Title: Masks
Summery: Is she Itachi? Is she Emiko? Is she Julia? Her masks keep appearing, her masks keep slipping. Her role keeps changing. Who is she? Sequel to ATWAS
"The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level. It's got to happen inside first."
― Jim Morrison
A light appears on stage, showing a woman wearing a pantsuit.
"There are many crossroads in life. One choice leads to another, and another." she remarks, tilting her head back, to look at the roof, "choices, choices litter our roads. Each choice we do not take, spawns a new world, and another and another." She looks back at the audience, and opens her arms as far as she can. "This story is about a choice, a path taken at a crossroads. This is about the woman who walked that path. And this is about her choices along her way. And the mask she wore." The light goes out, then back on. The woman is gone.
Act One
The blades clashed against one another as they fought. Her hair flew behind her, distracting her slightly. She was sliced across her ribs, making her wince, but she ignored it, shoving her sword forward, but knowing it wouldn't hit. Itachi saw it coming, and...
He dropped his guard, opening his arms wide. The blade slid in between his ribs, causing her to gasp in shock. Itachi fell, smiling, as his sister dropped to her knees beside him.
"You... You let me..." she whispered, remembering his open arms. He let her. "WHY?!"
"I can't face killing you." he whispered. Emiko stares in shock. It wasn't meant to be this way... no, Itachi was meant to live! She wasn't supposed to be the one to win. "Emiko..."
"Hai?" she asked, tears pouring down her face, her eyes spinning, as the tears start to turn red.
"Can you promise me something?"
"Anything aniki. I'll do anything." Emiko whispers, sliding her arms under him, and holding him to her chest.
"I... I can handle our brother hating me, but he can't hate you. Pretend to be me, please. Don't let anyone..." Emiko closed her eyes, as her brother died.
"Hai... aniki." She didn't want to, she wanted to be Emiko, but she knew that her role as Emiko was done now. The curtains had closed on her...
And her new role was her brother.
She screamed, holding her brother in her arms, as her eyes spun into pinwheels, her tears now blood, as she screamed to the heavens.
-0-
Stage make up was simple to put on. It was simple to become her brother, she had lived alongside him for so long...
Thirteen years, until I fucking stabbed him...
She ignored the voice, instead she looked at herself. She had already looked like Itachi... a bit of eye liner on her cheeks, some foundation, a quick jutsu to make it hold, and a minor genjutsu to not notice the faint offness, and she could pass. Her scar was covered as well.
It was only the hair left.
She stared at the dark locks around her face. She had never pulled her hair back with anything but the ribbon she had given her little brother so long ago...
That was Emiko though... she was Itachi now... she was...
She cried as she pulled her hair back, her heart breaking even more.
Soon it would be shattered.
-0-
She walked back into Konoha after burning her brother's corpse, watching through hooded eyes.
Everyone asked, where was Emiko? Where was she?
"She gave me her ribbon! She promised to come back?"
Dead. Dead. She died. She died. We were attacked, and she didn't make it. I burned her corpse. Dead. Dead...
"NO! YOU'RE LYING! SHE PROMISED TO COME BACK! SHE SAID AS LONG AS I HAD HER RIBBON!"
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry...
Apologies can't help those who lie.
-0-
"Where is Emiko?"
Right in front of you.
"Dead, she died when we were attacked by Kumo ninja. I burned the corpse to hide its secrets."
Lies. Lies. Lies.
"...Shisu died oddly to, did he not?"
Itachi killed him.
"He committed suicide."
He gave us his eye. I have it in a scroll.
"Hmm... Itachi, do you still wish for the clan to continue on its path."
No. I plan on killing you on the Hokage's orders. It's my role to do so.
"Yes."
Liar. Liar. Liar.
-0-
Blood splattered the halls. She was covered in it. Her sword dripped and oozed.
She killed the parents first... leaving the babes for 'Tobi' Obitobi. Obito... whatever. She knew he was around. He probably wanted to see how this all would turn out.
Her hair had blood in it. Her headband had a scratch through the leaf. She was killing her family.
Murder, murder everywhere.
She reached her parents' room. She walked in, head to toe in blood.
-0-
"I'm Emiko." is the only thing she tells them, before she kill her father, the blood flying. She moves to her mother.
"We know." is the only thing her mother says, before the blood coats the ground.
"Nii-san..." a voice called. She looked up, staring at her little brother, eyes spinning. "What happened? Why are kaa-chan and tou-san...?"
"Foolish, foolish little brother."
-0-
She throws up once outside Konoha. She drops to her knees beside a river and throws up into a bush, gagging, and vomiting for an hour straight, red tears pouring down her cheeks.
"I wanted to test my strength."
"Is this because of Emiko, did you want to prove you were strong enough to have protected her?"
"Wh-what?"
"I heard you cry at night. You cry because you couldn't protect her right?"
She puked some more, before she drew her knees up and buried her face into them, smearing blood all over her face, the coppery smell polluting her nose.
"Foolish, foolish little brother. Emiko is dead because I killed her.
"...Wh-what?"
"I wanted the Mangekyo Sharigan, and I needed to kill the closest person to me to get it... so why not my twin?"
She gagged again, moving to vomit once more into the bush.
"Run, run away and cling to life."
-0-
Kisame finds her- she isn't too shocked.
She agrees to join the Akatsuki. She does have a role to play, after all, and this role begins, and ends, with her wearing a cloak covered in red clouds.
-0-
It plays on her mind, sometimes.
Is she Itachi? Or is she Emiko? Is she Julia? Who is she?
Her masks cover her face, and she wears them often, changing them when needed.
Who is she? She doesn't know. Her role changes so often her mind spins.
