Syekren's dark blue eye slowly opened, staring into the darkness of his quarters in the ANBU base of operations underneath the Kazekage's manse. He moved slowly to sit up, rubbing his face as he'd woken up from a nightmare with a start. He sat quietly in the dark, staring into the darkness at the ground while he bit his lip, thinking on what had happened. It was so long ago now, and the wounds had long since healed, but he still couldn't shake the memories of what happened or the feelings of helplessness, how he'd felt when that day had turned so sour.

Back in time, to where it began.

Newly an ANBU member, Syekren was assigned his first job. To hunt down and bring home one Daraku Matsuro. It was his friend, one of the only people in the village who understood him and dealt with how he was, as well as considered himself Syekren's friend. The Uchiha had to accept this duty without compromise and promised his lady Kazekage, Suzume Koga, that he would return with the defector or die trying. He'd had two eyes at this point and used them exceptionally well when tracking people, now he would have to use them to track down his old friend, the one who'd taught him how to manifest his chakra into the fuuton nature, as well as helped him climb to the position he now held. It was a tough inner battle with himself, but Syekren knew that he had to do whatever the Kazekage said. Her orders on this had to be absolute and there was no room for mistakes. So he left the village hidden in the sand to make his way to the village hidden in the mist to find his friend. To bring him home alive, or dead.

It was during his journey he had questioned himself and if he could go through with this. Once he'd reached Mizu no kuni it was most likely this doubt that would  be his undoing. It was also telling someone that he was an Uchiha that led to the events that transpired. She was a lass named Seimei, though Syekren doubted that to be her real name and she was covered in types of plants not native to Mizu no kuni. Once he'd pointed it out, a queer conversation had started and she asked what he thought the meaning of beauty was. Once he had answered, she had used a type of spore producing flower to paralyze him and one other who came to his rescue. Once this had happened, she ripped out his left eye with roots and did the same to the other man's eyes. It came to pass that Matsuro had returned and come to his aid, as had the man who'd lost both eyes and another who had completely annihilated the woman without much effort.

Syekren had lost more than his eye that day. He'd lost his pride and sense of self. While he did return to the village with Matsuro in tow he'd lost so much to gain so little.  Without his other eye, he would never be able to fully awaken the sharingan that he now rarely used. He had learned a lot, the main thing being that he should never tell someone he was an uchiha, because to his knowledge that is when people had decided to become violent with him. He'd try to avoid anyone who hated the Uchiha or who were members of the Uchiha, should he be able to help it. There was just no telling how many people would seek after his eyes just because they lusted for the power they wanted so badly to obtain.

Like he had, once.

He had actually met another Uchiha before. His name was Ukio Uchiha and he was a wanderer from the village hidden in the clouds, all the way from Kami no kuni. He'd come to sunagakure no sato looking for something or someone but had only found Syekren. By that point, syekren was bitter and jaded, he'd killed the young Uchiha and taken his eyes for himself. Later learning that they were a lot weaker than he needed them to be, having only just been awakened to their one tomoe state, making it that much more difficult to work with. But Syekren had hoped that he could find someone, anyone who would be able to help him place one of these eyes into his own socket which desperately needed it. He was suffering without his other eye and it made things so much harder.  He hated the plant woman. Her jutsu was deplorable, and he began to seethe with hatred at any who had jutsu based around plants.

But that's the end of the memories.

Syekren sighed and stood, making his way to a light switch next to a vanity mirror upon the wall. He then flicked on the light and looked in the mirror, observing himself. This mirror was for ANBU to practice emotions to seem normal once they went out into the world, or to practice being monotonous and emotionless. Whichever the situation called for. At this point, all Syekren would use it for is to look at himself and wonder what he could have done differently. What he saw in the mirror now was a slightly taller body, with muscle tone and alabaster skin pigmentation. On his left bicep was an ANBU tattoo, while the right had the Uchiha clan symbol marked upon the skin. Under the clan symbol was a dark scar, from a burn he received during the time his one tomoe had awoken. It was in the shape of Sunagakure no Sato and he winced as he recalled the memory of another time he was weak, too weak to protect even himself.

Why do this to yourself?

It was one of his first days out as an official ninja of the village hidden in the sand. The sun was shining and a breeze was blowing tumbleweeds through the desert. He had been training all day, working to become a stronger ninja, working to become a better ninja and he'd been stumble upon by some random kid. He was a bit angered by it at that point, since the spot he was training in happened to be a secret to all but him. And this guy just happened to enter his secret area like he owned the place and start cracking jokes. Which angered Syekren to no end. He had challenged the other boy. Well, more like moved faster than a blur and attacked him without relenting.

The battle was arduous on the other male who turned out to be a sand user, throwing sand senbon at the Uchiha and causing him pain with two in the shoulder. That wasn't what stumped him though. What stumped Syekren was when he attacked the young man with his fired up fist, the other male simply used a fuuton ninjutsu and caused his flames to backfire upon himself, burning the symbol on his hitai-ate which was attached to his arm into his bicep. That pain was excruciating and his entire body was slowly going up in flames before his very eyes. He'd had a near death experience, the male covering him up with sand as if he had killed him. Syekren felt the sand put out the flames just as his Sharingan finally awoke, everything becoming so much more impossibly clear than it had been before. His eyes now a new stage of perfect vision. It was incredible.

