Dum dum dum! (Supposed to be scary music...)

Midnight: you rock my funky blue striped socks, ya know that? Your review made me crack up. For the kiss, check my profile in a few days. I'm writing a oneshot about Kabuto and Kira's first date. Should be funny! Hope you like the chapter!

Cuddley-bear88: thanks for reviewing!

Okay everyone, I'll miss you all. Thanks for reading my story!

Check up on my other stories too! I'm planning a karaoke story as a companion piece for this story, as well as the one shot I mentioned in Midnight's review reply. And there may be more!

Chapter 17: Epilogue (Happily Ever After)

Setting: Konoha, duh!

Time: Ten years after last chapter!

The silver-haired Jonin walked slowly to his apartment, having just returned from a mission. The Rokudaime had ordered him get some rest, for the man had been working hard for weeks. Sighing as he mounted the steps, the shinobi brushed his hair from his face. His wife hated it when he let his hair get knotty, so he tended to leave his hair in his customary ponytail when he wasn't home.

Pushing open the door to his apartment, he was greeted by a delicious smell. His wife had made his favorite food for his return home: okonomiyaki with carrot and peppers and manju buns. Sighing happily, he announced his arrival.

"Kyaaa! You're home!" The silver-haired shinobi grinned widely as his wife ran into the room, threw her arms around his neck, and planted a kiss on his lips before she pulled back to say, "Look at you! You're the only person I know who can grow so skinny in such a short time! I glad I made extra okonomiyaki. Come on! Come into the kitchen and tell me how the mission went. I miss going on those." The small, black-haired woman placed a hand on her slightly rounded belly as she walked back into the kitchen, chattering happily to her husband, who quickly butted in to report a change in plans.

"The mission was fine. Just escorting the old lady took a lot longer than I expected. She had to stop at every village to rest and get some sleep. Hokage-sama said that I don't have to do any more missions until after the baby is here. And then I only have to do one day missions so I can spend time with you and help with the baby." The shinobi sat down at the table after removing his shuriken and kunai, placing them in a basket specifically for them with his forehead protector. The shiny metal glinted in the sunlight, the leaf symbol blatant on the flat surface.

Turning around as she finished cooking, the woman instructed him to get two plates out while she got chopsticks. He listened as she talked about her friends and how they were doing. "Oh! I got a letter from Rina-chan today! Let me show you!" The woman turned and sat beside her husband as she read aloud from the letter. "She and Kazekage-sama have married! Look at the picture! She said that she's sad I couldn't come, but that she understood given the circumstances."

The thirty-year old Jonin chuckled and placed his hand on his wife's stomach, feeling the slight roundedness from being three months pregnant. "Neji-san has decided to act on his feelings for once and pop the question to Tenten-san."

He laughed again at the shock on his wife's face. She sputtered. "W-whoa! Tenten will be so happy! She was so worried that he'd never ask and she'd end up being a spinster like Tsunade-sama and Sakura-chan."

"Sakura just doesn't want to get married; she's only twenty-five you know. Not everyone settles down as quickly as us or Shikamaru and Ino."

"I know! And I can't believe that those two finally got together. Even though they've been married as long as we have, it's still a shock to see her carrying a two-year old who looks like a chibi Shikamaru. The kid's even got the pineapple hair! He says he wants to grow it out 'like his 'mazing dada.' Naruto- oops, I meant Rokudaime- asked Hinata if she'd wait for him. He needs to settle into the job for about a year before he can get married, or even engaged. I surprised that her father, Hiashi-sama, even allowed the relationship, but Naruto has cleaned up a bit since his prankster days. Kiba hasn't settled down since you went away; he's started training dogs for the police force while Shino has, uh, I think he said that he was working with Naruto to create a way to get rid of termites in the older section of the city. Lee is ecstatic about his genin team and is acting exactly like Gai-sensei. It really scares me. But Jin has made sure he doesn't scare the kids too much. I haven't heard anything new on Sasuke's release from the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility, but I don't think he'll be let out any time soon. It doesn't matter because at the loss of the curse seal, he lost any ability to be a shinobi. The curse seal, it seems, burned his tenketsu and destroyed any chakra control he could have. Tsunade and Sakura have been checking out the tenketsu with Neji's help and trying to figure out what happened."

"I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to feel bad, but I don't. How are your brother and sister?"

"Kaido-nii-chan has gotten married to a nice girl from another Trader clan. It's more of an alliance than anything, but I think he likes her more than he wants to admit. And Kaede wants to come visit again since she hasn't seen me for a couple years. She wants to come help with the baby. She say it should be good practice for when she gets around to having her own. But she wants to become a Jonin before that like I did."

Kabuto smirked and kissed his wife on the cheek before getting up to carry the food over. He had started to worry that his wife was doing too much; she not only demanded that she be allowed to cook and shop like she always had, she also wanted to keep training so she "wouldn't lose her touch." He figured that she'd been a shinobi for so long, she'd never forget, but she was adamant about it and he respected that.

The two ate slowly, still discussing their friends and the news from the town as they ate. After dinner, Kabuto asked her if she wanted to go for a walk. The two wandered towards the bridge where they'd spent so much of their "genin-hood" and sat to contemplate the stars. Both jumped when a green-eyed man and a brown-eyed man shouted to them from the street. The guys wanted to know if their "imouto-chan" and her husband wanted to come to their house and hang out with Uotani, who had become Chuunin and was teaching at the academy, and Imai, who had married Mayura and become a Jonin, which was something his father had never achieved. Kabuto stood up and shouted back, saying they would meet them there.

Kabuto pulled his wife up beside him, and the two laughed when their friends said they'd leave the lovebirds alone for a while. Kabuto turned to look back at his wife when she asked, "Kabuto-chan, remember when you asked me to marry you?"

Kabuto smiled. "Yeah. I was so nervous I dropped the ring box twice before I gave it to you. And then I couldn't ask, since you connected the dots and started laughing. I was so embarrassed that I practically shouted the question. Then you said yes."

His wife asked, "And what happened next?"

Kabuto chuckled and replied, "You threw your arms around me and kissed me, still laughing and then you started crying."

"Do you think you could do that right now?"

"What? Kiss you?" She nodded.

"Anything for you, Kira-chan." Kabuto leaned over to press his lips against Kira's, grinning when he felt hers split into a smile.

---

Awwww…. That's SO cute! I can't believe I wrote it, it's so cute.

REMEMBER, I'm writing some other short stories based off of this one. They're: a oneshot about Kira and Kabuto's first date, a karaoke one with all the characters, even Rookie Nine and Team Gai, and a humor fic based off the movie Clue. Keep in touch!

It would be SO cool if I got fifty reviews. I think I would dance for joy. So review! Tell me what you think! It's my first long fic! REVIEW!

Thanks to TamX2 for beta-ing and being an awesome sister!

MWAHs to y'all!

Fav. Quote of the week: "Ah! I know this! It's that really hard word! Ta… tact?" –Yotsuba, volume 3