["… brother."]That single word keeps playing again and again in my head. I couldn"t stop it from repeating, and it"s only getting worse. It"s something that sends chills down to my very core. It"s stuck inside my head. It was almost as if it was just yesterday when I heard him say that word… before the supposedly accident that caused my parting to my previous life.
His name?
I hate to say that I still remember it.
Gerald.
My brother… but that was in the past… my past life.
"…" I couldn"t get a word to slip out of my mouth. I was too… shocked.
"I know—surprising, isn"t it?" The mirroring body a few feet away from me chuckled, his eyes filled with amus.e.m.e.nt. "I can"t really do a thing about it… this is… my curse; to follow you wherever you go…" His eyes then shifted from amus.e.m.e.nt into a deathly one. "I guess… my name here is supposedly Gerard… It"s still pretty close to the one you know well, right, elder brother?"
His golden eye flared.
"You—… Gerald… you…" I was, least to say, is harbouring my anger, all of my previous emotions vanished upon remembering what he had done. "You killed me." I finally managed to say, clenching my fists as I push away tou-san from me.
Gerald… he was the one who caused the accident to happen, I"m sure of it. He… he killed me despite of me taking care of him… I loved him as my brother. Sure, I hated him back in my past life, but that was when he plotted something against me with our b.a.s.t.a.r.d father… but he was still my brother…
I can"t bring myself to hate him more than I hate our a.s.shole father…
But that was in the past.
"I sure did." His words just doubled the hatred I"ve been bottling up. "And I have to do it again." He then disappeared from where he was, appearing in front of me before flaring up his suffocating chakra.
I backed away from him, and just as I did, our surroundings changed rapidly. The old, tall trees rippled and revealed a seemingly young forest. Smoke came off of the ground, coming from the craters scattered along the open s.p.a.ce. Dense chakra got slapped directly into my system, making me go down onto my knees.
This is where I—
"It"s… not surprising for me to know that you"ve remembered your—our past life. It"s just rather unfortunate because I beat you to it—from remembering everything." His serious face nestled his fiery gaze. It"s something not to mess with.
I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to keep myself together as the dense chakra is damaging my system. I do not understand any word that came out from his mouth. The only thing I could put together based on his words are… aside from my—our previous life, he had more… and I don"t want to know what happened in those previous lives of ours.
"Let"s just say that… because of it…" He smiled, "I"ve decided to put an end to this… never ending cycle." His figure disappeared from where he was once more.
I clicked my tongue as a gust of wind touched my skin before he used his sharp nails to push me back onto the ground. His sharp nails dug into my right left shoulder, a disgusting squelch reaching my ears before the pain finally registered to me.
"ORION!" I heard tou-san before he was inevitably pushed back by Xavier.
"AACK—!!!" Tears welled at the corner of my eyes as Gerald twisted his hand deeper into my shoulder, but I didn"t give in. I managed to raise my right hand and use a single seal to push him back with my shadows before pushing myself back, away from him. I held onto my pretty broken shoulder, bearing the pain while staring daggers into him and retracting my shadows back, "You a.s.shole."
He simply chuckled, flicking his wrists to remove my blood from his hand.
Whatever he did, there"s something off with it. My wound is throbbing in pain and is… feeling rather… toxic. "What the f.u.c.k did I ever do to you?" I, somehow, out of anger, managed to flare up my own golden eye… but it took too much.
"Oh, you know, nothing." He shrugged, his voice deepening despite of his child-like appearance, "You just simply took everything away from me…"
"Dude," I struggled to even stand, "I gave everything to you." I even took care of you, b.i.t.c.h—why the f.u.c.k are you doing this to me?
"You gave everything to me?" He started laughing before abruptly stopping. "You merely remembered whatever happened in your most recent life that you were just thrown out of… but the rest…?" He trailed off of his words, leaving everything a mystery to me.
Or so I thought.
["Having seeing so much will definitely change one. You won"t be able to fix me, dear brother."]
The moment he paused on his words, pieces of broken memories somehow became somewhat clear.
["My bad, dear brother." He laughed, "You"ve been far too kind and naïve for your own safety."]
The voice that is coming and going through my head from those random relapses…
They"re all his.
My heart sank. What the heck happened in the past? I don"t recall everything, but the voices in my head makes it clear that… something horrible happened between me and him.
[The sword glinted as it snaked through one"s body, the other"s victorious smile placed proudly on his also blurred face. Blood seeped through the person"s mouth as he stepped back, his feet dangling near the edge of the universe.]
I almost immediately held onto my chest, where the sword was exactly pierced to, when the random memory pa.s.sed through my mind. It"s almost as if it"s happening again—I could feel the blade"s cold edge coursing through my body.
[Using his sword, he pushed the person off.]
I couldn"t help but freeze as soon as the feeling of falling off from a rather high place caught me off guard.
Unfortunately for me, this split second of me being caught off guard is something that would be of disadvantage that will cost me something more than my life.
As soon as I was out of it, Gerald took the chance to strike.
I couldn"t fight back.
__________
The moment Shikakuro laid his eyes on the unknown child standing in front of them, his world came into a halt. There is no way that his child would have someone who would bear the same features as him, yet here he is, standing in front. What caught him more off guard was when the black-haired child that shared the same face as Orion called his son his… brother.
Maybe he hit his head a little too hard on the ground when a blast sent all of them flying? That"s certainly not the case since, when he looked around, he found Itachi and his wife as confused and shocked as he was. He only came back to reality when his own son pushed him aside while letting go of some quite chilling voice.
