Case File #286: The Bone Masks
"According to my granddad, I should be extremely grateful to have a ceramic mask. He says it's a sign of nobility and quality. He also told me that our masks weren't always ceramic or wood....but were made of either bone or a white chalk-like crystal."
"He said before we the Kaguya clan had what was supposed to have had coming to them for decades....they made the masks themselves. It was some form of ritualistic honor to have a mask of any use made by them.... at least...that what the Kaguya clan had convinced people of...his cousin at the time was one of the first deployed anbu in Kirigakure, the original task of the Anbu were to be a secondary defense and expert espionage collecting. Things changed when certain members of the Kaguya clan died, certain members of the Anbu would go AWOL for no reason."
"Granddad told me that when his cousin "abandoned" our clan he was to be eliminated the moment anyone found him...the thing is....he never actually left. He....sort of took refuge in the deep swamps....the day they found him, he was very much alive....but something wasn't right with him, some of our clan elders described as placidly threatening like a wild animal....even from a distance. Like as if he was a completely different person. He didn't have a shirt and wore a tattered pair of pants, but he still had his mask on...which was completely clean...pure white while it brutally contrasted his dirty and disheveled appearance. After taking him back home, granddad started to reaccount how changed his cousin was: he hated foods he originally liked, he stared at many of his own female relatives with hungry eyes and he refused to remove his mask....one day....three women of our clan where murdered and a loud continues cackling could be herd heading to the direction of the Kaguya clan settlement.
"...three days later, three Kaguya clans men brought back the head of his cousin without his mask. According to them, our clan was lucky that they were "mildly amused" to see such a strange trick, "putting the face of one of their own on our own clansman"... obviously the family was confused, until they saw the head for themselves.....the skin around the more notable parts of his face looked burned but as if the skin was changing textures...his eyes where marbled but a huge portion of his face was unrecognizable to our family, but familiar to the Kaguya clan...after that both clans put two and two together..after that, granddad recalled that all masks where to be made of wood or light ceramic."
"just imagine, wearing a mask for so long....you lose your face."