-HANARE OF TANOSHI MURA-
He slid the ring on my ring finger as I watched my hand, with shadowed eyes. How can I agree to an arranged marriage? And why the hell do I even need a husband right now. Oh, that's right, it isn't about me anyways. Dear mother and father are just thinking about the well-being of Tanoshi Mura. What use is it, being the daughter of the leader of Tanoshi Mura.
Ofcourse, I love my country, even if it's not as big as the Uchiha's or Uzumaki's. It's still my country and I feel responsible towards it as its princess. But marrying the Uchiha prince, to establish relations and guarantee peace? Isn't that like sacrificing myself? Especially when I am the adopted daughter anyways! How will the Uchiha's react when they realise that the beautiful 'gift' Tanoshi-no-Kenji offered to them is not even his true bloodline?
These thoughts aside, here I am. Being engaged to none other than the prince of the Uchiha kingdom, the eldest son of Uchiha Fugaku. He glanced up at my face blankly and I quickly gave a small fake smile. I modestly picked up the other ring from the royal plate and slid it on Itachi-san's ring finger. Thus, quickly ending the torturous ceremony which others were being quite happy about. I am sure neither Itachi-san is happy about this, who would be? But from what I have heard of him, he would do anything for his kingdom and family. So here he is, standing beside me as my to-be-husband. We both did not exchange a single word throughout this whole engagement ceremony. Not to mention that I still can't believe I am engaged to someone. Or the fact that I am going to become a wife in less than 6 months.
I am still to move on from the betrayal I received 7 months ago, and to get my powers back. Thinking about that incident made me clench my fist in anger. I just want to get out of this place and let my anger out.
No, think about something calm. Calm down Hanare. Think about how you are finally going to be free from this family. Yeah, free from at least this horrible but familiar one to the stranger and unfamiliar one? My brain responded, rather I did. Oh yes, i should talk about myself right? I am Tanoshi-no-Hanare, adopted daughter of Kenji and Natsuhi of Tanoshi mura. Kenji, my father, is the leader of Tanoshi Mura. I have 2 more siblings, the real son and daughter of my parents, who are of course younger than me.
My identity goes way deeper and unimaginable, and my life, these 20 years? Even more unimaginable and mysterious. From realising my powers and making friends, to betrayals and this arranged marriage. This is a story for later, returning back to the present.
I sighed when I saw sweets being distributed.
A day later.
" It was fixed yesterday," my father told me, "the wedding will take place exactly 5 months from today."
"Oh my God, that's such great news! Hanare, you better behave yourself these 5 months, and even after that. You do understand how important this wedding is for us, right?" my mother told me. I nodded blankly and went to my room.
About this arranged marriage thingy, my country is not as big as the Uchiha kingdom, um, lets say Tanoshi Mura is half the area. It's prone to a lot of dangers. Diplomatic way to ensure protection would be joining hands with the Uzumaki and the Uchiha kingdoms. Uzumaki kingdom is far easier to befriend than the Uchihas, but these both kingdoms are each other's enemies. The Uchiha kingdom shares its borders with Tanoshi Mura and the Uzumaki kingdom is a little far away from Tanoshi Mura. What fool would befriend the enemy of the neighbouring kingdom who can reduce Tanoshi Mura to ashes in days? So making the Uchiha kingdom an ally was the only option left.
How do kingdoms ensure peace and trust among each other after a pact of peace? Marriage.
I slid onto my bed, covered myself with the mattress and thought about the day before yesterday. The day i met my to-be-husband for the first time so that is not an arranged marriage between two complete strangers.
2 days ago.
I sat quietly on the chair, my father and mother beside me. My siblings on the other side. Front of me were Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Mikoto. They had visited to accept the proposal of peace through marriage.
"She is really beautiful, Natsuhi-sama. I am sure she would be perfect for my Itachi-kun. Do you agree?" Mikoto asked her husband, King Fugaku, who only grunted in response and nodded.
Uchiha's are stuck-ups, I remember that oh so familiar voice in my head. I tried to focus on the present and avoided the flooding memories. After some-time, I was introduced to Itachi-san and the grown-ups left us alone and went somewhere to discuss further plans.
Abiding by mothers orders all this time, I had to keep my eyes down. But now, she isn't around anymore. So I lifted my head up, like my attitude always is, confident. And I saw him for the first time. Of course, I had heard stories of this guy, even more detailed ones from the female population. But yeah, they weren't that wrong, he is handsome. Even more handsome than Taro. I cursed myself, forget Taro. mothers rule list kicked in my mind and I gave a polite slight smile. Then again my face came back to the emotionless expression.
I was surprised, when he too gave that forced polite slight smile. We stood awkwardly for the next few seconds. Atleast, it was awkward for me. I don't know about him because his face was emotionless, kinda like mine. But his eyes too were like that. My eyes give off no emotion only when i want them too, other times, well, at least they don't look hollow and shadowed. Using all the knowledge I had gathered from reading psychology books, I could tell by a look at this guy that he was a quiet person, and by his looks the female population threw themselves at him without even asking. [I don't count among them].
