27 Chapter 27

Kenshin and Ichiro instantly jumped up to Keiji and fell to their knees in front of his body. Kenshin immediately checked his son's pulse, but felt nothing. Tears welled up in the grieving eyes of Kenshin and Ichiro, who could not comprehend that Keiji was dead.

After several minutes of inconsolable grief, Kenshin's eyes clouded with anger, and he stood up decisively, then walked towards the defeated Genin. Unbuttoning his green vest and ripping open his shirt, Kenshin grabbed a kunai and began making deep cuts into his chest.

At the moment, Kenshin was furious, and decided to use one of the most terrible formations - the "soul cell" formation.

The "soul cell" formation was one of the most evil and "forbidden" formations. Those who used it on defeated enemies were considered vile scoundrels, and all because this formation caused damage not to the body, but to the soul.

After applying runes to the ribs of the victim, the soul, which did not have time to leave its body, found itself locked in a "cage" and was forced to languish in a rotting and decaying body until the last bone decayed and turned to dust.

Souls locked in cages were usually considered destroyed. For several years, locked up in its decomposed body, the soul was imbued with a huge amount of evil energy, and even if it got into the cycle of reincarnation, nothing good happened to such a soul in the future. In the best case, after rebirth, a person will be born mentally retarded, and will be haunted by misfortunes all his life.

Having finished applying runes to the genin's ribs, Kenshin checked his pockets and found 4000 ryo in them. Taking them, he turned around and walked towards the body of his late son, and decisively yanked the kunai from his heart.

- No, father! What are you doing?! You can't pull a kunai out of a wound! – Ichiro exclaimed.

- Calm down! Keiji is no more. We need to get out of here quickly before anyone notices us. – Kenshin stated in a serious tone.

- B-but... Keiji... - Ichiro muttered, and received a slap in the face from his father.

- Come to your senses! Quickly pack our things and let's leave. – Kenshin growled at him.

Ichiro reluctantly obeyed and grabbed three backpack bags, then walked up to his father.

- Help me put it on my back. "Kenshin said calmly.

Ichiro was taken aback and muttered: "W-what?"

- Help me pick him up. – He repeated. - We need to bring him home. Aya must say goodbye to him.

Ichiro helped place Keiji's body on his father's back and said, "Father, maybe I should carry him?" I'm stronger...

- No! I took him out of the house, I must bring him back. – Kenshin answered decisively, and slowly walked forward, carrying the lifeless body of his second son on his back.

****

Kenshin and Ichiro walked in silence the entire way. An hour later, Kenshin felt incredibly tired, his arms were stiff, unable to support his heavy body, and his legs refused to walk, but Kenshin clenched his teeth and continued to walk. There was still an hour to go home, but Kenshin forced his weak legs to take one more step.

The last few kilometers were especially difficult for him. The pace slowed to a shallow shuffle, and what should have been an hour's journey stretched into two hours.

As soon as they reached the foot of their native mountain, Kenshin found his last strength and moved upward. He seemed to be punishing himself for carelessness and for not saving his own son from death. His entire body was covered in blood pouring from his pierced heart, and even Kenshin's knee joints were covered with a thick crust of blood, refusing to bend or straighten.

By the time Kenshin and Ichiro reached home, the sun had almost set, and Keiji's lifeless body was beginning to feel rigor mortis.

Kenshin carried his son's body into one of the neighboring caves and laid it on the ground. He knelt down in front of him and silently looked at his peaceful face for several minutes. Outwardly, it seemed that Keiji was simply sleeping, but a huge stain of blood all over his chest spoiled the whole picture.

A few minutes later, Kenshin rose to his feet and walked home.

As soon as the front door opened, an excited Aya appeared on the threshold and exclaimed: "Thank God!" I've already started re..." She interrupted her speech when she saw Kenshin, completely covered in blood.

- Oh my God! Kenshin, what's wrong with you? Are you injured?! – She exclaimed and instantly rushed to her husband.

Kenshin could not look her in the eye, and muttered: "Follow me." You need to say goodbye to him. "And then he turned around and headed out.

Aya, taken aback, instantly felt fear and ran out after Kenshin.

Following Kenshin, Aya asked several times "what happened" but he remained silent and continued to walk forward. A minute later they reached the desired cave, and Aya, seeing Ichiro first, asked: "Ichiro, honey, what happened?"

Ichiro looked away, and two trails of tears flowed from his eyes. The next second, Aya saw a body lying to the side, and it was as if she was struck by lightning. My legs gave way, and a scream mixed with a howl came out of my mouth: "No... No... No!" "She sobbed and rushed to the body lying on the ground.

