MTLNOVEL Chapter 7: Chapter 7
There was no surprise attack thankfully, and the victorious army came back early in the evening of the next day. It was a gory fight, but even if the Senju had prepared for longer, the Uchiha were ensnared. They wouldn't let the death of one their leaders go unavenged. And so after a few hours of battle, the Senju retreated, deciding that the fire burning in the Uchiha's eyes was too much that day, and that the Chinoki lands weren't worth it. They were greatly mistaken however. One of the reasons the Uchiha had chosen to ally with the Chinoki was that their land had many mines in them. Gold and Iron were their primary source of revenue. They kept it a secret to not attract unwanted attention and only mined a little. Very few ally clans knew about it besides the Uchiha, and they only knew because they had found it odd that the Chinoki could readily supply them with material whenever they needed it and had sent a spy to check. And now they had a reason to take over that land and eliminate the middleman.
It came at a cost however. A few lives were lost and the wounded piled up.
Haruka had wanted to help when she noticed that Touko, the two other Uchiha medics and the independent doctors they had brought from outside, were struggling with simple procedures she used to force interns to do in her stead. But she also knew that, after her earlier performance, a lot of eyes were on her, and displaying an abnormal knowledge of medicine was pushing it too far. So after checking that Tajima and Madara were unharmed, she dragged Izuna with her to volunteer for nurse work. It baffled her that only after seeing them come to give a hand did the other women standing around come to the realization that they could help too. And so under Touko's grateful gaze, she naturally started giving directions and orders to the other volunteers. Things started going faster after that, but it was already one in the morning when they made their way back home.
Tajima and Madara had gone back earlier, utterly exhausted by the battle. It looked like they already had the dinner she left for them on the table, and so she and Izuna ate alone in silence. They hadn't talked much ever since Himiko's death, even if they spent every waking moment together. After washing up, they lay in their futons staring at the ceiling, unable to find sleep. At one point, the door to their room slid open, and Madara came in dragging his futon behind him. He silently laid it next to hers, making it so that she was sandwiched between her two brothers, and they all stared at the ceiling in silence.
A slight gasp was heard to her right and she turned around to see Izuna's face bathed in tears. He was biting his lips so as to stop the sounds of his sobs from coming out. He was trying to hold it in. Like a shinobi, Tajima would tell him. But he was only five. And a five year old kid is not supposed to hold it in. She got out of her futon and silently went to hug him. She held him in her arms, as he broke down and cried his eyes out. She herself shed tears she couldn't, no wouldn't,stop. At some point Madara joined them, taking both their little bodies in his embrace. She knew that he was a protective elder brother in his nature, so she let him do the hugging, even if she was supposed to be the one taking care of him. It's what he wanted. And what she needed. She had never experienced the loss of a loved one before, mainly because she didn't have loved ones, and it was a pain like no other. Even if she only knew her for less than a month, Himiko had come to mean a lot to her.
***
When she woke up the next morning, they were still in their awkward three-way hug, and so she had to wake them up if she wanted to get out and go make breakfast. They had a busy day ahead of them. It was the day of the funeral for all those who had died in this sordid affair. Everything was prepared by the ones who stayed behind in the compound; they were just waiting for everyone to get back. The warriors who went to fight, the shinobi who were on missions too far away or that couldn't be interrupted and the merchants of the clan on a trip to the Land of Water, where a cousin clan of the Uchiha, the Kaguya clan, lived.
Once they heard about the situation, they had sent a delegation with their condolences as well as some reinforcements. As the clan head's kids, the twins were there to welcome them too, and she was a bit weirded out by their pale skins with two red dots near the eye-brows, zigzagging hairline, and blatant disappointment at having missed the fight. The elders just laughed it off, muttering something about how it was always like this with their idiot relatives.
Once everyone was up, she was the first to take a bath, and dress herself in mourning clothes. She went out of the kitchen to prepare a good breakfast. This was going to be a long day and who knew when they would be able to eat again. Tajima was the first to join her in the living room and then the boys came one after the other already dressed too. They seemed better, even with their puffy eyes and dark eye bags from lack of proper sleep. That cry seemed to have done everybody a world of good.
Tajima was business as usual. Nobody really expected him to be giving out free hugs and comforting words. It even felt good to hear him give out strict instructions on how to behave during the funeral and with the delegation from their allied clans and the neutral ones that came to offer condolences. It meant that even if everything had changed, they could still do normal. And this was his normal.
The day went by in haze. So many "sorry for your loss" and "thank you for coming/the flowers" were exchanged. The three of them stood between the elders and Tajima, backs straight and expressions rigid. None of them cracked when Himiko's coffin was lowered to the ground, unlike the other kids who had lost parents too. They couldn't. Not with so many eyes around. After all, they were the future leaders of the clan. They got to grab a bite at around three in the afternoon, but even then delegations kept coming. Allies like the Kaguya, the Hagoromo and the Fuma. Neutral ones like the Nara, the Akimichi and the Yamanaka. These three odd groups of people that seemed to get along like peas in a pod, and had decided to stay out of the conflicts of the other shinobi clans altogether. It didn't mean they were weak, just that they were smart and couldn't be bothered to take a side.
When the night came, the Uchiha family went back to their home utterly exhausted. Even Tajima didn't have any power left in him to scold or criticize. They ate leftovers of the reception that one of the women overseeing the event had packed for them, and just went to bed early. All of them were finally able to fall asleep and have a good night's rest. It was finally over, and tomorrow would be a new beginning.