The river was nearly dried out and its waters were still. The summer heat had hit Kirigakure hard that week and it was changing the layout and appearance of the village itself, erasing the mist and leaving behind dead grass and sunburns in its wake. Issei stood outside of the house, dressed in a loose, flowy outfit and backlit by a natural, golden glow that made him look angelic in the doorway when his father answered the door. The first thing out of his mouth was an apology. ”Father. I really messed up this time. I’m sorry about how things went the day that mother died. I never meant to lose myself like that, to destroy the bed and the table and scratch the walls and…in the moment, it felt like someone else was doing it, but I was watching it all happen, and I remember it all so clearly. I’m just glad that I didn’t cause any damage to her body, that would have sent me off the deep end. And I know that she had been suffering for a long time and I know that before it happened I acted so nonchalant about it for that reason but I knew it was going to hurt me and I was bracing myself for the worst, cutting myself off emotionally as a defense mechanism. It’s what I do. I don’t know how to handle emotions! Just thinking about it gets me upset because I wish that I could process sadness and grief like a normal person, but half the time I’m not emotional enough and that’s why Haruyo divorced me, and the other half of the time I’m too emotional and everyone hates me. I don’t know how to be normal. I don’t know how to live. I don’t think that I’ll ever be normal, after what Gekai put us through, after what he put me through. I was starting to make such progress, I was starting to master the Shikotsumyaku and use it as a weapon to make me a better shinobi, and then that night all that progress went completely out the window and now I’m in constant fear that something bad will happen and I’ll revert to being a danger to myself and everyone around me. I want to fix it, father. How do I fix it? Huh? Tell me, how do I fix it?” Mizuto saw how innocent his son looked, in that moment. A gray-haired man in his thirties, tears welling in his eyes, recounting the trauma that haunted him every day, trying to make sense of things well beyond his control. And even then, understanding that none of this was actually Issei’s fault, he couldn’t shake the feeling of absolute disappointment and resentment he felt for him. He just stared as Issei was reduced to sobbing, the angelic appearance fading as he dropped to his knees and the sunlight flooded through the open door, blinding Mizuto and concealing Issei’s face. Issei remained there, on his hands and knees, repeating the same phrase. ”How do I fix it? HOW DO I FIX IT?”

Mizuto was tired. He’d spent his whole life protecting the two things he loved most in the world, his wife and his son, and now that his wife was gone and his son felt like an alien to him, he was an empty shell, struggling to grasp the concepts of pain and love that he had been so empathetic to at one point in time. He knew how Issei was. No matter what kind of consolation he offered or what kind of advice he gave, it would be in one ear and out the other, and then Issei would disappear and another one of his self-discovery adventures, escaping to a foreign country for months or years at a time and not bothering to send word or come visit because he was too busy figuring himself out. That was how he solved everything, from minor inconveniences to major tragedies, and who was Mizuto to judge? From every angle, it appeared that that worked for Issei. It just meant that their relationship, with all the distance and strain that it went through over the years, was now mostly deteriorated. So, Mizuto stood there, letting Issei cry, and once the tears stopped and it was quiet, he said one thing. ”I know you’re sorry. That doesn’t change anything, though. And you’ve created this problem for yourself, so why should it be my responsibility to come up with a solution, Issei? You’ve proved your capacity for independence multiple times, and yet, here you are, begging on my doorstep for a miracle. Go find your own miracle, son. Your mother...my wife, she’s dead. Let me grieve in peace. Your peace is somewhere else.”

Issei’s heart slowed and he got to his feet, brushing the dirt from his knees and pushing his hair out of his face. He made eye contact with his father and saw the lack of motivation, the depression, and the age all staring back it him like a reflection. He didn’t argue, he didn’t plead, he didn’t say anything more. He just nodded and turned, starting to walk away. In his mind, he knew that that would be the last time he would see his father for a long time, maybe even the last time he would see his father at all. ”I never meant to hurt either of you. I’m sorry.” And Issei lost himself in the village, wandering aimlessly without looking up at the road ahead or back toward the house near the river. There was essentially one viable option left for him, in terms of controlling his Shikotsumyaku. He remembered the headline, “Rebirth of the Kaguya Clan is Proven to be Dangerous” and shuddered at the image of his ancestor, known as “Sakichi” at the time, killing an innocent girl by accident. Issei’s solution was Fūinjutsu, the art his great grandfather, following his transition from “Sakichi” to “Gaku”, had used to not only prevent the kekkei genkai from manifesting any further within himself, but also to seal the bloodline and prevent his progeny from gaining the lethal ability. Issei was not sure what he would have to go through to accomplish a similar feat, but at that point, he was desperate and willing to do whatever he could. He used to want children of his own, years back when he was still in his twenties and happily married, but the idea of having a family now seemed unwise and problematic to him and what he wanted to accomplish as a shinobi. Similarly, sealing his kekkei genkai would also be an unwise and problematic decision, as a shinobi, but it would allow him to lead a normal life. At the cost of his dreams of immortality and restoring the lost cultures of the world, he could maybe find someone else to love and to start the family he used to want with. Then, another memory struck him. What of Gekai? Issei may have just been paranoid, but Gekai could have come back at any time and killed Issei or even his father, whose old age had left him at a fraction of the power he had when he was Issei’s age. Beyond anything, the missing ninja was resilient, ever changing, and had a grudge against Issei’s family that had left Issei an untrusting and overly cautious man. If Issei made the decision to seal his kekkei genkai, he would be restricting Gekai’s access to the Shikotsumyaku that he was being hunted for, but he would also be eliminating the one thing that allowed him to defend himself against the threat and surrendering himself to the possibility of being killed and turned into a corpse-puppet against his will.

Perhaps a partial seal would do, especially since an advanced one like that which Gaku had used would likely require an amazing amount of skill in the art of Fūinjutsu. That way, Issei wouldn’t lose control and the seal would act as a safeguard when things were tense; it would prevent Issei from using his kekkei genkai against his will, which would be useful against a manipulator like Gekai; most importantly, it wouldn’t erase Issei’s capability of using his kekkei genkai altogether, which would preserve his skill and potential as a fighter and a shinobi. Nonetheless, his destination was the same. An impromptu trip to the outskirts of Mizu no Kuni left him upon a bluff looking out over the ocean, just in front of a cottage. Within seconds of his arrival, the door swung open and his grandmother, Itsumi, recognized him from afar. She didn't say anything at first, taking a moment to watch her grandson and how he looked so much like her daughter, before finally calling his name and inviting him inside.

Itsumi looked much worse off than when Issei had visited her last; emaciated, pale, distracted. Issei assumed that it was the news of her daughter’s death that had turned her into the woman before him, sitting across from him and pouring tea. He figured it would only be polite to offer his condolences, even though their grief was shared. ”I know it can’t be easy, outliving your daughter. I assure you that Ena was always good mother to me, and the only place she could have gotten it from was you. And even if you two weren’t on the best of terms, she loved you.” He put his hand upon hers and held it tightly. She smiled back at him. ”Yes, well...I know what you’re going through, too. My parents, your great grandparents, both died when I was around your age, and it took me a long time to adjust. But, when you get to be my age, you understand that death is just another part of life to come to terms with. I’m blessed to have lived as long as I have.” Issei took his hand away from hers and rubbed his eyes, trying to get the image of himself dying out of his head. He changed subjects promptly, hoping that she would be able to help in emulate Gaku’s feats. ”My great grandfather, Gaku...or, Sakichi.” His face grew stern as he said the name, and Itsumi’s closed her eyes as if to wince at the idea of her father being a murderer and a liar. ”That isn’t who my father was. That is what my father was protecting all of us from. He was a good man.” Issei grew quiet and sipped at his tea before setting it back down and trying to figure out a way to continue without being too harsh.

