THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT

Disclaimer: I donot own Naruto or it's characters.

Chapter Seven: Of past pain, jealousy, confessions and baby

Noriko realized her husband was lost inside the memory as he stared into the fire. She wanted to shake him out of it, but she wasn't sure if she should or not. She couldn't imagine what he'd felt when he saw Karin and Sasuke together; his brother and the woman he thought he'd marry. She wanted to kill the two of them for what they did to him. Or not kill, but hurt; she wanted to hurt them for the pain they'd caused her husband.

"She was pregnant," he said suddenly, shocking her. He turned to her again. "Even after everything, when I calmed down and she told me about the baby, I still wanted to marry her and raise the baby as mine. I didn't even care if it was Sasuke's. I wanted her and the baby. I wanted the family that I'd longed for."

"What did she say?" Noriko asked carefully, not even sure she wanted to know the answer.

His laugh was so empty that it made her feel cold despite the heat that the fire was giving out. "She told me she never wanted children, that she had no intention of ever becoming a mother."

"What happened with the baby?" She was afraid to ask, afraid she already knew the answer.

"She asked me for money to take care of the 'problem'."

Her heart ached for him, and she felt heavier all of a sudden as he shared his story with her.

"Then I asked her if she loved me. You know what she said?"

He was looking at her, but it was like he wasn't really seeing her. Noriko shook her head.

"She never loved me. It was always Sasuke. Then she told me that if I interfered in her relationship with my brother that she'd have the baby and make sure I never saw it, never held it. Her parents were rich and powerful and I believed she could do it. I wrote her a cheque and…tried desperately to forget about the unborn child and her."

Noriko shuddered. She couldn't help it, and she couldn't stop herself from thinking that Itachi had had a narrow escape from Karin. The woman sounded like a cold, heartless bitch.

"Sasuke and Karin did break up though." she said to him.

Itachi smiled, but the smile was still empty, still cold.

"He was worried that I'd cut him off."

"Would you have?"

"No, and I didn't. Today though, today I cut him off. He'll get the minimum allowance that Dad specified in his will, but that's it."

"Why?"

"Well one, he was threatening you, and two…what I just said."

"What was in the envelope?"

"You should know, you looked," he told her as he massaged her calf muscle gently.

"I only saw one of the photos," she told him.

"Then trust me, it's best you don't know." Itachi said mysteriously.

"Why? Because then you'd have to kill me?" she joked.

"No, because seriously there's some pretty bad stuff in there that you really don't want to know about."

"How did you wind up with it?"

"Some of the photos and documents belonged to my father actually. He had a Private Investigator (PI) following us regularly. When I inherited the company I kept the PI on retainer and hit pay dirt on a couple of the shots she took."

He pulled her into his lap now, kissing her softly. She was glad to finally know about Karin, but after hearing about her, she felt as if she'd been on an emotional rollercoaster. While she could understand why he didn't want to love again, Noriko couldn't help thinking that Karin had won. She'd taken everything from Itachi, including his ability to love, and she hated that. She hated that this woman still seemed to hold so much power over him. Part of her wanted to shake him, and say don't you see what she's still doing to you, but she doubted Itachi would see things that way. She had to hope that her love was enough to open his eyes.

"I just want you to know, Tachi, that should I ever meet this Karin woman, I'll set her straight on exactly what she's missing out on," Noriko told him, trying to lighten the mood slightly.

Her husband looked at her, and she could see the hesitation in his eyes, the discomfort he was feeling.

"Funny you should say that," he said. "There's a charity ball next month. It's one of the biggest events of the year. I have to go, and I want you to come with me."

"Of course I'll go with you," she told him. Then she realized exactly what he was saying. "She's going to be there isn't she?"

"Unfortunately," he said, making a face.

She smiled at him reassuringly. "Bring it on," she told him. "You have no idea what I'm made of, Mister."

He smiled at her before he laid her back and smothered her in kisses. "You're amazing," he said to her. "Do you know that?"

