Blood is Thicker [Private]

[Yume]

"A divine blade lies before you, so command the wake of dreams..."<i></i>

Vastly different to the catchy tempo of her pop songs and even her ballads, Yume spun around and danced in a room of one of the former clan houses of the Yamaguchi. The name wiped, the houses were taken care of for decades by an elderly couple and their children. She liked them. She owed them for taking care of her in childhood, despite living in a house that once housed her father. And mother.

"Join in our prayer--in our song--of birthrights and love..."

The elderly pair sat by the low set table, a tea set was arranged perfectly on the surface. Yume's steps were silent, made even more so by the tatami mats under her bare feet. Only her voice, and the chimes of the fine chain of bells around her echoed throughout the house.

"Lost in thoughts, all alone..."

With a final spin, Yume finished in a graceful pose. Two sets of hands were heard clapping. The girl lowered her hands and straightened up. There was no thankful bow. The elderly couple shuffled themselves to face her properly and smiled.

"It is always such a pleasure to witness your performance," the lady said. "The house is always 'clean' because of you."

"We're so glad to have seen you grow into a successful young lady," the old man continued. The two of them leant over, bowing down to her in a respectful kowtow. Yume averted her gaze in awkwardness, taking a step back out of instinct. The two spoke, in unison.

"This house is always awaiting for your return, Kiseki-san."

"P-Please..." Yume stammered quietly. "Don't call me that."

"We're sorry, Kiseki-san."

Yume said nothing else. With a silent bow herself, she turned and stepped out of the room into the corridor. She headed towards the open air garden. The bamboo water feature clacked rhythmically against the rocks, water gently streamed through a small pond of koi fish. In essence, this mansion was quite Eastern in its design, despite the Yamaguchi's more Westernised lifestyle - Yume included.

She crouched down, poking a finger into the pond to catch one of the koi fish. This occurred a couple of times until she got bored. When she stood back up straight, the idol turned to look at the home looming over her. It felt like family duty was looking down on her - no matter where she ran, this place would end up in her dreams.

Shaking her head, she turned and smiled down at the koi fish swimming about. She exhaled softly, feeling the same song she performed before illuminate her being. Perhaps it was her blood, but songs like these lullabies comforted her more than the ones she wrote herself. Her feet twisted, the bells around her wrists and waist chimed and her arms moved smoothly like water. Yume looked genuinely relaxed.

"You are an ocean of waves, weaving a dream like thoughts become a river stream..."

 

[Uchiha Izura]

It was night time outside, the silence of the garden broken only by the serene motion of the water, the clack of bamboo, and the chirping of crickets. Quiet, serene, and out of the way of commonly travelled areas, this was one of the secret locations that Izura’s wealth had been hidden. He intended to access that wealth so that he’d be able to better take care of Ayame. Perhaps even purchase an estate here under a different name. Money was power, especially in the underground. The Yakuza controlled Leaf from the shadows at one point- Izura was intrigued by their absence. He’d need the money to expand his information network.

Like a ghost, Izura phased through the hedgerows surrounding this particular garden.

Izura was surprised to find Yume, playing around with the koi fish in the pond. He couldn’t help but note her singing as beautiful, but he shrugged off that thought. He was here, strictly on business. Work was work…The Uchiha slightly blushed, but gritted his teeth. He couldn’t afford to get distracted now…especially after what happened at the record store.

“The old hokage’s house….what are you doing here? Are you here to stop me?” he said, in a tone that indicated that he was suspicious of her. Especially after seeing her in ninja attire at the academy. Could have it been a simple cosplay? Perhaps, but Izura’s uncanny sixth sense told him otherwise. She could’ve been a shinobi pulling the wool over his eyes all along…Even though Izura was doing his best to remain apathetic, in his eyes she’d likely sense his regret. Regret at acting like a dunce. Regret at letting his guard down around her. It was clear that he had retreated into his shell.

He shrugged and proceeded with the plan to recover his wealth, choosing to ignore her at least temporarily. She didn’t seem to be aware of the cache’s location, nor did she seem to expect his arrival. After all, she wasn’t even wearing her kunoichi attire. It was as if she hadn’t been expecting him to show up at all.

