You all waited long enough, so here it comes after finding a way to bring things up to speed after I write something. :)

So, this story is rated T since there's no real sexual content, just lots of swearing and heated moments, but present in this chapter is a moment of mild suggestion without being overtly explicit. Nothing serious to worry about, hopefully.

Chapter Four

Moonstruck

Just near the end of August, it was the worst time for stormy weather.

There was no forecast for a tsunami right now, but they'd be at the peak in no time.

The indoor garden and courtyard would be safe because the installed security windows would protect the glass from shattering by impact, and the same would apply to the windows in the living area - but the same could not be said for the wooden door that still needed a fixing up to the hinges, which Itachi swore would have to be repaired tomorrow if an appointment could be made. Uncle Madara couldn't say no to that.

The hell...it's thirteen minutes past midnight. Goddamned door!

He got up from the bed he'd been sleeping in upon hearing the slam of the door, and bolted down the stairs in a heartbeat. This room which he'd chosen for himself - also including the fact it was smaller, albeit feminine and traditional - was charcoal in the walls and mahogany in the floorboards as well as the wardrobe furniture. There was a shoji closet painted lushly with red cherry blossoms, which also covered the white bed comforter; the headboard itself was an impressive carving of red jade and imperial symbols. On the wall at the end of the room was a great handpainted metallic mirror of bronze sided with candle sconces dancing with realistic-looking monarch butterflies. He left it all and raced down the stairs to jolt to the front door which was flapping back and forth like mad -

- and next thing he knew, he lost his footing and slipped off the floor, wet from the torrents which blew in. Grunting in frustration, Itachi stood up by getting on his knees and then gliding forward to grasp the door, pushing it forward with all his might, taking what felt like ten minutes which could really be less until he managed to slam it shut and then lock it in place. He stayed there for a while, exhausted and his head spinning, cheek pressed to the door itself.

"Itachi, are you - WHOA!"

The arriving yelped as she slid on the floor, having heard the commotion and had come to investigate, but now she was not too far away from him, upright and on her poor ass, knees bent upwards...and that was when he saw something he shouldn't have. Itachi felt his jaw slack as he didn't expect to see the apex of her legs, showing no underwear beneath that silky-looking light blue slip which reached the knees. It wound up sliding the rest of the way down in her horror as she realized where he was looking, exposing more than she should have when she quickly sat on her knees, fidgeting as she tried to figure out a way to stand up without embarrassing herself AND him any further.

Itachi was sure his cheeks were burning, but couldn't figure out what emotion it was from. It was far from disgust, though.

"Damn it, forgive me," he muttered, turning his face in the opposite direction and grasping the doorknob, taking great care to not turn it and pull the storm back in. "I shouldn't have."

"N-no problem! I should have expected."

"What do we have here? A hell of a mess to clean up."

And Kisame stood there at the bottom of the stairs with that smug look on his face, telling Itachi he saw the whole thing, and that meant a HUGE conversation tomorrow, consisting of this: the shark-like man asking for details he had no business knowing, as well as himself snarling his defense.

And there was also Rika herself, jaw dropped in dismay. Who the heck knew where Deidara and Sasori were; they likely were "busy" in their room or drunk together from the wine stocked in this house, which was also part of their "nocturnal rituals". Itachi shook his head and hurried to offer his hand to Izumi, helping her stand up. Thank God no one slipped...but that was jinxed too soon.

Both yelped in shock and found themselves on top of each other - him onto her, chest flattened against hers so that he felt the cushion that was her breasts, and of course, her legs incidentally wrapped around his hips. And all this for their best friends to see, Rika covering her mouth and stifling giggles, leaning into an ever sniggering Kisame. Call this a hell of a long night and two pairs of burning red faces.

~o~

Last night's storm was so bad, and her embarrassment last night was evidence with two reasons:

First off, Itachi saw up her skirt by accident when she slipped on the soaked floorboards. He didn't look disgruntled, but words could not explain how much she wanted to melt into the floor.

And secondly, the position they ended up in when he helped her stand up - never mind it felt great - for it couldn't have come at a worse time. Made worse from the fact Kisame and Rika were there to witness and have a good laugh.

