14 His Last Days

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Hope you enjoy the chap :)

[2886 words]

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Chapter 11

His Last Days

''YOU DAMN BRAT!'' He shouted.

'' *cough* *cough*'' Just as I was going to continue to make fun of him he suddenly fell, dispelling his jutsu in the process and grasped in pain while coughing continuously.

''Oi, Masa-jii! Is everything alright!'' I shouted.

''*Cough* Brat, I'm *cough* fine, just continue your training...'' He said as he covered his mouth, I could clearly see the blood dripping from his fingers.

''You're clearly not, Masa-jii. Let's go to the hospital, we need to check you'' I say in desperation.

''Arata…'' He says as he looks me in the eyes seriously.

''This is my last chance to teach you, just do it''

Seeing his seriousness, I just continued my training as I continued to keep eye out on his condition.

''First, form your chakra ring *Cough*'' He instructs, still clutching his heart in pain.

Doing as he said, I slowly pushed out my chakra to my back and slowly formed a strong solid ring of chakra.

''Now, follow the same advice I gave you for the nature combined body flicker'' I followed his words, and I formed some lightning chakra and pushed it to the ring of chakra. Once it reached, the two counter attacking forces threatened to break the ring of chakra I made. Seeing I needed to act quickly, I made the two chakras resonate together at the same frequencies. It took all my concentration to form the lightning ring but once I did I felt a large amount of power form at my back, ready for my use.

''The last step *cough* is to evenly spread all that chakra throughout your body, focus all your concentration *cough* I don't want you dying before me'' I could see his condition was improving as time went on, but he still continued to cough blood.

Taking a deep breath, I momentarily forgot about his condition and focused on the black lighting wheel on my back. Once I understood how much chakra there was in the ring, I slowly but steadily pushed the chakra into my body, guiding it through my chakra paths and evenly spreading it as it circulated my body. I could feel my body convulsing and spasming due to how much chakra I was absorbing. I held my concentration to the best of my ability as I pushed the chakra to its last location. Seeing that I had finished circulating it, I checked the chakra stability within my body before I absorbed it all together.

Once I absorbed it, I could feel myself enter another world. My perception increased manyfold in combination with my sharingan, my reaction times were otherworldly compared to my based state. The power and speed that my muscles could now exert was many times higher than what I normally could.

I just looked at my hands as I tried to understand my newfound power. I could feel my hair stand on end as black lightning surrounded and embraced my body. However, this power took all my chakra reserves, leaving me essentially defenceless with no means of escape, it was something I had to work on with haste.

''Good, since now you understand how to do it, let's quickly move onto your last lesson'' He said, his condition being better than before.

''First, how to see through a ninja's disguise. First transformation jutsu, here you will have to rely on either your instincts or information you have on the presumed person. If you have any suspicion that he/she is using a transformation jutsu, blast him with a jutsu and then if you're wrong, just apologize later''

''Secondly, physical disguises, wearing face masks and make up may seem to be a better option for camouflage, but, every face mask and makeup is made of high quantity of organic material that a face should not have, so either open your sharingan or try to smell the odour they give, usually they will smell like plants''

''Lastly, if a shinobi is using his surroundings as camouflage, then keep an eye out for shadows, that'll be your main indicator, if that's not an option, then spread your chakra around yourself and see if any disturbances appear within your chakra'' He said slowly as he wheezed through every breath.

''Now onto a shinobi's emotions. In battle, a shinobi should never show their emotions, hence why we wear masks to cover our emotions. However, a face isn't the only indicator to see through one's emotion, your body and eyes can often tell more about your emotional state than your face.''

''Now unto, a question I've been meaning to ask you, whenever you look into someone's eyes, do you feel like you see through their emotions?'' He asks. I slowly nod at his question.

''Good, that is an ability most shinobi do not have. It is something I have as well, however, never tell your ability to anyone, other than the ones you will be spending the rest of your life with...''

''You can't rely on this ability alone, sometimes, you won't have the opportunity to look into an enemy's eyes, so you must look at their body, look at indications of anger, fear, worry. These all can be expressed differently for each person, but, once you experience enough shinobi work you will begin to instinctively understand how emotions are conveyed through the body'' He said slowly but steadily, I could tell he was on his last legs as his complexion continued to pale.

