Chapter 12 The Armor
A/N: And here is the long awaited chapter 11. Oooh…what's gonna happen now? Well I'm afraid you're gonna have to read it yourself ;) Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
"Here you go," Tenten said to Sasuke with a smile. They had woken up just about an hour ago and were now having breakfast. Sasuke didn't have a day off but he wanted to spend some time with his wife, so he said he'd be in the office very, very late today. But paperwork was the last thing on his mind right now. He felt happy, being with her and he wanted to enjoy every second of it. Tenten had made him bacon, eggs and French toast for breakfast. She enjoyed preparing things for him and she liked to see him eat whatever she made. She felt like she couldn't be any happier. After breakfast Sasuke took on his serious face again and was looking at her as if he was about to say something bad. She got a little worried.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"I've been thinking last night," he answered. "There's something I'd like to do. Or rather, something I'd like to give you."
He looked at her while playing with the rim of his coffee cup. He then dug into his coat pocket and took out a small blue velvet covered box.
"I was going to present you with this on our anniversary," he continued. "But seeing as to how things can go from really good to absolutely terrible rapidly, I might as well give you this today. I realized that we cannot know what tomorrow might bring and I want to live every day to the fullest, while I have you with me."
He opened the box and in it rested a thin silver necklace with an oval shaped jade pendant.
"This necklace belonged to a generation way before my grandparent's time and has been passed on to the wife of each clan leader. And I would like for you to wear this as a symbol of our honor, our status and you're position as my wife.
It may not be the most expensive jewelry there is out there," Sasuke added, smiling. "But it is very precious to us and it symbolizes the strain the Uchiha clan has been through and the strength we gained along the way."
Tenten was speechless; she didn't know what to say. It was a beautiful and simple necklace but Sasuke's words were what touched her the most.
"I'd be honored to wear this in my husband's name," she answered proudly.
Sasuke removed the necklace from its box and went to Tenten to wear it for her. When it was attached, he stood in front of her and bent down to see how the necklace suited her.
"Beautiful," he commented. He took her hand and kissed it.
Right at that moment a servant scurried to the kitchen and bowed his head deeply.
"Gomenasai, Uchiha-sama!" he said. "But I've just received word from an ANBU messenger: the hokage would like to see you immediately. And your wife is supposed to be present as well."
Tenten looked at Sasuke. Whatever this was, it couldn't be anything good. And they soon left for the hokage's tower.
Naruto's office was temporarily converted into a small meeting room; the desk was gone and there were chairs facing one wall where a blackboard was put up. That's supposedly where the speaker will stand and where the tactics would be drawn. Naruto didn't look all too happy. First of all, there was that gang of people who kidnapped Tenten and stole a valuable relic. Second, there was his pregnant wife whom he wanted to take care of but the office keeps calling him. And finally, he hadn't had a good night sleep for a few days. There were so many issues going on and it was quite stressful. Sometimes he wondered why he wanted to become hokage so badly in the first place.
When Tenten and Sasuke arrived, everybody was already present including Shikamaru, Sai, Itachi and of course Hinata. Tenten sat next to her. She looked very pensive and was fiddling with her growing stomach. She was so lost in thoughts; she didn't notice Tenten sitting next to her. When Tenten touched her hand to catch her attention, she was startled.
"Oh, Tenten-chan," She said surprised. "I didn't see you there. I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Tenten assured her. "Are you okay?"
Hinata bit on her lips; she wasn't sure if she wanted to tell her what's on her mind.
"I…," she stammered. "I'm not allowed to tell."
"Tell me what?" she insisted.
"Something happened. At home. The Hyuuga's home. I don't think I'm allowed to talk about it."
"Is it serious?"
Hinata looked at her. She was worried.
"I'm not sure. But I think it is."
"Does Naruto know about this?"
"No, not yet," she said guiltily and looked at her lap. "He was so concerned with other things that I didn't want to worry him any more than he already is."
