Disclaimer: Naruto and all Naruto related stuff is (c) Masashi Kishimoto. All OCs and original storyline/plot/imagination (c) of ME!!!!!
WARNING: Cliff-hanger… but next update should be quick…
THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS!!!
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PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE COLLIDE
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Akimichi Chika watched as her best friend, Nara Matsumi (soon-to-be Hyuga Matsumi) paced back and forth in her elaborate white wedding kimono.
They were alone, inside the small bridal preparation room (everyone else having been kicked out by the anxious bride half an hour earlier), waiting for someone to call them and tell them it was time to get into place for the ceremony. For nearly twenty minutes, Chika had sat silently watching as the restless blond paced back and forth; certain that if this continued, the polished wood floor beneath her would soon have a hole worn into it from all the pacing.
"You're not getting cold feet are you?" Chika bluntly asked the nervous looking bride.
"What!" Matsumi stopped mid-stride; turning to stare at the blond Akimichi with a look of dread and surprise. "NO!" She excitedly denied. "Of course not." She shook her head anxiously; her breath labored as if she'd just been running a marathon, rather just merely pacing back and forth in a small room. "You don't think Ryuu-"
"Tch, as if!" Chika scoffed at the very idea that 'prime and proper' Hyuga Ryuuken would ever leave a girl stranded at the altar. "Please," Chika waved her hand in front of her; brushing off the implication. "It wouldn't have taken that demon so long to propose in the first place, unless he'd thought long and hard about the decision and was absolutely certain about it." Chika pointed out; confident she knew the 'Demon' brother of the 'Terror Twins' (as he was so fondly referred to by a large portion of the population in Konoha) well enough to understand his way of thinking.
As far as Chika was concerned; the man (Ryuuken), though incredibly brilliant in many respected, was a simple man. His motives for doing things were not difficult to comprehend. What Ryuuken said and did were never in contradiction. He may not have been the most open person in the world, but he was hardly secretive; unlike his younger brother, who, in Chika's opinion, always seemed to be hiding something deeper behind his smiling and friendly face.
"Yeah." Matsumi sighed; taking a seat for the first time in nearly two hours.
"Ok, so if it's not cold feet," Chika turned her attention back on the nervous bride. "What is it?" She asked directly; never one to beat around the bush.
"You know that feeling you get right before a battle?" Matsumi asked. "A mixture of fear and excitement because you know you're about to do something really dangerous, but really fun?"
"…" Chika stared at her best friend in wary apprehension. "No…" She slowly replied. "But I'm in espionage." Chika shrugged; assuming that was the reason she didn't understand her friend's descriptive portrayal of what it felt like to go into battle. "I'll take your word for it though."
"Yeah…" Matsumi understandingly nodded. "Well that's kind of what I feel right now." She added.
"Like, you're about to do something 'really dangerous, but really fun'?" Chika reiterated what her friend had described.
"Hai." Matsumi nodded.
"I guess that's one way to describe marriage." Chika sarcastically replied; a playful smirk forming at the edge of her mouth. "Especially to Ryuuken."
"haha." Matsumi nervously laughed at the snide remark from her best friend.
"Okay, I get it." Chika acknowledged. "You're excited about finally getting what you've always wanted, but you're also afraid that in getting what you want, you might realize you didn't really want it after all. You're scared that if things change, they may not be for the better; and you like the way things are. Am I right so far?"
"…" Matsumi nodded; not at all surprised her best friend could figure her out so easily.
"That's normal!" With a wave of her hand, Chika once more brushed the topic off as a mere nuisance. "It would be strange if you didn't have butterflies causing a ruckus in your stomach right now." Chika confessed.
"Hai." Matsumi quietly agreed.
"There's still time before the ceremony." Chika stated, as she noticed the small clock hanging on the far wall; it indicated that there was still over an hour left until the ceremony. "Why don't I give you some time to calm down and sort out your thoughts, and when I come back you'll be much better and ready to go?" The blond Akimichi offered; a sly smile etched across her face after having noticed a familiar shadow cross in front of the slightly open door.
"You still haven't asked him have you?" Matsumi referred to her younger brother; whose shadow she had also seen rush across the other side of the door.
"He's been missing these last few days!" Chika exclaimed; disappointed in herself for having let so much time pass without yet asking the youngest Nara to be her escort to the wedding. "But trust me, before this wedding is over, I'll have Nara Shinemuri. You can count on that!" Chika declared, before quickly leaving the room in search of the lazy shinobi.
"Poor baby-bro." Matsumi smirked knowingly. "He's got no idea…"
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"Is everything okay?" Tenten asked her three children, who all appeared to be suspiciously agitated.
