Izuna has kept his guard up all through the travel, he wasn't going to trust some Samurais so easily, honours or not, he doesn't want his situation to worsen and with his luck this past few weeks he doesn't want to take any chances. But so far nothing has happened, he has been waiting for the slip in their act of a bunch of goofballs, yet so far the only thing even remotely threatening to happen is when that guy who obviously seems to be the leader of the trio, trips onto something and the sound of something cracked can be heard.
"Shinpachi are you ok -aru?" The Kagura girl asked, concerned. 'Shinpachi...?' But then the 'real Shinpachi shouts from behind.
"The heck are you sprouting about, Kagura-chan! That's my specs! Not me!"
The two of them are now fighting over the thing called 'specs' or whatever it is. The only thing on his mind was that these people are really weird. Nonetheless, that was not what he was most weirded out about. It was the guy who tripped over. Izuna was so shocked that he stopped and angled his face in his general direction- when he was sure that it was that guy- open-mouthed since this was the man whose presence was on par with his Nii-sama, not to mention that he kinda reminded him of someone he did not want to remember and so if he did his very best to ignore the man then no one said anything about his odd behaviour. Not to mention he is blind.
He was getting exhausted and it frustrated him to no end. He was still too weak from his time as a prisoner, not to bring up the fact that he is heavily panting, and is sure, he was the reason the guy with the hilarious chakra has stopped and told them they will stop for the night. Even though he was met with weak protests from both his companions, Izuna's gut feelings told that it was more out of habit than anything else. Also, he doesn't know what he should be feeling about this, angry because he is still a capable Shinobi yet also thankful for their generosity?
He doesn't say anything, for the time being, too bone-weary from the short walk, just felt his way through both his hands and found himself a nice spot to settle down for the night. Nothing special, just a place beneath the tree, cause he's not confident enough that he would be able to climb the tree he is leaning against, and by the feel of it the tree is quite tall. He was just about to enter in slumber when he felt someone approach him, he stiffens, ready to try to leap on his feet, but was stopped by a soft,
"It's me Kagura -aru." He relaxed a bit but not by much, however, he was shocked when he felt something pressed against his palm, it was... Sukonbu and some wild fruits, by the smell and textures. He was speechless, like sure they had helped him escape the prison but this? Now he honestly doesn't know what to feel about them.
"Sorry, but we don't have anything else to offer." She said a bit sheepishly, Izuna snapped his head towards her or so he thinks, sorry? What was she apologizing to him?
"Why are you sorry?" And he knows that if his voice was not so hoarse and hurts every time he so much as open them, he would have a squeak. But she just goes on uninterrupted,
"I mean, we had money a couple of days ago but Gin-chan thought that it would be fun to lose all our this month's earnings on gambling -aru." The last part said with more heat in her words. Gin-chan must be the leader guy, but he has also heard Shinpachi-san call him Gin-san, accordingly his name must have a Gin in it. Well, at least now he got a name to associate him with, he can't just go around and think of him as 'the guy' or 'the guy with the hilarious chakra or the one he mentioned just now, instead what comes out of his mouth is,
"Are you telling me that you all came all the way from the Land of Iron to gamble?" He queried.
"Yup!" She voiced it as if it was normal and safe for people to come and go from country to country during this era, and that also for something as ludicrous as gambling. Izuna doesn't know what to say after that, he doesn't want to be rude to his rescuers, but at the same time, he doesn't want to be more than in speaking terms. Kagura-san must have seemed to notice his inner turmoils, and said,
"You must be really hungry, so eat up but if you don't want to or unable to, I can eat it for you, if I eat it you will be full too." He doesn't know but he gets this feeling that she must be eyeing his food almost hungrily before he can open his mouth to reply a loud sound comes from his stomach, and he knows he must be red till his neck, that's when he also realized that he is still in the same flimsy kimono he had on before his- thing.
"Hahahaha!! Looks like I won't be getting anything extra to eat -aru." Kagura says and gets up from her sitting position, "but the still stands okay Izuna-san." Then she is bidding him good night and he is again left alone with his own company. He quietly eats the berries making sure to not eat them all in one go, his duration as a prisoner has made him crave more for the sweetness for the berries, and the sourness and crunchiness of the Sukonbu. The combination was weird but he had worse before. After he is done eating, he takes the waterskin to drink from it, noticing the waterskin after Kagura is gone. When he feels content, he carefully leans his head back upon the tree, mindful of the barks and let his mind drift in a semi-conscious state.
