Day 2
Greek Mythology AU
Our story begins with the fabled golden apple.
Tossed into a party of vain gods and goddesses, in an effort to cause discord among them, and in turn, the human world of which they presided.
The apple itself was of little importance, lustrous and valuable as it may be. An apple that shone gold was hardly worth the attention of the most powerful beings in the universe. But the inscription-well, the inscription would prove to be the words that damned them all.
"For the fairest…"
"An apple? The goddesses would have me choose which one should get the apple?" Sasuke, a young man of Troy, stared in disbelief at the deity before him.
"Well, they originally wanted our king Naruto to settle it for them, but...it's a tricky matter. He couldn't decide. As it seems, he decided to appoint a judge. Someone fair, and honest, and, of course, the most youthful of them all." The messenger god, swift of foot, glowing green, responded solemnly. "It can only be you."
Sasuke did not deliberate long. If the gods demanded his judgement, then he shall give it. "Bring them here."
Sasuke of Troy was many things.
He was talented, and intelligent, and valiant in battle. He was honest. He was admired. He was a lover of the arts, and of women. Of which he had conquered plenty.
Sasuke of Troy was deemed worthy to observe each of the rivaling goddesses, in their divine nudity, and decide who was the fairest of them all to lay claim to the golden apple.
Was it Sakura, the goddess of women and fertility itself? With her feminine rosy pink hair, and jewel-like eyes? She was lean and lithe, a protector of marriage and holy unions. Such a goddess was she, that she was also made the queen of them all. Sakura could be the fairest, Sasuke mused.
Or could it be the alluring strength of Temari, the goddess of warfare? Even in her vulnerable state, she was fearsome. Sharp eyes, and knowing gaze. She inspired wisdom and drove fear into the most valiant of men. And yet, she was a woman. Soft. Feminine. Even with her legendary battle weapon at her side, she was still a divine beauty. But the most beautiful? He turned to the next one.
Perhaps there was no question about it, because the goddess before him was made to enchant men. Ino was beauty incarnate, the goddess of love and pleasure. Romance radiated off her, like a rehearsed lover. Her body, supple and curvaceous, called to him.
And yet, he too could not choose. The goddesses-Sakura, Temari, Ino-all were fair in his eyes, one could not be chosen above the others. And the goddesses, in their cleverness, knew this.
"I could make you king, Sasuke." Sakura called to him, her back turned to him, glancing over her rounded shoulder. "You would rule a continent. You would bow to no one." Sasuke considered this.
"Any king can be overthrown." Temari added lowly, poised with her fan. "I will lead you to victory. You would be a legendary conqueror. Any country would be yours for the taking."
Ino laughed, and like every other part of her, it was lovely. "Kings, and conquerors, and gods, and men-they are all the same. They all only have one desire, and I know what it is." She paused here, staring knowingly at Sasuke. "Give me the apple, and you shall have the heart of the most beautiful woman in the world."
Sasuke of Troy was many things.
He was talented, and intelligent, and valiant in battle. He was honest, and admired, and a lover of the arts and of women. He would have made a great king. He would have made an unmatched conqueror.
But he was still only a man.
And the golden apple went to Ino.
Hinata of Troy weaved in her spare time.
Of which she had plenty.
Her life was slow, and leisurely. Days passed without count, nights with no rest. Before she was married to the young king Toneri of Troy, she lived a comfortable life with her family. Even as a child, her hand in marriage was coveted by many, her suitors inumerable. It was only after her father devised a competition to choose the most eligible of them all that she finally knew peace. She was married to a kind, doting man, who showered her with gifts and attention.
Yet she still lived in fear. Hinata knew what the world thought of her. Many still lusted after her. She worried constantly of the suitors who had been spurned. Would their vengeance ever ensue?
Setting her loom aside, she stretched out on the large bed, curling up with feather-stuffed pillows. Tonight, she would not be joined by her husband, it seemed. She smiled in relief, and waited for sleep to claim her.
She was instead met with the thunderous boom of an explosive.
Fire, red and hot and angry, flared from behind the felled wall. A man, tall and strong and the most handsome that she had ever laid eyes on, stepped into the debris-ridden room. Her heart galloped in her chest, clutching the sheets to her naked breasts.
"Hinata of Troy," He called out to her, his voice deep and enticing. He was the epitome of beauty, she thought. With his black hair, and ruby tinted dark eyes. Their gazes met and held. "You are mine now."
Hinata fought back as bravely as she could, but it did not take much for him to yank her from the bed and throw her over his shoulder. All the while, she wept to him. "Please, no! I am the wife of the king of Troy! You cannot have me! Return me at once!"
"You were promised to me." He explained only once. "And I shall have you. Let your husband come for you. This is my divine right."