''That is most...of what…you need to…know'' He said as he fell unconscious. I rushed to his side as I shouted for Sakaki to come help. My grandfather's body was cold, too cold, but I could still feel his pulse. His complexion was white as a sheet as his chest continued to rise up and down in quick succession.

''Arata-sama, leave Masahiro-sama to me, just try to follow my movements'' Sakaki said as he picked up my grandfather's sickly body with one hand and flickered away. I quickly followed his movements to the hospital, flickering as fast as possible, hoping his condition wasn't as bad as I feared.

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{2 hours later}

After a worrisome two hours, Sakaki was finally able to get back to me. His face dejected and filled with worry.

''Arata-sama, it seems Masahiro-sama has worsened his health by opening his Raitei jutsu, as we currently see it, he can't seem to live past another six to nine months'' His words were solemn, but resolute.

However, his words to me wes like a hammer shattering a mirror. HIs words finally brought me back from the fantasy I was sinking deep into. The reality of the situation finally was sinking for me, after this he would no longer be here to guide me anymore. I was on my own after this, no one had any obligation to help me, even Sasaki could leave as he was assigned to my grandfather alone. My heart was pulled into fifty different directions at the thought of him leaving me, but crying would do nothing. All I could do was cherish our last moments together. The least I could do for how much he has done for me was to make his last moments the happiest and the best he's ever experienced. I had to leave him with a smile like I promised and like he wanted.

Finally sorting my emotions, I walked into my grandfather's room. When I entered I could see my grandfather peacefully sleeping with a happy smile on his face. Knowing that Masa-jii wouldn't be able to sit still without something to distract him, I request Sakaki to buy something.

''Sasaki, could you buy a Shamisen in this specific shape and a shogi set?'' I ask. The reason why I wanted to play the shamisen was because I wanted to calm him after he woke up, it was the least I could do for him after I was the one who flared his condition in the first place.

The specific shamisen was a guitar look-a-like I once saw in a store. In my previous life, I did play the guitar a bit as I wanted to learn my favourite songs. Of course, I was an amateur at it, but, with my sharingan it'll be easy to play any song without difficulty.

Seeing the boisterous grandfather that threw me around like a ragdoll everyday so vulnerable was heartbreaking for me, but I noticed he always had kept a strong front for me, to make me feel safe, so I had to at least do the same for him now when he was so weak.

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{6 months later}

{Masahiro POV}

To think the day has finally come, the day where I would die. I thought I would be lying dead on the battlefield by now, lying where my brother and father died. It was where I was raised, where I found friends and where those friends and family died. I thought my life would forever stay there, but, before I knew it, I found a woman I loved. She was beautiful in every way, the way she smiled, the way she laughed, the way her voice sounded, everything about her mesmerized me. She was too good for someone like me who left everyone to die, only to survive alone. Everytime I told her that she would admonish me saying that if I wasn't good enough, no one was. She was my shining star in the world that was soaked in blood. And before long, I had gotten two shining stars, Akane had given me another shining star.

She was as beautiful as her mother. I tried to uphold the Uchiha mannerisms of keeping a stoic mask, but when she touched me with her tiny fingers and looked at me with curiosity, my barriers had broken as fast as it had done with my wife. Before I knew it, I had become the annoying doting father.

Watching her grow up with Akane was something I cherished every moment of, I would always have my sharingan open at every moment just to remember those lovely scenes. She grew and grew, until she finally came back with a lover. That day I drew my sword before I had noticed and chased after the man, trying to reap his life for trying to steal my daughter. Unfortunately, the man was quite strong himself and was able to escape with his life, though I did sleep on the couch for a week but seeing the fear on his face was satisfying, it was worth it. It was his punishment for stealing my daughter. I thought he would stay away from her, but, once again he came back asking for her hand in marriage with a resolute face. I drew my sword again and slashed thinking he would dodge again, but that man stepped into the slash, trusting me with his life. Seeing him muster so much resolve just to marry her. It gave me the thought that I might be willing to let him marry my daughter, he was someone who could protect and love her when I can't and begrudgingly, I gave him consent to marry her.

