A/N: Potentially triggering. Proceed with caution.
Izuna convulsed painfully on the ground, her back forced against the wall as her body shook in terror.
He grinned, throwing away the last bone he forced out of her body.
She gasped for breath, the horror not leaving her. It never happened like this. He never took out bone by bone. He destroyed it, he burned them all. He never put her through the torture of having her skeleton forced out of her body.
His hand reached out for her eyes as he forced his fingers into her eye sockets. Izuna's blood clotted up in her throat, throwing up everywhere.
But that never happened. She never threw up blood. She was always bleeding, but she never threw up. Why was her nightmare so twisted?
His face changed into Kakashi's, but the grin never dissipated. No, he always enjoyed her silence. Her silence, because she could never give him a migraine when she had no voice to scream. He always enjoyed her tears and soundless screams, he enjoyed how she looked when she was at his mercy, begging for mercy. He gave her a nickname, he gave her a name that she absolutely despised, even more than his voice.
"Cute, little Izuna-chan." He drawled out, his snake tongue darting out and licking her cheeks as she struggled against her chains and binds.
That did happen, unlike the rest of her nightmare. Izuna cried heavily on the ground, her shoulders shaking violently as she scratched at her arms. She had to forget. She needed to forget.
But her usual coping method of thinking about Rin backfired at her.
Rin was there, instead of Kakashi. Rin was caressing Izuna gently, but Rin's hand was cold, her touch was cold, her gaze was cold, Rin was cold.
But then it wasn't Rin's palm, it was her knife.
Izuna screamed out in pain. Rin carved out words on her skin. Izuna felt as if she was on fire, blood dripped down her arms at an alarming rate, was she puking blood again? No, Rin was hurting her.
Izuna banged her head against the wall behind her, flinging her whole body at it, trying to get out of her mind, but it was useless. Izuna was always useless.
Rin's knife moved up towards Izuna's face, not caring about her screams as a maniacal grin found its way onto her face.
But this never happened, Rin never hurt Izuna. Rin never hurt Izuna. RIN NEVER HURT HER.
And Izuna never screamed. Izuna could never scream, no matter how much the pain hurt, she couldn't. She was mute because of the same reason her mother was dead. Birth complications. Izuna had no voice.
Yet all she heard were her screams as Rin forced the knife into Izuna's eyes, tearing apart at the nerves.
Izuna forced her claws inside of her shoulder, breaking her shoulder blades, but she didn't care. If Rin trapped her inside her nightmare, then Izuna was going to use another way to get out.
Breathing heavily as Izuna collapsed on the ground, true memories of Rin began surfacing at her mind, taking her breath away.
"IZUNA-" Rin shouted out in anger as she got drenched in cereal with spoiled milk. Izuna laughed in glee at the sound of Rin's puking. The stench was too much, as always. This was the second time she stored the spoiled milk in the refrigerator, but the person she pranked was different, albeit still family.
Izuna banged her head against the wall, the pain in her heart increasing tenfold at the memory. She never wanted to prank anyone ever again, because it meant they would end up d e a d. Biting down on her lip harshly and drawing blood, she scratched mercilessly at her shoulders.
"No, Izuna. You can't injure yourself." Rin sighed in exasperation, explaining for the millionth time that day that they weren't going to injure Izuna so that she had a wound to heal. "We need a fish. F I S H. Got it? You're not a fish, you're a butterfly."
Izuna laughed in glee and happiness at Rin's compliment, twirling around as if to prove to the girl that she was, indeed, a butterfly. 'So what are you?'
"I'm a strawberry, remember?" Rin smiled at Izuna's childish behavior, glad to have finally cracked the shell she had forced herself into after Obito's death. Rin stilled as her eyes widened in horror at the girl before you. "No... you did forget!"
Izuna screamed in horror as she turned her back to the Nohara, her mind choosing the flight option at the look on Rin's face, but she didn't even manage a step before Rin's hand sneaked under Izuna's arms, lifting her up playfully into the air.