He walked over to a nearby rock, lifting it to reveal some sort of grating. Lifting the small piece of grating and setting it aside, Izura reached down and pulled a lever that had been hidden underneath the rock.

Promptly, the Koi pond split open down the middle while reconfiguring itself to allow the Koi fish to remain within their halves of the pond, revealing a narrow stairway that led underneath the garden. Izura stepped forward again, walking past Yume within arm’s reach at one point, but continuing to bite his lip as he hid his embarrassment, looking away from her.

He made his way down the stairway, which wasn’t very long at all, descending only about 8 meters before it stopped at a dead end, filled with various ninja weaponry from the war against the Samurai. There was a single, unlit ornate torch on the wall, engraved with the sharingan’s signature visage.

Izura activated his sharingan, lighting the torch with Amaterasu’s black flames. Promptly, the wall slid open, revealing an even larger room. Here was a plethora of gold bars, stacked high and deep. Enough to fund an entire palace alone.

Izura deactivated his sharingan, stepping into the room filled with the wealth. He withdrew a large ninja scroll and began preparing it for sealing the wealth away…

 

[Yume]

Yume gasped, jumping backwards and cutting her song midway. Izura? What was he doing here? Oh no, Oppa was right. He was a saesang after all! She struggled to find words to speak in response to Izura's cold interrogation, shocked beyond the point from realising any semblance of shame in his voice.

He walked past her, poking and prodding and rocks and things until a secret passageway opened up. Yume's lips parted in bewilderment, frozen until he walked past her and descended down the stairs. She snapped out of it and turned towards the house, cupping a hand to her mouth to clearly relay the message. Her warning echoed down within the depths of the cache.

"A-Ajhussi! Ajumma! Call security - we have a thief!"

Knowing that it would take a while for someone to come, considering the near abandonment of the mansion, Yume fidgeted about by the steps. Her hands wrung together in conflict, unsure if she was supposed to take action. She wasn't supposed to care about this house so much. This place literally meant nothing to her. Nothing at all.

Messing her fringe up in frustration, she took the dive. Running down the steps and into the treasure room with barely any time to recognise the sharingan emblem on the torch, she stumbled in pause to take in what she was seeing. The girl backed away slightly, once again unsure what to do after this.

"Aish...!" she hissed, messing up her hair again. She didn't want to do this...

Her hands dropped to her sides. She stood there firm, staring intently at the trespassing Uchiha.

"Izura-san... Please tell me that you're not a saesang," she whispered. "I should be asking you..."

She took in a deep breath. Perhaps to the Uchiha, she was completely still. The gods watching down on them would see the ghost of her still body. Overlapping it was her real self, palms pressed together in brief prayer.

Snapping back to the material world, if Izura blinked, he would suddenly see her hands together in prayer. Perhaps foolish, she never looked away despite knowing his clan name. Her blue eyes glimmered green in the dark, partly reminiscent of a person he might have known long ago. Ghostly tendrils shot out from the ground, wrapping themselves around the Uchiha - more of a cage than a restrictive squeeze. She didn't think she would ever have to ask this to anyone.

"What are you doing in my home?"

 

[Uchiha Izura]

Izura sighed. He couldn’t ignore her forever. Besides, with authorities potentially having heard her voice, it might’ve only been a matter of time before this place was found out. A shame, really, for most folk. But luckily, Izura had the ability to teleport the wealth of the cache out of there before it was too late. The mangekyou sharingan granted him that much power.

He simply walked through the ethereal cage as if it weren’t even there, stepping closer to Yume with his sharingan active. He could have reversed the genjutsu, but seeing as Yume was searching for answers more than trying to harm him, he avoided doing so. Genjutsu reversals were a bit harsh after all.

His eyes widened for a bit.

She lives here?!

He was surprised at first, but then he remembered that a great many things could've changed since Kami lived here. For all he knew, the house could've been sold to Yume's family several years ago.

Izura’s face slightly reddened out of embarrassment, his eyes averted away from a likely bewildered Yume. “It can’t be helped….” he muttered under his breath.

He made his way back to the sealing scroll, activating the sealing technique and causing the massive amount of gold bars to get sucked into the scroll. As he did this he spoke to Yume, although he didn’t face her. His voice was more….informative. The tone one would expect from a shinobi professional that was there on a job.

