A/N: Here's the next chapter!
(Also, yes, Naruto will be going by his father's name in this fic. You'll see why later.)
Chapter 1: Here Comes the Bride
Even before dawn, the prince was summoned to his father's quarters.
"What is all of this?" Prince Sasuke grumbled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Are the blasted rebels dead?"
"Worse." The king, Fugaku, stared at his youngest son solemnly. "It seems that their primary target was one of our towers... the tower that your bride resided in."
Coal eyes widened. "You- you don't mean-"
A silent nod confirmed his worry. "Yes. I'm sorry, Sasuke. It seems that Hyuuga Hinata is dead."
Ivory teeth were grit, fists clenched, as his best friend placed a soothing hand on his shoulder.
"I'll kill them..." He muttered darkly to himself. "I'll kill them all for this!"
"Namikaze." Fugaku then addressed the blond. "Send a messenger to the home of Hyuuga Hiashi at once."
"Yes, my king." The boy bowed and turned, exiting the room and racing down the hall.
Sasuke's mother, Mikoto, drew her son in for an embrace.
"I'm so sorry, Sasuke," she whispered, eyes saddened. "We'll find you another. Perhaps Yamanaka Ino?"
He scowled. "No, not her. She's been infatuated with me ever since we were twelve."
"Then perhaps the Haruno girl? What was her name...? Sakura?"
"She died six years ago, remember?" He said flatly. "During the Battle of Castle Point?"
"Well then, how about..." She hummed, tapping her chin. "Fugaku, who else in the kingdom would be worthy of marriage?"
He frowned into the fire. "... I can't recall. Hyuuga was our best bet."
"At this point, I doubt Hyuuga Hiashi would be willing to give Lady Hanabi in marriage..." his mother hummed, tapping her chin. "After they receive word of Lady Hinata, we will have to work harder to find a candidate."
Sasuke's fist clenched tighter at the mention of his bride.
"There's always an Uzumaki," she insisted. "How about that girl... what was her name...? Karin?"
"No," Fugaku shook his head. "She's not from any well-to-do family in the kingdom. Any of the Uzumaki clan who are still alive have fled Fire."
And, as an afterthought, "She is also one of the ones reported dead from the explosion. I hardly think I have to tell you that the people wouldn't take too kindly to the next queen of Fire being a corpse."
"Oh, there's got to be someone." Mikoto exclaimed, running a soothing hand through her son's unruly bedhead. "But who?"
The morning dawned, bright and fair, despite the events of the night before. Birds warbled as a young girl with pink hair down to her breasts splashed some creek water into her face.
She hummed a merry tune, looking up only when an older blonde woman approached. "Good morning, Mother."
"Good morning to you too, Sakura." The woman smiled, ruffling the girl's hair. "It's such a gorgeous morning, no?"
"Indeed," she agreed with a grin. "Not to mention, the invasion went quite well, if my reports are accurate. Karin and the princess are said to have died in the explosion."
"Excellent." The woman cupped her hands in the water, drawing them to her face for a drink. Exhaling in satisfaction, she stood again. "Let me know the hour they make it to camp."
"Of course." The girl stood up, brushing the dirt off of her shorts. A young woman of only nineteen, she was among the best in her mother's squad in both healing and hand-to-hand combat. The prowess of her punch was dwarfed only by her mother's, as the proud woman liked to boast.
It seemed so long ago that she'd fled the capital for the life of a rogue, but it was a life well-spent. At least here she didn't have to worry about her father getting summoned to fight... if she even still had one.
The last time she saw her father, she was only thirteen, skinny as a pole, and with a disproportionately large forehead to boot. She was always daydreaming, she remembered, especially about getting wed to the prince.
She snorted to herself, turning her back on the breathtaking view of the mountains. So much for that dream.
She found a spot by the campfire, a seat beside an older mercenary with long hair tied back in a loose ponytail. His sharp, scarlet-tinted eyes scanned the forest.
They'd found him only a year before she came, a quiet young man who seemed to hate the royal family with a burning fire worthy of an Uchiha. He didn't speak of his past life much, only that he was once a prince, and that he left for hope of a better future.
Vaguely, she'd heard rumors of another one like him - the same hair like ravens' feathers, eyes with a tint of garnet - although this one was more malevolent, claiming to be at least related to the prince's great-grandfather, long deceased.
Meh, whatever. She figured that as long as they could get as many Uchiha on their side as possible, the better for them in the long run. Even if they had to resort to talking young nobles into joining the cause, they would soon have a suitable-enough number to consider taking the king's army head-on without resorting to surprise attacks.
Anything if it meant taking the Uchiha down a peg and showing the denizens how corrupt their kingdom really was.
"How was your rest, Itachi-san?" She asked politely, poking some rocks in the fire pit.
He hummed in reply. "It was satisfactory, thank you."
That was how the majority of their conversations went, more or less. He was a rather taciturn man, never speaking unless addressed, always standing imposingly in the corner during strategy meetings.
She nodded. His words were good enough for her. "That sounds nice."
His eyes slid to look at her for a few seconds before he closed them.
Itachi was a rather strange man by most standards. He still bore a resemblance to the missing 17-year-old prince Uchiha Itachi from yesteryear, but you couldn't really tell unless looking at him from the front. His hair had been cut so that it barely brushed the bottom of his earlobes, but Itachi's hair now was long, straight, and hung down to the middle of his back. He was much taller than before, too, and had thinned out/bulked up more. While measurements for the ex-crown-prince had him standing at 5'3" or so on his birthday, Itachi now stood at a good 5'8". The ex-prince had lost any semblance of baby fat he'd once had, instead sleek and muscled. (His abs were very tempting when he was being treated - they'd had to rely on whatever male medics they could come across or some of their soldiers to heal him now.) The biggest addition to his appearance had been premature eye wrinkles. They only ever popped out when he either frowned or smiled (which, for the former, was quite a bit) and did a lot to both make him look older and disguise him a little better.
"Sakura," Tsunade, her mother, came to the two and sat down beside her, "I've received word that the Akatsuki will be stopping in for a night."
"The Akatsuki," Sakura breathed in wonder. For as long as she'd been a rebel, the Akatsuki had been her idols. Daring fugitives, some even from the capital city itself, had fought against the Uchiha's oppressive rule even before she was born. To be close to such a band of men was an honor to her, and not just because of the deadly kunoichi, Konan, in their midst.
Infiltration missions were her bread and butter. It was said that if you ordered her to infiltrate the palace posing as a concubine, she would be in and out in only a couple of days with the required information without even being looked at twice. She was the best of the best, and she was Sakura's inspiration - with Tsunade, Konan was someone she aspired to be. Deadly, brave, and beautiful.
Akatsuki was also the rogue squad that Itachi happened to belong to. Once he'd proven himself to Tsunade, she immediately sent him to its leader. She was right to, as reports began to come in praising the then-teenager's aptitude for stealth.
Itachi inclined his head ever-so-slightly to Tsunade as she looked to him.
"You'll have your next mission sometime tomorrow, if we intercept the Hyuuga heiress before then." She stated.
He nodded to her, mute as ever.
A/N: Just to get a few questions out of the way: NO, Tsunade isn't Sakura's biological mother in this, and YES, we will see her parents alive. She calls Tsunade 'Mother' for reasons that will be explained in at least the next couple of chapters.
... And yes, I know that in part 1 Itachi is measured at 5'6" or 5'7". Let's just say that in this universe, he was much shorter when he was 17.
Tell me what you thought, feel free to speculate, and I'll see you guys in the next chapter.
