DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN NARUTO OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS/PLOTS. I ONLY OWN MY OC'S.
"I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it's like to feel absolutely worthless and they don't want anybody else to feel like that."
Robin Williams
First Mission Without Her Twin
Yawning, Izumi slowly opened her eyes, only to be blinded by the sunlight that shined in through her window.
"Damn…" She muttered. As much as she wanted to pull her blanket over her head and fall back asleep, she had a mission today.
Somebody knocked on her door, waking her up even more. "Izumi, you ready?" She heard her older brother ask.
"…Yeah." Her mouth opened again with a yawn. "I'm awake."
"Awake? Izumi, we're leaving in fifteen minutes, what the hell are you doing sleeping?" There was a slight pause. "Actually, never mind, just go and get ready." Hearing that, the drowsy feeling she had disappeared. Fifteen minutes to get ready? How the hell did she oversleep? Izumi jumped up and ran towards her closet to get changed. 'Do I have time for breakfast?' She asked herself as she pulled her shirt over her head. She still needed to brush her hair and teeth, which would take her at least ten minutes, give or take. There wouldn't be enough time for food!
Running into the bathroom, she hurryingly pushed the mint paste on her brush and shoved it in her mouth, brushing her teeth. 'Crap crap crap!'
"Izumi? Are you okay?" She looked to her right and saw her brother standing there, still dazed with sleep.
She spat out the paste. "Yeah, uh… I overslept." Her brother shook her head and pushed her out of the way.
"Go and get-" He yawned. "-ready then." She nodded her head and ran out of the room to get her pack ready.
Izumi ran out of the front door, only to see Madara standing in front with his arms crossed and his face showing annoyance.
"Izumi, you're late!" Madara scolded.
"Sorry sorry!" Izumi apologized. She decided that skipping breakfast would be a bad idea, especially for this mission. "I wanted some food." Her brother flicked her forehead.
"I can tell, you have rice on your cheek." Izumi's eyes widened and her hand flew up to her cheek.
"Oh." She blushed and quickly brushed the rice off. But it was worth it to see her brother laugh, something he hasn't been doing much of lately.
"Let's go, father is waiting for us at Grandmother's house." Izumi groaned at hearing the Elder's name. But Madara ignored her and started walking, causing Izumi to follow.
"Why are we going there? All she's going to do is snipe about how it's unorthodox to be a Kunoichi, especially to me."
"She won't do that." Madara argued. But Izumi gave him an 'Oh really?' look.
"Izumi-chan, you're the Uchiha princess, why are you a Kunoichi? You should be with your friends and learning how to care for a husband. Kunoichi's don't have long lives!" She mocked in Mariko's voice. From the corner of her eye, she saw her brother smirk.
"Okay, that might be true."
"Exactly!" Izumi adjusted her armor since it was digging into her back. "I'm changing the subject but why won't father let Izuna come with us? He should know how much…stronger I am with Izuna. And this is going to be my first mission without him... It's going to feel so weird."
"You'll get used to is. And besides, father wasn't the one who chose to do this, it was the Elders. They want to make sure you can fight without Izuna and vice versa. They don't want you two to get dependent on each other."
"Ugh, the Elders again. It's like they don't care." She yawned and stretched her arms above her head. "I'm totally fine, I have the Sharingan." Izumi jumped in front of her brother and started walking backwards with her hands behind her back. "The only girl in the world with the Sharingan!"
"Yes, I know. You and Izuna would probably be fine without each other." Madara looked up and saw the building. "Now let's go, we're here."
"Izumi-chan, did you know that my sister died around your age?" Mariko asked the girl.
Izumi's eye twitched. "No Grandmother, I did not."
Mariko's eyes became unfocused as she remembered memories from years ago. "She was so beautiful; she would've had so many suitors."
"That's nice."
"But she died in a fight." The old lady turned to her. "She was a Kunoichi after all. They don't live long lives."
"Now Mother, they're not here to talk. They can do that some other time." Her father interrupted. As Mariko turned around to talk to her son, Izumi mouthed thank you to her father. "That's right; Madara and Izumi are here for the mission details." Her grandmother stood up and walked over to her desk to grab the folder that contained it. She handed it to Madara and sat back down in front of Izumi.
"Thank you Grandmother." Madara said while he leafed through the papers. "We should be back within the week." He finished and looked up.
