Flower petals from the nearby sakura trees drift lazily by, a beautiful sight for a day such as this, resting on the seat arranged behind them. No one sits on either side of the aisle; the few that might have attended disapprove.
”How dare you even think of such an abomination? You know your place Mizuki, you know what will happen should you put one foot out of line!”
Red eyes stare at her with an intensity that would pierce all but the most confident. They call her stubborn, they call her ignorant, they call her a disgrace.
”Quite frankly I don’t care what you think. Anything is better than this. What honor is their being the dirt beneath the clan’s feet?”
Her hair parts just enough that her face remains in plain sight, while the rest falls messily and ruggedly about her shoulders and back. Her face is red, her cheeks dry creekbeds where the tears once flowed. Her eyes are strong now, definitive, enough to piece the man right back through his, even though her eyes are black. She does not share her clan’s gift, nor their graces.
”I won’t stand for this! You’re coming back to the compound right now!”
He tries to grab her arm, and she slaps him square in the face. He looks angry, but confused, as if suddenly realizing this person wasn’t just an object. This thing had feelings.
”If you dare touch me again, Toshihiro will kill you. I guarantee you that. Stay away from me, and my family, and KEEP the clan’s name. I won’t disgrace you any longer.”
She storms out of the marketplace, several witnesses stand in silence, mouths agape. The man, now furious with rage, turns and swiftly walks out, his long cloak knocking various fruits off their piles and onto the ground, ruined. The shopkeep doesn’t dare even look his way, he fears the red and white fan symbol upon the man’s back…
Old thoughts trail away, and now she opens her eyes, resting upon the man she loves,
Toshihiro Sasaki.
“… we are privileged to witness the joyous love of a new family -- a family that will be nourished and nurtured through the devotion of two separate individuals growing together through the common bonds of love. Ma y their m…”
She can’t focus on the words streaming out of his mouth; she thinks he talks too much. Her eyes meet his and Mizuki turns to mush inside, her knees weak, her face reddens. The man before her is strong, an honorable man to make such a commitment to. Like her, Toshihiro also hails from a family of lowly status, but the man before her is hardly so.
“…a strong bond of real friendship and trust. Mizuki and Toshihiro, your love for each other will grow deeper with every passing day, but it's important to remember that your love stands on a foundation of genuine, mutual affection and respect for each other. To truly LOVE another person is to be willing to accept both their strong points, and their weak points, with equal measures of understanding and respect…”
Toshihiro was an honored Jounin, a protector to the Hokage on multiple occasions. Like a phoenix, he had risen from the ashes of his lowly clan and become a respected shinobi. His face so handsome, barely tainted with the scars of past battles, his hands strong and warm, but soft, so that she felt and peace when she was in his arms. He in a black suit, and she in a white kimono, on this glorious day they would be mar…
”StOp RiGhT tHeRe!”
The voice erupts from the very back of the hall, where the large oak doors fly open and clash with the walls they hinge to. 3 men storm the building, swiftly walking up the aisle towards the couple.
“You know your place b***h! You’re coming home RIGHT NOW!”
The man in the middle rushes up the stairs and towards Mizuki when Toshihiro stands in front of her with his arms crossed. This is not the first time.
“Do we have a problem here Uchiha-kun?”
He HATED Toshihiro for calling him that.
“This thing has left the compound without permission. I am to bring her back.”
“Really? I was told that she had left the clan already. In fact, we went down to the Hokage’s office together to legally change her name. Now I don’t believe that she belongs to you anymore.”
Toshihiro spoke with a swiftness that came with his superior intelligence, and with condescension that the man could barely stand. The man now foamed with rage, and the redness of his eyes seemed not to come from his Kekkei Genkai, but from within his soul. Nonetheless the two black tomoe began to spin, attempting to intimidate the man.
“That doesn’t matter because she is already to be wed!”
“Oh, really? To who?”
“It doesn’t matter! All that matters is that that b***h is to be home where she belongs to cook and clean!” the man screamed.
This man’s ignorance infuriated Toshihiro. His eyes seemed to go from the warmest hazel, to the darkest black.
