Chapter 178 – Blindsided
Upon entering the Land of Water and giving it some more thought, Azula changes her mind. Whatever method has allowed her to pinpoint Tobi through his ‘byakugan-blocking’ mask, allows him to do the same. For him to lead an organization THIS shady and illegal without being caught or killed means that he cannot possibly be weaker than her. He must have very powerful allies. Also, what she had sensed was probably not his soul or chakra.. but his Dao. And she suspects it’s not just any Dao.. but a Dao that contradicts hers, although she has no clue what that would even entail.
If she goes alone to an Akatsuki gathering, all he has to do is pinpoint her to his allies and they can put her down like a dog. So she reluctantly nixes her plan to check them out without Tsunade or someone with some serious muscle to protect her. She doesn’t know his intentions for inviting her to the Akatsuki, but she has no doubt he would have attacked her if Anko and Kurenai hadn’t been close behind. When she gets a chance to reform her Smartphone, she intends to ask Nuwa for some clarification.
The convoy makes its way through a few small villages before arriving at Kiri. Unlike Konoha, the air is filled with mist and the wind buffets Azula with the light scent of seawater. There are few civilians on the road. Those who do walk it are accompanied by shinobi. Still atop the roof of one of the convoy’s trucks, Azula finds that masked shinobi monitor the convoy from nearby roofs. ‘Is this place so lawless that we need an escort? Actually, judging by the greed on the civilians' faces when they look at the convoy, maybe it is.’
They make it safely to a modest tower at the end of the main road and take a turn into a business street. Though it’s difficult for Azula to see clearly in the mist, she can make out that several unmasked Kiri shinobi have joined the Konoha guards upon the roofs of the moving trucks. She assumes a combat stance, but no fighting occurs. The man standing a few meters before her has a fake eye with several high tech modifications. He says, “Hello, I am Ao of Kirigakure. You must be the new one.. Azula, is it?”
“Yes..?” Azula replies without bothering to conceal her suspicion.
“Our Mizukage wants a word with you.”
Azula fails to understand where he’s going with this, “Okay, and..?”
“Come with me.” he says as he starts walking away.
“No.” She replies, almost causing him to fall over. “The Mizukage can come talk to me if he or she wants to see me. I have a mission to protect this convoy.”
Ao is dumbfounded into silence for a moment before he coughs awkwardly and vanishes into the mist a few seconds later. His disappearance is immediately followed by a new arrival’s jovial laughter. Azula takes one look, gulps, and rips her eyes away from the redhead with difficulty, ‘Holy shit, she’s even hotter than Lo, Li, and Tsunade! Think of Nuwa.. think of Nuwa..’
Following her laughter, the blue-clad beauty greets, “Welcome to Kiri, Azula. You were only here for a few minutes and you already know how to handle that uptight fellow, Ao, better than my years of experience! Impressive. It’s nice to meet you, I’m the Mizukage, but feel free to call me Terumi.”
The convoy comes to a stop at a busy street where the nearby roofs are littered with shinobi troops. Azula is on edge, much like the rest of the trading delegation. She especially, though, is distracted by why the Mizukage herself is here and why she had been picked out of everyone to specifically contact. She cannot read anything from the Mizukage’s tone or body language, so she replies with a light smile in a neutral manner, “Likewise.”
Terumi gestures to a nearby building with a wide smile, “Shall we find somewhere private to negotiate the prices?”
“Eh?” Azula mumbles.
Over the next half hour, all the goods are offloaded into the building and stacked together in the center of a large public room. The Konoha merchants face the Kiri merchants as do their respective shinobi. With how none of her comrades have any clue why the Mizukage is focused on her, Azula thinks she knows what’s going on. She has been somehow inserted against her will into this process by Tsunade! Politics and economics had always been Nuwa’s thing. She has no patience for it.
She spots the Mizukage return from organizing the preparation of the goods and with a helpless groan, follows her beckoning into one of the numerous private rooms, many of which are occupied by other traders and shinobi conducting private negotiations. Once inside, several privacy seals are activated and Azula accepts the chakra thread from Terumi’s forehead. She connects it to her own and she gets straight to the point by asking, “What is really going on here?”
Terumi wears a skintight blue shinobi garb that exposes all of her shoulders, clavicle, and a devastating degree of cleavage. She smiles wide, sits down on a comfy chair, and crosses one leg over the other in what seems to be a deliberately slow manner. Gritting her teeth, Azula cannot help but feel like she is being played with. Her growing bulge is a testament to that. Terumi looks at it and transmits mischievously as she rolls her bare shoulders up, “I’ve heard a lot about you. They say..” She blushes profusely and continues, “.. that you’re not all woman.. I must admit..”
“Hold on!” Azula interrupts her transmission with enough incredulity to send one of her eyes into spasms. Whatever is happening here - it better not be what she thinks it is! “Are you seriously propositioning me for sex in return for lower prices on your goods?”
~ ~ ~
This is the third time Nuwa is dying and it is surprisingly speedy in comparison to the first death of old age and second death by human sacrifice. A second after her neck snaps, the Styx washes her away and heals her to full. She holds her breath and a minute later, she washes up back home into the House of Hades.
She desperately looks for her brother and wades through the blood quickly when she spots him waiting calmly for her at the edge of the pool. Their connection is reestablished with a tight hug that, much to her relief, allows her to determine that there is nothing wrong with him. Blinking away her anger, she remorsefully transmits, ‘Sorry, Big Bro.. I didn’t know.’
Zagreus puts an arm around her with seemingly a lot on his mind. “Let’s talk about it later. Did that bitch hurt you?”
