Chapter 1

Gone at last

People say the apple never falls far from the tree and sometimes I wonder if it's true and if it is will I make the same mistakes as my father is now? Well from I sake I hope not.

I sit in my room listening to the screams of pain coming from my mother as my father beat her. I wish he would stop, but that is an impossible wish because he won't stop. There is a soft knock on my bedroom door. I get up and open it. There stood my three little sisters. I let them in and they sit on my bed. Tori, the youngest, was shaking and crying.

"Nii- san, why does daddy hurt mommy he shouldn't do that." She asks whipping her tears away.

I sigh and shrug. I didn't know why he beat her. "We got to stop him he'll kill her if we don't." Makoto, the oldest girl, but four years younger than me, says looking at me her eyes full of fear.

"Stay here where it is safe and don't come out till I come and get you" I walk out of my room and down the stairs and into the kitchen where my parents were. I grab my father's wrist as he tries to strike my mother again. He looks at me. He was drunk I could smell the alcohol on breath. "Stop that's enough!" the grip I had on his wrist didn't loosen at all. My father looked at me and growled.

"Get out of here boy!" he yelled

I held my ground and stood up against my father. He let go of my mother and chose my as his next target. "I told you to go away boy!" he picks up a glass and smashes it into the side of my head. I let go of my father's wrist and stagger back a couple steps. I could feel worm blood run down the side of my face. I put a hand where the glass had hit. I felt some small pieces of glass stuck in my skin. My mother grabs my father's arm and tries to get him to stop. He just pushes her to the floor and yells at her some more. I pull myself out of the shock and I punch my father. He falls to the floor in pain.

I help my mother up and tell her to go up to my room and take care of the girls. She quickly leaves and heads up to get the girls. My father gets up and glares at me then heads to the front door and leaves. I sigh in relief and I head back up to my room. As I enter my room my mother gets up and walks over to me and gives me a hug.

"Thank you Akimitsu."

Tears run down her cheeks and she lets go and looks at my head. "Let me clean that up hun," she takes my hand and leads me into the bathroom to clean up my head. She makes me sit down on the on the edge of the tub while she puts the girls back to bed and grabs a couple things to help. She comes back in a few minutes with a wash cloth and tweezers. She sits next to me and starts by getting the little shards of glass that were jammed into my skin. After she got all of the shards out she gets the wash cloth damp and presses it to the cut on my head to get the bleeding to stop.

Soon the bleeding stops and I take the wash cloth and start to clean up the blood that had run down my face. A few minutes later I had cleaned up my face. My mother comes in with some bandages and puts a patch over the cut.

"thanks." I say standing up and going back to my room.

My mother nods and I head to my room and flop down on my bed and close my eyes trying to sleep.

The next morning I wake to the annoying ringing of my alarm clock. I slam my hand down on the button to shut it off and get up. I walk over to my closet and look in to see what was there. I pull out a black t-shirt and blue jeans and head for the bathroom.

After I had showered and gotten dressed I walk back to my room and got my school bag. I walk down the stairs and go into the kitchen. I see my three sisters sitting down at the table eating breakfast. I didn't feel hungry so I just say good bye and head to school.

When I got to the school I don't even try to open the doors to get inside, I already knew that they were locked, so I just went to the back and sat down on one of the benches. I soon get lost in my thoughts that I didn't even see my best friend, Mike, standing in front of me.

"Hey Aki, what you doing here so early?"

I look up and smile "hey Mike." "Dude, what happened to your head? Did you run into something?" he asks indicating the patch on my head. "Oh that it happened last night when my father smashed a glass into my head." Mike winces "dude, you have got to do something about your dad he can't keep doing this to you and the rest of your family!" I hang my head "what do you think I've been doing."

"No Aki you're just making it worse, no offence, but he needs to go."

I sigh and run a hand through my hair "forget it Mike it's not your problem it's mine." Mike shrugs and sits next to me.

