"Secrets"
For fucks sake.
I saw them...together.
My baby sister and a condemned killer were fucking.
And there was no way to unsee it.
Even knowing the truth about him didn't take away my mind's illogical accusations. She matters more than the world to me, and I want her to be happy, but holy fuck that was hard to witness. It was like watching a murder take place and not knowing how to scream or waking up in the middle of open heart surgery with heavy anesthesia.
No one should see the little person they held as an adorable little infant doing... adult things. It was disgusting. I wanted to jump through his psyche and choke that son of a bitch to death with my bare hands. But that was impossible.
So I had to wait it out until they finished. And then what do they do? Go at it like goddamn jackrabbits again!
Why, oh why did my baby sister pick the only guy in the known universe who could potentiallysurvive my blood limit?
But, alas, this was all part of the plan.
I'd stave off telling her about Itachi's mission to kill our family for now, until I knew for certain that she was pregnant.
This was all part of my design. I'd truly hoped she would pick someone more docile, like Sora Aburame, but I suppose I'd have to deal with Itachi. He was stronger than I'd hoped, not easily manipulated by anyone but the Hokage. This would certainly complicate things.
Although I hate to break my sweet sister's heart, I would have to tell her about everything eventually. That he lied to her, used her emotions so callously. That he made her love him while he had zero intention of returning the favor. It was simply a happy accident on his end that he fell for her so hard that his head is still spinning.
Though it would break her already brittle heart, it would make her come with me to Hiewa. She would want to go along with my plan, she would want to be far, far away from him. And I know that it will work.
Right now I'm compiling data to kick-start the prototype. 'Hiewa' was the codename, meaning 'peace'. It was the perfect name for the most perfect place in the world.
Now, most people would feel terrible for playing god with their own family, but I never did.
Unlike others, I experience what some would call mania style love. When I was intrigued by something, whether it was a subject, person or an idea; I'd become obsessed. Much like this world I created. It is the only child I will ever have. It's my ball, my chain, the love of my life. It is the constant that makes me entirely happy. I know that what I am doing is righteous.
The idea came to me after my first interrogation as a boy. They treated POWs worse than animals. Beatings, rationing their food to scraps (if they got anything at all), torture, psychological testing, medical testing, it was all so sickening.
And then I came into the picture. People were no longer suffering. They weren't having their fingernails pulled off, they weren't being marred physically and mentally, and their children weren't tortured in front of them. I prided myself on allowing children to go free, without their memories, but free of any trauma.
With the proper equipment at your disposal, the world is your oyster.
In ASEB's case, I had the right equipment. During my time in Torture and Interrogation I developed a tool. It's called Nugeru. It uses cell ablation technology to eliminate the offending memory ganglion. The best part is that I'm the only one who can use it.
This is how those who work with ASEB remain entirely anonymous, their memories are eradicated and they are fed a new life story with a new, simple, name.
Using my ability to bring forth the offending memories, I'd press the device to their eyes and a small electrical current would pass through the retina and into the brain, effectively burning all visual memories of whatever I wanted to destroy. (Which is what I'd really like to do to myself right now).
The thought of my formerly innocent little sister floated across my visual field again… bleh!
Happy thoughts, happy thoughts…
From the time she was little Kat wanted to have 50 kids. No more, no less. That's what she would tell me in her high pitched, squeaky baby voice. They'd all be named for her favorite racehorses from the track we used to visit with dad before we realized he had a major gambling problem. As she grew up, that number got realistically smaller, but her mind was made up, she didn't care about being a shinobi or a fighter. She just wanted to be a mommy. I'm not sure what made her think that Itachi was the person to accomplish this goal with, but it coincided with my own plan and that's all I really cared about. It was probably that perfect empathy she was been born with that made her overlook his crimes. Mentally disturbed women aside, few would want to give their bodies to a mass murderer unless they knew in their bones that he was not what he claimed to be.
Itachi graduated from the academy the very same year that I did. He was my baby sister's age and he was graduating. And I graduated early! He was always better than me, at everything. That bastard would see something once, and he'd master it instantaneously. I worked so hard to hone my skills, to be smarter, faster, stronger, just so I could be better in every way.
Then, when my baby sister stopped idolizing me, someone else took my place.
He just batted those pretty eyes and got whatever he wanted. Including my sister. At first he hid it quite well, but slowly it became easier to identify the days when he saw Kat. Since it was my job at the time to keep him in check, I was interested in what caused that random bit of happiness. He would move better, like he was dealing with some form of crippling arthritis and Katsue was his extremely potent medication.
