Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Rebirth Comes Second

Joseph didn't know what to expect when he opened his eyes again. The fact that he could open or feel them was about what he expected though.

In the first place, he didn't think that opening his eyes would even be a possibility, why was he even conscious?

Executions were usually the permanent type of change in life. At least that was what Joseph thought.

But, this was also somewhat within his expectations, as he tried once more to open his eyes, only to not see anything at all. It wasn't difficult to realize that he had no eyes to open. In complete darkness, he could only make out sounds around him.

It felt odd, but he could hear talking. Humans around him were talking, they seemed to be speaking...

'Is that... Japanese?' Joseph was able to recognize it rather easily.

He was proficient in many languages, as his adventure had him strung around the world repeatedly.

He wasn't prone to spending a long time on his missions, but he had multiple missions in some countries, and Japan happened to be one of them.

Now, Joseph wasn't exactly fluent in that language, but he could still understand what was being said, to some extent.

"We can't -- twins!-- We have to -- adoption!" Joseph could hear a male voice speaking out with a rather cold tone.

The woman wasn't any warmer in her way of speaking.

"Yes-- This child -- blind -- Can't raise!" Joseph, at this point, was able to put the pieces together.

Wherever he was, he was now a child. He couldn't speak, only releasing small cries when attempting.

And he also couldn't see. Most likely born with a birth defect of some kind. It was also rather easy to tell from what he could pick up in the conversation of his parents, that he wasn't about to be accepted in a loving family.

How or why he was now an infant, hardly mattered.

Still, Joseph didn't know what to make of the situation at all. He was simply flabbergasted as he waited around and tried to gain his bearings.

The world around him wasn't waiting though, as he was eventually carried away and given into adoption... On a mountain.

Joseph was rather frustrated at that point, being helpless wasn't something that he was excited about.

Especially the situation he found himself in now, not being able to do anything other than scream and cry, as he felt the cold around him slowly erode his small body.

It wasn't hard to guess that he was somewhere on a snowy mountain, the worst type of mountain to abandon a baby on.

Joseph almost found it amusing, as his second life was about to end just as quickly as it began.

It didn't even feel to him like a full hour had passed between him coming to consciousness and being thrown in the wild.

He didn't quite know what to do at this point. So he only resigned himself to his fate, believing that he wasn't deserving of anything more...

That was when he heard it.

It was faint, in the distance, he could hear it. Footsteps, the sound of marching men, most likely soldiers by their rhythmic and determined strides.

There was also the smell of blood, one that he was very familiar with.

Joseph could feel the vibrations of their footsteps, he couldn't quite locate them though... So he decided to do the only thing he could do at the moment.

He started screaming and crying as loud as his little lungs could allow him to.

In truth, Joseph didn't expect much to happen. If anything, he hoped the men would just put him out of his misery.

After all, if not even his parents wanted to be burdened with him, a group of soldiers would certainly not want him there.

But that wasn't exactly quite what happened.

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The group of runaway samurai were scared to shit when they heard a child crying in the distance. They were simply looking for shelter, having just done something irreversible.

They were deserters, not samurai and brave warriors like their forefathers had been. They had shamed their lineage. Thrown mud on their family names, all of that for refusing to die.

They had just fled from a battle, running away was completely against their code, and they knew that returning home would only get them executed.

So they planned to simply become mountain nomads.

Still, deserters or not, they were samurai at heart, they weren't the type of men that could simply ignore a child's cry.

They approached the sounds with caution, as they were afraid of it being a shinobi trick that they had heard so much about.

Shinobi didn't interfere with the Land of Iron, but there were exceptions, and the group of runaway ronin weren't going to start testing faith.

Eventually, they reached the source of that sound. Looking down, the ten of them could see it. A small child crying on the snowy ground.

The child was not even wearing a blanket, it was simply unceremoniously thrown out there. The deserters didn't know what to even say when seeing that.

One of them quickly acted, picking up the child and using his vest to cover it.

To them, the life of such a young child was sacred, many of them had families that they needed to protect at home, and they would likely never be able to return to those families, but the notion of killing a child in such a brutal way simply made them gag.

It wasn't uncommon in their culture for a family to 'abort' unwanted children in this way though... Still, they weren't pleased with what they saw.

To see such a sacred thing tarnished made all of the people present angry. Especially when seeing that the child's limbs were frostbitten.

They had quite literally gotten there in the nick of time. Were they even 4 or 5 minutes late, the child would have definitely died.

All of the men acted quickly, they knew they didn't have the time to build any type of shelter, so they rushed toward a small cave and built a fire somewhat close to the entrance.

They quickly started clothing the child with whatever they could, as they holed up from the cold night in that small cave.

The former samurai had no idea what to do though... They couldn't simply leave the child in the mountains, as they weren't willing to let an infant die.

But they also couldn't return to a city and give him for adoption properly, as they were wanted men by now, and they'd be hunted down everywhere they went...

In the end, the group of men decided to just keep the child. They knew that it was going to be rough, they knew that this decision could cause a lot of trouble...

But they knew that, at the end of the day, they were making the right choice.

Simply hearing the child's satisfied laughter filled them with more warmth than the campfire they had just made.

And so, their minds were set. They were going to raise that child to become a great man...

And, for Joesph... This was the first time in his life he had ever received help from others. And he was not the ungrateful type, he wasn't going to throw away the chance to live that he had just received.

'Maybe this life, I can turn it around... Maybe I don't have to spend my whole life running away...' With that thought, he let his small body rest, as the former samurai around him did their best to maintain the fire and keep him warm.

So, his new life in the mountains started.

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