Part 3 – Knight-Fall
The next morning, Sakura raised her hand to shield her face from the rays of sunlight peeking in through the blinds of her paramour's apartment.
Needless to say, sharing a bed with someone who has a tail isn't something that someone can get used to.
When asleep, a Tiefling's tail is pretty stationary, but sometimes, the tail can twitch sometimes in the middle of the night like a cat telling you that they can still hear you.
Luckily, Sasuke had slept with his tail hanging off the edge of the bed, but when the tail is flopping around, making a small thudding sound, you could imagine that your downstairs neighbors are going to get annoyed if they were awake.
She found herself curled against him, his muscular arms wrapped around her like a safety blanket. She could stare forever at the restful, handsome face she was initially afraid of when they first met. She then looked down to see the scars that crisscrossed his chest: some deep and jagged, others thin and clean.
She could have laid there for hours looking at him, but unfortunately, phone alarms exist, and as it went off, she reached over to close it, and when she turned back, she saw his eyes opening.
"Morning," he said as he awoke to see her look back at him.
"Hello," Sakura said, "I'm surprised you didn't get up earlier. Having just got back in from your mission."
"I like to sleep with you," Sasuke said as he ran his hand down Sakura's side, gently scraping the top of his nails across her hip when he finished, "Makes me feel comfortable."
"And you make me feel safe," Sakura said as she leaned in, and kissed him, "What should we do today?"
"I have an idea," Sasuke said, "Why don't we get cleaned, and head down to the boardwalk?"
"I'll follow your lead," Sakura said as she sat up before a set of muscular arms trapped her waist.
"I have a better idea," Sasuke said as he suddenly swept Sakura off of the bed, and carried her toward the bathroom.
Shino…
The bed that Shino and his wife slept in was specially ordered from a store that caters to goliaths (or in Shino's case, half-goliaths). The frame was made of titanium so it wouldn't bend, and the mattress was made of air beads so there wouldn't be a large permanent indent in the mattress. For Shino, the bed was the perfect size, for Tenten, it was like a child sleeping in their parent's bed. They had been married for over seven years, they had lived together for eight, and to this day it still felt like that for Tenten. It was still nice to know you'd probably never run out of room.
Shino turned over as his own alarm woke them up to flip it off, and sat up on the side of the bed to head to the shower.
As he finished washing, he walked back into the bedroom to see Tenten getting ready for her shower.
"Well, good morning to you," he said as he walked up to her.
"Morning babe," Tenten said as she turned around, "Think you could get Hine up, she has a test-review today?"
"Of course," Shino said.
As Shino walked into Hine's room to see his daughter sleeping underneath the Warrior Princess blanket she loved to sleep under.
As Shino sat on his daughter's bed, Hine instantly knew her father was there because the entire bed sank down toward the foot.
"Morning daddy," Hine said as she pulled the blanket over her head.
"Morning," Shino said, "Come on, you've got a big day ahead of you."
"Five more minutes," Hine said.
"I could give you five more minutes," Shino said, "But then you'd miss my singing."
"I'm up," Hine said as she ran over to her dresser and fishing out her school uniform, and ran out of her room.
"Works every time," Shino said as he stood up, and walked toward the kitchen.
Rock…
Zunagu was walking into the living room of her house to the smell of cooking breakfast sausage as she looked into the kitchen to see her brother cooking for her.
"Good morning," Zunagu said as she walked over to the kitchen table, and sat down to have her brother walk up to her and place a few pieces of breakfast sausage on her plate, "Thanks."
"Glad to have someone who can take care of household chores," Rock asked.
"I'm just glad that someone who can cook is back in my life," Zunagu said as she began eating, "I missed you."
"I missed being here," Rock said as he put his hand on his sister's shoulder, "I wish there was a way I could be there for both you and the team."
Zunagu grabbed her brother's hand, and smiled, "Thanks, big brother," she said.
It was then that Zunagu heard the sound she didn't want to hear so early: Arund and Zorand running out of their bedrooms to their uncle's breakfast cheering, which in-turn led to the sound that Zunagu really didn't want to hear: Barben waking up crying.
"Breakfast time," Arund exclaimed as he jumped into his seat.
"I get first dibs," Zorand exclaimed as she prepared her plate.
"Not yet," Rock said as he walked into the dining room, before proceeding to the back of the house, "I'll take care of this."
"Thanks," Zunagu said as she prepared to lecture her children about waking up their baby brother.
Rock walked into Barben's room to see his infant nephew crying because someone woke him up, "Hey there," he said as he reached down, lifted his crying nephew out of his crib, and started shushing him, "There, there, little colt," Rock proceeded to gently pat his nephew on the back, and gently bounced him on the shoulder before his nephew fell back asleep.
It was then that Zunagu walked into the room to see Barben asleep on Rock's shoulder, he raised a finger to his lips before placing Barben back in his crib.
"He's cute when he sleeps," Rock said as he covered his nephew back up with the blanket his father gave him when he was a baby that he gave to Barben, "It makes me long for the day I'll have kids of my own."
