She gasped into her husband's mouth as he devoured her neck, caressing one breast with one hand and her clitoris with the other. She heard his moan lose itself in her skin as Kakashi's hips met hers, penetrating her once more. Her own hands, in his hair and on his back, clung on as best they could as her legs wrapped tighter and tighter around his masculine waist.
Kakashi's defined abs slid over hers. She felt his pecs brush against her nipples as he thrust into her for the umpteenth time.
"Kakashi! M-more-" she moaned, interrupting herself with pleasure.
Kakashi's mouth released her neck, licking and kissing her skin until he rested his lips on her ear. He spoke to her in a breathless, hoarse voice, making her hair stand on end again.
"More what? Harder? Faster?" he asked, his voice slightly muffled from the effort, driving her crazy, torturing her. "Tell me, Seina."
"Everything!" she cried, stifling a scream and clinging to her chaotic thoughts as best she could.
A mouth devoured her lips as she screamed, and she felt Kakashi please her by thrusting into her faster and harder. It didn't take him long to come. She felt him come inside her. Seina stretched out on the bed, realising how much her back had arched with pleasure. Her legs loosened as if by magic, unable to feel anything but the tremor that had taken hold of them due to the pleasure. Kakashi caught his breath for a few seconds before moving down her torso, kissing every inch of her skin. She felt her pussy contract as she felt his tongue play with her navel, but that was nothing because he immediately put her legs over his strong shoulders and, without a word, buried his face in her sex.
"KAKASHI!" she sobbed, unable to help herself. She was extremely sensitive.
"Mmhmm?" he murmured against her clitoris, licking and nibbling it gently.
She couldn't say anything else. This man was driving her crazy. She came in a few minutes, although with much less force than before. She saw her husband lift his head from between her legs, his face stained with both their fluids. She grabbed his hair to pull him up to her height. He let himself be pulled up with a small laugh that ended up making her laugh too.
"Let me rest for a few minutes," she whispered, closing her eyes after cleaning them both with her magic.
"All right," he replied, hugging her close as he lay down beside her.
Seina closed her eyes from sheer pleasure, burying her face against his masculine chest, feeling his heart beating vigorously beneath her ear. She could die at that very moment, and she would die happy. Her only regret would be not being able to keep living life to the fullest with Kakashi and her family. Only half a century or a little more felt like too little. Kakashi's arms wrapped around her more tightly, and she could feel what he was feeling at that precise moment.
"Our life together has only just begun."
"We're shinobi, Kakashi. Who knows if a war will be declared tomorrow?"
"If a war were declared, would you let your family die?"
"Of course not."
"How sure are you of that?"
"One hundred percent. I wouldn't let it happen," she replied, completely confident in her abilities. She instantly understood what Kakashi was telling her, to trust them, and herself.
"Then you already know what I think. Our family would survive. There's no reason to keep dwelling on it," he stroked her loose hair tenderly. "I promised you I wouldn't die while you were gone. Now I promise you something else. As soon as you get pregnant or you're appointed head of the hospital, I'll retire."
"What?" she asked, completely surprised. She lifted her head from his chest to look into his eyes. He was serious. "Do you really mean it?"
"Absolutely. When are we going to have kids? In 3 or 4 years? Maybe 5 years? By then I'll have spent 30 years of my life as a ninja. I've served my village actively more than most others," Kakashi admitted, speaking his worth out loud for the first time in… she didn't know how long. "I'll have served the Land of Fire as an ANBU for 13 years. Thirteen years, Seina. I grew up without my parents when they could have stayed in the village, serving as the leaders of the Hatake clan. I told you I didn't want us to have what our parents had, and I meant it. I'm not going to risk my life and leave you alone with our children. First of all, because I don't want to lose you, or you to lose me, and I don't want our children to grow up without their father."
>>"Your intention is to become head of the hospital, and you have a very good chance of it as soon as Tsunade-sama retires. She's been training you for it and you've already surpassed her as a medic. Naruto, if he stays on the right path, could replace her as Hokage in a few years. I know that as soon as she leaves her post as Hokage, she'll also leave the hospital. She'll probably devote herself to finishing your training so you can be the head. In other words, in a few years you'll be working in the village full-time, and I'll retire."
"I see you've thought this through quite a bit," she smiled.
"Of course. Maybe I'll get bored now and then staying in the village, but I'd rather survive for our family than savour the fleeting dose of adrenaline missions give me. I'd only stay active if you stayed active because I know they'd assign us together on some missions. As long as you're safe, I won't risk my life foolishly."
"You're right."
