I forgot to mention, Maki (maid of the Ando family) is also the maid of the Ito household in Yotsuya Kaidan. :) The Ito schemed to have Oiwa disfigured so Iemon, her husband, could marry their daughter Ume. Oooh, Iemon was a scumbag, but he didn't directly kill his wife when he DID do the deed to her father just so he could have her; he simply acted as an accomplice, but it makes nothing less evil.

Speaking of Yotsuya Kaidan, the next and final story in the Konoha Kaidan Trilogy, right after this, will be "A Fragile Blue Rose" and is adapted from the famous story, with twists and set in the modern day. :D

Present are written moments from Hearn's original written story as well as the segment in the movie.

Chapter title translation: "prestige".

Chapter Six

Ishin

He found himself back at the Ando residence, kneeling before the man of the house while the wife was on the other side. The daughter was on her knees to his right, her maid and caregiver on the other side; he could feel her eyes on him as well as that secret smile along with the slight reddening of her cheeks. That was not a look he was a stranger to.

"Master Sasuke, would you consider accepting this as a token of gratitude?"

The gold coins were placed before himself. That was more than he expected to receive on the first day. "Really, I shouldn't accept that because of a simple rescue," Sasuke insisted. "I haven't done much -"

Now it was Hanako Ando to interrupt him, gently. "Nonsense. My husband presents it, you accept it. And if you permit it, you can be our family's bodyguard." She stifled laughter with tightened lips. "Although, our daughter is...extremely demanding and difficult, Master Uchiha. Be sure you learn to keep up with her every move."

Now he had to suppress a swallow and tried his hardest not to look at the girl, and failed, for his eyes switched to his right only to see her looking down at her lap. Saying not a single word. The more he looked at her, the more attractive he found her. And when he finally heard her voice, it was when her father urged her to not be shy and thank the Uchiha for his efforts.

"Thank you, sir."

Karin's voice was...different from Sakura's. Deeper around the edges was the best way to describe it, husky. Her features were delicate and sharp at the same time. "I hope this is the beginning of a satisfying association," Sasuke replied with a bow of the head. He was then greeted with more questions, such as his marital status, his references, the likes.

He was recently divorced.

He was one of the samurai who annihilated the Ame warriors a couple of years back, after the atrocities they committed. He was just as good with a sword as his brother was. With that, his new employers were thrilled to have him and accepted him on the spot.

Several months would go by. He fulfilled his duties well in cutting down bandits or simply scaring them away, watched over Lady Karin during her activities which were trips to town after getting permission from her father, and doing leisurely things young women enjoyed while their freedom lasted. It seemed she was spoiled rotten from a young age, he noted, confirming something he couldn't bear in a woman.

Although, she was indeed well-educated and learned how to use weapons in case conflict broke out again. She didn't have to go out like him, but she had to protect the home while he was away. That eased the burden of a female relying on him. Except she needed to work on besting her own husband during their training sessions, which she seemed irate about as much as she tried to hide it.

Taro and Hanako seemed impressed with him that they would one day tell him that their daughter was taken by him beside his services to her. It could mean only one thing.

By the end of the first month of spring, he and Karin were finally married in her family home. It was also by then that Taro informed him he would be posted in Kuso Village where he had connections, and take his daughter with him.

However, Sasuke wasn't sure if he was aware of anything, as he didn't have it in himself to look at his new bride who was smiling as if in victory, achieving a prize she had her eyes on all this time: me. The sake tasted bittersweet on his tongue. There wasn't an emotional connection with Karin, but he was certain he cared about her to a degree and prayed it would grow. Things were going to get better...or so he hoped.

When the drinking of sake ended, Taro sighed with exhilaration. "Finally, my daughter is married. I have never been so relieved. I'm happy to welcome you into the family, Sasuke," he told him with a bright grin that reminded him too much of...

Hanako sighed softly in agreement. "Maki, take her to the bridal chamber and get her ready. You both have a big day tomorrow," she said to her daughter. Tomorrow is the day we leave for Kuso - the village dominated by grass and wildlife. Karin nodded and stood up with the elder woman, smoothing out the folds of her white kimono without an embroidery - and it was for the second time he saw her that day, finally noticing the way she did her brows which was NOT the way his former wife used to do hers. The natural brows were removed only to be penciled for appearances; that was a beauty tip he wasn't fond of, although he approved she let her long, fiery hair down naturally, almost like lava flowing down a volcano. In a sense, she was very attractive. That meant he could get through tonight without trouble.

That meant he had obligations to fulfill to his new wife, which he heard from both her parents now that he was their son-in-law. Sasuke could feel the sweat on his brow and hoped it didn't show; he got the feeling that maybe the jitters could be newlywed anxiety, which was not what he ever had before.

Why am I wasting my time thinking about the past when I finally have my future?

~o~

Sasuke...you should be here.

