Please see first chapter for disclaimer, rating, warnings, pairings, etc.
Special Thanks: goes out to Sachiko Heiwajima, DivineGlory, Tamani, Dani Stark, wolf-enzeru, LaydiiV, Renoa Heartilly, Kibachow, pheecat, Danish78, ImCutePoison, Marda, Seven Deadly, and kichisaburo for all your reviews! Also thanks to everyone who's added this to their favorites and follows lists!
Author's Note: Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and now a happy Black Friday! So many exciting things coming up in next few chapters - we get to see Itachi and find out what's going on between him and Sasuke, there's a wedding, and Hinata does, naturally, eventually build up enough courage to go see Sasuke to give him his library cards! I'm so excited for everything, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter! Thanks for reading!
*~Chapter XI~*
~Family~
For Sasuke, it seemed like the clock crawled through the hours on Friday. He spent the entire day on edge, one eye almost always trained on his watch's face as he tried to clean house, to work on his book, to play with Ninja...
His big black shepherd, picking up on his master's mood, prowled around edgily. He barked at every little noise, and Sasuke finally put him in the backyard when Ninja wouldn't stop barking at birds singing in the bushes bordering the front porch.
Slumping down into his desk chair, Sasuke stared at his computer screen and tried to work up the energy to get some writing done before Itachi arrived. But the boiling anxiety in his gut, combined with Hinata's explosion yesterday, kept him from being able to concentrate.
Rubbing his hand across his eyes, which felt heavy and gritty from his terrible night's lack of sleep, Sasuke finally gave up on writing. Part of him was tempted to do so for good. But he knew if he could just survive his brother's visit, things would calm down and he would be able to get back to it.
Sasuke slid open the back door and stepped out onto the deck, nearly tripping over the tennis ball lying on the welcome mat. Leaning down, he picked it up and bounced it a couple of times, drawing Ninja's attention. Forcing himself into a lighter mood, he moved to the edge of the deck and lobbed the ball far out into the yard, managing a smile as his dog scrambled after it.
Tail wagging crazily, Ninja brought the ball back and dropped the slobbery offering at his master's feet. Sasuke perched on one of the steps leading down to the lawn, picked up the ball, and tossed it again, laughing as Ninja overshot the ball and had to spin around to grab it and bring it back.
Tiring of catch after a dozen or so throws, Ninja brought his outdoor rope toy, and Sasuke played a few rounds of tug-of-war. The intense competition with the huge, muscular dog helped ease a lot of the human's tension. Before long he found himself on his feet and trying his best to get the rope away from his faithful canine companion.
Suddenly Ninja dropped his end and trotted toward the edge of the fence, his ears pricked, tail up in a defensive position. A soft growl rumbled in his throat, then built to a series of barks which nearly drowned out the sound of a motor out front of the house.
Sasuke glanced at his watch: quarter till seven. Apparently the plane had been on time - just his luck.
Sighing, Sasuke ascended the steps and entered the house, Ninja on his heels. Still barking, the big dog beat his master to the front door, then stood there tilting his head back and forth, quieting at Sasuke's command save for his panting and the thump of his wagging tail against the catch-all table in the entryway.
Scratching Ninja's ears, Sasuke nudged his dog out of the way with his knee before opening the heavy front door. An unfamiliar dark SUV sat in the driveway at the base of the stone steps leading up to the porch, the windows darkly tinted, but not so much he couldn't recognize the man in the driver's seat.
Or the woman next to him.
Even as he watched, the back door shot open and a blur of purple and black tumbled from the backseat. Sasuke braced himself as his five-year-old niece barreled up the steps and ran headlong into him, her dark hair flying, wide blue eyes alight with excitement.
"Uncle Sasuke, Uncle Sasuke!" Uchiha Karura laughed as her uncle picked her up and spun her in a circle, then pulled her into a hug. "I missed you," she sighed, snuggling her face against his shoulder.
"I missed you, too, kid," he said. And it was true. The last time he'd seen Karura, she was barely walking, and she definitely wasn't talking this clearly. He talked to her on the phone for her birthday and Christmas, but hearing her voice and seeing her were two completely different things. "You sure grew up. What are you now, eighteen?"