"You killed me." Said the child towards the strange one.
The older Nara narrowed his eyes, listening to the children"s (he now doubts that they"re children) words. It"s as though they"ve been through enough and… wait, what? The other child killed Orion in his past life?
Before Shikakuro could even react, the surroundings rippled, transitioning into a rather young-looking forest… that sent a truck load of dense chakra over to them, but it simply bypa.s.sed them after pushing them back a couple of steps.
But his seems to be not the case with Orion. He could tell that his son is struggling to move in the said environment. The child is literally on his knees, struggling to move about as he continued to talk strangely with the other child, whose name is, apparently, Gerald, revealing things such as the other child potentially killing Orion in their several other past lives, and this put Kuro on edge.
He"s not really someone who easily believes in anything but… it seems like the two before him have been reincarnated for who-knows-how many times now, with no memory of it until now.
Shikakuro immediately moved his hands when Gerald disappeared from where he was and… things are happening too fast. The next thing he knew, his son is skewered into the ground thanks to the other golden eye wielder"s sharp nails. "ORION!!!" He tried to get to his son, but was stopped by a bleeding man in all white… that is stained with uh… red?
When the Nara blocked an attack coming from the said man, he noticed something peculiar on the man"s neck—a purple mark… and it reeks the smell of something that of a poison.
Shikakuro narrowed his eyes, falling back after noticing that his son is—
His eyes widened. Everything seems to be happening in a rather agonising slow pace, which sunk the Nara"s heart as he witnessed Gerald using this black aura that struck through Orion. There wasn"t a squelch or any of the like, but it"s still unsettling to see his very own son hanging motionless as something impaled through him.
This something is… coloured black and… doesn"t looked to be a physical object yet it still went through Orion"s chest. There wasn"t any holes nor any damage at the area that was impaled, but it looked to have damaged his son internally as Orion had spewed up crimson blood through his mouth before falling… unconscious?
At this point, even Kuro has no idea if his son is alive.
When reality hit him back, the most heart breaking scream came from his wife, "ORION…!"
Kaiya, had seen this scene first hand and… she couldn"t bear it because… as soon as the black thing impaled her son, his chakra instantly vanished. Tears fell from her eyes as soon as she had laid her eyes at her son"s still body. It seemed like her world crumbled when she witnessed what had happened.
She was about to jump in to try to save her son without any plans, but was stopped by Itachi. "Let go of me, Itachi!" Her voice is too heart breaking that even Itachi hesitated in stopping her, but he didn"t give for the woman"s safety.
Shikakuro clenched his fists upon hearing his wife.
d.a.m.n.
He couldn"t even protect his child.
He let another one die…
What sort of a father is he?
Those thoughts lingered his mind…
Until… out of the corner of his eyes, he saw his son move. His eyes lightened the moment he realised this but… he was forced to draw out a kunai to block out an attack coming from…
His son, Orion himself.
Kuro was caught off guard that he just about almost lost an arm if he hadn"t noticed this sudden attack. "O-Orion?!" He called out his son, struggling to defend against the child. "He suddenly got strong—" He thought, backing away, landing next to his wife and the Uchiha child.
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When he backed away, he caught a whiff of something… familiar.
"Kuro! What on earth is—?" Kaiya turned to her husband, not sure what the reason of why their son would suddenly attack… unless…
"Orion-kun probably fell into the hands of, what he referred to as the puppeteer." Kuro said, biting the tip of his thumb"s nail. "Itachi," He called the young Uchiha, "Orion said that the both of you found out that Xavier is being controlled, right?"
"Mhm." Itachi nodded, "Xavier"s chakra is almost completely gone, most likely due to the black ma.s.s that supposedly consume him… and I"d imagine it"s the same to your child." He looked down before softly whispering, "I"m sorry."
Kuro simply clicked his tongue. "It"s… not your fault, Itachi…" He sighed out, "I"m his father… I should"ve been there to protect him but… it"s you who… saved him, honestly." He might be a Nara, but he hasn"t seen anything like this until now, so it"s pretty hard to think of a way around to save his child, if that"s even possible.
Then… a rustle reached their ears before a few people started to appear right after the other.
The first person that caught the Nara"s eyes was a Hyūga, Tsutsuji Hyūga. She had a rather horrified look with her Byakugan focused on Orion. He can"t imagine what the girl is seeing since… they could practically feel the black ma.s.s"s power—so what would Tsutsuji even see?
"K-Kuro-san… what"s that?" The Hyūga pointed her finger towards Orion. Well, in her vision, she"s pointing at an eerie black ma.s.s eating away the child"s chakra.
Kuro would like to explain if he knows something about… whatever that is. In fact, he"s the one who wants to know about it more than anyone else.
"It seems that…" Shikaku appeared next to him, eyes fixed on the white-haired child in front, "… a lot had happened here."
"…" Kuro remained silent, simply looking over at his son"s figure.
Though Orion is covered by this black ma.s.s and a lot of blood, particularly on his left shoulder and half of his face, his composure remained the same. As he held a kunai in his right hand, the moonlight"s glow bounced off of him, giving this slight radiance against the black mask. His silvery-white hair that is tied back to a ponytail looks to be shining under the moon"s light.
But, in the eyes of everyone present in the area, the thing that stood out the most is… the child"s soulless golden eyes. Sure, both of his eyes gave a radiating golden glow and has completely eaten away the colour of the silvery auburn brown… but they look rather… dead.
His young, unfocused gaze will surely remain in everyone"s mind.