Please see first chapter for disclaimer, rating, warnings, pairings, etc.
Special Thanks: goes out to McKazekage, Halestrom, Guest, greetingsfrommaars, rao hyuga 18, Jinsei no Joo-Queen of Life, and TheGirlWithNoIQ for all your wonderful reviews! Also thanks to everyone who has added this story to their favorites and follows lists - every single one of you keep inspiring me every time I see a new alert in my e-box!
Author's Note: Again, sorry for the long-ish wait for this chapter. Life has been ... abnormally crazy. But I promise there is a lot to be excited about in this chapter, and to make up for the two long waits in a row, there's an extra added little bonus at the bottom, which I'm also excited about! Thank you so much for reading this chapter, and I hope you enjoy it!
*~Chapter XIII~*
~Complications~
The bright splashes of color from women's kimono interspersed among more modern ball gowns formed a nice contrast to the men's mandatory black and white attire. Itachi stood aside from the press of people standing in groups talking or taking a spin around the dance floor, his face covered in a simple black domino which left his mouth free, allowing him to take infrequent sips from the glass in his hand.
Temari quickly left his side not long after the couple arrived, undoubtedly to find the women with whom she'd formed an acquaintance over their time in the Land of Gems. Occasionally Itachi caught a glimpse of her blonde hair, lavish turquoise ball gown, and crystal-encrusted mask, but quickly lost sight of her among the crowd again.
He found their hostess for the evening, Kanae, much easier to spot. She and her husband remained at the doorway to the ballroom to receive their guests up until the last one had arrived over an hour after the party began; they then led the first dance before retiring to prominent seats at the front of the room. Their elaborate, matching king and queen costumes definitely made it quite simple to pick them out of the crowd, even without being seated on their "thrones."
Though Itachi had done quite a bit of searching of his own, he'd only managed to find Senri in the crowd, and then by the expedient of him being the only redhead in the room. Hiro, with his average height and brown hair, blended in easily with the guests. The Uchiha wondered if he'd planned it that way - or if his wife had.
A gap in the crowd helped Itachi glimpse Temari. She, along with Rima and a dark-haired woman too short to be Juuri, were talking and laughing with Kanae. Despite her relaxed expression and smiling mouth, he saw the way her sharply attentive teal eyes were always moving, scanning, analyzing. Though more active in the crowd than he, she missed nothing.
The sense of urgency which had been steadily increasing in Itachi since finding out about the mission spiked suddenly. Now with fewer than twenty-four hours from the suspected mass theft, their plan still remained unclear. They'd gotten word out to the other Suna ninja acting as servants on vacation in the village, but they still lacked a signal. Everything they'd come up with thus far had either been far too easily noticed or would not reach all its intended recipients.
They were very rapidly running out of time.
Biting back a frown at his line of thought, Itachi casually pushed away from the wall on which he'd been leaning. Slowly he began to pace along the room's border. With hardly a glance, he placed his half-empty glass on the tray of a passing servant, who wore a dark cape and mask to carry out the night's theme so as to be unobtrusive, yet still readily identifiable if needed.
Small recesses in the wall held lights with differently tinted bulbs, creating an interesting play of colors. The chandeliers dangling from the ceiling held clear lights, so as not to distract from the walls. As Itachi passed each recess, the color of the light washing across the side of his face changed - from blue, to red, to green, to gold, to purple, and then back around. Each color picked up on the shades of the womens' clothing as they mingled, intensifying the effect.
Movement in the corner of the room closest to him captured Itachi's attention. The slighest impression of fluttering darkness vanished through a camouflaged door there, drawing him toward the spot like a moth to flame. He moved cautiously, however, making sure no one noticed his departure before he followed, tense in case some sort of attack waited on the other side.
The lights in the hall were not as bright nor colorful as those in the ballroom, leaving him blinking in an attempt to compensate. As soon as his eyes adjusted, he realized he stood in a servant's passageway leading around to the kitchen, helping those serving appetizers and drinks to make their way quickly and unobtrusively to and from the ballroom.
At first glance, the hall seemed empty. But upon closer inspection, Itachi saw the edge of the same darkness he'd observed leaving the ballroom standing just beyond the next corner, and he made a split-second decision to investigate. If he could get close enough to eavesdrop, he might very well hear something important to the mission. Since the hall was currently empty, he felt reasonably sure no one would stumble upon him there.
