twenty one.
The woman who handed the masks out introduces herself as Crane and tells them to open their scrolls.
Shisui does, and finds his overall aptitude assessment and team assignment.
Uchiha Shisui, Crow. Anbu Registration number - 0892
Tokushu Assassination, Anbu Cell 8. Report to cell captain Ox for assignment.
Dispose of once received.
Some instructions and other numbers that would probably make more sense later were also listed, and his dog tags were sealed inside as well.
“A few more things before you’re dismissed. As you can see,” She gestured to her maskless partner, “You are not required to constantly wear the masks or uniform while inside the base, that’s up to you. But don’t disclose your identity outside of Anbu personnel.”
“-And don’t lose them. The supplier will find you and we’ll never find your body.” The man interjected. His face was grave, and his voice was steady.
The woman nodded and continued like the interruption didn’t happen. “Before you report to your division, you will need this.” She turns her shoulder towards them, showing the bright red swirl on her skin.
The Anbu Swirl.
“Once you have it, it cannot be removed. This tattoo is a symbol of your loyalty and a seal. When you are summoned, the seal will burn. If you die on the mission, it can be activated to cremate you. If such an occasion arises, know that we will not retrieve your body."
“And despite what Hatake would make you think, it should not be displayed freely.” The man added. “This sequence,” he held up his hands and demonstrated, hare, ram, boar, ox “-will make it blend with your skin. Itches like hell and it’ll wear off if the seal activates.” He ended with a smile. “Let’s get started.”
Shisui stepped forward to receive his, eager to get his hazing over and done with and go home. He hadn’t slept in two days and he needed to regroup with Itachi, find whatever a ‘Tenzo’ is, and sleep for at least 17 hours. The peanut gallery of lingering shinobi had acquired a couple more stragglers, and he could see Itachi’s slight form walking in the doors now.
The man nicked his shoulder with a scalpel and used the blood to draw the swirl, which felt just as strange as he’d expected it to. The wet blood flashed blue, and the sensation of ice being pressed against his skin shuddered against his bones, and it was done.
“Huh.” Shisui said, lightly poking at the edge of the ‘ink' with a fingernail. It felt very… permanent.
The feeling of pins and needles faded as he stretched the limb. Shisui finally looked up and met Itachi’s burning gaze as best as he could- given that both of them were wearing masks- and moved to where his cousin was lurking by the door.
“How mad was he when you told him?” Shisui greeted.
“He’s furious. If you hadn’t left the police already, he’d have you on probation,” He greeted warmly, “I’ll show you where your division head’s office is.” Itachi turned and started walking down the hallway leading out of the spare training room as soon as Shisui got close enough to talk, and Shisui followed. Itachi was still shorter than him, but his stride was long enough to match his own steps.
“So cold! Could be worse though. And you?”
“I’ll reserve judgment for later.” Itachi huffed, sounding more like a judging obassan than a future Anbu-cell captain.
Shisui knew he was worried, and the both of them knew that they would have a long conversation later. For now, there were too many eyes around them, he had about six hours of sleep, and he still needed to report. For now, he sighed and agreed.
Itachi led them through the hallway, up two flights of stairs, two lefts and towards the general area of most of Anbu’s offices.
It wasn’t a long walk at all, but it was enough to remind Shisui that he still had several fist sized bruises all over and that he still had to collect his Anbu issued gear. Itachi kept turning his head to side-eye him, not making any attempt to do so subtly. Shisui continued to ignore his attempts to open conversion until after they had picked up his new armor plates from requisition, claimed his dorm, requested leave for the next two days, changed into blessedly clean new clothes, left the underground compound, and emerged into the sunlight.
The door shut behind them with finality as Shisui squinted up at the noonday sun.
“Shisui.” Itachi insisted.
“Later.” Shisui had thought it was morning, and glared at Amateratsu’s sun like it was her fault his internal clock was off by a couple hours. “Was your hazing ritual that bad too?” He asked.
