Red Butterfly

Chapter 104, Grand Glare

"Hanabi...darling...like I said...no need to cry out grievances...we're already dead"

"It's so easy for you to say that...", I silently cry as I stare back at his black surrounded eyes.

"Look at you, all older and pretty, not to mention strong...I couldn't be any prouder..."

"Dad..."

"Don't waste your time with crying senselessly, it won't bring us back Hanabi", he smiled at me.

"Why does it always have to be this way?", I said through a stormful of tears.

Dad gave me a faint smile before answering, "that's not important, right now you have to focus on the future and what you currently have. And currently you won't have us by your side, you never did to begin with, which is all the more reason for you to stop brooding about the past"

"I know you've wondered what your life would've been like if we never died, truth is, no one knows".

I momentarily gasped at this as I kept my unblinking eyes in place. He gave me a toothy grin before saying, "Hanabi...", he'd let his gaze linger my face, "I picked out that name for you upon witnessing the fireworks seventeen-years ago"

Both of them don't look even that old...did they seriously die so young?

"I'd sensed that it was a girl the moment your mother told me", he scoffed, "and I was right as usual"

"Fireworks?", I suddenly echo.

"Yeah, it was a tribute to us for making the Tsuchikage issue a truce at the beginning of the war", he smiled.

I looked at him blanky until I stared to shed more tears.

"Now there...", he whispered, "I think you've defeated us", he smiled with pride.

"How?"

"Go to your mother before its too late", he advised, resting a hand on the top of my head before saying, "you deserved better", he sadly smiled.

I was suddenly on complete alert again as I wiped away my tears. His reanimated skin began flaking off.

"No...", I whimpered.

"Let's see if you can make it in time", he smiled at me as his body began glowing with a light hue.

My eyes broadened as I recalled the same scene from four years ago. I didn't make it in time four years ago.

If I'd learned anything from that experience it'd be to not repeat that same mistake again. And so I let my tears run past me as I forcefully gather all my speed and channel it into my legs.

With a pounding heart I bolt right towards the glowing light that's writhing in pain. She's clearing fighting off Kabuto's control, but at this point I don't even mind getting hurt.

I grit my teeth together and hold my pounding heart. This all feels so surreal, I tune out every other sound as I finally find myself welcomed in my mother's loving arms. Except they were cold. Her body was cold and freezing, completely contrasting my alive one.

I grit my teeth together and I almost made her tumble back from how fast I lunged for her. I let myself get encased in her cold embrace as I began crying silently at the chilling sensation.

Of all the moments that my breath could've hitched in my throat, it had to be this moment. The moment when I finally got to be in my mother's embrace for the first time in these wasted seventeen-years.