Meet the Ghosts
Well, we hit 200 Reviews, so that's great! Now if we could get the Followers and Favorites up to par…
Anyway, over a thousand people read every posted chapter, so that's amazing.
Anyway anyway, more on Yūrei this chapter. Character development, talking, borderline filler, but it's all crucial, I promise.
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Naruto
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Shin'en didn't particularly like the taste of sake. It was too tart to him. The few drinks he had with Yugito he said as much, but she had always told him that he would grow into the taste. From what he just drank, he still had some growing to do.
"Shin'en, come with me."
He followed Arashi, ignoring the quick pat on his shoulder from Sukina. The leader of Yūrei walked all the way through the halls to the very back of the hideout.
"We added this part ourselves a few months ago." Arashi led Shin'en to a door embedded in the rock, opening it to reveal a small outcropping in cliff face. The Daimyo's summer home had been built into a small mountain, and Yūrei had carved all the way through it. From their elevation, hundreds of miles of forest could be seen.
"You hesitated in killing the infant. What were your reasons?"
Arashi stood at the lip, arms crossed.
"I already told you," Shin'en replied, voice heavy, "there was no reason for her to be die."
The leader said nothing, and thick silence fell over them. Arashi broke it eventually. "What do you think that baby's fate would've been? What do you think would've happened to it if you had left it alive?"
"Someone would've come for her."
"Someone?" Arashi snapped. He spun on his heel, bearing down. "Really? Who? The neighbors? Were they just going to break down the door because they heard crying? And when would the baby have started crying? Before, during, or after she starved to death? Or would she have died from bacterial infection because her diaper was dirty? And if she had been found and rescued beforehand, given food and her diaper changed, then what? What guarantee is there that some benevolent neighbor would take her in and raise her? And what kind of childhood would that be? Orphaned with no knowledge as to why, your parents murdered for whatever reason, raised by a stranger, and who knows what that stranger would do. Rape her, sell her, kill her, fatten her up and eat her, who knows? And who knows if any of the neighbors would've done a damn thing. They hear her crying and don't care, or they care enough to get her to shut up, and someone else kills her, or maybe they just take her and dump her in the forest for the animals to eat, or they throw her in a river or a fucking pond."
Arashi glowered down at Shin'en, who was glaring at his feet. The man dropped to a knee, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Shin'en, what you did was a good thing. By killing the baby, you spared her from a worse fate. You spared her from starving, from being sold into prostitution or slavery. You spared from growing up with vengeance and hatred in her heart. You spared her from the life of a shinobi, and from the life of an orphan."
"So I am to understand that what I did was an act of compassion?" Shin'en bit out.
"Yes. By God, yes." Arashi said it with such passion in his voice that Shin'en almost recoiled. "There is a reason we leave no survivors, Shin'en. There is a reason we kill everyone. In time, you will come to find that death is the greatest mercy you can give. Death is an escape from all the suffering and anguish we of the living experience. When dead, you no longer have to worry about money, unfairness, or the struggles of the mortal life. We kill everyone so that they don't have to continue life without their loved ones and comrades."
"So in killing the baby…I spared her a life of torment, and reunited her with her family in the afterlife."
"Yes."
"I also robbed her of a chance at a good life, with a successful career, a loving husband, children."
"That is the gamble, isn't it?" Arashi mused wistfully. "Be honest to yourself, though: what do you think the life of an orphaned babe in the war-torn Land of Water would be like?"
"Not a good one." Shin'en managed to sound both somber and angry at the same time.
"Not a good one," Arashi agreed. "Which is why, until we've cut enough cancer out of the Land of Water to where we can handle Yagura, it is us that shoulder the burden of killing these people, because no one else can."
Arashi stood. "I'll ask you one more time: can you, Shin'en Yūrei, handle being a Ghost of the Bloody Mist? Can you suffer through the horrors of war and can you shoulder the atrocities of men, all in the name of your goals and ambitions?"
If it means killing Yagura, can you do very bad things?
