Bab 107: The Return of Muku
Then...its maw opened. Just like its eyes, it shined red with energy that no doubt connected the outside world to the unending sea of darkness that laid within the box.
All was still. Everyone was silent. Then...came the pitter-patter of steps. It was dark so it was hard for most to see, but with time everyone saw a young boy about eleven or twelve come from the Box of Ultimate Bliss. His hair was unkempt, his eyes were unfocused, and his steps were unsteady, but he walked from the box and into the prison courtyard.
"Tou-san?" the young boy asked.
Tears continued to flow from the prison warden's face like a waterfall whose damn had been blocked for so many seasons. He fell to his knees and held out his arms.
"Yes, Muku, it's me. I'm here now. I'm so sorry for everything I've done to you. I know I've done something utterly unforgivable to you and you have every right to resent me, but I swear I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you. Nothing like this will ever happen again. You have my word!" Mui said with outstretched hands.
The young boy who had come from the box stared into those arms for a moment. How long had he been in the box? He wasn't sure. Time seemed to warp itself around him. All he knew was that he had been in perpetual darkness for so long. Yes, it was still dark outside, but that could not compare to what he had experienced. Now, he just had his father back.
Muku was aware that he should hate his father. Perhaps if he had spent more time in the box then it might have twisted the very edges of his mind until he came to resent his father for what he had done, but...his joy of being free from the box, his joy of seeing his father again, and...the joy of knowing how much his father agonized over his decision soothed the hatred within his chest.
"Tou-san!" Muku exclaimed. The young boy ran towards his father with open arms. Just like his father, tears fell down the side of his face.
"...Tch, how boring dattebayo,"
Muku opened his eyes and joy...was quickly replaced with fear when he saw a large stake of blood pierced from the floor and through his father's body. Prisoners and guards widened their eyes as the strike had sent the sharp point of the stake from Mui's back and through the open cavity of his throat.
"M-M-Mu...ku…," Mui garbled as blood filled his throat and clogged his lips. His vision grew blurry while he coughed and spasmed violently. His body grew cold. His eyes began to roll into the back of his head as pain surged through his body.
"M-MUI-SAMA!" The guards shouted as they were quickly ready to intercept Naruto and the rest of his group, but the blonde clenched his right hand and yanked it towards himself. Almost instantaneously, the guards screamed as blood was forcefully pulled from their bodies in the shapes of blades and sharp points. They each fell to the ground while the prisoners opened their eyes in utter shock.
Naruto turned to the rest of the prisoners. His eyes pierced through the darkness like a sharp sword.
"Boo..," he said.
Like a herd of headless animals, the prisoners ran away from the courtyard not caring about who they stepped on to get away. In time, the courtyard was clear of hostiles and Naruto began walking forward. Followed behind him were Hana and Akari.
"What happened to Ryuzetsu having the pleasure of killing him?" Hana asked.
Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Couldn't hold it in. I'll make it up to her later," he answered.
Ryuzetsu stayed behind for only a moment to see the bloodshed that happened all around her. The mechanisms that fueled her brain's thought processes quickly allowed her to connect the dots. The Kusagakure team had not come here to destroy the box...but to take it for themselves.
The way Hana and Akari walked after Naruto seemed like so many guards that protect the nobles she had seen. Perhaps...this was why Daijin-sama had brought him along because this was their plan to make her see that with this red-haired boy...the full potential which laid within her could be unlocked.
Even as the white-haired young kunoichi stared at her grief-stricken friend sob over his father, she felt nothing for it. The love, respect, and adoration she had once shared for her friend seemed to be buried beneath of tide of watered indulgence and power. Muku had been sacrificed to the box, and yet...his strength was not enough. He was weak. Even now, after he had spent so much time inside and come out, he had not changed. He looked every bit the loser that the dark voices in her mind told her he was.
Ryuzetsu...began moving her legs. How odd that the box should have been less than a minute's walk away and yet she felt like she had been walking for almost two hours. As if in a dream, a haze, an illusion, the young kunoichi thought about times like this.
So many dreams and nightmares had come to her in this one week than they had at any other time. For so long, she wondered what she would say to Muku, what she would say to his father, and what she would do with the Box of Ultimate Bliss once she saw it.
By the time she was aware of herself, she looked up and noticed Naruto, Hana, and Akari waiting for her at the entrance of the Box of Ultimate Bliss. When she turned her head, she saw Muku sobbing, wailing, and crying at the loss of his father by Naruto's hand. She should be angry. She should hate Naruto. She should hate...herself for stopping the loving reunion of a father and son set apart by tragic fate. She...should have.
"Muku," Ryuzetsu called. The young boy, her friend, stared up at her with red, puffy eyes, a nose lined with snot, and flowing tears.
"R-Ryuzetsu…," he sobbed out. He tightly clung his arms around his father's body while she looked on. She placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. With her eyes, the questions she had pondered, the turmoil she had been enduring, it was all gone. Everything...seemed so clear and concise to her. Everything seemed to make sense when she touched her friend for the first time.
"Why does this keep happening to me?" Muku asked. His tears fell on his father's face. Ryuzetsu looked on until her hands slipped around his shoulders. Then...her right hand covered his mouth.
"Because...even when you experienced the power of such an artifact for over two years, even when you were hailed as a prodigy in our village, you were...are still weak, Muku. In the name of the past friendship I had with you, I'll send you to your father so that no more bad things will happen to you. On someone like you, I've wasted enough tears. If you and Mui won't use the box, then I will," Ryuzetsu said as she stabbed Muku through the back with a kunai that she had pulled from her weapons holster.
If one had to ask Ryuzetsu how she felt as she struggled to hold back the choked screams of her former friend while the life drained from his eyes, then she would say that she felt absolutely nothing. She did not feel guilt. She did not feel joy. She did not feel anger. There was a sense of nothingness that filled her body.
Muku, a claimed Kusgakure prodigy, had begun to experience the darkness of death for a second time. He dropped his father's body and clawed at Ryuzetsu's arms, but months and months of no food, water, or any other sustenance had left him pale and brittle. Against Ryuzetsu's trained body, he could provide no foothold for himself.
Instead, pain surged through the young boy's body as his former friend drove her kunai even deeper into his back until it pierced through his heart and his chest. Soon, just like when he had wandered within the Box of Ultimate Bliss, darkness overcame him and he closed his eyes for the very last time.
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Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone