36 Unfair

Shikakuro was honestly losing hope. He has already established the probability that his son is going to die in the fight. The said probability is higher than the chance Orion would live. It seems like the puppeteer, the supposed brother of his child, Gerard, or Gerald, is keeping his son alive enough for him to control. He also deduced that their sole enemy controls his puppet with his eyes, seeing that his child's eyes are both glowing in the colour of gold—same goes with the man in white.

\"Kaiya,\" He called for his white, \"I'm afraid if it comes to worst…\"

\"No, Kuro.\" Kaiya knew of his plan. This is how her husband deals with complicated battles in the battlefields after all. \"I'm not letting you do that to our child.\"

\"Well I'm not letting him kill you, Kaiya. The others are already down and knocked out.\" Shikakuro's gaze sharpened as he looked around. They were the only ones left standing. \"You have someone important inside you.\"

\"Is Orion not important?!\" Kaiya shouted at him as their puppet child attacked.

To be fair, the thought of killing your own child horrifies him, but it was the only solution if worse comes to worst. It was the most logical thing to think of at the moment. His defence in his mind is the fact that his wife and daughter will survive this fight… and the other defence he thinks of is… before Orion gets to them and eventually end them off, if that happens, he can't bear the thought of his child becoming a killer of the innocents.

\"He is important—but I don't want to lose everyone, Kaiya.\" Shikakuro blocked an attack from his child. He backed away and narrowed his eyes when his child is starting to use his shadow jutsus, \"I've already lost enough.\"

\"Then I'm backing away from this fight, Kuro.\" Kaiya started to step back, \"Just… please save our son.\" As Kaiya prepares to leap back, Xavier got her way. She was caught off-guard and was captured into the man's arms, with a sharpened kunai pointed at her neck.

\"I'm afraid… I'm not letting the two… no, the three of you live.\" Gerard spoke up as he emerged from the shadows. \"Come to think of it, I haven't properly introduced myself, no?\" He wears a similar smile that Orion holds.

Shikakuro clicked his tongue as the child that looked similar to his approached them.

\"I'm known to this world as Gerard… and maybe Gerald… but I, too, has chosen a name befitted to me.\" The child smiled and closed his eyes, bowing down at them, \"Scorpius at your… no, at no one's service.\" He then straightened up and ran his fingers through his wavy hair before looking at the two.

An idea then came into his mind.

\"You know what, elder brother's parents…\" A smile crept into his face, \"I just had a great idea. I didn't plan this initially, and I was only going to make you kill Orion, but that would not be fun and we'd just probably reincarnate again…\"

'This does not sound good.' Shikakuro narrowed his eyes.

\"I'm going to make him kill all of you.\" Scorpius held a disturbingly happy smile on his face as he said those words.

Shikakuro does not get what the child is thinking. Scorpius, as he claims his name to be, is rather random and hard to read. He seems to be manipulative, seeing that he had successfully twisted Shikakuro from thinking that he should kill Orion, but that's all the Nara got.

\"This is going to be difficult.\" The Nara sighed, looking back at his wife, who seemed to have handled her situation seeing that she's already at his back, facing Xavier who stood a few feet away, while he on the other hand, faced his own child with the look-a-like just at the back.

With that, the fight commenced. It was a struggle for the two as the strength of the man in white and their child seemed to have multiplied ever since being controlled by Scorpius. It's even getting stronger as the time went by—and Scorpius is just standing from afar with his arms folded. Well, it seems like he was getting impatient so he quickly pulled away his puppets for a moment to get them together before throwing them again in battle.

Kaiya wielded her long bow, which is pretty peculiar for a ninja. She took a shot at Xavier but he swatted it away with his sound wave and the arrow got redirected towards Orion. It was a close call—Orion got hit, but he didn't suffer any injuries… it's only his hair that got cut off short by the sharp arrow.

Xavier was then accidentally thrown harshly towards Orion. Shikakuro didn't mean it—it was just that at the same time he pushed back Xavier, Orion backed up to the path he pushed the man into and they crashed into the ground. Thick dust covered the two, which even made Scorpius narrow his eyes.

Shikakuro narrowed his eyes as well, because something is off.

Shikakuro and Kaiya took the quick pause of battle to catch their breath. Kaiya is already on her limits. Well, she should be. She's pregnant, geez. She's one hell of a fighter, lemme tell yah. Shikakuro could still manage but he's almost at his limit as well.

Nara's do not have that much of a chakra capacity… and the man's used to using his chakra at bursts—not prolonged fights. Actually, it is also to his advantage since it's night time. He wasn't known as the Black Death for nothing. He quickly gathered up his remaining chakra and used it to perform his, probably last, jutsu. This is his most dangerous technique and he had only used this thrice in his life time, and this would be his fourth and final.

As the dust settled down, it revealed Orion underneath of Xavier, both looked like ragdolls thrown away harshly. Scorpius didn't think of it and continued using them. It seems that his capacity of control over the two dwindled as he now doesn't use their techniques. They were just using melee and long-ranged attacks.

Shikakuro was finishing up his seals as Scorpius continued to control the two. He didn't think of Shikakuro's shadow technique as the man's gonna die anyways. He simply prepared a barrier from his power to protect him from what's coming. Black mass concealed him from everyone's sight, but he's still there, controlling away.

Shikakuro finished his seals, making Kaiya look at him, \"Kuro? You're gonna use that?!\"

\"You bet I am.\" Kuro simply smiled at her before releasing his attack, not towards Orion nor Xavier, but towards the person inside the black mass.

Black fog started to surround Shikakuro before condensing into his palm and creating a phantom black beam that went through Scorpius's barrier. The attack was simple yet so powerful that the forest behind Scorpius was incinerated along with his barrier. Unfortunately for Shikakuro, Scorpius managed to get away from his attack just in time to not get blasted off.

