CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

FOREVER

The group of thirteen had finally made it to the water park. Once there, they rented a couple of lockers to stash their things in. After shoving their bags into the lockers, they started to remove any excess clothing. Nearly everyone that was around, stopped to stare at the sight of toned muscles, lean bodies, and slim figures. Much to everyone in the groups' dissatisfaction including many female and a few male bystanders, Kakashi only reached back to tighten the tie on the bandana obscuring the lower half of his face.

"What hell is that," Kim asked, pointing at Deidara's chest. There was diagonal slit over his left pectoral with stitches and some weird tattoo around it. Deidara just lifted his hand up to show her the mouth there. "Ewwww! That's so cool!"

"Shut up… Wait you think it's cool," Deidara asked confused. Then he smirked, and threw an arm over Kim's shoulder. "Take that Itachi. I just converted your sister to the dark side, un." The eldest Uchiha just shook his head at the blond.

"Kaka-Sensei, why are you still wearing your mask, 'ttebayo," Naruto asked nonchalantly, staring the man down.

"Yeah, Kakashi," Jade butted in, hands on her hips. "You'll get an uneven tan."

"Maybe he tans naked on his own like you do," Kim suggested, still trying to find the courage to undress. Everyone turned to look at Jade.

"Huh-how did you know that," the hazel eyed girl retorted, face heating up. She had never told anyone that she tanned naked. How in the world did Kim find out? Kim was her best friend, but still?

"I walked out on the roof, and saw you lying naked on a towel," the dark eyed girl explained. "Then there was that one time when you were dancing. It was kind of creepy." Jade's face was a deep red. She was beyond embarrassed.

"That's hot babe, un," Deidara purred into her ear with a flirty smile. Naruto gagged. The girls sighed at the cuteness. Konan smacked Nagato across the head.

"Why don't you ever say things like that," Konan complained to her shy boyfriend. The redhead rubbed the bump that was sure to be growing on the back of his head.

"You yell at me when I do," Nagato reasoned.

"Well you shouldn't be so crude. Have you even heard half of the sweet things that Deidara has said to her. Even when he is being perverted he still has the decency to be quiet about it," Konan ranted. All the girls agreed with her. Deidara was turning red, and Jade smiled proudly at him.

"That's cute," Itachi smirked patting the blond on the back. The blond scowled at him.

"At least I can get a girlfriend, un," Deidara retorted causing the Uchiha to frown.

"Okay guys stop fighting," Ren commanded. "Let's just have a good time, and get on some rides."

"Kim, Hinata, take them off," Sakura said referring to the fact that they were the only two that still had yet to get undressed. The two girls shied away from all the stares they were getting from everyone.

"It's Hinata's birthday, so we don't have to get undressed if we don't want to," Kim countered, crossed her arms and dared them to make them take off their excess clothing.

"It's not your birthday, Kim. You can't get out of it," Hana argued, crossing her arms. "Besides Hinata needs to flaunt what she's got since it's her birthday. She needs some cute boy attention."

"Most of the guys here don't even speak English," Kim grumbled. She did have a point there. Almost ninety percent of the attendants of the park were locals or natives of the country. The other ten percent were from out of the county.

"Well she can also speak Japanese, and a lot of people can speak English," Hana furthered her point.

"The number of Japanese and English speaking people here is still very low," Kim said with narrowed eyes.

"Enough about languages!" Jade had gotten annoyed with her best friend. She ran over and jumped on top of her best friend tackling her to the ground. The blonde/redheaded girl wrestled the ebony haired girl out of her shorts. Kim had tried her hardest to get away from her best friend, but it was all in vain. Jade had successfully gotten her friend out of her tank top. Kim had ran for cover behind Sasuke. She glared at everyone from behind him. The youngest Uchiha started to get irritated by the physical contact and move to stand on the other side, leaving Kim in full view. Some of the men that were walking by stopped to whistle at her, which caused her two brothers to stand in front of her glaring at them.

"I hate you," the ebony haired girl hissed out. Jade's head was met with a sliver flip flop.

Hinata, feeling bad for her embarrassed and uncomfortable friend, decided that it was her turn to undress. The only reason she was so embarrassed was because of the fact that her precious Naruto was there. One by one she kicked off her flip flops, and slipped out of her shorts then stepped back into her shoes. Slowly she started to lift off her shirt exposing her flat stomach.

"Hinata-chan," Naruto whispered from where he was standing between Kakashi and Nagato, his mouth falling wide open and drool started to drip from the corner of his mouth. When the indigo haired had her shirt off she stretched back and put her hair in a bun, some hair sticking up in the back, causing the poor dopey blond boy got a nose bleed and promptly passed out in a reversal of roles.

"What happened to N-Naruto-kun," the worried Hyuuga girl asked. No one said anything to her. Sakura slapped him until he was awake.

"You're hot Hinata-chan, dattebayo," was the first thing that came out of the blond's mouth when he woke up. It was all too much for the girl and she fainted after her face turned completely red. "What did I do!" Everyone rolled their eyes at him. Hana had got something out of her pack and waved it under the girl's nose. That seemed to wake her up.

After there seemed to be no more mishaps and complaints from any one, they had finally made it to where all the water slides were. Pakkun also wanted to join everyone on the slides, so he gave all the ride attendants the same treatment. He gave them the puppy dog eyes and let them touch his paw, completely bending them to his will.

