Kenshin and Ichiro instantly jumped to Keiji and collapsed to their knees before his body. Kenshin immediately checked his son's pulse but felt nothing. Tears welled up in the grieving eyes of Kenshin and Ichiro who couldn't realise that Keiji was dead.
After several minutes of inconsolable grief Kenshin's eyes were clouded with anger, and he resolutely stood up then headed toward the defeated Genin. Unfastening his green vest and tearing his shirt Kenshin grabbed a kunai and began making deep cuts on his chest.
At that moment Kenshin was furious and decided to use one of the most terrible formations—the "soul cage" formation.
The "soul cage" formation was one of the most evil and "forbidden" formations. Those who used it on defeated enemies were considered vile scoundrels, and all because this formation damaged not the body but the soul.
After applying runes to the victim's ribs the soul that hadn't yet left its body was trapped in a "cage" and forced to languish in the rotting and decomposing body until the last bone decayed and turned to dust.
Souls trapped in a cage were generally considered destroyed. After several years locked in their decomposed body the soul was saturated with a huge amount of evil energy, and even getting into the reincarnation cycle nothing good happened to such a soul in the future. In the best case after rebirth a person would be born mentally retarded and be haunted by misfortunes all his life.
Having finished applying runes to the genin's ribs Kenshin checked his pockets and found 4000 ryo in them. Taking them he turned and headed toward his deceased son's body and resolutely pulled the kunai from his heart.
"No, father! What are you doing?! You can't pull a kunai out of a wound!" Ichiro exclaimed.
"Calm down! Keiji is gone. We need to get out of here quickly before anyone notices us," Kenshin declared in a serious tone.
"B-but… Keiji…" Ichiro muttered and received a slap from his father.
"Come to your senses! Quickly gather our things and let's go," Kenshin growled at him.
Ichiro reluctantly obeyed and grabbed the three backpacks then approached his father.
"Help put him on my back," Kenshin said calmly.
Ichiro was stunned and muttered: "W-what?"
"Help lift him," he repeated. "We need to carry him home. Aya must say goodbye to him."
Ichiro helped hoist Keiji's body onto his father's back and said: "Father, maybe I should carry him? I'm stronger after all…"
"No! I took him out of the house, I'm obliged to bring him back," Kenshin answered resolutely and slowly walked forward carrying his second son's lifeless body on his back.
****
The whole way Kenshin and Ichiro walked in silence. An hour later Kenshin felt incredible fatigue; his arms turned to wood unable to hold the heavy body, and his legs refused to walk, but Kenshin clenched his teeth and continued stepping. There was still an hour's journey to home, but Kenshin forced his cotton legs to take one more step.
The last few kilometres were especially hard for him. His step slowed to a small shuffle, and what should have been an hour's journey stretched into two hours.
As soon as they reached the foot of their native mountain Kenshin found his last strength and moved upward. He seemed to be punishing himself for carelessness and for not protecting his own son from death. His whole body was covered in blood flowing from the pierced heart, and even Kenshin's knee joints were covered in a thick crust of blood refusing to bend and unbend.
By the time Kenshin and Ichiro reached home the sun had almost set, and Keiji's lifeless body began to stiffen with rigor mortis.
Kenshin carried his son's body into one of the neighbouring caves and laid it on the ground. He knelt before it and silently looked at his serene face for several minutes. Outwardly it seemed that Keiji was simply sleeping, but the huge blood stain on his entire chest spoiled the whole picture.
After several minutes Kenshin stood up and walked home.
As soon as the front door opened anxious Aya was right there and exclaimed: "Thank god! I already started to wor—" She interrupted her speech seeing Kenshin completely covered in blood.
"Oh god! Kenshin, what happened to you? Are you wounded?!" she exclaimed and instantly rushed to her husband.
Kenshin couldn't look her in the eyes and muttered: "Follow me. You need to say goodbye to him." Then he turned and headed outside.
Aya stunned instantly felt fear and ran out after Kenshin.
Following Kenshin Aya asked several times "what happened" but he was silent and continued walking forward. A minute later they reached the right cave, and Aya first seeing Ichiro asked: "Ichiro, dear, what happened?"
Ichiro looked away and two streams of tears flowed from his eyes. The next second Aya saw the body lying to the side and it was as if lightning struck her. Her legs gave way and a cry mixed with a howl burst from her mouth: "No… No… No!" she sobbed and rushed to the body lying on the ground.
