#he also wants to have them as pets but his shizun will kill him if he find out | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dangermousie · 3 years

Note

Heelo mousie! Love your blog! Do you mind recommending some of your favourite Chinese BL novels or shows?

I've seen the untamed and read it. I'm currently reading heaven's official blessing and I saw the donghua. Anything other than these two?

Awww, thank you!

Novels: I am gonna be lazy and literally copy/paste the entire danmei section of my top 10 web novels post (except MXTX’s stuff since you are already reading it.) Let me know if you need help finding any of these.

Lord Seventh - I am only partway through this so far, but it’s already on the list because it’s smart and somehow intense AND laid-back (not sure how this works, but it does) and is honestly just a really really solid and smart period novel, with the OTP a cherry on top of a narrative sundae. Plus, I love the concept of MC deciding he is not going for his supposedly fated love - he’s tried for six lifetimes, always with disaster, and he’s just plain done and tired. When he opens his life in his seventh reincarnation and sees the person he would have given up the world for, he genuinely feels nothing at all. (Spoiler - his OTP is actually a barbarian shaman this time around, thank you Lord!)

Golden Stage - my perfect comfort novel. Probably the least angsty of any danmei novel on this list (which still means plenty angsty :P) It also has a dedicated, smart OTP that is an OTP for the bulk of the book - I think you will notice that in most of the novels in this list, I go for “OTP against the world” trope - I can’t stand love triangles and the same. Anyway, Fu Shen, is a famous general whose fame is making the emperor antsy. When he gets injured and can’t walk any more, the emperor gladly recalls him and marries him off to his most faithful court lackey, the head of sort of secret police, Yan Xiaohan. The emperor intends it both as a check on the general and a general spite move since the two men always clash in court whenever they meet. But not all is at is seems. They used to be friends a long time ago, had a falling out, and one of the loveliest parts of the novel is them finding their way to each other, but there is also finding the middle path between their two very different philosophies and ways of being, not to mention solving a conspiracy or dozen, and putting a new dynasty on the throne, among other things. It always makes me think, a little, of “if Mei Changsu x Jingyan were canon.”

Sha Po Lang - if you like a lot of fantasy politics and world-building and steampunk with your novels, this one is for you. This one is VERY plot-heavy with smart, dedicated characters and a deconstruction of many traditional virtues - our protagonist Chang Geng, a long-lost son of the Emperor, is someone who wants to modernize the country but also take down the current emperor his brother for progress’ sake and the person he’s in love with is the general who saved him when he was a kid who is nominally his foster father. Anyway, the romance is mainly a garnish in this one, not even a big side dish, but the relationship between two smart, dedicated, deadly individuals with very different concepts of duty is fascinating long before it turns romantic. And if you like angst, while overall it’s not as angsty as e.g., Meatbun stuff, Chang Geng’s childhood is the stuff of nightmares and probably freaks me out more than anything else in any novel on this list, 2ha included.

To Rule In a Turbulent World (LSWW) - gay Minglan. No seriously. This is how I think of it. it’s a slice of life period novel with fascinating characters and setting that happens to have a gay OTP, not a romance in a period setting per se and I always prefer stories where the romance is not the only thing that is going on. It’s meticulously written and smart and deals with character development and somehow makes daily minutia fascinating. Our protagonist, You Miao, is the son of a fabulously wealthy merchant, sent to the capital to make connections and study. As the story starts, he sees his friend’s servants beating someone to death, feels bad, and buys him because, as we discover gradually and organically, You Miao may be wealthy and occasionally immature but he is a genuinely good person. The person he buys is a barbarian from beyond the wall, named Li Zhifeng. It’s touch and go if the man will survive but eventually he does and You Miao, who by then has to return home, gives him his papers and lets him go. However, LZF decides to stick with You Miao instead, both out of sense of debt for YM saving his life and because he genuinely likes him (and yet, there is no instalove on either of their parts, their bodies have fun a lot quicker than their souls.) Anyway, the two take up farming, get involved in the imperial exams and it’s the life of prosperity and peace, until an invasion happens and things go rapidly to hell. This is so nuanced, so smart (smart people in this actually ARE!) and has secondary characters who are just as complex as the mains (for example, I ended up adoring YM’s friend, the one who starts the plot by almost beating LZF to death for no reason) because the novel never forgets that few people are all villain. There is a lovely character arc or two - watching YM grow up and LZF thaw - there is the fact that You Miao is a unicorn in web novels being laid back and calm. This whole thing is a masterpiece.

Stains of Filth (Yuwu) - want the emotional hit of 2ha but want to read something half its length? Well, the author of 2ha is here to eviscerate you in a shorter amount of time. This has the beautiful world-building, plot twists that all make sense and, at the center of it all, an intense and all-consuming and gloriously painful relationship between two generals - one aristocratic loner Mo Xi, and the other gregarious former slave general Gu Mang. Once they were best friends and lovers, but when the novel starts, Gu Mang has long turned traitor and went to serve the enemy kingdom and has now been returned and Mo Xi, who now commands the remnants of his slave army, has to cope with the fact that he has never been able to get over the man who stabbed him through the heart. Literally. This novel has a gorgeously looping structure, with flashbacks interwoven into present storyline. There is so much love and longing and sacrifice in this that I am tearing up a bit just thinking of it. If you don’t love Mo Xi and Gu Mang, separately and together, by the end of it, you have no soul.

The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun (2ha/erha) - if you’ve been following my tumblr for more than a hot second, you know my obsession with this novel. Honestly, even if I were to make a list of my top 10 novels of any kind, not just webnovels, this would be on the list. It has everything I want - a complicated, intricate plot with an insane amount of plot twists, all of which are both unexpected and make total sense, a rich and large cast of characters, a truly epic OTP that makes me bawl, emotional intensity that sometimes maxes even me out and so much character nuance and growth. Also, Moran is my favorite web novel character ever, hands down.

Anyway, the plot (or at least the way it first appears) is that the evil emperor of the cultivation world, Taxian Jun, kills himself at 32 and wakes up in the body of his 16 year old self, birth name Moran. Excited to get a redo, Moran wants to save his supposed true love Shimei, whose death the last go-around pushed him towards evil. He also wants to avoid entanglement with Chu Wanning, his shizun and sworn enemy in past life. And that’s all you are best off knowing, trust me. The only hint I am going to give is oooh boy the mother of all unreliable narrators has arrived!

The novel starts light and funny on boil the frog principle - if someone told me I would be full bawling multiple times with this novel, I’d have thought they were insane, but i swear my eyes hurt by the end of it. I started out being amused and/or disliking the mains and by the end I would die for either of them.

The Wife is First - OK, this one did not make my top 10 web novels but it’s a sweet, fun gay cottagecore fest. Our ML, a royal prince, and his spouse, a smart if delicate aristocrat, keep house, eat noodles, play with their pet tiger, make out and spoil each other rotten, while occasionally fighting battles and outwitting their court enemies. It’s so very mellow. That couple redefines low drama - they are both nice and functional and use their brains. It’s as if a nice jock and a nice nerd got together and then proceeded to be wholesome all over the place.

I mean, the set up could be dramatic - our ML the prince, lost his fight for the throne and is about to be killed. The only person who stayed loyal to him is his arranged husband the aristocrat guy who ML never treated nicely since he resented marrying him (marrying a man in that world is done to remove someone from the ability to inherit the throne.) And yet the husband stood by him not out of love but beliefs in loyalty blah blah. Anyway, he transmigrates back into the past right after their wedding night and is all “I got a second chance OMG! I don’t want the throne what is even the point? I want to live a good long life and treat the only person who stood by me really well!” And he proceeds to do so to the shock of the aristocrat who had a very unpleasant wedding night and generally can tell the man he just married would rather eat nails than be married to him. But soon enough (no seriously, it’s not many chapters at all) he believes the prince is sincere blah blah and then they get together and they pretty much become cottagecore goals.

In terms of dramas, I only do period dramas (or novels) so I am not the person to be able to recommend any modern BLs. There is a flood of upcoming (hopefully) period BL dramas but it’s relatively thin on the ground now. The two I will recommend is Word of Honor (which is AMAZING) and Winter Begonia (which I just started watching but which owns me already.) I have a tag for both - the one for the former is huge and I cannot recommend either strongly enough. I’ve heard good things about The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, but I am not big on mysteries so haven’t watched it for myself.

In terms of the upcoming BLs, the ones I am most looking forward to are Immortality and Winner Is King, but The Society of the Four Leaves also looks promising.

#asks #cdrama #cnovel

46 notes · View notes

robininthelabyrinth · 4 years

Note

I've been thinking on this for ages, but I can't decide on a character, maybe Leonard Snart, Lan Wangji or Wei Wuxian. He saves, on purpose or by accident, a baby dragon. The dragon takes a shine to him and decides to hoard him. It's tiny, so the hoarding is really ineffective. It consists mainly on riding on shoulders and hissing at everyone. It's really cute.