Actually, this is a plus, if i am agreeing for an arranged marriage at least i don't want to get stuck with a haughty egoist prince. I realised that we were still awkwardly standing and I motioned him to sit. He caught on quickly, on my actions and sat down when I sat down. We were sitting across from each other. I wasn't one to start conversations, and by the look of it, he wasn't one either. Still, he spoke first, and I must admit his voice is as amazing as his looks. Thankgod atleast i am gonna be getting a husband who would be compatible with me, in terms of looks.
" I am Uchiha Itachi, pleased to meet you." It was a rehearsed line. Cue in my slight polite smile.
"I am pleased to meet you too. I am Hanare." he nodded.
Ok, i know we won't be conversing now. I am sure what is going on in his mind would be 'what the hell should we talk about now? Oh hey, we are getting engaged tomorrow, I hope you will be fine'. So, i decided to cut this short and tell him, rather demand him or ask him, whatever, and clear some things.
"Itachi-san," I began confidently as he looked at me again,``I am going to be engaged to you tomorrow, I have no issue with the agreement and marriage. But, I have some wishes of mine and I would be grateful if you agree with them."
"...they are?"
" I want freedom, even after marriage. I don't want to be stopped from travelling wherever I want and I am going to continue reading and studying and being in the library for hours. I even want access to all the sections of the Uchiha library, except the exclusively forbidden Uchiha clan ones of course." I finished.
He smirked, and I could decipher amusement in his eyes. "Where would you be travelling?" he asked.
"See, i would never ask for agreement from any person like this, but i respect that you are going to be my husband, so i felt the need to clarify this one time. I might be crossing the line here, but consider whatever I said as a little condition of mine to accept this marriage."
I very well know that neither I nor he can back off from this pact between our countries, so he has to accept what i said anyways.
"I have no problem, you can do whatever you want as long as you are not betraying the Uchiha." I know that along with the agreement, there was an underlying threat in his statement. He would allow me freedom, but there will be a price to pay if I cross the line.
Meh, whatever. I don't have much interest in this whole kingdom, betrayals, using-each-other thingy, I have problems of my own which I have to deal with. And if I look at this, staying away from my family would be better as I can concentrate on solving my issues. But being inside the Uchiha kingdom would make some things difficult. Nevermind, I will find some or the other ways anyhow.
"That's good." I replied to Itachi-san. And we both were silent again.
Then, we were silent all the time, till the engagement ceremony. And also till he and his family left.
Present day.
That memory fades from my mind as my mind becomes more occupied in thinking about further plans. I have 5 months. Collect a lot of power [damn I wouldn't need to do this if I just had my true powers not being stolen. Did I mention that this is a world of warriors? [powers and bloodline limits are there, but chakra is not the fundamental form. Taijutsu is. ]
Some clans are known to have a lot of potential powers, some clans can make wind and fire and sand and lightning and earth work for them, some clans have more than one special powers. Like, the Uchiha clan can bend fire and they have very sharp red eyes, making them one of the fastest people on the planet. The Uzumaki clan, a clan full of people with huge muscle strength and a lot of potential power, which a very few actually harness. They have almost unlimited stamina and no one has yet broken their golden chains. The Nara, smartest people who live on this planet, and no one can lay traps as efficiently as theirs. Yamanaka is one excelling in psychology, and mind tactics. Akimichi can, well, prepare excellent food and they have excellent wrestlers. They prosper a lot because of the Ino-Shika-Cho alliance. Sand kingdom has sand benders, Kiri alliance is an alliance between the clans of water benders. Wind bending is a rare power, and I have heard of few who were able to master it. Many of the few water benders were Uzumaki. The Kurama clan, of people who created hallucinations, is almost extinct now. Well, enough talk about powers.
Let's talk about my powers. Well, I would love to keep my real mothers identity a suspense for now, and I will also keep this a suspense about how I came to know about my biological parent's identity. People in Tanoshi-Mura are excellent healers, and though I have not mastered that skill, I did merge it with my original powers to make my healing as efficient as people of Tanoshi Mura. oh, yes. Mind you, I am no weak woman and I know my powers and strength. My family doesn't, I have purposely kept them in the dark. My family's relation with me and my relationship with them is….complicated. That is a story I will tell later.
Coming back to my powers, well I have the power of an extinct clan named Murasaki. My father was Denki Murasaki, of crystal bending. And yes, I can create and bend crystals too. When I was little, I couldn't do it efficiently. But instead of wasting time away on girly things, I practised and honed my crystal bending. How and when I could do all this, escaping my family's clutches is also a story I will tell another time, pardon me for being so mysterious. The thing is, I lost the majority of my powers due to a painful betrayal. My major powers, whose source is a little crystal necklace, are stolen. [Well duh, crystal creating and bending is too overpowered, there has to be some source] so I lost almost 95 percent of the efficiency I had in turning air and water to crystal, but I can still bend crystal as it is in my blood as a bloodline limit. I know that the person who stole my necklace is not a fool, it would take a lot of effort to find him. But I am patient. I will find him, punish him, and take my necklace back. He will pay for what he has done.
As I drift off to sleep, I remember the words of someone very dear to me, "You are a prodigy, rise high in this world."