Notes:
Obligatory grammar warning
—oOo—
Itachi hears a rustling sound of leaves brushing against the wind while he is walking in the middle of the only path leading to a small mountain village. The autumn wind is particularly harsh, different from the one Itachi usually experiences at his home in Kyoto. It makes sense, considering that they are currently way up north in the middle of nowhere in Iwate.
The sun had already begun its descent two hours ago, leaving a gloomy atmosphere in the midst of the wilderness. Swaying shadows of trees accompanied their silent journey. Watching as they, Itachi, wading through the almost dark forest.
Wearing a relatively thick sweater, Itachi tries to tug his cuffs to cover both of his palms. While clutching his cuff, Itachi lightly pulls his brother's sleeve, trying to grab his attention without disturbing the silent atmosphere.
"Brother, lend me your hand," Itachi asks while inspecting his surroundings. This is not the first time the clan gave him a mission, but this is the first time he got one that is far away from home.
Currently, they are in the middle of nowhere. The driver that brought them here said that they need to walk to reach the village in the mission's description. Apparently, some windows found suspicious activity inside the said village.
There used to be little to no cursed energy activity inside that village, but then it changed all of a sudden, sometimes between a year and a year-and-half ago. They reported that there were multiple occurrences in which they sensed an increase of cursed energy concentration with three months intervals between them.
There is a harrowing caw of crows above him and Itachi stares upward. It's almost dark, especially when the thick foliage above his head covers the wispy light from the setting sun and the faint light of a new moon.
Itachi feels it when Toji places his hand above his head, holding it quite firmly, as if afraid that he would run off somewhere. Something that he would certainly not do, especially in a foreign environment where anything could happen.
Ah, also apparently, the clan considers Third Brother to be a suitable watcher for him, especially when he is tasked on missions outside. They thought that Third Brother won't hinder or calculate against him even when there was no one else to supervise both of them.
They are completely right on that account. Third Brother has never been interested in Zenin's factions' fight.
Putting his hand on the one above his head, Itachi grabs Third Brother's hand and brings it down from the top of his head to hold it in his palms. Closing his eyes while not stopping his footsteps, Itachi activates his Omen and watches the future that lay in front of him.
A few seconds later.
"I found nothing." Itachi releases his hold on Toji's palm and once again clutches the older one's sleeve. "I see that we would enter the village and then… we exit the village." Itachi looks at the muddy path below him and avoids a patch of water in front of him.
Toji just hums in disinterest. Itachi thought that he wouldn't respond until he finally speaks, "nothing in between?" While saying that, he also tries to brush off Itachi's hold on his sleeve and put his hand above Itachi's head for the second time.
Itachi gives up on resisting and lets Third Brother's hand do what he wants. "No, I just saw we enter and then exit the village. Both of us also didn't say anything regarding what happened inside the village."
"Hm…" Itachi feels Third Brother's hand slightly tighten. "Afraid?" Itachi almost. Almost hears a teasing tone from his Brother's usual disinterest attitude.
"No, just curious." What blocks his vision? Itachi doesn't know… The most obvious answer is a barrier, but what type of barrier blocks his ability to see what's inside when he and Third Brother actually do go in. Perhaps his vision would work once he's inside that barrier. Or perhaps not.
"It's muddy." Itachi shakes one of his feet to get rid of a particularly thick clump that heavily clings to his shoe.
There's no spontaneous answer, presumably because Toji thinks that statement doesn't warrant an answer. A few seconds later, Toji suddenly stops. Itachi looks up to his Third Brother's face and sees him watching something on his right side. Curious, Itachi also looks in that direction and sees an unnatural shadowy movement.
Before he could do or say anything, Third Brother just shrugs off its presence and continues his walking. "Of course, genius."
Huh, of course what? Remembering their previous conversation before it was interrupted, Itachi says, "It hasn't rained today."
"Right…" They stop talking.
Itachi wonders if he should have just gotten rid of that weird shadow-like curse. It seems weak, but it would definitely scare many non-sorcerers that walk on this path. The more it feeds on the people's terrified emotions, the more it would become powerful.
Well, he could just exorcise it later. After they concluded the business inside that village.
"Want me to carry you?" Third Brother asks him, but from his tone, it sounds like someone is forcing him to do it.
Itachi let out the tiniest scowl and quietly retorted, "no."
"Good, don't dream too much." Why didn't he find that Third Brother is rather annoying before?
