Bound By Blood

Jirou was sitting down inside his home, his father across him, sipping tea. Minty flavor, but with an aftertaste resembling a mix between vanilla, jasmine, and, weirdest of all, pepper. Jirou's mother was always a tea enthusiast, always trying out new flavor combinations. That one time when she tried serving the family some tea that was laced with some boiled and watered-down wasp venom. Not only did it taste terrible, Jirou's brother, Makoto, had ended up in the hospital due to an allergic reaction. After that incident she made sure to try anything herself first, risking herself before giving such mysterious ingredients a try in the whole family circle.

Unlike the toxic beverage she had served, this one was rather pleasant, the vanilla mixed in well with the pepper.
"Father." Jirou asked, looking at his progeny, Hideo Kyuuzaki, who was not looking back, instead having his eyes closed and his chin tilted down. However, Hideo raised an eyebrow. Jirou almost never used that word. Father. A word of respect and recognition of the person in question being the parent of someone, usually the one saying it. But Jirou usually referred to Hideo by either 'Dad' or 'Toosan'. Never directly using that specific word.
"Father, I... I wanted to ask you about this for a while, but I never found the time to talk to you alone about it... Ever since I was being trained by Yamauchi-sensei I was told of the existence of kekkei genkai." The mere word sent an extra pump off the hearts of both. Kekkei genkai, or Bloodline Limit as it was more widely known. Special abilities inherited through family lineage, unable to be obtained by anyone who is not of the blood of one who possesses it. Though these abilities vary from family to family, they are all closely guarded secrets. Indeed, the Kyuuzaki were one of the few to have this gift, alongside the more known families like the Uchiha or the Hyuuga.
Jirou didn't have to ask, for his father opened his eyes and rose up, crossed his arms and looked at Jirou with a pair of judgemental eyes.
"And you want to learn if our family has one, Jirou? The possibility that those of our blood have this one-of-a-kind ability? Why should I tell you about such things?" He asked with a scoff. "I learned of them only after I had become Genin. You haven't even gone half-way through your training. What makes you any different?" He walked up to Jirou, kneeled down, brought his face close and stared at him.
The test. Test to see if he would put his life on the line.
"This isn't about me, father. This is about the ninja-in-training before you becoming as prepared as possible for the world that he is stepping into, of his own volition no less! A ninja uses all the tools available but I must know the tool to make the most of it." Jirou said challengingly. He then closed his eyes, let out a slow breath and continued. "In addition, I know something you might not want me to know. During the long nights, I sometimes sneak out into the dark of night, to see you in our yard. Beneath the 4th step of our back porch lies a tunnel that leads to a chamber beneath our house. I have seen you enter it repeatedly." This gave Hideo pause. This was not something he had expected. He did not detect Jirou during those moments? He must have been getting sloppy...
"I do not know what you do inside there, but whenever you come back from there... There is blood. Whatever you do there, it always has ended in blood. Mother refused to talk about it, but I found a very small bloodstain on the first aid cabinet. I believe it's yours." Jirou said, digging up a photo of said bloodstain while looking at his father, who turned his gaze downward after looking at the picture for a moment.
"So just because I train at night means that our family has a Bloodline Limit? Whatever made you come to that conclusion, son?" Hideo asked, knowing that was a meaningless question. Jirou had already shown cleverness, skill in stealth and the ability to see things that others might have missed. The bloodstain was really small, his wife hadn't spotted it after cleaning it.

Hideo smirked slightly. "You do not know what you are getting yourself into, Jirou. The path that you began to walk when you decided to become a ninja is hard enough already. A road that you cannot walk without feeling like you have iron nails driving into your feet. What you wish to know will only make it harder." He said, looking back at his son.
"Knowing this, would you still want to know more? About the kekkei genkai of the Kyuuzaki?" He asked. The final question. Yet the one that needed no answer, for it was already given.
"Hai, father."

Word Count: 819

"Then you will follow me tonight, into the depths beneath our home. And nobody will know." Hideo's words made it clear that there would be no words spoken of this conversation. As far as the two were concerned, they never spoke. Simply had tea.