As Itachi grew closer, he heard two voices - one female, the other male - speaking in low, urgent tones. To his frustration, however, as he got closer, the pair abruptly ceased conversing, and light, quick footsteps - made by the woman, undoubtedly - pattered away in the opposite direction from which Itachi approached the corner.
The darkness - the edge of a cape, Itachi thought - vanished completely. He picked up his speed, hoping to get to the corner in time to peer around and at least get a vague impression of the person to whom the piece of clothing belonged. Instead, he got far more than he'd bargained for when the person briskly rounded the corner. Itachi got a swift impression of dark clothes, dark mask, dark hair, pale skin as he sharply drew back. At the same second crystal chimed as the glasses on the tray the figure balanced on one hand shifted and made contact with each other. He instinctively stretched out a hand to help steady the other man's burden; but to his surprise, the waiter moved just as quickly and nimbly, rescuing the tray and its contents without spilling even a single drop. For a few moments the two men stood staring, each marveling at the reflexes of the other.
"My pardon," Itachi finally said, offering a sheepish smile. "I do believe I've gotten turned around. Could you kindly point me in the direction of the-"
"You." The word, laden with unexpected venom and hatred, ground out from between the other man's suddenly clenched teeth. Behind the narrow eye holes of the mask he wore, eyes black as Itachi's own glittered with dark emotions every bit as strong as those in his voice.
It was only one word; but hearing the voice much more clearly now than when Itachi had attempted to overhear it, combined with everything else about the figure and struck Itachi with familiarity. He stood dumbfounded for a moment that seemed to extend into an eternity; reached out and snatched the other man's mask off with reflexes even faster than the faux servant's step back meant to evade the move. "Sasuke." The name left his lips in a choked whisper.
The shock - so unexpected - of seeing his brother right there, that very moment, made Itachi think for a wild moment that he must somehow be dreaming. But no: His brother stood in front of him, very much in the flesh; his features hard, his mouth twisted in a grimace, his black Uchiha eyes hard as two pieces of obsidian.
"Sasuke, what are you doing here?" The words escaped his throat in an unfamiliar rasp.
Sasuke's eyes flickered from Itachi's, to the mask he still held, and back. "I could ask the same of you." He bit off every word with an icy snap.
Itachi's mind, mostly recovered from its shock, spun back into motion, racing along to the most logical conclusion. "The same as you, I suspect. I've been sent here to shut down the ring of thieves operating out of the Land of Gems."
His brother's eyes flickered, but he gave no other reaction to Itachi's guess. "Stay out of my way." Reaching out, he snatched his mask back and settled it onto his face again.
Itachi didn't try to keep it from him. Instead, he watched as the black mask entirely hid his brother's features from him. Though the shape of his eyes, the slope of his nose, the stubborn set of his jaw, were all familiar, Sasuke's face had very much changed from the that of the boy he remembered best. A hardness, a mask of impenetrableness, existed there that had not before. The realization sent a pang through him. I did that. "I cannot do that, Sasuke. We are poised to take them down. Too many things have been set into motion to back out now." Itachi spoke the words with a calmness he was far from feeling.
Sasuke's free hand curled into a fist at his side. Though the glove he wore hid his skin, Itachi had no doubt his knuckles glowed bone white from the pressure. "Konoha has been working on this mission for almost a year. Stay out of my way."
He did not miss his brother's reference. Undoubtedly Sasuke had come with a team from Konoha, just as Itachi had from Suna. But the younger Uchiha had said Stay out of my way instead of Stay out of our way. Did he think he could bring down the ring all by himself? "Perhaps our teams can work together to bring down this ring." Suna and Konoha were going to be allies eventually, anyway, thanks to Lord Gaara's engagement to Hyuuga Hinata. Maybe he could help further pave the way for goodwill by working side-by-side with a Leaf team sent to complete the same objective.
"I will never work with the man who murdered my family." With those words, Sasuke stalked past him and vanished through the door leading back into the ballroom.
Itachi closed his eyes and let out his breath on one long, shaky sigh. Bracing his back against the wall, he tilted his head to rest against the hard surface, taking advantage of the quiet hall to regain some of his lost emotional equilibrium. Though he'd had an inkling of how much his brother had changed thanks to the glimpse he'd gotten as he left Konoha, he still felt shaken by the full effect of the differences. No traces of his playful, cheerful, adoring younger brother were evident in the hard, cold lines of Sasuke's face now.
