Seiun
Although B.O.S.E.C's voice was resonating in his ears, Seiun could hardly hear it since the palpitations of his heart had drowned out all other sound in the world. At long last, the rogue shinobi had returned to the Yasei Residence, but instead of a form of excitement or glee, the only emotion that the former Ame-nin felt was dread.
"Well, the obvious next course of action would be to knock on the door..." Seiun attempted to feign confidence, but his tone betrayed him and revealed his nerves. As he went to get himself noticed, memories from his childhood flooded into his mind.
Seiun(Flashback): 8 years ago
The young boy woke up and immediately turned to his desk to observe his plans for the day. Unlike a normal kid who planned on making time to hang out with friends or spend time with his family, Seiun was devising a scheme to kill his mother and father. Recently, he had come into possession of a lethal, slow acting poison(which had a label denoting it as such in order to prevent confusion with other clear liquids such as water) thanks to the “negligence” of one of the workers his parents had hired. The plan was simple: he would request to shadow the chefs while they work. Once his request goes through, he would then ask the chefs if he could attempt to imitate their meal by making a serving for himself. At the earliest opportunity, he would implant the poison within the chef’s serving of the meal, and then continue to imitate the meal to its completion, keeping his own serving away from his parents. Once his parents had returned from their mission and it was time for dinner, the poisoned meal would be served to them while he got to enjoy a nice meal. When the poison kicks in, he can then frame the poor sap that served them the meal, but he would need to improvise an escape route in the event that he got exposed. Despite that, the Ame-nin was quite satisfied with the plan he had put together, and he felt confident in putting into action today.
“Seiun!” Lady Yasei yelled from downstairs, causing her son to exit his room and stand at the top of the steps to hear his mother better, “Your lessons are about to begin, make sure that you don’t make your instructors wait too long,” As the boy descended downstairs, he noticed that his father, Lord Yasei, was absent.
“Where’s father?” The boy inquired to his mother, not knowing why his dad would be out at such an early hour.
“Dealing with politics and other things I couldn’t be bothered to care for,” Her tone was blasé, as if she was just doing the bare minimum to get the child out of her hair, “Now attend your lessons young man, I don’t want to repeat myself again,” With this being said, the boy nodded and proceeded to the training room for his daily instruction. At this point, Seiun's interest in his own instruction had dwindled significantly since Zheng was fired by Hueici and his replacement shared none of the qualities that Zheng used to make the process of learning ninjutsu fun. Taijutsu wasn't too bad, but there was only so much a prepubescent boy could do in terms of hand to hand combat, a fact that was considered in his evaluations. Genjutsu was a complete waste of time in Seiun's eyes since he ultimately couldn't make sense of anything his instructors were saying, which was reflected in his evaluations. However, the one session of instruction that he was fond of was Bukijutsu, mainly because his instructor allowed him to practice Kenjutsu. Despite this, the day still seemed to breeze by until about 5:00, when both of Seiun’s parents had announced their departure for their mission and the chefs were beginning to prepare dinner.
Now to put the plan into action.
“Mother, Father, would you be okay if I observed the chefs’ work?” Once he noticed that his parents were giving him an unusual look in response to his unusual request, but all the boy gave in response was a simple smile, causing his parents to shrug after the fact.
“Very well boy, although I couldn’t imagine what you’d gain out of it.” Lord Yasei replied as he turned to leave along with his wife, “We shall return soon, don’t break anything while we’re gone.” As he gave a loveless warning to his youngest son, the Lord and Lady of the Noble Yasei Clan had made their departure, unaware of the conspiracy against them.
"Perfect…." Seiun chuckled in a low voice as he travelled to the kitchen. As expected, the chefs were hard at work with preparing tonight's dinner. Unfortunately, he realized that the kitchen workers’ process was too difficult to replicate himself, and there didn’t seem to be an opening to slip the poison in the meal any time soon.
