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"Ah, the Mrs. Shizumi. You will meet your end today, and the abolition of the trading of children will be that much closer to it's final stages also." the animal-mask leader barked at Hollings. Nishi's eyes widened and his mouth dropped upon hearing this. He glared at Shizumi, who was now staring at the ground with a rather sad look on his face.

"He... was going to sell me, too... As, a slave..." Nishi said to himself, the feeling of being alone once more welling up inside of him.

Nishi stared at the animal-masked man, who was standing there in front of what looked like one hundred men, although Nishi noticed that many of them looked very similar if not exactly alike, a trick he knew was popular among Ninja. The animal-masked men all began to dash forward at the same time. The group at the front line pulled out their weapons, ready to use their Taijutsu skills to attack, while the larger group in the back launched different jutsus at the Amegakure team.

Shizumi and the others held their own against the blade-wielding attackers, but once the huge number of Ninjutsus hit them all at once, they began to fall. The Amegakure team used jutsus of their own to combat and defend against the opposing ninjas, but the animal-masked group got the better of them. Nishi watched in horror as blood continued to spill, watching members of both the Amegakure missing-nins and the animal-masked team slowly fell, after most of their energy was expended.

When there was only a few of them left, including Shizumi, Hollings, and one other man, Hollings quickly cast a huge jutsu that trapped the entirety of the animal-mask team in what looked like a huge box of mud. Shizumi took off towards the woods while the other man grabbed Hollings as she collapsed, sprinting off with her in the other way.

Shizumi stumbled as he ran straight towards Nishi's direction, hidden behind a tree on the edge of the forest. Shizumi reached the edge of the forest, just feet from Nishi, but he fell flat on his bleeding face when he tripped over a thick wire-like patch of briars that Nishi had carefully avoided. "Sh- Shizumi-sensei?" Nishi said quietly, remaining squatted behind the tree he had been hiding behind.

"N- Nishi! Please, you must go, please... I- I- I'll meet up with you later, in the village closest to hear, I promise Nishi... Take what I gave you, become a ninja... I will see you again, soon... What you heard about the slaves... Please, don't listen to him. Make it safe, please go!" Shizumi said, quickly forming the seals to make two clones run off in the direction of the huge mud box to become diversions. "GO!" Shizumi yelled when he realized the animal-masked men had begun breaking out of the mud prison.

Nishi tried to argue but was tearing up too bad to say anything, and took off in a full sprint in the opposite direction. A few minutes later he reached a dirt road and continued walking in that direction after hearing a few loud bangs from the way Shizumi had ran, making Nishi tear up again. The boy continued walking down the road for a few hours with Shizumi's words ringing in his head over and over again. 'Take what I gave you, become a ninja... I will see you again, soon...' which was his only hope. Shizumi, he would become his father and teach him the true ways of the ninja! "For now, though... I need to keep moving until I find the first Ninja village. and become a Ninja like Shizumi and Hollings! Maybe I'll find Kirigakure, the village Shizumi's home base is located!" he said with an air of confidence, continuing down the dirt road straight towards Kirigakure, although unknown to him.

"NISHI-SAN!" roared Shizumi's voice behind Nishi, making him wheel around to see Shizumi limping up the dirt path, his shinobi gear drenched in blood. "TWO! Nishi-san, two are coming, run!" he roared, stumbling forward until two ninja emerged from the brush at the bottom of the path.

"Behind you, Shizumi-sensei! Run!" Nishi yelled, running down the path with a single Ninjato gripped in both hands, waving violently over his head. Shizumi saw him attempting to help, and knew there was only way that he could save Nishi from an excruciating death at the hands of the skilled ANBU unit.

He reached into his pouches on both sides of his pants, grabbing more than a few Exploding Notes in each hand. "There will be more Nishi-san, RUN!" Shizumi screamed before wheeling around, diving forward towards the two advancing ANBU members and performing the Exploding Note Detonation seal, blowing up all ten notes attached to his arms and killing both attacking ninja and himself to save Nishi.

Nishi dived to the ground when the huge explosion went off, but immediately knew better than most. Instead of sticking around to mourn over Shizumi, he decided to avoid seeing his dead body and end up caught by advancing animal-mask ninja. He sprinted off in the opposite direction with tears in his eyes, essentially escaping his life as a slave in Amegakure, and beginning his life as an academy student in the Hidden Village of the Mist!

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Nishi lived with his family in the middle region of the Tea Country, and he traveled with his parents north by foot to the border with the Fire Country, where they met with the Amegakure Missing-nin group. Nishi travelled with them northeast through the Fire Country, where Shizumi assured him that they were highly likely to be attacked by an opposing group of hunters.

"Shizumi-sensei, what happens if they get us, again?" Nishi asked for the fourth time, twisting his single kunai around in his hands.

"Nishi-san, don't worry! You must be underestimating us. We travel in numbers, but each of us are rather skilled in our own rights." Shizumi said with a laugh. Usually he would be leading the twelve ninja he was leading with the cattle, but on this occasion he chose to walk near the middle, next to the bull that Nishi was riding.

