For Nobara

Chapter 12: He Painted the Sky Red

Since this update took so long, I decided to share my drawing of Nobara's character design in her jinbei and poncho. It's drafty because I suck at precision so pencil brushes are my safe space. Sobs. I'm not entirely sure if I made her the age she physically looks like either, but whatever. Italics intended.

· ☽ ·

He breaks things. Maybe that's how he copes, when everything becomes too much for him. His body absorbs it all and then he explodes. He turns it into something destructive and he wears it like an armor. He plays it all too well, but Zetsu doesn't think the man ever notices it for himself, when he rarely leaves unscathed to his own ignition.

And this makes the man look older than he is supposed to be. He doesn't even look like the boy the creature met years ago anymore, that fragile boy who was always running after love and camaraderie like a fool.

This man, he is all hatred and blind rage.

"You knew," he seethes and suddenly Zetsu is rammed against the wall. He clenches his fists against the creature's cloak, but the man is anything but calm. "You knew—"

Of course the creature did... long before the child became part of Akatsuki's plans and goals. Of course he knew.

"It wasn't a secret..." Zetsu answers, his yellow eyes never wavering. It's the truth. He never once tried to conceal the child from the man because he didn't need to.

Does hatred blind you so?

"She was scorned by those people because she resembled you. I didn't think you wouldn't have realized it when you looked at her."

And perhaps, hatred does so. Because before he can even think, the man already pummels his fist on Zetsu's face until the creature plows into the ground. The black side of him trembles with anger, but strangely, he doesn't retaliate violently as his other half would have wanted. Instead, Black Zetsu remains quiet because the man looks unstable enough as it is.

While it's true he was too blinded to see past the surface, perhaps it's because the man doesn't recognize himself anymore. He doesn't remember how he used to look like before everything left him the way he is now. Depraved. Damaged.

He staggers. Whether it's because of rage or pain, he doesn't know. He can only remember that woman, so maybe that's why she was all he ever saw when he looked at the child before he saw red.

"That wench..." The venom in his voice is unmistakable, and yet even then, he looks so miserable like that—like he has already lost everything. "How could she do this to me...?"

It drove him mad and this part of him makes Zetsu believe that the man could only ever kill the child to soothe his own pain with the way he is now.

He had done it before, over and over, every piece of what reminded him of her. Like a madman erasing traces so he doesn't have to hurt anymore. It might not even matter then if the man knew he fathered the child or not. Because when you've been hurt enough, you'll begin to feel fear for what caused it, won't you?

To him, they are all the same—the children who caused that woman's demise even though she had sacrificed everything for them. But as he remembers the way those same red eyes looked at him, he feels his chest tighten with unsettling discomfort.