And he'd not missed the meaning behind Sasuke's parting words. By again using the word my instead of our, he'd made it quite clear he'd disowned Itachi as a brother. Though entirely expected, the words still struck Itachi like a blow to the solar plexus, robbing him of his breath - and what little hope he'd managed to harbor that one day he'd be able to make things right with Sasuke.
With effort, he dragged his thoughts from his shattered relationship with his brother to the mission still directly at hand. The presence of Konoha ninja - an unknown number, but Itachi had a feeling a significant one nonetheless - complicated things. The fact they seemed unaware of Suna's presence, and vice versa, made things extremely dicey.
But Sasuke's presence had offered him some clues. He'd been dressed as the other male servants mingling about the room, which meant he and his cohorts had to have gone undercover as servants in some of the richest houses. (Did that mean there was an undercover Konoha ninja in his and Temari's house, too?) Depending on how much they knew, or had figured out, they would know about the probable change in the thieves' plan as well.
Which meant the two groups of ninja would undoubtedly spring their traps at the same time, thus endangering both their missions. It was entirely possible the majority of the ring would still be able to make a getaway, which could not be allowed to happen. He and Temari would have to closet themselves away as quickly as possible and discuss this new information. Thankfully, the party was less than half an hour away from its climax at midnight, when everyone would unmask, and then people would be free either to stay for a late meal or return to their houses.
He had no doubt about which of the two he and Temari would be doing. If at all possible, as soon as they returned to their rented house, they would go to work on finding the probable mole in their own house and try to get a message out to the Konoha ninja. He couldn't rely on Sasuke to let the other Konoha ninja know Suna was willing to cooperate with them on this endeavor.
"Are you all right?"
He tensed at the heretofore unnoticed intrusion into the hall and his own musings. Snapping his eyes open, he turned to face a female clothed in a clinging gown of royal purple, with matching jewelry, mask, and spray of feathers in her ebony hair.
Juuri. It didn't take much effort at all to identify the woman. Itachi felt irritated at himself for not noticing she was there before she spoke, and irritated at her for even approaching him. "It's crowded in the ballroom," he said, attempting to keep his voice calm. "I just escaped through the nearest door to get some air." Forcing his lips to assume a sheepish smile, he motioned to the walls with a tilt of his head. "It seems I accidentally stumbled into the servant's hallway." How much of the preceding conversation did she hear? Though her mask only covered the top half of her face, he could not discern her expression. The fact he could not see her eyes unsettled him greatly.
"I knew it was you." Juuri simpered behind the fan dangling from her wrist by a thin, braided black cord. "I watched for you to arrive, and I've been watching you all night. I just now managed to make my way through the crowd to follow you, though I've been hoping to approach you much, much sooner."
Itachi subconsciously tensed even more. He sensed nothing overtly threatening about the woman, at least in the physical sense. But the fact she'd been watching him, waiting for the opportunity to approach him - and, consequently, catch him alone when she did so - sent warning bells clanging urgently through his mind. "Kayo is still in the ballroom," he said. Perhaps if he pretended to be ignorant... "The last I saw of her, she was with Rima, talking to Kanae."
The fan lowered, allowing Itachi a glimpse of the cunning smile on Juuri's bloodred lips. "I'm not interested in Kayo." The words came out in what was very nearly a purr as she sidled closer, her movements as slick and unsettlingly fluid as a snake's. "And, from what I've heard," she whispered huskily, "unless you need a way to manipulate the little wife, neither are you."
Understanding struck Itachi's mind as brightly and blazingly hot as a lightning bolt. "Excuse me?" He nearly choked on the words.
Now he could see through the gem-encrusted slits in the mask to Juuri's eyes, unnatually long lashes batting at him as she again simpered. "Oh, don't act so naive, Hanbei," she chided, moving up so close to him he felt the heat of her body penetrating the thin silk of her gown. "We're both trapped in loveless marriages. I don't know about you, but I've felt a little spark every time we've encountered each other. I'm not adverse to fanning the flames..." Her hand not holding the fan lifted. Her agile fingers swiftly undid one of the buttons of his shirt so they could slip inside and rest against his skin, where they flexed suggestively. Her gaze, smoldering now with unconcealed desire, dropped to his lips as she swayed closer.
Sickening revulsion rolled through Itachi, threatening to send the little he'd eaten and drunk on a very unpleasant return visit. Even though his "marriage" was nothing but a sham for the purposes of this mission, the thought of being seduced by this woman seemed a terrible betrayal of his partnership with Temari. Though Juuri's reference to the word "flame" held an entirely different meaning, fire did arise in Itachi's chest, an ire born of the situation coupled with his roiling thoughts about his brother and the mission. Standing up straight, he swiftly gripped her wrist, pulling her hand free from his clothing as he rebuttoned his shirt with his other hand. That accomplished, he set both hands on her shoulders long enough to set her away from him forcibly enough to make her squeak in surprise.
