𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐑𝐄 | sasuke uchiha

Regrets

"I had a feeling you'd be out here."

"You were correct. Congratulations."

Izumi stood with her arms crossed, frowning as she watched the back of Itachi's head. At a remote location far from the compound, surrounded by a dense thicket of trees, both Uchiha knew why they were out here.

Itachi paused his digging to straighten up and face his wife, who had a glum expression on her face.

"When will his body be released?"

"If by 'released' you mean thrown out into the woods to be eaten by wild animals, then he'll be out tomorrow," said Itachi bitterly, planting his shovel into the ground and leaning on it as he looked up at Izumi from the bottom of his newly dug pit.

"Itachi, won't they notice?" she asked with an exasperated sigh, wondering to what lengths her husband would go to ensure that his best friend received the proper burial he deserved. "Your father already stated that anyone who tries to retrieve Shisui's body will be punished."

"I don't care what my father says. I don't care about the punishment, either. Shisui doesn't deserve to be treated like this."

Izumi sat down wordlessly at the edge of the pit, unsure of how to approach the topic at hand.

"Itachi, if you want to talk about it..."

Izumi was ignored as Itachi uprooted his shovel and continued his digging, paying little heed to his wife. And, like the wise companion she was, Izumi waited. She knew that Itachi would speak to her, one way or another.

His mind whirring with all the things he wanted to tell Izumi, Itachi stopped digging once more, but this time, he threw his shovel away as if it were nothing.

"I didn't kill Shisui," he said in a strained voice, wanting to scream and let all his conflicting emotions out.

You better take care of Izumi and Yuta, okay?

Attention piqued, Izumi remained silent as she allowed Itachi to continue speaking.

"I told everyone that so that it would keep me in my father's good books," he said, wrenching his eyes shut as he relived Shisui's final moments. "If I killed Shisui, my father would never doubt my loyalty to him, or the clan. I said it to protect you and Yuta."

"If you didn't kill Shisui, then who did?" asked Izumi softly.

Feeling like his mind was going to explode, Itachi forced his eyes open and looked up at Izumi, glaring and breathing heavily.

"Shisui did! He thought he was doing everyone a favour by martyring himself! It was so unnecessary- he said he was doing it to protect you!"

"Itachi-"

"No! Izumi, answer me. Right here, right now. Why did you choose me? Why couldn't you choose Shisui? If you had chosen Shisui, then we wouldn't be in this mess right now!"

Izumi was straight-faced as Itachi turned his tirade against her, prepared for what was to come.

"You knew Shisui was head over heels for you! You knew you were the one for him! So why, out of all people, could you not choose to be with him?! If you had chosen to be with him, then I wouldn't have had to watch him blame himself for every little thing that went wrong because of this clan! He would've been happy! He would be alive!"

Itachi turned away from Izumi and lashed out at the side of the pit in frustration, looking for somewhere to place the blame.

"Why are you so quick to blame me for my decision when you're just as guilty as I am? The last time I checked, you're the one who asked me to marry you."