Please see first chapter for disclaimer, rating, warnings, pairings, etc.

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Author's Note: Once again, I'm so sorry for the delay. There's an additional note at the bottom that better explains what's going on, and while things are kind of rocky right now for a lot of reasons, I promise that I'm trying really hard to get the updates out as quickly as I can. In the meantime, thank you so much for your patience, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

*~Chapter XVII~*

~Fragile~

"The most important thing to remember is to take things slowly for the next day or two," Sakura said as she prepared to leave early the next morning. "Clear broth, rice porridge, tea. The key word is bland. I expect you to make Tenten stick to that diet, Lady Hinata."

"I w-will," Hinata said solemnly, adding with the hint of a twinkle in her eyes, "If she does not d-do so of her own accord, I shall order her to, or she will f-face my v-very grave displeasure."

Sitting crosslegged on her futon, Tenten made a wry face while rubbing her hands over her sore sides. "Trust me, the way I feel right now nothing sounds good to me," she said. "Sakura, thank you so much again for all you've done for me. And," she ducked her head, feeling a hot prickling behind her eyes, "I do sincerely apologize-"

Sakura laughed. "Oh, Tenten, stop it! I've told you I wasn't offended when you used Ino's nickname for me! Now, I'm leaving you some medicine to take in case you start feeling nauseated again, and you might once you put something into that tender stomach. Just keep in mind you'll be doing your lady a disservice if you need it, but don't take it." She then turned and bowed to Hinata. "Thank you for letting me stay here and sleep the rest of the night after Tenten stabilized, milady."

"I am v-very grateful you could come s-so quickly," Hinata said. "And that you knew how t-to unlock the d-door with a hairpin." She gave Tenten a reproachful look.

"She was still protecting you the only way she could," Sakura said simply as she picked up her healer's bag. "Well, I'd better get back to the hospital. See you both around Konoha sometime," she winked one of her apple-green eyes, "maybe even at Akimichi's!"

That's right, Tenten thought with a jolt of realization. She was in the same class at the Academy with Lord Sasuke, Ino, and the others. She must be in on it, too-

The pink-haired medic turned with a wave and reached to open the door to the private sitting room. Just before she touched it, it slid sharply open, framing a tall, grey-clad, dark-haired man. Uttering a surprised squeak she skipped rapidly backwards to avoid colliding with him as he swept a couple of steps into Hinata's bedroom and halted, looking thunderous.

Weakened and already emotionally shaky, Tenten's guilty thoughts instantly rushed to the amaryllis - and incriminating note - hidden in her clothes chest. An irrational panic crashed through her, crushing the breath from her lungs. He knows! Somehow he knows Neji was here, he must've been caught! What will happen to him, am I going to have to watch him die? A horribly vivid image siezed her mind: Neji kneeling, an indistinct black figure towering over him; the evil hiss and flash of a katana slicing toward his bared neck; an impossibly crimson fountain of blood- The room tilted and spun around her. She felt herself sagging forward as her vision went dark at the edges.

"Tenten!" As though from a great distance, she heard Hinata sharply cry her name, her light voice underscored by a man's deeper tones. Strong hands seized her shoulders in a firm grasp, easing her down onto her futon as Sakura crisply issued orders from just over her head.

"M'lady, a cold washcloth, please. You, sir, elevate her legs, a forty-five degree angle should do very well- Thank you, milady, now if you'll just put that across her forehead while I get a little something from my bag-"

An acrid, sinus-torturing odor exploded up her nostrils. Tenten gasped, choked, coughed as awareness came roaring back. It took a moment before she could focus on Sakura and Hinata, both of whom were bending over her, the latter looking very worried; another to realize Kakashi knelt at the foot of her futon, firmly clasping her ankles as he supported her bare feet against his chest, the corner of his eye crinkled in concern as he steadily watched her.

"Wh-what-?" She tried to speak, but her lips seemed incapable of forming even the one word. Her brother tightened his hold on her feet comfortingly as he smoothed his thumbs across the tops of her insteps, calming her and distracting her from the tension clogging the air in the room.

