Pregnant... Ohshi- [PM for entry]

[Honma Kotone]

Just meters from the Maw, the skeletal structure that created the calcium gate, stood Kinnaku as the wind gently flapped against her slender frame. Our eyes are fixated onto the gesturing tail of her white coat as it flapped, her hair, those crimped fashioned strands, danced unfashionably as the Sennin just remained still and silent. She had just left the Tower, perhaps an hour or so ago, and slipped past the guards that were so lazily stationed at the base elevator which led up to the Maw's entrance. Due to her experience at gate guarding, as she often took shifts there when she had the time, Kinnaku knew a few routes, nooks and crannies that could be easily exposed and exploited to benefit her little escape. But why was she sneaking around, and why wasn't she stationed behind her desk tackling the hordes of crispy whites? "No..." She would say, muttering something under her breath as the minerals began to dance in the updraft.

She was suppose to be meeting with Satsumaru at this point, why wouldn't she be with him?

Kinnaku, clutching onto a white stick that indicated something shocking, would shake her head and wipe her black hues with her sleeve. She wasn't prepared to receive such news, such shocking truths about her body, that the only way she could react was to run. As if running away from an obvious fact of life could help her in any way, shape or form? But what would you expect? The Sennin had been traumatized by the loss of her child, and now... The seed of Satsumaru was flourishing so tentatively within her womb.

If ever the Uchiha found his way to Kinnaku's office, obviously noticing that she never met him, he would be only met with an empty sight. But perhaps the rushed woman would have left a trail of witnesses that would lead Satsumaru to her very location. And perhaps, to his future, a future that rested within Kinnaku - quite literally.

 

[Onamuji]

It took quite a while for the patient Satsumaru to decide something was wrong. Kinnaku not only failed to meet up with him, but all his initial searches for her proved fruitless. She was, at the moment, nowhere to be found. Naturally, he asked the Tower staff for any news, and he scanned her office for any sign or note.

While her office was generally unremarkable in terms of anything that could be taken as a clue, some of the staff were able to give a few words about how the Medical Sennin seemed rushed and somewhat panicked as she hurried out of the Tower. Given the strange circumstances, Satsumaru knew something was wrong. She had avoided all her meetings and abandoned her post, so to speak. Returning to Kinnaku's office, the Uchiha sighed and took hold of a stray hair on the Sennin's chair. With it in his hand, he focused his chakra and performed the Chakra Sense jutsu. This was, surprisingly enough, a situation in which his ANBU talents would be required.

Immediately, he was honed in on her chakra signature. The benefit to having something of hers to focus on was that it gave a more direct signature, and allowed any decent ANBU to track their target within an entire region. By this time, the Uchiha was fairly familiar with the essence of the woman he had spent his recent days with. It wasn't too hard to keep his crimson eyes fixed on her signature.

Satsumaru followed the trail, as rushed as it was, until it led him to the Maw of Barnyx. She had slipped past the guards, and so would he. It was easy enough for an ANBU and a master of shadows. He knew the Maw fairly well, and if anyone felt the need to question him, he had a reasonable amount of authority to quell any suspicions...or so he'd hope.

As he silently approached the source of his trail, he released the Chakra Sense jutsu and watched a moment. Without a doubt, there she was. The form of the woman Satsumaru had become so comfortable with was standing like a statue, the wind and dust dancing around her as she stood firm. There was something...off. He could see that. Was she...upset?

"I think you worried your staff a little," he said, a sympathetic and worried look showing upon his own face, "Admittedly, I'm a little worried, too..."

[Topic Entered]

 

[Honma Kotone]

Somewhat caught off guard, the Sennin turned her head and set her red veined eyes onto Satsumaru, as he gave away his presence. She did not reply, but simply held a still stance for a few minute onward. Really, what could she say as her fingers curdled around that little white stick that fitted so perfectly into her fist. Was this some kind of cruel joke? Kinnaku, a woman who had lost her first child and had to take away the lives of her starving siblings, was now burdened with another life force that would inevitably be extinguished through some twisted hand of fate. "I don't know why I ran..." Kinnaku would say, now facing the Uchiha, both arms resting by her side. Everything about the Sennin's bodily expressions just showed discomfort, worry and fear.

"I..." She would pause, offering a half smile that wasn't heartfelt or sincere, and then shifting that smile into a neutral, empty expression. "I'm pregnant, you know."

What more could she say? Oh, lets live in a big house, lets run away and be happy together; away from the cruelty of a shinobi life? No, it wasn't as simple as that, it would be now that she was pregnant. This child would be undoubtedly cursed with the Oba misfortune that seemed to dwell over everyone of her family members since birth. Nothing was ever going to be right again, at least, not for now. "I couldn't even keep my first child... And now I have another?" She would scoff, turning her face away in disgust and raising her hand towards Satsumaru. "A failed mother doomed to take another life..." Kinnaku's chakra would swift amalgamate from her body and enter the air around her, the sands themselves uplifting and forming into paper sheets.

"Do me a favour and just take mine, right now..."

What was she saying? Kinnaku, so distraught by this pregnancy, was readying herself to fight Satsumaru and die? Was she that afraid to rise a child, only to have to be stolen away from her like a horrible nightmare? All the emotions from her past, the loss of her child and siblings, were coming back and infecting her thoughts and rationality.

