"'Kashi?"

"Hmm," the man mumbled, his eyes still shut as he attempted to listen to his wife.

"Do you think we're safe here?"

Akiko had rolled over on her side to look at Kakashi, so she could see the Sharingan spinning lazily in his opened eyes. She tucked one arm under her head and draped the other across her husband's half-asleep form.

"Why wouldn't we be?" he asked, shifting closer to Akiko. He too had one arm under his pillow, cradling his head from beneath the downy object. The other strong arm had laced itself around her waist and pulled her into the safety of his embrace.

She was close enough to feel her shrug, and Kakashi could almost see her teeth digging into her bottom lip as she struggled to explain her thoughts.

"They came for us once," she reminded him. He winced with the memory of seeing the dark kunai blade protruding from the delicate woman's stomach, forever ending the life of their unborn child. "Can't they do it again?"

Kakashi's eyebrows pulled together, his confusion making itself present on his normally hidden features.

"What would the motivation be?" he asked in a futile attempt to dull the worry of Akiko. It did no good. She kept asking questions.

"They still want you dead."

It hurt her to point out such a blunt fact. It consumed all of her self control to not break down over the possibility to someday losing her Kakashi.

"They won't get their wish," Kakashi promised her.

The satin of his voice felt like a caress in itself, and Akiko could not help but believe him when he used that voice that was reserved only for her. She cuddled into his radiating warmth, unable to help herself.

The last words whispered to her that night were: I love you. I won't ever leave you.