Dragonfly

Chapter Thirteen: Unexpectedly Expected

Marriage.

Marriage.

But not just any kind of marriage, no-it was a premeditated marriage with Shisui. Shisui!

The words kept repeating in my head, echoing, swirling around like some messed-up merry-go-round. Big, bold, blobby-shaped words in bright, neon colors.

Remember when I said I'd marry him in a heartbeat a while back if he wasn't that closely related to me? Yeah, well, it was a huge lie.

The whole idea was still gross.

Not to mention risky! I mean, there was never the issue of Shisui being married before, not in canon-or at least, it was never mentioned and likely not an occurrence because he was a busy shinobi who devoted his life and efforts to the village and clan-and... if I went through with this because of Emiko and Satoshi's meddling, what if everything just got totally wrecked?

I still wanted my possible ticket back home! If the massacre somehow got pushed back and derailed, there was no telling how much longer I'd have to wait to get off of this crazy train.

On the other hand, if this stupid marriage thing didn't have any weight on the timeline, it would never go through anyway since Shisui would die soon.

Yeah...he would die. Sacrifice himself at the Naka river for the greater good of the village, which Itachi would then do his best to carry on and...

I didn't want to think about that any more than I had to. It was easier to just pretend to be dumb and blind to what was to come instead of worrying and agonizing over the pain and loss that was destined to occur and had nothing to do with me.

So, for both of those reasons (the marriage and impending doom of the Uchihas), I did my best to avoid my family. Once my ribs were healed and I could move without aching, I stayed away from the district for as long as possible in daylight up until the clan closed the neighborhood's gates. If they looked for me, they never found me, either, because I knew about all of the little side-streets and detours that only mischievous kids or talented ninjas could navigate without losing their breath.

Because I lingered in the shadier, prankster-prone side of Konoha, it was only a matter of time before I ran into a familiar firecracker of a blond brat-Uzumaki Naruto himself.

It was a total accident, too, but somehow I got swept up into the mess anyway.

For Konoha, today was just like any other day-run-of-the-mill and boring, a little chilly with winter rolling in, but otherwise uneventful.

Well, aside from the four faces of the Hokage Monument which were all sporting vicious, bright-red nosebleeds, thanks to the resident troublemaker that could only be Konoha's Number One Most Unpredictable Ninja-pre-Ninja, that is.

Judging by the way the villagers reacted, muttering amongst themselves and wondering who defaced the monument so crudely, it was clearly his first attempt at an attention-catching masterpiece on such a large scale, and would have gone unattributed if not for the trademark spiral left on the Third's cheek.

I had to admit, I was pretty impressed. I mean, how many people could think to give nosebleeds to those four giant faces, much less a little kid?

The only problem with the whole incident was that I was somehow painted as one of the suspects because of my stupid track record.

"I swear it wasn't me!" I shouted over my shoulder, shoving past a group of shoppers as I darted through the main street, doing my best to create more distance between the Uchiha police tailing me so I could disappear into one of the back roads without being seen. "I know I do a lot of crap around here but this totally wasn't me!"