19 Cursed Eye (1/2)

It wasn't a normal day—no, no. Well, if things weren't better enough, I almost got squashed by a giant centipede and I almost killed clueless jounins and ANBU's from trauma when they stared into my golden eye, which just came out of nowhere, really. I was panicked more than anyone else, having no actual clue how to turn the thing off before I almost kill them while also trying to calm myself down on how on earth I survived that abomination of an insect.

I calmed myself down after breathing so heavily, thinking back to a thought in the back of my mind. That thought is very haunting, especially when it's about me not being able to control whatever the hell the golden thing is. Worst case scenarios also played back in my mind—about me accidentally putting everyone in their demise with my gaze.

Tou-san hugged me, ”It's okay, Ori-kun…” he assured me, rubbing a hand on my back. ”Inoichi's gonna check them up to see if they're okay. He's on his way now.” He smiled, leaving the unspoken words of, 'Inoichi's gonna check what your eye did to them.'

I nodded, shaking a tad bit before sitting up, rubbing my cold, left eye, refusing to look at anyone directly at the moment and letting my long, curly hair to cover up my eye. It seems like whoever falls into my gaze will land on the same fate as the jounin ninjas earlier.

I don't want that to happen again.

I also don't want to get eaten alive by a massive centipede, please.

I sighed, closing my eyes as I lay myself back at the ground. It's better to be lingering in darkness than having people die because of these eyes. Why does this golden eye feels more like a curse than something that could benefit me in the future?

Who am I, Medusa?

One single gaze and you're good as dead.

__________

Kuro sighed as he placed a white cloth over his son's closed left eye to prevent another disastrous event. Golden light seems to seep through his son's closed eye, proving him that his son's eye is overflowing with an unknown and untamed power. Taming such ability could be very helpful, but since his son is still a child, he doesn't know if Orion could control it by himself.

Orion slowly opened his eyes, his right eye wandering about and meeting scared gazes coming from the people behind his father and uncle. He only looked back down, eyes filled with disappointment to himself. He felt as though he was responsible for everything… but he really didn't mean it.

It all started earlier that day, when Kuro had decided that it'd be a great idea for Orion to conquer a bit of land in the Forest of Death to let every critter and giant, deadly creatures there know the child's existence—to test his capability to survive in the scenarios as well.

Orion sighed after hearing this from his father. After all, he believes that nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity… and his father had forsaken that he's actually a child. Well, sure Kuro's not that ignorant.

Orion only thought that because he swear he saw a giant centipede crawl a few feet away from them—and he's scared of it. The centipede can pretty much compare to Orochimaru's giant summon snakes in the anime. It's really big, like, really big.

The child sighed, colours draining as his father pushed him forwards with a bright smile. ”All men dream, but not equally,” the Nara started, ”those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity,” he ruffled his son's hair, patting his back, ”but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.” He leaned closer, his chin resting on the child's shoulder, whispering what he considered his assuring words, ”And you are one of them dangerous dreamers… you can make things possible, my dear child.”

His son blinked as he took a step closer towards the dark area of the forest, even though it's very early in the morning. Though his words are motivational, Orion's still uncertain about this ”little quest” for him to conquer a part of the deadly forest.

The centipede's still there, dammit.

The Hatake-Nara sighed, looking back at his father with a bored gaze. His father gave him a closed-eye smile, waving goodbye and good luck to him. ”What's more dangerous is not to progress and develop anything…” The child mumbled, going through the bushes warily, ”… this challenge might actually push me over my limit, if things go right.”

Shikakuro and gave his gaze to his son's back as he disappeared into the forest. Pushing his son to his limits is his plan. It's not only to make the child stronger, but hopefully make ”something” happen. They've been three weeks in training and, honestly, his son has improved a lot.

And this is the best thing to push that improvement further.

Of course, he's not gonna let his son wander in the forest alone where a big-ass centipede had taken its territory. Absolutely not. He's going to follow him in a far distance, along with a Hyūga jounin by his side to monitor his son. He also got several other ninjas and ANBU's dispersed around the forest where he calculated what path his son could take after parting with him.

Sure, it might be wrong to, well, let a four—nearly five-year old son wander around a deadly forest to ”train”. Even Shikakuro had once dreamt of raising his son normally because he doesn't want to let that silver-haired child turn out to be like him… but as his son grew more and more knowledgeable and aware of thinks, and think maturely than a normal Nara child would, it brought the child more trouble.

No, Kuro's not saying having a genius son is a bad thing, but rather, he's saying that having too much knowledge can bring one down if not balanced enough. Right now, he could see through his son's eyes this unexplainable gaze of intelligence that one had gone through much—and he doesn't know why.

Maybe Orion got it from him.

Has he become a neglectful parent? He sure has because of his work as a ninja, but he tries his best to set the right example for his son whenever he can, but why did things turn out this way? He wanted Orion to grow up to live his life peacefully, not worrying over people coming for his life for whatever his eye he holds.

Oh, how fate loved to toy with their life.

He let out a sigh, watching Orion from a distance as he fought with killer rabbits he had encountered. His eyes followed his son's movements as the young boy gracefully jumped over the leader of those blood-stained, seemingly innocent, rabbits.

What actually relieved him, somehow, was when he saw that Orion wasn't trying to kill the killer rabbits. It might be strange, but it shows that his son isn't interested in pointless fight.

Kuro was glad that Orion didn't become as ruthless as he was back when he conquered this part of the forest, and it became his hideout in war time. He'd use creatures here as practice dummies for his experimental jutsus and would often cause more damage than intended. He did gain respect from the animals living in the Forest of Death, but that respect was earned from fear for him, which he isn't really proud of.

Now, those killer rabbits looked as though they're striking revenge against his son because those types of rabbits won't attack unless provoked—and the Nara didn't see his son ever provoking them. It makes sense since his son's scent is close to his…

But Orion's laziness to fight with those rabbits is way beyond his imagination.

Kuro refrained a snicker, but failed horribly as he saw his son just sitting on a branch, watching the rabbits down below as they go crazy around the area. He smiled as his son stared with boredom at the rampaging animals, yawning and muttering about something.

”Kuro-san,” the Hyūga next to him called his name out. The Nara blinked, looking at the ninja, Tsutsuji Hyūga, humming as he raised a brow at the kunoichi. ”Your son really got your lazy blood, huh?” She sounded bemused, her Byakugan activated as she kept her eye on the young Orion.

”Did he?” Kuro snickered, ”I'm sure he got his laziness both from the slothful clans. He's not even eager to fight those rabbits.”

”Ori-kun just jumped over them and ran… we should get going.” The kunoichi swiftly moved out, making the Nara to follow after her after a short pause.

They continued trailing after Orion, who doesn't seem to be interested in little creatures running about and that are sometimes blocking his way. He's just casually jumping over them as though he's trying to find something in particular. This went on until noon, and the child just sat on a tree branch after a long while.

He seems to be looking at something.

Tsutsuji didn't need to hear a command from her superior in order to know what the child was looking at. She didn't have her Byakugan on, yet she still felt a chilling chakra from whatever the child was looking at. Of course, Kuro knew this as well, narrowing his eyes as the familiar aura made contact with him.

It was the centipede.

The King Centipede.

__________

It was strange, really. Deadly animals seems to be staying away from this wooded clearing. The killer bunnies that were trailing after me were gone as well, as if they're hiding from something. Out-of-the-world giant wasps that were chasing me left as well.

I have a feeling that the one I'm looking for is near.