"Then you should probably be off then!" Izumi stood up and bowed stiffly at Mariko.
"Thank you for having us Grandmother." She smiled at her father and walked out of the room, Madara following closely behind. "Thank Kami we're out of there. I thought I would die!"
"You're over-exaggerating." She flipped her head behind her and looked at him, her eyes widened with shock.
"Really? You're really going to say that? The old hag was trying to guilt trip me! It was her sister, her sister!"
"Izumi! Don't call Grandmother that!" She scowled and turned away. She heard her brother sigh, but she didn't care. She hated her Grandmother, she was always doing something like this whenever Izumi went and visited. She wasn't always like this, it all started when Izumi decided to become a Kunoichi after her kidnapping. Even if her grandmother was part of Elders, after they all found out that Izumi had awakened her Sharingan, every Elder (besides her grandmother) immediately pushed for her training to become a Kunoichi. "Izumi? You listening?"
"Huh?"
"How are you a shinobi when you can't even pay attention?" Izumi opened her mouth to say something but Madara held his hand up. "Actually, don't answer that. We need to go if we're going to reach the other compound."
"Which one?"
"Nidai." Her brother answered.
"Oh, the one that was just attacked by the Senju?" Izumi asked.
"Yeah."
"I wonder if Kazuyo's mother and sister are okay."
"They probably are. That's one of the reasons why the Elders want us to go there."
Izumi and her older brother were on their way to Nidai, the small compound that was recently the victim of an attack by the Senju.
"Hey Madara, how far away is Nidai this time?" She saw her brother furrow his eyebrows. The only reason she asked was because the usual way they had to take a different way compared to usual because of the recent attack.
"It's a few hours, depending on how long it takes." He looked up at the sky. "If we're unlucky we'll have to make camp though."
"The one thing I don't want to do…" She grumbled. But they continued on their journey until it was too dark to do anything.
"This place with make do for tonight." Madara said, looking at Izumi. "We'll leave at first light." Izumi groaned and collapsed down onto the bedroll that they brought.
"Whyyy?" She whined. Izumi opened one eye and saw her older brother looking down at her.
"Gee, I wonder why? It's probably not because of a certain person having to go back to the house to get supplies." Her brother said sarcastically.
"Hey, I needed some stuff." She paused. "Not to mention I forgot my katana somehow."
"Whatever. Just get some sleep, I'll keep watch." Not wanting to argue with her brother, Izumi turned around and closed her eyes. At first, Izumi couldn't fall asleep, she was too nervous. But the slow breathing of her brother and the warmth of the fire soon lulled her to sleep.
Izumi shot up, her mouth opened with a silent scream. She looked to her right and saw Madara standing there, relieving her and causing the tension in her body to leave.
"Good, you're awake. Eat this and get ready to leave." Her brother said and threw something at her. She caught it with her hands and looked at it.
"Thanks."
Her brother smiled. "Nidai's not far from here. We'll get there by noon." Izumi groaned at what her brother said and started rubbing her calf muscles.
"My legs are sore from all that running yesterday."
Madara shrugged. "Not my problem." He walked away and Izumi started eating her breakfast bar, one thought wouldn't leave her head.
Why was an Uchiha that had an uncanny resemblance to her brother standing on top of the Kyuubi with a Sharingan she had never seen before?
"Are we there yet Madara?"
"No, so stop asking." Izumi grew bored of jumping from tree to tree so she activated her Sharingan from boredom. Suddenly, everything around her grew clear and she could see with so much detail. But from the corner of her eye, she could see a group of chakra that didn't seem right.
"Madara." He continued running. "Madara!" She hissed.
"What?" He turned his head around, shocked that her Sharingan was on. She might get in trouble later for it, but it didn't matter right now.
"Behind us, five o'clock." Madara closed his eyes and tried to sense for the group.
"I can't sense anything." Izumi shook her head in denial.
"No, something's definitely wrong there."
Then suddenly a kunai was thrown towards Madara and Izumi swung her unsheathed katana to prevent it from hitting its target. The kunai hit her katana with a clang and fell down onto the forest floor. Izumi gave her brother an 'I told you so' look and prepared herself for a fight.
"Can't believe these brats were able to sense us." Out from the trees came two men dressed in the Senju armor. Izumi quickly deactivated her Sharingan and her brother stood in front of her, as if to protect her.
