Hi every one! I really hope you enjoy reading this new chapter of Hiwaya! This is a non-mass ItaSaku (felt like I was writing a bunch of AUs and decided to bring it back to the original-ish ninja world where everything started) about the machinations of one Uchiha Mikoto in her attempts to get the clan elders to leave her eldest son alone. An omiai is, for those unfamiliar with the vocabulary, a formal marriage interview. The two people meet (sometimes under the supervision of older family members and such if it's really formal, they're kinda young, or stuff of that sort) and get to know each other as they attempt to find out if the other person is a suitable partner for matrimony. Apparently it's also very important that both parties are serious about getting married. It's not just a blind date sort of thing, it's a real attempt to find a life-partner.
As far as this fic, the elders believe the omiai's serious, Sakura treats it more like a blind date, and Itachi...well I'll let you guys read on to find out what Itachi thinks. Enjoy!
Title: Omiai
Genre: Romance/Humor
Warnings: None
Pairing: ItaSaku
Disclaimer: I've wished upon stars to own Naruto, but they don't seem to want to listen to me.
Omiai
"Mikoto-san, what can I do for the famed Uchiha matriarch?" Tsunade asked with feigned pleasure as she regarded the calm-faced woman standing before her desk with searching hazel eyes.
In actuality, she was rather wary.
Mikoto hadn't stepped into the Hokage's office since she'd stepped away from regular ninja work, so Tsunade had had almost no experience dealing with the woman outside of Konoha clan meetings.
"I'd like an omiai."
Tsunade stared at the younger woman, utterly flabbergasted, as she carefully considered her next words.
"Ah…Mikoto-san, I…I believe you are already married and, frankly, in spite of my looks, I am old enough to be your mother."
'On top of being entirely the wrong gender…unless there are things you haven't told me.'
The perplexity in the dark-haired woman's eyes lasted only seconds.
"Oh! Oh, you thought…! NO! I-I mean…no, Hokage-sama," Mikoto assured her, embarrassed to find herself having the most unholy urge to laugh. "I don't want the omiai for myself! I want to arrange one for my son."
'Oh kami…not with me…'
"Isn't that a strictly clan-related business?" Tsunade asked gingerly, still wary of Mikoto's intentions. All things aside, the woman was still an Uchiha. And like all Uchiha, she was clever and cunning and dangerous to deal with when she set her mind on something and wasn't getting her way. "The Hokage isn't required to approve of things like this. Only actual marriages."
"Yes, Hokage-sama," Mikoto replied, calmly pleasant, hiding the sudden nervousness in her gut that would have made Tsunade raise an eyebrow had she known. "But most omiai don't involve the girl who is the Hokage's apprentice.
Tsunade's brows shot up her forehead. "You want…to arrange an omiai between Sakura and Sasuke. Surely you know-,"
"No, Hokage-sama," Mikoto interrupted gently, her uneasiness finally showing through. "I want to arrange an omiai between Sakura-chan…and Itachi-kun."
"…"
"Why are you doing this?" Tsunade asked when her initial shock finally faded. "This is so…unexpected."
The Uchiha matriarch managed a thin smile, her dark eyes steadily returning the older woman's keen gaze. "Hai, I suppose it is, a little," she agreed, "But…necessary."
"For the clan?" the other woman inquired, skeptical.
"For my son," Mikoto replied, usually calm, sable eyes flashing. "I may be a loyal member of the clan, but I'm a mother first, Hokage-sama," the Uchiha matriarch said flatly. "I just want my boys to be happy."
Tsunade said nothing, merely regarding the younger woman, her chin on her hand.
"This doesn't seem convincing, does it," the Uchiha woman said finally, the uncomfortable pause eventually forcing her to break the silence, a sheepish expression lighting a smile in her eyes.
"Hardly," Tsunade replied with a little smile of her own. "So…let me see if I understand you correctly. You wish for my approval to set up an omiai between my student and your eldest. For your son. Forgive me if I seem a little confused, but your clan elders have been pressuring Itachi to get married for years. How is setting him up with anyone for his good?"
"Admittedly, when you put it like that, it sounds like it would only be sensible to patients in the psychiatric ward," Mikoto said with a wry quirk of her lips. "But you see, I believe Itachi-kun showing willingness to at least think about marriage will get the elders to let up on him. At least a little."
'Okay…makes a little more sense, but…'
"What does this mean for Sakura?" Tsunade asked. "She is her own person and I'm not about to involve her in this without a decent…"
The Uchiha's smile was almost coy.
"Tsunade-sama, you're often heard telling Sakura-chan to cut down on her work hours and get out a little more."
'Touche.'
"Why Sakura?"
At this, Mikoto's smile finally turned beatific. "Because Sakura-chan is perfect. She is a skilled kunoichi and Konoha's best medic, after yourself of course," the Uchiha explained. "She is also almost the only girl Itachi-kun speaks to. She is familiar to him, and he respects her. Itachi-kun will agree to an omiai with her if only because of that."
