Cursed Saint

5 - Pieces

"How's he doing?" Hiruzen asked.

Asuma stood in front of his father's desk, his hands stuffed in his pockets. It had been a week since he'd last had a meeting with his father. A week since he'd learned about Ryu. A week since he'd started watching the boy from the shadows, not wanting him to know how he and the Hokage were worrying about him so strongly.

"You know how he was so distant before? How he would only hang out with Naruto and kept up barriers?" When Hiruzen nodded, he continued. "He's worse now. Naruto can't even get in. Ryu is around people all the time, but when you look at him, you would think he was in an empty village."

The elderly man looked down at the desk, a sad look in his dark eyes. "And he locks himself in his room after school, correct?"

He nodded. "It's strange. The only way I can compare looking at him is by saying it's like watching the living dead." Asuma searched his mind, trying to figure out what he'd thought while he'd watched Ryu. "He reacts slower to new things, so I think he's more doing what his body knows. He's trapped himself in his mind."

Hiruzen raised his gaze to look at Asuma. "You seem to have taken an interest in Ryu to think so deeply into this," he noted. "I've never seen you this involved with part of one of Konoha's children's life."

What the Hokage said was true - Asuma usually didn't get so involved. He wasn't even sure what drove him to help the young boy so much. The only thing he could come up with was that dead look. When he wondered why, that was what he saw. He couldn't even sleep because of it about half the week. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop wanting to rid that dead look from Ryu.

In the end, Asuma just shrugged. "You asked me to keep an eye on him, so I am," he said.

"That is true," Hiruzen admitted There was a short silence between the two males, both of them waiting for the other to say something. It ended up being the Hokage who broke that silence. "Now there's one more thing I want to ask you to do, Asuma."

He raised an eyebrow. "What is it?" Even as he asked it, he could guess what it was.

"I want you to do me a favor next time you watch him," his father said. "Have you ever really looked at his eyes?"

Asuma was caught off guard. It was nothing like he had expected. He had expected him to ask him to approach the boy or something similar. "No, not really. I've never gotten the chance to get a good look. His head's down a lot of the time or he's facing the wall. The only time I do it's not that great a look."

"What do you see?"

"I told you. He looks dead."

Hiruzen sighed, obviously disappointed. Asuma felt a bit of annoyance at himself, knowing he'd disappointed his father, but he pushed it away. He may have hated it, but he'd grown used to it. "Next time you see him, Asuma, I'd like you to look deeper. Either that or ask him to come to me," the Hokage instructed. "I want to know something."

Asuma still wondered what in the world his father was wanting to know, but instead of asking, he nodded. "I'll try my best to look at his eyes and find whatever it is you want to know, but if I can't find it, I'll send him to you," he said.

****

Ryu stared down at his red hands, trembling as he looked back up. He saw Shiro standing there, rips slowly repairing themselves along his body. Rips that he had created with his own hands. Then Ryu reached forward and grasped his arm.

"Please! Please, stop," Shiro begged, throwing his head back and screaming when Ryu started pulling the arm off.

"He wants to die," a voice whispered in Ryu's ear. "Then give him death."