That night, Jirou had been in the yard practicing his hand seals when his father stepped outside. Hideo sighed. "Couldn't sleep?" He asked, knowing that was a foolish question. Jirou had his training gear on, that was already an indicator of him being psyched for what was to come this night.
His young blood would be cooled down soon enough.
"More than he knows." Hideo thought cryptically.
Without waiting for an answer from his son, Hideo opened the hatch. This lead down into a dark tunnel with no torch sconces on the sides. It was completely absent of light with the exception of the light pouring in from the gentle glow of the midnight moon.
But once the descent into the tunnel was completed and there were no more steps one could see a short straight tunnel with a light at the end of it. Not only that, but a door, one wrought of pure iron, and with an inscription of the symbol of the clan.
"Sugoii..." Jirou said as he took in the surroundings, sparse as they were. This entire thing was hidden from him his entire life and now he was going to be initiated into the secret of the Kyuuzaki shinobi.
"Not even your mother knows of this place. Neither do your brothers. And that is the way it shall remain." Hideo said as he pressed his hands against the two symbols that formed the mark of the Kyuuzaki clan.
Jirou noticed something change on his father's features... But it can't have been. A grimace? It's just a door...
But as he watched his father retract his hands, he saw them. Bloody handprints on the doors where Hideo's hands were.
He stared in both awe and horror at the display. There was nothing on the door other than the symbols. No blades to draw blood. His father was also completely unarmed. He would have noticed! Yet here he was, looking at his father's blooded hands. Then he drew his gaze back to the door to see that the blood was moving.

It was filling the carved indentations on the door that formed the symbols of the clan. This caused it to make some mechanical sound which then made the door open. The room beyond was sparse save for 2 torches surrounding a scroll.
"Kneel in front of the scroll, Jirou." Hideo commanded as he stepped into the room.
Wordlessly he obeyed, slightly shaky steps taking him forward as he tried to comprehend what had just happened.
As soon as he kneeled down in front of it, his father took Jirou's hands and placed his open palms against eachother. He then stepped next to him and did the same, closing his eyes in silent prayer.
Jirou followed suit after looking at his father, not knowing why he was doing it.
"Today, Jirou, you take a step on a path that tolerates no weaklings." Jirou kept his eyes shut as he listened to his father talking.
"A path that will resent you with a passion and will stop at nothing to see you dead. Against such a foe you cannot rely on simply the tools any ninja can learn. You require more. The hotblooded youth that you are, you will be blooded many times. As you learn, your wounds will become your strengths. And your enemies will know a ninja is never truly unarmed." Hideo said, making Jirou confused even though he already knew these things. A hand was placed on his shoulder, making him focus once more on the praying, pressing his palms harder against eachother.
"Today, Jirou." Jirou felt cold steel pass between his palms, along with excruciating pain. "You become a Kyuuzaki."
He cried out loud into the uncaring night.

