Week 5, Wednesday

[disilluded]

[You know what's dumb? It's dumb when Sousei is trying to reach for something stupid and unnecessary that's just out of reach.

It's even worse when it's a fan, which doesn't even seem that valuable.

It's even worse still when he is... leaning a bit too far over the edge of the pool to try to yank it off of a floatie thing.

This is terrible, and he's teetering, but he's trying so hard.]

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[randori]

[ It's a cold sort of fury that sends a chill down Natsuo's spine, much different from the hot, explosive sort of anger that he keeps inside himself. The fact that Sousei does not shout, that makes him back off. ]

What... did he do? They were smiling so happily around each other...

[disilluded]

He betrayed them, and was willing to let that entire family die for the sake of his own ambition.

[Sousei spits those words out, arms crossed and posture tense. Sousei can deal with a lot, but Kumous are and always will be a sore spot with him, and Shirasu's crimes are not crimes he ever intends on forgetting or forgiving.]

That man has no right to even say their names.

[randori]

[ That doesn't sound like the Shirasu that Natsuo knows at all, the man who stabbed him in the back and then turned around and won him over with sweets... but one who had such fondness in his eyes when he'd first mentioned that family. He was laughing then- it was such a happy laugh. There's no way he could laugh like that if he were the cause of their death, even the slightest amount of guilt would be too much. ]

You don't... think it's a misunderstanding? I've been betrayed before, abandoned to suffer a fate all by myself, but the other side was just scared. That was something I could forgive.

[disilluded]

I am quite certain of it.

[He breathes out a soft sigh at that, shaking his head simply.]

It was not a misunderstanding, it was an explicit choice. He is a Fuuma ninja--Shirasu Kinjou is a pseudonym only.

[He crosses his arms.]

And to the Fuuma, the clan comes before all else. He was quite willing to sacrifice all of them for the sake of throwing Japan into chaos, for the sake of something so petty as putting his clan into power...

[Bah.]

Believe me or don't if you wish, but that is the sort of man he is.

[randori]

[ They're things that point badly to Shirasu, but for Natsuo... one of his best friends is a ninja (or has deluded himself into thinking he's one, whatever) and pseudonyms are something he understands too. Clans and sacrifice and all that, those are what goes over his head, unable to comprehend something as wide a scale as that. ]

A clan is a family, isn't it? I also fought hard to keep my brothers safe, even if I got to make friends from the other sides. [ Not to the extent of murdering anybody, and he would never think to touch those he'd become friends with, but he wants to believe so badly in Shirasu. ]

He wouldn't trade one family for another... There's no way. I'll ask him about it, and make him tell me the real reason why, and then you two can forgive each other and get along again.

[disilluded]

I have already stated that this is not something I wish to discuss.

[Sousei just looks sour in response, looking away, arms crossed. Whatever Natsuo wants to believe, Sousei knows what he saw with his own two eyes. Knows the looks on Tenka and Soramaru and Chuutarou's faces when Shirasu was gone for good. Knows what it felt like to have his own protege kidnapped away from his when he looked away.

He hates Shirasu, and that will never change.]

Believe what you want. You asked, and so I've given you an answer. That is all I'm interested in discussing.