Chapter 11: The Story of Miyuki Obanji, Pt. I

I remembered sitting out on the back porch, a gentle breeze rustling through my hair and the distant sound of my younger siblings running around in the next room. My legs were kicking out underneath me and a smile had crept its way onto my lips as I looked up at the cloudless sky, watching the leaves dance. My mother, mustering all of her strength, had managed to sit up and had even slid open her door to catch a glimpse of the outside world. I could feel her quick glances in my direction, hear the soft hum of her voice as she sat on her bed knitting.

I had glanced back and caught sight of her in bed, her long, black as night hair shining with strength, looking ethereal as it cascaded past her shoulders and down her back, pooling around her bottom. Her skin, pale and light but taut and healthy. Her face narrow, her eyes a clear, crystal purple and her lips plump and soft. She was thin, frail, sickly and had been for a great part of her life. But, the chakra emanating from her body was powerful, stronger than Priestess Akane's. My mother, Mitsiru Obanji, was a proud and strong woman and according to Akane she had been a respectable kunoichi, a true heir to the Obanji throne, until she met my father and her own mother passed.

The Obanji's had protected our village from the time it had started and in a lot of ways had been the ruling authority. It was their job to protect the village, to defend all they believed in and it was them who enacted the powerful, forbidden Genjutsu that clouded the island, that kept our people away from everyone's senses. The jutsu was forbidden for a reason and it required an enormous amount of chakra, something the Obanji's were born with abundance of. They were the only ones able to withstand the drain and the effect the jutsu had on the body. But, the jutsu cut their life expectancy in half and it wasn't long before the weight of the jutsu had to fall on my mother. The strain of childbirth had its toll on her as well and after her second baby she was forced to be on bed rest for the rest of her life. But, that never stopped her and it never dampened her spirts. She gave my father eight children, all of us equally beautiful like our mother, the boys carrying the handsome features of our father, the girl's the gentle softness of our mother.

I remembered looking back into the other room where I watched my younger siblings rolling around on the floor, laughing and smiling together.

"You don't want to go and play too?" My mother had asked, her voice as soft as silk.

I swung back around to face her and shot her a pout.

"I'm too big to play." I had said.

This had made my mother chuckle into her sleeve and she managed a nod shortly after.

"Oh yes, how could I possibly forget." She had said before placing her knitting aside and patting down on an empty spot beside her.

It was all I needed to leap off of the porch and run into her room, diving headfirst onto her bed which made my mother laugh again. She ran her fingers through my hair, smoothing it out, as I sat up and smiled at her.

"Too big to play?" Mom had asked, arching an eyebrow. "But just the other day you were playing with Sayuri in the fields."

Sayuri was my junior, not exactly my youngest sibling, but not old enough to join me at classes in the local Academy. She was my favorite sister and though I loved all my siblings, my love for Sayuri was greater. She was just adorable with her big eyes, her hair so long it didn't take much before it became unkempt, her bangs always falling over and covering her eyes. Mom had given up trying to style her silky hair and now it just framed her small face. My baby sister was kind and gentle, always laughing and always acting silly. She made me happy and somehow she would always manage to pull me along for one of her childish games and because we were in the middle, not old enough to make our own decisions and not young enough to be babied, we clung to each other as if for dear life.

"That's different." I said in my best matter-of-fact voice.

Mom smiled again and nodded. "I see."

It was then that her bedroom door slid open and as if summoned, Sayuri padded in, yawning and clutching her teddy bear under her arm. She was fresh from her hour nap and she looked it, her hair askew, sleep still in her eyes.

"Sayuri!" I giggled, pouncing out of the bed and running toward her. She giggled as we embraced and my mother stared at us warmly, her eyes twinkling.

"Miyu!" Sayuri yawned and together we turned to face our mother who was chuckling.

"Alright you two." She said and curled a finger at me. I ran toward the edge of her bed and looked up at her eagerly as she leaned forward to brush my hair behind my ear.

"I have a very special mission for you today, Miyuki." My mom said.

"A mission?! Really?" I asked, bouncing up and down with excitement. Sayuri padded to my side, shaking her head.

"Mommy do I have a mission too?" She asked. "Don't forget about me!"

"I have a special one for you too, Sayuri." Mom said with an edge of seriousness to her voice. Sayuri brightened and we leaned forward, waiting.

"Miyuki, I need you to go and pick up my medicine from the doctor's house." Mom said and then she looked at Sayuri. "Sayuri, I need you to watch the house until your father comes home later on tonight."