Lan Wangji

“I like you! I’m going to keep you!” the tiny little dragon said, grinning widely. It was only large enough to fill two hands, black scales with red whiskers, and it had a mouth made for smiling.

“Get lost,” Lan Wangji said, walking faster; his uncle had explained regarding Wei Wuxian’s unusual cursed state so that he would be aware of it, but somehow his uncle had failed to mention how horribly cute Wei Wuxian’s little dragon form was.

“Lan Zhaaaaaan, you don’t meant that…!”

Wei Wuxian

“Her name is Chenqing,” Wei Wuxian said proudly, holding out his hands to show her off. “I found her wrapped around an old flute and I’m keeping her.”

The little serpentine dragon rolled around happily in his hands, lolling around and holding her little arms out in a big stretch. “Uh-uh,” she said, her voice a little kitten whisper, wrapping her tail around his wrist. “Mine!”

“Well, that’s new,” Jiang Cheng said faintly; a glance at Lan Wangji’s face revealed he also didn’t know exactly what to say. “But I suppose…congratulations are in order?”

Jiang Cheng

Zidian is his mother’s, long lithe and silver except when she’s sparking purple; she’s fiercely independent and hates anyone touching her but her master. Jiang Cheng loved to look at her as a child, the way she twisted around her mother’s hand like a bracelet, around her neck like a necklace, even around her ear, hissing a joke that only she can understand.

He’s wanted to have her in his hands since forever.

Not like this, though.

Nie Huaisang

“I found a little bird,” Nie Huaisang explained happily. “A little goldfinch! We only have eagles and vultures in Qinghe.”

“I can’t believe you brought it into the lecture,” Jiang Cheng said.

“Well, I couldn’t leave her behind! I found her right before I arrived.”

“Uh, Nie-gongzi?” Wei Wuxian, who was peeking under the cloth of the cage, said. “I don’t think this is a goldfinch.”

Wei Wuxian pulled off the cloth. The little gold-scaled dragon beamed at them from the perch, long whiskers waiving in the air.

“…yes?” Nie Huaisang says. “Is it a sparrow, then? I’m really not good with birds.”

Lan Xichen

Alone in seclusion, Lan Xichen wondered if he’d spent his entire life in service to others. To his uncle, who feared him becoming his father; to his brother, who he sought to protect; to his sworn brother, who betrayed him; to his sect, to their principles. They still meant everything to him, all of them – dead or alive – but…he was tired.

He lifted a finger to trace the head of the little dragon that had blown in through the window a few nights before – he should report it, a supernatural event like this, but…it’s not in the rules.

So he won’t.

He hasn’t yet named her, but he was going to. And then he would let her keep her the way she wanted to, nice and safe in her little hoard, for as long as she wanted him.

Nie Mingjue

Most of the time, Baxia was a saber, like all others in his sect. Like those in his ancestor’s shrine. Sometimes, though, she was something else.

“You’re mine,” she hissed in Nie Mingjue’s ear late at night, nestled deep in his soul. They’re bound together, sword and cultivator. “I won’t let you go, not in this lifetime.”

He rubbed his eyes and smiled despite himself. He didn’t smile often, his duties and dark future weighing him down, but his Baxia could do it; he sometimes thought that this was what it must be like to have a jealous wife. “Of course not. You’re my spiritual weapon; you’ll be by my side until I die, and then you’ll take your place in my tomb, with my ashes at your feet. Stop worrying so much.”

“I won’t let him take you this time,” she snarls. “Your head, your arms, your legs, your soul – they’re all mine. How dare he profane them!”

“Am I not supposed to be touching people anymore?” he chuckled, reaching back to run his fingers down her hilt; it turned into a tail and wrapped around his wrist, pinning him in place as if held down by a stronger man. “Baxia – if you just tell me who this ‘he’ is, I’ll avoid him, I promise.”

“No, he’s still necessary for now,” she said. “But when I tell you – strike true, no matter what the consequences. Do not allow your human compassion or etiquette overwhelm you. Promise me!”

“I promise,” he said, not for the first time, still as puzzled by it as he ever was. “I’ll listen to you. When the time comes, I’ll let you drink his blood to your heart’s content.”

Jin Guangyao

He’d always known there was a dragon inside Nie Mingjue, full of heat and fire and rage; he’d liked it, once upon a time, when it roared in his defense. It had been such a pity when it turned against him; he really hadn’t wanted to give him up, but he didn’t have a choice. He was backed into a corner – just like always.

He just hadn’t expected the man to turn into a literal dragon upon death.

Is this the real secret of the Nie? He wondered, backing up and reaching for his sword. Is this why they only bury their sabers, and never themselves?

The dragon curls around his neck, tight enough to choke.

“Are you going to kill me?” Jin Guangyao asked.

The dragon laughed with the sound like Nie Mingjue’s laugh, deep and sonorous and usually a little sarcastic.

“Only,” it murmured in his ear, “if you continue to misbehave, Meng Yao.”

Jin Ling

“Little Uncle got me a dog,” Jin Ling said, clutching Xiao Fairy to his chest. “So, Jiujiu, you’re getting me…a snake?”

“I’m getting you the opportunity to get a sna – to get a dragon. It’s not a snake. Stop calling it a snake.”

Jin Ling wasn’t really convinced. He squinted into the pool. “They look like snakes.”

“Of course they do, they’re flood dragons,” Jiang Cheng said irritably. “Those all look like water serpents when they’re swimming. Just…listen to me. Put the dog down – no, give it to me, yes, there’s a good puppy –”

Jin Ling coughed pointedly. “If this is all a scheme to steal pets from my dog…”

“It isn’t,” Jiang Cheng said, though his ears were suspiciously red. “Put your hand into the pool. If one of them likes you, they’ll claim you for their hoard and keep you for the rest of their lives. Give it a try. What can it hurt?”

Xiao Xingchen

Song Lan was the very first person he met when he came down off the mountain and, well, he was a bit over-excited about it – but luckily they hit it off very well, and it all worked out quite well for a few years. Song Lan was full of interesting ideas, like making their own sect based on friendship rather than blood; Xiao Xingchen liked it, but he liked Song Lan best of all.

Things went downhill, later, but as his shizun always said, it was cruel to keep a human that didn’t want to be kept any longer, so he gave him his eyes and left him alone, just as he’d asked, and hoped that one day Song Lan would come back to him. He had time, he could wait.

In the meantime, he met someone new – or rather, someone old, anew.

Xiao Xingchen decided to keep him, too.

Xue Yang

“I think I did something wrong,” Xue Yang announced to the air, though luckily nobody was around to hear him – his current employers at the Jin sect would be most unhappy if they heard, especially if they also heard that he has no idea what went wrong or how to fix it.

He looked down at what should be a repaired half piece of the Stygian Tiger Seal, but which is definitely a small black-and-grey dragon, staring right back at him.

After being locked in a staring match for a while (he loses, but he doesn’t think the dragon has eyelids so it doesn’t count), he tentatively reached out and rubbed it behind the ears.

It purred, then belched out a puff of pure yin resentful energy.

“…well, at least you still work, I guess?”

Wen Ning

“You’re mine,” the little dragon says, happily nuzzling up to him as it flops around in the dirt. “Mine, mine, mine!”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Wen Ning said, looking around all over to make sure nobody’s around. “All yours. Now, A-Yuan, please turn back before anyone sees you!”

“But…”

“A-Yuan! Please!”

Grumbling, the little dragon curled up into a ball and uncurled as a lovely bouncing little boy, and Wen Ning gave a sigh of relief. His sister hadn’t noticed the addition of an extra child to their group of refugees, assuming the way everyone else did that he’d been another Wen, someone’s child that got left behind or orphaned, and old granny had adopted him without so much as a word. He hadn’t known how to explain the truth.

But it was fine. He’d take care of A-Yuan, with the help of his sister and now Wei-gongzi, and no one would ever need to know.

Wen Qing

Wen Qing didn’t waste a lot of time worrying about things, and a dragon deciding to claim her wasn’t going to be the thing that messed up her day.

“Fine,” she said. “You can stay, but you have to earn your keep. How’s your memory? Can you take notes for me?”

The dragon nodded.

“I’ll be testing you,” she warned.

It nodded again, so she accepted it, put it in her sleeves, and went back to work.

Jiang Yanli

“I don’t need a dragon, though,” she said, quite appropriately in her mind. “I’m not much of a cultivator.”

The little dragon nuzzled her neck and picked up one of the melon seeds she’d been peeling with its jaws. “That’s okay,” it said. “I’m not much of a dragon. I mostly just like to eat and sleep.”

“Well, then,” she laughed. “In that case, I think we’ll get along.”