She laughed; glad that she had been able to assure him she could handle it. Inside, however, she was having less luck convincing herself. Thinking about giving Karin a piece of her mind was one thing; meeting her in the flesh was quite another. She felt slightly daunted by the fact that she was going to meet the one woman Itachi had loved. Karin sounded like a monster, and was it at all possible that her husband still had feelings for the woman? She felt jealousy slice through her as she asked herself the question. Even thinking the answer might be yes hurt like crazy. Her head started to spin and her stomach churned.

He must have seen her face change, because he sat up and looked at her. Noriko, are you okay?"

She sat up and put her hand on her stomach. "I'm fine, just a bit queasy still."

"That's it, tomorrow I'm taking you to the doctors, and I'm not taking no for an answer this time." His voice was filled both authority and concern.

It was then that it clicked for her. With her head so full of her plan to make Itachi fall in love with her, she'd completely overlooked the fact that her monthly visitor was strangely absent. She was two days late. True, two days was nothing in the grand scheme of things, but she was always on time, and she had been feeling sick.

"No," she told him, "tomorrow we're going to the store."

"The store? Why?" he asked.

"To buy something. Why else would you go to the store?"

"What exactly are we buying?"

"A pregnancy test," she told him with a grin.

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The three minutes they spent waiting for the results of the pregnancy test were the longest three minutes of his life. At least Noriko put the test down in the bathroom and joined him outside of it so they could wait together. He knew it wasn't possible, but he thought he must have held his breath the whole time. Once his watch beeped that the time was up, Noriko went in to retrieve the test. When she came out of the bathroom, she looked slightly disappointed. She showed it to him. There was a line in one window and a cross in the other.

"Doesn't the cross mean it's positive?" he asked her, unable to keep the frown off his face.

"Yup," she said with a grin. "We're pregnant. Congratulations, you're going to be a dad."

Words escaped him, but then when it came to Noriko, the words always escaped him. He picked her up in his arms and twirled her around. She laughed and laughed until she told him to put her down because she was going to be sick.

Itachi had never been happier. He could hardly believe that it had happened so soon. The best part for him, other than the fact that he was expecting to be a father, was that Noriko seemed happy about it. She was as excited as he was that they were becoming parents and he found her enthusiasm just added to his own. It was early days yet, and they had a long way to go but he was over the moon.

Over the next few weeks her morning sickness worsened.

"It should be called all-day sickness," he'd grumbled more than once, since it never seemed like it was just the mornings where she was feeling ill.

Whenever he said that she would just smile at him and tell him that it was all going to be worth it. He knew it was true but it really took its toll on him seeing her so sick. He did everything he could to help, but it was easy to feel useless. What was ridiculous to him was that she was the one reassuring him that she was okay and everything was going well with the pregnancy. His wife was like no-one else he'd ever met.

He'd finally figured out that he was in love with her. For him it wasn't like one of those moments in the movies where the guy has a sudden epiphany and finally knows it without a doubt; no, it was a gradual awareness of what he'd been feeling all this time. Ever since Noriko had opened up and told him how she felt about him, he wasn't trying to repress his own feelings and he allowed himself a little bit more time to think about what it was he was feeling. If he had to guess he would actually say he had loved her for some time. His feelings had been very deep since the beginning, and they had kept growing. He knew now those feelings were love.

Things were perfect between them, and he really wanted to tell her he loved her. She deserved to hear it. She was so patient with him, so understanding and so considerate that he never felt any pressure from her, but there was an internal pressure that was driving him to distraction. It was like he knew what he wanted to say, but he couldn't get the words to come out of his mouth. There had been so many perfect opportunities in the last three weeks to confess his undying love, but something was still holding him back and he didn't know what it was. Why couldn't he just say it? Why did he get a lump in his throat every time he went to tell her?

