The King and the Clown Chapter 1: Prolouge, a naruto fanfic

Summary: The code of Konohagakure clearly states that when an heir to the throne wishes to take over the kingdom, he or she must be married first in order to do so. He had to follow the rules. After all, who wouldn't want a bride like that? SasuNaru

A/N: Wow, I'm finally back…after a long time of absence. I know I promise I won't write anymore SasuNaru or anything to do with Naruto. But, I did say there will still be one or two right? (nervous laugh). This story inspires me when me and my friend were reading doujinshis and then the wedding talk this morning just got into me. Like glue. So it won't leave me alone. There's only one thing to do. Write it down! Beware of certain spoilers.

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In a castle not far from Suna, lived a pair of lively couple. They were the King and Queen of Konohagakure, a small area found by the king himself. And under their intense care and rule, the small area grew and grew. Finally, it became an empire with millions of people under his reign. The people lived with no worries and all they spent doing was not work, but playing around like they had no care in the world. The royal couple has an elder son and a newborn one who bears the name, 'Uchiha Sasuke'.

They all lived in harmony and peace. The young prince was always full of energy, running here and there, always curious about everything and everyone around him. He loved both of his parents, especially his older brother, Prince Itachi. He was a bit jealous though when his father, King Fugaku gladly announced that the next successor to Konohagakure would be his older brother, not him. But Itachi. His desire to go strong didn't go unnoticed by his older brother.

His father was blind to the beat to his desire. His mother supported her youngest son. There, nobody lived in fear of others, only in happiness and love. During the announcement, King Fugaku and Queen Mikoto decided to pick their eldest son's future bride-to-be. As what was stated in the code of Konohagakure:

When an heir to the throne wishes to take over the kingdom, he or she must be married first in order to do so.

"Mama? Is onii-chan going to get married?" The young prince has once asked the queen out of curiosity.

Queen Mikoto looked at her child and smile. "Yes, my son. So that it will carry on the Uchiha generation. Papa won't like the idea of our blood being wiped out of the world. It's an important job for onii-chan."

The prince listened on in awe. Watching his mother stirring the tea with one hand, he immediately shouted, "Then Sasuke wants to get married too! Sasuke wants to carry out an important task like Onii-chan!"

At the same time, a laugh escaped his mother's lips. It was surreal and reassuring to the innocent child. Mikoto giggled once more before ruffling the hair of her son. "Wait till' your older, Sasuke. Mama will pick out the prettiest one for you."

And so, it was set. They all lived again in harmony. But the peace was broken when that day happened, the day when the young prince's innocent and naive heart was ripped to pieces. The entire Uchiha family was massacred. But who did it? It was no other than his trusted brother. That was when his world came crashing down onto him. His heart turned cold through years and he shut himself from the world. He didn't believe in love and trust anymore.

That was until; the marriage proposal was brought up again for the second time in his life.

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The King and the Clown

Prolouge

By Suki aka. Yue.

Dedicated to two of my most loving friends, Shika and Nis. Love you guys.

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"Your Highness! Wait up! Please! Your highness! WATCH OUT!" A loud bang then echoed throughout the entire castle grounds when the prince accidentally rammed into a pile of barrels. His foot got caught high up in the air as he lay sprawled on top of the barrels, laughing sheepishly as a very irritated woman stood in front of him. She instantly grabbed his foot, and dragged him across the ground scolding, "You are already seventeen and you're still playing those kinds of stupid games. Don't you think you're too old for that?"

"You will never be too old for anything, Miss Swann." A male voice piped up. A playful tone could be hinted in his voice. "If you're always that tense, the prince will definitely be suffocated under your teachings."

Elizabeth Swann glared at the newcomer and spat, "I'm his tutor. I know perfectly well what to teach him. And as the clock says now, he's late for his history class. Mister Turner."

"Err…? Miss Swann? Can you let go of me now? I think I can walk on my own." Naruto sheepishly piped up from the ground. He was already used to be handled like this by the people around him. Apparently, nobody took high status being the prince of the Land of Fire seriously.

"History is boring, don't you think so, Your Highness? I believe he would rather like the idea of playing pirates with me." Will Turner countered, folding his arms and leaning against the old apple tree. Naruto wanted to open his mouth and speak but a glare from his tutor cut him off. Truthfully, he would rather play with the stable boy than spending the rest of his beautiful morning under the castle's roof, listening to Miss Swann's lecture on how the Land of Fire came into place.

To tell you the truth, he didn't care about it at all. After all, he wasn't from a royal bloodline. From what his stepfather told him, he was found crying in the woods as a baby. The King took pity of him and adopted him as his son. He had no idea what his past was or his real parents at that point. He was never bullied because of it but instead, he was hated by his own people. It was because of his high status in the kingdom that many people feared him.