331 notes · View notes

mejomonster · 3 years

Text

the more i think abou hyx/immortality the more feral i get.

i just. wow the casting. i imagined the fucking scene in the brothel when mo ran wakes up and him being a complete bastard then going into town seeing the human boy being tortured like a monkey and just not giving a shit like ‘yeah world sucks it sure is fucked up’ then shimei shows up and he’s like ‘well i should BE heroic for shimei!’ and then they go up to the peak and mo ran is immediately told to come before the clan leader wife to explain how he definitely did NOT rob a whore

and. how exactly do they plan to start the show???

1 just imagining any of that in live action makes me !!! ?? !! wow

2 so much of the intro is really key in setting up the KIND of world it is. First we get the mo ran evil emperor intro (which i assume they’ll keep exactly as is or else just move later in the show episode lineup but WILL include those scenes). And evil emperor mo ran intro is clear establishment of: hello we are NOT about to go into a goody hero’s pov, we are in THE ‘most evil’ fucker’s pov! but also most evil just killed himself so. clearly something was even too fucked up for HIM to cope with ok then. also all the sects are in fucking turmoil. this shizun chu wanning was hella fucking important to good guy xue meng and bad guy mo ran ok.

3 after that, the ‘young life’ intro is mostly to establish how fucked up this world is BEFORE mo ran even becomes evil emperor to ‘ruin it’.

As of ‘world before mo ran has any power’ there are fucked up regular people kidnapping children and torturing them on the street, cultivators who don’t give a fuck, and people willing to rob/blackmail/kidnap each other Everywhere - mo ran, rong from the brothel and his ‘friend’, xue meng who wants to throw mo ran off a cliff by any excuse, the kidnappers just randomly holding children prisoner as ‘pets’ for a show for the local town. That kid scene is utterly fucked up and idk how it’ll even BE in the drama. But its so instrumental in setting up SUPER early how fucked up Anyone might be - since after this a lot of cases they’ll go to solve, they’ll find out regular humans did the most fucked up of the stuff. like that first ghost bride case. And later when the sects just go trying to buy that one girl for her blood?? and trying to scapegoat mo ran and probably plan to kill him?? its not really a shock. its not really a shock at all that chu wanning leaves the peak to help some humans, and finds out the family who asked for his help are super cruel and he’s pissed to learn it. for mo ran to later realize these ‘righteous’ sects will absolutely flay him for nothing concrete, when he’s not actually done something as a young resonably innocent person yet to warrant the way they’re trying to destroy him. so when we get flashbacks to mo rans childhood we’re like... yeah... this world is rough. on the surface yeah 2ha starts like ‘cultivators righteous sects etc’ but from moment 1 in the ‘new life’ before we even reach the sect, everyone beyond just mo ran is showing how much the people in this world can be selfish and cruel and hurt others for themselves and assume others are doing the same. Even sweetie xue meng is trying to fuck over mo ran (when at that point their hostility is mostly just familial rivalry/annoyance but he’s pushing his position as sect son to try and get mo ran fucked over - its probably not Super maliciously intended but as they grow up more they’re going to realize just how often even not super big-deal small cruel actions can spiral easily to horrific proportions). A lot of the reason i suspect mo ran and chu wanning etc are the heroes, is because as the world becomes more clear about how utterly cruel it is, they have these choices to either react in kind or choose to try and be better. often chu wanning picks ‘better’. mo ran over time picks better whether he realizes it or not.

i just. idk how they’ll establish how the world inherently has so many cruel people in power and taking action. because that’s a pretty early thing in the novel, even tho it gets hammered in more harshly later.

#2ha #hyx #immortality #*keep in mind i only read 120 chapters so like. idk where the story went from there except vaguely

4 notes · View notes

pain-somnia · 6 years

Text

Covenant Rating: M Disclaimer Day’s Note: a witch/familiar au that @saradacchi distracted me with; rating is for mentions of sexual content and future sexual content; Kakashi-Shizune sexual content mentioned but it’s not an actual pairing? Sort of a casual thing; as always ShiItaIzu is in this fic, will always be in my fics; a lot of the witch lore in this fic is just a combination of stuff I made up and from Wicca and other witch sources; I call this part one because I expect to continue it in the future Next

Part One

She had wanted a cat.

Sister Shizune had a charming familiar with sleek gray fur. A relaxed creature that was lackadaisical in all its forms.

But when the lightning and smoke cleared there was a haughty screech and the flapping of wings.

A pissed off hawk cried at her from the center of her summoning circle.

She had wanted a cat.

. .

It had been seven days and the summoned hawk had yet to speak to her. She had to assume it was male due to its size, sure that if it were bigger than it would have been a female like the book on hawks she had bought stated. But she couldn’t be sure until it actually spoke to her and told her how it identified.

But it had been days and the hawk refused to communicate with her.

When she had first summoned the hawk it had taken flight as soon as all the smoke had cleared and it had become aware of the seal it stood in the center of. She could only gape at the empty space as Shizune tried to rub her back to comfort her.

Kakashi, Shizune’s familiar, had snickered and had only stopped when Tsunade, the eldest of their coven, shot him a glare.

“They will come back to you,” Tsunade informed her. “They are bound by the summon.”

“But they obviously don’t want to be my familiar…”

Sakura shuffled in her boots, her ceremonial robes feeling heavier than when she had first put it on.

Tsunade had said that young witches needed a familiar, that they weren’t pets but companions that protected them as they came into their own and learned the ways of magic.

Tsunade had told her that she had more control of her powers than what was usual for young witches, but that it was safer to go through all of the proper rituals. A familiar would help assist her as she honed her magical gifts as she matured as a witch.

But the summoning ritual didn’t go well.

She refused to accept that the summoned creature picking at its feathers by her opened bedroom window was her match.

The hawk caught her staring at it and turned its beak up at her, shuffling on its perch so that its back was to her.

Do what you will, so long as it harms none. Do what you will, so long as it harms none…

Sakura chanted the Rede in her head and tried to focus on her studies. She knew she drew her circle perfectly and Tsunade had examined the sigils for any flaws but there was no way the haughty creature before her was what her energy had called to across all of the realms.

“You’re going to need to talk to me eventually you know,” Sakura huffed, flipping through the pages of her tome before slamming it shut. “You won’t be getting your true form back until we complete the covenant. At least that’s what the High Priestess said.”

The hawk continued to look outside the window. Sakura rolled her eyes and grabbed another tome.

“You’re not trapped in here. You can go whenever you want.”

The hawk finally turned its head towards her. It cocked its head to the side.

“I mean yeah you have to come back because our lives are each others technically.”

The hawk turned its head away with a scoff, the first sound it made since it was forced back to her.

“But we’re both dealing with only half of our magic until we complete the covenant. So if you would like to have all of your power back━whatever power you have━I suggest you get talking.”

The hawk gave her another look before spreading its wings and taking flight.

Sakura grabbed one of the throw pillows from her bed and screamed into it.

. .

Sakura stared blankly at the trains going by. After school she would usually head over to lessons but without access to half of her magic she wasn’t allowed to strain herself with incantations.

She loved helping out Shizune but she was getting tired of only being able to brew potions.

Sakura whipped out her guide on magical remedies to common illnesses and began studying. Magic or no magic she still needed to prepare for her practical exam. Even with only half of her magic she was sure she had enough control to pass her next exam.

The sound of a bell went off signaling the arrival of a train on her platform. Without looking up from her book she got up from her bench and walked slowly over to the train.

“That’s a sure way to get us both killed,” a husky voice called out from behind her as something tugged on the back off her wool cardigan.

Sakura spun around and looked up to be met with classic Japanese features. Her jaw dropped as the beautiful face before her contorted itself into a scowl.

“Is staring all you do? Are you sure you’re a witch? You act like a mundane with all of your staring.”

“You do know it’s not every day that someone wears a kimono in the middle of a subway platform.”

Sakura eyed the dark blue kimono with the pattern of silver feathers etched into the fabric. The outfit was eye catching yet the man━no teenage boy for he couldn’t be that much older than her━stood there confident, completely indifferent to any attention he could be attracting.

“Wait! Did you say witch?”

Out in the realm of the mundane, a stranger shouldn’t have been able to recognize her as a witch.

“Isn’t that what you are? A mundane wouldn’t have been able to summon any sort of familiar, let alone an Uchiha.”

Sakura’s eyes roamed the boy before her, mouth still parted in shock. This was the hawk that she had summoned!?

“Which one of these things do we need to board to get back to your place?”

“So you do know English?” Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. “I was trying to use every language I knew, waiting for you to respond to me and you didn’t say anything.

The boy ignored her and looked at the board for arrival times. He headed toward the train that was approaching and Sakura followed him hesitantly. She wasn’t quite sure of what to make of this boy.

“I also know Mandarin and understood all of the colorful words you called me.”

. .

Sasuke was in no rush to have all of his power returned to him.

Sakura peeked over the top of her book on rune translations and watched him pour over her books while lying flat on his back on the ground.

Kakashi had loaned him some sweats and muscle tanks that had Sakura’s face heating up as she buried her nose back into her books.

