The Unsettling Tape

Sasuke placed his dishes in the sink after eating his dinner. He walked into his room with the scroll the woman gave him. He cursed and then threw the scroll on his bed. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about that woman all day. It was distracting him from his training, and even worse it was reminding him of memories he did not want to have.

The young Uchiha took off the rest of his clothes and took a quick shower. Once this was done, his eyes fell on the scroll once more. He undid the wrapping and unfurled the scroll. Applying the chakra that he had, he noticed a small video tape. He turned it over.

The only thing written upon its label was 'To Satsuki-chan.' It was a name that the Uchiha absolutely loathed. His mother had always said that if he were born a girl then that's what she would have named him.

He walked over to his television and opened up the cabinet below which housed his cassette recorder. He pushed the video inside and he turned on his TV. He sat on his bed as he watched white noise filled the screen. It happened like this for about two minutes which quickly annoyed the Uchiha heir and just before he was about to turn off the TV and destroy the tape, the white noise ceased.

"Hello Uchiha Sasuke….,"A garbled, and disfigured voice answered from the other side of the tape. Sasuke took a step back. He glanced left and right, but the voice continued.

"Who I am is irrelevant, where I am is even more irrelevant. However, what is relevant...is how much you want to avenge the Uchiha clan for what your brother did to them…," Sasuke stiffened. His teeth instantly seethed. He was ready to turn the tape into dust, but the voice quickly stopped him.

"Good, I have your attention. That got you going didn't it? Love, hate, sadness, happiness, together, alone, sun, moon, they are all a part of the same coin. For your revenge, Sasuke, how much are you willing to give up? How much are you willing to hate? You see, Uchiha Sasuke...Katsuhi Mizuki...Mitarashi Anko...Inuzuka Hana, I want to play a game…," The voice said to the four individuals looking upon their Tv screens.

....

"I'he tol'...yuo...ahh...I knaw. P-Pwea...se shtop!" A man cried upon the ground, his right eye purple and bruised, his teeth scattered across the floor, and body torn from the increased cuts, bleeds, and lacerations placed upon him. He coughed a glob of blood from his mouth. His distorted vision stared up at the ceiling lights. All perception of time and feeling seemed so fleeting. It was like he couldn't even breath.

Soon the lights were darkened by the shadow of Mitarashi Anko standing over her defeated target. She grabbed him by collar. "Good, now I can use you for some good stress relief. It's unprofessional, but it will make me feel better! I've had a pretty shitty week!" Anko said before she raised her fist and brought it down on the man's face.

For about seven minutes, T&I agents of Konoha watched Anko batter and bruise her assignment with relentless, heated anger. The sounds of her strikes to his body were heard across the thick see-through glass. The man's wails resounded through the open speakers.

At the third minute, one of the agents left to quickly get Ibiki Morino, the head of the department. Thankful was the sentiment shared by all when the man came through the door. His hard, unforgiving gaze glared at the window. He saw the scene unfold and grunted. That was the second one this week.

He opened the door. "Anko! That's enough! Put him down!" Ibiki ordered. He watched Anko's reared fist come to a stop. She turned around and her eyes burned into Ibiki's. The latter took the moment to stare at his subordinate's handiwork. The tiniest whimpers from her victim told him that the man was still alive. The guy would be lucky if he were even eating food from a straw. The scarred jonin then turned back to her.

For the past week, Anko held a very short fuse. She treated her coworkers poorly, she performed her craft brutally upon those assigned to her, and any attempts of Ibiki to treat her to dango...had only made her angrier. This had been the second call this week he had been told to stop. "I won't tell you again. Take the rest of the day off so you can get your head right, and I won't inform Hokage-sama about this incident either" Ibiki said.

Anko sucked her teeth. "Gee, how gracious of you, Ibiki-sama. I'm so not worthy of your mercy. Not my problem I'm overqualified for my job. Fine. I was bored of him anyway," Anko said. She dropped the battered man to the ground and walked out of the room, bumping shoulders with Ibiki as she did so. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched her fellow shinobi whispering in a corner of the room. Her frown deepened. However, she found herself moving out of the room and then out of the building.

Anko balled her fists. She then slammed it against the wall. "Am I really this pitiful?! What have I been working so hard for?" Anko thought. She closed her eyes. Ever since...ever since that damn video...she had found her life spiraling down into nothingness.

"You see, Mitarashi Anko. I want to play a game," The voice spoke through the white noise upon her screen. Anko took a step back and armed herself with a weapon. While the voice spoke, she turned her home upside down looking for any bugs, tracers, or infiltration devices. The words he said at that time had seemed lost to her for her attention was not on them, but on everything else.

She found none, and this...did not help alleviate her rising paranoia. "Now then, once you are done wondering if you've been bugged then I may continue. You see, Mitarashi Anko, you have been called many things. Some of them nice, and most of them appalling, but there is a word which describes you and it is what makes you so laughably pitiful," the voice mocked.

Anko snarled at the screen and she fought down the urge to ram her fist through it, but she had paid good money for her Tv. She didn't want to ruin it. She realized she could stop the tape, but...like a strange, woven spell she found herself entranced. Angry, but entranced.

....

Join my P*atreon for early access to 60+ chapters ahead of the public release. 

Free members also get 4+ advanced chapters for free.

Link: pa*treon.com/MysticVerse (Remove the *)