Prologue
Half-Asleep
by
ensngre
"Do you have any idea what this might be about, Hinata?" Naruto asked his silver-eyed companion, both dressed in formal attires, walking down the main-house of the massive estate that belonged to the clan of the Hyuugas.
"None whatsoever, Naruto-san," her lean voice answered, shaking her head a little. "But this is strange… we've never been called to a meeting together, have we?" Puzzlement evident in her voice, and glancing toward the slightly taller boy, looking for answers not to the question, but to the situation itself.
"No, we haven't…" He mumbled. Something that has to do with my father, Hinata, myself… and apparently the Hyuuga-clan as a whole… political matters can be handled by father and Hiashi-sama… and to some extent, Hinata too, being heiress. That singles me out.
Glancing back to Hinata, not having noticed her glance until now, he frowned. Perplexing, indeed. "I'm sorry, I'm about as bewildred as you are, Hinata." They walked another tensome steps, up to the second-highest-ranking of Hiashi-sama's retainers, Guime, who sat kneeled in front of the slide-door leading into the official meeting-space.
"Naruto-sama, Hinata-sama," he said, bringing his head to the floor in a bow, then recorrected himself. "Please step right in," and slided the white-papered door to the right, allowing them to step inside, and closed it shut again.
When the door shut close, Naruto and Hinata had already made half-way through the room to their seats. Verpych, the most senior of the servant-staff and highest-ranking one, was seated on Hiashi's left side, along the wall, and motioned the two youngsters to sit down.
They obeyed the old, stubby man, and sat down. Naruto glanced at his father from the corner of his eyes; then to the other man, who held himself with a certain degree of seniority and superiority; then took on a pleading look to Verpych, who only shook his head, revealing nothing.
Refixing his gaze upon his father, he asked the question that had been on his mind the last couple of hours. "What is this meeting about, father, Hiashi-sama?" The relatively old men exchanged what could be interpreted as being amused glances.
His father answered almost immediately. "You both are seventeen. That age is considered to be the age when one is mature enough to… engage oneselves in relationships," oh god, he hated already where this was going. Stop talking in riddles, you know how much I hate them, Naruto thought, knowing exactly how hard it could be talking to his old man.
Luckily enough, Hiashi-sama on the other hand, was a man which was direct from the beginning. "Hinata-chan, Naruto-san, me and Arashi-sama has been discussing about what to do about you two. We wish you to get married." Naruto thought he saw his father glaring daggers at the older man, for destroying his attempt to annoy the shit out of his son. Well, knowing his father better than anyone else, that wasn't entirely out of character.
Something about the last statement touched and broke something in his head. Marriage?
"Marriage! Have you gone COMPLETELY nuts, Otousan!" Hinata spurted out, first one to utter something after the short silence that had followed earlier. Poor old Verpych, he looks as if he saw a ghost. Well, Hinata is quite reserved when dealing with family-members… still, this might be too great a shock for Verpy. I wonder if I should call the hospital?
"Hi-hinata…" Her father stuttered, looking stunned, almost offended. Naruto smirked, as did his own father, looking amused at the same time. Marriage, hmm? No wonder she's mad. He sighed, and closed his eyes. I should worry more about myself… Kankuro's going to explode when he hears about this, he thought, letting out a snicker at the thought of an angry face-painted Sand-puppeteer. Bah… he doesn't have the guts to kill the Fourth's son.
Returning back to the situation at hand, he found Hinata waging war against her own father. And his blonde-headed idiot-excuse-for-a-father gazing cooly at him. He returned the gaze even more cooly, challenging. They stayed liked that, neither backing down, until they noticed Hinata bursting out of the room, followed by a flustering Verpych, and the heavy sighs that one certain Hiashi let out.
Rubbing his templates and chins, he turned toward the two sunlights. "She'll accept it in due time…" he said sluggishly, and drifted away to a world where there were no parents and no children and no duties and no clan and no-one except himself, and secretly wished that so were the case in his real world too, so that he could concentrate solely on the art of dreaming.
But life never was that simple for Hyuuga Hiashi.
Author's NotesOkay, I got inspired from a Swedish movie called Jalla! Jalla! (arabic for Hurry! Hurry!)
That movie's great. I seriously mean it. "Roro, a foreign worker in Swedish parks, loves his girlfriend but is about to marry another girl to prevent her from being sent back to Lebanon." Haha, Josef Fares is so goddamn good in that role! Funniest Swedish movie I've seen in my life. Well, er, enough about that…
It's an entire "new" setting. There were a Fourth World War (in which Naruto participated), the Uchiha-clan were not slaughtered, Itachi's a good boy… The Fourth is alive with his son Naruto… he somehow managed to seal the Nine-Tails in Naruto without losing his own life (don't know if I'll get around to explain that part; it doesn't seem relevant to me), Naruto's well-respected by most of the population of Konoha… well, more of all that in later chapters. And no, there is no Akatsuki and no evil Orochimaru. No overhanging evil force in this story, no, which means there won't be any fights. At all, I believe. Except love-quarrels. Maybe. Perhaps. There's a slim chance…
Last thing, this was a really short chapter, and not really interesting. Give the story another chance with the next chapter.
…or I'll kill you! Just kidding. (not)
Seriously, though.