”He was protecting us from who we are, Itsumi, and that’s the reality of it. It’s something that I deal with every day, that I suffered because of, that I have tried my hardest to manage. I take it that my father didn’t tell you what happened the night my mother died.” The horror Itsumi was putting herself through mentally was overwhelming to her and she tried to get out of her seat and leave the room. Issei stood up and blocked her path. ”My kekkei genkai activated without my willing it to do so. Let me describe that experience to you first. Every time it happens, I get a burning sensation in my veins; that lasts about two seconds and it has happened so many times in the last twelve years or so that I can bear through it without much trouble. Then comes the sharp pain in my bones as they start to crack and shift. My eyes become bloodshot, and then start to darken until the whites of them are completely black and my irises are red. They bleed sometimes, too, which makes it difficult to see or focus on anything.” Itsumi started to shake her head and cover her ears. ”Please, Issei. Stop telling me all of this.” He ignored her wish and continued, stepping closer and lowering his voice to a pained whisper. ”By that time the pain is so severe that I’m on my knees, if not completely laid out on the floor. My bones poke out of my skin, tear through my muscles, break and rebuild themselves, over and over. My spine will start to twist and I lose control of my arms or my legs or everything. I start struggling to breathe because sometimes my ribcage will start to tighten and my lungs won’t be able to expand properly. Lately, because of a jutsu I’ve been practicing, I grow a tail from my spine that makes me feel like my spine is being pulled apart. It whips around violently and is strong enough to destroy everything in its path, but every time it hits something, it makes my pain even worse. The whole time I’m out of control, it’s torture. I’m bleeding, suffocating, near death. Everything around me is getting destroyed. I’m crying for help but my jaw is locked and so I can’t externalize my screams.” Itsumi was looking down and did not dare look up at her grandson. ”That happened the night that mother died. As soon as I saw her, I started to fall apart, and it was the worst episode I’ve ever had. Everything was so intense that after a while I couldn’t make sense of anything around me and I felt numb, but I ruined the entire room she was in and nearly cut her corpse in half. My father kicked me out. I tried to drown myself in a swamp but chickened out. That’s what your father was hiding from you, that’s what the Kaguya blood is when it is left untamed. It is suffering, it is pain, it is death, and it is misery, and that’s what my life has become.”

The old woman seemed so frail next to Issei, who stood over her like a giant, yet was less mentally stable than she was. She put a hand on his shoulder, and he felt her trembling like a scared animal about to be slaughtered. ”P-please. Why did you come here? Why are you telling me all of this?” Issei brushed her hand off of his shoulder and walked back to the table to take a seat. His tea was still hot and he held his nose over it, taking it the floral fragrances and calming his nerves. ”I need to do what Gaku did.” He pulled up his sleeves to reveal his bare arms, which had scars from where the bones had cut and pierced him the other night, and gestured towards his wrists. ”The tattoos. The scrolls. I need to contain this before it kills me.” Itsumi sat back down. Her fear had shifted to guilt and sympathy for Issei and everything that he had been through that she had never had to deal with. ”What do you want me to do? I already told you everything I knew last time you came here. My father’s been dead for years, and every secret that he kept died with him.” Issei shook his head, refusing to accept that statement to be true. ”No, that can’t be. The art of Fūinjutsu is alive and well, and I can learn it from anywhere if I really wanted to, but what I need is something specifically for our kekkei genkai, and that’s what Gaku did and tried to perfect during his lifetime. Only, it wasn’t perfect; otherwise, I would have never awakened it, just like you never did, and just like my mother never did. There had to be a secondary plan in his mind when he did this, something that we could use to continue the seal on our bloodline. All I need is a clue. Do you know where he would have kept his scrolls? Or anything that your mother knew about the seal?” Issei’s voice had been getting progressively louder until he was practically yelling. He composed himself and pulled his sleeves back down. Itsumi nodded and started to explain. ”There is an old storage unit in this house. Go down the trapdoor behind the house, here is the key.” She pulled a small key out of her apron and set it down in front of Issei. ”A lot of my parent’s old things are down there, since I inherited them when they passed. You may look through them, and maybe you’ll find something of use. The only thing I ask is that you leave when you are done. I need to rest.” Issei nodded in understanding and picked up the key. His tea remained on the table, now cold and forgotten.

The trapdoor was large and heavy, but Issei managed to fling it open to reveal a dark, smelly room that was similar to a dimly lit basement. There were stacks of wooden boxes, piles of papers, and plenty of old knick-knacks and vintage items. Issei went straight for the piles of papers, digging through legal documents and old bills and mail until he found a leather journal with a belt around it and no label. He pulled it open to find the whole thing filled with small, nearly unintelligible scribbles, mostly unimportant notes and thoughts but a few clues proved that it was Gaku’s journal. Issei shoved it in his back pocket and continued looking. He started to knock on the sides of the wooden boxes, then picking them up one by one and shaking them. Some were much heavier than others, which led Issei to believed they contained more old decorations and stuff which may or may not have been of value. The lighter ones were what caught Issei’s attention, and he continued shaking them until he found one that sounded like the items inside were rolling from side to side. He pulled the top off to find a pile of papers, glasses containing different colors of ink, brushes, blank scrolls, and most importantly, scrolls that were written on and sealed shut. They were of various different sizes, some small enough to fit in the palm of his hand and others over a third of a meter long. He shoveled two of the blank ones into his pockets and started to open up the written ones. The first was completely foreign to Issei, covered in symbols and markings that made no sense to him, except for one character in the center of the scroll: 氷, the kanji for ice. He figured that that was unrelated to Gaku’s tattoos and kekkei genkai Fūinjutsu, so he opened the next scroll and hoped it would be more helpful. Surprisingly, it was: there were notes in the corner of the this one, that read, “呪を忘れてはいけない印” (do not forget the curse mark). The rest of the scroll was foreign symbols and the center was blank. One of the papers that had been next to it in the box was a neatly written note and Issei picked it up carefully.

“私はこの技術を完成させていない。 生涯はまだそれを行うのに十分な時間ではありません。 私は呪いを封じ込めるために何度も何度も封印を繰り返さなければならないが、私がそれを使うたびに自分自身が弱くなっていると感じている。 これが私を殺すならば、生計のために子供たちが私の任務を遂行できることを願っています。”

(I have not perfected the technique. A lifetime would still not be enough time to do it. I must repeat the seal again and again to contain the curse but every time I use it I feel myself growing weaker. If this kills me, I pray that my children can carry on with my duties, for the sake of our livelihood.)

