CHAPTER THIRTEEN- IMPACT
The moon shone above him ...the darkness swirled around in patterns that showed that there was clouds even when the sky was so dark that one wouldn't recognize them. The stars shining down twinkling and lit the sky so that without the moon it wouldn't truly be dark. This had been his world for a month ...as the boy would rest with his back against the bark of the tree. His eyes as dark as the sky, a black so absolute that no light escape, as he press his head against the wood and felt the grainy texture press against his scalp.
He was still alive.
Though that was all ... or maybe that was enough.
It had been decided upon his return, not a clean death, but, exile ...a slow death.
He had been deem unfit to continue in his duties, and the weak ...was not needed. Those whom couldn't protect themselves or serve no purpose were left behind, and so, he had been left here. Until he died, a failed experiment once more, and he accepted that ...but dying wasn't an easy thing to do. And, the boy was finding out that he was kind of bad at it...as his stomach rumbles, and he would sit up. The long broken body of a snake would be draped over the branch below him ...as he would simply drop down to where it rest. The large reptile had been halfway consumed already, one of his successful hunts as he pushes back lengthening hair.
It fell badly around his face, and was so thick and long that he might as well be a girl with all of it. It was hard to tell otherwise from a distance, and kept getting in his way vision wise. If it wasn't for the fact that long hair kept the parasites alway from his expose neck and face at times he would have hacked it off.
Hacked off hair ...
A memory would stir at that thought.
A girl ...a woman compared to him in age ... she had been left to die here as well. One he should have let die, but, his manta ...his mission still rang in his heart. He was a tool, but he was a tool to support the great tree of Konoha ...it's people and it's wishes ...were his to protect and support.
She and 9 others had been placed there with a curse upon them.
He remember seeing it from his studies ...what they looked like, the curse mark. Though the survival rate was dismal for all that had it put upon them, and they looked to all be half death. Their bodies shaking and wiggling in pain ...they would have died here, and it would seem that they had been left there unprotected to do just that. But, they were from Konoha, their headbands said so, they weren't Root. He could tell from how they moan and asked in so many ways for help ...Root never asked for help. That meant they were from the tree, and he was suppose to protect them, so he had guarded them during the night. Bringing food, water, and everything else needed so that they could survive, but nine of them had died anyway.
The girl he had thought was amongst them until she open her eyes and looked at him ...and he saw it for the first time ...hatred.
A flicker of a face would interrupt the memory, Tiger.
Maybe, not his first time seeing it, but it was his first time ...recognizing it.
She had recognized easily where she was, knew the lay of the land, and what had happen. She knew whom had done it to her ...and told him so, her master.., her sensei had cursed her, but it wasn't the curse mark that made her hate him ...it was the abandonment.
He had left her to die.
Though the boy couldn't understand why this bother her.
The weak died, and she had been weak when he come upon her. It made sense, and he had told her so as she explained her situation to him.
Though that wasn't enough, and she had told him as much.
Afterall, he had tried to save them ...and had saved her. So, obviously, he didn't completely believe that.
The boy could say nothing against as she continued her rant.
She told him heatedly that a real mentor didn't leave his subordinate to die, that if he cared about her, he wouldn't throw her away. And, that was when he understood how much emotion got in the way. She had felt more about her mentor than simple admiration, she had loved him.
The Memory would be overlapped again.
Tiger had loved Ox, too, and it had lost him a eye and would have cost her ...her life if he hadn't intervene.
Love is pointless and worthless.
He would not love.
Eventually, the man whom abandon her returned. Though his reasoning hadn't been to retrieve the living, but the dead or what was left, though he told her otherwise. Blaming their fate on some foolish error, and she had play along with his excuse. The girl ...Anko had promised not to tell her Mentor about him ...for he had seen him coming long before he reached them. He had wanted to take her away, but she wanted to go back with her mentor, but, it wasn't for good reasons.
He had given her ..his name as a promise to be kept secret from her mentor.
He couldn't understand how surviving wasn't enough for her, but then, that hadn't been enough for Tiger either.
The memory done, his mind would turn back towards food.
He would need to eat as much as he can this time, otherwise, the meat would go bad.
And once it started to do that, the scent would bring other more powerful predators.
That would make it worthless as food, but, he could use it for bait to capture more food if he was quick about it.
He would turn his face back to the stars.
He had learned a lot here ...left here when he barely had the energy to go a full thirty minutes without having to rest somewhere ...he saw only death here when he first arrived. When he couldn't carry much more than his own food satchel without his hands shaking, and when his legs would buckle and drop him when he over-extorted himself, he wonder if it would be bloody or slow. If he would starve or be torn apart first, and he was prepared for both.
