Notes:
—oOo—
In the middle of the night, when there is no sound coming from anywhere, a sudden thudding and knocking sound echoes through the hallway in front of their room and wakes Itachi up.
Lying on the bed, he hears that monotonous sound, as if the owner of that sound is currently pacing sluggishly in the hallway, waiting for someone to notice them. True to his thought, the sound begins to slowly but surely walk toward their room, as if noticing that it has an audience.
Itachi stares at the ceiling above, which reflects the orange hue that comes from the lamp not far away from him.
Must have been Brother's doing.
There is no electricity here, so he has no choice but to light an old kerosene lamp after Itachi went to sleep earlier. The light it emitted simply isn't enough to wash the eeriness inside the room. Instead, it caused the room to be bathed in red, adding to this room's chilling atmosphere.
Itachi sits up and turns his gaze towards the person beside him. Third Brother looks as if he has yet to get any sleep, probably still annoyed that the clan sent him to this place to accompany him, plus his previous comment regarding the rot doesn't exactly improve his sour mood. He is currently holding his lit-up cigarette and looking towards the opposite side of the room, where he could see a faint shadow of trees created by moonlight on the sliding screen.
Feeling Itachi's abrupt movement and feeling the shift of the duvet beside him, Toji averts his gaze from the screen and turns to look at him. There is a question in his eyes, asking, why are you awake at this hour?
To answer his silent question, Itachi moves his hand towards the direction of the door, indicating that there is something in front of their room. It is waiting for one of them to take the bait. For ordinary people, it might be scary, but for him, it begs a question… why does it not suddenly attack, and only does that constant knocking sound.
This is not the normal cursed spirit's behavior. It's more like… ghostly supernatural happenings that are often talked about by non-sorcerers. Well, unless this cursed spirit is born from humans' fear of this particular topic, its action is definitely abnormal enough to warrant a second glance.
Now he is wondering if he should immediately exorcise this curse or just observe its movement. The fact that it doesn't directly attack means that it has limitations surrounding its action. Most lower-level cursed spirits are distinctly affected by their instinct and lack certain patience as well as thought.
Deciding that there is no harm in checking, Itachi pushes his duvet aside and stands up. He lightly walks towards the sliding door while Third Brother silently watches his action.
He opens the door and looks toward the culprit. What greets his Sharingan sight is certainly something to behold. A humanoid cursed spirit in a form of a woman in a tattered red wedding kimono. Its face is obscured by the typical hood on a wedding kimono along with its oily disheveled hair. Even with the veil and hair blocking his sight, it doesn't stop him from noticing its waxy and pale face. Its eyes are bloodshot and an eerie smile formed a few seconds after he opened the door. Its jaw begins to open, showing the inside of the cursed spirit's mouth, to the point that it tears off its own skin.
Red droplets of blood drip from its face, and in reflex, Itachi unintentionally kicks the cursed spirit towards the other end of the hallway using a cursed energy-enhanced attack, creating a loud crashing sound.
Ah, he hopes the other visitors won't be woken up because of this.
"What is it?" Itachi suddenly hears Third Brother's voice from inside the room, sounding tired. Itachi looks towards the direction where the cursed spirit was flung and patiently waits until the dust settles from the rubble. There is no cursed spirit spotted on the wreck and he also doesn't sense any cursed spirit nearby. So easy?
"A lady in red." At least, the cursed spirit seems to fancy itself to look like that.
Itachi hears a slight shifting sound from the room and turns to look inside. He sees Third Brother propping his elbow on his knee and resting his face on his palm while watching the raising smoke from his cigarette. "Hm," he finally responds, but then he slightly pauses. Itachi is about to enter the room when Third Brother throws his cigarette towards the dirty corner of the room. "Whatever… just close the door and go back to sleep."
Itachi looks at the still lit cigarette and reminds him, "Brother, don't burn down the house."
Toji sighs and ignores him, instead, he chooses to lie down and immediately closes his eyes.
Itachi put out the fire and then walks towards his futon. Lying down, Itachi rests his head against the pillow and stares at the web-filled ceiling above him. He falls into a trance as he thinks about the previous cursed spirit.
He is right, at least in some manner. This curse may not be born out of fear of ghostly things, but it certainly tries to mask itself into one. Beneath that woman-like exterior is a dark giant blob-like structure, liquid and viscous as if it cannot hold itself in shape. As for the reason why it did that, Itachi doesn't know for sure.
But he does have some conjecture.