Issei took the note, put it inside of the scroll and closed it before putting it into his pocket with the others. He also picked up one of the glasses of ink, and then he climbed out of the storage unit and locked it behind him. Inside of the house, Itsumi was washing dishes, quiet as a mouse. ”Thank you, Itsumi. I found what I needed. I think that this will save us all.”

She did not mention the storage unit or anything that Issei was carrying. She did not even look up from the dishes. ”Goodbye, Issei.” And so Issei left, starting the long journey back to Kirigakure no Sato.

Issei did what he usually did when there was a problem to be solved and something to be learned. He went to bookstores, libraries, and the Academy to find as many informational texts concerning Fūinjutsu as he possibly could. There were already a few pieces of literature back home that touched on the art, but Issei was not satisfied until he had enough reading to feel absolutely confident in his training. He blew through books, one after another, trying to decipher various symbols, how chakra was stored in seals, what effects different papers and inks had, and how to go about starting the sealing process. Bits and pieces started to make sense in his head but there were still gray areas that didn’t make much sense, and he wasn’t sure how to go about the process of essentially sealing a part of himself off. The answer was not contained in the scroll that Gaku had left behind, at least not wholly. That was merely part of the puzzle, perhaps a catalyst to initiate the Fūinjutsu. Based on his study of the markings in that scroll, it appeared to be more related to a curse mark than a regular seal, which was a forbidden version of Fūinjutsu that was primarily used in the past as a way to control other people. It added up, sort of: the person who used the curse mark would seal a part of their chakra within a host, and thus when activating the curse mark, the recipient’s body would be affected. If the user and the host were the same person, the curse mark operated like a self-regulating device by taking the person’s chakra and using it to manipulate, enhance, or restrict some other part of themselves, though most curse marks usually caused pain and sometimes permanent damage to their hosts, which would explain why Gaku thought that his seal was killing him.

Issei started from the basics and took what he knew of Fūinjutsu as a foundation; the Generic Sealing Jutsu. He had used it for a long time to seal items in his hand wraps in order to use the items in a pinch without having to carry them around, which was especially useful for bigger stuff like his giant shuriken. Chakra was no different; it could be sealed like an item, though it required different symbols and more concentration. The problem was that his Shikotsumyaku originated in his bones, and sealing away his bones would leave him mortally wounded. His only idea was to try to use a seal more like a filter than a gate, and allow him to use jutsu normally unless it started to affect his skeletal structure, in which case he would need to release the seal in order to continue. This was a lot easier said than done. He started by trying to recreate the curse mark scroll and add in different variations of Fūinjutsu seals on blank scrolls and then trying to channel his chakra into them. This allowed him to seal items in them just like the regular sealing jutsu, but when he tried to seal part of his chakra in them, it failed to produce any effect. After hours of trial and error and reading and rereading, he passed out in the middle of a heap of papers and scrolls and pages and ink. His eyes cracked open five hours later to find the morning sun crawling in through his window and painting the walls with its light. He did not get up to shower, or go to get something to eat; he merely continued trying, even though he had run out of scrolls to use at that point and was reduced to using regular paper, which was even less effective. It came down to his last resort, which was trying to seal his chakra into the scroll that Gaku had written in. If Issei ruined that scroll, he was genuinely afraid that he might ruin his chances of ever freeing himself from his kekkei genkai, so he took three pieces of paper and as carefully as possible copied down every line, mark, character, and symbol that was on the scroll in order to commit it to memory for future research and/or recreation. Then, he took a deep breath and started to pull chakra into his palm, pushing it outward and almost forming an orb with it. He used his other hand to make hand seals, bit his thumb, and smeared blood onto the center of the scroll. ”Here goes.” And with that, he slammed his palm down onto his own blood, forcing the chakra down into the scroll, and blue energy started to seep from the sides of his hand. He felt a sucking sensation, like that of a vacuum pulling at his hand. This frightened him, so he tried to pull back, but his hand was stuck and he couldn’t move it. In fact, he couldn’t move anything except his eyes as the energy grew darker, into a sinister purple so dark that it was almost black like tar. It formed into a face that opened its mouth to speak, and it said one word: ”Heaven” before dissipating. The symbols from the scroll started to inch off of the paper one by one and coat Issei’s arm. He started remembering things that he had never experienced; a woman dying by his hands, him running to escape the authorities, blood all over him and bones sticking out from everywhere. Tattoos along his arms, scrolls locked away in secret rooms, a woman who looked concerned and was always being lied to. These were Gaku’s memories coming into Issei’s head. He wanted it to stop. He felt his chakra being diminished to the point where he couldn’t channel or control it, and that wasn’t what he wanted. He did not want to erase his past and he wasn’t ready to quit being a shinobi just yet, so he did the only thing that he knew how to do in a situation where he felt trapped but had not yet completely relinquished control. ”Release!” Issei felt a pulse of chakra travel from his head to his toes, and when it reached his fingertips, he regained movement in his hand, and immediately ripped it away from the scroll. He was still breathing fast, but his chakra didn’t feel like it was gone or uncontrollable and the burning sensation that the scroll was creating had subsided. His wrist had a single string of markings around it, a tattoo that looked almost like a bracelet. He tried to rub it off, but it didn’t move, and it felt like it was deep beneath his skin. He must have interrupted it while it was pulling itself onto him, but there was only one way to know if the seal had worked properly.

Issei stood up, brushing aside the books with his feet and focusing chakra into the hand that the seal was on. He was doing a simple application of Taijutsu and his kekkei genkai, attempting to create a blade from the bone in his wrist. It was difficult and it required much more effort than usual, but he managed to force the bone out. The thing that was strange was that it didn’t cause him any pain. He tried to do the same with his other hand, and it followed the same pattern; difficult and more chakra-consuming, but painless and certainly not impossible. He walked over to the bathroom and examined the bones in the mirror. They looked the same as they usually did, but what appeared strange to him was the tattoo. It had turned into a dark shade of red rather than black and was almost reflective and glowing. What startled him was his face; his eyes were normal, which had never happened before. Previously, every single time he used his kekkei genkai, his eyes turned black and red instead of white and green. Now, they were still their regular color, unaltered and unaffected. He released the jutsu, letting his bones return to normal, and watched the tattoo fade to black again. It started to make sense in his head: Gaku had used the full version of a forbidden curse mark jutsu to seal a part of him within himself, and while it was within his control, it put a toll on his body every time the seal started to wear off and he had to replace it. The curse mark took the form of a multitude of tattoos that covered both of his arms, and when the curse mark was losing its power, the tattoos faded. He kept multiple scrolls imprinted with copies of the curse mark so that he could repeat the jutsu if necessary, and the one Issei had used to gain his own tattoo had been one of those. Issei’s imperfect application of Fūinjutsu in addition to his use of chakra release to interrupt the mark before it could completely seal his kekkei genkai not only made his tattoo much smaller than Gaku’s, but it allowed him to still use his kekkei genkai, though with more difficulty than before. The problem was that because this tattoo was of very indeterminate qualities; it could have lasted more than a few years, or maybe it would only last a few weeks or days, even, and it might not have been strong enough to contain Issei’s power when he was under extreme stress.

