I woke up with a splitting pain in my stomach and wrists. I managed to get up and look out the window. It was probably around 3 or 4 in the afternoon by the way the rain was falling. I went into the bathroom and looked under my shirt, examining my injury. It was bandaged and seemed to have stopped bleeding. The last time I ever act as a distraction. I threw my cloak on and went downstairs, there I found Itachi sitting in the living room sharpening some kunai.

"Hi, so how did it go?"

"It went fine, but you do realize that they'll come here now?"

"Yes, I understand that, but here we have the upper hand"

"Unless they're smart enough to make their move when we're in our two man cells"

"That is a strong possibility also"

"Pein isn't going to give us a mission until you have fully healed"

We were bored so we decided to play a game. Since I beyond suck at shougi, we played nihongo , which is somewhat like scrabble. About 30 minutes into it I was so stuck. I had 3 Q's, 1 Z, 4 E's, and 1 A. Itachi kept passing it back to me so I had to spell out freakish words, but this turn I was so stuck. He had like 12 letters, which I thought was against the rules but I was not complaining, I spelt out words I made up like zukai and treckque.

"Pass, I have no good letters anyway"

"Alright I got something good"

He started putting on the letters, at first I just dismissed it and tried to make some sense of my letters. That is when I truly noticed what he spelt…

W-i-l-l-y-o-u-m-a-r-r-y-m-e

I looked at the board for a minute, seeing if what I saw was correct…it was all there. Out of his sleeve he took out a small box. He opened it, it had a white gold band with a star sapphire on it.

"Well? Mariah Namikaze will you marry me?"

"Of course Itachi!"

He slipped the ring on my finger, it was big enough that I could show it off and people would notice it, but small enough so that people would not think it was fake.

"Were you planning this when we started the game?"

"No, not at first, but then I thought about it and it seemed like a good time"

"Itachi, that is so sweet"

"Well I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you"

"I love you too, so do you want to tell anyone?"

"I think they'll notice, don't you?"

"Yes probably. When do you want to actually get married?"

"I was thinking as soon as possible"

"That is fine with me, but just us and maybe a few friends"

-"If you want it like that, then sure"

The next few weeks, we did not really do anything, just preparation stuff. One day when we were walking around the village, we ran into Skai and Tobi. I started asking her the usual rounds of questions and she noticed the ring on my finger…I talk a lot with my hands for apparent reason.

"So you two are finally engaged? Sheesh, Itachi, took you long enough."

I noticed the ring on her finger and put 2 and 2 together.

"You two? Together? No way! You are, total opposites!"

"You do know how old he is, right?"

"Yes, I know. You think I'm so stupid as to agree to a marriage in which I don't even really know who the guy I'm marrying is? How long have you two known each other?"

"Oh I do not know… 15 years"

"Holy crap! That's almost longer than I have been alive"

"Yup that is just us I suppose, friends since we were little"

"And you just now get engaged? Couldn't you have done it earlier?"

"Well yes but we didn't feel the need to rush things"

"Apparently"

"Either way, you can go now. I cannot think of anymore questions"

They headed their own way and we slowly walked back to our house.

"I never thought anyone would end up with that guy"

"Yes I know, he's around 150 year old"

"What I do not understand is that why do they go around mugging people for fun"

"I don't think anyone can answer that question"

"Either way, only 3 days left"

"Only 3 days? It'll seem like an eternity"

"You are too sweet"

"I can never be too sweet to the woman I love. C'mon, let's get back to the house"

The next couple of days were the same old thing I have come to know, not so much love.

I woke up and it was the day, of course, I woke up like any other day.

Me-"Uhmmm. What time is it 9, I have about 2 hours"

After all the time it took semi-straightening my hair, putting it up, and getting everything on, it was about time for me to head over. I, to my amazement, was not really nervous. I mean, what was there to be nervous about? I wish it was just the guy marrying us, Itachi and I, but we had to invite someone to watch. So we invited a few friends, more like the annoying acquaintances we have to work with, some of them are cool, I suppose I could consider a few of them my friends. I will not bore you with the details of the service, who has not been to a wedding before?

I got up fairly early the next day, so I went downstairs to make some breakfast.