Shin'en remembered then, the promise he had made to avenge his first family, and kill their killers, and kill the ones that had given them the orders. And not just there, not just with those people, but the entire Shinobi World as well. So, really, even though he might not have known it, Arashi was asking if Shin'en was willing to do everything he could to bring about his ultimate goal, and that question left Shin'en asking himself:
Could he?
Could he kill more innocent, defenseless babies? Could he torture whoever with whatever means was needed to glean to required information? What unspeakable things would he have to do? What lengths would he go to achieve his goals? Considering what he had already done in the Cloud, slaughtering Orochimaru's experiments, torturing people, and killing all of his classmates, there didn't seem to be any more lines he could cross.
Shin'en nodded. "I can."
Arashi stared at him, his hard, dark blue eyes spearing into his soul, or trying to. The demigod matched that searching stare with defiance, feeling that this was a test of his resolve. He must've passed, because Arashi nodded.
"Alright. I'll hold you to that. If you ever feel like you're sleeping, go to Sukina."
"I won't need to. I can handle it, all of it."
"…we'll see about that."
Shin'en glared at him. "Why did you call me that, anyway? Shin'en Yūrei?"
"You are part of this family now. Yūrei is your name until you die."
"Part of this family," Shin'en echoed. Part of a family of shinobi, of lying killers, the very thing he hated most. He thought of Yugito, Bee, Darui, Cee, Ei, and Ay. Were they family? Not all of them, not the extent that Yugito was, but he knew all of them. He didn't know any of these Ghosts. "This is a family?"
"Give it time. Come on, I'll introduce you to them."
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This must've been wear the Daimyo used to eat his meals. A big table, the walls covered in expensive paintings, a big fancy chair…all of it dusty as Hell.
A candle provided illumination for this get to know you chat.
"I'll go first," the leader said. "My name is Arashi. I have secrets that are mine and they will remain mine as I choose. What I will tell you is that my clan is all but extinct, my family all dead. I've fought in this war since its beginning, and I've killed many people. I fight in this war to see the end of it, and when it ends, I will leave this land and begin a new life in the world on the other side of the ocean."
"My name is Sukina. I was born in this land, and I watched as my parents were killed in front of me. I used my Kekkei Genkai to escape unnoticed, and I used my powers to survive until Arashi found me and trained me. My favorite weapons are senbon needles dipped in my own favorite toxins, and my favorite tactic is to disguise myself as someone I'm not, and stab my target in the back of the neck. Though I'm more of a stealth specialist, I can kick ass on the battlefield."
"My name is Bullock. I was raised in the Hidden Mist alongside Sukina and Yūwaku, was even in the same class as them at the academy. I never bought in to Yagura's bullshit, even when my parents were pushing it on me. One night I heard them talking about they were going to sell me into prostitution because I was such an embarrassment to them, especially when compared to my older brother who was a rising bigshot Hunter Ninja. So, when my parents came to sell me off, I broke out my little project, and killed them—sliced their heads right off their bodies. Laid a trap for my big brother when he came to kill me, and killed him too."
"My name's Yūwaku. I was born into slavery and raised as such. I had a good master who treated me good, but he was killed by his son who took over the property. He raped me as soon as I had my first period, and I gave birth nine months later. After that, I struck out and lived in Hell for three years while I tried to raise my boy by myself while on the run. We were caught, my boy was killed, and I slaughtered everyone around me except one person. Now I'm in it to claw out every one of Yagura's underlings' eyes."
"So, kid," Bullock asked cheerfully, "what kind of tragic backstory do you have?"
"I was six when Kisame Hoshigaki inspected my orphanage for any potential bloodline users. It was under the guise of unlocking our chakras, but I unlocked mine six months before when a wolf pack tried to eat me. I flared my chakra and almost knocked him on his ass. Later that night, Ameyuri Ringo came by looking for me, but I was swimming two miles away, and so she killed every one of my brothers and sisters along with the matron, and she blew up the orphanage itself with a lightning bolt. I killed her and the twenty ANBU she had with her, and then I swore to kill every last shinobi on the planet."
"And how's that coming along?" Bullock asked with a grin.
"I'm here, aren't I?"
"Eh, true. So, you're the one that did Ringo in, huh? Cool, never liked the bitch anyway."
