Sequel to "A Gift to the Uchiha" and "Bride of the Uchiha", so read those first before this. Otherwise, enjoy even though it is shorter than they are. But no matter since it's what's INSIDE that is most important. :D Review afterwards.
Disclaimer: obvious answer, NO, I own nothing but the main OC (who was actually created by my boyfriend).
The man she loved was dying.
He was said to have a year or two, with prescribed medication. Amegakure wasn't perfect like her birthplace, unallied with the village her father protected to his death, but it did offer the best meds to offer. Though someone like Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage of her home, would be the one to save her lover - if he wasn't a wanted man in the Bingo Book, of course.
Hanaru Uzumaki didn't regret becoming Itachi Uchiha's bride, but it was riddled with too many imperfections compared to her way of living with Master Jiraiya.
Two months had passed since she discovered Itachi's disease - a form of hemoptysis, in which blood filled the lungs at an abnormal rate, likely caused from something chronic which began with the way he'd lived his life. She damned the Third War which had happened when he was only a child - four years old! He saw people die, he lost people...and he even KILLED to survive. His younger brother had been spared that pain, but he told her Sasuke would never know that kind of suffering. He loved his brother and did everything for him - even if it meant purposefully distancing from him. She closed her eyes when she thought of her own younger brother who had no idea she existed.
She had been taken away to safety when her mother had just given birth to Naruto - she'd only been three - and then the masked man arrived to kidnap Kushina to extract the Nine-Tails from her. To live with that knowledge, her mother's burden passed onto her baby brother, and their father giving his life for it all...it left her with going place to place to survive. A lifetime of always moving.
Jiraiya had been there for her, when he wasn't traveling place to place, of course. He taught her everything necessary, and the Third Hokage did give her a decent allowance to save and live on, but she also had to work to earn. Sometimes she wondered why she couldn't just stay in one place long enough to settle down...
And then she found herself in the place where Jiraiya and his teammates - fellow Sannin Tsunade and Orochimaru, the latter who became the monster he was now - had once fought in during the Second Great War. Things were calm, but it remained ever difficult to infiltrate. However, given her somewhat civilian status, it enabled her to live...until HE came along.
She was happy with Itachi. She wasn't an official member of the Akatsuki. Its leader paid no heed of her, but he ensured if she did one thing wrong, her head was his. She confessed she was intimidated by the pierced man with the fiery hair, and those eyes...those vivid royal-toned irises lined with six or so tomoe - the Rinnegan. Only a GOD would have those eyes.
Hidan, a fanatic immortal man who worshipped some backwoods deity of death, had the nastiest mouth you'd hear from anyone, and he had a knack for pain on himself and others. He made her skin crawl, but at least he was wise to keep away from her since Itachi claimed her.
There was also Kakuzu, the voodoo man's partner, and he was also immortal due to having FIVE hearts in his body. His soulless green eyes, his love for a profit - and of course he hadn't been happy when he had to BUY her off from Umeko that night of Itachi's birthday. There was nothing she could do about it, but she did hate being treated like property. Survival means what is necessary. Hanaru had at first been prepared to give her virginity for money...but how lucky could she have gotten when none other than the Clan Killer himself had been the one to take it only to give her so much more?
What could she say about Sasori, the puppet guy? She heard he was hardly human anymore, had only a couple features that were - including his heart and his head maybe - but she barely saw the guy, and if she did, he was a monstrous-looking puppet. But for all she knew, he could care less about her. His partner, Deidara, was a cute-looking blond originally from the Land of Earth and just LOVED to "bomb things up". He and Sasori had a love for art, if for different reasons. The guy originally from Suna saw "eternal life" and the blond saw it all as an explosion. The two were like a bickering married couple, right?
Which left Kisame Hoshigaki, the Monster of the Hidden Mist - a former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. The one with that scary blade of "shark skin", partnered with her lover. He could make the slightest person cower at the sight of him if he wanted to. Hanaru was familiar with his history, but that was only what she heard. When she tried asking about it, he laughed and told her that it had been a thrill - plus there had been people too dangerous with telling lies. She closed her eyes hearing that; she had to agree, given the way Itachi had lived, which the shark man had no idea about.
For someone who loves to fight, unlike the man I'm marrying soon, he really does consider Itachi a good friend.
She wondered how he would feel when Itachi died, which wouldn't be long.
Her heart clenched as she thought of how SHE herself would feel, which was obvious enough. She'd been younger than she was now, which wasn't that long ago, when he took her. Though now the first man she truly had fallen in love with was dying, it would leave her on a road to new uncertainty.
It was just what Jiraiya had told her when they met up again, and he had been far from pleased that her choice of a man to care for her while he was gone was none other than Itachi Uchiha.
