Feeling a light pulling on his long hair Tenzou turned around.
“Mission?” Shisui yawned.
“Yeah.”
“When will you be back?”
“I should be back in a month, at the latest in two.”
“Do you still have time?” Shisui smirked and let the bed sheet slide off his bare leg.
"Last night was not enough?” Tenzou smirked back.
“Well, I have to restrain myself for the next month or two … so?”
Tenzou looked at the ceiling, then out of the window to estimate how much time was left before he had to meet up with his team.
With a swift movement he pulled off his boxers and rolled over. His one hand buried itself in Shisui’s dark curls, their lips nearly touching.
“I still have a little bit of time left, so we have to hurry.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” Shisui asked and clashed their lips together.
Tenzou had taken a quick shower and was dressed in his anbu uniform, his mask hanging on his hips. When he entered the bedroom again, Shisui had gotten up and had dressed in one of Tenzou’s boxers.
“That’s one of mine.”
“I know.”
Shisui came up to Tenzou and put his arms around his neck. Tenzou’s hand encircled Shisui’s waist, caressing his skin right above his hips with his thumbs. Shisui slowly closed his eyes and brushed a light kiss on Tenzou’s lips.
“I love you, Tenzou.” He whispered.
“I love you too.” Tenzou whispered back.
A light kiss.
"Stay safe.”
"You too.”
Another light kiss.
"I have to go now.”
“I know.”
This time the kiss was longer, deeper. And Tenzou left.
***
Tenzou was sitting in the tree, shadowed by the leaves. Tiger was right beside him. None of his normal teammates were on this mission with him. Itachi was occupied with the Uchiha clan and Kakashi-sempai had come back from his last mission nearly chakra dead and was recovering in the hospital.
Tenzou and Tiger were investigating their target. They had been hired by one of the minor lords to observe the lewd activities of his future son-in-law. The rank of the mission was nothing more than a low C-rank in Tenzou’s opinion, clearly something a genin team could have done, but the lord insisted on the best and the payment was splendid.
The future husband was well known for being a playboy, and the lord did not want to marry his only daughter off to a man who was philandering and unfaithful towards his wife.
Since the splendid engagement two weeks ago, Tenzou and his team had observed the man, but until now there had been no evidence of his wrongdoing, as well as no chance to test his faithfulness.
Right now the young man was walking down the street looking at the shops, his bodyguard one step behind him. The night before, the father of the young man had clearly stated that he expected his son to buy a gift for his future wife.
The young man and his bodyguard had stopped in front of a jeweler´s shop. After what seemed like a short discussion the young man entered the shop and the bodyguard continued down the road towards the public toilets.
This was the chance they had waited for. After a quick henge no jutsu they entered the jeweler’s shortly after their target disguised as two young women.
When they entered the small shop two men and one woman turned towards them.
The woman behind the counter was currently serving the other customer in the shop alongside them and their target. After giving them a short once-over, the woman returned to serve her customer again.
Tiger put his arm through Tenzou’s and pulled him towards one of the show boxes right beside their target.
“Ah, the necklaces here are so pretty. Look at this one, with the golden heart.” Tiger started. Tenzou just nodded his head.
“Say sir, what do you think, would this pendant look good on me?” Tiger turned towards their target. He had observed them out of the corner of his eyes, now he gave Tiger a charming smile.
“I think it would look quite nicely on you, my lady.”
Tiger started to flirt with their target; they would test how far the young husband-to-be would give in to the flirting. Seeing that he was not needed at the moment Tenzou started to look at the displayed jewelry as well as keeping an eye on the street looking out for the bodyguard or other disturbances.
He also started to listen into the conversation of the shop clerk and the second customer. The man wanted to buy wedding rings; he explained he did not have enough money to buy an engagement ring and a wedding ring, so he hoped to propose with the wedding ring to his future wife.
Half an hour after they had entered the shop, their target’s bodyguard came back and quickly stopped Tigers flirting. They would have to try another time again, because the future husband had done nothing more than flirting back until now.
Later in the evening Tenzou was looking up to the stars. Tiger was checking his gear; it was their third teammates turn to observe the husband-to-be.
“Why is it common to exchange rings in marriage?”
Tiger looked at him but was remaining silent for a short while.
“It is a symbol of love.”
“Yeah, but why rings?”
“Well, the ring is a symbol of infinity. It has no beginning and no end. Most people hope it symbolizes their love for each other will never end. It also tells other people that the person is already taken.”
Tenzou frowned.
“What?”
“But all the rings looked nearly the same. So everyone could be your partner, if you have the same ring.”
Tiger laughed.
“Well, most of the rings have the name of the loved one engraved into them. Why are you asking? Is there someone you want to give a ring to?”
“I was thinking about it.” Tenzou confessed with a blush “But it is so inconvenient for a shinobi. A ring will get in the way when performing a jutsu.”
“I will show you something.” Tiger grined and opened his uniform a tiny bit to retrieve a small package with a seal on it. He undid the seal and revealed a ring on a necklace “This is my wedding ring. On a normal mission I wear it as a necklace, at home on my hand, and on an anbu mission in this seal. The seal is linked to my chakra so when I die the seal will activate and the ring will be destroyed. You see, it is not a problem to have a wedding ring as shinobi.”
Tenzou looked at the ring in Tigers hand. It was not too extravagant.
“If you want, we can arrange the schedule so you will have time to buy a ring the day after tomorrow.”
“I think I would like that.” Tenzou smiled.
Once again Tenzou was in the jeweler shop this time disguised as a civilian man. The young lady behind the counter smiled at him when he entered.