“This is the third time you have interrupted our ceremony. Twice you have scared off the priest, and the last time you tried this I put one of your friends in the hospital. How is Danzo-kun?”
The man wasn’t having anymore.
“ThAt’S iT!”
In an instant, the man seemed to work his way around Toshihiro without the him even noticing, and grabbed Mizuki by the arms.
“You’re coming home with me, bi…”
The man didn’t have time to finish before Toshihiro whipped around, spun the man to face him, and punched him square in the face. He could feel the cartilage break beneath his knuckles.
“Get him!” cried the other man closest to him. Toshihiro picked up the stunned Uchiha and threw him into the one closest to them, who was now in a full on sprint.
Toshihiro had to think fast, there was no way he could take on 3 Uchiha, even if they were lower ranks than him. Two ANBU and a Chunnin? Not happening.
“Let’s go,” Toshihiro whispered to Mizuki and swept her off he feet and carried her, not out the door, but through the window of the church, and out onto the rooftops. Uchiha or not, Toshihiro was faster and stronger than the three of them, and was quickly able to evade the trio. It was the last they ever saw of the Uchiha.
In the forests outside of the village, Toshihiro finally knelt down and laid his beloved on the ground, head in one arm, feet on the soft grass beneath the trees.
“Mizuki?”
“Yes?”
“Will you take me, to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “And will you take me, to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do… the both of you,” and laid his other hand upon her belly.
==================================================================================================================
Theme: Dangerous Situation
The heart monitor beeps steadily, its too high, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing. All too high. A screen paper separates her just above the mid-section, blocking her view of the events happening just beyond. The only thing in her view is a dark room and 3 shadowy figures, silhouettes against the bright white light above her. Her sight is blurry and she can barely make out the words being spoken.
“Persistent aren’t we? I thought after what happened last time…”
“Don’t finish that sentence. Just do your job.”
“Fine, fine. Nurse, how are we doing?”
Mizuki blacks out.
“Fully dilated, heart rate just dropped. The epidural probably just kicked in. Blood pressure’s still high, though.”
“Okay, start her on...”
Toshihiro couldn’t focus on what the doctor was saying; his wife was in distress. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t forget what had happened to his firstborn son.
”Nurse, get me three cc’s of…”
The heart monitor beeped much faster then.
“What’s happening? What’s going on!”
“Nurse, get him out of here!”
Something was wrong, very, very wrong. The nurse came up to Toshihiro and escorted him out, which really just consisted of her pushing on his chest, trying to force him through the exit door. From outside, he could only watch helplessly from the observation window as the doctors rushed around Mizuki, injecting medicine in her IV, cutting with scalpels, clearing away a lot of blood.
It’s a few very tense minutes past and finally Toshihiro caught the sight of something emerging from underneath the paper screen. A child, covered in blood, but something is wrong. Its not moving, its not crying. The doctor looks up at him with a sad look in his eye.
The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck.
”Ichiro…” DeAd…
dEaD…
DeAd…
It seemed much more real to them, giving him a name. A name gives connection, a name brings joy and sadness, a name bestows responsibility. Responsibility for a son they had never even gotten to hold.
It had been a miserable five months since the accident. It had taken them five months to stop blaming themselves for the tragedy that had befallen their firstborn.
"Why take him from us, Kami? Why?" They felt as if they had done something that angered the gods. Was it destiny that the son of a disgraced Uchiha and a lowly worm that had finally moved up in the world. Had their arrogance sealed the fate of their son?
It had been five horrible months that they had to take turns stopping each other from committing sUiCiDe…
"Goddamn it Mizuki, snap out of it. Please!" She sat in the same chair in the corner, not eating, not sleeping, barely breathing for days. At times Toshihiro had to force the sustenance down her throat, and when he did, half the time she looked up and slapped him. She wAnTeD to die…
The two awakened from their trances, slowly, steadily. Months had past. The world kept spinning, but the Sasaki had stopped dead in their tracks. Determined to prove they weren't doomed to suffer, Toshihiro and Mizuki conceived again.