The one thing that Issei was sure of was that he was running out of chakra from spending most of the night attempting to use the seal. He was exhausted, and he didn’t have the willpower to continue working on his Fūinjutsu any further just then. So, he went back to his room and put his scrolls and papers into a pile, organized them, and placed them in a box that he slid underneath his bed. He stacked up the books that he’d rented and set them on his coffee table in the living room before peeling his shirt and pants off, replacing it with a hoodie and sweatpants. He swiped the house key and tucked it into his pocket, and then picked up the books as he left. The library wasn’t a far trek, but he was moving at a snail’s pace, bogged down by every hour of sleep that he had missed. He started to obsess over the idea of the curse mark, of the potential it had, but also of the damage it could do it him. Would using it kill him? Or would it have some other effect that he couldn’t understand just yet? He wished that he could use it to make himself more powerful, maybe as a method to obtain the immortality he desperately wished for, but since he was both the user and the host, there was no way that his own power could augment itself. The way that standard curse marks worked was that the user’s chakra was implanted in the host, and thus the host could borrow the user’s chakra and add it to their own, essentially doubling their power and adopting the user’s properties in the process, at the cost of being at the user’s control and mercy. Or maybe he wasn't the user, maybe his blood and chakra were just sacrifices to summon the user and let the user create the curse mark on him. That could have been the case, judging how the purple energy had formed a face and said the word "heaven" to him, but who was that? And would they have control over Issei now that he was marked? He wanted to discuss curse marks with other shinobi, so he made note to try and find some Jounin on his next patrol and ask as many practical and testimonial questions about the subject as he could, since he’d already obtained as much information concerning the history and functioning behind curse marks from his research. In the library, he approached the front desk and set the books down gingerly before slipping them one by one in the drop-off box while the librarian side-eyed him. He didn’t bother to look back at her, and after the last book was returned, he left, hoping to get home as soon as possible in order to sleep.

Despite how badly his body craved it, sleep didn’t help Issei, not at all. Just as he had been haunted with Gaku’s memories when the curse mark bound itself to him, he was haunted with more of Gaku’s memories in his sleep...except these lasted for what felt like days at a time and yet every time he woke up, drenched in sweat and his curse mark glowing, he checked the time and only an hour had passed. A full night of uninterrupted slumber was an impossible feat. He simply faded in and out, transient and confused, the curse eating away at his aching mind…

The Kaguya clan’s restoration proved to be a difficult process, as they had been reduced to near extinction over the years and as the remnants passed on their genes, the Shikotsumyaku grew weaker. So, as a result, the users lacked the control that they used to have over their skeletons, and sometimes using it proved to be dangerous. They developed genetic illnesses, cell degeneration, and in more severe cases, necrosis. Sakichi was lucky enough to not have the genetic illnesses, but he always had difficulty controlling his kekkei genkai. No matter how much he tried to master it and how much he trained with his family, it had a habit of taking over him when he was faint or vulnerable, consuming him in a burst of bones and leaving him blood soaked and afraid. So, over the years, he started to use it less and less, choosing to rely on different strategies in battle. The night that he killed the girl was hazy in his memory; he remembered her approaching him and asking him a question, and the next thing he knew he had lost control and his ribcage had tore free from him and clamped down onto her like a bear trap. She was screaming in terror, so he tried to cover his ears to muffle the noise but the bones in his hands kept breaking and he couldn’t move normally. More and more of his bones stabbed through her, jutting out one after another, and it reminded him of how his own kekkei genkai had hurt him in the past. Watching it murder someone else was a much worse experience, though. Something that he couldn’t forget. And in the aftermath of it all, her corpse laid there and the authorities surrounded Sakichi, but the bones continued to come and everyone around him was being hurt and he started running, as far as he could, because he needed to be anywhere but where he was. That was the end of his life as Sakichi.

His curse mark was something that was discovered when he was escaping from his home village following the murder: in the frenzy, he remembered what he’d learned of forbidden jutsu. He had always known Fūinjutsu and was proficient in its use, and he knew that his village, though not one of the five villages in the great nations, had forbidden Fūinjutsu techniques inscribed onto scrolls that were locked away in a secret location. He also knew where this secret location was because one of the shinobi tasked with guarding it, named Harue, had been his lover for the last ten months. On the day of the murder, he was seemingly aimless and panicked, but with what little control of himself he had, he went to the bunker where the scrolls were hidden, and he found Harue. She hadn’t caught news of what he’d done yet, and the authorities tailing him hadn’t caught up to him, but as soon as she saw the blood all over him and his contorted bones, it was obvious that something wasn’t right. Rather than judging him or fearing him, she understood that he needed help and he would not have come to her had she not been the only one who could save him. So, she opened the bunker and hid him inside.

The bunker was a cold room with chakra-proofed walls and a heavy, unbreakable door. Scrolls lined the walls, each labeled and vaguely described using plaques. At first, he had not planned to take one, since he only needed safe haven until the authorities lost trace of him, but after he thought about it, he understood that this would only happen again in the future unless he found a way to force his kekkei genkai into submission. He looked through the scrolls carefully until he found one labeled ”Curse Mark of Heaven”, and pulled it from the wall. It was warm to the touch despite the temperature in the room, and he could feel the energy coursing through his veins even just holding it in his hands. He slipped it into his pocket and replaced it with one of his own scrolls that he kept on his person, though he knew that the village would notice it was gone in due time. None of that mattered, though. He would be long gone. Over a full twenty four hours passed before the bunker’s door opened and he saw the light of day and Harue’s concerned face. She said the coast was clear, gave him one last hug, and sent him on his way, because she loved him and that’s precisely why she needed to let him go. He had composed himself and regained control of his powers, but his actions had scarred him and he knew that stealing the scroll was just another crime to add to his list. He tried to kiss Harue but she pulled away, reluctant to touch his face, which was covered in dried blood. She told him to leave, and never come back, so he did. He left, and for a while, he thought of her, and what she did to protect him, until she faded away and was just another deeply buried memory. He wasn’t that person anymore, and so she wasn’t his lover anymore.

Then came the journey to Kirigakure no Sato, where he was unknown and thus safe from those who feared him, who thought him to be a vicious killer because of how he was born. He adopted the name Gaku and dedicated his life to studying Fūinjutsu to prevent his past from repeating itself again. There, he met his wife. They married, settled down, had three children. One of the three died when he was young, and it really broke his wife down. He hadn’t grieved, or if he had, he didn’t remember how it felt. The thing that he did remember was that his kekkei genkai, even during such a tense time, hadn’t reared its head again, and that was when he knew that the curse mark that he had been using was working correctly. Whenever he would have any significant stress or if he were to willingly try to activate his Shikotsumyaku, the markings all over his arms started to spread further up and turn a deep red color, so he got into the habit of covering his arms with long coats and garments so as not to raise any suspicion from people with watchful eyes. He carried small back-up scrolls with him everywhere he went so that he could reform the curse mark when it started to weaken, which was evident whenever the marks on his arms started to fade. Over the years, the tattoos started to fade more and more quickly up until he was using scrolls and reactivating the mark every other week. He kept it a secret from his family, always doing the ritual in his basement after locking himself down there, but it never took more than ten minutes at a time, so no one ever discovered it, or so he assumed.

