Darkness (Naruto SI)

The greatest boon in my life came when I was going to die.

I was going to die, that I was sure of. When one thinks of being reborn into the world of Naruto, they could reasonably expect to be born into Konoha. After all, a reincarnation must be placed in the center of the hero's village, no?

Not so. If I had a ROB, he was (like most ROBs) a churlish troll and an asshole of the highest order. What kind of omnipotent being amuses themselves by throwing me into the fucking ghetto of Naruto? Sunagakure may have contained some cool themes and characters, but right now it was poor, disgusting, sandy shithole.

I hated every day of my life.

I was thankful I actually wanted to be a shinobi. It wasn't like orphans got a choice - you become a shinobi whether you like it or not, and you start making the Kazekage some goddamned money. The training is hellish, but being able to breathe fire, bend reality and destroy landscapes with physical attacks would make it all worth it.

Assuming, of course, I survived the village's demon.

Ickle bitty Gaara. In hindsight, I should've recognized the kid with the raccoon-like eye markings sitting alone with a teddy bear. Whatever fanfiction mentioned was definitely wrong - it's not easy to identify or remember people from their animated appearance. Here, they're actual, three dimensional people.

Back to Gaara. Kid was sitting on the slide - the only slide in the village - and I wanted to use it after a long-ass day of physical preconditioning. So, I asked him as politely as I could.

"Fuck off from the slide, kid,"

That was...not the wisest option. It turned out Gaara didn't like being talked to that way, and instead moved to shout at me. I only saw a four-year-old (not quite so scary to a big, strong, five-year-old like myself), instead of the Jinchuuriki of the One-Tail, and stood unimpressed at his anger. Seeing my unimpressed look only spurred him harder.

"Yo-you please don't talk to me this way! I want to use the slide too!"

I raise an eyebrow, "This isn't using the slide enough? There's only one slide in the whole village, and others can't use it if you don't move up and share."

"B-but, I-I like this slide," He stuttered.

"And I do too. You know what? Just slide down, and we'll take turns. How's that sound?"

He hesitantly nodded, and pushed down the sloped, smooth metal. Which was when I remembered that some people in this Universe don't understand the meaning of 'parental love', and Gaara's dad was one of them. A masked figure flickered into existence at the end of the slide, and jumped at the boy, kunai at the ready.

The sand all across the playground cocooned into a shield which the masked shinobi audibly crashed into it. Gaara's eyes began tearing up, and he whimpered - in direct contrast to his sand, which was crushing the shit out of the guy's head while the body attached to it struggled futilely.

I didn't turn my head away, instead watching, transfixed by the assassin's struggling body. Gaara was freely crying now, and with every shuddering sob the sand twisted tighter on the assassin's face, running down his neck and shoulders. I stepped forward, lightly holding the kid - who I'd identified as the future Godaime Kazekage by then - on the shoulder.

He slowed his bawling, turning to look at me with wary eyes. I smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring manner, before tapping him slightly.

"He tried to kill you, Gaara. Someone as innocent, as pure as you, with no remorse or hesitation. A child playing at the park - doesn't he deserve to die?" My smile had turned to a light grin by now. Gaara tipped his head downward slightly, hesitantly. "Crush him, then. Show me your power and end his life - he tried to snuff out yours."

"B-But the villagers, they hate me, get scared of me when I come to them with my sand. W-Won't they not like this?" He whispers, almost like he was afraid of being heard.

I give him a pointed stare. "If the villagers' opinions mattered, Kami would've given them the power to beat you. But they can't, can they?" I move my hand from his left shoulder to his other shoulder, and twist my other arm around him, pulling him into a hug. I move my mouth to his ear, lowering my tone to a whisper, "Show me that your opinion matters more than anyone else's. Prove your strength."

Gaara's bawling had long since stopped, and he was pleasantly shivering in the hug I had him in. Sand from the ground started to rise up and cocooned the assailant, tightening until all that could be seen was the man's slowly shrinking form. A scream echoed from behind, and while Gaara's sand rose up behind to protect him, I was pulled backward.