"Toshihiro, Toshihiro! Are you still with me?"
The nurse had been waving her hand back and forth in front of him, but the only thing Toshihiro had been focusing on was the floor he stood on.
"Hey, Toshihiro! If you want, I can have you come in and clean the floor after we deliver your son!"
Toshihiro came to, and the tragic memories of his firstborn faded away. His mind was focused again on his beautiful wife, giving birth to the son that would make them both so proud. It was the same doctor that had tried to save Ichiro. This time he was prepared.
“Nurse, prep the blood transfusion. I need a scalpel, needle and thread. She’s about to breach.”
Toshihiro watched patiently, when he felt his wife’s hand squeeze his. Even unconscious, she wanted to know her husband was there for her. Toshihiro wasn’t going anywhere.
Minutes passed. Tired grunts and piercing shrieks followed by heavy panting, and groans of pain as Mizuki broke Toshihiro's hand. Still, he stayed by her side, and wiped the sweat from her brow. Nurses rushed in and out, bringing syringes of different colored liquids, injecting them either beneath the screen or into the IV connected to Mizuki's arm. The doctor hands different surgical tools back and forth from beneath the veil, and after a long time, he is ready.
“Alrighty, here we go,” said the doctor, and poked his head beneath the paper screen for the last time. This time he emerges with a live baby. Toshihiro is overjoyed, and Mizuki's hand seems to ease. But the doctor does not hand the child to him.
"Nurse, prep the ICU, I need an incubator ready!"
Toshihiro's eyes widen, and Mizuki strengthens her grip on his hand.
"What's wrong?"
"There's a deformation on your son's face, the swelling is crushing his left eye."
Inside Toshihiro panics, but he has to be strong, for Mizuki.
"We're just going to move him to another room."
Toshihiro, tries to follow, and forgets Mizuki has his hand in an ironclad hydraulic press. He walks forward… and slips and falls when his legs keep walking but his arm yanks back.
"Oww. Come on Mizuki."
He tries to pull on his hand, but Mizuki still holds on. She doesn't know if her son is okay, and she's not about to be alone right now. He pulls harder, and grabs his forearm for extra support. He pulls and yanks, and finally he pulls his hand free. The doctors have already moved, so Toshihiro stumbles out of the room, and a nurse removes the scrubs from on top of his normal wardrobe. Through a pair of double doors, and down the hall. Panicked Toshihiro starts to run, but he has no idea where they are keeping his son.
The room is white, pristine. They've moved her, and the chemicals flowing from the IV through her body now repair the damaged tissue and strained charka system, instead of pushing her body to the limit. She's clam, but nervous, gripping her husbands arm tight. Toshihiro sits beside her, leaning over the railing of her hospital bed. Her pats her hand, and tells her everything will be fine, reserving his own fears for a better time.
At last a nurse appears in the doorway, a small bundle of cloth cradled in her arms; the doctor follows. She walks up to Mizuki, and hands her the bundle, tears in the new mother's eyes. Toshihiro breathes a sigh of relief, and nuzzles her arm. Mizuki pulls the folds from the bundle, and soon tufts of black hair protrude the gaps, until at last a tiny face emerges. Toshihiro and Mizuki smile at the child, and he stares back at them with piercing mahogany eyes. A scar runs down the left side of his face
"What should we name him Toshihrio?"
"How about Takashi?"
Takashi Sasaki.
==================================================================================================================
Theme: Better Days Behind Us
The early years of his life seemed to be the easiest. His parents were so overjoyed with their newborn son, they soon conceived another. Unfortunately, Mizuki miscarried, and again the couple was met with depression…
During this time Takashi discovered what it was like to be not just hungry, but starving, as his mother’s depression often blocked out the sound of his hungry cries. While Toshihiro never suffered as much and recovered much quicker, Mizuki was empty inside. Toshihiro, no matter how hard he tried, could not shake Mizuki of the monster that now consumed her. The only thing that could seemed to be the sight of Takashi so hungry he no longer cried, he no longer even moved. It reminded her of her firstborn son, and made her desperate to save him.