"That's amazing. I wish I could be like that too! Please Shizumi-sensei... Would you tell me why I was chosen to be taken from my parents to become a ninja!" Nishi said, looking at him intently.

Shizumi had to think quickly - Nishi was going to become a slave for the owners of a large farm in Amegakure. "Your parents offered you up to us for a small price. At such a young age, you will be ale to learn quickly." he said, beginning with the truth.

"I knew it..." Nishi said, his hatred towards his parents growing with every minute they headed further towards his home.

"You will become a great ninja, all you have to do is work hard. Remember that." Shizumi said with a grin, to which Nishi nodded and returned a grin of his own.

"Where are we going? If you're nuke-nin from Amegakure... Why are we going there? Won't you be hunted?" Nishi asked quickly.

"Ahh, a smart one we have here. You know something of ninja, then?" Shizumi said with a laugh, his long black hair flying behind him in the wind.

"Why wouldn't I! It's one of the first things I remember..." Nishi said, twisting around to look at all the other ninja in the group, some with visible forehead protectors with Amegakure's symbol and a thin line scratched through the middle of it.

"That's good to hear. To answer your questions, we're going there to drop off the majority of these cattle. First we'll be stopping by Kirigakure to purchase some more cattle to take back there." he said, lying. In reality they were headed towards Amegakure to sell Nishi and the rest of the slaveboys they were going to trade their cattle for along the way, before heading to their base located outside of Kumogakure. "Like I said about us getting attacked... Since you're such a ninja-encyclopedia, you'll know that ninja usually travel in groups of three or four. With the thirteen of us, there's not a group out there that could take us out!" Shizumi said with a hearty laugh.

Nishi knew that he would never go back to his parents again, especially if he was to become a ninja. 'Maybe Shizumi would be my sensei, even!' Nishi thought with a grin, finally excited about his future.

He and Shizumi talked for hours while they were travelling. Nishi even let it slip that he actually loved his parents for selling them off to a travelling ninja group, but Shizumi reassured him that Nishi's cruel parents were unaware of the ninja group's intentions - making sure Nishi understood that his parents had sold him for their own self-interest and greed. Nishi then began crying, telling Shizumi about every single thing he could remember that his parents did to abuse him, which horrified even a verteran ninja like Shizumi. "Come on, Nishi..." Shizumi said, picking up the crying boy and holding him over his shoulder, where the boy cried in complete silence for nearly fifteen minutes, tears flowing from his eyes the entire time until he finally fell asleep.

"Boss, what are you doing exactly? I saw you talking to the slavekid, the WHOLE time." a crimson-haired woman who had been walking closely behind Shizumi and Nishi said, catching up to the two once Nishi fell asleep.

"I actually feel sorry for the kid." Shizumi said quietly, glancing up at the cute woman next to him.

She bursted with laughter, but quickly covered her mouth so she wouldn't wake up the sleeping boy. "YOU feel sorry for the kid!? That's the most hypocritical thing I've ever heard! Bring him back to his fucking parents if you want to play it like that, moron... I've had about eno-" she ranted, but Shizumi cut her off.

"Hollings! I don't want to hear a second of that from you, especially since THAT'S not what I'm even talking about. The kid, he actually wants to STAY... You know, with us. He was happy that we took him from his parents." Shizumi said quietly to the crimson-haired, beautiful woman known as Hollings.

"Really? Makes a lot of sense though. Don't you remember when Gonqui talked to them, they took the lowest price we offered, and didn't even try to haggle at all. Sounded like they were ready to get rid of the kid, a real brat apparently." Hollings said, scoffing at Nishi, who was now soaking Shizumi's shoulder with his drool.

"His parents are out of their minds! They always would leave him at home, locked in a damn BIRD CAGE, and always at random hours in the night! Obviously kind of drug addicts, although the kid isn't aware of it. His parents have abused him since as far as he can remember back, I know the kid's not making it up. The slavework that Yajikobe-sama will put him to will be NOTHING like what the kid's been through already. He will be treated far better too, and he will never even realize he's a slave..." Shizumi explained, handing the sleeping boy to Hollings and walking to the front of the group so he could let his fellow ninja know that they'd be setting up camp in the forest to their east.

"Here, why leave the runt with me?" Hollings said, finding Shizumi a few minutes later and handing him back the sleeping six year old.
"Today was his birthday, he's six years old now." Shizumi said to the crimson-haired ninja as he quicly set up his large tent. "I think I'm ready to pass on the legacy... What do you think of having a kid finally?" Shizumi said, pulling Hollings into his large tent and kissing her.

"Oh Shizumi, you know I'm not ready for that, gotta keep my looks so I can get the cheaper prices! Remember!?" she said with a laugh, kissing Shizumi and licking his tongue for a second.

"Well in that case, show me what you're worth love!" he laughed, throwing his wife onto his cot and zipping up the door to his cozy tent.