Mikoto's obsidian eyes softened, a faint hope gleaming in them that Tsunade didn't fail to catch.
'Oh kami…this isn't just about getting the elders to leave Itachi alone…'
The Uchiha matriarch noted the reservation in the Hokage's stiff shoulders and stifled a mental groan. 'Oh well, in for a D-rank, in for an A,' Mikoto thought, quoting an old shinobi adage.
She folder her hands demurely in front of her and smiled.
"Tsunade-sama…would you care to make a wager?"
=*~*~*=
"Okaa-san. This is entirely unnecessary. I do not wish to agree to this."
"Itachi-kun," Mikoto scolded as she seasoned rice to make onigiri, "would it be so terrible to sit through a single omiai?"
The young man in question stared rather pointedly at the kitchen door, as if he only wanted to be elsewhere, before returning to focus on his mother's face. "Okaa-san, you know that I have no thought at the present of getting married. Is this the request of the clan elders?"
"No, Itachi-kun," the Uchiha matriarch said, beginning to mold the rice into triangles, "I wanted you to go on an omiai, for me. I would like to see grandchildren someday soon," she teased.
The flat look in her son's eyes said, clearly, that he did not appreciate the joke.
Putting down the rice ball she had been in the process of molding, the woman washed off her hands and sat down at the table across from her eldest with a little sigh. "Would it really be so terrible, Itachi-kun? I didn't think Sakura-san was disagreeable to you."
Mikoto, watching the twenty-five year old carefully, caught the minute stiffening of his shoulders and hid a smile.
His young, obsidian eyes came up to match her even gaze, only polite curiosity showing in their depths. She had to hand it to her husband; Fugaku had taught their eldest child how to hide his emotions well. But, as Itachi's mother, she could still sense the tension in him, a mixture of surprise and curiosity and – dare she hope? – interest.
"You wish for me to attend an omiai with Sakura-san?" he asked, still exuding that serene, mild curiosity.
Mikoto knew better. Itachi was a smart boy and only double-checked on a statement's meaning if it was of true importance. That the omiai was with Sakura had piqued his interest, and Mikoto wanted to cheer at the reaction.
"Yes, I thought she was a suitable candidate who would be acceptable both to yourself and the clan elders," the Uchiha matriarch told her son matter-of-factly, keeping hidden her romantic-matchmaker motives from her words. "She is a skilled kunoichi and has been a jounin for a number of years. Moreover, she is known to the clan, and you." Mikoto shrugged, as if the matter wasn't really of great importance. "It is not as if I am saying that you must marry her, I would just like for you to give this a chance, Itachi-kun. Tsunade-sama has agreed to the idea."
Itachi let out a tiny, almost inaudible sigh. "Have you told the clan elders of your decision, Okaa-san?"
Mikoto shook her head. "If you went on an omiai, I figured the clan elders would hear of it somehow. It is not as if you need to inform them of your every movement."
The wry look that Itachi gave her, softened with a small smile, said that, clearly, they acted as if they did.
"I will do it."
Mikoto couldn't suppress her happy smile then, though she tried to at least conceal the mischievous gleam she knew might appear in her eyes. "Thank you, Itachi-kun. I know it might seem like a lot to you, but you could start off with a couple of dates and maybe dinner? I'm sure Sakura-san would like to try the tempura-and-udon shop by the market district. Sasuke-kun is always saying how the three of them only ever eat at Ichiraku ramen because of Naruto-kun."
She wasn't quite sure who her son was quietly chuckling at, but if he seemed in a good enough mood to laugh, she was in the clear.
"Now," Mikoto began, turning to matters of greater importance, "What do you plan on wearing to the omiai?"
=*~*~*=
"Shishou," Sakura groaned, trying to surreptitiously massage the knots from her neck with chakra-enhanced fingers. "Why am I doing this?"
"Are you questioning me?" Tsunade shot back, a wicked smirk flitting across her features as Shizune tied the embroidered obi around Sakura's waist in an intricate knot.
"No…just…"
"Just meet the man. Exchange a few pleasantries. Maybe go out on one date. And then, you can drop it," Tsunade said offhandedly. "I just need to see some willingness. You nearly put yourself in the hospital last week after that surgery you were overseeing the new residents perform. Think of this as payback for agreeing to your request that I not put you on paid leave."
The petite pinkette made a face behind the older woman's back, but turned to allow Shizune easier access to put finishing touches to her attire anyway.
"This man is a shinobi, right, shishou?" Sakura asked as Shizune began to fasten accessories into her intricately coiled hair. "I don't think I could even contemplate this with a civilian. There'd be nothing to talk about!"
"Don't worry, he's a shinobi," Tsunade reassured her as she serenely poured a measure of sake into her cup from one of the many bottles she had stashed in her office. "You know him, Sakura. He's a pretty well-known ninja, about your age."
