The swordsman was sitting pretty on a nice pile of money from his last mission, like way more than he knew what to rightfully do with. Due to not only uncovering a vast conspiracy of pirate operations, the information Shinjo brought back also revealed a number of land pirates, (bandits, one could call them), that were under the direct employment of a handful of lesser nobles that all but had a tight grip on Limbus Terra. None of the major clans of Kumogakure or nobles of De Crevitate Attonbitus were listed on the outstanding evidence though. It seemed that the rich of a higher prestige were still, at the moment, well under the thumb of the Shogun. The Lesser Nobles of Limbus, however, all appeared to love playing a little game of ‘secret war’, as the ANBU started calling it. They did so by hiring mercenaries, bandits, pirates, and any other ner-do-well that had an empty pocket to conduct raids on each others farms, holdings, and sometimes even their coveted mansions. One page in particular showed one family having been successful in that last sin twice, with written documents and contracts showing that they had expanded a lot of their own land through strong-arming the poor and a slightly less fortunate noble that was originally over them.
None of this surprised Shinjo, nor did he particularly care for it. A part of his soul was yearning to lash out against the named families in the documents due to his awakening of a purpose, but for the moment he was doing way better financially than he ever had and was enjoying having his own coin to spend. With the pirates that MB struck down last week no longer troubling the waters, rare ore was once again starting to circulate back towards Kumogakure’s blacksmiths, and the AiT was more than happy to throw currency at them to produce a fine weapon. The other three swords he already owned also got a sort of ‘upgrade’ as he honed his skills with the strange mutant variant of Sharingan he used.
His dojutsu that had been creating blades of chakra held little form except the shape, but with his chances of getting to use them in training more, the teen was quickly catching on to the limits of his new power, and began to use his powerful eyes to ‘copy’ the three real swords. The first weapon, the one bought at a fair a while back, was the easiest as it was little more than just a well made weapon. The second, his father’s blade, and the third, an old sword found in his late god-parent’s home that was more styled in the longsword fashion, were far harder to mimic. They contained magical properties that Shinjo had never realized existed in either until he attempted to use chakra techniques to clone them. His father’s weapon really was special, as the old man had kept prattling on about for years, and it was in the fact that the blade never dulled. Ever. Even when Shin slammed the weapon against a rock, the stone was cut in half and not a nick could be found on the old katana. The weapons his god-parents had been hiding had a strange aura around it that attuned itself into whatever the user placed into it. Since the swordsman had a natural talent with Genjutsu, he found it could cast illusions with a simple wave; a boon for anyone who normally needed to use hand-seals to focus their chakras. It gave him an opportunity to finally combine his illusions and swordplay in a way he had never considered before, and with his dojutsu copying the blade, he never had to worry about losing this newfound ability. To mix it up, Shin even learned how to swap the abilities of one sword onto another by creating the weapon at its core to be the same but its shape to be different. After a ton of practice he found that the swords themselves weren’t the limitations of his abilities, and that he could copy the powers of one item and create an entire different weapon. It opened up a range of combat styles that set him apart from the rest of the ANBU with their honed singular techniques…but, also made him a Jack-of-All. He was best with swords though, and figured he’d just stick to those. Better to use the weapon he was good with than just swap stuff on the fly as the situation called for it, he figured.
Yet while this was all well and fun, a mission did eventually arrived at his new home near the Cronopolis; a third floor apartment positioned on a corner of the building. He only had one set of neighbors that were incredibly loud and fought constantly, but in the weirdest way he found it comforting. His parents were a couple that fought constantly. Sometimes their arguments came to blows and despite how much stronger his father was the fights were rarely one-sided. Hearing the two men on the other side of his kitchen wall scream and yell about everything from the most mundane to the most sensual brought a strange measure relaxation he hadn’t knew he needed.