—oOo—
Something wakes him up for the second time this night, this time it is a bloodcurdling scream that startles him into this state of alertness.
Itachi quickly moves from his futon and strides towards the sliding door and opens it. Without looking toward his brother, he observes the silent hallway. There is nothing that indicates the cursed spirit's presence inside the house. To be honest, he doesn't feel anything other than the occupants of this house.
Then, he catches a sound of a whimper. It comes from one of the rooms that other visitors occupy. He strides towards the room's door and lightly knocks. Seemingly startled by his action, the occupant sounds as if she is trying to hold her sobs, trying to prevent something from realizing that there is someone behind the closed door.
Itachi pauses for a couple of seconds to decide on how he should proceed. In the end, he attempts to calm the one inside, speaking softly, as if trying not to startle a scared animal. "Excuse me… is there something wrong?" The sobs recede and it changes into the sound of fabrics moving against each other, indicating that the occupant is pacing behind the door. After hesitating for a while, she opens the door and Itachi watches as Isa, the short-haired lady from before, crumples in relief.
He once again repeats his question to the nervous lady in front of him, "Isa-san, is there something wrong?"
Not realizing how strange it is for a nine years old child to ask her this question and is glad that there is someone she could talk to. She tells him about what happened earlier. She woke up feeling like she wants to go to the toilet and tried to wake up her friend from her slumber, but before she could touch her, she saw a red-clothed spirit hovering above her friend's body, opening its jaw as if it wanted to swallow her whole. Realizing that someone else was awake, the spirit turned its gaze towards her and she screamed. Before she noticed it, the spirit was already gone.
In her story, the long-haired lady is still unconscious and not at all stirred because of her scream. Realizing that Itachi needs to check the victim, he put Isa under a light genjutsu, preventing her from thinking too much about his presence. Not a hard thing to do, considering Isa's state of mind and her non-resistance towards cursed energy.
He then enters and examines the room, but he feels no residual cursed energy from the spirit. Itachi watches Isa's trembling form and walks toward the other occupant of the room. She looks pale, but she is alive. Her cursed energy level is slightly higher than normal for a non-sorcerer, but Itachi doesn't think much of it because all other visitors are also in similar conditions.
Itachi remembers Third Brother's warning regarding these visitors, but what he sees right now is a real genuine fear. It etches almost permanently on Isa's face along with her damp hair. He doesn't think that Third Brother lies about them smelling like rotten things, but they seem to have no idea what afflicts them.
Ending his musing, he turns towards the short-haired woman. "Isa-san," she is a bit dazed because of his genjutsu and clearly surprised by his sudden address towards her.
"Yes?" She speaks hesitantly. Pale and in a cold sweat. She is on the verge of a breakdown.
"Stay alive." He put Discipline upon her and feels the seal that indicates its activation formed on the upper part of her nape. He wants to put Mano, the long-haired lady, under the same Discipline as well, but he can't because she is unconscious.
Isa narrows her eyes as if she just realizes Itachi is in the same room as her, she doesn't seem to realize what she is under. To prevent a major headache, he plans to use his cursed technique to make her forget the moment he put her under Discipline.
"Isa-san, please let me hold your hand." He needs touch to trigger this technique. He exhales. Most of his cursed technique requires touch to use. Something common from what he gleaned using the books regarding this subject.
Without an ounce of hesitation, she lets him hold her hand. After a few seconds, he releases his hold and thanks her.
It doesn't matter whether she knows or not. From this point onwards, all of her actions will be based upon his command to keep herself alive. At least in this way, it would prevent her from doing a major stupid thing that could cost her her life... Like going to the bathroom in the middle of the night in this godforsaken village.
He exits the room and reminds her, "Isa-san, please calm down and sleep. There is no need for you to worry."
Itachi closes the sliding door without looking at her expression, she would probably think that she has a weirdly realistic dream about a supernatural thing the next morning.
Well, no matter.
The most important thing is that the previous cursed spirit is still out there somewhere, undetectable. It is too weak to bring harm to him, but there are other villagers and visitors for him to consider.
Let's just exorcise it the next time it appears in front of his eyes.
Entering his room, he looks at Third Brother's back on him. He must have been awake, it's impossible for him to not be awake from all of that ruckus, he just doesn't have the desire to involve himself in this sorcerer business.
Every time Third Brother accompanies him on this type of mission, he always stands back and watches him complete the mission without interfering. The elders are worried about the internal struggle within the clan would affect him, the most probable heir, so they send someone to watch him, someone who has little to no reason to actually harm Itachi in the name of politics.
