A few points before you go on to read.

1) I know this chapter may seem a little late and a little odd, but, judging by the massive amount of writer's block that I'm going through, I think it's okay.

2) Please disregard the action scenes. I can't write action at all, so if it makes you gag and faint, please don't throw rotten tomatoes at me.

3) This story is officially in its third and last phase now. From now on, things will move fairly quickly, and then it will end. This is the longest story I have ever written. However, I would like to point out that the third phase in itself is quite long, and may take quite a bit of time to finish.

4) I received a rather disorienting review the other day. It said something along the lines of why there should not be an engagement ceremony, and the fact that "they are ninja, they kill." I think this is taking a rather small-minded approach to the whole matter. Notably, it was also anonymous, so I will be replying here.

Every civilisation on earth has its own customs and traditions. The Naruto world is no different. I would like to point out that they had festivals and a funeral for the Third Hokage. This is a characteristic feature of all human civilisations. Its what marks them as humans. And they are humans, even if Naruto and Gaara are part-demon.

Also, they may be shinobi, but they also have emotions and feelings. Yes, they kill, but they also fall in love. They also care about each other. Their occupation is killing, but it doesn't define them. Each person is multi-faceted, and they are not bound by their occupation.

So, if you want to read a story where shinobi are mechanical robots and only roam about killing everybody, then I'm sorry, you've come to the wrong place. I can't show constant death and disembowelment, especially not without any other form of emotional involvement. Please find another author who can do so.

5) I have a proposal for interested parties below. It is posted at the bottom of the page. I hope to see some takers. Please PM me or mention it in a review if you have any questions and they will be immediately answered.

6) Review! I'm so very close to 200 reviews, and I want to see if I can make it to three hundred before this story finishes. Please, please help me out in this.

Standard disclaimer applies.

Chapter 17

Revelations: Part 1

Jumping from tree to tree, speeding forward effortlessly.

It sounded like a rhyme.

It actually was a rhyme. It was something that his old colleague, Harake, used to say while they were making haste towards their mission setting. He had jumped and whooped while saying it, looking rather like a schoolboy than a 26-year old ANBU personnel. He rather reminded Itachi of Naruto in that context. Both had that same exuberant vitality and the silly niceness.

Of course, the last time Harake had said this was just before he had been blown up into millions of pieces by a hidden explosive parchment.

But Itachi was being morbid.

Morbidity was his thing nowadays. You could almost associate Itachi would morbid. Heck, you could probably use the words as synonyms.

This rather depressing behavior had all started ever since a certain Hokage had invited a certain highly-noninclusive group of Konoha for a Very Urgent Announcement. The VUA consisted of the Hokage basically informing the ANBU (also known as the Hokage's shoelickers) of a Very Serious Threat Against The Village.

So Itachi, being the unsuspecting, innocent, poor, naïve lamb that he was (not), had attended the VUA meeting. Of course, if he had refused, he would be finding himself hung by his pink polka-dotted boxers from the window of the Hokage's room.

Which would have been a disaster for his reputation, he was sure. After all, how were people supposed to feel fear and intimidation from a person hanging seventy feet above the ground in his pink polka-dotted boxers?

All talks of boxers aside, he had, as a good citizen and a sane person, attended the VUA. Only to fing out about the VSTATV.

And yes, that stood for Very Serious Threat Against The Village, thank you very much.

Then the depression had started. Because Itachi, having above-normal intelligence, had interpreted the Hokage's words correctly. Namely, the fact that the Hokage was announcing this to only the ANBU directly translated into "You who have been foolish enough to risk your asses by joining the most thankless and underpaid job in the world, it is you now who have to suffer by going on extra missions and not being able to sleep properly until my flawed information-gatherers can tell me that there is no more threat left in any part of the world."

And so Itachi, who was a member of that unfortunate group, was currently trudging along on a mission to the Snow village.

It didn't help that it was the dead of winter and that they were walking in two feet of snow.

Especially when considering the fact that right now he could have been sitting in warm, balmy Konoha and enjoying an iced-tea with his fiancée.