He puzzled over these questions as the two of them dressed for the ball. Noriko had her makeup and hair done downstairs earlier and now he helped her into her dress. He liked the dress. It was a royal blue gown with silver embroidery under the bust line and down the middle of the corset as well as around the skirt itself. She had blue matching gloves and a matching jacket. The only problem with the dress was that once he had her zipped up in it, he wanted to get her straight out of it again.

"Tachi," she breathed, as he nuzzled her neck, kissing just under her ear.

"You look far too good in this," he told her. "You know blue is my favorite color."

"I do," she said, "that's why I chose it."

"So you are trying to drive me out of my mind."

She gave him a rather wicked look. "I may have thought about it once or twice."

Her words excited him. "If we don't leave now, we may not make it out the door at all."

"I'm not opposed to enjoying you all night in bed."

He groaned. Her libido matched his perfectly.

"I have to go to this, so for the first part of tonight you're only going to get to enjoy my dancing," he told her, wishing it wasn't the case at all.

"I suppose that's okay. Just remember when we're out there dancing that we could have been doing something else instead," she said, with a saucy smile.

He raised his eyes to the ceiling as she walked out of the room. She'd said that deliberately to keep him turned on all night. It worked. As he twirled her around the ballroom floor, all he could think about was how they could have been doing the horizontal tango in bed.

Noriko laughed as she and Itachi spun around the dance floor. She loved the fact that she had so much fun with him, and it helped that he was an exceptional dancer. Her man could move; in bed, out of bed, on the dance floor. She was also enjoying the fact that he wanted her. His lust for her was written all over his face, and as much as she wasn't proud to admit it, his need for her sexually gave her a sense of security. She'd thought so many times over the past few weeks that he'd been going to tell her he loved her, but the words hadn't come and she was blaming the pregnancy hormones for making her feel a tad insecure. Keeping him interested sexually was easing some of that insecurity and when they were intimate she felt as if he did love her.

Around an hour after they'd arrived, Karin entered the ballroom. Noriko felt apprehensive about how Itachi would handle it, but to his credit, he barely did more than look up briefly as she made her entrance. Noriko thought Karin's date looked a little old for her, but he was still handsome. Grudgingly she admitted that Karin herself looked stunning in a black gown. The gown looked a little short for this type of event, but Itachi's ex-girlfriend made it look classy.

Luckily Karin and her date stayed on the other side of the floor to them and eventually Noriko relaxed enough to stop checking on their location, and started to enjoy herself again. After much dancing, and socializing in which she met many of Itachi's acquaintances, she excused herself to go to the ladies.

As she washed her hands at the basin, she was joined by Itachi's ex-girlfriend. Luckily, it wasn't Karin.

"Hi Noriko," Ino said. Both the smile and the voice were friendly, so Noriko decided she might just be okay.

"Hi Ino," Noriko was hoping to avoid one of those awkward conversations that people have when they don't know each other very well, but Ino chatted away easily and soon the two girls found themselves laughing away together.

"I was so mad when he broke up with me," Ino told her.

"I'm sorry," Noriko said.

"That's okay. Itachi loves you."

Noriko didn't want to correct her.

"I see the way he looks at you. Itachi never looked at me like that, but then he never loved me. Karin, that total stuck-up bitch, really screwed him up. I wanted him to love me, but he never could. Then I dated Sasuke for a month. Can you believe that bastard cheated on me?"

"Yes," Noriko said. "Yes, I can believe that."

"Shikamaru though, he's a real sweetie though a little lazy. In fact I think he might even love me. I think I might love him."

Ino had a far away look in her eye and a large grin on her face that had Noriko grinning back at her.

"You know, we should go and get some champagne and introduce Shikamaru and Itachi to each other," she suggested, her voice full of excitement.

While Ino was nice, Noriko thought it might be a bit too soon for that sort of thing.

"I can't drink champagne," Noriko told her, trying to politely decline.

"Why not?"

Noriko was searching for an excuse when Ino guessed.

