Depths of my Despair chapter one: The child

There are some changes I've made. Can you point them out? Let's just get started on this rewrite! Hope you enjoy! And be sure to sing up for my Facebook page

BeastofTruth does not own Bleach or Naruto

Reincarnation, the endless circle of life and death. A process that no one can escape or fight against, and also a tired cliché. As the soul is recycled over thousands of years and forms, it forgets its true self. That is the ultimate punishment, is it not? Suffering from death multiple times is annoying but ironically livable for a soul. The true punishment of reincarnation is being forgotten. Going through so many reincarnations that nobody remembers who the original was is unbearable for a soul. To have been forced to wear so many faces, even the original has forgotten what his true face is. Reincarnation is a gift to some, but a curse for others.

But like every rule, there are exceptions.

A soul filled with so much power, and so much will, can throw off this curse. The soul will strike back against its creator and will itself into existence. It will not be the same as it once was, as per the rules of existence, but it will be the closest it will ever be again to its original self. The new soul will search and work its way with what is available to bring it as close to the original soul as possible. Be wary, if such an event were to occur, the damage to the human realm would be beyond repair

12th division report on the possible uses of and systematic trails of Reincarnation

"He's weird."

That was the extent of the response of children towards one child, in particular.

He appeared as a babe at the Orphanage's doorstep after The Forth defeated the Kyuubi. The matron took him in without complaint, as many others were soon dropped off at her doorstep. So while the Forth was fixing up the village and celebrating the birth of his daughter, she was taking in as many new orphans as the building could hold.

But that's not what we're talking about.

The child in question, in all many of speaking, was "weird". The child seemed to race through his early development at a rate unseen before. While other children were learning to walk and talk, he was learning to read and hold conversations. He was hailed as a genius in the making, however the child was not willing to interact with the other children. Hell, he wasn't willing to interact with people in general. That would not constitute the child as abnormal to the adults. If anything, it was to be expected. The child was too intelligent to be able to relate with his fellows. That was not what had the adults worried.

It was the festival mask.

The boy was about five when he got the mask from a festival and he has never taken it off since. Whenever anyone tried to take it from him, he would through a fit. After enough times of trying to have him remove the mask and failing, they just decided to let him keep it. It seemed to have become some type of security blanket for the boy. However, it never changed the fact that the mask was kind of creepy.

Ayame slowly started the process of closing Ichiraku Ramen. Her father, Teuchi, started closing the kitchen as cleaned the front. She was about finished wiping down front, when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

A child was watching her from across the street.

The child was short, so he probably wasn't older than seven at the most. The boy had a lean build and he was dressed in modest clothes, a green shirt and brown pants. He was holding a book in his left hand. The book was opened to a page and was held up, so he must have just stopped reading to stare at her. The only other defining feature she could she see was his blond spiky hair. She could not see much of his face as it was covered by a white mask. The mask had few defining features compared to normal festival masks. The mask was bone white with two long horn-like parturitions on the sides. There were ridges on the forehead and the sides. The mask also two green tear lines running down the bottom of the eye holes. Also, unlike normal masks, this mask seemed to cover the front half of the child's head.

The child had seemed to have made up his mind about something and started to move towards her family's humble stand. As he got closer, she noticed another one of the child's notable traits. She had never seen eyes as bright blue as the child's. His eyes seemed to glow within the darkening day. Ayame also noticed that the child's pupils were slit-shaped, like a cats. The child worked his way onto the stool, before looking at Ayame and pulling out some money.

Ayame smiled and counted out the money that the child gave her. While it was near closing time, the shop hasn't closed yet and she wasn't turn away a child.

"There isn't much here, but it's enough for our Naruto ramen. Are you okay with that?"

"Yes."

The monotone reply, while annoy to Ayame who liked to converse with customers, did give her some idea of the gender of the child. As Ayame went back to inform her father to quick make some ramen, the boy returned to his book. As Ayame returned, she gave a quick glace to see what book the boy was ready so religiously.

The Hidden Way by Danzo Shimura

Ayame gave a smile frown that contrasted to her usual smiling face. While she wasn't a shinobi, she knew of the book and its negative prestige. The book preached about the necessity of the abandonment of one's emotions and morality within the life of a shinobi. It brought up facts and examples of times that showed that showed that abandonment of such things lead to the growth of shinobi. The book in itself was highly controversial, both with what it taught and with who wrote it. While not a banned book or an "evil book", it was frowned upon to read it, as it highly contrasted with the Fourth's idea of acceptance and peace. As such, it wasn't produced in mass, so it was in its own way, a "rare" book. Which made it both interesting and highly disturbing that an adult allowed a child access to a book like that.