Was.

Your memories will be your downfall.

It was true. As he looked on in the mirror, he knew that his memories would bring him nothing but trouble. Trouble he couldn't afford at this stage in his life. Syekren continued to look on at himself in the mirror, his one eye tracing his left eye, the lids closed over an empty socket, somehow not fused together from disuse. His right eye, being dark blue instead of black like other Uchiha, traced over his face, which was considerably older now. He had grown a scruffy beard, which wasn't long or super thick at this point, but was definitely scruffy. His hair was cut somewhat shorter than before, to keep the bangs out of his eyes, and to ensure that it would be hidden by his mask and cloak. While his biceps were slightly bigger, as were his calves and thighs. He'd put on some muscle in his time away. A lot had happened to him and his body and not all of it was good, but not all of it was bad either. All in all, he couldn't say he'd do it over again but that he regretted it wouldn't be completely true.

It was time to make his way out of the quarters to take another mission for the sake of the village. Perhaps even meet the new Kazekage so that he could get that out of the way and let her keep her records of all the ANBU that were in the village. Unless of course she didn't want to keep track of them like the last kazekage, which would be an almost welcome change, but at the same time it could cause problems should he need to end the life of someone and she catch wind of it thinking he some common criminal. He'd definitely need to call on her for a meeting to decide whether or not she'd need to know his identity for her personal records or if she'd rather keep knowing nothing but the mask as her citizens did. It wouldn't matter to the young ninja either way. What she wanted to know and what she didn't would be her choice and her choice alone. He was only too happy to oblige either way. His life's dedication was to her and the village, he took orders from the captain but hers superseded any other law in the land. To him, her will was absolute and he'd follow her orders until his death. No matter what the cost. That's what it meant to be an ANBU. That's what it meant to be a ninja of the village hidden in the sand.

Syekren silently moved back to the bed, slipping into his shinobi tights and pulling a netted shirt over his torso. He opted for the netted shirt with full sleeves, which were made of cloth and weren't netted like the rest of the shirt. He then slipped the shinobi gi top on, and affixed his sunagakure no sato insignia headband to his forehead, pulling it down over the empty eye socket. He opted not to wear his mask today as it would be too much trouble putting it on and instead slipped on some regular black socks and shinobi sandals of a black hue as well. He'd leave his armor and weapons behind as he didn't have use for them at the moment, nor did he want to draw attention to himself. It would be too much trouble.

The young Uchiha made his way out of his door, clicking the light into the off position on his way out and closing the door to the outside world. The hallway he found himself in was dingy and dimly lit. It was a low light area designed to make it harder to find your way out if you weren't supposed to be in here. Syekren had heard stories of someone actually making it inside the maze of underground tunnels beneath the manse and getting lost for weeks, eventually dying off. The corpse was found and disposed of promptly, almost as if they knew he was there and waited for him to die off before taking him out, instead of capturing him. Then again, trespassing into ANBU territory came with that risk and you'd never want to be on the shadows of the sand village's bad side. That sort of stuff would tend to happen a lot. With a shake of his head, Syekren made his way through the maze deftly, knowing which way to take and which ways to avoid, there only being one right path with many twists and turns. He got to a slightly better lit part of the maze and pressed the ANBU mark upon the wall amongst many other symbols for different villages, clans, and what have you. The door behind him that he had just exited sealed up with a stout brick wall, as if there was never a door there in the first place. After which, the young ninja made his way through another doorway near the end of the hall, coming into a small room with only a ladder in it. He climbed this, and climbed. And climbed. And climbed. He climbed for what felt like ages, until he reached a hatch, pushing it open to find himself in a darkened box-like structure. After securing the hatch the young ninja slowly opened a sliding door on the side of the structure, peeking out. There was no one to witness a young shinobi slipping out of the structure on top of the kage's manse, and then closing the sliding door which looked as though it disappeared immediately after.

Syekren turned and walked towards the edge of the roof, staring down at the village. It wasn't uncommon for people to be up here around mid day, as this place was open to the public as a means of enjoying scenery or even training at some points. It was a prime location as it was a massive beast of a roof in its own right. The places that weren't open to the public were well hidden or well protected. These places were fool proofed to keep anyone from wandering into them on accident so as to protect the village and her secrets as well as her kage, and diplomats. The diplomats Syekren didn't care for, but he did care about the safety of his Kage and the secrets his village held. So he did his best to be inconspicuous and not be seen entering or leaving the ANBU tunnels.