"Hinata, stand up and move away from there!" Lord Hiashi commanded harshly. For an anxious couple of heartbeats Tenten saw fire flicker in the heiress's lilac-tinged eyes, and feared her friend was going to defy that order. With a frustrated little sigh, though, Hinata obediently rose to her feet and took a couple of small steps backward. Once she'd done so he went on in that same hard voice, "I received a report this morning saying a healer was summoned to Lady Hinata's quarters during the night to treat a serious illness. I expected to find Tsunade attending to her. What is going on here? Who are you, girl?"

"Sh-she is Haruno Sakura, F-Father," Hinata said before Sakura could speak, "a healer and Lady Tsunade's special apprentice. When T-Tenten was taken ill in the n-night-"

Tenten caught a flicker of motion out of the corner of her eye as Lord Hiashi made a sharp gesture to silence his daughter. Sensing the arctic weight of the village ruler's regard shift to her, she experienced a sudden impulse to throw herself into the shelter of her brother's arms and bury her face against his chest.

Sakura patted Tenten's arm reassuringly, tucked the broken ammonia capsule into a pouch on her belt and stood. "No cause for alarm, Lord Hiashi," she said matter-of-factly with a quick bow. "Just a mild case of food poisoning - though I'm sure it didn't feel so mild to Tenten! - from sushi prepared on an improperly cleaned work surface at one of the booths set up for the festival. We've treated dozens of other cases at the hospital, and have already identified the source: a vendor from outside Konoha, who has been banned from applying for another permit for the next three years."

"Hn." Tenten couldn't help it; her toes curled reflexively at the sound of that hard, hated syllable, digging into Kakashi's chest. He casually raised his left hand to rub the scarred lids of his sightless eye. Watch out, that meant; and also, Be careful. After giving her feet a couple of light, quick squeezes, he gently lowered them, stood and resumed his place just behind Lord Hiashi. "I'm sure you understand my concern," Hinata's father said coldly. Turning, he stalked from the suite, leaving a stunned silence behind him.

Sakura regained her voice first. "Well!" she exclaimed. "That was-" She cut herself off with a guilty glance towards Hinata. Tenten looked that way, too, and saw her tapping the tips of her index fingers together in that familiar, nervous mannerism, an extremely troubled expression on her face.

Yes. Yes, it was, Tenten thought, torn between relief that Neji's risky nocturnal visit remained undiscovered and disquiet over what had just occurred. Her father seemed disappointed to find me sick instead of Hina. I'm pretty sure she thinks so, too. . . Is that what Kakashi meant with his warning? And if she had been sick- Would he have tried to blame her illness on Lord Sasuke and the rest of the Uchiha?

In the wake of Fugaku's arrogantly high-handed setting of their wedding date, it seemed to Itachi as though the days of growing, fragile friendship between him and Temari existed only in his memory.

By the time he saw her again at breakfast the next morning, she'd retreated into her sand princess persona: polite, but distant and oh so elusive. Gone were the quiet sunset strolls, the conversations interspersed with increasingly companionable silences. The only time he spent in her company was during meals, when at least one of her brothers was present; after which she would immediately excuse herself in order to see to the "numerous" things that had to be done before she could journey back to Konoha with Itachi to prepare for their wedding.

The situation did not appreciably improve once they'd departed Suna, either. Even though riding side by side, they were still in the company of others: most notably Temari's mousy attendant Matsuri, who had suddenly become omnipresent. Inwardly condemning his paternal parent to the most miserable perdition imaginable, Itachi accepted that for the present, at least until they got back to Konoha, the only place he could be alone with his betrothed was in his thoughts and dreams. He steadfastly refused to accept he'd never win Temari's heart, choosing to view the situation as a temporary setback. Although she'd still been a long way from loving him when Fugaku's edict arrived, he strongly believed she'd at least come to care for him as a friend. So gently, patiently, he set himself to rebuilding that relationship as though from the beginning, while continuing to look forward to the day when friendship would surely grow into so much more.

As a precaution, Lord Gaara ordered the healer Noriyuki to accompany the expanded party that traveled from Suna to Konoha; an addition Itachi welcomed since it allowed the two men, who'd become good friends during the course of Itachi's recovery, to continue their custom of playing shougi before retiring for the night. On the second night out from Suna Temari, who'd been an interested spectator to their matches prior to withdrawing again into her protective shell, quietly rejoined them. Neither man remarked on it; but Itachi fell asleep that night cherishing the tiny spark of hope warming his heart.

