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itachi "manipulate mansplain malewife" uchiha ([personal profile] anbu) wrote2020-03-21 04:50 pm
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TEXT / AUDIO / VIDEO / ACTION
mensrea: (pic#13835636)

[personal profile] mensrea 2020-06-24 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)
The women and children.
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[personal profile] mensrea 2020-06-24 09:23 pm (UTC)(link)
When you killed your parents, it was part of this. It wasn't a separate event?
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[personal profile] mensrea 2020-06-24 09:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[ "He's also a good man," Sasuke had told him, "and you have nothing to fear from him." ]

Sasuke knows all this?
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[personal profile] mensrea 2020-06-24 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)
The guy in the orange mask.

[ Stiles remembers what Sasuke said. "That man wasn't a friend of mine, nor was he a trusted ally. He was a family member who knew I'd done something unforgivable and exploited it for his own gain." ]

And yeah, he does. I already told you that. After I met you in the dream, he APOLOGIZED to me for telling me about your parents. Because it was YOUR story to tell. Like they weren't his own goddamn family too.

[ Time to take a step back. Deep breaths, Stiles. ]

Why. Why did you wipe out your clan? I've been keeping track of the math. You would have barely been more than a preteen. So WHY?
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[personal profile] mensrea 2020-06-25 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
Well, lucky for you, he did.

Don’t tell me it’s complicated. Tell me why you did what you did. Maybe you don’t want to explain. Honestly though? And he’d probably be pissed beyond belief if he found out I said this to you, but tough shit –

You owe it to Sasuke to be honest with his friends about this. He loves you. We’re all important to him. He WANTS us to get along. But in order to do that, I need to hear from you WHY. So, last time I’m going to ask. Why did you wipe out your entire clan?
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[personal profile] mensrea 2020-06-27 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
Then let's meet. You know the docks where they brought us in on the boats? There.

[ Naturally, he wants this conversation ASAP. ]
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[personal profile] mensrea 2020-06-27 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Stiles, who had been casually stalking another token-receiver while texting Itachi, pivots abruptly on a heel to walk back toward the docks. The journey takes him a little under five minutes at the brisk pace he sets for himself. Once there, he selects one of the docks unoccupied by boats or Underground denizens, sits down at the end of the pier, and waits. He does everything in his power to keep from obsessing over what he’s already been told, instead focusing his attention on the various knots and whorls in the dock’s wood.

When Itachi joins him, Stiles doesn’t look up. The shinobi is acknowledged with a brief bob of his head. ]
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[personal profile] mensrea 2020-06-27 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The shadow of something large lurks just beneath the surface of the dark river. Stiles, seated crossed-legged, warily inches further back onto the deck. Is it ridiculous to be more afraid of a fish than the man standing beside him? Undoubtedly. But while he’s taken Sasuke’s words on Itachi with a grain of salt, his trust and faith in the younger Uchiha brother has already sealed his relationship with the elder. Regardless of what he learns now, Stiles doesn’t plan on shutting Itachi out. ]

Your dad was addressing the clan, telling them about your promotion. I can’t remember the name. Someone suggested you join the Military Police, but your dad told them you’d be joining ANBU instead. [ He pauses, distracted as the shadow sinks out of sight. ] The clan was pissed, so your dad explained his reasoning – ANBU was keeping watch on the clan and this way you could keep watch on the village. You argued that the clan and village are all comrades.

[ Brown eyes cut over and up to Itachi, scrutinizing him. ]

…They shut you up fast. Then the memory ended.
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[personal profile] mensrea 2020-06-28 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The moment dark, flinty eyes are cast in his direction, Stiles looks away. He’d prefer to observe the Witch closely during such a critical conversation, to suss out through body language and expression what he is unable to through words. But Itachi has already confessed to slaughtered his entire clan, a staggering amount of people that surely beats out the number of known victims from the most prolific serial killers in the United States. The men, women, and children. His own parents. Kate Argent would be foaming at the mouth to get Itachi’s digits. “Hello? So, I’ve heard you’re into murdering entire families. Let’s get dinner.” The gallows humor doesn’t help. ]

Not personally. We’re pretty sheltered in the US. Not saying things are perfect, but it’s easy to turn a blind eye to the broader conflicts in the world with how most of us live.
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[personal profile] mensrea 2020-07-02 11:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[ War in the shinobi world is a topic Sasuke has also touched on, forcing Stiles to reluctantly accept what he’s being told now. That said, he does so with an air of increasingly agitated impatience, unwilling to afford Itachi any sliver of pity or sympathy until he better understands the kind of man, or monster, his friend calls brother. But even after the man continues, Stiles struggles to reach any real opinion. Incredulity is at the forefront of his mind, more than anything. ]

Your family [ a word he emphasizes, as opposed to the more distant usage of “clan,” as he summarizes what Itachi’s explained ] placed you in ANBU to spy on the village. At the same time, the village used your connections to spy on your family. Ultimately, you had a choice. Help your family – who sound like they were used and abused by the village, then kicked to the curb – through a coup. But instead you wiped them all out?