“A long time ago I fought against the samurai alongside the Hokage and amassed a great fortune, but in the event that we lost the war, I hid several caches hiding that wealth. I’m securing one of them…your home just happens to be next to one of the hidden caches that’s hiding what’s rightfully mine…”

That might’ve been strange to Yume. If Izura’s claims were true, then he’d have fought and amassed a fortune around the age of 14! The reality was different of course- Izura had been in stasis since the fall of Leaf. He had essentially been frozen in time, unaging.

Izura let the Amaterasu flames die, and as soon as the torch was unlit, the entrance sealed shut behind them both. Whoever came to Yume’s aid now would come across an empty garden…

He deactivated his sharingan promptly thereafter, turning to her. He looked sad, apologetic even.

“At the record store….I acted like a fool…” he whispered, as he began to walk forward towards the entrance, scroll in hand. Apart from maybe the weapons there, not much of anything of significant value was left within the cache. Izura didn’t care. He’d simply construct another elsewhere. He’d pass Yume and then….

 

[Yume]

Yume took another step back, her hands parted away from each other. The ghostly branches dissipated away when Izura passed through them. She frowned, his explanation of his association with her father put him at the place when Leaf City fell. She was only very young then, with her mother then in the safety away from the war.

But why would a cache of gold right be where her family used to live?

The stone doors closed behind her, making her start. Whirling around just when Izura passed her and made a sorry excuse of an apology for the record store incident--not that she cared much about it as much as her manager did--Yume was prepared to drop her bubbly, go-with-the-flow persona to another deeply hidden side. She was not going to let this crazy fan trap her here!

"Yah-!" she stopped. A entrance appeared before her, something that reminded her of a dimensional wormhole she heard so much about back when she was but a little child. The slightest peek from Izura told her that this was probably the only way out for her. There was no other choice but to follow.

They reached a ladder at the end of the tunnel. Looking up to the top, she could see dim moonlight shine through what looked like a manhole cover. She requested--or demanded, however Izura heard it as, to climb up first. She wasn't sure if he would leap up and then close the cover on her face.

"D... Don't you dare look up my skirt," she mumbled, also averting her gaze. With as quick agility as she though a supposed non-ninja would allow, Yume climbed up.

Pushing the cover off, she pushed herself out and dusted herself off. Where were they? Yume glanced around, seeing the heavily faded name placard on the fence. Blood drained from her face. They were at the front of the Yamaguchi mansion.

"Kiseki-san!"

Yume froze. Don't call her that...

The elderly couple shuffled themselves out as fast as they possibly could to her. A panicked look flashed across her face as she took a quick peek at the Uchiha behind her. He didn't hear that did he?

Even if he didn't, they were not helping her case at all. The both of them fell to their knees, grasping onto her skirt with head bowed in reverence.

"We heard."

"H-Heard...?" she echoed weakly. Her hands rested on top of their heads out of habit. She didn't think she'd like what's about to come next. There were many things that happened that she didn't like. A bubbling pit of anxiety filled up from her stomach. This must be how Izura felt at the record store.

"You recognise this house as your home again," the elderly woman cried. Yume stepped back away from them. No... She didn't...?

They had scrambled up to their feet again with the deepest bow. "Bring back the Yamaguchi name, please!"

"N-No... Stop calling me that... I'm not him..." Yume whimpered. Her hands covered her face in shame, hyperaware of Izura's presence behind her and the scene of the old caretakers in front of her.

 

[Uchiha Izura]

Izura blushed at her skirt comment right before she climbed the ladder to exit the cache. Allowing her to go first due to her suspicion that he’d leave her here was fine…it was the insinuation that he didn’t have the common decency to avoid looking up her skirt that elicited a response from the Uchiha.

“O-of course not!” he stammered. “I-I’m not a saesang!”

Izura blushed averting his eyes as Yume climbed up the ladder ahead of him. He crossed his arms as he did so, a slight frown on his face. When he was certain the coast was clear, he followed Yume up the ladder and back into the fresh air of the outdoors.

It was at that point that the elderly couple began to call Yume by a different name- Kiseki.

