Long story short, these are modern times instead of nin-verse. Hanaru is mourning the death of her husband and having to raise their son alone. Their brothers, friends and relatives also mourn. But that's not the half of it: some time passes before the REAL trouble begins.
Not gonna spoil just yet, for once, but this is inspired by a Hammer film from 1966 that just HAPPENED to call me to bring this to life. I originally wanted a simple oneshot where Hanaru spiritually ends up with hubby that night. ;D There also was Sasuke suffering PTSD as a result of not saving his brother, but it's a subject that needs careful treads. Therefore I came up with something better and easier to deal with - hopefully.
I hope I didn't offend anyone in terms of the subject of PTSD. It isn't my intention.
Disclaimer: I own only Hanaru and Ren, her and Itachi's son. Nor do I own another movie this is based from, and this first chapter is named after a Japanese drama from the late 60s (which is inspired by Oedipus Rex).
Chapter One
Funeral Parade of Roses
When she saw his name listed amongst the dead, she broke down uncontrollably and let herself be taken into the hold of her brother-in-law who had gotten back alive and well from Ame, a country wracked with civil war. He was one of the finest to be sent out there; he was a hero recognized more than even his younger brother was.
Now he was gone, and it was so hard to believe. He seemed almost untouchable...but when your number was up, then your number was up.
Hinata, her sister-in-law and best friend through her brother, was wiping her eyes with her tissue she drew from her purse. Their children were at school, so they wouldn't be able to see their fathers come home at noon until they got out - though Naruto wasn't with them because he was out of town cutting a deal, and Sakura was loaded with patients for the day - but one would find out his father was never coming home. She wasn't sure she would be able to hold herself up with knowing how their son would take it. And Sarada is going to miss the uncle who loved spoiling her just like her aunt did.
Sasuke didn't look like he was taking it better than any of them. Guilt was in his eyes. "I feel I should have been in his place instead," he mumbled when they were in Hinata's car; he was in the front passenger and Hanaru was in the back. Hinata just looked at him from the corner of her eye as she was behind the wheel, getting them through the rain in the middle of November.
Hinata jerked her head in his direction. "Sasuke, why would you say such a thing?"
"Because I saw it happen: he got shot in the arm, but before that, he collapsed. I saw the signs, but he refused to rest because we all had orders that couldn't be broken." He spoke hoarsely.
Her husband's body was still in custody, but she was yet to be contacted to be told the news of the autopsy, and when they did, she wanted to know everything just because the widow deserved to know.
It was thinking about him alone that she finally lowered her face and felt her world collapse. The man she loved was gone. Their boy was going to take this perhaps worse than she would. She knew how she would have to handle the pain after the funeral was over, even making the arrangements, but Ren was going to need so much more than his mother's yoga class which helped many cope with loss and get through life with a fresh perspective.
Kabuto was over there with them. He must have tried to convince Itachi, too, but we know how he is.
Hinata bit her lip, not knowing what to say because she refused to let it be the wrong thing. Finally she said she was going to bring them at her house for the day, but then she offered to go and pick the children up from school herself - well, Boruto and Sarada from the daycare center because they were four years old, and Ren was in grade school.
Looking out the window, Hanaru saw the rain washing over the window panes, reminding her of the day she first met Itachi...and fingering the thing around her neck which brought them together.
~o~
Last year of college, here she was for the weekend with her brother and Hinata, and they were visiting Ame which was a good tourist attraction despite its difficult times. Just like in the Caribbean which fought for its freedom from foreigners and resorted to any means to survive.
She hadn't had much of any real friends, nor did she ever have a boyfriend, but she wasn't asocial by any means. She loved to learn, loved to educate herself and did the job with her brother who was the goofball. But for the lack of real friends, it was made up in the form of her brother and his - as well as the one who eventually became his girlfriend. All of them knew each other all their lives.
Though she had a mixed bag about Sasuke Uchiha, though she tried to be friendly and patient with him, sometimes wanting to punch his ass out the gutter; that job Sakura could do for her.
"Have fun, sister, and we'll meet back here after we get something!" Naruto told her happily when they were in a large tent that miraculously held its ground when this rainstorm had all but been blowing more of the tourists out of this small town. Laughing, Hanaru patted him on the head like she still did since they were kids, making him scowl and turn red. But Hinata simply pecked him and pulled him away, calling over her shoulder to have fun.
There was just so much to look at: prized vases. Shoji lamps of different kinds. Antique furniture pieces.
But then she found herself seeing something - no, someone - completely different and maybe much better. Gray raincoat and dark pants, somber and proper. He was across from her, looking at a delicate, hand-held, exquisite ivory carving of some kind of nude Shinto goddess who lay across and pulled a knee up to her chest, but her breasts were visible. His eyes, pitch black as his hair which was in a ponytail hanging low, were shining when they took his new prize in. Thin lips pulled into a soft smile. His skin was as white as the statue in his hold, marred by slanted lines beneath his eyes.
Somehow looking at him...no, she didn't come here for a sexy man. She didn't even know how to approach him without making a fool out of herself. She came for something else - and that opportunity presented itself when the auction happened while her brother and best friend were all but done and had just what they needed.