"You'll make a great father," Zunagu said.
Naruto…
Naruto stepped outside his house after hearing the sound of paper hitting his front door. After stepping outside, he found the paperboy had already dropped his off.
As he picked it up, he looked up to see his neighbor say, "Morning Naruto."
"Morning Alaro," Naruto said, "How're the kids?"
"The kids are fine," Alaro said, "How's Hinata?"
"She's ok," Naruto said, "Still sleeping."
"I imagine being partially blind is hard," Alaro said.
"Yep," Naruto said, "Have a good day."
"You too," Alaro said.
Naruto walked back into his house to see Hinata was actually not sleeping, but rather on a phone call with some of the associates at the law firm she worked at.
"You know we don't need to move forward with the case," Hinata said, "The settlement they've put on the table is more than fair," Hinata stopped as the person on the other end of the phone spoke up, "That's not the point! I'm the one in charge of this case. They've offered twice the original amount the client was asking for, and we don't even have to go to court. Call the defendant, and tell him we're taking the deal. That's my decision, I am the lawyer."
"You know you're incredibly sexy when you're in lawyer mode," Naruto said, "If we weren't going for a no-sex-until-the-wedding pact, I'd take you into the back, and carve another notch in the bedpost."
"Don't worry," Hinata said as she walked up to Naruto, "You'll get plenty on our wedding night. Have a good day," she leaned up and kissed her fiancé before walking over to the kitchen table.
Sai…
Ino awoke to hear grunting and the creaking of wood. She tied on her robe and walked into the living room to see Sai doing chin-ups on the bar he had set up in the living room of his dorm.
Needless to say, his white-as-paper skin didn't conceal the scars on his chest, but Ino thought his muscles did a good job of distracting her from them.
"Hello to you," he said as he continued his exercise routine.
"Morning to you," Ino said as she smiled at walked over to him, "Anything on the agenda today?"
"I know of a few errands we can run," Sai said as he dropped onto the ground.
"How about we just stay in for now," Ino asked, "Might give us some much needed 'us' time."
"I can get behind that," Sai said.
Sasuke and Sakura…
After their very steamy shower, Sakura had already gotten ready while Sasuke had to take another few minutes to wash his tail. I'd imagine being a Tiefling, having a tail would probably be a bit of a hindrance because you might need an extra squeegee to clean it, and there was the fact that without hiding it, it'd probably hurt someone if it slapped them.
It took Sasuke an extra minute or so to wash and dry his tail before getting dressed.
Sakura had found herself a long-sleeve pinkish-red shirt with white trimming, a pair of khaki pants, and some blue sneakers.
As Sasuke was getting dressed in his military boots, jeans, and his long-sleeve dark blue sweater, he heard Sakura, "Sasuke, you might want to see this!"
Sasuke walked into the living room to see something on the screen that shocked him to his core.
As soon as he saw what was on the screen, he ran into the bedroom and picked up his phone.
Naruto was reading his paper with Hinata and enjoying his morning coffee when he got a ping on his phone.
Shino was eating some of his wife's left-over lamb with some eggs when he heard he was getting a text on his phone.
Rock was getting his nephew and niece ready for school before he felt the 'you have a text' vibration from his phone.
Sai simply looked down when he heard his phone to see Sasuke's message, "Turn on channel 7. NOW!"
"What's that about," Ino asked as she picked up Sai's phone.
"I don't know," Sai said as he picked up the remote, and changed the channel to see what Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, Hinata, Shino, Tenten Rock, Sai, and Ino could only describe as the most heinous act of terrorism since 9/11.
Newscast…
Chicago's channel 7 news team was now going over the report of an attack on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, the highway 11 bridge, and on the Interstate-10 pass and bridge over the lake and the swamp.
Channel 7 News' female elvish anchor, "Right now reports are coming in of what can only be described as a vile act of terrorism against the inhabitants of New Orleans, and the millions of visitors that visit the city every day," the image shifted from her to imagery of the causeway which was unrecognizable because the part that the cars drove on was in the water along with the cars that were on it at the time was completely gone, and a few cars were actually floating, "As of right now, it is not clear how the causeway was destroyed, but what we do know is that the mermaids who live in the swamps and in the lake were instrumental in saving the lives of everyone they could. The coastguard is currently on its way to assist in the rescue operation."
Sakura walked up and placed her head on Sasuke's chest, "I just got you back, and now they're about to take you away from me," she said as she looped her arms around Sasuke's waist, "It's not fair."
"I know, cherry blossom," Sasuke said as he held her close, "I have to go, for you."
"I'm scared," Sakura said.
"Me too," Sasuke said as he lifted her up, and sat down on the couch with her in his arms, "Let's enjoy every moment we have left before I have to leave."
As Sasuke and Sakura were sitting together, Naruto and Hinata hugged each other as tight as they could: they would probably have to put their wedding date on hold.
How was that one…