Red Butterfly

Chapter 52, Sparks of Disappointment

Izumi slaps my arm loudly, earning a yelp from me, "goodness Izumi calm down", I sigh, rubbing the side of my arm.

"S-rank mission?", Shisui and Hana give us their confused expression as I contemplate whether I should elaborate.

"Yeah, apparently every girl in the village is curious to find out who Shisui's secret lover is to the point where they hired Izumi over here and offered her money", I point at Izumi with my thumb as I stare at their shocked faces.

Their heads turn in Izumi's direction and Shisui inquired, "Is that true?".

Izumi begins to rub the back of her neck nervously and responds, "well you see, I've just been laying around this entire time and had nothing to do", she gives off an awkward laugh before taking me by surprise by pinching the side of my arm.

"OW!", I yelp and clutch the aching area, "that hurts Izumi", I complain. She gave me a side-eye and retorts, "Maybe you can learn to keep you mouth shut a bit".

"Are you for real?", Hana retorts, looking dissatisfied, but she still couldn't hide the hint of smirk on her lips.

"Uh-ha", I reply instead of Izumi, earning a side-glare from her.

"I mean I was curious myself", Izumi elaborates, inhaling in a deep breath before sighing.

"Well, if you weren't a good friend of ours then you'd be in my hounds' clutches", Hana somewhat reassured, or threatened...

"Really?!", Izumi beams, making Shisui scoff.

"Yeah you knucklehead", Hana snorts and snuggles into Shisui's built figure, resting her head on his chest as he wraps an arm around her. Izumi and I were about to genuinely smile at how cute they were before Hana's tone of voice altered into a threatening one and she growled, "Now get the hell out of here before I change my mind and unleash my hounds on you!".

Her feral Inuzuka demeanor left me like: 👁/👄\👁

Izumi and I inch closer in fear as we get up on our noodle legs. Hana looks scary with her fang-like teeth gritted together. Next to her, Shisui had an amused smile on his face, revealing his deep dimples. He shrugged off as we made eye contact and that's when I realized that Hana was counting to five.

"...Four"

Izumi grasped my wrist simultaneously and dragged me along the bridge attached to the gazebo. We began running on the bridge under the stormy weather. We were both laughing wholeheartedly, but we needed to catch a breath or else...

It took me a moment to register the fact that Izumi had grasped the wrist where the four vertical lines ran along.

The rain trickled down my face which eventually stirred with my real steamy tears when I remembered. Izumi wasn't aware of this. Her hand was still clutching my wrist as she panted for breath.

Even when she looked up at my eyes, she'd never noticed whether my eyes were shedding tears or if it's just rain.

Something in my heart told me that Hanabi would know, even under this pouring rain.

Izumi looked amused and happy, which I didn't want to ruin. And so I smiled at her genuinely, my eyes still shedding tears when I relived the way Hanabi's nails were dragged across my wrist.

"We'll catch a cold if we stay out in this rain", she says, then adjusts her hair before resuming, "we better head back to the Uchiha district".

"Yeah, lets do that", I whispered with a smile on my face as we both begin to walk back to the Uchiha district.