Reincarnations
An AU in which Izuna is the vicious demon that haunts Toka's every step; from one reincarnation to the next. More notes at the end.
Tokyo, Winter 2018
It was three degrees out, and Toka had just finished tucking her three-year-old daughter to sleep.
"Are you cold? Mama is going to raise the heater temperature ok? In case it gets too cold overnight, and we don't want you falling sick this Christmas."
Arisa shakes her head and smiles beatifically at Toka, onyx eyes twinkling and pink cheeks flush from the warm milk Toka had given her before putting her to sleep.
"It's ok mama, it must be really warm climbing down many chimneys and I don't want Santa to be uncomfortable when he comes deliver the presents."
Toka couldn't help but laugh at that, "Ok darling, let's not have Santa sweating like a roasted pig when he comes by to visit. Now be a good girl, sleep tight and we'll see what wonderful presents Santa will bring for you tomorrow morning."
She pecked her daughter on the cheek one final time before switching off the light and closing the door to her daughter's bedroom and made her way down the stairs, her turquoise eyes landing on the grey wisps of smoke rising from the living room chimney where she had put it out during dinner.
Toka moves to her handbag that was slung lazily off the shoulder of a chair and was pleased to see that all of her personal items were in place. She couldn't have Arisa rummaging through her bag in secret and finding her Christmas present to be from her mom and not Santa. It was fun, keeping this tradition alive and she was grateful that her husband allowed and even encouraged this "gaijin", "Western" practice in a mostly homogenous nation like Japan, despite being a native Japanese himself. He of all should be aware of how different their daughter would seem amongst other schoolchildren, doing things like that.
For a fleeting moment, Toka thought back about when she was a mere eight-year-old girl sent to a public school in one of the Tokyo suburbs and became the object of much staring, whispers and the occasional rude finger pointing. It was the first of many more to come in the next seventeen-and-counting years. Her half American heritage, golden brown locks, shocking turquoise eyes and "hafu" features made her stand out like a sore thumb in a sea of mostly dark haired and dark eyed people. She was grateful Arisa inherited her father's native looks - she probably wouldn't have people assuming she can't speak like them right off the bat when they saw her.
Shaking her head to rid herself of the unpleasant thoughts of her "third culture kid" mess of a childhood, Toka climbed back up the stairs to her bedroom to prepare for bed, her eyes instinctively finding the digital alarm on her bedside table.
It was half past ten and her husband was still not home yet. She frowned. Hiroto was the CEO of a large family owned business, with increased globalization and development of newer economies he was often at work till late, devising long term growth strategies to keep the business competitive. However, it was Christmas eve. He had had many C suites under him who could handle the daily management of the company; it didn't make sense that he had to work so late on Christmas eve of all days. Didn't he think about Arisa? Perhaps another client event where they drunk themselves silly? She didn't want to think about it and slipped under the bed covers, giving one long final look at the purple pink tooth fairy night light that hung on top of her bedside table before she allowed the hands of slumber to claim her into their dreamworld.
Warring States
Toka finds herself back in that forest again, running past the black barks of the surrounding trees, her heart beating so fast if they beat any faster she was sure she would drop dead from over-exhaustion. But it was either she continue running or she gets herself spectacularly killed by none other than the very angry Uchiha clan's second-in-command Uchiha Izuna. The gods knew how much her clan needed her right now as fighting and tensions soared to an all time high between the Senju and Uchiha clans and their allies; each side churning out new techniques - faster, deadlier to outmatch and defeat the opposing side.
Just her damn luck that Uchiha Izuna was part of the ambush - an ambush that on paper and by all Senju clan intelligence only comprised of low ranking Hagoromo shinobi. Some Uchiha spy must have screwed up with one of the spies, providing false information and hoping to make an easy kill of the young, budding generation of Senju shinobi. Dirty tactics, Toka thought, to draw out the young, juvenile Senju and kill them before they became an actual threat.
Toka could feel it, feel the dark, brooding chakra of the Uchiha scion hot on her heels, and for the briefest of moments she regretted engaging in a duel with him, and throwing a kunai at him - a kunai that was mere centimetres away from his left eye and Izuna's chakra had changed at that moment. From deadly to outright and dense killing intent and Toka had made a run for it while she could as he took those precious few seconds to glance at his reflection in his blade as if to assure himself his two eyes were in place.
A curse left her mouth as something sharp stabbed into her left calf and she fell, the green, black and blinding sunlight mixing themselves into a dizzying kaleidoscope above her head and she felt the air being choked from her lungs as an iron hand slammed her neck back against what she assumed was either dirt ground or tree bark. She didn't know, everything was confusing and she can't breathe and she's trying so hard not to panic as she feels Izuna's murderous chakra envelop her like greedy, shadowy black hands that threaten to tear her apart.