Years pasted, and the Sasaki family lived a middle class life. Toshihiro went on missions for the village, though no longer the high-risk missions he once took on. He was changed, different, broken inside. He wasn’t his old confident self anymore. He was careful, cautious, weakened.
"Damn it Takashi, why did you have to fight that boy?"
Mizuki finds herself saying the same thing over and over, unable to rephrase it any new way; she's tried them all.
"He called me names, and pushed me. I pushed back."
"Yea, with your fist in his face."
She wipes the blood from the corner of his mouth with a washcloth, now reddened with age. She can't remember how gradually it stained, only how white it was when she first bought it. She pats his arms of the scrapes, and pets his head softly.
"And what do they call you?"
She's heard the names before, but it him feel better. This child was already scared by the constant teasing, taunting and bullying; he needed emotional support and growth somewhere.
"They call me dumb, and stupid, and blind."
It seems like today isn't as bad as most days. Normally one or two kids a few years older than him taunted him with much harsher words before he kicked their a**. Today Takashi broke his record when he took on three.
"Takashi, you know you're not stupid. You're eyes still need to grow and adjust to the surgery, honey." It was true, in the five years since his birth, Takashi's left eye muscles still hadn't calibrated properly, making his left eye unable to focus on what his right eye could, and significantly slowed its movement. The muscles had improved; Takashi was once considered completely cross eyed, and it was suggested that Toshihiro and Mizuki simply have Takashi's left eye removed. However, the Sasaki's had Takashi tested over a few years, and their ophthalmologist discovered that Takashi's eye was making slow but constant progress.
"Mom…"
"Yes, honey?"
"… They said I was the scum of an Uchiha whore and a bottom dweller…"
This was new. Mizuki couldn't believe the words she was hearing. She couldn't believe that children so young new those words, and on top of that were told such vicious things. It had to have come from the parents, but who new that her family was so hated. Her eyes watered, and she couldn't find the words to express her feelings.
"Mom, what does that mean?"
Mizuki breathed a small sigh of relief. She had no doubt that Takashi knew some of those words, but she was relieved that Takashi didn't fully understand what the children had told hem, and she didn't think that the children taunting Takashi knew either. She knelt down, and motioned for Takashi to come towards her. Gently, she scooped him up and sat him up her lap.
"Takashi, you should know why those kids said those things. You should know how mommy and daddy met…"
Mizuki proceeded to tell her son of that fateful story, watering down the more controversial topics. She tells him about where Toshihiro came from, and his raise to fame. He learned about his mother's clan, and their dislike of her. She told him of her marriage difficulties and their eventual sewerage from the clan.
"Why do they hate us Kaza?"
"I don't know, honey. I don't know…."
================================================================================================================
It’s dark outside, raining. Inside, his mother lays sleeping, she’s always tired nowadays. They can’t afford TV, so Takashi watches the flickering embers that escape the flames from the furnace. He watches to see how long the embers last before they burn out. Most don’t make it a foot.
The flickering light illuminates Takashi’s bare chest, he chooses to go without a shirt most the time at home. He’s proud of his toned body; with nothing else to put his time into other than weapons practice and shinobi studies, Takashi spends over 15 hours a week working out anyway he can, jumping, climbing, push-ups, sit ups, bench press, dead lift. Takashi has partaken in a little of everything by now. He’s not quite bulked up, but definitely toned more than anyone three years above his age.
There’s a knock at the door.
”Who the hell is here in the middle of the night?” he thinks, and gets up off the wood floor and walks towards the door. The floor creaks beneath him, it’s a shrewd place to live, but there’s not much he can do about it.
He opens the door to find a man he does not know standing in the middle of the pouring rain, waiting for him. The man wears a Chunnin’s combat jacket, the green barely noticeable against the black backdrop of night. His headband is obscured by several locks of hair, wetted down from the rain. There is a solemn look in his eye.
“Konban wa. Watashi no namae wa…”
“Just skip the introduction, what do you want?” Takashi understood the importance of honoring the native language, but at this time of night, Takashi wasn’t having it.
