"Bang, Bang…"
"Clank, clank…"
The sounds of the battle between the ninjas of Kumo and his mother, Kana, were still resounding in the trees above him, and yet Akashi remained unbothered and unperturbed by it.
His eyes were fixed on the corpses of his opponents; the three ninjas were now dead. Their bodies lay lifelessly on the ground while blood slowly seeped from their wounds on the ground.
Akashi was looking at them with a complicated expression on his tender face; the more time passed, the uglier his expression became.
After a while, he murmured
"Nothing!"
"I feel nothing for killing them…"
His mother, Kana, had told him how, after their first kill, many ninjas and samurais started to cry, throw up, and feel guilty at the sight of their victims.
It was natural, he had expected the same thing to happen to him. After all, even at the beginning of the fight, his reluctance to kill had put him in danger, but now that it was done, he felt nothing.
No aversion to killing, no repulsion to the sight of his victim not the slightest hint of guilt seemed to enter his mind.
'I killed three people, and yet I feel no guilt… Why?'
His mind was troubled by the fact that he didn't feel anything after killing those ninjas.
While Akashi was in his own world, the sound of fighting above him abruptly stopped, and soon the forest was engulfed by a silence of death.
"Why don't I feel anything? Am I some kind of psychopath?"
"Yes!"
His mother responded in a kind yet sad tone; at some point, she had appeared beside him without a sound.
"Aren't you supposed to say the opposite?"
"I honestly think that in a sense, we are all abnormal, my angel, all ninjas are in a sense. This is what I have learned, and you will need to accept that part of you if you want to survive what is to come."
"Killing is in our blood, the children from ninjas clans were bred, trained and raised to kill. The best killer is the most valued, it is the case for every clans even ours. Over the centuries we have adapted to the point that killing is seconds nature…"
"What do you mean bred, like cattle?"
"... Exactly Do you think that most ninjas marry got love? Do not fall for the romanticized version of ninjas sung around by the great nations and their clans at their core all ninjas are trained killers and the ninjas villages are death machines,"
"Is it a good thing to say things like that to your four-year-old child?"
Akashi said with a troubled expression on his face
"I would have loved to teach you those kinds of things gradually but your vision and my own investigation of our situation made me rethink things, I trust that you can handle it, you have always been very mature, too much in fact,"
"And honestly this crazy mess isn't exclusive to ninjas, you will learn that the nobles are pretty much the same, even the civilians aren't too different,"
Akashi mind was focused on the ninjas, what he had read about ninjas, what his mother had taught him, and what he saw from his dream, and in the end, he had to agree with his mother.
Ninjas are tools of war. No matter how the truth is embellished by the ninja villages, ninjas are mercenaries who would do anything for money.
Ninjas are the ones sent to do the dirty jobs that others do not want; they are killers, thieves, spies, and more.
Akashi's naïve outlook on ninjas had been shattered; closing his eyes, he took a few long breaths to calm his mind.
"I see," he responded after a few seconds as his mood returned to normal.
He took a few scrolls and put the corpse there; as he turned around, he saw that behind his mother, the lifeless corpse of the chunin and jonin of Kumo on the ground behind his mother, which appeared completely fine.
She had only a few scratches on his clothes. Akashi observed that his mother was completely fine.
"Were they really a jonin and a chunin from Kumo? How come you killed them so quickly without being even injured."
"It was harder than you think." She said
Lifting her sleeve, she showed an injury on her arm that was mending itself at a noticeable speed.
Akashi was reminded of his own injuries; he noticed that in the few minutes that he had spent in contemplation, his own injuries had nearly healed.
"I am nearly healed too, is it me or my healing ability is stronger,"
He looked at his mother as he said that
"It is another ability that you will have to train to,"
"It is becoming a problem, all those abilities that I have to train,"
Kana smiled and turned around and, as Akashi did before her, stored the remains of her vanquished opponents in a scroll.
"Let's go, we can't stay too long here, it's not safe, we will talk on the way,"
With that, they resumed their journey across the trees of the land of fire.
As they jumped from tree to tree, Akashi looked at his mother in a new light; he remembered how scary he felt when he unconsciously used his mind's eyes on her.
