Gaining a Brother and Meeting an Old Friend (IO)

"Spirit...? Passing...?" Salzem repeated slowly, shakily, the words sheer agony in his ears. What his teacher was saying slowly began to piece itself together in his mind, forming a clear picture. A picture of a headstone. Salzem pulled away from their hug, his sanguine eyes quivering as they made contact with those looming balls of fire in Dachi's head. They stared back at him, a gentle, somber expression on his face. It looked as though he accepted the way he was, but Salzem... he appeared completely crushed. No, crushed was too mild a word. Decimated. His eyes were wide in disbelief and sorrow, his body limp and shaking, his jaw quivering. A complete afront to whatever ninja were supposed to stand for as soulless assassins professionally. He found his legs were unable to support him anymore as he stumbled back to he seat, his complexion whiter than the void. 

"What... Who.... Why..." Salzem was unable to complete a sentence. Images of Isshin's shattered body flashed behind his vision as he stared into the eyes of a dead man. His corpse sprawled across the ground, shattered, crushed, broken... Only now there were two bodies. Isshin was no longer alone, for now Kasai lay sprawled about as well, his body just as broken and shattered with Salzem staring down at the both of them. Their eyes, though blank, seemed to stare up at him, asking him why. Why hadn't he been there to help, to save them? Why hadn't he been there to spend more time with them, to help them avoid whatever had taken them...


"I'm dead Salzem. I have been dead of the better part of a year now."  Those words rang in Salzem's head, rebounding relentlessly off the interior of his skull. He had only been out for about a year... not long was it after he left had Kasai died... Not long had he went on his quest to avenge his closest friend did he lose another. Like the fool he was and the fool he had always been, his stupid, self-righteous decision cost the life of another of who he considered his family... He thought the pain ended at Isshin, that he could save someone, or have someone to come back too... It turned out he'd killed that someone instead.

"Kasai....." Salzem's body seemed to curl inward as he mouthed that name, the shivering increasing to a near quake. "Kasai..." He wrapped his arms around himself, almost fully curled into a shaking, quivering ball of loss and self-punishment.

Kasai closed his eyes for a moment, knowing full well the effects that this passing of knowledge would have. Salzem had always had a soft spot in his heart; it was why Kasai had enjoyed his company so much. However, he had always known that it would not benefit the shinobi when it came to a fatality. The ninja way always tried to train the mind for such an occurrence, and Kasai had been ready when his time had come, but watching someone die was always harder on the heart than dying yourself. 

He sighed to himself once more, and opened his eyes to Salzem, who seemed about to fall apart. Kasai knew that he had to say something, or the ninja was likely to close himself off, and with what little time Kasai had left before he would be forced to return, he couldn't have that. 

"Salzem, no," Kasai said, in a voice that both carried command and sympathy. "I know this news is not what you had hoped to hear when first seeing me again in such a long time, but it is the truth, and no amount of sorrow can change that. Nor does my loss deserve to be grieved."


"My time had long since come in this world, and I was beginning to cause more evil and destruction than good and creation. I had lost my path, my sense, my morals, and my friends. I had gone insane with the power I was convinced that I had, and in one last display of flame, I left the world like a phoenix."


"But," Kasai said, turning sharply on Salzem, with an intensity in his eyes. "You cannot let my passing weaken you. Not now!"


"You are still strong, both physically, and in mind stronger than I ever was. Your heart is good, and the path you walk in life is just, and you cannot forget that! My body may be gone, and most of my spirit has passed with it, but this fraction of me remains, and if you can find any solace in that, then I ask you to do so. For where I have failed, this child will succeed. He may not be the messiah, or a chosen one that the world needs, but for whatever reason, as I passed from this world onto the next, his was the soul that I latched onto, and with him I will stay."


"He needs someone like you," Kasai started, before starting again, with more force. "No, he needs you. He has been lost all his life, for a simple disease that he does not even know he has, though it is one that I had wished for in life. He won't be the strongest ninja the world has known, he won't become renowned throughout all of the lands. He may not even rise to the title of ANBU, but his heart is true and pure, just as yours is, Salzem. Without someone to guide him in this life, for he is still young, he may stray from the path of what is good, and undo all that we have aimed to achieve in our life; peace."

"So stand up!" Kasai commanded. "Remember yourself for who you are, and for what I trained you to be: a Shinobi. I am gone, but you are not, and if it need be my dying wish, then I ask you to not grieve my loss; instead be glad that you have found this one. He is a chance to start over. To become a better teacher than I ever was to you. To do good in this world."

