DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN NARUTO OR ANY OF IT'S CHARCTERS/PLOTS. I ONLY OWN MY OC'S.
Some wounds cut us so deep that they stop us. Stop us from letting go, from growing up, from seeing the truth.
Laurell K. Hamilton, A Stroke Of Midnight
Love
As soon as Izumi managed to get herself in control, she nodded her head to Tobirama. "I'm fine, we need to take these two to the hospital to make sure they're okay."
"You sure you're fine?"
"Yeah." Taking a deep breath, she walked over to Kagami and pointed to Kazuyo. "Could you carry her?"
"Sure." She knelt to the ground and carefully picked the little boy up and turned towards the door after making sure Kazuyo was secure in Tobirama's arms.
"...How did you know?" Izumi asked without turning around.
"I heard you."
"Oh." Finally turning her head, she was about to ask him another question when she saw the look on his face. "Tobirama?"
"Something's in the house-" His eyes suddenly widened before running to where she stood. "Get down!" A second later, Kazuyo's house exploded and the wind from it hit her. Quickly holding Kagami to her chest to protect him so her back was facing the hot flames. As soon as they died down, the sound of another explosion hit her.
"Where…?" Looking into the direction of where the sound came from, she almost fell to the ground.
It was her house.
Izumi ran towards Tobirama and placed Kagami in front of him. "W-Watch him, I'll be right back!"
"Wait-" Ignoring his warning, Izumi ran as fast as she could towards the house.
She needed to get there before everything burned down. She had too, if not then-
No, it would be fine. All she had to do was reach it in time.
When Izumi finally saw her house, a cry left her mouth. Almost half of it was gone, the other was still burning. She pushed passed the surrounding neighbors and tried to storm into the house, but was stopped within five feet of the place; it was too hot to go in there without some sort of protection.
"No…" She fell to her knees, her hands hanging at her sides. The sudden grief and pain Izumi felt hit her like a tsunami, she couldn't help but slam her fists into the grass in front of her. "No...no!" Why? Why couldn't she do anything-
Wait, what the hell was she doing? She knew water jutsus.
Izumi stood up and went through handseals for one but stopped when she saw a large spray of water soared over her head and onto the house. She whirled her head around and saw Tobirama standing there doing a water jutsu. Izumi almost jumped on him at that moment, she was so happy that she could've kissed him right on the spot if it weren't for their current situation with the burning house. She turned back to watch as the water downed on her house, but she didn't see that Kazuyo was awake and carrying a still knocked out Kagami in her arms. She had awaken about five seconds after Izumi left to check on her house and had taken one look at her own and saw that there was nothing she could do to save it, that was how she managed to get Tobirama to rush over to where her best friend was.
As soon as he finished the water jutsu on Izumi's house, the flames had died down and the heat was to the point where Izumi would be able to withstand it for a few minutes. She ran in through the gigantic hole in what was her living room and went straight towards her room where all the things she was worried about the most. Breaking open the door to it, she quickly pulled her sleeves up to her mouth to block out the smoke and rushed to where her closet was.
Or, what remained of it. Half of it was burned down but luckily, it wasn't where the important stuff was. Ignoring the burning in her hand, Izumi pushed away one of the closet doors and searched for the box. She started crying again, her second time in less than an hour when she found it. Sensing that she only had another few seconds before the flames got stronger and makes the house collapse, she grabbed it and ran out of the house.
Izumi ran out at the perfect time because soon after, the house collapsed.
"What was so important that you almost had to risk your life for?" Kazuyo asked.
"These are the stuff that I brought over here from the old compound." Tightening her grip on the box, the only thing Izumi could do now was just watch as the hopes and dreams of peace burned away while the only thing that kept her sane was the warm hand on her back, comforting her.
"Are you sure it's okay if I stay here? I know the Senju don't like me and-"
"It's fine. If they have something against it, they'll have to talk to me about it." Izumi narrowed her eyes and walked into the house, still not sure about the decision she had made right on the spot a few minutes ago.
"If you say so. Don't blame me if you get some complaints about broken noses."