The thought ran through her mind over and over through the hours that lasted well into the early morning of the final day of March. The pains got worse and worse, but it wasn't like she was going to keel anytime soon - although she had a feeling it was closer than she thought.

"One more push, Sakura," Hanaru urged, holding her hand to her right as the midwife at the end oversaw the finality of the crowning, and after one more shriek of agony from the rosette, the cries were heard just like when her sister-in-law gave birth. Hanaru had often teased her that she would know what that pain felt like, and she was right!

But it was all worth it because this little angel was placed into her arms for the moment before SHE would be taken off to be cleansed and swaddled. Sakura found out she was pregnant a month after her husband abandoned her. No one even knew where he was now; Sasuke did a fine, effortless job of covering his tracks. By then she was perhaps a couple of months along since her stomach felt a little rounded by the time the village physician examined her.

The baby was a girl, having her father's dark hair and eyes, which had opened a few minutes after delivery. "She's so precious!" Hanaru cooed, pushing aside limp strands of hair from the infant's eyes. "And she was so early!"

One month, early? That was hardly terrible. She'd been told her child would come right after the Hanami Festival would end. Ren had come on time, so she expected the same. It's hard to believe he'll be two years old this summer...they grow up so fast.

Itachi was home by luck when his pink-haired sister-in-law went into labor. Now he was here when she was resting up...but she didn't feel so good. Despite the joy of her daughter's birth, she felt empty and missing so much in only one person - the one who loved her once as much as she still did, but left her because of something that meant nothing. He told her to remarry someone with money, but she refused to. Not only that, but she thought she wasn't worth being another's wife. And since finding out she was with child, she wanted better than a stepfather.

"It's a shame my boy is too young to appreciate a newborn," Itachi told her as he knelt on her left side, a glint in his eyes despite his haggard features. He wasn't even close to aging, but he was so exhausted these days from working so hard. His wife was the one to offer to do some for him since she was learning from him; he would often laugh and wave it off, claiming that it was nothing compared to falling in battle.

He smiled down at her, then it was gone when his eyes took in her face and dulled hair - the hair HE loved to touch out of everything else. The irises hardened instantly as they thought of the person who did this to her, placing her in the position she was in now. "If I ever see my foolish brother again, he'll get more than just a bend across my lap just like when he was a child," Itachi once said harshly, his icy tone enough to make you freeze to death, but what Hanaru said melted everything like lava:

"He'll get a run-through from the sword, and not in his stomach - but someplace where it hurts most."

Sakura giggled for the first time then, imagining the pain he'd be in if that did happen, then died a slow and painful death. The distant cries of her and Sasuke's daughter in the other room made her fall into a peaceful sleep soon after.

~o~

Sasuke Uchiha thought he understood the value of love, but it diminished in the heat of thoughtless youth and the experience of desire.

The day after he, his new wife, and the attendants including old Maki, went out for Kuso Village, they paused in the forest to pass through, near a roaring river where he was tasked with doing the deed along with a manservant to climb down a small cliff to get just a bucket of water for his wife to clean her face and then dip her comb in for her hair - exactly the same way his first wife had done.

For a moment, he was enchanted by the sight, but she didn't once look at him, except only once when he brought her what she needed. He ignored the bells going off, assuming this was nothing to worry about. He was her husband, and he was here to tend to her needs besides his own. It wasn't going to be long before they would arrive in the village after they crossed the bridge between Konoha and Kuso.

When they did finally arrive, Karin had to say that she wanted a brand new kimono since she heard the finest were produced here. He didn't have to even say no to her, not like before, even though he wished he could. She knows how to wrap you around her little finger. He was sure her parents taught her discipline, but how did she learn to get what she wanted from someone the way she did? Sasuke waited in the late afternoon autumn sunlight, the hot temperature taking its time to cool down. How long would he have to be out here while his wife, her maid, and another young lady were scouring for a lavish work of art? He was relieved an eternity later when they were finally finished, and Karin flaunted the design to him: majestic purple splashed with summery flowers in red, orange, yellow, and green.

"I heard they will have their first autumn festival next week," she told him as she drew her cloak over her head, per custom. "Then we will see the leaves change color, come back out here and indulge in the fineries..."

Now, that was appealing, which meant fabulous sake. It had been ages since he had any of that. Unwittingly, he thought of those times he had with Naruto, whom he wished was here to enjoy his newfound wealth. He'd just married into it, and accepted a position from his new in-laws, but what did it matter?

But as soon as they settled into their new home, Karin's attitude changed altogether, beginning with these words: "You can do whatever you want, Sasuke, because what you do is your business, and I'll do mine."

"I thought married couples don't act like that, lest of all the wife being cool as you are," Sasuke stated, his brain clicking at once. "It's like...you don't care about me besides my appearance."

