A familiar sight...
A building surrounded by a forest with several classrooms...
Kids flocking everywhere here and there...
It wasn't an ordinary place..
The Shinobi Academy...
The only school for young shinobi..
The first step to become genin...
I first took the entrance exam when I 5...
I failed.
I took it again when I was six...
I failed again.
Why exactly?
Although I wasn't an astronomical genius I trained enough with Ojii-chan to do the acceptable...
I wasn't dumb either.
But there was only one part of it that always pulled me down.
Medical Evaluation ...
It wasn't that I was sick. I didn't have that weak of a body either...
...
That morning , I went to the Shinobi Academy for the last time.
My third try.
My last...
I was probably older than most of the other should be first year academy students but that didn't matter..
Taking it for the third time...at first everything was the same...
Physical testing..
Written exams...
I couldn't do perfectly but I was decent enough not to fail...
I gazed again at the familiar white office. Then entered a woman with brown hair.
She wore her white coat proudly with a Konoha headband on her neck.
"Umm...hello...Sachiko-san.."(Reiko)
I said nervously to the medic-nin, Sachiko-san. The first one who told me about my defective chakra.
"You're here again, Reiko-chan?"(Sachiko)
"Umm, I guess so. I was hoping my chakra perhaps could've gotten a bit better?..."(Reiko)
I hear her sigh in exasperation.
"You're chakra doesn't grow with your body. There isn't much to spare. I hate to say it again but I hardly doubt you could be a shinobi. Chakra is something unfortunately to be born with...you barely even have enough for a passable fail..."(Sachiko)
"Yeah, I know.."(Reiko-chan)
I couldn't help but clench my fists nails marring my palms slightly red.
"Don't worry..this...is the last time. I know that I likely can't be shinobi. Call it a goodbye..I guess if likely this doesn't work out I'll start learning oto-san's dumpling recipes."(Reiko)
"Haaa...why do you even want to be one so badly... "(Sachiko)
The medic-nin muttered under her breath as she scurried to get her tools.
"It's the last time..I promise...sorry for bothering you, Sachiko-san. I just wanna make it clear for Ojii-chan as well that there aren't any hopes. I guess I've come to my senses..."(Reiko)
Suddenly, I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. I looked to be greeted by those warm grey eyes with a slight sigh.
"Look there other paths aside from being a shinobi. Don't beat yourself up. Anyhow, alright ready. You know the drill."(Sachiko)
Despite how this is, I'm glad that Sachiko-san has always been nice. She was a civilian who became a shinobi so understands it the best.
I gave her a subtle warm smile in return.
"Yes, thank you, Sachiko-san."(Reiko)
I'm truly grateful.
Over the years I got to know her. She's the only one those medic nin that didn't look down on me because of my defective chakra.
She was a stiff person at first but after getting to know her after several times failing to do much about my chakra you get to know she's really nice.
As the brown haired medic-nin began, I couldn't help but reminisce with a sigh..
The examination at most just consisted of checks of this and that whatnot that let me wait through it in my head. Sachiko-san's probably got the work done just fine without me being that mentally present.
In my mind a woman with brown hair and warm black eyes gazed at me.
I then remembered that dark abyss as I fell to depths of the ocean floor. That hurt. It was dark as the water engulfed my lungs as I gasped for air with no tomorrow (literally).
Truthfully...
I don't even remember how I ended up drowning in the cold damp depths...
I do remember feeling intoxicated to the point of oblivion.
Did I drink?..
I don't know. I don't even barely remember the last few weeks before waking up as completely different person.
Nonetheless, all I know was that I drowned and most likely died right there.
Where even...who knows...
Now that I think of it...what a waste..
I just passed my board exam...the week before.
Only just a bit more of waiting I would have been all set..
I can't believe years of headaches and late nights were all useless this way. That just kinda cruel...
Wait what was I studying again?...
Oh no...here we go again...
Over the past year I realized my memories were starting to slip away.
Things were getting real blurry in my mind. It was if a storm ran through swiping everything so slowly that held through desperately.
