WAP 12 teaser (Izuna won that poll)

Man, Madara was gonna owe him for this one.

Izuna readjusted the wooden bar over his shoulder and  fought the urge to sneeze the stink of iron out of his nose. That clearing had been rank. This was already a weird diplomatic outreach and he had no way to report that actually, he was making a fun little detour to the capital.

‘Come to think of it, a bloody clearing is kind of an odd place to put a priestess in a travel box and start a trip to the Daimyo. Was it from some kind of human sacrifice to ensure good luck on her trip? Was her house too dirty for guests?’

He flipped through increasingly silly explanations to keep himself entertained. Perhaps the Priestess was actually dead, and this was an elaborate cover up. Perhaps the woman in the box was an imposter, and that was why she wouldn’t speak.

He probably could have said he’d wait for her to come back. Izuna spent a few kilometers running wishing that he had.

‘But I’d have to wait with that frowny girl.’

Well, to hell with that. She could take her weird attitude and non sequiturs about age and- and become a productive member of society, since she was such an adult that she was going to have a real human baby to be an example for.

‘What would I do with a human baby? Like, do I make it a shinobi? How long do you have to wait?’

Huh. He didn’t know. Izuna frowned. Wow, he wasn’t ready for a baby at all. Who would watch it when he was busy? Madara? Toka? HA! Unlikely. They were always busy at the same time.

..He was starting to get a bit worried.

“You alright there?”

Izuna startled back to the real world when the officious lady called out to him. He blinked at her. “I’m fine,” he said.

She gave him a look, her mouth slightly twisted down. “If you say so.” One of her companions let out a sigh that she ignored. “Let me do the talking when we get to the capital.”

He blinked at her. He had never considered that he might take the lead. “Of course,” he agreed. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

The other two people carrying the box snickered. Izuna wondered why, but he didn’t waste too much effort on it.