Need to come up with a backup plan...I got it! I’ll offer to pour them drinks, allowing me to poison them that way! Perfect!
3 hours after the couple's departure, the chefs had finished up their dinner preparations, and the return of Hueici and Sumire had been announced. This prompted Seiun to arrive with the intention of greeting his parents. As the two entered the mansion, it was apparent that the mission they returned from was a dangerous one. Although the duo had been battle-scarred and bandaged, the two seemed to have a renewed sense of life.
“Welcome back, Mother and Father,” Seiun greeted with a superficial cheer in his voice, “Your mission was successful, I presume?”
“We didn’t succeed in every area, but we accomplished the majority of our goals, my boy,” There was a renewed, uncharacteristic sense of vigor in Hueici’s voice, which didn’t go unnoticed by his son.
“My boy”... he rarely calls me that...but that won’t save him from proper retribution.
“Dinner has been prepared in your absence, let me escort you two.” Seiun offered his exhausted parents, unintentionally causing them to chuckle.
“We appreciate the offer dear, but we can get to the tables ourselves just fine,” Similarly to her husband, her tone had shifted to a much kinder and more motherly tone than her son was used to. Once the family sat at the table and began to eat for a bit, Seiun decided that it was time to put his plan into action.
“I’m getting myself a drink, would you two like anything?” The boy offered, but soon found himself shut down.
“There’s no need to exert yourself for our sake, darling.” Sumire chuckled as she responded to her son, unknowingly enraging him.
Keep your cool, you can find a way through this.
“I understand, but I wanted to do something for you two since you worked so hard today…” As a desperate measure, the boy turned on his childlike cuteness factor, which was thankfully enough to sway his exhausted parents.
“If you insist, my boy. My wife and I will take any wine that you serve in the second shelf of the wine cabinet,” Lord Yasei was playfully resigned in tone as he responded to his son, “Torinosuke, assist my son in locating the wine cabinet, if you will.” The hired hand nodded as he escorted Seiun to the wine cabinet, much to the boy's hidden frustration.
Why must I encounter an interference at every turn?! Still, I must keep composure if I am to succeed…
It didn't take long for the duo to reach their destination, prompting Seiun to take a chance to secure his plans success.
"Thank you, Mr. Torinosuke. I no longer require your assistance." The young boy bowed respectfully to the elder man, prompting him to leave satisfied that he helped his Lord's son. Taking a sigh of relief, Seiun opened the cabinet, grabbed the nearest bottle along with two wine glasses, and poured the wine followed by the poison. Aside from being colorless, the poison was also odorless and tasteless, ensuring that its presence wouldn't alarm the consumer. Once both glasses were prepared, Seiun delivered them back to his parents, along with a glass of water for himself since he was legitimately thirsty.
“How generous of you,” Hueici thanked his son for the beverage, inhaling deeply with exhaustion over the day’s events, “Do you want to know something, my boy?”
“Sure, feel free to share, Father.” Although the boy was unsure what Lord Yasei was on about, he figured that it couldn’t hurt to hear what his father had to say.
“Today, our mission was to assassinate an enemy of the village and although we knew it’d be guarded, we didn’t expect the enemies’ facility to be as guarded as it was. Your mother and I had fought off the guards, but the target got away and we nearly lost our lives on that mission. During the healing process, I gained a new perspective: when I die, I want to make sure that my children ensure the good name of the Yasei Noble Clan. I’ve always wanted that, but I realize that in my efforts I’ve alienated both you and your sister by comparing you both to your brother. It wasn’t right of me.” To his son’s surprise, Hueici brought up the flaws in his character and apologized for his mistakes, “I brought this up with your mother and she too came to a similar conclusion. Therefore, my boy, I have but one request for you: I ask not that you forgive us of our past behavior, but I request that you give your mother and I the opportunity to make it right.” The boy had been rendered speechless, a small “lump” forming as a result of his guilt. The very guilt that formed a lump in his throat had also paralyzed him, rendering him unable to speak out against the conspiracy that he plotted. All he could muster was a simple nod, though it was weak, he made every effort to conceal that fact.
