Once the bit of excitement from the unwelcome guest was over, the reception had commenced with much wine and dancing but it was not as lighthearted and festive as it should have been. When the sun started going down, the guests began to disburse so the newly married Reiki and Naruto decided to go to their home. Jiraiya and Tsunade had commissioned a small cottage to be built for them in a secluded area at the edge of the village. It was their wedding present to the happy couple. Construction had just been completed yesterday and most of their belongings had yet to be moved in. A few precious necessities, including the bed, had been relocated from the small apartment to the house during the reception.

Upon arriving, they swiftly rid themselves of the wedding clothes and got into the bed. Naruto held her to his body, kissing her gently while stroking his fingers across her belly. Pushing her over onto her back, he trailed kissing down to her belly where he stopped. Pressing his cheek against her still flat belly, he lay still as if he were trying to make the shocking but wonderful news of the baby more of a reality.

Reiki stared at the ceiling while absentmindedly running her fingers through Naruto's soft hair. Her fingers drifted across his cheek, tracing the whisker marks that she knew by heart. She was preoccupied with the same thought her new husband was brooding over: Sasuke Uchiha must die. Guilt consumed her because she knew it was her fault that he held back during the confrontation at the wedding. She already knew what was about to happen. Her husband would spend the night with her and most likely be gone before she woke up because he would be en route to exact his retribution on the insidious snake ninja.

Naruto caressed her silky skin occasionally turning his head to kiss her belly. He could handle being threatened by the menacing asshole because that was nothing new. However, Uchiha had crossed a line that was unforgivable when he jeopardized the life of Naruto's wife and child. He had withheld from attacking his enemy and going at him full force because there were too many people around who could have gotten hurt. The main people he did not want to hurt were his wife and child. He did not want his wife to witness the carnage when he brought Sasuke Uchiha to his end. It would have to be a private matter between the two of them because he planned for it to be excessively brutal, bloody, and agonizing. This bullshit had carried on for years and it was time to end it. For once and for an eternity, he would show that he had always, ALWAYS, been stronger and better.

Naruto turned his head, kissing her belly again. His tongue darted out and circled her belly button before stabbing into it. Her moan and slight pull of his hair caused his body to respond with a painful ache from his swift erection. Although sex was nothing new to them, having it as husband and wife would be. He had already staked his claim to her as a life mate, the proof still showed on her shoulder, he was about to officially take her as his wife. But first there was something else he wanted to do. He kissed her belly again, lower this time just over her womanhood.

"Naruto!" Reiki exclaimed breathlessly, removing her hands from his hair as it brushed against her inner thighs. Her body trembled in eagerness of what was about to happen next. When his tongue thrust between her moistened lips to taste her, she bucked her hips at his face and whimpered with pleasure.

Naruto licked his lips, pushing open the damp pink folds to reveal her rigid little pleasure button. He licked it, smiling with slightly sadistic lecherousness when she yelped and jerked her hips. His member twitched and throbbed warning him he better get on with it then satisfy its need. Sliding two fingers inside of her hot, slick body, he covered the oversensitive piece of flesh with his lips and tongue. He nibbled gently as she screeched with pleasure and pushed her body at his mouth. Pushing her down on the bed with his hand flattened on her belly, he lapped up the juice that gushed from her aroused body. He wanted more so when her breathing began coming in shallow, irregular gasps, he suctioned his mouth to her, flicking the sensitive little nub with his tongue.

"Na-Na-Naruto!" she stuttered helplessly, shoving herself at him as she gave into the orgasm that flooded over her.

Reiki did not resist when he flipped her over, pulling her to knees. She bit her lower lip, moaning longingly as he pushed into her extraordinarily stimulated body. Her breath caught in a gasp when she felt his lips pressing to the bite mark he had left on her shoulder. She knew that had been the part of him that dwelled deep within leaving its mark on her. She sighed his name as he molded his body to hers, keeping his hip movements slow and rhythmic while he held her with one arm around her waist.