“I was inducted into the ranks immediately.” Itachi sniffed. Now maskless and wearing similar civilian clothes as Shisui, (the kind that only active shinobi too uncomfortable with normal clothes but too tired to wear blacks wore) Shisui could see the cracks in his affronted mask.
“Hm.”
“A Crow?” Itachi questioned.
Shisui nodded, and for once didn’t correct the scowl on his cousin’s face. He felt it suited the occasion. “Very auspicious isn’t it?”
“Very.” Itachi agreed grimly.
Without voicing it they both flickered away into shunshin away from the backdoor of the Hokage tower, which was built on top of Anbu Headquarters, to the quiet and somewhat dusty home where Shisui lived when not on mission or mooching off his aunt Mikoto.
As soon as they touched down onto Shisui’s front step Itachi spoke. “You said you didn’t want to attract attention.”
Shisui entered and toed his sandals off, kicking them into the corner of the genkan.
“I didn’t, but the situation with the other division is probably worse than I first thought and it became necessary. I’ll have to tell your dad soon but I’ll give you a rundown first. And sleep.” He added as an afterthought. “Sleep soon.”
Shisui sat down heavily on the bench at his doorway. This house was smaller than the one he lived in with his father before, when his father was still alive and the Uchiha compound wasn’t on the outskirts of the village. This house wasn’t as old as that one was, and it was built in a more modern style, so much so that he had a tiled genkan instead of an engawa. A second round of staring at the familiar but not old tiles in his entrance, and he moved his sandals into a neater spot on the lower shelf like the rest of his shoes, and undid the bracers on his arms as well.
Itachi didn’t comment on the lapse and followed Shisui into the kitchen.
In between bites of a late lunch Shisui told him about the meetings with Ei.
Shisui eyed the roots retreating into the dirt with a dull sense of bafflement. His head turned creakily to his beloved cousin, as if on a rusty swivel. “So when you said that you had you wanted me to meet your team-”
“Yes.” Itachi said simply. “I think this was the answer you were looking for.”
With effort, Shisui tore his gaze away from the last of the retreating roots and looked the man in the eyes. “I’ll take it that you are Tenzo then?”
“I am.” The man said evenly from the bunk were he sat. He was a little pale for a Konoha shinobi, and looked to be the same age as Shisui. He had close cropped brown hair and wide eyes, and a neutral expression. “Itachi did not tell me why he set a meeting between us, only that I might have some information to help your investigation.” He raised one brow, in a way that looked way too mechanical, like another wide-eyed freak Shisui happened to know, “I trust Itachi enough to know that he would not reveal one of Konoha’s secrets to someone who doesn’t deserve it, but I ask that you wouldn’t tell anyone about this jutsu.”
“I won’t.” Shisui promised, like a liar. He was definitely telling Fugaku about this. “This may or may not be related to that, but would you happen to know anyone named Ei?”
“I don’t think so.” He said, tilting his head and folding his arms now that his jutsu was finished. “But I could be mistaken. It would help to know what you are investigating.”
He doesn’t know Ei’s name. Shisui had a feeling this would be a long day. “Something that could lead to a potential power vacuum. How much time do you have?”
Tenzo nodded to Itachi, who hovered behind Shisui in the small room. “I don’t have anything pressing today, I’ve cleared my schedule at my teammate’s request.” His tone did not indicate curiosity on his part, only a polite interest.
“Great. Ei has a Finch mask if that helps jog your memory.” Shisui offered. He noted the deference to Itachi and figured that rumor about his promotion wasn’t far off.
“Finch?” Tenzo repeated flatly. The brow remained raised. The expression did not look any more natural than the previous one.
“A red bird mask? Young kunoichi? From the other division? Sensor? Very awkward? She told me to contact you when I joined Anbu.”
“Why?”
Not for the first time, Shisui found himself cursing the leads he was given. “I have no idea why, she only said that you could point me in a better direction. Does the phrase ‘If we had tongues to wag, we would not speak’, mean anything to you?” His voice had a tinge of frustration to it.
The brow lowered. Tenzo blinked.
___
Tenzo had many thoughts on this.
