Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The Unwanted Betrothal Chapter One


He smiled at me.

That was it...

The boy I love, Uzumaki Naruto.

He's just a peasant boy in my kingdom, but I don't care.

Me?

I'm Hinata. Hyuuga Hinata. Princess in a duo kingdom.

Half the kingdom (Konohagakure), is ruled by my family. The Hyuugas.

The other half is owned by the Uchiha royal family.

This is my story...

- - - - -

She cried for me.

That was it.

The girl I love, Haruno Sakura.

Just a poor girl who could barely make her own living.

I'm Sasuke, Uchiha Sasuke. Prince in a duo kingdom.

Half the kingdom is ruled by my family, the Uchihas.

This is my story...

- - - - -

It was an ordinary day, like any other. The marvelous sun smiled down upon the peaceful kingdom.

T'was a happy day for what the people thought at first, but Princess Hinata and Prince Sasuke thought otherwise. Today, in the public, was to be announced their betrothal. To conjoin the kingdoms into one happy kingdom was the families plans. The heirs hated it.

The two of them stood on a stage, looking at all the people, while their fathers well... while Hinata's father spoke.

The King and Queen Uchihas had perished in an ambush by an unknown source. To keep everything from messing up, the Prince Itachi took it upon himself to become King, and therefore, make plans with Hiashi Hyuuga to plan the betrothal.

“Hinata.” Sasuke looked at her. “I must be honest. This engagement isn't what I want.”

She nodded in acknowledgment. “I feel the same towards the matter... but we cannot go against the rulers... Do not forget. We have no say in the matter.”

“I say we do. I will talk to my brother tonight. Maybe we can annul this entire proposal.” Hinata gave him a shy smile, nodding again.

In the crowd, stood a group of friends.

“Wow... that Sasuke's a HUNK!” a girl named Ino squealed. Shikamaru glared at her somewhat, his eyes glazed with jealousy.

They all watched the Prince and Princess while the elders talked. Something about Hinata caught Naruto's eyes.

“Naruto...?” a pink haired teenager asked.

“Huh?” he broke from his gaze.

“Are you... Are you alright?”

“I'm fine, Sakura-chan... but... did you notice the Princess' looks? She looks so... depressed...” he told her away from the rest.

“Really? Same with the Prince... he usually keeps his charm cold yet loyal... today his eyes are filled with a worry I've yet to see him expose!” The two kept to each other and discussed everything they noticed.

Ino was too obsessed with Sasuke's looks to notice anything else, especially when Itachi finally spoke of the engagement. Hinata and Sasuke's faces paled at the instance. Of course the blonde and pink haired teens noticed.

In the years they knew each other, Naruto and Sakura were very close. Like brother and sister. When Sakura had turned four years old, she met him. Feeling sorry for the homeless boy, she had convinced her parents to adopt him.

They shared their thoughts with each other all the time. It's as if they knew each other better than themselves, but they liked it. They were each others only comfort when Sakura's parents died in a delivery.

Her parents owned a luscious crop worth selling. It took work, but they made quite the profit from it.

Unfortunately, one consumer was a bit too greedy, and when they had no more to offer, he'd killed them and robbed the house.

You see, Konohagakure was a peaceful kingdom, but not everyone could afford food and such. Most of the people worked for the royal families. So most of them got to eat.

The peasants however were a different story. When you lived in such a place, either you were flat out rich, or dirt poor.

The two barely made a living by doing chores for the rich. Just enough to keep the house, and buy day old bread. Luckily, they lived near a river and could grow some food.

Friends like Ino and Chouji handed down old clothes to them. Chouji's family was very wealthy the baking business. Worthy of a royal visit once and a while. Ino's family owned the only green house in the entire kingdom, and the royal families preferred fresh flowers around all the time. Ino had even gotten the chance to meet Prince Sasuke on one occasion and mentioned it daily.

Shikamaru, Shino, Lee, and Kiba were like Sakura and Naruto. Poor.

There was another prince of the Hyuuga's, but he had only half the blood. He was a royal knight. He dined and had the best of everything like Hinata, and had already chosen a wife. Tenten was her name. She was five months pregnant with their first child, and he took pride in it.