I saw a Suna Jonin, identifiable by his tan jacket in front of me, chakra threads spreading out from his fingers. His head was bald, and he had a short beard framing the bottom of his face. It was the expression on his face that bothered me, though: He was looking at us like we'd shat in his sand flakes (because how the fuck is Suna growing enough grain for cereal?).

I got up slowly, staring him in the eye all the while as he had a kunai out, close to his chest and ready to throw at Gaara. "That was rude."

He gave me a sideways stare, wary, but also disgusted. "Gaki like you and that... thing don't deserve politeness,"

What the fuck did he just say? "We're Gaki, are we? Little monsters? Bit rich from a man who kills for a living and has a kunai aimed at an innocent child," I spat.

He narrowed his eyes, displeased. "Watch your tone, boy. Nobody's going to care enough to look for your little corpse in the sand. You'll be one more baking body I've left behind."

Fuck. In hindsight, it probably was a mistake to mouth off to a Jonin like that, but fuck if I was going to let someone disrespect me - I died once to come here, I can die again. I..just fucking hate that this piece of shit could do this, and I'd be forced to go along with it.

I pushed my hand forward to try and make a rude gesture, fury filling my mind. I just wanted him to die. Slowly. In the most humiliating way possible.

I heard a little shout beside me, and I realized Gaara was sending his sand at the man threatening me. He jumped back, but before he landed, I felt...awareness of him, inside him from my outstretched hand - like he was a doll, a puppet. I twisted my fingers upward, willing him to still.

To my surprise, and his too, he did. He landed roughly on the ground. I felt a condense flow inside him, twisting throughout his body, and I grasped onto the flow, stopping it. He was stilling, he literally couldn't move. I smiled, excited as I realized his life was quite literally in the palm of my hands. Did he deserve to continue to live? He was a Jonin, loyal to the Yondaime Kazekage.

I gave him a look mixed with hate, smiling widely as I put my hand into a fist, clotting all the blood inside him, then pulled it back roughly. The front of his chest bloats, and my grin grows predatory. I don't even have to turn before a wave of sand rises tightly around the mans bloated body, and begins restraining him. I keep pulling at the blood, pushing against Gaara's overwhelming sand restriction.

The result is glorious. The man's skin and muscles audibly rip apart as his blood spurted out of him from hundreds of forcefully exposed arteries. Little veins, exposed by the torn flesh leak blood in less obvious lines - wider lumen, of course, I understand.

I turn my head, looking at Gaara. He seems transfixed at the carnage he and I have unleashed upon the little playground. Imagine the kids checking the swing to find a nipple attached to it.

I can't help it. I start laughing, and the sand jinchuuriki turns to give me a quizzical look. "Just imagine the kids tomorrow! The reactions when they trip on a chin!"

The redhead gives me a nervous grin. I ruffle his hair heartily. "You did good, Gaara. No one's going to mess with us now." He gives a pleased hum.

In the distance, I feel two figures approach, full of blood. I turn my head to see the Fourth Kazekage and a masked ANBU - that's probably Yashamaru - stare at us.

 

I try not to make it look like I'm staring, but that's the most powerful shinobi in the village and the top of the Black Ops unit - they probably know I've seen them. Hmm, who cares? I have a Kekkei Genkai now. What is Rasa-I-must-have-strong-individual-shinobi-to-make-Suna-great-again going to do? Kill me? Someone already beat him to the punch. I say, do whatever I want.

I give Gaara a sideways hug, before starting to walk away. Behind me, I heard him splutter, "W-Where are you going?"

Giving him a sideways look, I reply, "Home? Much as I may make it seem easy, exploding a guy takes a lot of energy. Lots of blood, lots of organs, needs a lot of focus, you know? Doesn't controlling individual particles of sand give you a headache?"

He looks unsure, "I don't know. I have never tried."

"Well, there's a chakra control exercise for you. Control individual grains of sand - should do wonders for your fine tuning," I say, walking away.

"Wait!"

I turn, "What?"

"Yo-you know my name, but I don't even know yours!" Hm. He makes a good point.

"Tasatsu. My name is Tasatsu. No last name, no clan name, I'm an orphan," Honestly, I liked my name. Sounds badass, and it'll look cool in the bingo books in the future. 'Tasatsu of the Blood Release, S-Rank Threat: Flee on Sight'. I can't wait to make some fodder-nin shit themselves.