Or was it because of the fact that he was an outcast child by his real parents? He didn't know. And he didn't want to know because he felt like he was at home now. Thankfully, there were many people who cared about him in the castle and he was forever grateful for it. As the two couple started bickering on whom he should go with, Naruto had silently wriggled out of his evil tutor's grasp and ran off to play with someone else.

Seriously, who would want to spend the days indoors when everything is so pretty outdoors? But whatever the reason was, one thing bared itself in his mind, his godfather and advisor at the same time won't be very happy about this.

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Prince Sasuke stared at the walls of his mass room, his face void of all emotions. He didn't even think or remembered the last time he bore them. His mind now, only focusing in his own private world where nobody dared to cross the boundary into his. All of his thoughts were now set on revenging, even when his royal advisor had tried to brainwash him into not doing so. The inhabitants of the castle were the ones who had survived the massacre. It was a good thing that they were mostly away during the incident. After that, everything went back to normal. Soldiers were recruited again. Noble men and women were being appointed as officers and so on. But still, his attitude wasn't a bit changed.

Sasuke turned to stare at his raised hands as flashbacks of himself in his younger years became clearer and clearer to his vision. He remembered how helpless his tiny hands were back then. He remembered how he had cowered under the intense of his brother's voice. He remembered how he felt disgusted at himself. And those same feelings were never once gone. They sort of burned themselves into his body, following him wherever he went and affected him on whatever he was doing. He had wondered how many years had passed since then. Ten right? Or eight? Time flew by so fast that he couldn't even count straight anymore.

Letting out a deep sigh, Uchiha Sasuke laid his back against the cold of his king-sized bed, pondering on his own disturbing thoughts. A shrill rung from the bell beside him signaled the short-fused prince that staying in his own world was over. He sat upright and said a short come in to his daring visiting guest. One of the giant doors creaked open and a small head poked in. If Sasuke had even paid any attention to the person, he might noticed that the girl was trembling and shaking.

Apparently, she wasn't used to being alone with the prince in the room yet. The girl seemed to finally gather enough courage to enter the room when Sasuke made an impatient gesture. His boring gaze looked ready to kill. The girl hurriedly flung open the door, letting out a small meep as she quickly bowed down. Her face directed on the floor, too afraid to look up at the annoyed prince.

She stammered, "Y…your highness? T…the r-royal ad-visor w-wishes…to…"

Sasuke focused his gaze at the timid maid before him. She sure was taking a long time to say it. And normally, Prince Sasuke was never patient enough to tolerate this kind of person. He snapped before she managed to finish her sentence. "What the hell does he want?"

Frightened by the tone, she immediately shot upright and said everything in one go. "Theadvisorwishestoseeyouinthelibrary!" With that being delivered, she gave a quick bow, slammed the door shut and ran like she never ran before. Sasuke could only stare after her, torn between annoyance and amusement. He just couldn't help but realized the fact that there were too many odd people in the castle and his royal advisor was definitely one of them.

Wondering what the hell his advisor wanted, Sasuke dragged himself out of bed and rung the bell. Several maids soon then scurried in, standing in a perfect straight line. He gave a small glare and a light gesture. As if they knew what he wanted, the maids scurried into action. Some went to his wardrobe and get out a couple of nice-looking robes while another pair rushed to get his cloak ready. A couple rushed over to prepare his bed while another two again rushed over to let up the curtains, letting the sun shone in.

The ones who got out the robes blushed as Sasuke proceeded to remove his own. Pale skins were exposed to the giggling maids. Not very keen at the idea of his privacy being invaded, Sasuke looked at the maids with blood-piercing eyes. Alarmed and getting the message, the maids then rushed out of the room with the door again, slammed shut for the second time that day.

Fully exposing his body to the room, Sasuke moved to redress again. This time, he put on a dark shade of blue colored robe with a twirling pattern at the side and a pair of black colored trousers with matching boots. He glanced at the mirror before made his way out into the long corridor. He tilted his head around to take in the entire sight. Dozens of portraits were hung in respect to his dead parents as well as their ancestors.

The prince took a deep breath and walked across the gloomy corridor with the same dull expression on his face. Something in the pit of stomach told him that it was time.

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"NARUTO!!!"

Uzumaki Naruto flinched at the level of the voice, looking around for a place to hide. Sure enough, he was right. His advisor wasn't happy about it at all. From his past experience, Naruto knew that a rampaging godfather isn't very good at all. Panicking and frantically searching for a place to hide, Naruto spotted a large pot across the waiting room. Without any thinking, he rapidly ran towards it. He thought his plan was invulnerable. However, that plan took a sudden change of course when a pair of tanned hands caught him from the behind.

