“Her name was Miki. I actually look a lot like her, though her eyes were even darker than mine. She was… kind. That’s probably part of the reason she couldn’t make it through the Academy, and never became a ninja. That and her trouble with focusing her chakra, she told me. She was always there for me, and she liked to come and sing me to sleep at night when I was young. She was always so gentle, and she was proud of me whenever I accomplished anything. Even when I didn’t have friends, I had my mother, at least. Losing her was the worst part of it all.”
“My father was Batori Takashi. He was my grandfather’s heir, and I was to be his successor in time, and he never let me forget that. He expected me to prove my worth at all times. There was always one more goal to reach, one more test to pass. I always knew that if I failed, he’d be disappointed in me, so I didn’t dare fail. ‘Failure is for the weak-willed.’ That’s what he used to say. But even when I tried so hard, I heard him say that I was lucky the standards were lower now, because in his time and his father’s, children younger than me were expected to be even better. When I try to think of times he was actually proud of me, or good to us as a family, all I see is how it ended, and how I found out what he really was. I killed him, and I’m not sorry for it. I just wish I’d done it in time to protect my mother from him.”