"Izumi."
She waved her hand at Tobirama and sat down in a dining chair. "I'll be on my best behavior." Izumi said before placing the box down onto the table. She sighed and it didn't go unnoticed by the man standing behind her.
"What's wrong?"
"I just can't...believe it, you know?" She did a dark laugh before continuing. "I lost my last brother and my house. It's like my mind hasn't caught up to it yet." She brushed her hand on top of the box and after a few seconds, moved her hand to where the lock was. The only way to unlock it was to insert the chakra of the owner and that happened to be Izumi.
Inside of it was things Tobirama didn't expect. "What is all of that?"
She pulled out the large black sweater and that was when he noticed that she had a smile that only came with remembering fond memories. "It was Izuna's. That's why I couldn't just let it burn." Leaving it on her lap, she pulled out two of the smaller pieces of paper and flipped them over. "This one was a picture of my father and mother on their wedding day and this one was the family photo we all took a few months after we were born." He noticed that her mother wasn't in the photo on the right, it was only five children (including Izumi) and her father. "My mother died, giving birth to Izuna and I." She answered to his unspoken question.
Photos were so rare and expensive, that was another reason why she could leave it there to burn. These were the only things she had to remember how her family looked like. Taking one last look at the things she pulled out, Izumi started putting them away when a hand on hers stopped her. Tobirama was looking into the box, a confused look on his face.
"Why do you have a pile of rocks in here?"
Izumi blushed and hid her face. "It the thing you made for me when I was five. Obviously, the cloth that tied it together is gone but I don't know," She chuckled. "I just couldn't throw them away."
"That make-shift thing I made for you to pass the time?" He gave her an incredulous look. "You kept that?"
"Yeah." She closed the lid and stood up, a smile on her face. "Well, I don't want to intrude but obviously I'm going to be here for a while. Where's your bathroom? I want to take a bath if you don't mind."
"It's down the hall. You'll notice, the door is open."
"Thanks Tobirama." She walked up to him and gave him a quick hug before rushing away.
One year later…
"Hashirama, give me another mission."
"This is the fifth one in two weeks Izumi, don't you think you're doing too much?"
Izumi gave Hashirama a tired sigh before shaking her head. "It's fine. Don't you have other things to worry about, like getting married?"
He groaned and slammed his head onto his desk. "Please don't remind me, I've only met the poor girl once."
"You guys will be fine." She held out her hand. "Now, about a mission."
"Fine." Lifting his head up, Hashirama ruffled through the mess of papers on his desk and stopped at one a few seconds later. "I only have one but you'll need another person."
"I can probably do it alone-"
"No, it has to have two people. Unless you want to stop with the missions and get back to your Clan Head duties?" He asked, hopeful.
"I don't have to worry about that, unlike my brother, I have a Council that manages the paperwork."
When Izumi officially became the Clan Head of the Uchiha Clan after her brother's defection from Konoha, she got rid of the traditional (and useless) Elders and established a group of hand-picked people she could trust to handle with the paperwork, so by the time paperwork reached her, it was only the important ones dealing with other clans and with the village itself.
Hashirama sighed. "But It's not just that, I'm worried for you. I think you're taking too many missions."
"You've said that already." She leaned forward and grabbed the scroll from his hand. "Well, I'll get someone-" She suddenly stopped talking and stiffened, not bothering to turn around when the door opened to reveal Hashirama's younger brother, Tobirama.
The temperature in the office went down by many degrees. Izumi continued standing still, ignoring Tobirama and he doing the same. Hashirama knew immediately something bad had happened between the two.
But his younger brother did ask if he could stay with him for a few days, why didn't something click in Hashirama's head sooner? They obviously had some sort of argument, resulting in the white-haired man to get kicked out of his own home.
...Maybe this mission could help with whatever happened between them.
"Perfect! You two can go on this mission!" Hashirama said happily, acting like everything was normal.
"No." Izumi quickly said.
"I'm busy." Tobirama tried handing him a scroll. "The eastern half of the village is requesting more buildings and there are more children than teachers, so we might have to ask some retired shinobi to start teaching-"
"Tobirama"
"And the hospital is requesting a few more supplies-"
"Tobirama!"
