In the wind and sea
Inside the large house, Hinata, in her fox form lay J down in one of the spare beds, tucking him in before leaving the room, making sure to leave the door slightly open just in case. She walked passed Shikaku down the hall, said man just followed the fox without question. The walk down the hall was silent like they were walking in a library, or maybe even a graveyard, it was a little creepy but Shikaku said nothing and waited to see what the little fox had to show him. Soon they came to a door, Hinata used her tail to open it, they continued down a pare of stars, each step echoing as they walked, this made Shikaku even more anxious to know where they were going. He was about to ask when they finally came t a stop in front of an open door, Shikaku looked around the room, it was lit with candlelight and a single chair was placed in the center of the room, "what is this place?" Shikaku asked, "what goes on here?"
"This place, my dear friend, is the contract room," Hinata explained as she slowly made her way over to the chair. She took a deep breath and changed back into her human form, she turned to him, "this place is in every head summons home. It is meant to be a place honorary summons and clan heads would meet to nominate the next clan head and holder of the contract. However, this tradition has long been forgotten and no one uses their contract rooms anymore, I am hoping that this may change that."
"...And you think that I can help with that by allowing my clan to merge with yours? For summoning sake?" Shikaku asked.
Hinata shook her head, "no, not your clan, but you."
Shikaku was a little taken aback by this, "me? Wait, what do you mean by that?"
Hinata sighed, "I knew this wasn't going to be easy, to begin with, but allow me to explain this to you more clearly. The way this works is that you, the head of your clan and the holder of the deer contract, will marry Lord Kurama, the head of the Kitsune clan summons. In your union, you will bring together two clans at once, which means that you will also be apart of the Kitsune clan, as well as the Deer clan. Do you understand?"
Shikaku stood there, stunned, "s-s-so you what me and Kurama to get married to bring together two summoning clans? I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I see how this will work, not to be rude or anything, it's just that....well, your all summons, aren't you?"
Hinata nodded her head, unphased by Shikaku's words, "yes, that is right, we are a summons, our true forms are that of animals, this much is true. Do you...have a problem with animals?"
Shikaku shook his head, "no, no, I have no problems with animals, it's just that, I am a human." Hinata nodded because this was plain to see, she wasn't sure why he was pointing it out, Shikaku saw the look on her face and sighed in frustration. "Look, I get that you are trying to bring together two clans that have had a special bond for an unknown amount of years, but as I said, I'm human, your summoning animals, logically, the two would just remain as friends, nothing more."
Hinata tilted her head to the side as she thought about what Shikaku said, then her mouth made an 'o' shape as she realized what was being said. "Ah, I see, my apologies, but may I ask, have you not heard the tail of Spice and Wolf?" She asked the look on Nara's face was a clear answer, "then allow me to tell you this. Long, long ago, be for I was born, there was a fox summons named Spice, she got lost in the human world and somehow fell in love with a human that was given the name 'Wolf' by his village elders. It was said that his mother fell in love with a stranger that was passing through the village at the time, she had a son for the stranger, but he didn't want to be tied down, so he left her alone to raise the child by her self. Years later when Wolf was five, his mother died. When Wolf was older, he left the village in search of his father to get answers on why he left, his mother had told him everything about his father, he even had a picture of the man, so he was sure to find him one day, I suppose." Hinata sat down in the chair and continued, "Wolf traveled the countryside for a long while, he grew into a very handsome lad, but never settled down, he didn't want to be like his father, so he denied all advances on his person from both sides of the scale." She chuckled at that, "but one day on his travels, he met a girl with fox ears and tail, she was Spice, they started traveling together, and somewhere along the way, they fell in love, and had a child. A fox summons and a human, having a child together out of love, what do you make of that?"
Shikaku stared at the Kitsune woman for a while, he was sure that there was a reason behind this story, it could have been made up, but there was still enough detail to say that it might not have been. He also suspected that this particular story was about her, he tested his theory, "was Spice and Wold, by any chance, your parents?" He asked, thinking that he might have been right.
Hinata chuckled again, "no way," Shikaku was stunned again, he's rarely ever been wrong before, but then she continued, "they're my grandparents!"
Shikaku nodded, "oh, well then, uh-" he cleared his throat. "Okay, I see how you think this would work and all, but you're forgetting another big thing."
"Oh? What may that be?" Hinata asked.
"Kurama and I are both males," Shikaku answered.
"Ooh...what's your point?"
Shikaku could feel his eyebrow twitch for some reason, "Kurama's married to the third rikage, E, in their marriage, Kurama is the one having the children, not E. If I was to go threw with this, how would that marriage out? I mean, I'm sure that you all will be expecting us to procreate at some point, right? So I'm asking, who's going to be in charge of that?" Shikaku felt slightly annoyed, not because he was talking about this sort of thing so casually, but because Hinata looked amused by his questioning.
A sly smile appeared on her face, "oh, there's no need to worry about that, my friend, we'll take care of that when the time comes. Although, I would like to point out that if you were to go threw with this, you will be able to see your son more often than not. No more long-distance letters, no more wonder what the other is doing at this very moment. You will be living together again, much like you did when he was in the village before the bad thing happened that made him want to leave it forever." Hinata rose from the chair and walked over to one of the walls behind it, "you will be free to do as you wish, can go wherever you want, be whoever you want. As long as you agree, I can guarantee that you, and your clan, will be forever protected by the Kitsune and the Deer clan, for as long as you all exist, the contract will be safe." He reached out and touched some of the stones that made up the wall in a patter than only someone from the Kitsune clan would know, a moment went by and the stones on the wall started to come apart, but instead of the place coming down in a rumble of stone, rock, and everything else that made up Kurama's house, it revealed a pathway that was drowned in white light. Hinata waited until all the stones were out of the way before she looked back at Shikaku, "I will give you three days to think over this proposition, until then, you will be free yo hang out with your son until your mission is over. Have a good day," she said pleasantly as she started to walk into the light.
TO BE CONTINUED.......