Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Lesson Thirty-Seven
Till Death Do Us Part
x
Naruto Uzumaki signed in big messy strokes, barely eligible, by a hand much more used to holding a hilt than a brush. In comparison, Shion followed with a fancied script so miniature as if to embroider the document. The two discordant signatures began to dry into the parchment.
Shion hadn't looked up from the floor since it had begun. Naruto's face was a mask while he watched the signatures dry, as if waiting for something. Ame wasn't fooled by the mask. It was the same expression he wears when he tells her 'everything is going to be okay', before strapping on a katana, buckling his flak jacket, and jumping out the window.
The Hokage came forward and examined the signatures. Finally she signed her name at the bottom like a chain forging a link between the names above.
"It's done."
Naruto had always imagined a big wedding. All of his friends would be in attendance, regardless of the symbol on their hitai-ite, with enough room for both the living and the dead.
"Sorry it couldn't be a big ceremony," Naruto said, not knowing whether he was apologizing to Shion, the kids, or himself.
"I don't need a big one," Shion whispered as she followed behind him with her head still lowered to the ground. Naruto realized how fast he had been walking when he heard her voice far behind him. He slowed down to allow her time to catch up, but she slowed down too.
Both Ame and Ichigo watched the sudden battle of paces in confusion. Finally, Naruto gave up and turned around, "What's going on?"
Shion blushed in embarrassment and wondered what she had done wrong. "A proper wife walks behind her husband," she squeaked.
"Not in a ninja village," Naruto said immediately. A ninja never wants their spouse to walk behind them; they'll be the first one to stab you in the back.
Naruto reached out his hand and pulled Shion to his side, then reached over and lifted her chin. "Keep your head up. Always be aware of your surroundings no matter who you're with."
The correction embarrassed Shion further. She silently reprimanded herself that she should have spent more time studying the customs and habits of Konoha. She felt entirely inadequate as Naruto's wife.
Naruto was keenly aware how this felt similar to the night he brought Ame and Ichigo home from the orphanage. It had been a mixture of excitement, happiness, and nervousness of not knowing how to put a family together.
Naruto felt a tug on his pants leg. Without thought, he reached down and scooped Ichigo in his arm just like that first night. Ichigo twisted and hugged Naruto's neck. He has gotten older and bigger, but no less spoiled.
They arrived at the open gates of the compound where the Uzumaki crest swirled on its doors. For the first time since the compound was bought, Naruto turned and closed the doors tightly behind him.
Ame noticed the change. "Why are we closing the doors?"
"It's gotten too dangerous," Naruto replied. He was always willing to accept anything or anyone who wandered in. But times have changed.
"We're home," Naruto introduced as he opened the door to the main house. Shion crossed the threshold into what was now her home and remembered the first time she had come here, desperately hoping she could make Naruto fall in love with her.
For a moment, there was a silent interlude that questioned what now? Naruto had brought Ichigo and Ame to the small apartment he used to own to the same silence. He solved it the same way he solved it then – with ramen.
"How about Ichigo and I begin dinner while Ame can help Shion unpack her things?" Naruto suggested.
"But I'm supposed to cook dinner," Shion argued. For the first time that night her voice was louder than a whisper.
"Not tonight," Naruto smirked. "Tonight is ramen night."
Both Ame and Ichigo's eyes lit up. Traditionally, ramen night was scheduled for the last week of the month but tonight was special and it came early. Shion could see the kids' excitement and did not offer any further protests.
Naruto carried Ichigo into the kitchen and set him on the counter. Ichigo was given the important job of taste-testing.
"Alright," Naruto said as he rolled up his sleeves. He had come a long way from instant ramen.
Bags of Shion's belongings that had been salvaged from the ambush crowded the upstairs. Ame stuffed Shion's clothes into the closet and secretly admired the soft fabric that slid through her hands. "You sure have a lot of clothes."
"I haven't actually worn most of them," Shion admitted as she spread the fine silk of spring and winter. "When I went on tours I had a tendency to splurge but life was humble in the monastery and I was never allowed to wear them."
"It feels like we've adopted you," Ame giggled. "I've never had a mother before."
"I never been a mother before." Shion found it easier to talk to Ame. There was too much guilt weighing down any conversation she had with Naruto. "Do you have any tips for me?"
"Ichigo doesn't talk much so if he doesn't say anything to you don't take it personal. Dad is on a strict diet so we have to make sure he doesn't eat anything he shouldn't."
"A diet?" Shion questioned. "But he's rather fit."
"Dad has a bad heart," Ame said as if stating a fact about the weather.
"I didn't know," Shion said.
Ame turned and emphasized, "You're weren't supposed to know. It's a big secret that Granny wants only in the family. Never tell that to anyone who isn't family."
Shion could only imagine what would happen if the international community got a hold of such information. Through Ame's words, Shion got the sense that Ame meant more than just Ichigo and Naruto. "Who is family?"
"Granny, Tomu, Kusuro, Uncle Iruka, Uncle Teuchi and Aunt Ayane, Grandad but he's dead, Uncle Kakashi but he doesn't like to be called Uncle, Big sister Sakura because she thinks 'aunt' makes her sound old, and Honorable Sister Hinata because," Ame was so used to hearing the title from her Hyūga friends that it had caught on but the long address gave Ame time to catch herself before she spilled the fact her dad was in love with someone else. She turned with a smile, "because Hinata knows everything."
Shion hadn't notice the break in Ame's reply because she was brooding on the fact that she hadn't met most of these people. They were just names to Shion but evidently big influences in her family's life.
"You haven't met Tomu. He's the most important person you need to meet," Ame said, "but he ran away to the war." Then after further contemplation Ame said, "They're all in the war."