His father had just stabbed him between his palms and, as a result was bleeding profusely. The pain was unbearable and he had trouble keeping his vision straight.
"Stand next to the torch to your left, Jirou, your training starts now." Hideo said with a cold gaze.
"Toosan, why did you-" Jirou croaked through painful tears.
"Now!" His father barked out loud. Jirou quickly scampered off the floor, wincing as he used his arms out of reflex to push himself off the ground. The floor was at least clean. No dust or anything, so there was no risk of infection.
Once he was standing there he looked at his father with confusion, fear and anger mixed into a concoction that was like the worst-tasting medicine in the entire world. He had completely pushed aside the memory of his father having bloodied hands as well. But there was something else as well. There was no blade in Hideo's hand. He looked at where he was kneeling. There was only a large splash of blood on the floor.
"This," Jirou's father began, drawing attention back to himself. He placed his index fingers together and his thumbs to touch the base of the other, forming a droplet shape, while the rest of his fingers were extended, remarkably clean. "Is our kekkei genkai." He said before he closed his eyes.
"Chiiton! Ketsueki Kajiya no Jutsu!" A red spot appeared around Hideo's palms and they quickly expanded. He had caused himself to bleed using chakra alone!
But not only that, this jutsu did something else as well, for suddenly the blood in his hands surged out in the shape of kunais. Hideo then grabbed them, the blood somehow having the solidity of a kunai and threw it down on to the ground between them, after which it dissolved... Like the Bunshin no Jutsu that he had learned. The other was still in his hand, solid and shaped like a kunai, yet still was clearly nothing more than blood.
"Defend yourself, Jirou." Hideo said before he surged forward and made to do a cutting down motion with the blade of blood. Jirou was quick on his feet though and easily met it with his own blade, this one made of steel than the liquid lifeforce that kept a man alive. Impossibly the blood weapon held it's ground against Jirou's, as if it was made of the same material! Hideo then jumped back and his son watched as he held his hand open to his side, next to the torch and witnessed as the blade began to sink back into Hideo's arm, the blood re-entering his bloodstream. By the end of it, even his palms had closed their wounds on their own.
"This is what it means to be a Kyuuzaki. Your blood is your weapon." He said before he crossed his arms while Jirou sheathed his kunai, wincing as he was still bleeding. "In time you will learn how to control it like you can control chakra, using it as a partial substitute to your chakra and, eventually, even make your jutsus far easier and less costly to use than normally. But as with any double-edged sword, there is a cost to it. When you use your blood as a weapon, not only do you have to deal with the fatigue you normally deal with, but also the lack of blood. This is easy to achieve early on, especially if you get hurt while fighting. You have no control over yourself and as a consequence you cannot benefit from using your blood as a substitute. But you will keep going at it until you start to get it." Hideo said, making it clear there would be no disagreement. "Now, use a jutsu. Any will do." He said, looking expectantly at Jirou, who was breathing a bit heavily. There were no bandages for him to use so he was going to bleed until his father decided it's time.

Word Count: 1301 | 2120

Hideo watched as his son bled onto the floor, uncaring of the crimson life that poured from the wounds he caused on his progeny. Sacrifices are a ninja's life. He will learn of it sooner or later. But he won't be teaching him about that. "It is something he must learn on his own." He thought.
His waiting was ended when Jirou began performing hand seals. Ram. Snake. Tiger. "Bunshin no Jutsu!" A clone of his son appeared, blooded hands and all. The Clone Technique. One of the first jutsus Jirou had learned.
In the back of his mind Hideo remembered when he was an academy student. He actually didn't manage to perfect his own Clone Technique until he had become a Genin. He had graduated just barely because of his clumsy clones with oversized limbs and tiny heads and uneven limb lengths. Yet Jirou's was a perfect clone. He had learned well. The older Kyuuzaki would have chuckled if he wasn't in the middle of training his child.
This wasn't a time for laughter. "Again." He intoned.
"Nani?" Jirou asked, his pain clouding his senses, making him think he didn't hear his father correctly.
"Don't make me repeat myself, Jirou! Again!" He made a cutting motion with his hand as Jirou's clone disappeared. The hand seals were performed again.
"Bunshin no Jutsu!" Once more did a clone appear, just as perfect as the other one was.
"Again." Yet again did Jirou use the jutsu. "Again." Jutsu. "Again." Jutsu. "Again." Jutsu. This was the order of the day. Steadily the young boy could feel his chakra dissipating as he kept using it, again and again. After a time he simply began using the jutsu automatically, without his father saying anything. Until he realized he was about to run out of chakra.
"Toosan. I can't do it anymore. I'm out of chakra." He said, breathing heavily.
"Again." Hideo said, as if he hadn't heard Jirou's plea.
He was going to run out of chakra... His father was going to make him use it all!
"Father!" He pleaded, his hands still bleeding strong as the moment they had been cut open. He felt like he was about to lose conciousness.
"AGAIN!" Hideo roared.
Ram. Snake. Tiger.
"Bunshin no Jutsu!" A clone appeared. Jirou's clone had started to show flaws. He was completely drained of chakra.
"Again."
Jirou was going to pass out, but... As he made the hand seals, he heard his heart beating. He was growing weak, he knew that much. But the weak noise of his heart pumping only added to his dread.
If only he could...
An extra pulse, outside the weak norm that he heard, sounded through his ears as he began to gather the nonexistent chakra. His heart pumped again, stronger this time. It heard his unconcious call. "Bunshin no Jutsu!" A poof of smoke. This clone was perfect. It had his clothes, it's limbs were the same as his, the arms were still cut open like Jirou's were.
But it's arms actually bled. The other clones didn't bleed, they merely had the appearance of having gotten cuts on their arms. No actual blood had come out until this one did.
Hideo watched as Jirou passed out, having been drained of both his chakra and blood. He was quickly on the verge of bleeding out. Taking out a bandage from his robes, Hideo patched up the arms he had cut and then took out a pair of pills. Taking one himself but not eating it, he put the other in his son's mouth. The boy's breathing began to ease as the Blood Increasing Pill did it's work. He then turned back from his son and began to train on his own, his hands already doing the bloody handseal he had used a few minutes ago. "Chiiton! Ketsueki Kajiya no Jutsu!"