The next day he can feel the warmth of the sunlight upon his body and it nearly makes him tear up, if not for the company he is with at the moment. As long as he can remember, his Otou-sama had always told them to never show their weaknesses to anyone even inside the clan compound, and mainly to him because of his biology. He can hear the sound of yawning and readying themselves for another day worth of travel. He too gets up and hears Shinpachi calling him up and telling him about a stream near for them to bathe in or rather for him to clean up, but the guy is being nice and he can at least appreciate that.
The walk to the stream was not that far, they all came to a hold and started stripping themselves out of their clothing, he has situated himself a bit further from them, not wanting to bathe near strangers, rescuer or not and by their smell, he knows that all of them except for Shinpachi, who was a Beta, were Alphas, and good or not, he doesn't want to be near one, naked as long as he can get away with it. He was handed a tenugui, a kamitsure and a yukata -which was way more better than the one he was wearing and covered a lot more than just his private parts- before him going his separate way to bathe. Though he is not sure whose it is, he doesn't complain about it, not like he has much room to anyways.
He feels a large boulder not far from the group and settles himself behind it. Taking the dirtied yukata off his body as fast as his worn-out body can, then deliberately walks towards the water with the tenugui and kamitsure and dips himself in the cold water. He shivers at the feeling, just staying in it, and soaking and loving the feeling of the sun on him. Facing the sun, he sighs, feeling sad that he doesn't have his eyes anymore. He doesn't know what they had done to it, destroyed it? Or kept it as a treasure? Or maybe sold it? He doesn't know nor he wants to know.
Maybe the before him would have been vengeful about it, but he now is too tired and sad -so, so sad- he just wants to be in his Nii-sama's embrace and invaded by firepassionnight. He doesn't want to think about his reaction about his biology, 'It can wait' he thinks resolutely and he keeps his mind to that, if he thinks more about it the more depressed he will be and he doesn't want that, not with this many strangers he's surrounded by. When he feels he stays long enough soaking under the sun, he starts to rub himself with the tenugui, waste himself and his hair, and just as deliberately gets out the water.
Reaching the shore, he unfolds the yukata and wears it after a few minutes of his body naturally dries up under the sun and gets up from there in search for a place with shades. Maybe a tree. They are still inside the forest, but when he was about to start feeling his way for a tree Kagura shouted for him to come for breakfast. Now that he thinks about it, he can smell the smell of fresh fish being cooked and mouth salivating at that. Abandoning his search carefully started making his way towards them after collecting his dirtied kimono and tenugui.
"Izuna-san gives this clothing to me, I will burn it for you, I mean, if you don't need it anymore, that is." Shinpachi said nervously, he must be rubbing his nape while saying it. He only tilts his head and passes him the yukata, honestly, he is happy that hehe offered that himself for him, he still has the suppressant on him, so he can't use any jutsu and finding himself to make fire, blind just to burn an article of clothing is too much work. The yukata he is wearing is a bit big on him and it doesn't have any distinctive scent, must be Shinpachi-san's being the only Beta among them.
He sits down a bit further than them, but they didn't seem to mind and hands him his share of freshly cooked fish and Sukonbu, they must love this stuff to save it in stock.
"Sukonbu is really delicious right, Izuna-san? It's my favourite because of it I always carry extras with me -aru." She says and his thoughts are confirmed just like that. Though it surprises him that it's her favourite but still sharing with him, him a total stranger and a Shinobi, weird but kinda likes it. Then he feels something on above him and there is no sun trying to burn his skin.
"It looked like you were in uncomfortable trouble staying in the sun for so long -aru, so I thought to share my kasa with you. I always carry it with me cause my skin is too sensitive to the sun." She explains herself to him and he can just weakly nod.
They all silently eat their fillings, after finishing, they are getting up again, this time he is walking with Kagura and under her kasa. Kagura-san is an Alpha, her smell says it all, warmearthysour, the last one has surely to do with her love for Sukonbu. She also has a hint of something but he can't quite point his finger to it, but it doesn't matter, he thought, since even being an Alpha he doesn't feel uncomfortable in her presence. However, he still knows next to nothing about Gin-something scent or anything, he is such a mystery. And Izuna has never liked that. His rival is -or was, he doesn't know- Senju Tobirama. He has survived till now because of his quick wit and footing, always trying to one-up him, that sneaky bastard always has something up his sleeves and he has to avoid it and try to capture it with his Sharingan and learn it.
Knowledge was everything and now that he's blind, he's more than desperate.
