[Hokage] Flower Time

Huashi closed her eyes tightly and couldn't see the scene in front of her, but she could hear the slight sound of the air current when the crow flapped its wings slightly.Then, it was Uchiha Itachi's calm words.

"Without my pupil power spell, other gods will not activate it." He said, "Open your eyes."

Hua Shi frowned, thinking carefully whether he should believe him.After a long time, she slowly opened her eyes.The pattern of other gods in the black crow's eyes has faded, and it has changed into an ordinary black three-pointed jade.She let out a breath, and the crow landed on her shoulder.

"The other god in this eye was set by me before." Uchiha Itachi put down his hand: "It's just that there is no chance to use it again."

"You..." Huashi said hesitantly, "Are you really going to see Sasuke?"

"..." Uchiha Itachi lowered his eyes and said slowly: "Finally, I want to ask you one thing."

He avoided answering the time-consuming question, but suddenly said something strange.Hua Shi subconsciously asked: "What?"

Uchiha Itachi closed his eyes and said, "...please don't tell Sasuke all this."

The night was silent, and the sound of something falling to the ground came from somewhere.There was a loud bang, as if the dishes were scattered all over the floor.This ear-piercing sound brought Hua Shi back to his senses.

"This is my last request." Uchiha Itachi said: "Although, I know that I am not qualified to say these words to you."

Hua Shi was silent for a while, then said, "I don't know if I can promise you."

Itachi Uchiha opened his eyes, and his gaze slowly swept across the crow on Hanatoki's shoulder. The crow tilted its head and looked at him with red eyes.He quietly lowered his head and said, "Forget it. You don't have to promise me. This is my mistake."

Hua Shi looked away, not wanting to look at his face.

"I remember, the first time I saw you." Uchiha Itachi said suddenly: "You tell people loudly that your name comes from Waka, which means 'the time when flowers bloom'."

"Ah, um." Hua Shi nodded.

"A nice name." Itachi said in a low voice, "Your parents must hope you have a good life. Life is like a flower in spring."

"..." Hua Shi frowned, and responded softly: "Yes. I heard from my brother that before she became pregnant with me, my mother proposed two names for the second child. 'Hua Shi' and 'Qiu Cheng' ’, ‘The Time of Blossoms’ or ‘Chengji in Autumn’, because I was born in April, and the cherry blossoms outside the window happened to be in bloom, so it was finally called ‘Flower Time’.”

"Sasuke's name is the same as the third generation's father." Itachi's face suddenly had a slight nostalgic color, and he mentioned Sasuke.

Huaji said, "I know. It's because Aunt Mikoto wants him to be an excellent ninja like the third generation's father, right?"

After the two finished speaking, they fell into silence together.The beautiful implication of these names is undoubtedly a kind of ridicule to them now.No one has become a Konoha ninja as good as Naruto or grew up worry-free and peacefully as originally envisioned.

Although it was ironic, neither of them mentioned those sad things tacitly, and they were immersed in the past before the age of twelve or thirteen for the time being.Many past events that she didn't want to recall suddenly flooded into her heart at the same time, crowding her to the brim at this moment.

The first time we met at the school gate, the targets in the practice room that were full of notches, the big tree full of shurikens because they were used for practice, the boys and girls who were always cowering and poking around, no one paid attention to Luo Man On the swing with golden leaves, the teacher wrote down her name stroke by stroke when registering the grades.

"If those things didn't happen." Uchiha Itachi said slowly: "Now you..."

"But everything has already happened." Hua Shi interrupted him without hesitation: "It's useless to always be immersed in fantasy. So, I want to re-create a world where my brother exists."

Uchiha Itachi sighed quietly, and looked in Hanatoki's direction.His eyebrows were dimmed in the dim light, and she could only see the slight movement of his lips.He said slowly to her: "Actually, I..."

"En." She replied, but didn't hear the following.

"..." Uchiha Itachi paused for a long time, and said, "It's time to leave."

After waiting for a long time, this inexplicable sentence came.Huashi looked at him suspiciously, but Uchiha Itachi said nothing, he turned around and walked out of the narrow street, towards the end of the town.The empty street was silent, and occasionally there was a faint light, barely illuminating the figure on his side.

