Chapter Text
His father used to dance.
The dance is meant to be quick, every movement has meaning, and those who have trouble with chakra use flint to make fire crackle from their hands. It follows the steps of their feet, and dances with them.
There is singing. There is always singing.
They dance and sing once the sun sets and the bonfires are lit.
Flames following his feet cross the ground and through the air. The sparks fly all around as children run through the crackling shower. Fast and smiling like the air was lifting him up. He used to love it.
Now, the dutiful clan head, he watches over the festivities chatting with whomever wishes to speak to him. Polite greeting fall of his lips automatically between bites of chicken, but he watches the dancers with a soft look. Mikoto sees this with a fondness and whispers in his ear, but he shakes his head in response.
The fire festival is Ichigo’s favorite celebration in the Uchiha clan. He’d never been religious, and the gods of the Uchiha aren’t the same from the one’s of his past.
Still, his parents and others within the clan tell their stories with an adoration that rubs off.
His father shows him how to light candles with nothing but chakra and a soft breath. Controlling the flame is harder than turning it into a blaze Fugaku tells him. His mother paints his skin with markings in ash: for good luck, for strength, for honor, for family. She gives him homemade candies wrapped in a small bag painted gold. She tells him of a story about a dragon fooled with a bag of false riches. The dragon lost an eye. She rubs black coal around his eyes and says he must never forget it.
Ichigo remembers when he was younger, staring at the phoenix tattoo sprawled down his back, as his father danced in a jumping whooping frenzy with the others. The laughing was infectious, and even the most reserved man would find himself smiling.
The sun will come up tomorrow. There will be a light again. The phoenix is reborn, and the dragon will fly. His mother says the fire festival remembers the land they are on. The land of fire used to not be the land of men. It belonged to them first, she says. The Uchiha came to the land of fire when the dragon and phoenix decided to bear a son. Children born of fire.
Ichigo doesn’t know if he believes any of it, but he likes the cheerful air that builds throughout the week of the festival. There’s still not as much food as there was before the war, but there’s less people to feed too. The fires are lit when the sun goes down. Parents tell their children the goddess of the sun fuels their fire within them. During the fire festival, they must dance and sing, so she knows they haven’t forgotten her even when the days grow shorter. The sun gives life to the world. They are human now, but it was the goddess of the sun who molded the dragon from her flames. There will be unimaginable pain seared within their memory, but the sun will come up again.
He trades candies with his cousins and lets Itachi picks out his favorites from their respective bags. Sasuke sleeps for the most part strapped to Itachi’s chest. Ichigo tried convincing Itachi since he’s bigger he should hold the baby, but his stubborn little brother was undeterred. Uncle Naozumi watches over them while the adults pass around spiced rum. Their laughs become louder, and smiles grow more easily as the booze is plentifully shared.
It had been a good day.
It had been.
It had been a beautiful fall day.
That night…
The world explodes without warning.
The corrosive chakra sweeps across the hills collapsing buildings in the initial surge. The ground cracks open in deafening tremors. A heat, sweltering and thick with charka, rushes in every direction. Shinobi quickly jump through the air in formations. Some yell orders, others are scouring through the rubble. Sharingan activate around them. Ichigo feels Itachi’s hand shaking in his.
There’s screaming. Fires spread. His clan are trying, but it’s too much too fast. Ichigo can’t focus on anything but the creature standing above the debris. A gigantic fox, red energy radiating off it in waves, nine furiously swishing tails that easily toss aside frees.
Sharp teeth and glowing eyes, the beast lets out a horrible scream, not a roar really, but it’s familiar to a hollow howl.
Ichigo can’t look away.
He recognizes it. He hadn’t known what it was, and he’d been too scared to ask.
Kyuubi. Nine-tailed demon fox.
That’s the name cried in fear all around him.
“It’s okay, Sasuke. It’s okay.”
Itachi is too small to bounce the baby well. Sasuke screamed and cried, not knowing what was going on, but upset to the point his face had turned red.
His father’s voice breaks through the cacophony of noise.
“We have orders! KMPF primary objective: Civilian evacuation! Squadron A and B will report East and West, Squad C will oversea clan evacuation and assist near the Southern wall. Jonin-level officers willing will assist me in attempted recovery and evacuation closest to the Kyuubi. Move out!”
A chorus of sirs rings out.
Children are scooped up first. Yashiro lifts Naozumi from his wheelchair and orders Shisui to take Itachi, while his brother can carry Sasuke. Itachi climbs onto Shisui’s back without complaint.
Ichigo tries comforting Sasuke as they run, but it’s no use. He’s as terrified as everyone else. Ichigo doesn’t know what a Kyuubi is in terms of his new world, but someone must’ve done a shit job at keeping it contained.
Something doesn’t feel right.
He freezes, nearly making his cousin Harin run into his back.
There’s something in the air---something wrong.
It feels as if something grabs onto his soul chain, twisting the air from his lungs, and yanks. Ichigo chokes, and his vison whites. He feels Sasuke be pulled from his arms, but nothing else. He feels cold and smells rot. Something isn’t right. Someone is doing something. Something isn’t right.
His ears pop
What are you?
What are you?
What are you?
Substitute Soul reaper?
Itachi doesn’t cry when his older brother collapses.
He clings tighter to Shisui when the butcher, from a few houses down, picks Ichigo up and checks his pulse. They keep going, say it’s probably shock, and carry him gently in case of a concussion. Sasuke is screaming even louder, and it hurts Itachi’s ears. It’s all chaotic and loud as their shuffled with others into lines for the evacuation tunnels. Izumi is looking for her mother. He doesn’t cry when he hears someone whispering, saying those red eyes can control the demon. Shisui’s sharingan fades away when if it makes Sasuke cry harder. The noise brings their mother though, she’s covered in dust and she has a slight limp, but she pulls them into her arms.
She tries to wake Ichigo. He’s breathing, he has a pulse, his heart rate is fine. He still won’t wake up.
Itachi bounces Sasuke as he leans into his mother’s side. He knows his father must still be out there. Active-duty shinobi aren’t allowed to evacuate until last unless directed. Shisui peers over heads as best he can and calls out for his own mother. Mikoto desperately begs for Ichigo to open his eyes, but he doesn’t.
Itachi cries, but doesn’t think it matters if only Sasuke sees.