Once the ceremony approached the close, Kira forced her way through the throng of mourners, tearing off the hideous veiled hat that her mother had coerced her into wearing. She hadn't the temper to resist at the time but as the funeral carried on, she found herself growing ever more frustrated to the point that she felt she had to find a way out and fast. It seemed that she was not the only one incapable of withstanding the service for a moment longer as she caught up to a certain Uchiha.
"Shisui," she called, lightly grabbing his arm to capture his attention. He glanced down at her and flashed a small smile but the usual mischief that etched his façade was nowhere to be found. It wasn't like him to be anything less than impish even despite the circumstances; she figured he would be the one reassuring her that all would be well or suggesting that the best coping method would be a sparring match. To see him offer such a gentle gesture was so outlandish to Kira that she shortly grew worried. "Whoa...is everything alright?"
He arched his brow in a way that implied that the question was evidently odd. "I think you've got it backwards, Kuriketto-chan," he said, "Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?" He could see the pink color her cheeks as they flushed with embarrassment and mild irritation at the pet name he had given her so long before. It was peculiar how time had changed things—Hikaru was gone; Itachi was widowed; Kira had transformed from a girl to a young woman in a blink of an eye—and it was comforting to the Uchiha to know that even so, he still had an effect on the Tottori neither could deny.
But even that could not be enough, he thought with a slight frown. With it, time had taken so much from them and the innocence of youth was no exception. Light had begun to shine on all things for Shisui and at last, he was starting to comprehend the sordid reality of the Three Clan Feud situation. "The treaty," he paused, scouring her face for any sign of understanding, "it's been expunged..."
Kira acknowledged that the way he drew out the statement meant there was more to be said and, assuming the rest would not be well, she decided she couldn't bear to hear it. "I—That…that has nothing to do with us, Shisui. Do you really think that you could go a day without harassing me because our clans can't get along?" He didn't respond nor did he look her in the face, something that unsettled Kira that much more. Instead, Shisui stared intently at the ground and waited to hear what more Kira had to say. "We are a new generation," she insisted, touching his arm in hopes of winning his attention, "we don't have to abide by their stupid rules. One day, our clans will be our own and do we want to continue living in distrust and animosity? We can stop it now, we can—"
"You don't understand," he stated abruptly. "Your clan…" His fists clenched and he avoided her face. "They snuck over to the Hyuugas behind our backs and were creating an alliance with them." He dared to meet her gaze n and found himself regretting it.
Kira looked small then, confused, just as she had years before in the flower field. Shisui remembered how composed she was, how focused and clear everything seemed to be for her but it all had been a ruse. She was fragile, vulnerable, no matter how strong the front. And like then, he had the urge to swoop her into his arms, hold her tightly until she felt secure and even then he wouldn't dare let go. He wanted to protect her because as it was, no one else would. He wanted to tell her all.
"I…I had no idea, Shisui," Kira whispered, shaking her head slowly in disbelief, "but you seriously can't hold me accountable for their actions?"
Yes, time had changed so many things but Kira was still guiltless to him. She was a fair shinobi, not quite genius but certainly of prominence, having graduated early and worked her way up the ranks. Yet she never had to witness the violence like he and Itachi had. She hadn't fought in the Third Shinobi World War; she hadn't seen comrades slain by the wrath of the kyuubi; in fact, he was sure that she had never seen the life drain from a person's eyes, even from her own sister's. She had not seen death in its entirety and it was that innocence that drove Shisui mad. That innocence, that naivety, made her completely and utterly ignorant to everything around her.
Shisui growled in frustration and it was then that Kira saw the full intensity of his vexation. "Don't you understand," he snapped. "They were going to wed you off to that boy, the one who—!" He raked his hands through his hair and clutched at the roots as though to hold himself together. He gave a hefty exhale in an attempt to compose himself but his aggravated demeanor remained. "Tanabata, that night? You remember it; you have to remember it—and him! That's who they wanted to offer you to! To that disgusting little—!"
"Wha-what? Shisui, what the hell are you talking about? They—"
"They were gonna offer you up, offer you up like some carnival prize! Like you're not even a human being! Like you're not even their daughter! Like—!"
"Like Hikaru?"
It came as a whisper, small and delicate, but bursting with a sorrow Shisui had never associated with her before. He watched as she trembled, her solid front finally tumbling down, and the pain she had for so long harbored drained from the creases of her face so that all that remained was a certain fragility. She didn't have a hard life as opposed to his own or Itachi's. But when Hikaru's childhood had been stripped away, Shisui imagined that a piece of Kira's had gone with it. She had lost her best friend to something she didn't understand and still did not and what was worse, she lost her sister to something that ended up falling apart. He knew that was why Kira prone to bouts of bad temper; from the very start, she refused to accept the changes taking place and though she thought she was fighting against it, in truth, she was just brushing it aside.
It came down on her all at once, wrecking the resilient front she had so long wielded so that she appeared to be nothing more than a feeble school girl to Shisui. He was so sure that even the slightest of touches would shatter her, the fragments too delicate to ever be mended. He fought with the urge to raise his hand towards her cheek, to caress the skin there softly with the pad of his thumb. Instead, he balled his fists so tightly that the knuckles turned white and he quaked with the anger he refused to emanate from his being. But when her gaze met his and that desperate look of longing struck his core, his hands fell limply to his side, defeated, and he couldn't bear to look her in the eye.
"Fugaku managed to talk them out of it," he explained. "He said it would be best that you stay where you are." He wanted to give her a sense of hope, that everything would turn out fine and she would be back to laughing and taunting and challenging every- and anyone lucky enough to cross her path and walk along it beside her. He had wanted to give her that but instead his voice cracked and then he realized that nothing good would ever come from this. "They agreed to renew the treaty…but…" He paused as if to silently beg for her forgiveness for what came next. He regretted it; he already had said too much. He just wanted to protect her. "..through you and Itachi." He had to turn away, unable to bear the devastated expression on her face.