She didn’t expect for her familiar to be as attractive as he was in his human form. Her only experience with familiars were Tsunade’s familiar Katsuyu that only had a slug form though it varied in sizes and Shizune’s familiar Kakashi who she could consider good looking but he was almost two decades older than she was and not her type in the slightest.

She found herself wishing that Sasuke would go back to using his hawk form.

From what Sasuke had told her he was almost an entire year older than she was and was in the middle of preparing for an event that was important to his family when he was kidnapped.

“I didn’t kidnap you!”

“Right. You summoned me.”

He spoke to her very little, only asking for more tomes to pour over as he looked for whatever information he was searching for and interrupting her whenever he couldn’t find anything in her fridge that suited his tastes or skill level in cooking.

“Ah.”

Sakura jumped not having expected Sasuke to say anything or make a sound.

“I found nothing. Your human texts are too limited. As soon as my family receives my message we can figure out how to correct this problem.”

“Problem? We just need to proceed with making the covenant and everything will be fixed and we’ll have our power back.”

Sasuke sat up and stared at her impassively. The longer he stared at her the more uncomfortable she felt.

“I will never be some witch’s pet.”

. .

All Sasuke had wanted was silence but now that the witch wasn’t talking anymore he felt mild irritation at the fact.

She went about her day ignoring him, refusing to acknowledge his presence. She had become cold towards him ever since he told her that he refused to become her familiar.

It didn’t matter to him how she behaved as long as she stayed away from him. He wanted nothing to do with cunning witches, especially if their power level was high enough to summon a member of the Uchiha clan as their familiar.

Members of the Uchiha clan becoming familiars was an anomaly. It was rare for a witch to be equals with an Uchiha and for one to be summoned was extremely uncommon.

It had happened two times before him in his lifetime━before that it had been half a century━and the instances of someone being summoned were that of one of his distant cousins, Shisui, by a witch who just so happened to also carry their blood in her veins and then his older brother who was so strong that he was summoned when he was but a child by a warlock many years his senior.

At the time it had been an honor.

Now it was the reason why Sasuke watched the little witch with distrustful eyes.

Itachi was now happy in a covenant with Shisui and their witch Izumi but it didn’t change the fact that he was damaged and an eyesore to most of the Uchiha.

Sasuke was sure most wished that Itachi had died when his warlock betrayed him and sullied their covenant.

He could just imagine the shame in his father’s face to discover that his second son had also been summoned and right in the middle of hanami.

“She’s not going to bite you,” Kakashi, the cat familiar of the dark haired witch, told him from behind an orange covered novel. “Unless you’re into that thing. She might if you ask nicely.”

“What?” Sasuke’s eyebrows furrowed, not sure why he would ever want the little witch to bite him.

“Oh boy. You’re one of those sheltered tengu from one of those noble houses, huh?”

Sasuke remained silent. Beyond his first name he hadn’t shared much information about himself with the witches or their familiars. They didn’t know his family name so they couldn’t trace him back to the Uchiha.

There was no need to give them any more reason to hold him hostage.

“How long have you been with your witch?”

“Since I was sixteen. Witches call to their familiars when they turn of age. You met your witch on her seventeenth birthday.”

“She’s not my witch,” Sasuke grumbled.

He eyed the little witch as she sorted through ingredients. Her long, bright rose gold locks were pulled away from her face as she set to work. She worked her bottom lip between her teeth as she concentrated.

“Technically she is. You gave her your name.”

“What.”

“You really don’t know anything about witches and covenants, do you?”

Kakashi sighed and pulled out a tome from a shelf behind him.

“You were so busy trying to find a way back home you never bothered to look at the texts that detailed the relationship between witches and their familiars.”

Kakashi stretched his limbs and began to shift into his cat form. He yawned, popping his jaw.

“You ever wonder why she hasn’t given you her name yet? It’s because she refuses to enter the covenant without your consent. Read you sheltered bocchama.”

. .

She was annoying.

The little witch had a bad habit of staying up late to study. Sasuke would find her cuddling with a tome and surrounded by scrolls.

“Mess,” Sasuke mumbled and collected the scrolls and put them where they belonged in her room. As carefully as he could he pried the tome from her arms and set it down on her desk.

He caught himself in the middle of pulling up her quilt and ran a hand down his face.

This isn’t happening.

Sasuke went back to the futon couch on the other side of the room and turned his back on the little witch. He pulled up the blanket she had provided and willed himself to sleep.

. .

It was another few days before the little witch spoke to him directly again.

“You’re going to need to stay with Shizune and Kakashi starting tomorrow.”

She rocked back and forth on her heels and pulled at a lock of her hair.

“You’re kicking me out?”

“I’m not kicking you out!”

Her cheeks flushed red and she opened her mouth to shout again but seemed to decide against it when her mouth closed again. She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath before speaking again.

“My parents are coming back from their trip to China tomorrow night and you can’t be here. It would have been different if you were my familiar but for now you’re just a random boy. I don’t want my mom thinking I was shacking up with you while they were away.”

And that was how he ended up at the home Shizune and her familiar shared with the High Priestess Tsunade.

It irritated him that the High Priestess had been called to fulfill her duties in the coven led by her husband when he needed her assistance to break from the chains of the summon.

“Were you fighting with stray cats again?”

Sasuke stopped right in front of the doorway of the kitchen. He was trying to avoid any run ins with the witch and Kakashi. He didn’t want anyone trying to convince him to accept the covenant.

“Hold still while I disinfect it.”

“Why don’t you just lick it better? And lick other things while you’re at it…”

Sasuke fled as quickly as he could.

. .

Sakura was in the middle of changing into her sleepwear when her window was yanked open.

“Do you mind!?”

Sakura flung her discarded shirt at Sasuke’s face and she yanked down the baggy shirt she was putting on. She just hoped he hadn’t seen anything while breaking in.

The red tint to his ears wasn’t promising.

“You didn’t tell me that Kakashi and his witch were involved.”

“She has a name you know,” Sakura muttered. “You call that moron by his name but you won’t even offer the same respect to Shizune.”

“You didn’t tell me Kakashi and Shizune-san were involved.”

“I thought they would hold back while you were around. Those two...I swear it’s like they’re always in heat.”

“Do witches always take advantage of their familiars?”

“Will you quit making us sound so evil!” Sakura huffed, marching right up to him. “I’ll have you know that they have a very balanced partnership. What they choose to do as two consenting adults is none of our business.”

Sakura crossed her arms in front of her chest and drew inward on herself.

“Not all witches and familiars have relationships like that. Lady Tsunade’s familiar is very motherly with her. Kakashi and Shizune are the kind that don’t like relationships but still have needs they like to attend to and they trust each other. My dad and his familiar...they’re like brothers.”

“Your father has a familiar?”

“Yeah you’ll see him as a mouse sometimes but don’t let that fool you. He just can’t go around parading as whatever. He’s a púca. You would think it were quite fitting if you ever met my father.”

“So your father is a warlock?”

“Uh, yeah? How else did you think I ended up being a witch?”

From the look on his face it was apparent that he hadn’t thought of her at all. That shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did considering the fact that she knew he didn’t want to enter a covenant with her but it did.

“You can sleep here tonight but don’t let my parents see you.”

. .

He shouldn’t have been shocked by the puce colored hair. Sasuke knew the little witch’s hair was naturally the shade it was because of he pale pink of her lashes so genetically they had to have come from somewhere but he wasn’t completely ready for the puce colored spikes that belonged to who he could only assume was her father.

“A tengu!” The man cheered, pounding a fist into his hand at his discovery. “Your markings are amazing.”

Sasuke stood there frozen as the man rubbed his shoulder blades where the markings of his wings began. In his human form they were nothing but an imprint on his back.

“What’s with all of the racket?”

The little witch came out of her room rubbing her eye with the heel of her palm. Sasuke cursed her decision to sleep pantsless as he felt her father’s strong hand on his bare back.

“Good morning Sa━!”

“No!” The little witch shrieked waving her hands in front of her, signaling to her father to stop. “You can’t tell him my name.”

“Okay, my blossom.” Kizashi frowned. “What’s going on? It’s been two weeks since your birthday.”

Blossom?

Sasuke looked over at the stammering witch. She was explaining everything that had happened so he blocked out her words, not interested in reliving the past two weeks through her story. Instead his eyes roamed over the strands of her hair.

Her hair was a pale pink, like a certain flower that his family celebrated around this time of the year.

Remembering that he was kidnapped during such an important holiday, Sasuke turned and walked away from the witch and her warlock father.

. .

Her father insisted on giving Sasuke some privacy.

“Tengu are very traditional. I’m surprised he didn’t kick you out of your own room,” he had joked.

Sakura and Sasuke watched as her father drew a door on the wall and a seal on it. Sakura had her notebook out taking notes on everything her father was doing.

“An expansion spell isn’t that difficult for me on my own but it does need to be modified so that it’s hidden from the outside. Can’t have mundanes wondering when we built an addition,” he explained as he adjusted the sigils. “It will also help Sasuke come and go as he pleases if no one can see where he’s coming from. And it’s for that exact reason I’m going to need Llewelyn’s help.”