Ame wiped a tear from her cheek, and then another, until her vision blurred. Shion was immediately attentive and crouched down with a gentle touch through Ame's hair. "It's going to get better."
"That's what Dad always says but it's only gotten worse." Ame couldn't even go to the Academy this semester because the classes had been suspended.
"History has shown that war is economically unsustainable. By its very nature it can't last forever. Peace will come." Shion promised.
It was the first time anyone had given Ame a logical explanation for what seemed like false hope. "I'm scared," Ame whispered and looked at Shion. "I know that's why Dad married you, because he's scared too."
The guilt began to wrack Shion's core. She felt as if Ame's fear was her fault. She wondered how many children she hurt or even orphaned for her selfishness. For a woman who could see the future, she had taken foresight for granted.
Ame wiped her face. She felt silly. "I know Dad is doing all of this to protect us but I don't want to be an orphan again."
"Do you remember all of those people you just listed off as family?" Shion asked. "No matter what, you will never be an orphan again."
Ame smiled and gave Shion a quick furtive hug. Ame reached into the luggage and asked, "You're not a kunoichi? You don't fight? You're never going to leave?"
"No, I'm not going anywhere," Shion said determine. "I'm a priestess."
"What does a priestess do?"
"A priestess interprets the will of Kami. Sometimes I fail to interpret his will as well as I should. A priestess if offered special permission similar to that of a sage that grant us the ability to move through the world irregardless of politics or borders to help those who are suffering. Although," Shion said softly as she carefully handled the priestess robes she pulled from the suitcase. "I'm slightly different than an ordinary priestess. My position is both limited and empowered by my visions. Because of the power Kami has granted me, I am under constant protection. My role is much more politicized. I don't always have the freedom to help like I want to."
"Daddy likes to help people too."
Shion green eyes were as bright as a glade of sunlit grass. "That's what I like about him."
"Are you two done gossiping about me?" Naruto teased from the doorway of the bedroom. Shion turned with a blush, not knowing Naruto's keen hearing had overheard the entire conversation from the kitchen.
Ame smacked her lips and asked, "Is dinner ready?"
"Yep," Naruto proclaimed, "and wash your hands." Naruto created shadow clones to finish unpacking the items while Shion and Ame went to the bathroom.
Everyone converged on the dining table where a great pot of ramen rested in the middle. Naruto raised a hand before the proceedings could begin. "Since it's her first ramen night, we will allow Shion to have the first bowl."
Once Shion had been served, Naruto gave the most foxish grin she had ever seen. "No cheating," Naruto stressed like an exam proctor at the chūnin exams. "Ready, set, go!"
Noodles began to fly. Shion watched speechless as Naruto, Ame, and Ichigo fought for first turn at the spoon, poured their bowls, and participated in what appeared to be a ramen-eating contest. Shion hadn't even eaten a mouth-full when two bowls clattered onto the table signaling Ame's and Naruto's first emptied bowl.
Shion blinked when broth flew on her cheek. The bowls began to stack up. When Ame couldn't eat anymore, both Ame and Ichigo conspired together to prevent Naruto from collecting anymore bowls to his number.
Ichigo jumped on Naruto's face. Ame snatched the spoon from the broth and threw it with the alarming accuracy of a kunai across the room and out the half-opened window. Naruto peeled Ichigo from his face only to have Ame bodily slam into him. One inch of the chair and Naruto lost his balance, falling backwards onto the floor.
"Dad." Naruto looked up at the sudden call of Ichigo's voice and saw the metal bottom of the pot slide off the table. Naruto reacted instinctively, pulling Ame into his arms and bodily protecting her from the metal pot that fell onto his shoulder. He couldn't protect her from the broth that drenched their clothes and noodles that covered them like jungle moss.
A hand coated in the blood of ramen emerged over the edge of the table. Ame and Naruto pulled themselves up like wounded soldiers.
"Count!" Ame declared, eager to claim victory.
Ichigo leaned over and pooled his and Ame's bowls together. Two from Ichigo and four from Ame. "Six."
"Six," Naruto said as he finished counting. His total would have been a lot more if he hadn't been interrupted. "You cheated," Naruto complained as he licked the ramen-taste from his lips.
Ame had a twinkle in her eye. "We're ninja."
"It's not over yet!" Naruto proclaimed.
Shion's eyes widened when Naruto, Ichigo, and Ame turned toward the half-eaten bowl of ramen in front of her. Shion shoved her bowl forward and held her hands up in surrender.
Immediately after dinner it was bath time. Shion found that most of the duties she expected herself to perform, like cleaning the kitchen, were easily completed by shadow clones within seconds. Ame and Ichigo had gotten adjusted to taking their own baths and getting ready for bed by themselves and did not need any assistance from her.
Shion placed aside her ruined kimono on the bathroom counter. She didn't feel as if she had much to contribute to the family and was still very much trying to find a place to occupy. Shion reached over and tested the warmth of the shower. Naruto had insisted that he would use the bathroom in one of the many houses of the compound while she was granted the luxury of the primary bathroom.
Shion entered the foreign shower. She was much more used to the traditional public baths in Demon Country. The shower was a ninja invention. Sometimes a ninja didn't have the time to soak.
The water massaged away the sticky sensation of the ramen broth.
The steam had condensed on the mirror. After Shion dressed in her pajamas, she began her habitual nightly routine. Shion was comforted by the presence of her personal items stocked within the cabinets beside Naruto's. Shion went through the cabinets in an attempt to familiarize herself with the bathroom. Shion's hand paused when her fingers landed on a prescription bottle. It was right next to her allergy medicine, body supplements, and the fertility pills Sakura had ordered her to consume for the past week in precursor to the marriage. Shion reached for the prescription bottle and studied its contents.