Seina still couldn't quite believe that Kakashi, in just a few years, would stop being an active ninja. His reasoning made perfect sense, but years ago, when she met him, she never imagined Kakashi could leave fieldwork to "laze around" in the village. Then again, when she met him, she never thought they'd end up in love and planning to have children who would need them both. Even so, though surprised, she was pleasantly surprised. Kakashi had coldly assessed their situation because even she knew he was right in thinking it would take time to adjust to not leaving the village on high-risk missions. For Kakashi, those missions were like a drug. Adrenaline was addictive, especially since her husband had been hooked on it, so to speak, since he was five. His entire life.
"Thank you, my love."
"You don't have to thank me for wanting to stay alive. This is the least I can do," he said, looking at her with tender eyes and kissing her lips. "I'd do anything for you, and for our children."
She felt what he wasn't saying, not because he didn't want to or was ashamed, but because he didn't know how to express it. Kakashi was happy that she was relieved he would stay in the village, eliminating a high chance of losing him on the battlefield. He was happy to have proof that she didn't want to lose him. She grasped his hair to bring him back to her lips, kissing him with all the love she had inside her.
How could she ever think she didn't want him in the village, where he'd be so much safer? If she hadn't said anything, it was because she didn't want to give him an ultimatum when she knew how much Kakashi loved exploring, moving, discovering, and using his hard-trained skills. She didn't want to force him to stay in the village and kill a part of him, but if he was the one who felt capable of doing it… That was a very different matter.
"Kakashi… If you die before you can retire, I'll revive you and kill you and then revive you again. Do you understand me?" she said, joking but also serious.
Kakashi let out an amused laugh, burying his face in her golden hair. He was still chuckling softly when he brushed his nose against hers in an affectionate gesture before kissing her lips.
"I promise. I'll do everything I can not to die."
"Thank you."
All this talk of death had dampened her libido, so she stopped thinking about that remote possibility. She closed her eyes again, stroking his bicep with her free hand. Then, she slowly stroked his back, memorizing its feel under her fingers.
"Sleep, darling. We have the whole week ahead of us," she heard the masculine voice, smooth and sweet as chocolate, of her husband slip into her ears. And she obeyed.
She woke up the next day with her back covered by Kakashi's torso. She noticed his hand resting on her stomach, even though she wasn't pregnant and wouldn't be for a long time. Kakashi's other arm lay under the pillow, and his face was buried in her loose hair. She knew through their new and brilliant bond that he was truly asleep. She didn't want to wake him, so she closed her eyes and stroked the hand on her stomach, tracing a vein or two more prominent in his arm.
She stayed awake for a while, waiting for him to wake up. As soon as she sensed him rising from unconsciousness, she turned in his arms to face him. His eyes were still closed, so she softly touched his cheekbones, his brows, his nose, his lips… memorizing his handsome features, amazed that this man loved her as much as she loved him. Kakashi finally opened his eyes as he felt her wonderstruck emotions.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked quietly, not wanting to break the moment.
"About how glad I am that you love me. When I met you, you seemed fine being alone… and from what I've heard several times, you've never loved anyone. It makes me happy that you love me."
"The more I think about it, the more I believe I was waiting for you. Maybe before I wouldn't have thought the same, but now I firmly believe there's something more. Thanks to you. Call it magic or god, or whatever you like. Somehow I believe we were destined to meet."
"And to love each other?"
"…I feel like I was destined to love you," Kakashi admitted, not trying to make her feel bad. "I'm lucky you return my feelings, but it was impossible for me not to end up loving you. It was only a matter of time. Very little time, actually."
"When was the first time you accepted you felt something for me?" she asked curiously. They had never talked about their turbulent beginnings.
"The first time I understood it? When you gave me my room in your house and you fell asleep in my arms. The first time I accepted it? About three weeks later, when I moved in with you completely," he smiled, caressing her cheek. "The first time I felt something for you and didn't want to accept it? When you hugged me to console me."
"But… That was at the end of the first week after we met!" she laughed, astonished.
"I know. I thought I had lost my mind. You don't know how much I punished myself, as soon as I recognized I was starting to care about you, to push myself away from you as much as I could."
"Really?" she said, equally surprised. "I didn't notice."
"Of course you didn't, because I'm an idiot and didn't realize I was sabotaging myself because I didn't actually want to stay away from you," he rolled his eyes, exasperated with himself but smiling. "It only took me three weeks to give up on my plan to keep my distance, and the rest was history."
"I'm glad you didn't ignore me or avoid me."
"How could I have done that if I practically loved you from the moment I looked into your eyes? I'm a slave to your love."
Seina let out a tiny laugh before kissing him, putting all her love into that kiss and their bond. Kakashi sighed with pleasure into her mouth before swirling his tongue against hers. She lifted her leg over his hips, rubbing against him in a clear invitation. He grabbed her thigh as he sank into her. That morning, their first morning as a married couple, they made love slowly, forgetting the world around them. Seina was so immersed in their bond that she didn't know where she began and he ended. She felt his pleasure as if it were her own. His desire and devotion were indescribable.
