A/N: This is the end of Mission Impossible: Housewife. At the bottom of the chapter is the epilogue (though it's more of a teaser than anything). It's been a long journey with all of you, and I know you've been patient with me, and I just want to say thank you all so much for every review. It meant the world to me. I have decided to work on a sequel, so if you just decided you couldn't get enough, I hope to see you all there.
As for the sequel, well, that will be posted soon. I've been thinking about it, and there's probably going to be an interlude posted, as well as a series of one shots, which will be about their lives as the years go by between this and the sequel. I will be taking requests, so if you guys have something you'd like to see specifically, let me know via review or message. So, be on the look out!
Mission Impossible: Housewife
By KawaiPanda
Chapter Twenty-Five
A GaaIno Love Story
When I came to, the first thing I noticed was the pain. My head was throbbing from where I'd been stricken and had fallen to the ground. The second thing I noticed was the cold. I wondered how long I'd been knocked out, because here in the desert, it only got cold when the sun wasn't out.
Blinking away the lingering blurriness in my vision, I noticed a fire not too far away from me. With a groan, I sat up, using my jello like arms to push myself up.
"You're finally up, I see." At the voice of my captor, I stiffened, looking around for them, their location.
"Yeah. I'm up," I muttered as I finally spotted her next to the fire, warming her hands.
She sighed before looking at me with a distraught expression. "I… why did you have to come back?"
I could hear the tears in her voice as I sighed in kind, and replied, "Matsuri…. He's my husband."
"But I love him! He's supposed to be mine." She sobbed then, looking fragile at the moment.
Standing, I walked towards her, hoping to get a hold of the situation before it got even more out of hand. I hoped I wasn't underestimating her when I moved to stand beside her in front of the fire. I didn't have the strength to run all the way back, and I had no idea to my current whereabouts. I could only hope she was still sane enough to reason with. "Matsuri, he doesn't belong to anyone."
She shook her head. "You should have just stayed in Konoha. If you had, I wouldn't have had to resort to this."
"Look, just let me go." I placed an arm on her shoulder, continuing with, "Gaara wouldn't want this."
She laughed, rounding on me. "How would you know? Huh?"
"Because I know him, and he-"
"You know nothing!" She exclaimed. She gave me a haughty smirk. "He's been sleeping with me."
I shook my head, knowing it to be untrue. "No, he hasn't."
"Yeah, he has. Even back before…. Before you were married," she informed me, a smug smile on her face as I shook my head in denial.
"No. He wouldn't." Gaara wouldn't have slept with her. And even if he had before we married, I know he wouldn't have continued the affair afterwards. He had honor.
"Then how else would I be carrying his child?" She asked.
With a lurch, my heart nearly exploded. It was so quiet around us that I could hear the wind outside of the cave howling, picking up in speed. "What?"
"I'm pregnant, and Gaara's the father." She giggled, touching her midsection. She pressed lightly, allowing me to see the slight rounding… thickening of her waist that was a definite sign of pregnancy. With a wide smile, she continued, "I bet you're just jealous."
"You're delusional," I informed her. Wrong move Ino. Before I could back track, she was already too far gone to be soothed.
"No, I'm NOT!" She backhanded me with surprising force, causing me to tumble to the ground and see stars. "Just shut the fuck up!"
XxXxXxXxX
Gaara's Office
"Have you seen her?" He asked, straight to the point.
"Ino? No. She went straight to your office last night. It was the last I'd seen her." She replied, crossing her arms. "Don't worry. I'm sure she's around here somewhere."
"…"
"You don't think she ran again do you?" From the look on his face, she guessed that he was stressing out about her. Obviously she came back for a reason. She did care… didn't being back prove it? "Gaara... you've got to have faith in her."
"She was gone this morning," he murmured.
"Maybe she had some errands to run?" She shrugged, but at his lifted non-existent brow, she thought about it and agreed. It would be a bit doubtful that she had some errands to run so soon… or that she needed to see someone. The sole purpose of the journey back was to hash it out with Gaara. "Okay, doubtful, but she's…. you know. Ino. I'm sure she's fine." With a sigh, she rubbed the back of her neck, changing the subject. "Anyway, we were attacked the night before last on the way here."
"Again?" He asked.
"Yes. Cloud ninja. Ino was able to look into the mind of one ninja before he was disposed of. She said something about someone being used? A Suna Ninja…. I'm not entirely sure." Shrugging she let her arm fall back beside her.
"As is, used to spy?"
She shrugged again. "I guess. Sorry I'm not of more use."
He shook his head. "No, no… thank you Tenten." And with that, she was dismissed, and he was left to worry on the whereabouts of his runaway wife.