It was so much responsibility. The doctor's office was on the other side of the island and such a journey with legs as short as mine would take nearly half the day which would also be the same length of time our father would return. Sayuri would be alone all that time, in charge of caring for our younger siblings and I could see this registering in her head. We nodded, dedication burning in our eyes. We had liked to think we were grown-ups and were always arguing that we were never treated as such but this, this proved that we were and we both knew that we couldn't mess up.

"I'll leave right away." I said, pushing off the bed and giving my mom a stern nod.

"I'll go and make lunch." Sayuri said, her teddy bear sliding to the floor beside her.

It was a light memory, one that never failed to bring a smile to my face but what came after it always made me sick to my stomach. I had been late, taken too much time walking to the doctor's house that I had lost track of time. I had reached his house by nightfall and remembered breaking down into ugly sobs on his doorstep as I told him how much I hated myself for stopping to look at the flowers and playing with animals. He had merely chuckled and consoled me and handed me my mother's bag of medicine. I had vowed to make it back home before dinner, hoping that when I got back if I couldn't get praise for being prompt, at least Sayuri would be praised for her caretaking.

I had made it back to my house with the moon high in the sky. Our home, a compound away from the village, nestled on top of what I had always called a mountain but was in fact just a really high hill, stood tall. I had struggled up the hill, slipping several times but when I reached the top, I remembered the sharp chill that snaked up my spine. Suddenly, the air was colder, the breeze harsher and each step I had taken toward my house, the more daunting it became. This impenetrable and darkened fortress whose high windows and archways made me think of monsters lurking in the shadows. I was sure as I set foot in our yard that everyone was asleep and that was why it was so quiet and why it felt like my feet crunching in the grass were echoing throughout the yard.

I stepped into the house and sniffed, smelling something crisp and burning in the air. It smelled fresh enough and I ran into the kitchen expecting to see my parents standing over the stove trying to see if whatever my father had made this time was still edible. But, the kitchen was empty and a complete mess. The table was turned onto its side, the chairs overturned and flipped. There had been food on the table and it was caked to the floor and walls. It had been a great struggle and I made out tiny footprints smushed into the food, tiny trails leading to the hall. I followed them, my body turning as a crack of thunder boomed in the sky and I froze, something catching my eye. There was something red splashed on the wall, something crimson, and as my eyes looked down I made out a small, limp body lying on its side and my eyes widened.

"N-Nomaru!" I screamed as another clap of thunder cracked through the sky. I raced to his side, turning over my older brother and finding his eyes wide with shock, his mouth open. He was cold, ice cold. I slapped his cheek lightly before pulling at the fabric of his shirt. I begged him to answer me, to tell me what had happened but he stared up at something beyond me, his eyes empty.

That was when I heard it, something crashing and a sharp scream that made my skin crawl. I jumped up, tears threatening to spill over in my eyes and listened, frozen.

"Miyuki!" Sayuri's sharp cry echoed through the house and my eyes widened at the sound in her voice, at the desperation, at a fear so powerful it made my body shake. I ran then, not even thinking, not even caring. I needed to find her, needed to help her. My sister had never called me by my name and I had always thought up until that night that it was just some childish inability that she would grow out of over time. But, it was different this time.

I ran through the house, a sick feeling twisting in my stomach as her cries continued and the sounds of bloodshed filled my eardrums. I didn't understand what was happening, didn't register any of it until later, all that I was passing. The blood splattered on the walls, the bodies of my brothers and sisters thrown around like ragdolls. One sharp turn down the hallway to the playroom revealed my father's body, slumped to the side, something silver sticking out from his throat.

I raced past him and burst into the playroom, pushing the door aside as another round of thunder cracked through the sky, illuminating the room. It was empty, but everything was overturned and broken. I hesitated in the doorway, my eyes scanning the darkness. I didn't want to take another step and just as I was finding the courage, something shifted and I froze. I screamed as something ran toward me, barreling into me with such a force, it knocked me off of my feet and together we fell back into the grassy yard.

"Miyuki!" Sayuri sobbed breathlessly into my chest, her body shaking, her clothes dirtied with the same crimson that had been on the walls, that was dripping down our father's neck.

"Sayuri." I breathed, hugging her close.

"Mama's dead!" She sobbed. "Mama's dead."

I had never known of death before. It had always seemed like such a foreign concept and something that wouldn't happen for a long, long time. It also felt like something that couldn't touch me, that I and the ones that I loved were immune from. I lifted my hands, finding my palms covered in dry crimson and remembered a time when I had fallen and scraped my knee. I remembered seeing my blood bubbling through the cut and I remembered the sharp pain that came with it, that made me feel like my leg was numb. Father had called me dramatic but I had argued that it had hurt a lot. Now the blood was seeping out of him, just like it had been pooling around the bodies of my brothers and sisters, and now it was all over my hands. Their blood. Their blood. I screamed and pushed away from Sayuri, struggling to wipe the stain of blood from my palms as my tears spilled over. I rubbed at my thighs until my palms burned, but no matter how much I rubbed, the crimson remained.

