-1She sighs it's already eight o'clock and nothing has happened. Thankful she actually listened to Hondon for a change she tugs her fleece tighter around her. The river is calm and as smooth as a mirror. She watches herself as long, dark fingers comb through her strange little pixie bob of cotton candy blue hair. Well it's currently cotton candy blue maybe it'd be Gatorade indigo next week or sour skittle green? Her perfect, roguish smile gleams back at her. "Pretty." There are two people in the mirror river and one of them is a child. The river people shatter as she breaks the stillness. How did this little boy sneak up on her?
"A little boy? Hmm, guess I should work on your training." A kunai quivers behind his head. His smirk widens gleefully as a smattering of blood etches down his cheek. A little boy stood beside her barely dressed for summer's mugginess much less the current temperatures. His eyes are troubled, but guiless. In the light she can't tell if his eyes are blue or grey or both. Either way he's very pale like skimmed milk and almost as thin. "Will you play with me?" She notices he has whiskers. Ibiki is searching for something in his desk. The tilt of his head means continue which is fine since she has no intention of stopping.
"I can't play right now, but you can sit with me for a while." He is a cool, slightly damp little weigh in her lap and against her chest. It's not 'til later she realizes he didn't warm up once despite being wrapped up in her fleece with her. She comes to the conclusion that his hair is filthy despite the lack of lighting. Perhaps that is why he smells of river water and cool, moist dirt. Just barely beneath the grime coating his hair she catches a glimpse of sunflower gold. His name is Naruto. Despite being on duty she tells him stories and they sing nursery songs until the sky begins to lighten. His hands are so beyond cold it frightens her even as his cold little kisses warm her. She knows nothing about him except that he is small and sweet and that both his eyes are blue even if one is the blue of a wet river stone and just as blind.
Sasuke can't breath. His mother walks toward him as solid as he is and then the sword cuts through her like always. Her eyes widen dramatically as blood bubbles up from her throat and gushes from between the hands clamped tightly to her belly. Shisui grins manically as the sword draws higher blood droplets falling like rain. The child before him will never forget the sound of blood meeting blood or the sound of a body hitting a mat as Itachi is suddenly there and Shisui is grinning up at him as his eyes rolled up into his head. Itachi is screaming like so many others have already clutching his head as his damnable eyes try to burn their way out of his head. Sasuke is seven-years-old and all around him his clan is coming apart at the seams. Tonight the Uchihas shall facture into the Loyalists, the Nobles, and the Deviants. Tonight Sasuke Uchiha will lose his grip on reality long enough to never fully get it back. This will be a blessing, but mostly a curse.
He screams if only in his mind as he watches the bound thing stumblestalks the woman cowering on the bank. Her hair is purple. "She's a demon - like me. She belongs to me and It." The boy beside him is as bright as he is dark. "Look." He is standing directly behind the bound thing which has just touched the woman. He wonders if the thing she did is what they do to traitors like the Nobles. He wonders if some of this happened to his brother during the week he was detained. "So then, how?" Is what he thinks he asks, but he already knows - the tape is peeling somewhere underground.
Niizuma does not believe in fairy tales, but then Niizuma was not there when the Kyuubi attacked. If the Kyuubi could exist what could not exist? If Gamabuta-sama existed, if Shingami-sama existed, if Kyuubi was allowed to exist then what might not, could not exist? That however does not apply to Niizuma however because he did not come in 'til later much later. So how to explain to an ignorant foreigner that a long missing and presumed dead child was somehow an intimate part of an ongoing case with more bodies piling up daily? Well, he could just walk up to Niizuma and say, "Sir, a child with the greatest of demons sealed within him who has not been seen for seven years seems to have returned for revenge. Should I bring him in for questioning since this presumingly has to do with him anyway?" Or wait he could get his sweet little gennin fuckups to do a dance interpretation set to traditional song! That would be awesome, he could sell tickets to his own execution afterwards.
"Yes, that's him even if the style is kind of bleak." So then, he pulls out an actual photo, black and white sure, but a photo none the less and a clear one too. You could almost taste the tears hiding in the boy's eyes. Two perfectly clear eyes and a mass of bright hair. Whiskers on round cheeks. "That's him too." Okay Tohitoshi's bleak drawing and the photograph and Raharue's recollection were all of the same little boy who couldn't possibly be alive -right? Naruto Uzumaki container of the Kyuubi who this year if he were alive would be thirteen and perhaps a genin. Naruto Uzumaki son of Anabei Uzumaki and Arashi the Yondaime - to the general shock and horror of the city at large. Murdered at the age of five by a group of high level assailants among whom numbered several rouge ANBU. They never found the body despite intensive interrogative and investigation. The Sandaime named Niizuma Godaime and vanished shortly thereafter as his students had before him. More and more Ibiki wishes he had followed suit.