Gaara doesn't say anything, and I continue to walk away from the playground. The Jonin's guts are still baking in the sand, and I'm walking off scot free, in full view of the Kazekage and ANBU. I start laughing as I walk.

My cackling draws a few eyes on either side of me (who wouldn't be unnerved by a five year old laughing like Joaquin Phoenix?), but I don't care. I killed a Jonin and fucked around with the Sand's very own monster - I'm beyond caring what civilians think. I've done more at five years than these cowards will do in fifteen, and I'm going to be far more powerful than they could ever hope to be. That's a promise.

As I continue cackling, I'm tackled to the ground. I turn around, but the rough arm pins to the floor before slapping a piece of paper to the small of my b-AH! Fuck, that burned! What the hell is this? Why can't I sense my assailant? I try to feel for the blood inside the guy on my back, but I can't - it's like my sense itself has been blocked. A masked figure flickers in front of me, translucent threads trailing from his fingers. Where are they...a puppet. The guy pinned me down with a puppet. Why can't I kill him?

"Chakra Suppression Tag in place. Get the cell ready, Hawk, we're going to need it," He speaks into a radio on his shoulder, before he notices me struggling and kneels down next to me. From this angle, his Tiger mask is clear to see, and it looks menacing as hell. He whispers, "You messed with a friend of mine, gaki. A good friend. Satetsu was a damn fine shinobi, you just caught him by surprise with your little Kekkei Genkai. You fucked with me, kid, which means you fucked with ANBU. We're going to find out exactly what makes you tick for that."

He places a heavy fist on my back. Its more than I can handle, and I start losing air.

"Gaar-" I try to breathe, but he presses down on me.

I can practically hear the smirk in his voice. "That little demon can't save you now, you fuck. No one can. Any last words before you never see the light of day again?"

"Babies come from vaginas," I spit, while his body language goes tense from confusion, "You must've dropped from your mother's asshole, you piece of shit!"

He stamps down on my neck, hard. I-I think I felt something crack, but I'm not sure - I scream out in agony. My neck feels thick against the rough sandstone pavement, I think it's filling with blood...as a defense mechanism? Fuck, this body is weird. Oh fuck, pressure on my skin's mountin-FUCK! I roar as much as my childlike throat allows me to, and simultaneously vomit out a pool of blood.

I hear the ANBU's furious voice in my ear, though it's muffled from the liquid filling it. "Feeling pain? Good. Satetsu did too. You think you can do as you like and have no consequences? Lesson one in life kid: the nail that tears your skin gets smashed to pieces."

"I hope you stick those smashed pieces up your ass, you piece of frozen piss!" I manage to grit out, though the blood flooding my mouth was making it difficult.

The pressure on my neck alleviates, and I try to rise up and catch a breath. Unfortunately, the ANBU has other plans: I feel a hand roughly grabbing me by my shirt, before the world swims before my eyes. My head starts rotating - made even worse because I can feel the cochlear fluid moving about and causing me nausea - and when the sensation stops, I vomit on the ground. The mixture seems to be redder than vomit should be.

My eyes try to adjust to the sudden shift in surrounding, but I'm not given any chance to orient myself as I'm tugged harshly into a dark hallway. My vision's swimming, but I catch glimpses of dimly lit corridors, similar men and women in masks and they're all...staring at me. Okay, the way their face masks follow us is creepy as fuck. Heh, I'm talking about something being creepy when I'm literally being dragged to be experimented on.

We come to a stop, and my vision swims again as my knocked bodily onto the rough floor. There's a blinding light on the top, which is blocked by an...oddly shaped figure. I can't see much beyond what looks to be...round glasses? I want to say brown hair, but I couldn't possibly be sure.

"He's all yours, Nanigashi-san. Find out what keeps this twisted little shit twisting."

'Nanigashi-san' merely bows, before I feel soft hands on my chest, and a cooling sensation.

"Everything's going to be just fine. Let's see what's so interesting about you," She said in a soothing voice.

Then she got to work.

 

I simply can't describe the sheer pain that this woman is inflicting on me. If the ANBU was bad, this must be fucking Hell.

