Shadows of the Past:
Chapter One: Reminisce
I gazed at her from the shadows, disguising my contours as mere silhouettes. Her seemingly expressionless disposition eclipsed her inner emotions, profound in her subconscious. It was indeed most probably this taciturnity, this air of enigma which had enticed me towards her. My heart and soul beseeched to see through her illusory demeanour, and penetrate into her thoughts.
Was her mind engulfed by depression or melancholy? Was she plagued by the same emotions which devoured my heart? Or was she a kaleidoscope of patterns and a rainbow of colours, her soul naïve and enveloped by happiness? I scoffed at that notion. After all, why did she deserve happiness when my life was dictated by oppression and despair? Why did she deserve happiness when she was nobody and I was the Almighty God?
But nonetheless, as I absent-mindedly observed her motionless – inanimate, even – stature, my thoughts were undeniably hypnotised into a trance. This girl, this nobody, was the key to unlocking my sentimental turmoil, the turmoil which I had suppressed into little more than glowing embers. But now, after seeing her, all hatred from my heart blazed again into a raging inferno.
Oh yes. I hated her.
How I wished to condemn her to the lowest abyss of infernal hell; how I wished to wreck that fragile body, to chain, torture and whip her for entertainment while watching with a sadistic smirk; how I wished to see her sinful blood staining my hands, to savour its metallic taste; and how I wished to hear her scream in acknowledgement of pain.
After all, it was all her fault…
I came from Amegakure.
From my memories, it was a place where people eagerly danced under the radiance of sunlight; where leave whispered in the breezes and zephyrs; where the air reiterated with hymns of fortitude and faith; where peace and prosperity were celebrated by the first showers of spring.
But the Second Great Shinobi War had asphyxiated life as I knew it.
I was still young then, yet my mind recalled the events as clearly as if Amegakure was ambushed only yesterday. An ominous atmosphere smothered the once azure sky, and storm clouds seemed to be the harbingers of our impending doom. My family, and the other inhabitants of Amegakure had dwelled in a world of apprehension, and fear devoured our souls from inside out. We knew all too well that our lives were at the mercy of our assailers.
Not that they showed any mercy.
Pictures of my mother's frail body flashed through my consciousness. I saw her on her knees, weakly supporting herself. Her pale hands were joined together, and her emancipated fingers entwined into a plea for forgiveness – a desperate beseech for mercy. Whom (or what) she sought forgiveness or mercy from, I did not know. But in my heart, I knew she was in silent prayer, while a lone tear slid down her cheeks.
Her auburn orbs opened, and widened in shock when she saw me observing her actions. Yet the expression of shock gradually subdued into a gentle smile of consolation. She stood, with as much elegance as possible, and proceeded to stand by my side. Without warning, I found her arms around the juvenile body of mine. And she whispered words of solace into my ears, saying that the war would end; that the fact we were together was all which mattered.
Those words were no more than empty promises.
But back then, her soothing voice had cajoled me into believing all those illusory, foolish lies of a 'better future', of a 'brighter tomorrow'. All I knew was that I had loved my mother, and I had learned to love my father as well. And the news that they had left – that they had escaped – without me, shattered the little sanity war had left intact.
I later concluded that incident to be the first great pain of my life.
It was then that I had discovered the hidden behemoth within me – the Rinnegan. With my fury unleashed, I had become 'invincible', and not even the enemy shinobi were of any threat to me. From that moment on, all previous love of my parents had morphed into an unquenchable hatred, and I had learned the true meaning of 'love breeds hate'.
With my family gone, I wandered from house to house begging for food. But my dishevelled attire and my unkempt appearance had kept everyone at bay. So I just wandered. Wandering, I forwarded aimlessly towards a war-torn future. Wandering, I succumbed to the foreboding of fate's interventions. And despite having passed myriads, countless corpses, my eyes remained expressionless.
Yet inside, I promised myself I would change the world, would save my homeland from darkness and annihilation.
I soon encountered Konan and Yahiko, both who shared the same passion for philosophies of an end to war. And after three years of training from Jiraiya, I had obtained all power which I had previously thirsted for. With this power, I would preach upon the world the meaning of pain, and how only the understanding of 'pain' brought upon the genuine understanding of 'peace'. I swore to myself that I would end the futile war, triggered by futile excuses.
