Strength of a Flower•(Itachi fanfic)•editing

Fireball Jutsus and Tempers

It wasn't until after dark that Itachi finally came home with Sasuke, his hand ruffling his little brother's hair, "Alright, Sasuke, it's past your bedtime," he said to the little boy, who glanced at Azalea, shooting her a slight glare as he went inside, surprising the girl.

"Come on, Azalea, I wanna show you something, now that it's dark," he said to his friend, offering her his hand, which she denied and stood up on her own.

"Well, I wanna talk to you about something," she retorted, clearly angry at him for some reason.

"What about? Why are you getting so mad all of a sudden? We've only officially met today and you're fussing at me?" Itachi replied, a bit confused. He thought that people were polite and nice the first week of a new friendship or whatever.

"Not here," was all she simply said.

The Uchiha boy was beginning to get annoyed, the pacifist getting angry himself, "Well," he scoffed, "fine then, how about the lake?" he threw the location where he was gonna show her and maybe even start teaching her their clan's trademark jutsu.

"That'll work... maybe, if you make me angry enough, I can simply throw you into the water," Azalea replied, huffing as she briskly walked her way to the Uchiha lake, which was close to his house, considering his family position in the clan, leaving an even more confused Itachi behind to follow the dust trail she left.

Soon, in what would usually be a ten minute walk, at a leisure stroll, they reached the body of water in five. The lake was actually more of a big pond than anything else. Their shoes clomped on the wood, both not even caring about bothering to be silent. Azalea turned to Itachi when they reached the end of the dock and began ranting, "Why in the hell would you do that to Sasuke?! Promise him that you'll train with him "later" and then keep on delaying it every time he asks? And then show up with me, saying you'd train me... in front of your brother?" she threw her arms up, bringing them back down as abruptly as they went up, "He depends on you, Itachi. He sees you getting all the attention from your otousan and he wants to be like you...  Why would you blow him off? You're his big brother, act li-"

"You don't know what you're talking about, Azalea!" Itachi cut her off, yelling at her, his fists clenching and in clenching in repetitive motions. "I have my reasons... good reasons!" The pain in his eyes was real and she could see it, but she was just too overcome with anger to even think rationally.

Azalea growled, her blue eyes becoming a darker grey color out of anger. They were illuminated by the silver light of the moon, anger that had been building up inside of her since she woke up yesterday and found out why she was in a hospital in them. Angry with herself. Angry at Itachi and his actions with his little brother. Yeah, it wasn't her business, but she had had a big brother herself and he'd never cared about anything to do with her. He left the night he found out their mother was with child, the child being her. She was also angry at her older brother, even though she didn't know him. Even though no one else remembers him. "And what reasons are those?! There are no good reasons for ignoring you sibling like that-AGGHHHH!" Azalea yelled, performing quick hand signs and facing towards the pond water as she took in a deep breath and blew all the air she had taken in out, forming a giant fireball that covered the span of the entire lake/pond, her frustration getting the best of her. The jutsu lasted for at least thirty seconds, if not longer, before she finally released it and sat heavily onto the wood, panting as she tried to take deep breaths. Doing the jutsu had released all of her pent up anger and frustration, it had helped. Well, it had helped to release the waterworks that had built up inside of her.

Itachi blinked, the action unexpected from her. He was pretty sure she would have directed the famed jutsu at him if she'd gotten any further into her rant before performing it. Damn, was all he could think as he looked down at Azalea. That was when he noticed she was hiding her face in her hands, facing away from him. "Azalea?" he inquired tentativitely, not wanting her to blow up like she nearly literally did.

"Go away, Itachi," she replied, her voice barely audible as she tried to hide the slight quiver in it.

Itachi sighed and sat down beside the girl, "No, I'm not going to 'go away'. Somethin-g's up, or you wouldn't have been so frustrated. Talk," he stated his observations bluntly, looking at the water, which was now probably hotter than a sauna. It had been boiling fast, still is.

Azalea sighed and put her hands down, resting them at her feet as she looked down, parts of her hair falling past her shoulders and hiding her face. "It doesn't matter anymore, it was stupid."

The Uchiha boy laughed humorlessly at the answer, "I don't care if it's stupid or not, 'Zalea, just tell me."

"Ugh, fine, but don't say I didn't warn you and don't tell anyone, or I'll kill you."

"I won't, jeez," he muttered the last word, rolling his eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes either!" Azalea exclaimed and smacked him upside the head, causing him to cry out in surprise and put his hand on the back of his head,

"OW?!"

"Oh, shut up you big baby, I'm sure you've had worse."

"Oh, wha-hey! Get back on track!" Itachi ordered, raising his voice when he realized what she was doing.

"Fine! Fine! Kami!" she yelled back before sighing and quieting down, picking at the grooves of the wood planks. It was silent for at least 3-4 minutes before she finally managed to gather her thoughts and break the silence, "I don't know how, it's should've been impossible, but I had a dream about my..." she became quiet, then began speaking again, her voice slowly growing in strength, "my big brother. I know you don't know this, only my parents and I know, it seems everyone's just... forgotten about him after I was born. He left us when he found out Okaasan was pregnant with me. I guess he didn't want a sibling..." Azalea paused, "Anyways," she emphasized the word, "the dream. It was weird, like, it was a dream, but at the same time it wasn't. He was tall, taller than Otousan, and leaner too. He had the trademark appearances our clan has. He was so-he looked happy, h-he actually smiled, he called my name in a happy way. Kai rushed up to me and-and hugged me and he told me that he loved me and that I turned out to be better than he'd ever imagined. He told me he was sorry, sorry that he had to leave. But... our... reunion didn't last long. He disappeared and I heard screams-his screams and then there was..." Azalea swallowed hard closing her eyes as tears began filling them again, "there was blood everywhere. Blood was on me. I-I think it was real and that he was m-" she broke into a sob, covering her mouth as she leaned forward. Kai had the ability to, if he was connected to their chakra in some way, speak to people through dreams, but it took a lot of chakra out of him. It hurt, it really hurt even though she had never known him and she hated that. It made her feel so so weak and she hated feeling weak.

"I'm sure it was just a nightmare... it might've been nothing," Itachi said, forming his words carefully, he was not the best comforter, a downside to being a, well, a loner of sorts. He also wasn't sure about her dream and her thoughts of it being a real thing... he'd never heard of that kind of thing.

"But what if it was actually him?"

Itachi sighed heavily and shook his head, "I don't know, it's, possible, possible but barely. Don't get your hopes up, Azalea. You'll get disappointed," he was tiptoeing around the dog that was on the cable.

Azalea shook her head, a chuckle of disbelief coming from her, "Wow-ha-aow, you are really bad at comforting."

"That-That's true," Itachi admitted before hurrying on as he stood up, "Now... let's get home, it's getting late," he offered her his hand.

Azalea took it and stood up also, looking up at him, "Okay," she resigned as she brushed dirt off of her legs.