"Uchiha, Itachi?" Gaara fell to the floor and crossed his legs as shock robbed him of his strength.
"Yes." Renai confirmed. "Sensō was lost in battle following the creation of that despicable tree," she spat out. "I waited, so long, for him. He travelled through many planes, times, bodies until his spirit found the fresh, fertile soil of Earth. He saw it as a young world, full of life and promise, a world where his soul could rest before he went in search of me again," Renai gave a small smile, her affection for her lover sparkling in her blue eyes. "He knew I guarded the gates of heaven and that death would reunite us. But something in his bones told him to stay in that Earthly plane, to look into what this new world had to offer. And then it happened," Gaara looked her straight in her eye as she said this with such certainty. "The most wonderful day he had ever known."
"What happened?" A warm breeze fluttered into the pavilion and Gaara was suddenly distracted by the way Renai's hair swayed by her hips.
"Sasuke was born," Gaara blushed on Ai's behalf as Renai said this; what a tangled web the three mortals had managed to weave. Renai seemed to notice the colour rise in Gaara's cheeks and smiled knowingly. "Ai and I are separate beings; is it so mad that she would fall for the brother of my soul mate?" She said. "Sensō had never experienced love like it," Renai continued with her story, a straying dark curl of hair brushed her lips in the breeze. "Gods are born from no one and although we relate to one another, we cannot have siblings. Finally, Sensō had something he wanted to protect from the evils of the world. To him, Sasuke was perfect in every way and helped him to understand how humans love. This is, it seems, a very pressing matter for gods-"
"But," Gaara thought for a moment of all the blood that Itachi washed his hands with, "the Uchiha massacre, the Akatsuki-"
"One of the great secrets of Konoha was Itachi's mission to destroy his clan-"
"It was his mission!?" Gaara's eyes widened in shock as he appraised the goddess who took a seat on the bench in front of him.
"Don't look at me like that; you men are bizarre creatures, I barely understand Sensō at times. But everything that Itachi did, he did out of love." But Renai could tell that Gaara had forgiven and forgotten very quickly. Something was playing on Gaara's mind; Renai could see his eyes dancing, that his attention was no longer with her. "What is it, Gaara?"
"Does she love Sasuke?" As Gaara was sat cross-legged on the stone floor, Renai lowered herself from the bench and onto the cold ground. There, she sat on her knees and her sparkling blue eyes locked onto his. The goddess smiled at him knowingly, apologetically.
"Yes." Gaara nodded as she spoke. There was no trace of anger of jealousy. Perfectly reasoned, perfectly rational, the Kazekage had matured to the man he was destined to become.
"Itachi made the world play out this way, didn't he?" Renai nodded.
"Yes."
"Did he interfere with my relationship with Ai?"
"Yes." Again, Gaara nodded. It was all so perfect; if a man devoid of love met Love herself, the pair would have no choice but to fall into each other's arms. The kazekage almost smiled; the story of Love was as twisted as it would always be as beautiful as it was tragic.
"What did he do?" Candles in the archways flickered like a crowd of onlookers whispering to one another, guessing what is was and how Itachi had managed to come between the two.
***
"I heard that Sabaku no Gaara had taken to a girl of the Tea House so beautiful, she could have been mistaken for Kichijōten (Goddess of happiness, fertility and beauty) and I knew instantly that it had to be you." Ai could barely breathe with all the emotions suddenly filling her up; her blood was churning with confusion and anger. "The only interaction I had with Sabaku no Gaara was in the planning of his assassination. The Akatsuki wanted to wait longer before acting but I persuaded them the time was right. As soon as I heard the rumours that the moon had come down to Earth and enchanted the demon Shukaku with Blood-Love, I knew it was time to act." The girl's shoulders shook.
The night I was with Nobutara," Ai started, her voice sharp and clear striking like a whip through the air, "Shukaku was driven into a frenzy and no one ever bothered to ask why…that was you, wasn't it?" Ai felt something in her stomach drop as he nodded at her. "You knew I would seal Shukaku away, weaken Gaara before he fought Deidara." Again Itachi nodded. "On the day of Gaara's death I saw a light shining on his bedroom balcony and ran towards it. That light was you, wasn't it?" Again, the Uchiha nodded. His face showed no trace of apology or remorse, he was merely waiting to hear forgiveness. "You led me there. Knowing I would be found in his quarters and our relationship would be found out by the higher ups in Suna. Gods," a single tear fell from her eyes, "it's all so perfect, isn't it?"
"I never meant to hurt you," Itachi said quickly, straining against his ties, desperate to hold the mortal girl he had come to respect and adore. "I never meant for things to go so awry; I didn't think Blood-Love would be seen on Earth. I-" the man stopped suddenly and finally hung his head in shame when the girl looked up at him, a single tear shimmering in the candlelight. It was eerie, her resemblance to Renai; she looked younger than the goddess, but exuded the same power and authority. It was enough to silence one of the deadliest men known to the world.
"We had to become enemies to fulfil the fate of Blood-Love," Ai said quietly, raising her head high as though to see above the mess the mortals had created. "Whether it was some cruel kismet, or by your hand, Gaara and I were destined to become enemies." The girl's face screwed up in frustration as she let out a shuddering breath. Her shoulder slumped as though in surrender. "I am in love with Sasuke," the girl, the goddess, whispered quietly.
