Beginning Notes: Inspired by Luc Court. "In propria persona" means "in one's own person or character." It should also be noted that "persona" is Latin for "mask."
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In Propria Persona
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ANBU masks, Kakashi learned, were carved from the wood of the cypress. It was standard protocol to rip off all the outer bark first, flesh forcibly stripped and peeled until nothing but the desired marrow remained, raw and malleable enough for shaping. Well-filed adzes would coax the wood-chunks into contours of a generic human face, as local Aphananthe leaves sandpapered vigorously to even out the rougher surfaces. An application of whetstone powder and wax would then come next, preparing the way for an intermediate layer of soybean oil, while four coats of ANBU's signature white paint served as the final finish.
They usually assumed shell-like molds at this point, lumps of smooth nacre across eyeless, unbroken planes.
The eyes would come later, though. As would everything else.
Village manufacturers often dumped their products into storage boxes and sent them along to ANBU headquarters soon after, whereupon they'd be gathered in a nearby shed, stacked in pyramided dust piles like beachside collectibles, straining for the sea. There, they would wait for weeks on end, in the hopes of liberty under a pretext of the organization's necessity.
As with all shinobi paraphernalia, purpose equated with utility. Every fresh wave of recruitment meant scores of naked faces, bold and bare invitations for what Konoha legislated as an affront to the essentiality of concealment. Assignments to members were distributed randomly, with further modifications made to the exterior in accordance to whoever obliged a new representation. Size and structure, alignment of facial features, stroke patterns.
Colors.
Identity was to be a contingent condition. Who the wearer would be determined everything in the end. Masks were just masks, after all. And commodities, Kakashi learned, were not meant to have choices.
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