Izura’s suspicions about her were amplified, only to be nearly verified by the next revelation. Yamaguchi. Her surname was Yamaguchi.

Yamaguchi Kami. The old hokage.



Kiseki….Yamaguchi Kiseki.

The adoption of the name Yume, stylized after her mother’s name. It all began to make a whole lot more sense to Izura.

In an amazed tone, he spoke to her.

“You….you’re the old hokage’s daughter?!” he said, in bewilderment. Due to his surprise, he might’ve said it a bit loudly.

Of course, Izura wasn’t able to 100% verify his conclusions, for she could’ve just been their niece or something, but why else would she have adopted the name Yume? What was keeping her from using her real name? Perhaps idol work? Her relation to the old hokage allowed Izura to make sense of why she was a kunoichi. If shinobi talent ran in the family, it had an uncanny tendency to be passed down, regardless of whether or not the children desired to follow in their family’s footsteps.

In any case, it was a good feeling for Izura. Knowledge was power after all, and ever since that blunder at the record studio where he had inadvertently revealed his real name, he felt like he had exposed a severe weakness. This revelation evened the playing field a bit.

Not that it mattered much- Izura had no reason to tell anyone about Yume’s true identity. There were a lot of folk who would’ve paid a fortune for such information, but it wasn’t like he was hurting for money…

 

[Yume]

If it was possible, she wanted to put her hands through her face. That was how intensely uncomfortable she was feeling. Old people talk too much. The girl stayed in place for a moment in silence, dropping her hands half a minute after with a sigh. Her eyes were closed while she inhaled then exhaled once. Reopening them, her visage settled into a calm before a storm and she gently pushed the elderly couple to stand through their shoulders.

"Can I have some tea, please?" she asked with a small, gentle smile on her face. The woman tilted her head to the side before nodding and shuffling back inside the house. The husband followed soon after, proclaiming that he was going to set up the entertainment room. Once they were out of sight, Yume let out a heavy, defeated sigh and began to walk inside.

She stopped after the second step and turned around to face Izura with a flourish of her skirt.

"Come in and have some tea with me," the girl said, shooting a muted version of her dazzling idol smile at him. "I have something to give you anyway."

Stepping up to the doorstep with different grace from her idol movements, Yume gestured through to the door with a perfect pose until the Uchiha complied.

Closing the door behind him with a gentle click, Yume turned to spot the old woman poke her head out of one of the rooms down the main corridor and shuffle out to another room. Yume led Izura down to the room where the lady just left from and gestured in the same manner.

"Please."

The room was traditional, much like a room one would find in a ryokan inn. Plain, with a statement piece of sumi-e art on the wall and a low set table and cushion chairs set in the centre of the room. If Izura was thinking of stealing anything at all, it would have been for naught. There was nothing worth stealing here, unless he counted the ceramic tea set laid meticulously on the table as something of value. The old man had left the paper screen door open to let in the cooling night air and show off the garden outside.

"Have a seat." Yume turned away once he sat down. "I will be back in a moment. Make yourself comfortable, Izura-san."

Then she'd be gone, heading off somewhere within the house for a solid five minutes and leaving Izura alone to process what just happened.

 

[Uchiha Izura]

Izura’s curiosity was piqued when Yume invited her into the old hokage’s house. She was acting…a bit strange now. He nodded, following her into the house and not knowing what to expect. Promptly they entered the simple, Ryoka inn-styled room, and Izura took a seat.

Izura took a deep breath and closed his eyes, focusing on his hearing. As a child, there had been a point in time where he was literally rendered blind and unable to utilize the power of his eyes. He had to rely upon his other senses to ensure his own survival. It was a side effect of being too weak and feeble to support the formidable powers of his sharingan.

Although that was a thing of the past, this experience gave Izura the ability to more easily sense the things happening around him without the use of his eyes. It was his “sixth sense” so to speak. He focused, trying to hear the footsteps around the house, the dull chirping of the crickets outside, amplified by this simple steadying of the mind and body.

And so he waited there, calming himself down, but also thinking about her name.

Yamaguchi Kiseki…why would she change her name to Yume?

 He whispered to himself.

