She stood up from the bed and instinctively went to the door as she heard scratches coming from the other side. I followed behind her shirtless and ready for my last night with my wife. I pulled her hand away from the door handle and pushed her back against the wood.

She looked upset, "Just one night." I reminded her. A light reluctant sigh parted her lips and she looked down, regretful of allowing me to convince her to keep the cat out of the room.

I swooped down and caught her lower lip with mine. Bella, without hesitation, wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pushed our embrace further. It was the first passionate moment we've had in a month.

My hands roamed up her curves and felt the purple silk gown glide underneath my hand. I'd love to rip this thing off of her, but it cost me a fucking fortune. I grabbed the ends of her white hair and yanked it back causing her head to knock back against the door. She gasped from the sudden pain and gasped inside our kiss. I pushed my tongue inside her readily awaiting mouth and reacquainted myself with my obedient Princess.

This would be the last time I'd be with my wife for approximately a year and I needed to get out all my future stresses in one night. My mouth trailed down her neck leisurely making red marks as I dragged my teeth against her fair untarnished skin. She moaned, but this wasn't about pleasure or gratification, this was all about explicit raw sex.

I picked up the light woman and she innately wrapped her legs around my waist in a nostalgic position that I had missed dearly. With one hand holding her and the other throwing all the pictures, candles and other breakable crap to the ground, I cleared the dresser.

She flinched as the sound of the shattered glass reached her sensitive ears; she wasn't accustomed to loud noises as I was. That was something I admired deeply about her, the innocence she contained inside her was impenetrable. I had taken her her virginity, but it didn't even dent that hopeful kind heart of hers, nor did my un-filtered behavior or typical Shinobi life. She was incapable of corruption; that was beauty, something not even an artist could capture in a painting.

Bella protested and pushed at my shoulders to get me off of her, "What did I say about pushing?" I growled and pinned her wrists to her sides. I looked deep inside her golden eyes and gazed into them cooly. She looked back as silent as she had ever been. No questions and not one ounce of remorse embraced her demeanor. Good. "I don't want you to ever push me away; I want you to let me in." With confidence she smiled and wiggled her wrists out of my grasp to give one big push to my shoulders forcing me to take a step back from her.

I was ready to reach my hand out and smack the impudent smirk off her face, but she stunned me with her following move, so much so that I couldn't react fast enough. She reached under her gown and pulled down her panties and threw them carelessly across the bedroom. Her legs casually opened and she relaxed her head back against the mirror. "I only push when I want to be pushed back."

I had no idea where my courage was coming from, or my kinky attitude. It was as if some internal being was talking for me and it appeared they knew exactly how to make my husband tick. He lurched at me in frenzy, and dropped his pants without any prelude or preliminary discussion. His erection was ready in advance and stood eagerly, willing to plunge deep inside. My prior statement appeared to have done something to his inner primitive side.

Within nano-seconds Madara had rammed himself within and was thrusting hard, so energetically so that the whole dresser began to move with us and slammed against the wall in loud crackling noises. "We're going to wake up the others," I reminded him and gasped as a sudden rush of excitement came over me. I closed my eyes and felt the deep abrasive sensations dissolve me from under my skirt.

He smacked his lips against mine in a passionate urgent kiss and tugged my hair so that I would scream out his name. "It's my house. I'll wake them if I please."

He grabbed my knee to pull me closer to the edge and grinded vigorously. My eyes rolled back and my sympathy for Grandpa and Izuna faded instantly in one selfish overwhelming whim.

I met him with my hips and synchronized our movements. His head fell back limply as I grinded against him and met him in deep hard jolting thrusts. "Where the fuck did you pick this shit up, fuck, nevermind don't tell me." He groaned and smacked his hips against mine. Sweat melted down his body and soaked the ends of his black spiky hair making him look wild and crazed. I could feel the same sticky residue begin to coat my own skin too and heat up my face.

"Fuck, not yet." He winced and squeezed his eyes shut.

Already...? I knew what was coming, and I was sad it was so soon.

He didn't seem like he wanted to come without a fight. He tightened his fist around my knees and squeezed them unapologetically in attempt to distract himself, but it was futile. He released one of my legs and rushed his fist towards the mirror behind the dresser and recklessly punched the glass, shattering it instantly under his knuckles. I jumped forward away from the broken shards and grabbed ahold of my husband's shoulders; he never stopped thrusting but had slowed down to a stagnant unnerving crawl that easily built up my anticipation and need.