"Hey!" Huashi walked out in a few steps, and shouted towards his back: "Itachi!"

Itachi's footsteps stopped, and when he turned his back to Hua, he was waiting for her next words.

"I forgive you."

Huashi's voice was very low, and she didn't seem to care if Itachi could hear her.The night wind on the street blew straight from one end of the town to the other, blowing up the robes of both of them.Huashi brushed the long black hair fluttering around her ears aside, and she said again: "I forgive you."

Things that were always unforgivable in the past are not so important when it should be the moment of parting.

"Whether it's your mission or your choice... I forgive you." She said slowly, "It doesn't matter if I bear the crime of genocide with you....Even so, you have to do that." ?"

The wind was getting stronger, blowing a few fallen leaves on the street and spinning them chaotically in mid-air.

"Thank you." Uchiha Itachi said softly, never stopping until he finally disappeared from Huashi's sight.Hua Shi straightened her body, and smoothed all the slightly messy black hair blown by the wind to her shoulders.She finished all this silently, and turned her gaze to the deserted street again.

There was no one else there but her alone.

Hua Shi took a few steps back, then walked out aimlessly.In the remote town, there was no sound at night, and it was even more terrifying in the middle of the night. It seemed that everyone in the world had fallen asleep, but she was the only one who remained awake.She walked past the closed shop doors, through the tangle of narrow alleys and neglected trees.

Unknowingly, she followed the direction that Uchiha Itachi had walked all the way, and walked back to the place where she left at the beginning.

Her gaze swept across the ground blankly and disorderly, looking at the grass leaves and trees inhabiting the darkness one by one, until she came into contact with the figure leaning on the tree.As soon as he saw the familiar person, Hua Shi showed a look of surprise.

"Why are you still here?" she asked suspiciously.

"I said, I will wait for you here." Uchiha Madara slowly straightened his body, moved his wrist, and said, "No matter where you go, I will wait. It's just... I didn't expect, You guys have been talking for so long."

Hearing Madara's last words, Huashi raised his eyes to look at the deep night, and couldn't help but said: "How long have we been talking, it has nothing to do with you, right?"

Uchiha Madara chuckled lightly, and said: "The expression looks like it can cry at any time. It's a bit like when I was a child....Because I suddenly knew the truth about not being expected, did I fall into a daze and disorder?"

Hua Shi was originally just sad in her heart, but he said it directly in a teasing tone without any hindrance, which made her expression even more rigid.

"None of your business," she repeated stubbornly.

"Starting to miss the past in a daze, even thinking about whether I did something wrong, maybe I should inherit the will of my brother and Uchiha Itachi, but I can't let go of my hatred." Uchiha Madara looked down at her: "Begin to waver, repeat Thinking about whether I did something wrong."

"I am very familiar with this expression." He said, "I used to be like this."

"Stop talking about what you don't know!" Hua Shi's mood was very dull, and she couldn't help but said: "Even if you saved me and taught me, how could you empathize with my pain... "

"Eight years is enough for me to understand you." Uchiha Madara said, as if he suddenly remembered something, and said: "You are shaking, I know it very well. So... listen to my story?"

"What do you mean..." She was still immersed in her bewildered emotions, full of doubts about his sudden actions.However, Uchiha Madara stretched out his hand toward his cheek. He held the lower end of the mask with his fingers, lifted it up, and took the mask off his face.

The short black hair became messy due to friction, and the black high neckline covered half of the chin.

The forest surrounded by the night is very quiet, the intertwined branches are hidden in the darkness, and the leaves are connected and entangled to outline a deep shape.Hua Shi froze in place because of his actions.Even the fingertips stopped shrinking.

"My name..." He held the mask in one hand, lowered his body and looked down at her, his breath directly blew on her face: "You who are closest to me should have already guessed it."

The man in front of him took off his mask for the first time, and faced her with his own face, without hindrance or any obstruction.Such a sudden calm made Hua Shi feel at a loss.She could only quietly clasped her fingers tightly behind her back, and then kept looking at his face.

There were several scars on one side of his cheek, which looked like marks left by something being crushed, but the face on the other side was intact. Without those scars, his appearance would be quite handsome.

"You are..." Hua Shi finally forced himself to make a sound.

"Uchiha Obito."