“May I help you?”
“Well, I am looking for a wedding ring.”
The lady gave him an once-over. He had henged himself into a middle aged man, clothed well, but not too fancy either. Tiger had suggested he should appear older than his 16 years, because normally civilians did not understand why shinobi married so young. Often, they also forgot that most shinobi did not reach the age of 40 very often.
“How nice. Do you have any preferences?” the woman smiled.
“Hm… It should be simple.”
“Ok.” The lady sounded a bit disappointed.
“Here we have some of our simpler rings. This one here is really nice. It has …”
“I think I just want a bland ring. Do you have something like that?”
The lady sent him an annoyed look.
“Of cause, these are the simplest rings we have. Gold, rose gold, silver and bronze.”
Tenzou looked at the rings. The gold and silver rings were more noticeable then the rose gold and the bronze. And the bronze one would be more firm than the rose gold, so it would not be damaged so easily.
“Well, I think I would like to buy the bronze ring.”
“Of cause, would you like to engrave names in the rings?”
“Ah, yes please.”
After given the names and deciding on the ring size, Tenzou left the shop. The lady had told him he should come back in two hours to get the finished rings.
Now just the necklaces were missing, so he headed to the only shinobi shop in town to buy two new ones.
***
It was early in the afternoon. Tenzou was reading one of the books he had found in the lord’s library when his teammates entered the room.
“Your back already?” he asked.
“They are planning the wedding together, so we can rest for a good few hours. Well, did you buy it?” Tiger asked.
“Buy what?” Eagle intervened.
“A ring.” Tiger grinned.
“Oh ho, well did you buy one?”
“Yes.” Tenzou answered and went red.
“Did you think about how you will propose?”
“Propose?”
Afterwards they had a long discussion about the importance of the right proposal.
***
It had been nearly two months since the mission started., Finally, they were on their way back.
All the way back Tenzou had thought about how he should give the ring to Shisui. The others had suggested some ideas, but none of them felt right; neither the one with fancy dinner nor the romantic walk through the park at midnight.
Their relationship was not even an overly romantic one. When they had time to meet with each other between missions, they often trained together. After training they mostly ate at Tenzou’s place, enjoying the time while cooking together. As often as possible Shisui tried to stay the night, but recently Shisui’s nights were occupied with clan meetings or meetings with the Hokage.
If they had time to meet, Tenzou wanted their time to be as pleasurable as possible. Doing things they always did when being together.
Half a day before they would reach the village Tenzou had decided how he wanted to give the ring to Shisui. He would not say much, he was not good with words anyway. He simply would sneak the ring on Shisui’s finger and would wait till he would notice it.
He was not afraid that Shisui would say no to his proposal. Tiger had told him how nervous he had been before he proposed to his wife, how he had not been sure whether she would agree with it, but Tenzou had no such fears.
The village was quieter than normal as they returned from their mission. It seemed like a dark shadow was covering the whole village.
It was already late at night when they entered the Hokage’s office.
“Ah, it is good that you are back.” The Sandaime greeted them.
“What happened here?” Tiger, their team leader asked.
The Sandaime was silent, then released a deep sigh and closed his eyes.
“Itachi abandoned the village and murdered his whole clan.” He looked to each of them in turn.
Tenzou was shocked. Itachi, one of the most peace-loving people he knew, had murdered his whole clan? Shisui.
Tenzou turned around and took off towards the Uchiha compound. As soon as he landed at the edge of the compound, Kakashi appeared beside him.
“Why?” he asked, his voice nearly failing him. He stared at the abandoned and desolated clan compound, Kakashi standing beside him.
“I don’t know. It appeared they had planned to conduct their coup d’état. I have no idea why Itachi did it. We will find out, I promise.”
Shisui was dead, most likely killed by Itachi, so he could receive the mangekyo sharingan.
During the day Tenzou appeared unfazed by the tragedy, hiding his feeling deep within himself. At night he cried and clung to the rings as well as the few clothes Shisui had forgotten in his apartment.
Six months passed. Tenzou had cut his hair short after three, not to be reminded everyday how much Shisui had loved to play with his hair. He had hidden his red puffy eyes for the last six months behind his mask.
But life had to go on; he was a shinobi of Konoha after all.
***
The fourth shinobi war was finally over. Even the reconstruction of the village was nearly at the end. Tsunade-sama had given the team a few days off. As they were eating and drinking with the other Rookie Nine and their remaining jonin senseis in a barbeque restaurant, the alcohol was flowing as well as the conversations.
A group of drunken shinobi was passing by the booth, when suddenly one of them stopped. He turned towards the booth, fixing Tenzou with a frowning look.
“Hey Tenzou, I always wanted to know. Who had been the wedding ring for?” he asked, voice loud from the alcohol.
The booth felled silent. All the eyes on Tenzou, after remaining silent for a while, hushed questions were asked.
“Yamato-sensei?” Naruto asked.
But Tenzou did not react. Finally, he drowned his cup of sake before setting it at the table. Pulling out some money and leaving it at the table, before standing up to leave.
Even after so much time, the thoughts about Shisui’s death still hurt. He had learned the truth behind Itachi’s deeds, but the truth did not soften the pain.
There would be rumors, rumors about who the person was. Rumors about what happened between him and said person. He could not let this happen, the knowledge of Shisui being badmouthed because of a lack of knowledge made him feel ill.
He was at the entrance of the booth now. Turning around, observing the others. They were looking right back at him.
“Uchiha Shisui.” he said, and shunshined away.