Since returning to Kirigakure, Issei had spent a majority of his time doing an investigation. He was determined to find his Kaguya ancestor. According to his mother, Ena, the last shinobi in his direct bloodline before his father and herself was her grandfather (and his great grandfather), Gaku Yamamoto. He had died a long time ago, but his daughter Itsumi (Ena’s mother) was still alive. She would the best lead he could get, since most of the members of his father’s side of the family were known to be born and raised in the Momochi clan and even having inbred within the clan for bloodline “purity”, thus eliminating any chance of a Kaguya being involved with any of the clansmen. He called and offered to meet with Istumi the following weekend after his return to the Land of Water; he hadn’t seen her since he was very little because his mother wasn’t close with her parents and thus he wasn’t close with his grandparents, but she agreed to meet and answer any questions he had about their shared family. His search was coming together nicely. They met at her home, which was a small cottage on one of the smaller islands. His primary concern was Gaku, but as he asked her about his past as a ninja, she admitted that she didn’t know too much. Apparently, Gaku was a very secretive man, and he kept his children sheltered from his history as a shinobi for some reason. This was suspicious enough to lead Issei to believe he was looking in the right place. He asked Itsumi if she had ever used chakra or been a ninja, and she claimed she hadn’t because her father hadn’t allowed her to. With as much information as he could get out of her, he left Itsumi’s home and started asking around about Gaku.

Most people had no idea who Gaku was, but one or two elders in the village recognized the name and remembered it bitterly. They wouldn’t give Issei specifics, but apparently Gaku was infamous for one reason or another. The final destination was the library, where there were archives on Kirigakure’s past, as well as former and current shinobi, and news headlines throughout the years. Searching the database for Gaku’s name brought up a profile on him which seemed regular, with no information on him ever having been a shinobi. A quick refinement of the search for broader terms including the phrase “Kaguya” brought up one significant event from almost a century ago. The headline read, “Rebirth of the Kaguya Clan is Proven to be Dangerous”. Issei had understood that the original Kaguya clan had died out a long time ago and their kekkei genkai had been preserved through DNA and stem cells that were implanted into Kiri nin long ago in order to “restore” it. Thus, the Shikotsumyaku thrived in a new branch of people; this headline must have been a decade or two following the new clan’s rise. A sketch of a man with white hair and piercing black eyes was on the page, and the article described how a man named Kaguya, Sakichi had impaled a woman with a sharp bone and killed her. The article left the impression that he didn’t have control of himself when the event happened, but nonetheless, he escaped and was never found again. Issei knew that had to have been his great grandfather, simply due to the striking resemblance he had to the sketch; Sakichi must have changed his name to Gaku Yamamoto, altered his appearance, and started a family after this happened…Issei had gotten the answer to his question; his great grandfather had been a member of the Kaguya clan, but clearly he did his best to cover it up after that incident. Issei returned to Itsumi with a copy of the article and she confirmed that it was her father in the sketch. She seemed unsettled by the fact that he had killed an innocent woman, but Issei told her that it was likely an accident and that he used to have the same problems controlling the Shikotsumyaku. Before Issei left, Itsumi added another detail about her father, just in case it was important. Her mother had told her that when she and her father first met, he had strange tattoos along his wrists and ankles and collection of scrolls. However, Itsumi herself had seen Gaku’s wrists and ankles since then and never saw any tattoos. Issei immediately knew what this meant but he didn’t want to concern Itsumi with the details, so he thanked her and left.

Sakichi’s disappearance and Gaku’s sudden arrival in Kiri. Itsumi’s mother having claimed Gaku owned a collection of scrolls and had tattoos on his wrists and ankles that Itsumi had never seen. The erasure of his past as Sakichi, his Kaguya bloodline, and the murder he committed. They likely weren’t tattoos; Fuuinjutsu seals seemed far more likely. He had escaped the village and used Fuuinjutsu to seal away the Shikotsumyaku so that he didn’t have to worry about hurting anyone else ever again. Gaku was long dead, now, but Issei felt his pain as if it were his own. He assumed that the Fuuinjutsu in question was a forbidden technique, though, because it hadn’t affected Gaku alone. Perhaps the gene that determined ability to use the Shikotsumyaku was recessive, which would explain why neither Itsumi nor Ena could use it, but it seemed far more likely that whatever Fuuinjutsu that Gaku used had lingering effects which were passed to his children and the future generations of his family. Issei hadn’t been able to use the Shikotsumyaku at all until he experienced extreme trauma, which according to his understanding of seals, probably weakened the Fuuinjutsu and allowed him to awaken the ability to manipulate his bones. Regardless, it wasn’t a mystery anymore. The pieces had come together and the picture they created made sense. Issei had inherited his great grandfather’s bloodline ability and had merely awakened it late because it was restricted by a jutsu.

