Please see first chapter for disclaimer, rating, warnings, pairings, etc.
Special Thanks: goes out to rao hyuga 18, QueenP19, McKazekage, BubbleWarrior32, xoxo riCEbUNnY xoxo, TheGirlWithNoIQ, PsychoticSky, AnnaUmulie97, ASirensLullaby, lidianm, sailorangelmoon1, Anonymous, ZabuzasGirl, xforeverherex, Guest, and Megami . Muteki for all your wonderful, encouraging reviews! I never would have made it this far without you all! And also thanks to those who have added this story to their favorites and follows lists - the same goes to you all!
Author's Notes: So, here we are, the next to last chapter. Wow. I finally get to wrap up the last really huge plot thread left hanging out there, tickling at me, and I'm so excited to be able to do so! I really hope you enjoy this chapter, and thanks for reading!
*~Chapter XXXIV~*
~Resolved~
The people of Suna were nothing if not industrious.
Two weeks after the Akatsuki's attack on Suna, the village was already well underway on its rebuilding efforts. Though Neji and Tenten had returned to Konoha with the injured, many of Hinata's friends remained to help Suna recover.
Including, to Hinata's surprise, Uchiha Sasuke. She'd seen him and Itachi working side by side several times over the past two weeks, and though they didn't say much to each other, she sensed they'd come to a sort of understanding. She also sensed they'd never be as close as Hinata herself felt to Neji, but she felt heartened by their interactions.
Fortunately, not a lot of damage had been done to the living quarters of Suna's iconic tower. After a couple of days' worth of airing out and a good cleaning top to bottom, it was liveable once again, and the guest rooms rapidly filled with volunteers from Konoha. The large hall in which Gaara and Hinata had been wed was converted into a barracks, with those waiting for their homes to be rebuilt bunking there at night and working during the day.
Pushing loose strands of hair, fallen loose from her simple braid, away from her face, Hinata squinted up at the half-covered skeleton of the new Tower. Even though the sun had nearly set, people still swarmed over the structure, wanting to get as much work as possible done before darkness fully fell. It wouldn't be long at all - probably another couple of weeks at most - before it was done, and the center of politics in the village could get back to business as usual.
"Amazing how quickly it's coming along, isn't it?"
Hinata glanced over her shoulder, surprised to see Temari outside. She'd been helping with the injured for the most part, since her delicate condition kept her from assisting with the rebuilding itself. She'd also been actively working to avoid the two remaining members of the Council, since the secret of her pregnancy had come out, albeit accidentally, during the attack.
"Yes," Hinata agreed at length, chagrined when she realized she'd been so lost in her thoughts, she hadn't yet answered her sister-in-law. "Suna is bouncing back from the attack much faster than I would ever have imagined possible."
Temari wrapped her arms around her stomach - something she'd been doing a lot lately - and squinted up at the Tower. "We're desert dwellers," she said, as if it explained everything. As if sensing Hinata's puzzled glance, though she didn't look over, she explained, "We're a hardy folk. Being out in the open in the desert is always dangerous. We've learned how to adapt quickly, how to build and repair and go on in as little time as possible." A wave of her hand indicated the wall, which had been repaired within a week of the attack. "The wall protects us, but we've all learned our lesson, and learned it well. It's not impenetrable."
"We won't make the same mistake a second time," Hinata murmured, catching the other woman's meaning.
Nodding, Temari finally looked away from the Tower, and more specifically the dark heads of her husband and brother-in-law, working silently side-by-side. "Exactly," she said, obviously pleased. Then the small smile on her face slipped, and she looked away. "Gaara filled the last two Council positions today," she said softly.
Hinata sucked in her breath. She'd not seen her husband since breakfast, as they'd both been preoccupied fulfilling their separate duties since then. "So soon?" she questioned.
One shoulder lifted in a slight shrug, Temari let out a soft chuckle, devoid of humor. "Actually, it took longer than I thought it would. But Suna needs its Council, and Gaara's delayed them as long as possible. They're meeting right now, and you know one of the first things they're going to discuss is..." Her lips suddenly pressed together tightly, her hand closing into a fist around her shirt.
