Aion, It Takes a Village
-In the Beginning-
The land of Grass was silent that night. The sky was darkening and the first hints of stars dotted the skies. I loved that time. I loved that view, I loved that place, but most of all I loved the man I was there with.
“Matatabi…” He always murmured my name. It was like the whisper of the darkness. Something primal, passionate. I could listen to him say my name for hours, and he knew it. It had become his habit to pause once he’s gotten my attention. As though he knew I needed a moment to collect myself. After that moment he continued, the roguish grin and hint of amusement the only sign of my girlish sillyness. “Our time grows short beloved”
“I didn’t want to hear the words, but I understood the necessity of them. They hurt, each syllable piercing my chest and drawing tears from my eyes. I understood them, but I did not want them.
“You must leave soon if we are to be together. The window for escape is short.” He paused, he was reiterating what I already knew, and he knew that I knew. He was giving me comfort, reassuring me. But his words did not, they only brought more sorrow. He could tell, one glance into my eyes and he could tell. He was like that, so loving, so attentive, and so powerful. But even he would not be strong enough to fight a village.
“I…” I could barely choke out the words I needed to say. I was a trained Shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato, I was among the Hokage’s Anbu, and of one of the villages most powerful Bloodlines. But this was singly the hardest thing I ever had to do.
“Lao…I..I c-can not go with you” I whispered. I couldn’t stop the sob that tore through me, and even as I knew I should have I did not push him away when he drew me into his arms and held me.
“I know beloved….I know..” When I glanced up I stared into his eyes. Beautiful and terrifying, soft lavender with concentric rings spanning the entire sclera.
“I know…it’s mine isn’t it.” I could feel his smile curve against my forehead as he pressed a chaste kiss there.
“Yes, yes yes, he, he is yours.” My hand slipped to my belly, where I nurtured a new life soon to join this word.
“A son, my son.” He murmured into my hair.
“Yes…I..He..Eon, he had a medical nin check on me..he’s been trying, and I didn’t take the medication because…” I couldn’t finish it, but he’d know. Because I wanted his child, and I got what I wanted, and that made me happier than I could ever imagine. It also terrified me beyond words.
“He found out, and he..he thinks it’s his, and I didn’t say otherwise..or.”
“Or he would have killed you…yes I know..”
“You can’t fight the entire Clan Lao, now that he believes I am giving him an Heir he would never let me leave. He would hunt me down!” It was the hormones, the situation, and the sorrow at losing the only man I’ve ever loved. I couldn’t be sure if it was one or even all of those emotions, but I cried. I could not help it, I sobbed, wept, despaired at the hopelessness of the situation.
“He’s a monster! I do not want him raising our child!”
“Do not worry Matatabi, we can do this, I will be close, and you will be there. I will not leave you nor my son.
We will handle this somehow..someway.”
“Lao…it’s so dangerous…you know they hate your family.”
“I know beloved, but there is no more choice. I will use ‘that’ technique.”
“But, its..what will you do with your body?”
“I will seal it away; I will find a suitable replacement for now.”
Matatabi couldn’t help but feel guilt for the choices they were making, the life they were sacrificing. She weighed the karmic debt for what she would enable, for what she truly secretly desired but was too much a coward to ask. She weighed her decision, and she did not care. Her son would have his father.
“I have one.” She murmured.
-Shadowed Thoughts-
“You must focus Aion. You are Uchiha, the best of the best. You must master this technique and do so promptly.” The voice of Eon Uchiha was relentless. It drove his son to push himself until he could no more. And then go further.
Aion Uchiha had a complicated relationship with his father. At the age of ten the boy felt keen admiration, awe, respect, and love. He also experienced frustration, rage, and despair. All these emotions rolled around inside him to form his opinion of his father.
Eon Uchiha was the trainer in charge of shaping the youngest generation of Uchiha to Academy readiness. Like all fathers he expects great things from his own offspring. And is in no way afraid to make that known.
“Yes father.” The young boy murmurs as he stumbles to his feet and presses his palm together. He was in pain, sore, and exhaustion pulled at him but he had no choice but to persevere. Drawing a deep breath the Uchiha boy formed the six seals his family used for their secret techniques and exhaled a pitiful ball of fire at his father.
True to the theme of the night Eon glared at his son. The blood red of his eyes pictured in Aion’s nightmares and the three spinning tomoe were prominent in his waking dreams. With effortless grace the older Uchiha overturns his sons fireball and scorches the boy. The tiny child’s cry is drowned out by the roar of fire and he collapses over his burns.