"Listen here," he said firmly. "Kayo's and my marriage was arranged for us, yes. But despite any spats we might have had in the past, we are equally determined to make the arrangements between our families - and, even more, the arrangement between ourselves - work. I will not disrespect my wife by entering into an affair with anyone-" he just stopped himself just short of adding, let alone you! "-now, or at any other time. Good evening, Juuri. I hope you and your husband enjoy the rest of your holiday, as I and my wife intend to do."
Without waiting for a response - which, judging by Juuri's gaping mouth and wide eyes behind her mask, would be quite a long time in coming - Itachi swept past the woman and strode decisively back into the ballroom, not stopping until he'd found Temari.
Looking at first surprised to see him, her sharp teal eyes took note of the flush he could still feel heating his face, even as she willingly leaned into the arm he slid around her waist and tilted her head to accept the kiss he pressed to her temple. "Is everything all right, Hanbei?" she murmured, her voice carrying a wealth of meaning.
It wasn't as hard as Itachi thought it would be to encourage his lips to soften into a responding smile. "Better now," he said, for her ears only. Turning to Senri and Rima, with whom Temari had been conversing, he nodded and said, "Excuse me, please, but I'm going to steal my wife for a dance."
Temari hesitated only a moment before sliding her hand into the one he withdrew from her waist to offer her. She followed him to the area of the room cleared for dancing and readily stepped into his embrace, flowing naturally into the rhythm of the dance. "What happened?" she queried softly. "I saw you disappear through a nearly hidden door and almost followed you, but Senri and Rima caught me. I had to talk to them to keep from acting suspiciously. I was just about to excuse myself to follow you when I saw you come back out." Though she didn't mention Juuri's name, the tight way she held the corners of her mouth made it clear she'd not missed the dark-haired woman's following him in her place.
"We shouldn't talk about it here." Fortunately the song playing was a slow one, giving him the perfect excuse to lean in closely and whisper in her ear as he continued, "Though I did run into some - ah - complications on the other side of that door."
Temari stiffened slightly in his arms but didn't otherwise react. Instead, she rested her head against his shoulder and responded the same, breath-soft voice, "Are we in danger?"
Itachi hesitated before replying. "Not immediately, and not physically."
She glanced up at him, puzzlement clear in her eyes. But to her credit she didn't push for clarification or react visibly. Instead, she smiled up at him as if he'd just whispered some sweet nothing in her ear, her right hand sliding up his arm, across his shoulder, then behind his neck under his ponytail in a move calculated to carry on the charade that she was nothing more than a wife relishing and returning her husband's affections.
And, he thought with a certain fierceness he didn't try to analyze, hopefully Juuri would notice and abandon any lingering hopes for romantic entanglements - if his speech and outright physical rejection hadn't done the job by themselves.
The music smoothly transitioned into the final song of the evening. Though traditionally danced on New Year's Eve, right before midnight, Itachi understood why Kanae and Yukahito had planned for it to be played at their ball. It was a song and dance meant for lovers, intense and filled with sweet memories and fresh beginnings.
Allowing the part of himself he'd set aside to portray Hanbei slide fully into place, he closed his eyes and dropped Temari's hand to slide both his arms around her waist. Her now-free hand joined the other behind his neck, warm against his skin as she tucked her head beneath his chin. As they swayed together in a langorous rhythm, Itachi dimly noted how well Temari fit against him; as if they were two halves of a whole, each incomplete as long as the other was missing. He found it to be at the same time both a wonderful and a terrifying feeling.
Across the room, the musicians gently urged the notes flowing from their instruments onward toward the finale, which approached far too quickly for Itachi. The clock ticked faster and faster toward the inevitable midnight and what was expected at the end of the song - for every couple in the room, but most particularly for those on the dance floor. The last notes drew out just as the two huge clocks on either side of the main door leading into the ballroom struck midnight. Hanging against the backdrop of the deeply resonating bong of the clock as it struck each number, the chord hovered, pushing Itachi into something he'd known to be inevitable while not being at all sure he was ready to happen.
