Chapter X.
The second I laid my eyes on Jiro, I started trembling uncontrollably. I knew I most likely would not survive the beating he had in store for me this time.
"Get up, you little shit," he growled.
Even though I did not wait to start moving, apparently I did not do it fast enough for his taste. He grabbed my arm with enough force to bruise and pulled me up. I never even saw the slap that followed, but when he leaned in close to stare at me in the face I could not tear my eyes away from his.
"Now, we're going to leave this place, and I swear to god that if you try to run away or let out so much as a peep, you will regret it. Got that, demon?"
"Uh-huh," I answered in a small voice and immediately got a second smack to the head that left me seeing stars.
"NOT A PEEP!"
He dragged me out of the park and through the streets after that, his hold on my arm so tight that it cut off circulation. I was pretty sure it was only the second time ever he allowed himself to be seen in public with me. The first had been when he had taken me to the Academy to enroll as a new student. He had never accompanied me to school, or anywhere else, after that.
I was too busy nursing my aching head and trying to get my eyes to focus to notice where he was taking me. We might have left the village, because the next thing I knew, he was trying to open a padlock keeping a tall wire fence closed and I could see nothing but trees beyond.
I realised just how nervous and frustrated Jiro was when it took him several attempts to get the key into the lock. It was more than strange seeing him this way and I cringed at what that could mean for me. I could remember all of his past threats and punishments all too well. Every single one of them had been terrible and he had never been this riled up or felt the need to take me somewhere this remote to do it.
I was almost relieved when the padlock gave up its struggle to aggravate Jiro even more, but not so much when he grabbed my arm and started walking again. Every step we took into that forest road took us farther away from the safety of Konoha and I knew that this was it. This time the punishment would be so great that I would end up buried and forgotten right here, in the middle of nowhere, where no one would know what had happened. I hesitated taking the next step as soon as that thought crossed my mind and earned myself a rough pull forward and a stinging slap that split my lip.
I was too afraid to cry when an abandoned-looking cottage came into view. There was no one in sight, but Jiro dragged me up to the front door anyway and kicked it open savagely. The loud bang sent a flock of birds flying from a nearby tree and I whimpered, unable to hold back my fright any longer.
"Shut your trap!" he shouted automatically. "This is all your fault, you know. If you hadn't gone to see the Hokage, I wouldn't have had to do this... heh, and you can be sure it's going to hurt a lot more now than if I'd done it later like I wanted to."
Do what? I wanted to know, but there was no way I was going to open my mouth and talk back to that man.
The air got a few degrees colder when the door closed behind us and I could not hold back a shiver and a sneeze. Jiro snarled and threw me against the wall to shut me up. He went straight to the opposite corner and I took the chance to examine the interior of the cottage.
It was a small house with just the one dusty, grey room and a single window. Jiro was pulling out long black cords from a cabinet in one of the corners and in the dead centre was a large table with four leather belts attached at each of its ends, perfect for holding someone down. There was nothing else there and I wondered if this was where he went when he wasn't at home.
"Did I ever tell you how I ended up stuck with you?" he asked as he untangled the long wires. I knew he was not looking for an answer so I just kept quiet and hugged my knees, trying to bring my shaking under control. "I wasn't always like this. I used to be a ninja, a chuunin, and a damn good one too. I was out defending Konoha the night the Nine-tailed Fox attacked. I was by the gates, trying to keep it at bay. My friends and comrades were falling right and left and I knew that I was going to go next when that thing's red chakra wrapped around me and tossed me into the forest around the village."
He threw a glare at me and started forward as if he was going to use the cords on me as a whip. I curled into a tighter ball to prepare for the onslaught, but none came. When I looked up, he was only shaking his head in disgust.
"I thought I had died," he continued. He also kept working on the cords. "I could hardly feel anything. I was numb and the world felt so dull. It was a miracle that I survived that crash with just a broken leg, but I wished I had died right there. The fucking Nine-tails had burned away my chakra pathways. I couldn't use chakra any more and that meant my career as a ninja was over."