He wasn't afraid of her, but many contradictory thoughts and feelings clashed in his mind; several times, he opened his mouth but ended up closing it without a word.
"You can ask me anything you want, you know; I won't feel offended, sad, or anything; in fact, this is another reason for this journey between mother and son!"
After a deep breath, he finally started to talk and asked the questions that he wanted to ask
"Did you know that I would… that I wouldn't feel much about killing people," he asked
"Hm, no. Not really, but I am not surprised, you are me and your father-son after all, potential heir of two great ninjas clans the Uzumaki and the Uchiha, I don't want to be harsh but you were made for it, it is in your blood, plus it isn't like you have never spilled blood" She explained casually
"It doesn't count," he replied a little indignantly as he understood what she was talking about
During his training, his mother had often made him hunt, kill, and clean animals big and small and he never felt much about it
"Animals and humans are completely different,"
"The ninjas in you would disagree… but don't worry it isn't like you enjoy killing,"
He understood again that for someone like him, born from two great ninja clans who had made murder an art, killing was literally in his blood.
"Alright… why do you want me to have a good impression of the clan when we have been banished by them?"
"I already answered a question like that before, I think"
Akashi had indeed asked a question like that in the past
"You told me that it was because you don't want me to have to spill too much blood… I don't want to be, huh, insulting but you are a princess and you don't seem to have had the life of a typical princess,"
He said, trying not to be rude to his mother as he remembered the terrifying killing intent that he had glimpsed with his mind's eye.
Hearing that the lips of Kana turned upward as she let out a soft chuckle.
"It was mostly my choice. I was indeed sent to battle at a young age, for the sake of my clan, but I went into battle willingly. I chose to go to battle and to kill, what missions to accept and refuse. I chose who to kill, and, most importantly, who not to kill; the blood in my hand is the result of each of those choices..."
"...most ninjas never get that,"
As he reflected, he realized that it is true, and that only the heirs of the most privileged clans are given this preferential treatment.
Even from what he saw from his vision he could confirm that fact.
"You don't know that but many ninjas end up breaking down, at some point due to the cruel nature of their profession, some kill themselves, some defect and end up hunted until they are killed while others lose their minds and end up killing the people of their own village before being put down,"
Akashi's head snapped toward his mother in surprise.
"Why are you so surprised?"
"I never heard anything like that,"
"Ha, well of course, you never heard anything like that, do you think that you are going to see a notice board where it's written after been sent on a mission where he had to eliminate an entire family on the orders of his kage such and such lost his mind and ended up killing a group of civilian at a tavern…"
"Tell me what do you think happened to ninjas like that,"
"The- they are branded traitors or spies and eliminated!"
He answered slowly,
"Something like that yes, anyway ninjas is not the best professions… The Uzumaki have longer lives than most peoples, particularly those of our statues so even though I have been excluded from the clan for five years now, for us this isn't such a long time, and my punishment will not last much longer, there are also ways to redeem myself, it's just that I never took them. Until now."
"Until now!" Seeing her nod, he continued, "What are those ways?"
"Simple really, make some contributions. After receiving your warning I talked to a few acquaintances, even though they didn't believe it they decided to keep an eye open, like I did since we left,"
"You mean the summons that I saw that time, they are… your spies?"
"Indeed, the Uzumaki don't have any spies outside, we used summons as our eyes around the world, it was until we allied ourselves with Konoha, that they became our source of imformations,"
"Huh, what a bad idea." Akashi frown
She chuckled at that
"In retrospect yes, it was a bad idea but we have always considered Konoha some kind of extension of our clan, after all, we played a part in its creation, and that alliance served the clans well for years to the point that we became dependent on it because it allows the clans to focus on other things, but this is also what's coming to bite us… with your warning my old friends started to pay attention to things same as me,"
"Is it- do you think that you will be able to save Uzushiogakure?"
Kana didn't answered for a few seconds and continued to jump from one tree to another.
"I doubt it, there are news, signs, if you are looking you will see them, but they are few and easily dismissible, the elders and even the usual ninjas wouldn't believe us but it will be enough even if they don't believe us some will be put on alert."
"Don't underestimate the others nations, they have their own secrets,"
Jumping from tree to tree they moved toward their next destination, and this time, maybe judging that he was ready or just to distract him Kana shared more things with her son.