Still, Scorpius was badly injured. The right side of his torso up to his shoulder bore a hole not much larger than his head. It was so bad that he was brought to his knees. For a moment he lost control of Xavier and Orion, but he simply laughed and took control over Orion, now letting go fully of Xavier.

\"Oh, you've angered me now.\" Scorpius shook his head as he slowly stood up, spitting a reasonable amount of blood, \"Tonight, a massacre will occur.\"

Using Orion's body, Scorpius basically started to, this is very petty and too much, he started to kill the ones who were already knocked out on the ground. He then piled them up and, eventually, Shikakuro, with his dwindling energy left, tried to interfere.

But, as every story goes, it will eventually end.

__________

\"Kaa-san?\" I happily called for my mother as I walked into the kitchen. She has my younger sister, Vinna, strapped on her back whileshe cooked dinner. She turned her head just a bit to greet me with her smile.

\"Ah, Ori-kun.\" Kaa-san smiled, \"Would you like to help kaa-san?\" I didn't make her wait and just simply went by her side and washed my hands in the sink before taking a carrot in the basket. She hummed happily while instructing what to do, \"We're cooking curry for tonight's dinner, your tou-san's favourite.\"

We had the vegetables ready and not long after, she made me sit down at the dinner table to wait for her dish to finish. She also placed Vinna in her seat next to mine, so, like any loving brother would do, I placed my chin on my palm and admired my little sister. She has black hair like tou-san's, and silver eyes like kaa-san, a total opposite of me. Though my eyes would occasionally glint silver, it's not as silvery as hers. Her eyes would be the very feature people would look at first when they see her—it's rather enthralling.

Vinna seemed to have caught me staring at her. She smiled at me and clapped her hands before reaching out her tiny hand to me, closing and opening it as though she wanted me to hold it, so I did. I couldn't really hide the smile plastered on my face—the joy of having a complete, loving family that I didn't have before is truly… heartwarming.

With that said, tou-san suddenly popped out of nowhere and sat beside me, teasing me as he does, \"You two look very cute.\" He chimed, smiling wholeheartedly. With the spatula in her hand, kaa-san also joined in, \"They honestly do.\"

I just chuckled along as you don't really get this kind of peaceful day in the ninja world. With everything that had happened, I really should not take everything for granted. My life's been exhausting as it is—I don't want anymore shit to happen in my life, this is enough.

Kaa-san finally finished the curry, so I got up and helped her set up the dishes on the table. While helping her, my uncle, Kakashi, popped in to eat with us. He started to play with my little sister and I could really see that he adores her very much.

Bruh, if I see him torment my little sister in anyway like what he did to me, no one should hold me back—I will kill him. Of course, I can't really kill him, but I will make him suffer. But, honestly, at this rate, I can see that he won't do anything. He honeslty loves my sister as much as he loves me and kaa-san.

I smiled as I placed his plate in front of him. He ruffled my hair in return, \"How's my pretty nephew?\"

I rolled my eyes, \"What's with you today, uncle?\" I chuckled at him.

\"I wonder, if you were a girl like your sister, you'd probably be as cute as her.\" He teased me, and both my parents snickered at his words.

\"No,\" I looked at him in his eyes, \"I'd be a lot cuter.\" I stuck my tongue out at him, playing along, and we all laughed harder.

Dinner was served and kaa-san and I are finally on our seat. As we ate happily, I start to remember the things that had happened. It was a bit, traumatising, but we all survived and that's the greatest feat I could ever get. I'm thankful for that.

In the middle of dinner, I suddenly paused, and they all looked towards me because I was laughing along with them but I suddenly stopped.

\"Ori-kun?\" Kaa-san called for me, \"Are you okay?\"

After her words, I could only hear this defening ringing in my ears. I could read their lips as they're calling my name. Tou-san placed his hand on my shoulder which made me look at him and he looked very concerned. I seriously could not hear anything.

The white light in the kitchen suddenly got brighter and, before I knew it, my vision was engulfed by the pure white light.

I slowly opened my eyes, gritting my teeth as my body ached all over. My left eye seems to be badly injured as I could not fully open it. I then slowly sat up and was greeted by silence… only the sound of crickets and other night time animals echoed every now and then. I was going to put my fringe behind my ear when I only just noticed that I was holding a bloodied kunai.

Wow, why am I only just noticing this? I'm drenched in blood—no, scratch that, the air reeks the scent of blood… but, I am not really hurt anywhere except for my left eye… and my energy seems to be coming back as well, which is pretty weird.

I swear I was just in the kitchen with my family… with my mother… father… sister… and… uncle.

What happened?

I paused as I heard running footsteps coming in closer. I still can't move, but I'm hoping that I'm not in bad terms to the people who are approaching… but this scent… this is familiar.

Kakashi?

But why?

The footsteps approached closer and Kakashi appeared from behind the bushes. He swiped through the greens and suddenly stood still as he looked at something from afar. Our eyes then met, my curiosity growing stronger.

People then started appearing from behind him.

\"Oh… my god.\" One spoke in a heartbreaking tone.

Kakashi then raised his hand towards my direction. I could see that he's trying to stop his shaking and he's trying his best to fix his composure, \"Orion.\"

Huh?

Weird, you don't call me by my whole name, right, uncle?

\"Please, for the love of god,\" he opened his arms for me as he slowly approached, \"do not—\"

I blinked at him and with my absolute mistake…

\"ORION, NO!\"

I looked at what's behind me and my heart sank.

\"DON'T LOOK—\"

Tears started to flow uncontrollably.

This is unfair.