The Black Leaf (Part 1)

Chapter 8: Last Time

So, I went to Itachi's house and knock on the door hard, Mikoto answer the door and walked outside.

"Izumi, dear I'm sorry," she said as she hugged me.

"I want to talk to Itachi before I leave, please," I told her.

"Leave?" Itachi said from the door, "where are you going?"

I immediately went to hug Itachi, "please tell me it's not true, he wouldn't leave me just like that. I know he couldn't," he hugged me tight and I could feel sense sadness in him.

"Izumi come with me?" he said grabbing my hand and pulling behind him.

"Itachi, you should not be leaving the house," his mother told him.

"I'll make sure to come back before father get's home," he told her as we walked.

"Itachi, answer me, what happened to him? why are they saying he committed suicide?" I asked pulling my hand from his.

"Because he did Izumi, he jumped to the river and died." He sighed and looked away, "that's not all. For some reason they think I killed him," he said with tears in his eyes.

"You?... What? Why?" I was shocked.

"They think I'm conspiring against the clan and they put him to follow me around and report back to the police." Itachi looked at me and I could see the tears running down his face. "Just come with me please" he said holding his hand out for me. I took it and we walked in silent for a while. We got to a cliff with a waterfall on the side. "This is where he jumped from," he said pointing to the flowers and the candles at the edge of the cliff.

I walked towards the edge of the cliff, and when I was near the edge, I dropped on my knees. The tears started leaving my eyes again, I sobbed and gripped hard on the dirt below me. Itachi walked towards me, knelt next to me and hugged me. I buried my head on his chest and we both cried. Time passed and we just sat there, staring at the edge of the cliff in silent.

"I have to go," I said wiping my tears, "I have to go see the Hokage."

"You said earlier you were leaving, why are you leaving?" he asked looking concerned.

"Itachi the clan... they asked me to leave." I told him and I could see the anger growing in his face.

He took a deep breath before talking, "I'm sorry Izumi." He got up and extended his hand for me, "I'll take you wherever you need to go."

We walked back to the house, to pick my stuff up. Then we headed to the Hokage's office, where he gave me the keys to a small apartment. He gave me the address and Itachi and I went looking for it. We found it easily, it was on the third floor of an older building in the middle of the village. A one bedroom one-bathroom apartment, with a small kitchen and living room. It was small but to me this was more than enough. The apartment had furniture already, everything was just dusty and dark. I went to drop my stuff in the bedroom and saw the big bed with just a mattress.

"I'll bring your bed sheet tomorrow," Itachi said looking at the bed.

"Don't worry, it's okay," I said in low voice.

"I hate that they are doing this to you Izumi." Itachi said leaning against the wall, "you don't deserve none of this."

"Itachi, it's okay, I never felt like I belong in the Uchiha district anyways." I leaned against the wall next to him and held his hand tight. "If it wasn't for your or Shisui everything would have been hell, so thank you," I looked up to meet his eyes.

He gave me a warm smile and moved to face me. He caressed my face slowly and pressed his forehead against mine. "You know I care about you right?" I nodded. "I will take care of you Izumi, I will protect you."