Fiancée. The word sent odd shivers up his spine. Slightly tingly, the way your hand becomes after you've cut off blood circulation to it for too long. At first he had been wondering if this was because of a medical condition, and had even visited the hospital to search for any signs of impending paralysis.

A female intern at the hospital had checked him. And run away madly blushing and giggling when he had explained the supposed trigger.

Women were weird.

He, being a person of Above Average Intelligence, was usually smart enough never to group an entire subspecies under a single umbrella definition, but this particular characteristic certainly qualified for each member of this particular category. Each member of the human female race had certain definitive characteristics that made her out of the ordinary, and not in an easy manner. It only served to highlight their difference from the ordinary primate, who had very fixed behavioral patterns, and made then that much harder to be studied by a group of elite psychoanalysts and zoologists. Because, while there were some similarities in the behavioral patterns, most of it went down the drain because of the sheer expanse of the various ways they reacted to a situation.

Take, for example, the same setting with various different women as the subject. A man, being temporarily hormonally imbalanced, made, in vernacular, a 'move' upon a woman. It was, in short, a sort of a mating call exclusive to the male genus of the human species. While varying in vocabulary and style, all of these attempts had roughly the same purpose and movement in mind. A woman's reaction, however, varied dramatically.

The Hokage would probably take a desk to the poor chap. Her assistant, Shizune, would blush, but very firmly inform the offender that she didn't think it appropriate. His colleague, Anko, would loudly and rudely embarrass that perpetrator. His fiancée, Hinata, would blush and faint. His brother's rabid fan, Sakura, would probably punch them into the sky. His brother's other rabid fan, Ino, would flirt and agree. And the jounin Kurenai would give a warm, motherly smile, while explaining that she was married, and that her husband would gladly unman anyone who dared to make a move on her, so hush and run along now.

The variety of response was stunning. This made a clear, concise scientific analysis extremely hard to derive, marking women as one of the hardest specimens to date.

Not that he would ever call women specimens in public. No, that should be considered sexist, wouldn't it? Not to mention that the Hokage would gladly unman him. And do some damage thereafter.

Anyway, getting back to the persistently elusive point, he was depressed. Even full of angst, if he was to romanticize a little bit. This arose from the following facts:

1) He had not had a decent break between his missions. All emergency rules were compromised, and he had been deemed necessary to work for the welfare of the village. Basically, all his civic and work rights were indefinitely suspended. They were in a state of emergency.

2) He was ploughing through an extremely cold wasteland in a certain part of the snow country for no particular reason but to verify the death of a supposedly-unimportant missing-nin.

3) He was away from his fiancée. He wasn't sure why this would contribute to his misery, but it did, and he wasn't in a healthy enough physical state to compel his mind into wondering why.

4) His younger brother, was, for some reason, befriending his fiancée. Now this wasn't a cause for concern, but the fact that it had happened so suddenly – starting in this past year, in fact – and that Sasuke was attempting to hide it from him was slightly worrying. But to hell with that – he was most likely trying to make the transition into his family a little less awkward and painful.

5) His teammate, Mitarashi Anko, had stolen all of his food supplies. He would have easily have obtained them back if it were not for the fact that they were now resting half-digested in her duodenum, mixed with her saliva, hydrochloric acid, mucus, pepsin, bile juice, pancreatic amylase, trypsin, and all the other juices secreted by her digestive canal up to that point in the digestive tract.

6) They were basically foodless, and would not be able to travel for more than twenty miles in this weather, thus making them effectively hungry tonight. They would go to bed with only extra secretions of hydrochloric acid in their stomachs.

7) He was slightly angry about having been sent out of the village when he clearly should have stayed behind and guarded it, being one of its most capable shinobi. This was a repeat of the incident five years ago. He had been assigned to Level-B escort duty, and, as a result, had failed to protect his village during the combined Sand-Sound attack, marooned in the Mist Village as he was. He would never be able to shake of the feeling, no matter how conceited it was, that maybe if he had been in the village, the Third Hokage wouldn't have died.