Hah...what am I gonna do?
It seems that now I'll have to live through the third Shinobi war upcoming...
How scary...
Ojii-chan's...the one who worries me the most. I can't believe lord Hokage called him to do such a thing...
"Reiko-chan...can you give your arm a bit for the chakra test?"(Sachiko)
"Wha?-oh.. um yes.."(Reiko)
The medic nin all of a sudden with a bittersweet smile that caught off guard I answered surprisedly.
Oh...
Here we go again.
Meanwhile...
Third pov
A man walked slowly through the blurry familiar path. He grinned quietly to himself in reminiscence.
The tall stone grey walls stood proudly on the carefully carved earth path.
The bright dawn shone on the river near the path and embraced the place in a warm subtle light.
The man stood still all of a sudden.
A weary feeling came over him as he gazed at the rowdy crowds in the streets.
Gazing at children that played and ran around carelessly.
He walked slowly again but his gleeful silent melancholy was now mixed with a deep woeful knowingness.
Gazing to his left now, he found young men drinking rowdily at his uncle Toshiro's bar.
One man pushed the other one down. He drunkenly pulled on the other's crimson hair as they exchanged subtle blows. Arguing playfully.
The men brawled and laughed then noticing the reminiscent one's gaze waving gleefully.
Despite the brawl they waved and tried to invite him to drink with them.
Like the comrades in arms that they were..
Were..
Though hesitant the reminiscent man walked slowly towards them.
"Oi, Ruki-kun wa't ya waiting for? You've been missing out on the fun!"
One of the men sitting on the tavern table alouded calling out to the reminiscent man.
Ruki stood frozen as he gazed at him. Those familiar cheeky fox eyes and...
Red flowing Uzumaki hair...
One of his clansmen...
His cousin.
Uzumaki Kaito...
' I should've never left you on that boat..'
The man, Ruki, thought as tears flowed inside his mind.
Feeling a hand on his shoulder, he gazed behind him.
A woman gazed at him with her violet eyes scolding.
Her long crimson hair was tied in a rough bun.
She wore a flowy yet sturdy green kimono. Round face puffed red.
It's been so long since Ruki had seen her face..
Her daughter really did look like her so much that it brought tears to his eyes.
"Ruki! Are ya' gonna drink again?! After what you did last time, No way am I gonna take you home, dattebane!!"
His sister shouted pinching his cheeks hardly.
"Hai, hai! It'll be a just a tiny bit! I'm not a lightweight!!"
Despite the feelings and thoughts inside, Ruki answered gleefully. He couldn't control it. After all, this was nothing more than a memory.
A figment of the past just maybe he wished to forget yet at the same forgetting any of it scared him..
His body moved like a puppet to strings as he could only watch the scenes that unfold.
Despite the happy scene, Ruki was horrified.
It felt chilling to see the people you once knew.
The familiar figures infront of him chattered with glee. Kaito and Ruki's sister sat beside each other pouring the sake in the porcelain cups.
One of the men swiftly tried to snatch one but his hand was swatted away painfully by the woman.
"Don't even try, Matsuo-kun. The first glass goes to nii-chan who's just returned from his mission, dattebane!"
"Oh come on! Ruki always gets the first cup! I'm the one who's just got promoted to be heir to the clan, ya know!"
His sister scolded as the young man ,Uzumaki Matsuo, cradled his injured hand gazing at her with his pouting violet eyes .
A scene replayed in Ruki's mind...
That is..
Of the last time he even saw Uzumaki Matsuo as he left for the mission with that childish smile and the despair on the clan head's face to hear the news after.
"No one cares! It's a nightmare to think you'd be a clan head , dattebane! You're a complete lazy drunk! Not to mention there's no way your older cousin Mahiro-sama would lose to you. He's the one who's likely gonna be clan head "
"Cut me some slack! It's called living! Don't be so crooked like my dad! We don't need two sticks in the mud! I can definitely win against that stoic stick face!"
His sister and his friend Matsuo quarrelled. Ruki felt tears flow inside as the scene played.
