(no subject)

[beachlass]

Fic post: Noriko
Rating: Mature, for having disturbed myself writing it, contains death and references to child abuse

Uchiha Noriko is an OC inspired by the Scarlet Spiral universe. Their version of ANBU does not belong to me, neither does the Naru-verse. And the piano beside the desk doesn't belong to me either, but... I do own a copy of Kung Fu Hustle as of yesterday.

Uchiha Noriko gave the genin an unimpressed glare. “I don’t take missions, 
the fact that you found me here, in the police station, at my desk should 
have been your first clue that you were mistaken.” The girl paled, but 
quietly insisted that the mission scroll was meant for the officer. Noriko 
sighed and held her hand out for the scroll, opening it to look for 
whatever clerical error had brought it to her. As she read the mission 
parameters, her lips tightened in anger, and the kid who had brought her 
the scroll started edging toward the door. Noriko froze the girl in her 
tracks with a glance over her glasses, finished reading the scroll and then 
stood, stuffing it in one of her many pockets. “Now you’re going to take me 
to whatever idiot assigned this,” she told the girl flatly.

Arguing with the clerk at the mission desk quickly produced enough volume 
that one of the Hokage’s assistants came in and pulled Noriko to the side.

“What is this shit?” Noriko demanded. You know as well as I do there are 
good reasons why police don’t do these underhanded, fucked up 
assassinations. People need to trust us. The clan makes sure we have 
someone in ANBU for this very reason, so you aren’t coming to the police 
when you need our clan skills. This is an ANBU mission. And I’m not ANBU. ”

The assistant looked pointed at the Noriko’s shoulder, where under her 
uniform sleeve there was a swirling tattoo that encompassed an older tattoo 
of a scarlet spiral. “Uchiha-san” he said quietly “We have been sitting on 
this assignment and it is now time sensitive. Your clan member currently 
serving in ANBU is… unavailable, and we cannot wait any longer. If you 
refuse this mission, the ANBU who will take it will make it considerably 
more unpleasant.”

Noriko stared blankly for only a moment. Then colour rose in her cheeks and 
she muttered “You <i>fucker,/i>” before stomping back over to the mission 
desk where she angrily signed her acceptance on the mission sheet.

Three days later Noriko stood in the shadows of a child’s bedroom. As she 
waited for the child and his father to come upstairs, she cloaked her 
presence. She worried briefly about the ‘unavailability’ of her second 
cousin who had joined ANBU not that long ago. She listened to a bedtime 
story and tried to empty her mind. When the boy was sleeping, and the 
father ready to leave, Noriko slipped behind the man and knocked him out. 
Then closed herself off from her actions as much as she could, and 
silently, gently, firmly, suffocated the child. When he was no longer 
breathing, and she was sure there was no pulse, she pulled out rope and 
vials of a viscous white liquid from her pockets. Noriko had worked too 
many child abuse cases to have to think hard to bring the tell tale details 
to mind. Quickly she recreated the signs of a molested child on the little 
still-warm corpse. Then, trusting that the man would remain unconscious, 
she meticulously scratched his skin with thin defensive nail marks. Her 
work was barely done when she heard steps on the stairs again, and she 
crouched near the bed, with her Sharingan activated and waited for the door 
to open. Her timing was good, her guess confirmed: the bodyguard had come 
up to check when bedtime took too long. Capturing the woman’s startled 
eyes, Noriko quickly surpressed the quick impression of a sinister black 
and white figure, and fed in details from case files. A small body, 
struggling against a large body. The muffled cries of a betrayed child. As 
the father stirred, Noriko released the jutsu, and flickered to the ledge 
outside the bedroom window. She listened to the initial scream of rage, and 
the slick sound as the bodyguard slit the father’s throat. The noise in the 
house spread, as the bodyguard sobbed over the body of the child she had 
watched from infancy. Noriko waited on the ledge, until she was satisfied 
that the mother would believe the horrified witness of the guard.