8) His hand stung from the shallow knife wound that he had accidentally inflicted upon himself in the morning. The medic in his team had offered to apply some peanut and almond balm to it, only to discover that Anko had consumed all the edible medicines also.

9) He felt like being miserable and depressed.

All in all, Itachi Uchiha was having a Bad Day. He did not normally have a Bad Day, but when he did, he redefined the phrase 'pissed off'.

Which meant that anybody who dared to attack them better watch out. He was not liable for any injuries sustained by the opposing party. And he certainly wasn't liable if they turned into mincemeat in the process.

Swish, flick, duck, jump.

A flash to her right. She resisted the natural urge to squeal and reveal her position, instead shifting her angle to get a better view of her opponent through the spiny leaves of the trees. Nothing in the field area. It was becoming increasingly hard to resist the urge to use her Byakugan.

A sound to her back. Move, fast, through the trees. Substitution jutsu. A crack as her substitution was caught. Move faster, beneath the shrubbery. Look out. Nothing.

Crawl nearer to the tree. Careful not to make any sound or he will be right beside you. Slight wood showing through the moss on the trunk. He's here. Increase self-awareness level to full maximum.

A slight whoosh of air to her left. Move, now. Jump high in the air, dodge three kunai approaching from east. Slight glint. Attached to strings – a net. Slice through them, now. Leap, duck, run.

In the middle of the field, surrounded by trees. Byakugan seeming like an increasingly wanted commodity now. Straining her eyes, frustration mounting for want of her kekkai genkai. Nothing. Up, east, west, south, north. Nothing. That meant…

Leap into the air as the ground cracks from beneath your feet. Arrange yourself in defensive position. Kunai, shuriken. No Gentle Fist, no Byakugan. Bummer.

Slight flick to the right. Kunai again. Thank god he wasn't using his Sharingan. She would have been dead by now.

Swirl, dash, whirl around. Check the back. Nothing. In hiding, then.

A light chirp. Distraction. Concentrate harder, otherwise he'll get you. A slight movement to the right. Now, faster, run there. Hand out, grab his neck, slam against a tree. Finished.

If anyone else had happened to enter that training ground right at that very moment, then they would no doubt have been very surprised to see a fierce-looking Hinata Hyuuga holding Sasuke Uchiha by his neck against a tree.

Luckily for Sasuke, however, it happened to be a balmy Wednesday today. And everyone knows that balmy Wednesday's are meant for leisurely spooning with one's spouse in bed or sipping ice-cold lemonade at the closest corner-shop. So he didn't have any witnesses to document his humiliation.

Well, there were a few. A mother cuckoo saw him and let out a triumphant trill, almost as if she had been waiting for this moment for all her life.

Hinata certainly knew that she had been waiting for this moment for all of hers.

It had been seven months since he had started training her, only four left to go until her ultimate showdown against Hanabi. And today was the first and only time when she felt like she had a shot at it. That maybe she could finally beat Hanabi and regain what little pride she had, take control of her life, maybe even guide her leadership instead of being a complete walkover.

Sasuke, for that matter, looked absolutely flabbergasted. His mouth was hanging open as she herself took in the scene of her hand wrapped around his throat, pinning him against a tree. Then his face split into a smile – a smile, not a smirk – and he said, with pride ringing in every word "Well done!"

It surprising how a few words can make us come down to our knees. Psychologists think that this is usually due to some deep-seated desire. Some people need entire long sentences, some need pages of loving words to feel what they had been deprived of for so long. For Hinata, however, these two words – well done – were enough. She let go of him, and with a cry of surprise, slid to the ground, on her knees, tears running down her surprised face.

Ever since she was a child, she had thirsted for those words. Every day, every moment was spent trying to please her father, trying to get him to notice her, to feel proud of her, to love her. She wanted to be an asset, not a liability, and so she had strained herself, working night and day to earn his approval, and to hear two words that she had been thirsting for since forever – well done.

Even in her team, where she was so much weaker than Kiba or Shino, she had waited for those words. Kurenai had been the best teacher possible, loving her as if she were her own daughter, encouraging her, but Kurenai's focus had been on mainly protecting her from her father, and, as a result, she had never really taken time to oversee Hinata's training. Even in the chuunin exams, Kurenai had been disappointed that Kiba had failed, not her. When Hinata had expressed her frustration at her defeat, Kurenai had said that it didn't matter, nobody was expecting her to win, she should just be proud that she did her best.