The apartment itself was a little rundown, even had a few leaks and there were mold spots in the corners before he hired someone to take care of them, but the furniture was new. At his polished wooden kitchen table Shinjo stared at the little white packet sitting bound by a red tie. Something in his gut festered. Maybe it was because he had finally been rewarded for his service and had the time to relax for the first time in his life and just wasn’t quite done living a life. However, that little pecking in his head about duty told him he needed to get on with it before his Branch came looking for him. Taking a breath and reaching out to snap the center knot with his chakra tuned to a certain frequency to keep the entire thing from catching fire, Shin opened the top of the envelope and slid out the six pages that would soon change his life. As the teen gathered the pages and sorted them by number in the corner, he couldn’t help but think about the fact that his missions were already becoming more professional than he’d originally figured an AiT like himself would be handling. A quick read over the first two pages and a picture of the girl who took his virginity placed an icy hand on his heart that all but confirmed he was indeed being granted a job over his pay grade. After flipping through the family’s crimes and pictures of other family members he reached the target intention of deploying Shinjo; assassination.
A cold sweat took him as he dropped the pages and began to hyperventilate a little. The girl in question was just an acquaintance, really, but like every other teenage romance the two had opened up their hearts beneath the guise of intoxication. She was someone who hated her father, spoke ill of her mother, and didn’t care for the life she lived and now it would be his hand that would bring that life to an end. Seven times he re-read the dossier to make sure he had their sins properly understood. Slavery. Inner-land wars. Hiring out of country mercenaries to take over other lesser noble lands and even a plot to side with some mysterious benefactor in overthrowing Kumogakure itself. The last sentence alone would be enough to call down someone from ANBU, let alone the other slightly lesser crimes, but Shinjo’s heart clutched at the thought of drawing the edge of his weapons against that girl’s throat. Why him? Why did ANBU place him on such an important mission that could very well decide the fate of Kumogakure itself?
Three hours later, the night already setting in, he found himself in a horse drawn carriage heading out the noble estate. It had taken him a good twenty minutes to steel himself in the choice he had made, but Shin decided to not only leave his weapons behind but to also try to prove the family’s innocence. It was something a bit unheard of for an ANBU member to drop their Branch’s laws and go rogue like he was, but Shin couldn’t just let it go and had to make sure himself that the family really was committing to such treasonous acts. Getting the carriage itself, setting his disguise, and slipping back into the life of his noble shoes was easy. The plan was something half-baked too and lead completely by what little heart he had left. He entered the estate with the half-hearted intentions to ask for the daughter’s hand in marriage, (fifteen and thinking of marriage!), and to unite the fortunes of their families. He had the fake letter from his nearly unheard of noble house drafted up by a fake father, a sack of metal currency of his own money from the last mission that proved the family wealth, and a heart in his throat. Truth was, as dumb as this was, he couldn’t help but feel the anxiety of actually wishing for it.
Her name was Naikii of the Yonistu House. Long blond hair, average build, but the sweetest green eyes he had ever seen lingered on his mind as the taste of her skin played memories on his tongue. Love had struck the boy, and though it was fully against the wishes of his village, possibly to a point of treason, Shinjo quickly drew the conclusion that his Branch had to be wrong an that the Yonistu were just the average, boring, farming nobles their eldest daughter claimed them to be.
The carriage came to a stop and Shinjo quickly released himself out of the carriage, much to the surprise of the driver who normally would open the door for his passengers, and hopped out before taking a quick survey of the land. They fielded vegetables, it appeared, and there were quite a number of hands working the fields but so far nothing roused his suspicions. Not long after stepping out of the carriage he felt the presence of someone near his side and turned just in time to feel Naikii outright tackled him with a hug.
“Zenni! You came!” she cried out with joy. Shinjo was at a loss for a second as he had forgotten his own fake name. Tenki Zenari, he reminded himself as he calmed his racing heart at the feeling of her warm body pressed closed to his own.
“O-of, of course I did! Promised, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but it took you way longer than you promised.” She chided as he righted her self and gave him a playful glare. In that instant his training just, melted away. Suddenly being a ninja, a swordsman, fighting for justice and the way of his village just seemed like such a far off concerned as he felt his soul being devoured by those emerald eyes. Without warning his calloused hands were filled with her soft touch, “Come on! Let me introduce you to everyone!”
It was a blissful evening, pretending to be someone he wasn’t. The lies came naturally as he was introduced to her mother first, two younger siblings who were twin boys, and then finally the father. Shinjo was quickly swept up in the act, and even begged Naikii a moment away so that he could speak to her father personally. Her father was an older man, built like someone who had never seen a hard day in his life but with the stern look of a leader. He granted the request and before Shin knew it, they were alone in the father’s personal den that looked as if it was going through some light remodeling. Heart still clearly stuck in his throat, the teenager offered the letter of proposal in the way a noble would; with a gesture, a bow, and then a kneel. It was written in training manuals that this was done so that if the offer was rejected the noble being offered could easily strike the offeree for their insult. Had Naikii’s father done such a thing it would have made it so much easier to steel his heart for the deed set to him instead of trying to prove their innocence, but instead the old man was actually surprised at his brass of Shinjo’s intentions but not unwelcoming of them.
