Kamina, Shurajo

Some ninja are taught to cover up emotion. Others are taught to cover up fear. And couples are quickly taught to cover up problems. To admit failure in a relationship would be to admit weakness. Thus, relationships such as that of Kamina’s parents continue for years, decades, lifetimes. This particular story of tragedy is not a new one, however. It goes as follows: Boy meets girl. Boy marries girl. Girl has a baby. Boy gets drunk.

Kamina’s mother, Ayame, was an angel among mortals. Her luscious golden hair reflected the light, creating a halo of brilliance around her. She was coveted by many during her childhood, but through her naïveté she chose the wrong one. Ebisu was a brutish man, who held semblances of good looks, but the personality of a boar. He knew how to seduce a girl, and took advantage of Ayame’s virginity to trick her into a relationship, and trick her into marriage. Things were good for a while, but then Kamina was born, and Ebisu began frequenting the bars, unable to deal with parenthood. The first big fight came when Ayame announced she wanted to move to Sunagakure. Ebisu, whose entire heritage lay in the hidden mist, refused, and resorted to force when words were not enough. The screams were so loud at first that Kamina, now four years old, couldn’t help but notice. As Ebisu pushed his mother up against the wall, her hands grasped in his, and his distorted face inches away from hers, Kamina looked on in frightened ignorance. The light from the window covered Ayame in her heavenly halo.

Ayame attempted to bring up the issue many times, determined to give Kamina a better life than she had, but every time it led to her against the wall, or on the floor. Soon, Ebisu’s visits to the bar became more frequent, and his abuse occured more often, and less provoked. One night Ebisu attempted to take his anger out on Kamina, and Ayame through herself in front of her child. Ebisu gave up on the boy, but instead increased his usual beating on Ayame. Kamina sat crunched up in the corner, tears rolling down his eyes as blood rolled from his mother’s. Kamina quickly learned to become invisible. He hid as best he could, covering his ears to the frightening screams. Outside a thick mist perpetually stood, acting as earmuffs to the outside world.

Then, one night, Ebisu had a change of heart. There was only one thing more shameful than leaving the hidden mist: being responsible for his wife’s death. It was not that he killed her with his fists, but mentally she was dead long before she publicly committed suicide. Kamina’s troubled present can largely be traced back to the moment when Kamina, happily racing home from his first day of the ninja academy, witnessed his mother dead along the main street of Kirigakure. It was surreal at first. So much that Kamina never saw, and never knew about the note his mother had left him. It was a sweet note.

Ebisu knew all about the note, however, and all about the cruelties it exposed. Though he was a man of cruelty, he was moreover a man of pride, and he couldn’t bear shaming his family’s name. In one last effort to repent for his actions, he uprooted Kamina, and travelled to Sunagakure, leaving the dead Ayame behind. Perhaps it was his attempt to ask for forgiveness. Kamina, at this point, was so devastated he barely had enough energy to pack up all his things. He felt betrayed by his mother. How could she leave him with this monster? How could she abandon him? No, he felt more than betrayal. He felt anger.

Old habits continued in Sunagakure. The constant sun and sandstorms took the place of the ominous fog, and now Ebisu turned his drunken rages on Kamina. Kamina was now enrolled in the academy at the age of 8, and turned out to be a sort of prodigy, quickly mastering the basic jutsu and becoming a genin. He now learned how to harness his natural talents of painting, and focused on learning the Sumiton release. At home he began painting more and more, until he ran out of paper and began using the walls. Ebisu hardly approved of this, and whenever he found another drawing, the beatings would get more and more severe. Soon, Kamina learned to make his paintings transcend paper, and become three-dimensional, quickly furthering his ninjutsu studies. His favorite thing to draw was lions. He used to imagine that one would go on a rampage and rip his father to pieces.

However, as he got older, and the bruises became more frequent, they became harder and harder to explain. Kamina knew when his father was coming home – he could hear him from blocks away – but he was still too weak to prevent anything. One night, after making a large mural of lions on the wall, Kamina messed up, and dumped his bucket of paint all over his body. He was covered, and there was no way to hide the evidence of his mistake. He heard his father coming from down the street, and his heart sunk. There was nothing he could do. He ran into the corner, and just like when he was a kid, crunched up in the fetal position. He closed his eyes and hoped more than anything that he could truly be strong; simply acting it was no longer sufficient. He hoped, and hoped, and prayed - prayed to god, prayed to his mother, prayed to the mona lisa, that he wouldn’t have to withstand the upcoming beating. He poured chakra out of his body, which in turn fused with the ground and out rose sharp, gleaming, transparent crystals. Kamina’s prayers were answered. Ebisu entered the room, looked around, furious at Kamina, but unable to find him. Ebisu slopped down on his bed, and rolled into sleep. By the next morning Kamina had cleaned everything up.

And so it was that Kamina learned to truly be invisible. He painted beautiful, more complex murals on the wall that his father was helpless to view. He progressed greatly, and began learning fuuinjutsu in the academy. He managed to avoid his father’s drunken rages often, but not completely. Every so often he would be caught painting still, and Kamina would have to try his hardest to avoid his father’s punches. Kamina grew fast; too fast for his father, in fact. At that point Kamina stopped becoming invisible. He liked taunting his father. He harbored so much hate, that the daily “beatings” became the best part of his day, able to make his father seem like a fool. This caused Ebisu’s alcoholism to get worse, and in turn the beatings, but by now Kamina was too skilled of a ninja to be hit by a blubbering idiot such as his father. One night, after Ebisu came home particularly drunk, and was humiliated by his son, he went out again for more. Ebisu never returned.

Kamina never learned what happened to his father, and he never cared. If he died, and rotted for the rest of the eternity in some back alleyway, then good riddance. Kamina, now 14, continued his life, living by himself, and devoting much of his time to being a ninja, and to being an artist. He passed the Chuunin exams with flying colors, and continued progressing. Though he seems to have moved on, he is still haunted by his past in the form of terrifying, cruel dreams. For a long period he feared even going to bed, but eventually learned to cope with his fear through art. Now Kamina is 16, and an aspiring ninja, about to receive his very own team. He has matured much since his father’s death, but the events of his childhood will haunt him for the rest of his life. Though he wishes he could forgive her, Kamina still holds some resentment towards his dead mother. This resentment is mostly what keeps Kamina perpetually dismal. Though he believes her personal effects to be destroyed, this assumption is not completely correct. Somewhere, in the obscurity of the hidden mist, an old weary traveler protects a single hand-written note, which, should it be found, holds the key to Kamina’s happiness.

At the age of 18 Kamina achieved the rank of Jounin, now a strong and skilled ninja his dreams of finding his happiness may soon be realized. He continues on, and now the years fly by. His emotions dulled by years of killing and fighting on top of his childhood struggles. Present day Kamina just turned 26 having been promoted to the rank of Anbu Captain after years of dedicated service to the corp. New to the position he hopes to discover new things he didn't know about shinobi and embark on new adventures, of course these were all childish ideas but it was an enjoying thought for a man who kills for a living.