Nishi had a small fold-up tent of his own that he was sleeping inside of a few feet from Hollings' and Shizumi's large tent. Bundled up with a sleeping bag just his size and a pillow, Nishi had dreams that he was rich beyond a person's wildest dreams - but didn't have a single ryo to his name.

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The days went by much slower than usual to the young boy Nishi – after all, he would finally be let out of the tiny cage. And even more importantly, he would finally be getting his own room! Nishi woke up two hours early on his birthday and used his stolen set of keys to let himself out and run around outside for a few hours before his parents would be awake.

As he opened the front door, the warm sunlight hit his face. He walked outside with a huge grin stretched across his face, whistling along with the birds as they chirped on a nearby tree in his front yard. Before he could get more than a few steps off of his front porch, he heard the bathroom door across from his parents’ room close. His heart sank as he dashed back inside and fumbled with his cage’s small lock, trying to make it back inside before his parents caught him and locked him in the cage for another year.

After a few seconds, Nishi made it back into his dog cage, with his heart thumping and his face drenched in sweat from being so nervous. He tried to listen for his parents, but all he could hear was his heart thumping, a few more seconds passed before he realized that one of his parent’s had gotten up to use the bathroom – he was safe.

‘Thank God.’ Nishi thought to himself, closing his eyes and laying on his pillow as he smiled to himself. Nishi heard the toilet flush and the door open before his father appeared next to him, looking down at Nishi through the cage with a stern look on his face.

“Nishi! Wake up. We’ll be taking a trip this evening, and you’ll be joining us. A sixth birthday is a special thing in a young boy’s life.” His dad yelled.

“What!? A… Trip? For me, for my birthday?” Nishi said - completely shocked, his heart racing faster than ever. As far back as he could remember, his parents had never helped him or treated him to gifts, presents, or even new clothing and edible food. ‘Have I been wrong about them this whole time? A room to myself, and now a trip!? I hope it’s an entertainment park! Forget about a gift, my parents… They finally love me!’ Nishi thought to himself as his father walked back to his room without so much as a “Happy birthday, son!”

The caged boy buried himself in his makeshift-mattress, crying for the first time in his life for being so happy. ‘They love me! They really do, I knew it!' he thought over and over again, tears drenching his pillow. "The dress clothes, I can wear them!” he said, shooting upwards and immediately unlocking his cage. He dashed to the pantry that the clothes-washing utensils were located along with the one suit that Nishi had.

His parents had bought it for him as a birthday present one year, or that’s what they told him… Really his parents had robbed a medium-aged married couple and their son on their way back from church – it was a nice suit and it happened to be Nishi’s birthday the next day, so they gave it to him instead of selling it for drug money.

Nishi snatched the black suit and red tie, mopping his face as to make sure his suit was flawless for his birthday trip. Nishi changed into his suit quickly, making sure he looked just like the older men in the magazines his parents had in the bathroom. “Oh- Nishi…” his mother said as she stumbled into the bathroom, unaware that Nishi was already awake and prepared to go on his birthday trip.

His mother was fairly pretty, or at least she used to be. Her face was obviously stretched and somewhat scarred from a long history of drug use. “Y-You’re father told you we’re going on a trip for your birthday, did he?” his mother said softly, surprising even the boy that she was being so gentile.

“Yeah, where are we going? Kiriga-World? Please mom, I’ll change into the old swimming trunks, okay? You don’t need to buy me new ones, it’s okay!” Nishi shouted with joy, tears still streaming down his face.

“Nishi… I am sorry.” His mother said, holding her head straight down and closing his eyes. Nishi’s eyes were extremely blurry from his own tears of happiness, but the boy was sure he felt a teardrop from his mother hit him on his hand. “Nishi. Please stop crying, I beg of you…” his mother whimpered.

“What do you mean mom? I’m not crying because I’m sad! I am just so filled with happiness.. I can’t help but cry, I don’t know why mom!” the boy cried, springing forward to give his mother a hug for the first time in his entire life, both of their quiet sobs filling the otherwise silent home.

“Nishi, my son… The way your father and I have treated you since you were born… It was so morally wrong. To treat our own son like such an animal… We acted as if you were some type of property. You were an innocent young boy, and we treated you like a workhorse. We abandoned you, we abused you, and worst of all… We never showed you the love a child needs.” His mother whispered to him, crying quietly as she stumbled through her speech.

Nishi sobbed too, but his tears were because he knew that his mother really did love him. To the young boy, there was not a word that needed to be said. His arms wrapped around his mother’s midsection for the first time ever was all he ever wanted to be a part of. “Nishi… Today, your father will redeem ourselves in your eyes. Think about that tonight when you are laying in your own bed, in your own room.” She whispered even more quietly in Nishi’s hear, giving him a final ten-second squeeze before shoving him out of the bathroom and closing the door behind him.

“Finally. FINALLY!” Nishi said, jumping up and down in joy and sprinting back to the front door to play with his rubber ball in the front yard until his parents told him they were ready to go. Was there a true motive by Nishi’s cruel parents, or was Nishi’s despair finally over?

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