Hi… I haven't written a story in quite a while now, I think two years? Anyways, I've taken this time off and matured as an author and I hope you enjoy this story. It's a little slow right now because it was just the prologue, but I promise it will get much better in the next chapter which I will have uploaded within the week :)
Enjoy!
Why Tsunade had called him here was unknown to him, in fact one might argue that it was still quite early, but when the hokage summons you to her office, saying no was not much of an option.
He slowly but surely made his way up the staircase and into the orange building where Tsunade was. He was pretty sure that she was summoning him for a mission, in fact now that he thought of it, that's what she had been doing for quite a while now.. putting him on endless missions that somebody else could easily lead. He sighed, why did it always have to be him? So troublesome.
Finally Shikamaru made it to the door labelled hokage, he knocked thrice and heard a "come in" from the other end and made his way inside. Quick to observe his surroundings, Shikamaru noticed that there were three people in this room aside from himself. For one there was the hokage herself, next to her stood Shizune, her faithful assistant but what seemed unusual was the third person. Shikamaru's gaze stayed on that person for a few seconds longer than it had on the others, but he inevitably sighed. He didn't care, not right now anyways, all he wanted was to know what Tsunade wanted and be on his way.
"Ah, Shikamaru!" Tsunade grinned, "glad you could join us!"
"Us?" Shikamaru said, turning his gaze to the other person in the room. "Just what exactly is he doing here?"
"Well... you'll know in moment's time, for now all I ask of you is that you wait."
So Shikamaru waited... and he waited... and he waited..
*CREEEEK*
The door opened, but ever so slightly, it was almost as if it had been blown open by the wind. But obviously it hadn't because there was a girl standing in the doorway. She shyly entered the room and timidly smiled.
"I-I got your m-message L-Lady Tsunade.." She shyly mumbled, "B-Brother too.. he is on his way."
"Glad you made it Hinata." Tsunade smirked. This is going to be interesting indeed.
Hinata smiled gently, but her smile faded away when she noticed that there was someone else in the room, other than the two women and Shikamaru. But she chose not to say anything of it as she didn't like to meddle in other people's business, so instead she crept to a corner in the room and stood there patiently.
Like Hinata said, a few minutes after she had arrived, came the arrival of her brother and one of his teammates. It was Neji Hyuuga and Tenten, they arrived together and like everybody before them silently wondered why there was somebody who should not be here amongst them.
"So uh.. Lady Tsunade? What exactly are we doi-"
"Shhh.. Shikamaru, we are still waiting for three more."
"Three more?" Shikamaru sighed, this is most likely going to be a mission with the squads of his year.. so if he was correct.. wait a minute? Why did Tsunade say only three..
Finally after a good ten minutes, the final three ninjas arrived. It was none other than Ino Yamanaka, Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki.
Ino led the way with Sakura and Naruto coming in behind her, however before she made it all the way in she froze in her tracks, leading to Naruto and Sakura crashing into her.
"Ino! Why did you stop, you dumb-" but Sakura also stopped talking as she looked to where Ino was looking. "I-It can't be.."
"Sakura?" Naruto blinked, "what am I missing here?" But in the end, he too inevitably looked to where Sakura was looking and it felt as though the air had been sucked out of him and he was frozen in time.
It was non other than their missing counterpart from Team Seven.
It was their beloved Sasuke.
Naruto clenched his fists, it was a bittersweet moment for him, the fact that it had been eight years since he last saw his comrade. They were all now twenty years old, Naruto and Sasuke hadn't met since that time that Naruto tried to stop him from going to Orochimaru, and if he recalled that moment was nothing close to a fond memory. He clenched his fists harder, angry at Sasuke for not returning to the village sooner and for doing the deeds he did.
"S-Sasuke..." Sakura finally let out, she was in a similar state to that of Naruto, she was torn between happiness, anger and sadness. The fact was that the Uchiha would always hold a soft spot in her heart that nobody else could ever hope to occupy. Seeing him in front of her like this... it was just too much.
"Lady Tsunade, what is the meaning of this?" Neji Hyuuga asked the Hokage. "Why are he here?" His tone turned rather cold.
"I know you all must have many questions for me, and I will answer every single one. First and foremost, you all must be wondering what Sasuke is doing here." Tsunade spoke in a monotone, "Sasuke Uchiha... it has been eight years since you left our village and not once did you think to inform us of your whereabouts." Tsunade said, closing her eyes and resting her elbows on the table.
Sasuke Uchiha said nothing of course.
"You deserted our village, however, we never chose to abandon our attachment to have and always will be welcome here in the leaf village."
Sasuke said nothing again.
"We must thank you... for getting rid of Orochimaru once and for all, for all of us." Tsunade said, simultaneously opening her eyes.
Everybody in the room let out a shock.
Shikamaru furrowed his brows, so Sasuke had been the one to kill Orochimaru? Irony at his finest, but he didn't understand why all of them were here if this was to welcome Sasuke back, if that were the case then wouldn't it just be Naruto, Sakura and their team leader Kakashi? That was not the reason they were all gathered here, he concluded that much.
Tsunade turned her attention to the ninja that was farthest away from her in the room, that was the number one knucklehead ninja: Naruto. His head was lowered and his bangs covered his face, both of his fists were clenched, Tsunade suspected he was not feeling okay.