- Keiji, God, Keiji! Wake up! Kenshin, tell me you were just kidding me! Tell! "She screamed, and tears poured out of her eyes, flowing down her cheeks, chin, and falling onto her lifeless body.

She cried for several minutes, begging Keiji to wake up, but his eyes never opened.

- Why... Why?! You promised that our children would become great shinobi! – Aya shouted and stared into Kenshin's eyes. He barely found the strength to meet her gaze, but did not answer.

Aya turned away and began to sob again over the body of her late son, sobbing non-stop and begging him to "wake up." A few minutes later, Kenshin walked up to his wife and whispered: "Enough." Come back home.

Aya did not react at all, and continued to sob, bending over Keiji's body.

- Aya, come back to the house! "He shouted at her in an orderly tone, and she barely rose to her feet and shuffled towards the house, not ceasing to sob, leaving a small scattering of tears behind her.

All this time, tears flowed from Ichiro's eyes. He couldn't believe his brother was dead. Just a few hours ago they were happily wandering around the city, and now his younger brother lay a cold corpse in the corner of the cave.

- Go say goodbye to your brother. – Kenshin's voice suddenly rang out, knocking Ichiro out of his painful thoughts.

Ichiro, wiping his tears with the back of his hand, silently walked up to his brother and knelt down. He looked at his brother's face for several minutes, whispered words he knew only to him, and then got up and silently left the cave.

Kenshin took a deep breath and walked over to Keiji's body. Sitting down next to him, he began to draw the formation. After a few minutes, he rose to his feet, carefully dragged Keiji's body inside the formation, and sat down next to him.

He looked at his son's peaceful face for a long time, then took a deep breath and whispered: "Goodbye, son...

Kenshin activated the formation, and Keiji's body was instantly enveloped in burning flames. A few minutes later, Kenshin collected the ashes hanging in the air into a bag and headed home without looking back.

Approaching the front door, Kenshin took off all his clothes and laid them on the cold floor of the cave, not wanting to bring them into the house. As soon as he stepped onto the threshold of the house, he heard Aya's sobs coming from the bedroom. His heart gave another painful twitch, but he found the strength to ignore his crying wife and moved towards the bathroom.

The next ten minutes were harder for Kenshin than the entire previous hour. For the first time he was alone with his thoughts, and they gnawed at him from the inside. He didn't know how he would be able to look into Aya's eyes now, or what would happen to their family.

Having dried himself off, he put on a robe and left the bathroom, heading to the bedroom. As soon as he opened the door, he immediately saw Aya lying on the bed. She sobbed and cried bitterly, burying herself in the pillow. Noticing Kenshin, she fell silent for a second and looked in his direction, and then began to cry even more.

Kenshin walked over to the bed and sat on its edge, stroking Aya on the back, but she instantly bucked and pulled away. Kenshin climbed onto the bed and lay down next to her, and the girl tried to get out of bed and leave, but was grabbed by Kenshin's strong arms.

- Let go! "She screamed, but he pulled her towards him and wrapped her in a tight hug.

Finding herself in Kenshin's arms, Aya buried her face in his chest and cried harder than ever. Kenshin didn't say anything, but just stroked her head and kissed the top of her head.

After a few minutes, Aya stopped crying and looked up and asked: "How did this happen?"

Kenshin began to retell to her in every detail everything that had happened, and when he mentioned a genin from Konoha, Aya shouted in anger: "Shinobi of Konoha?" But why did he have to attack you?

- Apparently he found out that we had a large amount of money with us. "Kenshin answered with a sigh.

He continued his story, and when he came to the moment of Keiji's death, Aya could not restrain herself and began to sob again.

Kenshin kissed the top of her head and stroked her back again, calming his crying wife.

A minute later, she finally calmed down a little and asked: "What happened next?" How did you escape?

Kenshin told her the last part, about the awakening of Ichiro's sharingan, and his crushing victory.

- What? Sharingan?! – Aya exclaimed in shock. - But... But...

"It turns out your great-grandfather was telling the truth..." Kenshin sighed.

Under other circumstances, Aya and Kenshin would have been jumping up and down with joy long ago, but now, they only briefly discussed Ichiro's Sharingan and continued to lie in each other's arms.

A few hours later, Aya finally fell asleep, and even in her sleep she involuntarily sobbed and moaned, but calmed down when Kenshin held her close and stroked her head