"Caught you, my little sparrow," came Izuna's deadly voice in the shell of her ear as she felt something cold and metallic against her throat.
She instantly went still, although every single nerve in her body was alight with adrenaline, willing her to lash out at him but she can't - not when he had a knife to her throat and would slash her to pieces sooner than she can make a move, and her mind screams in denial. This cannot be it, she cannot be so easily defeated without a proper fight and without getting some damage in to this evil man.
"So still and obedient, what a good girl," Izuna cooed, raising a cool hand to caress her cheek gently. "Look at me, my little sparrow."
Toka kept her eyes downcast in rebellion. No way in hell was she going to lock eyes with an Uchiha of all people, what was he thinking?
There was a tense silence as his gaze bore down upon her.
He chuckled, "So stubborn, but I guess that's what I like about you Senju Toka. What do you think the Senju will think if I dumped your corpse on Senju territory with a thank you note from me to them?"
"Nothing changes, you kill us and we kill you. Only Tobirama will be more incentivised to kill you now," replies Toka, and she daringly lifts her eyes to look at Izuna square in the Sharingan, "and you can bet that he will be the one to kill you for what you will do to me."
The tomoe of Izuna's Sharingan spin lazily as he regards her, a smirk forming on his lips. "You seem so confident of your fiancee's abilities. I'll be happy to prove you wrong when I come back to haunt you in another lifetime."
"You'll never make it to another lifetime, you Uchiha swine. You'll be trapped in the demons' dungeons for all the things you've done," Toka hissed, a surge of courage buoying her up. If she was going to die, she might as well insult him all she can before she did.
The Uchiha warrior before her only smiled in response, unfazed by her harsh words. He pulled out something from his pocket and held it in front of her. "Do you know what this is?"
It was Toka's turn to be shocked, "A red string?"
"Exactly," hummed Izuna as he blocked her chakra points with a few deft strokes of his hand and Toka lay immobilised against the tree in front of him. She watched in horror as he proceeded to tie one end of the string to her little finger and tie the other end of the string to his own little finger.
Once done, he picked up his tanto and held it to her neck again, his face a serious mask. He leaned in closer.
"With this, I will follow you through every waking moment of your future lives, and you won't ever be able to escape from me. I will own you completely, even if I am stuck in the deepest dungeons of the underworld, I will find you and make you mine."
Toka had no time to fully digest the utter madness of his words and the red string between their fingers when she felt a pair of lips crash against hers, hungry and passionate and that searing pain as a blade was driven straight through her, causing her to cough out blood as she slumped upon the ground, taking in shallow, slow breaths.
All she saw was the towering figure of Izuna above her, blood streaming from his eyes as the tomoe of the Sharingan morphed into the solid black bars of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Then all she saw was black.
Hide & Seek
Senju Toka was many things, but she was not a coward. Her mother had begged her not to go, not to play the game of Hide & Seek that was organised every year for the demon king and his minions to feast freely on seven chosen sacrificial children. All to gain the demon king's protection and blessings for a full year of prosperity and security. But she was not afraid. She will go. She will find her brother and bring him back and kill the demon king.
Seven children to play a game of hide and seek with the demon king and his minions. Six will be slowly found and eaten alive by the demons, and only one will remain. The final one for the hunt. No one knew what really happened to the final child who was left. Some people said the child would be given a high place of service in the demon king's court. Others said the final child would become possessed by the demon king to play hide and seek with future batches of children until he found the next final child.
Looking upon the little boy with a fox mask in front of her, Toka was inclined to believe the latter was true. She didn't need to remove that mask to know the boy standing in front of her was her long lost brother - or rather the physical shell of him now that the demon king had taken control of his body and was looking at her through blood red eyes gleaming beneath the fox mask.
"You are the last one, congratulations, child," came the deceivingly soft and childlike voice of her brother through the mask.
"What have you done to my brother? Bring him back," Toka demanded, sword raised threateningly in front of her.
Lighting flashes, and the ghost shell of her brother slowly morphs into a tall figure of a man with pale skin, hair as black as the midnight sky and aristocratic, fine boned features - a handsome man to mask the ugly monster that he really was, devouring children's life forces through this cruel game every year and preying upon the fears of the mortals.
He walks slowly towards her, fox mask in hand and Toka can't help but let her eyes dart sporadically to the long, black claws of his spindly hands. Her gaze lands on a singular red string tied on the little finger of his right hand and visions of a red and white fan clan symbol and a man driving a sword through her flashes through her mind and she gasps, taking a step back.
What was that?
"Your memory of your past life," the demon king answers as he kneels before her to match her height. He points to her left hand and she is shocked to see a red string on her little finger, connected with that on the demon king.
"We were enemies in the past life, I killed you then, but I won't kill you again. I'm here to give you a new lease of life," he says as he hands her the fox mask, "just like I did for your little brother."