“I…am somewhat taken aback to the suddenness of this, you know. I have yet to meet your family at all. Usually there is at least three different rituals practiced but…”
“I apologize for that,” Shin recanted honestly, “but I met your daughter on a train ride to the South recently and I haven’t been able to sleep soundly since. She is on my mind in every waking moment. I begged my family to understand. I suppose the reason this is even happening is because my father, too, is a helpless romantic.”
“No, no, I get it. I was the same way when I met my wife. Go ahead, stand up. It’s just absolutely good fortune that you would come at such a time! Bandits have been terrorizing my estate as of late and we’ve lost a lot of good helping hands lately making our race to getting the harvest done a bit lagged. With this though,” he patted Shinjo’s mission money, “I’ll be able to pull ahead of my rivals!” Shinjo stood back up, still looking nervous as Naikii’s father read over the letter but felt a bit of ease when he smiled and folded it back up to tuck into an inner vest pocket. “Will you be staying?”
“I’m sorry?”
“For supper?”
“Ah, yes of course,” the teenager said, almost biting his own tongue from his nervousness. Plotting his own treasonous acts and marrying a girl his heart had melted for within only a few hours was really toiling his mind, but he tried to play along as best he could. Soon he’d have the time to search the house and find the evidence needed to prove his actions justified and for ANBU to take a far more careful look at the ‘evidence’ Shinjo provided from his first mission.
The rest of the evening was a blur. He met back up with Naikii shortly after and mentioned his plans to her, to which she was far more than overly excited about, and soon the entire family was seated at a long table with the couple next to each other. The old noble head announced Shinjo’s plans to the rest of the family, his acceptance of them after winning him over with a wonderful heart-felt letter written, supposedly, by the teen’s own father. Everyone seemed not only completely with some stranger coming up out of nowhere to marry their eldest daughter, they appeared to be overly ecstatic. Despite trying to eat, Naikii’s mother kept ribbing him with good nurtured barbs in speculations on how they met, (ironically being dead on), and it took all of Shin’s shinobi training to not show his hand as he denied every last one; though his lover was hard pressed to do the same. An hour later after the twins had been laid to rest and the rest of the nobles enjoyed a glass of surprisingly delicious wine, the would-be assassin found himself being tugged away from the dinner table to have a moment of privacy between the two lovers. This lead to two wine glasses being left on a stray banister as Naikaii’s kisses and touch lured Shinjo up the stairs to the second floor of their mansion and into her bedroom; and a door that was tightly locked moments after stepping in.
In any other noble family, the entire appearance of Shinjo’s character and actions would of been highly scandalous. He had basically shown up a stranger to all but the oldest daughter, demanded marriage, and then proceeded to fornicate in their own home not but hours after. Yet, even as he laid in the large bed next to Naikii who had quickly fallen asleep, Shinjo had never felt more right in his life. His broken and torn heart needed something, he had realized, to recover from the years upon years of trauma. Be it his own late parents, deceptive god-parents, or absolutely psycho bitch sensei, all he had known was the absolute tear down his mentality and emotions into becoming some kind of heartless order-following machine; a weapon, if you will. Yet, hindsight is 20/20, and perhaps, if he had just simply done that instead of this entire farce of a life to save the Yonitsu family, he would have been spared the last twenty minutes that destroyed everything this evening had built up; that last straw that finally broke his mind.
The night carried on, but Shinjo couldn’t sleep. The bed was way too soft and every time his lover breathed he felt his combat instincts kick in and had to resist leaping out of the bed. After a moment he finally decided to slip from the bed, redraw his noble clothing, and sneak out of the bedroom with his training making him more silent than a cockroach. It was time to begin searching for evidence that would clear the family’s name. He knew that if he spent too long out on an assassination mission that ANBU would send someone else in his place to do the deed and then find out what happened to him; nothing good would come of that. Before such tragedy came to pass the AiT would need clear proof that they weren’t at all the monsters the documents claimed them to be, and shortly after that, he had already steeled his heart to quit the shinobi life. The idea of chasing some dream of justice was nice and all, but finding the warmth of love far overwhelmed that dream and he already decided to do everything he could to save it.
