Queen of the World

TobiSaku

You keep what you kill is the law of the wild, and of the tribal empire. With this law it has made Sakura a monarch when in her heart all she ever dreamed of being was a blood warrior, the kind that never died, the kind that slew monsters as easily as pray could be slaughtered. She dreamed of being the queen of only her fists and draped in nothing but moonlight and victory.

Victory was a red, mandala patterned cloak around her shoulders as servants in white fed her green grapes from straight off the vine while bell girls danced across the tent in silk and gauze.

The tribal empress Kaguya had left behind a vast and mighty empire that Sakura had no intention of enjoying the way it was meant to be enjoyed. She drank the wine and ate the food easily enough, but the entertainment meant nothing to her. She never watched the dancers and did her best to ignore the other pleasures afforded to being empress of all under the horizon.

She felt warm hands slip under her cloak, shifting through the cotton shrug underneath in search of flesh. Sakura stiffened and turned quickly to grab the boy by his neck. His hands fell from her hips but gripped the wrist of her hand just as reverently.

"My Radiance," he breathed, closing his eyes and trying his best to bow with her hand still around his throat.

"Put the boy down, he was only doing as he was told," a new voice called.

Sakura dropped the dark eyed boy with hair just as black, falling like silk rivers over his bare shoulders. He wore next to nothing, and by the gold tattoo on his chest, she knew why.

"I told you I would not take any of the people from the harem," Sakura snarled, looking back at the older woman who was tasked and charged with grooming and preserving the boys and girls in Kaguya's seraglio.

It had been several years since Sakura's victory over the 'world's strongest woman' but only recently had she returned to the sacred capital of the tribal people. After the first day, for every night after, there had been an attempt from one of the boys or girls to bed her. Their caregiver claimed it had been too long without a ruler. Some of them had never seen the Kaguya woman and were still in need of 'deflowering.'

It was not what Sakura had imagined when she set out to conquer the world, and she knew that sooner or later she would have to do something about the soft, pretty people that came pawing at her covers each night, but it would not be this night.

Sakura rose and threw off her cloak, striding down the polished steps straight through the path of the dancer's performance. "Someone get me my horse, I wish to ride!"

The last queen of the wilds had been old and well on her way into the next life. Her empire was poised for change, but no one believed it would be shifted into the hands of a nameless nobody girl without a clan or lineage to speak of.

There was nothing special about this underdog of a girl that emerged from the wilds like the first, rumored queen from myth, and the stories about how she had won for herself the crown of the world was a fool's song.

Those lands deserved to be in the hands of someone suited to rule, someone fit for leadership, and when his brother declined the challenge, claiming he had no desire to fight for more land, Tobirama took the burden upon himself. He would set the world straight if no one else would. If he didn't, one of the Uchiha heirs would go after it.

The land was wide between where he was and where she waited. The grasslands were vast in a way that drove lesser men mad. Sometimes they seemed to stretch on for days, and if you tried to cross them without a horse, they could.

She met him in the skirts of her borders with the wilds that still technically fell under her protection atop a speckled gray war horse that looked like it was bred on bones and flesh. She dismounted in a single fluid movement and turned to kiss her mare's neck before walking away from it. She rode in no saddle, and carried no weapons he could see.

For a queen that refused the title of empress, she was even less intimidating in person. Tobirama was struck by her small frame and stature. She was a girl, yes, but even so he expected an amazon when he heard the stories of how she split the world open.

'Just stories.'

"You wish to fight me for my lands?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. She didn't dress in armor, but simple cotton clothes that caught the wind and flapped around her waist and arms. There was a cord of navy blue around her neck studded with tassels and the wrap around belt that fit under her chest bindings was the same rich color. Everything else about her was faded and white.

Tobirama was a man of few words, so he nodded and fell into a stance. If he tried to talk now he was afraid of what he might say. He felt a corner of his heart rot with guilt about what he would have to do to such a young, pretty thing. She likely didn't deserve this, but it was for the good of the world.

Looking back, he knew that the moment he lost was when he didn't take her seriously. She was a wraith in white between the grasses and he had no time to move to the offense. She never ran out of energy as she matched him in speed, something he was famed for, and never seemed to sweat when they came in close to trade blows.

