Tsunade's tears flowed, Hinata's grip tightened, Ten-ten and Ino looked at her in shock, only to end up embracing the pink-haired elite medic nin. After what felt like an eternity of standing in one place, Sakura finally snapped back to reality.
'Holy shit Sakura… You're getting hitched. Well at least you won't die single blindly chasing the Uchiha…' Inner Sakura chuckled but Sakura just wasn't having it.
'Hee-hee…. Shannaro…' Sak just decided to shut up and go to the darkest corner of Sakura's mind and hide out for a while.
"I'm…. getting," it was taking a lot for her not to break Hinata's hand in her tight grip. But inside, aside from Sak's failed attempt at a joke, she knew that this mission was vital for Konoha.
~Earlier that day~
"Hey Hinata!" Sakura's bright jade eyes glittered like shimmering green diamonds against the soon-to-be setting sun.
"He-Hello Sakura-chan, you seem to be happier than usual," Hinata smiled and couldn't help but to feel slightly jealous of the way Sakura carried herself, so care-free and… confident.
"Yes! I just came from the lab, and the cultures were not cooperating with what I needed to find for a specific antidote." Sakura's smile was slightly crooked.
"And you're happy about that, Sakura-chan?" Sometimes Hinata just couldn't understand her.
"Yeah, I just autoclaved them!" Sakura sinisterly laughed a little as she walked in the Hokage's tower, a confused Hinata following not too far behind.
"What does that even mean?" Hinata whispered not realizing how quiet the tower really was that evening. Sakura just looked back with an evil smile, "Hinata, don't you hate it when you do rounds at the hospital and sometimes the people just like to get under your skin, yet no matter what we just smile at them taking in their shit?"
"well… yes, bu-" Sakura cut her off.
"well… when I get frustrated with cultures, I burn them… basically." That evil glint appeared in her eyes.
Hinata now understood the pink haired lunatic. "oh, I'd be happy too then." She smiled.
Now they stood outside the Hokage's door, both not expecting for two others to be in there already.
Ino and Ten-ten turned around, surprised to see their friends come in as well. "Hey Ino-pig, Bun-Buns" Sakura greeted. Ten-tens eyebrows twitched, "Sakura, what did I tell you about that ratchet name?"
"Forehead-girl… you seem happy this evening," Ino was used to the name calling because of their previous friendship history.
Sakura stifled a laugh, "oh you know I just love to joke around with you Ten-ten!"
"So, do you girls think we'll be sent out on an all-girls mission?" Ten-ten spoke up wanting to ignore her nick name the pink haired medic adopted for her.
Ino's eyes brightened "oooh yeah! So we can finally make all the boys in the neighboring villages, fall in love with us and-"
"chill out Ino-pig, we all know who it is you're trying to get jealous, no need to hide it." Sakura smirked at Ino's flushed face.
"Bull's Eye."
The room went silent while all the girls looked over to Hinata. She just stared back with an innocent smile. At this point Sakura and Ten-ten just laughed, while Ino's shocked apple-red face glared at Hinata. The sound of the door opening caught the girls off guard. They lined up before Lady Tsunade's desk, ready for an assignment or mission.
Lady Tsunade sat down, not able to look into the girls eyes, instead she choose to fix some papers around her messy desk. Sakura knew something was bothering her, "shishou, is everything alright?"
The girls just looked on to the Hokage, waiting a couple a minutes before Tsunade finally looked at them.
"Alright, with me I have a special mission, and one of you will be chosen tonight to carry it out, and the rest of you to see it through along with the chosen one. But before, let me give you the background of the mission." The girls just stared. Somehow Sakura got the feeling this was an assassination mission where it involved one girl to dress like a brothel woman to lure the culprit. But what Tsunade said next just took things to a whole different level.
