Masked Beauty [Itachi Love Story]

Chapter three: Actual speech.

Izunami was walking along the path behind the Uchiha and Hoshigaki, just looking down as she walked. She stared at her feet, watching every step she made. Her face held a look of worry, which is why she refused to move her head up and watch the path in front of her. She didn't want to risk looking forward and seeing Itachi and Kisame watching her. She didn't want them to see her worry. What if they strike up a conversation? They were the only ones that seemed like they didn't fight or hate each other. The others never spoke because they weren't really fond of their partners, if they did speak it was to argue. So Izunami never had to worry about conversing with them, but these two are different. They got along, they didn't argue, and they occasionally spoke to one another.

What would Izunami do if they tired to talk to her? She didn't want to be rude to these two, because they were the ones that intimidated her the most. Yet she couldn't converse with them like it was nothing. Surely they would figure out her actual gender in a matter of words.

Izunami was just lucky she was cursed with such a horse voice. Her voice naturally sounded of that of someone that is slightly sick with a sore throat. Her voice could go for either gender, boy or girl. Though it had a bit more feminine tone too it. All she really had to do was talk as little as she can. If she spoke just few words and you saw her with the mask you'd wonder what gender she is, but if she talked more than she needed to she'd sound a bit girlyish, even though her voise is a little rough.

"Isamu, why linger behind us? Come up to where we can actually see you." Itachi's voice rang from a few feet in front of Izunami, not even bothering to hide the fact that they were all to keep a close eye on her.

"Hm?" Was Izunami's simple reply, as she drained her eyes from all emotion and looked foward to her teammates. They had both stopped and turned to her, obviously waiting for her to catch up to them.

'Just what I was afraid of' Izunami thought, as she internally sighed and made her way to Hosikagi and the Uchiha. She walked straight to them, landing herself right in between the too. They both shot their heads downward, in realization of how short 'Isamu' was.

Izunami felt extremely uncomfortable. They were both towering over her, looking at her like she was a midget. Well compared to them, she was.

"You're quite the short fellow eh, Isamu." Itachi said, no readable emotion in his tone. Izunami nodded up at the Uchiha, not wanting to let a single word escape from her mouth.

"Short parent?" Kisame added.

"Both." Izunami croaked. She gulped, mentally slapping herself for uttering even a single word.

"Wow that sucks. Seems like you won't be getting any taller." Kisame laughs as he playfully pats Izunami on her back. Though to her it wasn't playfully, she felt like she was getting all the wind knocked out of her. She coughed once before taking a step forward to escape Hoshigaki's reach. Izunami did not want to tell them as rudely as she told the other because she actually found herself to actually respect these too.

"I have a personal space issue." Izunami says, trying to add a darking tone to her voice. The males raise their eyebrows at her questioningly and she decided to answer in the the least many words, seeing as though she had spoke too much already.

"Germophobic." Izunami said placing her head at a normal lever once again.

"Sorry. Won't happen again." The shark man chuckles.

Izunami nodded. "You didn't know." She said as she started walking again, as if leading the two. They both said nothing and followed, trusting in her judgment.

***

The three stayed walking along the path for hours, until the day even turned over. The sun hid behind the horizon and the moon came out. Izunami's feet where aching, but she refused to complain. She didn't want to speak, and she most definitely didn't want to seem weak, let alone in front of these particular males.