Those words, meant to soothe and comfort, had been so bitter that they had poisoned her very soul. They merely confirmed what Hinata had been trying to hide from herself for her entire life – that it didn't matter. Nobody was expecting her to win, nobody had enough confidence in her. To some, like Kurenai, it didn't matter, because she saw Hinata as a daughter, not as a student. To her father, it did, because she was shaming the clan and bringing disgrace upon the Hyuuga name. But even so, nobody had been expecting her to win. She had already been given up on, discarded as a lost cause.

It was this very sentiment that had led for her to be picked as Itachi's bride. Hinata respected Itachi, enjoyed his company, and liked him even, but she was never able to look at him without feeling a little resentment. He himself wasn't at fault, but every time she looked at him, she was reminded of the fact that their bond had been forged by the fact that she was too weak. She was useless for anything other than marrying off and having babies, a worthless high-society housewife. It displayed her clan's utter lack of faith in her abilities. She was just another tool to them, just another proposal, just another business opportunity. They saw this option of casting her off, and they grabbed it eagerly, almost desperate to have her off their hands. Because maybe if she wasn't with them anymore, they wouldn't be constantly reminded of just how big a failure she was.

But today she wasn't a failure. Today she had won, had defeated Uchiha fucking Sasuke for God's sake. She had exceeded everybody's expectations, and had proved them – those critics, those vultures – wrong. She was strong, goddammit, and she was going to showcase her strength and ability to its full strength.

She was still crying on the forest floor, with a panicky Sasuke beside her, trying to figure out what was wrong, and handing her tissue after tissue, fumbling nervously. She felt a sudden rush of affection for him. Sasuke. A formerly unknown person, who had morphed into such a good friend of hers. He was the one who had made this day possible for her. He was the one who had pushed her beyond her limit, strengthened her from inside out, and the one who had helped her reach this pinnacle.

And even though Sasuke would never know it, he had performed a miracle today.

He was the first person ever to say "Well done" to Hinata.

To say that Sasuke Uchiha was flabbergasted would be making the understatement of the century.

You see, the word 'flabbergasted' suggested a certain limit to the amount of surprise tingeing our system. Above that level, the word to describe that feeling hadn't been coined yet. And it was exactly that same uncoined word that was running through his mind as of this moment.

You see, Sasuke Uchiha was very like his brother, even if he hated him. Without ever discussing the topic with him, his mind moved in similar circles. And what his mind had deduced as of this moment was that women were, without a doubt, the strangest creatures on the planet.

You see, since morning, Sasuke Uchiha had been subject to the many different mood swings that were experienced by women. He had been subject to Sakura's undying and extremely annoying affections (because they had patrol duty at dawn), Tsunade's harsh remonstrations (because Naruto had made enough noise to wake even hibernating bears), Ino's fangirly squeals (because they - that is, him and Naruto – had run into her team when they were having breakfast at Ichiraku's), and finally, Hinata's rapid change of emotions.

And, even though the list above suggested otherwise, Sasuke found that today, Hinata was the one who confused him most.

She had been quiet as always when he had first met up with her, smiling shyly and stuttering just a little, but had seemed to regain some of her confidence when they had been fighting. She had fought well – really well – and then, when she had finally managed to defeat him for the first time ever, she had burst into tears.

And now he was hovering like a pathetic butterfly over a bawling girl who just so happened to be engaged to his brother, and who he himself happened to be in love with. Not to mention, a Hyuuga, his mortal enemy, and the Hyuuga heiress at that, highly guarded and treasured. Her guards would follow the 'kill first, ask questions later' policy if they saw her like this.

"Please, please stop crying," he muttered desperately, flitting around like a worried mother hen, wringing his hands. "Hinata, I'm begging you, please stop crying. Just tell me what's wrong, and I'll fix it, I swear."