At her wedding, I cried my heart out as I drank with Ryuuji, a friend I had recently made at the time. He was the very meaning of tsundere as he would always do the opposite of what he said. Slowly through Ryuuji, I learned how to move on from my past and made more friends. My life was slowly coming to a peaceful end as age was catching up to me. But, life wasn't so kind, that was something I was forced to understand once again.

I was coming back from a tiresome mission, I was walking back home until I smelt the smell of iron coming from my house, I left running to the house in a frenzy ready to kill the intruder. But once I opened the door, before my eyes, the intruder was holding Akane's head with a smile on his face. I lost any sense of reason and I awakened my mangekyou sharingan. I wanted to find who did this to my wife and that was the wish I got from my Mangekyo. Later on I discovered it was a clan that held an unknown grudge against me, I didn't know what the grudge was because I traced the assassin's chakra back to their clan, and massacred anyone in sight. Once, I reached the person who held the grudge, I immediately activated my shringan's other ability Ame-no-Uzume, a genjutsu that projected the victims greatest fear and tortured them for all eternity with it until they died in the real world.

Once I had killed them all, I had finally regained my bearings, but all that I was left with was emptiness and grief. I wallowed in my sorrows for days, forgetting about anything and everything around me. Fortunately, Ryuuji snapped me out of my sorry state, the man went up to me, slapped me and walked away. It was all I needed to wake me up and understand his frustration with me. I had ignored my daughter, she was most likely in much more grief than me and I completely left her alone when she needed me most. It was shameful parenting but I resolved myself to help her now, that man really is the very meaning of Tsundere

Seeing the state of my daughter, I comforted her and we both slowly got over her death. However, that wasn't the end, the first shinobi world war had begun right after that, giving me no time to rest as I returned to the battlefield with my aged body and watched as all my friends left me once again.

This time I had taken their deaths much better than before, but the same couldn't be said for Izumi. Her husband had passed and her mental state slowly but evidently worsened causing her body to do the same. Her weakened body eventually couldn't take the stress of childbirth and the rest is history.

My life may have gone through troubled times, but, to have my grandson beside me, taking care of me with all the love he could muster, was something I would have never thought of, but, it was something I would never give up for any other ending. But it seems the last embers of my life are fading away, however, before I fade away I would like to send my grandson into the shinobi world with one last spar.

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{Arata POV}

It's been six months since Masa-jii last collapsed, but his condition never got better. Overtime, his body was slowly withering and his health couldn't sustain any movement that wouldn't flare his condition. I thought he would be complaining his heart out at me for making him rot away in a hospital bed, but he was always relaxing on his bed with a content smile as if he was ready to leave the world at any moment. Watching him so content would leave my heart in knots, he knew every time I would suppress my emotions and when I did he would just pat my head with affection and thank me for being strong.

I wanted to cry, but I knew that wasn't what he wanted, so instead I stayed with him at every moment that wasn't my training. We would play shogi with him at moments that he felt bored at, I would talk to him about how my training was progressing while we drank tea, he would recount his stories to whittle away the time. I would play the unique shamisen for him when he couldn't relax, at those moments he would ask me to play a favorite song of mine from back on earth.

(Watch Neath Dark Waters guitar version)

It was a slow but memorable time. Spending so much time with him slowly made me accept the situation and I always gave him my best and calmest smile, I always talked to him in the most peaceful voice I could muster, I wanted for him to pass away without worry for me. This day was no different, as I walked to Masa-jii's room and entered.

''Good morning, Masa-jii...'' I say in a serene voice hoping to calm him. But instead, I found my grandfather standing straight on steady legs.

''You Idiot! Why are you standing!'' I shouted as I rushed to him to sit him back down.

''Not today, Arata'' He calmly said as he pulled out any tubes in his arms and he slowly walked to me and picked me up, seeing as I didn't want to worsen his condition I offered no resistance, and before I knew it he flickered me to the dojo.

''What are you doing, Masa-jii, your health will deteriorate like this!'' I worriedly shout.

''Arata, I don't have much time left, so before I pass, provide me some respite'' He said slowly in a resolute tone.

''Show me you can survive'' He said as his body exploded in red lightning. His eyes showed his determination as he threw a bokuto to my feet.

''Show me that you don't need me anymore''