He played the role like a pro. A great father, an honorable husband. Caring, attentive, patient. He never raised his voice or let his emotions cloud his judgement. His children loved him more than anything, and he tried to love them too. He really did. He didn’t know what love was, though, not anymore. His wife felt it. They had been so distant since they married, but in retrospect, she couldn’t remember a time when he ever showed any genuine emotion, any true love for her. She was in love with the idea of him, the person that he could be in her life, the one who helped her build a family and supported her, but his lips were stiffed whenever she kissed him. His eyes were dull even when he was smiling. His tattoos seemed strange, and as she started watching him closer, she noticed that they would grow and recede from day to day, and even change colors. She didn’t know what any of this meant. The kids were grown, now. Gaku locked himself in the basement a lot. He started having nightmares again and babbling in his sleep about heaven. Time blurred. He started losing track of things, forgetting important information, people, places, parts of his past. Mentally, he wasn’t all there. His wife grew concerned for him, but at that point they were both growing older and so it wasn’t unheard of to be in poor health. In a sudden turn of events, a heart attack claimed her, and she died about a week before he did. Seven days later, and that was the end of his life as Gaku.

A full two weeks had passed with Issei having these recurring dreams of Gaku’s memories. They continued in chronological order, from the moment of the murder up until the moment of his death, and then they started over again from the beginning. After experiencing three or four lifetimes, he noticed something that didn’t line up with his own curse mark. When Gaku first put the curse mark on himself, the energy hadn’t formed a face like it had when Issei received his curse mark. Furthermore, by the fourth time Issei watched it happened, he realized that the face and the voice that he had heard was Gaku’s. It made sense; when Gaku put the curse mark on himself, he was both the user and the host. On the other hand, when Issei put the curse mark on himself, despite all appearances making it seem that he was both the user and the host, the scroll, the foreign energy, and Gaku’s memories all proved that Gaku, or what was left of his chakra in the world, was the user and Issei was the host. If Issei could establish more control than he currently had, he could free himself of Gaku’s memories and maybe be able to use some of Gaku’s chakra to become stronger, just like traditional applications of curse marks. And so, Issei set his sights on that as his next goal, because watching the memories was only making him lose more sleep, even if it did reward him with the ability to properly master his kekkei genkai. His eyes were constantly bloodshot and the bags underneath them were similarly severe. He started channeling chakra directly into the seal and trying to pull Gaku’s chakra out into his chakra system. Every attempt he made, the seal crawled further up his wrist, and it grew more difficult to manipulate his skeleton, which was worrisome. He eventually stopped for fear that he would inadvertently seal away his kekkei genkai permanently. Since he was getting a bit stir crazy, he grabbed his training gear and left his house. From there, he started walking out into the forests to try and find some peace of mind. He stopped at his usual spot and started shadowboxing, keeping his breathing even and his eyes focused ahead of him. The tattoo up his forearm caught his eye every time he threw a punch, and he wondered if he made a terrible mistake by imprinting himself with the curse.

Issei spent an hour training, but after that, he couldn’t muster up the energy nor the willpower to continue, so he sat down and leaned back, his bent elbows in the dirt and his face turned toward the sky. A bird flitted by, then turned around and started to circle overhead. Issei knew better this time than to dismiss is as happenstance. ”You’re back, huh?” The bird continued circling, and Issei surveyed the area; no one responded, and by the looks of it, no one else was around. He let out a sigh and called out toward the bird, hoping that he hadn’t gone absolutely insane quite yet. ”Birds are, like, your thing, aren’t they?” As he said that, the bird started to descend until it landed on a perch in a nearby tree. It looked at him with its tiny black eyes, and as it opened its mouth to let out a screech, the sound that came out was a human voice. ”No. You’re wrong once again. For such an intelligent person, you seem to be unable to see things that are right in front of your face.” The bird let out a long laugh, an image that was upsetting to Issei. He nodded, dropping the subject altogether. ”Look, I’m not in the mood. What do you want?” The bird hopped down from its perch, gliding over to where Issei was sitting. It landed a few feet away from him and started pecking at something in the dirt. It was a beautiful bird, a vibrant, young dove coated with bronze tones and firm feathers. It spoke again, still in the mysterious voice of the Yukigakure woman. ”Birds are your thing, Issei. And I can see that you aren’t in the mood. In fact, you aren’t in any mood at all. Tell me, when was the last time you felt an emotion? And fear does not count, in this case.” Issei considered her statement for a moment, unsure of what she meant by the idea that birds were his thing. He brushed past that to consider the statement about emotions. ”I felt sadness and pain when I went to see my grandmother. That was already weeks ago, now, but that was the last time I can think of.” The bird looked straight at him again. ”Don’t you find that strange? Have you thought about your mother or your father since you put that mark on yourself? Or are you done grieving so soon? What about excitement, relief, happiness, anything?” Then came the laugh again, the sinister laugh that made Issei feel on edge, but not scared or angry or any real emotion for that matter. Just cautious, as he always was. What was she hinting at? Was the curse mark erasing his capacity to feel?

”I don’t know any more. How do you know all of this, have you been spying on me?” The bird shook its head, appearing disappointed. ”No, Issei, I would never. In fact, I’m surprised you’re not the one trying to spy on me, what with Ninshiki being so intent on finding Yukigakure and all. But I will tell you that I’m a master of mind games, a legendary prodigy of the art of Genjutsu. Getting in people’s heads is quite literally my specialty. I know it doesn’t seem like it, what with how cryptic and unsettling this all seems, but I’m trying to help you, believe it or not.” Issei remained quiet, looking down at his wrist blankly. The tattoo hadn’t changed. He didn't know how much he could believe this girl, if at all. She could have been lying to him from the start, although she had proven that she was from Yukigakure with her headband, though that didn't warrant complete trust from someone as careful as Issei. ”That mark? It’s not you. The chakra signature is extremely similar to yours, which is probably because you’re related, but it isn’t you, and the more you try and mess with it, the more of yourself you’re surrendering to it. You’re going the wrong way on the right track. I know it seems like a solution, but sealing away your kekkei genkai to try and do what Gaku did ends with you being consumed by his ghost and losing everything. You can’t feel emotions now. Further down the road, you’ll be unable to use your chakra, and then his memories will start to replace yours until you forget who you are completely. Get rid of it. It needs to be put back onto the scroll it came from, and your newfound skill in Fūinjutsu has improved enough that you should be able to do it. From there, start from square one and do the same thing you’ve always done. Control the Shikotsumyaku with your brain, not your heart. Don’t let your emotions turn you into a weapon, but don’t let this weapon erase your emotions, either.”

Issei processed all of this and closed his eyes, imagining Gaku’s face and how Gaku had never loved his wife or his children and how he became obsessed with sealing away who he was because of a mistake he made. The Yukigakure woman was right; Issei couldn’t follow in his footsteps. That wasn’t what he was destined to do. Throughout his years, he had always found a way to power through the tough times, be stronger than everyone expected him to be, be the bigger person in every conflict, battle, situation, anything. He was levelheaded and didn’t let his emotions get the best of him. That was who he wanted to be, and the best part was, that was exactly who he was going to be. He just needed to do it naturally instead of trying to hold himself in a chakra-based prison. His rapid understanding and application of Fūinjutsu was proof of his intelligence, chakra control, and dedication to being a shinobi. Gaku wasn’t a shinobi, not after the murder. He was willing to throw everything away to live a normal life. That wasn’t what was meant for Issei, Issei wanted to unite the world and experience it, he wanted to put together pieces of the past and create an outline for the future, he wanted to be the change he wanted to see, he wanted to defeat his nemesis and live forever. He was ambitious, he never settled. Why should he settle then, in the face of adversity? That was the only appropriate time to keep fighting.

