh? Do you think the village is just going to roll over and accept the demands of a random civilian? Demands, which I might add, involve the abolishment of the age-old laws and customs that have preserved this village’s existence through the three Great Shinobi Wars.

“Did you think that if kunoichis such as yourself did not go out to find spouses such as myself, but instead settled with weak, defenceless civilians such as your friend here, Nadeshiko would still exist? From what I have heard, what’s-his-name, foolishly—selfishly, if I might add—intends to change these very laws that have preserved your people’s existence since time immemorial. I am frankly surprised he hasn’t been killed off yet by the village elders as he and the ideology he purports are clearly threats to Nadeshiko’s very existence. Where I come from, neither myself nor my family were shown such leniency. Your leader must really care about you if she is willing to risk the village’s future just to entertain your little dalliances. You should be grateful.”

Shizuka felt a pit form in her stomach as the truths she had been refusing to acknowledge for a while now were brought to the forefront of her mind. They wouldn’t be so cruel, she thought—hoped—imagining one day waking up to Sagiri’s cold corpse.  She shuddered as she reached for her beloved’s sleeve. She didn’t want to be here anymore. She needed a breath of fresh air to clear her mind. But obviously, Sagiri’s stubbornness decided to shine through at that moment.

“I do not fear death,” he said, glaring at the Uchiha. The boy’s onyx eyes panned to regard him.

“Then you are a fool,” he said, speaking to Sagiri for the first time since their arrival. “A fool and a coward.”

“...How is refusing to accept a foolish, archaic custom cowardice?” Sagiri sneered.

“You are too cowardly to sacrifice so your love might live on. If you continue on this path, your death is guaranteed, I assure you. I know it. You know it. We all know it. You will be killed by the roadside like a common pest, without an afterthought on the part of your murderers… But after you are dead what happens? Shizuka became heartbroken and stopped loving so she would never lose someone dear to her again—punishing herself, because she knows, deep down, she had a hand in your death. Or worse, she grows to despise her family which leads her to do something stupid. Or she could just kill herself and get it over with.”

Yusuke gasped at the boy’s callous words. The Uchiha however didn’t seem to register or care about the medic’s reaction.

“Is that what you want?” he asked. “If so, you are a coward. And a failure as a lover…

“For to love is to sacrifice.”

The Uchiha’s words ended on an otherworldly note.

The room lulled into a strange silence. Shizuka turned to look at her beloved. He looked back at her, his expression conflicted. Her heart wound in a knot as a certain realisation settled in her heart. Her subconscious pleaded for her to hold her tongue, but her heart knew what it had to do.

For to love is to sacrifice…

“...I am sorry,” Shizuka said as let hand reaching for Sagiri’s sleeve fell. She felt a line of tears run down her cheek as she resolved her heart. Sagiri reached for her but sighed as he also let his hand drop.

“Take care of yourself,” he said, smiling.

Shizuka sniffed, wiping her eyes as she turned to face the Uchiha. “Fine! I’ll do—” she began, only to trail off as she realised something odd was going on. The Uchiha sat stock still, his gaze blank as black markings appeared around his face, neck and exposed upper torso. Her senses as a Kunoichi rang out in alarm as the boy seated before her suddenly began to amass chakra at a terrifying rate. Even Sagiri seemed to sense it as he took a step back from the boy.

“...What’s going on?” he asked, staring cautiously at the Uchiha staring blankly into space.

“He’s amassing… chakra?” Shizuka replied.

“It’s not chakra,” a voice said behind her. Shizuka turned around to see Lady Marika standing by the entrance.

“...Since when have you been there?” Shizuka asked.

“A while,” replied the Matriarch. “We should talk later. Yusuke. We are leaving this place. Now.”

“...What about my patient?” the medic protested. “Something is clearly wrong here. No one should be able to amass chakra this quickly. Or in these amounts. It’s unnatural.”

“Oh, there’s nothing unnatural about this,” Lady Marika said with a smile. “He should be fine. Maybe. I am not sure. I have seen something like this before; a little while before I met my husband I met another shinobi from Konoha whom I fought to a stand-still. He used a technique similar to this.”

A technique that lets you amass chakra in these amounts? No wonder he fought Aunt to a standstill!

But as if reading her mind, Lady Marika spoke again.

“It’s not chakra. He is amassing natural energy; he seems to have just achieved a breakthrough in his understanding of the technique. We must leave now. Epiphanies such as this are already hard to come by. It would be unforgivable to deprive him of it by accident.”