By doing what he did, he saved countless innocent lives. So, to keep up with that impressive selflessness I created this place. It transcended the nations and their meager issues. It was about a better world as a whole, forgoing the needs of the singular village in order to achieve perfect unity.
Kat didn't understand my question at Kaz's funeral. She didn't know that she was already ingrained in ASEB, that she was already in our database awaiting the catalyst that would change her life. She would fight it at first, naturally, and I would probably have to ablate a few memories for her mental stability, but she would be safer here. Away from the coming war. Away from the father of her unborn child.
When I confronted her about her relationship with him, she went on full blast defending his sorry ass. He was a murderer and yet she still felt like she had to protect him as if he couldn't take care of things himself. He had the capability to kill without batting an eyelash. Which is why I gave him the time limit.
He had six months to fix things with Kat before I'd have to take premature action, then I'd have to account for several missing months in her memory, which I really did not feel like doing.
Creating memories is extremely taxing, every last detail must be perfect in order for the subject to accept it into their mind. So far I'd only been able to inject simple decisions and ideas into a person's mind, but for Kat I would be willing to take the time and make every detail perfect.
I didn't doubt that he would try to fix her. I was really just asking him to do my job for me. He was creating memories for me to alter and change so that I could push her into Hiewa more easily.
Constantly, without pause as if listening to a self-help recording, his mind thought about three things. They were: Konoha, Sasuke, and Kat. Though, in his head he never refers to her as 'Kat', she is always called 'Katsue' when he thinks of her. He has too much respect for her, even after I flooded his mind with those false memories of her work as an assassin. It was nice to see such kindness from the kid, but as I poked through his head I found some seriously disturbing shit.
From the words he spoke to his brother the day he killed his clan to how he manipulated my sister. That was rough, those were NOT images I expected to see, nor did I want to remember them, but alas no one jutsu is perfect.
"Are you fucking insane?" I accused, Kat's face was wide eyed and terrified. Caught in the (very near) act of shower sex, "Kat. Tell me to kill him. Give me the goddamn word and you'll never have to see him ever again." Her voice hummed into my head like she was about to speak but I couldn't let her. "For the sake of all of my remaining sanity please tell me you used protection."
The bright red color of her face told me more clearly than her words ever could. I gasped melodramatically, "You've got to be kidding me. This has to be a nightmare. Now what are you going to tell me, that I'm gonna be an uncle? You realize that this is the stupidest thing you've ever done right? And I've seen you tie your hands to your own shoelaces! That's how bad this is. Did he make you do this? Was it the Sharingan? I will personally rip his eyes out of his sockets-"
"-Hiruko! Stop. What we do in private is none of your business!" Her cherry red face looked hilarious in contrast to her white skin. It was like she had been dipped in red paint.
I wasn't as angry as I was making it seem, in reality I needed her to get pregnant with someone with a blood trait, so once more, Itachi was doing my job for me. But as a stern older brother I had to put on a show.
"Uh, yeah, it is my business that my little sister is fucking a mass murderer. Tell me how that's not my business?"
"It's not what it looks like!" Her fingers tepeed together nervously, one long strip of hair had fallen between her eye and nose. Her white hair looked light violet when it was soaked through with water.
"Really." I deadpanned and watched her squirm nervously, pulling her towel over her shoulders more tightly, "So I didn't just see you in the shower about to have sex with the person you've been hired to ferry messages for? Tell me what you think I missed, because I'm fairly sure that I saw every stupid fucking detail."
It was unbelievably amusing to watch my sister's facial expressions, she was overwhelmed by situations so easily. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. She was a horrified, embarrassed, white-scaled koi.
Laughing slightly I went on, "oh, so now you have nothing to say? This is the craziest thing I've ever heard. Mom and dad raised you better than this."
The shame on her slowly sinking frown gave the most enjoyable satisfaction. Not only could I call Itachi whatever awful name I wanted right now, but I could do it at her expense until she got tired of it and snapped.
Now it was time to put the pressure on and make her feel dependent, "What would you do if you got pregnant? It's not like you have enough money to take care of a kid by yourself. It's not like daddy dearest will stick around. That scumbag will probably drop you like a sack of rocks the second you tell him."