He shouldn't have lasted the day according to his sensei ...he had thought he wouldn't last the night.
They had brought him here under the cover of darkness, so that none of the other students would be aware. His brother had known, the silver haired boy had been hiding under his bed when he was taken. They always slept together at night, and that night hadn't been any different. Though the boy had been more tense than normal, and constantly rubbing up against him as he shifted around all night, it had been good not to be complete alone.
They both knew he wouldn't last the night.
Though, he had expected a quick death ...as he remember their hot breathes on his back.
The pack of wolves had been hunting him from the moment he had been dropped here. Relentless, powerful, he had tried at first to escape them through the trees, but he didn't have the strength to climb up high enough and had fallen badly ...before he could get out of their range. Crashing into the midst of the pack, they had moved to tear him apart when his own power had activated.
The blood from the scratches, the deep wounds from their teeth ...it had summon his own power, his kekkei genkai, as his blood had responded to his need. The Spikes that had been summon in the pools had stabbed through the head of the leader, and the rest of the pack that had shared his blood shared an even more grisly fate. HIs body had attacked from the inside and fought it's way out.
It was what saved him, and what keeps him alive even now. He was stronger now thanks to his ordeal, and he was much more powerful than before.
The boy would pull one scale from the reptile's hide and cut his hand on it ...as blood would slowly seep from the wound, and he would start to concentrate on it ...as the blood itself would drip down, but not fall. Instead he would practice as he did every day since he discover his own skill with the substance ...as the blood would shape at his will into spikes, dripping further, he would shape it into a kunai with his other free hand and the badly fashion brush he had created. Then he would change the shape ...as he weave it into a pattern in the air ...as he drew it in the sky itself, the blood would form into that of a bird. The crow would spread it's bloody wings, the entire creature was about the size of his longest finger, it would perch there.
If he wanted to make it bigger, he had to give it more blood, but for now it was enough as he press his hand against the wound as the bird would perch higher on his shoulder to avoid being crushed.
"Scout for water."
He would tell it.
Though he had found plenty of water sources, he had learned the first week, that he wasn't the only predatory here. Though that was an understatement in this forest, his thoughts would turn the information slightly, he wasn't the most intelligent hunter here, and there were plenty of creatures that lay traps if they find out you frequent one place too much.
The boy would touch his cheek where a claw mark score it.
Corpse was his new name.
Though he had no plan of becoming one ...not just yet anyway.
The bird would disappear into the distances as Corpse would start to eat as much of his prey as he could stomach before he would move on. It's return would signal a new destination, as he would leave the snake behind and start forward into the darkness of the forest of death.
The wind was whistling as he traveled through it. Much stronger now, he had many scars along his belly, side, and face, but he had survived the worst of it. He wasn't going to die any time soon, and he was in peak condition now, no longer weak.
His mind turn this thought over more.
Solitude didn't bother him.
He had food, water, and could find shelter.
He wouldn't die easily here.
This would be a good home for him.
He would give an extra swing of the branch he was vaulting to as he would come upon it in a squat position. His eyes staring downwards, he knew better than to simple bounce downwards into a clearing. Danger often hid. Thus, he was still under cover as he came upon the water source to see him standing there. The commander, as the stars twinkling upon the water would give him an eerie glow as the man look upwards into the trees at him. Corpse would freeze, it was uncanny as the man locked eyes with him almost as if he had expected him there and had been waiting on him. There was no sense in trying to hide, he shifted a bit to test the theory and saw the eyes follow him, he knew he was here.
"Corpse, your exile is over. Return to us, Onryo."
The boy would move even though logic told him otherwise. He had thought the girl mad when she had gone back to her Master, but at his call ...Corpse saw no other life. He would follow him until told otherwise, as he left Corpse behind him. He would jump from the branch to land in the dirt at the commander's feet. It would be Onryo who bow on one knee in front of him in typical style of shinobi showing respect to his master.
The Commander would only nod once.
"You survived, so, you are worth keeping alive. Come with me, now."
The boy would follow as the man didn't turn to look not once behind him.
Onryo was his, Saitou was his child, though he couldn't give him the life of a normal shinobi, he would make sure that he would survive in this nightmare of one. That was his mission, his goal, as they left the forest and Onryo would return to training to find that his own little group was missing one ...a death had happen to his group, but it hadn't been his own.
Years would pass before he would have to experience another.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN -IMPACT END