Out of Naikii’s room he slipped and down the hall without a sound he stalked. The house was quiet, everyone else clearly ignoring the two lovers and deciding also to turn in. Room by room the assassin stalked and found everyone’s quarters before finally locating the den he had spoken to Naikii’s father. In there, he suspected, would be some sort of cabinet with documents that would prove their innocence…but instead he found the father with a packet of papers sitting in front of the fireplace. It took literally nothing for Shinjo to easily sneaked in and behind the father to stare down at the documents in hand he was clearly preparing to burn; his heart sank seeing that they were orders.
~Prepare twenty of your strongest slaves, hire the men settled in the next town over West as your guards, and send them to Tenouza for training and your place in the new world will be recognized.~
Instantly his heart dropped. The old man gently lifted a cup of brandy to his lips to sip before folding the page up and tossing it in the flames. There was a clear smile on his face as he stood and turned around, but it quickly melted off when he saw Shinjo standing there staring in disbelief.
“Oh, Zenari! I didn’t hear you come in! You…didn’t happen to read that, did you?” Shinjo’s stoic shocked silence said more than words ever could have, “Listen, there is a new order coming to thing and I’m just making sure my family is on top of it all when the dust settles…you’ll be marrying into the new royal family, you know! Your father will be more than overjoyed about it when he hears, but, now that you know I suspect you’ll need to…head out soon and let them know before everything explodes…”
The old man was pausing every now and then, shifted his eyes down and back at Shinjo quickly but the trained soldier saw exactly what the older man was looking at. At the table near the fire was a small tack hammer that had been left there by one of the servants, no doubt in helping the remodeling being done to the room. With an obvious gasp and absolutely leaving himself open to at least three different attacks, the Yonitsu family head suddenly darted to grab the hammer and swing it at Shinjo’s head. It was more than clear that the teenager had stumbled upon something he shouldn’t have, and if he had just stayed in the bed with his lover instead of seeking out to prove innocence, it never would have come to this. Shin was lost in that thought, honestly, thinking about the many different ways this all could have played out. Had it not been for the shinobi’s reflexes, the man would have succeeded in killing the teenager right there too. The AiT was in a state of shock in trying to wrap his head around his mission, his life, and what love had very nearly tricked him into doing. Instead his left arm popped up to block the man’s wrist with a strike, spin the hammer out of his hand and into the assassin’s. On sheer auto-reflex the hand now armed with a weapon soared up, and then down with a wet crunch as it drove deep into Naikii’s father’s head. He instantly dropped down in front of Shinjo’s feet as blood began to pool. The assassin’s mind was racing so hard he didn’t hear someone come in behind him and touch his shoulder; causing his reflexes to bury the hammer’s head in the side of Naikii’s face.
“Z-Z…Zen…ni?” she questioned as Shinjo broke from his killer’s trance to realize what he had done, a moment too late. The hammer dropped out of his hand as he felt himself hyperventilating for real this time before a scream tore itself out of his throat.
A duo of ANBU had been sent out before the night was half-way through, apparently having expected Shinjo to do his deed far faster. They found the boy at the foot of the Yonitsu’s burning mansion and fields with a bloody hammer held tight against his head clutched by both hands as he rocked back and forth on the doorsteps like a madman. He was incomprehensible, muttering only to himself something about being born a murderer as they had to literally drag him away from the burning mansion and five dead bodies; all of which had been neatly lined up. With the same hammer injury to their head. Neither were sure how the fire got started. The soldiers who found Shinjo had to clean up his messy execution of the Yonitsu, but, in the end they were able to make it look like a bandit raid instead of an assassination gone horribly wrong and once again Kumogakure’s dirty work to keep Lightning clean of corrupt lesser nobles had a successful mission.