“I’m thankful for your grace, my boy. Let today serve as a turning point in our family dynamic,” Lord Yasei declared with delight, “And let’s commemorate this event with a toast.” Hueici and Sumire picked up their glasses of wine while their son reluctantly picked up his glass of water to toast of the upcoming change, albeit not the change that Seiun’s parents expected. The boy watched as his mother and father consumed the poisoned wine, causing the “lump” in his throat growing larger despite his best efforts to down it with his drink. Eventually, the poison had kicked in: the parents began to cough violently, eventually hacking out blood, and fear began to fill their eyes when the realization that their deaths were imminent had dawned on them. The two turned to their son and soon pieced together the conspiracy that had been planned, causing the anger induced by betrayal to mix with the fear induced by their impending deaths.
“Seiun...y-you....” Despite his best efforts, Hueici ultimately couldn’t form a complete sentence, coughing between the words that managed to escape his mouth. Although he wanted to run, Seiun was paralyzed by fear, unable to avert his gaze from his parents’ suffering.
“Ironic...that I perish not by Jonin guards....but by my own son…” Unlike her husband, Sumire was able to utter a sentence before she passed away. Hueici had died soon after, leaving Seiun without parents and the Yasei Noble Clan without a Lord or a Lady. Unfortunately for the young boy, one of the hired hands had heard Sumire’s dying words.
“Men! Lady Sumire and Lord Hueici have been slain by Seiun!” The hired hand cried to his coworkers, some of which arrived immediately and others took their time to arrive, “We must apprehend this traitor!” Immediately after this declaration, the recently-declared traitor’s fight-or-flight instinct took over, specifically the latter option. At first, Seiun opted to run for the front exit, but it was blocked off by a few of his apprehenders, forcing him to consider another exit. Although he began to run in the opposite direction, he had no plan of escape. Unbeknownst to him as he was scrambling around the house, one of the hired hands had called for shinobi to assist them in detaining the perpetrator.
If the front exit is blocked off, then there’s a good chance that the back exit is blocked as well, and I can’t take the chance to check.
Eventually, Seiun realized that he was fresh out of options, as he found himself running aimlessly in any way that he thought would allow him to avoid capture from his parents’ hired hands. He eventually found a wall to hide behind, allowing himself to collect his thoughts to come up with anything that he could use to improve his chances of survival.
...I’ve got it! I can transform myself into a rat! The people my parents hired don’t know much about it, so I should be able to get away with it. I haven’t practiced transformation jutsu very much, but I have no other choice…
Taking a moment to recall the hand-seals that were used for the technique, the boy soon went through the motions of recreating the Dog, Boar and Ram seals slowly and deliberately, as to avoid making any mistakes that would cause him to botch the jutsu. After a few attempts, the self-made orphan successfully transformed his appearance to that of a rather deformed black rat.
Alright, now that I’m transformed, I just have to walk around and hope they dispose of me.
Once he left his hiding spot, he looked for one of the formerly hired hands who was on patrol in hopes of locating him. Fortunately for Seiun, it didn’t take long for him to get noticed by the man he was pursuing.
“Ugh, a rat... I think...” The man groaned in disgust as he unknowingly picked up the very boy he was looking for, “I don’t care what it is, I’m getting rid of this thing immediately.” Although everything seemed to be going according to plan for the boy, he knew that he wasn’t out of the woods yet. However, as Seiun predicted, none of the man’s coworkers suspected much of anything when they were told that the man was getting rid of a deformed rat, nor did any of the man’s coworkers think to stop him since they were looking for the murderer of the Yasei Noble Clan’s head. Therefore, Seiun had successfully been thrown out of his house, making his next move clear as day.
I need to get out of here...
Seiun(Present Day)
I...don't think I can do this....
