?￢ﾜ ? ~ Chapter Nine — Scarlet Eyes ~ ?￢ﾜ ?ￂﾠ

Midnight. He laid awake for what seemed like one hundred sleepless nights. Right then, he hated Aiko about as much as he hated Gosei. Probably more, since the latter managed to gain some brownie points for helping Yora.

Yora…

Imagery of tears painted clear down her face ravaged his heart. He clutched his chest, feeling it ache with every beat. The low tone that cracked with every syllable threatened to bring tears to his own eyes… but all he could feel was scarlet loathing for Aiko—the same fury that was all too painfully nostalgic. All the times someone dared to mistreat Naruto in front of him…

And whenever he heard about the ones he wasn't there to witness.

Just like he was in this bed, sulking… and not there for Yora.

I'm not keeping my promise, he seethed, gripping the bed sheets. He wanted to see her—he needed to see her. Her scarlet eyes dimmed with hurt in his mind, and he needed to see them alight again. He needed to help her.

I need to get out of this fucking house.

Shinrai ripped off the covers, clenching his fists and flexing his muscles. Smirking, he knew his accelerated healing was returning—he could feel it. With that realization, he made a clone which took his place in the bed.

He never put his Shinobi gear back on after he got back yesterday, so he didn't need to delay himself any longer. He climbed over his clone and opened the window, disappearing into the late-night breeze.

I'm coming, Yora.

—⊱✿⊰—

"I come here when I'm sad."

The starry night above lit Shinrai's path through the forest of Grass. It's cold outside… he noted, rubbing his arms as he approached Yora's hill. A chilling mix of relief and heartbreak took hold of him as he laid his eyes on Yora.

She was in a ball, her head dug into her knees with her hair splayed over her person in a gorgeous, silky mess. Shinrai shut his eyes and inhaled the chilly breeze. He had a lot of time to think during his walk…

"Broken Scarlet eyes."

He heard her shift and a familiar feeling of her gaze made him lower his head ever so slightly.

"Sights you'd never think you'd see…
Scarlet eyes now empty."

Shinrai opened his eyes and saw Yora's eyes exactly how he described them, with droves of dried tears streaming down her pale face. "Shinrai… Why are you here?"

He walked forward and took a seat next to her. "I have a promise to keep."

Yora shook her head, attempting to wipe away the tear marks, but to little avail. "No, Shinrai. You're gonna get in trouble if you're seen with me!"

"I don't care," he said simply. "I'm leaving tomorrow, and before I go, I want to make sure that you're okay."

Yora let out a breath, shaking her head as more tears welled in her eyes. "Shinrai, stop it! It doesn't matter that you have feelings for me, and it doesn't matter that I feel the same way! It's not gonna amount to anything!" tears spilled from her eyes and she wiped them away, not looking at him. "Those promises were just words…"

"I will soon forget the color of your eyes, and you'll… forget mine."

Shinrai instinctively placed a hand on her face, gently turning her head toward his. "No," he denied, staring into the twinkling heaven of her scarlet eyes. "I'll never forget your eyes."

Yora's eyes were wide, with such a mix of emotion that Shinrai couldn't read it at all. He hesitated, pulling his hand back. "Sorry—"

"No!" she denied as well, placing her hand on Shinrai's and meeting the eye contact. Shinrai did not falter. "I…" she attempted to speak, but she simply grabbed the top of his hand with a tender grasp.

Her hands were warm despite the cold air. Slender fingers held on tight to his hand while her thumb rubbed gently on the edge of his palm. Her palm was soft, aside from the tender calluses just under her fingers, forged by years of training with the blade.

Shinrai removed his hand from her grasp. Yora looked disheartened for a second before he interlocked his fingers with hers, not breaking eye contact the entire time. She returned the gesture, and they clung to each other's hands.

"You're going to have to let go…" she said lowly.

Shinrai shook his head. "Not right now."

Breaking the eye contact, Yora looked down and placed her other hand over Shinrai's. "I hate that we're never going to see each other after this."

"That doesn't mean that we can't talk still. Ryu and… Aiko kept in touch for decades."

Yora's eyes widened, and she looked at him. "We can write to each other!"

"Yeah!" Shinrai agreed, putting on a smile that Yora couldn't help but reciprocate.

Embarrassed, she shook her head. "How did I not think about that…?"

"Because people don't think clearly when they're sad," he said simply.

Yora nodded along. "That's true."

Shinrai stood, bringing Yora up with him. "Let's clear your mind, then!" Before she could speak, he ran down the hill, pulling Yora along with him, and she almost tripped. He halted, and she yelped when she almost tripped again.

"Payback…" he muttered slyly.

Yora pushed her disheveled hair out of her face and gave him an unamused look directly into his eyes. He grinned, she glared, and he glared back.