"As you all know, because of the War, it has left Konoha in nearly in ruins. It took a lot of money, supplies, and labor to restore our village to what it once was. Long story short we were in debt, a really deep debt to our neighboring countries. Luckily over the few years we managed to pay our debt off little by little. We are getting back to good terms with the countries, but one. Their traditions and values are slightly different from ours." Tsunade's eyes never once met with theirs, all of a sudden, looking down at her paperwork seemed to be her gateway to sanity at the moment.
"They refuse to accept their rightful money back, instead the hand of one of Konoha's elite Kunoichis…" The girls back stiffened.
"In marriage."
Ino laughed, "you have got to be kidding me right!?"
Ten-ten glared at her, "Hey watch the informalities Ino-san, Lady Tsunade is our Hokage, and of course she's… just joking… right?" Her brown eyes scanned the elders in hopes to find a single hint of trickery, only to find that she was sincere.
Tsunade stood up reaching over to her secret Sake drawer, "I have been trying to talk the elders out of this. I pleaded for them to increase their monetary benefits and offered plenty of other options, but word got to us from them, either we agree or…"
"We create another war…" Sakura spoke up.
Tsunade poured herself a shot, "Yes." With one swing she drowned the contents only to pour herself another.
Hinata's body started shaking uncontrollably, "w-what i-if w-we d-d-don't agree to-o t-this?" Hinatas face started to turn slightly red just thinking of the idea of getting married to another man, one she has never met before.
As she poured herself another shot, she slammed the bottle on the table, startling the girls. "I've thought about that as well, but they will not accept any commoner, they want the best of the best Konoha has to offer, and if we don't pull through, we go to war. We can't go through that again."
The room was as quiet as it could ever have been, for a moment the girls thought they could hear Naruto at a distance yelling "datebayo!" from Ichiraku's a mile away.
"The elders took the liberty to send your profiles to the Country of Water and we have word that the Hokage has chosen. We will find out tonight…" no words could explain what was happening in the girls minds.
"During this time, go let the information sink in and come back in a couple of hours. And let me just say, I tried to the best of my abilities to stop this from happening, I'm sorry." She drowned her second shot, starting up a third.
"MARRIED!?" Sakura's mother, Mebuki, stared into the emerald eyes of her daughter. "Sakura, I do understand that you are one of Konoha's most liked Kunoichis but to go to this extent for your country!? HAS THIS COUNTRY GONE MAD!?"
"Honey! That's enough! Sakura knows what she was giving up when she decided to follow the path of a shinobi." Sakura's father, Kizashi, comforted.
Sakura just stared into blank space. "Hai, father."
Kizashi and Mebuki looked at each other, both sad for their daughter. "When is the-"
"Mom, please, I don't want to talk about it tonight. No one but us, Hinata, Ino, and Ten-ten knows. I will get more information about it tomorrow. I just wanted to let you know."
"Sakura, no matter what you decide to do, I will be there to back you up one-hundred percent" Kizashi brought his only daughter into a tight hug. Sakura's tears once again began to sting her eyes, the knot in her throat got bigger.
"T-Thank you. I have to go now." Sakura managed before disappearing in a puff of smoke only to reappear in her apartment living room.
'Sak… how are we going to go through with this?' Sakura asked.
'Seems like we have no other choice.'
'But, Sasu-'
'SAKURA! Snap out of it already! This situation is so much bigger than us, than Sasuke! I secretly love him too but I'd rather know he'll make a life here and be happy than die in a war you and I could potentially cause if we don't marry!' Sak retorted.
Sakura's eyes widened. 'I… didn't think about it like that.'
'Sakura, you will not be in this alone, I will be here with you… not like I have any choice. But we have to be strong, they don't call us an elite for nothing SHANNARO!'
"Shannaro…"
Thank you for reading :) Thank you for reviewing I really appreciate it, the first chapter was short because i sort of wanted it to be like a prologue type of chapter but, whatever happens, happens. Thank you again and if you have any questions or concerns go ahead and review or inbox me
-XOXO