"I'm five!" Karura pouted briefly when Sasuke set her down, but then she spotted Ninja and her whole face lit up. "Ninja!" she squealed.
Sasuke kept an eye on the girl and the dog as they got re-acquainted with each other. He grinned as Ninja sat down, tail pumping happily a mile a minute. Karura wrapped her skinny arms around the overgrown puppy's neck and gave him a gentle hug.
While Sasuke had been doting on his niece, Itachi had climbed out of the driver's side of his rented vehicle and come around the SUV to open the passenger door for his wife. The younger brother watched warily as the couple moved to the back hatch and got their luggage, then came up the steps. They watched him just as warily the whole time.
Clenching his hand tightly around the doorknob inside the door so they wouldn't see, he said stiffly, "Glad you made it safely."
Itachi smiled, his eyes moving from his brother to take in the front facade of the house. "It hasn't changed a bit," he murmured.
Sighing inwardly, Sasuke turned to face his sister-in-law. Uchiha Temari, now thirty-two years old, was still as tanned and toned as she'd been three years ago, the last time he saw her. Her blonde hair, pulled back in four distinctive ponytails, shone with threads of gold in the sunlight, and she studied him with teal eyes as cautious of him as he was of her. From the look on her face, she didn't want to be here any more than he wanted her to be.
"Hey," he finally said to her, reluctantly.
A distant, polite smile twitched the corners of Temari's mouth. "Hello."
Sasuke stepped back to let his brother and sister-in-law into the house. Whereas Karura's greeting had been effusive and genuine, the three adults eyed each other guardedly and anxiously, none of them knowing what to say.
At last, Itachi cleared his throat and set down the bags he carried out of the way of the front door. Straightening, he pushed his dark ponytail over his shoulder and said, "The timing of everthing worked out well. We stayed in England a bit longer than we'd anticipated for vacation, and then when we saw the date..." He trailed off and shrugged. "Seemed like a good time for a visit."
In Sasuke's opinion, it was the worst time for a visit. But he bit back the poisonous words begging to spew - none of them were appropriate to be said in the presence of a five-year-old's innocent ears - and muttered instead, "Sure. Best time there could be."
Itachi's dark eyes flickered with the awareness of everything Sasuke hadn't said. Temari crossed her arms in front of her stomach and slanted a glance at Karura. "After I finished commentating at Wimbledon, we all decided we hadn't had a proper vacation in a while, so we toured the British isles for about a week and a half, and now here we are!"
Sasuke sighed silently to himself. Sabaku Temari had been a force to reckon with on tennis courts across the world from the time she was sixteen. She won her first career Grand Slam at seventeen. She then went on to win twenty-three more (including only the second Golden Slam in history) before she announced her surprise retirement at twenty-seven. Sasuke remembered the big brouhaha made over it at the time, since Temari had still been at the top of her game and winning championships right and left.
Despite himself, Sasuke had tuned in to one interview with Temari when she talked about why she was retiring. He'd heard the news on the television, not through his brother as he would have expected, and he wondered why she would choose to stop doing something she loved so much when she was still the best at it.
To this day, five years later, he could still remember her answer so clearly. Temari had looked straight into the camera - almost as if she were staring right into Sasuke's eyes - and answered his silent question, echoed by millions all over the world. "I have enjoyed my time in tennis, and am very thankful for every single player who has helped me play so many memorable matches. But, as much as I love this sport, there are things I love more. I want to spend more time with my husband, and I want a family. Thank you."
Though Temari didn't play any more, she still kept her fingers on the pulse of the game by designing her own line of tennis gear and commentating at all the Majors and several other tournaments in the States.
Sasuke silently watched his sister-in-law kneel next to her daughter, where she wrapped one arm around Karura's shoulders as she scratched Ninja behind the ears. The smile on her face made it clear she didn't regret her decision five, now almost six, years ago at all.
And he wondered, What would it be like to love someone so much I would be willing to give up everything?
He didn't know, but found himself surprised to realize he'd like to find out.
Hinata sat quietly at a table and strung together the remaining paper cranes while Tenten, Ino, and Sakura stood scattered about the room going about their own individual decorating duties. The remnants of their meal sat on a table in the corner, along with their drinks and a bowl full of chocolate all four women kept dipping into - Ino's contribution to the evening.
