Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but their babies are mine.
Author's Note: Hope you guys like this one!
A gently firm hand was grasping Miraye's shoulder when she awoke. The room was dark, so the young ninja could only make out a tall, hooded figure hovering beside her bed. She caught her breath and listened carefully. She visibly relaxed when she heard the familiar hum of kikai bugs.
The sound of her father's voice sounded from the figure. "You have a visitor, Miraye-san." He informed her, his voice strained with supressed anger and grief.
Miraye sat up. Her father rarely expressed his emotions, but he was very open about them when he did. To have him holding something back from her was like a kunai right to the heart. "Daddy, what's wrong?" Fear tinged her voice like a poison, threatening to make her lose control of her own feelings. Her first lesson in training with her father and Shibi-ojiisan was never let anyone know her emotions.
The hint of negativity in his voice was gone when he spoke again, making Miraye doubt if she had even heard it. "Nothing is wrong, my ladybug. I simply told you that you have a visitor."
"Who?" She asked. She hadn't been expecting anybody.
She could tell by the way her father was adjusting his collar that he wasn't thinking about this conversation. She could hear him fiddling with the top two buttons. "Kiba-kun's son. Karasu." He told her.
Miraye's eyes widened. Maybe Karasu was upset about yeterday after all. She asked warily, "Did he seem angry?"
"No." The tall man told her. "Happy. Mentioned something about peaches." His almost too-steady voice gave away the fact that he was majorly distrated by something.
"Thank you, father. I'll be downstairs in a moment." She told him. He just nodded absentmindedly and left, silent as a ghost.
Miraye stood and threw a tee-shirt and some black jeans on. She slung on her plasic mask and daintily placed her sunglasses on her nose, pondering why Karasu would want to see her about peaches.
She descended the steps to the lower story of the Aburame cottage. She spotted her mother and father in the kitchen from the top of the staircase. They were talking in hushed voices. Miraye stomped on each stair on purpose to let them know she was coming.
They stopped talking. Her father turned to the table and sat in a large chair. He was silent, but this was usual. But her mother turned to her, with a smile plastered onto her face. Miraye knew something was wrong then. Her mother was usually loving and warm, but her eyes harbored a cold emotion that the teenage bug-nin couldn't figure out. Her mother spoke. "Good morning, Miraye-san. Did you sleep well?"
Miraye nodded curtly to her mother. "I did. Thank you." She looked around to find Karasu sitting on a couch. He was looking at a particularly large butterfly framed on the wall. His cute pink mouth was pulled into a firm line, his back perfectly straight and rigid. He looked at Miraye and smiled, but didn't speak for a few seconds. In those seconds, he stood and smoothed his dark green tee-shirt.
"Shall we?" He bowed, pretending to be a gentleman. Miraye scowled behind her mask, but followed him as he walked out onto the porch.
When they were a safe distance down the sidewalk and away from the cottage, she spoke. "What was up with my parents? They never act like that." She said, partially apologizing for what must have been a painful encounter with the Aburame parents.
"Dunno." He said, eyes looking innocently confused. "My parents were like that this morning." He shrugged. "Father practically had his tail between his legs, and mother was a lot more irritable than usual. I didn't ask questions." He turned his head so he could look at Miraye. "But, on a happier note, would you like to buy some peaches from the market with me? And then we could bake a pie at my house. What do you think?"
Miraye was taken aback. All she could muster was, "Why?"
Karasu-kun assumed a pretend-hurt expression. "Do I really need a reason to bake pies with my best friend?"
The she-ninja shook her head, chuckling. She had left her hair down today, so her straight black strands of hair were falling into her face and in front of her sunglasses.
They picked out ten ripe peaches from the market. It took lots of searching and a long debate with the vendor about the price, but they finally were happy with the fruits they were towing back to the Inuzuka house in a brown paper bag.
Miraye had been over to the Inuzuka house once, a few years ago. It was a small two-bedroom place. Karasu was an only child, so he pretty much had the house to himself. When they got there, a slender blonde woman was waiting at the door, wearing an apron and a big smile. She had obviously gotten over her horrible mood from that morning. "Hello, Miraye-san! I haven't seen you in a while." She told her when the two teenagers stepped on the front porch.
Being in a jovial mood, Miraye punched playfully Karasu in the ribs. "Your son just can't stand to be around me, ma'am."
"I don't know, Mira-san." She winked at the bug-girl with a mischevious glint in her eye. "He leapt out of bed today to go and pick you up for this little pie-baking mission." Ino turned around and walked inside. The scent of whatever was cooking in the oven filled the air, tangy and meaty, by the smell of it.
Miraye and Karasu bustled inside. Miraye set down the peaches she had been carrying, and Karasu got out all the supplies. Miraye was slicing peaches when he spoke to her after a long and comfortable silence.
"Miraye-chan, there's something I have to tell you." He said, a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
At that moment, the knife in Miraye's hand slipped and sliced the tip of her finger. "Shoot." A few kikai bugs flew out and examined her finger.
"Can you tell them to go away for a second?" Asked Karasu, indicating the destruction bugs.
Slightly confused, Miraye just nodded. The bugs flew back into her shirt, and Karasu grabbed her hand. Boldly, her teammate put her fingertip in his mouth and sucked on the tiny incision. She felt one of his extra sharp canines brush against it, but his tongue was gentle as it licked away the blood.
He opened his mouth to let her finger out. "There." He said, smiling at her. But she didn't see his grin, because her head was down. She was watching their shoes.
Karasu stepped closer, bringing his hand to her face and tilting her chin up with his fingers. "Mira-chan, there's something I have to tell you."
She looked up. All she could do was stare at him through her sunglasses, glad that he couldn't see the tears welling up in her black eyes.
Karasu gazed at her. "Miraye-chan, I love you. I have for the past three years, but I never knew if you returned my feelings. Your sunglasses were the barrier, and I can't stand not knowing any longer. And at this point, all I want is for you to be happy. And I want you to know that my heart beats with love for you, and only you."
Miraye stared at him for what seemed like a thousand years. She reached up slowly to her own face and removed her sunglasses. Her pitch black eyes looked right into his beautiful brown ones for the first time. His face softened as he read what she felt about him. Yes, she loved him too. Her mind was willing to say it, even if her mouth was not.
But that was enough to convince him. Karasu removed the mask on her face. He put his arms around her waist and pulled her close. He was only a few inches taller than her, so all he would have to do was lean down for their lips to meet. She flung her arms around his neck, so filled with happiness she couldn't contain herself from smiling as he leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. The kiss was innocent and lasted a few moments, but it meant the world to Miraye.
Karasu pulled himself back and picked up her mask from the countertop on which he set it. He gave it back to her wordlessly. Anything they could have said was potrayed in the touching of their lips and in the way they had held eachother in that moment. The continued to bake the pie in silence. Miraye's kikaichuu were buzzing uncontrollably. Akarui, one of her favorite destruction bugs, was relaying to the other bugs what the disturbance was happily.
When they had prepared and devoured the pie, Karasu walked Miraye home. The sun was setting over the horizon. She felt as if she were walking on clouds the whole time. If she was dreaming, she never wanted to wake up. He grasped her hand as they walked down the sidewalk, whispering poetry into her ear. She had no idea what the intricate words meant, but they tickled her soul like her kikaichuu tickled her insides.
The two arrived at the house. Her mother, father, sister, and brother were all on the front lawn with Uzumaki Naruto and Gaman. Gaman's father looked like he had been crying for a long period of time.
A wail came from her ten-year-old sister, Riya. The words were bone chilling. "Mitsukai is dead!"