He sighed. "I can't go on this mission-"
"We wouldn't be well together for a mission." Izumi also said, trying to get the older Senju to change his mind.
"It doesn't matter, all the other shinobis are off doing missions, meeting with the smaller clans, or helping with construction." He gave them a smile. "Now, your mission."
"Brother-"
"I don't want to hear it."
"But Hashirama-"
"No." He grabbed the scroll from Tobirama's hands and shoved the mission one in it, ignoring the dumbfounded look on Izumi's face. "You can go over the mission, can't you?"
Tobirama scowled at the scroll in his hand before nodding. "...Yes." He left the room in a speed he was famed for, leaving behind the Uchiha Clan Head.
"That goddamn man..." Izumi muttered before leaving the room, leaving behind a quite satisfied Hokage.
The next day…
Her legs hurt.
Not that she would complain about running too much to Tobirama because she's, well...angry at him. For good reason too.
"Izumi, there's a group heading towards us, their chakra reserves are too large and they're traveling too fast. Be ready." Tobirama suddenly said interrupting her thoughts.
The only thing she did was nod her head, not bothering to actually answer him. A few seconds passed by until Izumi was able to sense them and that was when she activated her Sharingan. She could feel the slight itching from her eyes and the temptation to use her Mangekyō was high, but it wasn't high enough to where Izumi would risk her eyesight to use it for some measly fight like this. She knew the outcome of having this eye and by watching both of her brothers, Izumi vowed to use it only in dire situations.
But this fight was exactly what Izumi needed, she had to get rid of her anger towards Tobirama somehow and the past few missions she took had almost to no fighting in them.
The two waited until the enemy got closer and actually started attacking before laying a hand on them. "Die, you Uchiha scum!" Hearing one of the men say this only riled Izumi up more. If he wanted to be the idiot and insult her clan, then why not show him the power of the Uchiha then?
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" A large fireball flew out of her mouth and hit one of the men while the others avoided it. Not waiting, she quickly jumped over the burning man and stabbed another behind him. Izumi heard a grunt of pain from behind her, meaning that Tobirama had engaged with his side of the enemy.
Her eye caught a movement from behind her, letting her whirl around and block the kick aimed at her head. She smirked and grabbed the teenage boy's leg and threw him behind her (with the help of chakra of course), only for him to collide with one of his own teammates, knocking the both of them out. There were only two more fighting against her and one of them was not in her eyesight. The man with blonde hair came running towards her going through handseals that her Sharingan started copying.
"Raiton: Gian!" A large spear of lightning shot out from the man's mouth, causing Izumi to jump to her left. She didn't notice that the second remaining enemy shot out from his hiding spot at grabbed her when she did. Her eyes widened and she tried to pull away, but the man had his arms firmly wrapped around her shoulders.
"Kill her!" The black haired man that held her shouted out. Izumi inwardly sighed, realizing that the remaining two were stronger than they looked. Closing her eyes, she reopened them everything surrounding her became clearer than using her average three-tomoe Sharingan. She quickly turned her head stared at the blonde running towards her.
"Amaterasu!" Black flames ignited onto the man's body, shocking the brown-haired enemy behind her. He loosened his grip, letting Izumi grab onto the man and stab him with the kunai she had in her weapons pouch. She deactivated her Sharingan, but had to shake her head to stop with the slight paint that came with using it. Pushing the dead man off of her, she walked over to where the blonde lay and stopped the black flames. She bent down and began searching the man to find a clue to why they were attacking them when something shiny caught her eye.
Izumi pulled it out, only to realize it was a hitai-ate similar to the ones shinobis got in Konoha. Instead of the leaf-mark on hers, this one had two connected rectangular ovals with an extra circle on the upper left of it.
"That's a Kumogakure hitai-ate." Tobirama suddenly said from behind her.
"Komogakure? Why would they be all the way over here?" She asked him, standing up with it in her hand.
"I don't know, but something about this unnerves me." A dark look passed over his eyes. "Let's just finish the mission and get home."
