Arc 3 - Strings of fate

NOTE:

Writing is hard.

It takes a lot of time.

It needs motivation and creativity.

And It kills my spirit everytime I read the comment section and see lots of negative bord-line malicious comments. One thing is constructive criticism, and another thing is critizating every little detail.

Ikarus is my character, I know his strength, I know his weakness.

I am tired of people's negative attitude.

If all you're going to do is maliciously criticize every detail, don't comment at all.

All you do is killing all my motivation.

I can take constructive criticism.

What I wont take is insults, HATERS GET OUT OF MY FANDOM. I delated enough thretening comments already. If that is all you are gonna do stop reading my story and leave me alone.

Now the the chapter:

***

|A six years old boy is alone in a forest clearing, he is blindfolded. He turns his wrists and four kunai appear in each hand. He bends his knees a little and disappears.

He appears a couple of meters off the ground, in the air with his head pointing to the ground. He throws the kunai, turns his wrists and another eight kunai appear in his hands. He also throws these kunai, some kunai collide with each other changing its trajectory.

He lands on the ground and removes his blindfold. He looks around him.

"Tsk. 6 out of 10."

"R###-### ###### ####"

The girl has#########-|

***

In a hut in the woods an old woman is cleaning the wounds of a handsome young boy.

The boy is writhing in pain, his body bathed in sweat.

The old woman is telling him something, but he can't understand. It sounds like he's hearing things underwater.

He closes his eyes.

***

| He is running through the forest, he can't stop. They are chasing him. He makes the mistake of looking back and trips over a root.

He tries to get up quickly and keep running but he is cornered.

There are five adult men, all with black hair and red eyes.

"Hahaha you thought you could escape little Senju?"

"We are the squadron of the great ##### #######-|

***

The boy opens his eyes, his vision is blurred and the pain prevents him from thinking clearly.

He tries to get up but he can't move a single muscle, his body is stiff and sore.

"Quiet boy. The poison hasn't-"

The old woman cannot finish the sentence, the boy falls unconscious again.

***

|A boy is sitting on the edge of a futon looking at the woman lying there.

The woman has golden blonde hair, It is thick with a strange, pleasant volume -The boy knows that it is very soft and nice to the touch- large emerald green eyes shining with love and warmth, her face is heart-shaped. Her lips are arched in a soft smile.

She gestures for him to come closer to her and taps his forehead with her index and middle finger.

"Ouch. ######" The woman smiled playfully at him and ruffled his hair.

The boy tries to hold back his smile but his lips quirk up.

The warmth in his chest fades as he sees a man enter the room.

"#########-|

***

The boy opens his eyes, his vision is cloudy. He can barely open his eyes.

He feels a hand lifting his head, and a glass touching his lips, someone giving him water to drink.

He mistrusts the stranger but the burning in his throat makes him open his mouth.

He tries to drink too fast and nearly chokes.

"Slow down boy, there's time."

The boy listens to her words and slows down.

Soon his thirst is quenched, he tries to say something but the darkness claims him again.

***

|-a boy with brown hair is fighting against a teenager.

The teenager has brown hair and dark blue eyes, he is tall and handsome.

The boy is about ten years old and the teenager fifteen.

The fight is not friendly.

The teen throws a kunai at him which turns into a dozen when the teen does a few hand seals.

The boy's hands become a blur and before the kunai reach him, a big ball made of air escapes from his mouth. The kunai are repelled towards the teenager at great speed.

They hit him squarely.

But his body transforms into a log with a puff.

The boy looks frantically in all directions.

Right.

Left.

Ahead.

Behind.

"Under then!"

He leaps into the air just as the ground cracks beneath him, the teen emerging from the hole.

The teenager looks for the boy, he sees him a couple of meters away in the air. He goes to use another jutsu, but then he sees them. Scraps of paper floating around him, he raises an eyebrow wondering what they are.

The boy makes a sign with his right hand.

Before the teenager can touch one of the papers, they all start to light up.

The last thing he sees is the inscription on the paper.

BOOOOMMMMM!|

***

The boy opens his eyes and looks around him.

The ceiling and walls are made of wood.

He sees a window without glass next to a door, it has small wooden doors open wide.

On the other side is a fireplace with a cooking pot on the fire.

"You're finally awake"

He turns his head towards the voice, sitting in a chair next to a table is an old woman. She is in her eighties or nineties, her head covered with a cloth, has a long face full of wrinkles, and small gray eyes that seem to stare right through him.

The old woman gets up from her chair and walks over to the bed where the young Senju is lying.

Ikarus tries to speak but his throat is dry and scratchy. The old woman gives him a glass of water and the shinobi drinks it greedily.

`Who is she? Where am I?` Ikarus frowns trying to remember what happened.

`The bandits! They shot me! I used the kawarimi to escape and then... I remember walking I think? Everything is blurry`

The old woman clears her throat drawing the shinobi's attention.

"Everything alright in your head boy?"

"What- My head?" Ikarus looks at her confused, it takes a few moments to understand what the old woman means.

"My head is fine. Anyways, where am I? And who are you?"

"Children these days, no manners. They don't even say thank you for saving their lives." the old lady mumbles

"Oh right." Ikarus looks away embarrassed. "My thanks old woman, I owe you my life."

"Bah." The old woman dismisses his thanks with a hand gesture and sits in a chair beside the bed. Ikarus raises an eyebrow.

`She asks me to thank her and when I do...`

"My name is Branda boy."

"I am Ikarus Senju." Ikarus shakes her hand.

"When you introduce yourself to a lady you kiss her hand. Didn't your parents teach you manners?"

"You don't look like a lady granny-" Branda hits him in his right arm.

"Ouch!" A cry of pain erupts from the young shinobi's throat. The old woman hit near one of the areas where he was shot.

"Don't be a girl." The old woman rebukes him. "Men don't cry in pain." She makes fun of him.

"I'm not a man yet! So I can cry all I want you rude granny" Ikarus answers petulantly.

"Children." Mumbles the old woman shaking her head.

"You saved my life." Ikarus looks at her seriously, all traces of playful mockery disappearing from his face.

"Aye, I found you lying in the woods while I was picking herbs." The old woman rubs her back. "You sure are heavy for such a small child."

"I am not small!" Ikarus protests but looks at her with gratitude and respect.

`I am not heavy but for such an old woman to carry me... She could have seriously injured her back.`

***

Meanwhile in a dark dimension two figures made of light are arguing.

"You shouldn't have intervened! It's still too early!"

"I've done what I had to."

"Old man..."

"You are millennia older than me."

"But I don't look like it." The first figure smirked arrogantly. The second sighs wearily.

"Are we doing the right thing?"

The first figure looks at him seriously but doesn't answer, he looks at nothing.

"..."

"He believes that his choices are his own, that he is free-"

"He is free. The boy is free to do whatever he wants." He is interrupted by the first figure.

"That's a lie and you know it."

"Guiding his path is not controlling him. He is not our puppet. Or anyone else's for that matter."

The second figure says nothing, remains silent with a thoughtful look on his face.

"He's HIS reincarnation…" he sighs and rubs his forehead.