[ He can’t remain seated. Righteous anger prickles hot under his skin, bidding him to stand. It’s an effort to keep his voice level, to prevent this conversation from breaking out into another argument. ]

I don’t get it. How the fuck does murdering innocent children, innocent people, make any sense here? Unless you’re telling me that every person in your clan, every single goddamn one from the toddlers to the elderly, was in support of the coup, I can’t – I just can’t. You wanted to prevent a war, but you were the war. How many? Tell me how many.
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[personal profile] mensrea 2020-07-03 07:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Shut up, [ snaps Stiles in a low hiss of breath, trichobothria standing on edge. ] I don’t care if you aren’t seeking it – you don’t get to dismiss it before I even decide whether or not to offer it. Which I can’t, by the way. Judge you? Sure. Forgive you? No. Only Sasuke has that right.

[ Countenance twisted darkly, he glares out across the river and thinks. There’s too much for him to healthily process in this moment, emotions choking him in a silence broken only by the sound of water lapping against dock support stilts. If the trichobothria pick up on any indication that Itachi is about to continue speaking, Stiles will rigidly jerk a hand up in a wordless demand to wait. ]

Not too long ago, [ he begins, tone curt, ] I had a conversation with someone. About how so many people brought here seem to come from these fairy-tale lives where the good guy always wins…and never has to make difficult decisions. Victory without sacrifice. [ Even now, the idea has his lip curling enviously. ] If only, right?

[ Stiles falls silent for a beat. ]

Innocent people paid with their lives for your vision of a better outcome. Was it worth it?

[ His hands are shaking, hot with an anger he can’t keep bottled up inside, so he stuffs them under his armpits when he folds his arms over his chest. ]

Would you do it again?
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[personal profile] mensrea 2020-07-04 06:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The cold, analytical dissection of his question further aggravates Stiles, who reasons bitingly, It’ll change how I feel about you. For once, he keeps the thought to himself, but only because it seems Itachi is willing to answer him regardless. Being reminded of the shinobi’s appallingly young age at the time only makes the described situation all the more ludicrous. A thirteen year old slaughtering everyone in his extended family in the hopes of preventing more bloodshed. It’s insane. What does it mean that a child, barely a teenager, made such a decision? That Itachi was capable of carrying such a decision out in the first place? “Perhaps someone so young shouldn’t possess the power I did…” Jesus Christ. ]

I’m thinking, [ he says defensively, feeling that look like a brand on the side of his face. But in reality, his mind is caught in the undertow of his dogged loyalty to a friend who loves this man while Stiles himself struggles against the current out of a sense of duty to his own ideals. ] Was peace really worth it? Wasn’t your family worth fighting for? There’s…there’s no justice.

[ And he’s not naïve; he understands intimately that the best solutions don’t always end with justice, with the bad guys losing and the good guys winning. Yet Stiles – for whom friends and family are the most critical, influential factor in every action he takes – cannot fathom a world where he would ever consider the choice Itachi made. It’s impossible. ]

Why did you leave Sasuke alive? [ asks Stiles desperately, searching for some common ground, some means by which he can understand this increasingly alien man. ]
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tags this mid-composing tag bomb because i'm too excited to wait

[personal profile] mensrea 2020-07-06 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Given the complexity of the choice that Itachi has just described to him, it’s almost offensively inconceivable to hear such a simple answer now. Visibly balking, Stiles turns to fully face the other man, staring at him in incredulous disbelief. As Itachi anticipated, the teen doesn’t buy it initially; it doesn’t help that he’s watched the two interact in person before, where both Uchiha came off more like estranged, distant family members than beloved brothers incapable of killing each other. ]

What a joke. [ An angry scoff of breath, Stiles beginning to pace up and down the dock. ] What a joke! It’s so fucking funny, I don’t even need to wait for the punchline. You took it upon yourself to decide peace for the village meant slaughtering god knows how many people so they couldn’t rise up against the very real injustices leveled against them, but then left your little brother alive because you “couldn’t” do it. You’re exiled, and he spends until –

[ Stiles pauses, eyes narrowing, as he does math rapidly in his head – calculating ages and time. ]

Until two years ago. Until two freakin’ years ago, like ten years. Hating you! And I know he did, I saw a memory of it. All because you apparently “couldn’t” tell him the truth either. Probably on some bullshit to “protect” him, right?

[ Jaw tight, he thinks back to the first memory he saw in Sasuke’s mirror – of Sasuke’s panic attack amidst a litany of increasingly frantic denials about his brother’s intentions. ]

I can’t wrap my head around this. What…what was life even like for him, growing up? Jesus fucking Christ, Itachi!

Re: same......

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