A black furred mouse scampered off of Kizashi’s shoulder and down his leg. It shifted into the form of a young dark haired boy although the snout, ears, and tail of a mouse remained.

“Ready when you are,” Llewelyn squeaked.

Kizashi bit his thumb hard enough until it drew blood and Llewelyn mirrored his actions. They placed a drop of their blood in the center of the seal and the chalk drawing door glowed.

Kizashi muttered an incantation and within seconds the wall stopped glowing and where the chalk drawing had been previously now stood a door that looked exactly like the rest in the house.

“Usually this would take a lot more out of me and would be difficult to do for one witch or warlock but with the assistance of a shapeshifter like a púca these kinds of spells are a lot easier to pull off.”

Llewelyn placed his hands on his hips and looked proud of himself.

“Does it have to be a shapeshifter familiar for these kinds of spells?” Sakura questioned.

Sasuke snorted and she shot him a quick glare. He had mentioned her habit of overworking herself but she ignored him. She wanted to learn.

“Any familiar can assist with these just fine but due to Llewelyn being a púca it makes it so my control doesn’t have to be as perfect as another witch’s would have to be.”

“It’s the lazy man’s way out,” Llewelyn joked as he shifted back into his mouse form.

“I would say to just ask Blossom here to help you modify anything but in her state she might damage the illusion keeping the room hidden.”

“I’m not that hopeless!” Sakura scowled, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“Yes but let’s not risk it until Lady Tsunade gets back and figures out how to cut the summon.”

“You don’t know anything about it?”

Sakura would have been annoyed with Sasuke’s questioning if it weren’t for the fact he seemed genuinely curious.

“Hmm,” Kizashi hummed, brows drawn down in a frown, “there’s only one way I’ve ever known and I would rather avoid it.”

“What is it?”

“Death.”

. .

Sasuke stared out of his new bedroom window, feeling more frustrated than he had earlier.

Whenever he was in that sort of mood he would soar through the sky and relax as the wind rustled his hair and feathers.

But he wasn’t able to turn to his true form and he knew shifting to a hawk wouldn’t be give him the same feeling.

He had suspected that death would be the only way out of his predicament but the thought of ending the little witch’s life in exchange for his freedom was distasteful.

As much as he hated the idea of being tied to her forever because of a magical chaining of their souls, he hated the idea of sacrificing someone that was still technically an innocent.

It wasn’t until after that thought settled that he remembered that he would be risking his own life if she died.

“Dad wanted to make your room look more like home for you but mom freaked out because it’s troublesome to clean tatami.”

The little witch walked in with sheets for the bed Kizashi had transfigured from a bundle of twigs that he had found in the yard.

“This is fine.”

There was nothing with the western style room. He actually had a western style bedroom back home and it was quite comfortable especially now that he was on a real bed.

But those were little things about him that he wasn’t willing to share. He didn’t want to know the little witch or for her to know him.

At least that’s what he kept telling himself.

“Can’t you just summon another familiar?” Sasuke asked her before she could leave. “Wouldn’t that cancel out the summoning with me?”

“Uh, no.”

The little witch averted her gaze and made herself busy fitting the sheets on his matress.

“Is it because you don’t have access to the rest of your magic?”

“I know Kakashi gave you a book on summoning and familiars. Do you have to ask me these questions?”

Sasuke was thrown off by her new demeanor. She had ignored him before but now she was actually putting up a guard.

“I want to hear it from you. Why didn’t you have your High Priestess assist you in getting a new familiar? I don’t mean to sound arrogant but you would have to be a particularly strong witch to have summoned me. You could have any familiar you wanted probably.”

The little witch stood up and kept her gaze averted. Her cheeks had flushed to a delicate shade of red.

“It’s not a choice. I didn’t choose you.” she wrung her hands in front of her. “We were supposed to be meant for each other. You were supposed to━”

She cut herself off and took a deep breath.

“It’s not important.”

“Apparently it is if you’re reacting like this.”

Sasuke moved from the bench by the window and approached her.

“It bothers you that I don’t want to be your summon. Specifically that it’s me.”

“Wouldn’t you see it as a rejection?” The little witch narrowed her eyes at him. They glistened with unshed tears. It had only been two weeks but he knew how emotional she got.

A person that cries when frustrated. What an annoying new experience.

“I thought I was prepared for a familiar to find me unworthy of them. Reality hurts a lot more.”

That explanation wasn’t expected. Sasuke had assumed all witches were arrogant, that they had to be to summon creatures to submit to them.

“I’m a half-breed. I thought I would get a low tier familiar because of that. I didn’t expect you to show up. I didn’t kidnap you. I just wanted a partner and to finally feel like I was a real witch.”

That was something Sasuke could understand now that she let her feelings on the matter known.

He was a tengu but he was unlike the other tengu in his clan. They all took the form of crows excluding his mother. They both took the form of hawks and for that fact alone there were members of his clan that were wary of them.

“You are a real witch.”

The little witch’s eyes went wide and he turned his face away in embarrassment.

“You summoned me. You would have to be a real witch.”

. .

Sasuke stared at the tome sitting on his bed and frowned.

He still hadn’t opened the book that Kakashi had loaned him. He was avoiding everything that had to do with witches and familiars and hadn’t considered opening the text even if it gave him the chance to find information on breaking a summon.

He sighed and laid back on the bed bringing the tome up with him.

It wouldn’t hurt to do some light reading.

. .

Sasuke let out a yawn and immediately sobered up. His mother would have smacked him on his head with her uchiwa if she saw him yawning at the breakfast table.

He had stayed up the night before reading and he felt a little awkward because it was a habit of the little witch’s and there was a section about familiars and witches adopting quirks from each other.

“Here you go Llewelyn.”

Mebuki, the mundane mother of the little witch, offered the púca pumpkin and cream cheese pancakes. The little familiar was fond of sweet foods and sometimes she would treat him but often she would scold him and force him to eat all of the healthier food she made.

“Here you go Sasuke,” Mebuki placed a plate with egg and cheese stuffed tomatoes.

Sasuke put his hands together and said his thanks for the meal. It wasn’t something he would usually eat for breakfast but he appreciated the fact that it had been made with him in mind after it was discovered that he favored the fruit.

He was sure it was the little witch that had informed her mother. She was the one that had to pick up a bushel of them when they were alone in the house.

“Yinghuā?” Mebuki called to her daughter who was rushing around the kitchen table collecting her things for school. “Aren’t you going to eat?”

“I’m running late. I forgot that I had to stop by my math teacher’s classroom before class started.”

Sasuke reached out and grabbed the sleeve of her cardigan hoodie. The little witch’s eyebrows rose up in shock but she accepted the yellow and red apple that he placed in her hand.

She tended to skip meals when she was busy but she always grabbed an apple.

. .

Sasuke pulled on his new pair of jeans and the pullover that Mebuki had picked up for him. She also purchased a fare card so that he could travel around in the mundane way.

“There you go. Just an average teenage boy.” She pinched his cheek gently and chuckled. “Well not actually average. Far too pretty to say you’re average.”

Heat rose up Sasuke’s neck and he turned away. He heard Mebuki giggle and continue to tease him as she went back to tending to her chores.

Minus the wrinkles around her eyes, the jade of them lit up the same way his little witch’s eyes did when she was finally able to translate her runes properly.

. .

“Message for you.”

Kakashi dropped the scroll from his mouth and curled up on one of Sasuke’s pillows. Sasuke swatted at him until he moved to the edge of the bed and then unrolled the scroll.

“Shisui and Izumi are coming to visit.”

“Your family?”

Sasuke thought about the role they had in his older brother Itachi’s life and nodded.

They saved his brother’s life. They would always be family.

Sasuke was in the middle of meditation when there was a soft knock on his door. He waited a moment to see if the person was insistent on needing his attention before granting them permission to enter.

“Come in,” he called out after the second knock.

The little witch poked her head in and averted her gaze. She hesitantly came all the way inside, hiding something behind her back.

Sasuke raised a brow at her expectantly and she pulled her arms from behind her back.

“Do you know arithmancy? I don’t think I’m reading this chart correctly.”

“Yes. it’s a subject my mother thought important to teach me.”

“Really?” she squealed in excitement. “Are you good at it? I’m pretty good at memorization but sometimes I screw up with runes because I’m not very good at reading traditional glyphs.”

“Aa.”

Sasuke took her charts from her hand and got to reading them. The witch sat on his bed, close enough to press her shoulder against his.

He explained to her where she had messed up in her charts and redrew them for her. He made sure to keep everything as simple as possible so that she would understand.

Funny.

He never expected a random skill his mother told him could be useful one day to actually serve a purpose in his life.

. .

Levitation was something she could do without any focus. She had been doing it ever since she was a toddler without the need for any incantations or potions.

