Fourteen and a half years ago:
A lonely man was sitting in the armchair. His place reeked of cheap alcohol, there were several clay flasks of emptied sake all over the floor. A mass of unfinished lunch that reminded more now of slime than it did of waffles, which it began its existence as, lay dormant on the table, just a couple of hours short before life would flourish on its surface making it dangerous to eat. It wasn't that the man cared that much of safety hazards of the edible food variety. In his line of work, tainted waffles were the least likely thing to kill him.
The man flipped the flask of sake tied down to his arm, it was comfortable to drink it that way for drunks. One didn't have to constantly hold it in their arm, one flip of the flask, just a gentle movement of the arm and the disgusting flammable devil's elixir poured all over one's mouth. Filling one with that feeling of disgust and regret but at the same time relief, satisfying one's desire for self-destruction, making their self-pity somehow feel better. As if the drunkard screamed to the world: "I'm miserable, so what, you may hate me but I hate myself even more, so fuck off".
Even with the more comfortable drinking mechanism on the man's arm, his arm twisted in a way that let the booze spill on the floor as he forgot to close the flask before lowering his hands. The man cursed but ultimately felt too drunk and lazy to fix it. His apartment already looked like a shithole so what's a little sake on the floor? If anything the liquor will serve as a decontaminant for all those bacteria and insects on the rarely cleaned floor and carpet. That furry thing was there before Nakotsumi Tsukumo could remember, belonged to his father, or maybe even his grandfather.
The man decided to pour his next drink, he spilled the contents of the flask on the floor, clearly, he was too drunk for that kind of drinking to continue so perhaps a change in habit could somehow slightly give him some sharpness of thought back. He hoped desperately that this night would be nothing like the nights of the last eight weeks, nights when he drank himself until passing out, waking up covered in his own vomit, cleaning himself up and going to work.
People looked at Tsukumo and hated him for being a drunkard slob, they called him a mess. They were afraid of him and pointed fingers. They didn't hate the man half as bad as he hated himself. He drank because he wanted to kill himself but lacked the guts to cut his own throat. Sometimes he got so drunk that the guts toughened, the man tried to kill himself in one of his traps, "Konoha's Great Trapster" they started calling him after Tsukumo became one of the more notable genin and approached the day he'd be called a chuunin even.
Yet every time the man tried, every time he failed – a drunk mind just couldn't properly set the darned thing up and Tsukumo always passed out. They called him a mess, how does one not become a mess after being involved in a literal genocide? Following and gathering intelligence on a band of people tied together by bonds of family – "Wandering Ninja" they called themselves. It was Tsukumo's information that helped their entire tribe to be killed, just snuffed out, stabbed and slit their throats in a coordinated fashion one rainy night. All of them but one woman, Hokage was merciful enough to spare her seeing how Tsukumo got involved with her. The worst part that it wasn't even Tsukumo's word that saved her, it was Hokage's own skills of observation.
"Tsukumo," he said, "I've heard you've been hanging out with this Kei of the Wandering Ninja". At that point the genin was ready to admit he was involved and slept with her numerous times, he was ready to let go of her, he was that sad and pathetic. Admit it all and let her die with the rest of her people, "Don't worry, Hokage-sama, it won't be a bother" was the best that fuckwad which was Tsukumo could come up with. Hokage allowed her to be spared, he said that even the Daimyo was fine with one woman surviving, after all – one woman was not enough to keep the purest form of bloodline alive. Even if those mutts could be considered a clan before, with all of their mixed blood, they certainly won't be now, not for real.
A loud bang woke Tsukumo up, it must've been early morning. The man wouldn't have woken up if it wasn't, booze tends to knock him out good. The genin looked at the pieces of his glass and the damaged wall, he must've flung the damned thing pretty hard, he was proper pissed last night...
Slowly dragging his feet and feeling worse than a dog having swallowed a bucket of banana slugs and a toad on top he staggered to the door, Tsukumo's head was spinning, he felt like he was going to literally pour out his stomach and innards on the floor if he as much as thought about it or opened his mouth. It's alright, he deserved to suffer, he deserved death for what he was responsible for...
Tsukumo opened the door. There she was... Short, dark purplish shade of long hair reaching the lower parts of her back. Kei of the Wandering Ninja. Tsukumo tried to slam the door but her hand got in the way. The man pulled it tougher, slamming the door on her hand and pressing hard, the woman grunted and barely restrained her scream of pain but she held it there, the bleeding hand was shaking but the woman left it there – she was desperate to get in.
"Look if you want to kill me for what I've done – be my guest... I've been trying to but I'm too much of a dirtbag to throw myself off of a cliff. Fucking excuse me for not having the guts to off my stupid face." Tsukumo spoke, he was right, just as he opened his mouth and opened the door he threw up close to the woman's slippers. She stepped back letting his torrent of vomit just barely slip from hitting her wet and transparent white shirt. Kei locked her hands on her chest and helped Tsukumo get back on his feet.