The first ride that they got on was a giant water slide, with three people to a float. The little pug took that opportunity to work his magic, and he refused to get on the ride with anyone other than the white haired man and the short dark haired girl. In the end. Kakashi sat at the rear, Kim in the middle, and Pakkun at the front. Poor Kim was turning an unhealthy shade of red throughout the entire ride as her back was pressed up against Kakashi's bare stomach and chest, and he had wrapped his arms around her with both of his hands were resting on her stomach. Kakashi could only chuckle at the girl's discomfort. For some strange reason he enjoyed seeing her nervous and blushing. He even got an eyeful when she climbed in and out the float; he knew he should have looked away, but he couldn't resist.

The second ride that they got on was a water giant slide with twists and turns. All the individual slides were color coded; it had all seven colors of the rainbow, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. They decided to make it a competition, because ninjas love a good challenge. First went the girls, then the guys took a turn, the top four moved on. That was Jade, Konan, Hinata, Sakura, Kakashi, Ren, Naruto, and Sasuke. The two, Konan and Ren, that came in in fourth place had to race each other for a spot in the last round. Ren was the one that ended up winning the entire thing.

Next up was a water slide that resembled a giant funnel. It had a short slide the led to it, and then dropped them into the funnel. Inside the funnel it shifted them up the sides until they reached the bottom. The float for the ride seated four people. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Hinata got on together. When the float went up the side of the giant funnel Naruto and Sasuke started to argue and somehow managed to knock each other off of the float, and fell into the pool that was at the end of the funnel, and continued to argue until the float came out and pushed them underwater.

After that came the two person water slide. It was a giant tunnel that lit up different colors on the inside. That one was the tallest and longest slide in the entire park. Everyone had pushed Hinata and Naruto to get on that one together. The indigo haired girl was having the same problem the the other dark haired girl was having earlier. It did not help when Naruto tightened his grip and pulled her closer every time they took a sharp turn turn or dropped.

Simulated surfing was up next. There was giant pool that created good-sized waves, where someone there taught them how to properly surf, though a few of them already knew how. Staying on the board is usually the hardest part of surfing, but it was easy for them all. The big cheaters, used chakra to attach themselves to the surf boards, though they stopped once they got the hang of it.

As a prank they had pushed Sasuke on the Watery Tunnel of Love with some random girl. He was pissed and irritated throughout the ride. The girl had kept fangirling over his looks then she would shy away when he looked at her, and then she would stark acting like a major tomboy trying to impress him. When he got off the ride he was emulating a dark aura and shooting death glares at anyone who dared to look at him.

Hana was having a blast with all the aquatic animals that were at the park. There were pools where they could swim with a specific animal. By her command, they went to all of them. When they had gotten to the dolphins there was one with an infected tail. Itachi couldn't resist the urge to smile at the sight of her secretively healing the aquatic mammal's hurt tail.

"Don't let anyone catch you," Itachi whispered to the girl as he walked up behind her, making her jump in fright.

"Kami, I didn't hear you come up," Hana exclaimed with a hand over her heart, the other gently rubbing along the dolphin's spine, soothingly. She turned around to face him and flashed him a sheepish smile before turning back around to continue her work. With practiced ease, her chakra covered hands moved up and down the creatures fin, successfully killing all traces of infection. Hana slowly cut off her chakra flow, and sat back on her heels. She gave a small laugh as the dolphin splashed water at her and swan away to join the others. "I just couldn't leave her here injured. If the infection had spread then they would have to amputate her flipper, and you saw that movie. She could damage her spinal cord."

"I remember," he stated, a smile pulling at the corners of his lips as he rubbed the back of his neck. It was good to know that some things never changed. "You always did have a big heart when it came to hurt animals."

Something made a plopping noise in the waist high water below them. Hana looked down to see a necklace at the bottom of the pool. She bent down and picked it up. When she brought it up to her face she examined it, slowly turning it over with her fingers. The necklace had three small metal rings connected by a black cord. The circles signified forever.

"You still have this," Hana said, looking at him in genuine surprise. "I gave this to you when you were first asked to join the ANBU. It was a congratulatory gift." She couldn't believe he had kept it, having figured he had gotten rid of the first chance he had. Holding out the necklace to the man, Hana met his gaze.

Itachi stared into her eyes searching for something, causing a pleasant tingle to run down her spine. When it appeared that he found what he was looking for, he lifted his hand to get the necklace from her and quickly put it back where it had always been since the day he received it. In a quick, fluid motion and without warning, he leaned forward wrapping his arm around her waist and pulled her flush against his chest. He moved his other hand to cup her cheeks. Moving his fingers to her chin, he lifted her head so that she would look him directly in the eyes.

It was now or never. He couldn't deny that he had cared for Izumi. She was a great girl, but he never loved her. If he hadn't met Hana on his first day at the Academy, she might have stood a chance. Hana was the one he loved. She was the one he was going to risk his standing as heir to the Uchiha. When his parents had told him about the arranged marriage, he tried to get out of it but other things had been set in motion by the council. In the end, it seemed like it wasn't a love meant to be. Yet by some miracle, after his death, he had been giving a second chance; with his brother, a new sister, so many friends, and now... the woman he'd always loved. He would be a fool to waste this opportunity. So with a deep breath, he'd done what he'd been longing to do since he left home that fateful night.

"Forever," he whispered, and she felt his breath brush against her lips. Then he leaned in and their lips met in a sweet kiss, filled with all the love they held onto for eight years. From then on, there would be no more hiding.