"Oh my God, you're pregnant aren't you?" she practically squealed.

Noriko didn't bother to deny it because she couldn't stop her own answering grin. Ino jumped up and down and hugged her. The girl was so excited one might have thought she was the one who was pregnant.

"You two are going to have such cute babies. Have you thought of any names yet? Are you hoping for a boy or a girl? Are you going to find out the sex?"

Noriko laughed at her enthusiasm. "It's still early days, Ino we're just taking it one day at a time."

"I know, it's just…"

When Ino broke off mid sentence and stared past her, Noriko turned around to see who she was looking at.

"Hello, Ino," Karin said as she sauntered towards both of them.

"Hi," Ino mumbled.

Had Karin been listening to their entire conversation? Noriko hadn't seen her enter the bathroom, so she must have. Had she heard Ino call her a bitch? She kind of hoped so.

This was Noriko's moment to tell Karin exactly what she thought of her and the atrocious way she'd treated her husband, but faced with the enemy, she found herself completely speechless.

"I don't think we've met," Karin said to her, as she washed her hands.

"This is Noriko Uchiha," Ino told her proudly.

"Itachi's wife," Karin said with an eyebrow raised. She stepped back a little and very blatantly examined Noriko from head to toe. "Did I hear you're pregnant, Noriko?" Karin asked her now.

She couldn't very well deny it if Karin had overheard everything. "Yes," she told her.

"Well congratulations. Itachi has wanted a child for a very long time. It's nice to know he found himself a breeding cow."

"Excuse me," Ino said, outraged on Noriko's behalf. "She'd kick your butt if she wasn't pregnant."

Karin laughed. "I'd like to see her try."

Noriko was very tempted to try, but instead settled for using her favorite weapon of choice; words.

"I'm not a breeding cow, as you so delightfully put it, Karin; and having a baby is something very special. Not that I'd expect you to understand. Taking care of someone else is beyond your comprehension and abilities."

"Snap," Ino said, clicking her fingers at the same time.

Karin did not look amused. She walked right up to Noriko.

"You think you're better than me? Hmm. Is that it?"

Noriko took a step back. "I think Itachi deserved better than what you did to him."

"Double snap," Ino said, clicking her fingers twice.

Both Noriko and Karin glared at her. "Sorry," Ino mumbled.

"Well," Karin said, "I'm sure Itachi appreciates you standing up for him, but truth be told the guy has always been in love with me, and I'm sorry to tell you this but he probably always will be."

"No," Ino told her, "he loves Noriko now. You are yesterday's news."

"Is that so?" Karin asked Noriko.

"Yes," Noriko lied. "He loves me. He got over you a long time ago."

"That's very sweet and very naïve of you Noriko. I know, you really don't look too sure about that. Let's play a game. Give me a three minute dance with your husband and then we'll see who he really loves."

"Itachi would never dance with you," Ino said with absolute conviction, but inside Noriko just didn't have that same level of conviction.

"Three minutes," Karin said, holding up three fingers. Then she walked out the bathroom door.

Noriko closed her eyes, and hoped that somehow what Ino said was the truth and Itachi did love her, because if she went out there and found Karin dancing with Itachi, she thought her heart might just break.

Itachi was starting to get concerned. His wife had left to use the bathroom fifteen minutes ago and she still hadn't returned. He hoped she wasn't in there throwing up. He started walking toward the bathroom when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Itachi,"

Itachi turned around to see who it was that had clapped him on the back. "Mr. Sarutobi, how are you?" Itachi asked, shaking hands with the elderly gentleman. The Sarutobis were a very powerful family and Itachi has been after them for years with the hope of doing business with them.

"Please, call me Hiruzen. I had the pleasure of speaking with your wife earlier," Mr. Sarutobi told him. "I have to say, she is just lovely. I don't know where you've been keeping her, but we must have dinner sometime. If you have the good taste to marry her then I know I can trust you with our money."