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It has been more than a week of him staying with the Yorozuya, his health is getting better day by day, he still hasn't made any move or indicated anything about leaving them yet, and it seems like they too don't have any problem with a handicapped Shinobi tagging along and not to mention an extra mouth to feed. Staying with them he also got to meet their Sadaharu. He was really shocked when he made the dog- er or that's what they told him, well, Kagura said it cheerfully but the other two responses were no better than a person readying themselves for their funeral, though he can understand them for it- as it was so big like a summoner dog, the way the Inuzuka clan are famous for. Nonetheless, other than that Sadaharu was really fluffy and doesn't seem to be too dangerous, even so, he can't say that the same sentiment is shared by Shinpachi-san and Gintoki-san, by the way, they sound ready to bolt any opportunities they get, and Izuna could do nothing but sweatdropped in pity.
Thinking about this always managed to lift his spirits up especially when he thinks about Gintoki-san then he would start to blush like he is doing now.
They were in an abandoned hut, it started raining when they were crossing this part of the forest and found the hut by luck. By the smell and whatever surface he could feel, he concluded that the hut had been abandoned long ago, probably was lived by some civilian family but fled away after the war this far, he felt sad for them, that they had to uproot their home just for the selfishness of the Shinobis. That's what he had learned while staying with the Yorozuya, to be empathetic towards others no matter what, but the sad feeling vanished when he was invaded by the scent of fiercesweetnight, and his blush intensified.
During his stay with them, he has learned about Gintoki-san a lot, not that much, but enough and also about the rest of Yorozuya. Gintoki-san was the Danna, he is an orphan and has never known his parents; Kagura-san used to belong to a Samurai clan which specialises in combat fighting but now she is the only surviving member along with her brother, whom she has just recently reformed their bond as family and siblings and that Gintoki-san and Shinpachi-san were the ones to save her when she was young and alone and she has stuck with them since; Shinpachi-san's story was that she was saved by Gintoki-san when he and his sister were attacked by loan sharks and how since then he has asked him to train Shinpachi-san and he has followed him.
Gintoki-san was still a very big mystery though and he thinks that's what's so special about him, he remembers the day when Gintoki-san first made a conversation with him. That day, it was really hot and they were near a small village and decided to look through the marketplace or in the Izuna case, stick to Kagura-chan no matter what happens and not to stick out too much. He still didn't use any scent block on himself, and quite honestly he totally forgot about it, until it was too late. He doesn't know how it happened but he got himself separated away from the group and found himself all alone in some alleyway, thinking if he should wait for them or not wait and search for them himself. He's a seasoned assassin and warrior, he could do it, when he was approached by three Alphas, their scent too pungent for his sensitive nose.
He was given a small knife by Shinpachi-san in case something like this happens, and he would be forever grateful for the insightfulness. But he failed to notice that among the civilian Alphas, there was one who was a Shinobi and he may be much better than before his time in the confinement but by not much. So it was easy to say that Izuna was fully under the Alpha Shinobi's mercy and he did not like it. Both his arms were locked behind him and he could feel bile rising up his throat thinking about what was about to happen to him, the Alpha's foul smell invading his own. He was starting to hyperventilate.
That's when it happened, he could feel the Alpha's head was suddenly disjointed from the rest of its body and blood was splashed all over his back even most of it in his hair.
"And here I thought you were playing hide-n-seek with us." It was the same deadpanned voice, from the person he has tried to keep his distance with and he... saved him.
"What? Thought that you were good at it but fear not, I'm very good at finding stuff." He said in that same inconsiderate voice and grasped his hand, upon the contact Izuna gasps softly and hastily covered his mouth.
That day, he was given scent blockers and some heat suppressants pills. He could do nothing but silently accept them, Kagura-chan and Shinpachi-san have fussed over him when he and Gintoki-san met them, him covered in blood, even Sadaharu was fusing but Gintoki-san just left them and went somewhere to find them food. That night Gintoki-san came to him and talked with him, he was dumbfounded at first, he was not able to sleep that night and just thought about his Nii-sama when he came, laying his back on Sadaharu's fluffy fur and sat a few feet away from him, told him his name and about himself. He has already known about Kagura-chan and Shinpachi-san as he was quite close to them.
Now here he was, the man that was constantly in his mind no matter how much he tried, cramped in a small space with no room to stress their tired body, at least by the sound of it, the rain seems to cease in a few minutes. Still lost in thought, he thought that if his heart was not already set for someone else, the person even without his Sharingan not with him anymore, he would have happily been in love with someone like Gintoki-san.
Then he felt it, and the earth started to shake. Was it an earthquake? But the way, the others are readying themselves as if for a fight, answered his question. He gulps, he only knows two people in his life, now three with how strong Gintoki-san is, who can literally cause an earthquake, just by raw powers and he doesn't want to encounter any one of them, and definitely not both of them.