"There are only two of the original members left," Hinata said softly. "They'll bring up the subject, but the new council members are all younger. I have no doubt they'll see things in a far more reasonable light."
"They might be younger than the ones we had - and have - but there's a reason they call it the Council of Elders," Temari said miserably. "And the worst part is, I know there's nothing I can do but sit and wait until they come to a decision." She swallowed hard. "One way or another."
Ire flaring, Hinata stepped forward and gripped her sister-in-law's arm tightly. "Don't give up!" she said strongly. When Temari looked at her, shocked by the usually quiet, meek woman's outburst, Hinata didn't quail or quieten. "You are Uchiha Temari, and you can't allow yourself to be backed into a corner just because-"
The little color in Temari's cheeks drained away. Twisting her arm so she could grasp Hinata's right back, she whispered hoarsely, "What did you say?"
Suddenly feeling quite nervous about her uncharacteristic tirade, Hinata let go of Temari and took a step back. "I-I was just saying that you need to stay positive, because-"
But Temari was shaking her head. "No," she breathed. "You called me Uchiha Temari."
Hinata blinked. But that's your name. She couldn't quite find her voice to say the words aloud.
"It can't be that simple!" Turning on her heel, Temari raced toward the huge double doors leading into the housing portion of the Tower, muttering all the way. "It's so simple, how could we have missed it?"
Confused, Hinata followed, trying to hurry without full-out running. This was the first time since Temari confessed her pregnancy that Hinata had seen her look truly hopeful. Something had obviously occurred to her, and she couldn't help being curious about what that something was. After all, it seemed like something she said had triggered it...
Even once inside, Temari didn't slow down. She raced through the halls, her steps sure but rushed, the heavy cream scarf around her neck coming unwound to trail behind her like a banner.
"Temari!" Hinata called. "What's going on?"
"Gaara and the Council are in a meeting right now," Temari replied breathlessly, slowing down only a little so her sister-in-law could catch up. "They've been at it a while. I figure right about now's when they'll be discussing my pregnancy, which is why I came to find you. It might not typically be acceptable to crash a Council meeting, but I think Gaara will overlook my impertinence this once!"
True to her word, Temari burst through the doors into the spare room Gaara and the Council had appropriated to be a meeting room. Interrupted mid-discussion, all eyes turned to the two women, flushed and breathless, standing in the doorway.
"Temari?" Gaara half-rose from his seat, alarmed green eyes shifting from his sister to his wife and back again. "Hinata? Is something wrong?"
Grasping her hand into a fist around the fabric of her shirt over her stomach, Temari took another step forward, further into the room. "Please tell me you've not yet discussed..."
"We just started a few moments ago," Ryotaro said. Other than the fact his arm rested in a sling, he looked no worse for the wear from his own experience in the attack on Suna. Raising one stern eyebrow, he said, "This must be a truly grave emergency to interrupt such an important meeting."
"I assure you, Councilman Ryotaro, it is." Temari took another few strides forward, until she stood in the open end of the U-shaped formation of tables where Gaara and the Council sat. "If I may put forth a question to you all - who is this woman behind me?" She half-turned and nodded to Hinata.
Immediately, Hinata felt her cheeks flush an even brighter red. Temari, what are you doing?
"This is a riduculous waste of our time!" the other original councilmember exclaimed, wiry grey brows drawn down severely over his beady dark eyes.
Gaara's hand shot up in a quelling gesture. "Patience, Councilman Shigure," he said quietly but firmly. "And please answer the question, Councilman Ryotaro. I, for one, would like to see where my sister is going with this." Interest, and perhaps even a hint of hope, glinted in his eyes.
Several of the new councilmembers murmured their interested agreement, gazes drifting from Gaara, to Temari, before settling on Ryotaro.
Ryotaro let out a long, loud breath through his nose, looking displeased, but reluctantly answered the question. "She is Sabaku Hinata, Lady of Suna, wife of Sabaku Gaara, Lord of Suna. She is mistress of the house, the village, and our hearts." He waved one hand then, impatiently. "But I do not see how-"
Temari cleared her throat, instantly drawing all attention back to her. "Sabaku Hinata," she repeated. "Not Hyuuga Hinata?"