The Chuunin jumped to his feet and picked up his training bag, untying his hand wraps and putting them in the front pocket. Moving so quickly made him feel a bit lightheaded, but he took a second to breathe and steady himself. He looked down at his wrist and saw that it was starting to turn red again even though he wasn't using any chakra, so he shook his arm as if to rid himself of a cramp or numbness and it faded to black again. When he turned to thank the woman, he saw that the bird was gone, and had left no trace of its presence, just like the last encounter he had with her. He smiled softly and went to go back to his home, wondering when he would see her next. Part of him wondered if she was even real, or if he was so far off the deep end that she was a figment of his imagination, a guardian angel to show him what to do in his time of need. He made a quick detour into the center of the village to grab lunch, suddenly remembering that he hadn't eaten in days. He ordered tea with his meal and drank the entire cup before he'd even left the building. The hunger pangs and unquenchable thirst reminded him of Gaku's time in the bunker, just after he took the original curse mark scroll. The strange thing was that even though Issei knew that it wasn't his memory, they were so deeply impressed in his mind that they felt like they were, and it was getting hard to figure out which of his memories were his own and which were Gaku's. This is what the woman from Yukigakure was warning him of. If the curse mark continued to take hold, and if Issei let it do so, then he wouldn't be Issei anymore, he would be some confused man lost in mental illness who thought he was a man who had died decades ago. Things were progressing faster than he'd anticipated, so he rushed home with his food, intent on ridding himself of the curse mark as soon as possible to prevent any further damage to his mental capacity.

There on his living room floor, Issei sat with his legs crossed looking down at the scroll. Its markings looked more like smear marks now, as a majority of the scrolls contents had been transferred to Issei’s arm. There was still a bit of blood soaked into the center of the paper where he had performed the jutsu in the first place, and now he was hoping that he would be able to reverse it safely. He pressed his palm down onto the scroll, and rather than using his chakra to pull at the mark itself, he started to funnel his chakra through his palm into the surface of the page, first slowly and then all at once, like a rushing waterfall. It was difficult, especially since the curse mark was acting like a barrier between him and his chakra and was restricting his access to it, but he was pushing through and trying his hardest. At first, it was starting to work: the symbols on the scroll started to reform and return to their original positions. Then, something shifted, the chakra flow slowed to a crawl, and the tattoo started to change color. Issei looked down at his arm, which was now stiff and numb. He felt like he had been paralyzed. The same deep purple chakra that he had seen pouring out of the scroll when he received the curse mark started to come out again, but this time it was coming from his hand and surrounding him like a shroud. Gaku’s voice danced in his head. ”You want to be invincible, want to live forever as this idealized version of yourself that you’ll never become by yourself. I can help you, Issei. You’re just like me. We are burdened by the Kaguya curse, we are fragile and easily broken. Together, though, we can be strong. When I died, I thought it was all over, but who would have thought that so many years later my great grandson would be my savior? This curse mark was never a seal; no, it was a contract, a deal I signed that guaranteed my rebirth! And here I am, my chakra living on through you. If you continue the cycle...if you just let the curse mark take over, we can find a new wife for you, and you can pass this gift onto your children, and live on within them just as I am living on within you.”

Issei opened his mouth to speak, but all that came was more purple chakra. It started to seep through his ears, eyes, and nose as well, and it felt like someone was sucking the life out of him. He looked to the tattoo on his arm and saw that it was now glowing, brighter than Issei had ever seen it, and it was started to grow rapidly and consume his entire arm, moving across his chest and down his torso. He started to cry out in pain but they were whimpers by the time they reached his lips. He used his thoughts to respond to Gaku’s chakra. ”You know Fuuinjutsu. You studied it throughout the last half of your life. You can stop this, you can help me stop this. Your chakra in my body or my chakra in my future child’s body isn’t being alive, it’s taking someone else’s life as your own. It’s using someone you’re supposed to love as a pitiful flesh puppet. Please, do the right thing here.” It all stopped for a moment, and Issei was freed from the suffering just long enough to catch his breath and collapse onto the floor. He still couldn’t move his arms or neck, but he started to flail his feet to try and stand up, though he was unsuccessful in his attempt. Gaku’s voice came back, softer this time around. ”I am doing the right thing. The right thing for me. Trying to appeal to my emotions is futile, remember? I lost those as soon as the mark touched my finger tips, just like you lost yours when the mark reached you. Goodbye, Issei.” Issei tried to fight it, yelling ”NO!” in his head, again and again, but he could feel his consciousness slipping. The last thing he saw was the mark spreading down to his toes, and then everything faded to black.

♪ Glass Swords ♪

The inside of Issei’s mind was a bright and gorgeous place. It was a meadow of hundreds of flowers, different species, various colors, shapes, and sizes. Strangely, there was no sun, sky, or clouds, and the sky was white like a fresh page or an untouched canvas. There, he sat surrounded by the Narcissus flowers, letting their blue petals hold him close. Across from him, on the opposite end of the meadow, stood a disfigured man, with one translucent arm and half of his face entirely blank as if someone had erased it. There was a curse mark growing on the man’s body, covering him until it coated him fully and started to disfigure him further, turning his translucent arm into a massive blade of bone that looked like glass and coating the blank half of his face with a mask that looked like a destroyed skull. Two giant skeletal wings sprouted from his back in what looked to be the last transition of a painful transformation. The purple chakra surrounding the figure made it clear to Issei that this was the manifestation of Gaku, and this was the man who was trying to force him into submission. A gentle breeze brushed through the flowers, making them bob up and down like fishing rods. In this realm, Issei was able to move, much to his relief. He held his hand out in front of his face and opened and closed it to try and regain his sense of touch. ”I still have the control here. I can move. The scenery is based on the dreams I used to have before I was plagued with nightmares of your memories. You’re standing there trying to prepare yourself because you know you have to defeat me here or else neither of us will have full control of my body and we’ll both die trapped inside of it. I have the upper hand.”