She sniffed. "Besides living by the unwritten words, we can have and do what we like, isn't it true? We don't have to live like those peasants in the village or anywhere else, Sasuke. It's what Mother and Father said: life should never be boring or with a moment wasted - not even the littlest things to be as they are," she finished with a twitch of the mouth.

That was how their life was for the next few years, and he thought he could endure it the longer he spent...but he realized what a fool he had been. It had been at the back of his mind, and he only now settled.

She was his wife in name only, it seemed after all; they hadn't lied together since their wedding night. This second marriage of his didn't prove to be a happy one, no matter how hard he worked. Karin was selfish and cool, constantly spending her days preening herself, combing her hair more than the last used to, and the more he looked at her red hair and eyes, the lavish clothes she wore as well as those fake eyebrows, the more nauseous it made him. Just as it disappointed him that she could never measure up to him in terms of the way of the warrior, preferring to be indoors instead of making strength and discipline matter - and just looking at his face with dilated pupils with no real care for his well-being.

Sasuke found himself regretting his days here in Kuso, wishing he was back home in Konoha. Wishing he could make things right, knowing it wouldn't be easy.

He lay alone in bed one night - he and Karin shared separate rooms - when it happened as it always had, nearly driving him mad, but this time was different: Sakura.

He would break down into tears at night. His dignity would be dishonored if anyone saw his suffering which he deserved more than words could explain. He still loved Sakura, his first wife, more than he could ever love Karin the intolerable second. He loathed how brutal he'd been towards her, thinking that he could leave her just because of their hard times.

Days and weeks to follow, his mind was in no state of peace with this revelation. Memories of the woman he wronged haunted him: her gentle speech, her support and spitfire, her dainty yet strong hands, but most of all...her luscious pink hair she adored him touching when Karin would threaten him if he ruined hers.

When he didn't dream of her at night, in the daylight he would assume he saw her, at her spinning wheel and its adjoined equipment, which she spent day and night toiling away in their desperate - honest - times, but then she would be gone. While he would be on horse and scout duty, he could have sworn he saw her in the woods, washing THEIR clothes in the water she could find. Does she still cry even now?

This question he wanted to know the most: had she taken another husband as he'd harshly told her to? Somehow he doubted it. She swore undying love to him as he once had, which increased the possibility.

He couldn't just outright ask for a divorce, but it wasn't like it was written on paper. As long as he had solid ground, it was automatically at an end, and one of them could just leave.

Karin must not have noticed his secret longings, but how wrong he was.

~o~

He was working on important documents at his desk that night when Karin came in that night, wearing that kimono she bought when they first moved to Kuso Village. "Are you coming to bed with me tonight?" she asked sweetly. This was one of her many mood swings he could now roll his eyes upon. This caused the smile to slip, and her lip curled. "What is the meaning of that, husband?"

"It means that I am busy and will go to bed as soon as I am finished." This marriage would end - he had no real master, just married into his employers' family, but that also meant he would be back to where he was before. Although his term was expiring anyway. He had more than enough money and new connections, but he could do what he wanted with it.

"Sasuke, you...ungrateful...bastard," Karin hissed, and it happened in a flash. Her fan she was holding made way for his face, hitting him at the crown of his forehead. He flinched and reached to rub his forehead, wiping away some of the mild throbbings that came from the impact. "I've noticed it all when you thought I was ignorant. You are still relishing your old life before this one." He stiffened and looked up at her but avoided eye contact. He kept his lips sealed. "You married me only to get social prestige with my family. You never loved me as I loved you."

Sasuke stood up and locked eyes with her, remaining where he was. "Love?" he sneered. "You only love the idea of it, but look at you: this pretty shell masking a foul creature."

"How dare you say such things. You're not denying it either," she said, her eyes glazing despite her contorting, furious mask. "Does this mean you're going to walk out on me since we're not pretending anymore?" Oh, you're going to cry and try to guilt trip me into staying? It won't work on me.

"When you put it that way," he said coldly, "you can return tomorrow to your parents if you wish." He turned to his right. "I won't be able to live with your dissatisfaction any longer than I have all these years. Because when I agreed to work for you and your parents, I was...young and thoughtless. I was a fool. So now I'm going home to find my ex-wife whom I deserted for all of this -" He gestured with a hand.

"- and make amends for my sinful acts."

Karin said nothing, just turned on her heel, and stalked out. Her hoarse, uncontrollable sobs could be heard, fading as she walked away.

It was too late tonight, and the day after tomorrow would be the last of his official term. But either way, he was going back home to his rosette, and when he found her, he would drop to his knees and BEG her forgiveness to his last breath.

I want to say that because of those who say that they want Sakura with someone who cares about her: thank you so much for that support. Although as for her finding someone who loved her... :( Just wait and see the next chapter, because I've taken a HUGE risk compared to my usual fare.

Anyhoo: Sasuke has left Karin to return to his beloved, but is it too late for atonement?