Sixty Five
She watched as children, all grinning, all laughing, poured out of the Academy, their hands clutching hitae-ate with a sense of utmost pride. Parents and siblings raced forward, embracing them and telling them how amazing they were, how important. Everyone was ecstatic, some were even crying. No one was left out.
But she could see it. Even if they couldn't. The ghost of a blond boy, sitting sadly on a swing while others looked over and ridiculed him. A black haired child walking away, no family to comfort him. She didn't know where she was; she couldn't even remember what she had been doing that day; it was all a blur. Had she been happy? She was sure she had; it would not have made sense otherwise. Had Barako cried? No. Barako was strong; she would not cry over a silly ceremony.
Then why did she feel so sad?
Where had her life been, that day?
She watched as a particularly small boy sat upon his father's shoulders, waving the headband high in the air like a banner. At that age he didn't know what it symbolized, what that band of metal and cloth would do to his life and body. He didn't know that that simple object would determine who his enemies were, who he was. He didn't know that it would shape his life.
None of them knew. None of them knew that it was the final sign that they were killing machines, weapons of war, pawns. They didn't know who moved them, nor that someday they would do the moving. Each happy mind had just been sentenced to a life of darkness. There was no light for the shinobi. That had been proven many times.
They were ignorant. Maybe that would get them killed someday. Maybe they would be lucky enough to die before they graduated Chuunin, or even Genin. Because no matter the pain, it was nothing compared to what must come.
She would cry for them now. She knew that they were the future, the hope of Konoha. But right now, she just wished that they had taken a different path.
She knew what it was like to be the last one.
She knew what it was like to be killed again and again, if not physically.
She knew what it was like to kill, to hurt, the taste of blood in her mouth.
She knew what it was like to be a shinobi.
Pure hell.
They had just stepped off the brink.
"Congratulations, graduate."
Welcome to the Underworld.