Reaching
LilacLilyFlower © 2009
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Unfortunately.
-O-O-O-O-
Chapter 6
(Hikari's POV)
"So, why do you only hang out with me? Why not Fumiko?" Takahiro panted, steadily moving through his katas.
Hikari blinked an eye open from her position on a log. She was meditating, because she had recently had a growth spurt in the past two months (and Naruto hadn't; he complained that Hikari was beating him) and had trouble with chakra control. When she'd attempted to do the jutsu that Shisui had given her, nothing had happened. Who knew that growth spurts also meant a growth in chakra?
"Well, we're training together now, aren't we? To graduate?" she responded.
"But you don't even say hi when you see her." Takahiro stopped abruptly, halting in his movements and facing her with a serious look on his face. "You can tell me if something is wrong, you know. We're friends now, right?"
Hikari hummed. Were they? Takahiro had, after all, snapped her out of her mourning stupor and helped her find her motivation again. He'd seen her at her worst, and heard her fears and insecurities.
"No," she said, then turned her face away so he couldn't see her embarrassment. "We're rivals."
He smirked and plopped onto the ground, patting the ground. "Friendly rivals."
"Just rivals." She still took his invitation and sat down in front of him. "Fumiko and I got into a fight."
At Takahiro's blank look, she elaborated. "When we were both...absent." When Shisui died, was left unsaid.
The pain of Shisui's death had dulled the past two months, but would occasionally throb like an old wound, reminding her sharply of the person she had lost.
"On the second day after I got the, um, news, I decided to visit her because he was one of my close friends, but he was her brother, you know? So I went to the compound and they let me in, so I thought that oh, they were done mourning already." She picked at the ground with a shuriken, scratching out shapes and symbols.
"Someone let me into her home, and she was just sitting on the couch. I told her that I had heard, and that I was sorry and she just, just blew up at me, yelling things like 'Why are you here, you scum', 'I never liked you anyways', 'You took too much time from him that he could have spent with me', and just really horrible things." She stabbed the ground with the shuriken now, right in the middle of, she noted with a scoff, the Uchiha clan symbol.
"So I just kinda left because I thought that she was just acting from sadness, and I gave her space, but she's not talking to me still, so maybe what she said was true and she really just hates me."
Hikari recalled the final parting shot that Fumiko had fired at her.
I was only friends with you because the clan told me to!
Her hand tightened and she felt the shuriken stab her hand, and warm blood dripped from the injury. She didn't bother to wrap it, and only ran some water over it. What was the point, when it would be healed in only a few hours?
Uzumaki life force really was amazing.
Takahiro cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well, I don't know how girls work," and here Hikari glared at him, "but I would try talking first, because she probably didn't mean it and thinks that you're angry with her now for all the things she said." He poked her in the arm, then said, "So talk to her sometime."
Hikari didn't respond and instead stood up, brushing the dirt off of her clothes. "Come on, we need to keep training if we want to graduate this year," she said, avoiding Takahiro's suggestion.
"Hikari, come on. Talk to her soon."
Tch. Annoying rivals.
"Maybe. Not today."
-O-O-O-O-
"Nee-chan!" A blur of yellow hair ran into her, knocking her to the ground. Hikari may have been taller, but Naruto was still stockier than her (just slightly; they were both much too slender for their age).
"Naruto! That's cheating!" Sasuke screeched to a stop in front of her, hair in a disarray.
Takahiro snickered behind her, but she ignored him in favor of a curious revelation.
"You guys are friends?"
"No!" Naruto and Sasuke denied. "He's my rival," they announced, elbowing each other out of the way.
At this, Takahiro collapsed into full-blown laughter. "HA HA- oh Kami, rivals- JUST LIKE, HA HA, YOU HIKARI- ha ha..."
Hikari kicked him in the shin, and he sobered up enough to speak more clearly (but he was still giggling). "Kid, if you want to see rivals, take a look at her and me. We're real rivals."
She glared at him something fierce. "Don't call him 'kid'. You're only one year older than us."
Naruto hugged her tightly, staring at Takahiro with open distrust. "You're not worthy of Hikari-nee's rivalry."
"I'm pretty sure I'm better than you."
"That's it! We're rivals for Nee-chan's rivalry!"
"Naruto! Idiot! I'm your rival!" Sasuke shouted. "You can't have more than one rival."
"Who says, huh, teme?"
Sasuke looked taken aback. He floundered for words. "Well, uh-"
"Sasuke."
The boys' bantering faded as Itachi walked up. Hikari avoided his eyes and pretended that she was preoccupied with patting Naruto's head (he pat her cheek in return, making her smile).
"Okaa-san wants you to help recall our officers. There's going to be a clan meeting."
"Okay!"
As Itachi turned away, Hikari impulsively cried, "Wait!"
When Itachi's eyes flickered back to her, she found herself at a loss for words. She didn't know what she was feeling and how she wanted to say what she felt, but Itachi must have understood the expression on her face, because his eyes flickered and he nodded once, shortly, before disappearing.
His confirmation gave her a strange sense of relief. Everything was okay, then.
Fumiko was okay.
-O-O-O-O-
"I can't believe I'm doing this," Hikari grumbled to herself. She adjusted the bouquet of flowers she'd gotten from the flower shop owned by Yamanaka-san, a friendly blond-haired Jounin. He'd helped her pick out the flowers with the right meanings. Purple hyacinths, for "I'm sorry." She wasn't sure just what she was apologizing for, but at least she was taking the first step.
"Well, here I go," she told her reflection.
She left her apartment and headed towards the Uchiha district. It was late (but this was Konoha; nothing unsafe would happen to her), and the moon was bright. The air was fresh and crisp, and Hikari shivered slightly. Maybe bringing a jacket was a good idea, but it was too late for that.
