Vengeance Will Be Mine

Prologue

Prologue

I never knew how long ago it was.

All I know is that it happened before I was brought into this world. I was no one, nothing.

The beginning was never my story, it was the story of my parents; Zayn and Astrid Matthews.

They were born in America, New York to be precise. But, although their story started in New York, it was in Japan that their lives had changed forever.

When my parents first moved to Japan, they were rivals in a way, but close friends. Always challenging each other and fighting. Always trying to prove who was the best. Then, they met a pair with a similar problem.

Hamato Yoshi and Hamato Saki. They were brothers, and best friends as well as rivals. The groups came together and became a group of four rivals, four friends.

They did everything together. Played together, laughed together, fought together. They even learned ninjutsu together. This went on for years and years, before my father did something that he never thought he would ever do.

He fell in love with Astrid.

It would be another six years when he would finally confess. The four were all eighteen, and finally full ninjas and konoichis. My father pulled Astrid aside and told her how he felt.

"I-You probably don't feel the same way." He said and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He waited for his rejection. Astrid smiled widely.

"Actually, I do." She says, and with a heavy blush, she kisses him.

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Zayn's POV

  When Astrid and I parted, we were faced by a whooping and hollering Yoshi and Saki. We both blush and smile at them. I get clapped on the back by Saki as they walk past us.

I look to Astrid, who gives me one of her famous smiles. "So, what does this make us?"

"I don't know. As long as it begins with 'couple'." She says teasingly.

We quicken our pace and walk next to the brothers. They congratulate us but I can see that look in their eyes; the jealousy.

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It's been about a year since Astrid and I officially became a couple. Things hadn't changed much, although the friendly rivalries had calmed down a bit.

But, then the Tang girl came into the picture. I'm not implying that I don't like her and all, but things went downhill with Saki and Yoshi after she came into the picture.

Tang Shen was one of Astrid's female friends, and she was the one who introduced her to us. I saw it in my best friends' eyes that they had felt something towards this girl.

I gesture to Saki, who lifts his eyebrows in answer. I tell him to come with me.

"You wish to speak with me, Zayn?" He says respectively.

"Yes, my friend." I say. "I can tell that you have feelings for Shen."

"How can you suspect that when I had only met her yesterday. It is too early for me to develop feelings for Tang Shen already." Saki replies, but I can see right through his little lie.

"Whatever you think is best, my friend." He turns to leave. I put a hand on his shoulder that stops him. "And when-if you develop feelings for Shen, do not wait as long as I did to share them. It is agonizing." He thinks for a moment before nodding.

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Astrid's POV

I see Zayn pull Saki aside to talk to him, and I can't help but wonder what they are talking about. I glance at Yoshi, who is gazing at Shen with a smile on his face. I smile myself, happy that my friend has finally found someone he cares about.

"Yoshi, I want to talk to you." I call.

"Yes, Astrid?" He asks.

"I wanted to ask you a rather important question." He gestures for me to continue. "Do you have feelings for Shen?"

Yoshi hesitates. "Well, I suppose I do, but it is too early for the thought of being in a relationship with me to cross her mind."

I nod a bit. I can relate to his situation. That was how I felt when I first met Zayn back in New York. I sometimes miss my old home. "Yes, it would be wise not to rush it. But I wish you the best of luck, Yoshi."

"I hope that your good wishes are enough." I smile at him and he leaves.

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Both Yoshi and Saki had a bit of help from both Astrid and Zayn. But, the brother who emerged victorious was Yoshi. Astrid knew her friend better than Zayn did, thus knew her heart better than Zayn did.

But, instead of congratulating his brother, Saki became bitter, and began to hate Astrid and his brother. He told himself that if Astrid hadn't helped Yoshi, he would've won Tang Shen.

On his last day at the monastery, Saki and Astrid were in a heated argument, again about Shen. Yoshi was not there to keep his raging brother in line because he was with Shen at her home.

As they screamed at each other, Zayn was beginning to get angry, himself. How dare he yell at his girlfriend. In his grandfather's home. It was unacceptable.

"Saki, you are way out of line." He says as calmly as possible. "You need to leave."

"You believe I'm out of line?!" He bellows. "Your girlfriend was the one who assisted Yoshi  when she knew I loved her too."

"I knew no such thing." Astrid screams.

"Do not deny it, Astrid. I know you-"

"Stop!" A voice yells from the hallway. All heads turn. A wrinkly old man stands in the doorway, but all three of the younger adults know that he is much more skilled in ninjutsu that any of them. "Saki, how dare you dishonor me and your father by behaving this way in my home? I know that your father raised you to be better that this."

"But Astrid-" Saki is silenced by the old man lifting up a hand.

"Leave."

The furious man huffs but does as he is told.
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After that day, Saki disappeared and did not return to his father's monastery for another eight months. And when he did return, he was even more furious then when he left.

He discovered his dark family secret; he was not a Hamato. His father, Oruku Nagi, was slain by Yoshi's father, the man who raised him.

All Zayn saw the day he came back was Saki raging towards Yoshi's home, where Shen and her newborn daughter Miwa were as well.

Mysteriously, a fire started, and burn Hamato Yoshi's home to the ground. Shen and Miwa were killed, and Saki disappeared moments after.

In despair, Yoshi bid farewell to Zayn, Astrid, and Japan altogether, and left to the Americas to start a new life somewhere else.

A year and a half later, so did Zayn and Astrid. But at the time, Astrid was pregnant.

With me.