No Chance in Hell
Three people who play their parts on a chessboard. The king [a possessed young adolescent the rook [a young woman on the run and the knight [a boy looking for redemption
The rhythmic beeping sounds from the machine helping him breathe woke him after a while. Sasuke turned his head, which felt like someone had bashed into it with the wrong end of a hammer. His dark eyes, usually alert and thoughtful and cold were glazed with pain and unfocused. The white room drove him to shut his eyes because it was too bright.
A splitting ache raced down from his head all the way down to his spine and he hissed, clenching his teeth together in his pain. A loud, slow creak was heard and it worsened the pounding in his head. Sasuke didn't open his eyes because he could guess who it was.
A tall, powerfully built blonde woman with hazel eyes stared down at him. "Treason, three accounts of murder…you're a disgrace to the Uchiha." Sasuke's eyes snapped open at that, painful though it was to snarl weakly at the woman for mentioning his clan. Tsunade looked to him with almost soft eyes. "I've talked to the council and they have come to a decision. You will be executed. Your father came to ask that they give you another chance and your mother went as far as to beg for your life on her hands and knees."
Sasuke thought of his mother on her hands and knees, weeping her tattered heart out for her only true son left and tightness came to his chest.
He closed his eyes to will the image away.
"Instead, the best I could do was offer a compromise. You will redeem yourself for your past transgressions by helping to bind the alliance between Suna and Konoha." Tsunade paused and watched Sasuke's brows come together. "You will do so by becoming the bodyguard of their newest Kazekage, Gaara. You must agree to guard him with your life and in any way must keep him out of harm's way."
Tsunade turned to sit daintily on a chair before she leaned forward, close to Sasuke's face while her blonde hair fell over her enormous breasts. "Take it or leave it Uchiha, there are no ifs, ands or buts about this agreement."
"Wh…" Sasuke's mind pieced together his statement, but his throat, raw and coarse and bloodied now since he could taste his blood in the back of it. "When?" his voice came out soft and rough.
"When you're in perfect health and condition to protect the Kazekage." She said simply, "And you'll be having company while you're protecting the Kazekage, a…" Tsunade frowned and reached into her shirt to retrieve a folded piece of paper. Unfolding it, she read it aloud, "Hinata Hyuuga, heir of the Hyuuga clan."
Sasuke licked his lips, "H…heir?"
Tsunade quirked a half smirk, "Well, former heir anyway. Apparently," she folded the paper and stuffed it back from whence it came, "She's refusing the arranged marriage she has at any cost and has even gone as far as to plead with council to become the Kazekage's nurse."
Sasuke's brows came together in a frown again. "Nurse?" he managed to wheeze out.
Tsunade nodded. "Suna's newest Kazekage is also their youngest in history. He just turned twelve in January."
Sasuke's last thought in consciousness when the door when the Hokage left was that the Kazekage he was to guard with his life had turned twelve two months ago.
† † †
Hinata shifted uncomfortably on her silk pillow, in the middle of so many honorable elders and her father. Neji, her bodyguard shifted beside her as well but couldn't comfort his charge. Her father, Hiashi Hyuuga, head of the esteemed clan of Konohagakure stared back with hard white eyes. Hinata bit her tongue.
"A clan in Iwa has proposed an alliance between the Geshi clan and our own. It would profit for us as well as Konoha, in that since the Oto village and the Akatsuki are on the rise. We would like to accept this offer, being that the Geshi clan is in its own right strong and they have been bred well, and powerfully."
Hinata already knew what this meeting had been about, as Neji had earlier flat out told her, and she'd already accepted a position where she couldn't be a wife. Her shoulders tensed and while Neji kept his head low, he kept a careful eye on his cousin. "Hinata, your answer is either yes or no."
Hinata's hands, white and pale and calloused clenched into her formal kimono.
"If my answer is no?"
Hiashi frowned sternly, his daughter was an adult and a jounin so it was unfortunate that he couldn't just force her into the marriage, and his other daughter was too young. "Then there is no alliance."
Hinata was quiet but then another elder member of the clan spoke, a toothless old man with scars running wild over his aged face, "Your supposed-fiancé is arriving tomorrow. At least meet him before you answer Hinata."
His old voice, with no tremor despite his age was nearly comforting.
She nodded tightly, lips pursed and eyes hardening. She'd rather do the jounin test over again rather than meet this man.
Hiashi nodded, before dismissing the meeting, "Hinata, wait."
Hinata sat still and Neji hesitated to go until Hinata gave him the nod.
The elders shuffled out of the room, murmuring and bidding their farewells to the heiress.
Hinata turned on her pillow to face her father completely. "Hinata."
"Yes," she responded with her eyes on her lap respectfully.
"Look up," her father commanded softly, sounding no longer like a tough clan head but a weary father with a rebellious teen. Hinata met his eyes steadily. "The Geshi clan's choice of a husband for you is…not what my first choice would be," he stated with a frown. "The elders are pushing for the marriage because they feel that it is in the clan's best interest, which I cannot argue that it isn't. It is, they are a strong, influential clan and with danger close by…" he left it hanging.
He gave a world-weary sigh, and Hinata got a shiver up her spine. She'd never seen her father look so old before; the wrinkles around his mouth and eyes, his grey hair. "As a clan head, I'm going to encourage you to marry this man, perhaps even force you if it comes to that. As a father I'm going to say this only once: Do not marry that man. You will be miserable and as your father, I cannot be the cause of your misery."
Hinata was taken aback. She'd been expecting her father to lecture her to take the marriage and seal the deal. "I know you already pled your case to the Hokage and the council, without telling anyone. If you are that eager to run from this, then I won't stop you."
Hinata's brows furrowed, and curiosity got the best of her, "Why?"
"You're an adult and Hyuuga or no; you are from the Main Branch so I don't truly hold any power over you. You're my daughter, so I trust you're making this decision for your own benefit."
She nodded. "In doing so, you will receive a Seal."
Hinata stiffened, "The Caged Bird Seal?" it was almost a hundred percent fatal to an adult, which was why it was placed on children early on.
Hiashi gave her a sharp look, "If it came to something like that then I would force you to marry your fiancé one way or another. It's not the Caged Bird Seal but it will prevent the Byakugan being revealed. It's not as effective as the Caged Bird Seal and serves only to shut the Byakugan system down entirely if it is threatened. Despite our Hokage's trust in our ally, we can't risk our bloodline being cut out and sold."
"Then why would you trust Iwa with it?" she asked slowly.
"In giving you as a bride, they will give us a bride, who would have been wed to Neji."
Hinata realized that Neji would have had no say in this – the decision had been entirely up to her to decide their lives. "I've spoken to the Hokage," Hiashi went on, and Hinata felt that he was being unusually talkative.
"She says that once the Uchiha traitor is well enough, that you will be leaving for Suna. This means however that the title of Hyuuga heiress will be stripped from you and you will never be a Hyuuga again."
Hinata sat still in shock.
Hiashi closed his eyes, "You're dismissed now Hinata."
"Thank you," her soft voice came before the shoji door slid shut again, and if she had left without a word then maybe the little part of him that was Hiashi the father wouldn't have started grieving.
X.x.X.x
That's it for now, but I'm a break so it'll be updated, please leave a comment on what you think of it so far.
As forewarning, it's going to start off a little slow, but once it's where I need it to be, the pace will definitely pick up (hopefully) and so will the chapter lengths. R&R please and thank you! X3