Where the Past and the Present Collide [Mitsuo, or Invite]

He’s not going to be here, you know… Just like he wasn’t at the last location.

Shut up! I will find him… nothing will stand in my way.

It’s been over five years, perhaps it’s time to finally let go… he’s probably lying in a gutter dead somewhere.

I said shut up…

Come on, the man took your eyes… you’re blind because of him. What more does he have to do before your loyalty wavers?[i]

[i]I gave him my eyes willingly… he would have put them to better use than me. My blindness is of my own choice!

“Mirror… telling me something.” She had to drown the voice out, and her favorite past time – singing – always did to the trick: the fact that the song she was singing was an old lullaby once sung to her only increased her inner ‘FUCK YOU’ towards the voice she could never get to shut up. “Tell me who’s the loneliest, of all?” Each slow sung word took her closest and closer to her destination.

The female’s eyes were covered in a white silk piece of cloth that was hidden, mostly, by her white bangs and which blended in well with her pale colored flesh: though when a random breeze blew the diagonal scar that marred her left eye still showed peeking out from the top and bottom of the silk cloth. Unlike most shinobi Dezzy chose to dress rather… differently: an older version of the outfit she had always worn as a young girl. Dressed primarily in light blue, white, and some red. She wears a pale blue bolero jacket over a similarly colored thigh-length dress with a piece of black lace making up the neckline of the dress. The inside of the bolero is red and the sleeves turn blue as they get closer to her wrists. The bolero has her clan crests on the back. Dezzy also wears an apple-shaped necklace along with a pair of thin, rectangular earrings. She wears white, heeled wedge boots that go to mid-calf, also lined with red on the inside. Her long white hair is pulled back in an off-center ponytail, at the base of which is a small tiara that resembles icicles.

“Mirror, tell me something, tell me who's the loneliest of all? Fear of whats inside of me; tell me can a heart be turned to stone? Mirror mirror, what's behind you?” She kept singing as she kept walking in a slow and steady way; a stick in front of her tapping the ground as anyone who was blind would be expected to do: though this was by far not the case – she saw perfectly clearly due to her passive chakra radar ability: a sensory ability she had gained shortly after losing her eyes and which she had honed into the perfect that it was now.

“Save me from the things I see. I can keep it from the world, why won't you let me hide from me? Mirror mirror, tell me something- who's the loneliest of all? I'm the loneliest of all.”

Give up, Dezzy…

I won’t stop looking for him, even if it kills me.

That’s what I’m afraid of…

You know that you’re not weak, you can find them all and you can bring them to their knees.
We’re not doing this now Nii-san…

Long silver hair flowed behind the middle aged man who had been carving a path of destruction across the shinobi world for the past five years as he had sought retribution for the final tragedy that he had faced in his life. It was said that the worst thing that a father could have to do was bury his child, but Mitsuo Uchiha had certainly one upped that when he watched his daughter, the only family he had left, torn into pieces in front of his very eyes. He could never get the image of her screaming out of his head and it still chilled him to the bone every time it made its way back to the fore. He remembered her plucking out her eyes before she died, not wanting him to see the light fade from them, and handing them to him so that she may see the world through his eyes…

And what have you seen that has been so great? Have you truly lived up to the promise that you made to her? You won’t have done her memory justice until you watch the world burn and every shinobi who could possibly have anything to do with this is dead in the ground beyond any hope of revival.
I know…I haven’t done her memory justice…but what am I expected to do?

He could feel the pain inside of his heart grow and all that did was fuel his rage, making it so that he was seeing red. He wanted to burn down the entire world, he wanted everyone to suffer for his suffering, and he knew exactly how to go about doing that. The only thing standing in his way was himself and his pain. He was in the middle of a country that was mostly known for being a peaceful place, but he still felt the need to cause destruction as they all lived while his daughter lay dead in the ground. As he continued on his way with nobody to comfort him but the voices in his head, which most often did quite the opposite; he started to notice something odd. He could feel a chakra signature that seemed quite familiar to him and one that he hadn’t felt since the night that she had died…

It can’t be her, it must be one of the ones who did it to her. You should kill them.
No…it feels like her chakra…but that’s impossible, isn’t it Nii-san? I saw her die…

“WHAT TORMENT IS THIS? WHY DO YOU FEEL THE NEED TO DESTROY MY SPIRIT WHEN MY MIND IS ALREADY IN SHAMBLES?” Mitsuo was yelling at the top of his lungs, piercing the odd silence of the land, but he then noticed that he wasn’t the only one who was talking. He could hear a girl’s voice, though only faintly, and it was coming from where he had felt the chakra signature. He was hearing a ghost, he was feeling a ghost, there was no way it could be his little girl, but he still had to check. He made his way cautiously towards the chakra signature and when he finally got close enough to see the girl he took a long look at her.

