Chapter Two- Decisions

Sasuke stomped through the living room of his house, seething with the anger that he had to contain ever since yesterday when Sakura told them she was going to get married and had to leave for the Land of Wolves.

Sasuke growled as he thought of this prince that Sakura would have to give herself to. He was infuriated. Why were they bothering with such a small country? Why did they give up Sakura? Who would he have to beat up in order to get her back?

The last question made Sasuke stop in his tracks. To get Sakura back would be near impossible. There was something happening on a Kage level that he couldn't do much to stop.

With that thought he smirked. He always did love a challenge.

'"'"'"'"

Sasuke marched down the halls of the Hokage's building, searching for a particular door. He found it, Tsunade's office. He took in a deep breath, and then knocked on the door.

"Enter." Tsunade's voice called from the other side.

Sasuke followed the invite and opened the door. Tsunade looked up from some work and blinked.

"Sasuke Uchiha?" Tsunade declared. "What business do you have here? You weren't assigned a mission."

"Why did you do it?" Sasuke questioned, getting straight to the point.

Tsunade's brow rose for a moment until she realized he was talking about Sakura. She sighed and leaned back in her chair. "I had no choice."

A growl rumbled through Sasuke at the answer. "What do you mean you had no choice?"

Tsunade huffed and held up a copy of the negotiation she had shown to Sakura. "This is why I had no choice."

Sasuke warily stepped forward. He picked up the paper, skimming over it until he found where they spoke of the negotiation price.

It read: In the Land of Wolves we take pride in our customs. The custom that we follow is that marriage is the strongest form of treaty between any two forces. Just recently, Prince Tsume, our land's heir to the throne, has become of age. We request that in order for us to declare peace between our two countries, we would like a bride for our prince. Our Prince Tsume has given us a description of the kind of woman he would want as a wife. The woman he would like has to be caring, strong, talented, beautiful, and intelligent. Being a ninja nation, we believe that this should not be hard to find. We will come for her…

Sasuke stopped reading and almost slammed down the negotiation. He locked eyes with Tsunade and scowled.

Tsunade scowled right back at him. "Now do you see? Sakura was the perfect match. When she's not angry she's caring, she portrayed through her astounding medical abilities how much talent she possesses, through my training she has become strong, and she's naturally gifted with an intelligence and beauty above a common ninja. She was the top choice."

"But you gave up one of your best ninja!" Sasuke snarled, trying, and pretty much failing, to keep his voice level and cool.

Tsunade glared at Sasuke. "You think I don't know that? They were looking for one of our best! And it killed me inside too, but you should be mature enough to realize that we all have to make sacrifices! The only thing we can do is move on! Do you understand me, Uchiha?"

Sasuke tensed, and glared back at the Hokage. He grit his teeth and bit his tongue to keep from saying something foul enough to get him thrown out of the village.

"And why do you care so much?" Tsunade inquired. "I've never known you to get so heated up over something like this."

Sasuke recoiled back, and dropped his gaze on Tsunade to the floor. "She's my teammate." He muttered.

Tsunade's eyes glinted with comprehension. "You love her."

Sasuke's head whipped back up. "What are you talking about?"

Tsunade smirked, knowing she hit a mark. "Sakura. You're in love with her, aren't you? That's why it makes you so mad to hear that she's off to marry someone else, because obviously a quality of being in love is that you want her for yourself."

Sasuke swallowed hard, trying to keep down the heat creeping up to his cheeks, but his face still grew pink, and Tsunade grinned. She knew she was right. Sasuke turned and started to head for the door.

Tsunade then let out a deep sigh. "It's too bad really. I'm sure that you two would have been very happy together."

Sasuke stopped with his hand on the door handle. He didn't turn to look at the Hokage.

"Hn," he grunted in response.

Tsunade's mouth twitched. "Sasuke…if you're planning what I think you're planning, I will rip your throat out."

Sasuke smirked, though Tsunade couldn't see it. "What plan would that be?"

Tsunade scoffed. "You're one stubborn boy."