"Yes," Shigure huffed, looking even more impatient than before. "The instant Lady Hinata married Lord Gaara, she cut clan affiliations with the Hyuuga clan and as much as declared herself a Sabaku."
Hinata heard a scuffle behind her and half-turned to see Itachi and Sasuke, one at either shoulder, gazing with equal parts interest and anxiety past her.
"What's going on?" the former asked, dark eyes worried. "I saw Temari take off and got worried. The servants pointed me in this direction."
Temari turned slightly, a small smile turning up the corners of her lips when she saw her husband. After a quick nod, she once again faced her brother and the council.
"Temari got an idea," Hinata answered Itachi softly, all but holding her breath with anticipation. She had an idea where her sister-in-law was going with this, and Temari was right - it was so deceptively easy, she wondered how none of them had seen it before.
"Exactly," Temari was saying, confidence filling her voice. "When Hinata married my brother, she became Sabaku Hinata. It is the Sabaku who now call themselves her family, who love and protect her as such."
Several faces around the table were beginning to form dumbfounded looks as they, too, began to realize the meaning of Temari's words.
"When I married Itachi, I became an Uchiha." Clasping her hands in front of her, Temari straightened her shoulders and lifted her head. "As Hinata became a Sabaku when she married Gaara, I became an Uchiha the moment Itachi and I were declared husband and wife. Even though we live here rather than in Konoha, Itachi's birth village, as such, I am an Uchiha, and can no longer be held accountable to the law concerning children born into the direct Sabaku line."
Behind her, Hinata heard Itachi and Sasuke's breaths hitch in unison. She wished she could see the expressions on their faces, but she didn't dare turn from the events unfolding before her.
"Therefore," Temari continued, "the child I am currently carrying cannot, by the very laws to which my brother and this council adhere and uphold, be harmed. Nor should my first child - my Uchiha child - have been ripped away from me," she paused long enough to give her final word the force of a hammer blow, "unlawfully."
Both Ryotaro and Shigure nearly went purple in the face. They exchanged a quick look, then jerked around to face Gaara, who stood with his hands braced against the table, a look of grim approval taking over his expression.
"She is right." Gaara looked around, meeting each councilmember's eyes in turn and holding them for a few moments before turning to the next. "Are you in agreement, gentlemen?"
Every single one of the new councilmembers nodded, some still looking quite stunned. Ryotaro and Shigure sat silently in their seats, pale and stony-faced. They neither nodded nor shook their heads.
Turning back to his sister, Gaara allowed one of his rare grins to brighten his tired face and eyes. "You have our promise, Temari, Itachi. Your child - and all those who follow - will be safe."
Itachi rushed past Hinata. Temari whirled to leap into his waiting arms. They clung to each other, she not seeming to mind his dusty, sweaty condition; he not seeming to mind the tears pouring down her face.
"I'm glad."
Hinata turned slightly, having halfway forgotten Sasuke stood behind her as well. "About what?" she asked softly, though she already knew the answer and it made her glad.
Sasuke glanced at her, the ghost of a smile turning up his usually unexpressive lips. "That Itachi and Temari's child will be safe." He shook his head, a soft laugh half-coughing out of him. "That means I'm going to be an uncle. Wow."
Smiling, Hinata met Gaara's gaze past where Itachi and Temari still stood, wrapped around each other in their own little bubble of happiness. When her husband smiled back, Hinata felt a warm sense of rightness settle into her chest.
Though the village was well on its way toward looking as it had before, things had not truly resolved themselves until now. And from here, it could only get better.
*~Six Months Later~*
"Did we miss it?" Hinata asked breathlessly. She shoved loose strands of her hair, come loose during her mad dash through the streets from the Tower to the hospital, out of her flushed face. At her side, Gaara said nothing, instead allowing his silent gaze to echo his wife's question.
Itachi looked up from where he sat with his hands steepled between his knees. His face, always pale against his dark hair and eyes, appeared even whiter as he jolted out of his chair and took a few steps toward them. "No." He tossed an anxious glance towards the doorway behind Hinata and Gaara - still empty - and shook his head. "No, you haven't missed much of anything." His hands idly flexed into fists at his sides, then relaxed, making him look jittery and quite unlike his usual calm, composed, stoic self.