He remembered the business deals with Kami. They weren’t always with Izura’s direct involvement, for Izura’s adoptive father Yasha Sojobo made most of the deals with him, but in the final days of the fall of Leaf City, Izura was the one who called the shots. Now the organization that he worked for all those years was gone. Eradicated from the history books as mere myth and legend. The only remains a bunch of forgotten caches holding hidden treasures. And Izura might’ve been the only one left who remembered where they all were.

The Yakuza was gone too, leaving Izura to ponder what happened to them. Perhaps they were eradicated by the Daimyo’s forces? In any case, this left a huge power vacuum in Konoha’s underground. Someone had to have filled this gap….

Questions questions questions. And none of them were answered. Perhaps on both their minds…

He opened his eyes when Yume returned.

 

[Yume]

Yume returned with a bamboo tray of a hot kettle of water, a small bowl with a serving of tea leaves, and tea accessories and tools. Setting them down on the floor beside her seat, the girl sat down herself. The tiny bells chimed with her movements, as she readjusted her sleeves before performing a rather foreign tea ceremony silently. It wasn't Japanese, the tea wasn't matcha after all.

She placed a tiny cup of steaming tea in front of Izura.

"Is pu'erh okay?"

Her own cup was in her hand as she sipped it slowly. She blinked at him. "I didn't poison it. You saw me rinse everything out." The girl continued to stare towards the Uchiha, watching him as he handled the tea. With a quiet exhale from her lips, she set down her empty cup and refilled it, doing the same with Izura's as required.

"You're correct. I am that person's daughter. Since you made dealings with him, I will do that too. What will it be to keep your silence?"

She wasn't good at this. If it was negotiations or anything like that, her manager would have been much more suitable in this situation. Yume was more of a figurehead if anything.

But he wasn't here, and she was all alone.

"Ah, I almost forgot." Yume reached behind her to take out the signed album he left behind at the record store stashed at the hem of her skirt. She glanced at the cover, checking to make sure that the autograph didn't smudge or fade away before handing it over to him. She smiled.

"You dropped this back then. I'm sorry I had to give this to you under these awkward circumstances." Her eyes lowered in shyness. "... Hm."

A huff of escaped her lungs and she ran her fingers through her hair. Her eyes flicked over to the Uchiha with a sheepish grin. She was looking more like her idol self as the seconds passed by.

"I hope this whole thing doesn't change your opinion about my music. It's the only innocent thing here!"

 

[Uchiha Izura]

"Is pu'erh okay?"

Izura nodded curtly. He wasn’t about to refuse her hospitality. He did the usual when checking for poisons. He’d carefully smell the aroma of the liquid before sipping a small amount. When she eased his suspicions, he sighed and began to drink a bit more of it, sipping the tea here and there. It wasn’t what he was used to by any means, but it was still a welcome beverage regardless.

He still felt confused about himself and how he should feel around Yume. Part of him just closed off almost instinctively after what had happened at the record studio. It was clearly obvious that he had a crush on her that he didn’t really know how to deal with, especially given the lack of exposure to women in his life- at least in the romantic sense.

Izura sighed, a slight blush on his face. He clenched his teeth for a minute, but then relaxed again. The internal struggle was real, pulling his around in a million directions. Part of how he felt, he couldn’t even articulate into words.



If I acted like this around my fellow shinobi, they’d be hard pressed to respect me…

“What will it be to keep your silence?"

He hesitated to respond to her question. What he really wanted to say is the truth- that he felt confused and didn’t know what to do. That a million thoughts were racing through his head in an attempt to make sense of why he had been so stupid, so miscalculating. He was blowing the entire record incident way out of proportion- it was bad, but it wasn’t the end of the world. But he had little frame of reference for that. Izura had been a survivalist and ninja all his life- on the run, disguised, part of a shinobi militant group. He had no time to express his emotion as much as he’d wished. It was either adapt or die.