Katsue's pleading blue eyes were getting close to shattering into tears, "He will not!" Her voice seemed somewhat unsure, "Can you please just let this go?"
"No, actually, I can't. You've violated my trust, Kat." I folded my arms in pretend frustration, "I trusted you to take on this mission and to take it seriously. You cant take it seriously because you're too busy giving Itachi goo-goo eyes!"
Her little face crumpled like she was crying, her hands covered her face. Great, now I felt bad.
"I didn't mean for it to end up like this," She cried into her hands. I felt awful for making her cry, but I needed her to think that I really hated him. Honestly, I didn't really care one way or the other. In reality he was just a sperm donor, it was that little bunch of cells that their union would create that I really wanted.
"Whatever. I don't care how it happened, only that you let it get this far. What are you going to do about that rinky dink apartment? You can't let a toddler run around in that place, they'd get salmonella and die.
"I'm not pregnant! Leave my apartment out of this!"
Wide eyed, I stared at her snarling face. Talk about a touchy subject. The laugh started in my toes and floated up through my mouth in an uncontrollable cackle. A small smile appeared on her face as she tried not to laugh.
The spell was broken, she couldn't be upset when I laughed. It was my special talent. It was impossible for her to stay mad at me when I laughed. It helped me out big time when we were kids.
I patted the top of her damp head with a chuckle, "will you tell anyone who the father is?"
Her white hair fluffed back and forth like a dog shaking off after a bath, soaking me in the process, "nope, that would be bad for the baby."
"And you're sure this is what you want? I don't have to kill that son of a bit-"
"-He could probably snap you in half with his pinky, so stop talking about him like he's some monster." She warned with a smile, "And, you know I've always wanted kids so it all works out."
"You'll probably only get the chance to have one. With him, that is." I argued a little.
She looked thoughtful, "you're right but I wouldn't to have another person's babies anyway."
"This fucking guy," I growled, watching my towel clad sister lean back on her perch on the operating table, "he's changed you."
Her long white bangs were combed back by equally pale fingers behind her ears, "when life give you lemons, I guess it's time to make pineapple juice."
"So what you're saying is that life isn't going your way, so rather than change some things and get what you want out of life, you're willing to give up everything without even a tiny fight?"
"Not everything, just a few things. Dreams change and flow, for me I've always wanted to have kids and raise them to be happy, healthy and loving people. Now I just have to restrict myself, I'll get to be a mom, just a really young one with a lot of responsibility and resentment from the world." Each word was so typically Katsue as a wide grin squinted her cobalt eyes.
"I'm going to need those scrolls."
Eyes wide she blushed heavily, wrapping the towel around herself tightly, "I, uh, well, you see..."
Realizing her implication, I rolled my eyes with an exasperated little huff, "Where did you put them?"
"My scarf."
"Where is-" I almost threw up, "…"
The memory of Itachi tearing her clothes away made me gag.
"GAH!" I squeezed my head, this stupid blood trait was a blessing and a serious curse. "You know what? Never mind. I don't want to know."
"It's on my bedroom floor, next to the giant dent in the wall." She gave a wolfish little smile that reminded me how that dent got there.
My stomach dropped. Ew.
"A dent? What the fuck did he do to you?!" Then I thought better of asking such a question, "actually, I don't want to know that either."
She grinned a giant child like grin, knowing how much this screwed with my head. I focused. It was far, and it would take some serious chakra, but after flicking a few hand signs then held my hands with their palms facing one another until a bright blue bolt of electricity formed between my hands. To Kat's utter amazement I managed to conjure the scrolls between my hands. She even gasped with delight at the little show.
All three had black seals requiring seals to open them. I'd wait until Kat was safely home before deliberating over the spy's notes, I rolled them in my hand then looked up at my sister. Kat's mouth fell open; she's never seen me perform something like that before. It was cute how little she knew about her beloved older brother.
(A/N: Hi guys! Sorry for the super long delay on this last one (and it's not even that great, I know) I've gotten caught up with a lot of life-shits like planning a wedding and becoming a full-time sales representative AND a full-time student. Aaaand I kind of got distracted writing another story.. Oops!
Anyway, the whole story is fully written so I'm just going to put them up at my own leisure as I edit them. If something doesn't make sense make sure you tell me because I don't have enough time in the day to edit super thoroughly, sadly.
Thanks for the reviews, faves and follows! You guys are the best, and as always, thank you to the lovely Jin . Forever for being my Beta!)