“You don’t need to float when you meditate.”

“I don’t but it’s just something that comes naturally to me. It kind of helps.”

Sasuke sighed out his nose and closed his eyes. Sakura smiled softly at his serene expression. It was nice to be able to be close enough to see it.

Sakura held back from giggling when she came to a realization that she couldn’t come to before when things were tense between them.

She had always wanted to have the ability to fly and her summoned familiar happened to have wings.

. .

“You’re a disaster.”

The little witch scowled at him from her position in his arms. He smirked down at her as she rambled off about how his help wasn’t needed but that she appreciated it anyway.

She was busy levitating some vials from the shelves to speed up her tasks of organizing all of the ingredients and reshelving all of the scrolls that she hadn’t noticed that she herself was levitating in the direction of a bubbling cauldron.

“You’re doing too much at once,” he reprimanded her. “I’ll take care of the scrolls.”

“Thank you.”

Sasuke was just about done with putting away the scrolls in the proper order when Kakashi in his cat form slinked over from his place amongst the cushions in the corner of Shizune’s workspace.

“Having fun?”

“Who has fun doing chores?”

“Familiars that enjoy being helpful to their witches.”

Sasuke almost dropped the remaining scrolls in his arms at the statement.

“That’s not what this is.”

“Oh? Alright then. Boys that like helping out cute girls.”

“It’s not that either!” Sasuke denied, his neck warming up.

Sasuke plucked Kakashi up by the scruff of his neck and tossed him out the second story window.

. .

He was getting too comfortable.

Izumi and Shisui were expected to arrive in a few days and with their arrival they would have an answer to his question of how to break a familiar summoning.

He hoped they would have the answer considering they were able to form a new covenant with a second familiar. It was a rare occurrence but it was done to save his dying older brother.

They weren’t there when Itachi’s covenant was broken but it felt insensitive to ask his brother about it.

Even in the text that he had borrowed from Kakashi there was nothing about breaking a covenant. The only mention was that the breaking of a covenant by either party was a vile act.

Sasuke could only think about how his brother was a wingless tengu and wonder what it was exactly that the warlock that summoned Itachi had done.

The more time he spent with the little witch he couldn’t imagine her doing anything that cruel.

She was sweet and at times even her temper was amusing. She was kind to him even when he was standoffish.

He didn’t mind when she invaded his space and spoke to him.

Sasuke was starting to enjoy his time in the mundane realm with her and her family.

He was getting comfortable.

But it was getting hard to think of that as a bad thing.

. .

Sakura was happy for him, she really was.

If it had been the other way around she would have been ecstatic if her family visited her.

But it wasn’t just a visit. They were here to take him back home.

Izumi was able to harness a lot of power to create a portal between the mundane realm and the one they called home. Tengu had immense power and the connection she shared with her familiar Shisui was a strong one.

She had never seen such a large spell done before, especially not one performed by a single witch.

It was still weird that it was all happening in the middle of Tsunade’s living room, especially since she still wasn’t back home.

“It’s not just Shisui and I. Itachi isn’t here with us physically but we can still feel our connection to him,” Izumi explained. “The stronger the bond, the bigger the magic.”

“So the summon should break when Sasuke returns home?”

“It should.” Shisui smiled gently at her. “It works like you’re returning him by letting him go. He should be able to stay there as long as you don’t attempt to summon a familiar again. Then he’ll just end up back here. So unfortunately you will just have to go without one.”

“So this is technically goodbye then,” she muttered. She turned sad eyes to Sasuke who stood in front of her impassively.

Sakura was starting to get use to seeing him around.

It was odd how close she felt to him when he had never even uttered her name the entire time he stayed with her and her family.

And now he was leaving without knowing it.

Sakura cleared her throat and strengthened her resolve. She wasn’t going to being crying the last time she saw him.

“I wish you luck with everything.”

Sakura stuck out her hand, offering it to him to take. He raised a brow at her and she swore she saw the corners of his lips twitch upwards.

“I’ll see you soon.”

Sakura’s eyes went wide when he smiled softly at her and used his pointer and middle finger to poke her in the center of her forehead. It was such a random gesture that she couldn’t help the heat rising to her cheeks. She wasn’t prepared for it at all.

See me...soon?

Nor was she prepared for what he said next.

“Sakura.”

#sasusaku #ss fanfiction #day!fics #covenant au

155 notes · View notes

burstingchrysanthemums · 7 years

Text

The Daily Task of Preventing My Disciple from Turning to the Dark Side: Chapter 3

Mu Chen's Sunshine Palace, located in the north of Cloud Gate, is one of the places with the most abundant spirit energy in the five peaks. At the top of flattened Sunshine peak is the bright red Sunshine Palace. From a distance it looks misty, grand, magnificent, with jade railings all around.

After landing, a strong smell of fragrant incense medicine makes every inch of the skin feel comfortable. In the main hall where Mu Chen lives there is a large golden bamboo. The bamboo was swaying in the wind, and the mottled sunlight fell on the ground through the bamboo leaves, and turning the ground golden. Countless priceless treasures that are hard to find in the outside world are as common as weeds sticking to the sole of your foot here.

On the left is a spirit spring, the water weaving around the immortal palace, and a waterfall plunging down. On the right are several hundred miles of medical gardens, while at the back of the mountain the cry of a crane can be heard.

It is said that Sunshine Palace is the richest place in Cloud Gate, only the people who have seen it can understand.

Mu Chen put down Gu Yunjue, saying: "Here is our place, you can live wherever you want to."

The Sunshine Palace has been decorated very simply, in accordance with Mu Chen's personality. Now that there is a five-year-old child who needs to restore his health, Mu Chen wondered whether he ought to build a house and have some fun.

Gu Yunjue looked at around him, eyes flashing with nostalgia, here is the most comfortable place that he has ever lived in.

Surveying the place, Gu Yunjue's eyes fall on a white stone table in the bamboo grove. The table holds a pot of wine, two glasses, and an unfinished game of chess. Thinking of someone who Mu Chen treats this way... Gu Yunjue narrowed his eyes, stretched out his hand to hold Mu Chen's thigh, and smiled exceptionally sweetly, "This disciple wants to live with the master."

Mu Chen frowned, looked down at the child holding on to his thigh tightly, worriedly asked him: "You ... still wet the bed? "

The corners of Gu Yunjue's mouth twitched, both hands trembled, bed wetting ... The little master is so cute.

Mu Chen looked down at him, the look is especially serious. He really wants to know if the child still wets the bed, if so then they cannot sleep together. Feeling the disciple holding on to his thigh trembling guiltily, Mu Chen frowns and concludes that, sure enough the child is still in the bed wetting age so it's better for them to sleep separately.

Two thirteen-year-old children saw that Mu Chen was back and jumped in front of him, saying in chorus: "Palace Lord."

The two are twins, very handsome and dressed in identical white robes. One has a grim look, behind him is a sword, and he stands upright, looking sharp and spirited. The other one is holding a strange long black flute and is wearing a bone pendant. He is smiling, his face has a lively look, and he looks a bit naughty.

Mu Chen introduced them: "The unsmiling one is Jing Ting, the smiling one is Jing Ming."

The child is still holding on to his thighs shyly so Mu Chen had to push him forward to introduce him. "This is my personal succeeding disciple, from now on take good care of him."

"These disciples understand." Although the two claim to be his disciples, in fact they don't have a mentor-disciple relationship. They are not human. Mu Chen picked up two doglike monsters in a secret place. Out of habit, he had cured their injury ten years ago. Ever since then they had stayed here.

Mu Chen commanded: "Jing Ming, clean up the attic next door to my room for the boy to live in."

Jing Ming was stunned for a moment then nodded: "Yes, this disciple will arrange it immediately."

Looking at the two mirror-like twins running, Gu Yunjue narrowed his eyes. He had not expected that these two tough little things had been following the master so early.

Mu Chen touched Gu Yunjue's head, interrupting his thoughts, and said: "Go and wash yourself first, take off your clothes, and never wear black clothes in the future.

The thought of Gu Yunjue growing up then wearing black, with a peerless handsome face, killing without batting an eye, puts Mu Chen in a bad mood. In this life, the well-behaved little disciple will never become that way.

Mu Chen wanted to leave but his thigh was held. Gu Yunjue tackled his master, making the attendants gasp. They looked at Gu Yunjue with admiration. The last time someone touched the Palace Lord's sleeve, he directly kicked that person away. Yet this boy dares to grab Mu Chen's thigh...

A hero! He is so brave!

Mu Chen did not hit the boy, he just tried to pull away but he was held tightly. Gu Yunjue made a pitiful face at him, sticking like glue to his leg. "Shizun, don't go!"

The fact that the other's body is somehow attracting his spiritual power is something he hasn't figured out yet. If they were to take a bath together he can investigate.

Mu Chen thought he was frightened. Helpless, he held Gu Yunjue while the attendants bring hot water, intending to wash the child himself. Several attendants look at Gu Yunjue with worshipful eyes because the Lord has unexpectedly gave in. It seems he is not an ordinary pet and they must serve the young lord with great care.