Okay. He could ask aniki, right? Except aniki was tired with all the extra going-ons and he could handle this on his own, right? So - how to go about finding one Uzumaki and one secret room. The public library would be one route, but he isn't welcome there. The majority of the Uchiha library was burned to the ground the remainder pillaged by the divisions. Aniki is tired, and no one really befriends a Uchiha especially now especially when the Uchiha is mostly useless - like himself. Maybe… that Sakura girl. She seems smart enough if a little weird, but then she does have pink hair. Maybe she dyes it like Hondon's friend. Huh if worse comes to worse he could always talk to Raharue she always knew something - and she always had cookies.
"Mom?" He walks up to the stairs. He stands at the bottom in an island of light from the kitchen. The top of the stairs is a distant territory of darkness. He hears the sound of crying again over the running bathwater. Crying and something wet, fleshy uncomfortable. "Mom?" He makes no move to ascend the stairs. In the twilight a boy sits on the stairs with something in his hands. "Go back in the kitchen and don't come out 'til morning." His foot is on the bottom stair. "Who are you?" The stairs are damp, the tub must have overflowed. "It's up there; go back." This kid should not be in his house, the stairs are getting wetter and colder, sticky and hard. The thing in the stranger's brittle little hands quivers. He falls back only to meet something unyielding. "I told you." It snaps his neck leaving him twisted on the stairs. His eyes dilate as he tries not to cry. He sits at the kitchen table the house is silent. He drops the object in his hand it quivers. The neighbors hear the screaming - are still hearing it hours later.
She's kind of pretty in a plain way. Somehow that mega forehead works for her. "Naruto Uzumaki… um yeah I know him. Well I know of him. Thing is we aren't really suppose to discuss him - it's really frowned upon." That was why they were in her family's stockroom seated on boxes filled with spices. Somehow it's very cozy instead of claustrophobic like he expected. She has a bunch of newspaper clippings because -" I saw something or one when I was walking home from your place the other day. It made me think of things, so I gathered these together." They're about the disappearances, but some date back to years ago - the oldest pre-dates the Uchiha fracturing by two years - more then seven years ago.
They are appalled. Who could be doing this in the monster's name? Because the container is without a doubt dead, they know this. Ibiki doesn't give a damn how scared and confused they are so long as he is given the proper resources. "Where did you receive this information?" Where hadn't he once he'd know what to look for and how? They are getting more ruffled by the minute - perhaps because old sins are coming home to roost. He watches Niizuma from the corner of his eye watching the hard face constrict into a mask of forbearance. "Ibiki are you requesting resources for a ghost hunt or do you have real intel to act upon?" Ibiki has never quite gotten use to a voice more detached then his own. At least they needn't fear the Godaime will be taken off thanks to a broken heart. "Hokage-sama, I would not have come forth with less then compelling reasons." Knight to pawn, checkmate. The mask loosens ruefully, "fine-work with the mission office as you need to".
"So why do you care Sasuke-san?" She'd nearly called him Sasuke-kun, maybe because he seems younger then her somehow. Weird to feel tender toward an Uchiha. Everyone knows they were traitorous psychos at worse - aloof power-hungry assholes at best. Her fingers rake through her fuzzy, pink bird nest of hair chipped fingernails catching and pulling. She eyes the clock by her side from the corner of her eye. She will be calm, she will be patient, she will - "Well are you gonna tell me or not you fucking loser?!" Damn, she needed to work on that. "Um…" 'Wow she's even crazier then Meikei.' Sweat dropping at Sasuke's deer-in-headlight look Sakura manages a sincere apology. With that taken care of Sasuke straightens up briefly before folding up into himself like a collapsible doll.