No matter how long it's been it felt like just yesterday.
"When will you two grow up! Hahaha! Matsuo your dad's been looking for you by the way. I'll warn ya now he ain't looking happy what'd ya do?"
Ruki replied gleefully despite his agony inside. He couldn't control himself.
That self that had no idea of what's to come. No matter how he tried he was trapped inside his own mind.
"Quickly, nii-chan get the first cup before Matsuo gets it, dattebane!!"
His sister shouted wrestling against the rowdy young Matsuo as he struggled for the cup in her hands.
"Hey! Let me have that! Dad's probably gonna screw me for a lifetime! Give me my last cup of joy!"
Matsuo shouted as he reached for the cup realizing his father learned that he might have caused trouble at the market square the day before only to be suddenly sucker punched to the gut.
"Cut it out! When I say nii-chan gets the first cup. Nii-chan gets the first cup, dattebane!"
The young red headed woman shouted loudly crimson hair raising from subtle growing chakra.
Perhaps in fate's cruel playfulness, Ruki felt the sensation in his hands. Subtle and knowingly short he somehow regained control.
His gleeful younger self then was nowhere to be found as Ruki screamed and stood up urgently.
"Run! We need to go! if we don't.. you'll all die like before!"
Ruki shouted fearful horror trembling in his face as the deepest memories replayed in his mind.
He did so knowing deep inside it was nothing more than a trap. A cruel teasing perhaps by his own cynical mind.
No matter how he tried he knew he couldn't change the past.
The figure's all gazed at him in confusion.
"Please... believe me... This whole village's gonna go to hell!"
Ruki pleaded his heart and mind shaking in horror as those times crossed his mind in a storm.
"Ruki...-"
One of them replied to him.
He thought maybe he could change it. Prevent the cruel loss that was embedded in his soul but deep down he knew there was nothing he could do.
"Oi! Ruki drink slowly, we can't have ya passing out drunk in the middle of it again! You're the worst drunk of us all!"
Kaito shouted wanking him playfully on the head.
"No... P-PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME SEE THAT AGAIN!! D-DONT!"
Ruki shouted fearfully but they only laughed and drank.
It was if they couldn't hear him at all. They couldn't hear him..
In the last desperate act he reached out his trembling hand to them only for the scene to disappear in a puff of raging smoke pushing him away harshly.
The smokey fog surrounded him with completely barely any sight to see.
'No...NO!..No-O!'
'Please don't make me see it again!!'
He pleaded to the smoke only to hear faint footsteps in the close distance.
He looked behind him towards the sound despite the deep knowingness of the horror he's to see.
A familiar figure walked towards him in the smoke.
Her crimson haired bun was a complete mess and her green kimono ruined in the cuts and ashes.
Her once bright violet eyes shook in dull horror in the fading light inside.
He felt frozen still as he gazed at the sight feeling the crackling shivers down his core.
"N-nii-...chan"...
His sister spoke out weakly in a hoarse fading breath as her body fell helplessly limp on the bloody burnt earth.
Her crimson hair fell like subtle red blossoms in the wind as they withered.
The cruel sight made him drown in bitter melancholy. He despised how he knew he could never forget that sight.
Ruki ran to her fading light without a minding thought of what was happening as the village, his home, burned to ashes and blood.
He held that familiar fading warmth tight to his shivering hands as he gazed a straight trembling look deep in her dull eyes.
"No... don't go...Kaya-*sobs* Yano-chan please- ...just breathe! don't you dare stop breathing!"
His younger self begged shakingly as the warmth of her hands turned frigid agonizingly slow.
He tried to hold the raging tears but they fell as he felt her last breaths coming quicker as she smiled sadly crimson trickling down her pale lips and hands holding his hand with fading strength.
"...Ni-...ni*coughs*... p-please..take care of Shina- for me...p-promise me.."
She said with that fading bitter smile as her light inside slowly bade him farewell body frozen frigid and pale.
Ruki trembled but as he tried to cradle her familiar face regretfully in his hands the scene faded in a swarm of cruel crimson flowers.
