Political Hostage


Kari Yagami is a political hostage a gift, an offering, a sacrifice from her father to Konoha; now betrothed with Sakura Haruno, the son of Tsunade Senju, the president of the country. It's not a marriage out of love but for political reasons – Sakura and Kari push the boundaries of each others and abuse each other.

Genre: Drama

Rating: M

A/N: This fictional political system is a monarchy in modern times. In this type of monarchy, the president is the monarch and has the same amount of power as an emperor back then in feudal China. The legislative, judicative and executive does exists here but they are incapable of executing power over him.


§

Kari is a political hostage, a gift, an offering, a sacrifice from her father to Konoha, now betrothed with Sakura Haruno, the son of Tsunade Senju. She will marry him in three months. She knows that their marriage is not based on love but political reasons, for the greater good, and she hates or at least resents her father for it.

She knows she will never be as valuable as Tai Yagami to him or anyone else but it still hurts her.

But who would've thought that Sakura Haruno, the son of the prime minister is just an University student and living in a small, shitty student apartment instead of a politician himself and living in a penthouse? In the end, he's just human after all, or rather Kari assumed prime minister Tsunade Senju does not want to coddle her son, so she avoids giving him the privileges everyone assumes he has.

And, Kari Yagami is living together with him in this small shoddy student apartment that is messy, not tidy at all, revealing the inner state of his mind. Also, from what she has heard, he's falling behind, his grades are falling apart, and she is sure her presence has a lot to do with it.

Sakura's back is turned to her, revealing his sinewy lower back, exposed the end of his black shirt being accidentally rolled up.

He is wearing a black shirt, black jogging pants and green vest, having just returned. It looks cold outside.

Kari Yagami is not a spiteful girl but she can't help it, being her father's daughter and not being able to leave his student apartment because she might become a victim of bullying due to the tension between Konoha and her country, and thus being continuously locked in, has taken a toll on her. People don't really believe that they political marriage is real; they think it's scheme and Kari thinks so, too. Her father is plotting something.

"Does your mommy love you at all? If she lets you live in this crappy place, then she probably doesn't."

He ignores her and she knows that it doesn't mean that he is not angry about what she says but she still continues to treading into dangerous territory.

She continues to spite him. Why should she be the only one to suffer after her previous attempts to reconcile with him, to become his friend whole he only ignored her, ignoring her offered handshake?

"I bet she can't love you, even if she wanted to. You're not as good as she wants you to be after all."

Sakura's hand is faster around her neck than she can defend herself from him, his firm hand is around her neck faster than she can defend herself from him.

Kari is startled. He had never showed any signs of physical aggressions, laid a hand on her before, let alone on her throat.

Her hands are wrapped around his sturdy wrist as he lowers his head to her height, his green eyes almost translucent with quiet anger, magnetizing her. "Don't you think it would be a better idea to be quiet now?"

"Or what?" Kari challenges him back, even though she feels the restraint of his palm's flesh each time her vocal cords vibrate when she speaks. "You'll hurt me?"

"You think I won't?"

"No," she says and there's a rasp in her voice. "I don't think you'll."

Sakura smirks and releases her, his hand uncurling from her neck. The sudden action causes Kari to fall to her knees from the heat of the moment that has pooled between her legs.

The warm skin and gently tensed muscles underneath of his hand around her neck – has not felt entirely unpleasant.

Sakura crouches down with one knee, tipping Kari's head with a forefinger under her chin up, meeting her blushing glare smugly. "Why are you blushing, Kari? I'm sure I use any strength at all."

He puts his lips to her ear. "Don't tell me you liked it?"

She smacks his hand away, pulling her own back to slap him across the face but he catches it easily. Sakura smirks and pulls her closer to him; Kari glares up at him and their dance of hatred and passion continues for a couple of moves and steps before they both grow tired.

§ -

At night, however, Sakura sobs in bed pitifully like a little child, his back turned to her. Because the dorm is so small, actually only fitting for one person and now there're two, Kari has no choice but to sleep in his bed as well. (Sakura doesn't have much money as a medic student, even with his part-time job but he shouldn't have any problems at all in getting a bigger room for them, unless his mother has explicitly ordered the University authority to not give him any privileges just because he is her son.)