Only Jing Ting looks at Gu Yunjue eyes and thinks it's unnatural.

Mu Chen took out a bottle of medicine and put a drop in the bath water which turned green, churning with spiritual power. He picked up Gu Yunjue, who was looking at the door, and wanted to throw him into the bath.

"Shizun!" said Gu Yunzhu clinging to Mu Chen's arm. "I can go in by myself."

Mu Chen put Gu Yun down. That little disciple is really sensible, wants to do things on his own, a really good, self-reliant child.

Seeing that Mu Chen has no intention of changing his clothes, Gu Yunjue temporarily closed off his mind, he always remembers that he is a child, born in that kind of environment, if he did not act then he would have been killed long ago, so he can act the role of a five-year-old child vividly.

He was not sentimental, and took off his coat and climbed into the barrel. However, now the body is too short, the movement of the climb is a bit ugly.

The short limbs are struggling to climb the barrel, like a little mouse but in Mu Chen's eyes it's not ugly.

The face finally having a hint of a smile, Mu Chen reached out to hold the child's butt, tore off the robes and even the pants, throwing Gu Yunjue in the water with a big splash.

Gu Yunjue helplessly spit out a mouthful of water, Shizun is so... direct!

When Gu Yunjue's flesh was exposed, in that moment Mu Chen was stunned. On the child's thin back were innumerable scars... not only the back but also the chest and limbs have numerous scars, including a bit wound which, by the look of the teeth, was made by a woman.

The most serious is a chest wound. It's new and not yet completely cured. It seems like the chest was stabbed by a hairpin and, if the puncture had been any deeper, would have reached the heart and killed Gu Yunjue!

Mu Chen's face was instantly cold, his voice angry: "Who wants to kill you?"

The child grew up to be a twisted killer, the childhood experiences and relationships surely were partly to blame! Just a five year old boy, who laid such a ruthless hand on him?

The medicine in the water is funneling spirit power into his body. It's slightly painful. He rested on the barrel and reached out a hand to touch Mu Chen's face, smiling, and said: "My mother thought that giving birth to me was a disgrace."

Gu Yunjue sees Mu Chen's expression become colder, does not hold back his fingers from stroking that face. He knew how beautiful that laughing face is but, unfortunately, it's really rare to see.

Gu Yunjue has a soul magic power. He is at the stage when he can clearly see the color of the spirit of people. Good people's spirits are white, black is evil, while red is for killers. He has seen that many people's souls are a mixed color. Only Mu Chen, even when he has killed, is pure white.

Part of him wants to wipe him black, contaminate him with his own darkness but at the same time he wants to silently protect his purity.

Looking at the cold man in front of him who was angry for him... Gu Yunjue excitedly licked his lips, eyes narrowed, this feeling is a good memory.

Mu Chen discontentedly swatted away Gu Yunjue's hands, coldly glaring at the spoiled little bastard who even dared to touch his face. Does he understand what it is to honor the teacher and respect his teachings?

Seeing the little disciple is behaving, Mu Chen tied up his messy hair then stirred the water up to produce more bubbles, saying: "Soak for another half hour, I will be going out."

"Where is Shifu going?"

Mu Chen's personality is such that when he thinks of doing something, he does it immediately. Gu Yunjue is not sure what is happening now.

"I'm going to the main peak." As he answered Mu Chen was talking to the door. He orders Jing Ting: "In a moment, go and have a look at him."

He feared that his young disciple might fall into the water and drown to death in the water.

Jing Ting hurried to comply. "This disciple will remember."

"After he changes his clothes, introduce him to the palace servants to make sure they serve him well and don't bully him."

Seeing Gu Yunjue's injury, Mu Chen is distressed at imagining what the child had suffered. Thinking of Gu Yunjue's abusive childhood, Mu Chen's face becomes even colder. He will not let his disciple suffer any injustice again, he will have only the best things...parents...huh.

After Mu Chen left, Gu Yunjue's lips turn up, his smiling face is bloodthirsty and crazy. It's really good that he returned to this place to love together with his teacher. Back then, no one thought that Gu Yunjue had used the magic of the final layer to reverse time, they thought they had killed him but they did not know they just sent him back in time hundreds of years ago. (TN: Yes, it said hundreds of years.)

What are the hypocrites doing at this time?

Are they pursuing the righteous path to cultivation?

Are they murdering and stealing treasures?

Are they standing aloof, pretending to be superior and benevolent?

Or are they painstakingly pondering how they could win the favor of his master, and pursue a pill cultivator with both great talents and outstanding good looks as their dao-companion?

Gu Yunjue looked at his hand and smiled. A red flame in the fingertips gently beat, dancing like a succubus, full of temptation and deadly hidden dangers.

Previous Chapter Table of Contents Next Chapter

#The Daily Task of Preventing My Disciple from Turning to the Dark Side

56 notes · View notes

thetoxicstrawberry · 7 years

Text

@madakaka

Summary: An alternate universe in which Madara survives the war and spends his days flirting with irritating the Hokage.

The Price of Atonement

Ch. 1: Limbo

Ch. 2: The Losing End

Ch. 3: Minor Adjustments

Kakashi heard Madara’s voice before he saw him. He was half-way across the store, where he leisurely perused the pet aisle, when the rumbling sound of vexation caused his shoulders to instantly tighten. He was sure they heard the damnable man all the way back in the meat department.

He thought for a moment about leaving his shopping cart and sneaking out the door, but instead ducked behind a neatly stacked display of boxed pastries and watched the man haggle with the cashier.

“22 ryō? For eggs? I’ll only give you 14 and I know they aren’t even worth that much,” Madara snapped.

From where he stood, Kakashi could see that the cashier was shaken. All the other customers had vacated her line, probably to wait for the crazy Uchiha to complete his purchase and leave.

“I’m…I’m sorry sir. I can’t…”

“You drive a hard bargain,” Madara said and pointed at the young woman. “16 ryō, but you won’t get a penny more from me.”

Kakashi knew he should stop this. He was the Hokage after all, and Madara, with all his eccentricities, was his responsibility. A responsibility that was supposed to be at least partially delegated out.

Where was Sasuke anyway?

Kakashi sighed and cursed inwardly for ever letting them both out of prison to being with, before he slid up from behind and threw a couple of coins on the counter.

“What do you think you are doing?” Madara turned toward him, his gaze sharp and intense.

“Ah, Madara, I didn’t realize it was you,” Kakashi said evenly. “It’s usually old women that get this worked up over prices.”

“This doesn’t concern you.”

“I mean,” Kakashi continued. “You do look the same from behind.”

“Don’t you have some place to be, Hokage,” Madara spat the last word.

Kakashi turned to the cashier and flashed her a quick eye smile. “My apologies for my friend here…”

“We’re not friends.”

“He spent a lot of time in hell, so his people skills are lacking.”

The cashier quickly gathered the money and processed the transaction. Kakashi took the bag containing Madara’s purchases and began to lead him out of the store as he blustered.

“Are you following me now? Is the brat not enough company for me? I’ll have you know that woman is a thief,” Madara grumbled. “But I’m sure you don’t care about those things. Stealing bloodline limits that don’t belong to you.”

Kakashi’s steps paused only for a moment, a soft laugh rumbled in his chest.

“I’m not the only one that likes to steal eyes, remember?” He pointed to the left side of his face. He watched as Madara’s own eyes traced the curve of the scar that bisected his brow and trailed under his mask. “If I remember correctly, you yanked mine right out of the socket.”

“It didn’t belong to you,” Madara said and lifted his chin defiantly.

“It didn’t belong to you either.”

Madara’s face twitched.

“What kind of person snatches another man’s eye right in the middle of battle?” Kakashi asked.

“A winner, that’s who.”

“But Dara-chan,” Kakashi said and lifted one eyebrow. “You didn’t win.”

A deep growl escaped Madara’s lips, but he didn’t reply. His footsteps took on a heavier sound, as they walked side by side. They continued in silence for about a block before Kakashi brushed a glance in the other man’s direction. Madara’s expression remained blank, as he stubbornly looked ahead to ignore the gaze of his companion.

Kakashi wondered if he had taken it too far. He liked to poke at Madara. Bantering with him had become an interesting game and often broke the monotony of his day. He loathed to admit that he was beginning to look forward to their encounters. Kakashi wasn’t built for desk duty and being around Madara allowed for him to drop the formality to engage in verbal duels of wit.

Kakashi also simply liked irritating him, but not in a malicious way. He knew just the right buttons to push and enjoyed watching the man prickle like a flustered kitten.

Madara had been all mouth when he’d first arrived back in Konoha and he gave the prison guards such a tongue lashing that they had to be rotated out. Sasuke had pleaded to either be moved or executed, anything to get away from his contemptuous predecessor. But when the weeks turned to months and suddenly Madara was alone, the talking stopped. Then the eating.