"Well, thank you Sarutobi-san…I mean Hiruzen-san. I'll have my assistant call you."

"Do that," Hiruzen told him, "I can't wait to find out more about your gem of a wife."

When the old man left,Itachi was shocked; Noriko had just landed him the Sarutobi account. She was absolutely incredible. He couldn't wait to tell her the good news. As he walked towards the bathroom he was intercepted by Karin. Her sudden appearance caught him off guard and she used the moment to slip into his arms and put her arms around his neck.

"Itachi," she purred, "I thought we could dance for old time's sake."

"Thanks, but I'm not interested," Itachi told her coldly, trying to remove her arms from around his neck. He wanted to tell his wife he loved her, not dance with the worst mistake of his life. Karin, however, she would not let go of him. She clung tightly, even when he tried to pry her away. She made a noise and he saw people starting to turn their heads and look at them.

"Don't make a scene, Itachi," she told him sternly.

He glared at her. He had nothing to say to her and had no idea why on earth she would want to dance with him.

"What do you want, Karin?"

"I just had the pleasure of meeting your wife in the bathroom."

She had his attention. "What did you say to her?"

She pouted. "Why would you assume I said anything to her?"

"If you said anything to upset her, I'll…"

"You'll do what, Itachi? You won't do anything; you're all talk."

"You have no idea what I'm capable of, especially when it comes to my wife," he told her.

"So protective, aren't you?"

He wasn't interested in playing her game.

"We were good together, you know" she told him.

"No, we weren't. You lied, and I thought you were someone you weren't."

"Not everything was a lie, Itachi. There's still an attraction between us. Don't you feel it?"

"Honestly, Karin, the only thing I feel whenever I see you is shame and regret. Shame that I let myself get you pregnant, and regret that I'll never meet that child."

Noriko walked out of the bathroom after assuring Ino that she didn't care if three minutes were up or not, she wanted to get back to her husband. She hated how insecure she felt, but she had to find out if he still loved Karin. As soon as she saw him dancing with her, she felt a jealousy so white and hot it felt like someone was ripping her apart on the inside. She stood frozen to the spot for a moment watching them; watching the way they glided across the floor, Karin's arms around his neck, the two of them pressed together. She wanted to sob; she wanted to die.

"Noriko," she heard Ino say softly as her arms went around Noriko. Noriko couldn't look at Ino. "Don't let her win," Ino said.

No, she couldn't let Karin win. Tonight she may have lost the fight, but she hadn't lost the war, not yet.

When the music stopped, Itachi tried again to shake himself free of Karin.

"One more dance," she told him quickly. "Or will it cause trouble between you and your wife?"

"Is that your intention?" he asked her. "Did you come here tonight to cause trouble?"

"No, it wasn't my intention, but it has been fun nevertheless."

"What do you mean? What have you done?"

Noriko approached Itachi and Karin with single-minded determination. Instead of feeling white hot jealousy, Noriko was now seeing red hot rage. She tapped Karin on the shoulder.

Karin turned around and seeing Noriko standing there, she smiled a rather smug smile. In that moment Noriko wanted nothing more than to wipe that smile off her face.

"Karin, I think your date is looking for you. I overheard a man talking about a selfish slut who tried to sleep with all his friends."

"Ouch," Karin said. "I suppose it must hurt to know I'm right."

"Right about what?" Itachi asked. Noriko didn't bother to answer him. He could wait as far as she was concerned.

"Were you? If you were right you wouldn't be going home alone tonight."

"What are you talking about?" Karin looked confused.

Noriko pointed to Karin's date on the far side of the ballroom. The man looked disgusted.

"I've just had an interesting conversation with your date. He didn't know that you gave my ex-boyfriend gonorrhea, so I filled him in, also what he does know is that you have trouble keeping your hands to yourself."

She could see Itachi's confused expression out of the corner of her eye.

"That's very clever of you, Noriko. It's a pity I don't believe you though."