His hand barely reached the thing in the first place, but he is playing hide-and-seek and this is important to him. No one will play with him. His shoes sink into the accumulated dust like snow. No one will talk to him. The spider webs long to hold him clinging tenaciously to his blue t-shirt and dirty khaki shorts. No one likes him, but Naru-chan. They've been playing all day long. It smells in here a sweetish rotten smell like garbage or - madness, Shisui's eyes rolling in their sockets. For a minute he can't breathe, but it's all in his head - all in his head. He has to hide or Naru-chan will win again and he can't afford to lose to a little kid… again. There's a couch by the wall dark and hunkered like a beast about to spring. 'Too easy', he thinks to himself careful to be quiet even as he hurries dust like clouds at his feet. A closet set in the shadows seems perfect - the doorknob wide and smooth. So easy to open it's like he has nothing to do with it. So easy like the glossy black fingers inside turned the knob for him, like the dead fish eyes could see him outside. It's all in his head sitting on his doorstep half-naked and still heaving. "It's all in my head', he tells the little bare feet he doesn't want to see any longer.
He watches her face over his knees as he tells her his dreams and the things Hondon tells aniki when they think he's asleep. It's easy to hear because the walls are thin otherwise they wouldn't let him hear, right? He likes her face it's like water still as heaven, but fluid as a swollen stream. He's picking his cuticles apart again, but so far it's okay - she's really listening. So of course her father walks in - a ninja would have known, would have been prepared; but Sasuke's isn't a fucking shinobi is he? "Get the hell outta my store you damn little creep! How dare you fill my little girl's head with suck utter bullshit! I never wanna see your scrawny little ass around here again!" He is already half-way out the front door when he heads the rude man turn on Sakura. The door is closing when he hears a slap and a cry.
They sit heads bowed while Ibiki seriously considers the long-term consequences of murdering his subordinates verses the short-term benefits. "So, what exactly happened again? Slowly this time." What happened was… well Meikei saw Hondon's little cousin get into it with a civilian. So he went after the kid since it was 'obviously' the Uchiha's fault… "Uh-huh and then?" See Hondon was on the look out for Itachi's bratty little brother when what should he see, but Meikei's overgrown ass attacking his little cousin at which point he jumped in. On a side note the experience apparently activated Sasuke's dormant blood. Too bad young Sasuke is entirely too fragile for general life much less the life of a shinobi. It was times like this when Hondon wore his most irritating smirk that Ibiki could sympathize with Meikei, but attacking traumatized children full-out is wrong.
Speaking of which "While you two knuckleheads are at home cooling your heels I want you to go over this file. You'll be working on this once you're back. Raharue will begin without you. Get out!" Watching the 'mortal enemies' try to beat each other to the narrow door while limping and half-blind from swollen eyes almost improves his mood. Watching the idiots get stuck in the door was almost the final bit needed, but watching Raharue get up and violently kick them through it took the cake. Meikei glared up at her from the floor like a pissed raccoon. Hondon just struggled up and begin hopping away - killjoy.
"Hsss…oww Sakura!" How someone could be so violent one minute and then so utterly childish the next… "Shut up." The scowl left her extended brow as she momentarily soften. "Thank you for um… 'saving' me, but I think you got him the first time." Sasuke has the grace to blush. His eyes trace the rug beneath his feet - his mother had loved this one, a priceless heirloom of his maternal grandmother - it was smaller then it had been before the portion his auntie bled on was carefully snipped away. He doesn't know why he lost it that way - and his eyes have the Sharingan. A civilian with the Sharingan - his father would die, if he hadn't already been executed for treason.
"Say that weird thing your eyes did… That's the Sharingan?" "Yes it is, miss…?" The tow civilian pre-teens react violently all but jumping out of their skins. Hondon manages a simple smirk instead of the full-blown belly laugh he wants to. He looks like death warmed over if death were a male model. 'Geez is looking dashing a Uchiha bloodline trait?' Hondon's smirk deepens as he notices the synchronized eyebrow twitching. "Aw, Sasuke-kun has a little girlfriend… Guess I didn't need to check-in after all… Oh, well ta-ta children." "Wait!"
While Sasuke would rather eat glass then forgive Hondon right now, he needs to swallow his pride if he wants to solve this mystery. Sadly before he can even open his mouth, "Sorry Sasuke, I'm just gonna hit the shower before I go to bed, later." Even among his family he's easily dismissed. Before he can become too depressed he realizes something. "Sasuke, what's this folder?" Five seconds and a quick activation of his bloodline later he's grabbing the hand of his pink-haired partner in crime as they jet out the door. Gingerly stripping to his shivies Hondon chuckles quietly as the door slams. "Smart kid."