That cold sensation was a paralyzing agent, or some sort of jutsu that caused that effect. I know that because when she started her surgery, I felt the knife tearing across my chest and I couldn't do anything to move myself or stop her. It's so much worse when your control over your own blood is such that you can feel it struggling to flow out - it was all I could do to keep it within my body, but her knife didn't help matters.

Right now, I think I've lost sensation or something. I can't feel my chest, but I have conscious blood flow control that she's trying to disrupt. I would be doing a better job if I had any idea of what she was doing, or what my body looks like right now but she pushed my head back and this paralyzing jutsu isn't letting me push my head forward to see. Wait, something's wrong. The blood in my body feels like it's resting, when it should be constantly flowing. Did I just flatline?

No, that can't be happening. Come on, blood, coalesce. Coalesce. Okay, slight liquid moving towards the center, but I can't be sending any sort of blood in willy nilly. What was it I remembered from my last year of biology in sophomore year? Right Atrium receives deoxygenated blood, right? And the only oxygenated blood is coming from the lungs, which ends up at the Left atrium. My lungs are...drowning in their own blood, but I think I can pull that away and push it to the left atrium. The rest of the blood...I think I'll bridge the gap on the top of my lungs and then fill them inside to let them oxygenate.

Deep breaths.

Oxygenated blood in left atrium, good. I think. I'm not exactly sure if I put it in the right vein, but we'll have to see - I'm not dead yet, so that's still a thing. Why isn't it pumping. Blood still feels stale beyond the amount I moved to my heart - why isn't the heart pum- the cardiac muscles. The heart itself needs blood to keep it functioning, I remember. I did get an A in Sophomore Bio, didn't I? I deserve one, anyway. Question is, how the fuck am I supposed to give blood to the muscles of the heart wall? I don't think there's any specific vein for that.

I think I'll just push the blood to the walls and see if it works. I'm running out of options before this heart failure causes nerve death, and then I'll end up being an actual corpse. I can see why Orochimaru kept shifting bodies to stay alive - experiencing death physically and doing all you can to stop your own heart from giving out for too long is a scary feeling. Fucking terrifying, actually.

I hear a gasp.

"Incredible..." The medic bitch says, but I'm not paying attention to her. My focus is solely on making sure my heart begins beating again.

I feel the blood getting absorbed. Is this how it generally is for a heart, or is mine just weird? Either way, I'm not complaining, because it's working to my goals. Wait. I just felt a flutter in my chest. Blood's still slightly stale, so I think the heart hasn't started beating yet, but it can. Alright, what do EMTs do to restart the heart? That electric thing, uh, a defibrillator, it was called. Don't think they have defibrillators, or if this woman will give me any if they do.

I have chakra though, so I can literally life hack. I need to make my chakra into Raiton chakra, and that should hopefully give me the jumpstart I need to make my heart start beating again. Wait, didn't Tori slap a chakra suppression seal on my back? Fuck, I won't be able to manipulate proper chakra without the tag getting off. Or wait, I could manipulate internal blood right? Does that mean the tag wore off? Maybe it did.

What the hell am I supposed to focus on with chakra? Blood sort of becomes synonymous with the internal energy that I'm supposed to feel when I try and manipulate something inside, but fanfiction and intuition about yin and yang touts it as a mixture of your physical and spiritual energy. Which...doesn't help whatsoever. The fuck does that even mean? How the hell am I supposed to manipulate a mixture of spiritual and physical energy that I've never felt before?

Hmm. Introspection perhaps? Meditat- no. Meditating at a time like this when I'm manually manipulating my blood through my body systems and trying to jumpstart my heart with my own chakra is not a good idea. Fuck, I-I seriously have no idea what to do. Shifting to a different world isn't supposed to be this hard, this dark. I'm five! Fucking five! I shouldn't be getting revenged on by ANBU and being tortured on an operating table and trying to save my own life and fuck! Jesus, this shit is hard. If I get out of here, I'm going to slaughter everybody in this village and burn it down.