Kari feels incredibly guilty. She hasn't really meant to hurt him, hasn't expected that she would be able to hurt him with just some words – Sakura always seemed so strong and unbreakable, at least from the outside but from the inside he is obviously much more vulnerable than he lets on.

She bites her lips and swallows the tight knot in her throat as she apologizes, "Sakura, I'm sorry."

She lays her hand on his lean shoulder but he just slaps it away.

"Don't touch me," he hisses.

Kari sighs and turns the other way, covering herself with the blanket that is too small to cover both of them and too thin to really warm both of them; it's only because of Sakura's body heat that she is warm enough and disturbingly she knows without her, it would be too cold for him, too.

§ -

When Kari wakes up and goes to the bathroom to find Sakura blocking her way to it with a smug, contemptuous smirk, Kari knows there's something wrong.

She grabs the doorhandle but Sakura slams a fist against the door shut right away, keeping on blocking her way with his arm and half of his body. She feels a chill at his unnatural reaction but stomps it down. As the daughter of the prime minister, she has learned to put on many facades, a skill she probably wouldn't have learned as a normal girl.

"What are you doing? Let me through!"

Suddenly a strong forearm, robed in a white bathrobe sleeve, his strong forearm sweeps across her neck from behind and pins her against his chest but the amount of strength he uses is only enough to drag her, not to choke her. Yet, Kari is terrified.

"What are you doing?! Are you insane-?!" Kari screams, clawing at his arm, feeling the lean hardness of his toned forearm's muscles underneath.

He hisses crudely with a laugh against her ear, salvia and hot breath, his mouth suddenly on her neck, sending a white hot flash of electricity caused by shock and a physical reaction of her body through her, "What do you think I'm going to do with you?"

Kari freezes as she realizes that he's dragging her (back) to the bed, her bare feet unable to find purchase.

Her elbow slams hard into his side; she slams it with viciousness. It stuns him for a moment but he doesn't release her. His arm remains wrapped firmly around her throat. Kari does it again and again until he has enough of it and tightens his arm around her windpipe; it's less easy to breathe now but she knows he's holding himself back.

"Sakura…I'm sorry. Please, don't do this."

Sakura takes Kari along with him as he lets himself fall backwards on the bed. His arm is no longer around her throat but now lowered to her middle, chaining her arms to her sides.

"Don't do what, huh, Kari?" He sneers into her ear before his hand moves to her breast and squeezes.

Kari lets out a shriek.

She fights against his grip but his other arm is immediately back, barring her arms.

She twists and turns but can't break his grip as he tenses his biceps.

When she is too tired too move and his grip starts to hurt, "Sakura…I can't move."

"Of course not. Do you really think you can break free?"

His provocation ignites a fire anew inside her. Apparently she has fallen from a lucky angle, able to push her head up with purchase against the mattress, slamming it against his nose.

Sakura cries out, letting her go.

Kari makes a beeline for the door –

She needed to call her father, her brother – this is a treachery of peace –

Sakura manages to grab the back of her purple bathrobe belt and yanks her back.

"Bitch."

Kari cries out as he throws her onto the bed, this time pinning down her wrists with his hands and crouching above her.

Sakura is furious, livid. His eyes look wild, bloodshot. She doesn't know that he is haunted by so much self-doubt, shame and failures of the past. Bullied by Armano during his elementary school-time, abused by a jealous male teacher, failing his assignments – always, always getting bad grades, always falling behind Sasuke and even Naruto, rejected by Satsuki, his mother's disappointed face.

Even though he is now where he is respected and even admired, he can't outrun his past that is deformed with and mutilated by failures and the malice of other people.

And now here is this bitch from Kumo, mocking him for all his past failures. He is not going to stand for it! He's going to put her in her place.

Sakura assaults her neck with his mouth, using pressure instead of love to shower her with vicious kisses.

"Stop it!" Kari shouts, kicking up her legs at him but he presses a thigh between hers, so she can't knee him in the groin.