She had long white hair, much like his own, which it appeared was being tied back with a headband. Her slender form was covered in a unique set of clothing the likes of which was rather uncommon for a shinobi, but Mitsuo knew that she was far more powerful than she looked, as he could see and feel her chakra signature. As he moved towards her he could feel that familiarity once more and his heart began skipping beats.

There’s no way it’s her…
You’re right, you should kill this imposter. It is just as likely that they are here to kill you.
Shut up Nii-san, I’m not going to kill this girl.

His long black robes with the Uchiha symbol on the back flowed in the wind and he noticed she wore the same symbol on the back of her robe. When he had finally come up behind her he decided that he could no longer wait and instead began to speak, hands preparing to draw his twinblades if needed, though not overly threatening at the moment.

“Who goes there? Name yourself. This is a dangerous place, even for a shinobi such as yourself, girl.” He meant to sound threatening, though he couldn’t get the power into his voice that he often would. He was nearly trembling at the thought that this apparition was his daughter, or at least a ghost of her. He stood his ground however, and awaited her answer, whatever that might be…

Dezzy didn’t know what she could possibly do to shut the voice up that was ever present in her skull; even to this day she could remember when it first appeared – the very day she died, or rather, the very day the medical ninjutsu technique she had perfected healed her from being torn to pieces and brought her back to life. How surprised she was to know she had died and come back and it had nothing at all to do with any sort of outside influence. How even more surprising had it been that she had woken up with the voice of another in her head and no knowledge as to who or what it was. Yet, that surprise had been sheltered in the greatest fear imaginable to her: her father thought she was dead and he was nowhere to be found so that she could inform him otherwise.

Therefore, finding him had become her soul purpose, her mission in life: even if it was to discover that he had died: something she hadn’t allowed herself to believe. She just needed to know… she needed to be able to be close to him, the only person she ever bothered to care for. Friends came and went but family was forever, which was in and of itself the reason she had given her father her eyes before she died – she would have done anything for him.

Dezzy was so far into her thoughts of locating her father as well as her mental ramblings that she didn’t notice at first a male approaching from behind her nor hear his screams beforehand: something that was clear on her chakra radar had she been actually bothering to pay attention to it. Years of training and honing her reactions kept her from jumping like a startled child as the male’s voice reached her ears. She felt almost at once an ache set up in her heart; that voice… that familiar voice.

Perhaps you’ve just gone truly mad and now you’re seeing and hearing what you want to, Dezzy…

I’m not mad…

Cackling followed this mental comment as the evil sounding voice laughed its imaginary ass off at her. Oh? You talk to me daily and you claim you’re not mad. Shame on you child for lying to yourself like that.

SHUT UP! It was all she could do to keep herself from grabbing her head and screaming it out loud. The voice had brought her to her knees more than once before but she wasn’t about to allow it to control her now, at least not while there was a possible threat behind her that needed taken care of.

Cautiously and slowly she turned to face the man; the movement that of a graceful dancer as all of her movements were. As she turned the wind picked up, blowing white colored bangs back to reveal the covering that kept her useless and empty eyes from the view of others – no one wanted to see empty eye sockets after all. She ‘stared’ towards the man without actually being able to see him with her eyes: taking in an appearance that only caused the ache in her heart to increase. She could feel tears wheel up behind the covering and was instantly glad she wore it. This man looked like her father but could she be so lucky?

Dezzy said nothing for several seconds while the wind continued to blow, shifting the fabric of her top enough to reveal Myrtenaster: her rapier, and the very weapon she had used the day she had been fighting for her life, the very weapon that only Dezzy could wield do to the protections placed on it.

Staring is rude you know. You should at least say something…

What do I say?

…. I don’t know.

You’re of no help.