With that, Kasai would pause, and remain silent for some time to observe Salzem's response. He knew that Dachi was never used to talking to much as Kasai once did, and he found himself breathing heavily at the end of the speech. However, he had done what he could, and wished that Salzem would understand. The child needed Salzem to be strong. He needed him to be the invincible symbol, so that Dachi could follow in Salzem's footsteps.

The sanguine-eyed ninja was on the verge of a total meltdown, his sorrow tainting everything around him in the same grim colors. Whatever Kasai spoke of at first completely bounced off Salzem's shell, completely unresponsive to such sympathetic talk. However, before his shell could fully embrace the ninja, cutting him off from all contact, his teacher struck him hard and fast. His firm hand and cold, logical speech shattered his all-encompassing despair, and, instead, replaced it with shock. He looked up into the firm, flaming eyes of his teacher as he scolded Salzem, saying that Dachi needed him to be strong. Kasai stated that the kid's life had been nothing but loss due to a disease he isn't even aware of. This barrage of information his teacher threw at Salzem was absorbed into his fragile mind, surprisingly reinforcing his fortitude back into a stable condition. It all made sense, what he said. Despite the horrible, agonizing sorrow the loss of his teacher might have, Dachi might've had it worse than he and needed him more than Salzem could afford to be useless. The tears stopped flowing, his body stopped quaking, the cuts on his hands fully healed in a matter of moments, Salzem was stable again. He looked at Kasai and Dachi together, his sanguine eyes still holding an ample amount of controlled anguish. It was still obvious that Salzem mourned the loss of his best friend and mentor heavily, but he was much less in-the-red than he was before. Salzem sighed shakily, closing his eyes as he regained his composure. His body language relaxed substantially as he leaned back in his chair.

"I need to know something." Salzem said, opening his eyes. As they locked back onto Kasai's flaming orbs, his teacher would see a steely cold look beside his anguish. It might actually be chilling to see the immediate transition. "Who did it?" Salzem asked flatly, picking the last bit of glass from his palms. As he spoke, the sanguine-eyed ninja's voice was tight, strained, almost as if he was keeping a very powerful force from busting through. It was clear, whatever it was, it wasn't sorrow. It wasn't anger either. It was something far less complicated.

"I won't let your, nor anyone else' death go unchecked. I need to know so I can find out from THEM why." He had heard Kasai's explanation, but it wasn't enough. The killer had to be trialed and judged. He wouldn't simply be satisfied with simply forgiving the unknown murderer.

Kasai sighed to himself once more. He did not have much time left before his strength would fail, casting back into the slumber from whence he had came, but he knew that this at least deserved an answer. It demanded one. If he did not tell Salzem the truth, painful as it would be, Salzem would hunt down those still true to the Leaf. He could not have that. 

"Salzem," Kasai said, taking a deep breath. "I was killed for destroying nearly half of the Village Hidden in the Leaf."

Kasai would pause a moment to let the news set in. 

"As I said, I had gone mad," Kasai continued. "I had become enveloped and entranced by the idea that the only way to save the village of Leaf was by attacking it, over and over again, until the ninja within it grew strong enough to defend it. Needless to say, the fact that I no longer walk this earth shows that the day came, and the Shinobi within the walls were finally able to protect what they lived against me, and ultimately, end my life."

"Salzem," Kasai said after another pause. "I am glad that I am no longer alive. As I said, only a fraction of my soul remains on this earth, and the rest has passed into oblivion, though much to my gratitude and luck, it seems that the fraction which remains is the only part of me that has any sense left in it."

"I know you will not understand why I did what I did, and in truth, I no longer do either. I was not the man you knew me to be, though now in the afterlife, it seems I am sensible once again. Those who killed me did the right thing, and at the right time. I should have passed from the world much earlier, so I ask of you, do not seek out those who took my life."

"But more so, I beg of you, do not think of me as the man I have just told you about," Kasai said, with a sadness in his eyes. "He is not the man I meant to be, nor the man I am now, and while I know it may be hard to take in, it is true."


Kasai would wait for Salzem to realize all that he had said, for he knew it would be an overload at the moment. The boy had learned so much in so little time, the older man doubted it would go over well.

Kasai's explanation on what had happened to him struck Salzem like a brick, sucking the air from him, making his eyes water up further and go wide. However, somehow, he found the breath to speak still. He shook his head slowly, his fingers curling into fists on the table in defiance.