Shin'en blinked. "You're going to believe me? Just like that? I just told you that I killed one of the Seven Swordsmen when I was six."
"And we just told you all of our backstories. Most of it anyway. I watched my parents die, Bullock killed his parents, Yūwaku was a parent, and Arashi's family is all dead. None of us lied, and so, we believe that you are also not lying to us."
"Yes, but my story's a little more outrageous than yours."
"Fair enough," Sukina shrugged. "Then prove your story since you're so concerned about it."
Shin'en didn't know why, but in light of all that he was just told, how casually it was all just told to him, like the horror of their stories didn't matter at all, and how they were just accepting of his own story like it was everyday news, rubbed him the wrong way, like they had heard a thousand sob stories, all of them made up, and his was no different. It insulted him that it seemed like they didn't believe him, and he took that as an insult to the memory of his family, and so when Sukina goaded him to show proof, he showed proof.
In puffs of smoke, he unsealed the Lightning Fangs in all their gleaming glory.
Shin'en saw the sudden sharpness in their eyes, the light of familiarity as they recognized his swords.
"Do you still doubt me?"
"We never doubted you in the first place," Yūwaku said. "It's just that we've heard these stories so many times that we just aren't phased by them. Like it or not, kid, your story is one of millions, and you're not special. You've lost your parents, so have we. You lost loved ones, so have we. You want revenge, so do we. Granted, you are the first to declare vengeance against all shinobi, but that's still nothing to make your story noteworthy. Really, you're just one more avenger in the world, just like all of us and so many thousands more. Welcome to the club!" she finished with a cheery smile.
Shin'en frowned. "I'm not part of a club, and I'm not just another avenger. Unlike all of you, I can actually make my end goal a reality."
"Yeah, killing all shinobi," Bullock said. "Edgy. Like the razor I slit my wrists with."
Shin'en glared at the greenette. "I'm not joking. I can and will do it."
"And we'll probably end up helping you with that, in some way," Arashi said. "Bullock, enough teasing. Shin'en, I'm sure you have questions for us. Ask, and if we want, we'll answer."
"What clan were you in?"
"I'm not answering that."
Shin'en's eye twitched. "Fine." He looked at Sukina. "What's your Kekkei Genkai?"
"Keijō Henkō. I'm a member of the Shape-Changing Clan, one of the last, anyway. We can use the cells in our bodies to replicate clothing, body mass, height, width, shape, everything. The easiest way to describe ourselves is that we use a chakraless Transformation Jutsu."
Shin'en nodded. He looked at Bullock.
"I'm not a bloodline user. I'm a hundred percent normal ninja with some skill in using wires."
Shin'en looked at Yūwaku, who flashed a fanged smile—wait. Fanged? Before his eyes, the yellow-haired young woman began to change. Her hair grew wild, her pupils slit, her teeth serrated and sharp, her muscles defined and large, but it was her hands that drew all attention. They bulged grotesquely, the veins swelling and the skin darkening. The fingers lengthened to hideous size, her nails growing and growing into monstrous claws. Shin'en expected fur to sprout, but no.
Nothing but tanned, humungous monster hands with long, sharp claws.
Shin'en looked at the bestial Yūwaku, not entirely sure what to feel.
"I'm a member of the Neko Clan. Usually, when we awaken our bloodline, we're like housecats, which is why we're slaves most of the time. But, when my boy was killed in front of me, I awakened the other side of our bloodline: The Lion."
"I can see that." Then Shin'en noticed something. "Why haven't I heard of either of your clans?"
"Because our elders and the previous Kage weren't idiots," Sukina answered. "Everyone knows about the Cloud's Kekkei Genkai, the Gale Style, and everyone knows about the Stone's Particle Style. The Magnet Style of the Sand is known, but not how it works. Word of the Mist's Ice, Lava, and Vapor Styles leaked out, but we've still kept some of our secrets. The Leaf is the worst though.