Word Count: 623 | 2743

Many hours later, at the Konoha Hospital...

Jirou slowly began to stir from his slumber. He felt like he had slept for ages and could sleep for ages more. The weirdest and most disturbing dream he had ever dreamt was still fresh on his mind as he slowly began to close in on the realm of the awake and further from the land of the snooze. His father had taken him to some sort of hidden temple below their house, then he remembered pain and clone techniques, then it all faded to black. He tried to move his arm to block the sun's rays that disturbed his rest but felt a sharp flash of pain as he tried to close it, even if only he could close it only slightly due to the bandages.
Wait, bandages!?
Jirou slowly raised himself up, wincing as the other arm flashed with even more pain than the other one had due to the extra pressure and weight he was putting on it. He then raised his hands into view. They were indeed wrapped in bandages.

"Ah! You're awake!" A voice called from the door to Jirou's left. It turned out to be a nurse. It was only then that Jirou took notice of his surroundings. This bed wasn't his. Those curtains didn't look like the ones in his room. The whole room was wrong. There were other beds as well - vacant, but it was simple for his quickly realizing mind to put two and two together.
"Wh... What happened? Why am I in a hospital?" He croaked, his throat dry as the deserts of the Wind Country.
"Well, your father brought you here way past midnight. Your arms were bleeding quite a bit but he did a good job giving you some first aid. But he gave some odd instructions. We were told to only replace your bandages and give you a bed but nothing else. We were not allowed to even close the wounds... Speaking of which, I'm here to change the bandages. Could you hold your arms out?" The nurse said as she gently took one of Jirou's arms. As she unwrapped the bandage, the boy was lost in thought, finding the story the nurse had given both unusual and yet like something his father would do. Whenever Hideo got hurt, he simply shrugged it off and only bandaged it in the most barest of ways before continuing what he was doing. Incredibly it seemed to work, for his wounds always closed unbelievably quick.
"Wait what? How can this..." The nurse muttered out loud, which got Jirou's attention. He looked at the unbandaged arm and...
There was no wound. Only thing that could imply that there was one was a patch of slightly red skin, running from his palm to the base of his palm.
"How can this be!? There were two large cuts in your hands when you were brought to us, but now it's practically healed!?" The nurse was stupefied by this. How can a human regenerate damaged tissue this quickly?

Some time passed and eventually Jirou was let out of the hospital as he was given a clean bill of health, apart from needing a hearty meal. Once he got outside, he noticed his father waiting for him.
"Toosan!" He let out happily. Hideo remained unmoved however, even as Jirou went to hug him.
"We'll continue your training tomorrow night." The boy's progenitor said simply, with little emotion in it.
And while this confirmed Jirou's memories of the previous night, it didn't faze him at all.
In fact, he was even more excited than before.
And that was a herculean feat in and of itself.

Word Count: 602 | 3345