I had always known that Jiro was an ex-ninja who lived off of some retirement pension, but I had never heard the story of how that had happened. And now that I knew that I was the one who had done that to him... I almost felt bad. Being a ninja was my greatest dream and I could not even imagine what it would be like to have that taken away from me.
"After I got on my feet again, I slowly started to make my way back to the village and imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon the Hokage, alone in a clearing and sealing the Nine-tails into a baby. In my state, I would just get in his way so I stayed hidden and watched. He passed out as soon as the monster was gone and that was when I left my cover. I was just going to help him, but then I saw the demon, you."
His gaze was piercing as he said it.
Fear gripped my heart and stopped it for a second. Then it started beating twice as fast when I thought about Minato-sama. There was no denying now that I was the Hokage's missing son, but it was strange to have my suspicions confirmed in such a manner by Jiro.
"I was pissed that it dared to pass off as something as innocent as a baby. I was going to kill you on the spot, but then I started thinking. No one knew I was there, I was supposed to be all the way back in the village, and if the damn thing had taken away my chakra, maybe it could put it back. At the very least, I would take my sweet revenge by making sure its life was a living hell... And that's how I got you."
He stood still just looking at me for a minute. I had yet to stop shivering, but now I was also starting to feel queasy. The Nine-tails had ruined Jiro's life - I had ruined Jiro's life. I guess he had been right all along. I deserved everything he had ever done to me...
"You stupid little shit," he spat with a grim smile. "I thought it would be hard to make it work at first, I had no idea how the hell I was going to control a demon, but it was almost too easy. Once the ANBU let up the search for the Hokage's son inside the village, it was no trouble at all to keep you in line. You ate up every single lie I fed you, every beating, and still asked for more. You always followed all the rules I laid out without a question, except for one stupid, fucking little thing!"
He stalked closer and pulled me up until I was standing.
"You just couldn't keep away from the fucking Hokage, could you?"
He punched me in the stomach and my muscles instinctively told me to curl on myself to help me catch my breath, but Jiro would not let me. He brushed aside all my feeble attempts to resist and laid me down on top of the table. He tied all the straps around my wrists and ankles, then moved away to fetch the black cords, but he was not done talking.
"You'll never know how I felt every time I looked at you and remembered that the fucking demon who had ruined my life was sleeping under my roof, eating my food and calling himself by my last name! I wanted to puke and beat the crap out of you, but I held back and lived with it."
He was attaching the cords so they connected the leather binds holding me on the table to his own wrists and ankles. Finally, when he was done, he pulled out a kunai and cut the palm of his hand.
"Well, I'm done now. I was told this procedure could bring back my chakra, but I wasn't going to do it until you had learned better chakra control. It's supposed to work better then, but I won't risk meeting with the goddamn Hokage and having to explain just why I've had his son with me all this goddamn time! This is it, demon... say goodbye to your pitiful life!"
He slapped his hand against some mechanism that I could not see at the end of the table. The restraints started giving off a faint red glow and a light tickling sensation spread from them. I felt like they were gluing themselves to my skin to suck something out of me. That impression only grew and grew, though, until all of a sudden it was all out burning and my pained screams were mixing in with Jiro's.
I was sure I would not be able to hold on much longer. Sooner or later it would become too much for me to bear. Strangely enough, the only thing I could think of was Minato-sama. The one day I had gotten to spend with him had been the best in my life. I had gotten to try ramen - which I was sure had to be one of the most delicious things on the planet - and got to experience what it felt like to be held against a warm chest after having a bad dream. I even treasured the short time I had gotten to spend with Kushina, even if she did scare Kohana and me to bits, and I still didn't know whether she was okay with me or not.
I was happy that I had gotten to know what all those things felt like before I died. I was even happier to know that those memories had been given to me by my actual family.
Kohana... Minato-sama... Kushina... Goodbye...