XxXxXxXxX
"Ow…" My head was throbbing once more from the fall. Damned caves…. Damned rocks being where I land.
"It's your own fault. You shouldn't have come back."
It was probably no use to try and reason with her anymore. After I'd been knocked to the ground, she'd tied me up. I wasn't quite sure what she was going to do with me yet, and I wasn't sure I wanted to know. I cooed, "Matsuri…."
"No! I'm not losing him to you!" I flinched at her screech.
XxXxXxXxX
Gaara's office
The low click informed him that someone had walked into his office. Looking up from his stacks of paperwork he hadn't made a dent in, he was startled to see his sister.
"Have you seen Matsuri?" She asked.
He stilled, replying, "No. Is she not at her desk?"
His tone was kind of alarming, but she shrugged it off. "Nope. I needed her to run some errands for me, but I guess I'll have some genin do it." She shrugged and moved to leave when his voice stopped her in her tracks.
"Temari…."
Turning back to her youngest brother, she replied, "Yes?"
He sighed. "I think…. Ino was kidnapped."
Her brows furled in confusion. "What? What do you mean?"
"She was gone this morning… and I can't locate her."
"She came back?" At her startled look, he nodded.
"Yes. Last night."
"And why do you think she was kidnapped?" She asked, crossing her arms.
"Tenten told me that Ino was able to see something in the mind of one of her attackers. That there was someone here, someone they were using."
"And you think it's…. Matsuri?" She asked, disbelief showing through her carefully comprised mask.
"…"
At his silence, she began, "Gaara, you know Matsuri… she woul-…." And just as abruptly, she sighed. "Oh, Kami."
He stood. "What?"
"This morning…. I saw her. She didn't look too well, and was headed in the direction of your house. I assumed she was just headed to a shop or something in the area… I don't know. Just being Matsuri."
XxXxXxXxX
"It should have been me!" Tears ran freely from her eyes. A swell of pity rose within me, but I ignored it. She was trying to kill me!
"Just let me go. Please," I whimpered, hoping it would buy me some time. Time to get the ropes she'd tied my hands together with free. I worked steadily as she paced back and forth, unseeing to my ministrations.
"No! It should have been me. Instead, he chooses you?" She waved her arm at me, anger radiating off of her in waves. "I mean, look at you. You're a dumb blonde! Why would he want you? I don't understand."
"Matsuri, you're making a mistake," I warned. Almost there!
"No, you're the one who made a mistake by thinking you can come back in here and take him away from me!" She declared.
"Don't… Don't do this," I pleaded as she shook her head and pulled a kunai out of her weapons pouch and neared me.
"It's already done."
And with that, the rope secreting my hands was free, and I quickly moved them in front of me, going through the motions without a second thought.
"Mind Transfer Jutsu!" With a rush, I was inside her mind, her memories flooding me.
I rummaged through them, watching them play out. She hadn't been lying. She truly thought she'd been having an affair with him…. But I could see the edges of the genjutsu whereas she could not. He'd been a good replica of the real thing… but he just didn't match up. His movements were different, expressions too vivid. Nothing at all like Gaara. This man though… he had to have been around him often enough to been able to hold up a decent imitation of him.
When I'd finally had enough, and could find no more as to the identity of the man, I cut the remaining ropes free from my body, disarmed Matsuri and released the jutsu.
Coming to in my own body, I blinked as the girl before me was beginning to come to before a blade pierced her chest, a spray of the liquid hitting me in the face. At the sudden intrusion, Matsuri stiffened, a swell of blood causing a dribble down the side of her mouth. Letting out a startled gasp, I turned my attention to the shadow behind her.
Laughter greeted me as whoever had just killed her yanked the blade out of her corpse and kicked it to the side. "She was such a useless thing, Matsuri here."
"Why would you….-" I stood, grasping a kunai.
"She lost her usefulness," he replied with a shrug of the shoulders.
While I pitied her for falling into the wrong crowd, and hated that she'd been set to kill me, I didn't wish this upon her. She hadn't deserved it…. And the fact that this man, whoever he was, he was most likely the one behind everything, had me confused. "But she…. She was carrying your child!"
"So?" Suspicions confirmed, I now knew he'd been the one. But who exactly was he? He wasn't on the council…. But he did look familiar enough that I knew he was a Suna ninja.
"How dare you. You're not going to get away with this."
He snorted, and replied, "I already have."
I shook my head, "You're wrong." At his shrug, I asked, "Why would you do this to her?"
"Does it really matter?" He asked, lifting a brow at me.
Anger seared through my veins. "Yes! I want to know why you did this to her!"
"Because she was going to give me the control I wanted."
"How?"
