I decided that the prequel to "The Winds of Spring" could wait, for after I did that very first shot of mine, I began to race mentally with ideas. :D I bring you the sequel which is also named after a beautiful composition by Brandon Fiechter, and it takes place shortly after the night Hanaru Uzumaki and Itachi Uchiha consummate their love one month before they wed.

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to its respectful owner; you know who that is. I only own Hanaru.

Chapter One

When the Dawn Breaks

"Hn..."

Warmth melted his flesh and everything beneath, around his bones, when he roused to awareness, in time for dawn to peek in on him through the window. At some point during the night, the memory fresh as the dew, she must have left him temporarily to open the window and let the sweet spring air come in and wash them with gratification. All his life, he never thought he would find himself being ensnared in the unconditional grasp that this divine female held him in at this very moment.

He, the great Itachi Uchiha, lay naked as the day he was born, with his beloved beside him, laying on her stomach and with one arm wrapped around his body. Having been used to sleeping on his own accord, never in his reality-ridden lifetime did he dream of waking up beside the woman he was going to marry in due time.

Itachi found himself gazing upon the sweet face of his koishii. Hanaru's sunny locks - enflamed with lava red - were as bright as her smile which never grew tiresome, matching the one belonging to her brother the Jinchuuriki, and as inferior and common as it sounded, she was the brightest light in all his days that had been deprived from him since the beginning of time. When Sasuke had been born, to hold his baby brother for the first time had brought immense joy, until they grew older and faced love-hate competition while striving to please their distant father. But the natural love for his younger brother wasn't the same as the one he harbored for the younger Jounin who happened to be the elder sister of one Naruto Uzumaki.

Hanaru...she was similar and different in more ways than one with her brother. She always smiled, she put her foot down, and she was the only one to respect Itachi's space. He suffered the same fate as his brother when it came to swooning fangirls. He hated the attention, but he learned to live with it, handled it better than the brooding Sasuke. He had always assumed that with more estrangement from social interaction - and little brother following in his footsteps - he would be all the more disliked, but it only succeeded in marking him as a star in their eyes.

It also brought him this woman whose glorious body mated with his only last night.

Stretching, Itachi found himself looking over his body. His bare flesh tingled with the memory of hers, and certain parts of his anatomy moreso because of the knowledge that because of last night's decision, he was more of a man than he'd always been. Years of war, of his position in the spotlight, the pressures by his father and ANBU, and a heavy lack of true affection hardened much of his mind, heart and soul...but now look at the gift beside him.

If his parents ever learned of this - not that he intended for this to get out, the chances being slim to none - his father would no doubt be far from pleased, but why should he care? Being the youngest captain of ANBU in history, under the Hokage, he nearly lost his life on more than one occasion, and his little flower had come so close to it herself at the hands of the Snake Sannin who was currently locked up at the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility. That demon he loathed with a passion but couldn't kill no matter how much he wanted to.

He closed his eyes. He pulled the blanket off from his body and revealed the rest of himself to his own eyes. Sunlight defined the carved muscles that were honed by years of pain and suffering, his sensitive parts inactive for the time being. Itachi kept one arm around his Hana-chan while his other moved to squeeze a thigh and then trace the curve of his pelvis, near the place where he'd made himself one with her. He was tempted to place a finger on the intimate flesh before deciding against it. Never in his life did he acknowledge his solo need; her touch was the only spark.

The weight of a sweetly soft form shifted against him. "Isn't that supposed to be MY job, my sensei?" a familiar soft voice purred against his ear. He chuckled and turned to look into Hanaru's vivid blues.

"I was intending to do the job for you, my dear."

"So let me do it for you." She boldly went straight for the prize, caressing first the bristling dark curls around his growing arousal. Itachi exhaled and turned his face into hers, heart thundering behind his sternum. One good way to wake up in the morning.

Suddenly, her body slid down, and her hand was replaced by something wetter and hotter, causing his hips to arch up, moving his pubic section closer to the lower half of her face. She giggled at the tickling sensation the hairs gave her, the vibrations sending more throughout his groin. He closed his eyes and let himself drown in his bliss. "H-Hana-chan," he groaned.

Her cavern suctioned around him and drew him deeper, until the head backed against the farthest reaches and stimulated her gag reflex before it slipped away to the hard wall of the back of her mouth. Her hands roamed over him, from his thighs to buttocks, stopping there to torture him. His spine rushed with shivers, his fingers closing in to grip the sheets beneath him. His body writhed beneath hers, losing control of the spasms she was giving him as he gave her last night...

He might have roared so loud his eardrums didn't catch the proper level when he released into her mouth; she swallowed it all down without disgust.

"You really are loud, aren't you, Itachi-kun?" Hanaru said when she slithered over his body and teased him by rubbing herself against him. He rumbled in his throat and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Hehe, you're one to talk," he said, placing a kiss on her nose.

She laughed hysterically. "Shut up, baka."