"Naruto…" The royal advisor deadpanned. "We need to talk about a certain someone."

"Ehehehe?" The bright blue-eyed boy flashed his infamous guilty smile at his godfather who didn't take the bait like last time. The boy pouted and wriggled to get free of his advisor's grasp. Damn it. For a man who looked feminine, his godfather was definitely as strong as a man. "Iruka-sensei! Can you please put me down? Why do people keep on treating me like a baby?!" Naruto frowned deeply at this and pouted adorably.

Umino Iruka let out a deep sigh before settling his godchild on the floor. "That's because you keep on acting like one. Try and be mature for once, Naruto! We're not going to be there for you forever."

Naruto frowned again, dusting his robes from the run-in earlier and slowly nodded. The blonde hated the look which Iruka was giving him now. He knew what was going to happen next. It was decided ever since he turned ten. And he despised it. He didn't want to leave now not when he already had so many friends already. He doesn't want to go to another unknown place, knowing he will be hated there. Honestly, Naruto felt afraid, very afraid.

And he knew that Iruka knew it more than himself. As if knowing what was on Naruto's mind, he sighed and smile. "Don't worry, Naruto. I'll be going with you until the whole thing is off. Besides, I don't think I want to see such an unhappy face at your marriage. You better behave. And I know that you'll make the prettiest bride on earth."

Forcing a smile on his face, Naruto answered, "And you promised me it was supposed to be a cute princess…"

Iruka could only chuckle nervously at the comment. "It was already decided between the two countries…."

"Yeah...Yeah… All those stupid friendship treaties…"

"Naruto! They're not stupid!"

Scowling, he answered weakly. "Fine, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka quirked his eyebrow in surprised. This was the first time that Naruto didn't even retorted to his scolding. The brunette stared at the boy with both worried and thoughtful eyes and came to the conclusion that something else was bothering the blonde prince at the moment. The way Naruto's smile was rubbed off his face and the way his eyes were fixed on the floor. He had lost his usual hyper and bubbly behavior.

Who would have blamed the poor kid? He was treated like shit since young. The King's wife played cruelty on him. The prince's life back then was nothing more than a mere slave to the past queen who died of illness many years before. That was when Naruto started to open up to people in the castle but there's no telling how he could have felt being alone in a faraway place, having to satisfy another man's need. Taking the boy's hand and caressing it, Iruka said, "Don't worry, Naruto. If anyone dares to bully you, just tell me. Like always. Don't keep it to yourself."

The blonde prince nodded, rubbing off the tears that threatened to fall at the corner of his eyes. A trademark smile immediately replaced the solid frown on his face. Naruto playfully punched his godfather's shoulder. "I'm capable of handling it on my own. Maybe I will make new friends there!"

"Hopefully, you will." Iruka reassured. "Now let's get you ready. You will be leaving three days after."

Shocked, Naruto hollered. "WHAT?! That fast?!!!"

The royal advisor cocked his head in confusion. "Didn't Miss Swann tell you of the exact date earlier?"

As realization hit Naruto, he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, she was going to…"

"Let me guess, you skipped classes again…" A vein pulsed on Iruka's head as he deadpanned. "Now what did I say about skipping classes?"

Knowing that his doom is near, Naruto turned on his heels and sprinted off, almost bumping into several maids on the way screaming he's sorry with Iruka hot on the trail behind him.

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Uchiha Sasuke sat on the chair next to the huge bookcase, growling in annoyance under his breath. Black onyx eyes made a quick scan across the large room. Huge towering bookcases full of both ancient and modern books filled the exotic bookcases. There were a lot of chairs, carpets and portraits all around the room with piles of unorganized books being scattered on the floor. A large desk sat next to the entrance where dozens of paper works laid unfinished on the table. Quills and ink were splattered onto the carpet, thus spoiling that very spot.

There were times when Sasuke would eventually wonder about it. Was it right to actually appoint the lazy assed man as the advisor? And speaking of the advisor, wasn't it stated very clearly before that the he was even supposed to be here earlier than Sasuke? The raven-haired prince twitched dangerously. After a long moment of silence, the wooden door finally flung open and a man with silver-hair sticking out to one side waltzed in.

"Kakashi." The prince growled as he glared at the latecomer.

Although wearing a mask to cover the bottom half of his face, Sasuke could still faintly outline the cheerful curve on his guardian's face. It made him want to punch him even more but damn, if Kakashi wasn't that fast at dodging him. He might have done so already. "Didn't I ask the maid to tell you that I met a couple of sheeps in the Medical Wing and Lady Tsunade had freakishly told me to dispose of them because they were having a feast of eating her research?"