"I'm going to show you, you little demon!"
Izuna laughed soundlessly as the older girl tickled her, not even giving her a chance to apologize.
Izuna's hands reached up to her face, feeling a sticky substance running down it. Touching her cheeks slightly, she flinched when she saw a deep red color. Blood. Reaching her other hand towards the back of her head, she saw the same color. The color was everywhere. Her stomach, her chest, her arms, her legs, her hands, everywhere. Izuna smashed her head against the wall once again, and again and again and again. Where was all this blood coming from?
She knew the answer.
Her heart.
Her heart hurt so much, clenched up tightly in her chest and constricting her breathing. Izuna grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled it away from her roughly, trying to get oxygen into her brain, but she only sank deeper.
Jumping towards a fish she saw swimming with her claws, Izuna splashed and sloshed around in the water, growling for the fifth time that day when she didn't catch anything. Rin only watched mischievously instead of helping.
Turning towards the Nohara, Izuna snarled in annoyance.
'Can't we just use me instead?' Izuna really didn't understand why not. Rin could always heal her anyway. The older girl facepalmed heavily, sighing in exasperation.
"For the love of god, no!" Standing up from her seat, the grin returned full force to her face. "Watch."
And watch, she did.
Izuna grabbed her head in pain, screaming out silently into the void, but nobody could hear her, not even herself. Those were the same words she had told Rin on the day when she showed her her brother's Jutsu, the Fireball Jutsu. Why was everything hurting? Why did Rin have to die? WHY?
"Two birds with one stone." Rin flung a single kunai at the fish, and she got three fish trapped on top of each other with the kunai engraved deeply into their flesh. "Or in this case, three fish with one kunai."
Izuna stared in humiliation at the smug Nohara. She could do that, and she rather watch Izuna get wet trying to catch a single one?
Rin laughed at Izuna's priceless expression, her hands falling onto her knees to support her weight. "Okay I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
Chuckling happily, Rin threw a towel at the Uchiha, telling her to dry up.
Izuna got up from the ground, one of her hands placed where her heart belonged in her chest, and the other on the wall to support her as she turned towards the mirror in the bathroom. Blood was still dripping from everywhere, but Izuna wasn't injured. Was she hallucinating?
In a moment of anger, Izuna punched the mirror. Even her own reflection was a liar. Shards of glasses got stuck in her fist, but the pain from her heart numbed her to the feeling. She flung her fist towards the mirror again, hating how she looked and the blood that was everywhere. Tears dripped down her face as she smashed her head into the glass, the shards breaking through her skin and embedding deeply into her head and hair, but Izuna wanted something stronger, something that overpowered the pain in her damn heart. So she slammed her head against the mirror again and again and again, but the pain never left.
"This is not how you do it, Izuna." Rin's shoulder sagged as she sweat-dropped at Izuna, knowing that the girl was doing this purposely to annoy her. Falling back on her bum on the ground, Rin patted the ground next to her, telling Izuna to sit down too. "Listen, Izuna, I may not always be here to heal you, okay? And I need to know that you'll be able to take care of yourself, please?"
Izuna stuck her tongue out at Rin, not troubled about the concern of the girl, because frankly, she didn't care about herself.
"What if I was injured and you were the only one who could heal me? What would you do then?" Rin immediately changed her approach to the situation, catching on to what the girl was thinking. "Would you let me die?"
Izuna shook her head quickly in denial at the Nohara, an almost angry expression crossing her features.
"But Izuna, even I could do nothing when Obito died." Silence fell upon the two girls, a suffocating one that was filled with tension and apprehension. Flinching slightly at the memory, Rin whispered. "I couldn't do anything, and he was lying there. Not even a foot away from me. But I couldn't do anything at all."
Izuna slipped her hand into Rin's, giving her a small squeeze.
"Nobody could." Rin muttered solemnly, her eyes clouding over as she replayed the scene of Obito's half crushed body.
