DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN NARUTO OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS/PLOTS. I ONLY OWN MY OC'S.
"There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss. It is necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live...the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and Hope."
Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)
Time Flies By…Doesn't It?
The last time Izumi saw Tobirama was when she was 10 and on that river, ready to fight him.
She was now 16 and trying desperately not to punch her father in the face right now.
Izumi gave her father a stiff smile, her eyes revealing how much anger and annoyance she felt at the moment. "Father, why is Grandmother here right now?" She turned towards the old lady sitting in the living room of their house. "Not that I am complaining, it is an honor for you to come and visit us Grandmother."
Mariko stood up, her knees popping from old age. "I'm here to talk to you about something Izumi." She turned her grey eyes on Izumi. "I hear you turned down Hiroyuki's marriage proposal."
Izumi felt her right eye twitch, something that didn't go unnoticed by her father. "Izumi-"
"I thought I told Father not to say anything but yes Grandmother, I did decline his proposal." Izumi interrupted. "Why would you do such a thing? He's such a nice man-"
"Who happens to be 11 years my senior-"
"You are wasting your life away girl! You are at the perfect age for marriage, yet you choose to do these dangerous jobs that will get yourself killed!" Mariko shouted out, her patience with Izumi nonexistent. "You should be settled down now, living in a house with a husband to care for-"
"And what, rot away in that house? Mother a child from a man I don't even love, yet alone know?"
"How dare you-"
"That may have been your life, but it is not mine. I will marry a man that I love, I will have child with a man that I can trust with my life, with my heart!" Izumi snapped at her Grandmother.
"Get over yourself! Those are just dreams Izumi, in reality that doesn't happen!" Mariko took a step forward, her eyes revealing how furious she was with the 16 year old.
There was silence after she said that, the tension in the air thick enough to cut with a knife.
"Then I will not get married." Izumi took a step back, her feet side by side. "It is that simple." She said calmly.
Mariko voice raised an octave, the red in her face revealing how outraged she was. "How dare you say those things!" She raised a finger at Izumi. "As the heiress of this clan and as a woman, it is your job -"
Izumi's eyes flashed red with anger from what Mariko had said. "My job?" Her voice shook with anger as she struggled to stop herself from hitting the old woman in front of her, despite it being Izumi's grandmother. "My job is to protect the Uchiha from enemies. My job is to be a Kunoichi, a Shinobi. I am not some…baby maker that you can control!" Izumi balled her fists as she remembered each death of a friend, of a family member, of an Uchiha. "You have not seen what I have, the deaths, the darkness. Why would I want to bring a child into this hell that we call the world?" Izumi pointed to herself. "It is my life; it shall be my decision, not yours."
Mariko stood there, breathing hard from their argument. "It is my job to help you with these things for you because your mother is gone; she's not here to do these things!"
"But you are not my mother; you are my grandmother from my father's side of the family, not hers. She-"
"Your mother is dead because of you!"
"Mother! That is enough!" Tajima suddenly shouted out right after his mother shouted out those words. Mariko quickly turned her head towards him and started to say something, but he cut her off. "I think you need to leave, now."
"Tajima-"
"Now Mother." The old lady straightened her back and walked out of the room. A few seconds later, Tajima and Izumi heard the front door being slammed shut. He turned around to say something to his daughter but the place she was standing in was empty.
"I fucking hate that lady!" Izumi swung her fist, Kazuyo barely missed her punch.
"Calm down Izumi, I haven't seen you this mad in forever-" Izumi jumped back to avoid the kick from the other Kunoichi. They stood there, breathing hard from the spar that they were doing for the past 15 minutes.
"She's such a bitch!" Izumi screamed out. She did a 180 and punched the tree while she screamed, causing it to explode from the chakra she unconsciously released. There was a few seconds of silence until Kazuyo broke it.