She jumped when a knock came at the door. The medicine fell and knocked against the counter. The door eased open to announce Naruto was coming in. He peeked inside, "Are you doing alright? Just checking to make sure you didn't fall in the toilet or anything."
Naruto's gaze turned toward the fallen bottle of medicine.
"Ame told me about your heart," Shion whispered.
"The kids and I are waiting for you to finish. They want to read a bedtime story," Naruto said as he walked into the bathroom, shoved the pills back into the cabinet, and closed it so hard the mirror cracked. Shion watched as Naruto left the bathroom with an innate sense that she had crossed a boundary and it was a place she didn't belong,
Shion finished getting ready for the night and left the bathroom. Immediately, she noticed that the brief hardness on his face softened at the side of the children, as quick as a coin flip. Ame and Ichigo were waiting for her, tucked under the blankets.
"Bedtime story," Ame declared. "You're not a Uzumaki until you know this story."
Shion's smiled stretched into an horizon and her lips touched the sunrise that lit her eyes. When she climbed into bed, she noticed how the children seemed to both distance and bridge her to Naruto on the other side. Ame's warmth leaned against Shion with the book in her lap. "It's the story of the Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja."
Shion noticed the faded and well-cared for pages. Ame didn't have to look at the words and began the tale by heart.
Shion turned the last page as Ame's head fell against her shoulder. Ichigo had fallen asleep with his mouth open and his foot constantly kicking in Naruto's rib, of which, Naruto kept unconsciously swatting away.
"I liked it. Was the character named after you?"
Naruto chuckled. "I was named after the character. It was written by my Grandfather and my parents liked the name."
"Your Grandfather must have been a great man."
Naruto scoffed, "He was a perverted old man that did nothing but write smutty books."
Figuring she had made a misstep Shion corrected, "I only assumed because parents tend to name their children after people they admire, most often after their own father."
Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Didn't really know my father," he said without the fondness he had used when referring to Jiraiya.
Naruto collected the children into his arms in order to deliver them to their beds.
"Naruto," Shion said before Naruto left the room. "I'm sort of hungry. I'm going to be in the kitchen."
Naruto flinched and remembered that Shion didn't have much to eat at dinner. "Alright, I'll meet you downstairs." Naruto said as he hefted Ame over his shoulder and the movement jostled her awake. "No, daddy I want to stay up all night with you."
"I'll be here in the morning," Naruto said. He wasn't going to miss the last chance to hold her in a while. The memories of clones were never enough. Touch, smell, taste, sight and sound were only phantoms. They were just illusions, just shadows casted by his chakra.
"Promise?" Ame asked as her voice was carried down the hallway. "Don't ninja out the window."
Shion admired their close relationship. It was the sort of relationship she wished she had with her father, who had died before she was born. Shion went downstairs to prepare something to eat.
"Smells delicious," Naruto commented when he arrived downstairs. Naruto watched the display as Shion effortlessly tossed a pan of frying meat into the air. Without the children, a gaping hole of silence settle in the kitchen. Naruto cleared his throat and said, "I hope you weren't too traumatized by ramen night."
"I enjoyed it," Shion said. She doubted many people got the chance to see Naruto smile like that. "How did the tradition start?"
"We were at the old apartment. Sometimes I'd make a huge pot of ramen for dinner but there was this one time I had burnt it… pretty badly. Couldn't let it go to waste and suddenly it erupted into a large food fight. From that moment on, it was called ramen night on the last week of every month. Sometimes on those nights we would invite unsuspecting guests who didn't know what the night was." Naruto winked. "Never eat ramen with an Uzumaki."
Shion giggled, "You are horribly mischievous." Conversation was easy when he tried. Naruto was warmed by how her laughter lit her face. Shion turned and lifted a sample of stir fry in the air. "Do you want to taste?"
Naruto walked over and lessened the distance between them. Naruto opened his mouth and Shion placed a piece of meat on his tongue. Naruto caught her wrist and began to greedily suck on her fingers. Shion yelped at the sudden kidnapping of her limb. She was helpless until Naruto finally released her, smacking his lips. "Very good."
Shion gleamed at the compliment. She turned back toward the food with a keen sense that Naruto was watching her. Naruto noticed how easy was Shion's smile. It was very different from Hinata. Hinata's smile was earned.
Finally Naruto said, "There are a few things we need to talk about before I leave."
It was a brutal reminder that this day was quickly coming to an end. Shion finished the stir fry, made two bowls, and sat down at the table. After a solemn "itadakimasu," Shion began to eat.
"It is extremely important that this marriage remains a secret because my family has been targeted by the Mizukage. Because of the danger, you cannot leave the compound until the war is over. Ame and Ichigo cannot freely roam Konoha without a shadow clone or a Hyūga present. Since I need to concentrate all of my chakra against Lightning, I am leaving three shadow clones in Konoha. One will be at the front gate, the back gate, and at the Hokage's Tower. If you need anything just let one of them know."
"I understand," Shion acknowledged. She knew marriage to Naruto came with certain dangers.
"If my shadow clones happen to disappear, do not go anywhere. Stay put and someone from the Hyūga Clan will come and get you. You and the kids will remain with the Hyūga until a shadow clone reappears."
"I understand."
Naruto combed his fingers through his hair. "Shion," Naruto pronounced her name with all the seriousness he could muster in order to emphasize how important his next statement was. "You are always in danger."
Shion looked up with a confident ray of hope. "I'm not scared. I know you'll protect me."
"No, you do not understand," Naruto got up and walked around the table. Shion gasped when he suddenly grabbed her by the chin, like he had done earlier that night, but this time it was much rougher. Naruto could hear her heart beating faster at the deepening of the whiskers on his cheeks. The lengthening of his nails caused a sheen of sweat on her forehead. She held her breath at the slow horrifying transformation of sky blue irises to an unmistakable blood red.