Syekren made his way to the staircase around the back of the roof to move down each step with considered swiftness in mind. He was unsure where he would go at this point or exactly what he would do but he knew that he needed to do something. He couldn't keep himself from  feeling cooped up all the time down there and felt as though he might actually be going insane. He knew he definitely would go insane if he had to spend one more minute underneath the administrative building while there was work to be done. He had to go scope out the village for any signs of weakness or infiltration, keep his eye out for any suspicious characters that might try to hurt the village or his kage. He had to be ready for anything that could be perceived as danger because it was probably more dangerous than it would appear to be. The young Uchiha knew that all too well from experience.

Upon reaching the bottom of the steps, he first decided to make his way towards the gate to check that for any suspicious persons. He would question the genin and chuunin usually on watch there for their reports on the day's activities as well as check with those outside the gate to make sure everything was running smoothly. Infrastructure was an important part of the village's defense and Syekren would do everything in his power to ensure that no crack or crevice would allow the enemies of the village entry, nor that if they did gain entry that they would gain it without fighting hard for it and possibly losing their allies to the quick death that came to the enemies of the sand. This was all hypothesis of course and Syekren genuinely hoped it wouldn't come down to this sort of scenario at all, let alone any time soon. They simply didn't have the man power or enough high ranking ninja for defense.

It was a good half hour or so before Syekren had reached the gates of the village hidden in the sand and found four or so genin and a single chuunin standing guard and checking papers. This sort of job was usually handled by a lone genin and a chuunin, with a special jounin or higher to supervise the inside and one to supervise the outside. There were far too many genin here for Syekren's liking and it compromised other parts of the village that could use their eyes on it. Shaking his head, the special jounin made his way up to the group, coughing to get their attention. The all stood straight and stared at him, waiting for whatever he had to say to them.

"Special Jounin, Syekren. I came to see if any of you had seen anything strange or suspicious happening around the gates. Anyone sketchy come through or possibly any events that may seem minor but altogether didn't sit well with your mind? Anything like that?"

The genin and the chuunin exchanged glances and shrugs, as if they had no idea what he was talking about. Syekren shook his head and sighed. Of course they didn't, they were young and didn't pay much attention to anything let alone the mission they were one. What difference did it make to them to ensure the safety and defense of the village if they could bullshit through an easy mission for some quick ryo? It was all he could do to not smack some sense into the young ninja. But then, they didn't understand the times that they lived in now. How scary the world truly was and how the people truly acted, so their lack of caring wasn't off put or entirely badly placed. It would just make things simpler if they wanted to protect the village as much as Syekren did. Though maybe he was just being paranoid?

Nah.

He pointed at two of the four genin gathered at the gate and motioned for them to come to him. He waited as they slowly made their way to the strange ninja who arrived questioning them and he sighed, as they took their time as if they were afraid of him. It made sense if they were, he was missing an eye and was pretty short with them as if he had loads of better things to do. Which in fact, he might actually have a lot to do if he found anything wrong with the defenses and infrastructure of the village. It was all about whether or not anything strange would be going on in the village. And if something strange was going on, he'd be the one there to make sure that he could put a stop to it before it got any worse. Once the genin had finally reached them, he looked between the two of them before speaking.

"I need you both to search the village for anything out of the ordinary. Be it suspicious characters, events, items, anything. I want to be sure this village is protected. With a new kazekage in power we will likely become a target in the future, so I need to make sure we're going to be safe if something does happen. I want you to take the east, and you to take the west. Report any and all finding to me directly. If you can not find me, go to the kage's manse and ask to send a lizard message to Syekren. They'll be sure that I get the message and I will be sure you're rewarded for your service. This is a mission I'm asking you both to take and a rather simple one. Do it for our village and our new Kazekage, yea? Go!"

At his behest the two ran off in different directions to follow his orders. Hopefully they would do so to the letter or there could be hell to pay for everyone in the village if his suspicions were correct. Defection was happening at an alarming rate and though he'd done it before, he wanted to be sure that he could stop it in its tracks if he found it this time. There was nothing he'd enjoy more than keeping his village safe now and if he had to take out a defector or two then so be it, that was his burden to bear. Nay, it was the village's burden to bear. All the ninja in the village would bear this burden to protect their home and their kage, if not their loved ones. Syekren was learning to not take the world on his shoulders but it was a slow process. He had to realize that he wasn't the only ninja in the village, that it was okay to receive assistance from everyone else from time to time. This wasn't only his home and this wasn't only his battle should one erupt. Everyone in the village was a part of it and he was a part of the village. He had to accept that they would be able to put their best effort forward just as much as he was able to. He had to put some faith in the villagers as they would in him and the Kazekage. This was not a one way deal and he was finally learning that. With a hefty sigh the ninja looked up at the kage's manse standing over the many buildings in the distance. Just like the Kazekage stood over her people and protected them, the manse stood over their homes and businesses to shield them from any dangers. It was truly poetic. Just beautiful. But there would be time to sit and think on poetry as well as beauty later. Right now he was going to head back to the Kage's manse and take a few missions and scout around the village to ensure everything was copacetic in the meantime. He would make no errors and would not falter again. This time he was going to stand by the village no matter what, even should he need to die for it. Such was his duty, such was the duty of all ANBU. He'd finally found himself.

[End Thread]

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