"What are you doing out so late?"

The boy didn't move an inch or put his book down, however, his pupils move a degree to show she had his attention. Ayame was leaning on the counter, giving her winning smile as she waited for his response.

"Simple. I was hungry."

"Oh, aren't your parents going to be worried?"

"Don't have any."

The boy held his monotone as he turned another page. Ayame smile shifted a second into a sad frown before coming back full force after seeing that the boy gave no reaction.

"Okay, not best question to start with."

Ayame quickly moved to change the subject.

"So, what's your name?"

"I don't have one."

Ayame gave the masked boy a look that was somewhere between sad and confused.

"You don't have a name?"

"Well, technically, the matron and the other adults at the orphanage have given me many different names. However, none of them have held any significance to me so I denied them all."

Ayame held her confused look towards the child. Usually, names were something children held onto like a lifeline. Not only that, but he was speaking above what his level should be.

"You're pretty smart."

"I have been informed of that."

"Do you understand what you are reading?"

"I do and I find it quite interesting."

"Were did you get it?"

"I found it."

While Ayame was started to get annoyed with the monotone short answers, she couldn't bring herself to take the vile book away from the impressible child. The child was an orphan, probably one from the Kyuubi attack guessing his age, who had almost nothing and nobody. The people at the orphanage weren't there to be friends, only to support the children until they were adopted or reached the age that they were no longer accepted there. With how he acted, he probably didn't have any friends his age, and at his age, he was most likely never going to be adopted. So all he had was the book and mask to give him comfort and she couldn't bring herself to take either one of them.

They say the eyes are the window of the soul, and when she looked into his eyes, she felt despair. Within those eyes, she saw emptiness. Someone who felt no love nor desired to return love. He would feel nothing and would express nothing.

The child had eyes of apathy towards existence itself.

It almost brought Ayame to tears about the absolute soullessness of the child. He would probably respond to cruelty the same way he would respond to love. They both decided to continue their activities in silence. Ayame pondering what to do about the child and said child enjoying his book. This was the scene her father, Teuchi came upon when he brought out the boy's ramen. His daughter leaning on the counter throwing a sad look towards the young customer and said customer continuing to read their book without slowing down. Teuchi set the ramen down casually in front the child before working his way back to the kitchen. He was sure what ever problem his daughter had, he will hear about it later.

Ayame watched as the boy put down his book and lifted his mask a little so he could eat. The mask was only lifted high enough so his mouth was reveled but Ayame could still see the bottom half of his face. The boy's skin was a bit pale due to the mask and the bottom half of was rounded until it reached the sharp point of his chin. The boy quickly finished his ramen and pulled his mask back down. He picked up his book and made his way to start leaving.

"Thank you, for your hospitality."

Ayame silently bit on her lip. She didn't want this sad boy to go. Some part of her wanted to grab the boy and never let him out of her sight, to let him know that there was more to life. However, she can't do that. What she can do though…

"Will you come back next week?"

The boy stopped on his way out and gave her his same dull look.

"Doubtful, I had to save a bit of my monthly stipend to come here. I don't how much you know about such things but it's not much."

Ayame him a small smile.

"Don't worry about it. Just bring in a little bit and we'll make you something."

She was worried about the boy, if anything. He had eyes that should not belong to a child. She wanted to keep an eye on him and hope that she could change him for the batter. She hoped she could give him some semblance of family.

"….Alright, I'll return next week."

As the boy left, she gave a small sigh and moved to fully close the shop down. She would tell her father about the sad boy she saw.

A month later

Two events happened to occur on the same night.

The boy if anything was punctual, showing up every Friday. He only brought one-hundred to two-hundred yen, at most each time. They always served him a bowl of ramen without complaint, as Teuchi agreed with her that someone need to keep an eye on the boy. That as one of the events that occurred this night.

The other was the Hokage's family showed up at their establishment. The Namikaze showed up every once in a while, usually also on a weekly basis. They would show up more, but Minato seemed to have found a way prevent Mito and Kushina from eating it almost every night.

Mito Namikaze was the child of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki and she looked the part. She had her mother's straight dark red hair and plum eyes. She took her father's lean build and narrow face. At age seven, she was running around excited the next year she would join the academy and fallow in her parents footsteps. Unknown to her and most of the populace of Konoha, she is the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi and as such her destiny will intertwine with our hero's.

For this night will be remembered in history.

That's a wrap! Hope you enjoyed the rewrite. More will be coming soon.