The other princess of the Hyuugas, was younger Hanabi. She wasn't widely known for much, just her being royal.

Sakura and Naruto gasped as they heard the announcement. Sasuke and Hinata were paler than normal, and were asked to speak. Sasuke was the first called upon to speak about it. He stepped up to the microphone, eying all of his subjects.

“Good people of Konohagakure... I am honored that my family has arranged this for me and as well for Hinata. We will finally unite both kingdoms together in peace and prosper! I will now allow my fiance to speak upon this happy matter.” The Prince stepped aside, letting Hinata go in front of him.

“I, Hyuuga Hinata, am proud to see I will become the wife of the future King Uchiha! We will make this unity go far with wonders as our two differences combine,” she bowed and backed away, forceingly holding Sasuke's hand to make it look good. They hoped their little act was enough to pull it off.

Beginning to weep, Sakura stared at Sasuke with shiny eyes. The Prince looked at the crowd cheering in acceptance, he frowned. He kept looking until the a shade of pink distracted him. It was Sakura he looked at. Unlike the other girls, she didn't have a lustful look in her eyes, she was crying knowing what he felt. He kept looking at her, quite surprised by her expression. The other girls just cried in grievance as to losing his hand forever knowing he was going to be wed.

The Princess did the same as Sasuke, the same shade of pink caught her eye, but she looked to her side. A blonde boy stared at her, determination in his eyes.

He smiled.

She widened her gaze, wondering what could make such a poor boy smile so kindly at a spoiled girl as she. Keeping her stare upon him, she felt Sasuke tug at her, initiating her to leave with him, retreating to the back as they were before, but still visible to the crowd.

“Did you see that shade of pink? It practically could have blinded a person...” Sasuke said sarcastically.

“I... I saw a boy...”

“A boy?”

“He smiled...”

“And...?”

“I... I want to talk to him, Sasuke...”

“Then do so. You're the Princess, you have every right to.”

They snapped out of their private conversation by an annoying voice screaming from the crowd.

“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?! SHE DOESN'T WANT TO MARRY THE PRINCE! DO YOU NOT SEE THEY DON'T WANT TO WED ONE ANOTHER!?!?!?”

It was that boy! Hinata and Sasuke ran over into view to see a few knights holding the boy back. The pink haired girl at his side, begging him to shut up and for them to let him go, making meaningless promises that he wouldn't do it again. He kept screaming for Hinata's freedom to choose.

Itachi and Hiashi laughed. Itachi himself approached the situation. “Boy... what freedom do you have to say such blasphemy?!”

Sakura clasped a hand over Naruto's mouth, “Please, King Itachi! Your highness, I beg of you! Just let him go and I will beat sense into him myself!”

Finally, Sasuke was impressed with a girl. Someone as daring as this girl hadn't popped up before... Brave enough to talk to his brother without being called upon. He smirked. 'I want to talk to her as Hinata does that boy,' he thought.

Shaking his head, Itachi snapped his fingers. “Guards... take them to the dungeon until I decide what to do.”

Looking fearful, Hinata and Sasuke both said in unison, “WAIT!”

All eyes turned to them.

“As... As...” Hinata couldn't chirp out.

“As future King and Queen, we'd like to handle the situation. Guards... the girl to the Uchiha dungeon. The boy, to the Hyuugas. NOW!” Sasuke stepped up. Itachi glared at both of them.

“Very good...” Hiashi clapped, perhaps saving Sasuke from something worse than the two teens would have had to endure. “I'm impressed you stepped up when you thought necessary. Now, I end this discussion! You can all go home! Thank you for participating!!” With that, they all left for their quarters.

As Sakura and Naruto were dragged away from each other, they called out each others names followed by tears.


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I posted this on DA and FF.net. What do you think?
Youtube's being stupid... it hasn't uploaded that Sasuke video yet... I wonder if I should try again. -shrugs-

Nothing much going on. Depressed and... seems like Ima get a new therapist... I asked for it. Literally.

Jaa mata ne