They escaped in the dead of night, the scent of death and fire poisoning the sky and turning it a dark red. She had never seen such brutality in her life. Mercenaries stormed the castle, holding back the army that vowed to protect her.
And she, the wife of King Toneri of Troy, rode with a strange man on horseback, slender arms wrapped around his strong abdomen.
Even now, as they fled into another country, the promise of a safe home behind them, and the fearsome unknown ahead, Hinata only had one question on her mind. "Who are you?"
The man rode silently and sternly. Hinata peered up at him, wondering if this was a god she was clutching onto. Only a deity could possess this amount of strength and beauty. Only a deity could convince her to give up her entire life and let herself be stolen. Only a deity could make her heart quiver with passion the way it never had before.
"Sasuke." He finally answered, leaning forward as he gripped onto the reins of his stallion.
"Do you come from the heavens? From beyond the mountaintop?" Hinata asked breathlessly. Surely, Olympus was his home.
"I am no more a god than you are a goddess." He answered. "And only a goddess could lead me to you."
Hinata ducked her head, pressing her temple against his strong back. This man…"Why did you come for me?"
"You were promised to me."
"By whom? My husband would never-"
"Your husband is irrelevant. Let him come for me. The goddess Ino is by my side."
"Ino…?"
He did not respond to that, and the two rode off.
King Toneri of Troy won the hand of Hinata with sheer cunning and expert swordsmanship.
He would retrieve her the same way.
"Sasuke was behind the attack, sire."
"Treason." Toneri spat. "Where did he take her?"
"We tracked his movements North. From there, we found no trace of them."
"He is being shielded." Toneri mused aloud. "But by whom? Who would dare to oppose me?"
HIs questions went unanswered as the generals in the room went silent. War, they knew. This meant war. Death. The end of the peaceful era they enjoyed for so long.
All for Hinata of Troy.
But they would fight. For the disgrace suffered of their king and queen, they would fight armies to bring her back home.
"We'll stay here for now, until it's safe to come out." Sasuke led her into the small cottage, scouting the area through the dusty windowpane. Hinata dragged herself over to a chair and collapsed in it. They had ran all night. Exhausted, she swept her hair to one shoulder, tenderly rubbing her neck.
Sasuke watched her, pleased. She was truly a prize. In beauty, no one could outclass her. Not with those eyes of pearls, and skin of alabaster. Hair like dark silk. So perfectly formed was she, that he doubted he could ever look at another woman again. He could hardly believe Naruto had not come and stolen her for himself, his lust knew no bounds. Sasuke was pleased, very pleased. So far, she had behaved admirably. Her resistance to him was weak, easily bendable. She could not fight Ino's influence for much longer. All he had to do was wait.
"Here. Eat." A handful of rations was dropped unceremoniously in front of her. Startled, Hinata could only stare, repulsed. Dry crackers. A slimy chunk of aging chicken breast. "I may not have a palace." Sasuke conceded with a smirk. "But soon, that won't matter." Soon, they would marry and she would bear his children. She would never leave his side.
"When can I go home?"
Sasuke slammed his fist onto the table, causing her to jump. "This is your home now." With that, he stormed out of the room. Hinata blinked after him, cautious not to make another sound. As soon as she heard the door slam shut, she picked through the crackers.
"How long will we be here?"
"I don't know."
"Oh. I see."
"Do you bore easily?"
"It gets...lonely."
"How can I fix that?"
…
"A loom."
"Loom?"
"And thread."
...
"What color?"
Sasuke bought her several bundles of thread to entertain herself as they waited in hiding.
For hours on end, she weaved.
Four hours on end, he watched.
They had been together for three days now, and he had yet to share her bed. Every evening, dressed in the thin robe that couldn't hope to conceal her figure, Hinata would bid him good night and close the door behind her. Sasuke wasn't bothered by the cold flooring.
What bothered him was her reluctance. She desired him. He knew it. She desired him the way all women desired him. And yet she refused to act on it.
Why, he couldn't fathom. She knew she belonged to him. She knew it was only a matter of time before he did what had to be done. The longer she put him off, the stronger his urge grew.
The goddess of love herself gave him Hinata's heart.
Why it turned cold in his hands, he couldn't understand.
"What are you weaving?"
Hinata glanced up at him, startled. "Nothing important."
He refused to be ignored. "Who are they?" On the white tapestry, small blocks of color represented what he knew to be people. Unskilled as she was, even he could see that. Hinata was quiet for several seconds, studying her art.
"They were my family." She began. "I haven't seen them in years." He did not ask for details. For the first time, he stared into her eyes, not in admiration, but sympathy.
"My family is dead." Sasuke admitted carelessly. Hinata regarded him, perfect lips drawn to a pout.
"Mine cast me away." She continued. "Bartered me like livestock."
The two sat in silence for several long minutes, in which they both reflected on their pasts.