"Maybe I should…leave and let you calm down." Kazuyo said, slowly taking a step back with her hands up. She eyed the broken tree, its broken pieces surrounding the angry girl. "I'm pretty sure that the tree right there is going to be me next and I quite like my body and its parts."
Izumi ran her hand through her hair. Her hairband broke halfway through their spar, letting Izumi's long hair down. (Despite this distraction, she almost managed to overwhelm Kazuyo, a Kunoichi almost two years her senior.)
"Sorry about that. I guess that's a good idea, I think I do need time alone." Kazuyo smiled at the girl and said goodbye as she walked back to the compound.
Izumi felt her anger slowly disappear as she took in her surroundings. She always felt at home whenever she went down to the river (which happens to be the same one Madara and that Senju kid met up at years ago). Her father worried that the Senju would come back to this river, but Izumi never saw a single hair of a Senju in the past three years since she started coming here. She walked along the bank, reminiscing about the past six years of her life.
Izumi didn't know why, but she just felt like doing that.
Six Years Ago…
"Father, it is not Madara's fault!" Izumi shouted out to her father, standing protectively in front of Madara.
"Move Izumi." Tajima demanded. But she didn't move, she stayed where she was standing.
"Father, please listen-"
"Your older brother was meeting with a Senju, a Senju! Do you need to be remembered of what they have done to the Uchiha, who they've killed within our clan?"
"But we do the same thing to them Father, do you not understand? We kill Senju's that have family, friends!" Her words got louder and louder. "Did you not think that I did not notice that kunai Butsuma threw at me? Did you think I would not notice that you ignored it so you could do the same to his son? I could have died-"
Smack
Izumi's head snapped to the side, an imprint of a hand on her cheek that got redder and redder by the second. She clutched her cheek in shock and pain, trying hard not to burst out crying or to tear up. Even Tajima stood there frozen, shocked at what he did.
"Get out." Izumi and Madara stood where they were, unmoving. "I said get out, both of you!" Widening his eyes at his father's sudden outburst, Madara grabbed Izumi and rushed her out of the room, not wanting to face his father's anger. He led her to the kitchen and made her sit on a chair while he got a towel and wet it with cold water.
"I'm sorry." Izumi muttered, barely audible.
"For what? Standing up for me?" Madara said as he walked towards her. He placed the cold towel on her slightly swollen cheek, causing Izumi to flinch from the pain.
"But-" She looked up to see her brother smiling at her, but Izumi could tell that he was in pain, but not the physical kind.
"I don't know what would happen if I lost you Izumi." He suddenly told her, shocking Izumi into silence and worsening the aura of the room. But he lightened it when he tweaked her nose. "That's why you need to get stronger, ne?"
"Yes Madara!"
After watching Madara and her father leave the house (at separate times of course), Izumi went into her room and immediately went for the "doll" that sat on her bookshelf. For some reason, she felt a sudden swell of emotions in her chest. Izumi clutched the doll to her chest and cried, it was too much today, too much.
She cried for Arata and Katsumi, her brothers that didn't get to live past the age of 8.
She cried for Madara, who had to lose a dear friend today.
She cried for her Father, a person who had to raise his children alone without his wife.
She cried for Tobirama, the person who had laughed with her, smiled with her, hugged her while they both were in captivity.
But most of all?
She cried for herself, knowing that there was nothing she could do to change anything.
Five Years Ago…
Izumi was walking through the clan when she felt Hiromi's chakra running up to her.
"Hiromi-" Her eyes widened from seeing the disheveled state her friend was in. "Kami, what happened?"
"Nidai…was attacked by the…Senju."
"Again?!" Izumi shouted out, disbelieving at what the enemy clan was doing again. But she started to panic when she saw tears in Hitomi's eyes.
Tears meant bad things.
"My grandmother was one of the few who died."
"Kazue-san's…dead?" Hitomi nodded her head, a few tears falling from her eyes. "I-"
"I miss her already Izumi, why didn't I go and see her? Why didn't I go and see my grandparents? Why?" She wailed out. Izumi quickly grabbed the girl's shoulders and held her, comforting her friend as best as she could.