"You are always in danger."
Naruto let go of her. An echoed silence overwhelmed the room. Shion wiped tears from the corner of her eyes. Naruto looked away and tried to figure out the emotions that were running through him. He was both angry at himself for making her cry and oddly pleased at shattering the heroic image she had of him.
"Have you ever hurt Ame and Ichigo?" Shion whispered. When emotion overwhelmed her, she cloaked herself in logic.
Naruto looked behind him. "No."
"Then don't you think that your insistence to make me see you as a monster without any basis in fact only reveals your own self-loathing?" Shion said and then her eyes widened at the boldness of her own words.
"You have no idea of the things I have done."
"No, but I know of the things I have seen. If you are such the monster you think you are, you would have never married me. I don't deserve the kindness you've shown me tonight."
"That's different. You're my wife," Naruto argued.
Shion stared at Naruto's hardened jaw and knew this was a man whose will she would have to whittle down little by little until she could convince him to no longer hate himself.
"We haven't talked about the details of the alliance," Shion said softly.
Naruto was well aware about the details of the alliance. Naruto and Shion were required to produce a child within the year and at least an heir to the priesthood, a daughter, within four years.
"Shouldn't we start tonight?" Shion asked, determined to earn her place in the family. She was well aware that getting Naruto's child inside of her as soon as possible would make this marriage much easier.
Naruto combed his hand through his hair. It was action he had done so much within this short time span that Shion was beginning to realize it was an indicator of his nervousness. Shion deflated at his silence and sniffled as she wiped at her tears. "I know I'm not very pretty and I wasn't good enough for you the first time but… but…"
Naruto stared at her. He honestly didn't know whether or not she was manipulating him or seriously believed what she was saying. Then after ten minutes, she was still crying and Naruto was honestly surprised by her sincerity.
"Shion," Naruto finally said. He leaned over and caught Shion's tears on her lips. When Naruto pulled away, it was as if he had zapped her. Shion looked at him shocked. Naruto kneeled with a sense of appreciation for her sincerity and honesty. He remembered how Shion had openly told Naruto about her betrayal when any other kunoichi would have kept it a secret. The least he could do was try.
"Do you prefer the bed?"
Shion looked at him nervously. "Where else would we do it?"
"Right," Naruto said with the sudden realization that he had taken this woman's virginity and the only sexual experience she knew was what he showed her. His mind hadn't been in the right places that night.
Naruto scooped her up in his arms and carried her up the stairs. Shion didn't care what Naruto told her, she felt safe in the large biceps of his arms. They entered the darkness of the bedroom. Naruto laid Shion gently in the bed.
"You are very beautiful," Naruto said and tested his touch along her skin. Shion's eyes followed the trail his hand blazed up her leg, her waist, and cupped around her breast. Shion blushed at the compliment even though she knew her curves were straight and narrow and anything but impressive.
"A little adventurous for a priestess," Naruto noticed when he lifted Shion's nightgown past her chest. Shion blushed at the yellow push-up bra and skimpy underwear.
"Sakura bought it for me. She said you'd like it."
Naruto had to admit he did like the way it seemed to elongate her legs. Naruto pulled the night gown further over her head. He kissed his lips along her neck while his hands teased up her back to the hook of her bra. Shion stared into the darkness and couldn't help but to remember her first time. It hadn't been a pleasant experience. It had been downright painful and as cold as the walk home afterwards.
Her heartbeat sped. She was shaking like a leaf in a storm.
"Shion," Naruto paused at the sharp smell of fear. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Shion whispered. "Please continue."
"But you're shaking."
"I'm just cold," Shion said weakly and Naruto realized she was perhaps the worst liar in the world. When nothing happened for several minutes Shion opened her eyes to Naruto's worried blue ones. She felt guilty about his worry.
"We tried." Naruto said simply, shrugged his shoulders, and then moved to retrieve her nightgown he had thrown on the floor.
Shion flung herself onto his arm. "No, please. I'll do better than the first time, I promise. I'll be the perfect wife. I'll do anything you want. We can't be husband and wife until we consummate our marriage."
Her trembling fingers pulled the loosened bra from her shoulders.
"Shion, we don't have to have sex now. We have the rest of our marriage."
Shion's eyes were delicate glass as she argued through tears, "If you die without putting a baby in me what will happen to the alliance? Demon country will revoke their support. I can't go back and serve in the temple. They will arrange for me to marry some other country and anyone will take me because of my visions. This marriage is a secret and without a child, Konoha will not protect me. You are my best option even if I'm not yours. I know you can have any woman in the world but I will do anything to redeem my mistakes. I have no one else because I've inadvertently killed everyone that had genuinely cared about my well-being."
Naruto had grown too hard for tears or words. His reservations were rooted in emotions he was too busy to work through. He hadn't forgiven her, not entirely, for putting his family in danger and worsening the war. Naruto remembered a time when he was younger he could forgive anyone anything. Nowadays, forgiveness was much harder to come by.
What a pathetic sniveling creature.
Naruto turned and pushed Shion back into the bed. Her tears stilled for a moment. He rolled her face down until her derriere was facing him. The cold hit her behind when Naruto snatched her underwear off her legs. Shion knew what to do from here. Shion took the position of her first time and propped herself on her hands and knees. Her back arced and opened her legs. Then she waited.
Naruto reached down to stimulate an erection as he eyed the smoothness of her behind. Her skin was soft, unscarred or untouched by a weapon, smooth and pliable to any touch. Keeping her face away made it easier to pretend she was just another woman to fuck and not the woman whom he couldn't forgive.
Shion's breath hitched in pain when Naruto penetrated her tense body. Naruto focused on the mechanical movements of his thrusts, like the turning gears in a clock. Shion closed her eyes and willed her body to endure.