“Your not trying Aion, your not taking this seriously.” Eon murmured in the dry cool tone he always possessed. His dispassionate eyes took in and dismissed the myriad of burns and scorch marks already marring his son.
“Get up boy, your not done yet.”
Aion’s tiny hands splayed across the mat as he bit back cries of protest and struggled to rise. It was terrible agonizing pain, each burn dragged angry fingers across his flesh and sensation centered on suffering. But Aion knew that as much as he hurt now, failure to comply would bring something much worse.
-To Raise a Child-
“Four…Five…Six” Aion huffed softly as he ran across the treetops. His violet eyes counted the targets strewn through the training ground. There were half a dozen scattered through the trees. It was not possible for him to hit them all at once. He wasn’t that good, not like his big brother. Still, he could maybe do half a time. If he were lucky. “Uchha are tool specialists. A good Uchiha can hit every target every time” he mutters from rote memorization.
His fingers dipped into his holster. His muscles tensed and his breathing evened. Father had drilled in the motions over and over again. He knew just what he was supposed to do. He knew how he was supposed to do it and what could make it easiest. He just did not have the best of luck putting it into action. His family was skilled at seeing things, but seeing did not mean you could manage it. Yet they were expected to.
Aion sighed and launched from the tree branch, body spinning through the air as he drew three kunai in each hand. His right extended, wrist snapping to send the kunai spiraling around each other. Without waiting to see if they hit he torques his body, using the momentum of his limbs to send his left hand darting out, this time using his fingers to guide these kunai towards their targets. As the rapid thud of petal sinking into rope sounds through the forest he draws a length of wire from his belt, hitches it to his gloves and sends it spinning over a limb. He couldn’t help but grin, this was so cool, the first time he saw big brother doing it. It made sense though; he had to break a fifty foot fall somehow.
Aion listened to the harsh sound of wood grating against the razor length of his wire as he dropped to the ground. He turned the point of impact into a tumble and rolled a couple of inches before springing to his feet and craning his head up. His brows furrowed at the distance and he grabbed his wire and began to haul himself up. His muscles burnt from the exertion but he embraced it. He had to get strong, very strong, otherwise he’d be nothing.
When he reached the top of the nearest branch he craned his neck and glimpsed his targets. The right hand target had three kunai in the innermost rings. Not a bulls eye but close, definitely in the chest region. The left target was worse off, all the kunai hit but they would be glancing blows at best. Father would be disappointed.
“You could have done that better” A voice murmured behind him. Startled Aion spun around, kunai clutched in a tiny hand before he sighed.
“Big brother. You trying to give me a heart attack or something?”
“Your positioning was off” He responded nodding to the targets.
Aion followed his gaze and saw the left target, “Well, you make it look easy!” he pouts, tucking his kunai away.
“That’s because I practice. You don’t just get better at things Aion, you have to work for it.” His smile blunted the edges of his remark.
“Come on, I’ll show you.”
“Thanks big brother!” Aion toted after Hiroshi with wide eyed delight. He looked up to the older man even though they held no close family ties.
-Rise-
“Again Aion” Eon’s coldly dispassionate voice resonated through the room. His son lay at his feet, a disgrace. The boy had yet to master the Uchiha’s Signature Fireball Jutsu, and his Genjutsu was nowhere near his brothers.
“You may not be Heir to the Uchiha head, but you may be, yes, one day you may. And should that day ever come” Eon reached down to drag his son up by the scruff of his neck. “You must be ready, without fail.
“Yes father.” Aion whispered as he brought his hands up and shakily moved through the seals.
“To slow” Eon’s arm flexed and Aion yelped as he tumbled through the air and hit the mat with a thud. He rolled to his feet without fanfare and began to seal once again. If he didn’t get the jutsu to work Father would hit him harder, and harder still. They had all night. Aion sealed.
“Fire Style, Fireball Jutsu!”
-You are of Blood-
“Hey little one” Aion peered up from the scroll he had been studying and blinks myopically at the shinobi before him. Academy Instructor Mei Lin was one of his favorite teachers. Kind, compassionate, understanding, and gentle. She was everything his father wasn’t. She reminded him a lot of his mother. He would often spend moments thinking that this was exactly how his mother would be if she were an Academy Instructor.