The man was annoyed at the young boy’s insolence.
“Fine. Is this the Sasaki household?”
“Who wants to know?”
The man’s expression grew angrier at this little kid. Who the hell did he think he was?
“Look, is Mizuki Uchiha…”
“No.” Takashi HATED people referring his mother being from the clan that despised them so much. He could barely stop his hand from slamming the door in his face.
The man straighten up, he was trying not to lose his patience with this punk.
“Is Mizuki Sasaki here?”
“Yea.”
“May I speak with her?”
“No.”
“Why not?” said the man through clenched teeth. He was at his wit’s end. This little p***k had wasted enough of his time, without even inviting the shinobi in out of the cold rain. He wanted to grab the kid, pick him up and trash him, but something was stopping him. No matter how much this man wanted to scream and yell, something definite was stopping him.
“She’s asleep. Come back tomorrow,” and with that Takashi slammed the door close only to have this man catch the edge and stop it. He opened the door back up and stepped inside. Takashi walked away from him.
“Look, I need to talk to someone here, and if Mizuki is not available it might as well be you.”
Something about the words he spoke made Takashi freeze. He didn’t know what, but something deep within made him feel empty. It was as if there was a voice inside screaming at him, but Takashi just couldn’t make out the words.
Maybe he didn’t want to.
“Its your father…” said the man.
“My dad’s on a mission,” Takashi said. He would slightly turn his head to look at the man, but still stood with his back facing the stranger.
“I know… look, something has happened.”
“Tell him when he gets back.”
“He’S nOt CoMiNg BaCk” the man snapped and instantly regretted the words he had just shot at the boy without the least bit of compassion.
Takashi’s heart stopped. His eyes grew wide, and tears flooded from within for the first time in his life. Takashi knew pain, his family were outcasts. Besides the three of them, they had NO ONE. Takashi knew hunger, he knew loneliness, he knew rage.
For the first time Takashi felt absolutely empty…
“What did you say?” Takashi asked without moving a muscle. His head was not turned to the man, as was the rest of his body. Takashi almost seemed to stare intensely in the exact opposite direction of the man, as if the man and Takashi were looking at the exact same thing.
“Your father… was killed during a recon mission in the Land of Rice…”
”YoUr FaThEr WaS kIlLeD…”
“fAtHeR wAs KiLlEd…”
”WaS kIlLeD…”
The words of the man rang throughout Takashi like the sirens of the fire drills he had heard coming from the Academy every once in a blue moon. It was the only thing in his world now, and the reality of it all consumed him. Takashi dropped to his knees, and soon his head followed, smashing into the floor. There Takshi laid bent over his arms drooping behind him, not even able to break his fall. Tears from his eyes mixed with the blood from his forehead and seeped through the cracks in the floor between the boards.
The man ran over to Takashi to see if he was okay. He did not sob, he did not moan, not even the slightest murmur. The man grabs his chin and turns Takashi’s head slightly, just enough make out his face underneath his long hair. There is nothing but tears, blood, and a wide-eyed blank stare into nothingness.
Mizuki appears from a nearby hallway to see what has happened, and screams in fear at the sight of Takashi. Her eyes rest upon the shinobi next to him, and she remembers she knows the man. He was on Toshihiro’s squad…
”Takashi was always strong. He never cried. What could have…”, and then it hits her. Her eyes meet the shinobi’s and she knows. Her knees buckle and she falls to the ground, sobbing. They both knew the risks of living the life of a shinobi, but you can never truly prepare…
His father’s ninjato is left on an empty sword rack on top of a shelf. The man exits without a another sound…
The house falls quiet once more.
==================================================================================================================
Theme: Thirteen
It is two years before Takashi enters the Academy, a bitter, depressed angry young man. He says goodbye to his mother each morning before he leaves; her mental stability worsens every day. She almost never gets out of bed.
Upon arrival at the school, Takashi began his training alone, thinking that he might have been the only child to enroll at the time. His hand seals were clumsily made, and his aggressive nature led him to the conclusion he had to take his rage out upon a nearby tree, smashing it until the trunk beneath the bark was smudged with blood.
