Hey ya'll! Just gotta say I haven't finished Naruto- so as I watch I'm sure I'll feel differently about what I wrote. I'm watching Shippuden right now, not terribly far into it but I finished the first Gaara arc. So, I dunno, if my feelings about this change maybe I'll do a follow up fic when I'm done with the show but for now this is an AU anyways so I'm gonna take liberties where I may. Also I love to receive constructive criticism. Especially on flow, pacing, or syntax.
Thank you for reading!
The first time they formally meet, they're youths at an altar.
Hinata had been cloaked in white silks, heavy and cool in the oppressive heat of Suna. Her groom had been dressed in simple light colored robes, and had stared at her impassively mostly, but his face gave away wisps of regret. His bride did her best to match his demeanor, but a mouth that quivered when their lips met, and the tear that caught the edge of their touch gave her away, but she was already his.
Linking arms, they'd left the ceremony hall with the quiet eyes of their families watching their backs. The bride and groom were undisturbed for that night in the hope of consummation but no one urged it as recognition of their young age. They lay in bed together only that once with layers of impenetrable doubt and sorrow putting distance between them.
All Hinata knew was that she hadn't really kissed him, but instead kissed the sand and that maintained her hope that this could all be reversed. Because there were few things that could spur her forward to keep on going. And that was one she clung to. The fabric of her life had unraveled, and the idea of Naruto suddenly emerging to fetch her, and take her home on a technicality- those thoughts were the threads she clung to, and that bound her to this world.
Since the decision to make Hanabi heiress had been made, her father had seen her more as a strategic option to marry off. She didn't doubt her father's love for her, but felt her happiness might have been penultimate to his desire for her to have status and bring honor to the Hyuga name. And when it became clear that Gaara was to be made, very hesitantly, the Kazekage of Suna- Hinata became the demure, soft woman that could ease the people's worries of his bloody past. A figure of grace and kindness next to a stoic man with a reputation he made no move to disavow, instead owning it and growing from it. A better choice in the long run, but a slow one. With Hinata as his wife, it was sped up, and after it had been tossed around as an idea by the council and agreed upon by Hiashi it became a requirement to him becoming the new leader.
They knew what the marriage was, and Hinata knew he wasn't a bloodthirsty monster anymore, but a changed man with a tender heart protected by an armor of hardened sand. But her life was taken away by him, his desire and dreams met by the loss of her own. And so she cried bitterly that night, and he only silently listened.
Nothing could be done for her, she thought in the back of her mind, even as the fantastical delusions of heroic gestures by her crush played out in the forefront of her thoughts.