Red Butterfly

Chapter 3, The Drained Spirit

"What's this miserable fit?", he inquired, I could tell by the tone of his voice that he wasn't pleased at all. Father is pretty strict, therefore he'd rather have everything done his way. I tried to answer back in an almost equal tone of voice.

"The side effects of today's mission", I reply in a monotone. He inspects my appearance some more before telling me, "You look miserable, Itachi. Get cleaned and go to bed. You'll fill me in on everything after breakfast".

"Right", I nod and head off to my room, dreading this heavy weight that builds upon my heart.

***
I thanked mother for the breakfast she'd prepared after I finished eating.

"You promised you'd help me train...", Sasuke pouts and crosses his arms over his chest. I faintly smile and poke him in the forehead, "Sorry Sasuke, next time", he didn't seem convinced.

I then go to privately speak with father, filling him in on all the intel I'd gathered. When he's satisfied, he signals for me to go about my day. As I go about my day I can't decide whether it's my eyelids that are heavy with exhaustion, or my shoulders that are collapsing from carrying this burden around.

I arrive at my first stop which is the Leaf's hospital. I enter the building and ask about Hanabi when I spot a random nurse. I thank her and try to find Hanabi's room from the directions I've been given. I'm pretty sure that I was still a good distance away, contemplating which room to enter when I heard a familiar babble. Kakashi and Hanabi's voices were filling the hallways of the hospital. It seemed like they were having a scuffle.

"Hanabi calm down! What's the rush anyway?", I hear Kakashi reason with Hanabi.

"You don't understand!", she insists.

When I'm in front of the door I knock a few times, having earned their attention. Hanabi's eyes fly to meet with mine, muttering, "Uchiha boy..."

"It's Itachi", I correct her, "Itachi Uchiha".

"Itachi...", they echo together and I stare between them. Hanabi had a few bandages and an IV injection. "What's the babble about, Hanabi?", I ask in confusion.

"Right!", she says and goes on to elaborate, "yesterday, I lost something valuable!".

Kakashi and I look at her, urging her to continue, "What was it?", Kakashi asks, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Hanabi lowers her head and shamefully admits, "Minato Sensei's kunai...", her voice was more like a scarce whisper.

"A kunai?", I inquire, feeling confused about the fuss she's making about a kunai.

"Seems like you two met just recently", Kakashi directs his voice at me."It's not just any kunai", Kakashi, his hand snaking to his tool bag and he whips out an odd looking kunai with three sharp blades. The blade in the middle being the largest.

"That's an odd looking kunai..", I remark as I keep starting at it.

"That's because it's used for marking a specific location in order to perform the teleportation technique, genius", Hanabi chirps in, having disrupted the silence in the hallways once again.

So that odd looking kunai is what she used to teleport near the clearing.

"Yes indeed", Kakashi replies flatly and quickly puts his kunai away to say, "I got it from Minato Sensei when I became a Jonin".

"Anyways Hanabi, don't fret I'll go look for it once I'm off duty. So lay in bed and rest, and keep out of trouble", Kakashi stresses on the bit and immediately heads for the door saying, "See you later, Itachi".

Once Kakashi has left I turn back to Hanabi, who was hugging her knees, curled in a ball. It was awkward not knowing how to get the conversation going. The losing of that kunai seemed to take a physical as well as mental toll on her body. Her food was still by the nightstand, untouched.

"Hanabi, I can see that this kunai means so much to you..", I start off, treading closer. She gives a simple nod.

"A souvenir", she whispers softly.

I almost flinch when her head snaps in my direction, her blue eyes finding mine, making me feel nervous.
"Itachi", she starts off, her brows creasing. It was weird hearing my name coming out of her mouth.

"Who were you meeting up with yesterday?", she inquired almost hesitantly, holding an intense gaze as she awaits for my response. I feel a surge of fear on the rise inside of me and my tongue twists, unable to form an excuse.

"Look Itachi, I don't wanna seem like a nosy pest, but it appeared that you were meeting up with that masked man in secret. Who is he anyway?", she blurted all of a sudden and I hoped that no one heard her elevated voice.

Madara Uchiha

I attempt to seem unfazed as much as possible as I work up a logical explanation. There's no escape from someone like Hanabi Namikaze, you either tell her the truth or risk her finding it on her own, in her own ways. And once again I feel like my options are limited again and I should either do something about it or risk arousing curiosity and suspicion. I look back into her eyes, feeling uneasiness. What's this nerve wracking feeling?

The drained spirit that sits in bed intrigues me beyond comprehension. I break off eye contact with her and turn around, facing away. "Itachi?", she whispers quietly, I can already imagine the confused expression being plastered on her face. I slowly tread towards the door, taking the door handle I close the creaking door shut. Moments before I could turn around to face her again, I bit down hard on my lip.

When I finally have the courage to answer her, I look her dead in the eyes. She tensed up, sensing the alteration in my tone of voice. The room went gloom all of sudden as I held my breath for what was to come next.

"Let's make a deal", I declare, flashing her my stable Sharingan.

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A/N:- Heyya! So I understand that this chapter might not be the most interesting, but bear with it (just like Itachi does). Leaf your thoughts and feedback down below in the comments! Have a nice day!

~A