Foremost was: Finch, you idiot.
____
He addressed the both of them, his neutral expression had an edge to it now with a sharp glint in his eyes. This face fit him the best, an analyzing look befitting of a shinobi. “You’re playing a very dangerous game here, Uchiha,” Tenzo said. “I don’t know why she told you to contact me, but I doubt I can help you much further.”
Delightfully ominous and vague, just like his least favorite informant.
The Uchiha glanced at each other. “We expected as much.” Itachi said grimly.
Shisui breathed in deeply and prepared himself for more mental gymnastics. “We don’t know why she wanted us to meet either. Are you able to pass Finch a message for us?”
“I could, but I don’t think that is the right question.”
A furrow appeared on Itachi’s brow, and Shisui gave into the urge to pace. Could? Why wouldn’t he contact Ei? And why did he not know Ei’s name? What does Ei want me to find here?
“Are you in the Foundation?”
“I report to the Sandaime Hokage and his will, but I was formerly a part of Councilman Shimura’s private task force during the third war.”
Wonderful, this shinobi was just as limited as Ei was. So he obviously knew some things, but where was Ei trying to lead him to? Hokage. Will.
He wasn’t asking the right questions.
“Why did you leave?” Itachi asked.
And why can’t Ei do the same? Shisui thought.
The glint returned and Tenzo shifted forward, his jaw clenched. “There was a disagreement over what a shinobi should be. I concluded that I could better serve my village and my comrades if I served under the Hokage. Councilman Danzo disagreed, but the Hokage granted my request.”
His mind raced, was he going the right direction? He stopped pacing. Danzo had tried to keep a very special kekkei genkai from leaving his arsenal. Against the Hokage’s wishes.
“Does he do that often? Disagreeing with the Hokage?” Shisui asked, thinking back to what Ei said the first time she spoke to him.
“....Among other things. Danzo uses the Foundation as an extension of his own desire to fulfill the Will of Fire.”
Shisui had a thought. All this information was very bold compared to Ei. Just getting Ei to say that she is a sensor was like pulling teeth. Was Ei just that cautious, or are the restrictions on her stronger than Tenzo’s? She’s mentioned that there are different levels of clearance in the Foundation, but how did they decide that?
How does someone join the Foundation, and how does someone leave?
“How many people are in the Foundation?”
Tenzo’s face twisted slightly as he shook his head and tapped his throat.
Shisui's gaze falls to the floor as he thinks, lingering on a crack from Tenzo’s jutsu that hadn’t been smoothed over.
“That’s odd isn’t it? I thought the Foundation was at least semi known to Anbu, seeing as they are the ones that train and test the recruits. Does that mean that other agents do things outside of bugging people to join Anbu?” Shisui thought aloud.
Tenzo’s expression twists further, which is as good as a Yes as he would get.
“Thank you for speaking with us Tenzo, you didn’t have to.” Itachi said after a few seconds of silence had passed.
“I did.” Tenzo disagrees politely, “Itachi-kun is a good teammate, and a good friend. I want to help you and your families. And, I’ve told Finch before that I’d help her as best as I could, but I’ll admit I hadn’t expected her to ever take up the offer.” His lips had quirked up slightly into a wry sort of smile.
He turns to Shisui, “What’s your message?”
Ei squinted at the mess of lines crawling on the paper. The scroll was impossibly long and seemed like it could unravel forever, but it finally stopped as it hit the opposite wall with a wooden clack. She shifted the far end of the sectioned scroll with her foot, matching it to the unrolled second giant scroll. The only words she could make out clearly were, “Sphere” and “Titan”.
“What does it do?” Ei asked. She didn’t ask him what it did when they were hauling the two large scrolls out from the records because she didn’t think he would be able to activate them and likely wouldn’t ask for help. Asking for help wasn’t exactly in the Foundation’s code.
“This should do our jobs for us.” Her assigned partner, Toguro, answered unhelpfully.
