SasuNaru, yaoi, m-preg, OOC, OCs and unbeta-read

Standard Disclaimer applies.

Thanks for the reviews guys. Let's keep going like this. chu.

Chapter 43: Her task

Miki took a sip of her chocolate drink during her long-awaited short break. She closed her eyes in bliss as its sweetness curled around her taste buds. A moment later, she sighed contently feeling her muscles relax. The scent of coffee hanging over the place and the taste of cocoa always did that to her after making her forget of those long hours of being surrounded with books, scrolls, plants and its essence.

As part of her education and training, Tsunade had sent Miki to the medical research department once a week to assist their projects. In there, she learned, observed and remembered. Whatever knowledge she gained, she tried to apply them on her techniques. As long as she learns; as long as she improves, it didn't matter to her how mind-boggling the projects were or how difficult her tasks were.

Her peaceful break with some of the people she worked with was broken when Eri joined them and wailed. Judging from the way she cried, Miki knew she was having a serious problem. And problems were the thing she didn't want to hear right now as she had enough of them coming from experiments that failed to yield the expected results. But as much as she wanted to stand up and walked away, she couldn't because everybody in the table expected her to stay, listen and give support even with just her presence after all what could a girl of her age give for an advice?

"It's no longer working between us. He no longer loves me," she heard Eri said between sobs.

Miki knew who and what she was talking about. Nobody working in the department didn't know about her fairytale romance with an ANBU member who swept her off her feet and after a whirlwind of courtship married her. Unlike the 'they-live-happily-ever-after' conclusion of fairytales, hers was no longer near that.

"What made you say that?" their head researcher asked.

"He's always busy with his team and missions."

Now why was that familiar to her? Ah... yes, her parents were always busy with their own work too.

"His passion seemed to cool down. He's ignoring me, I tell you."

She didn't know how passionate her parents were with each other. But to her they seemed to lack in that area. They were acting more like friends than the couples she saw in the park or the couples she read in the romantic books her friends lent her. She tensed as one question popped in her mind: had they agreed to become friends now?

"We fight a lot now."

Miki frowned. Recently her fathers argued a lot. Worse, most of the time the atmosphere between them was tensed as if they wanted to say something hurtful but held back for some reasons.

She paid more attention to Eri as she continued enumerating other reasons why her marriage was reaching its end. She assessed each of them and crossed out what did not apply on her parents. She was relieved when Eri ended her talk and found no further proof that her parents' marriage was dead. However, she couldn't deny that it was dying. She knew it had to be saved and what opportunity more perfect to implement her plan than their wedding anniversary? That meant she only had three days to come up with a fool-proof plan.

Everybody around the table stared at her when she bolted to her feet.

"You okay?" somebody asked when she noticed that Miki looked paler.

"I, ahh... there's something I need to do," the blond girl replied before she hurriedly left.

-SasuNaru is love-

After making his routine morning rounds on each office in the administration building, Naruto finally made his way towards his office. The second, one of the on-duty ANBU guards on duty opened the door for him, a waft of very familiar scent rushed to his nose. On his desk where papers and scrolls used to lay was a huge bouquet of lavender - the same flowers that had occupied the Uchiha mansion during their wedding reception. Even when there was no card attached he knew who had sent it. He sat on his chair and stared at the gift for a long time with a goofy smile on his face.

The delivery man's skin crawled as he neared the ANBU headquarters. If the administration building was Konoha's symbol for power and stability then the infrastructure in front of him was the village's symbol of strength, secrecy and death.

The bored receptionist looked up when the delivery man entered. The ninja could sense the other's hesitance and wariness obviously expecting another ninja to appear out of nowhere and murder him. He snorted at the man's illogical fear and foolishness but he wasn't the only one. All the civilians were afraid of them and all because the ANBU was made of the strongest, the best... the cream of the crop and also because most of the missions they handled and were handling gave them a bad image.

"May I help you?" he greeted politely which the fearful man took it as 'state your business quickly and get out of my face.'

"I have something for Uchiha-sama," he said quickly, almost choking.

"Which Uchiha?"

"The captain."

The ninja arched an eyebrow in a wry amusement. It seemed fear had started messing up his mind.

Beads of sweat appeared on the poor man's face as he noticed the receptionist looking at him in what he thought as a glare.

"Both of them are captain."