She could understand Ryuuken's nervousness; but Hitori and Mayuki's anxiety seemed out of place.
"Mai-chan?" She called her teenage daughter. "Hitori?"
"It's nothing really." Hitori assured his mother.
"Yeah." Mayuki nodded. "We're just anxious to see Ryuu and Matsumi-chan get married." She added.
Though Tenten believed neither of her children would lie to her without good reason, she suspected that behind the younger kunoichi's truth was something deeper. But, because it was Ryuuken's big day, and everyone was present and safe, she decided not to ask too many questions.
Turning her attention back at Ryuuken, Tenten couldn't help but let her mind wander back to when her, now full grown children, were still tiny little kids.
.:..:..:..:..:.:..:..:..FLASHBACK..:..:..:..:..:..:..:..:..:.
Holding one-year-old Mayuki in his arms, Neji watched as five-year-old Ryuuken fidgeted in his mother's arms as Tenten attempted to adjust the collar on his new school clothes.
"Mom!" Ryuuken hissed embarrassedly; glaring at the passing children who snickered as they watched Tenten lick her finger to remove a tiny smudge of dirt off the boy's face.
"Okay, okay." Tenten backed off; turning her attention to the shier of the two twins.
"Hn." A muted snicker from behind Neji catch his attention.
"Nara." Neji greeted his lazy friend as Shikamaru and his youngest child, Shinemuri, stepped up besides him, while his wife chased after their own five-year-old terror.
"Hyuga." Shikamaru nodded.
Though they'd been friends for many years, and held one another in high regards, both men had grown accustomed to addressing the other by last name alone.
Silently, the two fathers observed as their respective wives fussed over their children; who were preparing for their very first day of school at the academy.
"Matsumi!" Temari yelled out after the renegade kindergartener. "Get back here young lady!" she shouted, as the girl ran (shoeless) toward Tenten and the twins.
"RYUU!"
"Get off me!" Ryuuken shouted at the little girl who had unexpectedly tackled him while he was distractedly glaring at the passing children.
"Are we gonna be in the same class?" Matsumi excitedly questioned; completely oblivious to the hateful glare directed at her.
"Stop touching me." Ryuuken shoved the girl away from him.
"Ryuu!" Tenten scolded the boy for pushing the young Nara girl.
"Are you okay, Matsumi-chan?" Hitori asked as he helped the little girl stand and dust herself off.
"Hai." Matsumi nodded. "Arigato." She smile at the younger twin before turning her attention back on Ryuuken; preparing herself to 'attack' a second time.
"See what you've done!" Temari scolded the blond girl as Hitori spotted Shinemuri and walked off toward his best friend; leaving behind the chaos of the other two new kindergarteners and their mothers. "Just look at what you've done to your new dress. And your hair's all messed up now! I'm going to have to take you back home and clean you up all over again!" Temari reprimanded the little girl.
"RYUU!" Matsumi struggled against her mother's arms to try and get back to the white-eyed boy.
"Hn." Ryuuken glared at the girl; irritatingly having to put up with his mother readjusting his collar for the second time, thanks to that girl.
.:..:..:..:..:..:..:..END FLASHBACK.:..:..:..:..:..:..:..
"It suits you." Tenten said admiringly, as she straightened the collar on Ryuuken's Hyuga wedding robes.
She could hardly believe her little Ryuuken was getting married. It seemed like so many lifetimes ago when the little boy with the glaring eyes had first met, and rejected the spitfire Nara girl.
So much had changed….
He wasn't her baby boy any longer. Over the years Ryuuken had grown into a man, both feared and respected amongst the strongest ninja of the shinobi world. Tenten couldn't be prouder or happier for the man her precious little boy had grown into, than she was at that very moment.
"Ryuu." Tenten quietly whispered, before bringing her arms tightly around his neck.
"Mom." Ryuuken began pulling away, before noticing the moisture welling up in his mother's eyes. "Hn." He relented; allowing the tearful woman to embrace him to her hearts content.
The silent happiness was soon ended, however, when the door to the small office where the family of five were gathered, suddenly came crashing open.
"CHIKA!" Mayuki excitedly exclaimed as the blond kunoichi came running into the room; almost completely out of breath.
"What's wrong?" Ryuuken demanded of the breathless girl, as Tenten let go and turned to face the commotion.
"Matsu-" Chika pantingly gasped. "Missing…"
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TBC…
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A/N: Dun Dun Dun…. Two chapters (or maybe three) left, so… it won't take too long to resolve… but I'm beginning to realize I don't know if I have a full resolution for Nao and Mayuki... i might end up doing a side story for them... or not... we'll see