But now things were different- there was conflict in the world, but it had died down, mellowing to a level that wasn’t as worrisome. Gone was the constant warfare between villages. It was simply a series of hidden proxy wars between smaller, less visible groups. Even then, the most powerful of these shady groups , the Yakuza, were gone. Just another dead leaf in the wind. Izura also had a sister who was alive and well. She put herself into harm’s way, but Izura trusted that she could take care of herself. She was far more skilled than he ever was at that age. It took him a year to improve to the levels she was at- something that took her half the time to accomplish. But she was also a far more ambitious 13 year old than Izura ever was at that age. Izura had always been a shy kid, forced to adapt to survive. These conditions created the persona that was Uchiha Izura the ninja…not Uchiha Izura the human being. And yet every time he met Yume he couldn’t help but expose that human side of him, at least a little bit. It felt strange and alien to him, but it happened whether he willed it or not.

"I hope this whole thing doesn't change your opinion about my music. It's the only innocent thing here!"

She held out the signed record to him, and he smiled solemnly, accepting it from her. More hesitation. He didn’t know what to say. In deep contemplation, he set the record back on the table.

Biting his lip, he stood up, turning away from her. He began stepping, about to leave, but then he stopped. Was it right to just turn his back and leave without saying a word?

“A shinobi must never show any weakness. Isn’t that one of the main rules of Shinobi 101?” he said, the tone of his voice screaming that part of him did not believe that statement was 100% true. There had been countless times that Izura’s emotion…his perceived weakness had helped him survive. But for every time it saved him, it also proved to be his downfall.

“You don’t owe me anything…”

Izura turned back around and sat down, the blush still on his face from embarrassment. Unless Yume was a complete social dunce, she’d be able to understand at least partially how he felt, just by his body language.

 

[Yume]

Yume's blank expression never faltered. She watched him when he stood up as if he was about to leave, then change his mind and sit back down in front of her. Her blue eyes blinked once, and she took another calming sip of her tea. The girl brewed a new batch of tea and poured it into his cup.

"What an odd wall you put up," she remarked. "I don't understand it."

Not that she was one to talk. Who was the one that tried her best to cage up her Yamaguchi name? The little voice nagged at her, causing a microexpression of a frown before she inwardly shook it off and went back to a small smile. That was different, that was a matter of identity, not emotion. She had no issue with expressing them.

"But if you say that I don't owe you anything... Well."

That wasn't good enough for her. The importance of Izura's name was unknown to her, but for Yume, her own name was everything. She pondered about it for a second, and finally nodded to herself. She looked at him with a smile. "Forget all that Oppa has said to you, he's straight laced... and always looking out for me, even though he's harsh about it."

Easier said than done, probably.

"Let's start over then." She extended her hand over the table towards for a handshake. "Nice to meet you. My name is Yume. Just Yume."

 

[Uchiha Izura]

Izura smiled, relieved a bit that she was willing to start over. It didn’t exactly erase the past, but it was better than nothing.

He shook her hand, a light, melodious chuckle escaped his lips.

“Nice to meet you again Yume.”

He was still nervous, but at least he came out of his shell a little again. But he felt like he needed to get this off his chest. He needed to apologize.

“I’ve….been a shinobi as long as I can remember. Even as a child, things weren’t easy. I ran…hid…lived under false names…for a long time this was my life. Things have changed since then and to be honest, it hasn’t been easy. I came to Konoha to see what it was like after all these years. To see who was in power. To try and contact the Yakuza…your father’s organization…”

He blushed, apologetically.

“But then I got distracted….by you and your music. It…just made me feel better despite all the crazy things going on in the world. It reminded me that I was human like everyone else.”

He averted his eyes in nervousness and embarrassment before continuing.



“I’m sorry….for misreading the situation at the record store….and for ruining your class.”

 

[Yume]

In a way, Yume probably had an easy, breezy life as an entertainer to the masses. Sure, the daily workouts, practice and events squished her into a pretty hectic schedule but the chances of dying as an idol compared to a shinobi was a lot, lot slimmer.

Yume visibly frowned at the mention of her father. Izura might have noticed by now that everything that alluded to the former Hokage and anything associated with him. From what she had found under the Hokage Mountain, perhaps her faith in her mother was wavering just a little bit as well. Just a bit. Demonic brains are a little hard to understand, sometimes.

"There is no one else," she said in reference to the Yamaguchi family. "Just me."

And she didn't even want the name to begin with.

"I suppose you can ask me what you need, but I'm not sure if I can fully help."