Shinjo, himself, was put into a mental institution as nothing seemed to make him come back around. Even when struck with Genjutsu that delved into his mind to block out the traumatic events, all that brought was fits and screaming that wouldn’t stop until the illusions were broken. It was never clear to his Branch why he had killed the Yonitsu in such a terrible fashion, and many just thought that the mission had been a bit too much, too soon for someone who was still in training. Something had gone wrong and he had been left to improvise. No one would either, except maybe Miro later in the years to pass. While the war with Tenouza raged on, Tsukinowa Shinjo was in a padded cell still coming to terms with the people he violently murdered, and there he would stay for some time until long after the war had finished. Even when that day finally came, the person who walked out of the facility wasn’t the same Shinjo that had come to Kumogakure, and the life that once shined in his eyes had been replaced by a dead stare.
None of this surprised Shinjo, nor did he particularly care for it. A part of his soul was yearning to lash out against the named families in the documents due to his awakening of a purpose, but for the moment he was doing way better financially than he ever had and was enjoying having his own coin to spend. With the pirates that MB struck down last week no longer troubling the waters, rare ore was once again starting to circulate back towards Kumogakure’s blacksmiths, and the AiT was more than happy to throw currency at them to produce a fine weapon. The other three swords he already owned also got a sort of ‘upgrade’ as he honed his skills with the strange mutant variant of Sharingan he used.
His dojutsu that had been creating blades of chakra held little form except the shape, but with his chances of getting to use them in training more, the teen was quickly catching on to the limits of his new power, and began to use his powerful eyes to ‘copy’ the three real swords. The first weapon, the one bought at a fair a while back, was the easiest as it was little more than just a well made weapon. The second, his father’s blade, and the third, an old sword found in his late god-parent’s home that was more styled in the longsword fashion, were far harder to mimic. They contained magical properties that Shinjo had never realized existed in either until he attempted to use chakra techniques to clone them. His father’s weapon really was special, as the old man had kept prattling on about for years, and it was in the fact that the blade never dulled. Ever. Even when Shin slammed the weapon against a rock, the stone was cut in half and not a nick could be found on the old katana. The weapons his god-parents had been hiding had a strange aura around it that attuned itself into whatever the user placed into it. Since the swordsman had a natural talent with Genjutsu, he found it could cast illusions with a simple wave; a boon for anyone who normally needed to use hand-seals to focus their chakras. It gave him an opportunity to finally combine his illusions and swordplay in a way he had never considered before, and with his dojutsu copying the blade, he never had to worry about losing this newfound ability. To mix it up, Shin even learned how to swap the abilities of one sword onto another by creating the weapon at its core to be the same but its shape to be different. After a ton of practice he found that the swords themselves weren’t the limitations of his abilities, and that he could copy the powers of one item and create an entire different weapon. It opened up a range of combat styles that set him apart from the rest of the ANBU with their honed singular techniques…but, also made him a Jack-of-All. He was best with swords though, and figured he’d just stick to those. Better to use the weapon he was good with than just swap stuff on the fly as the situation called for it, he figured.
Yet while this was all well and fun, a mission did eventually arrived at his new home near the Cronopolis; a third floor apartment positioned on a corner of the building. He only had one set of neighbors that were incredibly loud and fought constantly, but in the weirdest way he found it comforting. His parents were a couple that fought constantly. Sometimes their arguments came to blows and despite how much stronger his father was the fights were rarely one-sided. Hearing the two men on the other side of his kitchen wall scream and yell about everything from the most mundane to the most sensual brought a strange measure relaxation he hadn’t knew he needed.
The apartment itself was a little rundown, even had a few leaks and there were mold spots in the corners before he hired someone to take care of them, but the furniture was new. At his polished wooden kitchen table Shinjo stared at the little white packet sitting bound by a red tie. Something in his gut festered. Maybe it was because he had finally been rewarded for his service and had the time to relax for the first time in his life and just wasn’t quite done living a life. However, that little pecking in his head about duty told him he needed to get on with it before his Branch came looking for him. Taking a breath and reaching out to snap the center knot with his chakra tuned to a certain frequency to keep the entire thing from catching fire, Shin opened the top of the envelope and slid out the six pages that would soon change his life. As the teen gathered the pages and sorted them by number in the corner, he couldn’t help but think about the fact that his missions were already becoming more professional than he’d originally figured an AiT like himself would be handling. A quick read over the first two pages and a picture of the girl who took his virginity placed an icy hand on his heart that all but confirmed he was indeed being granted a job over his pay grade. After flipping through the family’s crimes and pictures of other family members he reached the target intention of deploying Shinjo; assassination.