Hearing that, he looked at his delivery list and repeated once more, this time with confidence despite his fear. "I have a delivery for Uchiha Sasuke-sama."

The ninja finally took a glance of the delivery. It was a single red rose in full bloom and entwined around its stem were pink fading to white rose buds. Whoever sent that must have a taste for expensive rose arranged and wrapped in simplicity to bring out elegance and loved the captain very much. Unfortunately like any gift of his admirers that too would end up in the trash can to rot unless if his spouse was around the area. The hokage never failed to pick it up much to the captain's annoyance and when the blonde felt like it, he would send a thank-you card to the sender under his name instead of Sasuke's. Most people thought that it was a way of subtly telling his spouse's admirer that Sasuke was already taken by him. Of course Naruto and subtly didn't go hand in hand but that didn't help them from thinking like that.

"He's attending a meeting right now with the other officers," he said, "leave that to me and I'll give it to him ASAP."

"I need to hand it to him personally because according to my boss that is the hokage's wishes."

The receptionist stood up abruptly, surprising the civilian. "Why didn't you tell earlier?" he asked and immediately left to fetch Sasuke. Although the dark-haired captain didn't say anything, it was painfully obvious that Naruto was and always will be his first priority regardless of time and situations.

Sasuke looked at the bouquet. To others it held no meaning other than as an anniversary gift but to him it was more than that. The red rose came from the blonde's little garden back at their residence and the numbers of rose buds which he was certain came from Yamanaka's flower shop represented the years of their marriage. He let his pointer finger glide through the buds feeling their softness.

-SasuNaru is love-

"I'm home and I have with me Tai no sashimi," Yuuzuki said.

Miki beamed as her brother presented it to her. The arrangement was perfect and lavishly beautiful just as she wanted it to be. The slices of fish meat were lined between the tail and the head and surrounding it, just on the edges of the ceramic plate were decorations of green and red edible and non-edible things. She was glad that she had an ANBU brother to sweet talked into paying all the things she needed for her plan to work. Of course her three siblings didn't know why she insisted for their parents to celebrate and to celebrate at home and why she was planning a very romantic dinner. Yuuzuki and Akemi thought it was fishy and had refused to help causing the girl to resort to threats. Kisho, on the other hand, caused no problems for her as they were buddies and as long as the task was fun, he'd do it.

Miki tried not to think about the bottle of oyster sauce in one of cupboards as she simmered konbu roll. As much as the idea of emptying the bottle into the pot in front of her, she didn't want to awaken lust as it was just fleeting especially caused by aphrodisiac and she didn't want that. What she wanted was to salvage their parent's marriage by awakening their love through one romantic candle dinner.

"Remind me why we are doing this?" Yuuzuki said between washing kitchen utensils. Must Miki used a lot of cooking utensils when cooking food and baking cake?

"Because…"he paused as he artistically cut the small melon just as his sister asked him to. "If we don't, she'd make sure you'd never be able to eat any sweets and she'll hand my candid baby pictures to all my rabid fangirls."

Having no choice, the two sighed in chorus. Why do they have Miki for a sister? She used to be cute and innocent when she was still under the age of five but now was no longer the case.

"Miki, look what I found?" Kisho announced proudly as he carried dishware. Seeing it, Yuuzuki almost dropped the pot.

"Where did you find those, Kisho?" he asked worriedly. The tableware was only used during those informal luncheon meetings the hokage had with diplomats and village leaders in their house. Other than that, those were stacked somewhere safe and Kisho managed to find it.

"Lovely," Miki said, clapping her hands. "You start wiping them just to make sure they are free from dust and then you can set the table."

"Wait!" The oldest of the four said. "You can't just use that. Chichiue will get mad and we'll get to be punished and not to mention that my punishment will be heavier than yours as I'm the oldest here."

"Stop being such a coward, niisan," Miki said reproachfully. "I'm sure they won't mind."

"Miki…" her brother said in a threatening voice but she ignored it and waved her hand to Kisho telling him to get it on.

"I'm doomed," Yuuzuki murmured as he resumed dishwashing.

-SasuNaru is love-

"Sasuke-teme," a high-pitched cried out, totally breaking the night's silence as Sasuke and other ANBU officials stepped out from their building. Before the brunette could react he found himself glomped but he didn't push Naruto away, causing Shino to say, "don't start anything until you get a room."