Despite his success in finding out how and why he was a Kaguya, Issei found himself piled up with unfortunate circumstances. His mother was sent to the hospital after she had a heart attack. Nightmares about the Surgeon’s return started to torment him. Finally, an eviction notice on his door. Issei’s heart pounded as he read across it; the rent was increasing and considering his last payment few payments had been late (his income from missions was a little thin at times), the landlord had decided to proactively evict him. He immediately started to panic, worried about where he would live, what he would do after this. He didn’t have anywhere else to go and there wasn’t enough room to live with his parents; besides, how pathetic would that be, especially after his mother’s health was looking so poor? A thirty year old well over the age of adulthood and self-sufficiency living with his elderly parents. No, he wouldn’t have it. Regardless of his living situation, what of the Surgeon? How would he protect himself? He’d recently been promoted to Chuunin, but that didn’t mean that he was strong enough to take on a missing-ninja that was assumed to be of at least A-Rank. All his options crowded around him and as he assessed each, but he noticed a common denominator in all of the problems in his life; his attitude towards life. He let himself get taken advantage of all the time. The only reason he had picked that shoddy apartment in Kiri anyway was because it was the first available option he liked. He didn’t bother looking further because he didn’t like having to interact with people, and since it wasn’t rent controlled anyhow, he had spent the last year waiting for this increase in rent that he already could barely afford. He went inside, walking through the hallway toward his room. His hand dragged across the wall, leaving marks along the familiar confines of his “home”. Why was he always living in fear of other people, worried they would hurt him? He was just as capable of hurting them as they were of hurting him. His life was apparently ready falling apart around him but he knew he had the strength to pick up the pieces and show the world what he was worth. Just because this place wasn’t really his anymore...rather, it never was, and his time there was up, that didn’t mean the end of the world. Since when did he need a specific physical location in order to feel at home? He was a wanderer at heart, with a taste for adventure and a passion for seeing the world. Kirigakure was his village, and as a shinobi he’d already gained valuable life experience that he wasn’t about to take for granted. No, Kirigakure was where his loyalty lied and that’s where it would always stay. His parents, the rest of his family, his ancestors since the rebirth of the Kaguya, it was all in Kirigakure. His mind was made and resolute; he had savings from missions and such and they provided a stable income for him. He would find a new place to live; a room, not an apartment, to maximize his income’s worth. He would only ever sleep there, but he would live as an explorer and get the joy he wanted out of life. Just thinking about it made his skin crawl with excitement. He hated the self that he had been for so long while the person he really was was right in front of him the entire time, and it was about time that version of Issei came out for everyone to see. It was far past time that he stopped being a pushover and put himself in control for once.

Issei finished packing and moved out that day. He paid for a storage garage on the outskirts of the village to keep most of his stuff and then paid for a hotel room to live in until he found a room. Next was his mother, who was still in the hospital recovering. He stopped by their house to talk to his father, who gave him the room she was in. He headed straight there and checked on her to make sure she was doing alright. She was up and awake, and she assured him that she was feeling fine, but he still worried for her. He explained his current situation concerning his apartment and she almost instantly offered for him to move in, but he refused and told her the very same reason why he wasn’t considering it an option himself. She disagreed, telling him that it was a parent’s duty to take care of their child regardless of age, but he didn’t let her change his mind. After he stayed for another half an hour, he gave her a hug and promised to visit the next day. On his way back to the hotel, he found that he still felt strange, different than his usual self. He held the same, emotionless glare that he usually had, and he walked with perfect coordination and posture, but along with the intimidating presence was a factor of confidence. He made it back and sat down on his bed. His eyes looked down to his hands, and he noticed the veins were bulging and pulsing wildly. He brought his right hand to his heart; it was beating much faster than usual. What was happening? He went to the bathroom and turned on the light; a quick inspection of himself in the mirror led him to notice veins around his eyes. This was usually a sign that he was using his kekkei genkai, but he hadn’t activated it at all. Beginning to worry, he sat down on the toilet seat and placed his elbows on his knees, rubbing his eyes furiously. His stress was only exacerbating the situation and he felt the blood pumping through his face. When he next looked into the mirror, one of his eyes had undergone the transition and was black and red, while the other was still white and pale gray. Next, his hands started to tremble and the bones within grew. The bone formed sharpened edges along his knuckles that protruded like blades. That had never happened to him before, and furthermore, it was causing him immense pain. If he didn’t get control over it, his cells would start to degenerate, like the doctors often warned him.

Trying to breathe properly took up a lot of his attention and it did help, to a degree. While he couldn’t stop his other eye from making the full transition, his knuckles returned to normal. He gripped the toilet seat as if bracing himself for something else, but he only felt a tingling throughout his skeleton. Tears streamed down his face, red with blood. That couldn’t have been a good sign; whatever was happening was affecting the rest of his body negatively. He got off of the toilet and leaned against the bathroom counter, switching on the faucet and splashing his eyes clean with water desperately. At the base of his spine, he felt the skin and muscle start to shift to accommodate the growth of something just above his tailbone. It hurt like hell, as if someone was tearing him apart from the inside out slowly. Just as he went back to the door to get out of the bathroom, he caught sight of himself in the mirror again and saw that same fear in his eyes that he had vowed to get rid of earlier in the day. I’m a person, too. If I’m living in fear of myself, I’m still letting my fear of people control my life. I have to accept myself for what I am; if I’m calm, I can be in control. I can be...in...control. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. He didn’t move; the only constant was his pulse, which started to slow down a bit as he relaxed. The tension throughout his body didn’t work against him any longer and the pain started to numb; whether it was from prolonged exposure and his body’s adjustment to it or from the change in his body’s balance, it didn’t matter. He was happy to be rid of it.