“Why?” Ei did not bother to question if this was an attempt to undermine her seniority on the team or if he was shirking his duties. Ei knew that Toguro was not ambitious enough for either. She used to do grunt work with him, checking seals around base and passing messages, and only now had he proved himself a good enough sensor to be put on a real assignment.
It wasn’t worth pointing out that Ei did not need a seal jutsu to perform her duties, because it would be in bad taste to point out his inadequacies. And if her newbie partner got reassigned, Ei would have a harder time helping Shisui.
“Because I can’t sense the new Uchiha in Anbu, and you aren’t cleared to join Anbu, so this will keep track of him for us. It’s a seal that should track his chakra signature and indicate it on a sphere of water. It’s all very convoluted, really.”
“And you can activate this?” She asked evenly.
“Yes.” He said firmly.
Ei has doubts about this plan, seeing as the shinobi had only just moved from the same hallway seal checking duties she used to carry out when she was 10. There’s also the fact that most of the seals from the records were stolen, and therefore lacked some necessary context from the seal creator to activate. Her partner in the taskforce was only a sensor like herself as well, not a seals specialist.
Ei was not going to voice any of these doubts, because it was best to keep your mouth shut when on a mission. Besides, if the seal failed then it was less work for her to keep focus off Shisui’s back. Hopefully a failed activation seal wouldn’t backfire spectacularly enough to kill him. Ei didn’t have any particular affection for her current partner, but since he is a lesser sensor than herself- a fact that only brought a small sense of satisfaction to her- it was much easier to slack off around him.
“Well, I’ll need your Water Nature to activate it, but from the initial activation point I can keep the seal steady enough.” He added with a smile. It didn’t reach his eyes. His smile was only an upturn of the lips, looking insincere enough to be purposefully condescending
“Enough,” repeated Ei incredulously. This was ignored and Toguro continued shuffling sections of the first scroll to match with the second. She repressed a sigh and stepped forward to the indicated sigil. She missed Naruto. Her humor was unappreciated here.
Toguro retreated to the far side of the room, one which wasn’t covered with an unraveled scroll. He pointed out the energy level indicator and painted in the bottom right corner in a contrasting deep blue ink. Ei poked the activation point with her foot cautiously.
They waited two seconds.
“Nothing happened,” Ei said flatly.
“Try again. Put more chakra into it.”
She tapped again.
Her head swiveled to the man, a boy really- he wasn’t much older than her- and accused, “I’m not wasting all my chakra converting it to a Water Nature just so you can track one shinobi.”
He hummed and stepped back into the range of the seal to fiddle with the placement, and she backed off.
She felt like laughing.
He was a good partner for their assigned task, which was just keeping track of the west side of the territory by the village. It’s made up of a small smattering of farms and blacksmiths, old remnants of the Uchiha clan who controlled the territory before Konohagakure was built and sat near the river leading out of Konoha’s west wall.
Some Uchiha clansmen went out there frequently, and Danzo-sama wanted them to be herded back and kept in their clan compound.
A ground team was there right now, working on pushing them out by making their businesses and trades worthless. Ei and Toguro were still in Konoha tracking people with Uchiha-tinted chakra, making sure that civilians and retirees were not overlooked, along with keeping track of those with unclear public motives.
Toguro had a much further reach than her, but could not sense as deeply as she could. Pairing them together was the best of both worlds.
Toguro was neither a sealing or a sensor specialist, so he didn’t notice that she had pierced the paper as they were unrolling the large scrolls. Ei had used the tiniest spear of Earth-style chakra to slice through a small line of calligraphy, and he didn’t even notice!
“Try the activation again, it needs more energy.”
Ei nodded amiably and flooded the paper with chakra. It activated only the first portion of the seal, stopping just before the point where she sliced through the ink, and formed a large sphere of water. It hovered for a moment, wobbling, and Toguro rushed forward to finish the seal and set the jutsu in motion. The sphere then burst before he could slam his hands onto the ink and slapped them both with water, soaking both them and the scrolls instantly.
Water sloshed against the sides of the room and up against the safety barrier drawn on the floor, making a strange wall-less pool. Ei stepped out of the water before it got into her boots as well, dripping water onto the floor.