"Everyone knows about their clans. When you see pineapple haircuts, stay away from the shadows. When you see fat people, you can expect Expansion Jutsu. When you see blonde hair in ponytails, expect Mind and Soul Jutsu. Pale eyes? It's the Hyuuga, stay out of taijutsu. Red eyes? Don't look at them, and expect fireballs. Dogs? Combination and Transformation Jutsu. Every clan in the Leaf is known, but here in the Mist, there's still some secrets, still some things the world doesn't know about. Our clans are one of them."
"Any other secret clans I don't know of?"
"There used to be," Sukina grinned.
"Yagura's been that efficient?"
"Yep."
"Oh."
"Yep. So, are you really the magical demigod that was a hot topic of conversation a few years back?"
"Yes," Shin'en admitted easily. "But my dad isn't one of your gods."
This time, Yūrei was actually caught flatfooted.
"Explain," Arashi said.
Shin'en shrugged. "My godly father is Poseidon, god the seas, bringer of storms, shaker of the earth, and father of horses. My mother is Sally, and my older twin sister is Persephone. They're far away, and I'm not saying where."
"I've never heard of Poseidon," Bullock said.
"No one in this land has. If they have, there's a problem."
"Why would that be a problem?" Sukina asked.
"Because gods of different lands don't get along, and are territorial. For a person of the land of Izanagi to know of a god from a different land is a problem, because it raises the question of how was this information gained? Typically, it's because the foreign god is trespassing, which is illegal in divine law, or it's because an agent of the foreign god is trespassing, which gets iffy. Me being here counts as iffy, because I was brought here out of my cradle after just being born by Susano'o. I've never actually met any of my family, but my father is unfaithful to his godly wife, Amphitrite, my mother is annoyingly devoted, and my sister is a naïve idiot whose only purpose in life is to serve as leverage over me to make sure I play nice with the other kids, but the leverage hinges on me actually caring for her, which I do not."
Yūrei shared another look.
"Damn," Sukina said. "That's cold. That's also good, being cold in this line of work is good."
Arashi shifted, and the glacialness in eyes caused the air to thicken. Silence reigned for a minute as everyone tried to figure out what was going on in his mind. Finally, just when Shin'en was going to say something, Arashi asked, "If it meant the death of Yagura and all shinobi in the world right now…would you kill your sister?"
"In a heartbeat."
Bullock whistled. "Fuck, I know I killed my own older brother so I don't have much room to talk, but fuck. Kill your own sister—your twin at that, the person you spent nine months alone with."
"Like I said," Shin'en shrugged, "I've never met her, so I have no personal relation with her, and her sole purpose is to be a tie-down."
"Well, this has been insightful," Arashi said suddenly, "but we have a mission. This one's from Mei."
"Objective?" Shin'en asked.
The leader shook his head. "Not you. Your mission, issued from me, is to hold down the fort while we're on-mission. We won't be gone for a day."
Shin'en sniffed. "I'm not a little kid to be worried about how long someone is gone for, but I am trying to figure out why you're just leaving me here by myself."
"So you explore and poke around," Arashi said with brutal honesty. "While we do have a mission from Mei, it's also an opportunity for you to satisfy any curiosity you have about this place without fear of getting caught. We expect you to snoop around anyway, might as well give you the golden opportunity."
Shin'en stood there. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. Yūrei, let's go."
On their impromptu way out the door, Yūwaku said, "Oh, there's also no electricity beyond some Sealing arrays, and there's no running water. So if you want to take a bath or you need to potty, you need to not do it here. Kay?"
"That is the second time you've said the word 'potty.' What is wrong with you?"
Yūwaku grinned savagely and raised the monstrous claw that was her hand, as she hadn't come out of her lion state. "Lots of things!"
She disappeared down the corridor, and Shin'en felt them all change clothes, leave the hideout, and speed away. Then, just like that, he was alone in here. With his hydro-sensing, he could tell there were no hidden people watching him, only some rodents in the walls, which, as stupid as this sounded, could actually be trained spies, or at least, subjects of some kind of surveillance jutsu.
But, in light of the circumstances, Shin'en decided to do as basically ordered, and go snooping through his "family's" rooms. First stop:
Sukina's.