Naruto kissed her shoulders as he continued the erotic swaying of his pelvis until he felt the first stirring of his climax along his inner thighs. Moving his hands to her hips, he knelt behind her to begin thrusting into her intensely. He made sure not to hurt her by getting carried away but did not want to surrender much in speed or force. With a few more shoves, he yowled when he erupted inside of her. Once he was able to stop pushing himself into her fabulous body, he flopped over onto the bed while dragging her with him.

Reiki giggled with the joyous elation that comes during the afterglow of sex, and she had just partaken in really great sex with her brand new husband. What could be more exciting with that? She pressed her lips to his, wrapping her arms around his neck. Reality wasted no time in closing back in on her, reminding her of what the near future held for them when she looked into his sad azure blue eyes. She would not remind him of the promise he had made to her upon his return from his three year absence. There was more at stake here than his fragile sense of male pride. None of them would be safe until the scourge of Konoha was dead. Would anyone shed a tear upon his death? She doubted it.

"My one request is that you come back home in one piece, mentally and physically," she pled, forcing a smile to her lips.

"I will," he assured her, pushing her hair out of her face.

"I'll be right here waiting for you."

"I know."

~...~

When Reiki awoke the next morning, Naruto was gone just as she had expected. She pressed her hands against her belly to remind herself that their child was depending on her to be strong. Her husband was on the mission of a lifetime not only to ensure their safety but to bring an end to an ongoing grudge held between himself and Sasuke. Soon it would all be over.

~...~

Naruto stared down at the black-haired bastard who was sleeping peacefully and completely clueless to his presence. A malevolent smirk pulled at his lips. So this was the prodigy of Konoha, and he had been the bumbling idiot everyone made fun of? He did not plan on wasting a lot of time or energy on this. They had already engaged in epic battles, displaying their powers and abilities while destroying the landscape and sometimes people around them. Enough was enough and his time to die had come. But first…

Retrieving two kunei knives from their holders on his thigh, Naruto hopped onto the bed standing over his nemesis. He had already sealed away Sasuke's powers so he was comfortable with taking his time in doing this. He watched and waited while the man shifted beneath then settled back into a comfortable position with his arms outstretched at his sides with the palms down. 'Perfect,' he thought to himself, grasping a knife in each hand. Driving the knives down with all of his strength, he impaled each of the man's hands, nailing him to mattress quite literally.

Sasuke's eyes flew open along with his mouth which emitted a spine tingling and almost feminine scream of pain and fear. Naruto could not help but smile with a sick and disturbingly enjoyable satisfaction from the damage he had inflicted. This was better than using a Rasengan any day. It was definitely more personal. He had made the man feel the pain that he had inflicted upon Reiki with careless ease.

"It hurts doesn't it?" he asked, jumping down from the bed as his enemy grunted and writhed from the agony. "You really are a wuss. My wife cried less and made less noise than you are now when you did it to her. How does it feel?"

"It hurts you little fucktard. I'm going to kill you," Sasuke ground out between his teeth.

"No, you're not," Naruto laughed, retrieving two more knives from the holders. He skewered his worthy victim's feet, pinning them to bed as well. He watched with great satisfaction as the man thrashed about on the bed in a useless attempt to free himself. "Don't bother. See, I've learned some very interesting things. Sealing techniques was one of them. I knew I would use them someday. I just never imagined I would practice on you first. I'm tired of wasting my powers on you so I've decided to kill you the old-fashioned way after sealing away your powers. The great, powerful, and ever so awesome Sasuke Uchiha," he chuckled derisively, staring at fear widened black eyes.

Naruto could only imagine the terror and humiliation Sasuke was experiencing as the realization of his powerlessness sunk into his brain. That knowledge alone was highly satisfying. It had to be sheer torture for the power-hungry, revenge seeking bastard to know that he had been stripped of everything he had striven for as he lay weak and incapacitated, his life in the hands of the man he had humiliated and demeaned for years as useless, idiotic and a pointless waste of life. He smiled callously as fear filled black eyes met his cruel blue ones.