Right, speak. She needed to do that. But, what would she say? She didn’t trust her senses that were telling her this man was her father because, despite all of her searching, she couldn’t believe that she had finally found him. “My name stopped mattering a little over five years ago… but it’s Dezzy just the same.” No point in offering up her clan name, if the symbol on her back wasn’t proof enough then it was useless to add. “You… seem… familiar.”, she added on, unable to help herself.[/i]

Silence…well that wasn’t something he had heard in a while. There was a small amount of shock at the uncanny resemblance to the small girl who had died in his arms five years ago, though of course this version looked a little older and more mature. Her eyes were bandaged, which if she was who she had stated she was that made sense as the last thing she had done before she died was take out her own eyes and hand them to Mitsuo. Mitsuo’s hands began to tremble as the only voice inside of his head now was hers repeating her name over and over again. Dezzy, his baby, the child whom he never thought he would grow so attached to. She was a clone of him made by someone who he had never met for a reason he would never understand, but in the end he ended up loving her as though she was his own daughter.

It was hard for Mitsuo’s eyes not to well up and he was glad that she wasn’t able to see him right now, as he didn’t want the first thing for his daughter to see of him in so long was him crying. He knew that he couldn’t jump to conclusions as there was a good chance, in fact an almost entirely obvious chance, that this wasn’t his daughter. She was dead and he had watched it happen before his very eyes. It was impossible for her to be standing in front of him, though here she was looking almost identical to how she did last he saw her (before her injuries) and with the exact same chakra imprint. That was something that was impossible to fake to someone of his power with sensory.

“Dezzy…is your name you said?” His voice was trembling. He was trying not to sound weak, as he had completely steeled his emotions after his daughter’s death, or at least on the outside he had. “Like Dezzy Uchiha? Daughter of…Mitsuo Uchiha, The Sword Saint?” He wanted to reach out a hand and touch her face to make sure that she was real, but he knew better than that as that would be a great way for him to lose his hand, and he didn’t want that to happen.

Holy shit, I think it might actually be her.
Finally talking again Nii-san..Where were you a few seconds ago?

I have to be dreaming…

Pinch yourself, see if you wake up.

I can’t pinch myself if I’m already sleeping.

God, logical logic is so fail.

Right, enough mental ramblings. She needed all of the focus she could get or else this might turn nasty. She had noticed rather easily that the man before her, the one who reminded her so much of the father she hadn’t seen in so long, was armed. This was no time to play games, and this was no time to be foolish or caught slipping because her inner voice was a chatter box.

However… as she heard the man speak again, as she heard his voice tremble with emotions he seemed to be trying to hide from her, she found it harder and harder to hold herself back from launching herself across the distance that separated them and hugging him for the next few days until her arms grew numb and fell off. The fact that the man knew who her father was, knew even the alias he went by, should have alarmed her but instead it was the opposite: it only further began to concrete her belief that this was her father: that this was Mitsuo Uchiha. The Sword Saint.

I want to go to him. I want to hug him and let him know he doesn’t have to suffer anymore. I want to let him know that I’m alright, that I’m real…

Be careful. He’s believed you dead for the past five years: he watched you die in his arms. For all you know he believes this is some sort of cruel trick and if he thinks you’re attempting to attack him he might react… Usually her inner voice pissed her off something fierce but at this moment in time she knew the words to be true: she was for all purposes supposed to be dead and gone, not alive and well and standing here at this very moment in time. She needed to be cautious even if that was the last thing she wanted to be doing at this moment in time.

Perhaps there is a way for me to fix this… for me to prove that I am me and not some cruel illusion or ghost whose come to haunt him. So, instead of answering his questions, she decided to prove herself another way... a more believable way than words that could easily be well told lies.

“Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or form of measure. And all of it… irreplaceable.”, words that she had uttered, whispered so that only her fathers ears could hear as she died, words that came from a poem but all in the same had meant to tell him he could mourn her when she died. Words that no cruel enemy would know; but words she would speak now loud and clear so that if – and she truly hoped this was – this was her father he would know she was real, that she was here.

Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or form of measure. And all of it… irreplaceable

And with that he dropped to his knees. There was no way this wasn’t his daughter, as those were the words she had uttered to him directly before her death. Hot tears were running down his face and he reached out a hand to touch her face. He could feel the warmth there, that feeling of her soft skin that he had been missing for these five long years, and it only made his hysterics worse. He wrapped his arms around his daughter and pulled her close to him, holding her tightly just in case this was some kind of dream, but he knew in his heart and in his mind that it was real. He hadn’t been so happy in a long time, and he didn’t even know what to do with himself.

