Moons: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays readers. -gives presents-
Warning: Following chapter is short and contains lame angst and emo Sora killing. Not advised to read if you're trying to get into the holiday spirit. Because killing people is not Christmas-y -shakes head sadly-
Read between the lines
What's fucked up and every thing's alright
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone
~Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, Green Day
Sora looked around for sign of people. No one. Why did it still feel like a fight was going to break out again.
He walked down the path, katana gripped tightly in hand. Up above him, something dangled. It fell down. Sora screamed and swung his sword out. It cut through the head. The thing was a corpse and Sora had just cut off everything above the jaw. He took deep breaths and stared at the blood pouring out. He regained control of himself. There was nothing out here. Nothing but dead anyway.
The fight scene was far behind him now... He went to the nearest town, just outside Kuma no Kuni, and searched the streets. Nothing. The streets were dark and if anyone could see him, they couldn't see his automail. Not that there was anyone on the streets.
There was no sign of Brom or Kanemaru anywhere. He couldn't track, there was no way in hell he could go to shinobi for help, and Brom was the only one who could summon Kanemaru.
'I'm alone...'
He stopped at the edge of the town, right at the exit. It was night. He reached into his shirt and pulled out his rosary. He sat down, crossed his legs, and slowly moved the beads of the necklace as he counted the prayers.
He prayed for Brom to be okay, for him to find him so that they could be together again. He wasn't ready yet. Not ready to be on his own. He thought of Kitai for a second and prayed for Jashin to watch over him as well. He mostly prayed for forgiveness.
'I'm sorry I lost the fight. I'm sorry that I didn't do more. I'm sorry I let myself pass out. I'm sorry I haven't yet found the ANBU so I can finish them off. I'm sorry for injuring without finishing the job. I am sorry that I'm a failure... I'm sorry I failed you Jashin-sama.'
Sora felt sick. That feeling that you could have done more, but you didn't. The feeling that you've disappointed the one most important to you. He hated that feeling.
The message in his head repeated over and over. 'I'm sorry I failed you....please forgive me Jashin-sama.'
He recognized the feeling he hated so much during that time.
He felt pathetic.
Dawn was near. He didn't even care anymore.
"Hey look at that weird kid!"
"It's not nice to point, sis."
"But he's got metal hands an' an arm! How is that not weird!?" Sora sighed. He got up to go steal a jacket from some store in the town. The little girl was no longer pointing, but kept staring.
"Well it isn't nice. How would you feel if you looked different, like if you had metal arms? You wouldn't want people pointing and staring at you like a freak. The poor guy was probably in a horrible accident of some kind. What if he's a shinobi and lost his arm and hand saving someone's life!? You think about that?"
Sora still heard their words. He had to bite his tongue to hold back snickers. 'A shinobi saving someone's life, huh?'
"Oh... I'll ask 'im! Then-"
"You'll do no such thing! A man's past is his own business. Let's just keep going. We have to get there early."
"Okay, onii-san."
'Onii-san!' Sora turned around and say the girl walking off, holding her brother's hand. They looked a lot alike. Just like him and...
He growled softly. He pulled the rosary close to his face and whispered one final prayer. "Jashin-sama, please let Ichigo live so I can become a powerful immortal and kill him with the most painful death possible. ~Amen!"
Back at the sight of the fight there was nothing. Nothing had changed in a period of twenty-four hours. Sora continued looking in the area anyway. There must be some clue- something! And the feeling that it wasn't over. Why didn't it go away!?
When he felt the presence, it was just a little too late.
Sora was tackled from behind and pushed to the ground. He reacted by rolling over and punching back. The attacker punched back as well, but was no match for Sora's metal hands. Sora pulled off the mask and stared punching his face in.
"Okay! Stop! Please! I surrender!" The ANBU member was a blonde man. He looked up with a bloody face, breathing heavily as Sora lowed his hand.
"What do you want from me!?" Sora asked. He raised the fist, ready to punch again.
"I- I wasn't going after- Okay! Okay! I was going after you, but not at first!" The man stuttered. "W-we were ordered to go after the man. Br-brom was 'is name, I think. W-we didn't know you would be a part of it! I- I just wanted to cap-capture you just in cas-GAH!"
Sora lifted his fist from the face slowly. "Bastard!" He spat, punching him again. He took some blood from his cheek and licked it from his fingers. The man's eyes widened as the skeletal pattern formed on the skin.
"You know what?" He kicked his feet out, getting Sora off of him. He stood up and prepared to swing his own katana. "You really shouldn't underestimate the shinobi of the Konoha. Especially when they're ANBU!" He sent the sword through Sora's gut. Blood leaked out of the wound in huge amounts. It poured down his legs and to to the ground.
"Bastard, that really hurt!" Two metal hands grabbed the man and flung him to the ground.
"What the hell!?" The man cried out. Sora had barely flinched at the pain. "Do- do you even feel that!?"
"I just said it really hurt dumbass!" Sora shouted, "Hurts like hell!" He used both his legs and hands to scrape the blood around on the ground. He formed Jashin's insignia.
"Time to die~!" He gave a sick laugh.
The grass and ground was sprayed red. The ANBU was in tears now. He wasn't scared anymore. Just in pain. So much pain.
