Chapter 31: The Darkest Night

The forest was shrouded in unnatural darkness. The white masks of the Kirigakure ninja glowed faintly in the darkness, the wavy lines etched on their foreheads looking like dancing snakes in the gloom.

"She's only a few years older than my son," one of the ninja's voice trembled slightly. "We can't do this to her, even for us this is too much."

"Toshiro-san, these are orders from the Mizukage," the captain replied dryly. "Our village is at stake, it could change the course of the war."

"Surely there must be another solution," Toshiro insisted, his mask failing to hide the disgust in his voice.

"You don't understand, without this mission Konoha will not be weakened and will use its momentum to attack us!"

"And we will defend ourselves," Toshiro retorted firmly, "as we always have!"

"Do you want the Konoha ninja to break into the village with the potential risk of killing your family as well?" The captain's voice sharpened. "Do you want to abandon the mission and become a traitor? What will become of your family?"

The silence that followed was as heavy as lead. Toshiro closed his eyes behind his mask, the image of Yuki arranging weapons in the shop, of little Ren training diligently in the courtyard. He remained silent, his heart heavy, and followed the orders.

The night seemed to grow even darker.

What followed was a bloodbath. A boy in a wooden mask emerged from the darkness, his single red eye glowing with murderous fury. The mist ninja fell one by one, their bodies torn apart by a merciless and brutal wood technique.

Toshiro lay in a pool of his own blood, his chest pierced by a branch that had punctured his lung. The cold of the night was giving way to an almost comforting numbness. Strange, he thought, how death could seem so gentle in the end.

The images began to flow through his mind, more and more vivid. Yuki laughing as she showed him her "terrible" kunai throw the day they met. Little Ren sleeping peacefully in his crib, his tiny fingers wrapped around the small crystal she had given him. His son training at dawn, determined and patient, with those eyes as innocent as they were wise.

"Ren..." he whispered, blood filling his throat, his fingers feebly searching for the twin crystal around his neck. The jewel pulsed faintly, as if it were trying to respond to his touch. "I'm sorry... I won't be able to watch you grow up, I won't be able to teach you everything I wanted to." Another rush of blood stopped him from continuing, but his mind was clearer than it had ever been. 'You're stronger than you think, my son. Stronger than I've ever been. You... you see things we don't see.'

He used his last strength to hold the crystal. "I leave everything... in your hands..."

The red moon seemed to cry blood over the silent forest, while Toshiro's last thought was for that small courtyard where his son trained every morning, the fog that wrapped him protectively like a cloak. He would never see that scene again, but he knew, with the certainty that only the dying possess, that his son would continue to train there, carrying on his dream of a better village.

The crystal around his neck gave off a last, faint glow, before going out forever.

[ Hi guys, Ito-kun here... this was the hardest chapter to write. If i could avoided it, i would have done it, but due to the circumstance of Toshiro being in the third caste (they were sent to the most dangerous and far away missions) and him being an Elite chunin, and the mission about Rin, i couldn't avoid it.

Also we are in Kirigakure, and i'm trying to portrait a different story, with a different pace then the original... i've seen to many other fan-novel where everything goes smooth, in reality we, everyone know that the ninja world can be very rude, specially in a village like Kiriakure. Sorry, i'm sad too... i really like Toshiro.]