Kenshin and Ichiro rushed to Keiji and dropped to their knees beside his body. Kenshin checked his pulse immediately—nothing. Tears welled in the grieving eyes of Kenshin and Ichiro, unable to accept Keiji was gone.
After minutes of inconsolable grief, rage clouded Kenshin's eyes. He stood decisively and approached the fallen genin. Unzipping the green vest and ripping open the shirt, Kenshin grabbed a kunai and began carving deep incisions into the ribcage.
In his fury, Kenshin decided to use one of the most horrific formations: the "soul cage" formation.
The "soul cage" formation was one of the most evil and "forbidden" ones. Users were reviled scum because it harmed not the body, but the soul.
After inscribing runes on the victim's ribs, the soul—unable to leave—was trapped in the "cage," forced to rot in the decaying corpse until the last bone crumbled to dust.
Trapped souls were considered destroyed. Over years in the putrid body, they absorbed massive evil energy. Even reincarnated, nothing good awaited: at best, mental retardation and lifelong misfortune.
Finishing the runes on the genin's ribs, Kenshin checked his pockets and found 4000 ryō. Pocketing them, he turned to his dead son's body and yanked out the kunai from his heart.
"No, Father! What are you doing?! You can't pull the kunai from the wound!" Ichiro cried.
"Calm down! Keiji's gone. We need to get out of here before anyone notices," Kenshin said gravely.
"B-but... Keiji..." Ichiro stammered, earning a slap from his father.
"Snap out of it! Grab our stuff—now we go," Kenshin growled.
Ichiro reluctantly obeyed, grabbing the three backpacks, then approached his father.
"Help get him on my back," Kenshin said calmly.
Ichiro blinked: "Wh-what?"
"Help lift him," he repeated. "We need to bring him home. Aya must say goodbye."
Ichiro helped hoist Keiji's body onto his father's back and said: "Father, maybe I should carry him? I'm stronger..."
"No! I took him from home; I have to bring him back," Kenshin replied firmly, then slowly trudged forward with his second son's lifeless body on his back.
Kenshin and Ichiro walked in silence the whole way. An hour later, exhaustion hit Kenshin hard—arms numb, unable to hold the heavy body; legs refusing to move. But gritting his teeth, he took another step. An hour from home remained, but he forced his cottony legs onward.
The last few kilometers were brutal. His steps slowed to a shuffle; what should have been an hour stretched to two.
Reaching the base of their home mountain, Kenshin found final reserves of strength and climbed. He was punishing himself for carelessness, for failing to protect his son. His body was soaked in blood from the pierced heart; even his knees were crusted thick, refusing to bend.
By the time Kenshin and Ichiro reached home, the sun had nearly set, and Keiji's lifeless body was stiffening with rigor mortis.
Kenshin carried his son's body into one of the nearby caves and laid it on the ground. He knelt before it and silently gazed at his serene face for several minutes. Outwardly, it seemed like Keiji was simply sleeping, but the huge bloodstain across his entire chest ruined the picture.
Several minutes later, Kenshin rose to his feet and strode home.
As soon as the front door opened, a distraught Aya appeared on the threshold and exclaimed, "Thank God! I was already starting to wor..." She broke off her words upon seeing Kenshin, completely splattered with blood.
"Oh God! Kenshin, what happened to you? Are you hurt?!" she cried out, instantly rushing to her husband.
Kenshin couldn't meet her eyes and muttered, "Come with me. You need to say goodbye to him." Then he turned around and headed for the exit.
Stunned, Aya instantly felt fear and dashed after Kenshin.
Following Kenshin, Aya asked "what happened" several times, but he remained silent and kept walking forward. A minute later, they reached the cave in question, and Aya, spotting Ichiro first, asked, "Ichiro, sweetie, what happened?"
Ichiro looked away, and two streams of tears poured from his eyes. In the next second, Aya saw the body lying off to the side, and it was as if lightning struck her. Her legs buckled, and a scream mixed with a howl burst from her mouth: "No... No... No!" She sobbed and lunged toward the body on the ground.