This caused the prince to raise his left eyebrow. Tsunade was definitely not the type of person to not be able to handle this sort of stuffs. Judging from her personality, she might have already made them into herbs. And most importantly, there were no sheeps in the castle or on the castle grounds so it's impossible for any of them to be in the Medical Wing. It was typical of Kakashi to think up of lame reasons like this.

"Whatever." Sasuke replied solemnly, turning his gaze to the smiling silver-haired advisor. "What do you want to meet me for?"

After another brief silence, Kakashi walked over to his messy desk and grabbed out a couple of documents and placing them in front of the brooding prince who flinched a bit at the sight of them. His scowl deepened.

Kakashi cleared his voice and stated, "As you know, as stated by one of the codes of Konohagakure that when an heir to the throne wishes to take over the kingdom, he or she must be married first in order to do so. I believe you're familiar with that?"

There was a briefed pause before Sasuke instantly replied, "That rule meant nothing to me."

Kakashi continued, ignoring the prince's remark. "And as you know, Your Highness, you're already of age. So basically, its time. Lady Tsunade told me she cannot handle the matters of the ruler anymore while being a medic unless you wish to hand the throne over to Orochimaru… I have no comments about it."

Sasuke eyed his guardian as if he had lost his mind. "No! There's no way that bastard is going to take over the kingdom."

"Now, now. I know Orochimaru as been making plans of taking over the throne. But that's still no way to talk about your uncle like that."

"Fuck uncle." Sasuke snarled dangerously as he tore his gaze away from his guardian. Orochimaru was the far-related uncle of his who came from a different branch of family. In simple words, he was not from the main royal branch. He had been plotting numerous plans only to have them foiled by the guidance of Tsunade and Kakashi with the rest of the royal ANBU squad. But that didn't mean that he won't do it again so Sasuke had to keep a very close eye on him.

Sometimes, the prince thought about why he wasn't killed during that time years ago. He would have been gotten rid of this annoying pest by then. But Orochimaru was lucky. He was away to perform a task set by his father so he wasn't killed. Damn it.

Kakashi chuckled to no one in particular as he skimmed through the contents of the documents one more time. "You have no other choice. This kingdom was once yours, Sasuke. You will be getting it back in three days time once your bride arrives."

"I don't need a stupid bride."

"You'll have to. Besides, I'll let you on to a little secret." Kakashi moved over to Prince Sasuke's side and whispered softly to his ear. "It was especially picked by Queen Mikoto."

Onyx eyes widened in surprised at what Kakashi had told him. That was again when the flashbacks of his charming mother came back.

"Then Sasuke wants to get married too! Sasuke wants to carry out an important task like Onii-chan!"

A small smile almost made its way to Sasuke's face. "Kaa-san…" He said softly, closing his eyes for a moment to think. Oka-san did keep her promise after all. Sasuke fluttered his eyes open, eyeing the documents warily. "Who is this candidate?"

The silver-haired man smirked. "Actually, no one has any idea who your bride is. We only know that he or she is from the Land of Fire. Both the King and Queen had failed to mention because of the incident."

"Wait. He or she?"

What Kakashi said after that made the prince rooted to the floor. "Like I said, no one knows. So the lucky bride to win Prince Sasuke's heart might be a boy or a girl. Jane."

With that, he hurried off to keep up with the preparations for the grand wedding.

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Yeah. Long prologue. I know. You don't have to mention it. This chapter took me three days. A day to plan everything out and two more days to actually wrote the whole prologue down. It was fun actually. I decided to include characters from the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' in here because it was fun and I just watched the latest movie on it. I promise, they will not make any presence in the later chapters again.

And also, I did like to point out that Konohagakure, the Land of the Fire, Suna is separated countries. They're not affiliated with one another. This is like a world that doesn't exist at all in the atlas so keep that in mind. Yep and this is going to be another Marriage Fic with certain twists. No one is going to have a happy marriage all the time, you know. Besides, it's going to be very different. I don't want to spoil anything yet.

And of course, any other questions? Ask and I'll try and provide you with answers. So Please REVIEW:D

Teaser:

Act 1 – The First Night of Our Difference

"Iruka-sensei! This dress robe is so itchy! Can't I just wear what boys normally wear?"

"Sorry, your highness. But this is the dress code. Anyone acquiring the role of a female must dress according to the code."

"Even when the marriage thing is done already?"

"Yes. It's inflicted on your casual dressings as well. I have placed several dress robes for you in the trunks."