'The Senju…they are the one's responsible for this.' She thought to herself.
It was when Izumi held her mourning friend that a sliver of hatred, a sliver of darkness, slipped itself into her heart.
It was then when she started to hate the Senju.
Four Years Ago…
Izumi had just stabbed the man (a Senju) in his chest when she heard someone cry out from across the field. It sounded suspiciously like her older brother's voice. The dead man quickly forgotten, Izumi sprinted to where the voice came from.
But what she saw was not what she expected at all.
Her brother was leaning over a body, all the Senju's around him dead. This mission wasn't supposed to be hard; it wasn't supposed to turn into a fight. But they sprung a trap that the Senju had placed, which meant a fight was inevitable.
"Madara…"
"Izumi, do something! Koizumi's dying!" Her brother shouted out to her. He turned around and Izumi was shocked at what she saw.
Instead of the usual three tomoe's in a Sharingan, her brother's eyes had three large tomoe with a hole in the middle of the head, revealing a small circle of red while the tomoe's all connected into one large circle.
But Izumi ran forward, her hand glowing with the green of iryo-ninjutsu. Her brother's eyes would be dealt with later. But looking at Koizumi, Izumi knew that there was nothing that she could do to save her brother's girlfriend, and she was pretty sure Koizumi knew it too. After all, the Uchiha's weren't famous for their iryo-ninjutsu.
"Izumi…" Koizumi coughed and blood came out of her mouth, splattering Izumi's armor with her blood. "…Take care of-"
Cough
"Take care…of Madara for me… Okay?" She asked the girl, her voice getting smaller and smaller as the seconds passed. "And Madara…"
"K-Koizumi, please don't do this to me! Don't leave me!"
"I'm sorry that…I couldn't fulfill…that promise…that I made." Koizumi smiled at her boyfriend, the man that she loved, the man that she had planned on marrying. She raised her hand to his cheek and wiped away the tears that fell from his eyes, taking all the strength that she had in her dying body. "I…love you, Madara…"
The life in her eyes disappeared, as did a large piece of Madara's heart. He clutched her limp hand and screamed out, his little sister forgotten in the misery that surrounded him.
His one true love was…gone.
Three Years Ago…
"Izumi…?" The girl turned her head towards the voice, only to drop the plate she was carrying, causing it to shatter along the floor in tiny shards of pottery. But Izumi didn't care if she was barefoot, the only thing that mattered was her twin brother covered in blood. She ran forward and sat Izuna down on the chair.
"Kami Izuna, where are you hurt?" She asked as she struggled to get his armor off.
"Not my…blood."
"What? I can't hear you, speak up!" Izumi shouted out as she checked his body for any cuts or stab wounds.
"It's not my blood Izumi." He said, still quiet but loud enough for her to hear. She stared at him, not quite believing what he said.
"Then who's?" Her brother closed his eyes, as if remembering the person caused him pain.
"Hideki." Izumi's eyes widened and she covered her mouth to prevent a gasp from leaving her mouth.
This was Madara and Koizumi all over again.
"H-He was stabbed, protecting me." Izuna looked up at her, tears flowing down his face, causing them to be red by the time they fell from his cheek. Hideki was Izuna's best friend from when they were all little. The two grew up with him, even though Hideki was more Izuna's friend then Izumi's. But they did almost everything together, they threw their first kunai's together, both became a full-fledged Shinobi together. But to think that Hideki was dead… It must be like hell for her brother right now.
"My eyes…they changed Izumi."
Izumi peered into her brother's (dead-like) eyes. "They look the same to me, what are you talking about?" He shook his head and she watched as his dark brown (almost black) eyes change into the red of the Sharingan.
But his eyes kept on changing; it didn't stop at the three tomoe's like the usual Sharingan. Izumi let out a gasp as she watched his eyes changing into something else.
It was the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Two Years Ago…
Izumi watched as the life in her brother's eyes returned little by little.