She hurried on. It was already rude, intruding at a late hour. She didn't want it to be ruder.
When she reached the gates of the compound, she found a very peculiar sight. Or, rather, didn't find. There were no guards surveying the perimeter or overseeing the gate.
A very, very wrong feeling began to simmer in Hikari's gut. She was suddenly aware of the eerie quiet surrounding her, and her hand, the one not holding the bouquet, crept toward the single kunai she kept in her boot. Then, she realized how ridiculous she was acting.
Stop being overly paranoid just because some guards aren't doing their jobs. They're probably taking a whizz or something. This is just the hesitance you're feeling because of confronting Fumiko.
Yeah, that's it, she thought as she entered the compound with a false bravado. They're all going to the bathroom. At the same time.
She walked as quickly as she can to Fumiko's house. As she headed down the street, she noticed a dark lump lying on the sidewalk.
It's nothing, she tried convincing herself as she neared the lump. Just a trash bag or something.
She skittered past it, barely glancing at it out of fright. Then, she did a double take and stared at the lump in horror.
It was a body, with a kunai thrust through its throat. Hikari could vaguely make out the Uchiha crest underneath all the blood. She felt a scream bubbling in her throat, so she stuffed the front of her shirt in her mouth and ran as quickly as she could to Fumiko's house.
I need to tell them oh Kami an Uchiha is dead an Uchiha was killed someone really is going around picking off the Uchiha I need to get somewhere safe hurry hurry hurry-
She slammed the door behind her, calling out a panicked, "Sorry for the intrusion!" When no one replied, Hikari felt the extremely wrong feeling increase.
She pulled the kunai out and held it in front of her, concealed behind the bouquet. As quietly as she could, she trod down the hallway to Fumiko's room, frequently checking over her shoulder and hoping that if the murderer was anywhere near, they couldn't hear her rapid heartbeat.
Hikari pushed the door to Fumiko's room open slightly. It was dark.
"Fumiko?" she whispered. She stepped into the room, heading towards where she knew the bed was. It was late, after all.
Her foot bumped into something, and she looked down, expecting a scroll or some other miscellaneous item.
Instead, she saw a white hand lying limply on the floor.
-O-O-O-O-
Hikari would later piece together the fragments of her memories of that night with Yamanaka-san.
She vaguely recalled dropping the bouquet and kunai, and her knees giving.
Falling into a puddle of congealed blood. Blood staining her hands and legs.
A burning sensation on her back.
Unable to keep herself from looking, even when every cell in her body was screaming at her to run away.
Pale face.
Black hair matted with blood.
Sprawled body.
And dead, dead eyes staring dully at the ceiling.
Gagging, retching.
Then whiteness spotting her vision.
Then nothing.
-O-O-O-O-
She also saw Itachi and Sasuke that night.
Itachi waking her up. "Hikari-san, you need to leave."
A gasp. "F-Fumiko, she's, she's-"
Incoherent babbling. Fear and anguish and not getting enough air, the air smelled like blood oh Kami she had Fumiko's blood on her hands-
"I know."
Itachi picking her up. Itachi transporting her to the street. Itachi setting her down.
- what are you doing there's a murderer you need to get away you need to be safe the murderer is after Uchihas-
"Don't let Sasuke know. I'm sorry."
Itachi turning. Sasuke running up the street crying. Itachi telling him what happened, why it happened, foolish little brother to test my strength become stronger defeat me... Itachi knocking Sasuke out.
All mental functions halting.
Staring at the spot where Sasuke dropped and Itachi confessed to killing his family. Staring until the sky grew lighter and the sun shone, revealing the amount of blood on her. Staring until other shinobi and ANBU- ANBU- appeared, and rushed whispers and unfamiliar faces.
Staring at her hands in the hospital, unable to rid her mind of the image of Fumiko's body.
Staring until she passed out.
Don't let Sasuke know. I'm sorry.
-O-O-O-O-
The funeral was held five days later.
The sky cried.
She didn't.
Throughout the entire event, her eyes remained dry. She stood by Sasuke; he gripped her hand tightly, showing no emotion on his face.
She wore the hairpin in a half-bun, the way Fumiko always did.
When it was time to lay down flowers, Hikari went forward to one grave only, and placed a single purple hyacinth on it.
She stayed with Sasuke as he walked by each grave.
The black mourning clothes were itchy and stuffy.
Don't let Sasuke know. I'm sorry.
-O-O-O-O-
The following month, Kakashi was nowhere to be found.
Hikari didn't care.
-O-O-O-O-
After the funeral, Takahiro shadowed her as she walked Sasuke back to the hospital. Sasuke had nowhere else to stay.
She said goodbye in a cracked whisper and started the slow trek to her apartment. Takahiro caught up to her, but she ignored him, focusing on placing one foot in front of the other.
Hikari entered her apartment, not rearming the traps that Kakashi had set up for her. She made it to her bed, and sat heavily. Takahiro sat by her and didn't say anything. He just placed an arm around her shoulders.
She turned her face into his neck.
Then, she cried.
-O-O-O-O-
Don't let Sasuke know. I'm sorry.
-O-O-O-O-
A/N: Well.
The next few chapters will be lighter than this one, thankfully.
And I'm actually updating! I know, is this even real? Is the world ending?
I'm very sorry that I couldn't update during February. February happens to be one of the busiest months each year for me (and is also the month my birthday is in). I can only write in my free time, and I didn't have much of that.
But I still updated, so yay.
And my highschool AU is coming along nicely, but I think I'll wait a while until I'm further along in this story before posting it.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED, FAVORITED, OR FOLLOWED. I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SO MUCH!
Remember, I'm always open to requests!
See you next time!