"Liar," Toka hisses as she looks him in his blood red eyes, "where is he? Show him to me! I don't believe you!"
The demon king merely smiles at her in an all too familiar way that Toka feels she has seen before, "Still the same stubborn self, aren't you? If that's the case, I'll have to force you my little sparrow."
Before she knew it, the fox mask was upon her face and her entire body feels immobilised; her arms acting against her own will to secure the mask firmly in place as she stares at her reflection in the mirror of the great hall, a petite girl of eight in a horrific fox demon mask and blood red eyes staring back at her.
"Congratulations my little sparrow, you're now 'It'," came the booming echoing voice of the demon king reverberating through her brain.
His power and presence was strong and overpowering, and Toka feels herself chained and strapped down as he takes over her body and consciousness completely, devouring and owning her whole.
"I will own you completely, I will find you and make you mine. Sweet dreams my little sparrow."
Present
Toka wakes with a gasp, body jolted upright as her hands fisted in the bedsheets, turquoise eyes wild with the memories of lifetimes past. It was unusual and alarming, how often she has been having these dreams lately. Her eyes flit quickly to the bedside mirror and she finds her terrified face staring back at her - no ugly demon mask draped upon it, no red slashes from a silver tanto upon her body. Just her own face and for a moment she breathes a sigh of relief. She is safe, safe in her own bed and completely herself, unpossessed by some crazed blood demon who wanted to possess her and use her guise to prey on other unsuspecting innocent children.
But there is something unsettling - a lurking shadow at the back of her mind as she tosses the same question over and over again. Who was this man and demon who keeps haunting her dreams? Why was she always unable to remember his face every time she woke from this nightmare? She has been having them since she was a little kid and her parents moved to Tokyo city, and she's now a grown woman of twenty five. How could she not remember something so vivid and so horrific that it set her heart on edge each time she entered the realm of slumber? It had been so bad her parents had installed a night light shaped in the form of a tooth fairy in her bedroom, and she has kept it in her room ever since, even after shifting in to live with her husband and giving birth to their daughter Arisa. Toka knew the night light did nothing to chase those dreams away; but somehow the sight of that cheerful pink and purple tooth fairy in her sugar plum dress and magic wand always made her breathe easier before she closed her eyes to the waking world.
A stirring within the sheets snaps her from her thoughts and she feels a strong, muscled arm wrap itself around her waist, pulling her closer.
"What's wrong, love? Why are you awake?" came her husband's soft, velvety voice beside her ear and she almost jolts in alarm. She had not felt anything when her husband had crawled into bed with her, she must have been very caught up in her nightmares to have noticed.
"I have been having some very bad dreams...nightmares..." Toka said, lifting one hand to grip her left arm, imagining it was her mother squeezing her in comfort as she always did when she was an eight-year-old kid and she had those exact same nightmares.
There was a silent pause as her husband sits up to regard her, a gentle and understanding smile gracing his lips, his onyx black eyes holding nothing but pure affection in them and Toka sits like a child mesmerized by the beauty and charm of this man she calls her husband.
"Don't you worry your pretty head so much about them love; they are not real," he said as he tucks one wayward strand of her golden brown hair behind her ear.
Leaning in closer, he brought his lips closer to brush against her ear, hands skimming down her arms in a soothing motion as he pushed her back to rest upon their bed.
"I'll always be here to protect you from them. I'll always be here, beside you."
And he pressed a soft kiss on her forehead before he pulled her into his arms, completely enveloping her and she feels just that tiny bit safer as her husband holds her just like any good parent would a spooked, scared child.
Maybe, just maybe, she can continue to sleep better the rest of the nights, those nightmares chased away to the furthest recesses of her sleep addled mind. She closes her eyes, content and happy to be held and loved and drifts...
She drifts off to slumberland and misses the sharp, vicious fangs that glint as her husband bares his teeth in a victorious smile, the blood red glow as his onyx eyes shift to the ominous Sharingan as he buries his nose in the smooth column of her neck, a red string tied between their little fingers.
"Your nightmares are here to stay, Merry Christmas my little sparrow."
End Notes:
I know Toka is often portrayed as Hashirama and Tobirama's cousin but I'm putting her as Tobirama's fiancee for this fic. It makes everything more dramatic, as I imagine Izuna to be very possessive as all Uchiha are, and the idea of him not being able to possess Toka as a woman makes him go to crazy measures to ensure Tobirama will never possess her too. We are not told how Izuna awakens his Mangekyo, but in this fic he awakens it from killing the woman he loves.
Red String - Often known as the red string of fate, it's the Oriental version of the concept of soulmates, where as the belief goes, the gods tie a red string of fate around two individuals. They are destined to meet and can never sever that tie between them.
Hide & Seek - inspiration taken from the short film "Kakurenbo", which features children playing a dangerous game of hide and seek with demons who devour them one by one.
All comments and reviews are welcome! :)