Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or any of the characters and the story line came from Rachel Caine from a short story.
Note: Characters are out of character and there are a few…..character bashing. So if you don't like it then you don't have to read it and I don't want to hear about it.
"Normal speaking"
Thoughts
Chapter 1
"Now this, " Naruto Uzumaki said with satisfaction, surveying the ship bobbing outside of the harbor to his wife-to-be as he patted her head. "It's going to be amazing. Better than any church wedding, eh?"
The woman looked up at him, speechless. His rippling tanned body usually seen onstage in gay strip clubs and silky blond hair. Impossible sharp white teeth which enhanced the whisker marks on his cheeks when he smiled and his big blue eyes. And he was….a romance novel cover model.
For a woman whose self-image most often involved the words "mousy" and "short," meeting Naruto had been like being down by a rundown Love train. Naruto had knocked her feet (literally, with a shopping cart) in the local Wal-Mart car park and he'd set about seducing her by declaiming flowery compliments. He romanced her for two months and through out that period she thought she would wake up and notice this was all a dream. But for now Hinata thought she could wake up now as she looked at the pirate ship with towering masts and yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum. There was even a pirate flag. Cute.
"When-when do w-we-" drown? Sink and drown? "Sail?"
"Sail?" Naruto echoed while picking her up and twirling in circles. "Within the hour, Hina! Isn't it wonderful?"
When he put her down, Hinata had to cling onto Naruto to make sure she doesn't topple over from dizziness. Once she gathered her thoughts, she realized what he just said. SAIL? Within the hour?!
She must have squeak of protest because Naruto looked down at her. "Trust me. Your going to love this!"
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Somehow he got her onto the boardwalk and was terrified at the closer look upon the pirate ship that was at the harbor. She stopped instantly which caused Naruto to look at her quizzically.
"Naruto. We can't do this. It's impossible."
Shock marred his face.
"Can't? What do you mean? You said you'd marry me, didn't you?"
Well…yes. She had. But she meant 'yes, someday' not the 'yes, drag me to the docks and throw me on a pirate ship, harr' thing.
"Naruto please. I-I-I can't-" She paused as Naruto walked her to the edge of the pier and heard the splash of oars on water from the mists.
Tell him! Tell him you can't marry him. Or at least not yet. TELL HIM!
Hinata opened her mouth but nothing came out as she stared at a hulk of a shadow emerging from the mists. A black glossy boat with six men at the oars and another standing straight as a pike with his arms folded. Clearly the man in charge. Pirate in charge….whatever.
Never in her life has she seen a more likely brigand. Tanned skin, a mass of red hair sticking out from his tricorn hat and she could make out a Chinese character symbol on his temple but couldn't see it properly. He wasn't as tall as Naruto and he wore an antique coat with brass buttons and fading bullions on the sleeves. Faded and sea-stained. His eyes were fierce and the color of teal just like the ocean, his faced lacked any emotion but Hinata, for all she could tell, he was about to draw that cutlass and tell her to stand and deliver.
"Ah," Naruto cheerfully said, "Captain Gaara. May I present my lovely fiancée, Hinata Hyuuga."
Captain Gaara just looked from Naruto to her and back again. "If you must." He said dismissively.
Hinata wanted to bolt then and there but that just snapped something inside of her. She should thank the heavens that someone as handsome as Naruto came into her life and proposed. She would be stupid if she let him go. Other woman would be all over him like bees to honey.
She glared at the man before her before answering. "Yes, he must. Is this our ride?"
Gaara clasped his hands behind him and easily balanced with the rocking of the waves. "No horses."
"Eh?"
"Not a ride. No horses."
Hinata felt a small spark of satisfaction dwell within her to at least provoke that much of a reaction from him.
"Our…conveyance." She replied back and was startled by the flash of white teeth.
"Aye." He said. "Get in if your gettin', the tide is about to turn."
Naruto jumped in with a thump and lifted Hinata in before she could breath out a protest. She clung to the side as the boat started to do rocking motions.
"N-N-N-Naruto wait! Isn't-isn't anyone else coming? Your family, my friends? We should have witnesses."
Naruto embraced her with one arm.
"Captain Gaara and his men will sign the necessary papers, Hina."
She shivered miserably in her thin purple jacket and jeans.
"See? I told you would be surprised."
Gaara turned to cast her a look, a non-existent eyebrow raised before he turned to look into the horizon and into the thick mists.