Sasuke almost grinned. "I've been told." He then quickly left the room.

'"'"'"'"

Meanwhile, Sakura had arrived in the Land of Wolves.

"Milady," one of the escorts called from outside her carriage. "We're reaching the palace."

Sakura sighed. "Alright, thanks."

Sakura glanced around, and then silently pushed aside a curtain slightly, just enough for her to look outside.

She saw houses, wooden houses, and occasionally she saw some people who stopped and watched as the carriage rolled past. The ground below them was cobbled, and where there wasn't the path or houses, there was grass and trees. It seemed like a very quaint town.

The carriage suddenly came to a stop. Sakura pulled away from the curtain quickly as an escort opened up the door.

The escort stepped aside for Sakura to come through. "Milady."

Sakura hesitated for a second, and then slid out of the carriage. She turned to the escort. "You know there's no need to always address me as 'milady'. I'm just Sakura."

The man looked slightly taken back, but quickly bowed his head. "Understood…Sakura."

Sakura smiled sweetly, and then looked up. What she saw surprised her for a moment. There was a decent sized palace in front of her. Built with stone and intricately carved with pictures of running wolves along the rims.

"Wow…" Sakura breathed.

"Um…Sakura." The escort from before called. She glanced back down as her name was called. All of her escorts waited by a large door for her.

Sakura stepped forward. The escorts opened the door as she advanced, so once she was there the door was fully opened.

She gazed inside. In front of her was a large expanse, the main hall, it stretched down to a double-door in the back. Sakura knew this Prince she's heard so much about waited on the other side of the door.

Sakura walked forward, quickly followed by her escorts. One stopped her as they neared the door in the back and walked ahead. He knocked on the door once. The sound resounded through the hall.

After a moment the door was opened by a guard. The escort whispered something to the guard, and the guard quickly disappeared as the escort opened the door further.

As Sakura was ushered forward she could hear the guard speaking.

"Prince Tsume, Lady Sakura of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, your future wife, has arrived!" He announced.

"Excellent, let her in." Sakura heard who she could only assume was the prince reply.

The doors fully opened and Sakura was urged forward. She stepped forward and entered into a throne room about the size of the entrance hall. All around there were flags and banners with a running wolf on each of them, obviously their land's symbol.

On a throne across from her Sakura saw him, Prince Tsume. Then she noticed something else.

Prince Tsume…was a kid. At least to her. He was eighteen tops. She was twenty-three. Something like lead dropped into Sakura's stomach.

Aside from the age, Prince Tsume was an average sized boy with short brown hair and brown eyes. The closer she looked at him, the more she thought he looked like Kiba, only minus the red markings that Kiba has on his face. Maybe they were related…wolves and dogs and all…. The thought of someone as un-princely as Kiba being related to royalty almost made her grin and laugh.

Prince Tsume was silent as he looked Sakura over. Seeing as she was presenting herself to royalty, Sakura had opted out of her ninja wear, especially seeing as she wasn't a ninja anymore, and changed into more "feminine" clothes as her mother had put them. They were clothes that showed off a female's natural curves, which, over her years of growing, had developed pretty well considering she had been a rough-and-tumble sort of ninja.

Finally Prince Tsume's eyes flashed, and he grinned.

"Wow, the Leaf Village sure knows how to grow 'em hot!"

In that one instant, Sakura decided that she really loathed the idea of marrying this guy.

Ahahaha! How's that for ya? Poor Sakura! She's got a pervy prince on her hands! And we have a not-so-happy-but-plotting Sasuke! I wanted to put his plan on this chapter, but seeing as I've passed 1,500 words already and Sakura's decision about how she felt about Tsume would fit as a nice ending then I went with this! But next chapter it'll start up with Sasuke and his plan and whatnot. Then we move back to Sakura and her dealing with the schmuck. (Which I have discovered is a real word!) Anyway, so yeah! Chapter two is done! Though I haven't even posted chapter one…I'll do that real soon! And then I'll work on chapter three!