Or perhaps he would accept…? If someone pays him enough money. Itachi frowns as he remembers Toji's particular title in the future.
—oOo—
Toji really couldn't sleep in this wretched place. The rotten smell that invades his nose from the moment he entered the barrier really is unbearable. He somewhat admired the brat, suddenly going into this weird place, suddenly meeting some strange people, yet he is still able to sleep peacefully without worry.
He is leaning on the door frame while watching as the sun rose from its hiding, trying to illuminate the village but unable to do so, as if a thick filament is covering the area above him, preventing the sun from fully gracing them by its presence.
Toji looks in the direction of the village gate and sees nothing beyond that, the fog limiting his vision and turning it into normal. He then turns his gaze towards the opposite side and observes some villagers go out of their houses and do their thing mechanically. Involuntarily wincing, he observes their movement carefully. No matter what he thought, it looks weird as fuck. Compared to these villagers, the guys that share the house with him are relatively more normal, even when their stench causes him to almost recoil in mild disgust.
Stiff movement, pale figure, scratchy voice… almost makes them look like a corpse. Well, who is he kidding? He bets that they are actually a corpse, or at least something similar. Reanimated corpses in a strange village, he really hates this mission more and more. And, let's not forget about the cursed spirit last night. It won't cause him to worry because the brat surely got that handled pretty well. But that thing had disturbed his peace to enjoy his treat, resulting in him throwing it away in the face of the brat's nagging.
His guts are telling him that something is not right, as if he can't directly sense it the moment he steps into this place.
Toji hears a sliding door's sound and turns his head to look inside. It's the short-haired woman from yesterday. Looking carefully, he catches a reddish mitsudomoe symbol on her nape. Ah, the brat's doing then.
She seems to be way more careful in her conduct than yesterday. Then again, he only saw her for a couple of minutes, so he couldn't exactly make a judgment regarding her conduct this morning. Whether she changed because of the brat's doing or her own, he doesn't care about it much. He places a bet that it is because of the brat.
"Ah, Zenin-san. Good morning." Toji grimaces at the address and ignores her. He notices that her reaction is different from yesterday when he openly snubbed them. Her face remains placid and friendly. So fake, this is what comes into his mind. She behaves as if she tries not to make an enemy out of him, or at least tries to not earn his ire.
Well, now he is curious. What exactly is Naoya's command that causes this reaction towards him.
A few minutes later, the others come out. He doesn't see any marks on them. When they see his figure near the door, their expression is subtle, but it's obvious that they are unhappy to see his face. They huddle with each other and form a group, as if wanting to say that he is not welcomed.
Not long after they came into this room, Toji smells a rancid odor and winces. Scrunching up his nose in disgust, Toji looks at the source and it is the long-haired woman. Her smell is so much worse than yesterday. He doesn't exactly know what happens that night, but it must have been something to do with her.
Seeing Toji's expression, the muddy-haired man that clashed with him yesterday speaks in an interrogative tone. "Kid, what's your expression?!"
Trying to intimidate him through age? Who does he think he is?
The man's loud voice causes the other visitors to also turn their heads to look at him.
"What?" In the same provocative tone, Toji answers his question. He is taller than all of them. Adding to the way he purposely spoke. It sounds as if Toji is looking down on him. "Wanna fight?" Toji sneers as the man hesitates and subconsciously moves backward.
You have no way to back up your attitude. Why are you so confident before?
The other three's expression is not good, but they are not as provocative, so they keep it to themselves.
Intending to ease the situation. The short-haired woman distracts her group of friends from Toji with the tale from last night.
She says that she had a weirdly realistic dream and tells her friends that she dreamed of her roommate being eaten by a red ghost.
"Shut up! What kind of dream is that?!" The long-haired woman is angry. More than that, she looks anxious, ready to bolt up from her seat the moment she feels that something is wrong.
"Yuriko, it's only a dream. Don't think too much." The black-haired guy tries to prevent the argument from developing even more and clearly fails.
She ignores his words and changes the object of her ire to the man. "Well, she doesn't need to say it. Does she want to curse me like that?" The woman immediately stands up. It's obvious that she's still angry, combined with her scared expression, she feels stifled and would fight everyone that rubs her wrong.
Great… A conflict to distract them from the previous one.
He watches the escalating argument with faint amusement. As if he is not one of the responsible for the previous discord.