—oOo—
The village is called Furade village and it is extremely deserted. Perhaps it is because they arrive rather late in the afternoon. The village is located between two mountains, one mountain has a large river dividing its peak while the other mountain directly connects to an unknown wilderness. Generally, people in the village don't wander into that wilderness, full of deadly animals, or so the village's head says.
The weather is rather unfriendly because it seems that it is about to rain.
Itachi lets Third Brother speaks to the village's chief while he observes every row of houses in front of him. Um, he feels it. The moment he entered the village, he sensed a layer of barrier brushed across his skin and felt an instantaneous presence of heavy cursed energy that permeates this entire village.
It's weird because he also senses more than the normal amount of cursed energy inside everyone in this village, or at least, the one that he already sees. It would not be weird if there were only several people that have that overabundance because, according to the mission's information, this is only a normal village—not a village filled with sorcerers. Well, it is also worth considering that this was a normal village before those spikes of cursed energy that happened every three months.
"Let's go." Third Brother already finished his conversation and steers him to follow the village's chief towards one of the seemingly empty houses in this village.
Mister Furade, full name Furade Himo, is the current chief of this village. He looks gruff and unfriendly towards outsiders. From what he heard in his conversation with Third Brother, this village is named after his family since hundreds of years ago when they fled from various natural disasters during the Edo period and finally settled down in this place.
Over time, the number of residents in this village increased. Currently, there are only two and half dozen households in this village. Not much, but considering the gloomy atmosphere and the access problem in this area, it's not strange.
"There're other visitors. Said they got lost."
Itachi raises one of his eyebrows when he hears the scratchy quality of the village chief's voice. He sounds like someone that has been deprived of water for weeks. He doesn't realize it before, too busy examining the irregular presence of cursed energy in this area. Without using his Sharingan, he doesn't know the exact size of the barrier that covered this entire village.
Third Brother doesn't respond to that sentence and just rudely comes in, while keeping himself between Itachi and Mister Furade. When Itachi looks back, he sees the village's chief already disappeared. So fast.
A few seconds later, he watches several people come out of the rooms inside this house. Two females and three males. All of them are a few years older than Third Brother. They introduce themselves. The short-haired one is called Isa Hikaru and the long-haired one is called Mano Yuriko. The tallest black-haired male is called Takara Michio, the one with the brown dyed hair is called Kawashima Masato, and the one with glasses is called Matsui Aki.
The man with black hair tentatively asks Third Brother – assuming that he is the one in charge between the two of them, "Both of you just come from the outside?" He sounds wary and hopeful, hoping that Third Brother would say yes.
He only asks this question after Itachi closes the front door, leaving the room to be bathed in dark. Not exactly in complete darkness because there is a kerosene lamp on top of the table in the corner of the room.
"Um." Itachi hears Third Brother's perfunctory answer and quietly watches as Takara-san's expression twisted. Uh, it really is inadvisable to let Third Brother enter a civil conversation when he is in a poor mood.
"Hey, your senior asked you a question." Now, the brown-haired one is offended. He doesn't raise his voice, but the emotion contained beneath his words is obvious. The man also places himself directly in front of Third Brother. A common gesture of aggression. Itachi wants to sigh; they just appear in less than a minute and they already offended someone.
He watches as Third Brother's face begins to contort. If this is not stopped, there would be a physical fight, and it wouldn't be Third Brother that needs medical attention.
"Yes." He interjects between the three of them. Upon hearing a childish voice, they turn to look at him, watching as he tries to scrape off the mud that stubbornly stays on his shoes. Itachi looks towards the dirty wooden floor and decides to wear his footwear indoors.
The short-haired lady asks him, "little brother, what's your name?" and what's Third Brother's name, this question is implied.
"Zenin Naoya, and my… brother, Zenin Toji." He answers as looks for his Third Brother's presence. He is halfway through the corridor but he suddenly decides to stop and watches the spectacle, expression impassive as usual. He is not amused.
He looks as her expression brightened as if she received some kind of hope. "Ah, Naoya-kun, do you remember the way from here to the base of this mountain?" She clasps both of his palms as she asks.
Itachi extricates his palms from her hold carefully and crosses both of his hands in front of him. Probably noticing his aversion, the short-haired woman back off from his space.
He nods and now all of them begin to cheer up. Before they can question him any further, Third Brother approaches and grabs his wrist, leading him towards the farthest room from theirs. He ignores everyone's protest and shoves him into the room.