Tenten took Hinata's hands in hers and looked her straight in the eyes. This young woman was worried and she couldn't share it. In her condition, she was in no position to stress out; it might affect the baby.
"Hinata, you can trust me," she assured her. "After all I've been through, I believe there is nothing that can unsettle me. I will help you. I promise."
Hinata hesitated for a moment. But when she saw the look in Tenten's eyes, she saw her sincerity and honesty. Hinata did trust her, why not tell her?
"The Hyuuga main family has been robbed…"
"Robbed?"
"Yes! I don't know how this all happened, since I don't live there anymore but something very valuable was stolen."
"What was it?"
"A relic. Much like the Kusanagi, in a way. But our relic is called Yatta no Kagami. It's sort of like a…"
"A mirror," Tenten finished her sentence. All of a sudden she got a burst of déjà vu. She was having a momentary flashback where she saw Kabuto's face in front of her and that weird looking necklace hanging down his neck. And then she knew the truth. But she wasn't sure. She wanted to go home immediately and investigate.
"Hai! A mirror," Hinata confirmed. "But how did you know?"
She looked at Tenten concerned: her friend had 'worry' written all over her face.
"Ummm…," she hesitated a bit. "I have to go."
"Now, Tenten-chan? The meeting's not over yet." And Hinata nodded to the men discussing the problem at hand.
"This is really urgent. If Sasuke's looking for me, tell him that I'm at home. I'll see you soon, okay. You don't stress too much. Think about the baby."
Tenten offered her friend a wink as she stood up from her seat and left the hokage's office. The men were so busy and consumed by the discussion that even Sasuke didn't notice her leave. If he had, he would have sent her home with some escort. After her kidnapping he was convinced that security for her wherever she goes isn't a luxury.
But Tenten preferred to be alone right now; it gave her time to think. There was something she read about the Kusanagi in one of her books. Something about a legend that seems very relevant. She hates it when she couldn't remember something, so she rushed home and went straight to the library where she had stored all her books.
She really didn't know where to start, so she just took all her books from the shelves and searched each one of them. Around 4 o'clock, Sasuke arrived home. She could hear his heavy footsteps walking up the stairs as he was getting closer to the library.
"Tenten," he said when he saw her sitting on the floor, surrounded by books. Her hair was in a mess but to Sasuke, she kinda looked cute that way. Tenten responded to his call by looking up. Sasuke walked up to her and bend down.
"Why didn't you notify me when you left? I was worried."
"I'm sorry, Sasuke. But I had an idea during the meeting. I thought I had a lead. You know, like a motive as to why Kabuto was doing all of this. And then Hinata told me that a family relic was stolen. It was the Yata no Kagami: an ancient mirror. I read about this old legend and I'm trying to find out in which book I read it. And then I remembered this freaky necklace that Kabuto was wearing and…"
"Hey, hey," Sasuke tried to calm her down. "Slow down there tiger." He lifted her chin up so she would look at him.
"I can see that you're tired. Let's have a break and eat something, shall we?"
Tenten smiled at him.
"Okay. Let me just clean up this mess."
"Great. I'll ask Riku to prepare something for us," Sasuke said as he walked out of the library to take a refreshing shower. The meeting exhausted him and some rest and food would do him well.
Tenten started closing up all her books and stack them, when she came across an old story book of hers. It was a fairytale book which her mother used to read to her when she was little. With love in her eyes she picked it up and caressed the cover. All of a sudden she really missed her mom. Out of nostalgia she opened up the book to look at the table of contents. Her fingers aimlessly traveled over the many stories that were written in it. She wanted to close the book when the title of a story caught her eye: "The Magic Armor". Why did that story start to ring a bell? She honestly didn't remember what it was about anymore but her gut told her that that fairytale was the key to everything. She quickly looked up the story:
"Once upon a time, the moon goddess Kitosana made three very special gifts and gave them to three special families. Each gift had a wonderful magical power and the families used them to protect themselves and their village…"
Tenten started thinking that this seemed very familiar. She skipped a few pages and read on:
"One day demons ruled the land. They ate all the villagers' crops and burned down their houses. The villagers were helpless. But the special families weren't afraid. They gathered together and combined their gifts to make a magical armor. An armor so strong and fierce that the demons were defeated very easily. But the power of the armor was prohibited by the goddess. She forgave the deed because she knew they were in danger but she warned them not to recreate the armor. But if they had to, they weren't allowed to use it for too long. Or else the goddess would punish them severely."
