Disclaimer: Naruto does not and never will belong to me.

For your information: This story is AU. There will be few similarities with canon Naruto, aside from the characters. Who will likely be OOC. There will be relationships. I highly doubt it will be anything explicit. These relationships will contain het, slash, and possible femmeslash. That means boys with girls, boys with boys, and girls with girls. There will be violence/blood.

This story was inspired by soap operas, though none in particular. There will be lots of characters and a lot will be going on.

Reconstruction

Chapter One: Opening

The horse drawn carriage plodded along the dirt road, as it had been doing for the last several hours. The carriage itself was extravagant, wood painted white and covered in swirling, silver designs (those who saw it would speculate over whether or not they were done in real silver- the general consensus was no,) and the horses that pulled it were the finest money could by. The rhythmic clip-clop of the horse's hooves set the tone for the passengers residing inside.

Clip-clop.

A sigh. It wasn't the first, nor was it any different then the sighs before, which had plagued the carriage for the entire trip save a few minutes at the start.

Clip-clop.

Her mother admonished her, exactly as she had before, albeit with a hint more exasperation hidden in her voice. The urge to call upon the hypocrisy was there, after all her mother had sighed herself a few minutes ago. She just barely restrained herself from doing so, as she always did. She had learned her lesson from a young age. Her mother would never listen, and besides, what good was it to try and correct a queen?

Clip-clop.

She ran a hand through her short bright pink hair, something that she both hated and loved. It was unique, which was a definite plus. No one else in her kingdom had such violently pink hair, and she took more than a bit of pride in that. Other girls had tried to replicate it- who wouldn't want to look like the princess? Each of them had failed. Not even the court wizard was successful when he tried to recreate the color, which made her all the more certain she would never dye it. (Though the sheer impossibility of the color did make her wonder on occasion how exactly she'd been born with hair like this. Her mother had brown hair and her father's hair was close to black. It was a thought quickly dismissed however, as it wasn't unusual for odd things like it to turn up. One of the stable boys at the palace had golden eyes.) Her father's opinion -that consistently fell on deaf ears- was that she should dye her hair black so that she would be harder for an assassin to spot her in a crowd. She had always ignored him.

Clip-clop- but then a particularly harsh bump on the road shook the carriage, momentarily breaking the rhythm. She was pulled her from her rambling thoughts.

"Mother," she said, with as much formality as she could muster, "Why are the roads in such a pitiful state?" Oops- she noticed a slight bit of agitation had crept out at the end. Oh well.

Another bump-worse this time, forced her out of her seat. She grabbed the side of the carriage and righted herself, attempting and failing to keep her eye from twitching.

"We're in the middle of nowhere, Sakura." The condescending tone her mother always used grated on her already frayed nerves. Not because she didn't expect it, because she did, rather because she felt that as her daughter she should get some emotion other than that used to greet the servants that they paid. Her mother seemed to forget she wasn't paid labor much of the time. "And we don't have the money to hire workers to come out and fix them. Something we could have been able to do had the marriage succeeded-"

"Mother! It isn't my fault he ran off with some girl!" Sakura cried out. The arranged marriage had been doomed before the negotiations began, her husband to be had already found love and she'd encouraged him to follow his heart. Mostly because she wanted true love, and wouldn't deny it to someone else. The fact that her mother nearly had a heart attack when she found out only confirmed for her the fact that she had made the correct choice. Alright, so she may have been hoping for that sort of reaction. Actually, maybe a small part of the reason she had encouraged that boy was to spite her mother. Or, a rather large part of the reason. It really made no difference anyway.

"Well you clearly lack the ability to have stopped him," her mother harshly replied. "I would expect more from someone who shares my blood." her mother took a moment to look her daughter over, with nothing less than a haughtiness. "And, Sakura..." Another brief pause as her mother glanced out the window. "Our country has been hurt by your actions"

"We've been over this mother." Sakura was tired of it. As fun as it had been to watch her mother's initial reaction, once the shock had worn off it had just been one lecture after another. As if she should have entered some loveless with marriage with someone she'd known for a day. She didn't care how much trouble their country was in. She had her standards and principals.

"Yes, well. You seem to not care at all." Her mother still wasn't looking at her, but it seemed as if she understood Sakura's unspoken thoughts.

"Of course I care, mother. For the country." To patronize was Sakura's response to her mother's condescension.

Her mother refused to speak again, and was silent as the carriage continued to move. She knew her daughter was a fool. She only hoped the girl would grow out of her childish ideals, sooner rather then later.

The sound of the horses, clip-clop, took over the carriage once again. It dominated the interior.

Clip-clop.

Clip-clop.

There was one last statement from her mom. "You must be on your best behavior Sakura. Somehow, we have got to make this work. Our people cannot afford your immaturity at the moment."

