𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐑𝐄 | sasuke uchiha

Necklace

"Um... excuse me."

I looked up from the park bench where I sat with Shisui sleeping in his pram and Ayumi seated next to me as I helped her eat her ice cream cone, mildly surprised to see a familiar black haired girl standing before me with and envelope in her hands and her head bowed.

"Yukata!" I exclaimed, blinking at the female as she shook weakly on the spot. "Oh- how have you been?"

"Regretting everything I did to you," explained the girl mournfully, bowing deeply and holding out the envelope. "Here is all the money paid to me for my babysitting services. I don't deserve a single cent."

"What do you mean?" Taken aback, I temporarily left Ayumi to her own devices so that I could focus on Yukata. "Yukata, nothing that happened was your fault."

"Yes, it was!" Yukata's voice was shrill as her voice broke, and the sight of tears rolling down her cheeks made me realise the torment she must have gone through. "Because I couldn't contain that- that- whatever she was, she ended up hurting you, and the village!"

"No offence, but she was a sky spirit," I said jokingly, in an attempt to lighten Yukata's mood. Evidently, it didn't work. "Even I couldn't contain her."

"I knew something was wrong!" cried out Yukata, arms still outstretched with the envelope in hand. "Everyone kept asking me if I was okay, and I said yes because I didn't want to worry anyone! I thought I could handle her on my own, but I couldn't!"

"Yukata," I said softly, taking the envelope from her and placing it on Shisui's feet. "Come here."

As I pulled her closer to me, she reluctantly moved forward.

"None of it was your fault," I said pressingly, squeezing her hands. "You couldn't have seen what was coming, and neither did we."

"If I had told someone I was feeling off, maybe none of this would have happened!" sobbed the Hisano, burying her chin in her shirt as she began bawling. "There were signs, and I ignored them!"

"No one can ever be sure when they're being, uh... possessed," I said reassuringly, trying to sound wise but instead making it sound like we'd just come out of a horror movie. "Don't be so rough on yourself. The important thing is that we're all here, we're safe, and we're alive. Isn't it?"

"Yes, b-but..."

"Come here." I pulled Yukata towards me for a hug, sighing as she sobbed into my shoulder.

"Mama... mama!" called out Ayumi, dropping her ice cream on the bench and standing up on the seat so that she could toddle towards Yukata and I and wipe her hands all over Yukata's long hair.

"Ayumi!" I scolded, watching as she giggled at the sight of ice cream running through Yukata's loose tresses. 

It felt like forever since Sasuke and the others had left- almost seven months, to be exact. My hopes of reuniting with them grew day by day as reports on the news slowly came to show that the rest of the world had begun catching on to what the Uchiha were up to, with the Land of Water even offering to assist the Senju in their battles. Change was on the horizon- I could feel it in my bones. However, when we would reach the horizon was a different story.

"Ayumi's gotten so big n-now," choked Yukata with a smile as she carefully straightened up, allowing the fiery redhead to walk onto my lap and slap her ice cream laden hands all over my face. "I'm sorry I never came to see you earlier. I was scared you wouldn't want to see me after everything that happened. You must have been livid."

"No, Yukata, I was never angry at you!" I insisted, patting her arm. "Only Sasuke was! Not me! I know you never would've done it on purpose!"

"Of course he was," she managed to laugh, wiping tears away from her eyes. "I don't blame him.