#(having teachers + students you didn’t even know or like pay fealty to you)

[cctinsleybaxter]

Clevinger suffering the divine punishment of having a summer birthday tantalizingly close to the start of the school year

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Two Hundred Sixty-Three: An Apprentice ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Hyūga Hiashi ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: River Runs Deep ] [ AO3 Link ]

“Look...there he is…”

“Who?”

“The last of the Uchiha. Didn’t you hear?”

“No! The old samurai family? What happened?”

“A few nights past, their manor went up in flames. The only one to survive was that boy, there. They say it was burned by a vengeful yōkai - an old kitsune their ancestor scourged. It gained enough power, and took its revenge.”

“The poor thing...will no one take him?”

“And risk bringing the yōkai down on their heads? Doubtful. He’s as good as marked. No one will risk being near him, now. The smell of smoke will follow...and anything too close will burn.”

The pair of women gossip beneath an awning, safe from the rain that falls over their village. Their umbrellas folded, they stop and stare at the child before them.

Sat on the stoop of an empty building, the water dribbles from the roofline, soaking him through to the bone. Bare feet are muddy, garments just as unkempt. He’s not had a meal to his name since the night his home was consumed in angry red foxfire.

He can still see the eyes in the dark when he closes his own.

Arms gripping around his knees, he stares blankly out into the swamp of the side road. There’s an ache in his belly as it begs for food, but he has nothing to offer it. No one dares approach, too wary of a fox’s curse to extend a hand. Surely if they help him, they’ll incur the creature’s wrath.

Sasuke is left to wonder if he will simply wither away in the gutter, alone and abandoned.

“...you. Boy.”

Dark eyes drag upward, following regal clothes up to a stern face. A man, followed by a pair of servants, looks to him critically with strange, pale irises the likes of which Sasuke has never seen. They almost look like the belly of a clam shell, white...and yet shimmering faint colors in the light. At the man’s hip...is a sword.

Samurai.

“You are the Uchiha, are you not?”

Confused, but also too run ragged to be wary, the boy gives a slow nod.

“What say you to an apprenticeship, boy?”

“...what…?”

“I have heard of your fate, and your roots. Your clan, like mine, was a noble family of the blade. To leave you to rot is a grave injustice. Here, in the mud, is hardy a fitting place of one of your blood. Get up.”

Black brows wilt. “But...the curse -?”

“I have no fear of fire, boy,” the man assures him, tone grave...and yet assured. “So...make your choice. Will you rot here in the gutter? Or will you accept an opened hand?”

His gaze flickers over this...stranger. Given his blade, it’s unquestionable what he is...but Sasuke cannot know who. “What...what is your name, sir?”

“I am Hyūga Hiashi, the head of my clan, and the bearer of my ancestor’s blade. There are few within the isles more skilled than I in our ways. If you are to learn, Uchiha, with the rest of your kin dead...there is no one better than I. But...I cannot do this without cost. If I am to be your teacher...you must also pledge your fealty to me. Your life will no longer be your own...but it will not wither. Like my blade, you will be an extension of my arm. A student, and a soldier under my banner. What say you, boy?”

A long moment of silence passes, Sasuke’s mind whirling. In truth...he has little choice, unless he wants to starve, or be killed, or suffer some other unknown fate until his death. No one else has dared approach the fox’s curse...but this one claims to be unphased by fire.

...Sasuke has to wonder why.

“...I...I accept,” he murmurs.

“Good...now, tell me your name, child of the Uchiha.”

“Sasuke, Hyūga-sama.”

“Your age?”

“I’m newly seven, sir.”

“I see...I’ve a daughter your age. But you will meet her another time. For now...we must take you home, bathe you, and redress you. I’ll not have a dirty vagabond under my wing. Come.” Without another warning, Hiashi turns and makes to leave.

Scrambling to his feet, Sasuke follows, still feeling...unsure. Far more questions than answers seem to run circles in his head. Who is this man? What does he want with an orphan? Who is he to defy the curse of a kitsune?

And those eyes...something about them seems...inhuman.

But there’s no time for his thoughts now, led through the streets and their stares, their whispers. By now, everyone seems to know the tale...and what it might mean if they get too close. Hiashi doesn’t seem to pay them any mind, but Sasuke shrinks from their mistrustful gazes. All of this...and none of it brought about by his own actions. Just a curse earned by an ancestor long dead. And now...his life will never be the same. His kin, gone...his home, nothing but ashes and cinders.

His future...completely uncertain.

Keeping just behind Hiashi’s hems, Sasuke soon finds himself led to a manor not unlike how his own once was. A walled district littered with buildings, roads, and beautiful gardens all standing in the grey of the rainy day, people doing their best to avoid the somber weather. All turn to observe their patriarch...and the little boy behind him.