I felt something with that emotion. A foreign feeling, niggling at the base of my stomach, that I swear I've never felt before. It's like...tingling, but something that resonates with my entire being, like it's the right complement in conjunction to make me go superhuman, beyond what any human was before. That has to be chakra, no two ways about it. Mentally, I mime grabbing onto it and tug at that little feeling, as strong as I can and I feel the chakra rush through my body, flooding my tenketsu.

Holy fuck, that's a heady feeling. Wait, my arms and legs are responding to my movements - well, my fingers are twitching. I can move my eye now, and I see the medic woman looking at me curiously, writing down notes in a clipboard. Her knife is on a side table, so I think development like this is unprecedented. Works for me, if she's going to stop cutting me up. Blood flow is alright, just need to convert this chakra to lightning chakra and internally defibrillate my heart. Now, what do I need to do for that? Logic stands to say that my affinities should be water, and perhaps earth to constitute Blood Release. Nerve control doesn't seem to be one of my powers, so I don't think I have a lightning affinity. Still, I need to try.

Previous fanfiction says I need to make the chakra vibrate, be jittery, ready to move in every direction and about to attack, just like lightning would be. Just imagine that heady rush that chakra gives, but make it buzz and woah. It races up my spine, electrifying it and flowing into the primary medium of my chakra conduction - blood.

It sparks, and my heart feels a giant slap across its center, and starts beating. I take a giant gasp of breath as I come back to life, choking and coughing on the sudden influx into my blood sealed lungs. I feel the medic's blood in the corner of my field of vision rushing at me, and I stretch out on hand, paralyzing her and stopping her from moving. She drops the scalpel she had in her hands.

I get up from the operating table, the wide gap in my chest showing off my ribs, heart and lungs but not bleeding out because of conscious control and give Nanigashi a bloody smile. Picking up the scalpel from the floor, my grin grows into a rictus as I glare at her.

"My turn."

 

I stepped closer, and the step nearly winded me. Who knew getting tortured, experimented on, and then reviving yourself after flatlining could take so much energy out of you? I certainly didn't. Even if I don't have the traditional hair, I have to have some sort of Uzumaki DNA within myself. I mean, I have cool powers, and survived this long, and those guys are supposed to be really vital, aren't they?

Nanigashi would probably have killed me by now, experienced kunoichi that she is. That is, if it wasn't for me holding her by the blood. If no blood's pumping to your leg muscles, then no matter what your neurons fire, you aren't going to be moving any time soon. I take another step forward, brandishing the bloody knife in what I hope is a menacing way. These tiny hands make dexterity an issue, but it's not like she's going to be moving anywhere anytime soon.

I hold out my hand, palm facing upward as I feel the blood flow inside her. I move it up and down, the invisible weight of the blood seeming funny in my hand, as I keep smiling at Nanigashi. She holds a blank look as if her life depends on it, but I can somehow feel the fear inside of her. I spit in her face, giving her a furious glare.

"You wanted to find out how I work, didn't you?" She doesn't move, because I still have her by the blood. I still shift my expression into a cheery smile. "Great! You're going to have front row seat to just how much pain I can inflict!"

My grin turns murderous as I close my palm into a fist and pull back, reminiscent of Vader. She pales, though that might have just been me yanking her blood, and gets flung back into the wall heavily. Why didn't she bloat? I think it might be because she wasn't held down by sand or something? Doesn't matter, it just lends me more power and greater understanding. It works.

As she tries rising from the wall, I pull her back by the blood and look at her face. Broken nose, bleeding profusely, split lip, and not much else. Won't do at all.

I reach out with my other hand, palm facing downward, and push the blood at her legs down. Fixed to the ground, now I can do some real damage. I reach out again with my hand closed in a fist, grasping at the blood in her chest and pull, as hard as I can. The effect isn't immediate, but I can see her skin tearing, the rends leaking profusely and giving me a view of her bones, which I can hear cracking and snapping. I push down with the leg holding hands, and her legs start stretching, while I tug harder with my closed fist. She bloats slightly, good.

I walk towards her, twirling the bloody knife. My dexterity isn't the best, though, and I end up dropping the knife on the floor. As I bend over to pick it up, my concentration lapses and the medic falls to the floor, bleeding heavily. She starts some jutsu that makes her hands glow green, but I blood control her again and slam her down to the ground hard enough to crack her glasses and let the shards smash into her face. I don't waste any of my poor dexterity in doing knife tricks, because I won't be able to do them properly and almost fuck up again.