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Her room was clearly designed to be that of a servant's, which made sense as his room was much the same and the daimyo had to have quarters for all his personnel. Sukina's dwelling was as simple as his, with a bed, a dresser, and a bookcase. The sheets and blankets were a plain orange, and the bookcase was filled with jars of various liquids, each one labelled with a poison, venom, or toxin. Made sense, as Sukina's primary weapon, at least from what he had seen on the assassination mission, was senbon.
Shin'en went through her dresser, opening every drawer, inspecting every article of clothing, and every bottom, looking for hidden compartments. With a stony face, he rifled through Sukina's underwear, a plethora of thongs and bras, all brightly colored.
Not every drawer was filled with clothes, however. One drawer had little knickknacks and toys that a child would play with, clear mementos of her ruined childhood, or perhaps trophies from previous kills. She didn't seem like the type to claim rewards from targets, but who knew? Another drawer was filled with storage scrolls, all of them labeled with various supplies.
Shin'en examined every inch of her room, looking under the bed to find nothing but dust, behind the dresser and bookcase to find more dust, in her bathroom to find tampons and pads, toilet paper, soaps, paper towels, and all other bathroom essentials. The demigod experienced an ADHD moment where he briefly wondered what a pad in his underwear would be like, but he slapped himself for such a stupid thought.
At the end of his looking around, even using his hydrokinesis to try and find air movement into a hidden room, there was nothing out of the ordinary, and he concluded, from her clothes and the neatness of everything, that Sukina was an outgoing person that was organized and wanted to maintain order in her place of residence. All of her clothes had been neatly folded, even her bras and panties, and everything had been cleaned.
The bathroom contained not a hint of grime, the trashcan had no signs of filth, neither did the toilet (which was void of water), and the mirror was cleaned, as was the sink counter.
Although, he did find a laptop that was password protected, and he didn't know near enough to try and guess said password, and the keyboard was maintained with detail. Not one key looked to be any more used that any other, so trying to pick out which keys would be used the password were impossible, and Shin'en didn't know what kind of security measures were in place around the machine.
The machine itself was odd, not really because it was a laptop, but because it was technology.
The Shinobi World was no stranger to modern machinery, like televisions, electricity, power cables, LED lights, air conditioning, heaters, electric stoves, indoor plumbing, and not even computers were uncommon. Shinobi even used radio communication devices.
No, the oddity was that Sukina would have a laptop in the first place, for a shinobi had no use of a laptop. There was no Internet in this world, with all information available with a few presses of a few keys. Anything stored online was stored on private databases that couldn't be accessed without special means. Sure, there were jutsu being used and developed to hack into other countries' systems to discover their secrets, but all current jutsu were pitifully easy to block, and development was going nowhere.
Or so Shin'en had been told by the Third Raikage, Ay.
The other thing he had found of great note was plastered on her wall. A board covered in dozens of photographs. Photos of a young Sukina with her parents, photos of her and friends playing, photos of her parents' bodies, photos of corpses he didn't recognize, perhaps the killers, photos of other corpses, photos of Yūrei, together, in pairs and other combinations, photos of them in locations and on missions, but, in the center of the board was the biggest picture:
All four members of Yūrei bunched together and smiling on a sunny beach without a care in the world.
Shin'en's heart ached suddenly at that picture, because it reminded him of a group photo the orphanage had taken once…at that very same beach, at the very same spot. Swallowing a lump that had formed in his throat, the demigod left Sukina's room and headed for where he had sensed Arashi before.
Drying his eyes as he did so.
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He couldn't get into Arashi's room, short of breaking in. The entire place was protected by Sealing jutsu, on the door, on the walls, the ceiling and the floors. It was all airtight, too, as Shin'en had tried to turn himself into water vapor and ease his way in, only to find that he couldn't, as there was no air passage. He thought of doing the same through the air vents and even through the plumbing, but those were blocked as well.
Yes, Shin'en could've forced his way in, overloading the Seals with chakra or extreme strength, but where he was curious, he was not…overly rude. Clearly, Arashi wanted his secrets to remain secret, and he had gone to great lengths to keep them secret. However, sometimes it was the lack of evidence that you needed.