"Twenty-four hours from now," Sakura said from her place by the window, "you'll be a married woman."
Tenten turned slightly on the ladder and grinned. "I know! I can hardly believe it; but at the same time, I can't wait!" She looked giddy, and had spent the majority of their time together floating around in a happy fog. In fact, Hinata wondered why she even needed the ladder. She was so happy, it almost seemed like she could just float right up to the ceiling on her own.
Outside, thunder rumbled in the distance. All four women froze, wide eyes staring at each other, panic on their faces.
"I don't remember a thunderstorm on the weather report!" Tenten slowly stepped down the ladder, her spirits seeming to sink along with her physical altitude.
"Better tonight than tomorrow," Sakura pointed out.
Ino already had her phone out, her fingers flying across the touchpad. "It's summer," she mumbled to her screen. "Popcorn thunderstorms aren't anything new. But I'm checking the weather for tomorrow, just in case."
Hinata watched Tenten, who dropped down on a chair and watched her blonde friend with anxiety written all over her face. Though the reception was being held indoors, the wedding itself was to take place in the middle of the nearby park. The bride and groom themselves would be in the gazebo, but their attendants and the guests would all be out in the open.
If it rained - or worse, stormed - Hinata wasn't sure what Tenten and Neji planned to do. They'd been planning various details of their wedding since high school, and she knew one of the first things they'd decided they wanted was an outdoor wedding. She didn't want to see that spoiled for her cousin and best friend.
Ino blew out a gusty sigh and rolled her eyes. "Sunny skies tomorrow," she said. "It'll be warm but not hot, with only a slight breeze. It'll be fine for the wedding."
Sakura cleared her throat and twisted the napkin she'd been in the process of folding. "But what about now? If it rains too much and the ground is muddy..."
Tenten groaned loudly and hid her face in her hands.
Looking worried, the pink-haired woman hurried across the room to hug her friend. "I'm sorry, Tenten! I'm always shooting my mouth off without thinking."
"No, you're being realistic and looking ahead." Tenten dropped her hands and lifted her head, a brave smile wobbling across her lips. "Me? I'm going to bury my head in the sand and pretend this conversation never happened." She hesitated, then ventured, "Is a rain dance supposed to encourage rain, or discourage it?"
"Encourage, I think," Ino said. She tucked her phone back into the pocket of her shorts and tossed her long, heavy ponytail over her shoulder. "Maybe you should stick to the waltz."
"I think maybe I should." Standing up, Tenten let out her breath and nodded her head. "Like you said, Ino, popcorn thunderstorms aren't anything new in summer around here. This'll come, stay a bit, then move on, and things will dry out plenty by the time tomorrow comes." Climbing back up the ladder, she went back to work with obvious enthusiasm.
By the time the reception room in the park's public building was decorated and the four women went their own ways, Hinata could hardly see Tenten's taillights ahead of her because of the rain sheeting across the road. She clenched the steering wheel of Old Sensible in both hands, wishing the rain would slack off at least a little until they got home and inside.
The drive felt like it took ten times longer than usual, but finally both women pulled into their respective parking places. Hinata grabbed her phone, keys, and purse, then ran after Tenten to the entrance of their condo.
A particularly loud peal of thunder sounded right overhead as Tenten shut the door behind them. "I'm going to turn on the TV and see what's going on," she said. "Are you going to grab some towels?"
Slipping out of her soaking sandals, Hinata nodded. While Tenten turned the weather on, she went to the hall linen closet and grabbed a couple of towels. After handing one to her friend, she worked on drying her hair as she watched the television.
"...storm watch remains in effect for the entire viewing area until one in the morning," Mitarashi Anko was in the process of saying. "But for now, those of you in this area marked in red-" she indicated several towns, including Konoha "-are under a severe thunderstorm warning. Torrential downpours, wind gusts up to sixty miles an hour, and frequent cloud-to-ground lightning have been reported with this storm. Stay indoors, and away from doors and windows during this storm. Power outages are likely-"
As if to prove Anko's words, the power flickered and died completely. Hinata blinked at the sudden darkness and silence, hands arrested with the towel still wrapping her hair.
"Just a sec," Tenten said from somewhere off to Hinata's right. A moment later the screen of her phone flickered to life, and she moved across the room toward the kitchen. "I think we've still got some candles here. Do you know where the matches are?"