A few minutes later, even the other two guys couldn't escape the quarrel. The short-haired woman's attempt to diffuse the fight cause the other woman to be even angrier and starts to bring up some personal matter between them. Even with that provocation, the short-haired woman's expression never changes. Increasingly infuriated because of her friend's expression, the long-haired woman finally slaps her face.
Cacophonies of sound that were previously heard in the middle of the room disappear, and everyone falls into silence, probably wondering if the fight would turn into a physical one. The black-haired guy holds the long-haired woman's hand, while the muddy-haired bastard persuades the short-haired woman to not be angry.
In the end, he doesn't need to speak too much because she doesn't seem angry.
Ah, at this moment, he wants to praise the brat's iron-tight order, whatever it is the leash he puts on her last night.
In the silence, he watches the brat exits their room and quietly walk across the space towards him. He eyes the conflict with an impassive face and seems to decide on something. The moment the brat reaches him, he peers up and examines his face. It is possible that Naoya is searching for an indicator of the lack of sleep on his face. He won't get anything. He always looks somewhat tired.
The brat then looks toward the group and claps his hands. All of them wake up from their silence and look at him with a differing expressions, "please, calm down and cease your anger."
The tension that fills the room immediately evaporates the moment the brat finished his sentence. Toji examines each of their expression, he watches as their body grows lax and their breathing begins to return to normal. Ah, really scary. The anger they feel is immediately gone. Poof, just like that, because of the brat's whim.
"Everyone, please stay alive."
So… That is his command. A reasonable one, even if the content is rather vague. What are these people going to do to stay alive? He knows that the brat couldn't directly control anyone under his command. He merely put restriction on them and watches as the target judge how they can accomplish the command to the best of their ability. The command may be the same, but each people would have a different method to achieve that.
The kid's behavior reminds Toji that, for all that Naoya looks indifferent most of the time, he is never needlessly cruel or vindictive to anyone.
—oOo—
Note: It is messy if I put this section into AN, so I write this here. Also, keep in mind that this is based on Itachi's and narrative observation. It could be debunked anytime.
PROFILE: (I will write down the known fact that I already write or implied, at least for his Cursed Technique, but not his eyes because I think everyone and their grandfather already knew what Sharingan and MS could do.)
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
He sees it visually and auditorily.
He needs to touch the person to activate this ability.
The PoV is based on the person that the ability is used.
Some future events can be changed, while some others don't.
Something that cannot be changed is death.
Itachi himself doesn't know which event that can or cannot be changed.
The 'destiny' actively resist change in a numerous way.
Can cause unluckiness or general misery depending on how people use the knowledge.
It will see the event of the future as far as Itachi wants, the farthest he has tried is twenty years in the future when he was six years old.
Gojo Satoru is of the opinion that the phenomenon in which 'fate' tries to resist change is actually derivative of Itachi's Discipline. Basically, the ability to force everyone that their 'destiny' has already been seen to full-filling it. The fact that Itachi cannot consciously fabricate his vision doesn't matter, perhaps it is the ability itself that decides which path these people should take. – He is still in denial. Perhaps he is right, perhaps not.
Illumination: Discipline — Place subjective restraint onto the target(s)
The please(s), this is its derivative technique. A milder version so to say. How long this technique will last depends on the amount of cursed energy that Itachi uses. Its function is the same as the regular Discipline.
Discipline is not a mere suggestion, it can change the way people view the world and act accordingly.
The target doesn't become mindless like thrall in vampire. They retain their personality and cognitive ability.
The same command would not cause people to act the same. They have their own judgment and will act differently to the command.
Itachi cannot control the target(s) directly after he put a Discipline upon them. He could watch them do what it takes for it to be fulfilled, but not interfere halfway.
He cannot give direct lethal order to the target(s). In exchange, it doesn't matter how much stronger the target will, spirit, or psyche is, the Discipline will always hold.
Illumination: Ignorance — General sentience manipulation.
I choose this name because everyone under this ability would have ignorance of one's true self no matter how small and insignificant it seems to be.
Illusion, memory erasure, etc, is in this category.
OTHER NOTABLE TRAIT: Sharingan
—oOo—
Notes:
Hah, I think Itachi can even sleep in the wild without a roof. So for him to sleep relatively peacefully in this village really is not that strange.
Toji is suffering here, he probably feels like he is in the middle of a mass grave filled with rotten flesh. His bad mood is understandable.
Now that I reread his cursed technique, why does it seem so OP, but when I think about the manga's abilities. I was like, well it's fineee. It doesn't have crazy one-hit kill.