"Was that necessary?" I glared up at him.

He smiled and picked me up from the dresser, never disconnecting us for a second. A brief walk across the bedroom and a short drop down to the bed and we were back in business. "Everything I do is necessary."

I leaned back against the cotton sheets and pulled at them as he inched inside further until we were back at the same pace we were before the incident. "That's going to be 7 years bad luck." I took his bleeding hand in mine and examined it briefly while he enjoyed himself with my body.

He noticed my inattentive attitude and hid the wound under the covers so I wouldn't distract myself.

"Now you're getting blood on my nice sheets," I pouted.

He pulled out and turned me on my belly, re-entering from the back and standing on the ground he came at me in a position we hadn't done in a very long time. His untarnished hand pushed my head down into the pillow top, "that mouth is always running. We'll have to do something about that."

Uh oh.

We were both exhausted now, lying face up on the bed panting heavily. I wrappy my arm around her shoulders and she rested her head against my chest. "I swear to God, you better have learned that from a book or something."

She took my hand in hers and gazed at the scabbing fist. A smile crept across her face, "actually no, I didn't." She carefully prodded the wound to get glass shards out of the cut.

I fucking swear…"We haven't had sex in a month, and all of a sudden you're…. this. If you didn't read than where...?"

She finished with my hand and rested the sore fist on to her belly and gloated up at me. "Well I learned a thing or two from my mister of course." I almost reached out and struck her, but resisted the urge. I knew she was just trying to incite something out of me and I didn't want to give her the satisfaction. She nuzzled her nose against my neck and whispered, "be careful, the baby's there."

I looked down and noticed I had my fist tightly wound up and resting against her abdomen, I unclenched it and relaxed the palm on to the surface. I didn't even realize that I was doing that. I felt her smooth naked skin and released a slow stream of chakra through it. I could sense the baby inside and felt its heartbeat slowly pulse within my wife. Bella kissed the side of my jaw, "I couldn't cheat if I tried, sweety. It's not like any man in his right mind would touch me knowing that I'm yours." That's true. I relaxed with the reassurance. "Plus, I'm happy with our family. Not the home, but the family yes- very happy." I wrapped my arm around her tightly and nudged my head against hers. I loved these little moments with her when time stood still and it was silent enough where we could pretend we were alone in this universe.

This was peace, the calm before the war. If I let my mind wander, I could even pretend tomorrow would never come and war really didn't exist. She had that effect on me, where even serial killers like me could dream of heaven and truce.

"I love you," I leaned over and kissed her forehead. She was silent, either asleep or couldn't hear me. I moved the hair out of her face and gazed at her lively eyes. I moved on top of her, making direct eye contact with my beloved wife. Bella looked up at me expectantly, "I love you." I repeated.

She could hear me just fine but stayed silent not out of exhaustion or any form up speechlessness, just out of disinterest of the subject. I waited until my patience was as thin as water. "Why won't you say it back?"

"Because, I wouldn't mean it."

It was brief, but for a second I was bewildered. "You married me but you don't love me?"

"Yeah," she shrugged remorseless and leaned back into the pillow. I didn't move, but watched her motionlessly. "Don't act surprised. You extorted me into this marriage and into this pregnancy."

"You consented!" I snapped. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way, I made sure this is what she wanted!

"Regardless of consent or not, you made sure I was in a dire enough situation where I couldn't have made a different choice. I'm sorry Madara, but you never gave me the chance to love you."

For a second I wondered whether she was trying to hurt me or not, but it wasn't about spite- this was her way of letting me in. My wife was a conniving, manipulative, lying little bitch who always got her way one way or another. If she didn't want to deal with it she'd go around the situation, lie to no end if it meant she could avoid the conversation. Her honesty at this moment was a form of reconciliation for that. I leaned down, and bandaged my wounded pride with a sweet kiss on her lips.

"Regardless." I gathered her in my arms ready to attempt a few hours of sleep. "I feel it in my bones as imminently as my perpetual death, this strong desire I have towards you will never end. It's something I will never escape, even if I fight it tooth and nail, and one day I will make sure you suffer from the same disease that I am ridden with." Love is a disease, no matter which angle you look at it from.

