Tale of the Beggar and the Drunk (solo)

IDaku was one of the many kids who grew up in life with a self abusive alcoholic father, which was intoxicating no pun intended to Daku’s life. Daku was always hesitant to recall it because as he has been told many a time, there are those who are worse off, or those destined for a fate worse than his own. Yet, this particular set of events that lead to the now are important for this current situation because without the background, one cannot understand the impact and emotion of the here and now. Dakus mother and father were tremendously in love, not to mention kind-hearted people. Both of them stemming from homes that were of fortune and love. Life continues and like many of other couples, they announced their pregnancy and they thought nothing existing in the world could do much to ruin their lives. That is because the one thing that could was not brought into the world yet.

A man loving his wife, his hand holding hers, guiding her to push the baby out, her pushing as hard as she might could not stop the inevitable exhausting torture. Postpartum bleeding, and the doctors could not do much to stop it, the baby was born and put into the man’s hands his eyes filled with sorrow looked down at the boy and then at his still wife laying there, as the doctors walked out of the room, his eyes tearing and hands trembling, named him Daku. While he was not a bad man, swearing he would care and look after the child, keeping that promise to his wife spirited away moments after delivery, he could not help but feel that intense pain. Pain that he would in time, share with his child. It is very interesting the death of a loved one, the effect it can have. Knowing any day that someone can be cast from the world with a sound less than a goodbye. Six feet beneath the ground, nothing left but memories. Ironically, those memories possibly live on longer than the lives we weave.

The first few years of his life were not ones of a happy child, few toys, no parent bonding, no friends, it was not one that you would wish on most. All children want to be liked, loved, they are so fragile and dependent.  Still it was not in Daku’s nature to be resentful, without knowledge of his mother he would watch other kids enjoying parent bonding, and he still holds memories of the countless times he was left alone with nothing but an empty room to play in, memories that would soon surface. His father would eventually quit his job and take up drinking. Daku’s earliest memories of this time was sitting alone, with his imaginary friends playing by himself for hours. He would watch his father return home, Daku would greet him with the largest of smiles, and his father slurring at the mouth would walk to his room with no sound and fall straight to bed. Leaving Daku often with no dinner, and no childhood. Daku can still remember staring out the window at the other kids who would wave but speak about him as the child of the drunk. Ashamed, and humiliated, he took it upon himself to leave the house. Without knowledge of where to go, he began following his father around. Tavern to tavern, bouncing around, he became nothing more than a street rat. He often wondered if his father knew just how terrible Daku had it, and if he even cared. The days sometimes were beautiful, the perfect days to be outside, and there would be Daku sitting on the steps of an old rustic tavern too young to go inside, but no one to play with outside. Did not stop him from smiling though, he tried to keep happy, but it is those people who often hide behind the mask of a smile who are the most depressed.

As much as Daku felt the pain of not enduring a life of happiness, suicide was not in his thoughts, tavern owners around would treat him with respect and in some cases sympathy. Pitied by most, he was fed, and people would even go as far as to donate to him, candy, food, and small amounts of ryo. His childhood truly is one of a forced beggar. His father would mumble ridiculous things, things that had nothing to do with reality, he would throw things all the time, push things out of his way, and while resenting him, he never once hit Daku. Daku would watch his father, and compare him to others, how he wished for one moment that his father would show him an ounce of love. Daku would watch his father collapse, fight, abuse himself and it was impossible separate the man he was now from the man he once was. People would assure Daku, “He was not always this way” or “Sorry he is going through a tough loss”. These words meant nothing to Daku in fact, they would echo through his mind as he would see him through adolescence.  Soon he would leave his father, and to this day it has been a hard burden to bear. He can smile to all knowing his life would never be perfect, but behind the mask of loneliness was depression. Often would those are miserable, they aim to make others miserable, but Daku bottled it up which can be a good thing or a bad one, like a filled bottle sitting in a freezer waiting to burst.

Soon after enrolling in the academy, he would return to find his father and let him know of the accomplishment, hoping to rekindle a never lit flame of family. Not hard to find, as there are only so many bars a drunk man is willing to walk to near the vicinity of his home, and soon Daku would arrive with his foot on the step of the one where he once sat as a child. The woman sweeping, owner of the small but fruitful tavern would greet Daku upon arrival. “Welcome, what a handsome young man, to what do I owe this blissful encounter?” She stopped sweeping and would lick her lips, obviously coming on to Daku, natural for an elderly woman who got very little action. “That’s very sweet, but I’m looking for a Rinji Uchiha, have you seen or heard of him?” Daku would ask with a forceful concerning voice. The lady would stop sweeping, she lifted her glasses, and looked up and down at Daku. Well dressed in a suit, she began to wonder. “What did he do? You hear to collect money from him? I do not want any trouble in here, you understand?” Daku would smirk and waive his hand for her not to worry. “No no, nothing like that, I have a message from his son…” Being a local bar, the old woman fixed her glasses back up her nose and a tear came to her eye. She dropped the broom with a hurry and put her hands in a praying fashion. “Little Daku, tell me he is alright, does he need something? Don’t concern Rinji, he has no money or anything to give. I’ll pay for whatever Daku needs.” Daku walked up putting his hand on the old lady’s shoulder, “Daku is fine” he said comforting her worries. She released her grip, and with a accepting sigh, guided Daku into the tavern.