"Keiji, oh god, Keiji! Wake up! Kenshin, tell me you were just joking with me! Tell me!" she shouted and tears flowed from her eyes streaming down her cheeks, chin, and falling onto the lifeless body.
For several minutes she sobbed begging Keiji to wake up, but his eyes never opened.
"Why… Why?! You promised our children would become great shinobi!" Aya shouted and stared into Kenshin's eyes. He barely found the strength to meet her gaze but said nothing.
Aya turned away and began sobbing over her deceased son's body again, sobbing uncontrollably and begging him to "wake up". After several minutes Kenshin approached his wife and whispered: "Enough. Go home."
Aya didn't react in any way and continued sobbing leaning over Keiji's body.
"Aya, go back to the house!" he shouted at her in a commanding tone, and she barely stood up and shuffled toward the house still sobbing, leaving behind a small scattering of tears.
All this time tears flowed like a stream from Ichiro's eyes. He couldn't believe his brother was dead. Literally a few hours ago they were happily walking around the city, and now his younger brother lay as a cold corpse in the corner of the cave.
"Go say goodbye to your brother," Kenshin's voice suddenly rang out pulling Ichiro out of painful thoughts.
Ichiro wiped tears with the back of his hand, silently approached his brother, and knelt down. He looked at his brother's face for several minutes whispering words known only to him, then stood up and silently left the cave.
Kenshin sighed deeply and approached Keiji's body. Sitting down next to it he began drawing a formation. A few minutes later he stood up carefully dragged Keiji's body inside the formation and sat beside it.
He looked at his son's serene face for a long time then taking a deep breath whispered: "Goodbye, son…"
Kenshin activated the formation and Keiji's body was instantly enveloped in scorching flame. A few minutes later Kenshin collected the ashes hanging in the air into a bag and without turning around headed home.
Approaching the front door Kenshin took off all his clothes and folded them on the cold cave floor not wanting to bring them into the house. As soon as he stepped over the threshold he heard Aya's sobs coming from the bedroom. His heart ached painfully again but he found the strength to ignore his crying wife and headed to the bathroom.
The next ten minutes were harder for Kenshin than the entire previous hour. He was finally alone with his thoughts for the first time, and they gnawed at him from the inside. He didn't know how he could now look Aya in the eyes and what would happen to their family at all.
After drying off he threw on a robe and left the bathroom heading to the bedroom. As soon as he opened the door he immediately saw Aya lying on the bed. She was sobbing and crying bitterly burying her face in the pillow. Noticing Kenshin she fell silent for a second and looked in his direction, then began crying even harder.
Kenshin approached the bed and sat on its edge stroking Aya's back, but she instantly jerked and pulled away. Kenshin climbed onto the bed and lay down next to her, and the girl tried to get out of bed and leave but was grabbed by Kenshin's strong arms.
"Let go!" she shouted but he pulled her to him and enclosed her in a strong embrace.
Finding herself in Kenshin's embrace Aya buried her face in his chest and cried even harder than before. Kenshin said nothing and only stroked her head and kissed the crown of her head.
A few minutes later Aya stopped crying and raising her eyes asked: "How did it happen?"
Kenshin began retelling everything that happened in all details, and when he mentioned the Konoha genin Aya shouted angrily: "Konoha shinobi? But why did he attack you?"
"Apparently he found out we had a large sum of money with us," Kenshin answered with a sigh.
He continued his story, and when he reached the moment of Keiji's death Aya couldn't hold back and sobbed again.
Kenshin kissed her on the crown of the head and stroked her back again calming his crying wife.
A minute later she finally calmed down a little and asked: "And what happened next? How did you escape?"
Kenshin told her the last part about Ichiro awakening the Sharingan and his crushing victory.
"What? Sharingan?!" Aya exclaimed in shock. "But… But…"
"It turns out your great-grandfather was telling the truth…" Kenshin sighed.
Under other circumstances Aya and Kenshin would already be jumping to the ceiling with joy, but now they only briefly discussed Ichiro's Sharingan and continued lying in each other's arms.
A few hours later Aya finally fell asleep and even in her sleep involuntarily sobbed and moaned but calmed down when Kenshin pressed her to him and stroked her head.