Is she Itachi? Is she Emiko? Is she Julia?
She doesn't know.
-0-
Nii-san killed Nee-chan. He killed her for power.
Sasuke lay in bed, staring out the window, holding onto the ribbon in his hands, stained with the blood of his relatives.
He killed her because he wanted a stupid Sharigan. He killed her.
Sasuke closed his eyes, and took a breath.
He would kill nii-san for his nee-chan.
-0-
Being part of the Akatsuki is odd. She was the youngest there, and was treated a lot differently then the others.
Kisame was annoyed with her, she could tell. He got stuck with a young kid as his partner.
He changed his tune after the two slaughtered an entire gang together. He quite enjoyed her angry killing.
-0-
"You know, I have a good sense of smell." Kisame said one day, while the two were walking down a road.
"Hn?" Emiko asked, not really feeling like talking. She had just started her period, and was not pleased.
"I can smell blood... more specifically, when a woman is having her period." Emiko whipped her head around, with her eyes wide. "So, want to tell me the truth now?"
"I killed my brother and took his place." was her short answer, as she turned her face away.
"Why?"
"Ask me no questions, I will tell you no lies."
-0-
Orochimaru is just as creepy as he seemed to be in the manga. She avoided him as much as possible, shivering when she spotted his insane eyes.
He wants her eyes, she knows that. She's tempted to say screw it, and let him take her body, but... she can't. She has her role to play, her part to preform. Her dance to dance.
-0-
Orochimaru tries to steal her eyes. She beats him, and lets him run off.
Kisame is angry, the Leader is angry. Hidan is grumpy he didn't get to kill the snake. Kakuzu wants the money. Zetsu wanted to eat him. Konan is furious. Sasori is blank.
And she is numb. Numb. Numb. Numb.
-0-
Is she Itachi? Or is she Emiko? Is she Julia? Who is she?
-0-
Sasori needs a new partner, so they start hunting. She ends up working closely with him, as they search, being sent out with him and Kisame often.
It's annoying, she needed to unbind sometimes, but she couldn't.
As the three search, she finds herself amused by the puppet master. His deadpan reminds her of Itachi in some ways...
She cut the thought off, before it could venture to far.
-0-
Deidara is funny. After she used her sharigan on him, he had declared her his rival, making her think of Gai and Kakashi, and began trying to kill her at all opportunities.
Kisame teases her about a crush on the blonde, which she responds to with a kunai thrown at his head.
-0-
She went blind for five minutes the first time when she was on a mission. Kisame freaked out, and acted like a mother hen the rest of the week, refusing to let her go too far.
Since she ended up coughing up blood three days later, it was a good thing.
"Sasori is our healer-"
"No." is her only reply. "I won't let them find out."
"What is so bad about them knowing?"
"I promised my brother I'd pretend to be him. I won't break it."
"...You two were close, huh?"
"Yes."
And that's the end of it. He watched her like a hawk, and helped her through her blind periods, but he made no more comments about talking to Sasori.
-0-
"I hate him sometimes." she remarked one day, after waking up from a nightmare of blood. She was breathing erratically, and sweat had pooled around her. Kisame gave her drugs, but they were taking a while to take effect.
"Who?"
"Itachi. I hate him when I dream of the massacre sometimes. He took the easy way out. Instead of actually fucking fighting me to win the so called honor of killing our family, all he did was let me run him through." she knew she shouldn't be talking about this, but she really didn't care. "I can't sleep half the time, I'm dying because of these stupid, stupid eyes, and I tortured my own baby brother, and pretended to be my older brother because I promised him. I keep on replaying the entire night in my mind, and sometimes I can't breathe-" she choked, shaking. "I hate him sometimes... but I think the reason I hate him the most is because he...
He made me kill him."
-0-
Kisame never talked about that night, which she was grateful for. She really didn't want to think about it.
She went blind in front of the Akatsuki when she was sixteen. She was simply looking in the fridge for food when it strikes. She froze when he vision went, stopping herself from grabbing the milk.
"Kisame?" She called out, her voice steady.
"What?" he grumbled from the table.
"My vision blacked out." she was calm, despite the fact everyone heard her. She heard all movement behind her cease.
"Shit." Kisame swore, standing from the table, and moving towards her. "Milk?"
"I was going to have cereal." she said, stepping back, only to bump into someone. Her hand went to her kunai pouch before it stilled.
"Damn... you are fucking blind." she ignored Hidan as she maneuvered herself around the kitchen, relying on her ninja talents to tell where everyone was. "How the fuck did this happen dipshit?"
"The Mangekyo sharigan is a powerful tool, but it causes the user to go blind if user too much. It can also lead to an early death." She finds a chair, and sits down. "I tend not to use it after I go blind."
"This isn't the first time?" Sasori asked, his voice completely professional.
"I've had it happen about seven times before. The shortest time I was blind for was five minutes, the longest an hour." She didn't speak again, not until she finished the bowl of cereal that Kisame got her, missing her mouth every once in a while, getting snickers from Deidara she ignored.
It takes two hours this time. She sits silently through it, not even paying attention to Sasori looking at her eyes.
She vomits blood for three days afterwards.
-0-
Is she Itachi? Or is she Emiko? Is she Julia? Who is she?
-0-
She stood in front of Konoha, her hair flying around her, with Kisame by her side.
It's time for her to dance to the tune, and to play her role.
Intermission
I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I hope for four or five chapters, each of them called a 'act'. I won't do scenes though, not this time.
This story is only one path that could have been chosen: the other would have been Itachi winning, were everything goes perfectly canon. This... not so much.
The random changes in first and past perspective are meant to be there as a way of showing Emiko's rapidly deteriorating mental state.
Review please!