"She was supposed to seduce him away. She was supposed to give him the child you couldn't. And he would have fallen in love with her because she gave him what you couldn't." He laughed and then with a lot of gall, shrugged. "It's such a waste really. She was a good lay."
Absolute disgust for the man in front of me had a vindictive rage pulsing through me. I would get revenge not only for thinking he could ruin my marriage and get away with it but for the young woman who's life he'd toyed with. Ignoring the fact that I wanted to grieve for the fallen girl, I scowled. "You bastard!"
I wasn't sure who made the first move. It was probably myself. All I knew was that in one moment I was standing there, watching as blood seeped from the fatal wound of Matsuri and demanded answers, and the next…. Weapons were clashing. I was still a little rusty, so before I knew it, I was being backing into a corner, a couple of cuts on my arms from being a little too slow.
Huffing, I knew I'd have to distract him long enough to use one of my family's techniques on him, figure out where exactly on the food chain he was in this plot. Using one of the smoke bombs I'd found in Matsuri's pouch, rather than throwing it at the ground, I threw it in his face. He cried out as the bomb went off, probably permanently blinding the bastard.
"Mind Control Jutsu!" It went off without a hitch. My mind control jutsu allowed me to not only have access to their memories but their bodies as well all the while I was still in the safety of my own. I preferred this technique over the original that it originated from, mind transfer as it was safer. I was still in the process of perfecting it when I'd been pulled into my marriage with Gaara.
Satisfied with the knowledge I sought out, ordered him to slit his own throat. Without hesitation, he complied. The cut he made was jagged and deep, blood spraying me as his body crumpled. Breathing heavily, I turned and stepping over Matsuri's body, walked towards the exit of the cavern.
Just as I exited the mouth of the cave, I stopped short.
There, not a hundred yards away stood Gaara, his sister, and an armada of ninja. At my abrupt exit, they all came to a standstill as I started in their direction. "Ino….?"
At the sound of my husband's voice, I broke out into a run, all but leaping into his open arms. "Gaara." I buried my face in his neck as his arms came around me, breathing in the scent of him. "Oh, Gaara, I'm so sorry."
"Are you alright?" He murmured into my ear.
I nodded. "I'm fine."
Temari coughed and we pulled apart, though my hand slipped into Gaara's. I needed him, some reassurance that this was real.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"I'm fine."
She waved an arm at me. "You're covered in blood."
I blinked and then recalled that I had been covered by both her and that guy. Suddenly I felt grimy. The adrenaline had kept me from even noticing. "It's not mine, mostly. A combination of Matsuri and that bastards."
"So you…" she trailed off and I filed in for her… for them both.
"He killed her. I killed him."
"What happened?" Gaara asked, causing me to look at him.
"She's been manipulated…. She had been long before I even came into the picture. He'd been placing her under a genjutsu…. A very powerful on that had her thinking she was having an affair with you."
He frowned. "Why?"
"Because he wanted to have power over you, Gaara. With his power over Matsuri, had she'd succeeded, she would have had power over Gaara…. And because he had her under his control, he would've controlled Suna. He knew he couldn't just go straight after Gaara, he wasn't strong enough to hold him."
"And no one could have noticed the genjutsu fooling Matsuri…" Had I not known what to be looking for, I would have most likely missed the jutsu myself while shifting through her memories. His own just confirmed what I knew.
He had decided to use her to take over, and when I came into the picture, he enlisted the ninja from Cloud to keep me from wrecking his plans, and when he'd learned from Matsuri that I'd come back this last time, decided enough was enough. He had ordered her, as Gaara, to get rid of me and followed her to make sure she wouldn't fail.
"They're not too far in," I informed them. Gaara nodded and ordered several ninja to retrieve the bodies. As we stood there, Temari identifying the traitor and finally started the short trek back home, I couldn't help but be drawn to her body. A ninja carried her bridal style towards Suna, and I mourned for her. Matsuri…. I just felt so bad for her. She hadn't known… the constant conflictions she'd felt, the way her memories and thoughts were jumbled, I knew she'd finally lost it.
"What are you thinking about?" Gaara's quiet voice pierced through my thoughts.
"Oh… just…." I trailed off.
He sighed. "Don't blame yourself."
"I'll try not to. I just… wish there was something we could have done."
"There was nothing that we could have done. We couldn't have caught it in time." Something told me that he was probably right. We couldn't have done anything different now, but I just wished that it hadn't had to end like this. I looked towards the limp body that was being carried before us, my silent apologies falling onto deaf ears.
I would probably always carry this regret in my heart, and could only hope in the future I could look past it. Until then, I had to settle for the here and now, and right now, I had something to confess.