He couldn't read Temari's face as she tilted it up to meet his lowering one. Their lips fused together smoothly, naturally, as if kissing was something they'd done a hundred times before. The heat pooling in every part of his body where it touched hers flared, racing through him to engulf his head. Without consciously making a decision to do so, he gently slid his mouth across Temari's, exploring the soft responsiveness of her lips, marveling at how perfectly they fit together in this respect, too. At last the flames reached his lungs, snatching away his breath. Itachi lifted his head from Temari's with a ragged gasp, shaken by the intensity of the emotions inspired by their kiss...
...And by the fact the music of the band and the chiming of the clocks had faded away without him noticing, replaced by the soft applause of the occupants of the room.
Instinctively glancing around to see if anyone noticed his and Temari's lingering kiss, he saw with relief everyone's attention was going from the musicians, to Kanae and Yukahito, then to their own masks. He and Temari let go of each other belatedly, hands moving directly from each other to their masks so they could join in the big reveal. Noticing her hands tremble and fumble before latching onto her mask, he realized their kiss had shaken her just as much as it had him.
I have to get out of here. His yearning for flight changed as the reality of their situation crashed back into his mind, bringing with it the memory of how urgently he and Temari needed to talk about the mission.
A mission just further complicated by- No, no, don't think about it! Put it out of your memory, out of your thoughts, Uchiha. It was just playacting that got a little too - real - in the heat of the moment. Let it go.
Grasping Temari's arm in his, he half-dragged her after him toward the door, knowing they needed to leave now while everyone's attention was diverted. As they hurried from the ballroom and toward the front door, he instinctively knew he wasn't just running from anyone who might notice their departure. He ran from something he knew with absolute certainty would continue to haunt him - vividly - until his dying day. He could only devoutly pray Temari even now made the same rationalizations as he, as he fled in the hope of keeping the terrifying truth at bay for as long as possible.
He kissed me.
Temari had understood at the outset that some sort of intimate interaction would be required to carry off their duplicity. There needed to be a touch here, a hug there - and, yes, even a kiss or two. She'd prepared herself for those, to allow her persona of Kayo to take over and accept - or initiate - the contact, much like an actress on stage. The actions themselves wouldn't mean anything. She also knew what traditionally came at the end of the last dance, and thought she (as Kayo) prepared to go through with it. Just a quick peck on the lips, maybe a tad longer than that so as not to stand out from the other couples; then they would applaud with the others, unmask, and go home. Nothing simpler.
But it had not turned out that way. The moment her lips touched Hanbei's - no, that's not right, that wasn't Hanbei, that was Itachi - Itachi's, Kayo had fled. The dislike still simmering softly at the back of her mind had gone out as thoroughly as if a torrent of icy water had been poured over it, sweeping away with it her sensibility and rationality.
He kissed me.
But - I kissed him right back.
Even now, Temari felt the attraction sizzling between them, even though a solid wall and door presently separated them. Her knees turned to jelly. She sank onto the floor next to her bed, thankful she'd managed to hold her composure together until after Matsuri had helped her out of her evening gown and into a loose pair of meditation pants and an equally comfortable top.
Had her maid seen her like this, Temari would never hear the end of it.
Closing her eyes, Temari allowed her head to fall back against the edge of the bed. Immediately, the sensations she would forevermore associate with that kiss flooded her, leaving her feeling hot, and unsettled, and somehow complete in a way she'd not realized she was lacking.
How completely, utterly, and terrifyingly wonderful.
Temari's eyes snapped open again, and she scrambled unsteadily to her feet. No! No more thinking like that. This is a mission. Think about the mission, Temari, and only the mission. Nothing else exists. You are not going to let yourself get confused by something which doesn't even exist. That kiss was only something used to uphold your cover. It meant nothing more. Nothing more.
Why was it so hard to convince herself of that?
Disgruntled, Temari yanked open the door between her bedroom and sitting room. Her ire kindled further when she saw Itachi sitting at the table, a cup of tea cradled between his hands, another one already at her place. He looked cool, collected; completely unbothered by the events of the evening.
Further proof - as if it were needed - she was the only one feeling this way. She was supposed to have better control over her emotions than this! What in the world had happened to her to make her stop separating the essence of herself from her mission persona? She'd never had a lick of trouble with it before...
...Except for that one mission, but that was different. That one had been a failure, but not through any fault of her own.
...If she kept this up, though, this one would be a failure, entirely through her own fault.
Itachi eyed her as she flopped down across from him and picked up her own cup of tea so fast she nearly spilled it. "Are you all right?" Confusion and concern battled for dominance in his dark eyes.