The item was a gorgeous, rare find having come from Iwa, a land of earth and mining long hidden treasures: a genuine crystal quartz of pure white wrapped in wire of sterling silver, raw and measured to be three and a half inches. Hanaru was certain her eyes were on fire as she felt her heart sing since she wanted to use something like this for herself, because of the use of crystals for the following.
Meditating. Balancing of the chakra life energy. Simple protection. Healing and getting rid of bad energies.
What was just as amazing was the fact there was meaning behind the known rainbow colors that flashed within as if it were a mined opal rather than what it was: the blue for faith, peace and honor; pink for new love, romance and pain release; finally, red which was obvious enough.
And the first person to speak before the spokesman was done talking offered a bid of ten dollars. She jerked her head to her left, seeing who had said the first bid prematurely - and it was the man who caught her eye earlier. His voice - it was so soft to the senses if so deep to the ears. Like velvet.
Hanaru had a plan: to get that necklace and see if that one could get on her tail. She wanted a guy in her life, but a pretty face wouldn't be enough. Looks were always deceiving, but if he was someone like her, then hell yes she would find him a great catch.
Her bid was thirty, going too high for him.
Next bid was forty, and of course it was Mr. Handsome again.
"Fifty," she finished loudly. "Five-o." He looked stunned that he'd been bested by none other than a WOMAN.
"Fifty going once, going twice...sold!" the spokesman answered. "To the pretty lady in the red-and-black crisscross sweater."
She grinned as she gave her money and went to collect the prize - with the other one keeping an intense gaze on her as he seemed hellbent on hunting for something else if he couldn't have the other.
~o~
Hanaru Uchiha was Hanaru Uzumaki back when they met, and she was a student at the community college, on a scholarship for gymnastics, having a brilliant mind for anything but technicalities. She relied on her instinct rather than the parts that stressed you out and involved majority opinion ruled.
That day she won the crystal which rested around her neck to this day, had been such a wonderful good luck charm through thick and thin - that was the day she met the man who became her husband and father of their child. Itachi Uchiha. The eldest son of a respectable family, had been in the Army since age eighteen and was three years her senior.
Her? A simple gymnast and eventual yoga instructor, but he didn't mind at all. In fact, he was amazed when she demonstrated one move as they left the tent, when the rain had stopped pouring.
Of course he tried to talk her into giving the charm to him, but she wouldn't let him have it as far as she was concerned, soldier boy or not. He was muscle mass, but here she was with the same weapon - but brain over brawn, as they all say. So it was casual talk about each other, away from her brother and best friend who were off enjoying themselves at a food stand at the moment. Just you and me, sex on legs. And that was exactly what he was - and was he thinking the same when she stood on her hands before him, legs extended into the air? Bared for his eyes but covering what was between them - and she happened to remember she wasn't wearing panties at the moment, making her blush with sheer embarrassment - was her black skirt when it slid down her skin.
Maybe that started his attraction towards her. She was too embarrassed to ask him.
It eventually blossomed maybe a couple weeks later when he came to HER yoga studio, needing to relieve some tension he had since coming back from his last deport across seas in Kiri, and he was due back in four more months...and that also meant he wanted to spend his time here out of anywhere else.
During those four months, their relationship took the next step when they hadn't gone on a date besides being good friends in the beginning - and boy, was that a hell of a first time!
It was right after a dinner party - if you could call it that - with both their brothers, Itachi and Sasuke both in army uniform along with a few more of their buddies, and it turned into a drinking match that she had to stay out of because she'd seen what they did to people. There were many things in life she enjoyed, but this wasn't one of them...especially if it could sometimes lead to a couple getting it on under the influence, and they could end up regretting it the next day.
Intoxication for your first time never ended well.
They ended up right back at his barracks, in the room he shared none other with his cousin Shisui who was out with a floozy for the night, and that meant unlimited access with the door locked and the blue silk sheets he surprised her with when she didn't expect it. The drive was on, and as soon as the engine roared to life, it was getting naked and getting busy. And that also meant condoms were on hand; he came all prepared for this and never bothered pressuring her until now.
And by God, was Itachi such a man - no, correction, he was a man and a god in one. Broad, powerful shoulders, slim waist and trimmed hips, toned legs, sculpted arms and chest, and his manhood large in a measurement of eight inches against a miniature nest of pubic hair. Big boy throbbed when her eyes rested on it, causing herself to throb. When Itachi looked at her down there, after gazing upon her melon-sized breasts peaked with ripe raspberry, right now at the honey-colored triangle between her legs, she flushed like an inferno, but he chuckled and slid that condom on with ease, groaning at the pressure as he fastened the rubber over the mushroomed head. The sound made her nerve bundles twitch, leaking more juice out of her "world-class" womanhood - and that phrase made her grit her teeth when he made the note.
"That's only what some of the guys have said behind your back, baby," he drawled, leaning down and nuzzling his nose against hers. Relaxing, she laughed with him. As long as he didn't offend her himself, then she accepted it.