"Miyu?" Sayuri sniffed and I looked at her, really looked at her with my wide eyes.

Her own face was spotted with blood and her hair was disheveled. Her small face was twisted up with worry and fear and she was still crying. I knew then, that I had to do something. I hadn't graduated from the Academy but I knew then that this was real life, that this was the real deal. I grabbed Sayuri, pulling her to her feet and together we darted back down the hall, past our father and brothers and sisters.

"Miyu!" Sayuri panted behind me but I didn't listen. I kept on running, gripping her tiny hand in mine, squeezing the warmth back into it. My legs ached from all the running but I kept pushing forward, my heart slamming in my chest, bile rising in my throat. There was no stopping until we were out of this house.

We made it out just as the thunder rolled through the sky faster and I jumped off the porch, landing hard on my ankle and felt a fiery pain snake through my leg. I cried out and fell two steps after landing. Sayuri rushed to my side, her tiny hands rubbing my back as she asked me what was wrong.

I groaned, a hand reaching back and wrapping around my ankle and slowly, I pushed myself up and looked at it, at the stretch of blackness beginning to form. At worst I had sprained it and though this would be difficult coming down the hill, I knew I had to suck it up, be the grown up I had always wanted so desperately to be. I pushed myself up, Sayuri watching in awe, and I grabbed her hand, pulling her back to her feet.

"We have to keep moving." I said and began walking again as a sting of fiery pain shot up my leg with each step.

"Miyu! I want Mama! I want Mama!" Sayuri sobbed and sniffed, tears streaming down her face as she pulled at my sleeve with her free hand.

We were starting down the hill when it began to rain, lightly at first, but enough to make the dirt turn to mud beneath our feet. We were slipping and sliding and it was only a matter of time until I slid clean off my feet.

"Miyuki!" My sister cried, rushing to my side. I pushed myself up when something fell from above, landing beside us. We blinked, Sayuri and I until we recognized it thanks to the light from the thunder.

"Teddy!" Sayuri cried and threw herself at the raggedy-eared bear, pulling it close. It was then that I heard it, the sound of something cutting through the air and as I turned I could see a silver flash heading toward us.

"Sayuri!" I screamed and grabbed her by the back of her shirt, pulling her toward me just as the kunai hit the ground. She slammed into me and I felt my body fall back. Together we rolled into the bushes and down the steep hill, only stopping at the bottom. I pushed myself up immediately and reached for Sayuri who was still clutching her bear to her chest. She sniffed again, writhing under my touch as I pulled her up into a sitting position, my hands on her shoulders.

"We're going to be okay." I breathed.

She coughed and looked at me with fresh tears glistening in her eyes. It was a haunting look, my baby sister covered in blood and dirt, sobbing and all I could remember thinking was how it was all my fault. If I hadn't gotten distracted, if I had hurried to the doctor's and back I would have been able to save everyone. I would have been able to protect them somehow.

Thunder boomed through the sky and Sayuri shivered at the sound, her eyes burning into mine. I knew in that moment she knew we would. The worst was over, the storm just passing. Whatever horrors she had gone through in that house was behind her, behind us. We had each other and that was all that mattered and would have been what our parents wanted. We were survivors.

I was pulling her toward me, was ready to hug her when a dark chuckle sounded from above. I froze and slowly looked up just as two bodies jumped down from the treetops, landing silently just behind Sayuri. My eyes widened as I took them in, the vicious look in the woman's dark purple eyes and the sadistic curl of a smile on the man's lips. I knew them and I remembered them, but my voice was lost as the woman lifted her sword.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?" The woman asked, her voice as hard as steel but as entrancing as a slithering snake. She was a beast of a woman with a crazed look in her eye and her onyx hair askew, coming down in jagged pieces to her shoulders. The man was sinister, a faint scar running along the left side of his face, from his forehead down past his eye. His hair was neat and wavy, styled accordingly and he stood with his hands in his pockets, smiling down at us.

"Wh-wa—"

The woman brought her sword down and my eyes widened just as a scream left my lips. It happened quickly, nothing but a silver blur. I gasped, my body trembling as Sayuri continued to stare at me but the moment it had happened, her expression had changed. I held my breath, waiting until her body slid forward but the blood came first, spewing out of her and onto me. I screamed, ripping my hands away from her body as it hit the floor, her head rolling off, her mouth open, her eyes holding the same unreachable look as Nomaru's had.