Hours later, after a long hot bath, a breakfast alone half-naked, and countless more kisses and hugs, they went down to the village when the sun was at its highest.
"You have to see the plantations and the reefs," she continued, explaining in great detail what they had created. "Then I'll summon one of my sharks so you can see it up close."
"I still can't believe Kisame took you as his apprentice," he said with a smile, shaking his head. "And yet, at the same time, I'm not surprised at all."
"I can't wait to duel with you, my love."
A competitive spark lit up in Kakashi's dark eyes when he saw she meant it. He could feel within himself how thrilled he was to fight her, and the almost childlike curiosity to see how much she had improved.
"I've been training too. As much as I could, at least. It's been three stressful years, but I've managed to practice with my mangekyō sharingan."
"Really?"
"Yes. Since you healed it completely, I can use the evolved sharingan without suffering from chakra exhaustion or eye bleeding."
"Mmm…" she murmured, feeling something slip her mind. It was right on the tip of her tongue.
"What is it?"
"I don't know. It'll come to me."
She shrugged, giving his hand a gentle squeeze as they walked through the village. They spent the whole morning exploring and later had lunch at the yakiniku by the beach. In the afternoon, at a relaxed pace, they visited the plantations and crops surrounding the village. It grew too late to visit the reef, so they left it for the next day.
"What do you think about just the two of us having dinner tonight?" she suggested, wrapping her arms around his waist and letting him hold her.
"Sounds perfect to me."
Kakashi's tender smile stayed with her all evening as they prepared dinner together, teasing and flirting like teenagers. They dined on one of the mansion's outdoor terraces, under the starlight. They drank wine and ate sweets until late into the night.
"You should've seen the commander's posture," Kakashi laughed, tears of laughter in his eyes, "when he saw that… thing drawn on the back of his neck after several hours. I thought he was going to have an aneurysm!"
Seina leaned against the table, catching her breath from laughing so hard. She hadn't been there to witness the reaction when she had punished the ANBU, but she had laughed to herself many nights remembering it. Apparently, she'd been right in thinking he wouldn't take it well.
"Do you remember my memory of Lady Tsunade dressed as Guy?" she asked, fanning her face with a conjured fan. Kakashi nodded.
She remembered Tsunade-sama sitting in her office chair, with jet-black bowl-cut hair, wearing a green jumpsuit with an orange belt and matching leg warmers. Kakashi's clear, unrestrained laughter at the memory of Konoha's leader dressed like one of his best friends made Seina laugh into her glass of red wine.
"I'll never be able to look at Lady Tsunade the same way again."
"Wait until I show you the pranks we pulled on the old pervert," she said, chuckling as she recalled the phrase 'Having sex with your clone: is it incest or masturbation?' inside the fortune cookie, and Jiraiya's stunned face.
As soon as Kakashi saw Jiraiya's expression in her memories, he burst out laughing harder than ever. Seina enjoyed seeing him laugh freely like that. When they were alone, he dropped all his inhibitions and was his true self. And she loved that.
"I like seeing you laugh," she confessed, unable to hold it back.
Kakashi smiled at her words, a faint blush colouring his cheeks, so adorable. Aww. Her husband was so huggable. And to think people were afraid of him. She leaned over the table and gave him a brief kiss, savouring the freedom of doing so whenever she wished. They ended the night walking along one of the deserted beaches, far from the village.
"If you hadn't been a ninja, what do you think you would've been?"
"I think there wasn't really another path for me," Kakashi admitted. "I idolized my father. He was my hero. Being like him was all I ever wanted. I guess that admiration blinded me to any path beyond the military life."
"And your mother?"
"My mother was a chunin. I barely remember her. She died very young."
"You know, I thought about painting a portrait of our parents, but I wasn't sure if anyone had enough memories of your mother. And I didn't want to paint mine if I couldn't paint yours," she confessed. Kakashi pulled her close with an arm around her shoulders.
"Don't worry. I understand. Though I wouldn't complain about having a portrait of my father. Having one is better than none."
Seina nodded, relieved. That had been one of the reasons she hadn't painted more portraits than Mikoto's.
They spent a long time talking on their way back home, discussing anything that came to mind. As she dozed off that night in Kakashi's arms, she thought of George. Her former husband had been wonderful, and they had loved each other deeply, but she had never felt the same connection she now had with Kakashi. Maybe because part of George had feared forming such a bond, only to lose it like he'd lost his twin, Fred. She didn't regret her time with him, not at all, but it wasn't comparable to what she had built with Kakashi in just a few short years. A part of her wondered how different her old marriage might have been if Fred had lived and George hadn't been changed so deeply by his brother's death.