Soon enough he met Kaede, another Academy student, with who he felt connected to somehow. The feeling baffled him; it wasn’t something he’d felt before. There was just something about her that kept her in the front of his mind.
Which is why when he met his “sensei” Yarotai, and he proceeded to pick on the meek girl, Takashi erupted in anger and soon found himself hating the man. Takashi never truly got over his hatred of Yarotai, and to this day he still loathes the dishonorable scum.
Along with Kaede, there was another student Tairu Hyuuga, that Takashi butted heads with a few times, but never weighted heavily on his mind.
From the brief encounter he had with Yarotai, Takashi fled to the Forest to do some training alone, only to be tracked down by Tairu and Yarotai to be used for their benefit. While Takashi initially wasn’t having any of it, he soon got the crap kicked out of him by Yarotai, bound in rope, then healed just so he could fight Tairu. It infuriated him, but Takashi eventually set it aside while Yarotai helped him with Bunshin training.
Eventually after training for a few days, Takashi returned home, only to walk into a horrible tragedy…
==================================================================================================================
Theme: What a Wonderful World
Takeshi returned home from his several days of training to his home, glad to see that everything seemed to be okay. He couldn't wait to burst inside and tell his mother of the good news that he would soon enough become a Gennin. He walked up to the front door, and found that it was locked, which was strange, because normally he and his mother kept the house unlocked during the day hours.
Takeshi pulled the spare key out of his backpack and unlocked the door. It slowly swung inward as he pushed the door open, the hinges squeaking lowly from being low on oil. It was if the door hadn't been opened in days, which wasn't right.
"Kaza, Kaza, I'm home! Kaza?" Takeshi walked around the first floor of his house to find that everything was covered in dust, backing up his theory that no one had been in the house for days. But that couldn't be right. His mother was here, right? Takeshi found a note on the coffee table that had bee addressed to him. His heart sank as he saw that it was his mother's handwriting on the note.
”Takeshi, I'm so sorry that I was the one to be your mother…”
No, no, he couldn’t believe the words he was reading.
“No Kaza, there’s nothing to be sorry for…” he let slip, but it was futile, he was talking to a piece of paper with tears in his eyes.
”You deserve so much better than me; a bright young shinobi like yourself shouldn’t have to take care of his lowly mother. I suppose that it only made sense for you to run away eventually.”
What was she talking about? Run away? Had she forgotten that he had come to her the morning he left for school to tell her where he was going? Had she believed that his absence for several days meant he was never returning? Takashi soon began blaming himself for not coming home.
“Why didn’t I just come home after training? Why didn’t I call her and tell her I was coming back?”
”I knew in my heart that this day would come. And it is with a heavy heart that I tell you goodbye, for the final time.”
“No, no, no…” The words seemed to slip from his mouth without him even knowing.
”You have left for a better life…”
“No, no, no, I’m here, I haven’t gone!” He shook the paper.
”…and now my nest is empty. I no longer want to be a burden on anyone else.”
“No! You’re not a burden, damn it!” Tears streamed down his face and wet the paper. He knew what the next words would be, but he didn’t want to read them.
I will always love you, Takeshi.
As he read the note, it broke his heart. He ran up the stairs to his mother's bedroom, dropping the note on the floor in a flurry of motion. When he arrived at the door, his heart stopped, and he tentatively reached for the handle, turned it, and peered inside.
His mother floated a few inches off of the bed, hanging by a rope from the ceiling fan. A trash can laid on the ground on its side, obviously kicked by his mother when she stood on top of it. His eyes streamed endless rivers of tears as he looked upon his mother; the sight of the cut marks on her wrists meant that she had tried to kill herself before. Takashi, fell to his knees; he couldn't believe that she was dead. He couldn't bear to touch her, not like this. His emotions overwhelmed him and Takeshi’s tenketsu began releasing every ounce of chakra he had. Unknown to him at the time, Takashi’s Fire Affinity changed the nature of his chakra, which soon turned to flames and licked the walls of the room. Soon, his entire house was on fire and smoke billowed out of the open windows for all to see. Eventually Takashi could bear no more, and, completely out of chakra, blacked out.