"Fine." The word grated out of her, and Temari hurriedly took a drink of her tea. It burned not just her tongue, but all the way down into her stomach. She fought back the tendency of her eyes to water at the pain, lest it be miscontrued as something else. Curses. "What new information about the mission do you have?" she asked brusquely. She'd almost added, that you mentioned during our dance, but she would have to avoid rabidly any references to that particular activity in the future.
Word of this could not get out. Kankuro would never let her hear the end of it, and heaven only knew how Gaara would react.
Itachi looked at her, a doubtful expression on his face, but thankfully did not pursue the subject of her mental, physical, and emotional stability any further. "We are not the only ninja working on bringing down this ring. Konoha has sent in a team to go undercover as servants in the house. I recognized one of them in Kanae and Yukahito's house. I suggested a collaboration between our two groups, but I don't think he was willing. I doubt he'll make any effort to help the others see the situation favorably."
As if their situation needed yet another complication. Allowing the implications to filter through her mind, Temari scowled. "That means there's probably a Konoha ninja undercover somewhere in this house."
Itachi nodded. "Whoever it is did not recognize me, however. The Konoha ninja at Yukahito's seemed surprised to see me there, which leads me to think it is someone whom I did not work with - before."
She understood what he meant and nodded her agreement. "Which means it will be next to impossible to discover who among these walls is the mole."
"Yes." Itachi set down his cup and rubbed his hands up and down his face. He looked totally exhausted when he dropped them. "We cannot allow our trap to be sprung by the wrong person - or allow whatever plans Konoha has ruin the chances of our taking down the ring. This is our only chance, and it cannot be jeopardized."
Exhaustion washed through Temari as well. She planted her face in her hands and shook her head slowly back and forth. "All this work..." she moaned.
"I know." A soft touch - Itachi's fingertips? - brushed across the top of her head, then vanished, leaving a lingering impression of heat behind. Great. Something else to have to live with. "We'll figure something out, though." We have to remained unspoken but no less clear.
Lifting her head, Temari opened her mouth to respond, but a scrape at the door forestalled her words. As one, she and Itachi leaped to their feet, weapons in hand. They moved quietly toward the door, watching it, waiting for the sound to repeat itself - or for someone to try to open it.
However, instead of the expected, something entirely unexpected happened. A folded piece of white paper slid beneath the door and rested on the floor, unmoving now that its forward momentum had died.
Itachi and Temari exchanged wary looks. Together they edged forward, one step at a time. He cautiously reached for the envelope as she slid open the door and peered outside. There was no one in view; and when she leaned out to look both directions, the hall remained dark, quiet, and empty as always, as if a phantom had delivered the paper.
Closing and relocking the door, Temari glanced over her shoulder at the paper. "There's nothing inside," Itachi reported. "I opened it just long enough to make sure there was nothing tucked between its folds, but I didn't read it." He handed it to her.
Taking it cautiously, Temari slowly unfolded it - noting the generic quality of the paper, with no defining characterstics to its weight, color, or markings - and read its contents.
The note was short and to the point:
The mission's completion is up to you. We withdraw. Destroy this.
The only signature was the small insignia of a leaf in the bottom right corner.
*~To Be Continued~*
Author's Ending Notes: Gah, I cannot tell you how excited I have been to get to this part! Two such excting things in one chapter - Itachi sees Sasuke face-to-face for the first time since he left Konoha, and then that kiss! This chapter was an absolute joy to write, so I hope that all translated out well in the reading. Thank you so much for being patient with me, I hope this chapter was worth the wait and you enjoyed it, and I hope to see you again for the next update (which I hope will be up much sooner)!
BONUS: As an extra, added little bonus for making you wait longer for both this chapter and the last, I'm holding a little competition of sorts. The first person who correctly guesses the identity of the undercover Konoha ninja infiltrating Itachi and Temari's house (one guess per reviewer, please!) will get a oneshot of 1,000-3,000 words, with their choice of Itachi/Temari, Gaara/Hinata, or Neji/Tenten as the featured pair (these being the three pairings I'm most comfortable and familiar with writing, and I want to give you my best - though I do ask the winner's forthcoming request contain no lemons, please. I'm sure none of you would, but just to be safe - no lemons). I'll give you a slight clue, just to be fair - the ninja is one of the Konoha 12, though not Sasuke or Hinata for obvious reasons. I'll announce the winner in an author's note in the next chapter. Until then, good luck to you all, and I look forward to hearing from you!