She had a hard time sleeping again that night, so when she awoke, she was lagged. At least there were no shadows or circles under her eyes. Part of me wants to avoid him after last night, but...it's the coward's easy way out. And it's not like he did it on purpose. I should have expected that to happen.

And besides, today was going to be a group hike to a certain place she remembered along with everything else - and it made her wonder when the guys would do a certain reckless action which resulted in someone's foot requiring hospitalization. Herself in a sweetly romantic mauve dress with intricate golden flowers, Rika in a playful yellow romper with embroidered white leaves, they joined the guys on a beautiful day of sunshine and cicadas chirping in the distance. Such was life in the country.

This was Kisame's idea to do such a crazy thing when they were all younger. And thank the gods it was still there: the knotted rope hanging from an overhead, thick-ass branch - and that meant swinging as far as you could until you landed into the lake below. But first, you get yourself atop that rock which aided with the gravity.

Deidara chose to be the show-off, much to his partner's chagrin, going like this: he swung far and hard as he could, but let go too late in that he swung back, winding up hitting the tree the rope was attached to. He fell screaming like a little bitch and rolled down the hill, ending at the bottom, groaning and rolling a little more before forcing himself to stand -

"UN, HELL - MY LEG! I THINK I BROKE IT! THE BONE'S STICKING OUT!"

Izumi heard herself shriek, covering her mouth with both hands, incidentally backing into Itachi, Rika turning into Kisame's hard front, and Sasori grimacing as though he were going to puke. There was the sight itself: Deidara the little girl half-upright with the femur in his right leg poking out - before his pained expression broke out into a beam, and it turned out he found a large stick which he used to prank all of them. "I got you all, ah-ha!"

A hell of a way to start today.

She turned to look at Itachi, who only shook his head, ponytail swishing over his shoulder with the action. Sweetest thing she ever saw.

~o~

Deidara might as well have hurt his manhood for the act he pulled, but that was for Sasori to deal with.

He and Kisame were in the town now, needing the trip for some more supplies, but his friend was also taking him to a surprise spot, in the form of the clothing and jewelry shop, which they knocked out first before getting the important foods which were right next door.

"Kisame, what are we here for?" Obviously, not for them both since this was all feminine. "Unless -" He stopped talking upon it hitting his brain: Izumi.

Kisame grinned, teeth gleaming. "Damned straight. We choose today, you give her on your own time. And I'll do my thing with her friend in no time."

One choice had two strands of a combination of sand-hued stones and freshwater pearls. Another was a triple layer of gold - first with dainty medallions, then a chain link, and finally exotic green gems. Kisame was considering between the first necklace and another which was a statement piece of free-formed turquoise.

However, the entire time Itachi looked at all the trendy selections, he dwelled on how Izumi avoided looking him in the eye that morning after the storm. He didn't blame her in the slightest; on his part, his body was unable to forget what his eyes witnessed, the natural chemicals disagreeing with his rational brain. If you asked him, that was going way too fast, but such was basic humanity. If something happened, then it happened.

He wasn't ashamed to admit that part of Izumi was adorable, prim, and proper in how she apparently cared for herself.

He never even thought of HER that way, except with the outer surface. Never anything intimate right away.

Strangely, the more time he spent with Izumi, it seemed the pain from Sakura was nonexistent. And they'd only just arrived here. The more he thought of his childhood friend, the warmer he got...

...and it got much hotter when the right gift sparkled before his eyes like water beneath the sun.

~o~

While she was in the lounge, the television on the news but her not paying attention, she distracted herself with doing a sketch for when she and Rika returned to the studio. Inspired by their visit here, and this was at the top of her head:

A mermaid costume - the bra made of mother-of-pearl in iridescent shells, the straps sheer and covered with pearls. The tail itself is gonna be elastic white, the ending "fins" painted with purple, blue, and green, etched with light blue and green pearls and sequins.

"How about my idea, Izu?"

She jerked her head up and saw Deidara leaning over her shoulder, eyes wide and alight as he beheld what he seemed to consider a masterpiece. "Damn, a mermaid? I know just the headwear to add if you're stuck on that."

