Broken
"Senju Ai is now the head of her clan. As such, a certain level of decorum must be maintained - even as she learns to rain death on Konoha's enemies. The Elemental Nations will remember the Senju clan was feared with good reason." Continuation of: Cosmic Comedy. WARNINGS: Strong OC, OC-centric, Dark, Gore. Rated M for: Adult situations (limes), language and shinobi business.
Secondary warning: Homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual, asexual and transgender characters will be getting significant screen time. If that isn't your cup of tea, please don't read ^_^
Interlude 2 – The cycle of hate
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~Hagoromo clan coumpound, O'uzu island, thirty years before the creation of Konoha~
"Senju. Butsuma." The words are spoken as if rotten, spoiled... poisoned! A middle aged woman sits in the corner with her only remaining family – her grandson of barely a year old. "You claim you strike us out of love for your child, your precious Kawarama with his stupid little cross scar on his right cheek." She spits on one of her attendants, hating them all the more for what her family had endured because of them. They'd not only conspired with the Senju, they'd led the bastards right to them!
"You, the short one with one eye. Come here!" The woman demands, looking at a child of no older than ten. "Your mother helped the Senju, didn't she? Don't lie! I know she did!" She seems to enjoy hearing herself speak, but even more so, she enjoys inflicting pain on her 'servants'. Perhaps it is the pain of losing five of her children in one night; perhaps she's beside herself with grief. She gouges out the child's remaining eye regardless of her reasons.
"You there! Eat this!" She tosses the eye to the boy's little sister, who dutifully does as instructed – she knows a worse fate awaits her if she doesn't. "Don't you dare make a sound either! If my grandson wakes up, there will be hell to pay!" Odd, don't you think? That she's the only one making noise, but they'd pay the price if her grandson wakes up from her constant shouting.
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~Hagoromo clan coumpound, O'uzu island, twenty years before the creation of Konoha~
Hagoromo Tetsuma is everything you would wish your child never becomes. He's petulant, impatient, uncompromising, stubborn and proud of every bit of it. He likes taunting the servants too, in the worst way. He likes running into the women's bath, knowing they would never be able to complain about him – he isn't interested in seeing them, he just likes the way they scream when he does. He also seems to have inherited his grandmother's mean streak.
If he drops something, he always orders the nearest servant to pick it up, before jumping on them and demanding to know why they dare to touch his things. He'd even taken to using the servants as practice dummies for his training. They make the best dummies in his opinion – far more interesting that the wooden ones.
Lately, though... lately he's been taking a very different approach to things. He's starting to like one of the servant girls, but he knows he's supposed to hate her too – his grandmother told him that it's their fault that his parents are dead, so of course he's supposed to hate them. So he torments her most of all. She'd just turned sixteen, not that he'd know or care, and he likes to make full use of her developed body. Yes, he'd taken to punching her in the face fifty or sixty times every morning – it all depends on when she starts bleeding too much to keep around. She'd had such a pretty face, but you'd never guess it with the bandages she constantly sports.
However, as a responsible adult, you'd expect his grandmother to say something, wouldn't you? That her grandson is turning into a bona fide sadist should be the last thing she desires, no? She'd just smiled when she found out and told him to do it again to prove it – claiming that fifty punches was quite the feat.
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~Hagoromo clan coumpound, O'uzu island, twelve years before the creation of Konoha~
Tetsuma's grandmother had taken ill earlier in the week. He is simply beside himself with worry, and he can't seem to understand why she's not up and about as she usually is. That she's in her fifties shouldn't make any difference, she's usually the picture of health!
Sadly, like all things in life, hers came to an end. Her parting words to him: "Senju Kawarama and Itama cost us everything. Make the Senju pay!" That Itama didn't die until two years after her clan was slaughtered is somehow irrelevant to the fever stricken woman.
Alone in this world and surrounded by punching bags, Tetsuma became ever crueller, even more heartless. His inhibitions were laid by the wayside and forgotten. He began his training his 'army' against the Senjus. Only, he did it his way. They were taught the barest of taijutsu and swordsmanship, only to ensure they could make it to the intended targets. Then they were taught to use the signature forbidden jutsu of the Hagoromo clan: Blood Explosion. They were taught to use drops of their blood as incendiaries, only he'd corrupted the training and taught them to use it while said blood was still in their veins. Instant catastrophic explosion. Sure, they were killed in the process, but how was that important?
Another 'interesting' habit he'd picked up, or just embellished upon from his youth, is entering the women's bath while everyone is busy. Over the course of the last decade and a half, the women had simply grown accustomed to his presence. That of course meant he had to step up his game. After all, he was doing it to hear their screams! What's the fun if no one screams?