Shion counted the lines of the headboard. Sweat dripped from the tips of her breasts. The pain traveled through the long length of her body. Shion hung her head in relief when Naruto climaxed inside of her. He unplugged himself from her vagina after giving her what she wanted.
Shion collapsed onto the pillow, unable to hold herself up any longer. The sounds of the room was Shion's heavy breathing. When her breathing finally evened, Shion looked up at Naruto with an expression wondering if he had broken her. He raised an eyebrow as if asking, 'satisfied?'
"Again," Shion whispered.
Naruto rolled back over. He was more earnestly turned on by the sudden strength of character. Naruto grabbed her by the hips. Shion slid along the bed until she slid onto his cock. She was pressed into the mattress as Naruto dug his cock between her legs.
Tears streamed down her cheeks and every penetration had become unbearable by the time semen burst into her body a second time.
"Again."
"No." Naruto rolled over onto the other side of the bed and threw the covers over his head. He was done hurting her and he was emotionally exhausted.
Shion curled under the covers as semen dripped down her leg. She stared off into the darkness and decided a moment of pain was little in her journey to pay for her mistakes.
"Goodnight," Shion whispered.
"Goodnight," Naruto returned.
The newly-weds fell asleep on opposite sides of the bed between a distance hard to cross.
Kohei didn't say a word. Sasuke was collapsed against his chest, drooling into the cloth of Kohei's shirt.
"If you need anything my parents won't hesitate to help. They've agreed to babysit while you're at work. It shouldn't be for too long," Sakura attempted to explain. "The war has escalated so much that I'm not longer as effective from the hospital. They need me on the field. I signed up with Naruto's unit because he's going to need me the most considering his unit is greatly outnumbered by Lightning."
Kohei reached forward to hold her hand. "I understand. You don't need to make your excuses. You're a kunoichi. It's your job. I knew that when I married you."
Sakura looked down at Sai who had fallen asleep while breastfeeding. She brushed his pink hair away from his peaceful face. A heavy pain entered her heart. Kohei leaned over the table and wiped a tear that trailed down Sakura's cheek.
"I'll always be here when you come home."
"After the war is over I'm going to move to Konoha." Temari stared into the darkness of the tent while she laid in Shikamaru's arms. Her blonde hair was undone in a matted mess around her head. It was early morning when they tried to get some sleep, but Temari was too restless. "I've been thinking about it for a while. I'm tired of being apart from my family."
Shikamaru couldn't go to sleep either. His relaxed posture tensed at the prospect of anything threatening his carefully laid plans. "You should take Shika-chan with you to Suna."
Temari's head swiveled in a manner that always indicated Shikamaru was not about to get sex tonight. "Do you not want me in Konoha?"
Temari could see the calculated thinking behind Shikamaru's expression as he looked for the right strategic words that could placate her. Before Shikamaru could give her a calculate answer, Temari pushed out of his arms.
"Where are you going?"
"Back to Suna's side of the camp. There's too much bullshit over here." Temari snatched her hair-bows from the ground and split the strands in four. "And you can forget about sex until you tell me what you're hiding from me."
Temari stopped just before the tent door hoping the threat would pull an answer out of him.
Shikamaru hung his head. "Suna is strategically safer and-"
Temari walked away.
Neji snapped awake at the sound of thunder. He pulled the pillow over his head to drown out the persistent rain that drummed against the window. He moved too quickly and the sharp movement sent a pain through his wounded shoulder. Unable to get back to sleep, Neji activated his byakugan.
He paused when the black and white vision revealed a clear night sky. Neji jumped from the bed and stormed to the window. There was no storm, no clouds, or even puddles. Neji winced as he brushed his hair back behind his ears.
Neji grabbed a robe and walked through the compound towards the dojo to exhaust himself back to sleep. He stopped and looked down the path where Hinata rested in the moonlight atop the porch. Hinata struck a whetstone against her katana like a note on a shamimasen.
Neji came to a stop beside her and Hinata deactivated her byakugan when he came near. They existed within a silent understanding that both were headed off to war in the morning and yet the usual co-existence was more strained that it had been before.
"I'm sorry," Hinata whispered. She didn't need vocal confirmation. Hinata knew from the heat of his silence. "Don't be angry at Naruto. I made the decision out of my failings."
"It is my own failings that anger me," Neji replied. "I am ashamed of my own powerlessness to help the clan and to help my wife when I was needed most. Like salt on a wound, it was Naruto who swept in with all the answers. He could have killed me but instead spared me to die a slow death under my humiliation. Now you confront Lightning, under Naruto." Neji said, unabashedly referring to both meanings of the word. "It seems both of us have failed."
Hinata looked up with moonlit eyes. "Is it possible to make this work?"
The silence was filled with a search for the solution that would benefit them both within the confines of their strained marriage.
"I want a son after the war is over," Neji said.
Hinata looked out over the pond that reflected the stars. "It is not an unreasonable request."
Neji looked away and through a twist of words said, "Keep your affairs a secret. I will not stand for rumors."
Hinata was keen enough to understand what Neji was conceding to. Neji's threat against Naruto had been from the heat of his anger. Now that Neji has had time to logically think things through, brood over it, away from the chaos and stress of a battlefield, he knew that killing Naruto would not make his marriage any easier to bear. In fact, he suspected the possibility of waking up with a kunai in his throat.
It was the only logical solution.
Marriage should be, after all, a compromise.
Hinata leaned against Naruto's ANBU desk as they studied the reports on Lightning's forces. Naruto stared at the numbers, at exactly how outnumbered they were. The numbers slipped from his hand as Hinata plucked it away from his fingers. Naruto's worried expression suddenly shifted focus when she leaned forward, he could peek at how her cleavage met full and crescent shaped breasts. The lines of her back kissed the flawless curve of her buttocks. The stars that shimmered in her lips upturned into a knowing smile.