Before anybody could comprehend anything, Naruto rushed forward and grabbed Sasuke by the collar. Sasuke didn't react much, his arms fell to his sides and he simply let Naruto grab him.
"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, "eight years?! Eight years, every single day and night, Sakura and I have been thinking about what has happened to you! But you? You didn't think twice when we left, you just-" Naruto let go of Sasuke and punched a wall, "did we really mean nothing to you at all?!"
"Naruto." Sasuke finally spoke, it was the first time he had spoken since all of them had gathered here. "I succeeded in getting what I wanted, and that was to get stronger and defeat my brother, Itachi." He paused, "with that being said, Orochimaru was of no use to me any longer, so I disposed of him before he could strike."
"And so you chose to return to the leaf village." Neji concluded, "why should we trust you?"
"Don't. I'm not asking you too." Sasuke's and Neji's cold glares were about even.
"That is enough!" Tsunade shouted, slamming her hand on the table. "Back to business, as to why I called all of you here!" Everybody flinched, "Sasuke has told me that... well... he wishes to rebuild his clan." Tsunade paused to drink a glass of water, "and that reminded me of something that the hokages had practiced many years ago but now it had been abandoned."
"And what is that, milady?" Sakura asked.
"See, the hokage's wanted to make sure that future generations of our village remained balanced. So they followed through with this practice for a period of time. You all are twenty years old correct? And next to none of you are married, no less in any committed relationship, nothing of that sort." Tsunade began to smirk, knowing that this was a good as time as ever to let them know of her wondrous plan. "The village is not very strong in the next generation.. my meaning is that there aren't many... babies in this village as of right now."
Oh boy... Ino thought to herself.
"What they practiced was that once a shinobi turned twenty years old, they would be paired with someone they knew very well and somebody who would be good for them. Eventually if they worked out their differences in a period of time, they would be getting married and the rest happens by itself.. So I have decided to pair you all up with each other." She grinned evilly, "the second you all walked into this room, the jutsu did its job. As of today... you all are officially paired up!"
"WHAT?!" Everybody in the room shouted out in unison.
"N-No way! You can't do this, Lady Tsunade!" Tenten shouted.
"Can't I? I'm the hokage, I can do whatever I want." She snorted, "there may be a shinobi war in the next few years so that gives all the more reason to follow through with this practice. I want the village to be secure in the next generation in case... in case, some of you don't make it back." Tsunade said.
"We have gathered all of you here because you have the most ideal strengths and genetics from those of your age group." Shizune said from Tsunade's side. "I will now announce the pairs and then tell you what is going to be happening."
There was mixed reactions from the room, that's for sure.
'This is perfect!' Naruto thought to himself, he turned his gaze towards Sakura and blushed, 'maybe if I'm paired with Sakura I can finally have a chance with her!'
'She can't be serious can she?!... what if.. what if I'm paired with somebody that I don't suit at all.. why is Naruto looking at me like that? Oh god! What if I'm paired with him?!' Sakura mentally screamed to herself.
'N-Naruto...' Hinata thought.
'What a drag... and here I was just starting to figure out women' Shikamaru thought, 'Temari...'
"Now! For the pairings! When I call your name, please come to the front of the room! You will be given a scroll that you must sign saying you consent to this! Once that is done you and your partner may leave." Shizune started.
"Hold on.. consent? Couldn't we simply refuse to do so?" Ino asked, dumbfounded.
"You could." Tsunade smirked, "but that would mean... you lose all of your ninja abilities."
Everybody sweat dropped.
"First pairing!" Shizune finally began, "Neji Hyuuga!"
Neji stepped forward, not showing any emotion like always.
"And Tenten!" She finished, Tenten strolled forward and breathed a sigh of relief. If she was to be stuck with anyone in this room, she was glad it was Neji, at least she knew him well.
They both signed the scroll and left the room together.
"Next... Naruto Uzumaki!" Shizune started again, it seemed as if she was almost doing this on purpose to make it more dramatic.
'Oh god, please not me, please, please...' Sakura closed her eyes, scared that it would be her.
"Hinata Hyuuga!" Shizune finished. Hinata turned red as a tomato and slowly walked to the front of the room where Naruto was already standing. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief.
"N-Naruto... I..."
"Hinata? Well next to Sakura, I'm glad I got you!" Naruto gave a huge smile and gave a thumbs up, "c'mon!" He shouted and the two of them left the room.
"Sakura Haruno, you will be matched with..." Shizune paused, "well what are the odds.. Sasuke Uchiha."
Sakura stared long and hard at the Uchiha, years ago she would have killed for this moment, but now? Did she really want this now? They signed the document and left the room in silence.
"And lastly... Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka." Shizune smiled, "that wasn't so bad now, was it?"
Ino reluctantly looked over at Shikamaru, she knew that he had a thing for Temari and felt like she would be a burden on Shikamaru. Normally the two of them would be chatting it up, but they too left the room in silence.
"Lady Tsunade, do you think this was a good idea?" Shizune asked her mentor after everybody had left the room.
"Time will tell Shizune." Tsunade smiled.
So basically they have all been paired up and despite no romantic feelings whatsoever between them for the most part they will all be together by the end of this fic :)
Please review so I know that you like the story and so I may decide to continue, thank you!
-MarronB