So what do you get when you put a hormonal 'man' age eighteen in a room of naked women that aren't allowed to deny him anything? Nothing good. They'd learned to scream again, only not of shock or surprise.
It isn't six months later that Tetsuma decides there's a problem. You see, he rather likes his private time with the girls – they are not women in his eyes, because that would mean they are his equal, and we can't have that – only, he's come to realise that some of the girls are getting fat. And usually the girls he likes to play with most. He doesn't like that. They shouldn't be eating so much!
So he decides that he they need to spend some time alone. He locks them in the cellar for weeks on end, only letting them out to have some more fun with them. That there are soon five more servants around than he was used to is merely a coincidence to him. After all, his grandmother never mentioned anything about where servants come from. Or anything about those funny scribblings on the wall either, but such is life. She can't tell him now, after all. She's only been rotting in her room for the last half a year – and he been certain to order the servant's not to touch her in her sleep. She always did hate it when the servants woke her up.
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~Hagoromo clan coumpound, O'uzu island, thirty years after the creation of Konoha~
Tetsuma can't help but feel annoyed. He's been training his army, but no Senju dare to come to him! Why won't they seek him out!? He's been patiently waiting, and training the servants for their arrival! There should be a grand battle taking place any day now! How dare they make him wait!?
Feeling his frustration boiling up, he turns to his current favourite servant girl. "I will make them pay!" He slaps her, hard. "Do you hear me, Senju! I will make you pay! PAY! PAY! PAY!"
"What are you looking at!?" He turns to the servant's lover, stabbing him in the eye with... whatever he'd just grabbed. "How dare you touch my grandmother's broach!" He rips it out of the man's eye and wipes it in his kimono.
"Clean that up and return it to my room will you?" He tosses it to the same man, and just goes about undressing the girl where she stands.
A year later, there'd be a servant boy named 'Pei', but he just never could understand why anyone would name their child that.
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~Hagoromo clan coumpound, O'uzu island, thirty-nine years after the creation of Konoha~
He can feel it. The same thing that happened to his grandmother is happening to him. He can feel it! And what's worse, there's still no sign of those damnable Senju to give his life meaning! So, he decides to go out on his own terms. He's a warrior after all, so he should go out in a blaze of glory!
He takes all the younger ones and locks them in the cellar, his only thought regarding them how many more there seems to be now that he'd had to find them all himself. But that's not even the point anymore!
No, because now that the cellars locked, now that he's certain they will starve down there in the dark... he starts to cackle. "You see what the Senju clan has done to you!? They are the ones that made me who I am! The Senjus made me this horrid person! Doesn't that anger you!? Don't you want to kill me!?" He is of course saying that to the servant girls that have come to see why their children are being taken away.
Unfortunately, Tetsuma's training methods kick in. All the servants hear is 'Senju'. And they'd been rigorously trained to kill anything they associate with the word 'Senju'. So the man now saying it naturally needs to die.
How does Tetsuma react? He cackles some more and runs out into the night, screaming and taunting them as he goes, "Come get me Senju-sama!"
The next morning, the boy named Hatsu decides it is quiet enough for him to risk using his trick to get out. It's a simple trick, only really needing to focus some energy into his finger and poke the spot where the lock should be. He's had to do this dozens of times, and Master never remembers who's been locked up anyway.
Only... Hatsu notices something wrong once they've gotten all the younger ones out. "Where is everyone?" Saki asks.
"I dunno. Must be out tending the fields." Deciding that he must be right, they tell the younger ones to stay put and they go out into the fields in search of their parents. All they find is the broken and mangled corpse of Tetsuma. His legs missing, and a sword sticking through his left eye, the three of them quickly decide he must be dead.
"We'll need that sword though! We dunno where everyone is, so we'll have to look after the others until they get back!" Hatsu declares.
If they would have only looked closer. They would clearly see the gaping holes in the landscape that show where 'everyone' ended up.
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~Hagoromo clan coumpound, O'uzu island, forty-nine years after the creation of Konoha~
"I don't want to hear it Pei! We have nowhere else to go! We have to make it work!" Hatsu shouts as his second in command. So what if they have to rob people? So what if the girls have to work the fields? They need to survive! The others will come back for them!
"Hatsu, listen to me. Those people from Tea, I don't trust them. Ever since we started trading with them we started getting sick." Pei explains earnestly.
"You think I don't know that!? But what choice do we have? We need to eat if we're going to survive! I mean, what if that freaky snake man comes back!? He's already take a few of the younger ones! We need to stay strong in case he comes back!" Hatsu just isn't listening to reason.
"No, we need to not be here if he comes back." Pei disagrees. "Last time he took five, how many will he want this time? And do you really think anyone here is strong enough to take him on?"
"Hatsu, listen to him, please! I'm just as worried as you are, but this isn't working out here anymore!" Saki pleads. But, as usual it falls on deaf ears.