Kira had never been in serious battle; any C-ranked missions she had ever taken had gone without serious threat, the most severe being a few bruised shins and forearms. She had figured that was what true pain was—something that left a mark, that stayed with you long after—but nothing compared to the blow he had thrown. She felt like a fish left on the shoreline, gasping for breath while sanctuary was just shortly out of reach. She desperately reached for Shisui but he flinched away from her touch.
"Th-There's gotta be another way, Shisui, there just ha-has to be! Don't let them do this to m-m-me, please!" She was blubbering though the fat tears still sat in the corner of her eyes, burning like nothing she had ever felt before.
His expression was unfathomable but he seemed to be warring with what she had no notion of. "There's nothing more that can be done, Kira," he murmured, igniting the short-fuse within the Tottori.
"How can you say that," she demanded. "How can you be okay with them passing me off, just like they did to Hikaru? How is forcing me to marry Itachi any better than the Hyuuga? How—"
She was taken aback when he emitted a low exasperated sound from the back of his throat and rung his hands around her shoulders tightly as though he was ready to shake her. "Do you really think that I'm okay with this? Do you think that this was what Iwanted?" His whole body trembled with rage; Kira could feel the heat pulsing through him from his grip on her. "I fought for you; I defended you and I managed to convince them to give you the lesser of the evils. But you can't expect me to do it all; you have to fight too! You're too damn docile, whether you know it or not. You can fend off rogue nin; you can pick fights with strangers; you can do all of that but you've never gone against your own damn clan. How can you not see that they've been manipulating you and your sister all along! Are you that blind?"
His fury quelled in shuddering deep breaths and his body unwound. His vice on her loosened as his demeanor softened, taking in her own broken countenance. "I'm sorry, Kuriketto-chan, I didn't mean to upset you…It's just…" He cupped one side of her face into the palm of his hand, let his thumb gently stroke the apples of her peach cheeks before he tucked a stray wine colored lock behind her ear and smiled in a way that did not exude bliss necessarily but finality. "I've always thought of you being a part of the Uchiha clan, just not…not like this." He held her small face in his hands, fearing that if he let go too suddenly, she would as quickly fall apart. He rested his forehead against her own, squeezing his eyes shut in hopes of replacing reality with the image he had concocted in his head.
Hikaru would be well, Itachi, the same, and Kira, as lively as ever. He could see them, in a vision that was still quite far off but exciting all the same. The four of them, together, as happy as can be. Success would be no question. He would smile at Kira, maybe tease her about the sweet way she blushed, and then she would do so out of embarrassment, and they'd laugh. He could see it all and imagine so much more but it all had been taken away.
"To hell with it," he snarled then, kissing the unsuspecting Tottori full on the lips. He could feel her tense and feared her hesitation before she easily melded into his touch. The kiss was sweet and tasted of unspoken desire, urgency, but above all, sadness. Before he was sure it had even began, he pulled away. "Goodbye, Kuriketto," he said with one last kiss against her cheek. He turned and made to walk away lest he give in to his wants once more.
Kira's whole body erupted with emotion but the only one she could comprehend was frustration. "That's it?" she called out to the retreating figure. "You kiss me and that's it? You're an idiot, Shisui! A chihuahua! A stupid, stupid, stupid chihuahua!" As the anger boiled from with her core, she felt it spill from her every pore, burn down her cheeks in tears. He had paused for a moment and his body seemed to quiver but he soon carried on without a glance back. Kira could feel her own body tremble with the unspent rage and it spewed out in words. "I hate you Uchiha Shisui!"
She raced away in the opposite direction at a speed she had never known before. She could feel in every swift step the pain vibrating up her legs and throughout her whole being, and even when her legs began to ache, she did not stop. Everything he had said replayed over and over in her mind but she couldn't help but recreate the form in which the scenario ended. Sometimes she slapped him across the face; others, he decided not to leave. But as she fantasized of how it all could have played out, one memory conquered her mind and seemed to slow her down.
The young girl would glance back every so often, causing the boys grin to widen little by little each time that he caught her. Finally, he laughed and in a quick motion, he brushed back the bangs on the side of her face and planted a swift kiss on the girl's rosy cheek.
She shrieked, shoving him away as she scrambled to her feet. The action only made Shisui fall into laughter. Kira was quick to put a stop to his merriment by demanding furiously, "Leave me alone, Shisui!" He tilted his head to the side feigning innocence though the grin said otherwise. "I'm not a rag doll that you can play with when you choose!"
"But Kuriketto-chan," he cooed, "you are a doll; you're my doll, my little cricket, don't you see? I only toy with you because I love your silly reactions!"
She had thought the rush of the sprint had whisked away the tears from her eyes, dried them out so that not a single one could trail down her cheeks but she was wrong. He didn't need to say it; the kiss has said it all. All along, Shisui loved her and with that realization, another thought invaded her mind.
"Do not trust them. Any of them. They all have motives, they all have agendas…"
And Hikaru had been right. But Shisui's motive wasn't to fall for Kira; it just happened. But his agenda was to remain faithful to his clan, even if it compromised what he felt. Kira didn't doubt for a second he hadn't fought for her; he was right to demand she fight for herself too. And yet, as unreasonable as it seemed, she couldn't help but hate him for it all because after all the years, Kira knew she had fallen for Uchiha Shisui too.
Ages: Itachi and Hikaru 14, Kira 13, Shisui 16, and Sasuke 5.