A secretive man, a leader, one that disliked Mei Terumi. Highly proficient in Sealing Jutsu. Anyone could make a Seal that locks a door; anyone could make a Seal that reinforces a door and makes it hard to knock down; anyone could make Seal that do the same to walls and floors to make a room protected on all sides. What just anyone could not do, was make Seals that blocked all entry, even down to oxygen particles in the air.
Shin'en couldn't even use his hydrokinesis to "see" inside, try to get a picture of the layout, like the size and shape of the bed, if there was any furniture, how big the room was, etc. There wasn't any water inside the room to use. To be that good in Sealing Jutsu, to be a descendant of a clan that was, in Arashi's own words, "all but extinct…"
Shin'en had to wonder if that black hair was really black.
Anyway, since he couldn't get into Arashi's room, Shin'en went for Bullock's.
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It was just as plain as Sukina's, with dark green bedding, dark clothing, and the bookcase in his room was filled with spools of wire of varying widths and types, and tools and maintenance equipment. There were also a few photos of him in his younger years, with his parents and older brother. Bullock stood apart from them, neither smiling nor frowning.
The look on his face was of one who understood that he was the black sheep of the family, but instead of being bitter about it he accepted it and didn't care for it.
Shin'en cased Bullock's room like he did Sukina's, looking for anything hidden. Hidden entrances, hidden items, hidden Seals, but he found nothing. However, Arashi's tight room had Shin'en wondering if the same Sealing Barriers weren't up all around the hideout, keeping other things locked tight, and it made him appreciate the fact that even though he was looking hard and thorough, there were still things he was missing.
From his understanding, Yūrei had been here for years, and so that gave them time to look over every nook and cranny to hide things, and devise methods for hiding them.
Satisfied with his snooping of Bullock's room, he left for the last occupied room.
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Yūwaku's room was just as plain as the others, only with yellow bedsheets and bright styles of clothes. She was also risqué, because she had more than just an underwear drawer (which was full of G-strings), she had a lingerie drawer filled with frilly, lacy things, garter belts, stockings, and…toys.
Despite his higher maturity, there was still the faintest dusting of red on his cheeks as he beheld the collection of dildos, plugs, beads, and vibrators. When he shut the sex drawer, he made a mental note to avoid ever opening that drawer again.
The other drawer that was of note was the topmost drawer of her dresser, because it was filled baby things. A few bottles, a few pacifiers, a few thermometers, a suction devise for retrieving excess mucus, a few blankets, even a onesie, all of it neatly folded and organized. However, what stood out the most in the drawer was the open package of training pants.
The color was faded and the package was wrinkled and torn in multiple places, and there was only a few of the trainers left out of the original twelve, according to the number on the package. Clearly, it had seen some use, both intended and not.
Deciding it wasn't worthy of any further investigation, as Yūwaku was weird and this was probably just more of her weirdness in action, he shut the drawer and continued his examination of her room. The bookcase was barren, save for dust, and there weren't any impressions in the dust to indicate that something had been there previously.
The bathroom was just as plain as Sukina's, and occupied with all the bathroom essentials and feminine products.
There was one thing that stood out, however, in Yūwaku's room, and that was a refrigerator. It wasn't big, not any bigger than Shin'en's ten-year-old self, and it didn't make sense. Refrigerators ran on electricity, and it was already stated that the hideout didn't have power, and this thing wasn't plugged into any wall socket, but Shin'en could still feel the cold around the fridge.
It was airtight as well, so he couldn't sense into it, but there were also no locking seals keeping him from opening the door. When he did, he almost wished he hadn't.
Inside, occupying the few shelves, were jarred organs. The jars were labeled, too: heart, left lung, right lung, left kidney, right kidney, liver, pancreas, stomach, brain, eyes, esophagus, larynx, small intestine (1/3)—and there were two jars with 2/3 and 3/3 on them—and the large intestine had been cut and jarred the same; there were jars that were labelled as spleen, bladder, gall bladder, veins, arteries, and various muscles and bones.
"What the fuck…" Shin'en whispered. Sure, he had seen jarred organs before, but not like this. Not collected, not so small-
…
Small.
