Silk

XII

Kyo huddled beneath the roots of a tree, arms wrapped around his knees, shivering in the cold morning air. His stomach was rumbling but he didn’t have any food with him. He’d just run and run and hid, just kept moving, always afraid to stop and find something to eat because he knew if he did they’d find him and they’d kill him. He didn’t understand why, but he knew it only had to do with his eyes. His mother had screamed and cried when he’d managed to open his eyes one morning and his father had gone cold toward him before locking him up in the cell beneath the ground. Never before had his parents treated him that way, but then he’d changed somehow. Kyo was terribly afraid. He didn’t want to die. He shivered in the cold and curled up tighter around himself. He wanted to go home, but he knew he couldn’t, not if he wanted to stay alive. He didn’t even know how far he had run, only that he had kept going until his legs had grown so tired he couldn’t move another step without pain.

He was alone, terrified. He’d never been this far from home without an escort of some kind and even then it was only to the hot spring to be dunked in again and again until his skin was raw and red and he couldn’t move without crying from some sort of ache.

Kyo jerked at the sound of movement, his eyes automatically picking out red blobs, a group to his left and two a little ahead of him to the right. The two groups were converging, probably meeting, and Kyo huddled back in his hiding place, trying to keep his sounds as quiet as possible. He didn’t want to be found by anyone. The group of red blobs shifted and flickered and broke around the two red blobs, the two red blobs left alone as the group moved on. Kyo was shaking, hands covering his mouth, trying not to cry as those two red blobs came closer to him, and then he could see them, a young man with deep red eyes and dark hair tied in a long tail that hung between his shoulder blades and a smaller boy who’s face was covered by a thin black fabric, only his green eyes visible above the mask, strands of blonde hair caught in what looked to be a headband of some sort, metal crossing his forehead and etched with a strange symbol. The taller man wore the same headband, proving the two were associated with one another somehow. Still, Kyo didn’t want to be found by anyone, even if he didn’t recognize them as belonging to his family.

Kyo shifted only slightly as the pair passed by his hiding place and froze as those crimson eyes fell on him. He tensed, prepared to jump up and run, his hands instinctively curling to leave his index and middle fingers poised, like snake’s fangs. He froze when the blonde boy crouched down in front of him, studying him without fear. The boy looked back at the taller man he traveled with and the man moved to crouch beside the boy, crimson eyes flicking over Kyo’s face, stopping on his eyes. There was a soft sound, like a short intake of breath, and the man smiled. Kyo couldn’t help but smile back, his hands relaxing, the tiny fangs beneath his nails retracting into their sheaths.

The blonde boy shifted closer then, reaching out to him, offering his hand, and hesitantly, Kyo took it. He let the other boy pull him up and gazed down at him, the blonde boy smiling up at him. Kyo didn’t know how he knew the boy was smiling, but he knew. It relaxed him. He relaxed even more when the man patted his head and only shifted nervously when the man began to check him for wounds.

“It’s okay,” the blonde boy whispered. “Sasuke-san won’t hurt you.”

Kyo blinked, finally having a name for the man who was now standing, clutching to the hand of the smaller blonde boy, gazing up at Sasuke.

“I’ve only seen such eyes on one man before,” Sasuke said.

“What kind of eyes?” Kyo asked, allowing himself to be tugged along by the boy who was at least a foot shorter than he, the two of them following Sasuke to whatever destination the pair had been heading to in the first place.

Sasuke looked back at Kyo and gave him a soft smile. “Snake eyes.”

Kyo almost froze but his new friend squeezed his hand and tugged him along. Kyo could only walk numbly, understanding now why his mother who had loved him for seven years let her son spend the last three in a cell, prepared to be killed only a few nights ago. He understood now why his father struck him whenever he so much made a sound when the man came to visit. He knew the visits hadn’t been out of love now, only to see if he was still alive.

“So,” Kyo began softly, “what are you going to do with me?”

“What do you think, Sei-kun?” Sasuke asked and Kyo let his gaze drop to the blonde boy beside him. Sei looked up at his sensei and frowned behind his mask, his hand curling tighter around Kyo’s.

“I like him,” Sei whispered.

“What’s your name, then, boyo?” Sasuke asked Kyo who still gazed at Sei wondrously, not knowing why these two weren’t afraid of him, why they didn’t hate him.

“It’s Kyo, Sasuke-san,” Kyo finally replied, clutching back to his new friend’s hand, smiling at Sei and getting what could be a smile in return. Sasuke only nodded and made a gesture for the boys to keep up, the trio passing through a clearing and then into another line of trees. Kyo was grateful Sasuke didn’t keep pressing him and neither did Sei. He only clung to the blonde’s hand, knowing if he let go, he’d get horribly lost. His eyes widened upon seeing a giant wall made of smooth tree trunks and large stones, the stones fitted together so well that there was no room for anyone to make a breach. He felt Sei tug his hand and looked down at the smaller boy, knowing the blonde was smiling behind that thin mask of his.

“Welcome home, Kyo-kun. Welcome to Silk.”

Kyo felt his eyes tearing and stared up at Sasuke, at the man who would become his sensei as he was Sei’s and soon Umi’s. Sasuke only watched him back with knowing crimson eyes and shifted, letting Sei lead Kyo into the village and into the lives of the Kinugakure nin.