"Stay away. From them." Huh? This is the first time he hears Third Brother directly forbid him in anything, and… Third Brother is not the type to fret needlessly.
"Why?" He quickly discards the other visitors from his mind and examines the room. Dusty and full of cobwebs.
Itachi walks towards the oshiire and pulls out two futons. He closes the sliding door and gives the duvets and pillows to Third Brother while he tries to clean the mattress from dust by hitting its surface using his hand.
Third Brother watches him busily clean the mattress before he gets impatient and takes it from his hand. He quickly rids both futons from dust while also inevitably creating some noise.
"They reek." Toji finally answers after he places both futons on a relatively clean wooden surface.
Reek? Itachi cannot perceive this, but he trusts Third Brother's senses. "Of what?"
"Rot."
"…"
Well, it is surprising. All of them seem to look like a human. There is nothing wrong with their expression and body language.
"They act human enough." Their emotions were genuine, the irritation they radiated when Third Brother snubbed them was real, and the hopefulness they felt when he said that they came from outside of this village was also real.
Itachi walks towards his futon and takes off his shoes, leaving only his shocks to protect his feet from the cold. He stops himself when he is about to lay down. Itachi looks at the sliding panel that separates them from the outside.
He moves towards them and opens the panel, letting the cold wind enter the room. Along with the wind, the opening also brings pale moonlight inside. The light directly falls on his figure, making his already fair complexion into a more sickly one.
"What are you doing?" Itachi hears Toji ask. There is a hint of complaint in there. Huh, so he is not bothered with the cold, but still somewhat annoyed by its mere presence.
Itachi activates his Sharingan. Then… he sees it… the invincible barrier. It covers the vast green mountain; it stretches as far as his Sharingan-enhanced eyes could see. And… this village is really subsumed with layers of cursed energy that even his Sharingan could see clearly.
Itachi closes the sliding panel and then lies down on his futon, "Third Brother, what do you think happened?" Itachi picks up his duvet and pulls it until it reaches his chest.
"They're dead." He says that like it is final.
"All of them?" Itachi has yet to properly examine the village's chief and the visitors. So, judging them to be dead seems a bit hasty.
Itachi hears a rustle and sees Third Brother lit up a cigarette, "probably not."
"Third Brother, don't smoke."
Toji ignores him and decides to enjoy the flavor, "it doesn't matter. I will probably die before this thing can kill me."
So sudden…
Itachi is not sure. The first time he uses his Omen on anyone is the one he did on his Third Brother. He saw Third Brother stab Gojo Satoru on the neck and on his forehead. He also saw that Gojo Satoru is no longer breathing, and the Third Brother in his vision also believed that Gojo Satoru is dead. But the moment he killed Gojo Satoru, Itachi watched as his vision rippled as if something disturbed its surface. Then he also watched Third Brother shoot a teenage girl from a distance. At this moment, his vision began to crack and shattered into thousands of pieces.
He never encounters this with anyone else. At first, he thought that he somehow dies at the exact same time as when Third Brother shot that bullet. Because why else would his vision be shattered at that moment? But then… he uses his Omen on someone else and saw their life twenty years in the future. So, his first guess became invalid.
The second guess is that some outside factor concerning the girl or Gojo Satoru –
"Go to sleep." Before he could go on a tangent inside his head, Third Brother orders him to sleep.
"I will if Third Brother stops trying to choke me with smoke." He uses his thick sweater sleeve to hide his nose.
"Tch," he stubbed out his cigarette and got up.
"Where are you going?" Itachi peers toward him and suspiciously asks.
Toji opens the sliding panel and throws out his cigarette, "nowhere." He closes the panel and sits in his previous place. He leans over and looks up.
Curious, Itachi also looks up. Nothing.
…Third Brother has this concerning habit of looking at something and then letting his mind wanders, especially when he has nothing to do. Every time he does that, his eyes would dim, as if this world no longer concerned him.
Like he is out of it.
It used to be something that Itachi frequently did, but he shook it off after his death.
—oOo—
Notes:
Oshiire: Traditional Japanese-styled closet.
PROFILE:
CURSED TECHNIQUE: Illumination (I took it from Amaterasu kanji direct meaning, 天照, lit. Divine Illumination, Heavenly Illumination) – It has something to do with sentience. I previously wanted to write control, but I think the term is too wide.
TECHNIQUE(S):
Illumination: Omen — Foresight
Illumination: Discipline — Place subjective restraint onto target(s)
OTHER NOTABLE TRAIT: Sharingan