Part Two
"FATHER!" Otsu called out at the top of her lungs. "Father, are you home?"
A figure encased in shadows stepped out from a shoji door. Otsu screamed and instantly struck a defensive pose. The figure spoke.
"Otsu! What's wrong?"
Hearing her father's warm voice deflated Otsu, and she exhaled and dropped her head and shoulders in relief. Then she ran to her father and hugged him.
"Oh father, I'm glad you're home!" She sobbed.
"Otsu!" he said fondly, and embraced his only child. "What scared you?"
"I got that feeling again, Father," she said, pulling herself out of his arms. "Just like I did when mother died."
Uchiha Jiro frowned slightly. He had learned not to make light of Otsu's "feelings". He suspected that they were budding jutsu that could be unique only to her, but he had never said a word to his daughter about it.
"You did?" Was all he said.
"And when I got it," she continued, "I thought something had happened to you on your mission."
Jiro looked down at the top of his daughter's head. He knew his older brother, Fukagu, had been doing a great deal of planning regarding Konoha and it's future and had voiced his own objection to it, but his brother had assured him it would be a coup de 'etah... but looking at Otsu, Jiro began to wonder if Fukagu had lied to him. No, that was impossible. Fukagu had never lied to him. Something else...something else must be coming. Jiro resolved to speak directly to the Hokage, the leader of the village, tomorrow morning.
"Well as you can see, I'm fine," he said, and then he smiled.
Otsu smiled back. "Maybe I just worry too much, Father," she said. "After all, this is the first mission you've had where you've been gone for so long."
"Maybe so, Nanka"
Otsu felt better when she heard him use his pet name for her. She shredded her backpack and removed her shoes and placed both in the entryway to the house. "What do you want for dinner, father?" She called out to him.
"Something simple, Nanka. Maybe just plain soba." He then remembered the surprise he had for her. "Otsu! Come here!"
She paused halfway to the kitchen and looked back at him. "What is it father?"
He held up a small disc and grinned. "I didn't forget my promise! Family movie night!" Otsu squealed with delight. "Just as the sun sets," Jiro continued, "we'll start the movie. I think you'll like it!"
Dinner conversation consisted mostly of her progress in school. Jiro knew his daughter struggled for her good grades and was proud of the fact that she kept them up while he had been gone. After dinner and clean-up, Otsu ran upstairs to do her homework and wait for the sun to set. She didn't care what movie her father had brought back - the important thing was that they were sharing a moment together. She still had that unsettling feeling, but buried it under her happiness that her father had returned home.
Shadows fell across her desk and she knew that it would soon be time to watch the movie. Sure enough, her father called to her from downstairs:
"Nanka, it's time!"
Otsu quickly shoved her papers in her books and brushed her scrolls aside and stood up. "I'll be right down, father! I've got to go to the bathroom first!" She jolted across the upper hall to the family bathroom and shut the door tightly. She had taken to making sure it was latched properly - the door was old and it stuck when you tried to open it. She knew her father had been meaning to fix it but he just never seemed to have the time.
As she sat, she could hear her father downstairs moving around and singing outloud. She smiled as she heard the familiar song he always sang when he was in a good mood. It made her feel like nothing bad could ever happen to her. She hummed softly along with him and wiggled her feet.
Then she heard a knock on the front door downstairs and tilted her head quizzically. Who could be calling at this time of night? She heard her father open the door. Then she heard him say, "why, Itachi! What are you doing here?"
Her cousin? Odd. Had something happened to Sasuke? He had said he was going to the training fields...was she wrong for not telling Sasuke's parents where he had gone?
Then she heard her father say, "are you on a mission, Itachi? You've got your ANBU uniform on. Oh...who's your friend in the mask?" There was just the smallest sound of sword against saya, a smaller gasp, and then a horrific scream from her father "OH god it hurts like a mother fu-" ...then...a thud that sounded like something heavy hitting the floor. Otsu's feet froze, and she held her breath. What in the world was going on?
And then...she heard them. Heavy footsteps pounding in and out of every room downstairs. Then on the stairs. She heard her bedroom door being jerked open. She could not move when she heard the hand rattle the bathroom door. It stuck, and the person on the other side rattled it violently. And then, a strange and unfamiliar voice from downstairs called up the stairwell.
"Itachi! Let's go!"
"Just a second," said her cousin, his voice a mere three feet from her, separated by only a broken door. The door rattled again, this time with more force.
"Itachi, lets go! The clan isn't going to kill themselves, you know!"
"There should be one more person in this house," her cousin said. Every time he spoke Otsu thought she was going to scream.
"Itachi! NOW! We don't have a lot of time before the entire village is alerted!"
"I told you..."
"I know what you told me...but only the Hokage and the village elders know. Do you think that a passing ANBU or Jonin will know? Do you, Itachi?"
The door stopped rattling. Footfalls retreated from the door and back down the stairs, and out the front door.
Otsu waited a full five minutes, and heard nothing. She slowly rose up, and crept to the door, and lifted the knob up and slightly to the left. It gave like it had never been stuck and she slowly, slowly pushed it open.
There was blood on the other side of the knob.
End.