"The guy is trouble, Hana-chan," he'd said. "Not just because of his organization, but the fact his brother will come along one day - you know how much damage it will do to your heart?"
"I'm aware -" she'd tried to say, but he interrupted.
"No, you don't. This is your first time, and you may be the daughter of two great Shinobi, and I may have taught you enough, but this is the hardest you will ever face. Heartbreak is the worst kind of pain you may never recover from..."
She'd lost parents she never knew, she had a brother she hadn't met, and she was always on the move for safety. As for Itachi, he gave everything he had up for the village they were born in - because of the damned elders, except the Third Hokage...but most of all that lecherous Danzo was to blame. Jiraiya hated the man's guts himself but went along with the ruse.
He'd sighed when he relented at her pleas. "If he makes you happy, and as long as no one hurts you, then I'll be there for you." He looked into her eyes before leaning down and placing a kiss on her forehead.
Little did she know that would be the last time she would see him. Her next chapter and his own with Naruto would keep them separate one last time - starting on his end.
A week later, he returned to her with a present that he assured her she would not owe him for one bit. Naruto was his top priority now. He mastered the Rasengan and had more ways to go. He was becoming...just like their father. A tear slipped from her eye, and she wished she could meet him, but because she was in enemy territory - had no real loyalty to Akatsuki as her fiancé did not - and had no access to the place she was born, it might be unlikely. She might die somehow, but every day was like that, and the point was to make every moment count.
She was going to do just that with Itachi before he died, and that brought her to the gift from the man who raised her whenever he was available.
The kimono was peacock blue, over a lighter pink dress, but the fabric was splashed with a sherbet wave of flowers. It was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. She had no idea how Jiraiya got his hands on this, but it was a personal gift for her - and it was the perfect wedding gown. And now she stood here, on the topmost cliff of Akatsuki headquarters. The rain hadn't poured yet, but she didn't want to take chances and let her beautiful robes be ruined. Her hair was held up in the traditional bun and placed with a few hairpins - ivory blossoms made of flawless paper and placed with a few mined crystals that were rare to find in these parts. The pieces were personally made by Konan, obviously.
The beautiful, blue-haired woman smiled at her as she brought her to her groom, who was in his cloak, as always. And what made it both better and funnier was that Hidan was the one to perform the ceremony.
"We gather on this sinfully stormy day to bear witness the union of this man and woman in hopes to join them in this life and the next," the Jashinist declared, using his scythe as a staff for show. He snickered. "And to think that a gloomy weasel has the most delicate desert flower as his match is one Jashin would approve of."
Sasori - in his puppet form - growled under his breath, while Deidara's lips pulled back with distaste at this insult. "Hidan, watch it!" Kakuzu seethed in warning. "This is a wedding, not one of your blasphemous services. And saved us all a lot of money..." he added under his breath, but she heard good and well as did Itachi.
Kisame narrowed his eyes and reached for Samehada as a threat of his own. Though the bastard couldn't be killed, he would cut him down just for the fun of it. He stood right behind Itachi as a sort of best man, and Konan right behind Hanaru - since Jiraiya could not be here for his own safety.
"Shut your ass up, my man, and let me work my damned magic!" Hidan retorted, though he was still grinning. "Anyway, Itachi Uchiha, do you take this woman to be your wife, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health -" Hanaru felt herself wince, but quickly recovered. The man who was becoming her husband flashed in the eyes, showing his Sharingan. "- until death do you part?"
"Yes," Itachi replied, letting his slight smile reserved only for her to be seen, which stunned the others as they never saw the Uchiha smile before.
The white-haired man's eyes lit up with mischief when they turned on her. "Hanaru Namikaze -" To reveal she was the daughter of the late Fourth Hokage caused quite the stir amongst them all. "- do you take this man to be your husband, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?" She almost wanted to cut him off at the "sickness and health" part because of how sensitive it was, but Itachi made it loud and clear he wanted no one knowing, so she held him to it.
"Yes."
The scythe was raised in victory as well as the shout to the heavens. "Then by the powers invested in me by the Lord Jashin himself -" All groans sounded, but Great Leader himself who watched from a higher rock above them, shook his head and closed his eyes. "- I declare this man and woman husband and wife." His broad grin stretched when he glanced over to Itachi with batting eyebrows. "You may now make out with the bride, you lucky bastard."
Usually, she didn't raise her fist on a guy without a good reason, but this time she felt like it, and her fist was as strong as any kunoichi. The impact straight to his face sent him skyrocketing into the air and landing who knew where below the cliff which wasn't that deep. His screams combined with bouts of laughter and a creative curse she didn't care to listen to.