“I will notify records that we will not be returning the scrolls,” Ei said as solemnly as she could manage.
His plastic smile twitched. “Thank you.” He replied pleasantly.
Itachi narrowed his eyes. “So you just, believed her?”
“Well yeah, how could I not? If you really think about it, it connects a lot of those missing dots we needed to prove that this sudden resistance against the clan isn’t natural! You didn’t have a testing period to get into Anbu like I did, so you wouldn’t have known, but the majority of those ‘mentors’ were from that other division, -from the Foundation, Itachi! If Shimura’s little wartime black ops are still in normal Anbu divisions, still doing whatever orders he gives them, then he just has to have his hands in other things, it just wouldn’t make sense otherwise!” He wiggled his fingers to emphasize as he spoke.
“It’s not that I don’t believe you, or her information, it’s just that I think it’s far too convenient for a solution to the problem, the problem the clan only just now noticed, to suddenly fall into our laps like this, Shisui! Why would one of Danzo’s players decide to come forward with this information only now, right when it’s too late to do anything about the resentment against the police?” Itachi folded his arms. It’s late now, and the both of them were ignoring tired limbs and eye bags in favor of trying to plan out how they could begin to explain the situation to Fugaku.
“Well for one, I’m pretty sure that our informant was a toddler at the time of her mission’s start,” Shisui started, “And yes, I’m aware that there was a possibility of it all being some ruse or grand coincidence, but you didn’t see the-” Shisui scoffed, he was about to say “the kid”, but the kunoichi was probably the same age as Itachi, who was thirteen himself and hardly a child anymore.
He ran a hand over his hair again, a nervous action that had reduced his already mission-dirty hair to a greasy mess over the course of the conversation. “You didn’t see them ‘Tachi, no genjutsu could have faked that level of sincerity. Which is why, I joined Anbu to get more information before I believed her, and now seeing the extent of Danzo’s reach I just can’t believe that Ei was doing it just for a mission.”
Itachi looked at him, searching his face for something. He must not have found what he was looking for, because he sighed and came to rest against the wall like Shisui, unfolding his arms as he did so. “You’re right. I just can’t help but be wary of her, and whatever else we may find out after.” He murmured. “This whole affair is so clouded, I want to tell the clan now and have it all be over with, but I know there’s more to be done.”
Shisui nudged Itachi’s arm beside him. “I know.”
Green.
A little vine of green chakra, crawling up the side of a concrete block and swirling round and round. Ei tilts her head to watch the spiral form a little tail and pulse once. An impression of a little sigil of bright, bright, Hashirama Tree vines- only the size of a palm- burns like a neon bright shop sign. She watches warily as the imprint of a Konoha Leaf fades from view, and the chakra’s source moves to a balcony on the mid-level of Konoha’s main district, only a few decks away from her.
It was, of course, Tenzo. No one should be able to manipulate Hashirama trees to that level, and very few people know that Ei has a mission to watch a Uchiha jonin, and fewer people would know that Ei would be in this sector. Why he is trying to initiate contact, and how he figured out Ei would be near this sector today, Ei doesn’t know.
Ei pokes at Toguro’s barrier to catch his attention and flares her chakra in a message.
Incoming message, hold your position.
Toguro flared his chakra in response without moving from his position, stuck to the underside of a curved roof and cloaked in a notice-me-not jutsu. Despite how much she hated giving him any orders, and rarely did, Ei was grateful that he listened.
Ei hops off the railing she’d been perched on like a bird and takes the stairs down to the ground level to ‘intercept the message’. Her civies aren’t any different from what she used to wear when she had to blend into the crowds, still wearing dull colors and soft clothes to hide in plain sight, but Tenzo’s gaze passes over her twice before it settles on her face. Their eyes connect, her on the ground floor, and Tenzo on an empty balcony two stories above her. She’s impressed but not surprised that he can locate her past the chakra cloaking,
She picks her way through the crowd, murmuring quiet pardons as she weaves through the midday bustle of the main district until she makes it to a staircase. From there she makes her way to the balcony.