"In the cabinet between the stove and fridge," Hinata said, following her friend. Draping the towel around her shoulders, she watched her friend press a button to keep her phone lit while she rummaged through one of the lower cabinets and produced three candles, still shrinkwrapped. "Excellent."
While Tenten retrieved the matches, Hinata pulled out a pretty candelabra she'd bought one day. She hadn't had a chance to use it, though she'd purchased it intending to use it for a party - or a romantic night in when she finally found Mr. Right. Using it during a thunderstorm seemed the next best thing, especially when her only alternative was complete darkness.
While the brunette lit the candles, Hinata headed back out to the hall and her purse. "I'll call the power company," she said. "I imagine they've already got people working on it, but depending on how widespread the outage is, the more reports the better, I think."
"Good idea!" Tenten called. Her shadow moved across the doorway to the kitchen, from which cozy yellow light spilled into a rectangle on the floor. "I know it'll take a while, but I've never been particularly fond of the dark."
"Me either," Hinata muttered. She'd suffered often from night terrors as a child, and though they'd gone away as she got older, she still wasn't particularly fond of the darkness. Enough candlelight from the kitchen showed her the way to her purse, and she reached inside to pull out her phone.
Instead of the mobile device, she pulled out Sasuke's library card. For a moment she stared at it, regret stirring in her chest, and she sighed. She'd halfway intended to take his card to him after they finished decorating, but it had taken longer than expected, and by the time she left the park she didn't want to have to drive any more than necessary.
Besides, Sasuke's looming mansion seemed spooky enough in broad daylight. She could only imagine how creepy it would look at night in a thunderstorm.
Shivering at the thought, Hinata stuffed the card back into her purse with a muttered promise to take it and its smaller companion to him later. After the storm, and preferably in the middle of the day when his house's creepiness was at its lowest possible factor.
Tenten appeared in the doorway while Hinata fought her way through the automated system for their power company to report the outage. When the latter finally hung up, she noticed the tears sparkling in the former's eyes. "Hey," she said, feeling uneasy. "Everything's going to be fine, you know." If she said it firmly enough, maybe they'd both believe it.
Sniffing, Tenten swiped at her eyes with the hand not holding the candelabra, which looked pitiful with only three of its holders filled. "With all this rain, the park is going to be so muddy tomorrow. Even if it does dry out in time for the wedding, it's still got to be decorated, and the chairs have to be set up earlier." Letting out a shaky sigh, she shook her head. "It's going to be a total disaster. It's too late to change the location, and I know it sounds ridiculous, but we wanted an outdoor wedding so badly! It's selfish of me to say that, since I'm marrying Neji anyway, and I'm so in love with him and I want to marry him, so I should be happy no matter what, but..." She trailed off, breathless and miserable.
Hinata hurried across the room and threw her arms around her friend, careful not to upset the candles and set either of them on fire. "Oh, Tenten, everything is going to be fine," she cried, her earlier confidence feeling much more real now. "I don't know how, but it will be. You're just having pre-wedding jitters, which is normal for every bride." She hesitated, then pulled back from her friend and wrinkled her nose. "Or so I've read."
As Hinata hoped, Tenten laughed. "You've read a lot, so I trust your judgement on the matter," she said. Wiping at her eyes again, she smiled and said, "Thanks, Hinata. I needed that laugh."
She was happy to oblige, and said so. "Really, though, Tenten. Somehow, we're all going to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. Even if we have to hijack my father's back yard to make sure you get your outdoor wedding, this is going to happen." Hinata would guarantee it, no matter what she had to do.
Tenten smiled and nodded. "You're right. Everything is going to be fine."
Hinata just hoped she could keep up her end of the promise when push came to shove.
*~To Be Continued~*
Author's Ending Notes: So much tension in the first part of the chapter! But I adore Karura - she's such a joy to write. Her personality just sparks off the page, and I love writing her, especially around Ninja and Sasuke in particular. And the second half of the chapter - so many exciting things! But power outages are not fun - and storms the night before the wedding? Aiyee! Poor Tenten. But where would be the fun in smooth sailing, right? So much exciting stuff in store in the coming chapters... Thank you so much for reading this one, I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope to see you again for next week's chapter!