The man above her is aggressive, fast and heavy, even though he is made of only lean muscles mass and fine, hard bones – Kari can't get him off her. He's assaulting her sexually and she can't get him off her. Slowly a sense of powerlessness seeps into her core but then she remembers her father's words: "Remember Kari, even if you're in a powerless situation never feel powerless. Feeling in power, even in times of powerlessness is the most important thing, separating the winners from the losers. It means the difference between victory and defeat."

Kari stills suddenly, relaxing her body and calming herself down.

"So this is your true face," she says disdainfully as if he's completely beneath her.

Sakura freezes like a child being caught by a teacher stealing his classmates candy. It has worked.

Sakura looks like he wants to cry, then glares at her, his grip always tightening and loosening in a circle.

"Get off. You're heavy."

Sakura scrambles off her like a cockroach having sprayed with insect spray.

Kari drags herself into the bathroom and throws up before washing her face and rinsing her mouth. Her neck and wrists are red. And, then she slumps against the toilet.

She has forgotten: her father has already sold her out. Even if she called him now, he would not come to her rescue. If he had cared about her safety in first place, he would not have sold her to a country that has tortured several of their men.

§ -

Kari returns to Sakura who is hugging himself on the ground, looking lost and in trance. She steels herself and kneels in front of him, shaking him by his shoulders.

"Sakura, hey Sakura, snap out of it! Look, I'm not angry. Let's forget about all of this, okay?" She says but naturally means none of it.

In the end, she can only hope that her father has a plan but knowing her father she knows he has one; he always has one. She's pretty sure that this marriage is actually just a trick to get Konoha to drop its defenses and Kari's presence here is a kay to it.

She helps Sakura into the bathroom, pretending to be on his side, supporting half of his weight because more and she would crumble under it, helping him to wash himself, feeling like a mother. She washes the strong column of his beautiful neck, the lean shoulders and slender chest of his body. Sakura is a mesomorphic body type, and he has a slight tan. His wrists are slender but masculine. His chest muscles are well-developed; he looks like one of those fitness gods -

And then he suddenly snaps out of his trance.

He grabs her wrist and hisses, "I don't need your help, Yagami!"

Kari forces herself not to sigh in exasperation, accepting his decision quietly and leaving the bathroom, so he can clean himself by himself.

§ -

The entire day slips past them. It's already night and they're laying in bed. Kari lays with her back turned to him but she can feel his presence behind her, his warmth. His lean body and the scent of cherry soap.

He touches her shoulder and Kari turns around to face him. She sees Sakura's face. Sakura is such a beautiful young man with amazing facial and body bone structure, long-leashed, almond shaped eyes and desirable lips. Also, his hand is beautiful; it's large and slender with an elegant shape. Those hands take hers as he presses a slow kiss to her knuckles that lasts a long time.

Of course, what happens tonight is just an illusion.

Kari knows they are both victims of politics; his sister (or is it his stepsister? There's no proof but there're are rumors) has been sent to her brother as a marriage gift. The children of the president in this political system have no power; they're merely pawns to their parents and if their parents should ever disown them, their children will land on the streets if they've not build a nest for themselves before.

She wonders if it has been fate that she met Sakura, or if she would've met him under any other circumstances, too.

§ -

The next day, Sakura treats her as his maid. He makes her cook for them (she's a miserable cook though), wash his laundry (they usually wash their clothes separately) and he even forces her to do his homework. Of course, she does not understand his medical studies homework, so he dictates the answer to her and she only needs to write them down while needing to take care to forge his handwriting. But medicine to her is useless; she has no interest in this dry subject that depicts what kind of kidney problems a person can have because her own kidney works greatly. It processes the water in her body to such a perfection that she does not have any water retention at all. So, she absolutely does not care what kind of vitamin deficiency can do to the kidneys of humans. This subject is an unfinished homework from days before. The other subjects, however, are even worse: problems of postgraduate medical education, or antique Japanese medical history is even worse.

Kari snaps. She has been pushed into this, into Sakura's hands by external circumstances; by higher forces of authority over which she has no control of and she hates it. She pushes back.

"Don't you think you're going too far with this?! Just do your homework yourself!" She snaps at him.