"And yet," Hinata whispered. "I love them. I long for them. I want to see them again. To go home."
For the rest of the night, Sasuke and Hinata quietly exchanged small memories. He learned Hinata had been kidnapped five times in her life. Even her younger sister, a beauty in her own right, had been taken hostage for Hinata's hand. He learned she had an older brother that had guarded her chastity with his dying breath.
She learned he had been sacrificed by his family and left to die on a mountainside, convinced by a priest's omen that he would be the downfall of his country. He had been rescued by his older brother, whose skill and beauty drew the jealousy of a demigod. He had been killed. And now, Sasuke was alone.
"But not anymore." Sasuke said with a gentle smile, onyx eyes shimmering with an emotion Hinata had never seen before. That was not burning lust in his eyes, she knew. But raw love. The kind of love she had never had.
That night, they lay together, naked and wanting, but unable to do little more but embrace.
"You're leading him to them!" Ino accused angrily, glaring at the goddesses across from her.
"Now, now!" Naruto stood from the head of the table, lifting his hands in warning. "Can't we all just enjoy our dinn-"
"That mortal should have thought twice before crossing me!" Temari snarled viciously. She would not deny planting the wisdom in King Toneri's head, the hints she whispered in his ear where he would find them.
"And marriage is a sacred bond." Sakura replied calmly, sipping her nectar. "An unfaithful woman is undeserving of my protection." She had fueled the king's jealousy. He had won the rights to Hinata. She belonged to him.
"Sasuke judged fairly." Ino declared harshly.
"You bribed him!"
"As you tried to do!"
"He is only a man, swayed by lust. King Toneri will have his head for stealing his wife."
"You are only inviting war!" Ino shouted. Sasuke's army of mercenaries stood ready to defend them.
Temari glanced at her counterpart across from her, the god of war himself. Madara was eager for the bloodshed. Temari was eager to decide whose it would be. "Do you have faith in Sasuke's army, Ino? King Toneri will be victorious."
"Ino. Return the girl." Naruto demanded, hands clasped together.
"But, my king!" Ino wailed. Naruto silenced her with the crackle of thunder.
"Return Hinata's heart to her. Let her husband take her back. I will not let you destroy Troy for a vanity contest Do as your king commands." With that, Naruto led the gods back into the palace.
Ino remained seated, staring after them. Since the beginning of her life, when she rose out of the ocean as foam and seawater, she had been ridiculed and pegged as little more than an icon of sex. She knew Hinata's story. She knew Hinata's pain.
When she promised Sasuke Hinata's heart, she had done so knowing what he really wanted. That, she gave him easily. Hinata's lusts, her desires, was Sasuke's reward.
Ino believed in love. And she believed that eventually, Hinata would make her own decision of who was worthy of her love.
Was it King Toneri, who had won her hand in all fairness?
Or Sasuke? Who stole her away and waited patiently for her acknowledgment?
Ino did not know.
But she would follow her king.
And with that, she severed her promise to Sasuke.
War raged for eight months.
King Toneri struck first, attacking the Northern villages said to be housing Sasuke.
They turned up empty, and Toneri's path of destruction continued. They laid waste to the mountains, where Sasuke had survived as a child. By a stroke of luck (or the whisper of a spiteful goddess), Toneri tracked them down. Who would have guessed that Sasuke-the calculated, cold, lustful genius-would be returning Hinata to her family.
The two opposing armies faced each other off in a series of conflicts that proved more deadly than the last. Sasuke had put Hinata and her family into hiding, escaping and dodging every ambush, but always just barely.
Naruto was furious. But this was not the work of a goddess.
This was the love Hinata had chosen.
And Ino would defend that love without fail.
The gods, to Naruto's chagrin, chose sides. Some were drawn to the story of the runaway couple. Others were disgusted by them. Some hated the bloodshed. Others lived for it.
Sasuke defeated King Toneri's master generals, Momoshinki and Kinshiki, arrows slicing through their heels and injuring them for years to come.
King Toneri retaliated by puncturing Sasuke's lungs and throwing him down a ravine.
The bloodiest eight months in Troy's history would not conclude until the day Hinata of Troy surrendered herself.
That day, the goddesses watched and wept at the sight of the strong woman who ended the war by returning to her captor.
She was a caged bird again, as she had spent her entire life, but treasured her memories of those moments of freedom.
When she kissed Sasuke, and he tasted of wine. When she showed him a weaving she made of his brother.
When they made love, looking into each other's eyes, and finding what they were missing in there. What they had never known could be fulfilled in such a way.
Hinata of Troy remembered it all.
The judgement of Sasuke, it seemed, had been right all along.
Based on the stories of Paris and Helen of Troy. Loosely based. I took some liberties. The ending kinda sucks, but then again, this is a Greek tragedy. See you guys tomorrow!
-Gen