Gaku shook his head. His purple chakra was starting to encroach upon Issei’s meadow, rushing over the first row of flowers and disintegrating them under its force. ”Quit talking, Issei. I’m stronger than you. You’ve already lost.” He hurtled toward Issei at full force, his movement fast enough to create a large crater in his wake. Issei turned his hand outward so that his palm was facing Gaku, but didn’t stand or bother dodging. Gaku’s bone blade met issei’s hand and pierced through it, continuing just up until the sharp tip poked Issei’s nose. Issei stared at the hole in his hand and watched how it bled. ”Is that all?” The hole in his hand started to fill with bone, essentially closing the wound as much as possible and trapping Gaku’s blade inside of it.Gaku tried to pull away, but Issei wouldn’t budge. Issei used his right hand to make hand seals, prepared to use a powerful jutsu that he had heard of in legends but was never able to use in the real world. ”Bracken Dance.” All of the flowers surrounding Issei were uprooted by bones, rising high and destroying everything in their path. Gaku had around a dozen or so sharp bones pierce through him upon the jutsu’s execution, nearly tearing him to pieces. He wrapped his wings around himself to try and defend against the onslaught, but it didn’t mitigate much of the damage. Once the bones stopped, he tried to pull himself free, his purple chakra flaring up again and even forceful enough to start to disintegrate some of the bones that had stepped him. Issei finally stood up, looking at Gaku without any emotion. ”Bloom.” He didn’t need to weave hand signs this time, so as more bones sprouted from the ground and all the existing bones from Bracken Dance moved to crush Gaku under their weight, Issei just looked down at where the hole in his hand had been, though now it was completely healed over. Gaku screamed in pain, and his blood painted the bones red, but he wasn’t giving up. He yelled something and a giant appendage made of bone and reinforced by purple chakra broke free from the Bracken Dance. Issei raised his right arm and blocked the attack effortlessly. More appendages broke free and they disintegrated bone after bone until Gaku was free and on his knees before Issei. He charged at Issei again, this time with all of his extra bone limbs poised to strike. Issei opened his ribcage and let his ribs grow into sharp blades that caught Gaku by his torso and dug into his flesh. ”Isn’t this how you killed that girl? Do you really think that you can beat me when you’re an amateur who was afraid of your kekkei genkai the whole time you had it?” Issei’s bone tail grew out from his spine and he slammed it until Gaku with an uppercut, sending Gaku flying into the air. Gaku caught himself in midair and the wings grew webbing the allowed him to take flight. Issei nodded, taking note and changing the landscape accordingly. Harsh winds started to bellow from the east, and hundreds of birds appeared from the sky, flocking around Gaku and blinding him. Their cries reminded Issei of the day he met the Yukigakure woman in the training fields, and he thought of what she had said to him the last time they spoke. ”Looks like birds are my thing.” Using a horse hand seal, all of the birds suddenly transformed into massive shards of bone that flew through the air faster than bullets. They tore holes through Gaku and sliced him apart, and to finish it, Issei created a giant Sagiso flower that bloomed underneath the swarm to catch Gaku when he fell. Gaku landed atop the angelic white petals of the flower, only to watch them close around him and transform into bone as well. It formed a coffin that Issei slowly crushed using his chakra, and continued to force until blood poured from every corner of the coffin and Gaku’s screams of pain were louder than the birds had been a minute prior. Issei stopped the jutsu there, dropped his hands to his sides and ambled over to the coffin silently.

”Do you surrender?” At the word surrender, Gaku cried out in rage, angrily resisting. His purple chakra started to crack the coffin, but Issei continue to reinforce it, adding one layer of bone, then two, then three, then four...by the tenth layer, the coffin was so dense that no sound was escaping and he couldn’t hear Gaku anymore. He debating just leaving the man in there, in that distant corner of his mind that he used as a “happy place”, but that wasn’t the proper way to end things. He had to make some use out of Gaku’s chakra before he sealed it away forever. He lifted his bloodied tail and let it scrape against the top of the coffin, creating the Kaguya clan symbol in crimson. ”Do you surrender?” He asked again, deconstructing the coffin and letting Gaku fall to the floor so that he could speak. Gaku was completely unrecognizable: his purple chakra had run out, his curse mark form had worn off, and he was practically reduced to a pile of gore. Despite all of this, he still managed to respond to Issei with a defeated ”Yes.” Issei kicked him after he said that, and continued with, ”Good. Now you’re going to tell me how to undo the curse mark and put it back in the scroll and you’re also going to tell me one more thing.” Gaku looked up at Issei, desperate to make the pain end. It was the first time he had felt pain since before the curse mark had taken hold of him, and now he was ready for it to all stop. He wanted more than anything to die there, at his great-grandson’s feet. ”What do you want?” Issei pressed a hand down to the ground, just in front of Gaku so that he could see it. ”You’re going to teach me how to use Kuchiyose no Jutsu. You’re an expert as using Fuuinjutsu, and that’s the one useful thing that I can get out of all of this that I put myself through, that you put me through.” Gaku struggled to his feet and accepted Issei’s deal. Once he explained everything that he could and Issei took (quite literal) mental notes, Issei stabbed his tail through Gaku’s heart. Gaku started to dissipate, first turning into chakra and then fading away altogether, leaving Issei alone in his mind to contemplate his actions.

Issei woke up in a puddle of his own drool. He startled himself away after he killed Gaku in his mind, and sat up. The scroll was still in front of him, and he was able to move normally again. The curse mark hadn’t gone, and it looked like a full body tattoo, even covering his whole face. He went to the mirror to look at it, touch it, see if it felt any different, but everything seemed fairly normal, despite appearances, so he went back to the scroll and sat down. With a bit of concentration, he followed Gaku’s instructions, first putting his hand down onto the scroll and then isolating all of the foreign chakra into his hand using a specific chakra flow technique. From there, he treated it like a regular sealing technique, and started to put the curse mark back into the scroll. It peeled off of his skin smoothly but it hurt a lot, and Issei had to rest immediately after he finished. Once he felt a little better, he picked up the scroll and carried it up to the roof of his building, where he lit it aflame with a Katon jutsu. Watching it burn showered him with a sense of soothing knowing that the torture he had undergone was now over, and it hadn’t been entirely pointless. That day, he needed to attend to his worldly duties as a shinobi for Kirigakure, a charter member for Ninshiki, and as a son who had to make it up to his father. Following that, his next round of training would begin, as he now had knowledge of the summoning jutsu as well as full intent to form a contract in order to properly use summons. Space-time ninjutsu had always fascinated him, though he never expected he’d be using any form of it considering his specialization in Ninjutsu was primarily geared toward use of his kekkei genkai, Katon, and Suiton, but now he felt that he was a more well-rounded and versatile ninja. His understanding of Fuuinjutsu was so advanced at that point that he had no doubt in his mind that he was capable of summoning outstanding creatures and utilizing them in combat, but where he felt unsure was in the actual forming of the contract itself. Summons were isolated creatures that did not often interact with the shinobi world because it was not somewhere that they fit, essentially, so a bond needed to be formed with the creatures in order to gain their loyalty and aid. How he would go about doing that, or what kind of summons he would come into contact with, he wasn’t quite sure yet. All he knew was that he understood the practical applications of the summoning jutsu and the basics of summoning itself, and that was the first step.