Hinata let out her breath on a long, relieved sigh. When word of Temari's going into labor reached her, she'd run straight to get Gaara in his office, then hurried to the hospital. "Has she been in labor long?"
"A couple of hours," Itachi said. His hands flexed again. "She felt some twinges earlier, but just thought it was another false labor, until her water broke." He smiled nervously, but it died quickly as his dark gaze jerked back towards the doorway, now filled.
Kankuro leaned over and braced his hands on his knees, red-faced and huffing from his own mad dash. "Did I miss it?" he demanded.
"No," Gaara responded for his brother-in-law. "It will probably be a while still."
Itachi let out a sick-sounding moan and dropped heavily into a chair. Hinata glanced over at him sympathetically, wishing she could think of just the right words to say to set his mind at ease. But, truthfully, until someone came out and said the birth had gone smoothly, any reassurance she could offer would sound hollow.
As Hinata, Gaara, and Kankuro settled into chairs, as well, her mind drifted - as it often had the past six months - to Ryotaro and Shigure. After the council meeting Temari interrupted, the two had known they would face grim consequences for their actions against Temari and Itachi's first child. They had decided to go out on their own terms, and committed hara-kiri within an hour of each other.
Hinata just couldn't bring herself to feel sorry for the men, though she did feel sympathetic toward the family members they left, particularly angelic little Keiichi. She hadn't seen the boy since the night of Gaara's disastrous birthday party, but she still spared a thought for him now and then, wondering how he was doing after the death of his great-grandfather.
One hour drifted into two. Stretched into three. Dragged into four. People came in and out at various times, checking in on Temari before leaving. Only Itachi, Hinata, Gaara, and Kankuro stayed, determined to wait out the process, no matter how long it took.
Evening eventually settled outside. Kankuro left only long enough to get a little food for all of them, and a Healer's assistant came out while he was gone to report it probably wouldn't be too much longer. A little of the tension over the group eased at the news, but quickly went up again as more time passed.
Not long after midnight, Suna's best Healer, Chiyo, came into the waiting room with a big grin on her wrinkled old face. "Congratulations!" she declared. "It's a very healthy boy!"
Kankuro let out a whoop and pumped his fist a couple of times, a huge grin on his face. "I'm an uncle, I'm an uncle!" he cried.
"How's Temari?" Itachi asked, looking relieved, exhausted, and ecstatic, all at the same time.
"Exhausted," Chiyo reported. "But she's asking to see you."
Itachi quickly excused himself and hurried after the old Healer, his light step almost making him look like he was floating.
Gaara, looking relieved to have finally heard it was over and both mother and child were all right, kissed Hinata's cheek and excused himself to spread the news throughout the village.
Settling back down into her seat, Hinata watched Kankuro as he continued to bounce excitedly about the room, allowing her hand to slide silently to her own still-flat stomach. She'd intended to break her own very exciting news at dinner, but her plans had gone quite awry when she found out Temari had gone into labor.
She didn't mind, though. News of her own pregnancy could wait a few more days while the entire family basked in the excitement of the birth of Itachi and Temari's son. She didn't want to take away any of Temari's well-deserved spotlight.
A few hours later, though, as she drifted off to sleep with Gaara's protective arms around her and the image of her nephew's cherub-cheeked sleeping face in the forefront of her mind, she had to admit she was glad she had shared her secret with her husband.
Some secrets, after all, were meant to be shared right away - at least with some people.
*~To Be Concluded~*
Author's Ending Notes: So, only the epilogue to go after this. Wow. I'm kind of depressed this story is so close to ending, but at the same time, I'm relieved to know my time playing around in this little AU isn't over yet. Itachi and Temari are already excitedly yammering away in my head about how they want their story (Light and Dark, the first chapter of which will be up not too long after the epilogue of this) to be told. In fact, their excitement has been part of the reason why it's taken me so long to get this up - I've had trouble getting them to be quiet long enough to get Gaara and Hinata talking to me again so I could finish up telling their story first! Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope to see you again for the epilogue of Shadows! Thanks for reading!