50shinobi theme #48 paper fan

Title: Uchiwa

Fingertips pressed against the frame, he could feel the timbers creak and shift. The buildings wouldn’t stay forever. Without someone to tend them, rebuild them, they’d eventually give in.

Tenzou turned the corner, taking in the red and white paint peeling off the wall before him. The clan symbol was fading but still recognizable. Like the remaining members of the clan itself – absent and yet in the consciousness of the village. Would one of them return and repaint it one day?

Patrolling the vacant complex was a duty given to ANBU only. Not that the act of watching for vandalism required anything more than chuunin-level skills. Even those weren’t forced into play since the neighborhood was a veritable ghost town. Children did not seek to make mischief here, nor did teens. Adults rarely mentioned it, and when they did it was in hushed tones – as if speaking quietly they could somehow deny what happened here or superstitiously keep the disturbed souls at bay.

Outside, along dusty lanes, between aging houses, all signs of the violent event had long since passed away. Brown discolorations were washed out by rain or sank invisible into the wood. Any trace on the ground wiped away by the wind.

Inside, if one were to look, Tenzou suspected there would still be evidence. Crimson stains covered by a thick drift of dust. A rain derived from human life still remembered by the planks and panels.

When one of their own did something so terrible, so wrong, so horrific to the sensibilities of the bloody-handed special ops, they could not ask others to fulfill this menial task. Every time one of their bemasked members paced these streets, it was to haunt anew such a failing by one of the ANBU and such a failure on their part to protect village lives. No matter how lowly the civilian or how haughty the clan leaders, they belonged to the village, were the village.

Tenzou thought he knew some little bit of what it meant to guard the village and its people. Past failure of another shinobi in that duty – some unwatchful set of eyes – had allowed his own abduction, been an accomplice in his own bizarre circumstances – a genetic inheritance that didn’t belong to him. In a way, this clan was as absent as the one to which he’d never belong.

He remembered the Senjuu elders’ scorn, how biting it felt. Bad enough that they didn’t want him yet kept a wary eye on his progress. Progress he did, known at every advancement as a freak among freakish and deadly shinobi. Joining ANBU had been different. For once the spotlight was not burning down on him. Instead it was on the newest captain – that ridiculously young and talented youth. The pride of his father and his clan.

In ill-hidden curiosity, Tenzou had tailed the young man home, to the gates of this now empty complex. Family had greeted the black-haired teen, a father with a nod of approval, a mother with a tender embrace, a younger brother playfully demanding his attention. Bittersweet scenes to Tenzou’s eyes, as he watched they played out, half absorbed into the boughs of a nearby tree.

That tree was still there now. He could see it in the corner of his vision. Checking, the thick crossbeam in its fixing, he then jumped over to stand facing the closed gate. The new captain had been standing in just about the same place that day when he turned very deliberately and stared right at Tenzou, tomoe swirling in those red red Sharingan eyes.

A/N: This is, of course, referring to a hypothetical interaction between Tenzou and Itachi Uchiha, who later murdered his entire clan save for his brother Sasuke. Their clan name Uchiha comes from uchiwa, the type of paper fan depicted in their clan crest. I knew I wanted to use the Uchiha with this prompt from the start, otherwise this story took a completely different turn than I expected, save for the final scene. I’ve upped the rating to T because these dark chapters seem to keep getting darker.