Fugaku raised his eyes from the desk, scowling as someone stroked their knuckles on the other side of his office door. With a frustrated wave, he pushed aside his paper work and motioned for his assistant.
The young Uchiha, a wiry girl of 16, quickly got up from her chair, "You may enter."
The man who stepped into the office was the last person Fugaku wanted to see. Not because of the man himself, Koji was pleasant enough, at least, for Uchiha standards, but because of the creature that always followed him. When Koji stepped into the office, the temperature dropped.
Sure enough, the ball of gas floated into the room, passing right through the wall. It stared at him mockingly, sticking out it's long toxic tongue as drops of saliva fell to the floor and burned the carpet.
Koji had named him Gastly.
And he was a ghastly sight, when Fugaku looked at him, he knew he wasn't looking at a summoned beast, or a pet, he was looking at a person. He was looking at a person's soul. He was looking at death.
"Hello, clan head, I hope I'm not disturbing you." The youth looked down at the burning carpet and gave him a reluctant smile. "I'll pay for any damages, please don't blame Gastly, he really can't help it."
Fugaku snapped out of his thoughts, waving off Koji's concerns with a forced smile. "No, don't worry, I understand. Gastly…is a unique pet. It's fine."
"Gastly…" The creature mocked him with an exaggerated snicker, shaking its tongue to make its saliva fly everywhere. One drop landed on his paperwork. Gastly only stopped when Koji patted its head.
Fugaku narrowed his eyes at this. Koji, for all his good qualities, was an outsider in the clan. Fugaku had heard whispers, that Gastly was actually the soul of Koji's father, that Koji himself was a ghost, that Gastly was a parasite controlling Koji like a puppet. It was disturbing. The rumors had no end, and the worse thing was that they seemed to have some truth.
Koji could communicate with the dead. He would frequent the cemetery, and people would catch him speaking out loud, when someone asked him why, he said he was learning from the deceased shinobi.
Worse, he could touch souls. Fugaku had seen it personally, when Koji pulled a man's soul out of his corpse on the night of the Nine Tails attack, all so he could say goodbye to his six-year-old daughter. It was wrong, it defied the laws of nature, yet, no one told Koji anything.
The village higher ups pretended he didn't exist, he was excluded from all politics within the clan, even Fugaku tried to avoid him as much as possible. No one wanted to communicate with the cursed Uchiha. It had been two years since the mysterious disappearance of the boy's parents. There wasn't any evidence Koji was behind it, but that didn't matter.
The Uchiha were frightened of him and his ghost. Fugaku, for all his strength, couldn't help but feel the slightest tug on his heart when he looked at him. There was something deeply wrong with Koji, something he wished he could lock away and never look at again.
"Well, Koji? I assume you came to report your findings?" Fugaku looked down at the brown bag in Koji's hand.
Despite some effort to erase the smell, there was still the faintest scent of blood. The bag wasn't that big, it couldn't be a dismembered body, so… Koji had probably only bothered to bring the head.
When Gastly floated down to the bag and licked the underside, Fugaku suddenly got a whiff of its breath. His hair stood on its end. Koji, he hadn't fed the rest of the body to this creature of his, had he?
Fugaku turned to his assistant, "Leave us."
The girl, idle pressing his official stamp onto documents, rose up from her chair, looked at him, then Koji, then Gastly, and walked out the door with too much sprint to her heels.
Fugaku wished he could do the same.
"I think you'll be interested in what I found." Koji slowly opened the bag, and Fugaku forced himself to look.
What was inside was something out of a tragic painting, the frightened, pale, bloodless head of a beautiful woman, her expression frozen like ice.
"A Yuki clan member. The person who killed Shisui was a foreign kekkei genkai user. I would've brought the body, but…" Koji smiled bitterly at Gastly. "Anyway, it hasn't been that long. Her memories can still be recovered."
Fugaku felt his heart ache when Koji mentioned Shisui's name. Shishui was a young boy, so full of potential and life. Had he been allowed to grow into adulthood… Fugaku sighed. Would've, should've, could've, there was no point in it now. He had to prioritize the talent that was still alive.
He didn't think Koji was lying to him, Shisui had shown himself to be a prodigy, Kirigakure sending an assassin to take him out before he hit his prime wasn't out of the ordinary. Too many geniuses were killed in the cradle. Talent was abundant, strength was rare. Far too rare.
"I'll send her head to the Yamanaka, see if she had any other accomplices." Fugaku struggled to get his next words out. "Did you…?"
"Find his eyes? I did, but I'm afraid they're not very useful anymore. She crushed them before I could take them from her." Koji pulled out a small vial of liquid from his robe. The contents were bits of smashed up eyes, a disturbing, sickening view Fugaku didn't want to see.
Now he was certain Koji was telling the truth, those sharingan had 3 tomoe, he hadn't just killed a random person to claim the reward for avenging Shisui. Which, out of his own anger, he had made a hefty prize.
"I'll get you your million ryo, hopefully by next week, it's that's fine with you."
"Of course, clan head, I'm sure I can survive a week or two without a million ryo in my pocket. As for my other reward…"
Fugaku didn't mimic Koji's small smile. He stood up, and grabbed the key hanging off his neck.
"Follow me. Don't tell anyone what you see, and remember, you're only allowed to choose one technique. I'll give you two hours."
Fugaku left the office, and Koji followed after him. With Gastly, of course.