The old family tree Izuna FF

Chapter 19

"Thank you for always helping me, even though I'm old enough for it." Izuna thanked him when Suzume had put on his armor. "It's okay, besides, I'm still your maid."

"You're much more than that, Suzume.", Izuna said honestly and simply pulled the Uchiha into his arms. "I never thought of you as a maid, but as a friend. Ever since I lost my brothers, my mother and my father, you were the one who made me feel different again. Your presence reassured me every day and showed me that there was something worth fighting for."

Moved by these words, Suzume swallowed. Izuna had never revealed his feelings to her before. Feelings that no one had ever seen, just as it had been with Madara.

"It sounds...like a goodbye..." Suzume murmured, making Izuna laugh. "It is, for an indefinite period of time. But I'll return safe and sound, as always." Izuna spoke, slowly breaking away from her. "Take good care of the estate, will you?"

"No one would dare break in here. Anyone would be afraid of being killed by Madara or you." she reprimanded the Uchiha. "True again." he smirked and became more serious again.

"Don't forget to practice his chakra control. It's important that you don't stop and keep your control."

Suzume nodded. "I promise. I'll keep practicing until I've made my sensei proud." "Sensei, then..." Izuna grinned. "That's what I like to hear."

Although this togetherness had been nice, the Uchiha had to get on his way to go back into battle with his brother. Suzume's eyes were only on Izuna, who had been in the lead and had slowly left the Uchiha village.

For some reason, Suzume had had a strange feeling. A warning that had come from her ancestor. What it had been, Suzume did not know. But she couldn't sleep a wink over the next few days that the Uchiha had been away.

The sleepless nights simply wore her out, while Amaya kept appearing before her eyes. She wanted to say something to her, but Suzume could never hear her voice.

And then, after almost three days in which Suzume had cleaned the estate for the thousandth time, she could sense the Uchiha's return with her chakra. The chakra she had used to practise as promised. But something made the Uchiha wonder.

Besides Madara's chakra, she could barely feel Izuna's. It was as if the chakra was leaving him more and more. Something that made Suzume panic, that made her drop everything and just run out of the manor.

Her uneasy feeling when he had left, the warning she had had, had said it before. Izuna, her protector, her sensei and the man she had developed feelings for had been injured in battle.

Breathing heavily, the Uchiha simply pushed open the door of a hospital room where Izuna and Madara had been. Badly injured, the younger lay on a futon mat, smiling slightly at her. "Suzume..." came softly from his mouth.

"Izuna..."