A quiet laugh suddenly broke out of Yume when he praised her and her music. She had a fair share of fans showing their appreciation; usually it's something about her bubbly personality, her stage presence, or how her music had saved them in some of the darkest times. Her music humanised someone, haha. It was just a the tiniest bit ironic.

"Sorry," she apologised herself, covering her mouth with her fingertips. "No one has ever said that before to me before, I'll be honest."

A faint beeping echoed from somewhere within the house. Yume ignored it - it was probably her manager calling her headset for something. Perhaps the granny and pops had called him when Izura trespassed into the gardens. She picked up her cup of tea and sipped on it again.

"It was a weird day at the record store, no doubt. Even the stylists were a bit crazy. More tea?"

She had no idea that it was due to the Uchiha charm.

 

[Uchiha Izura]

“Sure~” he said, easing a little more. He was enjoying this a lot more than the hectic confusion that he experienced at the record store. She promptly poured him more tea, and Izura politely thanked her.

“Thanks…this tea is good! I don’t think I’ve had this kind before…” he said, taking a sip of it once more.

He thought about the record store again- couldn’t get it entirely off of his mind.



“Yeah…that was a pretty crazy day…those stylists of yours kept staring at me and squealing….I’m not entirely sure why…”

Izura rubbed the back of his neck, before “quietly laughing” in a way that was similar to Yume…except well…more masculine sounding. It’d be bad if Izura sounded like a girly girl after all.

He returned his focus to Yume’s family. Izura had a great many questions, but he figured he’d save those for later. Right now she needed to know why he was here trying to find the Yakuza in the first place.

“I came here for information. To know who currently controls the village, and if they’re a different faction than the Leaf that lost to the samurai all those years ago. If they aren’t the same people, which seems to be the case judging by the Yakuza’s…..disappearance, then I want to help the Yakuza re-establish control. It’s the group I backed during the war, and it’s the group I still feel….obligated to. You’re a kunoichi, you can help me, right?”

He seemed hopeful, judging by the look on his face...

 

[Yume]

"Hmm..." Yume stared at Izura past the top of her teacup for a moment of silence in response to his confused statement regarding the girls. She smiled rather cheekily behind the ceramic, adding on with a bit of thought, "I guess you are pretty cute now that I look at you properly."

She was quick in picking up the signs based on the antics from the record store, but since this second incident, Izura looked a lot calmer. The kind of effect might not be as strong anymore, not when she was seen acting proper like this.

"I don't know where you heard that I'm a kunoichi, Izura-san," she replied with a cute tilt of her head and smile. At least let her have this. At the very least. If he questioned her use of a genjutsu earlier, she'd merely claim it was something her mother had taught her before she was left here in Konoha.

"I was just asked to teach history at the Academy that day. How can I help you when the only... Yamaguchi--" She appeared to be struggling at saying the family name. "--in this house and village, is me? Did you want to work through FiRE Entertainment and Music?"

On the surface, she didn't think something like the entertainment industry would do much for the underbelly. But hey, Yume only looked like her father. She didn't think like him.

 

[Uchiha Izura]

Izura's face reddened at the compliment. He smiled, genuinely. He wasn't used to such praise....that or he ignored it because he was usually on the job and paid no heed to distractions. But Yume was different- he was beginning to feel a lot more at ease around her.

"G-geez....and here I was, thinking the same about you..." he said, his blush deepening.

Out of hesitation he continued rather quickly with a hasty follow on statement. "B-but you a-already knew that!" and then he covered his face in embarrassment with his hands.

A few seconds passed, and he laughed, lowering his hands.

"God, I'm such a dunce at times...I'm just so...obvious..." he said, in a quieter tone, smiling.

This was a far cry from how Izura was acting at the record store. It was ironic- Yume was caught off guard when he was doing professional work, and Izura had been caught off guard when she was performing idol work. But now, in the quiet room, away from the bustling noise of their everyday lives, they were able to speak more naturally and at ease with one another.

He returned to the more serious topic at hand. The Yakuza's return. This was an opportune time. Izura had a vast wealth, and Yume had a popular following.

"I have the information network...the wealth...the resources...it's just a matter of reclaiming or reactivating them. Combined with your following, we might just be able to convince others to our side..."

 

[Yume]

Her laughter this time was not as muted as before as she tried hard not to tip over from her seat. Her hand covering her mouth was the only saving grace she had. He was so awkward again - it was hilarious.

