Chapter 32: Chapter 32: The Last Mist
"The Magen: Kirigakure no Jutsu," Fujimoto-sensei's voice filled the classroom, "is one of our village's signature illusory techniques. Unlike the real mist created with chakra, this is a technique that tricks the opponent's senses into perceiving a mist that doesn't actually exist."
Ren listened intently, trying to ignore the strange feeling of uneasiness that had been with him since morning.
"The technique primarily alters visual perception," Fujimoto continued, "but it can also affect the other senses if performed correctly. The opponent will sense moisture on the skin, the distinctive smell of mist, even the muffled sound typical of a foggy environment."
"Tomorrow," he added, "we will learn how to break out of this and other basic illusory techniques. Knowing how a genjutsu works is the first step to effectively neutralizing it."
"Ne, sensei!" Jun'ko raised her hand enthusiastically. "Can I demonstrate?"
Before Fujimoto could respond, Jun'ko had already formed the seals. An illusory mist began to fill the classroom, but something went wrong - instead of the usual gray mist, this one had a strange pink hue.
"Whoops," Jun'ko muttered as Aoi began frantically flipping through a manual. "Technically," he said, adjusting his glasses, "this is due to a fluctuation in chakra control that has altered the frequency of the..."
"The pink mist is very pretty," Shinji interrupted, yawning. "It reminds me of cherry blossoms."
"Isn't it supposed to be scary?" someone asked from the back of the classroom.
"The pink mist is terrifying!" Jun'ko protested. "It's... it's like being trapped in a cloud of murderous cotton candy!"
Even Fujimoto-sensei had to suppress a smile as he dispelled the illusion.
But Ren couldn't join in the general hilarity. The feeling of unease continued to grow, like a weight on his chest that was becoming harder and harder to ignore.
After class, as he made his way to his mother's shop, the feeling became almost unbearable. That's when he saw them - two ANBU standing outside the shop, their white masks glowing ominously in the late afternoon fog.
He began to run.
°
The world seemed to slow down.
°°
Each step toward the shop seemed to take an eternity.
°°°
The mist around him suddenly seemed thicker, more suffocating, more real than any genjutsu they had studied that day.
When he opened the door, the doorbell rang with a tinkle that sounded obscenely cheerful to him.
His mother was sitting at the counter, still as a statue.
Her face, normally so lively, seemed to have aged 30 years in a second.
"Kaa-san?" he called, his voice betraying a vulnerability he had never allowed himself to show.
Two more ANBU stood in the shadows. "I'm sorry," one of them said, his voice neutral behind the fish mask.
"Mizutani Toshiro fell on a mission, serving the village with honor."
The words echoed around the room like pebbles thrown into a deep pond. Ren felt something snap inside him - not like the sharp pain of losing a parent, but like the collapse of a wall he didn't even know he'd built.
'I'm an adult,' he told himself. 'I've faced death before. I've studied medicine, I've seen people die. This shouldn't...'
But it hurt.
It hurt in a whole new way, unlike anything he'd experienced in his previous life.
"How?" His mother's voice was a broken whisper.
"The details of the mission are classified," the ANBU replied.
"All we can say is that he died as a hero."
'Rin,' Ren thought, his blood freezing in his veins.
'It happened. The incident with Rin. I was so caught up in my training, in my plans, that I forgot... I forgot that my father was out there.'
At that moment, Ren felt something break inside him.
The tears began to fall, surprising him. He hadn't cried in... how long? Since his previous life? And now he couldn't stop them, couldn't maintain that emotional distance that he had always considered his strength.
"Tou-san," he whispered, and in that single word there was everything: the regret for the lessons not completed, for the moments they would never share, for that "I love you" he had never said openly. His mother held him close, and for the first time since he had been reincarnated into this world, Ren allowed himself to simply be a child who had lost his father.
The ANBU took their leave silently, leaving the mother and son in their grief. The mist outside the window seemed thicker than usual, as if the village itself was mourning one of its own children.
Later, Ren was alone in his room.
All his plans, all his knowledge of the future... what good were they if he couldn't protect his own family?
'I was fooled,' he thought bitterly. 'I thought that being a reincarnated adult somehow made me immune to this pain. I thought I could keep my distance, that I could be a detached observer. But...'
He broke off, a sob shaking his chest.
The pain was real, raw, impossible to rationalize.
It wasn't the pain of an adult who had studied death in medical books, nor that of a child who didn't fully understand what death meant.
It was the pain of someone who had learned to love, truly and deeply, for the first time in two lifetimes.
The tanto his father had given him lay on his bed, the blade catching the moonlight.
He took it with shaking hands, remembering his father's words about the strength that comes from the heart. "I promise you," he whispered into the night, "that your sacrifice will not be in vain."
He paused for a moment, as a new realization hit him. He now truly understood Obito's pain, the pain that had turned an idealistic boy into an instrument of destruction.
But unlike him, Ren would not allow this pain to consume him.
'Madara, Black Zetsu... you are the ones truly responsible for all of this. You are manipulating people's pain for your own purposes. One day, I will make you pay the price.'
The mist outside the window continued to thicken, hiding from the world the tears of a child who carried the weight of two lives, and now also the weight of a promise of revenge that would change the future.
[ Hi there, Ito-kun here... it was difficult to write the previous chapter and this as well, i was trying to imagine the scene and to feel the emotions that Ren could have, and it hurts. Honestly. I'm the author, yes, but i feel myself as a reader too, so when re-reading it... ]
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