Itachi just about retaliated by reversing their positions so he lay atop her and fully exposed. She had to call him an idiot, but not to offend. The term was used often between two people who knew each other so well; his little brother still called him the phrase, and Sasuke would call Naruto a similar term.

Her hands caressed the contoured muscles of his back and rear end, the latter which made him shift and growl under his breath. Not that he didn't like her touching him there, but the sensitivity was another story. Hanaru was still covered by the sheet between them, so his naked body was at the mercy of her sweet, sensual touches. He deepened the kiss they shared, trying to slip his tongue in to twine with hers, but she resisted. He narrowed his eyes at her. "Explain why the resistance?"

"We have to get up, remember, saiai?" she reminded him. "We can pick up again later."

"Hn...sounds tempting and promising." However, a thought crossed his mind as he slid off of her and moved to pick up his clothes from the floor: Last night was nothing I would have expected, and already I want to feel more with her...but what if we conceive a child so soon? It wasn't that he would object to another Uchiha heir, but to impregnate his beloved one month before the wedding day was something he couldn't afford at the present.

~o~

"Hanaru-sensei!"

She greeted her team right outside Ichiraku's - her brother's favorite place which had been repaired along with the rest of their village after the great battle not many years ago. The three consisted of none other than Hanabi Hyuuga - Hinata's younger sister - Misaki Kimura, and Daichu Yoshido. When her team had been assembled a few years ago, record broke with the first "two girls and a boy" group in the history of the Hidden Leaf Village.

Starting with Hanabi, a promising little one who fared with impressionable excellence. Her skills as a ninja surpassed Hinata. Hanaru Uzumaki had to admit, from what she heard, she wasn't exactly excited to be teaching the younger sister of her brother's girlfriend. And for Hanabi to give her flack about her sister's relationship with Hanaru's brother...

Misaki was a special case for the young Jounin. She was orphaned during the war and had become the adopted sister of Daichu who was also part of her team, and while the two occasionally fought, they harmonized under her tutelage. It was never easy to be an instructor, but Hanaru was confident they would one day amount. She smiled at all three of them when she stood before them with both hands on her hips. "You three haven't started without me, have you?"

Hanabi narrowed her pale eyes. "Sensei, why are you so...cheerful today?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, which could mean more than a few things. Daichu had the habit of taking off his glasses and polishing them.

"Yeah, what happened to you today? Did you see someone last night?"

Her cheeks flushed at the suggestive meaning. They all knew she was engaged to the eldest heir of the elite Uchiha clan, yet it seemed their youthful and sometimes amateurish perverted imaginations got the best of them that they assumed she was meeting someone behind her fiancé's back - which would never happen! She cleared her throat and pulled herself together.

"Absolutely not, and as you all know, it would not be your business," she said calmly. "Besides, my fiancé has returned home for the time being. If the three of you have no more questions, we shall proceed into the forest -" She flashed them all the grin that matched her famous brother's. "- and afterwards, how does the famous Ichiraku Ramen sound?" This did earn the cheers from her pre-teenaged group, much like she, her brother and their friends were not that long ago.

~o~

To stand before Sixth Hokage Kakashi alone was a minor disappointment even though it was no surprise on either part, but it did not make it excusable. For almost half a year now, ever since Orochimaru's incarceration, Kabuto the right hand had not been found. Theories included that he had joined the Akatsuki as a member in his master's place, but it meant nothing unless proven. This Itachi Uchiha settled and closed his eyes.

He wanted nothing more than to see the four-eyed scum join his master in a cold, barred cell at the lecherous facility.

"There are no signs of the rest of the Akatsuki," he said to Kakashi Hatake, clenching his fists, "and certainly no other traces of enemy activity along the borders. But as soon as you give the orders, I will take the cell out for another scout."

The one-eyed man closed his single revealed optic momentarily. "And Kabuto Yakushi?" he questioned.

"Well hidden as far as intelligence points. But rest assured, we are not giving up."

"We can't afford this, Itachi," Kakashi agreed, clasping his hands before himself atop the desk surface. "Orochimaru may be in prison, but there's always a chance that his favorite agent can pop back up at anytime. You have your orders - for you and your team. You are to leave immediately within three days' time."

The Uchiha nodded once without a word and left. Three days was too long for his book, but Kabuto Yakushi wouldn't go anywhere. Only Hanaru won't be pleased, yet I pray she understands. He frowned to himself. Why did he worry about how his fiancée would react? This wasn't the first time he was called away unexpectedly. Long before they were betrothed, they knew this would happen.

And yet he could not help but wonder if this would be the last time they saw each other, her losing him one month before the wedding day. This was not the first time to concern himself with this, either.

Since I am still in process of planning the prequel, yet to be named, the goal is to have Orochimaru himself be the one to cause the majority of the problems, and right now, what better than to have him in the very same prison where Mizuki himself was incarcerated?

This isn't the last of the story. This whole series is half AU and half canon, so things have changed while others remain the same. I'm not gonna reveal EVERYTHING at once or in a single day. In the meantime, stay tuned for the next chapter. :)