Ei raises a hand in greeting, to give the appearance of a causal meeting between friends. “How’d you know where to find me?” She asks, instead of interrogating him about Shisui, Naruto, and the Hokage, like she wants to.
“Lucky guess,” Tenzo shrugged. “I thought I'd have to leave more signs for you to notice, and this was just the first place I started. Next time we can agree on a location and I'll send a clone.”
“There won’t be a next time, meetings are too obvious for me now. Did Uchiha Shisui contact you?” Ei asked pleasantly with a believable smile on her face. Her tone was amiable, and by letting her feelings of contentment show on her face, it gave the impression of pleasant conversation to anyone who saw the two on the balcony.
“He did. He wanted to let me know that he has let Uchiha Itachi in, and that the both of them have agreed to move for councilman Danzo’s removal from office.”
Might as well throw her work into the bin. All her effort in making Itachi look like a non-partisan pushover, and now he was -
Fine.
This was fine.
Ei could work with this. Itachi was the link to Fugaku and the Police. If Itachi could be convinced to lie a bit to his father- then everything would be fine. Having another person that she couldn’t contact directly would complicate things, but having another insider could work in her favor. Ei can take the Foundation’s plan to convince Itachi and turn it around for her benefit.
Ei’s face twitched. “Is there anyone else?”
“No one else,” Tenzo replied. “I agreed to help as much as I could, but there wasn’t much information I had that they didn’t already know. I couldn’t show them the records from my ‘reassignment’, since those had been tragically lost in file reorganizing, but we did find an interesting workaround.” His eyes had a glint in them.
Ei knew exactly what was on those reports because she wrote one of them. Made sense that the paper trail for that was disposed of by the Foundation.
Had the files still existed, Shisui would’ve had some sort of proof that Danzo had made a move to take control of Anbu from the Hokage. After the whole debacle, the Sandaime restricted Danzo from taking in new recruits with kekkei genkai, saying that it breached an agreement with the founding clans. Since Tenzo’s whole desertion incident was an internal matter, the information was never released to the rest of the Council.
But if the Clan Council was made aware- something Ei didn't think would be possible- at least not with their current assets-
“How?” She asks eagerly. Her grip on the rails tightened, and her mouth went suddenly dry. If Tenzo, who had been sealed in a way specifically to stop him from talking about anything he did under Danzo’s orders-
“I got Kakashi-senpai to write down his perspective and give it to Itachi. Kakashi-senpai remained unsealed on the Hokage-sama orders but was sworn to secrecy. He was never made aware of the- theft- order in the original mission, only that I was to assassinate him.” Tenzo said sheepishly. “We didn’t find a loophole around that, sorry Finch.”
“That’s still more information than I thought you’d be able to give.” Ei deflated under Tenzo’s sympathetic look, stuffing her bruised hope back inside, and moved on. Taking off her seal, it was likely never going to happen. Ei didn’t expect it to happen, so hoping for it won’t do any favors for herself. Ei pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth as if she could scrap the seal away like a bad flavor. “I only sent him towards you Tenzo, because you’d be able to show him the seal and show him how many more people like me are working in Anbu. That you were able to lead them towards something big like an assassination, if not the theft, is very helpful. Plus the presence of your, skillset, could clue him in.”
Her hope was that Shisui would see the sheer amount of control Danzo had over Anbu and see for himself that he needed to tread carefully and that the reach of Danzo’s power extended to more than just that of a Councilman. Danzo was far too careful to let any evidence of- her brain seemed to stutter over the thought- evidence of kekkei genkai theft be discovered, but if Ei could somehow lead the Uchiha to that conclusion, there would be no doubt of his crimes. She would have to think on that more later.
“My skillset impressed Shisui greatly, he was surprised to know that one last orphan from the Senju clan still lived.” Tenzo deadpanned.
Ah.