"I can't kill you, I wanted to, I mean... But you saved my life, similarly to how you can't end yourself, I cannot kill a man who loved me so much that he saved my life from... That..." Kei spoke softly. Her hand moved onto her stomach. "Also, I can't kill you until you help raise our child..."
Tsukumo's eyes widened, he jumped back on his feet and looked at the vomit, trying to swallow the following up reflex to throw his poison up again. "Scuse me, what?" he asked looking at the woman who gently took him by his elbow and dragged him inside his own home to hide both of them from the rain and closed the door.
"The child, two months..." Kei smiled looking at her belly with those most lovely eyes that Tsukumo got in love with.
"Fuck... Two months? That was... Fuck..." the man cursed stroking his lengthened hair and nearly clawing his own eyes out from dealing with the shock.
"This child was started on the worst night of my people, it's either going to be someone great or someone genocidal, either way, it's gonna mean something, I just know it" Kei looked at it before tears started bursting down her face. She turned away and crept up closer to the door, gently tapping her forehead to the tough wood and starting to cry for real.
Tsukumo cursed again and hugged the woman from behind, gently stroking the belly where his child was growing. "What's wrong?" he asked, he didn't feel nearly well enough to be dealing with the hormones of a pregnant woman but that was his life – responsibility and hatred. Hatred for himself for taking that responsibility up. He was warned about what that mission to gather intel on the Wandering Ninja would do to him.
Still, he went with it... He wanted glory, he wanted a shortcut to the next rank and being someone who caused a genocide in the name of the village was that shortcut. This world awarded the worst scum there were and if that was the truth, Nakotsumi Tsukumo was the worst there was. Maybe even worse than those who actually carried the mass assassination out.
"I can't, Tsukumo, can't you see? What kind of an ignorant ass would bring her baby into this pathetic and sickening world?!" the woman cried out, her heart was still aching, she still hasn't forgiven Tsukumo's betrayal. After all, the man got involved with her while working behind her back to gather intelligence on her people which was then used to slaughter them all out just because the Daimyo didn't like them and the fact that they were people who loved freedom most of all things.
"You're right, this place sucks, everything about it is disgusting and it may be for the better if that child would never be born to see it how it is. Imagine the hatred and grief in that child's heart when they hear that they were started on the night that all of their people were slaughtered for refusing to be subjugated. Imagine its disappointment when it learns to not even belong to the tribe of their people, that anger for its own roots when it learns to be the child of their only survivor and the man who handed the dagger to their killers... We've failed our child before it was born, we've failed to give them a world to live in, only this... Just as we were failed by our parents and the list goes on..." Tsukumo rambled stopping a couple of times feeling like he was about to throw up again but barely managing to keep it in.
Kei turned back and hugged the man she loved, even with all that he did, she still loved him. "Then give me a senbon and I'll end it. We'll spare our child the suffering of being born, we'll spare it of the realization of the failure of our ancestors and its own parents..." she cried out pitifully.
"We have no right" Tsukumo's voice thundered it out, this wasn't the voice of a drunk who was responsible for a mass murder, it was the brave and strong voice of a future father.
Kei's shocked and surprised eyes looked her lover right in the eyes. She kissed him passionately and then shook her head in disbelief.
"I mean... Our child will probably hate this place, they'll probably be the cruelest and meanest bastard and let this world seep into their veins. I'm sure them being started on the day of a genocide isn't a good sign but... If our child will hate it or love it, it's a fifty-fifty chance. If we decide for our child it will be a one hundred percent disappointment and death. It may be too young to know anything yet but it will still be a failure. We'll let this cruel world get to our child before it is even born, we'll show them the twisted side of this world before they even understand what is happening. No. I'm going to accept this responsibility, I'll answer for what I've done, I'll raise this child and be the best father at the same time while I fix this somehow... All I ask for is that you also give me the chance to be your husband. Look at this place, without you I'll fail. Please give this a chance... I'm not asking you to forgive me for what I've done, it's unforgivable. I'm just asking for your help in fulfilling this responsibility."
Kei hugged Tsukumo and kissed him again several times. Right after her sweet lips moved away from those of the genin he felt a powerful blow and saw a broomstick in her hands. "Look at this dump, clean yourself up, my future husband!" Kei laughed out through her tears handing the broom to Tsukumo who laughed out and picked it from her hands.
*****
Several Days Ago:
Kiyomi looked at the sleeping body of her teammate, her chest just barely lifted and deflated showing some signs of life. She must've been cold. The girl crawled up to her friend and covered her up with her own jacket. Kiyomi looked at the fire and moved in closer. She was fortunate that the Quack and Hisako saved the two, they'd have died if they didn't butt in and heal them. That Quack had the craziest healing methods but at the very least because of him Mana and Kiyomi are currently alive. Despite having met him just a day ago the young Yamanaka already trusted him more than Hisako, not that it was a tough limit to beat...
