I suddenly became more aware of myself. Aware of the Ninja that stands tall beside me. My eyes remain unblinking as I took a moment to blankly stare at him while I brood my problems. I'd been rendered completely unaware of the tear that hung loose from my lower lashes.
Suddenly, the ice barrier that numbed my feelings began to deliberately melt, making my breath go erratic in a moment's notice. It's clearly not the time for this to happen...
My parents were on the move, while my body betrayed me by remaining rooted to it's place. Itachi fended off several of my parent's attack before he returned back to me.
My heart was set out of pulse on spur of the moment when I felt Itachi's giant hand snaking behind my ear and halting there. His thumb quickly brushed away the tear that hung loose from my eyes, sparking my body to move again and generating that ice barrier that protected me from my own thoughts.
"We can do this later", he assured, looking at me with intensity.
"Right", I breathed out an exasperated sigh before regaining back my lost composure. I forced my heart to calm down as I looked back at my parents.
Don't falter, we're already dead...
Once the cold breeze whisked my tears dry, I stood tall again and let my feelings go numb again.
This wasn't going to be easy, I could tell. Obito was observing everything intently as Kabuto stood back with a prideful smile on his face. I sneered at Kabuto in disgust and gritted my teeth together.
Despite the striking sight that brought back memories from four years ago, I'd managed to calm down my pacing heart.
My father regained back his composure despite the punctured whole in his torso. My mother stood back at his side as well.
It seemed like Kabuto was having more fun with this sick trick than he should.
"Is there any particular thing that you know about the reanimation?", Itachi inquires as I let loose a breath.
"Nothing comes to mind...", I breathed out, feeling an unsettling feeling in my stomach as I stare at my two opponents.
"Hanabi, they're on the move"
"No kidding"
I clenched my fists tight and charged ahead at my father again. This time I let my determination take over as I lunge at him rapidly.
Tick-Tock...
I felt myself running out of time. There wasn't much that I could waste anyway.
Any moment, I might simply break or snap. It doesn't scare me if I perish in this battle against the two formidable shinobi who brought a nation down on its knees.
What scares me are my feelings. What'll happen when I fully process this situation again? Just like four years ago when it first happened.
This is exactly what broke me the first time. And that wound has never been stitched back up. Right now, I knew that when this numbness thaws, It'll feel like as if someone had cut deeper into the same wound that I was so desperately trying patch up.
Feeling this numb and hollow, I mercilessly deliver Taijutsu attacks and strike whenever I got the chance. Ninjutsu wasn't an option anymore, he's fast and skilled. He can see my attacks coming a mile away since his sensory skills are far more superior and advanced.
He blocked out and deflected all my Taijutsu attacks effortlessly. If Ninjutsu was ever to work, then I'll have to catch him by emotional surprise like I did the first time.
In this case, I felt so slow like a sloth compared to him. After delivering each attack, I was panting erratically and barely took any rest. I didn't know if his reanimated body can restore his chakra in some way, but I quickly omitted that possibility.
So as I kept the conflict between us ongoing, I couldn't help, but feel my mind wander to places.
If father was this strong, then how come a scumbag like Danzo succeeded in murdering him and mother?
Why?
Where was all this strength when I needed it most?
Why were both of them killed if they brought down the Tsuchikage into issuing a truce?
Why did I have to grow up wondering who they were?
The ice barrier...
It's like a seal that keeps me sane, but the more I stare back at his blue eyes that were surrounded by a black sclerae, the more this numbness began to deliberately fade into oblivion.
Just what will be left of me when this battle is over?
I try utilizing the red butterflies as I furiously teleport back and forth between time and space. He's in control of what he says, but his actions are clearly contributed to due to Kabuto, who in this case is the castor of this Jutsu.
His evident sensory skills put mine to shame. They're far more enhanced than mine. It's almost like he can anticipate my movements as if he owns the Uchiha's Sharingan. I'd vaguely hear the higher-ups praise someone nicknamed 'The Sensory Beast'.
