Seven years later...
Mato rolled out of his bed early in the morning. After his nightmare, he was unable to get back to sleep. He yawned as he shuffled out into the kitchen. He fried up some eggs, ate quietly and put the bandage over his left eye as he headed out into the town.
He put the bandage over his eye because it was the one eye that he couldn't repress his bloodline in. The other one was a deep grey, and the other one was the nightmarish symbol of a murdering clan. He could get the kegaregan to appear in either eye, but he always tried to repress it.
Anything that made him out of the ordinary physically he shunned and tried to change, but that cursed eye would not leave him. He hid the eye so that the townspeople would not have to be reminded of his family whenever they saw it.
They still knew it was him and that he was related to them, but Mato sensed a little less hostility when he covered it. He often dreamt of villagers saying "Cover it up. You ought to be ashamed just to breathe our air. You are a disgusting creature, so hide, hide from the one's you frighten! Go die filthy, unclean monster!" chanting and chanting it at him while throwing things at him. And for some reason, he couldn't get away. No matter which way he ran, they were there. Scorning him, just for living.
And so he hid his face, doing odd jobs for money so he could pay the next rent, or buy another meal.
He had graduated the Ninja Academy at the age of nine. With no one in his life (the other children hated and feared him as well) he turned to training. He had no talent for Taijutsu, so he focused on Genjutsu. Illusionary techniques were his best. He trained so hard using them on himself, trapping his mind, body and soul in an illusion.
All of his classmates thought he was a weak ninja because he couldn't throw a shuriken accurately, or because his transformation jutsu needed a little bit of work.
Yet none of them could see why when they were sparring and Mato lost, why he never had a scratch on him. This was because they weren't really fighting Mato, and the Sensei's could tell, they just didn't like to acknowledge him because of his bloodline.
Mato walked out to the forest just beyond the wall of the village to collect some much needed firewood. He went deep into the wood, searching for a plump old tree. He found a sturdy, old oak tree and started chopping at it with his axe.
Just as soon as he was ready to drop the tree, he heard what sounded like an explosion. He wiped the sweat off of his brow, replaced the bandage he had taken off to cut, and set off to investigate.
When he arrived he saw one of the girls that had been in his Academy class, Huurin Tenrikyo, had been the source of the explosion. It seems that she was being pursued by some rogue ninja from the country they had seceded from, and she was tossing exploding tags at them.
Huurin had been the number one student in Mato's class, and she was the kumorikage's daughter. She was the only one who actually saw through Mato's genjutsu other then the Sensei.
As she hurled tag after tag, Mato found himself stopped, watching her fight. Every now and then she would touch her forehead, close her eyes, and toss another perfectly placed tag. He was impressed with the abilities her bloodline granted her.
By simply gathering chakra to a specific part of her brain, it allowed her to analyze every factor in the environment around her, giving her the ability to 'see the future' in combat. The more chakra applied, the deeper the analysis. The distant future could be seen in a mystic sense, but only through complete mastery of this bloodline.
Eventually, the enemy ninja seemed to retreat. As Huurin threw a final tag at the fleeing opponents, one of them sprang out from the group.
"Bitch! Let's see how much you can predict when you are blind!" The suicidal shinobi shouted as he threw a powerful flashbomb at Huurin's feet, her last tag exploding in his face, killing him instantly. With her chakra depleted, she couldn't foresee the attack completely, and couldn't shield her eyes fast enough. Everything went white in her world, as she fell to the ground.
Mato leapt out of his hiding spot and caught Huurin before she could hit the ground. He was surprised at his action. Usually he didn't interfere with others. He looked down at her with his revealed eye. She struggled in his arms, then fell limp.
There was a rustling sound out in the forest, not much more than a mouse or squirrel would make, but enough. Mato threw a smoke bomb down and rushed off into the woods. He had her slung around his shoulders as he leapt through the tree branches when the shuriken started flying past them. One of them grazed his face as he cursed aloud and formed a seal
"Yume Bunshen no jutsu!" Several Dream Clones appeared and went out in all directions. The Enemy ninja spread out to chase each one, but the real Mato had unveiled his Kegaregan and had used its illusion suggestion techniques to conceal himself and the unconscious girl. After he made sure it was safe to do so, he started running in the opposite direction. The problem was that he had led them toward the city. The ninja, if they were dumb enough to try and enter, would be crushed, but if they were smart enough to turn around, then they would have an increased chance of running into Mato and Huurin if they tried to get to the town.
After a long ordeal of traveling and making sure he covered their tracks, Mato finally unrolled his sleeping bag, set the blinded kuniochi down on it. Now, twice in one day, he did something he hadn't done since he was little, before his cursed eyes had formed, he smiled honestly at his downed comrade. He shook it off, puzzled by what she did to him, just by him looking at her.
She was a beautiful kuniochi all right : slender, just under average height, jet black hair, intense green eyes, and a face that actually made the isolated Tsuki smile warmly. He looked away, breaking the trance she had over him. He started a fire and began to cook some of the instant ramen he brought with him whenever he went out logging.
He could tell his bunshen were still running, and they still had about ten miles until they reached the town wall, so he didn't feel the need to hide the smoke from the fire. He took out a kunai and used it to slice the sleeve of his shirt off. He made it into a blindfold and placed it over Huurin's eyes.
About a half an hour later, the raven haired ninja stirred a bit, then sat up. She pulled off her blindfold and was about to open her eyes when Mato leapt behind her and placed his hands over her eyes.
"You don't want to do-ooh!" Mato had attempted to warn her about her damaged eyes, but she had seen this action as a threat. So, she not-so-gently placed her elbow in Mato's lung.
"I think I do" Huurin said, opening her eyes. She caught a small glimpse of the campfire before everything went white and searing pain shot through her head.
"Ahh!" she screamed, falling back onto the sleeping bag. "What did you do to my eyes!"
"Nothing! I saved you from those Ninja! Don't you remember? They attacked you, and you did a really good job of holding them off, but one got you with a flashbomb as you killed him. I happened to be nearby...so I saved you..." Mato said, rubbing the spot where she hit him.
"How do I know your not one of them?" she yelled, punching him in the face.
Mato fell backwards and rolled twice. Man, she has got quite a punch. He thought, sitting up.
"Chimata no kami keeps us safe in his shadows, the same shadows this village has fallen upon" He quoted the village password.
"Hm...Ok...I still don't trust you though." The weary kunoichi said, laying back down.
"You know, if I wanted to kill you, I could have done it in those hours while you were asleep..." Mato said quietly.
"Doesn't make me trust you" she whispered.
"You hungry Huurin?" he asked, holding a cup of ramen for her to smell.
"How do you know my..." the word was going to be name...until the scent flowed into her senses "Favorite flavor of Ramen was Shrimp!" Mato handed her a pair of chopsticks and the ramen carefully, and she accepted them. As she started eating, Mato did another thing he hadn't done since his youth : he chuckled.
Thank you for reading my newest chapter! More on the way I promise!
Next time: Fight in the Darkness : Find me by my voice!