"Well, why is he walking out right now then?" Noriko waved her hand, and shooed Karin away. Then she launched herself into her husband's arms and began to dance with him so that Karin had no choice but to talk to her back if she was going to say anything. Noriko hoped Karin would simply leave them be. She was feeling so fragile right now that she didn't think she could take another minute of Karin's company. She heard what sounded suspiciously like a foot stomp before she saw Karin go after her date.

Itachi had watched the exchange quietly, trying to figure out what the hell was happening. He would have enjoyed Noriko's one-upmanship of Karin had he not been able to tell that his wife was extremely upset. There was murder in his wife's cerulean eyes, and it wasn't all aimed at his ex-girlfriend. Noriko was angry with him; furious, judging by the look on her face. He felt the waves of rage just rolling off her. It made his gut knot. He'd never seen her so angry before, not even after their wedding. Her eyes glittered dangerously as they clashed with his and that's when he saw it; there was pain in her eyes. She was hurting. Was she upset because he'd been dancing with Karin?

"Noriko," he started.

"Don't, Itachi. Not here and not now."

Noriko desperately hoped Itachi wouldn't say another word, because if he said anything to her right now she was likely to fall apart in his arms. She looked at a spot on the wall on the far side of the ballroom, trying her hardest not to cry. She wouldn't fall apart; not here. She wouldn't give Karin the satisfaction, even though she was hurting like hell. She couldn't look at her husband as she danced with him, couldn't bear to see what was on his face. Loving someone who didn't love her was one thing; but loving someone who was in love with someone else was quite another. She would see out tonight if it was the last thing she did; and then she had to decide what to do next.

Itachi couldn't stand to see the look of anguish on his wife's face. He wanted to tell her that Karin had forced the dance, and he hadn't wanted any part of it. Despite her protests, he grabbed her hand Instead, and dragged her across the ballroom, to the bathroom. He locked them in, ready to try and reason with his wife and make her understand what had happened with Karin, but surprisingly Noriko started talking the moment the door was shut.

"How could you dance with her?"

His wife was literally shaking with anger.

"I didn't want to dance with her, I was trying to avoid a scene after she threw her arms around me and wouldn't let go." He said, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice. He didn't like where this was going. She was so angry and so emotional that he was afraid of what she was thinking, afraid she had completely the wrong idea.

"You still have feelings for her," his wife accused, her voice trembling.

How could she possibly think he still cared for Karin in any way? His wife's jealousy gave him no satisfaction, no pleasure, no amusement, because it meant she had no idea how he felt about her. Because if she did know what she meant to him, she would never doubt him; she wouldn't feel insecure or threatened by Karin. She would know that she was everything to him, and she would know that she was the only woman he wanted for the rest of his life. Karin meant nothing to him, and Noriko meant everything, and he hadn't told her that.

"Noriko, he said, approaching her slowly.

"Don't," she said quickly, holding her hands up as in telling him to stop. "I don't want to hear it. I know you care about me, and I know I said it didn't matter if you don't love me. But I was wrong," she whispered. "It does matter."

Her words slipped past his last defense and made his heart ache. His inability to move past whatever it was that was holding him back was hurting her badly. He did love her and he had to tell her. No excuses, no nothing; if he couldn't share his feelings with her, he was going to lose her. The thought was enough to bring those last remaining walls he'd built come crashing down.

She went to walk past him, but he grabbed her arm swinging her around, so that they were just inches apart.

"No Noriko, you don't understand. You can't understand how I feel about you because I've never told you. I've never been able to find the words to tell you what you mean to me, but I'm going to try now, because I can't lose you."

He cupped her beautiful face between his hands now so she had to look at him.

"I love you, Noriko." He paused for a moment, wanting to let those words sink in for both of them. "I know those words have been a long time coming, and I'm sorry you had to wait so long to hear me say them, but you have to believe me when I tell you that now that I know them I will never forget them. I love you, and if you left me today or tomorrow or ten years down the track, inside I'd die without you."