At 7:00 the bell rings and we head to our classes. I walk into my first period class and take my seat. I open my school bag and take out my notebook and pen. About five minutes after the first bell the tarty bell rings and class starts. The teacher walks to the front of the room and starts. At 9:00 the class ends and the bell rings to go the next class. I pick up my notebook and pen and walk to my next class.

Hours later the school day ends and I head home. I really hope my father isn't home. I don't want to put up with him right now. I soon make it home and I head inside. "Hey I'm home." I walk into the kitchen and I see my mother cleaning. She turns around and smiles as I walk in "hey how was your day?" she asks "it was like any other school day… is dad home?" she nods "he's upstairs asleep." Crap! I head up to my room and close the door behind me and I start on my homework.

A few minutes later my cell rings and I take it out of my pocket to see that I have received a text from my Anbu captain. I opened my phone and read the text: we have a mission. Meet me at the Anbu headquarters in 5 minutes. I close my phone and put my books away then go get ready to go.

I make to the Anbu headquarters. I was the second one there, the first person there was Mike which was quite shocking because he usually the last one to come. "Wow Mike you're actually on time." I smile as I walk over to him "what can't I be early if I want to?" he smiles and punches my shoulder.

In a few minutes the whole team is here and our captain starts telling us about the mission, but throughout the time he was talking about the mission I started getting a sick feeling down in the pit of my gut.

"Alright team you all understand the mission right?"

The team nods and they start to head off. I was about to leave with them when the captain stops me. "Hold on Akimitsu I think you shouldn't come on this one." I give the captain a look I wonder what's going on, but something doesn't feel right. "Why?" just as I ask why a girl with gold blond hair walks into the room "it's because I need you to help me on another mission." I look at the girl I feel like I should know her, but nothing rang a bell

"Akimitsu you do know Lady Rose right? She goes to your high school." My captain looks at me with the 'you should know her' look.

I shake my head no. "Well I know you. I see you in the halls sometimes and at lunch." She says smiling. How can she know me? I don't even talk to her; she hangs out with the people from the upper class part of town. "What's the mission you're going on?" I ask getting to the point and getting her back onto the topic. She hands me a paper I take it from her and read it. A thief huh? I think about it for a moment then look back up at Rose. "Fine I'll come with you." I had the paper back to her and then turn back to the captain "why don't you want me to come… are you hiding something from me?" the captain gives a goofy grin "would I do that? She asked me to keep you out of this one so you could get this guy."

I give him a look. He knew that it was pointless to hide something from me because I always know when he is lying. "What?" he asks "well if you have nothing to hide do you mind showing me the paper with the mission that the team is going on?" I knew I had him trapped in a corner "well got to go bye." He disappears in a puff smoke. After he left I knew something was wrong. "Well Rose lets go gets this mission done." She nods and leads the way.

After walking around the dark empty streets of the village I soon see a dark figure slip into an ally. "Let's get this done with." Rose whispers as she morphs into a pitch black wolf. I nod and pull my sword out. We quietly make out way to the ally and corner the man so he has nowhere to go. Rose stays as the end of the ally in case the thief gets past me. I silently walk over to him. The man turns around his eyes widen with fear. I look back at Rose to make sure that this was the man we were after. She nods indicating that this was him. I look back at the man "w-who are you? What do you want from me-e?" he shrieks. I raise my katana and in a swift movement I cut off his head. Rose growls uneasily for the rank he was, that was too easy… I don't like it. I look back at her then do a few hand signs and teleport myself into the forest outside of the village. I run through the thick foliage I had to catch up with the team. I mentally hit myself for not going with the team I knew I should have gone with the team. Why did I listen to him?

As I get closer the sick feeling in my gut, but I ignore it and keep running. Soon I can see the team in the distance. They were circled around someone, who was kneeling down, and my captain was standing in front of the man in the circle interrogating him, looks like they caught the spy. I slow my pace to a walk as I get closer. One of my teammates hears me coming and looks over his shoulder and sees me coming and turns his head back and says something to the captain. My captain turns around and walks out of the circle. "What are you doing here? I thought you were with Rose on another mission?" he asks as he walks over

"We finished the mission so I came to see if I could help."

