I hid in the shadows, letting them wash over me, hiding me from the man walking down the street. His features were illuminated by nothing more than the light of the lamps. He had dark, wavy hair that reached to his shoulders. He wore the usual wear for jonin in the Iron Village, which was basically like the outfit of the Fire Country's main village, Konoha, but the vest was dark silver.
My entire family is made up of assassins.
My hand slid under my black cloak, wrapping around the hilt of my short sword. My stormy gray eyes followed the man, the rest of my body completely still. My chest barely even moved when I breathed. It was when he left the light of the nearby lamp that I moved, zipping to the shadows which he was now in. The blade left its sheath, the blade toward my forearm.
I've known nothing but killing since I was a child.
My hand went forward, the blade and my hand slipping past the man's shoulder. I brought my sword out, bringing it back to place the edge of the blade against his neck. The man tensed, not knowing I was there prior to my blade being at his neck. It would be so easy to just kill him right then, to slit his throat open.
I hide myself in the darkness.
The only thing was that I hesitated. It only took that moment of hesitation for the jonin to react. He ducked, getting away from the blade. He swirled around to face me, a kunai in his previously empty hand. He blocked the slash of my next slash, taking a step back from the force. He glared at me, glancing around as if he expected someone else to jump out and join me.
If I don't, I'm afraid that it will destroy me instead.
I cursed myself for my short amount of hesitation, using my shoulder to block a kick aimed at my face. I used the armor guard of my forearm to block his kunai, pushing it back. I shoved the arm with the armor guard forward, my palm up. I focused chakra to my arm, making a blade hidden in it jut out. The man let out a yelp as it pierced his chest, just a little ways away from his heart.
Everyone else says I'm not cut out for this.
I did a back handspring when the man did another high kick. I landed in a crouch, dropping my short sword momentarily to grab the small kunai hidden in my sleeves. When I pulled them out, the cloak flew out, revealing my body, my head still shadowed by the hood. For the moment all my clothing but the dark clothing was gone, leaving me in a black shirt, black shorts, high black socks that went up to my mid thigh, and my brown boots that covered a majority of my shins. I usually wore a white hooded shirt with four cuts in the bottom to separate the front, the back, and the two sides, along with a red scarf around my waist. That wouldn't do when I needed to blend in the darkness, though. Not many people knew that the man was actually a guy who helped convicts escape no matter what the cost, so they'd do whatever to protect him. He was one of the few people I killed who actually deserved to die.
I only do it because my parents want me to.
I threw the four small kunai, smiling when he leaned back to avoid them. It was one of those times speed really came in handy. I rushed toward him, beside the man before he was even fully bent back. I brought my leg up, bringing it crashing down on his chest. There was a crack from an arm he'd used to help support him, the bone jutting out.
That, and I know nothing else.
I stood over the man, looking down at him. He took in my features, his eyes widening when it registered that I was a girl. They widened even more when he met my cold eyes. "Please," he said as I raised the hand with the guard, the silver blade clearly visible in the darkness. "I beg of you, don't kill me."
What else would I do if I didn't kill?
"Has any of your comrades ever said that to you before you killed them just to free convicts? To think you only do it because you enjoy the thrill of hunting them down again. You don't even care what you must do."
If there was any other choice, I'd take it.
I looked at his fearful green eyes, searching for any way to escape his upcoming death. He pushed back, as if he could sink through the concrete and disappear. He couldn't, though. He was pinned to the ground. Any unnecessary movement and my blade would pierce his heart.
Does it make sense that I'm afraid not to kill?
I felt a familiar twist of my gut when I prepared to strike. I always got it whenever I was about to kill someone. The reason was unfathomable to me. I just let it be, thinking of the only thing that helped ease the feeling. My mom always told me that the best way, the least painful way, was to kill him swiftly. We both could only guess that the reason was because of the little bit of human still in me.
Does it make sense that I'm not afraid of the darkness?
I couldn't have any human in me, though. All I could do was be a tool under the command of the Chishu. That was what I'd be raised to do. To be nothing but a weapon to kill the ones I was told. I'd grown up in the darkness. It was the only thing that was always there in my life. The only thing that would always be part of the world. Darkness. Was it bad that darkness was my only friend?
Instead, I'm afraid of the light.
I was probably only because I'd never known anything else. I isolated myself a lot, hiding myself in my room. I trained in the darkness, letting it give me power, to take away the awful pain that would sometimes engulf me for no reason. I didn't understand it. I shouldn't feel that. Mental pain was something you felt from your heart. I was a weapon. I wasn't allowed to have a heart.
The reason for this is because I feel like the darkness protects me.
I let the familiar darkness engulf me, comfort me, as the blade shot forward. It easily sliced through his skin, sliding past his ribs and puncturing his heart. He let out a strangled, wet scream. That scream seemed to release his soul, his eyes losing the flame of life from before.
But what if I don't always want to remain in it?
I straightened, glancing around to make sure that nobody had noticed his cry and come running. Just to be safe, I slid deeper into the shadows, my eyes on the corpse. My heart clenched, as if the sight saddened me. But that was preposterous. I'd killed more people than I could count. I had been raised as a weapon and nothing more.
I don't know why I'm telling you my story.
I turned from his body, sending chakra to the blade that made it retract. I didn't even both cleaning the blood. I would just replace the blade when I got back to my village. Nobody knew of it. If they did, they would be dead. The only people who knew of it were those in the Uchitoru clan.
Maybe it's because I want you to see that even with darkness, there can be light.
I walked into the alley I'd previously been inhabiting, looking toward the sky and at the moon. It shone down, a bright light piercing the darkness that night caused. A light in the darkness of midnight. With a sigh, I focused my chakra to my feet and jumped onto the roof, turning in the direction of my village. With one last look at the now lifeless body, I took off.
~!@#$%^&*()_+
Well, here's a quick picture of Kumori.