She rolled her eyes, "That sounds like a threat to me."

"Oh, it is. I'm going to do everything in my power to infect you with this. I will not endure this alone."

"That's a man for you, has to bring everyone down with him."

"Damn right." Even now, with her bitchy attitude in play, I felt it. A sickening feeling of heartache and detachment lingering outside the door that was ready to settle in once I was ready to accept that tomorrow I would be without her. I realized that I hadn't kept the war a secret just to keep her from killing me, I knew she would come to terms with it and honor my duty as a Shinobi. The reason I hadn't told her all month was because I genuinely never realized that I was going to war, this past month I had been in an elusive dream of denial that the war wouldn't actually come. And here it was, and here we were. Reality was yet again forcing me to accept this bullshit.

Having her in my arms was as peaceful as I had ever been in my life. She was my rock to this world. Like in that book, if I ever lost her I'd be unanchored.

I opened the bedroom door to the sleeping cat. He jumped up immediately ready to be with my wife at last. I stopped him at the door way and bent down to his eye level. He had grown a lot in this past month, but wasn't nearly big enough to be the protector that he one day would be for my wife. I patted my chest and he put both his paws on it and looked at me with his light blue bangle eyes.

"Take care of your mother. You hear me?" He nodded and rubbed his face against mine. I petted him fondly on the top of his head and he took a bite at my finger playfully. "Little fucker!" I smacked him on the nose and he backed off. I examined my wounded hand but before I could kick his little ass he ran in the bedroom and jumped up on the bed next to my wife. "I'll get you later." I whispered, narrowing my eyes at the brat.

He smiled and put a paw up towards my wifes face threatening to wake her up. "Maaa." He spoke softly.

"SHHH! Fine, I take it back." I crossed my hands out in front of me in a plea to keep him quiet.

He audaciously padded his paws on my side of the bed and made my pillow his new bed. The impudent little tiger watched me saucily as if to say. ( Oh yeah Daddy, How do you think Mommy will feel if she wakes up to you leaving? You ain't beaten my ass today!)

I glared at the tiger and closed the door slowly, never leaving eye contact with evil spawn of Hell. Once the door was completely closed I walked over to Grandpa's room and knocked on the door before entering. "Come in." Jonathan's voice rang out. He was just finishing his morning exam of the elderly man and arose from the bed with his stethoscope still in his ears. He took it out and wrapped it around his shoulders and waved to me. "Morning, Madara."

I nodded to him, "Did you get your stuff moved in?"

He pocketed his materials that were lying around the old geezers bed and briefly pondered my question. "I believe so. If I forgot anything my house is only a block away from yours. Don't worry, I'll be sure to take good care of your wife and grandfather."

"Alright, good." The doctor walked over and gave me as manly as a hug as two men could give each other. "I'll try to get back as soon as possible."

Jonathan patted my back and walked out the door, "I suggest you stay at war for at least a month, she's going to need that much time to cool off." I rolled my eyes and walked further into the room to give the old man my goodbye's.

"Grandpa, Izuna and I are leaving." The old hollow man looked up at me not exactly knowing what was going on around him."

He watched me wearily. "Boy, come here. I have things to say."

Damn it, he's going to lecture me isn't he? I respectfully walked to the bed and sat down beside the man. Izuna walked in and waved to our old relative. "Morning Gramps."

"Beat it, you little shit. I have to talk to your brother."

He pouted, "don't you have anything you have to say to me?"

He tapped his chin briefly and nodded his head in sudden remembrance. "Oh yah," Izuna smiled and chirped up ready to listen to whatever wisdom he was about to bestow upon him. "shut up, and shut the damn door." Izuna lowered his head sadly and walked out of the room shutting the wooden door behind him.

I sighed and tsked him. "You shouldn't be so mean to him, he takes it personally."

Grandpa shrugged, "I do it out of love. Now shush, I want to get in as much as I can before everything gets fuzzy again." I adjusted myself for a long conversation and waited. "Now son, I'm sure you've realized by now that this is the last time we'll talk." I nodded, I indeed understood that. "I want to give you some advice, one saggy old man to another."