He fell not soon after, clutching the side of his face where her nail grazed him earlier on. "It's paralysis," he choked, eyes wide.

"Yes, but it wont' kill you," Sakura answered, sitting down next to him. She smiled and it looked sad. "Sorry, you'll be stiff for a while. But you deserve it for not taking me seriously. I didn't even have to use much of my chakra. I thought I might lose to you too, with all the stories I've heard. If you had bee serious from the beginning this might have ended differently."

"You'll kill me now, or hold me for ransom." His jaw tingled as the rest of his body stayed numb.

Sakura hummed, looking off to where her war horse grazed. "No, I'll stay with you until you can walk again. I trust you to find your own way back afterwards." She closed her eyes as another breeze passed over them and the shriek of a hawk made the grasslands shiver. It would be dark soon, and wild things stalked in the night.

She pulled him onto her back and lifted him like it was nothing before carrying him to her horse before riding to a camp. She set up a fire and made food for them, feeding him when his arms refused to move past his elbows.

While she cleaned the hides from the rabbit dinner, she told him stories elders told children and then went on about the tattoos she hid under her sleeves and what they meant. She asked him about his but he kept silent, not knowing how to respond.

She stayed awake the night he slept, and when he woke in the morning, he could move again. She stood on the edge of camp watching the sun from her perch with her arms cross over her chest. The gold glare of their naked sun set her hair afire from where it whipped about her neck.

She left without another word more, seeing he could walk and limp about on his own. Weeks later, the memory of her wordless departure still haunted him.

When he starts seeing her in his dreams he knows he is without hope. A half a month later and the image of her face bathed in gold staring out across the open ocean of grass will not leave him. He saw it whenever he closed his eyes and wanted it everywhere.

Never a man of many words or desires, the asexual male kept his proclivities to himself and told no one of his budding attraction to the spirit of the girl he could not best.

His brother noticed and took a silent sort of joy in needling Tobiramu's budding desires.

"What do you mean the Hyuga male left to join her? Her empire does not accept foreign nationals of noble lineage into its army."

Hashirama Senju laughed at his younger brother. Usually so wordless, Tobiramu spoke easily when it came to her. "No, not her army, her harem."

The paler of the two brothers was stiff and silent for a while before speaking. "Her what?"

"Harem."

"I hear you. That has to be wrong, she dissolved the harem with her code of civil laws. Neji couldn't have done what you say he did."

"It was dissolved, but then when she went away in the first week there were so many applicants signing up of their own free will that the harem stayed in business. There is nothing to prohibit people from volunteering, she only abolished the slavery clause to be technical."

"But Neji is-"

Hashirama Senju laughed. "I know, right? He's such a stick in the ass, I was surprised, but apparently he fell for her when she toured through his country. And his cousins are the heirs in his clan, they didn't need him, so his uncle let him do as he wished. He's there now."

"How could he?"

"He seemed to really like her."

Tobiramu glared. "He doesn't even know her."

Hashirama raised an eyebrow and looked at his brother. "And you do?"

Tobirama knew she had a hawk tattooed over her left ribcage for the first wild animal she tamed as a pet, and that she loved to watch the tribal dances and the wrestling matches at festivals. She told him of her attempts at mountain singing, (the type that sounded like moaning on and on) and how she couldn't stand it anymore. He knew other things too, like nothing in the world would look as unearthly as her face bathed in golden sun. Neji wouldn't know that.

"You can leave if you want to. It would be a shame to let Neji get the idea into his head he can have whatever he wants if he goes after it, nah?" Hashirama asked, eyeing his brother.

"I don't think entering her harem is a sightly thing for a prince to do."

"It's the easiest way to get to see her again."

Tobirama stood and retreated to his room without another word. In the morning, all that was left behind was a scroll with his explanation and an excuse for his efforts to attempt to 'secure an alliance with the queen of the grasslands from inside her harem.'

Because someone has been talking to me about smutfics and I've been thinking about what I would do if I did one…and I don't think I could do something without a plot or an elaborate backstory soooooo…