"Keiji, God, Keiji! Wake up! Kenshin, tell me you were just joking with me! Tell me!" she shouted, tears streaming from her eyes, running down her cheeks and chin, dripping onto the lifeless body.
For several minutes, she sobbed, begging Keiji to wake up, but his eyes never opened.
"Why... Why?! You promised our children would become great shinobi!" Aya cried out, staring into Kenshin's eyes. He barely mustered the strength to meet her gaze but said nothing.
Aya turned away and resumed sobbing over her deceased son's body, whimpering nonstop and begging him to "wake up." Several minutes later, Kenshin approached his wife and whispered, "Enough. Go home."
Aya didn't react and kept sobbing, bent over Keiji's body.
"Aya, go back to the house!" he snapped in a commanding tone, and she struggled to her feet, shuffling toward the house while still sobbing, leaving a trail of tears behind her.
All this time, tears streamed from Ichiro's eyes. He couldn't believe his brother was dead. Just a few hours earlier, they had been happily wandering the city, and now his little brother lay as a cold corpse in the corner of the cave.
"Go say goodbye to your brother," Kenshin's voice suddenly rang out, snapping Ichiro from his tormented thoughts.
Ichiro wiped his tears with the back of his hand, silently approached his brother, and knelt down. He gazed at his brother's face for several minutes, whispering words only he knew, then rose and silently left the cave.
Kenshin took a deep breath and approached Keiji's body. Squatting beside it, he began drawing a formation. Several minutes later, he stood, carefully dragged Keiji's body into the center of the formation, and sat down nearby.
He stared at his son's serene face for a long time, then took a deep breath and whispered, "Goodbye, son..."
Kenshin activated the formation, and scorching flames instantly enveloped Keiji's body. Several minutes later, Kenshin collected the ashes hanging in the air into a small pouch and headed home without looking back.
Approaching the front door, Kenshin stripped off all his clothes and folded them on the cold cave floor, not wanting to bring them into the house. As soon as he crossed the threshold, he heard Aya's sobs coming from the bedroom. His heart ached again, but he mustered the strength to ignore his weeping wife and headed to the bathroom.
The next ten minutes were harder for Kenshin than the entire previous hour. For the first time, he was alone with his thoughts, and they gnawed at him from the inside. He didn't know how he could now look Aya in the eye or what would become of their family.
After drying off, he slipped on a robe and left the bathroom, heading to the bedroom. As soon as he opened the door, he saw Aya lying on the bed. She was sobbing and crying bitterly into the pillow. Noticing Kenshin, she fell silent for a second and glanced his way, then began crying even harder.
Kenshin approached the bed and sat on its edge, stroking Aya's back, but she flinched away instantly. Kenshin climbed onto the bed and lay beside her, and the girl tried to get up and leave, but was caught by Kenshin's strong arms.
"Let go!" she shouted, but he pulled her to him and wrapped her in a tight embrace.
In Kenshin's arms, Aya buried her face in his chest and cried even harder than before. Kenshin said nothing, just stroked her head and kissed the top of it.
Several minutes later, Aya stopped crying and, lifting her eyes, asked, "How did it happen?"
Kenshin began recounting everything in detail, and when he mentioned the genin from Konoha, Aya angrily blurted out, "A shinobi from Konoha? But why would he attack you?"
"Apparently, he found out we were carrying a large sum of money," Kenshin replied with a sigh.
He continued his story, and when he reached the moment of Keiji's death, Aya couldn't hold back and sobbed again.
Kenshin kissed the top of her head and stroked her back again, soothing his weeping wife.
A minute later, she finally calmed a bit and asked, "And what happened next? How did you escape?"
Kenshin told her the final part, about Ichiro awakening his Sharingan and his crushing victory.
"What? Sharingan?!" Aya exclaimed in shock. "But... But..."
"So your great-grandfather was telling the truth..." Kenshin sighed.
Under other circumstances, Aya and Kenshin would have been jumping for joy, but now they only briefly discussed Ichiro's Sharingan and continued lying in each other's arms.
Several hours later, Aya finally fell asleep, still involuntarily sobbing and moaning in her sleep, but calming whenever Kenshin held her close and stroked her head.