The Book of You and I || Uchiha Itachi (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 23; Part 1 - Red-Eyed Beast

Indra was just leaving the vicinity of his father's tiny little village. With a bag in hand, he was ready to leave. He was given a mission along with his little brother, Ashura for regaining the title as the leader of the village. He was heading to a small, run-down village in the east where there were remains of the Divine Tree, his father calls it. He encountered a running abundant river with a white-haired female washing her ankles at the river bank. He stopped and activated his dojutsu.

'She's harmless..' Indra reassured himself before continued walking.

After only two seconds, Indra can hear footsteps on the dirt, to which he assumed was the white-haired female.

Indra could only sigh at the girl's stupidity.
"What do you want?" Indra said with a stern voice, already confident the girl would cower and leave. Instead, the girl just stared at him, as if he said nothing.
  "Can you hear me, you brat?" The girl seemed to catch the message the red-eyed man was saying and she shook her head no.
'I want to hear you,' the girl said to herself in her head,  'Although my ears aren't working the way it used to.' The girl only smiled and said, "W-W-Watashi wa namae wa Namae.." She stuttered and spoke a language Indra wasn't familiar with.    The girl started to write her name on the dirt in a different language. Indra looked at the ground and it spelled 'Namae'.
  "I assume your name is Namae?" The girl internally sighed in relief and nodded.
"What do you want?" Indra tried hand-language and internally sighed that she understood. She then cups her hands together that meant friends.

But he already left.

She pouted and followed him.

 "Why are you following me?" Indra irritatedly asks to the person behind him. His sensitive ears can hear her footsteps from a mile away. He turns around and saw her eyes are looking somewhere until she bumped her forehead unto his chest. She touches her head out of habit and tried to numb the pain. Her cerulean eyes landed on Indra's crimson orbs. She smiled and just went ahead of him. Just as Indra remembered she can't hear, he was wondering how stupid he was for forgetting.

They arrived at the village where the Divine Tree's roots took captive of. The village was empty and it sounded dead. Namae was already looking elsewhere with a sorrowful look. She gently tapped on Indra's shoulder and Indra turned around to see her finger pointing to her right as if she wanted to go there. Indra looked at the direction she was pointing and she pointed to a thick forest. Indra got her message and just did a shoo hand sign. Namae immediately sprinted off as Indra watched her disappear into the distance. Indra walked on his own and did the first thing, he asked the locals where the village chief was. His chest was somehow tight and he can quite explain what he was feeling. He shrugged off the feeling.

"Be careful, young ninshu master." An old local warned him, "After the Divine Tree covered our water sources, it has caused a catastrophe unto our land. It has caused a drought and we lost a large amount of crops." Indra remained unfazed by this information since his father, Hagoromo, told him about it. "We've recently have a few kidnappings." It made Indra's eyes widen slightly.

'Father didn't tell me about this information.' He furrowed his eyebrows.

"Do you know what caused this?" Indra asked the old local. The old man only shook his head and sigh. "If you are the son of The Great Sage, the husband of the Reaper, I am positive you will restore the land in its previous garden." The old man replied with a smile. Only a few seconds later, his face turned into a serious one.

"But it is said," Indra listened intently to the man's next words. "A beast lies in that forest." he pointed in the direction.

"We, even the village chief believed that there's a beast there. There were no signs of weapons used, just bite marks. The people's remains were leading into the forest." The old local lowered his head. "I pray for Kami-sama that you will stay well."

"No need to come to my office, Great Ninshu Master, I heard your conversation and I'll say what I needed to say," A strikingly muscled man with his arms crossed and a smug frown etched on his face. Indra took a look on his face. There were full of fresh scars, along with his body.

"I have to say that it is a beast. A large caterpillar body with a face of a monster with two sharp fangs." He replied with such hatred laced in his voice. Indra furrowed his eyebrow even further and stared at the direction of the forest. "Everything the old man said was true,"

'I doubt that white-haired girl even survived that beast.' Indra thought.

"Except the Reaper part."

"I'm confused as well." Indra remained in his stern composture and hid his confusion in his facade.

"He said that the Reapers are the caretakers of the Purgatory, the gate between Kami and Jashin. They are wedded to people who had the eyes that resembled a red-eyed pinwheel."

My dojutsu? The Sharingan?

Published: March 18, 2019

Edited: March 26, 2019 with an author's note

I apologize for the random updates with no schedule at all, since I have school. I'm more focused on my original story (it's published btw check it out). forgive me.