Chương 14: The Nightmare
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A/N: The last chapter was a bit intense for me…
I do feel Aki managed to do killing too fast. Hell, I'd be saying the story is too rushed if I read it. Should've done over the course of 3 chapters at least.
But I don't want to torture you guys with the wait. Apologies to those like myself.
Anyway, important point.
1: how long do you think nightmares should last?
2: what Kekkei Mora should first kill unlock?
3: I'm out of ideas for a name for Chakra Pulse Step… we need a jutsu style name.
LET THE CHAPTER BEGIN
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The moon hung in the night sky, its light penetrated through the windows of a sleeping young shinobi, with a hidden cloud headband over his forehead.
Aki was asleep with a frown on his face sometimes there were inaudible sounds coming, tossing, and turning under his blanket.
He jolted awake, his heart pounding in his chest, his breath coming in short, ragged gasps. The nightmare had been vivid—too vivid.
He could still see the prisoner's lifeless eyes, and feel the cold steel of the kunai in his hand as it sliced through flesh. The sickening crunch of bone, the final gurgle of breath escaping the prisoner's lips—it all replayed in his mind like a broken record.
"No… no…" Aki mumbled, clutching his head as if trying to block out the memories. "I didn't want to… I didn't…"
But he had. He'd done it. The weight of that realization settled over him like a suffocating blanket, making it hard to breathe. The headband that had once filled him with pride now felt like a shackle around his forehead, a symbol of the burden he wasn't sure he could bear.
"Why… why did I do it?" he whispered to the darkness, his voice trembling with a mixture of disbelief and self-loathing. "I'm not a killer… I'm not…"
But the blood on his hands, still fresh in his mind, told a different story.
Unable to stay still, Aki threw off the covers and stumbled out of bed. The room felt too small, too constricting as if the walls were closing in on him. He needed air, he needed space, but most of all, he needed to escape the memories that were clawing at his sanity.
"No… I didn't have a choice…" Aki muttered as he paced the room, his voice growing louder as his thoughts spiraled. "It was him or me… it was my duty… but why does it feel so wrong?!"
His pacing grew frantic, his mind racing with a thousand conflicting thoughts. The face of the prisoner haunted him, the look of despair and resignation in his eyes, as if he had known this was how it would end. But it was the reflection of his own fear and hesitation in those lifeless eyes that truly terrified Aki.
"Stop it! Just stop!" he shouted, slamming his fists into the walls. The impact jarred his bones, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the storm raging inside him. "Why can't I stop thinking about it?!"
He pounded the wall again and again, each strike punctuating the anguish that tore at his soul. But no matter how hard he hit, no matter how much he yelled, the memories wouldn't leave him.
Aki's legs finally gave out, and he collapsed to the floor, his back against the wall. He buried his face in his hands, his breaths coming in ragged sobs.
"I didn't want to kill him…" Aki whispered, his voice breaking. "But I did… I did…"
The room was silent, save for the sound of his ragged breathing. The darkness offered no comfort, only amplifying the guilt that gnawed at him. Aki's mind replayed the moment of the kill over and over, each time twisting the knife deeper into his conscience.
"He was a criminal… a death row inmate…" Aki tried to rationalize, his voice shaking with desperation. "He deserved it… right? He would have died anyway…"
For the first time in his both lives, he felt fear. The fear of facing his own, his dad the 4th Raikage, Haruka his nanny, and Morio his current team captain.
It was at this moment the doors to the house swung open and briefly after he heard one of the voices, he was too afraid to face.
"Aki, open the door," Haruka called out, her voice warm and cheerful, blissfully unaware of the turmoil raging inside him. "Today I'll prepare your favorite dishes in celebration of your first successful mission!"
Her words were like a knife to his chest, a painful reminder of what he had done. The thought of facing her, of pretending everything was normal, was more than he could bear.
Aki's eyes darted to the door, his heart pounding in his chest. But he didn't move. He couldn't. He remained frozen on the floor, consumed by guilt and the fear of facing the world outside his door.
Haruka waited for 10 minutes before calling out again but the silence in response painted her eyes with concern, "Aki are you alright?"
It was still silent, but being a sensor ninja she could sense him inside. The silent treatment was heartbreaking.
