“Nephew, you are softer than I thought.” Uncle Aoto teethed out as his fingers drew back a taut bowstring. He breathed, his muscles tensed even through austere blue robes. His narrowed sights sharpen and the arrow sets loose, zipping at the wave fraught target bobbing along the small lake.

His arrow exploded through its target, splintering a buffet of caught bait and showering the waters with quartz stones. He lowered his aim and turned to me as I raised mine, narrowed my eyes and took a breath.

Archery was something of a past time for Uncle Aoto and Yagura, it started as something of a joke as Yagura returned from a mission excited about his opponent’s skill with the bow and how it was more cost effective to loose wooden staves rather than precious metal kunai and shuriken.

He decided to learn it on the spot and who else to teach him than his most-knowing mentor and Uncle? Except, Aoto had never bothered with traditional weapons, he was a shinobi, his entire body was a weapon. So they took it up together and have been practicing whenever the urge struck.

Exhaling, I released the arrow and it soared toward my own water turbulent target. The arrow pierced through its mark, digging in deep and nearly passing through the other side but it didn’t shatter the quartz like Uncle’s did.

I narrowed my sights on the block of quartz housing the fish bait and after a moment the stone split in two and released its contents. “There, just needed some time.” I set my bow aside and turned to Uncle, expectant, “What do you mean?”

Uncle walked back into the large tree and its canopy, setting his back against it as we waited for the servers to set new targets.

He sighed and let his bow drop as he motioned for me to come closer, I did and in a hushed voice he said, “You are beginning your reign quite mercifully. I understand Lord Funato and Lady Megumi will be harder to coerce to your will and you really shouldn’t try to break them either, but the others?

He hummed and stroked his chin, “You have to be careful who you decide to take from and yes, you will be taking, it won’t be a negotiation. But you should also know the full scope of your options. Ask yourself, what are you doing?”

I gave it thought for a moment and ignored the proud look Uncle was trying to hide. He’s been that way for a month, well, it’s gotten better now since he’s learned to restrain himself from sudden gleeful outbursts.

“I am…saving a clan from extinction, saving their Bloodline and giving them a place in Kiri where they can be useful.” I said finally.

Uncle Aoto nodded along but then asked, “And what else?”

I blinked and he snorted.

“Are you so busy you don’t consider what you will be doing to Kirigakure as well?” I wanted to raise a defence but I wisely kept shut and let him speak, “You are going around asking these clan heads to give up a part of what has been theirs for decades and for whom? A clan responsible for many deaths in Kiri. Even if you set aside their crimes they are still outsiders, an unknown to Kiri, these lands do not have as many memories of friendship and coexistence as it does war.

“You are right in your vision, bringing in clans with Kekkei Genkai will strengthen Kirigakure’s against the other four but given your plans for sealing away their tenketsu to appease whoever is so unlucky to house them, well, I only see it paying off decades in the future. But in the present, you will have a mess to clean up.”

Uncle was right, of course. I had considered the effects bringing the Kaguya would have on the village but only to the clans that would be sharing space with them most of the time.

And perhaps the ratio of reward to trouble was a bit skewed in favour of trouble. Jason’s ambitions to revamp Kiri from what I remember to what it could be may have been a bit hasty.

“You have to lay the groundwork, Yondaime-sama.” Uncle said my title with elation only he could express. “To do so, you have to know what your options are so you can pick the best one and let me tell you now, you have far better options than giving into the Hoshigaki or having a bastard with the Yuki.”

I do?

Uncle seemed to have caught the surprise on my otherwise stoic face and his grin grew as he picked up his bow and nocked an arrow, “Of course, but I’m sure Lord Funato wouldn’t have explained this all to you, it can’t be helped, no one expected one of your first acts to be so…radical.”

The arrow flung at the quartz bobbing along the water and like his last shot, exploded through and showered the surrounding in bait and stone. I took that as the sign to take my turn and nocked my bow, though my thoughts were far away from it.

I breathed and let the arrow loose as quick as I could to continue the conversation and this time it burrowed right through the quartz, letting nothing in its path hinder it and leaving the round quartz to fall over into the water. I didn’t care. “What are these options?”

He smirked at me, “Why, you could ask permission of the Daimyo to expand Kirigakure’s territories and carve out an entire estate compound for your Kaguya. But I doubt he’ll be in a generous mood, you’d have to bargain for such and if I were in your shoes I’d bargain with the Daimyo for something else.

“You could also downsize the civilian districts, commercial and residential. It wouldn’t take much to fit in a new clan compound but you’d be driving out the people that suffered the attack to make a home for their attackers. Mad I say.

“Believe it or not, you could go ahead and expand Kiri anyway, your predecessors often did. The Daimyo is not such a powerful man any longer, war takes its toll and he knows without Kirigakure protecting him…well, that’s a discussion for another day.”

I really wanted to hear more about that but I kept my mouth shut and my ears open instead, “Any other options?”

He nodded and drew closer, “Two. The Mizukage’s Estate still exists, the Funato clan is in possession of it but truly it belongs to the Mizukage. I don’t know how many you’re bringing in but the First Mizukage built that place when there was an abundance of space. Just clean it up a bit and build some homes around it for your Kaguya.”

I knew of the Mizukage’s Estate, it’s one of the things Lord Funato was transparent about during my first week as Mizukage. He offered to get it ready for me to move in and warned that only the First and Second had stayed there, and the Second didn’t stay long because he felt it too big.

I’d rejected as well without even looking at the property because I felt anything bigger than Yagura’s apartment was overkill. I moved into the Mizukage Tower instead, a medium sized room and parlour with a very necessary balcony and instant proximity to the work I’d been so passionate to start at the time.

Still, why didn’t I think of that? I huffed and nodded gratefully, “That seems like the easiest thing to do now but…what’s the last option?”

Uncle cackled boisterously until a sinister undertone over took it as he asked, “You want to know?”

“Now I really do.”

He grinned, “Well, you could kill two birds with one stone by cleaning up the Daimyo’s unsavoury political affairs. End his civil wars, eliminate the independent islands and seize the territory for Kiri, he’d be so grateful he won’t even realize you’re accruing more land and respect that he. Hmm, perhaps it’s three birds and not two.”

The last option was one Kiri was most familiar with, war. And as much as Jason wanted to avoid conflict and meaningless violence, it was the truth of this world, the truth of the Land of Water.

I’ll just have to change that truth; my hands are already bloodied anyway.

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Annd it's time to take a break! I'll return to normal schedules on the 8th of April but semi-normal postings will continue on bmac. It's been a great month guys, I am super productive and enthused working on this! The reactions and vibes are inspiring and welcoming. See ya in a week!