"Don't push yourselves too much," Kiba added with a wink.

"For your information, we are going to celebrate with our kids, ne Sasuke/

"Of course."

-SasuNaru is love-

Kisho made a dash from the window to the dining room and announced between nervous and excited giggle, "they're coming."

Miki stifled the urge to squeal as she hurriedly did some finishing touches of the flowers on the table.

Akemi and Kisho were the first to leave the house through the kitchen back door.

"Hurry up, Miki," Yuuzuki said almost impatiently.

"I'm coming," she replied. She just needed to make sure that everything was perfect. And when she assured herself that it was, she made her way to the door.

Yuuzuki looked at the table just to make sure that everything was okay, although he didn't understand why he had to do just that especially when Miki had already did. Perhaps his sister's perfectionist attitude was rubbing on him already. With quick hand seals, the candles on the table were lit and he silently closed the door.

"We're home!" Naruto announced as they stepped inside the house which was dark despite that their children were there or weren't they?

Sasuke must had felt worried too as he activated his sharingan and started looking around before moving. Nothing was out of place but the area was too silent for his taste. He walked into the living room and had a glimpse of shadows dancing on the wall of the dining room. He made his way there and stopped at the sight in front of him.

"Is there something wrong, Sasuke?" Naruto asked and stopped too as his gaze landed on the table.

The table was arranged for two persons only and was lit with six rose-scented candles. Few rose petals were scattered on the table too as decorations.

"Sasuke…" Naruto said, too touched beyond words and Sasuke could just nod as he felt like choking. Was this the reason why Miki insisted that they should celebrate at home?

He walked forward and noticed a note placed on the side of the table.

Surprise! You thought we'll celebrate with you guys? Hahaha…

Yuu-niisan will be sleeping at Hisayuki-kun's house while the three of us decided to sleep at Uncle Iruka's. You have the place all to yourself, so have fun.

The cake is on the ref, you have to get it yourself. Other than that, enjoy and love each other once more.

-Miki

"Love each other once more?" Naruto echoed. "What does she meant by that?"

Sasuke shrugged, "Probably some romantic musings. I think her spending too much time with ladies older than her had affected her in more ways than one." But he was smiling as he held a chair for the blonde, "shall we?"

Instead of commenting about his sudden chivalry manner, Naruto remained quiet and sat on the chair. He didn't want to ruin this moment. As much as he didn't understand Miki's reasoning, he knew the girl wanted it to be perfect. He wanted this night to be perfect.

Sasuke looked at the food preparations. It was great and looked delicious but it couldn't keep his gaze and appetite long. He was more interested in looking at the blonde seated across from him. Was it because of the romantic atmosphere or something else?

"They must have planned it well," Naruto commented as he slipped a mouthful of sekihan into his mouth. He needed to talk because he was nervous. The silence around the place made him awkward. Sasuke's silence made him nervous. Sasuke's stare made him tremble. "Will you please eat now? They won't be happy to know if you'll not do so," he said.

Sasuke's reply was just an arched of his eyebrow and continued staring. He wanted that smiling and cheerful sun under him. Above him Open to him. Without further ado, he silently appeared at the blonde's side.

But that didn't surprise Naruto who turned his head to the side and looked at obsidian eyes that seemed like black liquid fire. Those eyes held desire, love, mystery, secrets and eternity and Naruto leaned closer to take a better look. He wondered if he was inside the tsukiyomi world where seconds in the reality were eternity in the former. Totally in trance, he raised his fingers to trail a delicate path on Sasuke's porcelain skin. His mouth moved to whisper in breathless seduction, "Sasuke…"

It was 'I need you', 'I want you' and 'fuck me' rolled into one word: his name and Sasuke knew that. He leaned forward and brushed his lips against soft pliant ones before he captured them with his own.

Naruto didn't know when and how they managed to arrived in their bedroom and naked on the bed but he didn't give a damn. He looked at Sasuke who was lying on his side and knew that they were about to relive their honeymoon and he didn't mind.

He smiled with the same shyness and anticipation he had during their first night. And he trembled just the same when Sasuke started moving his hands on his skin, touching. Everything was a slow burn but still as heady as any other.

It was really like their first night – inexperienced, innocent, shy, powerful, possessive, rough and desperate. It was madness and glory rolled in one. And when they reached their pinnacle, it was magnificent and they fluttered back towards their bodies.