But not one day nor one night had passed when I wasn't traumatised by the heartless departure of my parents. How could they abandon the child they had loved in order to flee for the sake of their own safety? Weren't parents supposed to value the lives of their children above the lives of themselves? At first, I had tried to convince myself that in fact, my parents did miss me and that they were suffering without my presence. Surely they would have the conscience to lament for the loss of their child!
It wasn't until the age of sixteen when I had learned the whereabouts of my parents. Ironically (somewhat satirically, even), they were inside the walls of Konohagakure, the village which had formerly assaulted against Amegakure in the Second Great Shinobi War. My wrath augmented ten-fold when I heard they became 'permanent residents' and a 'great contribution to the Hidden Leaf community'.
So those cowards didn't just dispose of their child, leaving him to rot in the midst of oblivion. They were also traitors to their previous affinity, Amegakure. And I knew heavens would forbid if I allowed the two atrocities to survive on the face of the world for even a second longer. Yet I knew I had to talk to them once more before I could pass their death judgments. They were, after all, my parents. And parents would be exhilarated to caress their child.
Or so I thought.
How wrong I was. At midnight, my only guide being the subtle halo of moonlight, I adeptly sneaked through the gates of Konoha, and towards my parents' accommodation. It was a demure and somewhat dilapidated shack on the outskirts of the village, appearing as if it would collapse upon itself at any second. At the sight of that, my heart softened and pitied the situation my parents were in. Who knew what other factors they would be suffering from?
However, a crisp, mischievous laughter reverberated in the air. At that moment, my heart froze, and time itself seemed to remain stagnant in its rapids. That innocence undoubtedly came from the voice of a child, of an infant no older than the age of six or seven. And one gaze through the windowpane confirmed by inferences – the man and woman who gave birth to me also gave birth to another child. From the joyous expressions on their faces, they resembled the family I once had. But a daughter was now the centre of my parents' attentions. She was now the apple of their core.
That scene disgusted me to no end. Had they no conscience at all? Not only were they cowards who abandoned their son to die on his own, not only were they traitors to their previous affiliation, they were know blasphemous enough to move on from the past and begin a new life with a new child. Those trashes of human beings had most probably forgotten that they once had a son! They had probably forgotten that I had even existed!
My wrath could no longer be subdued. And no longer did I wish for it to be. Unleashing the atrocities inside me, I activated the Rinnegan, and disappeared in a puff of smoke, only to reappear in the 'comfort' of their home.
I would never forget the look of helplessness they had given me.
Their look of vulnerability had only fuelled my belligerence more. Without heeding to their feigned words of love, without heeding to their desperate pleas for mercy, I had murdered them. I smiled, a twisted psychopathic maniacal smile, and exploded into outrageous laughter. I felt the firmaments acknowledge my achievement – I had extinguished the two most sinful creatures the world had ever set eyes on.
And I would never forget the last word my mother had uttered.
'TenTen…'
Without warning, myriads of raindrops hurled from the heavens, gracefully dancing on cushions of air, and purifying the world from its tainted state. I knew that the firmaments were shedding tears for me; rain was my sorrow. However, oblivious to the torrential rain, TenTen continued to gaze at the once tranquil lake, as if captivated by the ripples across the water's surface. Her eyes, I noticed, were the same stained auburn as that of my mother.
Sometimes, I pondered over why I hadn't taken the girl's life on that fateful night. But now I knew the answer. Death would be too kind for her. Her punishment for stealing all I ever had from me deserved more than just a swift path to death.
No.
I had left her to live so that she would be engulfed by the same melancholy and sadness which engulfed my heart. I left her with nothing but pain, just as she had left me with nothing but pain. I would make her suffer even more. I would torment her until she understood the sin she had committed, until she openly admitted the commandment she had breached. I would make her see that I was now the true God, and her having the same blood as me was blasphemous. And by all means would I not accept TenTen as my 'sister'.
Blessed by the tears of heaven, I knew that now was the time to act on all that I had contemplated for the past decade.
Disclaimer: both you and I know that ChocoboFire does not own Naruto, and that Pein and TenTen belong to Masashi Kishimoto
Also, this is the first Pein x TenTen fic submitted on this site, so please support this pair
And yes, I know that this is incestuous, seeing that Pein and TenTen end up as brother and sister
This particular chapter is written in Pein's POV, but it will change into TenTen's POV in chapter 2
Reviews are awesome, and constructive criticism is welcomed with open arms