"You're so not smooth at all!" she said, wiping a tear from her eye. It wasn't a remark of insult - more of a mere observation than anything. That wasn't intended to be rude at all, hopefully. As her laughter slowly subsided, it was replaced with a sigh of relief from the giggle fit, and then a sigh of disappointment.

"Why do you want to back the man that abandoned everything behind?"

Everything, including her. Did she get in the way of whatever whims he had out in the world? Was he expecting her to pick up where he left off? Get real. The notion that he could have had Yume--her mother, that is--drop this Yume off in new Konoha out of concern and love would also never ever come up within her mind.

Her brow furrowed into a frown and she turned her head to the side to drink her tea instead. She was a little annoyed.

"Can I think about it first?"

 

[Uchiha Izura]

Izura smiled, glad that she thought he was funny at that moment. Even if it was at his own shortcomings. At least she acknowledged that it was something he was trying to avoid, but couldn’t help but end up being awkward in the end.

But then she seemed to be a little…against his idea. The first things that came to Izura’s mind were that something terrible must’ve happened in the past for Kami to have lost the favor of his daughter, or perhaps there was a terrible falling out within the Yakuza that tore it apart. There were more theories that came to mind as he contemplated her reaction. In fact “Kiseki’s” existence was all but unknown to Izura at the time of the fall of Leaf City. Did Kami hide her existence to protect her, or was it out of apathy for his family?

“I….don’t hold an allegiance to your father. I hold an allegiance to the organization I worked for, which just so happened to be in an alliance with your father….”

Izura gave her a solemn, understanding look.

“I don’t know what you’ve gone through with your family situation, but I understand if you….need time to think about it.”

Izura bit his lip out of nervousness again, his face reddening slightly once more. He waited a few seconds before asking his next question.

“But uhh….on a side note….w-what do I call you? Y-Yume-chan? Are we on a ‘chan’ basis now?” he stammered, still quite awkward.

 

[Yume]

A sigh of relief exhaled from her lips as she turned back to face him. Finishing the last cup of her tea, she motioned to ask if he wanted anymore brewed. If not, then she would start putting the set and tools onto the tea tray to be taken away later.

It was still odd to her; the organisation that he knew was dead and yet he still was insistent on supporting it. Was he intent on rebirthing it? This wasn't her territory, honestly. She was glad that he was understanding enough to let her get back to him in regards to the Yakuza. She needed the time to find answers on her own from... whoever that could answer her.

Another exhale escaped from her nose this time, as she watched him go from a professional shinobi to a red hot mess of stuttering. She scratched her cheek out of the awkwardness he emitted.

"Why not? All my fans call me Yume-chan." She tilted her head to the side. "You can call me Yume if that's what you're asking, Izura."

They were going to be potential partners in this Yakuza business if she takes the dive after all. The girl began to finish up putting away the rest of the tea cups and teapot onto the tray.

"Really... You're so odd, I understand you less than a demon."

Humans are odd, after all.

She left the tea tray beside her for the moment and reached out to push the record album closer towards his side. "Don't forget your album this time," she said, smiling.

 

[Uchiha Izura]

Izura blushed. “I…I w-won’t forget it this time!” He exclaimed, really meaning it.

A small amount of laughter escaped his lips at her comment about understanding him less than than a demon. Here she was, confused at the way he thought, when she herself was confusing the hell out of him! Apart from maybe the shinobi side of the house, Izura really didn’t understand women at all.

He smiled again after the laugh, amused at this. Why were people’s emotions so difficult to understand?

He nodded to her, his face getting semi-serious as he replied.



“R-right! Yume! Just Yume! Not Yun-chan, not Yunyun, not Yoonie, not Kise-“ He stopped himself from finishing the last part, biting his lip for a few seconds, before whispering apologetically.

“R-riiiight….y-you don’t like using that name….” he said, as he clasped his hands and fidgeted around with his fingers.

If she began to put away utensils, cups, the teapot, etc, Izura would not hesitate to get up and help her put things away. He may have been awkward when it came to talking with Yume due to his crush on her, but he wasn’t totally hopeless at least when it came to being a gentleman.