I've done Nanowrimo for three years now but never won it. I've been writing fanfiction for infinitely longer and have never completed a fic. Decided to mash both these failures into one and bring you this mess of an idea. I've seen this idea several times where the Hokage forces characters into marriages so this is my spin on it. There will be a chapter every day or every other day if all goes well. Enjoy.
When Kakashi made it to the Hokage's office, Iruka, Gai and Asuma were already there looking a mix of bored and intrigued. He wondered if they've been waiting for him but that wouldn't have made sense He hadn't been on a mission with any of them as of late and he was sure Gai's last challenge hadn't destroyed anything.
"Yo." He saunters into the room and gives a two finger wave.
"Kakashi, my eternal rival! You are much too cool!" Gai replied, sending him a thumbs up in response. Though it lacked it's usual volumn, the enthusiasm was there but he was quieter than usual. Kakashi sighed, he was about to get news he didn't like.
"Since you're finally here, Kakashi, we can finally get down to business." Tsunade motioned for him to join his colleagues in the middle of the room in front of her desk. She couldn't believe she was doing this but the council were taking dramatic measures to build up support among the other countries and she was getting less and less say in it all. So she was taking just as dramatic measures to keep as much control as she can. "In attempt to make more allies, the council is thinking of taking the dramatic step of marrying off our younger female shinobi to officials in those countries. Four in particular."
"But they can't if the girls are in relationships and that's where you four come in. I need you to court these girls and inevitably form a romantic relationship so to avoid their forced marriages."
Asuma blew out some smoke and narrowed his eyes at the Hokage. "So we're forced into marriages? I don't see how that is fixing anything."
"You've got it wrong, Asuma. I'm not forcing you to marry them. Hell, you can break up after the council drops their plan if you'd like. You just need to date and make it very clear that there are romantic intentions and soon to be an actual relationship." She had admitted to Shizune earlier that it was a faulty plan and there was no guarantee the council would respect the relationships but it was a try. One the girls deserved.
"Why us?" Kakashi asked, crossing his arms lazily across his chest. He wasn't seeing where he or anyone else really fit into the plot.
"Because who better then men they trust?" Tsunade said, swallowing down guilt that threatened to bubble up. It was the best plan, she had tried telling them no but of course they wouldn't listen. She was doing what she could.
Iruka raised an eyebrow. "Who they trust? Hokage-sama, who are you talking about?"
Tsunade shook her head, pushing a file towards the edge of her desk. "Sign it first. Agree to do it and then I will tell you."
"Hokage-sama, I mean no disrespect but how can you expect us to agree to a romantic relationships with people we are unsure of who they are?" Gai put forth, doing his best to be diplomatic about it.
She knew she had to tell them, it was better to say it before they signed but what if they didn't? Was she comfortable with taking the chance? No, she wasn't. It wasn't anything against them but Tsunade saw no other ways around the situation. They either agreed or didn't. She didn't have time for morals.
"Just sign it. You'll know everything after you sign it." She wasn't being fair to them and she was aware of it but it had to be done.
"Lady Tsunade, I understand that you need this agreed to but this isn't a mission. This is our personal lives. I'd like to think we have some control over it." Kakashi said, dropping his arms to his sides to appear less defensive.
She wanted to disagree, give them an ultimatum about take it or leave it but Kakashi was right. Gai was right. All of them were right. They did have to know because it was their personal lives and maybe she was blowing it out of proportion – her scheme just had to stay out of the ears of the council and other villagers. Tsunade was just afraid that if they said no then there would be 4 extra people she'd have to keep tabs on to make sure they didn't open their mouths.
They were her shinobi though, she trusted them with her own life. She knew each one of them well enough to trust them to do this for her. She was going to have to trust that if they said no they would keep their mouths shut. It was only fair.
Tsunade nodded and pulled the file back to her, the men in front of her visibly slouched with relief.