Kabuto knows this isn't real, Orochimaru is dead has been dead for seven years. He saw the body fall. "Orochimaru?" He has never called him by his name at least not without the proper honorific. He'd feel better if he could see his eyes. "Orochimaru-san?" It's so quiet, so cold where is everyone? "Orochimaru-sama?" The cold hard wall meets his back it's dampness seeping through his padded clothes. "Orochi-sama?" Long, white fingers digging into his shoulders, the long, silky hair brushing his lips. A scent like the past forgotten and grief remembered. "Orochi." Another murder, another traumatized rookie. "Waddaya think happened?" "Ain't it obvious? Something ate his face." Ibiki regrets opening the scene - he might have taken care of this quietly, but Kabuto's dead and his forces need the experience. "Move your ass, rookie!"
Sasuke sits in the abandoned lot watching the forces mill about below. He doesn't try to see the corpse nor does he try to avoid it. He already knows the events prior even as the bile rises with awakening memory. A dark head of silky fine hair bowed so he can see the fish belly white of a laser-straight part. Slowly the head rises and he see a broad, noble forehead, artist craved marble eyes. Pretty lashes and eyebrows. As the face rises so does his pulse until the shadows fall entirely away revealing a face from nightmares. The eyes are still closed, the area below the great lantern moon eyes is gone beyond the realm of humanity rugged, bloody, slimy a pair of great teeth from somewhere dark and deep. The great lantern eyes open inhumanly golden purple highlights glimmering. 'As always' says the viewer's mind somewhere around him. As always his eyes speak of hunger and somehow the viewer is calmer knowing the hunger is literal this time. 'Somehow it's better' even as the face rushes forward quick like a cobra and the jaws close in.
Sakura stirs beside him in her improvised bedding. She runs her fingers through her short, tousled cap of pink hair - natural pink hair. Her green eyes are huge even in their sleepiness. Huge and bright like lanterns, torches, and full-moons. Harvest moons. He is only slightly aware of the waving hand in his face or his partner's worried whispers. A little boy sits upon a river bank in the full moonlight and basks in the quiet, the calm. The gravel crackles behind him as someone walks up behind him. "Demon." Sasuke nearly screams as his overly sensitive eyes are treated to the light of a high-beam flashlight. "Sasuke, I'm sorry, but you were - I thought you were having a petité mal - a little seizure or something!" He waves her off as he struggles to hold in involuntary tears. "Just don't do it again."
Team 19 is currently trying to track down Hondon's whacked-out cousin and the brat's illicit girlfriend - at least that's how Meikei puts it. In reality Hondon is trying to see if his gamble worked out. Leaving the overview folder out for the child to read is a serious risk especially with the unknown element of a clan less civilian. Still his cousin though rather unstable was brilliant in his own way and the girl was apparently intelligent more importantly she seemed to be what the boy needed. The feeling of displace air is all the warning he gets before his teammate's fist nearly plants it's self in his head. "Dammit Raharue that's the kind of shit I expect from Meikei not you!" A flock of birds takes off down the street as a body becomes intimate with the concrete.
Ibiki squats on a rooftop across from the newest crime scene reviewing the reports of his subordinates and damning the lost of Kabuto. If only he could find the connection - what did Kabuto have to do with Naruto Uzumaki? What did this young, apparently healthy young woman feel the need to escape? Is this a new trend - suicide or is it another part of the escalating madness? "Ibiki-senpai, we've found…survivors." Survivors a term to succinctly describe the monsters, mutants left alive by the mastermind of this obscenity. Following the nervous officer into the lower sect of the building he knows he will need a pack of cigarettes later if only to get the stench out of his nose, the taste out of his mouth. A pack of cigarettes… thanks for the habit Asuma… wherever you are.
"Sasuke, we'll get in trouble -" "Only if we get caught, now come one." "Arrogant bastard." Said arrogant bastard actually turns around to wink at her smirk firmly in place, it's almost enough but for the glimmer of something cooler, darker behind his eyes. 'Oh, well as long as we don't get caught.' Walking down the stairs they resist the urge to hold hands like the children they most certainly are. Bleeding. The walls are bleeding, blood an inch deep on the railing - a spongy thickness on the steps. "Don't look up." Obedience isn't her best trait or else she'd be home with her father. Her green eyes widen tears beginning to collect like dew in their depths. Things like bodies, like cocoons writhe in the corners along the ceiling and against the walls. Creatures like humanoid squids slitter amongst them touching and tending. One of the cocoons is opening and the face that peers out - A hand touches her shoulder even as the other covers her mouth. "You two shouldn't be down here."