*Disclaimer* I never have nor unfortunately will I ever own Naruto.

Enjoy

…

Chapter 1

Kidnapped

I had always known I would be married off. Like a prize to some 'honored' noble in exchange for money, power, and military alliances. Given to my nation's enemy's like a hostage to ensure alliances. I had never let myself dream of knights and princes and true love knowing this would come and that it would kill me one if I let myself love. Even dreams of love would never belong to me, so I never allowed myself to think of such things. Somehow I still convinced myself this day would never come, that my mother would come to her senses but here I am in this god forsaken rickety carriage, in an itchy travel gown being sold off like land. I swear I could kill someone, I should kill someone probably my mother, for doing this to me in the first place or maybe Gaara.

Rationally speaking, I knew why my mother Queen Tsunade was sending me to Gaara now. Lord Danzo wanted to be king, and my mother and I would be the only ones who could make that happen. He had killed my father Jiraiya but my mother would never marry him. If she continued to refuse for much longer Danzo would kill her. After that he would be after her.

So my dear mother was sending me off to marry a king of a country Danzo couldn't destroy. My mother, of course, wouldn't waste this opportunity to do something for her country and to damage our greatest enemy's economy.

I shook my head thinking of my dear mother's plot. Suna was a land in the desert that relied upon trade as an essential part of their economy, they received bare materials from the countries of Konoha and Uchiha and they would then exchange manufactured goods. This was a rather difficult arrangement, considering Konoha and Uchiha have continuously been at war with one another. Uchiha determined to take farming land from Konoha and trying to find Suna's manufacturing secrets, the land of Uchiha, a mountainous country with very little flat land, was determined to become self-sufficient.

My marriage to Gaara would be successful in excluding Uchiha from Suna's trade agreements. Suna couldn't afford to alienate any of its trade partners. Being a land of vast deserts Suna had no resources of its own to take a vital part of their economy from them would lead to a huge loss of jobs, the people of which I was apparently meant to be queen would starve and i was to be the cause of it, a queen of death. This effectively weakened both Suna and Uchiha eliminating a vital resource for both countries. I would solidify this agreement, this condemnation of the economies of other countries.

So here I was in this shaking, jumping carriage, that was seriously starting to hurt my butt, running from my own country, pondering how hopeless and miserable my life is was and would be. And how there was nothing I could ever do about it. Suddenly I felt the carriage jolt around me, before coming to a halt. I couldn't see past the thick curtains covering the window, but I heard the crashing of metal on metal coming from all around me. I didn't have half as many guards as I would have under normal circumstances. Due to my mother's fear, however of being caught I only had three men protecting me. Will they be enough? I thought. I felt someone falling into the carriage I heard myself squeal.

Moments later the clashing stopped. All noise did. I took this opportunity to open my door and run. Unfortunately, I only ran straight into a tall blue-skinned man who was most certainly not my guard. I screamed but moments later my vision went black.

…

When I woke, all I could see was blurs of red and black. My vision cleared and I realized the red was a cloud in the sky of black, the symbol of the Akatsuki. A terrorist group, or so I'd been told by Danzo. The symbol I had been staring at was a cloak hanging on a wardrobe. There was little more adornment in the room: a small desk, the bed I was lying on, and two doors, one open leading to a bathroom and the other closed. On closer inspection it wasn't locked. In fact there was a note on the door asking me to leave my room and hear them out. Maybe I was wrong? It wasn't unlike Danzo to lie about what was going on in my country.

…

My dear maid Ten-ten had given me her uniform and a brown wig to cover my pink hair, the guards were none the wiser. Though Ten-ten warned me that I wouldn't like what I found, I had been determined to go.

I walked through the town market horrified. At every turn there was one of Danzo's soldiers needlessly assaulting innocent citizens, women and children. I even witnessed the murder of an elderly man who had tripped and the guards had beaten him to death. All this done in the name of the so called "crown."