The Chuunin went on patrol that day for a couple of hours to put in his work for the village and to make a bit of cash on the side, and by the time sunset rolled around, he was standing back outside of his dad’s house. The river was rushing now, plentiful from the last week’s rains. Issei knocked on the door twice, the same way he always did, and his dad answered within seconds. They stood there, staring at one another, for quite some time. Mizuto was the first to speak. ”Did you find your peace, son?” Issei smiled, and felt tears welling in his eyes. It was nice to be able to feel emotions again. ”Yeah, I did, father. I’m going to be just fine.” Mizuto stepped forward and wrapped his weak arms around his son in a loving embrace. ”It’s my turn to apologize, Issei,” he started, his voice partially muffled by Issei’s chest, ”I’m sorry for how horribly I treated you. I knew you were hurting and so was I, but I just pushed you away, and that wasn’t right. You’re all I have left. You mean the world to me, no matter what.” Issei gave his dad a gentle pat on the back. ”Maybe if I ever get back into writing again, I’ll write something based on all of this mess. It’ll be a bestseller, huh?” They laughed together until Mizuto broke free from the hug and ushered Issei inside, closing the door softly behind him. Issei sat down in the dining room and Mizuto offered him some sweet bread, which he ate ravenously. ”The last few days have been a bit intense. I haven’t been eating or sleeping much.” Mizuto nodded and grinned. ”Well, no offense, but it shows. You have to stay on top of your health, or else you’ll look like me when you get older, and do you really want this old mug?” he joked, pointing to his face and crossing his eyes. Issei rubbed his chin, simulating thought. ”Hmm, being bald doesn’t seem so bad. Having all this hair gets annoying when you need to make it look decent in the morning.”

The hours passed steadily and the moon rose in the night sky. The stars painted around it illuminated every secluded corner of the village. Issei continued explaining all of the happenings to his father. ”And so I started the organization I mentioned, it’s called Ninshiki. It’s official, I’ve already met with the Mizukage and everything, so I’m going to be leaving the village to go on a few missions in the coming months. I hope that doesn’t upset you. I’ll be back to visit as often as possible.” Mizuto shrugged it off. ”Don’t worry about me, live your life. I’m proud of you and everything that you’re doing.” Issei put a hand on his father’s shoulder and shook him gently. ”It means a lot. But anyway, I should get going. I need to get home and get some sleep. Is it alright if I drop by tomorrow in the morning?” he asked, nonchalantly. Mizuto agreed, insisting that Issei was welcome to come over whenever he wanted to. Just before Issei brushed out of the front door and disappeared into the night, Mizuto mentioned one last thing. ”Your mother’s funeral is on Saturday. Noon.”

Issei looked back at his father with understanding. ”I’ll be there. I promise.”

That Saturday, Issei dressed his best and met his father at the house beforehand. He helped him out across the river and they walked together to the cemetery, where they were the first to arrive. Mizuto seemed upset, but he refused to let himself cry, which Issei understood. Issei did his best to be supportive in the midst of all of this. People started to show up, one by one, and fill in the empty spaces surrounding her grave, waiting for the event to start. By the time the area was full, Issei was brought back to a small area where her casket was being kept, and he, together with his father and two of his father’s siblings, carried the casket over to the grave. Issei watched his mother get lowered into the ground, and then helped bury her there. Her tombstone read, “Ena Momochi. Dedicated shinobi, wife, and mother.” He couldn’t help but remember her in her prime, as she and his father both were his inspiration to become the ninja he was that day. She had always been loving and even as she was bedridden and dying she cared for Issei and Mizuto more than she cared for herself. Issei would miss her dearly. He had prepared a speech for the occasion, and everyone was silent and ready for him to speak.

”My mother, Ena, was someone who was always looking at the bright side of things. No matter what happened, she’d find a silver lining and coast on it to keep her spirits high, and she made everyone around her feel her positivity, too. Losing her has been one of the hardest things I’ve been through, mostly because I look back on all the times I took her for granted, all the times I was gone and didn’t see her for years at a time, and I think, ‘Wow. She deserved so much better than me.’ But no matter what, every time I came back, she took me with open arms and reminded me how much I meant to her, and that through it all, she wanted me to remember to be an optimist like she was. So, that’s what I advise all of you to take away from her loss. Do what she was always preaching, and look at the bright side. Live your best life regardless of your circumstances, and know that you are surrounded by people who love and support you.” His voice was starting to break towards the end of his speech, and he couldn’t will himself to continue, so he ended it there, giving a bright smile and stepping off to the side. His father went up next, his face already wet and his nose running, and started to reminisce on his wife as he knew her…

And just like that, it was over. The people started to disperse and go their separate ways, until the only two that were left were Issei and his father, holding each other in front of the grave. Issei was fine but Mizuto was taking his time, letting himself fall apart without concern and knowing that he would put himself back together again later and move on with his life like everyone did. ”It’s so strange that I’ll never hear her voice again, after spending so many years hearing it every single day. I’m going to miss her so much.” Issei agreed, looking up at the sky and wondering if, even though they had put her underground, she was looking back down at him from above. ”Yeah. I’m going to miss her too.”

Even though Issei had already gotten rid of the curse mark days before, he still had transient bits and pieces of Gaku’s memories spill into his mind at times only to fade away just as quickly as they’d come. He figured that since he’d relived Gaku’s life in his head so many times, it was natural that some of it had been committed to his own memory for a little while. When he got home that night and started fixing his bookshelves, arranging his literature, and stacking scrolls, a memory came to him. One of Gaku holding his daughter, Itsumi, for the first time. Unlike all the other times Issei had experienced this memory, he was able to feel emotions that were in line with the experience, and he felt the joy of knowing that he was a father and the love of his family. Then, another memory came, the day that Itsumi gave birth to Ena and Gaku became a grandfather. It all got to Issei so quickly that he had to stop what he was doing and try to relax. He felt sorry for Gaku and everything that he had been through, but he knew that ultimately both Itsumi and Ena were happy, and Ena had lived a full life knowing that she was loved. Issei remembered Haruyo and their failed marriage, how they had once dreamed of starting a family of their own and settling down in Iwagakure no Sato where they would go hiking and visit hot springs and live a fantasy every single day. He missed that, and felt hurt that it had all fallen apart and now he was living his life alone again. He would feel like the guiltiest child in the world if both of his parents died before he had any children of his own, but that didn’t mean he was about to jump into a relationship that he didn’t want to be in just to have kids. He was just conflicted and lonely and as of then, nothing really made sense to him. Did he even want kids?

Just then, a tap came at his window, and without questioning it, he walked over and opened it to find a bird flying in. The bird perched on the bookshelf and tilted its head. Issei rolled his eyes. ”What is it?”

”My real name is Yuna. And you’re Issei. And now we actually know each other.”

”You already knew me from the start. Why do you feel the need to lie to me about who you are, and to hide behind Genjutsu? I’ve already seen your face.”

”You think you have, but have you really? Besides that, it’s a lot easier to use Genjutsu than to walk all the way over here. I have quite a range, trust me.”

”That’s the problem. I don’t trust you.” He walked over to the drawer and opened it to reveal a headband that wasn’t his own. He picked it up and brought it over to the bird. ”You lied to me about Yukigakure. You used Genjutsu to turn this headband into a Yukigakure headband when the whole time it was just a regular Kiri one. I also did some research, Yukigakure was destroyed just around the same time that Kirigakure was attacked by a man named Hao Uchiha. He’s the one who burned down the village with his eyes. He must have done the same to Yukigakure.”

”I had a good reason for lying to you. Give up on Yukigakure. It’s gone and there’s nothing left. You’re wasting your time.” Issei got upset and made a hand seal. ”Release.” and just like that, the bird was gone, and his home was quiet again. He put the Kirigakure headband back in his drawer and slammed the window shut before turning out all the lights.


[ burn it all down ]

[ Exit Thread ]

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