Issei went to the window and threw it open in a swift movement before hopping out onto the balcony. From there, he climbed the side of the inn building until he reached the top floor, and stood on the roof. His heartbeat and breathing were calm and calculated. That was who he was; it didn’t always have to be about defense and fear. He was, at his best, meant to be a stable man. Stable for everyone, for Masahide, for his mother, for his father, for himself. The issues he’d faced in his past shouldn’t have defined him, but rather his personality, his accomplishments, his values. Looking out over a small portion of Kirigakure, surrounded by moonlight, Issei’s spine started to move again. The growth that had formed above his tailbone continued as chakra poured into the area like a torrent of water in a funnel. The pain started again, but it wasn’t involuntary, anymore. Issei wouldn’t have allowed it otherwise, but now he was fueling it, focusing his energy into it. Bone started to “sprout” from his skin, poking out just beneath his shirt and still extending. His pain reached a nearly unbearable apex as he screamed into the night, a howl that echoed throughout the silent streets. I am in control now. It was a 5-meter-and-counting long tail made of extra vertebrae generated by his Shikotsumyaku. Controlled as easy as an additional appendage, it continued coiling around him as it grew, forming a protective barrier. His crimson eyes glimmered from behind its jagged edges, vicious and unforgiving like a wolf watching its prey from the brush. Blood dripped from his lower back as the bone had been forced out from his skin, but his body started to adjust as it realized it was a result of the Shikotsumyaku. Of course, cell degeneration was always a threat, and if that was the case the only way to prevent it from becoming lethal was to stop using his kekkei genkai until it was reversed. He didn’t let it worry him; the pain was starting to subside and he let the bleeding continue until the wound closed itself and his body had accommodated the tail’s presence. From there, he straightened it out and  let it extend to its furthest point, turning to look back at it. Masterfully crafted like a weapon fit for a king, built like a reinforced, expanded backbone. The end was sharpened into a flattened and lethal edge, similar to a blade’s tip. By flexing his back muscles, moving his hips, and expending chakra, he could bend, move, and redirect his tail in any way he liked. It was difficult to get used to at first since it felt strange and the tail was heavy. It was almost like learning to walk again, but he got the hang of it rather quickly.

Without warning or hesitation, Issei leaped from the top of the building all the way down to the streets below, stabbing his tail into the ground before he landed in order to soften the impact. He pulled it free and ran forward, his eyes steady and focused on the path. His feet made loud clacks as they hit the pavement and he zigzagged between buildings along an imagined route. Having lived in Kirigakure for a good portion of his life, he knew where all the isolated spots were, and was headed out toward a more natural area filled with trees that was reserved as one of his favorites, just up the river from his parents’ home. His running speed was hardly anything to be amazed by but he moved as fast as he could, breaking into a sweat that wet his face and glistened around his darkened eyes. The cemented road gave way to a dirt path surrounded by grass and bushes, and the sound of flowing water was growing audibly louder in volume as he grew closer to the clearing. When he reached a tall tree, he struck it with his tail in order to gain a steady hold on it before resting his full weight on the tail and lifting himself up into one of the branches. From there, he retracted the tail and extended it again, letting it wrap around a higher branch and lift him up, then repeating the process over and over to get to the top. Some branches were too weak to hold his full weight and the additional weight of the tail, and they would crack or snap off, so he would have to catch himself on a sturdier branch to keep from falling. It was an exercise, and much less efficient than using the supernatural walking jutsu to scale vertical surfaces like that, but it was educational nonetheless. The tail had enough strength to support his weight and still move comfortably, which he figured could be a valuable asset in a battle, and being able to guide the tail however he needed contributed just as much to its usefulness as its sharpness, density, or any other traits that made it particularly “lethal”.

After a short rest, Issei jumped down from the treetop and caught himself on the branch of another tree with his tail, then swung into a flip and landed in the grass. Frigid winter nights meant the weather was inhospitable, at least in terms of temperature; Issei had enough practice for the day and decided to go back to his hotel to warm up. He kept his tail on end to assist him in maneuvering around the village on the way back, until he was back outside looking up at his hotel window from the ground floor. He used the building’s brick trim and railings to reach his window before climbing inside and shutting it behind him. From there, he deactivated the Shikotsumyaku, letting his eyes fade back to pale green and his modified bone cells return to their dormant state. His tail withdrew into his body, and the flesh behind it closed as if it were never there, although the process of the jutsu reversing was painful. His muscles tensed, his jaw clenched, and he suddenly felt exhausted, having overexerted himself using his kekkei genkai like that. He still was happy, though, because he overcame one of his obstacles and was that much stronger because of it. As he prepared for bed, the thought that motivated him the most was the fact that this progress was a sign of many changes to come in the following months. He had plenty of other goals to accomplish before he would be satisfied.

"This is only the beginning."

[ Exit, Thread Closed ]

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