Hinata's breasts bounced as if in a wild evocative dance. Sweat glistened down her neck, her back curved in a half-moon, her hips rocked forward, meeting Naruto's thrusts like the crash of two waves. There was an undeniable rhythm they had formed, that caused their bodies to dance, and pull a tide so great it weathered the rocky obstacles that kept them apart. She moaned every time he left her body, like a siren's song calling him to return.
Naruto snapped his eyes opened at the force of his orgasm.
His chest raced over crest and valleys and Naruto's skin was coated in sweat. He stared up at his bedroom ceiling as Hinata's voice lingered in his head, 'You need to go. You're getting married in less than an hour.'
Naruto turned and stared at the sun-lit hair that blanketed the bed on the other side, as if someone had placed it there when he wasn't looking. Naruto sat up in bed and brushed back the sweat soaked strands of his hair. The sun peeked through the curtains of the window and lit every corner of the room. He looked at the time on the clock. His shoulders hunched and the sun danced on his bronze skin.
Fuck. He was married. Naruto hung his head in his hands as the fact clawed deeper into his skin.
Kill her, dump her in the river, Demon Country won't know until it's too late.
"I'm not going to kill her."
Look at how small her neck is. Naruto turned and noticed how narrow and fragile it was. It wouldn't take much to snap it.
Naruto wouldn't be responsible for her anymore. She brought Lightning into this war. She endangered your family, she's dangerous, a threat, and threats need to be dealt with.
Naruto reached over and the point of his nail slid down her skin. "She's a threat."
A soft breeze swept through the window. Naruto's growled at the sensitive touch of metal at the back of his neck. "Don't move," Hinata's voice kissed his ear with a whisper. Her hand tread the length of his arm until she pulled his claws away from Shion's neck.
"She is a threat to my family," Naruto growled.
"She is your family," Hinata insisted. "She's pregnant."
Naruto froze, snapped away, and realized the real threat was in his head. The Kyūbi laughed maniacally as if it was the best amusement he's had in months. So close. The Kyūbi lamented like a joke that never got to the end of its punch line.
Hinata pulled him away and shoved Naruto into the bathroom. Naruto collapsed backwards against the wall in disbelief. "I don't know what happened."
Hinata ran the faucet and dampened a towel. She crouched and wiped his face, then ran the heat of it down his neck. "I thought you stopped hearing the Fox. Perhaps it's the escalation of the war and the increased stress," Hinata attempted to analyze.
It was never really a matter of "stopped hearing". The Fox was always talking. It had just gotten easier to ignore him.
"I don't know, but I don't think it's the stress of this war or the job, its Shion. She's the problem. It's as if my entire life has been disrupted. Home, this compound, it's where I recover, it's my safe place but now I'm out of my comfort zone even while I'm at home and I feel off-balance, as if my equilibrium shifted. I've been able to mentally prepare for this war, even if it worsened. I never saw Shion coming."
"Are you alright to march out today? I could go ahead and lead it."
"No. I should lead. Under my command they are leaving Konoha and under my command they will either return, or die." Naruto picked himself up. "I can't let him get to me. That's how he wins."
Hinata reached out and brushed her hand over his scar. She nodded softly at the determination in his eyes that no one had the strength to move. Hinata's smile was the tender glimpse of a star in a cloudy night. "Alright, I'll see you in a few hours."
"Wait," Naruto grabbed her by her wrist and trapped her against the counter sink. He grinned with a mischievousness between his lips. "I had a dream about you."
"Is that what all that moaning and grunting was for?" Hinata turned her head when Naruto dived for a kiss. "She's in the other room."
Naruto's jaw hardened. "She's sleep."
"I wouldn't allow Neji to sleep with someone else inside the compound. It's too disrespectful and I wouldn't do the same. I don't belong in this home, Naruto." Hinata slid off the counter with ease and proved she had never been trapped. "Give her a chance. She'll be good for you."
"I already know who's good for me."
Ame peeked into her Father's bedroom. When she saw his space in the bed empty and saw the light on in the bedroom, she felt relieved he hadn't left yet. Ame got the bright idea that they should make breakfast. Ame tiptoed around the bed, trying not to disturb Shion, but stopped when she hear unmistakable voices from the bathroom. Two whispered voices were arguing with each other from the door.
Ame knew her Dad had the tendency of talking to himself but that was an old habit she was used to. Ame neared the door curiously.
"You know what your fucking problem is Hinata? Stop trying to assume I want to fix everything."
"You can have a good life with her if you tried. She's largely untouched by the life we lead. You need something good like that in your life. She's easy. We're just too complicated."
"Have you ever realized that the only one making this relationship complicated is you? What are you afraid of?"
Hinata's voice lowered to an inaudible whisper that Ame couldn't hear.
"What do you mean Ame?"
"Right now?"
"Fuck."
After several moments, Ame heard Naruto's voice pressed against the wood of the door. "Ame?"
"I want to make breakfast," Ame said as she leaned adjacent to the door. The door cracked open and Naruto peeked out his head to check if Shion was still asleep. Ame crossed her arms and reprimanded her dad with a disapproving look. "There's not a window in the bathroom huh?" Ame asked.
Finally Hinata slipped out of the bathroom behind Naruto, painfully aware of how this must look. Hinata nodded in acknowledgement before she crossed the room and leapt out the window.
"Let's go make breakfast," Naruto said quickly and rushed Ame downstairs.
Naruto peeked beside him when Ame ruined her fifth egg. She reached for a sixth. The shells collapsed in the batter and the yoke coated her hands.