This was enough to earn hoots and cheers for her "almighty fist". Laughing, Hanaru leaned up, put both hands on her new husband's arms, and placed a long and deep kiss on him. His hands came to rest on her waist, pulling her close to him.
~o~
How long had he ever imagined wedding the right woman for him? His entire life, but even in his clan's days, marriages were arranged and not for love. He was thirteen and considered women out of his league, for his age, even though he grew up in the time of the Third War. He hadn't bedded one because of reasons regarding the serious matters of the flesh within the Uchiha.
Itachi was still holding his new wife - Hanaru Uchiha - when the thunder rolled overhead, threatening the new rainfall to come any second. He disappointed them both by ending the kiss and picked her up the way he did to lead the way back inside. She had made it loud and clear she didn't want to ruin her new dress. "Un, it was perfect timing!" Deidara yelled after them, sticking close to Sasori who only grunted. "Wedding day under the rainfall - it's very artistic!"
"At least we agree it's an eternal form of art..." Sasori told him, to which the blond flashed him a beam. Yes, for once, they can stop bickering and agree on something.
"Girl, thank you for putting Hidan out of his misery - for now," Kakuzu called out to her, to which she responded with a half-hearted laugh and leaned her face into the crook of Itachi's neck. He held her close, ready to get them both away from the others so they could get to their well-deserved alone time. It had been a few weeks or so since they last made love, since his pains were increasing, but today he was fine thus far, and his medication had already been taken. Every six hours was required of his dosages, and that was three in a day at max. After he had her, he would need his next.
But on the day when he would die by Sasuke's hands, the doses would be at an end. The weaker he got, the easier it would be for his brother.
He didn't doubt that Sasuke was using Orochimaru if the snake didn't realize it...but that excused nothing. The little fool sought out the Serpent Sannin out of a lack of pride in himself and his village.
Kisame came to stand behind him, Samehada slung over his shoulder. "You have packed quite the punch, Hanaru," he told her proudly, "though I was ready to use Shark Skin on the fool just for your honor - and yours, Itachi."
"That wouldn't have been necessary."
Itachi brought his new bride into their shared room, in which there was notably the bed and necessary bathing spot and its necessities. Candles were lit on the tables to provide warmth in the gloom. He watched as she went to sit at the vanity and worked to take out the hairpins, letting tousled honey locks fall down her back. Itachi studied, mesmerized, as he pulled the buttons of his cloak out. She had several layers more than him which protected her from the drafty weather of Ame, and within these walls. She rose, keeping her back to him, as she took her turn removing all layers of her kimono.
There she stood in her glory, all for him. He stayed where he was, in the same state. Their garments were around their feet, before they stepped out in sync and made way towards the other.
But Hanaru stopped in front of him, choosing to wrap her arms around his shoulders, her soft breasts against his firm pectorals. "Are you sure?" she whispered in his ear. "What if you...?"
"I'll be fine, angel." He kissed her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her small waist. Small, slim but flaring like a rosebud ready to bloom. "The pain I suffer tonight will be worth everything." Pain and pleasure together...
He guided her over to their bed, reaching to pull down the woolen covers, sliding in first and pulling her after. She lay atop him, her soft body against his and straddling him. He groaned softly and closed his eyes - but her pause made him reopen them to look upon the face of his beloved. His heart stopped at once.
Tears pricked Hanaru's eyes. "When you go, Itachi, I will never fall in love with another," she swore, laying her head against his strong chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart.
"Don't be foolish, my love. You are young enough to marry again."
"I'd rather be alone and holding the memories I have of you rather than marrying another for convenience."
Itachi sighed, laying his head back. He didn't want to talk about this or think about it tonight. He just wanted to enjoy his wedding night with his new wife, not think about the bleak future or the inevitable. Without a word, he reversed their positions and proceeded to gently nibble her neck before going down to a breast, causing her to cry out a little. He chuckled. There was more coming than just this, and he knew it. "Let's not worry about the troubles tonight, angel," he breathed against her shivering skin.
There was one other thing he wanted, maybe: to conceive a child with her. When he was gone, she would have one thing left of him. But the consequence would be that she was raising their son or daughter alone, and they would grow up never knowing their father - they would be raised within the Akatsuki, and besides Pain, there was one certain person he could not trust with his own child or even his wife...
Hanaru never met Madara Uchiha herself, but if he could prevent the man from meeting Sasuke, then there was a chance he would spare her from that as well.
His body joined with hers, the impending pain held back for the time being, and his seed would eventually be released to take root.
Should be obvious where this goes now. :( Stay tuned for the next sequel, but don't know when.