"If I had my powers, I'd – " Sasuke began only to be cut off.

"You'd do what?" Naruto demanded, pulling out several shurikens. "You wouldn't do a damn thing. I already defeated you when I snuck in here without you knowing. I'm dragging you off your pedestal, reminding you what it's like to be human before I kill you. It's only fair you experience some of the pain and suffering you've inflicted on others."

Naruto spun one of the shurikens around his forefinger before releasing it to lodge into Sasuke's chest. He could hear the soft crack of bone, muted by the skin and muscle, as the point stuck fast into the sternum. Throwing the others in rapid succession, he stopped when the man released a howl of torment from his physical anguish. There was something pure and healthy about going back to the basics, forsaking all of the overly complicated and life draining ninja skills. This was exhilarating, primal, and gratifying to gradually kill someone with unadulterated, raw strength and simple torture. Sasuke was not worthy of dying honorably like a shinobi.

This was what he had not wanted Reiki to see: his sadistic, brutal side that had manifested after making peace with the demon inside. The bringing together of himself and Kurama had come at a price but at the moment he was glad he had paid it. He was going to enjoy this.

Naruto ruthlessly removed the shurikens from his target, grinning harder with satisfaction from each wince or sharp intake of air that gave proof of Sasuke's pain and suffering. Taking out another knife, he scraped the blade across the debilitated man's cheek, slicing off a sizable piece of skin. He calmly ignored the mournful cries of the suffering man while doing so.

"If I took a pound of flesh for every wrong you've committed, I'd skin you alive and you would still have remaining transgressions to pay for," Naruto growled in Sasuke's pain riddled face.

"What the hell has happened to you? You've become some kind of demon," he muttered, glaring at the usually innocent and happy blonde. He did not know what this was that had gotten hold of the always kind to a fault blonde that evoked so much fear in him.

"Something like that. I just learned to coexist with one. Sometimes I let him take over a little more than I should. Oops," he stated insincerely, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

Naruto dug the tip of the knife into the man's skin over his ribs. With each hiss of agony from his victim, he pushed and twisted a little deeper until the tip stopped progressing, halted by the bone. Using the flat of his hand, he used a well place hit to the end of the handle to break the rib.

Sasuke bellowed like an injured bull, gritting his teeth before turning his eyes to Naruto. His body was beginning to shake in reaction to the excruciating pain wracking his system.

"You won't break me," he snarled through his teeth, spittle flying in all directions.

Naruto laughed. Loudly, maliciously, and ominously he laughed. "But I just did," he growled, thrusting the knife in up to his fingers. He had used extreme force, pushing it in past the hilt to bury part of the handle. It was only a matter of time. Which would Sasuke succumb to first? The pain or the blood loss?

~...~

Naruto lay on the floor panting. He was covered with blood and his body ached from his efforts. He had to get out of here. The first thing he had to do was rid himself of this horrid stinking blood that had begun to dry leaving him with a dirty and disgusting feeling from its stickiness and its source. After hauling himself to his feet, he averted his eyes not wanting to see the bloody mess on the bed that used to be Sasuke Uchiha. He would take the journey home slowly to work through the mental and emotional repercussions of what he had just done to fulfill his wife's one request. He would be forced to call on Kurama to help him deal with this, to purge himself of this murderous rage before returning home. In the end, despite the initial surge of satisfaction the Uchiha's death had brought him, he was left with residual anger that made him want to revive the man and do it to him all over again. But would that even be enough to sate his taste for vegeance?

"All right, damn demon, talk to me. Help me get rid of this," he commanded the spirit inside of him.

"So you think I'm subject to your orders now," the inner demon rasped in reply.

"Yes, I do," he responded confidently. He had to shield his eyes from the blinding sun as he walked out of the cave that Sasuke had called home. How long had he been in there?

