'What is love?'
That is a question as old as time. Everyone has a different perception about it, but still no one can answer correctly.
And that is what you were thinking about as you lay next to your lover, in the middle of the night. You couldn't help yourself from staying awake and watch your lovers' face as he slept, images of when you met and how you fell in love flooding into your mind. Being next to him made you feel protected, loved and belonging. You did not want to part from your lovers' arms ever. You started recalling the night you first met as you looked at the angelic, sleeping face of Madara Uchiha, or Tobi as he is known to the Akatsuki. Even now, you thank the gods for crossing your paths with the ones of the Akatsuki.
You were walking along the path in the forest, humming to yourself, watching the wind rustle the leaves. Although your memory was lost forever, you couldn't help but feeling like you were one with the nature, even if you did not know why. You couldn't help feeling so close to nature after being saved by a wolf from the clutches of death. Since then, the love for nature and wolves has grown. You were a S-rank criminal with a soft spot for wolves and sweets.
As you walked, you couldn't stop from noticing that you were followed, but you did not stop from walking. Soon your stalkers appeared in front of you and you recognized them as being from the Akatsuki. One was grey-haired and had no shirt underneath his cloak, while the other had a mask on his face, his green eyes being the only thing visible. You just stared at them, waiting for them to speak or disappear from your sight. The green eyed, whom you later find to be named Kakuzu, just said 'Come' like you were supposed to know why they were there. When they turned around and started walking, you followed them like being put under a spell which you couldn't fight against and just because of one word. You knew that you were sealing your faith by following them but you didn't care. You just wanted to see what good would it bring to you if you joined. Who knew? Maybe you were going to have fun and you were already bored of walking from village to village without a purpose.
Arriving at the base, you were already pissed off by the loud mouth, whose swears could bring a sailor to shame. Just as you were to stab him to death, a kid with an orange mask came from nowhere and glomped you. Hidan and Kakuzu just watched you, waiting for you to kick his ass. But what they didn't know was that you were kinda bipolar, so you switched moods from one second to another, especially when the sweet scent of candy was all over the kid. They watched with wide eyes and mouths open, at least in Hidan's case as you couldn't see Kakuzu's mouth, as you tackled the kid to the ground, smelling him and asking for candy as a six-year old would.
"CANDY! CANDY! GIMME, GIMME!" you just screamed, searching him for candy.
"Tobi is a good boy! Tobi gives nice girl candy!" he said, hugging you tighter and giving you some candy.
Seeing the candy, you couldn't help but grin as an idiot and jump up and down from happiness. The duo just stared at you, thinking why did Pein-sama want another candy addict in the organization.
"Tobi takes nice girl to Leader-sama and after he shows her around" he announced, bouncing around like he was on a sugar-rush, which he was. He just took your hand and started dragging you to Leader-sama's office without any complaints from you, who was eating her precious, delicious, addicting, multi-flavored candy. Oh, yeah, you would not get bored here, with this kid around and the candies.
Remembering your arrival at the base and how you met him, you couldn't help but smile. Following the Immortal Duo was the best decision you ever made, especially since it brought you to your love. You stifled a giggle as you remembered how you spent your time with him, eating candy, joking, helping him escape from Deidara's deadly clay birds. You developed a deep connection with the masked boy, who was so full of energy and that always made you laugh with his pranks on his sempai or even on Hidan. He always seemed to be there when you needed to be cheered up or when you just wanted to play around like six-year old. He was your special friend, but you never thought that you would fall for him. Yeah, you loved the way he talked in third person about himself, the way he bounced around even after almost being killed by Deidara, the candy he always brought for you, the way he would play with you and the way you could talk to him about everything, and the way he seemed so oblivious about some things.
Now, as you stood there in bed, looking at him, you wondered when did you fall for him. Was it when he saved your life? When he revealed his true identity? When he took your hand in his gloves-free hands? When he looked into your eyes with his piercing, crimson eyes of an Uchiha? Or was it when he kissed you passionately, making you feel like you died and went to heaven?
You couldn't quite remember when it happened, but you were sure that it happened somewhere in between. Your mind just strayed to the time when he saved your life, taking each memory at a time to analyze it, wanting to come with an answer.
Going out for some air in the middle night, escaping from all those guys was surely good for you. But you never expected to be surrounded by missing nins, who wanted only one thing: you. Yeah, you could have taken them on, but after training with the Uchiha prodigy can bring one to exhaustion, after getting beaten ten times in a row. You just couldn't admit that he was stronger than you, and so you challenged him on and on until he was bored with beating your ass off and just took off, leaving you behind exhausted and more determined than ever to kick his ass. Instead of going inside to rest, you just went on a walk to clear your mind and think about some strategies that could help you defeat him. So, being lost in your thoughts, you didn't notice the four shadows approaching you until it was too late, and you were on the ground, with one of them on your back, struggling to get free from his grip. The others just laughed at your feeble attempt of escaping and simply just grabbed your wrists and ankles, trying to stop you from struggling. The only thing your tired mind could register was the strong hold on your wrists and ankles, the weight on your back, the smell of alcohol and laughter. You couldn't make out their voices, it was like they were the one and the same. You stopped struggling, knowing that it was useless to fight in the state your body was, and just waited death to come and take you. But a deep voice broke you out of your state, making you turn your face towards the place where it came from, although your eyes were too tired to make out shapes. The only thing that registered in your mind was the deep voice and an Akatsuki cloak.