Three wearing days later, they arrived in Konoha. Mikoto and Sasuke met them in the courtyard of the Uchiha estate, Sasuke hanging back slightly as their mother tearfully grabbed Itachi in a rib-bruising embrace. When she moved on to greet Temari and Noriyuki and thank them for their care of him, his brother took her place.

"Can't let you go anywhere by yourself," Sasuke muttered in his ear, pulling him in for quick, hard hug.

Itachi breathed a tired laugh. "It's good to see you again, too," he said. The brothers followed Mikoto, Temari, and Noriyuki through the orderly melee of people sorting themselves, luggage, and horses out of the courtyard. As they mounted the wide steps to the house's main entrance, he asked, "How have things been here?"

"Interesting," Sasuke replied with a sideways look. "It can wait until later." And when Itachi returned the younger man's look with the addition of a lifted brow, "Seriously, it can wait. Enjoy your homecoming and rest up while you can, big brother."

Itachi got a small sense of what Sasuke meant much later after the evening meal (from which Fugaku was thankfully absent), when it was only Mikoto, her sons and Temari drinking tea together. To Itachi's dismay, arrangements for the approaching wedding dominated his mother's conversation. And not only on his own account: His deepening sensitivity to Temari's feelings led him to try several times to change the subject to different, more comfortable topics, but had little success even with Sasuke valiantly seconding his efforts. Mikoto would not be diverted. As unstoppably as the sun moving from east to west, she returned to it. Food, flowers, guest lists, sittings for a formal portrait - he could sense his betrothed's nerves winding tighter and tighter as the flow of details became a deluge.

The breaking point came when Mikoto started talking about the Uchiha shiromuku and tsunokakushi, the traditional wedding kimono and headpiece. "You'll look so lovely, Temari," she said, her dark eyes getting misty. "For the last two hundred fifty years every bride of the Uchiha heir has worn it-"

"Thank you, Lady Mikoto," Temari interrupted in a brittle voice. "I already have a kimono that I will be wearing for the ceremony."

For just a second, Mikoto looked taken aback. Speedily recovering, she said in a coaxing tone, "I'm sure it's beautiful, too, even if it doesn't carry the weight of tradition with it ours has. Perhaps you can wear it for the formal portrait we've commissioned, or even at the beginning of the reception, then you can change into your iro-uchikake for-"

Itachi saw that Temari's eyes had gone as flat and hard as the gemstone whose color they shared. "My mother wore it at her wedding. I intend to wear it at mine." She stood. "If you will please excuse me now: I'm very tired, and would like to retire." Without waiting for a response, she turned and swept out of the room.

Itachi swiftly got to his feet. "If you will excuse me as well, Mother," he said, and strode quickly after his fianceé. She must have broken into a run, because she was halfway up the staircase leading to the upper floors before he reached the foot of it. "Temari!" he called as he took the steps two at a time. "Please wait."

She halted a few steps from the top but kept her back turned to him, her posture rigid, rejecting. "I'm sorry if I offended your mother, Itachi," she said in a choked voice, "but I can't - deal with any more of this right now."

Itachi made himself stop just past the halfway point, well outside her personal space. "I'm sorry if she offended you," he said gently. "I've never known her to be so tactless."

He saw her lift a hand to swipe at her cheeks. "She's excited." The merest breath of a bitter laugh drifted down to him. "At least someone is."

Briefly bowing his head and wincing at how hard that bit, Itachi quickly regained his self-control. With something of the sense of putting a knife to his own throat, he asked, "Do you want to postpone the wedding, Temari?"

A long moment passed with no response from her. Just as he wondered if she'd even heard him, she turned her upper body sharply to look at him over her shoulder, an expression of disbelief on her face. "Do I- What? Are you serious? But your mother- Your father-"

He mounted one step closer to her, holding her gaze with his. "I'll deal with them. Don't you remember what I told you in Suna, Temari? How it is my privilege as well as my prerogative to protect you?"