But she went on bawling as if she hadn't heard a single word. Which was highly likely, considering the amount of noise she was making.

A particularly high-pitched wail hit his ears, and he flinched. He swore loudly, only prompting her to bawl harder.

He swore, he loved this girl, but if she went on with this for the next two minutes, he was going to strangle her and throw her body in a ditch, consequences be damned.

She went on crying for the next ten minutes.

By the end of those ten minutes, Sasuke had officially given up on getting through to the normal, sane person hidden behind the sniveling idiot. He was sitting on a rock, holding his head in his hands, almost chanting the words "Please stop, I don't want to die. Please stop, I don't want to die. Please stop, I don't want to die…"

And that was where he was when the attack came.

Rock Lee.

That was his name, and he was proud of it. The words reminded him of youth and the power of spring.

Youth was very important to him, as was strength. These two factors were the pinnacle of success for his master and mentor, Maito Guy, and he too wanted to follow in those gigantic footsteps.

For now, however, he was abstaining from that mighty goal and merely enjoying a nice lazy day. Well, lazy for him.

He had woken up at four 'o' clock in the morning, put on some more weights on top of the 60kg that he was already carrying, and promptly raced around the field for four hundred laps. Then he had gone through the 'Intense Monkey Routine' that Gai-sensei had recommended, finishing up with 500 push-ups and a morning spar with a wooden log (which basically consisted of him chopping the log into tiny little splinters).

Beginning to feel the pangs of hunger, he had encountered an exuberant Naruto finishing up his morning meal of ramen. Through a mouthful of pork and noodles, the blond-haired shinobi had explained that originally he had ventured into this fine establishment with his excellent but rather emotionally oppressive friend/teammate/eternal rival, Uchiha Sasuke, but that Sasuke-san had already finished his meal and left early to take care of some unfinished business.

Lee, ever-willing to oblige a friend, had immediately offered to keep Naruto company while he finished his meal, all the while helpfully providing some tips to Ichiraku-san on how to make his ramen healthier and more youthful. The ramen-maker, sadly, seemed to be suffering from some sort of lung disease, as every time he opened his mouth to thank Lee for his valuable tips and guidelines, an odd sort of spluttering and choking sound used to come out in its place.

Finishing his own bowl of Super hyper! Beef and takoyaki ramen, Lee bid his eternal friend Naruto good bye, and promptly ventured to one of the more disused training grounds, that he had not seen for nearly a year.

You see, Lee was not like any other normal sane person who would be spending their Saturday's relaxing. He had the Fire of Youth in him, and he intended to utilize it to its full potential. Why waste a day when you can use it to train and become one step closer towards defeating your eternal rival (aka Hyuuga Neji)?

Upon venturing into the training ground, however, he was surprised to hear a woman's heartbreaking sobs. Being the sympathetic, pleasant man that he was, he immediately went to enquire about her safety and health, perturbed about what could make a woman cry so, especially on such a nice, youthful day.

Following his shinobi reflexes, he eventually arrived at a small clearing in the middle of the forests surrounding the training ground. And the sight that met his eyes was so peculiar that he actually gaped for a good while.

His eternal rival/ best friend's younger cousin Hyuuga Hinata was crying on the ground, while Uchiha Sasuke was sitting on the nearby log, holding his head in his hands and muttering something under his breath.

Now, Lee didn't have anything against Hinata. He quite liked her, in fact. She was his teammate Neji's cousin. She brought him tea and snacks whenever he and Tenten were over at the Hyuuga compound to practice. And, trumping all, she was important to Neji. He cared for her, protected her, and valued her. She was his little sister, and valuable to him. If he saw her crying, he would definitely not be pleased.

And if Neji was not pleased, neither was Lee.

The situation was quite obvious in this case. Hinata-san was crying, and Uchiha Sasuke was nearby. That person was an emotionless, youthless rock. The only obvious conclusion was that he had made her cry.

And so Lee did what any outraged friend would do. He attacked Uchiha Sasuke with all of his might.

Lunging forward with the strength of the Green Beast in him, he promptly tackled the Uchiha to the ground. Pummeling him with the special Four-hand taijutsu that his revered Gai-sensei had taught him, he made short work of his opponent's defenses.