Shaking her head, Yora giggled mischievously. She pulled her arm and nearly knocked Shinrai off his feet. She could've sent him to the ground if she wanted to. "How's your chest?"

"Whatever was fucking with my healing is gone now. It's way better," he said with a grin as he pulled Yora toward him. "Wanna check?"

She blushed a bit and put her free hand on Shinrai's chest. It shimmered a medical green. Her eyes widened. "Wow!"

Shinrai nodded with a smirk. "Yeah! That means that there's nothing holding me back!"

"Indeed—" She yelped again as Shinrai yanked her off her feet and down the hill.

Yora grew a competitive grin and found her footing, pulling Shinrai in a circle up the hill as she allowed gravity to pull her down. They both stumbled and collapsed, rolling in the dirt until they reached the base of the hill in a heap. Together, they laughed with their hands interlocked the whole time.

They squeezed each other's hands and stood together. Glaring playfully at each other, they pulled on the other at the same time, neither budging an inch. Seconds of strong eye contact later, and they were both running.

Dodging the trees of grass, they shot through the night like shooting stars. Shinrai's heart soared high seeing Yora's smile, seeing her eyes twinkle like the constellations above with a scarlet so vital that it was like blood to him.

Laugher and giggles from both Yora and Shinrai drifted in the wind while they danced on clouds together. They interlocked their other hands and spun, the world a blur as they focused on nothing but each other.

At that moment, Yora was his world. A scarlet midnight world that he would give up anything for.

Just then, nothing mattered more than her.

Coal-black eyes drifted to her smiling lips and his heart skipped a beat, nervousness creeping at him again. Senses heightened, the details of her thin, pale pink lips sent an exciting shiver down his spine.

His grip loosened, and he fell back first into one of the massive blades of grass. Yora stood, continuing to twirl with her hair swirling around her like a gown. Shinrai looked up with a smile. "I could kiss you right now."

Yora's face flushed a potent shade of red as she looked down at him. "Uh…"

"My bad… intrusive thought—" he attempted to excuse himself.

"No, no…" she began, pursing her lips. "The feeling… is…"

Shinrai looked up intently. No way…

"...mutual…" she admitted, barely above a peep.

He shook his head incredulously. "You're fucking with me."

"I'm not!" she exclaimed, somehow turning even redder.

"Really?!" questioned Shinrai in disbelief.

Yora sputtered. "Just come here and find out for yourself!"

Shinrai's eyes widened with nervous excitement. He got to his feet, and looked down at the heavily flushed Yora, her scarlet eyes alit with anticipation. He stared into her anticipation for a blissful eternity.

Both of their eyelids shut, and they moved forward—

Only for a rustle and a thump to have them look in the direction of the sound. There stood a man with black eyes, black hair, pale skin, and a midnight Grass Cutter, which was identical to Yora's. Her eyes widened. "Father?!"

"The fuck?!" spattered Shinrai as he stepped back away from Yora, his hands up defensively. "Listen, listen…"

The man's midnight gaze turned to Shinrai. "I don't care about you." He then turned to his daughter. "Yoraika, the client you've been helping… is her name Aiko?"

"Yes…" she answered, entirely composed, yet slightly bemused. "Why do you ask?"

Her father was unmoving. "I need you to kill her."

The wind picked up and the grass trees rippled like the waves.

"What?!" Yora asked, outraged, while Shinrai's hand instinctively went to his kunai pouch, which wasn't there. "Why would I do that?"

The man of midnight remained stoic. "Because I told you to."

"But she's an ally to Seed. Killing her would be treason!" she argued.

He shook his head, letting out a sigh. "Did you seriously think we joined Seed to truly help?"

The weight of those words weighed on Yora like a mountain. Shinrai brought his hands close together, preparing to unleash his ninjutsu. She glared at him from the side of her eye. "Stop it," she ordered in a tense whisper.

Shinrai listened and tensely dropped his hands. This didn't go unnoticed. "Boy, you're a Shinobi."

"I am…" answered Shinrai reluctantly.

"Where are you from?" he asked sternly, his eyes narrowing.

Yora stiffened with a stifled breath.

She bit her lip, and Shinrai met the man's narrowing gaze. "Konoha."

"Konoha?!" questioned her father as he glared at his daughter. "You knew this?!"

Yora stepped forward, unphased. "Yes, I did. To answer your question… I did join Seed with the purest intention to help. Blade has gone too far for me to support them any longer."

His midnight eyes glared like black holes. "You have no choice. You will kill Aiko—"

"—I will not!" she yelled, stepping face to face with her father. "I won't let you do it either."

Shinrai clenched his fists. "Yora!"

She ignored him and glared into her father's eyes. He averted his gaze, shaking his head. "Leave my sight."

