Chapter 4: Chapter 3: memory bars

Chapter 3: long travels 

POV: Aiko Kaguya

A long dirt road stretches out for miles in front of me, huge forests of oak trees for miles in every direction. Birds singing, animals hunting and living life, plants going about their day getting energy from the sun. All a beautiful monument of nature, no evidence of civilization for miles except a single dirt path.

And here I am walking all by myself along it, all alone with no other humans for miles. Covered in scrapes and bruises, wearing a tattered light blue dress stained in blood and covered in dust. My overly long and spiky white hair blowing in the wind, constantly striking my face and my eyes due to my lack of hair ties and elastics. Something I never realized the true annoyance of until I got stuck in the middle of nowhere facing the same way the wind is blowing. Just one more thing to be added to my new list of things I hate, hair in my eyes. Right next being homeless, sleeping in tree, and these god damn food bars, truly a despicable invention.

Just the newest thing on a long list of inconveniences about travelling alone, most of which could have been avoided with proper preparation and planning. I'd been fairly rushed to leave the estate, grabbing only the first things that came to mind as quickly as possible. Those things sadly didn’t include hair ties, spare clothing, or actually good tasting food.

​Today marks my third day on the road, two days after our botched ambush and failed assassination. Our whole plan was ruined because we forgot how normal humans acted, our shinobi lifestyle making us forget normal civilian behavior. It turns out that living in a clan where everyone has chakra unlocked makes your safety standards lower quite a lot, which makes sense considering the enhanced physical abilities inherent to chakra. We had spent so long watching hundreds of people jump from roof to roof every day that we forgot most people couldn't do it. 

The fight had lasted no more than ten minutes in total, likely even less than seven. But at the time it seemed so much longer, adrenaline sharpening our perception and muscles, everyone focusing on killing each other as quickly as possible, largely putting self preservation to the side to focus on what we perceived as our respective missions. It likely didn't help that our clan is know for our bloodlust and lack of ability to surrender or retreat. Overall as stressful an blurry affair, my memory of the exact events fuzzy.

Now I’m alone, walking down a dirt path trying to chew on the world's toughest food bar, ninja food bars designed to put all the calories a shinobi needs in one granola bar. Surrounded by forest and the sound of nature, the peaking out from between the clouds. Shinto has long since bled to death, living only long enough to ensure his opponents wouldn't survive long after him, the Kaguya blood lust on full display. Living off pure willpower just to ensure his enemies died with him. 

Gako didn't fair much better, the kunai had passed between his ribs into his lungs, unable to be patched from both sides. His lungs filled with blood, making him unable to say his final words. Hugging me with slowly decreasing strength, writing on the ground to become a Shinobi he could brag about wherever souls go. To not waste my life and ensure his death wasn't in vain. Then dying in my arms limp and lifeless, a scene I’ll have nightmares about for years to come.

Thankfully, at the very least, everyone else escaped. 20 of my distant relatives, distant cousins, aunts and uncles, people I never got the chance to truly know, but they were family. I don't think I can handle losing any more of them. It's only now truly sinking in that most of my family is gone and will never return. Adding 20 more casualties to that list would probably be my breaking point. 

But they escaped during the battle, traveling in all directions, carrying enough food and money for months, enough to find a new town or village and start a life if they so choose. Or to leave the Land Of Water entirely, like I plan to. This country is no longer a safe place to be, almost anywhere else is a better option.

I’ll never truly know though, by the time everything calmed down and I got the chance to look for someone to travel with, they were already far gone, and I'm not a sensor nin. My detection range is barely 10 meters with vague detail, only slightly above average for a gennin. My tracking skills not much better, making hunting impossible. Which of course means I have to eat the food bars, which as far as I can tell from trying to eat them, might as well be compressed bricks of flavored dirt.

This truly brings into perspective how useless my abilities are, my ninjutsu is barely average, taijutsu the same, my genjutsu barely existing. My only notable ability my kekkai genkai, something I got from pure chance alone no training or effort required. Something I didn’t earn, and it was the only reason I survived.

​My kekkai genkai, known as Shikotsumyaku, was ultimately what decided our fight. None of my opponents were prepared or capable of dealing with someone who could shoot bones at speeds far faster than a fire or earth bullet of the same level. Kekkai genkai being extremely useful for low level fighting, giving the user a natural ability to use them when most opponents at gennin level can barely control their own jutsu.

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My kekkai genkai gives me control of bone, it enhances natural bone growth, durability, and vitality. With the side effect of increased cancer risk, and muscle and skin damage from the moving bone. Experienced users gain the ability to part their own skin without damage, inexperienced users don't have that luxury, stretching and tearing themselves. Not the most combat focused kekkai genkai, but a strong one nonetheless. But it’s strength without the knowledge to use it, I spent so long hiding it from the patriarch that I never truly learned how to use it in the first place.

 Other kekkai genkais have similar problems. Eye strain, burst veins, burst muscles, even self lobotomies are possible with kekkai genkais, along with the natural fear, hatred, and jealousy people without kekkai genkais have toward people with them. There’s a reason most of us die young, a sad and depressing reality.

All of which bring me to Gako’s death. My hesitance to use my kekkai genkai caused his death. If I had arrived 15 seconds earlier, he could have lived. 15 seconds I could have gained if I had shot my first opponent immediately, or if I had shot all 3 at the start of the fight. The only cost would have been finger segments, all of which would grow back naturally with my kekkai genkai. All of which I wish I had sacrificed to save Gako, my hesitance directly caused his death. A hesitance I hope to never feel again.

My hesitance to use my ability, built from fear and habit put myself and everyone else at risk, something I never want to experience again. Once was enough for a lifetime, never again.

Now because of that hesitance, I'm left trying to traveling alone in the middle of no where. Looking like a particularly sleep deprived ghost, a combination of sleeping in trees, eating food bars, and contemplating all my life’s mistakes making me look like a dust covered corpse shambling across the road trying to keep my hair out of my eyes. A likely hilarious sight from anywhere but my perspective.

I’m also now in a far larger rush than before, my inability to kill met opponents let them get away. Taking along with them the news of my kekkai genkai, not exactly common to see someone shoot bones after all. While they probably didn’t recognize it, a whoever receives their report almost certainly will.

In this world, kekkai genkais are feared and envied in all places and forms, especially in kirigakure. There is a reason Kirigakure is known as the bloody mist. They started slaughtering entire blood lines just to extinguish kekkai genkais after the third Great War. Once they report back, the chances of me getting caught by a Jonin increase exponentially.

All of which leads to me frantically jogging down a dirt road, the sun slowly lowing in the sky, the ocean far in the distance barely visible, sun covered by thick clouds that have slowly gotten more gray throughout the day. Rain becoming more likely as time goes by, a very unfortunate prospect given my lack of spare clothes and need to get on a ship as soon as possible. Being soaking wet all day probably almost as bad as these god damn food bars.

Truly one of the worst inventions. Just useful enough to keep using, cheap enough to mass produce. But inconvenient enough to make ever sure every bar is as unpleasant as possible without you giving up on eating entirely.

~~~~~~~

End of chapter 3

Authors note: thanks for reading! Sorry for the repeatedly mentions of food bars, they are my nemesis. this likely wasn’t the most enjoyable chapter, probably depressing too. But I enjoyed writing it. Sorry for my 3 day absence by the way, turns out daily updates was very optimistic.

Have a good day!

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