Nuwa shakes her head, “She made it pretty painless.”
After Zagreus helps her out of the pool, Nuwa finds it interesting that the blood of the Styx quickly returns to the pool instead of staying on her body. She had watched this happen for years to Zagreus’ body after his deaths, but now she can boast that it happened to her too.
Further down the hall, Hypnos is actually working for once and Hades is doing paperwork, the latter of whom is pretending not to notice his kids are back. The siblings follow the line of shades down to Hypnos whereby Zagreus coughs at an appropriately loud volume.
Hypnos nods with a drowsy smile and says, “It's usually pretty quiet, keeping watch over the Pool of Styx back there. But it's sure been busy lately. First, a furious Fury, and now the heinous Heirs! I’m awaker than I’ve been in years! Congrats for making it through Tartarus for the first time buddy, you should get some sleep.”
“Thanks Big Bro Hypnos, I really appreciated your-” starts Zagreus, before he stops when Hypnos falls back asleep in the middle of his reply. Taking this event in stride, Nuwa and Zagreus don’t bother waking him up and smile at each other. Every time Zagreus dies, he does a round of chatting with everyone present before he sets off. Sometimes, there’s nothing to say, but he checks in regardless. Nuwa loves this about her brother. Even when she had been mopey and vindictive about only getting a small conversation before he would inevitably leave for another escape attempt, he hadn’t avoided her.
Neither sibling has any idea how to approach their Father right now, but Zagreus has never been one to hide behind his sister or overly plan things out, so he heads straight up in front of whichever random shade is waiting to be judged in line. Nuwa hurriedly joins him. Without a hint of remorse or guilt, Zagreus solemnly states, “Father.” On the other hand, Nuwa feels a more appropriate level of shame for committing incest and leaving the House as she looks down and follows up with a more cutesy, “..Hi Daddy.”
Hades huffs and says in his booming voice, “Move along, boy!”
Placing a hand on his shoulder, Nuwa gives Zagreus a reassuring look as he shrugs and dismissively retorts, “I’ll be out of your hair in no time, old man.”
Zagreus dashes over to give Cerberus’ friendly head a few pats before dashing away alone to the side hall where Achilles usually hangs out. Cerberus senses the tension so he whines looking at Nuwa expectantly. She also wants to pet the friendly head of Cerberus since it had been her first time out of the House and the overgrown canine’s fluffy fur is one of the things she misses most on the road, but her attention is on her Father right now.
Hades taps his fingers on his desk and looks slightly away from Nuwa with a vaguely troubled expression. Nuwa tries to keep a straight face, but each tap sounds like a hammer strike. The atmosphere is so charged that Nuwa has to remind herself not to run away. Her Father’s anger usually cycles through him pretty quick, but the way he’s bottling up scares her even more than before.
Her thoughts whirl, ‘Is he mad that I’m not his Nuwa anymore? That I’m scheming and slutty instead of kind and innocent? Will I be banished? Is he mad that I ran away or I’m helping Zag? I didn’t mean for any of this to happen..! Sorry Daddy..’ Nuwa starts to tear up from all the stress and almost suffocates a few of her own snake-hairs that she’s nervously squeezing.
All the pressure vanishes and Hades grunts awkwardly before he starts the conversation, “You’re the Outsider.. and my daughter.”
Hearing the subtle tenderness in his tone at the end of his statement, Nuwa cannot help but smile as a flood of relief passes through her. She nods in reply.
He continues in his typically irritable tone, “This.. arrangement by Nyx will take me some time to get used to. It’s discombobulating for you to suddenly pop up overnight and be my daughter!”
Noticing Nuwa’s smile receding, Hades hurriedly corrects himself, “But who wouldn’t want such an excellent daughter? Driven, smart, talented, beautiful, and not afraid to get her hands dirty to win!”
Nuwa’s smile comes back with a blush, followed by some shy giggles. Compliments are so rare from the God of the Underworld that Hypnos slaps himself awake from his sleep and jots down everything he can remember from his half-conscious memory. At least he does until Hades sets fire to the parchment he’s writing on by pointing at it.
When she looks back up from her laughter, Nuwa hears her Father grumbling irritably under his breath about how he wishes she could be the heir to his Authority, rather than his ‘useless son’. Although feeling thoroughly flattered, Nuwa gets angered on her brother’s behalf. But before she can argue, Hades shouts in a serious tone, “Nuwa! Are you aware of the true history of the Titanomachia?”
The sudden ups and downs of the conversation have Nuwa befuddled. She sets aside standing up for her brother for later and mutters, “I think so. You, Uncle Zeus, and Uncle Poseidon led everyone in killing your parents and the rest of the Titans because they went crazy?”
Hades narrows his eyes and states, “Much is lost in a story 10,000 years old. Brat, I know you’re listening, come here and pay close attention. Hypnos, do your thing.”
Zagreus whistles as he casually walks out from a nearby side corridor and leans over on Cerberus’ friendly head. Meanwhile, Hypnos yawns and with a swish of his hand, all the shades eagerly listening drop over into a deep sleep.
Hoping that Zagreus didn’t hear too much of their Father’s unfairly distributed appreciation for her, Nuwa sends loving thoughts to him and calms herself to listen carefully. Nothing, however, could prepare her for even the beginning of the story, “My parents, the Titans.. were Outsiders just like you.”
(A/N: Alright, I have to admit that I purposely put these cliffhangers here instead of writing both chapters separately. It’s more exciting this way and motivates me to write. Forgive me lord, for I have succumbed to sin.)