Rose pops up behind me in a puff of smoke "well we are almost done her you can go home now." He says turning around and starts to back to what he was doing before I came. It seems as if he doesn't want me here, but why? "Wait! Why didn't you want me to come with the team? And don't even think about lying to me I know you're hiding something from me." My words make him stop. He stops and looks back at me. I can barely see his eyes through the Anbu mask on his face, buy they seem to be giving me a sympathetic look. The sick feeling returns again, but stronger this time "why didn't you want me to come?"

My captain points to the middle of the circle. I look in the circle to see a man with messy auburn hair and silver gray eyes like mine: my father.

I wasn't too surprised to see that it was him I knew that he would've been caught sooner or later. A lot of emotions run through my head, but the ones that were the strongest were anger and hate.

I walk over into the circle "well you've been finally caught huh?" my father looks up at me from kneeling. It takes him a second to recognize my voice from behind my mask. When he finally figures it out he gives me a dirty look "go away boy!" he growls "I told you to stop giving information to the enemy villages. Why didn't you listen?" I ask disappointment in my voice "this village, and your family mean nothing to me you're all swine!" he growls. I kick him in the chest knocking him back. My blood starts to boil fueling my anger and hatred toward him even more. I reach for my katana, but to my surprise it's not there. Rose hands me one of hers and I take it happily. My father slowly sits back up and I point the katana at his throat.

"You don't have the guts to kill me you're too weak." He says giving a smirk

I hold the katana at his throat for a minute longer then pull it away. I turn around and start to walk away "see? Just like I said you're too weak. And you call yourself and Anbu." I stop and grip the katana hilt tighter. I stand there for minute then walk back over into the circle to my father and kick him back a couple yards out of the circle. I walk over to him with the katana still in my hand. My father sits back up. "Why didn't you listen to me, to mom? Why?" I yell letting all of my anger and frustration out on him. my father spits on me and with one swift motion I cut off my father's head. I watch his body fall to the ground and his head roll away. I drop the katana and start to walk back home.

"Akimitsu,"

I stop and look back to see that it was Rose who called my name "pick up the katana and follow me. There is something we must discuss." I do as I'm told and pick up the katana and follow her to one of the training fields. She stops and turns around to face me "look at the katana you're holding." I look at the katana it doesn't look any different than any other katana I've seen or used. I look back at Rose "it looks like a normal katana to me." I say confused. "Look again Akimitsu." I look at the katana again. The blade of the katana has what looks like little tiny fishhooks. I run my hand along the flat part of the blade. I hear the ripping of fabric. I try to take my hand away, but the tiny fishhooks had snagged onto the fabric and wouldn't let go of my glove. I slip my hand out of the glove and rip it off the blade. I put my shredded glove in my pack and looked at my hand. There were a few cuts "oh wow" I whisper as I bring the blade closer to my face to examine it better.

"His name is FishHook. He would not have let you touch him if you weren't destined to be Tsukigakure's new Kage." She says as she leans up against one of the posts.

"What?" I ask in total surprise. Rose just smiles "you are to be the next Kage of Tsukigakure, we start your training after school. Meet me here and DON'T be late." After she finishes she disappears. I stand there for a minute then make the long trek home.

About an hour later I make it back to my house. I was tired physically, mentally, and emotionally. I slowly walk up the steps to the front door, the house was dark inside. I unlock the front door and walk inside. After I walk into the house I close the door and lock it behind me. I walk quietly up the stairs to my room. When I enter my room I turn on the lamp on my desk on. I close the door and hang up my Anbu mask on a nail behind the door. I take off my armor and put it away in my closet along with my weapons.

I decide not to study. I was too tired and it was late plus I had already studied for the past few days so I was good. I turn off my lamp and my room was soon illuminated by the light of the full moon. I flop down onto my bed not caring if I was still in my Anbu uniform. I close my eyes and let sleep take over.