THE ROGUE

"Mommy, I wanna be a ninja and protect the Mist like all the other shinobi in the village," I said excitedly upon returning home after witnessing the grandeur of a shinobi ceremony in the village center.

"SHUT UP! Don't you ever say that again!" My mother screamed at me, slapping me hard across the face. I held my pale cheek, now red and stinging from the impact. She was drunk again. Why wasn't I surprised? "Only a fool becomes a shinobi. Only a fool would throw her life away for nothing!"

Tears welled up in my eyes as I held my smarting cheek. She was always like this when she drank; I hated it. She insulted the one thing I truly wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a great kunoichi more than anything.

I didn't know what it meant to be a shinobi back then; I was six years old. How could I know at that age? I didn't see the pain in my mother's eyes. If I had, I could have done something about it. I could have persuaded her to forsake our life in the village and start anew in a foreign land. Hell, I would have done anything to see her eyes shine again.

It is too late for that fantasy now. I am fleeing my home, Kirigakure, not for a casual change in scenery but as a rogue ninja, someone who was once a respected jonin amongst her peers.

I sprint through the branches of the forest leading away from the village with my mother's lifeless body cemented in my arms. My black cloak is soaking with blood, and the sweat is nearly drenching the rest of my body as well. The pounding of my heart beats like a war drum, resonating throughout me. Damn you, Daisuke.

"I know what you must be thinking and feeling, Aya, but everyone was partying and drinking. They were having a good time. That was an accident. Everyone involved are partially to blame. Those men were honorable and highly thought of in the village, but their part won't not go unpunished. They will be suspended from duty for a time. You need some time to take this all in, I know. Let someone be your support in this time of loss."

I couldn't but help think back.

You were wrong, Daisuke-sensei. I didn't think about anything when I saw my mother's limp body raped and beaten while four drunken shinobi stood off to the side, feigning remorse. It was then time had stopped, and my mind blanked . Only when I found myself covered in the blood of murderers did time move again. I don't even remember what happened.

But you were my beloved sensei; why had you not protected me? Why did you betray me? Why did you defend those animals?

"What have you done, Aya? You should never have taken this into your own hands! You will be imprisoned!"

Your words fell on deaf ears, Sensei. I can no longer follow your lead; I will not let anyone else hurt my family, small and fragile as it was. I'm going to take my mother away from the origin of her pain, the place that I had loved for so long.

My mind is still numb. I do not know where I am going. I am simply moving. If I stop, my mind will have time to grasp what transpired tonight. No, I cannot stop yet. I do not want to feel anything. I tell myself this for what seems like days when in reality only a couple of hours have past. The exhaustion kicks in and spreads like disease throughout my entire body.

At long last, I give into the physical weakness and collapse nearby a lake in a forest clearing teeming with violet water lilies. So this is where my body takes me, I think to myself. The lake my mother and I had visited when I was a child. I always remember her with dark brown tresses flowing in the spring breeze, and the flower I picked adorning them; she had a soft smile that made every feature about her glow.

"Aya, look at the pink one!"

A voice from the past brings me hurtling back to reality. I glance down at my mother's body in my arms. Her beauty is distorted with dirt and blood smudges. A piercing pain shoots through my chest at the sight. I clutch my breast to try and tame it. It is no use. It won't stop. My breathing becomes heavy and rigid as I futilely grasp for my sanity.

Aya. Mother. My little angel. Mother. I am so proud of you, Aya. Mother. I should never have doubted you.

"MOTHER!" I scream in torment, unconsciously grabbing a fist of hair. Tears flow freely down my grief-stricken face. No physical pain I have ever received as a shinobi could ever compare to this: the darkest breed of despair. I cling to her body, trembling, and continue to sob. "Don't leave me!"

The unintelligible mumblings of my hysteria progresses. I am not certain how much time passes like that. I just know that I gradually begin to move again. After cleaning my mother's corpse in the lake, I dig her a makeshift grave under the most prominent sakura tree, dropping a water lily onto her before saying good-bye forever. My life as a rogue shinobi begins. I have no clue as to what I should do now, Mother.

"Aya, I need to tell you something," my mother said after seeing my pitiful attempt at hiding my disappointment. I had been promoted to genin. Everyone's parents had been at the ceremony. Mothers and fathers. But where was my father? Mother never talked about him. I never met him. Was he dead? "I want to tell you about your father."

I was all ears; my dejected mood suddenly lightening. I nodded and sat on the sofa next to her in our living room. "Okay."

"I am sorry but I feel you should keep this to yourself. If others find out, it could cause you heartache, Aya. You understand?" I nodded my head to let her know I understood. She revealed the truth about my father.

Never had I expected it to be that. My father. He turned out to be the opposite of everything I had expected. It would have been better that he had died a noble death. That is not the case. My father turned out to be a criminal, one who wrought treachery upon his village and fled as an outcast, abandoning my mother in the process. He is a despicable person.

She fought in his defense, saying they were in love and that he made a mistake. She didn't have the chance to tell him she was pregnant with his child, and as a rogue, he wasn't allowed return to the village. She called it unfortunate; I called it cowardice. Still, peoples' opinions change. Things are a bit different now. I didn't know becoming rogue is a hereditary trait.

I don't know if it's for the best, but I will find this man who is my father. I will find him and make him acknowledge me by any means necessary. After all, he has a right to know about the child he helped create and see who she has become. I will find him. A man now known to be part of one of the deadliest organizations of shinobi today. A man known as…Hoshigaki Kisame.