A cold sweat took him as he dropped the pages and began to hyperventilate a little. The girl in question was just an acquaintance, really, but like every other teenage romance the two had opened up their hearts beneath the guise of intoxication. She was someone who hated her father, spoke ill of her mother, and didn’t care for the life she lived and now it would be his hand that would bring that life to an end. Seven times he re-read the dossier to make sure he had their sins properly understood. Slavery. Inner-land wars. Hiring out of country mercenaries to take over other lesser noble lands and even a plot to side with some mysterious benefactor in overthrowing Kumogakure itself. The last sentence alone would be enough to call down someone from ANBU, let alone the other slightly lesser crimes, but Shinjo’s heart clutched at the thought of drawing the edge of his weapons against that girl’s throat. Why him? Why did ANBU place him on such an important mission that could very well decide the fate of Kumogakure itself?
Three hours later, the night already setting in, he found himself in a horse drawn carriage heading out the noble estate. It had taken him a good twenty minutes to steel himself in the choice he had made, but Shin decided to not only leave his weapons behind but to also try to prove the family’s innocence. It was something a bit unheard of for an ANBU member to drop their Branch’s laws and go rogue like he was, but Shin couldn’t just let it go and had to make sure himself that the family really was committing to such treasonous acts. Getting the carriage itself, setting his disguise, and slipping back into the life of his noble shoes was easy. The plan was something half-baked too and lead completely by what little heart he had left. He entered the estate with the half-hearted intentions to ask for the daughter’s hand in marriage, (fifteen and thinking of marriage!), and to unite the fortunes of their families. He had the fake letter from his nearly unheard of noble house drafted up by a fake father, a sack of metal currency of his own money from the last mission that proved the family wealth, and a heart in his throat. Truth was, as dumb as this was, he couldn’t help but feel the anxiety of actually wishing for it.
Her name was Naikii of the Yonistu House. Long blond hair, average build, but the sweetest green eyes he had ever seen lingered on his mind as the taste of her skin played memories on his tongue. Love had struck the boy, and though it was fully against the wishes of his village, possibly to a point of treason, Shinjo quickly drew the conclusion that his Branch had to be wrong an that the Yonistu were just the average, boring, farming nobles their eldest daughter claimed them to be.
The carriage came to a stop and Shinjo quickly released himself out of the carriage, much to the surprise of the driver who normally would open the door for his passengers, and hopped out before taking a quick survey of the land. They fielded vegetables, it appeared, and there were quite a number of hands working the fields but so far nothing roused his suspicions. Not long after stepping out of the carriage he felt the presence of someone near his side and turned just in time to feel Naikii outright tackled him with a hug.
“Zenni! You came!” she cried out with joy. Shinjo was at a loss for a second as he had forgotten his own fake name. Tenki Zenari, he reminded himself as he calmed his racing heart at the feeling of her warm body pressed closed to his own.
“O-of, of course I did! Promised, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but it took you way longer than you promised.” She chided as he righted her self and gave him a playful glare. In that instant his training just, melted away. Suddenly being a ninja, a swordsman, fighting for justice and the way of his village just seemed like such a far off concerned as he felt his soul being devoured by those emerald eyes. Without warning his calloused hands were filled with her soft touch, “Come on! Let me introduce you to everyone!”
It was a blissful evening, pretending to be someone he wasn’t. The lies came naturally as he was introduced to her mother first, two younger siblings who were twin boys, and then finally the father. Shinjo was quickly swept up in the act, and even begged Naikii a moment away so that he could speak to her father personally. Her father was an older man, built like someone who had never seen a hard day in his life but with the stern look of a leader. He granted the request and before Shin knew it, they were alone in the father’s personal den that looked as if it was going through some light remodeling. Heart still clearly stuck in his throat, the teenager offered the letter of proposal in the way a noble would; with a gesture, a bow, and then a kneel. It was written in training manuals that this was done so that if the offer was rejected the noble being offered could easily strike the offeree for their insult. Had Naikii’s father done such a thing it would have made it so much easier to steel his heart for the deed set to him instead of trying to prove their innocence, but instead the old man was actually surprised at his brass of Shinjo’s intentions but not unwelcoming of them.