"Officials from a few other countries have taken a liking to a few of your students. In particular, Sakura, Ino, Hinata and Tenten." She held up a hand before anyone could shout something out. "To strength ties the council is discussing arranging marriages between those officials and the girls without their consent. The longer this discussion goes on the less control I have over the situation. I know that this had happened before when I was younger and the council respected the relationships any of the girls they wanted to marry off were in."
They were silent for a moment, letting it sink in and really thinking through what she had just told them. Iruka decided it was all just madness, it wasn't right for the council to invade the girls' life like that. He knew they had all trained hard to get to where they were now and he doubted they would be allowed to keep their ninja rank when married to officials.
"We've known these girls since they were 13. Iruka has known then since they were younger than that. I really don't think this is proper." Gai announced, keeping his voice under control. There was nothing to be excited about in this situation. "Why not get one of their teammates to do it? Wouldn't that be more acceptable?"
"Maybe more acceptable but the council will look at it like puppy love. No two sixteen/seventeen year olds are going to grow up and get married to each other. But see those girls with men in who are pretty far into their shinobi lives who have survived this long – you'd assume they'd get married due to their male counter part being so much older than them." Tsunade reasoned.
"So instead of it looking acceptable, you'd rather it look like we were grooming them to become our brides instead?" Asume bit out, narrowing his eyes at the older woman. There were just some parts of the plan that just didn't make any sense. It was all a little nonsensical.
"Damnit Asuma, you tell me what you'd rather. They get married off to strangers in strange lands or to men they know and trust?" It was a low ball, sure, but Tsunade was getting too close to agreeing with them to comfortably keep this thing going. She was doing her best.
The out burst got them quiet and she knew she had then at lease a little. As their sensei's, they wanted nothing more than to protect the girls. It was their job after all and they had been doing it for long that it was only natural. Tsunade had been banking on this feeling. Hopefully it was strong enough.
"I'll even give you a few days to test the waters, I'll come up with some bullshit mission for the eight of you so that you can get a feel for it all..." She locked eyes with each one. "Don't say no just yet. Please." Tsunade couldn't believe she was saying please. What lengths wouldn't she go through to protect her girls?
Iruka sighed but nodded, gaining surprised looks from everyone in the room. "It's not a perfect plan, it could fall through anytime and there is no positive if the girls would even enter a relationship with any of us. But, and I may regret this later, this is the only opinion the girls seem to have and I don't think I can stand by and allow them to give up everything they've worked so hard to achieve."
"I second that." Gai commented, offering up a half smile to shake off his uneasy feelings about the situation. "As long as the girls have complete control. They have their right to not enter into a relationship or even continue one. It's in their hands."
"Thank you. Asuma? Kakashi?" Half wasn't bad – hell, half was more than what she originally thought she was going to get. It was 2 more people than planned.
Kakashi exchanged a look with Asuma. He had been right all along, he wasn't going to like any of this meeting. And he didn't but he understood it. He got what Tsunade was trying to do, giving the girls a big enough chance at not being married off and what was a few months of schmoozing one of them onto his side of the world to him? A little more effort than usual? He gave a stiff nod and Asuma followed.
"Excellent. Thank you. I just have one condition. No one, not even the girls, know the motivation behind this. No one can know about the marriage discussions or our work to hold them off. No one. Sign the file if you can agree to that." It was the most important part of this assignment after all. The secret was key.
They each signed without further prompting and Tsunade let out a sigh of relief. The hard part was over, now it was deciding on what kind of mission she could possibly send the eight of them on that made sense.
"Who have you paired us up with?" Asuma asked, flicking it butt out the window and walking back to his spot. He didn't assume she was nice enough to allow them to pair themselves up accordingly.
Tsunade shook her head and dropped the signed file into her desk with a soft thud. "That's up for you all to decide. Just use some digression – you know the girls better than most, you know who is better suited for who. Sometime tomorrow I'll call everyone in for a mission debriefing or something of the sort. The rest of the night is yours."
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