Under the Daffodils || Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 3

"You did not use your sharingan during the mission." Izuna approaches to her one day in the middle of their training. Isamu had used her first mission pay to buy a low quality katana.

She continues her katana practice, the sharp blade slicing through air with controlled precision.

"Why didn't you use it? Even when Hokuto was dying, you refused to use it." The clan head's son walks forward, stepping in her line of vision.

"Answer me, damn it!"

Left, right, back, back, forward. Isamu repeats her steps and ingrains them into her head.

Without looking away from her blade, she side-steps a punch delivered to her gut and grabs Izuna's wrist, using his momentum to flip him to the ground. He snarls at her.

"Do Uchiha people mean nothing to you? Even if you aren't friends, you should've at least try to save his life." He charges at her once more, but Isamu has memorized all the stances by heart and knows what Izuna is trying to do before he knows it himself. She dodges the kick to her head and delivers a sharp kick to the back of his knees, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"Do you even have feelings? You don't smile, you don't get angry, you don't cry. You're just as good as a dead person." He spits out.

He moves to stand and Isamu is impressed with how his pride is able to withstand the number of falls in such a short amount of time.

"You are not in a position to lecture me about camaraderie." She finally speaks. "Do you know how the Mangekyo sharingan is awakened?"

She doesn't wait for his reply. "Death of a loved one." She doesn't smile, but the tilt of her lips is close to one. "Humanity has always longed for power, and it is power that we will sacrifice anything for. It is the curse of the Uchiha clan to have to choose between love and power, and it is the curse of the Uchiha clan that power will always win."

She barely looks at Izuna before walking away. "If being dead means I do not have to trade one for the other, then dead I will gladly be."

Isamu does not think she is capable of love anymore, and that thought does not deter her. With or without the mangekyo, she will become powerful and she will live.
———

She is nine years old when her next mission arrives. This time, it is straight to the battlefield.
———

"I don't w-want you to go."

Isamu spares Kenji a glance. "But you are going too."

"That's different." He whispers. "I don't want you to get hurt."

She looks up at the sky full of stars, shimmering back at her in mock liveliness. "We will have each other's backs."

We will outlive this war.

Kenji smiles at her and there is something in his eyes that she recognizes but pushes it to the back of her head.

We will live to see the day peace is born.
———

She dances around the battlefield like it is her second home. She breathes fire and moves earth at her will. The katana cuts and powers through anything in her way.

This time, she does not dare rest her eyes. They burn red through day and night. She takes down men twice her size without a second thought and breezes through the child soldiers without a second glance.
———

Her blood runs cold when she recognizes the curly dark hair on the ground and comes to a stop just in time to block the killing strike aimed at Kenji's heart.