"Aw... it hurts doesn't it~?" Sora taunted. He was still standing by some miracle. Pain was erupting through both of their bodies and he was enjoying it so much!
If he was in this much pain, it meant so was the other. He felt how much the other was suffering, and it brought him such sweet pleasure knowing it.
'One who doesn't know pain doesn't have the right to inflict such suffering on others.'
"Just... end it... please... Please kill me!!" The man screamed out.
Sora snickered a little at his sobbing. "Alright. I'll kill you." He agreed. His body couldn't take much more anyway. It was straining him, biting at him to lie down and heal. Sora pushed the katana through his heart. The man uttered one last small scream, then dropped dead.
Some shuffling of feet came from behind him. The smile fell from Sora's face. Had he been caught? He quickly went around the trees and caught the spy. She was full-on crying.
The girl couldn't have been older than seven. Her eyes were brown and full of tears, blurring her vision. She wore a simple dress and her dirty-blonde hair was put in two buns. "W-why...!?" She sniffed, "Why'd you do that Metal Hands!? I- I thought you were a hero!"
Sora recognized her then. The girl walking with her older brother from that morning. "What are you doing here?" He asked.
The girls managed to slow down her crying enough to say. "Be-because I- I- I wanted to find you...-sniff- c-'cause I thought you were a hero!" She fell forward onto the ground and cried more and more. Sora paled and was left speechless.
Eventually the little girl's eyes refused to cry anymore. She was out of tears. "Why..." She sobbed, "Why'd you do it!?"
Sora sighed. "Firstly, he was the one who attacked me. I feel he deserved it. Secondly, I killed him for god. He was a sacrifice."
"S-sacrifice....!? B-b-but aren't those illegal? You can't even sacrifice sheep anymore 'cause of laws. -sniff- B-but humans!?"
"Mm-hm... my deity only accepts human sacrifices." He looked up at the stars.
"I am Jashin-sama's loyal follower. I exist only to kill for him. This is my destiny."
The girl got up from the ground. She balled up her hands into fists and began to scream.
"Well your god is retarded! Your religion is retarded! Killing people is wrong!! It's just wrong!! You're going to go to hell! You know that!? You're going to hell!! An- And I hope your god's the one who damns you there!!! 'Cause you're a bad follower of God and he hates you!!! FREAK!!!! "
The girl turned around and started to run back to the village as fast as her feet could go. Sora watched her go. His eyes shook and became bloodshot as her words repeated in his head over and over.
A kunai flew past the girl's face, cutting her cheek. Sora pulled the weapon back to him and licked the blood. His skin darkened and paled white and black. He flashed an insane grin from on top of the symbol in the ground. "I can't have any witnesses." He whispered.
The bodies were found the next day. The ANBU member was instantly put in a body bag and sent back to Konoha. The little girl was scratched with cuts all over her body. A large stab in the lung had killed her off.
Sora was red all over. He had to sneak into a house and spend over a hour in the shower to wash all the blood off. Even after that, his wounds stung. He wasn't sure how long the funeral would last, or how long the people living in the house would stay there. If he rested on a couch or bed, not only would he stain it and leave medical evidence, but he'd most likely fall asleep until someone found him. He had to keep moving.
He was a fast healer, but that didn't stop his body's complaining. He hadn't moved around this injured in a long time. He keep walking anyway. Sad thing was he didn't know where the hell he was going. He didn't know where he should be going.
In Amegakure there are clans, just as in any other Hidden Village. There are few, but they still exist. One of them was the Tokage Clan.
The Tokage Clan was most well known for two things. One, they they the carriers of the summoning scroll for lizards. Every member of the clan after reaching Genin rank would sign the scroll and learn from his or her parents how to summon a lizard. Two, the clan was power hungry. It started out a long time ago with just a few leaders, but the example was passed to their children. Soon the whole clan was that way.
There's a small rumor that runs through the retired elders of the clan. They say that seventeen years ago, the current head of the clan was passing a homeless person in the rain. War had taken away all he had and he was literally starving to death. He begged at the clan leader, who was reasonably wealthy at the time, for help.
The leader scoffed at him. "The question isn't 'what can I do for you?'. It's 'what can you do for me?'. You're a middle aged man without any future. You're doomed to die out here on the streets. You have no power. You can't help me and helping you with one small thing would be a waste my time considering your existence is meaningless."
He left the man on the street corner with nothing but sour words. The man swore loudly and cursed at the leader. He shouted "I know you! You're the leader of the Tokage Clan! Your lust for power is so great however, I don't even need to know your blood to see that you're nothing but greedy scum! You'll get your wish for power! But it'll blow up in your face!!!"
Normally such a story won't be told in the house of the Tokage, but the grandmothers gossiping couldn't ignore a fact.
About two and a half months after the supposed curse, the leader announced to the clan that his wife was pregnant with a child. The baby was born healthy and appeared to have a bright future.
The child of the leader surely could have been this power. But still, it was just a silly story that was told by old people growing duller by the day. No one was one hundred percent sure that the homeless man had even existed, never mind cursed the clan.
The leader's son did exist though. His name was Kenpatchi.
Moons: I warned you! I am not responsible for your unholiday-ish suffering. (For those who are reading this waaaay in the future and are reallllly slow, I posted this chapter on Dec 23 2009)
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