"Speaking about home..." Izumi added. He sighed and held up his hand.
"I don't think this is the best place to talk about it."
"But-"
"There's an inn a few minutes away from here, let's just stay there for the night. We can head to the town tomorrow."
"...Okay." Izumi put away the hitai-ate and followed Tobirama.
"I'm sorry, we only have one room available today."
"It's fine. We'll take it." Tobirama handed the old lady the money and grabbed the key, not uttering one single word to Izumi. He went up the stairs next to them, Izumi close behind. When he opened the door to the room, she heard him sigh before walking in. She saw why.
There was only one bed.
The moment she slammed the door closed, Izumi walked up to Tobirama and put her hand on her hip. "Don't you have something to say to me?"
"Izumi-"
She narrowed her eyes and started tapping her foot. "I'm waiting. In fact, I have been for the past few days."
He groaned and took of his happuri. "Fine, I apologize."
"For what?"
"...For getting angry at Hiruzen."
"Angry? It was more like you raged at him." She gave him a smile. "But I accept your apology." There was more to what happened, but she decided to let it go. "I'll be back. I'm going to the hot spring connected to the place." She left the room, leaving the white-haired Senju to his own thoughts.
It was only her that he would ever act this way.
What was so special about Izumi? Why would he always get so unnerved when she got so mad at him? The only other people that have managed to accomplish this feat were his parents and Hashirama. Did this mean he had complete trust in her, despite what her brother is? But then again, they are two totally different people.
But still family too. He knew that he would do anything -and he meant anything, for Hashirama.
Would Izumi do anything for her brother? For Madara?
Tobirama shook his head. No, he was over thinking too many things like usual.
About an hour later, Izumi came back refreshed. She had needed all of that, the apology and the hot spring. She felt renewed, less tired. She would see why, Izumi had a lot of stress because of the last two weeks.
"Tobirama?"
"Yeah?" She walked up to him at the desk and placed her hand on his shoulders. "I think I need to say sorry for the way I acted." She frowned. "I may have overreacted at you."
He shook his head and stood up. "It's fine. I realize that I had gotten a little too angry at Hiruzen."
She smiled and turned around to walk away, but Tobirama grabbed her and placed a kiss on her lips. She pulled away a few seconds later, shocked at his sudden move. "What was that for?"
"Nothing." He gave her one of his famous smirks.
"Oh?" Izumi gave him a sickly sweet smile. She placed her hands on his chest and slowly moved it to where her arms wrapped around his neck. She was standing on her toes with her mouth right next to his ear. "Two can play at that game." Izumi whispered into it. She knew that he had to be at his limit. She could tell with how stiff his muscles were, how...unresponsive he was. She thought she had won.
She was so very wrong.
"Then let's play." Tobirama whispered. In a speed that had made him famous, he threw her onto the only bed and leaned down, barely an inch between their faces. A sound of surprise was barely able to leave her mouth before he claimed them.
The temperature in the room got hotter and hotter as their kisses heated up.
Tobirama pulled back to take off his shirt, only to return quickly. She ran her hands over the hard muscles that came with being a shinobi and moaned into his lips. He took off her shirt and moved his lips to a spot behind her ear that he knew she loved to be both kissed and touched at. This incited another moan from her and he started kissing a path down her body and stopped at where her pants started.
"Izumi." Tobirama suddenly said, his voice deeper and huskier than usual, revealing his lust for her. Izumi knew what he was asking because if she didn't say no right now, there would be no going back. Looking into his eyes, she saw the amount of love he had for her. She nodded her head. "Are you sure?"
The hidden question remained.
They weren't married or arranged to be and there was a chance that he would have to get married to a random stranger for clan relationships. And not to mention that it was frowned upon for a woman to sleep with a man that was not her husband.
Yet, Izumi couldn't see herself with anyone but him. She felt that he would be the only man in the world that she could ever do something like this with.
"Yes, I'm sure." She was ready.