"Stay behind me." Her brother ordered, his eyes red with the clan kekkei genkai.
The Senju's eyes widened. "Do you know Uchiha Izumi?"
Madara's grip on his katana tightened. "Why do you want to know?"
The men's eyes widened in recognition. "Damn, it's Uchiha Madara." They looked panicked now, and it was confusing the two Uchiha's. Izumi knew her brother was well known for being a strong shinobi, especially on the battlefield, it was something she had yet to see. But she's heard what the clansmen say about him, and it was impressive.
The Senju on the left scowled. "Let's just get this over-" But he never finished his sentence, Izumi ran at him with her katana raised at an impressive speed for a person her stature. He blocked her katana, and with the sound of the metal hitting each other, all hell broke loose.
That Senju man had underestimated her and it was probably because he thought her as the opposite gender. I guess this was the good thing about having a child's body, if a girl kept her hair short most people will think that she's a boy. Well, unless she started talking. It was just too high to be a boy's, even for a child.
Then again, this was Izumi's tactic and it worked most of the time.
But she too had underestimated the Senju. This man was stronger than most Senju's she's faced, and she knew it not even a few minutes into their fight. He avoided most swings she did and she was taking more and more damage. Out of the two, she knew that he had fewer wounds than her. Izumi looked behind her and saw her brother fighting the other man. Realizing that this man was just trying to tire her out, she decided to stop using her katana and started using ninjutsu. She quickly sheathed her katana and started moving her hands and she avoided the Senju's
"Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!" But all that came out of her mouth was smoke from the failed jutsu, not that Izumi was complaining. The smoke helped distract the man and let her run at him with her kunai. But from the corner of her eye, she saw a sudden flash of white, causing her to freeze. She swore she saw red eyes, but not the red she saw in her clan's kekkei genkai. That couldn't have been…?
"Izumi!" She quickly turned her head around and saw her brother fighting her opponent. After wounding the Senju tremendously, they fled; leaving the two Uchiha's to clean themselves up. Izumi looked up and her brother and still saw his Sharingan activated. His wasn't fully matured yet and it frustrated him very much, while hers was fully matured with three tomoe's in each eye, unlike her brother who only had two.
But Izumi was different, and she knew that. That's why all these things were happening to her. But it's not like she would shout it out from the rooftops, she would always keep that thought locked up in her head.
"What the hell was that Izumi?" Her brother snapped at her, anger etched on his face.
"I saw something-"
"You could've died if I didn't come in." Madara closed his eyes and started rubbing his nose. "What did you see that was so important?"
Izumi opened her mouth, but it wasn't like she could tell her brother that she thought she saw Tobirama Senju. That's why she decided to lie. "…It was nothing Madara. I'm sorry for what I did, I could've died and I know that now."
Madara opened his eyes, the anger in his eyes slowly faded away only to reveal worry and relief. "Let's just go, we need to report this to Naha-sama."
The moment they walked in through Nidai's gates, Izumi felt so much safer, she didn't have to keep looking behind every few minutes to make sure no one was following them, even if she was just overreacting.
"I'm going to see Naha-sama; you can go find the house that they've prepared for us, okay?" Madara asked. Izumi nodded her head and walked over to where Kazue-san lived, Naha-sama's wife.
After knocking and slightly opening the door, Izumi poked her head through the small gap. "Kazue-san?"
"Oh! Izumi-chan, come in, come in!" The old lady stood up from her cushion and hurryingly ushered Izumi in. "Is your twin with you today?"
Izumi shook her head. "No, it's only Madara this time."
"That must be quite a big change, isn't it?" Kazue asked. Izumi nodded her head, agreeing with Kazue's question. "Well, it doesn't matter today. You and your brother will be staying here today." She said with a smile that warmed Izumi's heart.
"Thank you Kazue-san." Kazue led her down the hallway in the house and showed her two rooms, the smaller one for her and the larger one for Madara. After thanking the elder, she was dragged to the table in the living room and had tea with Kazue. All the lady would ask was how the main compound was doing and how Hiromi was doing.
Hiromi was one of Izumi's closest friends, if not closest next to Kazuyo. The only big difference between the two was that Hiromi had absolutely no training in the Shinobi arts, unlike Kazuyo. The only reason why Kazue would ask about her friend was because Hiromi was her granddaughter.