It was a miracle that another, Kiyoshi Uchiha happened to see the smoke erupting from the small apartment. It was he that rushed into the burning building and saved an unconscious Takashi. Unfortunately, Mizuki was already gone, and everything that Takashi had once held dear, even all his material possessions, was destroyed.
==================================================================================================================
Theme: Another Lonely Day ( Fast forward to 0:18 )
Takashi awoke a few days later in the hospital, covered in bandages for third degree burns. He was told that he was lucky to be alive.
“…”
“Fine, I’ll just leave you alone.” The nurse attending left him.
Takashi stared blankly for hours into nothingness, then sat up and stared at his lap for a while. Eventually the Uchiha came to visit him in the hospital, and, desperate for any human connection, Takeshi left with him to begin training. It was the Uchiha’s hope that Takashi would channel his aggression and depression into his work as a shinobi…
Over the course of the next few days, Takashi trained out in the Open Meadows with Kiyoshi to learn the Goukakyu no Jutsu. Whiel Takashi had trouble at first, he made progress little by little, and eventually almost set the Open Meadows on fire with his jutsu. With his limited chakra reserves as an Academy student, Takashi napped for hours at a time trying to replenish his chakra. After Takashi had completed his journey, Kiyoshi came to him with an interesting proposition…
============================================================================================================
Theme: Saika
“No, absolutely not,” the lady says. By the slight throbbing of a small vein in her forehead, he can tell she’s annoyed. Many people wait in line behind him, rope barriers criss-crossing the area from the entrance to the booth.
“The kid is practically homeless. There are no parents or guardians to get consent from; hell I’m probably the closest thing he has to a family!”
He’s been waiting in line for about a half an hour, which wasn’t so bad. The situation called for urgency, but Kiyoshi was still polite enough to ask if he could cut in front of another in line. Angry people in line grumble at his presence, but he can tell from the stupid looks on most of their faces that they will be wasting one of the workers’ time eventually.
“What’d you mean I cain’t leave the village without a passport? The town I’m goin’ to is only a day away.” The man at the counter across from him is an idiot, never left the village before and he’s surprised that there are rules he’s never heard of.
“If you are his legal guardian, where is the paperwork?” She’s said the same line so many times she just stops listening to the excuses.
“I’m not. He has none!”
“Sir, I’m going to need you to fill out this form with his legal guardian’s signature and information. NEXT.
Kiyoshi didn’t have time for this woman’s laziness, Takashi faced being put in a foster home soon enough. Kiyoshi expressed his feelings about adopting Takashi, and he agreed. Takashi wanted to live alone anyways. The life of a nomad was his last option to avoid child services.
“Damn it, I really didn’t want to do this,” he thought, and closed his eyes for a moment. Soon chakra flooded the tenketsu around his eyes, and the familiar red eyes reappeared. This time he had the woman’s full attention.
“Ma’am, I would like two passports to leave Konoha please. We won’t be leaving the Land of Fire though.”
Kiyoshi placed a stack of paperwork on the counter, including birth certificates and transcripts.
“Very well, sir.” The woman seemed to be hypnotized by his eyes, but Kiyoshi could afford to wait no longer. The information was input into a computer and out of the print slid a small stack of papers that would serve as their passports. The return dates were printed for two years after the current date…
Theme: You’re Gonna Go Far Kid
“You ready to go?”
“Yea, I wanna leave this place behind.” His eyes are empty, staring into nothingness again. His voice is cold. The depression is back, consuming him again. The harder he trains, the more he can take his mind of it.
“Okay, lets go, Takashi-san.”
They present their papers to the Customs agent at the booth in the front of the village, just before the large gate that has protected Konoha for over a century. A man looks the stack over a few times, stamps a few pages, and hands the bundle back to Kiyoshi.
It will be two years before they return to Konohagakure no Sato…
