kaedehara kazuha x reader
✧ i. fallen leaves (unedited)
Autumn brought many changes to the forest outside the Kaedehara Manor. The colors of the leaves turned into different shades of red, yellow and brown. They crunched under your boots as you stood poised, bow in hand and arrow nocked. Your arms were already strained from the effort of pulling back the bowstring. Yet you stayed put, patient.
A squirrel scurried across the forest floor before stopping in it’s tracks. The arrow flew towards the prey but missed, landing a few millimeters away. Groaning, you watched as the lucky squirrel scampered off into the bushes.
“It’s alright,” said Kazuha, your master and best friend. “You’ll get it next time, Maple.”
You hadn’t always been called Maple. Before you were adopted into the Momiji family, only insults were used to refer to you. Brat, street rat, dirty, vagrant. However, Mr. Momiji took you in, and from then on you had become Maple. Kazuha had thought of the name himself years ago, when the Momiji couple had brought you to the manor, filthy and unkempt from wandering in the forest.
The young Kazuha peered at you through his scarlet eyes. His smile was gentle and he hurried toward you despite your parents telling him you needed to bathe first. His round, youthful cheeks pulled upwards in a gleeful smile.
“I’m Kazuha Kaedehara, what’s your name?”
“I don’t have one,” you said matter-of-factly, the way children do. The adults looked on you sadly as your soon to be adoptive mother rubbed your back comfortingly. “Nobody calls me anything.”
Kazuha was puzzled. “Why?”
You thought for a moment. Why didn’t you have a name? It seemed that everyone else did, even this boy called Kazuha. Suddenly, tears welled up in your eyes and you started sniffling. The Kaedehara Clan Head was about to reprimand his son for being insensitive, but Kazuha spoke first.
“I’ll give you a name. Do you want one?”
Yes please, you wanted to say to the boy, but tears wouldn’t stop falling. So instead, you nodded your head eagerly. “Mmhm.”
Kazuha reached his hand to the side of your head, where a maple leaf was tangled into your hair. He brought it close to your watery eyes to show off its vibrant color.
“This is my favorite leaf, so I’ll call you Maple.”
Years later, at hunting practice, the memory made you chuckle. An older Kazuha looked at you quizzically. You had grown up with this boy and pledged loyalty to him. To be his faithful retainer once he assumes leadership over the Kaedehara clan. He had given you a name, so you would give him everything.
Kazuha, who had grown to be handsome in his teens, gives you a boyish grin. He steadies you with his hands on your shoulders and points to a fruit on a sunsettia tree. Him being so close made your breath hitch, but you willed yourself to stay calm.
“I’ll never be good at this,” you grumble more to yourself than him. Kazuha laughs and it sounds like wind chimes in the summer breeze.
“All you need is practice.” Kazuha says.
So you stand tall and nock an arrow once more, aiming for your target. The breeze picks up and you focus, pulling the bowstring taut. You release the arrow—
A perfect shot. The arrow landed right in the middle of the dummy target that was meant to be an enemy soldier. You lower your arms as General Gorou claps. He wears a toothy smile and his ears twitch, which you take as a compliment.
Yae Miko had given you a map to Watatsumi Island and a letter meant for the Priestess Sangonomiya, who had smiled once she read the it. From then on you were accepted into the resistance effort, now working as a scout under the general’s personal unit.
“That was great! At this rate, you’re even better than I am,” Gorou teases. When you first arrived didn’t realize that the Watatsumi Army would be such a welcoming place, but after meeting the other soldiers your anxiety slowly started to dissipate. The work was grueling but everyone shared in the hardship together. It was a community of like minded, driven people. All the soldiers were clothed, well-fed and taken care of to the best of the army’s abilities.
“What’s your secret, Maple?”
You paused for a brief moment, only to shrug your shoulders. The Vision on your arm cuff shone a lively green in the sunlight and the look of it made you grin despite everything.
The Alcor was currently anchored by Yashiori Island. The grand ship was the only one unscathed in the midst of all the wreckage. Captain Beidou surveyed their surroundings with her good eye, then looked up at the wandering samurai who settled himself on the foremast.
“Everything okay up there, Kazuha?” She yelled boisterously, but he couldn’t hear her over the whispers of the wind. It told him danger was afoot, carrying the smell of a brewing storm. Kazuha’s instinct made his heart pound and his regrets unravel.
He had made peace with his troubled past, but it didn’t make remembering it any easier. The samurai had left everyone he had ever cared about in Inazuma, thinking he would never return. It took all of his strength and a bit of heartlessness to leave everything he had ever known.
Kazuha pulled up his sleeve to reveal a bracelet made of braided cords meant for bowstrings. He stroked every individual section with his thumb and sighed. It was a gift for his birthday, the one before the death of his father and the collapse of his family.
He never stopped thinking about you on his travels. Everywhere he set foot reminded him of the childhood you had spent together. Kazuha wonders if you are doing well. He wonders how you look now, if your smile was still the same as he remembers. He wonders if you had gotten used to his absence or forgotten all about him.
The last thought made his chest tighten, even if he had no right to feel this way. After all, he hasn’t sent you a single letter in the years he was gone. Kazuha took a deep breath. It was the right thing to do. It was for the best. He continued telling himself that even though the wind whispered otherwise.
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