Wow, she never thought of it yet, but she could use his pointers since he and his partner had a good eye - albeit different tastes - for art. "Sure," she said, pencil at the ready between her fingers. He tapped his chin for some time that felt like minutes, before raising that finger as the idea came up through his lips.

"Ah-ha! You know there are mermaids in the deepest parts of the ocean, so why not head fins with installed lights to illuminate? Or better yet, add pearls on it since they're a known treasure?"

Sasori's voice chipped in, snidely and sarcastically. "How about the pink octopus legs with pearls and crystals, along with golden coral?"

Deidara's head whipped around to scowl at him, ponytail swishing. "Un, my man, that's not acceptable. It's not an octopus, so I don't see that working with the siren of the deep! Too damned tacky!" There they went with bickering again, but in the midst, Izumi tuned them out as a brilliant compromise came up thanks to them: a circlet with strands of freshwater pearls attached to a filigree made up of waves and seashells around an ocean-colored gem. She felt her eyes water up as it was coming together. Rika was going to love this jewel of the sea!

Perfect timing when Kisame and the man she secretly loved came home, announcing it was barbeque time.

Izumi decided then that what happened that night with Itachi would just be pushed away for now. They were here to have fun, and shit happened all the time. No doubt there would be more to come.

Little did she know that what he and the guys would do next was going to push the limits of that drop from the rope.

~o~

Sasori's idea this time, and he got what came to him this time. That was him and his partner in four days.

It was originally created for Sasuke when he and Itachi were younger, but now it was just simply one of the activities the idiots would do as part of the tradition. One of them would shoot the arrow into the sky - not too high - and they would have to run and hide before it would hit any of them anywhere...

...only for this time to be a pure accident as it vanished into where the sun was, shot upwards by Deidara the more idiotic of the four of them. It had all of them screaming and running, but thankfully on his part, Deidara never got hit.

It was poor Sasori who screeched every obscenity in the vocabulary at his partner, threatening to remove his genitals so that he'd never do something like THIS again. The arrow struck him in the middle of his left foot, going right out through the bottom. He really needed a trip down to the hospital, but before that, he and Deidara both got boxed - and from Rika who showed her feisty motherly side, which caused Kisame to whistle.

She and Kisame took the pair to the local hospital, which left him alone with Izumi. Making eye contact with her caused him to swallow the lump in his throat. Her expressive onyx eyes with a star in the middle, similar to the star ruby and sapphire...

"Whose idea was it to play with a damned arrow and require hospitalization?"

Itachi swallowed. "Sasori - and it backfired, obviously."

She burst out laughing. "I would have guessed Deidara, the idiot he is." Usually. "I wonder what else."

There was another plan, which didn't involve foolish childhood shenanigans. "I can think of something," Itachi told her. "All of us on the boat so we can catch fish, prep it and then grill it -"

"- kick back and relax." Finishing each other's sentences was nothing new, but that and making each other laugh was intoxicating like a drug. And then later that night when all was said and done...

~o~

The moon was halfway through its cycle when Kisame saw it with his own two eyes, that same night when all of them gathered at the cliff for a firepit s'mores burning.

Sake was passed around, which also helped Sasori's foot; Red was just released today from the hospital with strict orders to NOT add pressure to his foot, or get it wet. Deidara even made his face so red it matched his hair when the blond jokingly talked about helping him with all the little necessities, earning threats to the groin and other parts.

Rika was warming up to him, offering him another cup of booze which he was happy to accept - and it was just then that Kisame noted how close they were to each other, their noses almost making contact. He had to pull away only because they were surrounded by people who happened to be their friends.

And that left his weasel and the other little lady herself. There was that pendant around her neck which Itachi got her: three blinding white crystals vertically suspended. For the past, present, and future. The sparkle matched its wearer's luminous night eyes, mirroring the one who gave it to her. Kisame held back a snicker of his own.

They didn't admit yet to each other, but he was absolutely positive they were in love. A damned best friend would know that better than anyone else. And it wasn't no damned magic of the moon above their heads; it was all these two.

The "rope fail" and arrow roulette moments with the guys came from the comedy film "Grown Ups" (starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider). XD My guy friend read this and said it made him think of him and his buddies back in the day.

I am so in love with this story, it ain't funny. It feels so natural it's doing itself instead of me. REVIEW! :3