Tobirama nodded his head and started kissing her again, tangling his hands into her hair. He never moved his lips off of hers, but he did move his hands to the strap of her bra and practically ripped the damned thing off before moving his hands to her hips. They broke apart for a few seconds and during this was when she tugged on his pants. As fast as he could, he took of his pants and helped Izumi take of hers. She grabbed his face and pulled him in for another kiss, but something about this one was different and Tobirama soon found out why.
They both rose together and fell together, and in midst of it Izumi whispered a single I love you that almost went unheard had Tobirama not been listening. Many unknown emotions were discovered that night, some more than the other. The broken pieces that had formed in both of their hearts during their younger years were mended, renewing their will to continue, to drive away that sliver of darkness that had burrowed its way into their hearts. There were no regrets and as Izumi fell to the lulls of sleep at the end in Tobirama's arms, she had finally found the place she had been searching for.
Her home.
Tobirama was the first to awaken and remember the events of the night before. His arm was wrapped over her stomach while their legs tangled together, his face in her hair. He carefully lifted his head up to look at Izumi, her eyes were closed and she looked at peace.
To fall asleep like this in a person's arms means a lot for a trained shinobi, it meant complete and utter trust for the person.
Looking down at Izumi made Tobirama realize that she trusted him with her heart, with her life if it came down to it.
I love you.
He remembered what she had said to him last night and a large swell of emotions rose from his heart. Looking at the woman in his arms, Tobirama realized that he was being such a cliché man at what he had thought right then.
He had thought that Izumi was the most beautiful person.
Seeing the hair in her face, he tried moving some back behind her ears as carefully as he could, but this small little movement caused her to wake up.
When Izumi opened her eyes, she quickly noticed their state of undress. This then caused her to turn beet red because she then remembered what they had did, so the only thing she could think of was to hide her face.
Of course it was into his chest, but what other place did she have?
She felt the vibrations of his laugh from her position on his chest, but it didn't matter, he wrapped his arms around her and moved to where she laid on top of him, and him below.
"T-Tobirama!" She said, her voice higher than usual. She was trying to hide her chest and her face now.
"What is there to hide? I've seen everything already." He teased with his usual cockiness and smirk.
"S-Stop!" It was so obvious that Uchiha Izumi was very much out of her comfort zone, causing Tobirama to find even more amusement.
"But it doesn't matter," He gave her a small kiss on her forehead and hugged her. "You're beautiful, both inside and out."
Izumi, feeling slightly satisfied and very happy at what he just said, smiled and surrendered once again to the warmth of Tobirama's arms.
A/N: …
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I may have just died from complete embarrassment from writing this, I hope you know that. And the funny thing is, I've read a lot more embarrassing smut than whatever you would call what I just wrote. Ohmygod I'm like so dead and like so red as I write this A/N xD Please forgive me if it's confusing because like, idk I can't fix it if it is so… But did you see what I did there? 'Looking into his eyes' I just added the TITLE. Hehe.
So yeah. That happened.
Well, I hope you liked it because I realized, I needed to gift you guys because WE JUST HIT 200 FOLLOWERS! WOOP WOOP! I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH OMG THANK YOU YOU DON'T KNOW HOW I FEEL THIS IS MY GIFT TO YOU GUYS.
Well, that also happened.
Like I have so many things I want to say, but then I just can't put it to words. So for one, I want to thank every single reviewer who has reviewed for this story. Like, really, thanks. You guys are probably the sole reason to why I even continue writing, you know? Next I would like to thank every follower and every single person who has favorited on this story. Didn't think I would get this many people.
So, thank you.
Also because of this, I'm going to recommend my most favorite book series ever. I recommend the Mythos Academy series written by Jennifer Estep. The first book in this series is Touch of Frost, and it's basically about an academy where all the gods of ancient cultures like Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese; all those gods had children and those children descendants go to the school called Mythos Academy. Like, all those gods from all those cultures co-exist. But yeah, this my probably my most favorite series ever next to the Throne of Glass one.
So, I would love a review and if you haven't already, please press that follow and favorite button!
Until next time!~
Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu = Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique
Raiton: Gian = Lightning Release: False Darkness