Clip-clop. Clip-clop.

"Right, mother."

Clip-clop.

Sakura sighed one last time, and her mother scolded her.

Iruka enjoyed the quiet that met him at the end of each day when he went home to his apartment. It was small, with only two bedrooms, a small kitchen and dining area and a living room, but its size didn't get in the way of the fact that it was his retreat. His getaway from the daily trials and tribulations of life, epitomized by his job. He worked in a school teaching young children who were preparing to go into the school services provided by the crown, and they were at an age where they were nothing if not rambunctious. Being at such a young age- he taught children that were between six and seven- they were antsy and hated being in confined spaces. This made itself known most often when he tried to get them to settle down and read, or worse, attempt to teach them arithmetic. At least once a week there was a major tantrum thrown, either some little girl's doll would be stolen or some boys would get into a fight. On occasion, he would even have to go and confront a child's parents to see if anything amiss was going on at home.

It was at the worst of these moments when Iruka had considered quitting, or attempting to be certified by the crown. That would allow him to teach older students, who would hopefully be less of a pain to deal with. But he never thought that way for long. He was always reminded, often when he was at his worst, of exactly why he did his job. When one of his students would shout for joy after learning something new, or watching them learn how to make friends and interact with each other.

The innocence that the children possessed was something that he adored. They just beginning to learn about the world, and though he was regretful when they lost their naivety, seeing them grow up and helping them to mature into young adults and member of society was one of the most fulfilling things he had ever experienced.

That was the reason that he continued to be a teacher, despite some of the difficulties that came with the job. Working with children was something he was passionate about, and he wouldn't give it up for anything. Yet that passion didn't change the fact that it was always a relief when he could come home and be able to sit in peaceful silence.

Today was one of those days, when he felt a particularly great amount of relief at the prospect of sitting down and eating a nice dinner. After all, today had been exceptionally stressful after he had first found out that their funding was going to be cut even further, and later when one of his students had ran outside in the middle of a lesson, apparently because he had forgotten to complete his homework. While normally having such a dedicated student would be wonderful, today it had caused a bit of a problem when he'd had to find another teacher to watch his class so he could find the boy.

He went to such great lengths for his students that it sometimes got him into trouble. The lecture he'd gotten upon his return about responsibility and the fact that one child wasn't worth missing a half an hour of class was just one example of many.

Sighing at the thought of his superiors at work, Iruka began to cook himself dinner. He wasn't an amazing cook, and he usually bought food from a restaurant or a local store to eat at home. Today though, he decided to skip the trip it would take to purchase food and just scrounge a meal up at home, wanting to get home as soon as possible so he could relax.

After preparing a simple meal of pasta and chicken with asparagus on the side, he had made himself a plate and set the food down on the table. The wooden table was big enough for four people to sit at, as he wanted to be prepared in case he ever had company over.

Beginning to eat, he was just about to take his second bite when he heard a noise. He jumped in surprise, he hadn't been expecting any company tonight. As the knocking on the door continued, and began to grown more frequent, he resigned himself to the fact that he'd have to answer it. He only hoped that it was nothing serious.

Reluctantly leaving behind his dinner he walked towards the doorway. Soon he found himself with his hand on the door handle. Taking a deep breath in preparation for whatever was lurking outside of his house, he pulled the door open.

Standing there in the doorway was a boy. Rather, a teenager, but in Iruka's eyes he would always be a child.

"Naruto?" He said as it was the first word to come to mind. He had been a student of Iruka's a while back. "What are you doing here at this time of night?"

He didn't get a reply, and after his confusion of seeing a student in his doorway wore off he saw why. The boy- teenager now- was crying. Not loudly, he wasn't sobbing or anything, but the tears were there. He sighed, pushing the door all the way open. "Come on in Naruto. I just finished dinner, and you look like you need some meat on your bones."

Naruto didn't respond, but he sniffed as he followed Iruka into the safe haven that was his apartment.

"Why do you hate me so much!" a blonde girl screamed at her mother. She was hysterical, and the rage in the room was palpable but it came with a tinge of despair. She couldn't let this happen! She was in love, and her mother just didn't understand that. Let alone the fact that her mother should be proud of her. After all, she was dating the prince. She proceeded to shout this very sentiment to her mother- she needed to get the point across, and her mother rarely responded to anything that wasn't screamed.

"Ino!" Her mother yelled, getting nearly as worked up as Ino's attitude filled the room. "How could you have done such a thing? You are sixteen years old, you're not supposed to be pregnant at this age, Ino! You shouldn't even be dating!"

"But mom, he loves me and I love him." She shouted back, her mom just didn't understand! "He does, even if he hasn't said it yet!" This was quieter, as if she was trying to convince herself of the fact. But that is what it was-fact. They had been dating for several months now, and nothing had happened yet to make her think otherwise.