It'd clicked right now that The Sensory Beast was none other than The Yellow Spark himself. They clearly gave him that nickname so it'd be some inside thing that only the higher-ups know about. It's a shame that I can't live up to their name, or 'The Hybrid' nickname I was given.
I could see that he was clearly holding back, since all he did in this state of consciousness was deflect my attacks. He didn't even try to counterattack me.
Was he testing me?
Does he want to see how far I've come when he was absent all this time?
Even my Sharingan seemed useless against him, that's how awesome he is.
Itachi was having a furious flame fight with my mother. An Uchiha vs Uchiha battle will result in nothing less than a flame show.
"Hanabi", father called out, making something alien inside me spark upon hearing my name come out of his mouth.
In response I swallowed the lump in my throat and stared at him when our battle came to an abrupt halt.
"Who's that?", he inquired while pointing at Itachi.
Oh...
"It doesn't matter, you're dead anyways", I respond blankly, releasing a breath from all the anticipation I mustered up.
Goodness...
"Well I guess I'll just have to find out", he smirked at me, before disappearing right before my eyes.
"W-wait!", I blurted out after him as I ran in Itachi's direction.
"Itachi watch out!", I yell out at the top of my lungs, suddenly earning my parent's attention.
My mother halted instantaneously and her lips parted a jar. Her actions were mirrored by my father as well. They both stood still as Itachi panted loudly while holding up his sword.
"Those red eyes...", my father gasped, "where did I hear that name?"
Itachi looked confused for a moment as he held up his defense all the while wondering what's going on.
"Don't tell me...", mother gasped in return before it finally hit her, "you're Fugaku's eldest son"
"What!?", father's eyes widened, "no way..."
"Hanabi what's going on?", Itachi inquired in confusion and I can't believe that this battle turned into a "meeting the parents" for Itachi.
"Why don't we find out?", I roll my eyes at him.
"Seriously Hanabi?", father turns to me, then dismissively points at Itachi, "Fugaku's son?", he stressed on each syllable in disbelief.
"Well dad, I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree", I give him a suggestive look, gesturing between him and mother.
"Oh honey...", mother said, "he better not have picked up Fugaku's strict high and mighty manners"
"Excuse me?", Itachi cleared his throat.
"Come to think of it", father says, then inspects Itachi's face, rendering him uncomfortable, "he really radiates Fugaku's energy"
"Uhhh...thanks?"
"Calm and reserved", father remarked, giving me a side smirk, "just perfect for someone who'd inherited my craziness", he winked at me.
"F-father...m-mother..."
"You're one hell of a fighter, Itachi Uchiha", mother said from the distance they were standing from, "I, the Red Butterfly thereby declare you the strongest flame user among the Uchiha".
I witnessed Itachi gasp at this, his eyes full of what I presumed to be gratitude, before he blurt out the words.
"It's an honor...to have engaged in a battle with you...Red Butterfly...", he'd said it so chivalrously, I couldn't help but arch a brow in response.
From the tone of this conversation, this was something that I'd want to last forever. We really were in the middle of a battle as this whole conversation took place. And while it did put a smile on my face and earned a scoff of humour from Itachi, it had to come to an end.
In the following moments, we were on complete alert again and I found myself calling out for my parents desperately when they began writhing in pain out of nowhere.
My eyes instinctively darted to the side, only to land on Kabuto who was wickedly grinning back at me.
"I told you this time won't be like the last", he remarked, making my stomach uneasy.
"Damn you", Itachi cursed as I refrained from registering my feelings accurately.
The terrain was somewhat damaged from the battle that took place between my mother and Itachi.
Obito had remained clam and composed and I didn't have the time to check up on Naruto, because right then, Itachi had blurted out my name, catching my attention.
I looked to where my parents writhed in pain, before my lips fell apart again.
Every single little to major damage that the two of us managed to land had disappeared miraculously. The punctured whole in my father's torso had been regenerated which simply put our desperate efforts in utter vain.
