Tortured Uchiha [CURRENTLY EDITING]

Tortured Truth [PART 1]

Her black eyes widened when she realised who I was. Though she didn’t recognise me personally, Fugaku’s children were known throughout the village by anyone and everyone. She squealed and slid back towards the doorway, back to the tense arms of her mother.

“Now look what you’ve done, how dare you even touch Lord Fugaku’s son!” the woman brought her hand down and from the glisten in the sunlight, I could tell she held a kunai beneath her sleeve.

I wanted to call out and worn the girl, but I thought it would save her pride by standing up and brushing myself off. It did no justice because she stared at me, her charcoal eyes wide as saucers and chapped lips parted at the sight of me as if I were some wild animal―a hideous beast.

“GYAH!” the girl was knocked off her feet and an arc of blood sprayed through the air, I covered Sasuke’s eyes, alarmed that a mother would mutilate her child in public.

The girl was persistent and gripped onto the hem of her mother’s kimono when she stood over her. To help her too her feet, the girl took hold of a maroon cloth that dangled from the mother’s pocket; she tugged and pulled it free, tying the cloth around the gash above her left brow.

“Keep it, maybe then you will know to be seen and not heard,” the mother growled, tossing the bloodied kunai towards the opened trash bags near the side of the compound before storming inside.

“Nii–San I’m scared,” Sasuke whispered. “She’s scary.”

“Shhh, it’s okay,” I soothed, my eyes never leaving the girls.

She sneered at me, her lips pulled back to reveal clenched teeth. I noticed the way her lip trembled that she was near tears, but she didn’t allow a single one to be shed. The girl tightened the maroon cloth around her forehead like a hitai-ate, capturing her chin-length spikey hair.

“How old are you?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Eleven,” she replied evenly.

“What’s your na―?”

She pushed past me and disappeared into the crowds of the village before I could ask who she was so I could put a name to the startlingly simple, yet beautiful, face.

I flinched when Etsuko rolled onto her back, afraid that she’d awoken whilst I was reminiscing my own thoughts. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut and her breathing remained shallow but steady, still within the grasp of sleep. The necklace which her father gave her was askew above her collarbone but I didn’t put it back in place, I bent to pick up the maroon bandana, that simple piece of cloth that bound so many memories together, and placed it between her hands that now rested on the back of her Akatsuki cloak.

She looked so peaceful when asleep, her sharp tongue held no snide comments except the whisper of conversations in her subconscious, her brow was free from the ever-present scowl she gave, her face wasn’t hidden behind the crow mask she wore, Etsuko Uchiha was at peace.

My time was up, the more I procrastinated when with her, would shorten my time to reach the rendezvous place where Kisame would flag Sasuke and his little group down. I’d collected my strength throughout the weeks, I’d taken excessive amounts of the herbal medicine Kisame provided, I’d made love to my soul mate―I was now prepared to face my little brother, the boy that called me murderer.

***

“So this is it huh?” Kisame laughed.

“I believe so,” I replied.