"Four days," the demon answered the unspoken question. "You should seek food and water immediately as well as sleep. It is my power alone keeping you alive at this time."

Naruto did as the nine tails suggested although he knew the demon was only interested in saving himself. They were a symbiotic creature; one was unable to live without the other. He would do whatever it took to get back to the ones he loved even if it meant taking orders from Kurama.

~\..'../~

Reiki kept herself busy by organizing her home. Iruka and Kakashi patiently took her orders as to where to put the heavy items. Her mother assisted her as much as she could while still attending to her Hokage duties. Her father had disappeared recently citing the need to conduct research in a new place for his upcoming novel.

"How long has Naruto been gone?" Kakashi asked Iruka in a hushed voice to keep her from hearing.

"Two weeks," she answered, filling the bookshelves with all of the books Iruka had given her over the last three years. "I'm not deaf you know."

"Did pregnancy give you ears like a bat?" he retorted, grunting when Iruka's elbow caught him sharply in the ribs.

"Idiot," the darker man snorted, carrying another box of books to Reiki.

Reiki chuckled lightly at the two men. She enjoyed being around them because they were a great distraction. They were like a comedic duo when they were together. During Naruto's absence they had done their part in keeping her busy. Iruka had tutored her to expand her knowledge which unfortunately had been seriously lacking beyond her familiarity with erotic literature. Kakashi helped work her body (not like that) by sparring with her every day to assist with keeping her skills sharp.

"You can talk about Naruto around me. Hearing the stories about him from you two helped me get through three long years remember? He will be back soon," she declared, more to reassure herself than them.

The two men looked at each and shrugged. The usually reticent Kakashi launched into an especially lively retelling of the time he used the One Thousand Years of Death technique on Naruto. Soon he had accomplished his goal when Reiki gave up shelving the books because she was laughing too hard to stand up.

"I don't know which is more sick, Kakashi. Being the victim of that technique or being the one performing it," she chuckled, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Yeah, I agree. So which it is Kaka-doodle do? Did you enjoy it?" Iruka inquired, unable to keep the sardonic smirk off of his face as the other man glared at him lethally. He knew Kakashi hated that nickname because it disgraced his name and made fun of his spiky hairstyle at the same time.

"I don't know. Why don't I perform it on you and I'll get back to you on that?" Kakashi threatened, positioning his fingers in the proper formation to perform the technique.

"Hey, wait! I didn't mean…AAAHHH!" the man screamed as his friend moved toward him with humiliating intentions.

Reiki was once again reduced to guffaws and tears of amusement while watching the two grown men play like twelve year olds. A sound outside caught their attention and made them all cease any noise or movement. The door opened and Naruto stepped inside looking calm and collected as if he were returning from a long hike in the woods.

"Honey, I'm home," he announced, his gaze on his wife who was still sitting on the floor.

"Well, we must go now," Iruka proclaimed, grabbing Kakashi by his flak jacket to pull him to the door as they made a hasty exit.

"Good-bye. And thank you!" she yelled after them, getting to her feet.

Without a word, Naruto moved to her after closing and locking the door. He took her in his arms, kissing her passionately. It was great to be back home with her.

"Are you okay?" she asked, kissing the tip of his nose after rising up to her tiptoes.

"I'm fine. I'm really okay. Everything is okay," he said, gazing deeply into her eyes. He was trying to relay the message of the outcome without having to say it out loud. After she nodded to affirm that she understood, he pulled her close for a strong embrace.

Reiki held him, relieved that it was over and he seemed to have no lingering effects from it. She was glad to know he had finally dealt with an evil that had plagued him for years without becoming something foul and odious himself.

All right dear readers, I'm willing to issue a challenge here. If you did not like Sasuke's death, send me a detailed PM as to how you would have done it differently. If you rewrite the scene and it's really good, I'll consider editing this chapter and using your version. If I do, credit will be given to you in an author's note.