I'm not old.

"You're going off to war now, and I know this isn't your first one. Fuck, I raised you personally on the battlefield. You were more of my son than your damn father, and you learned quicker that's for damn sure. Your stupid little brother even picked things up faster than that clumsy coot of a leader." Was he really that slow, I mean come on. It took Izuna three years to learn how to use a sword. "I took care of you and tried to teach you everything, but there are always things us parents forget. You have a bun in the oven, and you'll realize that one day too."

I watched the door uneasily. "Grandpa, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I was supposed to be on the road 5 minutes ago."

He disregarded it. "In war there are no victors, it's a place of endless revenge with no deviations or alternate paths. Everyone who enters war either dies a martyr or lives a villain. Power is not strength and strength is the greatest power, muscles cannot create peace." He looked down sadly. "In all my years that's all I figured out, I hope you can take what I've learned and add on it."

"Is that it?" I attempted to stand up.

"No," I plopped back down on the mattress. "Your wife. God almighty does she look like May. I want you to learn from my mistakes, you have to learn what I have from my experiences, especially the lesson I learned with May."

Don't compare my wife to her."Grandpa..."

"No listen, you should know this. As everyone knows, I've been married twice in my life. My first marriage was with a woman named May Senju and the second was your crazy ass Grandmother."

A disgusting Senju, what in the hell was he thinking. And he compares my wife with her. Absurd. I knew about his marriage to the Senju woman, everyone did. No one knew why he did it, and he never talked about it. This was the first time I had really heard anything about her other than a brief mention of her name.

"She had long white hair and these bright pumpkin orange eyes that I still see in every sunrise and sunset."

I grunted, "You killed her, yet you speak so lovingly."

"I killed her for the clan, that is true. I married her and ripped her poor little heart out because I thought that was what's right." He looked down sadly, a tear stuck in his eye. He wiped it away quickly thinking I hadn't seen it. "It wasn't. My biggest regret was losing her, they say one life is not worth a nation but that is fucking wrong. I should have left the Uchiha and been with her, I should have betrayed them not her. That is my lesson to you boy. If you married that woman for the right reasons then you will understand that her life is more important than any clan, village, nation, or the world."

"I can't believe you said that." I paled. To betray the clan was Felony number one. You don't do it, ever. Murder was seen as a lesser crime than abandonment. "You would have betrayed the Uchiha for one Senju woman? You're the biggest chauvinist in the clan, far more of one than even me, and you'd do all this for a woman?"

He leaned back in his bed and pouted, "Women are worthless greedy little monsters that care about only one thing, money. Although, if you love one person enough you tend to forget about the stereotype and believe in exceptions."

"But still, you'd leave the clan for one woman?"

"Bach! I would leave them now for less. This clan is in a vicious cycle of love and hate, a cycle they put themselves in." The anger in his eyes diminished and the sad lonely look came back. Unanchored… "I miss her, I miss May dearly the only reason I married the second time was to shut up the elders and further my loin. That's all. God knows I tried letting the tide of battle take me, but that damn woman cursed me to live a long and hopeless life without her. Perhaps I'll see her when I die… I have faith I'll see her again. The only thing she left me, faith."

"I hope you do see her again, I have to go now Grandpa."

He grabbed my wrist to halt me, "One more thing."

"What." I groaned.

His deep black eyes scorched me with a fever I had never seen in him. "What is a Xerox." The word triggered something inside of me, but I hadn't any recollection of what it meant.

"I don't know, ask Bella, she has a larger Vocabulary."

His grip on my wrist loosened and he dropped his arm to his side. The glaucoma seemed to fog over his eyes instantly. "Vocabul- what?" He snarled orderly.

"Vocabulary, she knows a lot of words."

He cranked his head to one side. "Who does?"

"Bella!" He's going to make me rip a bald spot out of my hair, and then you know what. Bella's going to make me even it out by shaving it bald. I hate my family, everyone here is insane.

"Oh that woman is wonderful, so beautiful too. Tell her to get that fine ass in here."

And he's gone. "Goodbye, Grandpa."

He squinted his eyes at me in confusion. "Who are you?" He snooted.