In his sight was no longer the sight of his burning homeland but a vast forest as his younger self ran with his wife and son along with his cousin Kaito running from their relentless pursuers.
Watching the scene, he drowned painfully in a foreboding painful feeling...
"Ruki-kun... they're catching up. I'll go the other way and distract them. You should worry about your family first. I promise I'll catch up. We won't make it to the port to Konoha. It's best to take the caravan at the back of the village border."
Kaito said using his chakra sensing as he ran while looking behind them.
With what he was to say...Ruki felt his younger g self a complete idiotic imbecile...
Not knowing he was to regret it for the rest of his life every time he remembered Uzumaki Kaito's bloody cold faced corpse on that port.
"No. I can't have you do that. Don't be a fool. It'd be much safer in the port. Not a lot of Shinobi unless they've lived in Uzoshio for years like us know about the port. It's hidden with seals."
Ruki said sternly.
"I'm serious Ruki-kun. You've been out of the village for too long. You need to trust me it's much safer to go to the caravan."
At his reply the other man heaved a sight but sensing the kunai quickly body flickered both of them away.
The next sudden moment all of them hid narrowly from sight in the shade of the trees.
His wife held young Tetsuo tight with her trembling hands whilst Ruki shushed Kaito's mouth urgently.
Sensing their pursuers far from their hiding place they all calmed with silent breaths of relief.
"Can you sense them Kaito-kun?"
Ruki whispered softly to the other man's ear making sure to be unable to be heard by others except themselves.
Focusing his chakra Kaito's face revealed more relief as he nodded in reply.
At that reply Ruki finally let loose the exhaustion he tried to contain as he tumbled to the ground fortunately caught by Kaito in time.
"Ruki-kun! What happened!?"
Kaito said surging urgency in his whispery voice.
"I'll be fine but I used too much chakra. I barely have enough to body flicker both of us away but doing four people's too much. Luckily I brought a teleportation scroll. Dammit I needed it for later..."
Ruki said tiredly leaning on the other man's strong and sturdy hold.
"Haaah..this won't do...Kaito I need you to go to the port first. You're better at being discreet anyway. Tetsou's exhausted, it'll be a problem if he catches a fever. I need to recharge my chakra anyway. We'll catch up."
His younger self said slightly wheezing bit in a serious tone.
"You can't be serious-"
"It'll be fine. It'll take too long to get to the other side of the village for the caravan. We're near the port from the beginning anyway. Enough excuses, go!"
His cousin tried to reason with him but yielded to his stubborn belief that it was much safer on the port.
Uzumaki Kaito had always respected his older cousin with his might...
...
he shouldn't have...
That night... that's what killed him...
The memories flashed blooodily through Ruki's mind. He felt a searing pain inside as the worst horrors in his life played in his head over and over again.
Suddenly a pitch black engulfed him as he heard a voice calling to him ...
"Ojii-chan!!"
His grandchild, Reiko, called out.
Ruki stood up heaving heavily as his eyes opened to the supposed present.
His eyes landed on the mirror infront of his bed revealing the reflection of an old man with faded red messy hair rather than the former vibrant red of his youth.
The old man sighed finally returning to the present moment.
Ruki finally out his thoughts focused on the warm cup of tea in front of him tired thinking about his morning as he talked to his old friend.
"To think you still dream of it everyday, Uzumaki-san... I regret that I wasn't able to send reinforcements to Uzoshio on time."
Hiruzen said as he puffed a smokey grey from his pipe.
"Painful as it is, the past is the past. Despite the fact the it still makes me shiver in the morning, I would actually hate it more to forget."
The old Uzumaki survivor said melancholy deep in voice.
"Hmmm...is that so..How is your grandchild? I heard she's taking the academy exams again today. Shouldn't you be there waiting for her?"
Hiruzen said as slowly sipped the hot steaming tea in the delicate in his hands.
"Old age might have passed me well but I'm still a Shinobi. It wouldn't take much to return to the academy after we chat a bit. I just needed to talk to you about something rather urgent to me..."