Ei hummed. Well, expecting Shisui to see the connection between Danzo and Orochimaru was a long stretch, seeing as Tenzo couldn’t reveal that information himself. Maybe that realization could come later. Once Shisui got proof of Danzo’s tax write-offs to the Foundation, and the breach of authority in taking in children to train up, then she could work her way to proving the Sannin Orochimaru used to work for Danzo. Another thing to add to the list of work.
“Shisui wants to know what the next move is, and how to contact you in the future.”
She looks down at her hands, tracing the pockmarks left by rust in the metal railing. “For the both of them, they need to keep their heads down and work on gathering as much evidence as possible. There’s already too much attention on Shisui, and Itachi needs to act just the same as before,” Ei taps the railing. “As for contact, he won’t be contacting me. I can’t get away from my task to meet face to face without drawing suspicion to myself and him. If I need to contact him, I’ll organize it myself, otherwise Shisui needs to act as if I never existed.”
Tenzo hums. “I doubt he’ll like that, but it’s the most logical move.”
Ei paused her tracing.
“Why wouldn’t he like it?” Ei asked, warily. Ei thinks she has a good profile of Shisui, he is a logical person and proved to be a good mission leader. This plan gives him most of the control and would avoid him having to rely so much on herself in case she is unable to continue her mission.
“He’s a very caring individual,” Tenzo says carefully. Ei squints at him, not directly into his face, because she already knows this. Most of her ideas rely on his caring nature to push him to expose the Foundation’s training programs. “And, I believe he considers you to be a friend.”
Ei opens her mouth, thinks better of it, and closes it.
A beat passes, and she says, “I’m glad. That doesn’t change my mind but,” Ei floundered, trying to think of the right word, “I’m glad.”
Ei hadn’t thought about that. She should have, because that does fit in with the Uchiha’s character, but it still didn’t occur to her.
Tenzo’s eyes crinkle in a knowing smile. It reminds her of the alleyway where they spoke last time, when Ei thought they were enemies. When they used to work together, when they were senpai and kohai, back when Ei was too scared to think about much of anything beyond the mission. Ei doesn’t feel like she's changed all that much. She’s graduated from a wallflower to a fly on the wall, still rebellious, but still stuck on the stone wall. The fear is still there, but just a little more freedom. Ei still has hope too, maybe even more than she did before.
“Are we friends?” Ei asks tentatively. She feels like the inexperienced junior she used to be again, still trusting her senpai and still too young to understand the emotions swirling around in herself, much less anyone else.
“Yes.” Tenzo says simply, despite knowing that friends are anything but simple for people like them.
Ei decides to smile then, not the nice perfect smile that she practiced, but a real one. “I’m glad then.”
Here is doodles. If it did not load, I am sorry, I have no idea why. likewise, if the formating messes up and the image is giant, I have no idea why. -potato
Authors’ notes
- Autocorrect likes to change Itachi’s name to Itchy.
- When the Kyuubi attacks the village, most of the Uchiha compound is destroyed. When rebuilding efforts happen, Danzo and the council move the Uchiha clan compound onto the outskirts of the village, keep the police compound in the center of the village, and slap a Kyuubi monument where the compound used to be. I imagine that the ancestral homes and big fancy traditional Uchiha houses were a lower priority when they started rebuilding. I liked the thought of a visual contrast in past and present clan compound, old blood on new stones etc etc- So I’ve tried to keep up an appearance of newness when I describe the Uchiha’s houses, hence why Shisui has a pretty modern house with a tile entry way, instead of the traditional raised engawa/patio that the clan head house currently has, and maybe what his old family home might of had. Some of the Anime’s ovas showed that the Clan Head house had a street entry-way, and that most of the compound is very modern looking compared to the urban/traditional look of the rest of the village, kinda like those pre-war concrete apartments in europe. -potato
- Toguro’s name (遂) translates to Obey. Nooo it’s not foreshadowing don’t even worrrryyyyyyyyy.
- Do you think Danzo has an evil baby names book? -Macita
- Listen. The OVAs are the only places that show Shisui. I had to watch so many ovas. This man does not exist in canon. - potato