“I…am somewhat taken aback to the suddenness of this, you know. I have yet to meet your family at all. Usually there is at least three different rituals practiced but…”
“I apologize for that,” Shin recanted honestly, “but I met your daughter on a train ride to the South recently and I haven’t been able to sleep soundly since. She is on my mind in every waking moment. I begged my family to understand. I suppose the reason this is even happening is because my father, too, is a helpless romantic.”
“No, no, I get it. I was the same way when I met my wife. Go ahead, stand up. It’s just absolutely good fortune that you would come at such a time! Bandits have been terrorizing my estate as of late and we’ve lost a lot of good helping hands lately making our race to getting the harvest done a bit lagged. With this though,” he patted Shinjo’s mission money, “I’ll be able to pull ahead of my rivals!” Shinjo stood back up, still looking nervous as Naikii’s father read over the letter but felt a bit of ease when he smiled and folded it back up to tuck into an inner vest pocket. “Will you be staying?”
“I’m sorry?”
“For supper?”
“Ah, yes of course,” the teenager said, almost biting his own tongue from his nervousness. Plotting his own treasonous acts and marrying a girl his heart had melted for within only a few hours was really toiling his mind, but he tried to play along as best he could. Soon he’d have the time to search the house and find the evidence needed to prove his actions justified and for ANBU to take a far more careful look at the ‘evidence’ Shinjo provided from his first mission.
The rest of the evening was a blur. He met back up with Naikii shortly after and mentioned his plans to her, to which she was far more than overly excited about, and soon the entire family was seated at a long table with the couple next to each other. The old noble head announced Shinjo’s plans to the rest of the family, his acceptance of them after winning him over with a wonderful heart-felt letter written, supposedly, by the teen’s own father. Everyone seemed not only completely with some stranger coming up out of nowhere to marry their eldest daughter, they appeared to be overly ecstatic. Despite trying to eat, Naikii’s mother kept ribbing him with good nurtured barbs in speculations on how they met, (ironically being dead on), and it took all of Shin’s shinobi training to not show his hand as he denied every last one; though his lover was hard pressed to do the same. An hour later after the twins had been laid to rest and the rest of the nobles enjoyed a glass of surprisingly delicious wine, the would-be assassin found himself being tugged away from the dinner table to have a moment of privacy between the two lovers. This lead to two wine glasses being left on a stray banister as Naikaii’s kisses and touch lured Shinjo up the stairs to the second floor of their mansion and into her bedroom; and a door that was tightly locked moments after stepping in.
In any other noble family, the entire appearance of Shinjo’s character and actions would of been highly scandalous. He had basically shown up a stranger to all but the oldest daughter, demanded marriage, and then proceeded to fornicate in their own home not but hours after. Yet, even as he laid in the large bed next to Naikii who had quickly fallen asleep, Shinjo had never felt more right in his life. His broken and torn heart needed something, he had realized, to recover from the years upon years of trauma. Be it his own late parents, deceptive god-parents, or absolutely psycho bitch sensei, all he had known was the absolute tear down his mentality and emotions into becoming some kind of heartless order-following machine; a weapon, if you will. Yet, hindsight is 20/20, and perhaps, if he had just simply done that instead of this entire farce of a life to save the Yonitsu family, he would have been spared the last twenty minutes that destroyed everything this evening had built up; that last straw that finally broke his mind.
The night carried on, but Shinjo couldn’t sleep. The bed was way too soft and every time his lover breathed he felt his combat instincts kick in and had to resist leaping out of the bed. After a moment he finally decided to slip from the bed, redraw his noble clothing, and sneak out of the bedroom with his training making him more silent than a cockroach. It was time to begin searching for evidence that would clear the family’s name. He knew that if he spent too long out on an assassination mission that ANBU would send someone else in his place to do the deed and then find out what happened to him; nothing good would come of that. Before such tragedy came to pass the AiT would need clear proof that they weren’t at all the monsters the documents claimed them to be, and shortly after that, he had already steeled his heart to quit the shinobi life. The idea of chasing some dream of justice was nice and all, but finding the warmth of love far overwhelmed that dream and he already decided to do everything he could to save it.