"I don't care..." He said quietly, ignoring Kasai's initial confession. He said it again however, gentler, but with more explanations, saying he was possessed by the idea of testing the village ninja by attacking them over and over, making them able to defend his home. He said that it was evident they were strong enough now that he was dead, that his time had come. Salzem closed his eyes, his knuckles now white with the strength in which he clenched his fists. "I don't care!" He said more forcefully, refusing to accept this as reality. There was no way this would happen to his friend! He couldn't die like this... He couldn't.... It was impossible... The final straw came when he said he was happy to be dead and, at that moment, he couldn't restrain himself anymore. Salzem raised a fist over his head, slamming it down on the table in front of them, cracking it and standing up in one motion. With his other hand, he reached out and grabbed Kasai by Dachi's collar, preventing him from getting any farther in his speech, glaring at him through angered, crying eyes. The tears had returned again, but Salzem wasn't breaking down. He was angry, but in control. He stared into those flaming orbs in Dachi's sockets quietly for a moment before speaking, voice loud but not a yell or a scream.

"I'm NOT!" He exclaimed, tightening his grip on Dachi's collar. "Do you KNOW how much you meant to me, Kasai? DO YOU!? I loved you... like the older brother I never had..." Even as his voice grew softer and his gaze temporarily weakened in intensity, his grip only tightened. "I WILL NOT SIT HERE AND HAVE YOU TELL ME YOU'RE HAPPY BEING DEAD! I WON'T HAVE IT!" Salzem raised Dachi's body out of his seat by his collar and forced him against the wall, elbow to his throat, Salzem's nose almost to Dachi's as he glared into Kasai's flaming orbs.

"God damn it, Kasai, I DO NOT care if you were as sane as ever or as MAD AS A HATTER! I DON'T CARE! You are all I have left... the only friend I can trust, the only one I can speak too without prison bars..."

Kasai looked at his friend, and smiled in response.


"Good," he said, looking at Salzem in the eyes. "Then, if you think I've done a well enough job as a teacher, mentor, and older brother, isn't it your turn?"

"You are no longer a child Salzem," Kasai explained, sitting down. He didn't have much time left, and his energy was growing weaker by the second. Soon, he would have to recoup, and let Dachi come back into consciousness."You no longer need me."

"There was a time in your life when you needed a hand to hold, better eyes to guide, a quicker mind to teach. You needed a mentor, a teacher, and a friend. The only one you need anymore, is the last of those. So do not fear; though I am dead, I am not truly gone, as you have just seen. Your old friend will be here when you need him, but your new friend is here now because he needs you."

"I used to be all that you had left, but Salzem, you are all that this child has now. You are his strength, his leader, his flame, just as I was to you. It is hard, knowing that I am dead, that is true, but all that I have really lost is my insanity. I have played my rule, and fulfilled my duty on this earth, training you and your companions to become the best Shinobi the world has to offer. Now it's your time to do the same."

"I've given you all I could, showed you everything I knew, and when your time came, I sent you on your way to make your own mark in the world, and you have done so greatly, and in the name of good, but the earth does not stand still. It is our job to return what we were given as Shinobi, and build the next generation, but better than ourselves, and Salzem, I assure you, you have reached heights that I could never imagine."

"But now the chain of life and duty commands you to return that favor. I may be dead, but I am not blind. You care for the child, and he cares for you equally. In another life, you might have been born brothers by blood, though in this one you have already reached that companionship by heart."

"So Salzem," Kasai said, closing his eyes, and feeling his voice grow weaker. "If all you say is true, and you believe that I have done good, then make me proud. Just as I found you, you have found this boy; weak, alone, of unknown origin and with an unknown name, in a land that makes no sense. And so, just as I did to you, I demand you do to this boy; show him the kindness, companionship, and teachings to guide him through life, until he is ready to go his own way."

"Do not be the teacher I was," Kasai said, taking in one last breath before he fell back asleep. "You cannot be the teacher I was. You will be better."

With that, the body of the child slumped forwards onto the table, where it lay motionless for a moment, before it began to breath once more. Within a matter of seconds, Dahci yawned, pushed himself upright, rubbed his eyes, and looking Salzem directly in the eyes, gave his friend the biggest smile in the world.


"Salzem!" The child cried in joy. "You're here!"