Every few weeks, Sakura would come down to check on him and monitor his condition, even though the obstinate man kept refusing any sort of medical treatment for his ailments, and it was then that she noticed something was amiss.

“I know what he’s done,” she had told Kakashi. “But if we leave him the way he is…”

“He’s going to die,” Kakashi finished her sentence.

“Yes.”

The truth was, Madara deserved to die and some dark part of Kakashi had burned with the desire to let him. There was no way for him to make reparations for what he had done. Not for the war or the heavy death toll that came with it. And not for Obito.

Obito. His name still pulled at Kakashi’s insides. It was Madara who had tainted his friend’s mind and manipulated him to carry out his wicked dream.

But what if it had been Obito that had lived and not Madara, Kakashi wondered? If it were Obito confined to life imprisonment, left to wither away from guilt and self-hatred? Kakashi knew he would want him to have a chance at atonement, a way back into the light. He knew it was his own bias that kept him from helping the reckless Founder and that ate at him.

It was then that Kakashi decided that he was going to release him. Against the wishes of the elders, his advisors, and even his friends. The only one that stood by his decision was Naruto, who was all bright-eyed enthusiasm at the prospect of Madara rejoining society.

The bag of groceries rustled as Kakashi shifted it into his other arm. They had arrived at Madara’s house. A little yellow one story, with dark navy shutters, and a low metal fence that squared off the edges of the property.

Kakashi followed him through the gate and up the walk. When they stopped at the front door, the Hokage finally broke the silence, “Madara, I…”

“Do you really think we’re friends?” Madara interrupted, his focus down on the key ring as he fumbled with it. The tone in his voice sounded inquisitive and lacked his usual challenge.

Kakashi blinked at him, slightly stunned.

“Never mind,” Madara snapped and jiggled his keys harshly as he pushed them into the lock. “I just don’t want you misinterpreting my actions. Thinking you mean more to me than you do. That’s all.”

“Don’t worry,” Kakashi’s face relaxed and he gave the other man a quick pat on the back. “I never forget that you’d kill me if given half a chance.”

Madara pushed the door open with a grumble and the Rokudaime followed him inside. Kakashi hadn’t been to Madara’s house since he’d picked it out for him. It had been empty then and he had delegated the task of furnishing it to Shizune.

The floor plan was open, making the main living space feel wide and airy. From where he stood, Kakashi could see her touches in the decorating. The matching gray couch and loveseat, a rustic looking credenza, and impressionistic paintings of scenic landscapes. It was charming.

On top of Shizune’s work was a randomness that could only be Madara’s additions. Cheap bargain store knickknacks, a stack of old newspapers, and candles. So many candles. The scents varied and bore in with such intensity that Kakashi’s eyes watered and he cursed his acute sense of smell.

He set the bag on a cluttered kitchen table. Madara came up alongside him and started putting away his purchases.

“Madara,” Kakashi asked, looking around his kitchen. “Where are all your appliances?”

“Hmm, oh, you mean those metal monstrosities? I burned them in the backyard,” Madara said it with a degree of nonchalance that Kakashi was left bewildered.

“You burned them?”

“Yes.”

“In your backyard?”

“Of course,” Madara said. “Where else would I have burned them?”

Kakashi moved to the back door, his jaw still slack in shock, and peered out. Sure enough, the burned-out husks of his appliances were pushed to the far side of his yard.

He turned on him, hands in the air. “Those where brand new! Why would you burn them?”

Madara shrugged and said, “I had no use for any of it and there was no other way of disposing of them.”

“You could have told me to remove them. You didn’t have to destroy them.”

“I kept the cooling one. I like that one,” Madara said and gestured towards the refrigerator. “I don’t know why it ruffles your feathers so bad. We didn’t have dishwashers in my day. It was simply taking up space.”

“But you didn’t put anything in its place,” Kakashi said and motioned to the empty hole. “Do you have any idea how expensive that dishwasher was? The taxpaying citizens of Konoha paid for it too and you burned it.”

“If you want them back, you can take it. It’s crowding up my backyard anyway,” Madara said as he placed a jar of peanut butter into the cabinet and shut it.

He was smiling---an evil playful grin, Kakashi noted, and realized that Madara was savoring the opportunity to finally find something that upset him. He rubbed at his face and tried hard to get his composure under control. He took a deep breath and dropped his shoulders, but found the tension wouldn’t give and they only tightened back up again.

The village finances had taken a major hit after everything was destroyed during the Pein attack. Coupled with the dwindling missions—an unpleasant side effect of the new era of peace—there wasn’t any room to throw money away. Kakashi hoped the accounting office never found out about Madara’s little bonfire.

“Quick question,” Kakashi said, raising his head. “If you can’t mold chakra, how did you burn them?”

“Yes, that was quite the chore. I didn’t consider that until after I had drug them outside,” Madara said, tilting his head. “My current condition is one I’m still growing accustomed to. Once I had them out of the house, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to summon fire to destroy them, so I walked down to the corner market—it’s less than a mile from here-- and bought some accelerant.”

Kakashi could visualize it all in his head. Madara, hauling his large appliances out the backdoor, without the added benefit of chakra aided strength, only to realize that, in order to complete his mission, he would need to go about it the old-fashioned way. He was probably sweating, panting, and irritable by the time he made it to the market.

“I was looking for kerosene or something similar, but was told they were out. I am under the suspicion that the storekeeper was, instead, reluctant to sell me something that could be used for destructive means. So, I bought hairspray instead.”

“Hairspray?”

Madara nodded and pointed to the stack of newspapers, “I drenched the papers in the hairspray and put them inside every nook and cranny I could, before setting it ablaze with a match. I singed all the hairs off my arm.”

Well, no one can ever call him a quitter.

“Madara, what am I going to do with you? We need to channel that energy of yours into something productive,” Kakashi sighed and slipped his hands into his pockets. “I don’t want you lighting anymore fires. You don’t have the ability to extinguish it if it were to get out of control.”

“You afraid I’ll burn my house down and you’ll be forced to buy me a new one?” Madara teased.

“No,” Kakashi said. “I’m afraid you’ll hurt yourself or someone else.”

Madara rolled his eyes. “There you go again, making it sound like we’re friends. I thought we already clarified that issue.”

“You don’t have to like me, but as the Hokage, it is my job to take care of the village and everyone who lives here. And as much as you hate it, that includes you.”

Madara stared at him for a moment and something flickered briefly in his eyes, but it was gone so quick that Kakashi barely saw it.

Vulnerability.

“Hmph,” Madara’s face twisted into a snarl and he glared back at him. “We’re done. I have things to do. I would appreciate if you left me to it.”

“Alright,” Kakashi sighed. “But no more fires. I should have a job for you in a few days. I’ll send for you then.”

“Delightful.”

Madara followed him to the door and shut it hard behind him. He then quietly moved to the window and watched through a part in the curtains as Kakashi walked back the way they had come.

“Imbecile,” he growled to himself.

He then turned and padded back to the kitchen, only to find Sasuke standing in front the fridge, door open, with a carton of orange juice pressed to his lips.

Madara scowled and clenched his fist. “You might as well finish that or take it with you, because I won’t be drinking any after your dirty mouth has been on it.”

Sasuke closed the top and gently placed it back in the fridge.

“I can’t wait to see what he has you doing after you pissed him off like that,” he said and turned to face the older man.

“He’s fine,” Madara said, as he removed the carton from the fridge and dramatically threw it in the garbage. “It takes more than that to get him angry.”

“Good thing too,” Sasuke continued. “For a second there, I thought I was going to have to leave. Give you two some distance.”

“What do you mean?” Madara frowned. The look on the younger man’s face was smug, which only infuriated him more. “You can’t think that idiot would fight me for destroying a few machines.”

“Fight you? No,” Sasuke chuckled, as he pulled a chair out and took a seat.

“Whatever. Just get out of my house. I’ve already told you, I don’t like you in here.”

“You know,” said Sasuke, “I would have taught you how to use your oven and dishwasher. All you had to do was ask. Then you wouldn’t have had to destroy them.”

“That…” Madara bristled and his face flushed. “That is not why I got rid of them.”

“I can see you still have your washer and dryer. Too much trouble to burn them all in one day? They aren’t hard to work. If you don’t want me to teach you, I’m sure Kakashi would show you.”

That was it. Madara had had enough. He grabbed the back of the chair Sasuke was sitting in and begun to drag it across the kitchen.

“Madara, what are you doing?” Sasuke asked, but didn’t bother to get out of his seat.

With more effort than he would admit, Madara managed to pull Sasuke and the chair out of the house and onto the back porch.

“I told you to leave,” he said, calmer than would be expected. “Now go, before I decide to set you on fire along with the other contraptions.”

He then turned and stomped back into the house. Sasuke was still laughing when he slammed the door.

#kakashi #madara #madakaka #naruto #fanfiction #my writings

33 notes · View notes