"I am glad." Hearing this, Ai stood suddenly in frustration and walked up to Itachi confidently. The powerful and dangerous man almost recoiled, feeling the venom that was seeping out of the girl's skin.
"Who has won, Itachi?" She asked him. "Answer me!" She shouted when he did not respond. "Are you happy? Is Renai? Because I can assure you Gaara, Sasuke and myself are victims to your wretched schemes!" Ai blinked away tears of frustration. "I swear, the pair of you deserve one another." She spat at him. "Have you won? Has Tengoku (heaven)? No," she answered for him, "The battle is not done yet-"
"Renai-"
"Ha!" The girl laughed at being called a name that she had no need for. "Don't call me that," as she spoke, a mischievous smile spread across her face and she went up on her tiptoes to lean in close to Itachi's face, watching as the man, years older than her with a soul centuries old, became coy. A younger version of the goddess he was in love with, flaunted her lips by biting them in front of him and spying him under her eyelashes. Itachi almost withdrew back into the coffin to avoid the erotic smell of the jasmine oil that shimmered on her collarbone. "This is the night before war, Sensõ," she whispered, blowing the words up to his ear, "a victor is yet to be named," Ai pouted, smiling as Itachi's eyes were kept on her lips.
"Don't be reckless, Ai-" he gulped as Ai turned away sharply and began to walk out of the room.
"Is that a dare?"
***
"Temari-sama!" The blonde haired shinobi turned as Matsuri, one of Gaara's students, approached her as she was walking from the Kazekage's office. The girl was running, still dressed at this odd hour of the night, in her clothes she usually wore for a mission; had she been on boundary patrols at this time of the night?
"What is it?" Temari answered in her usual sharp tone, making the girl blush. "At this hour, Matsuri-kun and for you to abandon your post at the gates, it better be important!"
"Y-yes, it is, Temari-sama!" The girl said as she skidded to a halt in front of Temari. "There is word of a spy in the palace!" Temari's eyes widened, her feet automatically planted on the ground to take the stance as if about to engage in combat.
"A spy? How could this happen?" The short, curt manner in which Temari spoke seemed to throw the shy girl off balance until she felt as though her forehead protector slipped down her head and covered her face to avoid an interrogation. "Well?" Temari snapped, "don't just stare at me, give me some evidence."
"I found this just outside the village gates. It was covered in sand following a sandstorm a few weeks ago." She held up a bundle of white sheets, covered in sand, the granules of sand seemed to pour away from a mound in the centre of the bundle until the foul stench of rotting flesh filled the air.
"Oh, Gods," Temari recoiled, covering her nose. She peered at the bundle with suspicion and watched in curiosity as the sand poured away into the bundle of white sheets until it revealed feathers of darkish brown and black. "…wait," Temari murmured, lowering her hand from her mouth, "is that-?"
"Yes," Matsuri answered, wrinkling her nose at the smell. "It's Hayaidesu, our fastest flying hawk. It went missing last month."
"Missing!?" Upon raising her voice, Temari turned back to see, at the end of the hall, the door to the Kazekage's office which hid her brother, who was working tirelessly at this ungodly hour. In a moment, Temari made a decision that she could not determine the reason for, as she opened the door to an abandoned office beside them and beckoned Matsuri in with a nod. "Why didn't you inform us sooner!?" The deadly kunoichi snapped.
"You went to the Kage Summit," Matsuri began to trip over her own words, "there was barely any time-"
"Wasn't Hayadesu carrying a message for…?" Almost as though fate was listening to her, a small fold of white cotton fell away from the corpse of the hawk. Something fell to the pit of her stomach. Tied to the hawk's leg, perfectly intact, was a small piece of parchment rolled up and carefully attached. "Open it. Open it!" She hurriedly instructed the girl. Matsuri carefully placed the bird on the desk in the office and removed the parchment before Temari snatched the paper away from her. Her eyes danced wildly around the parchment as butterflies danced in her stomach with such frenzied actions that she felt sick. There, clearly in Gaara's handwriting, was a letter written from him to Ai.
Forgive me for not writing to you sooner, Ai….Forgive me for being weak and foolish, naive and cowardly.
"Oh, Gods, no…" Temari fell into a nearby chair.
Why should I be so fearful of having loved Love herself?…My soul can no longer rest peacefully knowing you are not near me….I was Gaara once, before you…Now your blood beats through my aching heart.
"Temari-sama," Matsuri spoke in the background but Temari could not hear her.
Ai, prepare to meet Suna shinobi in the hill station that borders Neba and Nikko at sunset in two days time…
"Temari-sama!"
Our relationship can no longer remain behind closed doors. If there is no veil between our love and the gods then why should there be a veil between us and the world?
"Temari-"
"What is it!?" Temari shouted, standing up and looking at the girl in frustration. Matsuri was too frightened to say anything, she simply held something up in the light. Temari closed her eyes as the wave of realisation passed over her; there in Matsuri's hand, taken from a wound in the bird, was a shard of metal the shape of a broken arrow, the crest of a Kingdom Temari knew well, was carved into the blunt side of the shard. The sister of the Kazekage fell back into the chair and held her head in her hand, the letter her brother wrote a month ago, dangling in her grasp, the black ink of the writing reflecting in the candlelight.
I am no longer the man I was.