"You don't know that Ino! You're not married! He'll never acknowledge the thing as his!" Her mother replied, and Ino knew she was trying to be the voice of reason. However, when Ino heard her mother at such a loud decibel and saying something she vehemently disagreed with, she was unable to respond with any semblance of coherency.

"Thing? It's my baby, mom! And yes he will! He loves me, I know it!" Ino repeated her earlier statement. Her mother shook her head. "Ino," she said softly, moving across the room to where her daughter was standing. She put her hands on Ino's shoulders and looked her in the eye. "You need to think, Ino. Please, be reasonable. Love doesn't mean that he is going to give up his throne."

"Reasonable!" Ino refused to give up that easily. Now that her mother had started this argument, she was furious, and she needed to take out her anger on something. She wouldn't let her mom ruin her life with more of her so called 'reasoning.' With this in mind, she shook her mom's hands off and backed away before saying anything. "I'm being perfectly reasonable, mother!"

"Ino please. Calm down. It's the hormones talking right now. You just need to take a few deep breaths and sit down. We need to discuss this like adults. As you clearly are now." She looked pointedly at her daughter's stomach, which was just beginning to show signs of the pregnancy.

The blonde didn't want to- she really didn't. The anger was still simmering at the surface, just itching for a chance to escape from it's confines and lash out. But she took a few deep breaths, willing it back into the corners of her mind. She needed her mom's support. At the very least, she wanted it. She was pregnant, and she was still a kid. Though her boyfriend had plenty of resources, she wasn't entirely certain that everything would work out on his end. If it didn't they would need a place to stay. And her mother probably had a point about the pregnancy thing affecting her judgement.

"Whatever, mom. I'm still keeping the thing!" Ino insisted, even as she sat down.

Her mother quickly joined her at the table, taking the seat across from Ino. "Look Ino. He's a prince! He's the brother of the king! I don't know him very well, and for all I know, he may even love you. But that doesn't change the facts, Ino! He is a prince, with duties. One of those duties is to get married to a well off wife and have children with her. Even if he does love you, we aren't wealthy. You aren't married. He'll never be able to marry you, and he'll certainly never be able to let anyone know who's child that is." She paused in her monologue, taking a breath and looking at her daughter. This needed to be said, but that didn't mean she enjoyed saying it. Her daughter She took a deep breath and continued. The next part was the most difficult. "You can still get rid of it. I know someone, they're an herbal specialist, they can-" She was cut before she could continue.

"No mom, it's mine and I'm keeping it! Even if he doesn't stay with me-" Ino had to pause, as even the thought of him leaving her was terrible. "and he will! I will still keep it. Besides, he hates his brother. He told me he'd give up his title for me!"

Ino's mother stood up- once again becoming outraged with her daughter. "Ino, you can't be foolish enough to believe that! You'll end up on the streets at sixteen with a baby."

"I'm not foolish mom. It's true!"

"You can't truly believe that, Ino! Be reasonable!"

"Reason, reason, that's all you ever say!" Ino was also standing up at this point, and she was beginning to tear up. Her mom just didn't understand! "I'm in love mom, why can't you understand that!"

"Because you're still a child Ino! You don't know what love is, you're too young to understand!"

"Understand what mom? That I love him and this baby? I'm keeping it no matter what you have to say about it."

"Ino, please!" Her mother was becoming desperate. Her eyes were becoming watery, and her shouts had turned into pleads. Ino would have none of it.

"No mom. You are a bitter old woman who doesn't understand love!" She knew that her mom's love life was a sore spot for her, as had refused to talk about it after her father had left.

"Fine, Ino." Ino had clearly hit a nerve, and her mother turned away, unable to look at Ino as she continued. "If you insist on lashing out at me, you can leave. Come back when you're ready to have a calm discussion about this."

"Fine then! I'll leave!" Ino stormed out, tears streaming down her face and red blotches coloring her face.

Inside of the royal palace, there were hundreds of rooms. Not all of them were used, and it was unlikely that anyone except the cleaning staff knew about all the rooms. It was even more unlikely that anyone outside of the king knew of all of the secret passageways and rooms that the castle held. The majority, however, were divided into clear purposes and were each frequented by individuals who complied with that purpose. There were the living quarters which contained the royal quarters the knight's quarters, servants quarters, and guest housing; the kitchens; the the dining halls and the dining rooms (different things entirely); the conservatories; the libraries; the lavatories. The list was endless, really.

Each room in the castle had its own unique story, made up of both what individuals frequented it and what their occupation was. One particular room had quite the unique history. It could be found deep in the medical wing of the castle, only accessible if one navigated through the maze that was the rest of the castle.

This room was an office.