But Haruka wasn't one to sit back and wait. She was one of the Hidden Cloud's fiercest warriors, a thrill-seeker who had faced death more times than she could count. She wouldn't endure this uncertainty any longer.
SLAM…
She struck the door at the point where it was connected to the wall, the impact echoing through the hallway. After a few precise strikes, the door broke free of its joints.
(A/N: was originally gonna kick and blast it away... but Aki is inside and she cares for him)
Haruka carefully set it aside, her heart pounding as she stepped into the room.
The sight that greeted her made her breath catch in her throat. Aki was slumped against the wall, his eyes hollow and lifeless, his skin pale and drenched in sweat.
He looked like a ghost of the vibrant boy she had raised. His lips moved, but the words that came out were weak, barely more than a whisper.
"I didn't kill…" he muttered, his voice trembling with a mix of denial and despair. "I didn't…"
Haruka's heart clenched with fear. This wasn't just about Aki being upset; this was something deeper, something that threatened to break him. Without hesitation, she crossed the room and knelt beside him, gently lifting his trembling body into her arms.
"Aki… Aki, listen to me," she whispered, her voice firm yet filled with the warmth only she could offer. She held him close, her hand brushing through his disheveled hair in a soothing motion. "It's okay. You're safe. I'm here."
~~ Timeskip no jutsu: 4 year skipping ~~
(A/N: Can you believe I stayed stuck at this point for four hours?)
The night was dark, with only a sliver of the moon casting faint light over the forest, Shadows danced between these trees as a figure moved silently through them.
Aki now had a hardened expression, he crouched low on the tree, his eyes scanning the clearing ahead.
In the clearing below, there was a group of rogue shinobi gathered around a campfire, their voices carrying on the wind. They were unaware of the danger that lurked in the shadows, oblivious to the silent death watching from above.
Aki's hand tightened on his kunai; his mission was simple: eliminate the target ninjas.
But they were not totally unguarded, two of them were on guard duty, patrolling around from time to time and checking the surroundings.
As one of the guards neared Aki's position, his body flickered. He vanished from his spot, reappearing behind the shinobi in an instant.
His kunai sliced through the man's throat with surgical precision, ending his life in silence. Aki disappeared into the shadows before the body even hit the ground.
Second guard felt something was wrong when his partner didn't return from the forest. He moved cautiously to investigate, his hand inching towards his weapon. But before he could react—
Swish
A shuriken whizzed through the air, embedding itself deep in his forehead. The guard's body jerked once, then fell lifelessly to the forest floor, his mouth frozen in a silent scream.
Now only 4 targets remained.
For the last four Aki decided to use a jutsu, lightning bomb jutsu, it resulted from him trying to re-create Chidori by trying to add chakra nature to Rasengan and failing…
Maybe because it was intentional approach, he mused, that he couldn't replicate the success of Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Ninja who used Chidori despite having a repertoire of a thousand techniques.
This tells you either how useful Chidori is, or how Kishimoto couldn't think of a thousand Jutsus to give Kakashi without making him stronger than Itachi, Obito, and Shisui.
Aki favors his second theory more.
Anyway, Aki gathered lightning in his palm and created a small ball made of lightning which he immediately threw as it was extremely unstable.
The four ninjas did feel something was amiss, but still went ahead and failed to react.
Kaboom…
"Water bullet jutsu," Aki created an enlarged ball of water which spun and shot out water bullets.
Pushing the one ninja that managed to react in time and dodge the impact zone, back inside, though the explosion was over, being drenched in water and lingering lightning left him paralyzed.
Aki moved in swiftly, ending the man's life with a quick thrust of his kunai along with his paralyzed comrades. With the mission complete, Aki activated the Body Flicker Jutsu and vanished from the scene.
Why Body Flicker, you ask? As a Naruto fan, you should know how overpowered this jutsu can become. After all, the nickname "Shisui of the Body Flicker" and Not the god of genjutsu.
Even with one of the strongest genjutsu around i.e. Kotoamatsukami, he DID NOT receive that title: 'God of Genjutsu'.
Aki's goal is to reach a similar level of mastery over this particular jutsu.
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