"Oh my god," Tenten whispered. "I think I know what he's up to."
Immediately she went looking through all of her books. She knew that she had one about archeology and that's the one she saw the Kusanagi in. She quickly paged through and found what she was looking for: a few chapters away from the Kusanagi, she saw a drawing of the last gift of the goddess Kitosana, the Yasakani no Magatama. It was the same weird necklace that Kabuto was wearing.
"He's going to recreate the armor," she said to herself.
After the realization had set in, she quickly ran towards Sasuke whom she caught coming out of the shower. When she saw him like that, half naked with only a towel to wrap his intimate parts, she momentarily forgot what she was supposed to do. Sasuke was so muscled, toned and sexy. Who wouldn't fall for a body like that! Anyway…
"Sasuke, I know what Kabuto's up to."
Tenten told Sasuke everything she found out up till now. Even though the theory was based on a fairytale, she was certain that this was the truth. And never had she any inkling that Sasuke doubted her. That made her feel confident. Sasuke had no choice; to him, Tenten's theory was the only thing he got. Especially since they just found out that the Yata no Kagami, the ancient mirror, has recently been stolen. After Tenten left, Hinata had some serious thinking to do. So after the meeting and in front of all those who were present, she confessed to the robbery. At first it seemed irrelevant but after learning that it's also an ancient family relic, everybody was concerned. Nobody knew what that meant but now Sasuke does. He gave Tenten a kiss and rushed to the hokage's tower to notify Naruto.
In the following days, things were becoming very hectic in Konoha. Little by little, the story of the armor was proven to be true; many elders of the Uchiha and Hyuuga clan have confessed to it, saying that their grandparents once told them such a legend. And in no case has it been a friendly one with rainbows and butterflies. The story goes that an emperor had used the power of the armor to conquer many other villages and he reigned with hatred and cruelty. It's been going on for years, but then the moon goddess herself came down to earth to punish the emperor. He was set to flames, as were his loyal followers. The goddess gave mankind another chance and split the armor in three pieces, converging them into seemingly innocent artifacts: a sword, a mirror and a necklace. Now everybody knew the Uchiha's had the sword and the Hyuuga's had the mirror but who did the necklace originally belong to? Shikamaru had hypothesized that it might have been the Uzumaki's, Naruto's forefathers, to have been the rightful owners. The only thing the three families had in common were their eyes; the power of the dojutsu.
Naruto wasn't sure what the scale of the upcoming battle would be because no one alive had ever witnessed the true power of the armor. So, in an effort to gain the upper hand, he asked Gaara, the kazekage and his friend, for assistance. Gaara was skeptical during the briefing of the problem but nonetheless, decided to help his friend. In a few days now, the army will leave for the Nemura coast. Once there, they will start a search party, hoping to find the base of Kabuto's camp. According to Tenten, it must have been underground, so at least they know now where to look and what to expect.
"Hey…" Tenten said softly. She was standing by the bedroom door, looking at Sasuke who was staring out the window. He turned around and replied.
"Evening, beautiful."
Tenten walked towards him and cuddled herself in his arms. Sasuke embraced her and planted a kiss on her forehead.
"Are you ready for tomorrow?" she asked softly. Tomorrow the army would leave to the Nemura coast.
"Yes, I am."
"Come back to me, okay?"
"I promise."
A/N: I hope that's enough suspense for ya! Next chapter, more secrets about the armor will be revealed… R&R!