Waiting until the gates were behind us and we broke off from the rest of the group, I took a breath and murmured, "Gaara…." We stopped walking, with him looking at me, waiting for whatever it was I had to say. With a small smile, I continued, "I love you."
"What?" His voice was a broken murmur.
Because neither one of us had ever said it to the other before, I figured it was about time to let him in on the little secret I'd discovered not too long ago. Grinning, I leaned forward, my mouth brushing his ear as I repeated, "I love you."
I didn't expect for him to say it back. His feelings were his, as mine were my own, so I didn't expect him to feel this strongly for me yet, but when he leaned down and kissed me without a single ounce of hesitation, I knew. And I was grateful that I'd given him… given us this chance.
"I love you too, Sabaku no Ino."
Epilogue
I yanked the chart from the man's hands because obviously he couldn't read right and needed new glasses, but as I looked over the results, my eyes widened.
"It's impossible," I informed him, shoving the lying papers back into his arms.
"I can assure you, it is most definitely not impossible," he replied, fixing the sheets back from my rummaging. He was the one who told me that I wouldn't be able to have children! He was the one who told me I was barren.
Shaking my head, I cried, "But I can't!"
He gave me a small smile, looking the chart back over. "You obviously can, Ino-san."
Again, I shook my head. "It's got to be wrong. I think there was a mistake in the lab work. Try it again."
"Ino-"
I stood then, determined to march to the labs myself and sort this out. This was a mean and nasty trick to be playing on me and on Gaara. "It's probably that damned virus again."
"It's not." The tone of his voice had my hand stilling as I grasped the knob of the door.
Turning back to him slowly, I whispered, "So… so I'm pregnant?"
"You're pregnant. About three months now, actually." I almost fell to my knees at this. Nodding my thanks, I left the room and mechanically made my way back to the mansion. By now, I almost knew Suna like the back of my hand. It had been only a few months ago that I came back, Matsuri died and I'd discovered who'd been trying to have me assassinated. Since everything happened, I'd taken to exploring the city during my free time. Gaara had allowed me to become a teacher at the school so I taught a little, and other than training, I found that I had a lot of free times on my hands. A bored Ino made for a nosey one. Even with Kankuro and Tenten's upcoming wedding, I found myself with too much time during the day.
I'd have to ask Gaara to give me some more classes at the school. He was afraid of giving me too much all at once. Thankfully the evenings... well let's just say I had my hands full with a certain red head.
Gaara had been able to talk to, and by talk, I meant threaten, the Council from voiding the marriage. Things were going along just smoothly. Temari and Shikamaru had found a house for them not too far away from ours, and every month or so, they went back and forth between the nations. Konoha was still in need of it's Chief Adviser, and because Temari was Gaara's sister, she couldn't just up and move away. Kankuro had no problem with it though, because the moment he learned Tenten was pregnant, he asked to be transferred to Konoha permanently. Temari was entering the last trimester of her own pregnancy, and didn't have much longer to go, especially since she had double the burden. Tenten was well into the second trimester with their child... and if the doctors calculations were right, I wasn't too far behind her. Maybe a month?
I knew he would be ecstatic to find out that we were going to have a baby. The first time when Temari and Shikamaru came over and she was heavily pregnant, Gaara was so scared of touching her, in fear that she would break or something! She got annoyed and forced him to rub her belly. The look on his face... it was like a child at Christmas. My heart had broken at the time because I just knew I couldn't give him that joy... but now. A smile broke out on my face and my hand snaked up to touch my abdomen. How much longer would it have been before I'd start showing? Before I felt our child kicking?
Before I knew it, I found myself inside the mansion, cooking dinner for my wayward husband who insisted on bringing paperwork home with him a few times a week at the very least. The times he didn't, he came home an hour later to stay and work on paperwork.
Once the table was set and his plate on the table, did he finally arrive. I had to wrangle up my shouts of joy to keep from spoiling the surprise, and instead, gave him a small smile. Kissing me on the cheek as he sat down across from me, he asked, "How was your day?"
"It was fine. I went to the doctor," I informed him around bites.
"Oh, are you okay?" He asked, concern laced through his voice.
I hadn't told him much about feeling ill, or my chakra beginning to fail me again, but he saw through the mask I put up. This very morning, I'd been violently ill and I knew he'd woken up to the sounds of me vomiting. When I'd went back to bed, he turned to me and rubbed my back, much to my mortification.
I nodded, feeling a large smile slip through my mask of calm. "Yeah… I'm just pregnant."
"What?" He stilled, his head snapping towards me so fast, I wondered if he had gotten whiplash.
Clearing my throat, I repeated myself, "I'm pregnant."
Owari.