Chapter Text
In a place where fight and betrayal is constant, secrets are hard to keep.
When Hanzo was born, his father tried to keep him a secret for as much as he could, but even the shadows had ears and the news of the Shimada heir being born flew on the wind until being caught in the ears of the Hashimoto clan leader. His rival heir had been born.
When Hanzo was only six years old and Genji was three, the Shimada estate was a chaos with the sound of blades, gunfire and screams. Sojiro Shimada fought along side the clan guards to protect his family, he had to as their father it was his duty. When the fight ceased Sojiro ordered his men to clean the place and burn the bodies of the dead Hashimoto soldiers, he cleaned his sword and walked back to the room where his wife and two son's were hidding, but once he saw the empty room he started to worry calling for his wife.
"Rumiko!", he run on the estate calling for her name until he saw a small shadow come running and hug his leg. Genji.
The small three year old boy embraced his father leg scared about the noise and screams, from behind him came Rumiko. Sojiro was relieved to see them well, but he noticed someone missing, his older son. Hanzo wasn't with them, and was nowhere in sight.
"Where is Hanzo?", Sojiro asked and Rumiko started to worry.
"We fleed the room when the Hashimoto found us, he was running by my side but i lost him from sight, i hoped that he had found you...", the silence following it was deafening. They looked for their son everywhere but no trace of Hanzo was found, it was like he had just vanished. Sojiro was frozen in place after the idea of his older son being missing or taken finally setting in his mind, but Rumiko was in complete despair, crying on the floor for the son she had just lost.
Members of the clan where sent to find the boy, but nobody was able to come with any news. Genji still too young to understand anything at all couldn’t understand why his brother was gone, and Sojiro promised to his wife and his younger son that he would bring Hanzo back.
In the Hashimoto clan estate, Hanzo didn’t understand what had happened, why he was here? Where was his brother, his mother and father? At first he was kept in a room with some toys and food being delivered to him by a servant, Hanzo wasn’t stupid but he was still a small child to process everything and think about what was going to happen.
The first person to talk with him was the leader of the clan, Eiji Hashimoto. The man looked a little older than Sojiro, but his voice was gentle and tender while talking to the boy, like he didn’t want to scare him.
Hanzo looked at the man approaching him, Eiji kneeled in front of the boy with a tender smile in his face.
“I am sorry for everything young one. You don’t have to be scared, I won’t hurt you." Eiji said, but Hanzo still looked at him not trusting.
“Where is my father?” Hanzo asked.
“He is not here, and I fear that he won’t come little one.” Eiji said trying to sound gentle and concerned. He wanted the boy to trust him because he knew how much Hanzo meant for Sojiro, and having the boy in the palm of his hand would be just what he needed to get Sojiro suffering in imaginable ways.
The Hashimoto leader explained to Hanzo that he had saved the boy from being killed on that invasion, that he protected him when Sojiro failed. When Hanzo started to ask if his father would come to get him, Eiji said that Sojiro wouldn’t come, he would not risk it for a child, not when he already had another son to replace Hanzo as a heir. That made Hanzo break down, he had seen how his father acted more gentle with Genji to a point where sometimes Hanzo got jealous. So hearing it made the boy believe, his father wouldn’t care for him being gone when he had Genji to replace him.
Eiji comforted the little boy, he didn't say anything, there was no need to after all Hanzo already belived that his father didn't care enough to come for him, so all Eiji needed to do right now was to be there like a warm presence that Hanzo could hold on to, as a person the boy could trust. And slowly but surely he succeded, as the boy got attached to him enough to never leave his side afraid to be abbandoned again.
- On the next day-
Hanzo was surprised by the Hashimoto leader in his now bedroom. The older man came to give the child a present, a white tiger mask.
The boy held it in his small hands tracing every corner of the mask, the face of the snarling tiger perfectly carved in the wood made him smile, it was a bit big for him but the thought of being gifted something made him happy.
" I am giving you this mask as a protection", The older man said in a tender tone. Hanzo looked confused, how could a wooden mask protect him?
"Protection?", the boy asked looking at the mask.
"Yes, the world we live in is a world of secrets and betrayal. Your face is your identity, and your identity once revealed to the enemy can get you or the ones close to you hurt", Eiji tried to say in a way the child would understand. "From now on i want you to use it, do not let anyone see your face, not even the people from this clan, we can't trust anyone".
"Not even you?"
"You can trust me, when we are alone you can take it off Hanzo. I don't want to erase who you are, just protect you from those who can hurt you", the Hashimoto leader said smiling gently as he put his hand on the little boy head, making Hanzo smile putting the mask.
Hanzo used the mask as asked, at the point where it became almost like a second face. Nobody ever saw his face, except for the leader of the clan, Eiji Hashimoto. And soon Hanzo became the masked child in the Hashimoto estate, the prince of the tigers.