The young man looked at her and took a pill of some sort. He squinted his eyes and his skin got paler, for a moment it looked like he was dying as he started to choke and struggle to breathe and his blood vessels shot out but then just that moment later he started breathing again and his pulse got back to normal, only his pale skin still reminded the Yamanaka of this young man's strange ritual. She looked at him with a questioning glare. While Hisako was out getting them food she may as well have gotten to know the guy.
"Sorry, lovely, not your damned business... If you're a junkie of some sort, you can't have any, it's mine and I don't like to share" the young Quack replied, it wasn't that his tone implied rudeness too, he appeared to feel more annoyed than anything else.
"Story for a story?" Kiyomi smiled. The Quack laughed out sarcastically as if mocking the blonde, he must've doubted that she had an interesting enough story to deserve his own.
The blonde looked down, she was acting out of line, this man was just a rogue. Even more, he kept on treating her and everyone else like dirt, he didn't even as much as look at Mana after stabilizing her condition, she may as well have died on his watch and until Hisako or Kiyomi ordered him to look at her he wouldn't have cared one bit.
"It's poison, I need it to kill something worse inside me, something that together with killing me is also healing me so that it can thrive and kill me longer, that's the short version, lovely..." the Quack replied quickly, he moved up closer to Kiyomi tightening the belt of his coat. It really was a cold evening. The rogue medic reached for her cheek.
"What's this?" he asked looking at it, "Looks black, bleeding black's the color of "I'm fucked through the bunghole" he examined it.
Kiyomi pushed his hand away and wiped the dirt off of her cheek. "It's just dirt you dum..." before she could finish her sentence the young rogue kissed her forcefully. Kiyomi's fist dug deep into his jaw sending the man down and rolling a couple of meters back. She was ready to kill him before the man lifted his head and spat a couple of teeth out before giving her that innocent missing teeth smile.
"Now you've paid for that story, lovely..." the Quack laughed out. He then came back to where he was sitting, Kiyomi kept on squinting angrily at him preparing to punch him in the face when he as much as twitched his damned lips. A goddamned rogue! He may have felt bad about it and he may have been forced into his servitude and he may have had no choice, he may have wanted to justify his ways and legitimize his work becoming a medical ninja but he was way out of line. She was an heiress of one of the most elite clans in Konoha. She should've killed him where he sat!
"Although now that you mention it... I mention it... Whatever... I guess I'd kind of like to hear your story. That punch felt like... Yeah, that didn't feel "stop kissing me, you creep!", more like "you killed my daddy, prepare to die, criminal scum". As sad as the story sounds, we've got plenty of time before the dark haired bitch comes back, may as well share stories while we're at it." The young man shrugged.
"Fine, but if I see as much as another movement I don't like I'll shove a handful of those poison pills down your throat, you may need them to survive but I can't imagine you liking that much of them!" Kiyomi whipped back at him angrily.
"Aw, don't be like that, lovely, you know how we criminal folk are, don't have a lot of time to live our lives so we get right to the point. No need to feel bad if you don't like rogues, once I'll legitimize and start treating you, maybe wear that fancy doctor uniform I'll be all yours, I give you a 66% promise" the Quack winked at Kiyomi. The Yamanaka just wanted to punch him, beat him, maybe even kill him but... He was a medical ninja, a rogue one but, still, she and Mana owed him their lives. He may have been a womanizing scumbag but he at least deserved several more chances Kiyomi gave most not to piss her off.
"Alright, since you wanted to hear it, listen up..." Kiyomi started her story, telling the Quack all about her early childhood. All about her mother and her days of tending to the gardens and being pampered like a little flower by the clan elders, being prepared for becoming the next heiress. She went on to tell the young man all about her brother, how strong and amazing he was, how he took it upon himself to fight every enemy of the clan, how he took the responsibility of training Kiyomi and helping her graduate and become an actual ninja.
Everything about him. How he eventually became a Justicar, an international version of a Hunter Ninja who didn't hunt for the profit and convenience of the village but instead to uphold the various international codes and laws of justice written before the villages were even built, some of them even by the First People, and how he died protecting his family after some criminals wanted to get at him.
Kiyomi did get a bit invested in her story, her eyes started watering and her body started shaking. She didn't even notice Quack's arm wrapping around her to calm her down. After finishing her story she took a couple of moments to realize it still. Kiyomi's elbow slammed right into the young man's face sending him down again. Whatever skills he had with medical ninjutsu seemed to heal his facial fractures and injuries quite fast, maybe it was the same skill that helped him overcome his poison?
Either way, once again he stepped over the line. The blonde stood up and walked towards Mana intending to check up on her. "Stop this nonsense before you get hurt. I'm an heiress of the Yamanaka clan and one day I'll marry someone of high status as well... I've no right nor the desire to even look at a rogue medic like you, be it play or actual shot at me..."
"Heh, never say "fuck off, criminal scum" before you see me in a medical ninja uniform, lovely..." Quack writhed out through the pain of fixing his broken nose.
Kiyomi didn't want to admit that she cracked a grin and just barely restrained her giggles.