'Well-known, well-known,' Sakura's mind chanted several minutes later when she found herself cautiously making her way to the teashop that Tsunade had directed her to. 'Who could it be?'
There were a number of shinobi males around her age…
'Kiba?' she wondered. In recent years, the Inuzuka had become pretty famous after he'd rescued the daimyo's daughter on an A-rank mission that had taken a turn for the worse, managing to keep his search-and-rescue team as well as bring the girl back alive from Snow Country.
'It couldn't have been Naruto or Sasuke, Tsunade-shishou would have said something…and besides, she knows I think of them as brothers. Maybe Neji?'
It wasn't a totally out-of-the-blue idea. After the main and branch houses of the Hyuuga had relaxed their boundaries as per Hinata's cordial but close relationship with her cousin, Neji, the shinobi had relaxed a good deal from his pre-chuunin days. He was now working as part of the ANBU and rumored to be well on his way to being made captain in a year or so.
'Or…Shino!'
Sakura had to admit that she had gotten closer to the stoic shinobi since they had collaborated two years ago on a pharmaceutical project that had involved Shino's family's extensive knowledge of insect toxins and Sakura's ability to build complex poisons and antidotes. His bugs were still a little creepy, but they no longer bothered her like they would have when she was fifteen. She'd even gone out on a thank you dinner with him.
But…
'Shino's the type of person to do the approaching himself…same with Kiba. Maybe it really is Neji…I guess I'll find out soon?' Sakura mused as she finally reached the teahouse.
With a steadying breath, she slipped inside.
The place was peaceful, filled with the quiet chatter of the other patrons that mingled with the soft undertone of music. The place exuded a sense of calm and refinement, as well as being comfortable and private enough to keep from being too stiff and formal; perfect for an omiai.
It seemed the regular patrons were used to this kind of thing, because they spared her a few glances to take in the intricate kimono, then returned to their own conversations, obviously having seen this all before.
"Ano…" Sakura began as she approached the teashop hostess.
"Ah, would you be Sakura-san?" the cheerfully smiling brunette asked. "The man your omiai was arranged with is sitting in that booth over there." The woman glanced over at Sakura and giggled conspiratorially. "You really are a lucky girl, he's quite the attractive man."
"Th-thank you," Sakura replied, trying not to be nervous. From her vantage point she could only see the top of the man's head, but his hair was dark and looked like it might be long. It was definitely not spiky, ruling out her previous assumptions of Kiba and Shino.
'It really must be Neji…'
But when she approached and he turned at the sound of her footsteps, she couldn't stifle her gasp of surprise as her purse fell from suddenly nerveless fingers.
Because the man who rose to greet her was not, in fact, Neji as she had assumed, but another well-known shinobi altogether; her teammate Sasuke's older brother, Uchiha Itachi.
Every thought in her head stalled until the only one left was a pure shriek of confused distress.
'How the hell is this man "around my age" Tsunade-shishou?!'
Obviously the view from a woman who was probably pushing eighty was a lot different from the one of a woman who had just turned twenty last month.
TBC
Konoha Memorial Park, Late Afternoon
"I'm sorry, Itachi-san, this is…embarrassing. I'm not usually this clumsy," Sakura mumbled, feeling her cheeks growing hot as she sat there, feeling tied up in her constricting kimono. She was used to wearing much more unrestricted clothing, and running in the three-layer outfit Shizune had put on her had had some disastrous results.
"It's fine, Sakura-san," the male shinobi in front of her replied, his hands working deftly as he retied the broken strap of her geta. "Okaa-san is always saying that wearing kimono is probably one of the most difficult portions of her meetings with the clan elders. Kunoichi struggle with it because of the restriction of movement."
"Y-yes, that does make running in them a little more difficult," Sakura admitted, a little frightened to find herself blushing even harder, and this time not just from self-consciousness. The color in her cheeks darkened further as he gently grasped her bare foot in one hand, and helped slide the cumbersome little shoe on.
"Now," he said, nonchalantly dusting off his knees before he helped a stunned Sakura to her feet. "Perhaps I could walk you home."
Haha sorry for the short little scene. I wanted an old-fashioned Japanese style Cinderella moment, complete with geta. Geta are a type of sandal that people wear when in traditional clothing. Usually at any rate. Some people might wear geta just for the heck of it, even with modern clothes. Who knows XD
I hope you guys liked it. The ideas I have for this one are pretty cute, and it's almost entirely fluffplot romance and humor without any real drama so far. Just...Sakura getting to know Itachi and the clan, Sasuke being seriously weirded out by the idea of Sakura becoming part of the family as well as his brother's wife, Naruto being vocal about his opinions (both good and bad), and Itachi debating whether or not to leave it at a few dates or actually surprise the rest of the world by courting the pink-haired girl. Hehehehe...
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Aria, out.