Aiko WAP ch 31 part 1 of 2

She started to come down from the adrenaline high while Izuna and Hashirama exchanged weirdly tense politesse about the micro season. Doubtlessly it was some kind of intellectual sniping. Aiko did her best not to analyze what they were saying- fuck, were they referencing poets? They were referencing court poetry in an attempt to establish their cultural credentials, because no one could be honest scuzzy murderers, they had to pretend to be classy–

Anyway. Aiko found herself at the center of negotiations and extremely out of place. It was bizarre. Everyone clearly knew that she was wildly outside their social system. God only knew how they were explaining it to themselves, though, because it wasn’t like she truly passed muster as a humble holy woman.

The atmosphere was tense. Tobirama was utterly impassive but he didn’t let her out of his sight for a moment. Madara was even more intent, lost in contemplation that she could not begin to unravel.

As subtly as she could, Aiko massaged at the place where she had reattached her arm. The limb was waking up with pain now. There was a bone deep ache protesting the way she lived her life. Tobirama finally said something that she didn’t track, a polite response to his brother’s prodding.

Undeath? That might be more accurate. Was she really living in the conventional sense? Humans didn’t get to reattach limbs like this, and not their heads for sure.

‘Focus.’

“I appreciate your kind attention,” Aiko said, in response to whatever pleasantries Madara had just leveled at her. Probably something about starting their discussion. “It is my fervent hope that we can discover a pathway to resolve the interpersonal conflict that has negatively affected both of your ancient and noble clans.”

Izuna hid a mean little smirk in his sleeve. Madara paused for a microsecond before nodding.

…He looked disappointed. Whoops.

Aiko didn’t really bother to wonder what he’d said. The moment was gone and there was no point in regret.

“I think that we should establish our hopes,” Hashirama suggested. He cut a sideways glance at his Uchiha friend. “It is very kind of you to mediate this discussion, Aiko-sama.”

Oh no. She pressed her lips together very hard to choke down the hilarity of her being the peace negotiator. 

“What an idea,” Izuna said cheerfully. “I think it would make many people happy if the Senju relocated to the other side of the continent. Surely we could live in peace if you were very far away. With the Uzumaki, for example, or on the edge of Water Country.”

Huh. That was a good area. Aiko had personally enjoyed ruling it. 

“Not the worst idea,” Aiko allowed. “But I think that would require displacing another noble clan and that bloodshed would be tedious.”

Kind of counterproductive to just go start a new land and resource war.

“And far away,” Izuna wheedled, like he thought he could talk her around on the appeal of the Senju being very far away. 

“The Senju will not be banished from Fire Country,” Hashirama said dryly. “We would find it extremely inconvenient.”

“If only the Uchiha had foreign allies,” Tobirama said bitchily. “Then the Uchiha could act on this otherwise excellent idea. Extremely unfortunate.” Aiko stifled a snort at the affronted looks on Izuna and Madara’s faces about being called friendless losers.

“Thank you for that kind suggestion,” Madara gritted out in a tone that was so hostile he might as well have said ‘go fuck yourself’. “I do not feel there is a need to explore the logistics of this option. We are comfortably established in our current location. Perhaps we ought to discuss the possibility of more minor adjustments to our territory to resolve our tensions.”

Huh. What exactly did he have in mind? Aiko looked at Hashirama for an answer. 

“Unfortunately, the previously suggested ideas were not recieved favorably by the Senju,” Hashirama said, which sounded a lot like, “You’re an asshole and you knew we won’t do that shit.” 

Yeah, fair enough. Aiko made the slightest head nod from side to side. Madara had probably come up with some idea that they trade some territory with other nearby clans to introduce a buffer area, and Hashirama rightly pointed out that it could just as easily be a contested territory by proxy situation.