"I can't wait to see you fight with that katana," Kakashi admitted, dressed in navy blue cotton shorts and a white short-sleeved shirt.
In his hand, he held another conjured katana, gleaming under the bright midday sun of Uzushiogakure. She, dressed in a white and pastel-pink sleeveless jumpsuit, looked more ready for a stroll than for combat. Without a word, she lunged at her husband, who raised an eyebrow in surprise before fully engaging in the fight. They sparred for a while. Seina took it seriously, forcing him back several times and even cornering him.
The excited, competitive grin on her husband's face stayed there throughout the long hour they exchanged blows. Everything stopped when she managed to give him a shallow cut on the arm. Kakashi glanced at the blood with mild surprise before looking back at her.
"You're amazing."
"Let me see," she said. Kakashi let her heal the wound without flinching. "You were holding back."
"So were you," he shrugged. "It was a mini-training, not a death match."
"Midget. I want to talk to him," Kurama said suddenly. He had been asleep for days, annoyed at having to hear how much fun they were having on their honeymoon. "Just with him..."
"Kurama wants to talk to you. Alone."
Kakashi was surprised again but nodded. It would be the first time he met face-to-face with the demon who had once destroyed part of Konoha. Seina wondered what Kurama wanted to discuss with him, but she gave them privacy, casting a magic barrier a few meters away so she wouldn't overhear. She looked out at the horizon from the Uzumaki mansion's backyard, waiting patiently until they finished.
Her husband's hand pulled her out of her thoughts. Kurama hadn't returned to her yet , instead, he was lying in the shade on a patch of grass beneath a huge tree. She raised an eyebrow at Kakashi, but he just shook his head. She examined his expression and emotions through their bond, but he wasn't sad or upset. She shrugged, assuming she'd find out sooner or later.
The rest of the days were spent exploring the islands and the sea. Seina couldn't believe how relaxed Kakashi was, so far from Konoha. It was as if a great weight had been lifted from him. She had never seen him so free of worry, so radiant. It was like the day of their wedding had taken ten years off his life, rejuvenating him. If she had found him attractive before… now, full of happiness, it was like falling in love with him all over again.
"How could I not be happy?" Kakashi said when she mentioned it. He smiled and gave her a brief kiss on the lips. "Now I have something worth protecting. Something I chose myself, not something imposed on me by the village. Our family is the most important thing to me."
Kakashi looked out at the blue horizon from his conjured surfboard. They were the only ones on the beach, as usual — the villagers rarely strayed far from the main settlement. They had spent the morning swimming, riding the waves, and sunbathing. Another worry-free day. The thoughtful, slightly amused expression on her husband's face made Seina raise an eyebrow at him.
"What? What's that look for?" she joked, lying on her back on her board as the calm sea rocked her gently.
"Nothing. I just realized something."
"What is it?"
"A few years ago, before I met you, I never would've thought I could have something more important than the village. If the me from back then could read my thoughts now, he wouldn't understand. That Kakashi wouldn't know why his future self is completely convinced he could betray the very village he always gave everything for, almost even his life." Kakashi stopped gazing at the horizon and looked at her with eyes full of love. "And yet, now, I can't even imagine putting the village above you. I'd leave Konoha in a heartbeat, without hesitation, without regret, if that's what we needed."
>> "I've never felt something with such certainty before. It's like… like I didn't really know what I was doing with my life before. I was just passing the time, distracting myself with whatever came along. I wasn't unhappy, but I wasn't happy either. I was content, almost satisfied with my life, everything seemed fine or, rather, not bad, because there wasn't anything that truly… I didn't have a purpose. Something to be passionate about. It was like being on this board… drifting, not caring where it takes you because there's nowhere you truly want to go."
Seina listened closely to what he said and to what he didn't say. She knew Kakashi sometimes struggled to find the right words for his feelings, but this time, she thought she understood perfectly, even without them.
"Before, the most important thing to you was the village because you didn't have something personal that made you happy, right?"
"Exactly. I didn't know what true devotion was because I served Konoha in place of something meaningful. Now I understand what it means to be truly devoted to something and I even understand people I once nearly despised for their devotion. I was wrong. They had more clarity than I did. They knew what they were fighting for better than I ever did."
"Your words prove it wasn't all in vain," she said softly, moving closer to his board and touching his cheek. "It's never too late to grow."
"I know."
They watched the sunset in silence. The orange and pink hues painted the white sand with the last rays of light. Kakashi and Seina stood there on the beach, wrapped in each other's arms. It was one of their first sunsets together but she hoped it wouldn't be one of the last.