To me marriage has always been a romatic fantasy of boy loves girl. I was the quintessential romantic and I was in love with love. I was sixteen and naïve; it never occurred to me that I was not yet in charge of my own life.
"Sakura-sama?" I turned to see Haruka standing in the door to my bedroom. "Your father has requested your presence in the meeting room."
"Oh?" While it wasn't unusual for me to sit in on council meetings; my father usually told me these things in advance. Normally, I knew what would be discussed during the meeting because I took a keen interest in Konoha's current affairs (I was after all the Haruno clan's sole heiress), but things had been eerily quiet in the past week.
"Please hurry, he said it is very important." I nodded and put on a sweater and shoes before walking to the meeting room. It was surprisingly full, even the grudging Hyuuga elders were present. "Sit." My father placed his hand on the chair next to him. I obeyed and swiftly took my place just as Tokei began to speak:
"As you know, a war has broken out between the Shonomes and Mizihiro clans, two clans from the Sound. While we are now in good standing with the Sound, we are very aware that they are powerless to stop this clan battle from consuming their village. We had hoped that the clans would contain the war within their village, but both clans have begun to recruit other clans to assist them in their feud. If we do not intervene, more clans, and ultimately more villages will be recruited to take part in this war. We have done our best to prevent the people of Konoha from learning of this new danger, but the crisis seems to be escalating quickly. We have called this emergency meeting to discuss what we can do."
The room went silent. Each man and some women stared silently thinking of what to say or do. Tsunade, seated at the head of the table, placed her feet firmly on the ground before standing. "I believe that we need to figure out a compromise between the two clans that will make them come to a common ground. A sort of thing that could allow them both to be equally disadvantaged so as not to try to fight the other." She sat down having made the work of the elders and councilmen more difficult.
The meeting continued; different members of the council proposed plans that they hoped might be able to stop the imminent war, but all were shot down for being either too aggressive or too passive a proposal to work. I could sense the panic and frustration filling the small room; each person racked his or her brain for a possible solution, but none could be found. After a long and very frustrated silence, councilman Murasaki stood to adjourn the meeting. My father then stood up, and I let out a deep breath thinking the meeting was finally over. But instead of leaving he began to speak:
"I am sure many of you know that the clans still follow many of the traditions of their ancestors. Though they are becoming increasingly modernized, they are still open to some of the ideas of the past."
"What are you getting at Shuuhei? If you have a plan that might work just spit it out; this meeting has gone on for far too long." A Hyuuga elder replied harshly.
"My plan is to arrange a marriage between the two clans." That did not carry over so well.
"Ah brilliant! I suppose we'll march right into their crossfire, pick out their heirs and make them get married. Everything will be just peachy!" Tsunade mocked.
"That is perhaps the dumbest idea any of us have had!" another voice crowed.
"Of course the Haruno would turn a foreign affairs meeting into a history lesson! "
"ENOUGH!" Tsunade placed her hands down hard on the table; (so hard in fact, that there were indents in the table around her fingers). "Haruno-san brings up a good point. Though we are a modernized society the clans still observe many traditional cultural values. That means if we find the right boy and girl, preferably the heirs, both clans will be on level ground." She looked around the room. "What I think he meant is that if we find powerful clans who are held in high regard by both clans and arrange a marriage between them, we might be able to force them to stop their battling."
"Hokage-sama, while I understand what you are saying and I agree that it is a smart move; where will we find such people?" Tokei questioned.
Tsunade's brows furrowed. "I was hoping that Haruno-san had thought that part of the plan through."
Tokei turned to my father. "Haruno-san, do you have anyone in mind?"
"The Haruno clan is actually an important branch of the Mizihiro clan. We are still held in high regard by the larger branch of the family. The Uchiha clan of Konoha is an importnat branch of the Shonome clan. Our clans both have strong ties in the neighboring villages of Konoha where the fighting has already begun to spread, so if our heir were to marry we might be able to form a stable alliance between the Mizihiro and Shonome clans." I was stunned; it was a brilliant plan that would definitely work if implemented, but I was the Haruno heir. It was my life and my freedom that were being auctioned off.