Salzem could hear the weakness is Kasai's voice, even as he commended Salzem's reaction. He let his teacher slide back into his seat with Salzem taking one next to him in their booth. It felt like what Kasai was telling his student was his last words, the ones Salzem never got to hear before he was taken from him. He listened silently, hanging on every last word of wisdom his old friend was giving him. There was really not much else for Salzem to say on his end. He had said everything he hadn't gotten to before, he expressed his emotions to his older brother figure, everything was just done. All except that he was required to watch his friend fade away again into oblivion. Kasai closed his eyes, his weakness growing very obvious in his voice. He was practically pleading for Salzem to be the better friend, the better brother than Kasai had been. He wanted Salzem to teach the kid about the world, stay by his side until he came of age and was able to protect himself. Salzem nodded quietly, feeling another blow to his gut upon hearing his friend's last words before watching Dachi slump over. Kasai was gone again and Salzem was left feeling just as lost, confused and scared as he was when he first heard of his friend's death. He wiped his eyes dry quickly, not wanting Dachi to see he's been crying when he wakes.

He watched his friend stir, then yawn, almost as if he were coming out of a deep sleep. When he opened his eyes, Salzem could see that they were their normal color. Kasai was gone. Apparently oblivious to all that had transpired, the little white-haired boy took one look at his friend and smiled the widest Salzem had ever seen. The pure warmth and love in the grin he gave almost made Salzem feel a bit guilty. Almost like he didn't deserve that look. Almost.

"Hey there, buddy!" He replied with almost as much enthusiasm, wrapping his arm around Dachi's shoulders in a gentle sideways hug. "You had me worried there. When you passed out like that, I thought something bad might have happened. Guess you just like naps, huh?" Salzem chuckled softly, before giving the smaller kid a smile holding just as much warmth as he gave him. "You've been out for a little while and the waiter STILL hasn't come back. Where's service when you need it, huh?"

"Did I fall asleep?" The child asked, clearly oblivious to the conversation that had taken place only moments before. "I don't remember falling asleep. Huh."

He paused, not noticing the broken glass on the ground either as he glanced around the room. Then, the boy smiled again. 


"It's okay," he said, looking over to Salzem. "I'n not too hungry either, really. I just came to find you. I haven't seen you in a few days, and you're the only person I know in this village. It gets kinda boring and lonely without you."

With that, the child smiled once more. He felt strange though, as if he had woken up from sleepwalking, or a very vivid dream. On top of that, Fire Man seemed completely silent and still, as if sleeping himself. He never remembered having a similar experience before.

(sorry for the short post, it's been a while, and I didn't have too much time, but also didn't want to hold you back)

Salzem's grin faded a little as the younger boy noted how bored and lonely he was without Salzem with him. With all that time away from the little guy, he could hardly imagine how isolated he must have felt without Salzem with him.

"I think I got something to tell you, little guy." Salzem said, patting him on the shoulder. Dachi meant so much to Salzem, even if his connection to him was completely accidental. Between Kasai's request and the time they spent together,  he felt a genuine bond between him and the younger ninja. If something were to happen to him like everyone else.... well... that would be it. While Salzem had more or less made it through the deaths of two of his closest friends, the protective emotions he felt for the kid went deeper than that. He was like the little brother Salzem never grew up with or had the chance to know. Maybe it was time Dachi knew.

"So... uh..." Salzem began strongly, "Ever since I found you out there in Suna's desert, I guess I've always felt a bit... protective of you. I never had a sibling before... I'm an only child, but if I had one, I think he'd be someone like you." He paused for a moment, clearly embarrassed by being this forward with his emotions, but he continued onward. Dachi should know.

"Like... back home, where I come from, we were taught to think of everyone in the village as family, even if we weren't related. But me, I never could wrap my mind around that concept. I had a few friends, and even fewer close ones, but they weren't really family to me... I couldn't think of the people I was supposed to kill for as my family... It was like I was the employee and they were the employer, you know...? You, however... I think of you my little brother... Someone who's needs are above my own.... If that makes any sense to you."

Dachi blinked, and looked at Salzem with a strange look on his face. He did not understand why Salzem seemed to think it was a big deal to tell him this, as he was still in experienced in the ninja world, and did not know how quickly one's emotions could change from innocence. 

"Well," Dachi said, his expression changing to one of glee, with a large smile once again spreading across his face. "I think of you like a brother too!"

Then, however, the younger boy paused for a moment, before realizing that he never actually knew his family, or had one for more than a few months. He was unsure how to take this, as his compassion and companionship with Salzem had felt so simple and natural.

"Well, almost like the family I never knew," Dachi mumbled after a moment, looking at the older boy. Then, however, the child shifted back to his gleeful state. 

"But, you're the brother I've always wanted!" he called in glee, glad that his friend was there.

At his young age, Dachi couldn't quite understand the importance and emotion behind what Salzem had said, though he did mean it when he had returned the statement. 

(I feel bad for the short posts :( but, I'd feel worse if I didn't post)