Naruto closed his eyes as he settled on Sasuke's chest, listening to his erratic heartbeat returning to normalcy. A wicked smile touched his lips as an idea occurred to him. He let few minutes go by before his fingers slyly moved on Sasuke's skin to doodle mindlessly. He grinned as he felt his spouse's breathing hitched and let his hand moved lower and lower until he wrapped it around Sasuke's manhood. He felt it growing harder, bigger, hotter and longer.

"Aren't we kinda bit old to make love now?" Naruto asked as his mouth started following the path his hand took.

"If so, why are you enjoying it?" Sasuke asked between pants as he found himself getting more aroused and needy. He jerked into a sitting position as Naruto drew him into his mouth, surrounding him with wetness and hotness.

Their eyes clashed and Sasuke found breathing harder. To see Naruto like that sucking him made desire roar in his veins. He felt himself coming just at the sight of his blonde and he didn't want this sinful sensation to end, not yet. He wanted to drag it to eternity so he let himself fall on the bed, savoring.

"God, Naruto," he moaned as the other started humming, creating stimulating vibrations. He couldn't help to stop his hips from moving and from bucking. His hands reached down and gripped the head, keeping it steady and his thrusts became jerky and desperate. He opened his legs wider, pulling Naruto closer…closer until his vision burst into myriads of rainbow colors before whiteness covered them.

Naruto swallowed everything he could. Despite that it was Sasuke's second orgasm he had still cum a lot. Had Sasuke prepared for this night just as he did?

He hovered above his husband and answered the almost forgotten question, "Because I'm doing it with Sasuke." The picture he presented made Sasuke saw desire. His face was covered with sheen of sweat, there were drops of the Sasuke's essence as pink dusted his cheeks and saliva and semen were dripping from the side of his mouth. If that wasn't enough, he was licking his semen-covered fingers dry. He was so damned fuckable that Sasuke thought he'd be damned if he won't do something about it.

He pounced on Naruto and kissed him hard. The blonde responded and pressed closer to rub his erection against Sasuke's groin. This was no longer a slow burn. Flashes of pleasure erupted in places where Sasuke's hands and mouth pressed. Naruto moaned deeply as that wicked mouth feasted on his nipples, sucking and biting.

He was floating in the dark surface of passion and waves of lust hitting him as Sasuke expertly ravaged his body and he saw a glimpse of pure bliss as the dark-haired man gave his erection one long lick from tip to base.

"More," he demanded. He wanted to be engulfed by the familiar insanity Sasuke always created between them. He opened his legs wider to accommodate Sasuke, raised his hips as he felt the tip of his length. He cried out in pleasure when he was filled to the brim as he and Sasuke melted into one perfect circle of moving desire and pleasure.

He sat on Sasuke's thighs, his back pressed intimately against Sasuke's. He threw his head back as Sasuke's dip forward to give him another mark. His hand snaked around and settled on the mop of black hair, pushing him silently asking him to suck deeper.

"Sasuke, take me now," he whispered between nibbles of his earlobe.

Wordlessly, Sasuke pushed him on fours and kneeled behind him. He pulled out completely, changed his angle and slammed back, touching that bundle of erogenous nerves that made Naruto cried out loudly.

Unable to stop the sounds from coming from his mouth, he pressed his face against the bed, unintentionally rising his hips higher.

"Don't hold back the sounds, Naruto. They are mine. I deserved them," Sasuke said in a husky voice, trying to fight the pleasure clawing on him. He continued with his pace until Naruto cried out to love him deeper, harder and faster.

"Sasuke-nnn.. Sasuke..nnghh," he wanted to say something but those were the only words his lust-filled mind could come up. Liquid heat was gathering in the pit of his stomach quickly, rising up to fill him. He felt like he was evaporating to mist as wave after wave of pleasure crashed against him. He felt himself being tossed. He moved harder, pulling Sasuke's length deeper, wanting to take his husband where he was being swept away.

"Naruto" Sasuke murmured as he skimmed his lips against his sweat-covered back and grazed it with his even teeth. His eyes were now clenched tight, letting go of everything until he was moving in pure instinct.

They both cried out as they reached their completion as everything they did engulfed them and burst within and without them.

