Chapter 20: To be alone again

Sasuke sat on the porch in his usual place waiting for Itachi to come home. Over the past months, he had also unconsciously been developing a new feeling of looking forward to Izumi's return too, whether he wanted it or not.

As much as she would annoy him, he liked having her around, especially when his older brother was busy with ANBU missions, clan meetings or exercises. He'd always wanter around aimlessly, kicking pebbles or sighing heavily experiencing stinging loneliness. Since the Nanusake sisters came to their house, yes, it got a little crowded, but they seemed to laugh a little more, somehow. Their energy illuminated all empty and cold corners of the Uchiha home.

The boy stretched his legs and decided to go look for Izumi. Perhaps she is still practising her weird sword dances by the riverbank.

X

Izumi opened her eyes to find herself in the dark Abyss again.

'Am I dreaming again…' she sighed a little to herself, a little hoping for an answer. She was never quite alone in there.

A cold bony hand rested on her shoulder, and she held her breath.

LOOK

She heard the command. These words never came to her ears from a specific place so it would be easy to locate their source, but as if they resounded from everywhere, inside the deep Abyss, reflecting off the round walls that resembled a cave. One thing for sure, it was always Huranaishi herself speaking.

Another bony hand from behind her back stretched out in front of the girl and with an enveloping motion pointed to the space in front of her. There, Izumi began to see blurry images.

The full moon illuminated the bloody bodies of people with the Uchiha clan's fans on the backs of their clothes. Bloodcurdling screams. Red, shining eyes with three plovers, mesmerizing. That very familiar feeling. My hand slips from yours. Someone yanks me out of your grip.

I see death again. The red ribbon breaks, bits of it obscuring faces, faces I want to see, to identify. I am so afraid.

Like in a dream, which, with a cluster of strange and incomprehensible images, brings to mind very familiar but hard-to-identify memories and feelings. déjà vu. The hands of someone I love grip my shoulders, a black swirl. I do not remember anything…

Izumi loses consciousness, but after a while wakes up on the cool grass by the river. She doesn't remember anything, but inside her, there is a growing feeling of dark foreboding. She's having stressful feelings, hard to identify. The most prominent one is the feeling of losing a loved one, once again.

'Izumi!' The girl turned to see Sasuke running towards her. The boy was on the other side of the river, he slowed down and stopped waiting for the girl to cross the bridge. The sight of him caused a twinge in her heart, mixed with a bitter joy.

'Sasuke-chan…! Where's Akira and Itachi?'

'I don't know. They're gone somewhere again. I was bored at home. Itachi didn't have the time to practice throwing shurikens with me again…' the boy said with disappointment in his voice.

'I know… Akira doesn't have time for me lately either.' The girl began to drill a hole in the grass with the heel of her shoe. "Sasuke… I feel that something bad is coming..." She raised her worried violet eyes at him shyly.

'What do you mean?'

'Itachi… he's acting kind of weird lately. And your parents, and other clan members… can't you feel it?'

The boy thought about her words. He wanted to deny it, but he couldn't, Izumi was right. The feeling of impending doom was undeniable.

Izumi was thinking hard about something, trying to gather her thoughts to put them into words. She was worried whatever is going to come out of her mouth next is going to scare him away.

'I'd like to ask you a favour' She undid her loose ponytail, which was wrapped tightly with the red ribbon that the girl had received from her mother. 'I wanted to give you a piece of this ribbon. We'll both tie them around our wrists and wear them. Thanks to this, whenever something happens, we will be able to find each other, always.' She replied timidly, but with a dose of hope in her voice.

Sasuke not ready for such an intimate proposal snorted and scratched his head trying to turn the awkward question into a joke.

'Nothing will happen, don't be stupid. I don't need any girly ribbons.' Sasuke squealed at Izumi and then turned on his heel trying to hide his embarrassment. 'I'm hungry, my mom is probably already making dinner. We better go.'

Izumi stood by the river, clutching the ribbon in her hand and watching Sasuke walk away. Her knuckles whitened with tension. The shame of rejection flooded her insides. She scolded herself quietly for the stupid idea. She desperately wanted to act, but she didn't know how, she was clueless as to what would be the right thing to do. Instinctively, she wrapped the red string around her wrist and followed her friend back to the house.