“Hi Mei!” Aion chirped with false cheer. After his latest training session with his father he had no spare energy really. It was all he could do to muster the pained grimace he currently portrayed. Mei was too clever, to savvy, and above all she knew him. She could recognize his paltry attempt at deception immediately. He knew he had failed when she maneuvered her heavy bulk next to him.
Mei’s size had always confused him. For a Shinobi she was almost obscenely obese. And she was not an Akimichi, who somehow managed to be overweight Shinobi of remarkable caliber. Honestly being that big should be against Shinobi Code or something.
“Hard day at home beastie?” She asked again, by the tone of her voice she had probably asked once or twice before. It was like a running game with them. He was almost certain she could read his mind. Some adults claimed they could, and even though Mei never said any such thing the sharp looks of reprisals and narrowed eyes managed to convey plenty on how she felt.
“Yeah” Despite his dour state Aion couldn’t help but grin. Mei had been calling him beastie since he joined the Academy. It was a nickname just for him. His grin flickers and falls away as his thoughts return to his previous dilemma.
“You know everyone has off days beastie.” Even as she said it Mei knew it was different for the little Uchiha. Eon was, a good father, provided for his family. But he was also abusive, his emotional stranglehold on his children was almost traumatic. Yet he was an Uchiha, and as far as the village were concerned, currently forging efficient and obedient shinobi.
Aion bit his lip as he listened to his favorite teacher and best friend. He was taught to keep the clan dealings in the clan but Mei had been a friend of his mother’s for years, she was as good as family. But more importantly, she wasn’t which meant she wouldn’t tell him to be strong. She would tell him the truth.
Even so, it took all of his courage to utter those seven words. Words, simple constructs that are meant to convey meaning, Yet they burnt his lips as he shaped them, tore his throat as he uttered the sounds. It brought tears to his eyes just to give them life, yet he has no choice.
“Mei….” He whispered coarsely. “Why does my father hate me?”
-You are my son-
“Fire Style Fireball Jutsu!” A ripple of flame erupts from Aions pursed lips. Like it had before for the last six months the jutsu fell apart scarcely before it came together. It was simply beyond him. At thirteen it should have been a simple affair. The seals were ones he had seen all through his life. The degree of chakra control was not beyond his supposed capabilities, and the amount of chakra needed was not exorbitant. But for some reason, some strange reason he could not perform the jutsu. To his father’s never ending disappointment.
“Do you even want to be a shinobi Aion?” Eon’s footsteps were soft, a whisper against the matabi matts. He did this on purpose, Aion knew. His father never made a sound if he did not want to. It was another test, another method of training for his son.
“O-of course father” Aion hissed at the pain in his limbs, the scorch marks around his mouth and the gaping void that spoke of his chakra levels. He pushed past it and struggled to his feet. He had no choice after all.
“I-I will be a Shinobi. I will earn my name!” Reaching into his belt bag Aion draws his combat kunai and rushes his father. “I won’t stop until you acknowledge me!”
-Are You More?-
“One…two…three” Aion’s fingers blurred, dancing through the air as he sent kunai after kunai flicking through the air, he maintained a steady rotation, body torqueing in lieu of his limbs, drawing along his body, past his holster, and extending out with whip thin motions.
“Four…five…six” He channeled chakra to his feet and leaped straight up, landing lightly on the tree and kicking off to gain the height to send his next three kunai at the higher posted targets. As he drops he sends two shuriken with wire attachments to two separate trees and allows his body to dip down before he springs up, flipping once to land on a branch before springing up and sending the last three kunai at the even higher targets.
“Seven…eight…nine!” Gripping a tree limb on his way down Aion swings around and pushes himself up to perch halfway to the ground. His violet eyes shift over the dark forest floor and his keen ears strain to listen to the sounds of the night time forest. Quiet.
Standing up Aion cranes his neck and looks around with a vaguely disappointed sigh. He had hit all the targets on the upper and mid range but those on the lower were off, worse than the other day in fact.
“Why Can’t I get this to work!?” He hisses in frustration and annoyance. Like most young boys he tended to cry when he got overemotional, and this was no difference. He could feel the tell tale prickle of tears at the corners of his eyes and he resented it. But he did not dash them away. His mother had told him long before that to cry was to be strong. For yourself and for others.
Aion wasn’t quite sure why he sat there pressed against the tree trunk, legs dangling off the branch. He wasn’t sure why he stared into the night sky and allowed tears to trail down his face. He did not know why, but he knew he felt better because of it.