At first glance, it appeared quite average. Completely normal, even. Several bookcases lined the walls, filled with texts covering medical information. A desk was situated so that it was facing the door, with two chairs on either side of it. One was empty, as there were currently no visitors in the room. The other was occupied. There was a woman sitting in it, who at first glance appeared to be a typical employee filling out paperwork. Upon closer inspection, one would find several discrepancies. The first would be the woman's appearance. Her blonde hair was mussed, her eyes were glazed over as if she was slightly drunk.

This was easily explained by the second discrepancy:there was a bottle of alcohol sitting on the desk, half empty. Along with the bottle was a glass, which the woman periodically took drinks from.

The final discrepancy was the paperwork itself. The pile yet to be done kept getting thicker. This was largely a result of the fact that every hour a new set of papers would be carried in by a faceless worker. However, the fact that the woman would only fill out a paper every now and then was hardly helping matters.

There might have even been some drool on one pile of documents.

This was actually quite typical for the room. even though it was head to one of the most important staff members of the castle, little work was ever actually done. Unless of course-

"Lady Tsunade!" The shout came just as the woman was just in the middle of refilling her glass. The took a drunken glance around her room and took in the disarray. She hadn't done any work before, she was about to be forced to do it all.

"Damn it." She muttered to herself. She shook herself, forcing some of the alcohol induced slowness away from her brain and regaining some clarity.

"What do you want now, Shizune!" Her fist connected with the desk as she cried out, her feeling regarding the intrusion into her 'work' clear.

"Lady Tsunade! This is serious!" The voice carried through the hallway, growing louder as it came nearer. The owner of the voice, a dark haired girl, entered the room just as she was finishing her statement. She strode into the room, her steps confident. "Lord Uchiha has requested an audience with you!"

"And?" Tsunade asked. She forwent the cup and just took a long drink directly from the bottle. "Don't call him lord," she added.

"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune exclaimed, slightly flustered by Tsunade's lack of formality. "He is the king!"

"Yeah, sure." Tsunade knew he was the king, everyone knew who the king was. It was fairly common knowledge, and she didn't understand why Shizune insisted on reminding her of the fact so often. Sometimes, she just wished she could forget it.

"Well, he wants you to meet him immediately." Shizune repeated, hoping the repetition would get through to her employer.

"So? Are you going to finish all this paperwork then?" Tsunade asked, eyeing Shizune from behind her bottle. Shizune sighed, she had known it would come to this.

"Fine Tsunade. I'll handle anything urgent. The rest you can deal with tomorrow." Satisfied with the exchange, Tsunade stood up from her seat and stretched.

"Better go see what that kid wants." She muttered as she left the room, her sake in hand. After all, no matter what kind of respect she felt towards the man, it was still a pain to deal with him. After what he'd done, well, she'd need her alcohol.

There was something very peaceful about tending to horses, Shikamaru had decided a long time ago. Horses were peaceful creatures. They liked to run, but his fact rarely translated into them being aggressive or hard to control. As long as Shikamaru was careful around them and avoided sudden movements or loud noises, they made for wonderful companions. More than anything he enjoyed the relaxing nature of his job. Brushing the horses down, feeding them, it was a simple job filled with repetitive tasks that allowed him to think.

Lately, things had been incredibly relaxing. After the horrors that had plagued the kingdom when he was a child- well, he was just glad they were over. Since then, their country had been rather quiet. It suited him quite nicely.

Lost in thought, the horse he was currently grooming regained his attention when it neighed. "What's wrong?" Shikamaru asked. The horse, as expected, didn't reply. it merely turned it's head away from him, as if in condescension. "Tch. troublesome thing." He continued to groom it. Couldn't stop halfway through, even if the horse was agitated. Maybe he'd get it a sugar cube when the horse was done for putting up with the ordeal.

"Then again," he said to himself. "At least you don't have to do any of the work yourself."

After finishing with the brush; combing the horses mane; and finally cleaning its hooves; he decided that he was going to take a break. After all, pretty soon they were going to be getting a massive influx in the amount of horses they had to look after. Some noblewoman- or was it a queen?- were supposed to be arriving later in the day.

With the thought of a nice break in the calm before the storm in mind, he went outside of the barn to go an participate in his favorite relaxation activity: cloud watching. He found it to be the ultimate form of relaxation. Propitiously, the sky was partly cloudy which was always helpful when one wanted to cloud watch.

"Shikamaru." The voice startle him from his reverie. He took his hands out from behind his head, glanced around, and sighed at the newcomer.

"What do you want?" He asked, turning back to the sky as he did so. "I'm busy."

The person scoffed. "Cloud watching? Look Shikamaru, I need your help."

Damn it, he thought. He hated drama. He hated when things got complicated. And with a newcomer on the way and his someone asking for his help, it looked like things were about to get really complicated.