Yora turned her back and began to walk toward Shinrai. The sound of an unsheathed blade cut through the air—

—a bloodied blade protruded from her heart—

—blood dripped from Yora's mouth as she looked at Shinrai with widened scarlet eyes. Shock, betrayal, and pain construed her face.

Shinrai went numb.

A single tear fell down her face. She opened her bloodstained lips. "Your eyes… they're… beautiful too."

Her father pulled the blade from her chest and Yora collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

The light in her scarlet eyes went out.

A new light in Shinrai's eyes awakened.

The world bled as Shinrai sprinted forward. The man of midnight brought his Grass Cutter up to end him next. But a sudden clang stopped it in its tracks. Shinrai held the blade of his namesake, and for the second time, that blade saved his life.

Chakra fueled the kick he drove into the man's gut and he skid across the dirt. With narrowed eyes he flicked his daughter's blood off the blade, shining a clean silver in the starlight.

Shinrai glared and his eyes burned—as a matter of fact, his entire chakra system felt as if it was made of flames. The world moved in slow motion, but that didn't matter when he faced down Yora's murderer.

He felt his eyes whirl, and he copied the stance of the bastard that stood across from him. As if the future was his present, Shinrai dashed forward before the man could do so himself.

They met in the middle and dueled with their Grass Cutters. With furrowed brows and an enraged glare, frustration took hold of the man's strikes, as he was fighting a mirror image of himself.

Shinrai had no experience with the blade, but the shivering instinct drove his strikes. The man of midnight's cleaves and slashes were mimicked with seeming ease and the light in Shinrai's eyes plumed into a blinding inferno.

With a deviation that shattered the hate-filled dance, Shinrai sprinted forward and broke the man's guard. He stabbed at his chest, but midnight melded with the shadows and countered.

The man roared and slashed at Shinrai with all his might. Seeing the strike from a mile away, it was child's play for Shinrai to dodge. He kicked the man in the knee, and he felt it shatter underneath his feet.

He didn't even put any chakra into it.

With his next kick, he did.

Ribs buckled and snapped under the chakra-fueled pressure of the full brunt of Shinrai's leg. He squeezed the hilt of Yora's blade and crimson chakra spiked from his hands. The fire that was Shinrai's chakra erupted, and he slashed at the man.

It took little effort for him to sever his sword arm from his torso.

The man screamed, and Shinrai didn't even react. He simply pried the blade from the limp, severed hand.

Yora's father was on his knees, blood pooling out of his mouth as he groaned. His still attached hand was clasping the open wound where his arm was severed.

Twin Grass Cutters were held in his hands as he walked forward.

"Mercy!" the man gargled.

Shinrai crossed his arms, and the blades were on each side of the man's neck like a pair of scissors.

"Please!"

Silently, Shinrai closed the distance between his blades. The cut was so clean that it didn't make a sound. Two thumps echoed along with the breeze, and Shinrai simply stood.

Red blood, red sky, and the crimson urge to die. A sheet of scarlet dyed the world bloody. He simply hung his head and looked at Yora. The expression of anguish haunted her eternal sleep as she laid in the pool of her own blood. The image seared itself into his mind.

Shinrai closed his eyes, reveling in the agony of the moment as the frosty night breeze cut the surrounding air. So numb he became—he didn't feel her there, he barely even felt himself.

Inferno in his eyes and blaze in his chakra, yet he felt nothing. All the fire, yet he was freezing. The breeze was frigid, yet the ice was halted by the sound of multiple sets of feet hitting the dirt.

He opened his eyes and scarlet colored the Blade affiliates surrounding him.

"His eyes!" one of them realized.

Shinrai gripped the blade of his namesake and peered into the reflection of his bloodied blade. His scarlet eyes widened as two double-tomoe eyes whirled around the midnight hatches that orbited his similarly colored pupil.

The Sharingan.

"Rip them out of his skull, then kill him," another one commanded.

He looked away from his blade and entered a battle stance. Before they could do so themselves, Shinrai saw all the Blade Nin collapse to the dirt, with blood spewing from their open wounds.

Chills washed over his numb body as a voice behind him spoke. "I'm afraid I can't let you die just yet."

Shinrai looked back to see a man clad in noir, trimmed in gold with a faceless mask colored the pitch of a black hole. The chakra radiating off of the man was distorting. His vision blurred and his mind clouded just looking at him.

His Sharingan was his only salvation. The fire in his eyes scorched with a burning glare. "I remember you," he rasped.

"You won't for long."

Not even his foresight gave allowed him to see that attack that knocked him unconscious. The scarlet of his eyes faded to black, with the world following suit.

I'm sorry… Yora.

?￢ﾜ ? ~ Chapter End ~ ?￢ﾜ ?