Forgive me! My exams were so frustrating that I almost died!
Thank you to everyone who has been patient. :)
Enjoy, -heart-
P.S. Sasuke is a little boy at heart. Bahaha. :)
P.S.S. I am thinking of uploading a MadaraxOC story. Want the plot? REVIEW.
"Dad, really. I'm fine.." She murmured as Pain eyed her stomach. His hands were laced together over his mouth as he rested his elbows on the desk.
Another minute or so passed.
"Dad," Koneko awoke him from his reverie. He blinked, his eyes shifted to her face. She was growing bigger with each passing day, and this worried him to an extent.
She smiled, "It's natural to look like this, really."
Clearing his throat, Pain took his hands away from his face and continued to watch her, "I'm simply... concerned."
"About what?"
He fell silent for a moment, "I know that you..." His voice became considerably softer, "have lost quite a bit with Itachi's passing... but I-"
"You don't have a problem with the fact that I am carrying Itachi's child, do you?" Her heart was stricken. She needed her own father's consent...
Pain shook his head, "None whatsoever..."
He and Konan shared glances. Koneko had almost forgotten that the woman on her left had even come in. She had always been so quiet, like a mouse.
"Infact," Her father turned his attention to her again, "Itachi came to me a week before asking for your hand in marriage."
Her emerald eyes widened, "He did...?" She leaned foreword unconsciously, "What for?"
Konan smiled at the brunette, "Itachi came to ask for your father's approval."
Her heart ached sorely. Oh, God..
A smile graced her lips as she blinked back tears.
"He was so sincere.." The blue haired woman smiled, "It was so romantic. I would never expect to hear such heartfelt words from a man like Itachi."
...
"Come in."
The ebony haired shinobi walked into Pain's study and closed the door behind him; a loud clicking from the mechanism was heard.
Pain was seated at his desk directly across the doors as Konan stood beside him, reading a hardcover book in her hands.
The auburn haired male cleared his throat and placed his pen down, "Itachi," He took a sip of his hot, freshly made tea, "Is there something I can help you with?" The man asked calmly.
"I would like to ask something of you." Itachi began in a collected tone.
Pain watched him intently as Konan looked up from the page she was on.
"I would like to..." The black haired male spoke quietly at first, "ask for your approval, seeing that you are Koneko's father."
Pain rose an eyebrow, "What might you need my approval for, Itachi?"
Sharingan eyes locked onto the Rinnegan, "I have fallen in love with your daughter... I wish for her to become my significant other." Itachi spoke, completely serious of his request.
Pain leaned back in his chair, not paying any heed to Konan's smile. The Uchiha hadn't taken his eyes of the stand-in Akatsuki leader for a mere second.
"Itachi..." Pain stared at the sheet he was writing on minutes ago. He then looked at Itachi, "Provide me with three acceptable reasons why you desire this."
The onyx haired male took in quiet breath, preparing to tell Pain the emotions that Koneko made him feel with all honesty,
"Koneko has exceptional ability as a medical shinobi. I have observed the way she tends to the damage of each member from gathering the jinchuuriki."
Itachi breathed as he recalled when she had brought desert to him after he disappeared from the dinner table, "If you ask nothing of her, she will find someway to aid you in anyway possible. Mentally, physically and emotionally. Koneko is a remarkable and caring young woman..."
Pain nodded. One.
"Koneko knows very little of how the shinobi world operates, yet she is still very intelligent of her surroundings and the people around her. Koneko has an acute sense of thinking in a way that we do not." Itachi told him, who agreed with another nod.
That was two.
"Lastly," Itachi's eyes briefly tilted downwards, "Koneko is astonishingly beautiful. She has completely captured my heart without any difficulty since the very first moment I laid my eyes on her..."
His eyes became soft slits as they glanced off to the side, then towards Pain.
"I knew then, that I had fallen in love with Koneko..." He explained, closing his eyes. "In the time that I am near Koneko, is the more that I feel that love grow. The moments that I spend speaking with her, is when I realize how I would do anything for her..." The Uchiha confessed as his heart swelled.
Pain looked at him with a slight smirk evident on his lips while Konan restrained herself from finding Koneko and telling her everything she heard.
His tone; hard, "If Koneko were ever in any form of danger, I would very willingly give my life in order to protect hers..." Itachi concluded as he counted his third cause.
Pain's expression remained thoughtful as he calculated the words that the Uchiha had just spoken. Pain caught Konan giving him an ushering stare. He plainly nodded.
"Hmm," The man thought aloud as he fiddled with the black pen in his hand, staring at nothing. Obviously lost in his thoughts.
Itachi watched Pain with absolute patience as he waited for the leader's answer.
A whole three minutes had gone by, the only sound made in the room was of the auburn males' pen flipping into the air to be caught again...
"Pain!" Konan snapped impatiently, breaking the male out the argument in his mind. He blinked as he caught his pen for the final time, "Ah, yes. Itachi's request..."
Konan sighed and placed her book on his desk. She glanced at Itachi and noticed that he had been calmly waiting this entire time and a smile crossed her lips.
'He must be serious about this.'
The blue haired woman turned her focus back to her longtime comrade.
"Uchiha Itachi," Pain spoke as he stood from his desk, "I grant you my complete authorization to give you my daughter's hand in marriage. For you to give your utmost affection and to receive it from her as well."
The smile that poured onto Itachi's lips was remarkable as he felt his life begin to come together.
With Koneko as his precious wife, he would need nothing else in this world.
.
She sobbed quietly as both Pain and Konan finished the story. No, these weren't tears of sadness, but of love. Overjoyed with her deceased husband's respectful and gentlemanly nature.
Koneko wiped away a lingering tear on her cheek with a single finger.
"Thank you both for telling me..." She whispered in fear of her voice cracking.
They said nothing, but by the sincere smiles on their faces, they knew that spirits had lifted by this new-found information.
.
"What do you think it is?"
"Hm?"
Sasuke glanced at her, "The baby.."
"You mean the gender, Sasuke?"
"Whatever."
Koneko laughed, resting her hands in her lap, "I don't know really."
"Hn."
"Would you like a nephew?" She asked.
The Uchiha male made himself more comfortable, "Either niece or nephew. Doesn't matter to me."
She smiled, nodding.
"I have a feeling it may be a boy.."
He rose a black eyebrow, "How so?"
"Apparently, when in pregnancy, if the mother's stomach grows outwards, then it's a girl but if it grows in width then it's possibly a boy." She moved her arms away from her round frame to show him.
It was true; her stomach was rather wide. Sasuke smirked and closed his eyes calmly.
"Any names that you might have decided on?" He enquired.
The young woman was silent for a bit. Names? She hadn't actually thought of any names yet..
He chuckled briefly at seeing her concentrated, "Relax, it was only a question."
"True enough.."
Sasuke retrieved his sword from the table and began to polish it idly, "Have you..."
Koneko had him under her gaze, "Yes?"
"Have you been feeling any better about my brother's death...?"
They both were hush. Merely watching one another. She pursed her lips; eyes fluttering, "No.."
He stopped his hand from sliding across the sharp steel.
"Have you?" Koneko questioned quietly.
"...No."
She leant over and embraced him. A husband lost. A brother lost.
...It was too difficult to bear alone.
"I miss him so dearly..." She murmured into his shoulder.
Gingerly, Sasuke wrapped both comforting arms around her, "Me too.."