“My beautiful girl, you’ve come back to me,” he spoke between tears and his voice continued to tremble but he didn’t care at this point. “I’ve missed you so much, I love you so much…I…I watched you die…I buried you, did something no father should have to do to his own child. How are you here?” He knew that the reason wasn’t something that he was overly concerned about right now but something in his mind had forced him to ask that question, as he knew that at some point it could potentially indeed be important. All he cared about right now was the fact that he was holding his baby girl in his arms and that nothing could take that away from him. He would destroy anyone who would do her harm and would ensure that she was safe and that he would never lose her again…

She watched as her father dropped to his knees, reaching out to her as her words sunk in and he realized that she truly was who she was and not some cruel trick or illusion. However, none of the emotions hit her until she felt her father touch her face: and then it was like a giant stone wall being blown up as a mixture of emotions filled her. When her father wrapped his arms around her she held on to him just as tightly; leaning into him as she had done when she was a young child. The rest of the world ceased to matter in that moment as she realized that her search, her mission in life, was over: she had found her father. He was alive and well, not lying dead in a gutter somewhere like the cruel and evil voice in her skull had taunted her only minutes before with. No, he was here, with her, and… wanting answers.

God, the answers… she had never told anyone about what had happened, she had never told anyone about the powers she had gained since that day because she felt she couldn’t trust them… but her father, she could trust him. She always would trust him.

Keeping her arms around her father, clinging to him, she responded though her voice was cracked from the tears streaming down her own face, “Do you remember how a few days before I died I was working on a new medical jutsu? The jutsu was supposed to allow me to store healing chakra inside of myself or someone else that would later on heal them even if I wasn’t nearby – at least until that chakra ran out that was stored inside of them.” She sniffled and went on, “I had used that chakra on myself but then we were on the move again so I didn’t get a chance to actually see if the jutsu worked; especially because I was also working on a resurrection jutsu at the same time.

When I was ripped apart, when I gave you my eyes, I truly thought I was dead. The last thing on my mind was those jutsu I had created, had experimented with, might work… I watched as darkness swallowed me up and nothingness took over. Then, I don’t know how much later, it was like a light flicking on. I was alive, I was awake, and I was in… agony. I suppose now I can understand why it hurt so badly, I was essentially growing parts of my body back, but I couldn’t remember at that moment why I was in so much pain. When… I got out, I realized I was blind. I wandered for a while, lost, stumbling… I started to remember what had happened.“

Now that she was on a roll she just couldn’t stop, the secrets coming spilling out because she had to tell someone, and her father was the only one she could trust with this. “Then.. after a while, I began to be able to see. This wasn’t just… sensory.. this was something else entirely. At first it was horrible; like someone with bad vision who could only see things close to them and in very little detail. But, as time went on it grew stronger… I could see further, clearer. Now… now I can see perfectly clear; I can see…” How did she describe how far she could see? “I… I can see right now a man, drunk on liquor, stumbling into his house in the middle of the nearby village, patting his son on the head, and then falling over himself on the floor…” Such strong abilities, ones that most adults wouldn’t know how to handle, but they were her burden just the same… and her secret, because she knew that if word got out people would come after her, they would seek that knowledge by any means necessary. “I’ve searched for you since then… “

Mitsuo was speechless. He honestly couldn’t imagine his daughter learning to live without her sight, yet here she was in the flesh standing in front of him and able to see better than with normal eyes. It was as though giving her eyes away was a blessing in disguise. As he stared at her with tear stained cheeks and puffy eyes from the bittersweet tears that had run down his face. He was smiling for the first time in a long time a smile that was genuine and happy instead of his normal somewhat insane smile that was often caked onto his handsome face. He let his daughter go and placed his hand on her head, sniffling slightly and clearing his throat so that he could speak once more.

“I’m just happy that you’re safe and that you’re back with me, where you belong. Nothing could possibly take you away from me again. I would burn down the world if I had to in order to keep you safe. I can’t give up on my goal either…the people who took you from me must suffer…the people who drove us apart need to be slaughtered. They need to pay for the pain they caused me…us… They must all be destroyed. Anyone who may have had something to do with your death…I will destroy them all…and you will help me, my lovely daughter. You have become so powerful…You are so strong.” Mitsuo wiped his tears and stood strong, eyes steeled once more and looking ever to the future and towards his plans. He would destroy the places that he knew performed experiments and created wars. He would burn the hidden villages to the ground, but before he did that, he needed to get something back.