"We didn't do anything."
Ame looked up at her father. "Ichigo or I have to marry a Hyuuga?"
Naruto nodded his head slowly. "Yes."
"What if Ichigo and I love someone else?" Ame challenged. "What if we don't want to marry a Hyūga?"
Naruto stared down at the boiling pot. Hot water popped onto his skin without a flinch. "Being a ninja is more than fighting for the village and it's more than dying for it. Sometimes the hardest tasks we are called to do, is to live for it. I didn't choose to marry Shion but I'm trying to make the best of it and my best isn't always perfect." Naruto turned and looked at Ame who had finally successfully cracked open an egg. "But if you and Ichigo don't want to go through with the contract, then I'm sure I can come to some sort of agreement with Hinata. She's flexible." An embarrassed red captured Naruto's cheeks when he realized the words out of his mouth.
"Pervert," Ame muttered under her breath. Ame concentrated her attentions on whisking the batter. She looked up and was afraid that her father would be disappointed. "I don't know if I want to be a ninja anymore."
Naruto tossed the noodles with the ease of someone who, in another life, could have been a master ramen chef. "There's nothing wrong with that."
Shion shifted, opened her eyes, closed them, then snapped awake and turned to check the time. She gasped at the hour. At the monastery she was used to waking up at dawn. She had plans to cook a huge breakfast for Naruto. When Shion attempted to push herself up, the pain sent her tumbling down into the pillows. It was more than just sore legs and genitals like the first time. This time her entire body seemed leaden by exhaustion. Tears began to gather in her eyes as she cursed the confines of the body she was trapped in. Shion crawled to the edge of the bed and stared at the floor. She was determined to make breakfast for her husband.
The door slammed open and the noise startled her over the edge. Shion looked up shaking at Naruto's vibrant blue eyes. He had caught her in his arms before she could hit the floor.
"What are you doing?" Naruto asked, alarmed when a shadow clone reported she was trying to get out of the bed.
"Trying to make breakfast."
Naruto lifted her and placed her back under the covers. "You should rest," Naruto insisted. "Ame and I are almost finished with breakfast."
"Oh," Shion looked up when Naruto slid his hand up her nightgown. Her heart thudded in fright, not knowing whether or not she could handle sex so soon. Then her eyes widened as she watched his eyes turn as gold as the sun. A pallor of orange rings formed around his eyes.
A grin widened across Naruto's face as he cupped his hand around her abdomen. He could sense the natural energy of the newly fertilized egg nestled in her body.
"Am I?"
Naruto left a gentle kiss on her lips. "Get some rest."
A gleeful smile with the sort of power to lift sunlight into the sky radiated between her cheeks. Naruto found himself bombarded with her uncontained excitement as she threw her arms around him. "We're going to have a baby."
Those words finally physically hit Naruto. They weren't portents, or illusions, or false hopes anymore. As Naruto held Shion in his arms he realized suddenly that she had fought for and carved out a space in his life that no one else occupied: as his wife and the mother of his biological child. He found his arms tightening around her in a shared excitement.
Suddenly she began to shake, as if an earthquake erupted in the depths of her chest. Her eyes jolted to the back of her head. An immense well of power wracked against a body too weak to contain it.
"Shion," Naruto said. A tremble of fear formed at the pit of his stomach and weighed down his whispered concern. He understood what was happening but found himself completely helpless to stop what some considered a kekkai genkai and others considered an act of God. He didn't know he could feel such fear for a tiny egg not even fully formed.
Shion slumped backwards into Naruto's arm. She snapped up and flailed her arms against Naruto's chest before she threw her head forward and vomited on the ground. Naruto winced at the vomit that stained his ninja boots and pants but he didn't abandon her when she rested her head against the crook of his arm. Her body felt as if it were made of liquid.
"Are you alright?"
She nodded.
"Is it always like that?"
She nodded.
"What… was it?"
Shion's emerald eyes lifted, a line of tears trailed across her cheeks. "Kiri is going to invade Konoha."
"This is pointless," Kusuro grumbled as he finished sharpening yet another shuriken. He had sharpened so many shuriken within the past few days his fingers were covered in bandages. The only tasks genin were given in camp was the grunt work. Grunt work was not going improve Kusuro's ninja skills.
"I'm tired of all you're complaining," Asami Nara snapped. "These shuriken are important to the ninja fighting in the war."
"This isn't my war. We're not even fighting Mountain anymore." Kusuro said bitterly which predictably further angered Asami.
"It's called the Fifth Shinobi War which means it includes everyone."
"You don't understand. Perhaps when Konoha burns to the ground you finally will. You don't know what it's like not having a home anymore."
"It's your home now. Your mom married Kakashi-sensei. He's your-"
"He is not my dad!" Kusuro snapped. "I never had one."
Kakashi didn't flinch as he turned another well-worn page of Icha Icha tactics. With his feet resting on the makeshift table, he was casually "watching" over his genin team.
"He's just some stupid pervert who reads stupid books," Kusuro said loudly, not afraid of being overheard.
"Kakashi-sensei is the infamous copycat ninja. He taught Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura."
"What happened to the third one?" Kusuro challenged.
"What do you mean?"
"There's always three people on a genin team."
"Oh," Asami stared at her image reflected in the kunai she held. "We don't talk about him."
"His name was Uchiha Sasuke," Kakashi casually commented. "He became an international criminal."
"Why?" Kusuro asked, genuinely curious.
It was a word you never used with experienced ninja. They didn't know why they did things anymore.
"Hn," Kakashi answered. Kakashi flipped another page and found himself getting bored with his favorite book. Yet, he still read it time and again, despite not knowing or caring about the why.
A messenger ninja entered the tent. "Sir, a war meeting had been convened.