 

[Onamuji]

Satsumaru would sigh, initially unsure of how to respond to Kinnaku's desperate words. Though he knew she wouldn't lie to him, her chakra made it very obvious that she wasn't. There was a sort of moving...orderly chaos...in her chakra. A moment would pass, during which the long-haired Uchiha would remain silent, merely folding his arms across his armored chest. He didn't look like the fatherly type...he looked like the Black Prince he always had been.

Despite the chakra-infused paper forming from the earth and floating through the air, Satsumaru took calm, casual steps until he was at Kinnaku's side, facing off the way she had been earlier. The length of his long hair fluttered with the breeze, and his crimson eyes were fixed on some unknowable - or nonexistent - point in the distance.

"I don't ever deny the fact that I am, by my nature and path in life, a killer," he admitted, "But that doesn't mean I'm heartless. There's no imaginable reason for me to kill you, or the life that grows within you."

Biting the corner of his lip, he went on to note, "I...can't say that I'm prepared for this, or that I'm a good candidate to be a father at all. But there is no grey area. I can either succeed or fail, and I won't resign to failure without doing all in my power to provide life for this child."

Her words rushed back to him. The story of her past...her first child...its father. Satsumaru always assumed he'd fall in battle years ago, removing the thought of children from his concern. Now, however, it looked like both of their pasts were coming back to haunt them - hers far more so than his.

Turning to face her, still ignoring the paper jutsu rising with the wind, the crimson-eyed man said, "The past is the past, Kinnaku. We cannot change it, nor can we ever entirely heal the wounds. I don't believe in fate or destiny, but I do believe that we must accept whatever may come and do our best to live with it. Chance brought you and I together in the first place, and now it has decided that our blood should be joined and a child be brought into this world. What isn't up to chance is what sort of life this child will live. That...that is up to us to decide. And I intend to do whatever it takes to ensure that it is spared from the sort of pasts we were subjected to."

Stretching an arm out, he extended his hand to Kinnaku, ignoring the cutting sheets and the damage they would cause.

"I will stay by your side through this. We have created life together, and I hope to protect it...and raise it...together..." Satsumaru offered.

 

[Honma Kotone]

Kinnaku, holding a still stance, would lower her hostile sheets of paper until their shape became placid and lazy-looking. She wouldn't say anything in reply to his own words, but instead she would raise a hand to her black hues and rub the salts away. It was hard, unbelievably hard for the woman to even comprehend keeping this child because of her past experiences? "Satsu..." His name would slip from her lips, those peach velvet invitations, as she still remained masked with one of her hands. And all the while, he would approach the frightened lamb and offer himself; an open embrace around her slender form as the sheets now lazily brushed against his body.

She would be shocked, upon contact, but would so easily just allow the embrace to occur. She wasn't going to complain - she felt utterly safe with Satsumaru, but absolutely terrified by the prospect of him hating her because she wasn't able to protect their baby. "My career, my job is to protect life but how can you be with me if I can't protect our child?"

"You would hate me..."

[Short post, but you know why :3]

 

[Onamuji]

"I couldn't," he replied with a certainty, "By all logic, I couldn't."

Squeezing her tight, he reaffirmed his position on the matter. He was still shocked, but he was not afraid. Nor would he show it, in any case. Kinnaku was shaken and needed encouragement and reassurance. He had to be made of stone; certain and unwavering.

"You are not alone anymore. I will not abandon you. I will not hurt you. I will take care of you and our child, whatever may come," the long-haired Uchiha assured her, "Failure is not a possibility."

And he meant it. This child was not her responsibility. She had been mistreated before, and had known the loss of a child. There was no one to help her or support her. Now, however...Satsumaru was there, and he would not run or hide.

 

[Honma Kotone]

Kinnaku would hold firm, increasing her grasp upon Satsumaru, before the paper that surrounded the two became erected again. She would smile and whisper in his head, after accordingly moving her head so that her lips could perch against his lobes. "Then run away with me..." The Sennin would exclaim as one by one, the sheets of paper would clamp down onto her body and, if able, they would also begin to cover the supple shape of Satsumaru. If he would allow it, the papers would latch onto his body and inject chakra into the pair; effectively preparing for some kind of technique.

"Run away with me..." She would say before her form, the slender shape, broke down into numerous sheets of paper. The numerous sheets would levitate for a few moments, waiting on Satsumaru to either stay or join with her in this new form so that they would leave the village; leave their horrendous duties and raise a family together.

[Retired]

 

[Onamuji]

Satsumaru sighed. Would he really leave his world behind?

The long-haired Uchiha let his body go. He wasn't sure how this would work, or what sort of jutsu this was, but they were past the point of uncertainty. The sheets of chakra-infused paper swirled around them, and he understood it well. It was similar to his mastery over shadows or his Uchiha ability to manipulate space and time; it was the art of displacing one's self or others.

There was a lingering feeling of sadness, strangely enough. He was leaving the only life he had ever known. It was always death or the planning of death. Now, he would be devoted to...life. The life of his coming child, and the life of the woman he had fallen in love with.

[Uchiha Satsumaru, Retired. Apologies to everyone I'm disappointing by doing this, especially Kumiko and Bruinetto, but I've come to the conclusion that I've run my course as Satsumaru. It's been fun, but I need to do something new or I'll hit a brick wall.]