"What's going on?", Itachi breathed heavily.
"Clearly it's Kabuto's doing...", I clenched my jaw and gritted my teeth together.
My glaring eyes darted right back at Kabuto as he declared, "behold the enhancements made on the Reanimation Jutsu!"
In a moment's notice, I felt my blood stop rushing to my veins as their agony came to an abrupt stop.
Itachi and I weren't even that physically close for me to hold onto his wrist for comfort.
I knew that something bad was going to happen. The feeling was way too strong to the point where it felt like I'd actually manifested this outcome.
I held all of my doubts and negative thinking responsible for this subconsciously manifested negative outcome.
"Hanabi...", Itachi trailed off, making me all the more slighted as I kept a firm character on.
My mother had raised two fingers and send one look my way before it sunk into my brain that calamity was about to strike.
"No...", I trailed off, my voice coming out a little too pleadingly.
She was gone...this wasn't her...they'd both gone eerily silent. They must be controlled by four-eyes...
"This is bad...", I croak out, not taking my unblinking eyes off of them.
Instinctively, I'd raised two fingers of my own to try and counterattack what my mind had deuced and what my skills had sensed.
"This can't be...", I cursed.
"I see", Obito smirked to himself, while giving Kabuto a look of approval, before remarking, "well done"
"No", I sternly hissed under my breath.
Itachi had stiffened then, before he whipped his head over to me. With wide unblinking eyes he unsteadily formed the words, "Hanabi...is she..."
"Yes Itachi", I growled in response as I prepared myself mentally, "she is siphoning away my red butterflies"
"H-how come?", he demanded, making my stomach twist and turn.
"I don't have a contract with the butterflies, they were simply there all my life because my chakra resonates my mother's".
Itachi looks back between us before stating the last deduction, "so they're unwillingly returning back to the original source of chakra that siphoned them?"
"Pretty much"
"But if your chakra resonates half of that of your mother's then that means you've been using half the offensive attack with the butterflies..."
"Which can only make us wonder what'll happen if the butterflies siphoned chakra from the original source"
"Calamity...", he gasps.
"Exactly...", I retort.
All of my red butterflies have been pulled towards her like she was a magnet. I did my affirmations about hyping myself up, but it all came crashing down when I saw what I was missing out on by using the half of my mother's chakra with the butterflies.
"Goodness...", Itachi breathed out heavily.
Unlike Itachi, I couldnt utter a single word, not even move a finger as I stared in terror.
The blade wings of the butterflies grew twice as large and the tips had shaped in sharp corners.
In this nerve stricken moment, my entire body had betrayed me as my mother began shedding tears. Her hands were moving on their own and she had no control over what's happening.
"Hanabi move!", she screamed, but not a single sound eluded me.
Right then, something snapped inside of me and it took me a moment conclude that it was the ice barrier that numbed me. I began sheading silent tears as well.
The trauma had kicked in, rendering me paralyzed to my ground.
"No!", my mother screamed out in agony when Kabuto made her direct her deadly attack right at me.
Soon, I'd be dead and on my way to the hereafter. Soon, I'll leave my tainted mark on Itachi and the others as I perish for real this time...soon I'll get the answer to my nagging question...
Question: How did my parents die on the hands of a scumbag like Danzo Shimura?
Answer: Emotions...
That's right. Emotions can get you killed as you don't think for one moment when a beloved is in danger.
That's how my parents got themselves killed. They survived the Third Great Ninja War only to die to their emotions.
And that's how my father got himself stabbed again, just like when I was born.
Two protective arms shielded the double threat that was supposed to end me all due to the quick thinking of The Sensory Beast. He'd sensed the attack, the direction it was going, and who it was targeting.
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A/N:- YES, i'll love to your reactions to this chapter. So vote, comment, etc...follow me and all that stuff ya know? I mean you've been reading like 103 chapters by now might as well interact.
~A