I screamed again, this one coming from the very bottom of my lungs. I screamed as the thunder turned to lightening, until my throat felt like it was in ribbons. I struggled to put as much distance between Sayuri and I but her eyes followed me, her empty and hollow eyes remaining locked on me. The man laughed, vicious and cruel as the woman smiled down at me.

"Why?!" I screamed at them with the little voice I had left.

"Because we are the Deliverers of Death." The woman said as the man fell silent beside her.

"And your card was up." The man finished and he stepped toward me, pulling a sword from his belt.

I held my breath, my hands pulling at the grass. I knew I wouldn't be much of a fight, but I refused to let them kill me too and I refused to die knowing that I had done nothing to stop them, that I hadn't even attempted anything. Dying and standing by meant I would lose to them and even though I knew I would lose regardless, I at least had the authority that dictated how it would go down. He was bringing his sword down when I rolled to the side, avoiding the hit. His sword pierced the ground and the woman chuckled, her eyes cutting into me.

"Miyuki, don't make this difficult." She said.

"If the others could accept their fates, so can you." The man said, pulling his sword out.

I shook my head and began making hand signs. I sucked in a deep breath.

"Fire Style! Fireball Jutsu!" The man scoffed in response and both he and the woman jumped out of the way. I was reaching back for the small dagger my father had given me, the one I always kept on me, when the woman appeared in front of me and her hand clamped down on my shoulder. My eyes widened at her touch and just behind her was the man, his sword pulling back, the muscles in his arms tensing. My eyes cut over to Sayuri's body on the ground, her blood pooling under her. I caught sight of my outstretched hand, covered in her blood, my palm open as if I could somehow stop the attack, stop the inevitable.

"This…this is how you die." The woman said in my ear, her breath hot as it washed over my neck. My eyes widened even more as the man plunged his sword through my chest and a choked sound escaped my throat. It had been as fast as lightening and I felt the heavy pain in my chest reach an all-time high just as the rain began to fall harder.

I remembered falling back, landing in the mud and gasping for air, panic rising. The woman stared down at me, her face expressionless, her eyes empty. It was then that it struck me, how much like my mother she looked, and how if she could ever manage to get rid of the dark look in her eyes, she would look just like her. I looked up at the man with the cruel smirk who was chuckling as he pulled his sword out of my chest. He looked the most like my father, a man of pride and honor. A man who kept to himself and had been blown away by my mother's beauty. But the man before me was the furthest from my father, a dark outsider who inflicted pain. Always angry, always bitter, and always cruel.

"Father said bravery makes a shinobi. He said that was the burden every shinobi carried within them, the weight of bravery, the weight of what their bravery led them to do, and the weight that their bravery cost them." The man said, helping the woman to her feet.

"Father knew nothing of bravery, though." The woman continued. "Bravery is finding the courage to do what no one else can do and what comes after doing it doesn't make you a shinobi. That's called living."

"But father didn't know any better." The man said and looked up toward the night sky. "That was why he had to die and watch his family burn with him."

"Useless traditions guided this clan." The woman said, her eyes narrowing down at me. "And it ends with you."

The man pulled his sword from his chest and I felt a rush of blood shoot up to my mouth. I coughed and it came out, warm and iron-y as it dribbled down the corners of my mouth.

"The world is dark." The man said. "And you will die never being able to see the light."

"Goodbye, little sister."

That was when the lightening crackled and the thunder boomed and the rain came down ever faster and harder. That was when the distant smell of smoke filled my nostrils and as I turned my head weakly toward the house I could see it, in flames. Everything I had, everything I was, was burning to the ground and I felt it then, the weight of that empty spot in my heart. I could feel myself falling deeper into the darkness around me and could barely see through the blurriness in my eyes.

I was dying. I could feel it in my bones as my eyes fluttered closed, as their words made one final round in my head. Bravery. Traditions. Darkness. There was a burden in all of it, in everything, even death. Living meant taking in breaths that those before you could never take. Death meant knowing you had failed, reminded you of all you could have done. Bravery was what stood between them both, an impossible force that could either drive you or be your end. Bravery was waking up each day and making the most of it and Bravery was dying knowing that you had simply done your best, not everything, but your best. Bravery meant staring out into this dark, dark world and finding the light in any shape and form.

I was losing consciousness as I realized they were wrong, that the words my father preached were rooted in the truth. Bravery was a key part of being a shinobi, whose life was always teetering somewhere in the middle. But, there was something else too.

Bravery didn't just make the shinobi, it was the shinobi.