Rated: R ( though I am not sure y...)

Disclamer: don't own, not mine

author's notes: Yea, I don't know what the deal was with five... that is just the way it came out, if that makes any sense to anyone.... For clarity, the portion before Ayame speaks can be viewed as a flash back of Raidou's or as the village gossip, after Ayame starts talking can be viewed as the present... I hope that helps... thanks for r and r and here we go....

( 16 years 2 months before ch.1)

The day was a beautiful one. IT should have been a day devoted to frolic and play. The sun shown down warmly on the earth, gently urging the flowers open from the previous night. The ground, still wen from dew, was producing a very enjoyable smell and all seemed right with the world. The birds were just now beginning to chatter away and do whatever it is birds do. It wasn't a fun day though.

Raidou sat awake, alongside his father and several other villagers. His mother had been crying out in pain for the last 4 hours and no one had been able to sleep. He was not allowed to see his mother for reasons he did not understand. So he sat, with tired and worried eyes, staring off into emptiness. He was a mere child of 5, but he was already showing certain abilities that would later be the talk of legend. The man he would become seemed caste over hm, like a shadow, but unrealized yet. He was still just a boy.

The men had sat around him and his father and had been saying kind and reassuring things to him all the early morning. His father's eyes had a look of tiredness and worry, but some other unrecognizable quality within them. It was something like joy. The rest of the men seemed content to simple be there, not really saying anything. In spite of this their presence still reassured Raidou, somehow.

In the inner room a miracle was occurring. One that the men outside were only vaguely aware of. His mother was giving birth. This ability to bring new life into the world was unfathomable to all but those who had experienced it. In any case several women rushed this way and that way and that way, fetching this and that, at the instruction of the shaman, the only man allowed to be there. The room was dark and reeked of stale air and effort. There was no breeze and this only made the room feel hotter. It was dark and on regular but quickly decreasing intervals, was filled with Raidou's mother's screams.

It was on one such a scream, a particularly bad one, that Raidou tried to extract information about what was occurring from is father. " Why is mom in pain?"

" Your mother is in pain because of life.." Raidou's fathers voice seemed to have an annoyed and distant air, as if he had answered this question at least 100 times.

" Life causes pain, why?"

" It is simple the way of things..." Something happened here. Perhaps his father had an epiphany and realized that, unless he answered his son's questions, he would not stop. Perhaps he mere looked on his child, for the first time that morning, and was filled with a love that only a parent can have. But weather it be a change of mind or heart, his father began to speak. " Sometimes pain is necessary, it wakes us up.."

" What does that mean?" Raidou had the tone of a voice that all 4 year olds have. His mind was just starting to understand what adults call real, but he was still unsure of himself. His voice would carry this way for the rest of their talk.

" If I am happy, then would I ever change, son?" His father decided to try a diffrent approch.

" No... No, right?"

His father nodded in approval, then continued, " Is there any point to me being a part of this clan if I don't change? Or, if I don't do anything, am I helping anyone?"

" Your not helping anyone..." Raidou answered his dad, still unsure where he was going.

" Then why are you here?" his father asked simply.

" I don't know..." Raidou was silent for several minutes, which almost worried his father. For his son was never quite for any given amount of time. Then he finally asked " So I am only worth something if I can do something?"

Without thinking or even really hearing the question, dad answered " Yes"

This set his mind in motion. He was quite for almost 30 minutes after that. He thought of things whose words would be lost to his memory, but whose power would influence his very soul. He decided, without realizing it, that if he could not be the best, there was no point in his living. His mind found ideas that he was still incapable of expressing with words, yet they were there. It was on that day he decided that the only true reality of the universe was power and that anyone who would try to take his meaning away would have to pay, dearly. Of corse his thinking was not nearly this well articulated or even understood by him, but the seeds of the future were laid that day. What would end, began that day.

And it was as his thoughts began to reach an end that he heard something he had never heard before. Indeed the entire world had never before heard the unique cry that came from inside the room. The body to who the voice belonged was something the world had never known before and would never know again. His father allowed a huge grin to form across his lips and hit his son, lovingly. The other men all shook his father's hand and offered him their congratulations. A woman came out and siad it was a boy, whom the Shaman had named Shiden. After a few minutes Raidou and his father were invited into the small hut where the miracle had happened.

"Come hear, my son and meet your brother." Raidou was given the strangest looking blanket he had ever seen and it was only after a small arm found it's way up threw the blanket that he began to realize what it was. He was filled with another emotion, one that he could not define. And he felt, for the first time in his life, contrast between his mind and his heart. And, at that moment, there was still hope...

Afterthoughts: I just want ur thoughts on this one... I didn't like this ch. to much, just felt as though it wasn't up to par, but I have been told I am to harsh with myself.... am considering redoing it, though I am not sure how, tell me what u think... Thanx...