Leaving the door open, Shin'en went back for the drawer with the baby things, and retrieved the package of training pants. He went back for the fridge, looking at the admittedly tiny organs, and he examined the package again, looking for the size. After squinting and holding it up to the light for several minutes, he found it:
3t-4t. Recommended for boys 38-50 pounds.
Shin'en looked back at the organs, and pack at the package, then back at the organs. He wasn't a math expert, but he could make an educated guess on how much the owner of these organs weighed. But as he looked at the jars, he caught sight of one he hadn't seen earlier, this one labeled "genitals."
Inside the jar floated extremities, the size of a young boy.
These were the remains of Yūwaku's son.
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Shin'en slammed the door shut behind him, breathing heavily. He didn't understand why he felt so shaken, as he had seen things like this before….Perhaps it was all the questions that surrounded the situation, and all the possible answers.
Were those really her son's organs?
Why were they in there?
Why did she have them?
What the hell happened to her son?
Why did she keep a package of training pants?
Just…WHY!?
WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON HERE!?
Shin'en took deep breaths, going through the exercises Yugito had taught him for calming down and focusing himself whenever he got frustrated or mad. When he got ahold of himself, he concluded that he was going to have to ask someone about this.
With a mental command, the Shadow Clones he had spawned all dispelled, sending their chakra and experiences back to him. Shin'en had made Shadow Clones so he could cover more ground in the fastest manner possible. While he wanted to examine the bedrooms himself, he didn't want to be bothered with looking through every passageway and closet around.
As Shin'en sat at Yūwaku's door, digesting his newfound knowledge, he also reviewed what Yūrei had told him.
Arashi's family was all dead. Bullock's family was all dead. Sukina's family was all dead. Yūwaku's family was all dead. Arashi's circumstances were unknown, but Bullock was going to be sold into the sex trade by his own parents, and he killed them and his big brother. Sukina had been a happy girl, who had watched her parents get killed, before living on the run in the streets. Yūwaku had been a slave with a good master, and then raped by that master's son when her first period came. She could've been anywhere from eleven to fifteen years old when that happened. And then she ran away after birth, raising her son on the run, only to be captured, her son killed, and his organs apparently jarred and refrigerated.
Christ, it was a mass of tragedy.
Dead family everywhere.
And then Shin'en realized three things: the first and second was that he hadn't ingested any sustenance, or gotten any sleep, in the past 24 hours, and the third was that his story and Yūrei's were all the same. That made him sour, for a reason he couldn't explain. His eyes darkened even further and his mouth curled down slightly.
He didn't want to be like them. He didn't want any kind of association with them. They were shinobi. To share common ground with shinobi was like being a shinobi. And Shin'en wanted nothing to do with them. Take advantage of their training and techniques to wipe them from the history books, sure. But to be like them…
Shin'en shot to his feet suddenly, almost in a trance.
Human bodies entering his field of range. Not Yūrei. All male. Youngest: estimated age is fifteen. Oldest: estimated age is twenty-six. Chakra natures: Water and Earth. Number: thirty-nine. Trajectory: here. Threat level based on preliminary information: Low.
Chosen course of action: genocide.
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And there's Yūrei's backstories. Arashi is a member of the Uzumaki, as has been stated a few times in Backup Plan, Bullock's parents were going to sell him into the slave trade because he was a failure to them, and so he killed them and laid a trap for his older brother, killing him. Sukina had a happy childhood until she witnessed her parents' murder, and then she had to scavenge to survive. Yūwaku was born into slavery, yet was treated with kindness by her master, until he died and his son took over. Three years later, her son is killed and she goes feral.
I'll let you figure out her psychological problems, and why she has leftover training pants in her room, and why she treats Shin'en the way she does.
Also, we see the driving philosophy behind the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist, in that death is a mercy, a gift, a preventative measure, and a reprieve from all earthly concerns. Scroll back up to the very top to see Arashi's conversation with Shin'en to refresh your memory.
Anyway, this was an info dump chapter with lots of talking, but next chapter is back with the slaughter and the missions.
Sorry for taking so long with this one. I was out of town in Eureka Springs, Arkansas all weekend to watch the Passion Play. Didn't have any time to write. The Play was awesome though, and I recommend seeing it wherever you can watch it.
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