"No! We stay here! The Senjus will come, and we will make them pay for what they've done to us!" Hatsu reminds them. It's something they've always known, after all. The Senju are the mortal enemy, they must be killed on sight. "But I can't do this alone. I will need your help." The only time Hatsu is ever really quiet, is when something worries him. Pei and Saki know this best of all.
"Fine. I will stay with you." Pei relents. As does Saki, eventually. She never can turn Pei down.
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~Hagoromo clan coumpound, O'uzu island, fifty-nine years after the creation of Konoha~
It's been a harsh and cruel journey, but they'd weathered the worst of it. There had been some bandits come to... well, do what bandits do. Hatsu stopped them, all of them. Between Hatsu and Pei, there was no one that could ever harm them again.
Saki has been feeling a bit... odd lately. But she blames it on being pregnant again. You'd think after two children, Pei would have stopped finding her so attractive. You'd be wrong though, he seems to crave her even more when she's bloated with his child. And for some reason he comes up with the oddest names too.
Kawarama and Itama. Really? Who names their daughter Itama? Still, she is such a sweetheart! With her two tone –black and white– hair, she's barely a year and a half old, but she can already claim every heart she comes across. And for some reason, Kawarama has a cross-shaped scar on his right cheek... She doesn't really remember where he got it from, but it seems like it's just always been there.
Later that night, everyone finds out that those bandits had done a lot more than just try to attack them... they'd ruined all the crops too! And now the water in the well tastes funny. No one understands what's going on, but there isn't a lot they can do about it right now. It's already too late, and they know it. The children are getting sicker by the day and slowly the adults are as well. They'll be too sick to even defend themselves in less than a week. What did those bandits do?
The barn door swings open, revealing the men and a group Saki knows she's never seen before. "Pei! What's going on?! Who are these people? Where's Hatsu?"
"Not now, Saki." He answers her, his tone almost urgent for her to be quiet. However, it isn't until Kawarama's best friend is throws up whatever it is that's been ailing him and his mother has him in her arms that Saki truly accepts they will be alright.
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~Konoha, two weeks later~
The journey to the Village hidden in the Leaves was not an easy one. Especially when one considers that they travelled with four pregnant women, each of them having delivered en route. Still, all things considered, it had been spectacularly uneventful. A special team had been waiting on their arrival to 'process' them, which the Hagoromo simply took as being identified before being let through.
What troubled the older generation, was when they were led into the Senju District. Senju. They'd known the woman that saved them was important... but a Senju? They'd been saved by the very people that their Master had hated more than anything in this unholy world. What's worse, especially for Pei and Saki, is that they know everyone of their group recognized the symbol for the Senju Clan – Saki'd had it carved into her lower back during one of Master's drunken fits. No, this simply wasn't going to work, not the way the Senju had envisioned.
And yet... the more the Hagoromo tried to object, the more they found they really couldn't object. They were given three houses to settle into. They were being taught to read and write. They were being taught proper diction. And there were even lessons on chakra control and swordsmanship. They were... being treated like kings compared to what they remembered.
Pei and Saki were also given true leadership roles for their 'clan', which no one dared argue with – they were used to it after all. Still, it wasn't until Saki had asked Kawarama what he thought of everything that the final piece clicked into place.
"I like it here. Everyone's so nice to us. And I think Ai-sama is really pretty. Don't you think she's pretty?"
They were at a crossroads. The older generation were far too used to thinking that the Senju were the devil incarnate, the younger generation are starting to think they are paradise made flesh. The two ideals simply cannot mix.
"This cannot go on." Pei points out at the Hagoromo clan meeting. "We are too at odds with the younger ones. Too set in our old ways."
"What can we do?" Another asks.
"We must choose for the younger ones. They are our future. We are the past." Pei answers, sincere and filled with regret. "It's for the best."
Six hours later, Anbu would be called in to process forty bodies, each with a kunai piercing their heart. It wouldn't just be ruled as suicide either. Senju Shizune had demanded that each of them be delivered to T&I so their memories could be scanned and a detailed report be offered for their reasoning – she knew Ai would demand no less.
So the day Yamanaka Inoichi offers her the scroll with his final report... will forever be remembered as the day a piece of Shizune both died and came alive once again. Odd, when you hear it like that, but to come to the realization that an entire generation of clansmen chose suicide so that their children could live in peace... She knows without question that the Senju would make the same choice if it ever comes to that. Now, she just has to make sure no one informs Ai before she returns from her mission –a difficult enough task in and of itself– and she has to make sure twenty-three children now solely in the care of the Senju clan are cared for.
"What a nightmare." She mutters to herself, wondering how she's going to ever manage with all her other duties.
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End Interlude 2
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A/N: Updated October 12th, 2015.