Her eyes were glistening with unshed tears but he couldn't bring himself to stop. After spending weeks searching inside himself; searching for the words to tell her how he felt, he'd finally found them all and now they were just sitting there waiting to be said. He couldn't turn them off. He took one of her hands and put it over his heart, covering her hand with both of his. His eyes never left hers.

"This heart; it beats for you. You make me a better man and I don't even want to think about who'd I'd be without you. You are everything to me. You are my light; you are my hope and Noriko, you are my destiny."

He watched as the tears spilled out onto her cheeks. God, she was crying and his heart was breaking as he wiped her tears away. Did she understand yet? Did she get that she was his entire reason for being?

"I would do anything for you, Noriko. I need you. It's you, and it's always going to be you for the rest of my life. Please tell me you understand."

She was silent, but the tears were still sliding down her cheeks.

"I promise you this," he told her, "there will never be another day in this lifetime that you won't know how I feel about you. I will tell you every day how much you mean to me; how much this marriage means to me."

Noriko sniffled slightly and tried to pull herself together. This moment was one she'd hoped for, waited for, and now that it was finally here she was a mess – she was moved to tears. He loved her, and she hadn't even realized how much she needed to know that, to hear that, and for it to be true until tonight.

"Okay," she told him.

"Okay?"

"Okay, you better tell me that every day."

He smiled. "I will." Then he kissed her, a kiss that told her he meant everything he'd just said.

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"She has your nose," Itachi told Noriko.

"Well, she has your hair and onyx eyes," Noriko told him with a pout.

"Don't be like that Ko-chan, remember I told you she will have the Uchiha coloring." Itachi said and reached into the bassinet to stroke their baby girl's hand. She gurgled and grabbed his finger, looking straight into his eyes. His daughter, Kaori Mito Uchiha had been born four days early, after a twenty-three hour labor. The moment his daughter had been placed in his arms would be forever imprinted in his memory. He'd cried. It was the only time he'd ever cried in his life, and Noriko would never let him forget that, but he didn't care. The moment had been pure magic, and his daughter, well she was completely perfect.

A year ago he'd thought he'd never love again, now he felt as if his heart and his life were just bursting with it. He was quickly realizing that there was no limit to the love he could feel. When his daughter had been born it was like his heart had grown and expanded to accommodate all the extra love he would feel for his child. His capacity for loving was just growing and growing. He knew he owed so much of that to his wife.

Kaori closed her eyes, and Itachi slid his finger out of her grasp.

"She's so beautiful," Noriko said softly.

Itachi had to agree, Kaori Uchiha was perfect, but could he expect anything different when his wife was a perfect beauty herself? Noriko had glowed the whole way throughout the pregnancy, and even now, he thought she was stunning. Motherhood agreed with her. She seemed to have taken to it like a duck to water. He'd always known she would. Her instinct was to love and nurture others and it was one of the many, many things he loved about his wife.

The two of them wandered out of the nursery quietly and took a seat in front of the fire. She put her feet on his lap, and he found himself rubbing her feet.

He wasn't the perfect husband by any means, but he tried to be. He made mistakes but Noriko was quick to bring him up to speed when he put a foot wrong. He was still learning how to love someone and their marriage was a work in progress that he would never take for granted. She was his best friend, the love of his life and he loved her more and more everyday.

"I love you, Nori-hime," he told her.

Noriko looked at the man who was giving her the best foot massage in the world. He had kept his promise and then some. He told her every day that he loved her, but his actions spoke volumes of his love for her. She couldn't help but feel adored, pampered and appreciated every day. If she had ever been locked in a loveless marriage, as Sasuke had so bluntly stated, they were no longer in one. Their marriage, their family, their house was full of love. Noriko couldn't help thinking that everything about the journey that had led them here had been worth it. Their love was one that would last forever.

THE END

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NAMIKAZE ICHIME