Temari very slowly turned the rest of the way around to face him. She put one hand on the banister, gripping it so tightly he saw her knuckles whiten. Her lips parted; he braced himself to hear her say Yes! But then her shoulders almost imperceptibly sagged and she breathed out a long sigh. "Thank you, Itachi, but- It's going to happen anyway, whether sooner as planned, or later if we postpone. I don't want to be responsible for causing a rift between you and your parents, or the turmoil you would have to needlessly endure. No," she shook her head at him when he opened his mouth to protest, "I truly do appreciate your offer, but no. The wedding will take place as planned on the seventeenth of next month."

All Itachi could do in the face of her determination was bow and say quietly, "Very well, then. I won't delay you from your rest any longer. Good night, Temari."

"Good night," she replied, turning to finish her ascent of the stairs.

Tiredly wishing he could retire to his own quarters, Itachi instead returned to where he'd left his mother and brother to perform more damage control with Mikoto. When he got there, though, he found to his equal startlement and dread only Sasuke still sitting at the low table. "Mother?" he asked.

"Upset," his brother replied, meeting his eyes directly. "I think she'd talked herself into believing everything was going to go fairy-tale smooth once you got back from Suna. Now she knows it isn't. But she'll get over it. Temari?"

Itachi shrugged, not wanting to talk about what had just transpired between the two of them. "Upset," he said. "Probably wishing she could break something- I've had about all I can take for the day. Sorry to abandon you, Sasuke, but-"

"Actually, I was thinking about taking a nice long soak in the bath house." His brother stood up and ran an appraising eye over him. "You look like you could use some unwinding time yourself. Care to join me?"

"Yes," Itachi nodded slowly, "yes, I think I will. I didn't have time for more than a quick sponge-down earlier." Together they left the main house by a side door, opting to take the quicker route across the sideyard separating the newer wing with their quarters from the older part. "I'll admit I really missed our bath house while in Suna. I didn't realize how spoiled I am by the abundance of water we enjoy in Konoha. The bathing amenities were adequate, but after all, it's a village in the middle of a desert."

The brothers didn't speak much as they washed prior to slipping into the steaming water in the deep pool at the heart of the bath house. Pillowing his head with a folded towel on the stone edge, Itachi placed another, this one cool and damp, across his forehead as he let himself relax under the almost unbearably hot caress of the water. He made a little sound of pure enjoyment deep in his throat, heard Sasuke echo it from his left.

After a few minutes Sasuke said in a very low voice, "I escorted Lady Hinata to the festival while you were gone." Itachi glanced over to see his brother staring off through the wisps of vapor curling from the water's surface, an unreadable look on his narrow face. "She's almost terminally shy, she stutters, crowds bother her. And she throws shuriken."

Wondering if he'd heard what he thought he'd heard, Itachi blinked a couple of times. He turned so he could rest his forearms on the towel he'd been using as a pillow. "I think the heat must be getting to me. She - what?"

"Throws shuriken," Sasuke repeated, and now he was grinning very faintly. He rolled over as well, echoing Itachi. "Quite passably, too: Well enough to win me a stuffed animal. Her bodyguard - Hatake Kakashi's little sister - is teaching her. Says she's starting Lady Hinata on knives next."

Sasuke was clearly intrigued by the heiress's unexpected proficiency with shuriken. Perhaps, Itachi thought much later as he drifted on the edge of sleep, his brother's courtship would take a smoother course than his own.

*~To Be Continued~*

Author's Note: Again, so sorry for the delays recently, but I promise that my beta and I are trying to get updates out as quickly as we can. I want to thank you all so much for your patience, though, with our somewhat unsteady posting schedule, and for all the sweet and encouraging reviews you've left. We really, really appreciate it. Until next time (hopefully sooner, rather than later!), thank you again, and we hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Co-Author's Note: Hi, I'm Mama Jo, fyd818's beta and co-author for this story. I wanted to apologize to all you wonderful people for the delays in posting recent chapters. I'm going through a bit of a rough patch with my health, and my concentration isn't up to par right now. But things should be improving soon, and we'll get back on schedule. In the meantime, thank you all for your patience and understanding, and the great reviews!