When they had enough rest, they decided to take a shower where Naruto discovered what it was like to be leisurely ravished under the hot beating spray of the shower. It was beyond words.

When they thought their passion had cool down, they went back to the dining room. Before they could touch the food, Sasuke had pushed Naruto on the table and plundered him sweetly. Naruto couldn't say 'no'. Even if he could, he wouldn't. He wanted Sasuke. He needed him. Always.

In retaliation, the latter pushed the former into the chair, straddled him and showed him how heavenly skillful his mouth and hands were and how his body could be the perfect sex toy in the world. To Sasuke, it was because he loved him. Forever.

-SasuNaru is love-

It was almost noon when the Uchiha siblings arrived home the next day.

"Welcome home," Sasuke said as they walked into the living room. Just then Naruto joined them. Miki's sharp and observant eyes looked at her parents and found no changes between them. Where did her planning go wrong? Would it have been better if she used the oyster sauce? Where did she go wrong?

Despite her sharpness and exposure to slightly mature romantic stuffs, she was still naive. If only she could see the hickeys and bitemarks that littered on Naruto's shoulders, chest and inner thighs she would have leaped with joy.

"It must have been fun without us, ne?" she asked innocently.

"No," Sasuke replied. "We just talked, ate your delicious food and sleep." It wasn't a lie. He just left the details Miki wanted to hear so badly.

"You guys are boring," she muttered torn between being disgusted or frustrated.

"You're reading too much romance novels," Akemi stated.

You're too naive, Yuuzuki thought. Well, he'd believe it too if Jiraiya didn't fill him in with few things his parents did. It had been an unwanted information and had made him ran away from Jiraiya screaming.

"For what you did, otousan and I decided to do whatever you guys want to do- shopping, training... anything."

They grinned.

-SasuNaru is love-

She tossed on her bed, trying to ignore the discomfort caused by her parched throat. Unable to endure it anymore, she got out from her bed.

As she was about to take the hallway that would take her to the kitchen, she noticed the strip of light from her parents' room flooding the hallway and she could hear hushed voices talking about work. Frowning, she changed her direction. Guiltily, she took a peek from the gap between the door and the jamb. She saw Naruto sitting on the edge of the bed while toweling Sasuke's hair dry. Sasuke, on the other hand, was sitting on the floor and between Naruto's legs while his arms were draped over the blonde's thighs. They looked intimate despite their topic. Miki remembered her otousan's answer to her innocent but insistent question of what Naruto was to him earlier that day.

My best friend.

And no doubt they really were.

My rival.

Whatever reply her chichiue leaned down to whisper to her otousan, the latter didn't like it because he grappled and tossed the former forward.

"That hurts you bastard," Naruto said after he landed on the floor. He tried to grab Sasuke but he had already moved out of his reach. Naruto stood up and glared at the smirking man.

"You'll pay for that."

"That's already a very old threat, dobe and yet you haven't made me."

"Until now."

Sasuke arrogantly spread his arms in mocking surrender. "Go ahead. I'm unarmed and I won't resist."

My everything.

Naruto moved forward but instead of hitting the other man as the girl expected, he stopped few centimeters away from Sasuke and looked up to say, "unarmed and willing, eh? Tempting."

Sasuke snorted.

Standing near the window were the soft moonlight filtered through and bath them, the two stood, gazing at each other as Sasuke's arms wrap around his prey and predator.

Miki watched in excitement and glee as two silhouettes outlined by moonlight connected and the two shadows overlapped into one. Watching the romantic scene, how her otousan was holding her chichiue and how they were kissing each other, she realized that she was stupid. Contrary to her belief, there was no threat and that their marriage wasn't dying.

As much as she wanted to continue watching, she was aware that she was intruding a private moment so with sheer will she wrenched her gaze from her parents and walked away.

Slowly but surely she was coming to understand Sasuke and Naruto's relationship. Theirs couldn't be judge by using the criteria applicable to others' relationships because theirs wasn't ordinary by all means. Their love had stemmed from rivalry and friendship and weathered through abandonment, betrayal and pain. Their relationship had morphed into something more wonderful at the same time retained its previous forms and thus aside from being a couple they were still rivals and best friends.

TBC

In your opinion, is it too old to make love when they are in their late 30's and had been married for almost 20 years or so?

Tai no sashimi is sea bream dish for celebration while sekihan is red-bean rice also for celebration.