Out of Naikii’s room he slipped and down the hall without a sound he stalked. The house was quiet, everyone else clearly ignoring the two lovers and deciding also to turn in. Room by room the assassin stalked and found everyone’s quarters before finally locating the den he had spoken to Naikii’s father. In there, he suspected, would be some sort of cabinet with documents that would prove their innocence…but instead he found the father with a packet of papers sitting in front of the fireplace. It took literally nothing for Shinjo to easily sneaked in and behind the father to stare down at the documents in hand he was clearly preparing to burn; his heart sank seeing that they were orders.
~Prepare twenty of your strongest slaves, hire the men settled in the next town over West as your guards, and send them to Tenouza for training and your place in the new world will be recognized.~
Instantly his heart dropped. The old man gently lifted a cup of brandy to his lips to sip before folding the page up and tossing it in the flames. There was a clear smile on his face as he stood and turned around, but it quickly melted off when he saw Shinjo standing there staring in disbelief.
“Oh, Zenari! I didn’t hear you come in! You…didn’t happen to read that, did you?” Shinjo’s stoic shocked silence said more than words ever could have, “Listen, there is a new order coming to thing and I’m just making sure my family is on top of it all when the dust settles…you’ll be marrying into the new royal family, you know! Your father will be more than overjoyed about it when he hears, but, now that you know I suspect you’ll need to…head out soon and let them know before everything explodes…”
The old man was pausing every now and then, shifted his eyes down and back at Shinjo quickly but the trained soldier saw exactly what the older man was looking at. At the table near the fire was a small tack hammer that had been left there by one of the servants, no doubt in helping the remodeling being done to the room. With an obvious gasp and absolutely leaving himself open to at least three different attacks, the Yonitsu family head suddenly darted to grab the hammer and swing it at Shinjo’s head. It was more than clear that the teenager had stumbled upon something he shouldn’t have, and if he had just stayed in the bed with his lover instead of seeking out to prove innocence, it never would have come to this. Shin was lost in that thought, honestly, thinking about the many different ways this all could have played out. Had it not been for the shinobi’s reflexes, the man would have succeeded in killing the teenager right there too. The AiT was in a state of shock in trying to wrap his head around his mission, his life, and what love had very nearly tricked him into doing. Instead his left arm popped up to block the man’s wrist with a strike, spin the hammer out of his hand and into the assassin’s. On sheer auto-reflex the hand now armed with a weapon soared up, and then down with a wet crunch as it drove deep into Naikii’s father’s head. He instantly dropped down in front of Shinjo’s feet as blood began to pool. The assassin’s mind was racing so hard he didn’t hear someone come in behind him and touch his shoulder; causing his reflexes to bury the hammer’s head in the side of Naikii’s face.
“Z-Z…Zen…ni?” she questioned as Shinjo broke from his killer’s trance to realize what he had done, a moment too late. The hammer dropped out of his hand as he felt himself hyperventilating for real this time before a scream tore itself out of his throat.
A duo of ANBU had been sent out before the night was half-way through, apparently having expected Shinjo to do his deed far faster. They found the boy at the foot of the Yonitsu’s burning mansion and fields with a bloody hammer held tight against his head clutched by both hands as he rocked back and forth on the doorsteps like a madman. He was incomprehensible, muttering only to himself something about being born a murderer as they had to literally drag him away from the burning mansion and five dead bodies; all of which had been neatly lined up. With the same hammer injury to their head. Neither were sure how the fire got started. The soldiers who found Shinjo had to clean up his messy execution of the Yonitsu, but, in the end they were able to make it look like a bandit raid instead of an assassination gone horribly wrong and once again Kumogakure’s dirty work to keep Lightning clean of corrupt lesser nobles had a successful mission.
Shinjo, himself, was put into a mental institution as nothing seemed to make him come back around. Even when struck with Genjutsu that delved into his mind to block out the traumatic events, all that brought was fits and screaming that wouldn’t stop until the illusions were broken. It was never clear to his Branch why he had killed the Yonitsu in such a terrible fashion, and many just thought that the mission had been a bit too much, too soon for someone who was still in training. Something had gone wrong and he had been left to improvise. No one would either, except maybe Miro later in the years to pass. While the war with Tenouza raged on, Tsukinowa Shinjo was in a padded cell still coming to terms with the people he violently murdered, and there he would stay for some time until long after the war had finished. Even when that day finally came, the person who walked out of the facility wasn’t the same Shinjo that had come to Kumogakure, and the life that once shined in his eyes had been replaced by a dead stare.