She tries raising her head to look at me, even with the blood crushing I'm doing. I spit in her face and kick her head when she tries to look up, but it doesn't faze her because of this body's poor physical strength. I move to stab her, but I have a better idea.

Under my control, the medic stands up and moves in front of me, grabbing onto the knife that I hand her. Behind me, I feel a mass of blood rapidly approaching but pausing at the sight of the medic defending me. I turn around and scrutinize the ANBU. Not Tiger, this one has a Raccoon face mask - or is it a Tanuki? I don't know, but I can tell this one is a bit too fresh into the ANBU program. So nervous, I can feel it radiating off of his blood, and he spots me. Oh, he's proper unnerved now, how fun.

I walk beside the medic - reaching upto her hip, because children don't grow normally in anime, so I have to be a fucking chibi - and tap her on the small of her back, smiling menacingly. "Nanigashi-san, why don't you show little Tanuki here just what he's interrupted." She doesn't make any move of her own, but I blood control her into nodding anyway.

The rookie ANBU watches, horrified, as I blood control the medic into slitting her own wrists with the bloody knife, before carving up her arms. Tanuki realizes he's supposed to do something and lunges for me, which is a reasonable reaction all things considered. I can see why he would've been chosen for ANBU. Unfortunately, he hasn't deduced my power yet, which is bad for him because I grab him w- Jesus. Okay, I haven't lost control on either the medic or the ANBU, but two different bloods being controlled is exhausting beyond anything. I need to end this.

I push the medic to use the knife and stab it into the ANBU's brain, right behind the mask, because heart shots aren't exactly effective. I make her stab him in the spine, just to be sure, and then commit seppuku, because that seems to be an effective killing technique in this world. It killed Sakumo Hatake, so it's gotta do some sort of damage.

Fuck, that was tiring. I still have a whole base of ANBU to go through now, all while trying to discover just how much my Kekkei Genkai works. Ugh, I hate this place more than anything I've ever hated. After all the ANBU, there's a Kazekage and a whole village. If I manage to pull this off and don't get legendary status, I'm going to ki- actually, that won't work, because that's what I've already done.

I take a deep breath, plopping down in the rapidly expanding pool of blood, feeling more and more energized as it seeps into my clothes and skin. I let it out, and lean back into the blood, splaying my arms as if I were making a snow angel.

"Fuck this shit. Fuck it all."

 

My hand feels a soothing cold as I press it down to the puddle of blood that's formed from the combined seppuku and stabbing. It's a small respite, but I still feel thirsty and absolutely exhausted, and I have zero energy to continue. If I stay here, I'll get discovered and then...what? They try and experiment on me again? They let me go? Make me a join Suna's version of ROOT? I have no clue, and frankly, no energy or inclination to continue to think about it.

I have a choice here. I can either exhaust myself further and probably die or irreparably stunt my future growth from the strain and continue fighting with the minuscule chance that I can escape an ANBU base, or I can stay here and wait for any authorities to come along and probably execute me. Actually, they won't. What would be the point? I have a Kekkei Genkai, and I have the ability to use it - give me a sensei and a good team, and I'll be a lethal machine for Suna. I hate this place, but at least I know it, and it tells you straight up that this place fucking sucks. Konoha? No way of getting there and verifying myself, and I'll probably get stuck with Danzo, which I don't need.

Iwa? A place full of hateful bastards and that holds the eternal enmity of Konoha, with a primary Earth affinity region? Dumb idea. Kumo could be considered, I suppose. It isn't so bad, and they're not poor, plus they have some of the cooler characters in the series. I just have no idea where Kumo is, so getting there would be difficult as hell - especially as a starved five year old. Kiri would've been an amazing choice had Mei or anyone else been Mizukage, but it's Yagura's bloody mist era right now, and Kekkei Genkai are liable to get me executed than praised.

