Chapter Two
Village full of brooding old men and frigid clan heads, riddled with a darkness that hovered over it like an upcoming storm.
"The best", we used to say. We were the best, the strongest, (the stupidest), and the meanest.
The dark alleys crowded at night, when mothers told their children to get inside the house and looked outside in anxiety; fearing.
At night, the monsters came out to play.
And I was always there to greet them.
The women of filthy money and red lights always came out first. Would stand in congregations at every corner, leering at the moon with barely hidden disdain and laughing mean, shallow laughs. Then the street urchins, the orphans, and all the other damned children would poke their little heads into the darkness, struggling to survive; trying not to drown. Up next came the civilians, mostly men, although some women also showed up, in search of sex, drugs, alcohol, and a way to drown their shame.
The last ones to appear were always the ninja.
Women ninja, men ninja, children ninja – they gathered in loneliness, each one cloaked with their own individual regrets and suffering.
If you saw a familiar face around, you did not acknowledge it; you did not bring it up.
What happened in the darkness stayed within the darkness.
Saw Gai, once. The night shrouded him like a blanket.
Shudder.
I can never quite forget, regardless of how much and how hard I try.
Remember eyes that shone with youth, vigor, and exuberance; remember ridiculous perfect posture and booming voice, blinding smile, and shudder, remembering the night when his eyes were grim orbs of obscurity and his posture that akin to a man's on the brink of death.
I'm old, somewhat. I can hear my bones creak with past regrets, past mistakes.
I should've known better.
I told the Third, a long time ago, and I still tell myself now.
"Those brats will be the death of me."
"People who are born as prodigies aren't happy. But those who believe in themselves to the end, and work hard with a fiery spirit, are."
amour.