How Can This Be? [Travel To Hi no Kuni]

Age : 31 Posts : 1836

• Continued From •
Just Another Average Day In An Average Village

Senju Yashin. Over and over, Masquerade heard the elderly woman and her granddaughter from the tea shop speaking those words in his mind in an endless cycle. These two words had been branded into Masquerade’s brain; the name of his father, the man responsible for Masquerade’s status as a Jinchuuriki. No matter what he did, no matter what he put his mind to, he could not pull his thoughts away from the story he had heard from Otae. He felt obsessed, restless as he reflected on all he had been told. His father, who had come to Kusa no Kuni twenty years ago, had helped a complete stranger in a simple act of kindness and sympathy. A shinobi of Konoha and a member of the renowned Senju clan, that was who his father had been. From what Masquerade had gathered from Otae’s tale, Yashin had been a pleasant man, kind and gentle. How then, could he have done something as cruel and horrid as to seal a monster within his own son’s body? How could he do something like that, even if it was for the sake of “the village”? What could possibly have happened during the three years between Yashin’s visit to Kusa no Kuni and Masquerade’s birth?

Masquerade gripped his head firmly with his gloved hands, his insectile eyes wide behind his mask, his teeth clenched tightly as his mind spun in confusion. It was driving him mad, this confusion. So many questions revolved around in his mind, questions he yearned to have answered. And all of these questions could be answered by his now-deceased father. Masquerade raised his head from his hands slowly. He was the one who had killed his father in a fit of rage, and because of that, he had now lost his best chance to learn about his past, his origin. The irony of it all was unbearably hilarious.

There was a silver lining, though. Yashin had been a ninja aligned to Konohagakure no Sato. There was a high probability of Masquerade learning more about his father’s past, or even his own past, if he went to Hi no Kuni. It would be difficult, but if he could find someone who knew his father, then he could obtain some answers. Slowly, Masquerade rose to his feet. It was not going to be easy. Walking into a Shinobi Village, especially one as grand as Konohagakure, was extremely dangerous. It made jumping off a sixty story building or sticking one’s tongue in an electric socket appear to be a harmless action! He would not be able to simply stroll into the village. He would have to come up with a plan for that.

The boy’s eyes shifted as he glanced around him. The Forest of Bamboo, a dense thicket of towering bamboo plants surrounding him. The vegetation was so gargantuan that the foliage atop the branches acted as a natural canopy, providing a continuous stretch of shade on the ground. The eerily silent forest seemed to be devoid of all life aside from Masquerade and the plants. It was a marvelous sight, a wonderland of Kusa no Kuni. It was certainly a location which Masquerade would enjoy relaxing in, perhaps sitting down and reading a nice book. At the moment, however, he did not give a damn about the blasted grass. The boy’s head stopped as he located the path he was seeking. If he followed it, he would end up in Hi no Kuni. After that it would just be a little while longer until he reached Konohagakure no Sato. Fixing his cloak and directing his feet towards the path, Masquerade thus began his journey to Hi no Kuni, Konoha, and hopefully the answers to the questions in his head.

[Exit to Hi no Kuni]