"Hey sexiness, what're you doing up so early?"

"We have a mission today remember"

"No way, we never have missions. I didn't even hear you get up"

"I shimmered down here for a reason"

"Alright, we'll get ready and head out"

"We can wait a while though"

I walked back over to the living room and onto the couch. He sat beside me and put his arm around my shoulder. He came over and kissed me passionately, slipping his tongue into my mouth. He placed his hands on my back, pulling me closer to him. I reached up to his face, ran my fingers through the pieces of his hair, down his neck onto his chest.

"We really should be going now"

We were on our way to the Cloud village for a few key documents in our plan. We simply set off straight from the Rain village off down the main road to the Cloud. The rain was going onwards for miles, if you looked up at the sky, it looked the same dull gray it always did. If I were any other person, it would be depressing, yet I somewhat enjoyed it and with a hat on, you barely noticed it. A few miles out from the village, I felt someone following us.

"You feel that?"

"Definitely at least 2, wait 3"

You can all come out now, you are not hiding well enough"

"I thought we were doing a pretty good job, we've been following you for miles now", Naoki said as she came out from behind one of the trees.

"No you were not, you followed us for 2 minutes now"

"You're too good for your own good"

"I get that sometimes, now what do you want?"

"You know right well what we want, the same thing we've been wanting for a while now"

"Well we have our own job, so let us just part ways and let it be"

"I don't think so"

She pulled out a few shuriken from her pouch. I looked at her with a cold stare and started my speed up again. She tried throwing massive amounts of shuriken at me, while I was distracting her from Itachi. All of a sudden, I stopped dead in my tracks.

"A shadow binding, that will not work well"

"It will for long enough to find another strategy to defeat you", as I finally figured out who was speaking, Shikamaru.

"Last time was just a taste of my power, a fraction"

"Naoki, give me enough time to think this through"

"Right"

She came in really close range of me and I was stuck where I stood. Itachi came out from the vegetation and knocked her back. I broke free from the shadow binding and jumped into the forest. I found the last one of their team, Kakashi.

"You thought you could just stay here and not join in the fun?"

"I should've know you wouldn't fall for that"

"Exactly"

I charged a Rasengan and threw him back onto the main path where the others were.

"Two on Three? I believe we can handle this easily"

I reached for my katana and rushed towards him, but right before I made contact, I shimmered over to Shikamaru and hit him with the hilt of my sword.

"I am going to finish this quickly, Itachi?"

"Go ahead"

"Konoha Ryuu: Kami Chisoku (Leaf Style: God Speed)"

This jutsu makes the world around you seem like it is going in slow motion, even more so than normal with me, around 100x more. I went over to Shikamaru, tying him to a tree. I ran over to Kakashi, who had no time to react, and stabbed him right through the stomach.

"KAKASHI!!!!"

"I have not forgotten about you, Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes"

That would immobilize her there for quite a while, but that was not all of them. Suddenly numerous kunai with exploding tags came out from the trees.

"Oh who now"

"Raiton Chidori: Kirin"

"Oh no…"

That jutsu must have been nearly unavoidable, even with my speed I could not move faster than the speed of lightning. It shocked me straight in the back and paralyzed my chakra network as I fell onto my knees.

"One of the most powerful forms of Chidori"

"You will not just leave after that"

I staggered to my feet, it seems that my nervous system was affected too. To top things off, that shot opened my stomach wound too.

"One last one, Raiton Chidori: Kirin"

There is nothing I can do against that

"Mangekyo Ninpo: Susanoo"

Some sort of skeletal form appeared in front of me and blocked the electric current.

"Are you alright"

"Yes I am, what the heck was that?"

"A new Mangekyo jutsu, you like it?"

"It is awesome"

"We really need to get out of here"

"No I have to finish this"

"It would be better for your health if we leave"

"Alright fine, Kaze Ninpo: Infinite Darkness jutsu"

He picked me up by my back and legs and started off in an opposite direction. When we were a few miles away he set me down on a rock.

"Look I know it's not what you wanted, but it's much easier to just keep going without dealing with them and what did I tell you about your wound?"

"It is nothing…it is really far on the right, no damage there. Besides, I will heal fairly fast. So let us get this mission started"