"I know." Kakashi said like the sharp sound of a flipped page.
The messenger shifted around uncomfortably much to the genin's amusement. "Sir?"
"Are we being attacked?"
"No."
Kakashi turned to the last page, dramatically closed the cover, and then started right back at the beginning.
"But it is an important meeting!"
Kakashi picked himself up and stuffed the book like a relic into his pocket. Asami and Kusuro glanced at one another. The messenger followed Kakashi outside of the tent, where Kakashi stopped, whipped out his cock and took a piss.
"Who was stupid enough to force that guy in charge of three genin?" Kusuro's voice could still be heard from inside the tent as urine watered the grass.
"At least Naruto came out okay."
When Kakashi was finished, he turned and patted the errand boy on the shoulder. "Tell them I got lost on the road to life."
Then Kakashi walked through the camp in the opposite direction of the meeting. The messenger stared helpless, unable to force the copy-cat ninja to do anything. No one could force the copy-cat ninja to do anything.
Kakashi meandered through the camp with his hands sleeping in his pockets. The camp was humming with nervous energy. It was the same nervous energy you could find in any war before any battle. That could have been Kakashi once - before Gai, before Minato, before Rin, before Obito, or before his father committed suicide.
The camp had swelled with the added unit of the persons that had been stationed against Mountain, all but one.
It was another battle, in a long history of battles. There would be deaths, in a long history of deaths. Nothing changed but time.
The grass withered underneath the discarded cigarette bud. Kagome sat atop the hill and watched the sea of grass sway in the wind. She had grown up riding horses on these fields. When the sun began to descend, she could stay no longer. She rose and was disoriented by the dizziness that washed over her.
They said a pregnant kunoichi was a dead kunoichi. Kagome never understood why she didn't abort the first pregnancy. She had every reason to. It's not as if the ninja – whose name she had forgotten – had a kekkai genkai or was somebody famous, just a chūnin on a random night she never saw again. She stopped asking herself silly questions like why.
Her contact was too late for her to stay.
She backed up and the familiar dew that clung to blades of grass washed against her legs. She rounded the hill back towards the southern front before her absence was noted. Kagome stopped. The sway of grass caressed her legs like a lover's touch.
Kakashi sat leaning against the other side of the hill, reading his book, while his feet were propped on the dead body of her contact. He must have went through the trouble of intercepting her contact ahead of time. How sweet.
"You're going to kill me while I'm pregnant with your child?"
Kakashi turned a page, "Yes."
Kakashi's mission had always been twofold: to first marry Kagome in order to secure the Grass kekkai genkai and second, to spy on all her activities.
"If you begin an uprising in Grass, Konoha will not forgive this."
"There's nothing they can do to stop me," Kagome challenged, knowing full well with Lightning and Kiri on Konoha's plate, they hardly had an appetite to stomach Grass' attempt at independence. Kagome never cared about the treaty she signed. It was simply a tool to bide her time and gather the necessary resources.
"Grass could fight for Konoha and in the event of victory ,independence will be considered," Kakashi went through the correct protocols, saying what he was supposed to say for the higher–ups, but he didn't believe his words any more than Kagome did.
"I will not be imprisoned by Mountain or Konoha anymore. Unseen chains are still chains." Kagome combed her fingers through her hair and the strands sharpened to needles between her fingers.
"If you continue to resist it is your son that will suffer your consequences."
"It's a cruel world. Best thing I could ever teach him."
Kakashi blinked when the words on the page were suddenly punctuated with needles protruding through the cover. "It's personally signed by the author," Kakashi lamented.
He flipped backwards to avoid the roundhouse kick. His hands landed on blades that penetrated through his hands, then his feet when he landed in a field of grass sharpened into the tips of metal. Kakashi was already performing a series of seals. A ring of fire blew from his mouth and burned the field of grass away.
Kakashi lowered his mask over his eye and activated his sharingan. He leapt in the air just as Kagome slammed her hands into the ashes and a field of grass grew taller and sharper than before. Kakashi landed in a ball of fire. He quickly attempted to activate his mangekyo but Kagome had been around him long enough to recognize when he was about to use the fatal teleportation technique.
The series of seals broke off to evade a hit to his head. Kicks and punches threated bone in a fierce match of taijutsu while the ground beneath them cycled between life and death. The song of blocked shuriken chirped like birds in the air. Kagome's foot smacked across Kakashi's face. His uppercut slammed into her abdomen and forced her to stumble backwards.
Kagome's attention was suddenly distracted when what felt like contractions shook her body. Her eyes drifted to the blood that dripped puddles between her legs.
It was a moment of distraction, and any experience ninja was trained to take advantage of that distraction. On nothing but pure instinct a raikiri shot straight through her chest. A pregnant kunoichi was a dead kunoichi.
Kagome looked up into the fading sharingan in Kakashi's eye. Her nails hooked into Kakashi's arm that was still embedded in her body. "I'm taking you with me."
Suddenly the hair on her body, on her arms, and her legs, and every place hair on a human body could be, shot out in all directions like small knives.
The wind bent the grass. Kakashi's body tipped over, the weight taking Kagome down with him, until they had fallen like the abandoned orange book that mirrored the fiery hue of the setting sun across the endless plains of grass.
"I wanted to name him Minato."
"Your dad?"
"Hn."
Kagome coughed blood that rained down her chin. With bloody fingers, Kakashi pulled the mask off his face as if it could help him breathe better. Kagome lifted her hand and brushed her fingers against his lips. Kagome's arm fell back into the bed of grass. Kakashi rested his head against her still chest.
They were out of time.
x
A ninja never wants their spouse to walk behind them; they'll be the first one to stab you in the back.
Soundtrack: Love and Happiness by Al Green
Update: 06/24/14