Sasuke, for all that he was surprised, recovered quickly, and, throwing Lee of him, backflipped to face his opponent, quickly releasing three successive fireballs. Dodging Lee's superhuman punches, he moved to get to upper ground, where he would be safer.

Lee, for his part, was uncontrollable. He was a single-minded entity, and his goal now was to punish the man who had made his best friend's little sister cry. He attacked him with all his force, executing several double-flips, stabbing him right through his seventh rib, and inflicting several bruises.

Sasuke, who originally seemed to be holding up pretty well, was showing strain under Lee's continuous attack. The speed and strength of Lee's attacks meant that Sasuke could not retaliate with moves of his own, and absolute defence was becoming harder and harder to achieve.

Suddenly, an unexpected kick to his navel sent him flying backwards through the air. He let out a sharp gasp as his body his the gravel, feeling a fist reach through the distance to hit him in squarely in his midsection. Gasping for air, he sank to the ground, seeing a green blur move towards him helplessly.

Lee, for his part, was feeing quite victorious as he brought down the Almighty Uchiha Sasuke. Streaking forward, he moved to strike the final strike, the final punch that would knock the Uchiha unconscious and in a lot of pain, when suddenly, a scream rang through the makeshift arena.

"Stop!"

He froze instinctively, whirling around to face the speaker, only to witness Hinata-san, silvery tears still dotting her face. Her hair was askew, and she looked like she had just gone through a great trial.

"Stop," she said again, weakly lurching forward. "Lee-san, he didn't do anything, so please don't hit him. It's my fault."

Lee slowly turned around to face her, a puzzled expression showing through his expressive face. "But Hinata-san, he was trying to hurt -"

"No he wasn't," Hinata wearily interrupted. "It was my fault, I swear. He wasn't trying to hurt me at all. He's helping me, in fact."

Lee, fully confused right now, had only one question in his mind. "What do you mean? What's going on, Hinata-san?"

Uh-oh! Hinata's in TROUBLE.

The rest of the conversation will be fully explained in the next chapter. I know its a cliffhanger, but please bear with me, okay?

Alright. Moving on to the thing I mentioned above.

Its sort of a contest.

Whoever wished to participate can take any scene in the story, and scene at all, and twist it into something funny, instead of what I did. The rules lie below.

1) It can be any scene, but the way it went should be quite different from the way I made it go.

2) It has to be humorous.

3) The chapter should be mentioned at the top.

4) Multiple scenes are allowed, but they should be segmented by a line divider and each chapter should be differently marked.

5) Obviously, you have to inform me if you are going to participate / have already submitted a story under this contest.

6) Any and all questions will be answered if you PM or review.

7) The deadline is 25th of November, 2010.

8) I would prefer a one-shot, but if you have written a multi-chapter story, then please mention that in your PM/review.

9) The WINNER of this challenge (who will be judged by me) will be given the opportunity to name any ONE chapter. That is, give its heading, and I will write a chapter accordingly, making it fit into this story. Either that, or they can specify a one-shot that they want me to write. They can choose either of the two options.

10) The person who comes in second can officially give me a topic on which I will write out a scene. That scene will be a conversation between Hinata and any other person. The second-place's choice. This includes Sasuke and Itachi as the people whom Hinata can have a conversation with. However, she can only have a conversation with ONE OTHER PERSON.

11) The person who comes in third can name a certain topic that they want discussed between Sasuke and some other person or Itachi and some other person. They can choose between Sasuke and Itachi (i.e. either one of them). However, this conversation cannot be between Sasuke/Itachi and Hinata. Everyone except for Hinata is possible. The third-place's choice. Again, this conversation can only be between two people, that is, Sasuke/Itachi and ANY OTHER PERSON EXCEPT HINATA.

I hope to see some takers. Its the first time I've done something like this, and I'm super excited about it. Hopefully, I'll get a lot of great stories to read. Please PM if you are planning to write / have already written and posted a story.

Good luck!

Oh, and review ;)

~conorlover~