I myself was attacked by one of these brutish officials when I defended a woman who was very plainly pregnant. I had thrown my shoe at him and called, "You ignorant swine! Are you blind? Can you not see that this woman is in a fragile state? You should be defending citizens from harm and yet you brutalize innocent people in the streets!" That earned me a slap from the officer. Another came to help him and he pushed me to the ground while his buddy kicked me in the stomach. I kicked and screamed and somehow hit one of my attackers in the groin. It had given me just enough time to run away.

Thankfully I lost them but found myself in an even worse area of the city. Surrounding me were the poorest of poor, covered in filth and dirt, starving to death. Each peasant begged for food as I passed so I gave all I could, my broach, my earrings, my necklace, so they could buy food, and when I had nothing more to give, I turned to find someone handing out food, and then I saw the red cloud of the Akatsuki adorning her cloak.

Shocked, I turned to the man next to me to inquire as to who she was. The man had white hair and stood tall, a black mask covered his face and nose, and he told me, "That would be the Lady Angel. She comes and gives food and supplies to those who need it most."

"But she bears the Akatsuki symbol."

"Yes, Danzo has been trying to keep the Akatsuki out for a long time, trying to keep people afraid but the truth is that he doesn't know what he's dealing with. The Akatsuki have been building supporters, people who will revolt against Danzo."

"Why are things like this? Her majesty the queen dedicates a large amount of funding to relief for the poor."

"Her majesty is hardly heeded. Danzo has all the power now, princess."

"How do you know so much? How do you know who I am?"

"I once was captain of Lord Danzo's personal guard. I know all about his policies. When I couldn't stand it anymore he fired and blacklisted me. I've known you since you were young."

…

I wondered if that man was still alive. It was entirely possible that he wasn't, considering those conditions.

I sighed, thinking of the "Lady Angel" who wore the Akatsuki cloak while feeding the hungry of Konoha's Capital city. I walked out of the room deciding to hear what they had to say, still unsure that the Akatsuki could be trusted.

…

The hall I walked down was bare, my arms covered in goose flesh, whether from the cold or fear I couldn't tell, the only light came from a room at the end, which I soon reached only to be faced with a strange, squealing man in an orange mask and behind him a blonde-haired man.

The blonde one stepped toward me, his face all too close to mine. The man spoke, "So this is the pretty little princess un?"

I stood a little taller at my title but frowned thinking again of the day I snuck out of the palace into town. "Unfortunately." I responded

"Unfortunately?" a deep voice said behind me. I turned. "You have spent your life in the lap of luxury, while your people starve and fall dead in the streets. What exactly is so unfortunate about your life, princess?" The last word was said with all the venom of a curse and I winced.

I replied furiously, "What is unfortunate, sir, is that I smile and wave on to that crowd of dying people, fully aware of the pain they suffer, having to sit across from the monster who committed such atrocities and sympathize with his every opinion, to sit and smile and give that creep all my attention despite my hatred toward him, having no power to help anyone change anything. What is unfortunate, Sir, is that I sit on a seat of lies!"

Only after I stopped talking did I get a good look at the man who had insulted me. It was Itachi Uchiha, exiled crown prince of the land of Uchiha, Konoha's greatest military threat. He was so plainly a prince, even without his cape and gems you could tell he was born to be a king. The way he held himself told you all you needed to know.

He stood at least a head taller than me and had eyes that looked of freshly drawn blood. Those and his raven black hair were well offset by his pale white complexion that rivaled even my own. I glared at the Prince, "But you of all people must know that pain, Uchiha. Everyone knows your father rules his country with an iron fist, executing any possible dissenters. Isn't the reason Uchiha is always trying to invade our country is because you don't have the flat land for farming? Starvation must run rampant in your country of mountains and rocks."

The prince's face I could tell he was seething but he smiled, it was almost creepy. He took my arm gently and led me back down the hall.

We walked into a study, the room was dark and the man sitting in the desk seemed menacing especially with pegs of metal sticking out from his nose and ears.

Behind him stood a beautiful, kind-looking woman with blue hair and pale skin, and I realized that it was the young woman from that day in the town, that "Lady Angel" as the townspeople had called her, but the menacing man put me on edge. At last he spoke, "Young princess, welcome to the Akatsuki."