And everywhere Sasuke looks...he sees those same strange eyes. Eyes that seem to stare straight through him.

“First, a proper bath. Then new clothes. Then we must get some sustenance into you,” Hiashi muses, still walking. “Once you are full and presentable...we will speak further. Though, if the hour grows late...it may wait until morning. I suppose it depends on how filthy you’ve gotten, and how great your appetite. My servants will tend to you. Until later, then.”

With that, Sasuke finds himself whisked to a bathhouse, stripped and washed and nearly simmered in a bath so hot, it quickly turns him red. But after so many days cold and alone, it’s a welcome change. Once warmed to his bones, he’s taken and dried, then given fresh garments that are ever so slightly too large.

“These belonged to Neji-sama, Hiashi-sama’s nephew,” one servant explains, helping to adjust the outfit. “He is already a prodigal swordsman, and a year older than you. Hiashi-sama will surely use him as a measure for your growth. Train hard, Uchiha-sama. Perhaps you will wield a blade so mighty, you will slay the kitsune that cursed you!”

The notion widens the boy’s eyes. Kill a kitsune…? Is such a thing possible? If it would avenge his family, then...perhaps…

But he’s given little time to think, carted away to his next assignment: a meal. In spite of himself, his expression is uncensored desire, stomach gurgling and a bit of drool gathering at a corner of his lips.

He eats enough to fill a grown man twice over, and could still devour more...but brings himself to a stop. Still a relative stranger, he’s fed in the kitchen, tucked atop a sack of rice as the cook laughs heartily at his appetite.

“You’ll be hungry quite often, little Uchiha,” he muses. “Hiashi-sama will run you ragged training if you are to be worth his investment in you!”

“Do you know...why he brought me here?”

“The blood in your veins is just as old, powerful, and noble as his own. To leave you to the streets is a shameful thing . Hiashi-sama fears no curses - you will be safe here.”

“But why doesn’t he -?”

“Oh, Hinata-sama!”

Cut off, Sasuke looks to the doorway. There, half-hidden behind the wall, is a girl about his age. Hime-cut hair is dark, an amethyst shine haloing from the fire. She wears a white, blue, and purple kimono, and like the others, bears those same strange eyes. But something about her feels even...stranger.

Unable to help staring, Sasuke tries to puzzle it out as the cook inquires if she’s here for a sweet to ruin her supper. As she shrinks shyly, Sasuke notices it, for just a moment.

A strange, whipping shadow cast behind her from the kitchen’s light.

But then, like a blink...it’s gone.

“Your father will scold me if I spoil your dessert before it’s time, Hinata-hime,” the cook offers, smiling warmly. “Just be patient - it won’t be long.”

“O...okay…”

“Have you met our now guest? Your father has taken on an apprentice! What do you think?”

It’s then the pair finally lock eyes, and Sasuke barely suppresses a shiver.

Something about her...it’s…

Hiding further behind the wall, Hinata ducks her head, nearly hiding behind her fringe. “...you are...the Uchiha…?”

“Y...yeah.”

Eyes rove over him curiously. “You...smell like smoke…”

“Impossible, we just had him bathed, Hinata-hime! Surely you just smell the hearth, here. Now...you’d best make your way back to your room. You know your father will be unhappy to see you back here - this is a place for us servants!”

“Y...yes.” With one last glance at her guest, Hinata gives a tiny bow before disappearing.

Sasuke doesn’t reply, just frowning, a churning in his gut. What is going on in this place…?

“Uchiha-sama? Hiashi-sama wishes to speak to you in the morning - the hour grows too late, and he has no time this evening. Please, follow me to your quarters.”

Looking to the servant, Sasuke manages a nod, thanking the cook and making to follow. His room is...nothing special. Just a place to sleep, maybe study. But after the last few days...it may as well be a room in the imperial palace. A roof over his head, a full belly, and bones warm from a bath...he can’t ask for more after all he’s lost.

Curling up in his bed, Sasuke idles for a time, lost in swirling thoughts. Something about this place - these people - it seems so...strange.

“I have no fear of fire, boy.”

But why…? What could make a man brave enough to be fearless in the face of a fox’s curse? Unless...he’s no man at all.

Having no proof, and too tired to think any further, Sasuke sighs and buries his head beneath the blankets. For now...all he wants to do is sleep in a bed at last. Tomorrow...he can begin to puzzle out this mystery.

And begin his path as a samurai’s apprentice.

                                                        .oOo.

     Guh, tired @~@ So I'll be brief. This is a super random idea, no idea if I'll do more with it or not - I was winging it pretty badly ^^; I like some of the concepts, but I have NO idea how I'd turn it into something a bit more proper for a story. We'll see.      For now tho, I'm just...too tired to give it more thought, aha - maybe I'll have more inspiration for it another day. Either way, thanks for reading~