“You’re doing well Aion” Mei whispered from the Hokage Monument. Miles away she should not have been able to see the young student. In fact she wouldn’t have, save for those eyes, soft lavender with concentric rings spreading through them. Those eyes set in a fat face with jolly jowls and perpetual smile lines studied the young man intently.
“You’re doing well son…you’re doing well..”
“He is isn’t he” Mei glances behind her and nods. She had dread this situation, had never expected it, but had prepared regardless.
“Eon..” Mei’s strange eyes narrow intently at the man standing before her. Clad in Konohagakure’s Jonin attire Eon Uchiha was a striking figure in the backdrop of the night. Mei’s fat fingers shifted, twitching for a weapon that she did not carry, that this body had not carried for over a decade.
“Huh, I recognize those eyes, I had my suspicions…but it was not until now that I was certain. It’s been a long time Lao.”
“Eon,” Mei repeated, this time with a great deal of annoyance in her voice. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Though when I anticipated this I expected you to pick up earlier. You must be getting old..” Mei’s thick lips twitched in a cruel grin. “Or are you losing your light at last?”
Even if her eyes did not watch the chakra surging through Eon’s body her remark would have set her instincts off immediately. It was always a sore subject for him, the finite inevitability of his sight. Unlike hers.
“You will die, for real this time” The Uchiha hissed as his black eyes spiral into crimson red, the curved blades of the kaleidoscope pinwheel eye glowing balefully. “Fire Style, Roar of the Dragon” Mei’s chubby fingers flicked out, despite her girth she wove her seals neatly, her strange eyes narrowing as she watched and deconstructed his technique. Her mind, sharp despite the physical shell selected the seals she would use and her chubby hands formed the jutsu. Her thick lips pursed and a torrent of water blasted out to meet the dragon head on.
“Water Style, Mouth of the Serpent!”
Knowing full well who his opponent is even with all the bulk Eon’s hand flashed into thirty six other seals. The dull thud of pressure settled in the air as he formed the last seal and spread his palms. The air atop the
monument cracked and hummed at high velocity. A sphere visible only to those two combatants explodes around them. Mei’s hands flash in a dozen seals. Her massive bulk jumps back, farther than she had in years. But it was to no avail. She shrieks, her voice stopping forcefully at the vacuum cuts off as her head explodes in a burst of blood and gore.
“Huh, must have gotten slow when you got fat, and became a woman” Eon grimaced, at the cooling corpse.
“I admit,” A cool voice murmured from behind the Uchiha. “That was an impressive jutsu Eon.” Eon turned his head partially, just enough for his Sharingan to glimpse the shadow of the man behind him. “Lao…so you kept yourself close.”
“Naturally, I had to be close, to my beloved…to my..” The Senju paused to smile.
“No!” Eon hissed, drawing his ninjato as he spun around. “He’s mine! Mine!”
“You know better than that, you’ve known for some time. You can feel it. He doesn’t have it. The Uchiha Hatred, He has his mother’s blood….my blood.”
“Fire Style, Majestic Conflagration!” The roaring flames Eon spewed would have lit up the night had Lao not engaged his bloodline. The night sky bleached, graying even as the Uchiha’s powerful Katon technique cast the world in blazing heat. Lao, fully in the throes of the power of his Legendary Sight raised his hands and pulled.
The flames roared, and sputtered, the heat and life vanishing into the empty gap of Lao’s hands. “You should know by now Eon, My Rinnegan will not allow your ninjutsu to work. My Rinnegan will not allow you to win, or keep my son..”
Raising his hands Lao smiled. The Mangekyo could pierce even the greatest of illusions. He would have to do something clever. Fortunately for him, he had the capabilities of it.
“You won’t be able to do this, not what you’re planning to” Eon murmured, eyes closing. “You underestimate me, you underestimate the Uchiha!” With a silent snarl Eon opens his right eye. “Fujin” He grins as wind tears around them. Tears of blood well at the corner of his eyes and chakra rippled through the air.
“This, is just beginning.”
-This is the End-
The shadowed world of Lao’s Dimensional Jutsu lay in ruins. Darkness peeled from the sky walls. The ground alternated between scorched earth and blasted dirt. The Shadowy mountains lay in ruins and massive gouges littered the empty city of the silent realm.
