Title: Romance in the air

Author: enchanted nightingale

Beta: pussycatadamah

Disclaimer: The characters do not belong to me. I only use them in my plot for fun.

Chapter 26

The clearing was eerily still as the shinobi waited for the demon to arrive.

Sasuke had caught his breath by now and he felt a strange detachment about this whole thing. He had been close. He had felt the skin break as his rage urged him to finish it. That moment it did not matter to him whether the man he held under him had been there in his most tender age. He still remembered Itachi reading stories to him, helping him learn to tie his shoes and throwing kunai. Yet the image of his older brother splattered in their parents' blood was enough to still cause him nightmares. The avenger had hardly expected Naruto of all people to stop him. And then Kakashi had also appeared then and Naruto's mouth ran off again. And surprisingly even Itachi spoke up.

Sasuke had not reacted then but hearing his older brother say that the demon had Kagome as a target had shaken him. Then the questions started prodding him. How did the demon know Kagome? And for that matter how did Itachi know her? It appeared that Naruto knew; Hatake as well. So he asked.

"How do you know her Itachi? How could you know Kagome?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto froze and got nervous and his own stance told on him. The blond was an amazing shinobi but ask him to lie and he could not deceive you even if his life depended on it.

Gaara merely looked curious while Kakashi's expression betrayed nothing at all.

Itachi though met his gaze. "I know she healed you," he admitted.

"How on earth did you meet her?" Sasuke demanded.

"I've known her before she came to Konoha," Itachi told him.

"Do you really want to make him hit you?" Kakashi cut in.

Itachi barely looked at the Jounin. His gaze never left his younger sibling. He had to make Sasuke understand and help him. "You have to get to her. That creature… he killed everyone."

That caught the interest of all of them.

"You mean the Akatsuki members that summoned the demon?" Kakashi asked.

"Every single one of them," Itachi admitted.

There was a prolonged pause when they had no idea what it was that they were supposed to say. They were of course ecstatic that the Akatsuki were no more, no doubt there. But it would be crude to gloat about it at the present time. They had much bigger problems.

Sasuke in particular was more interested in how his brother and a sweet person like Kagome came to meet.

"I don't care about a bunch of murderers. What I want to know is about you knowing Kagome." He glared at Itachi, his eyes red. "You didn't try to hurt her did you?"

Itachi snorted and turned his head away from him, but Sasuke seized him and forced him to look at him.

"Did you?" Sasuke demanded. "Did you hurt her?"

"I'm not in the habit of hurting my lover."

Kakashi winced.

"Crap," Naruto muttered.

o

Kagome sneezed and Tsunade gave her a worried look.

"Perhaps you shouldn't be moving around," the Godaime told her. "In your condition…"

"I'm fine!" Kagome smiled and tried to reassure her. "Honestly. I'll be the first to say I'm at my limit; should that happen I'll rest, I promise."

Sesshomaru snorted and Kagome glared at him.

"Never mind, I need to find him," Kagome told Tsunade.

"Kagome," the blonde kunoichi stopped her. "You do know that as a Hokage I have certain responsibilities."

The miko's smile fell and she nodded her eyes sad. "I-I know. Believe me, I do know. I just… I need to let him know. He deserves this much."

Tsunade nodded and Kagome followed after the Taiyukai.

o

"What did you say?" Sasuke whispered. His black eyes were wide with disbelief and shock.

"Kagome Higurashi is my lover," Itachi repeated. "Since the day we met in Wave. She was a sort of healer there."

Sasuke whirled around and met eyes with Naruto. "Did you know about this?"

The blonde winced.

"Did you?" Sasuke shouted.

"I did," Naruto admitted after a sigh. "But I had no job to tell you that! Even I only found out by mistake when I saw them doing perverted stuff!" he said with a blush.

Itachi actually blushed a bit at that despite the current situation.

Sasuke was now glaring at him again.

"Now, Naruto adults are adults," Kakashi commented.

"You all knew," Sasuke seethed.

"Hey! Kagome wanted to tell you!" Naruto said. "She cared for you before she even knew you or that you were the weasel's brother. And you know it too so quit being a bastard about this!"

"What the idiot said," Kyuubi spoke up. "No to mention the miko wanted to let you know you're practically an uncle now. Guess the Uchiha's are not so extinct after all."

"Not the time for jokes," Naruto told his demon prisoner.

"Sasuke," Itachi spoke to his younger brother. "I just want her safe. You can kill me if you like but don't hurt her…"

"Like I would!" the younger Uchiha yelled. "I would never hurt her! She's like a sister to me!"

Itachi visibly relaxed then.

"Heads up," Kyuubi said then as from an alley a figure dressed in white appeared. The fox demon's eyes went wide in shock as he took in the appearance of what was without an ounce of mistake a demon. An Inu demon. White hair, red stripes across the face, blue crescent moon.

"Sesshomaru," the Nine Tailed Fox whispered and the mortals could only stare at the powerful demon. They were all tense and save an incarcerated Itachi they were ready to attack. That was until a very familiar woman peeked out from behind the demon. Kagome took in the scene of the three teen ninjas, Kyuubi, Kakashi and Itachi. Her eyes revealed her emotions that changed rapidly, from relief that she felt for the boys being safe, to Kyuubi being obedient to seeing Itachi and then to alarm at the state her lover was in and finally anger and a bit of disappointment as she realized what had taken place, with sadness to follow at the realization that Sasuke finally knew and he was hurt and also that Itachi was finally caught and would not escape this time.

"Oh."

End of chapter

A/N: Sasuke knows! : D