I sigh, and lift my hand to my face. Blood is dripping from it, and I can somehow tell just how much is mine, just how much is Nanigashi's, and just how much is Tanuki's. On a whim, I lick the dripping liquid from my hands, because I'm dehydrated and literally anything is better than a parched throat. It tastes...coppery, obviously, but somehow better than how blood tasted in my previous life. Is that mint? I swear I just tasted mint from this. Holy...

I cup my hands and draw a large bowl of blood from Nanigashi's freely bleeding corpse, before I tip it to my lips and drink. It's not coppery anymore, but the flavour is pretty good. Is that...orange? Holy hell, this tastes amazing! It even makes me feel more energized! For good measure, I splash some of her blood on my face and dear God this feels like a warm bath. Blood is such a fantastic liquid! I have to kill more people, I shouldn't be letting go of this feeling!

"What the.." I hear a voice breathe out behind me, and I swivel on my position on the floor, still surrounded by blood, and rubbing the blood dripping down my face.

The newest arrival is a group: A few ANBU, all of varying masks, in front of two more important looking men. One of them could be a woman with his long brown hair and soft features if it wasn't for his masculine build. The other is a figure I haven't seen much, but recognize quite easily from his way of carrying himself and his pink hair: the Yondaime Kazekage, Rasa. Okay, here's what'll solidify my status in Suna, best get ready.

I don't stand. "Kazekage-sama."

To his credit, even when most of his ANBU do, when Yashamaru - the ANBU General - looks horrified, Rasa does not flinch. I can believe that this guy stared a demon in the face multiple times and beat it down single-handedly, and I may dislike him immensely, just like I do most of Suna, but I respect the fuck out of his strength. "What is your name, child?" He says, staring at me.

"Tasatsu," I say, as I stand up, far more energized than I was before. I stretch my arms back, feeling the kinks in my spine popping, as the ANBU tense and ready their weapons. "And yours is Rasa, and you're Yashamaru, and you-" I stare at each ANBU "Are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, and will never matter."

They don't react, but I can sense anger and frustration from two of them. The Kazekage walks forward, stepping into my bloody puddle and kneels down next to me, looking me in the eye. Instead of saying something that any logical person would say, he says, "You're a good killer. Why direct that instinct at my shinobi?"

I don't miss a beat, "The Jonin attacked Gaara and I. The medic cut me up and caused me unimaginable pain. Tanuki was an ANBU that was weak and tried to stop me from getting my revenge on Nanigashi."

"I see."

"I suppose you'll want to arrest me for murder?" I asked, a dead expression on my face.

He stays silent for a moment, before speaking, "Did you attack first?"

I shake my head. He sighs, "Then by my right as Kazekage of Sunagakure no Sato, I declare the deaths done in self defense, and the deaths of Satetsu, ANBU Tanuki and Nanigashi to be accidental. Tasatsu, formerly of no clan, now of the Kazekage clan is declared innocent of any crimes he may have committed on this day."

I...did he just fucking adopt me? Did I just get done with a Kawaki and Naruto situation? Innocence of any crimes? I suppose it would make sense that Gaara not be a convicted criminal if he became Kazekage, but I'm being provided with the same treatment? This must be my lucky day. If I'm some sort of fanfiction OC, then my author may have rolled a fucking twenty on his luck dice, because this is not what I expected in the slightest.

Judging by the emotions I'm feeling from the ANBU Guard, they're not very pleased by the turn of events. This has, however, worked out in my best interests, and now I have a clan to connect me to Suna. Hmm, do I count as part of the Sand Siblings now? By proxy, I do. And my teamwork with Gaara is pretty decent, if I do say so myself. Yes, this is definitely the best state of affairs that I could wish for. Let's see if my new 'father' will grant me a wish.

"Could I be granted one more kindness?" I make sure to keep my voice sincere.

"What is it?" His voice is curious, but not dismissive.

"I want ANBU Tiger dead."

I feel a backhand as I'm struck across the face and into the blood pool. I can see Rasa looking down imperiously on me, "You overestimate the leniency I'm willing to grant you. Tiger is a valuable operative, and has proven his worth. Show me that you deserve the honor I am granting you, and maybe I'll consider your request," He finishes, voice hard.

I shake my head gently, sucking on the bloody tips of my fingers. His offer's reasonable enough, I suppose.

Mm, mango.