Sakura smirks and leans down at her in an act of intimidation. He's at least one head taller than her, and he's bigger than her but he's still a slender man. "I can go even further if I want."

He smirks smugly at her.

She dislikes how he thinks he's so much greater than her, even though it's uncharacteristic for her to mind because they've too much negative karma, too many negative bonds.

Kari is drowning in an ocean of cherry blossoms and chained by their branches of to them.

Sakura is fire and he also brings out the fire inside her. Kari swings her hand back to slap him but he catches it easily.

"Want to hit me again?" Sakura asks her, pulling her closer to him, smugness written all over his face. She can see the sharpness of Sakura's jawline, and masculine slenderness of his tanned throat. During the summer he has been in Italia and the tan has lasted until now.

Kari glares up quietly at him, flinging her other hand back to slap him but he catch this one just as easily with superior reflexes and strength. Their eyes clash, emeralds against rubies. She swears that she can see the pattern of his irises.

When he releases her, she still feels the tingle of his grip on her wrists.

§ -

Kari wakes to the feeling of sunlight across her face and Sakura's lean back against hers, the ridges and hardness of his bones. Sakura's body has the elegance and slenderness of a statue. Kari doesn't know who the real Sakura is: the little child who sometimes cries for his mommy in bed – the Sakura who always tries to hold her down both verbally and physically – or the Sakura who cares about nothing else but advancing in his studies – the Sakura who treats civilly and who doesn't return the favor when she lashes out at him?

Sakura quickly grows tired from this power game and already at the next day he seems to be back to his normal self. However, she is wary of him. But he gives her no reason to.

He ignores the entire morning and gets straight to studying with only a cup of coffee for breakfast. She watches him from, crouching on the shitty green one person sofa while hugging her legs. Sakura's expression is intense and concentrated as he studies. Kari remembers her own days of studying, only that her father had hired several private professors for her, so that she could study at home. However, of course, the University's principal and someone from the states has been there when she has undertaken her exams to make sure the professors weren't allowing her to cheat.

Back then, Kari hasn't realized that it has been father's own form of indulgence. He might never prioritize over state affairs or Tai but when it's anything not related to politics, he would fulfil her every wishes.

Unlike her, Tai is able to stay in their country because he has traded Kari off for peace with them, not her elder brother. Tai has vehemently insisted that they trade him but their father has ignored his will. Kari doesn't want this, she doesn't want to be married to a man she doesn't love but she also loves her brother too much to really consider her own happiness above his.

Hours pass. Finally, or eventually, Sakura notices Kari staring at him, pauses his studying to support his chin on his knuckles and give her a sly smirk. His green, green eyes are so beautiful – long-leashed and almond shaped. His eyes are the best features of his face and slightly bigger than his other features.

"Do you like staring at me so much?" He inquires.

She feels a little uncomfortable at having been caught.

"I don't."

He smirks. "You're lying."

"Tell me, Kari, do you find me attractive?"

"Should I?"

"You should. We're going to be officially married in three months after all. Then, at our wedding you will see your father and brother again, and I my mother."

She is in front of him faster than he can blink, her hands curled into angry fists. "Don't talk about them!"

"Why not? Since when can I not talk about my future family members, and my own mother anymore?"

"They are not your future family members! If it hasn't been for the ongoing tension between our countries that often escalates into small wars and costs the lives of many men, then I would not be married to you at all!"

He shrugs. "You act like it's my fault that you're in this situation. When in reality, it's your father who sold you off to us."

Kari is so angry she wants to deck him but she can't forgive their recent escalation and she also can't ignore the sting of the truthfulness of his words.

She exhales instead. "And, it's your mother who sold you out to me."

There's a reaction in his body, and he looks angry for a moment but like her he suppressed his anger, too.

"You're right. It's my mother who sold me out to you," he concedes sardonically. "So, we're both the same."

§ -

They're both political hostages and pawns to their parents; they're trapped in a bubble of fatalism from above – and there's not much room to play. However, at least, Kari thinks, she wants to control his fate if she can't control her own. She'll use seduction to make him hers.