Atop two standing pillars stood two silhouettes. One stood straight and casual, robes of black swathed over a muscular frame, a long black naginata blade in one hand. The other, hunched over with exhaustion present in the set of his shoulders and the rise of his chests.
“You are tired Eon. You are blind; you have overused your Mangekyo and are nearly devoid of all chakra.” Lao’s voice was a soft whisper through the empty air of the folded dimension. Despite his apparent superior position the Senju’s voice held no hint of the mockery from before, or even the taunting jibes of rivals or enemies. It was stoic and cold, authoritative and sure of its certainty.
“I…w-wont…give..up!” Eon panted, dropping to one knee. Tears of blood slid down his face in an unending stream. His flak jacket was torn and ripped and half of his face was scorched, with the other half withered. In total he looked worn out and injured.
Compared to him Lao was almost regal. His robes were wrinkled, and the blade of his naginata bore notch marks and blood splatters. His long black hair was slightly frizzed and his eyes showed the strain of long combat. But still he remained relatively unscathed.
“Your Eyes are strong yes, but even you are not a god!” The beaugarded Kono nin struggled to straighten himself out. He was on his last legs and he knew it. But it did not matter, it never mattered. For all his bravado he did not expect to best one with ‘those’ eyes.
“This is true, but I am ‘your’ executioner old friend.” Lao raised his naginata. “Do not worry, when I kill you I will take your body, and then I will be with my son and my beloved in your place. It’s nothing personal really..” He began before pausing to shake his head. “Scratch that. It’s actually very personal, you knew she and I were one from the beginning, you married her to spite me.” For the first time fury boiled in Lao’s voice. “You are a cruel, evil, vindictive man Uchiha Eon, and I will take great pleasure in ending your existence.”
Forming a single seal Lao reaches out and drags Eon to his feet. His eyes are unblinking as they stare into the Mangekyo fearlessly. Only now, on the cusp of his death throes did Eon finally see ‘it’ the creature that Lao had called to existence with his Samsara Eye.
“W-what is that? What is that!” He cried into the grinning face of the Outer Path.
“The End” Lao murmured quietly as he reached into Eon and removed his soul.
-Beloved?-
Eon Uchiha walked through the halls of the Uchiha compound. His gait was no different, his cold sneer no less frigid, his immaculate hair no more disturbed than it usually was. Nevertheless, one who knew him well would have sworn that something was off, that something was different. Fortunately for Lao, not many knew the standoffish Jonin well.
[This body is odd, but it feels good to be male again, I’ve really missed some parts of that. Helps that I’m not overweight anymore to] For the briefest moment a flicker of amusement dances through Eon’s eyes and across his thin lips.
He couldn’t help the tightening of anticipation and flicker of apprehension that coursed through him as he turned into Eon’s domicile. He had spent some time here, and some time with his wife and son even, but never like this. He was never able to hold her, or to look upon his son and offer him the advice that only a father can. Never before. But that would change.
Despite the years of deception and skill he had amassed over his life he couldn’t help the smile of pure joy as he walked in on Matatabi and Aion. His beloved, and his son. He stood for a full minute simply watching them, observing as they sat at the table and conversed on kunai trajectory of all things. The boy was barely ten years of age and already he had such a drive to become a Shinobi.
The cold grip of fear arrested his heart as he thought to Eon. His methods, his behavior. Their was no doubt he loved the boy he thought, no wanted to be his son. But there was also little doubt that he had very little experience or success in the ways of child rearing. The nights Mei’s chubby arms cushioned a crying boy flashed through his mind. The hours spent teaching restraint, and compassion, and kindness to temper the hard steel Eon worked so hard to beat into the boy. In that moment the black fury he had suppressed, thought he had dispersed with Eon’s death roared to the fore. Only the soft gasp from his beloved drew his attention from the dark paths those thoughts lay.
“My husband..” Matatabi murmured demurely, her keen eyes flickered through her bangs. She knew her husband well, and she knew that something was off.
Lao couldn’t help the roguish grin as he stepped into the room. Even here he had to maintain his charade, and his movements matched Eon’s predatory gait perfectly. But for all his skill as a Shinobi and as a wielder of a legendary bloodline he could not hide his eyes. He could not hide the love, and desire, nor did he truly wish to.
“Beloved…”
Matatabi blinked once and smiled, the pure joy lit her face and her sobs of joy muffled in Laoo’s chest.
Their plan had worked.