Izuna's lips trembled as another onslaught of tears gushed down her ashen cheeks, wiping at her eyes so much they burned red, but no matter what, the tears and blood never stopped.
They would never stop.
"So Izuna, if it came down to it, you need to be strong." Rin's forceful smile--the fake smile Izuna hadn't seen in weeks--appeared on her face, looking so painful and heart-wrenching. "I won't let you end up becoming a failure like I am."
A single tear trailed down Izuna's face at Rin's eyes, they were filled to the brim with tears, but Rin was strong enough to stop them from falling. Rin was stronger than Izuna, yet Rin blamed herself just like Izuna did for Obito's death, just like Kakashi did and just like Minato did.
'I want to be able to save you.' Izuna finally said something after the long silence that hung in the air, like a convicted murder getting hanged. 'I don't want you to die on me, if I was the only one that could save you.'
"I know." Rin whispered comfortingly, hot torrents of grief obvious on her face, sniffing slightly at the memory of Obito's body, missing an eye and half of his body. She pressed a kiss to Izuna's forehead, her vision blurry as more tears threatened to escape her eyes. "I know."
Izuna puked on the ground, vomit dripping down her mouth rapidly, but that wasn't right. Izuna wasn't doing anything except spitting and heaving. Her vision kept switching from vomit to spit. She was hallucinating.
She couldn't stay here, not in her dead brother's house.
Leaning heavily against the wall as she stood up once more, she stumbled to the door, the world spinning around her and everything spiraling around her into circles and foggy objects, but she didn't care. She had to get out. O U T.
Clutching Rin's necklace tightly, Izuna swung open the door of the bathroom, needing an escape from everything.
But even Rin's necklace was useless now.
After Rin's funereal, Minato had dropped Izuna at her house and Kakashi at the hospital. But Izuna had to go to Rin's, or what used to be her, house, to get her belongings from there. She had transported everything from the Uchiha compound to the Nohara household, but now it was all fruitless.
Rin was dead.
The adoption was called off.
After all, the one responsible for it was dead, there was no need for two broken parents to adopt a child that their own girl had wanted as a sister. Not when their girl was dead.
Heaving the last box onto her hands, Izuna made for the door, not sparing another look at the house, the house that was supposed to be hers and Rin's.
"Izuna," Halting in surprise at the mention of her name, Izuna turned around to look at the feminine, n u m b voice that called for her. Rin's mom. The woman who had been against the adoption at first. Not finding it in herself to form words, Izuna titled her head questioningly at the woman whose body was shaking because of the tears that ran down her face. "Can you come here for a minute?"
The woman's voice was broken, her eyes raw, her lips dry, and she didn't look much different from Izuna. Putting the box back down on the ground unceremoniously, Izuna crossed the distance between her and the woman without questions.
"Rin..." The Nohara swallowed heavily, her feet not supporting her weight as she collapsed on the ground, but Izuna hurried to catch her, her mouth opening silently at the pain from the sudden force. "My Rin- Rin..."
Rin's mom began mumbling incoherently, always about Rin, about how Rin was too young to die, how she never got to see her promoted to Jonin, or create her own Jutsu, or achieve her dream, or get married, or have children or anything. She would never see her Rin again, because she was dead. Death did not differentiate between the young and the old, the innocent and the evil, death took all and everything and everyone. Death did not care that the child was supposed to bury the parents, and not the other way around. Death took people, and it also damaged the living. Death haunted everyone; the dead and the living, because it was cruel and the world was cruel, and nobody gave away kindness because everyone was hurt.
Rin's dad appeared in the hallway--perhaps he heard his wife's weeping and cries and shouts--but he looked worse than the woman, tears were falling down his face, blood was dripping from his wrists, but he didn't care, not when Rin was dead. It wasn't a pretty sight, seeing a grown man and woman breaking down in front of her.
The woman wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, but they kept coming, they wouldn't stop and they would never stop. She laughed through her tears as she leaned against the wall behind her, taking the pressure off of Izuna. Sniffling slightly as her lips quivered, she spoke.