In the morning, Noriko stopped for tea at the bakery before heading home. 
She listened to the table gossip about the deaths. The mother was mad with 
grief, the father’s politically powerful family destroyed by the report of 
child abuse. There was a power vacuum, just as Konoha’s client had wanted.

Noriko tried to ignore the sucking pain in her chest as she ran towards 
Konoha. She told herself it was only expected: police didn’t have to run 
all day, she was out of shape. The nausea started in the afternoon, and she 
threw up her breakfast. She told herself it must have been something bad 
from the bakery. She kept her mind as focused on running as she could, but 
the feeling of the little face under her hands kept coming back to her. As 
she stopped and threw up again, her mind flooded with the images from the 
case she had adapted. She leaned back against a tree, and tried to think 
her way past the horror. At least no one else had to read the details in 
order to convincing fake the abuse. At least the Uchiha kid  in ANBU was 
already out on mission, and hadn’t had to take this one. She had done her 
duty. The child hadn’t suffered. Noriko had enough bad memories of a few 
fellow agents from when she had served in ANBU to know that if the case had 
been assigned there, the abuse might not have been faked. Her stomach 
heaved again, and she choked bile onto the forest floor. Then she dug out 
an anti-nausea injection from one of her pockets, jabbed it into her arm 
and shakily rose to her feet. Noriko set a slower pace and kept running for 
home.

Behind her, a grieving mother sat a child’s empty bedroom, rocking in a 
corner. A silver glitter on the bookshelf caught her eye, and she reached 
out to find a tiny folded horse. It seemed to shiver when she picked it up, 
and she carried it in her pocket throughout the next week, as she made 
funeral arrangements. Her servants didn’t see it, and so no one noticed 
that it matched the little folded horse tucked into the political scrolls 
transferred from the study to their new owner. But while one little horse 
was carefully folded out of silver paper, the other was folded out of a 
chakra triggered explosive tag.

When Noriko arrived home, she promptly handed in her mission report. She 
glared and muttered at the desk clerks until they made an excuse to get 
away from her and didn’t notice that she substituted her own sheet of paper 
for the client’s receipt in the folder. The receipt was duly delivered, and 
when it was filed, Noriko’s chakra embedded in it seeped out to the little 
folded horse. The tag triggered, and an obscure Uchiha fire jutsu started. 
It quickly ignited first the paper in the office and then the rice paper 
screens and the walls. The entire house was consumed within minutes, the 
client dead before he could begin to reap the rewards of his scheming.

Noriko visited the family shrine before heading to the police station. She 
resolved to stop by ANBU headquarters sometime soon, and check on the 
Uchiha kid assigned there. She left a paper horse for her son at the 
temple. She lit incense and prayed for those left behind.

Comments

[thursday-kat.livejournal.com]

ow....that was definately sorta painful...but the fact that it was terribly well written helped ease the ouchie a little bit. i must say i enjoyed the fact that she left an explosive tag for the client (serves the bastard right)

it's funny how seldom the fandom (and the canon for that matter) consider the truly dark aspects of the job. esp anbu/jounin missions. there's got to be some pretty dark, heavy, disturbing stuff happening there.

and you did notice that chpt 3 of neji/kiba was up right?!? 'cause it is...[insert shameless self promotion here]

[beachlass.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I hadn't noticed your 3rd chapter was up... heading over to your journal now.

[ronsard.livejournal.com]

That definitely made me wince a bit. Good job. It's really not something just any body can take on, I'm glad it was you.

[beachlass.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I hope you're feeling a bit better.

[lepah.livejournal.com]

disturbing yes, less so to those who are not involved with the characters, perhaps. either way, the strongest piece of writing yet. kudos and bravo and i think you're amazingly brave and talented.

[beachlass.livejournal.com]

Thanks hon. Noriko is an original character of my own devising... I may try and pluck her from the ninja setting.