"Hey you two lovebirds, you're making me sick!"
"Oh shut up brat, be happy for us!" Her questionably sane friend shouted out. But soon after she said those things, Kazuyo let out a playful scream as Izuna pulled her into a hug from behind.
"Don't talk to my sister like that!"
"Eh, she's used to that- DON'T DO THAT YOU KNOW I'M TICKLISH!" Izumi let out a laugh as she saw two (out of five) of the most important people in her life bring the life back into each other's eyes as they both tickled each other, which resulted in a kiss not even a minute after.
"Gross, don't do that in front of me!" She shouted out as she covered her eyes. "It's my brother!"
"Oh grow up you baby! When you have a boyfriend, you'll be doing the same!"
"That's only if she ever gets one." Izumi heard her brother whisper.
"Hey!"
"What? It's true!"
"You want me to throw this rock at your head?"
"What?!"
Thump
"Goddamn it Izumi, that hurt!"
"That's what you get, my stupid twin."
And for some reason, Izumi felt happier, lighter.
It was almost as if some of the darkness in her heart had disappeared.
One Year Ago…
Her feet dangled of the edge of the roof as she stared into the night sky.
"Hey Izumi." She turned her head around to see Madara walking towards her.
"Hi Madara." She replied. He sat down next to her and turned his head towards the stars that were shown in the sky.
Izumi didn't really know how to talk to her older brother anymore, after Koizumi's death. It traumatized him to the point where she thinks her brother doesn't want to love anyone in the fear of their death.
"Can't sleep?" Madara asked her. Izumi shook her head. Her dream tonight happened to be a really bad one, something she didn't want to remember again. She laid her head against her 19 year old brother's shoulder.
"Do you think that peace could ever be achieved Madara?" Surprise lit up in his eyes, but Izumi didn't care.
She felt too old; she's seen too much cruelty for someone her age, too much death.
"I honestly don't know." Madara turned his head back up to the sky. "It's a good dream though, having peace." A memory flashed into his head, a 14 year old him talking to Hashirama about the same exact thing.
He smiled at the bittersweet memory. "Peace…"
If only life was that easy.
Present Day
Izumi sighed and continued walking along the small cliff that stood next to the river. She decided to sit down on a spot that protruded out of the cliff, creating an overhand over the water. She let her hair down and felt the wind flow through her hair, relieving a small portion of her stress.
Many thoughts were running through her heads at that moment. For example, she wanted to take off her armor and her outer clothing and jumping into the river with only her undergarments.
She wanted to walk straight up to her grandmother and call her a bitch.
She wanted to experience her first kiss, her first love.
"Kami, you're overthinking everything Izumi, get it together." She pulled her knees up to her chest and looked over the horizon.
All she wanted was for peace, for this endless war to be over with.
This wasn't such a hard request…was it?
A/N: SO HEY GUYSSSSSS
Did you like this chapter? Because I know I did Woop woop! It's midnight and I have a shit-ton of homework to do but I was just in a mood, you know? This idea came to my head and I was like "let's do this!" I'll probably regret it in the morning but oh well... My titles always suck and I think this one is by far the worse i've actually come up with. Sadly.
On to better news, I got so many sweet/cute reviews from you guys! Thank you!
Thanks to silly60, Himeno Kazehito, Loopy, Rigoudon3, Evil E. Evil, PurplePantherOfDoom, Maka lkari, Guest, and True Guardian Angel! I had to go on Google Translate to basically translate your review Maka lkari, but once i got the translate I was like "Awww, thank you so much!" I try to make her character likable xD
So for this chapter's recommendation, I'm going with is The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith. You can probably tell just by reading the title that this is a sappy love story xD But I just love this book and I know that it is in the top five of best books ever read just because I think what happened to the main character in this story is just something so cool and something that I wish would happen to me xD
So that's about it! Don't forget to leave a review and to those who haven't follow/fav.!
Until next time!~