On second thought: he got to know the meaning of world-class when he sank deep into her and claimed her for his own, pain at first turning into pleasure and making her scream so loud the concrete walls could have cracked. He rocked her back and forth, up and down, with him, riding them both to an orgasm that came far sooner than intended but still felt so good. This god of a man - she knew how to pick him the very first time she saw him!
Blue satin, in his room at the barracks. This was something that had to be...too good to be true, right?
"Itachi," she rasped when it was all over and they rested in each other's arms, "if we end up together, then this is the most romantic day of my whole life. And if we don't..." She giggled nervously. "...then I'm a complete slut." Her language caused him to raise an eyebrow, placing a kiss atop her head.
"Is this the story we're going to tell our grandchildren?"
That was a far better answer - or question in an answer - than she would have expected. And sparked round two and another condom...and as soon as she found out who started the rumor about her having world-class, they got more than a bloody nose and blue balls. Mizuki got what came to him.
It was also that day she finally met Kabuto Yakushi, who was the barracks' medic and would be deported where they'd go. He was such a nice guy, another best friend of Itachi's, and he apologized for the behavior of Mizuki when he was present as the big talk started.
That also meant that now that she and Itachi were an item, she was off-limits.
He had to go again, and she was scared for his life as the year went by, but a phone call or typed email would be managed as often as he could spare, and if he wasn't available, Kabuto or Shisui were kind enough to fill in as well as give their sides of the stories. Sasuke - she wasn't exactly best friends unlike her brother was with him. Though he wasn't a bad guy, and his attitude seemed to lessen as the boys got older. She liked to think it was due to his loving girlfriend, Sakura.
All of them attended the wedding which took place just before he was shipped off again, and by a few months in the summer on the beach of Konoha.
Itachi proposed to her over a quiet dinner, where it was just the two of them at the apartment she shared with Naruto and Hinata - yes, it was big for three people - and without even a stutter! The thing was small but still managed to sparkle with more fire than a regular diamond. The stone was cut into an asscher, flanked with pear-shaped blue sapphires, and set in platinum.
She had never been so happy, and when the big day came - having their brothers and friends be present being all they needed - it seemed like things would keep working out. Especially when she found out she was pregnant a few months into his deployment, but sadly he wasn't present. Although he got the homemade DVD footage to make up for it, and when he got back home, their son was nine months old.
Kabuto's younger sister was a midwife at Konoha Hospital, and Hanaru had known her since college. They were tight almost like sisters, like her and Hinata. Manami delivered Ren, before had been at the wedding with her brother, and she'd watched Ren grow up...until one day she said she was getting married and was going to leave the hospital as well as Konoha.
Hanaru had no idea how this happened, but she never once met the guy and demanded that, but Manami insisted that he was a good man who valued his privacy. She said she met him while she was called to the frontlines with her brother - because she also had enough medicinal experience - and from what Kabuto told her, he didn't approve of the man either.
All her friend said was that he was the one for her, that she'd never known anyone like him, and she really needed the support of her brother and her friends. Hanaru was there, and that was when she met the man for the first time, but the focus was mainly on the bride who was silvery and sparkling modestly in her sheer, illusion dress.
Her husband was handsome, indeed, and he seemed like he would be a good one for Manami, except Kabuto continued to be suspicious of him despite understanding he couldn't do anything about it.
Even Itachi had his qualms, as he was also there and said that money and love didn't always go well together. And he'd met the man while overseas, agreeing with Kabuto and not just because that was his friend.
The wedding was the last time Hanaru saw Manami - just before she would see Itachi one last time. It was this time their son was only six years old. A year would go by before they got the news.
That day in the present was cloudy and with the sun occasionally peeking out; beneath was a parade of red and white, making a tribute of love and endurance, consisting of roses and lilies as well as orchids, as the final memorial was pulled through the streets, with Itachi's face in the frame and his loved ones behind it.
Manami and her husband came to the funeral, and so did Kabuto. All their friends and relatives were present, except the parents who were all dead. Naruto and a tearful Hinata were right behind her, their little boy Boruto between them, and behind them were Sasuke - who had a crying and sleepy Sarada in his arms - with Sakura and her puffy red eyes.
Her brother-in-law wasn't showing it on his face, but the guilt was there. And her brother always wore his own emotions on his sleeve - when he was younger, of course, but the man he was now trained to not bawl like a child.
That left Ren, their son, who was wiping his nose and eyes with his sleeve, and his mother had to remind him - through her own sobs - to use a tissue, and she had those in her purse.
At the back was someone who had his eye on her and her son, someone she knew well as her late husband - whose portrait was at the end of the procession of the dead, having no coffin because there had been no body to bring home.
Why did he vanish before he could be brought home?
The flashbacks with Itachi and Hanaru were inspired by the couple in the movie The War of the Roses (Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner) early on in the birth of their marriage before it would eventually descend.
Manami is a new minor OC of mine, and important of course. :) Her husband is the same, but renamed and based off the major villain of the unnamed-for-now movie. His identity and everything else will be revealed later. Suspense. ;)
More on grieving Hanaru and Ren in the next chapter. Reviews appreciated (more detail, too) in the meantime. :'(