“There is something I must do first though…I need to retrieve a certain relic that a man in Konoha is currently in possession of…I need The Messiah…”

Dezzy smiled, too. She was glad that her search was finally over, and glad that she was reunited with her father once more: even the usual voice in her head was silent at the moment – likely lacking any sort of snide comment or remark. She didn’t expect that inner voice to remain like that for long, though, but she would enjoy the peace while it lasted. Hell, maybe if she was lucky her inner voice would be a bit nicer this time around… it was wishful thinking.

When her father stood back up and patted her head she ‘looked’ up at him without seeing him through normal eyes as instead she now watched through her chakra radar. She listened carefully to his words, absorbing them like a sponge would water. The path her father was on was a dangerous one, one that would lead to the deaths of many, and the destruction of a lot… But, it was a path she was more than willing to walk with him on. She understood his reasoning’s, more-so than most people like would, and she was willing to help him. Besides… it was likely that if those same people who had helped in her death found out the power she had now they would come after her, so either way they needed to die.

She nodded in response to her father: agreeing without really needing to that she would help him. “Of course I’ll help.” When her father mentioned the relic though that he needed to get, from a man in Konoha, she tilted her head to the side curiously as she so often did when she was a young girl: curious as to what it could possibly be and how it would help. “What is it exactly?”, she asked curiously.

You would use your own daughter to meet your needs? You really are a shinobi of the old ways aren’t you? Using people who love you as tools.
I’m not using her nii-san…

Mitsuo smiled a soft smile and stroked his daughter’s hair like he did when she was small, a rush of emotions overtaking him as he felt the nostalgia of the moment and couldn’t help but get sentimental over it. There were many things he had missed that he had become used to doing when she was around him, and he was hoping that he would have plenty of time with his daughter in the near future. He had intended on sending her to retrieve his weapon from the Hokage, but he didn’t want to separate from her just yet and so instead he decided that he would bring him along on his next plan.

“The Messiah is a blade that I had unfortunately left in Konoha, it is currently in the care of the one they call the Stormlord, but that can wait. I just remembered something that will be a little more fun. Have you ever been to Kumogakure no Sato sweetie? I think that you might enjoy it there; the climate, the altitude, the screams of shinobi being burned alive by the black flames of Amaterasu…It’ll be a blast.” He smiled a dark smile, a spark creating in his hand as he thought of his plans for Kumogakure. The thought of having his daughter at his side simply made it that much sweeter…

Her smile grew when her father stroked her hair, reminding her much of when she was still a little girl – though in a lot of ways she still was. When her father spoke of doing something else first, before sending her after the blade he had left behind in Konohagakure, her head tilted a bit to the right in curiosity and she listened carefully to his words. She had never ventured to Kumogakure before but the words her father spoke next confirmed the reason they were going there and it wasn’t for a pleasant little chat.

This should have scared her, this should have bothered her somewhere deep down, and if she was anyone else she would have at least tried to talk him out of it. But, as it were, it didn’t bother her and instead she only grinned and nodded – wanting to help her father in any way that she could. She had never actually gotten a chance to see the black flames her father spoke of in effect though she knew well about them, so it would be a learning experience so to speak and a chance to see something she hadn’t before.

She nodded her head with a giggle. “Okay! That should be fun!”, she said excitedly. “When are we leaving?” she asked curiously before reaching up to adjust the cloth that covered her eyes into a more comfortable position.

And then she felt something stir, awaken really, inside of her and she suddenly paused - in her excitement over being reunited with her father she had forgotten one very very important thing: the chakra beast inside of her. "Wait... there's... something else I forgot until I felt it waking up. That... beast I fought, that giant armor.. When I came to the first thing I thought when I couldn't find you was that it had killed you like you thought I was dead... so I went back for it. I figured I had nothing left to live for.. only it didn't best me. I was able to seal it... inside of myself and now I can tap into its powers, my very skin is like armor. I wanted to tell you in case someone attacked us so you didn't worry about it if you saw me get hit. Most blades cannot even cut me anymore."