"Let the girl go" the deep voice said.
'Whose voice is it?' you thought, not being able to shape a face for the voice because none of the Akatsuki had such deep voice, not even Itachi or Leader-sama. But as you tried to remember, you slowly drifted away into unconsciousness, due to your exhaustion.
When you woke up, you saw the orange mask of Tobi, who was shaking you in order to wake you up.
"Come on, Luna. Wake up! Tobi wants to play!" he whined, shaking you until you opened your eyes.
Looking around, you saw that you were in your room. 'Was it all a dream? Those guys? The deep voice?' you thought confused.
"Luna, come. Tobi wants to show you something." He tugged on your hand, bringing your attention back to him. You silently followed, still thinking about what happened and if it was a dream. Not paying attention to where Tobi was taking you or what he was talking about, you didn't notice when you came to a stop and hands were placed on your shoulders, until a deep voice like the one from your realistic dream brought you back to earth.
"You should pay more attention to your surroundings and listen when somebody is talking to you" the voice said, making you snap out of your trance and look at Tobi with surprise written on your face. You were surprised because you never heard Tobi talk in such a deep voice, he always talked in third person and used a hyper voice like a six-year old child.
"Luna" he said again in that deep voice of him, making a shiver travel up and down your spine "you should be more careful. You were lucky that I was around. God knows what could have happened if I wasn't there to save you. I don't want to lose you, you hear me?" he said shaking you a little so you could understand what he is talking about.
"T-tobi?" you asked, still surprised that his voice was so different from the one he used usually.
"Yes and no" he answered. "Look I am going to tell you the truth, because I want you to see the real me and to make you understand how much you mean to me"
One of his hand disappeared from your shoulder, making its way toward his mask, untying it from behind. When the mask fell, you couldn't stop a gasp of surprise leave your mouth. The boy, no, the man in front of you was stunning. You were at a loss of words that could describe him. It was like you were in front of perfection: the smooth skin that taunted you to touch it, the silky, short, dark hair that made you want to run your fingers through it, those crimson eyes that made you want to get lost in their intensity and depth. At that moment, you felt so insignificant, standing in front of the most perfect person in the world. How could you keep being friends with this perfect being when you felt so common, so little. Even the aura he emanated felt so strong, like the one of a ruler, compared to your own. Your head dropped, knowing that you had no right looking at such a out-of-this-world being with your eyes.
"What is wrong?" he asked in his deep voice that sounded like the most wonderful melody in the whole world. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked concerned about your well-being. You just shook your head in response. "Then why are you avoiding my gaze? Am I so repulsive that you can not stand the sight of me?" he asked, releasing his hold on your shoulder, and dropping both his hands to his sides. What he said surprised you even more 'How could I be repulsed by him?' you thought
"No" you answered, still looking at the ground. "It is because I am not worthy at looking at someone like you." You said surprising him.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, putting his hands back on your shoulders. "Why are you not worthy?" he shakes you
"Look at you." You answered, making eye contact for a second, then dropping your gaze back on the ground. "You are like the most perfect person in this universe and I am the most common. I shouldn't even desire to look at you or to be in your presence."
Hearing your answer, he started laughing, and if by now you thought you were going to faint, at the sound of his laughter you thought that your heart was going to break from its prison and start flying towards heaven.
"Are you hearing yourself?" he asked between laughter's. "I shouldn't even be around you, not the other way around. I shouldn't even want to touch you, kiss you, hold you. You are the most purest thing in my life, that I shouldn't even want to think about tainting you. But I am, and here you are saying that you are not worthy of looking at me. It is the other way around, I am not worthy even of your attention." He said, grabbing your chin and making you look into his crimson eyes, taking every detail of his perfect face into account and memorizing it. "But still, here I am, holding you, looking into your eyes, not wanting to ever let you go from my sight and my arms. I wish we could stay forever like this. I only care about you and I will never let you go now that I have you like this" he said leaning in and capturing your lips in a kiss that made your legs weak, and that sent you straight to heaven and back. You felt like melting in his arms, and you had to hold onto him for support, afraid to let go, because it could have been a dream.
Breaking the kiss for air, he slowly leaned towards your ear where he whispered: "You are mine for ever" and you couldn't stop yourself from smiling, agreeing with what he said.
You put your head on his chest, nestling closer to his warm body, smiling happily at that memory, not wanting to change anything from what happened since then until now. As you stood there, thinking about his confession of him being Madara Uchiha, the real leader of the Akatsuki, you couldn't help but be happy about being a part of his life, knowing that he will never lie to you or abandon you.
A love like yours couldn't be found easily, for it was something that involved trust, appreciation, admiration, strength, the knowledge that you will be forever there for each other, and, of course, knowing the defects of the other but still considering him the most perfect being o earth.
So, how can one describe love then? You still didn't figure it out. Is it something that the gods sent on earth? Is it something spiritual or physical? Is it something common or something that happened once in a lifetime? Is it something universal or just for people? As you stood there, looking at his handsome face, illuminated by the light of the moon, the answer just came to you.
Love has no description, no race, no sex, no age, no nothing. It takes just a spark for it to appear or it could just appear out of nowhere. Love has no definition. Love simply is.