I was walking down the dark hallway, I felt an ominous feeling crawl up my back as the sound of chains clinking welcomed me down the hallway. There was a doorway open at the end of the dungeon, it was the source of the clinking sound.

It's another dream, I don't want to be here. I don't want to remember anything! I just want to wake up!

I turned around to go back, but the hall I had just walked down was gone. Just a single brick wall behind me was cutting me off from any U-turns. I turned back reluctantly and walked to the door and peered inside. There was a woman chained by the chest, wrist, shin, and ankle to the heavy chair. Everything inside me told me to run, get out, don't look at him but I couldn't turn away. The exit shut itself and I was trapped in the cell with the man.

It's like something is forcing me to remember? Why is it making me look at him?

I realized it was me in the chair, only she was wearing rags and had multi-colored eyes; a color for every shade inside the iris's. "Who are you," she asked.

I furrowed my brow, "I'm Bella."

She smiled and relaxed in the medieval chair, "Are you?"

Izuna hadn't stopped gawking at me since we departed with the troops. From the corner of my eye I could see him glaring at me ridiculously with his mouth hanging open as if he were stuck in the middle of his sentence but couldn't figure out the rest to say.

I turned around and snapped at him having my patience reach its peak. "What, why are you looking at me like that?"

He slowly shook his head in disbelief, "You are seriously just the worst human being…ever…truly." I rolled my eyes and he stopped allowing the troops to move around us on a steady path to the battle grounds. "No seriously Madara, the worst human being ever born in existence, ever!"

"It's not that bad."

"No, really it is." He nodded at me. Seeing that our conversation wasn't going anywhere he waved me off and walked ahead of me in plain disbelief.

It's not that bad, she'll forgive me eventually.

"YOU GAVE ME THE IDEA, BY THE WAY!" I shouted after him.

He turned around briefly, "I WAS BEING SARCASTIC!"

I felt a wet nose tap against my cheek, "Maaaa." Blizzard attempted to wake me up. My eyes fluttered open to the chaotic room that Madara and I had created last night. Another dream, or memory, or whatever… I'm really sick of these. I sorely pulled the ripped comforter off of me and squinted in the bright light. Usually there wasn't as much light in the room in the mornings, but on this pleasant fall day the curtains that once hid the outside light were lying on the ground in ash. A trick my husband had learned to further his performance was to set fire-freaking-balls off. I didn't want to know where he learned that one, but I assured him I'd much prefer a shorter performance than a burnt roof.

I looked around the rest of the room for my missing husband but saw him missing entirely. I knew he couldn't have been in the bathroom, because that door was now in splinters on the ground along with the broken vases and split candlesticks that once decorated the dresser.

I turned to look at his side of the bed and saw a yellow piece of paper on the top of his pillow. Blizzard flopped over to one side and started to purr against my thigh. I petted him while I frantically read the note.

I'm sorry Bell, the troops and I have to leave for war. I'll do my best to be back before the baby is born. I'll write you when I get to the battlegrounds and every chance I get thereafter. Don't freak out or get yourself worked up, you married a Shinobi- this is Shinobi life.

I'm sorry,

Your Husband

P.S I'm really, really sorry.

"YOU'VE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!" Blizzard jumped up and hid under the bloody covers as a crackling sound came from outside of the window and a bolt of lightning came down in the middle of the street. I had an overwhelming urge to hunt the man down and kill him in hormonal fury.

Wind followed and blew the broken shutters on the house right off to the soaking wet street. I ran to the window and closed it before the rain came in and soaked the wood floor.

Blizzard uncovered himself from the sheets and looked up at me in worry. I took in a deep breath and exhaled to allow calmness to overcome me. It never did.

"He acts like it was so sudden." I frowned at Blizzard. "Daddy is an ass." He nodded and jumped off the bed to my side. "Maaaa." I was starting differentiate his mew's, this particular one I associated with the term.

(Yeah, shut up and feed me.)

I bent down and tussled the fur on top of his head, "If you catch your breakfast, I'll cook it. Deal?"

He nodded and ran out the bedroom door.

The sound of thunder shook the earth where we stood and followed with lightning that struck behind us. "That's ominous." Ro commented beside me. I turned around with many of the other Uchiha's and flinched as I felt my wife's anger reach me.

She's awake. "Let's just keep moving, quickly."