"Rin- my baby Rin- she..." Taking another deep breath, she closed her eyes tightly, her hands getting into her pocket and clenching around something tightly and shakily as she brought it out. "She wanted to give you this, the gift she told you about."
Sobs wrecked through her body again as her hand flew to her mouth, trying to cage in her cries. She spoke quickly and hurriedly, not having the strength to look strong.
"It was supposed to have her chakra in it, she- shewantedyou to be able to say 'hi' to her anytimeshewasn't around- you were supposed to infuse your chakra intohersintothe necklace and she would feel the change in her chakra- oh-my-god Rin."
The woman grabbed her head with her hands as memories of Rin came one after the other, rambling and not even noticing that she sometimes muttered nonsense, like Kakashi had at Rin's funereal. Shaking her head violently at the memories--memories, Rin was forever dead--as she choked on her sobs, she motioned for Izuna to take the object.
Izuna took it from her blankly and numbly, not having it in herself to comfort the stricken woman. Not when tears fell down Izuna's face and her breath hitched and her hand flew up to cover her mouth in horror.
It was a strawberry pendant necklace.
Streams of tears fell down Izuna's cheeks, faster than her rapid breathing and faster than her accelerated heartbeats, faster than when the light disappeared from Izuna's eyes. Izuna hunched over, grabbing her painfully aching heart, unable to stop the coughs that got out of her when she choked on her own sobs and saliva, the cruelty of the situation was too much for her to handle.
She really hated everything that started with an 's'.
She hated surprises and suspense and silence and spit and saliva and sisters and strawberries.
She hated Rin.
If Rin really wanted to be just a strawberry to Izuna, then she could've just used Genjutsu.
Not go and get herself killed, so that all that remained of her was a strawberry necklace.
Izuna hated Rin.
But no matter what she told herself, Izuna knew that she was as much of a liar as Obito and Rin.
Because she loved her, she loved her more than was allowed.
That was why Rin was taken away from her.
Because love as strong as that wasn't allowed.
Izuna fell on her knees in front of Rin's grave, but she didn't register the pain. She couldn't.
Not when Rin was dead.
Not when she came back from the dead and haunted her.
Izuna's body shook heavily as she cried, graveling at the grave, unable to handle the pain.
Everything hurt, but she didn't know whether or not she was hurt.
She didn't know anything anymore.
Izuna didn't know what she was expecting. Maybe for Rin to rise from the ground and comfort her, maybe for Obito to come and tell her that it was okay, that all of that was the prank he promised her, maybe for death to come and take her.
But nothing happened.
It was silent, like always.
Her family was dead, like always.
And she was alone, like always.
Resting her head on Rin's grave, Izuna shuddered against the cold, the sticky substance on her knees, the back of her neck, shoulders, face and knuckles only making her shiver more uncontrollably. Was she still hallucinating? Even after everything, was she forever going to be a victim to her mind?
Jerking suddenly as something tugged on her sleeve, she turned to look at who caused the action. Her onyx eyes shone and glistened with unshed tears, red at the brim, but neither her nor the boy spoke a word, because none of them could. He looked her in the eyes, twirling an object subconsciously in his hands. Her eyes were filled with so much suffering he couldn't possibly hope to understand, not even after the war he went through.
Not even after losing his best-friend because he was jealous and childish and decided not to help him in a moment of life and death.
Not even when he was the reason his best-friend was dead.
Not even when he killed his best-friend.
Back when the girl first gave him the flower, he had felt so jealous of her; how she had someone with her, and he didn't. He had seen war, she didn't. His childish ideals still hadn't disappeared completely, but here he was again. He regretted that pitiful emotion he had felt then. Here she was now, crying, hurt and completely alone.
Outstretching his trembling hand where the handkerchief lay clutched in his fist, he stopped breathing as her gaze fell at it. Looking at her eyes teared through his very being. After a moment of hesitation, the boy's hand reached out to
You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net