"They never come to visit, you know? It makes me so sad." She shook her head. "If only my daughter considered my feelings too, not that rotten husband of hers." Izumi smiled and stood up, careful to not spill the cup of tea on the table.
"It seems that my brother and your husband is about to arrive Kazue-san, let us welcome them back." She helped the old lady up and walked toward the front door, it opened the moment Izumi and Kazue walked out of the living room. Talk about perfect timing.
Madara bowed to the elder lady. "Thank you for letting us stay in your house for the week, especially because of what just happened. I hope it is not too much trouble"
"Oh, it's okay Madara! It's not trouble at all." She replied with a smile.
Izumi bowed. "Thank you Naha-sama for opening your house to us."
"You two are too formal, my wife and I have zero problems housing you two for your stay." The older man said after motioning for the two to raise their heads.
"Now, I'll have dinner prepared. Why don't you two go to the head to the bathhouse?" Kazue suggested.
Izumi smiled. "Yes please!"
Izumi rubbing her arms as she walked next to Madara, feeling lighter without the weight of her armor weighing her down. She could already see bruises popping up on her arms from her earlier fight now too.
"You should totally heal me Madara."
"I should totally not." She glared at her brother.
"Why not?"
"Because, it's your punishment-"
"Good evening Madara-sama!" Two girls suddenly shouted out and bowed, interrupting the two's playful banter. Madara started blushing, not sure of what to do.
"Uh… Good evening too." He said. But giggles and squeals came from the two girls who looked to be around the same age, causing Izumi to scoff at the stupidity of these two.
"Let's go Madara, we need to go now or we won't make it back to Kazue-san's dinner." She said as she dragged her brother in the direction of the baths. She was glad that she wasn't 14 yet.
Izumi hated it when people did this to her brother, it was just too weird. Especially when girls her brother's age did it, it seemed to cause her brother to just shut down. Just because he's the next clan heir doesn't mean you have to suck up to him now; her father wasn't going to die that soon. If Izumi had any say in it, he wouldn't become clan head until he was like 50! But she was exaggerating, of course.
But there was nothing she could complain about. He is a 14 year old after all, and like most boys his age they tend to get weird around girls.
"About 45 minute's right?" She asked.
"Yeah, I think so. But I might get out earlier; you can go home on your own if that happens right?"
"Of course, who do you think I am? Izuna?" Madara flicked her forehead, causing Izumi to rub the pink spot.
"You're his twin; of course I'm going to worry! You two share like half a brain!" Izumi shot her brother a glare and walked into the women's side of the baths while hearing her brother laugh from behind her.
"Just because I'm his twin doesn't mean I'm going to get lost like he does…" She grumbled to herself as she walked into the changing room. Izumi could see women of all ages around her. She was pretty sure she saw a few kids too, not that she cared. She took off her clothes and placed them neatly into the baskets the bathhouse provided and walked out of the door into the showers. After rinsing herself, she quickly walked towards the hot spring and sat down in the water. Izumi groaned and moved around to sit more comfortably in the hot spring.
"Thank Kami for hot springs; I wouldn't know what to do without them."
A/N: Hey guys, so here's the next chapter of Looking into His Eyes! How was it? Was it good? This chapter was fairly easy to write compared to the others and it's probably because I wasn't chained down to events and ages like the others. I could basically write whatever I wanted and whoever I wanted. Hehe, the power of an author! Muahahaha!
Anyways, I think I will start recommending books to read! (Wait, am I even allowed too? If not then…oops.) I absolutely love to read both fanfiction and actual hardcover or paperback books. If I'm actually not allowed too, then someone should totally tell me so I don't break some unknown law that's floating around in the thing we call Internet.
My first recommendation is the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. This series it just awesome, especially if you're into the fantasy-type novels like I am. It's so well written and I can just reread all the books over and over again and not get tired of it! Woop woop!
Thank you Guest, LightToYourDarkness, Himeno Kazehito, Jerkles, lucky vortex, Loopy, iciclefanAJ, Llyrica, and silly60 for your reviews! You guys are one of the reasons why I'm updating this earlier than planned! All of your guy's reviews made me super warm and happy inside, especially since I found out that the guy that I thought was kinda cute just started dating. Dx sadness.
So that its!
Until next time dear Readers~