Many a man sat there cheeringly drinking with their buddies, singing, some dancing, some playing games, and there a pitiful sack of crap sitting on a stool at the counter in the bar, Rinji, dressed in a dirty trench coat, with a scruffy unshaven beard, and hair that looks like it smelled, alone. Daku worked up the courage to take a seat on the stool next to him, and without looking to his side spoke aloud. “Rinji Uchiha…” Rinji turned his head slowly about twenty degrees, and his eyes shifted all the way right, looking directly to Daku who was still sitting forward. Rinji’s mouth wet from the constant hiccups and slobber common to alcoholics. “Who’s asking?” He said hiccupping before and after, Daku signaled the tavern barkeep for a glass of water, in which he would move his hand in a swirling fashion staring into the water. Emotions began to run deep, he had not planned how he was to release his feelings on his father, and it began at this moment to feel a bit hot. He undid his tie and sat straight hoping to relieve the feeling of a pit in his stomach. “Listen bastard, I do not have all day to play your silly games. I said who wants to know?”

Daku thought to play it smart, he had to get Rinji’s reaction before revealing his name. “Your son has joined Konoha Academy, aiming to be a ninja of the leaf village” Daku said as he licked his lips and took a sip of water from the glass before swirling it again. Emotions began to stir and there was an awkward silence, a silence that would create a heightened tension between the two just three feet away from each other, only Daku knowing the truth of his identity. Rinji gripped his sake glass a bit tighter, before squinting his eyes recalling the tragic events leading up to this current moment, the years of drinking, pushing his sentiment to the edge. “So what? Why would I care what that no good trouble maker hellion does? Always followed me around, wasting my resources, and worst of all took away the one thing that mattered to me most. He is your problem now…” He took another sip of the sake, trying to bury his annoyed worries, and Daku sat there his eyes open in disbelief at what he had heard.

He knew that he was never the closest with his father, but he never had guessed that his father actually wished him despair and distress. He turned to the man in anger grabbing him by the collar of his sweaty coat. “A parent should do nothing other than care for their child, children do not wish to be brought into the world, they are forced, and scum like you does not deserve them.” He said angrily causing an immense scene. The entire tavern went silent, men all around were onlooking the tale of the beggar and the drunk. The music hit a hard stop and Rinji looked at Daku, for the first time in years, their eyes were locked. He was looking at him not through him, and the tears started rolling down Daku’s face. “Strong, handsome, hardworking, respected, what more must I do to forgive repudiation, what can I do to earn your respect! Your love!....Your Fathering!” Daku screamed holding him, Rinji lifted his face, pushing his chin out, nose in the air smug. Holding the keys to unlocking Daku’s heart shattered with words that hit harder than a hurricane. 

The man realized it was Daku and chuckled slightly at the sight of him. “Cleaned up a bit, but unless you can rewind time to before you were born, you are dead to me. We could have been so happy together, but you had to come with that dark ominous welcoming. That black hole, the creed that was true despair” He slapped Daku’s hands off him, and straightened up his coat, leaving Daku standing there without saying goodbye, he walked towards the tavern doors. The room was filled with all types feeling, those who felt sorry for Daku, those who were disappointed with Rinji’s decision, and Rinji and Daku who were both filled with too many emotions to describe. Daku in a split-second show of his heartache and grief grabbed the sake cup and with his full force threw it just beside Rinji’s head. Shattering across the wall, the pieces fallen to the floor, one still curved enough to contain a drop of sake. The drop mirroring the one falling from Daku’s eyes.

 His eyes closed with pressure…” Damn you…. DAMN YOU!!!” He said running at his father with a fistful of hate, the bottle had bursted. His emotions popped, and his cry contained more violence than gale force winds. His tortured and battered soul had broken its façade as if every atom in the universe was ripped apart simultaneously. He lunged at his father knocking him to the wall, and it had begun, 21 years of torment, wonder and ruin were unleashed upon Rinji like a wildfire spreading in the winded forest. Daku’s eyes shot open, blood red with the realization that he was nothing in the eyes of his father, and to most people there a pity story. It had been activated, the sharingan! His ferocity grew a metaphysical prowess, the hysteria accompanied by loud cries, only suppressed by the squashing sounds of his fist. “DAMN YOU, DAMN YOU, DAMN YOU!!!” With every hit, the pain worsened, Daku wasn’t sure what to do, he could stop but the feeling wouldn’t disperse, he could continue but it would only worsen. The punches slowed and soon he’d be nothing but a disarray of memories strings, the sharingan would deactivate, and there he lay, his chin trembling like a whimpering dog, gasping for air, throat burning of a silent scream. Rinji’s face was mutilated, but with his last strength, he turned to Daku, blood engorged from the wounds. He shed a slight tear, and a sly smile and said, “Without her, I could never have been the father you needed…god…she sure would’ve been proud….” He said before fainting from pain. Daku let out an intense cry, his pitch and volume enough to shatter the pieces of every soul in the bar, tears streaming down everyone’s face, it grew silent.

 The police and medics would arrive, he quickly ran out of the tavern out of fear what others thought of him. He took one last look at his father, and all the unleashed emotions of his childhood were enough to want to kill him and love him at the same time. His heart full of bass percussion and yet relentless, unwavering pain covered his heart with blackness, and hate, he could end it here. Still he knew once he took that step, there was no turning back. “Till another day Pops, mark my words, I will succeed wherever I want!” His father tended to by the old lady, onlooking at Daku as he left. “You really screwed up this time Rinji, that boy grew to be a true Uchiha”


WC:2440
Reward: Sharingan First Tomoe

Approved. Next time please put your wc and claims into [brackets].