A/N: A pretty short chapter, I use this to set up stages for next chapters as well as the climax. The next chapter will be long and pretty intense with lot of Naruhina (hopefully). So think of this as a break.
Enjoy the story, and tell me what you think.
Thank you for those who read, favor, alert, and especially review this story. Any constructive criticism is welcomed.
(Original posted 6/16/2011)
Disclaim: Why do people still disclaim why everyone know who Naruto is belonging to?
"Kakashi-sensei, hold on"
"What's up Sakura? We are at the village now, we need to hurry up and report to Hokage-sama."
"I just saw Neji-san on the tree next to Naruto's house. I don't know...maybe...maybe he has come back, and I just want to know what is going on. Don't you think it is weird that Tsunade-sama assigned all four of us to a B-rank mission that surprisingly took almost a week to finish? And why is Neji-san spying around Naruto's house. Maybe we should take a look at it first?"
"Ok. But just take a quick look, I really want to go home and rest, so we better get that report done soon."
"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei."
Sakura knocked the door, her heart beating fast, she had the feelings that he had come back. Finally, finally she could meet him again.
"Sakura-san?"
Sakura shook her head, looking at the outlook of the house. These trees, these walls, these windows, the door, and Hinata? She looked around the house again. The trees, check. The wall color, check. The window, check. The roof, check. The bench in the front, check. The door, double check. Hinata, triple triple uncheck.
'Oh, I see, maybe Hinata-san just takes a visit to his house.'
Even so, her heart squeezed lightly at the thought of how closely those two had gotten when she was not here. Since when did Hinata have the courage to go to Naruto's house and visit him?
"Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke, Sai. What a surprise. Come inside, I have a lot to tell all of you."
"Yo, Naruto, good that you return to the village. But maybe we should talk later, I really need to give Hokage-sama the report."
"Hey, don't you have the bunshins? Let them do the work. It's not that important that you have to do it yourselves right?"
"I see. You are right. When did you become so..."
"Hehe. I'm just trying to be more like Bachan; trying to take advantage of things that we could."
"Ok, alright. Sakura, Sai, Sasuke, each have a clone to report back to Tsunade-sama"
Naruto closed the door, as the four clones headed at full speed to the Hokage Tower.
"Sorry, that the house is so small. Let me take more chairs from my bunshins"
So he made three more bunshins and transformed them into chairs.
"Oh, that sure feels weird, to sit on you that is." Kakashi said
"No, just think of them as chairs. They are chairs, no more no less, dayttebayo."
"Anyway, nice table, I see you have changed your house a bit." The perverted teacher added while looking around.
"That's from Yamato-taicho. He helped me repair the door, too, but I said I wanted to change my table design a little, so he made me a new one."
"Ano, here is the tea. I hope everyone like it."
"Thank you, Hinata. You don't have to. It smelled really good. You are really an expert of tea making, aren't you?"
"That's right, Kakashi-sensei. Hinata's tea is the best. You guys are very lucky to have a chance to try her tea, dattebayo."
"Thank you, Hinata-san."
"Hum"
"Thank you, Hinata-san. You should have me helped you. How nice of you to come and visit Naruto."
Both Naruto and Hinata blushed.
"Sakura-chan. Does bachan tell you about us yet?
"Us? What do you mean by us?"
"W-w-we-we are married. Hinata and I. We are husband and wife now, so now Hinata lives in this house with me."
XxXxXx
Kakashi: 'Marriage? Interesting, but I'd rather go home and read Icha Icha than listening to his marriage life.'
Sai: 'Marriage? Let's see.' *opened a book*. 'Marriage is the process in which two people marry each other.' 'What is marry?' *filtered through the page* 'Marry is when two people perform the marriage ceremony''That does not even help'. *opened another book*. 'Marriage is when two people join their soul and body to become one' 'How could you do that?' *opened another book* 'Marriage is the result of love, to unite two souls and from that creates new and better souls' 'What are they talking about?' *open yet another book* 'Marriage is simply the tool of society to maintain mankind. But up to today it is the most useless and inefficient tool of all time. All what it could do is to trap people in their own stupidities under the mask of love, keeping people confine from their own freedom, and creating infinite chaos and frustrations for the rest of their lives.' 'Oh, I see; seem like something Naruto could do. But even if it's Naruto, why does he want to get himself into something as terrible as marriage?"
Sasuke: …...*searching*...*continue searching*...A/N: sorry guys, I have tried my best to search into Sasuke's mind on the matter, but I have no idea what he is thinking. Maybe he is not thinking about anything in particular at all.
Sakura: 'Marriage? Naruto and Hinata...'
XxXxXx
"Congratulation, you two. Now, if you don't mind, I just remembered I have a very important business that I need..."
"Kakashi-sensei, you liar. You just want to sneak out and read Icha Icha, don't you? How could you be so heartless, and here I hope that you will show more joy for your student happiness?"
"Sorry, sorry, have fun you two. But before I go, Naruto, do you want to borrow Icha Icha and polish your skills a little?"
"No, definitely not, I have to be a good husband, and to perform my duty well, I should not pollute my mind with that, if I want to...Hey hold on Kakashi-sensei."
"Bye all. Have fun. See you"
XxXxXx
"Naruto-kun, why are you getting yourselves into something like marriage?"
"Um, well, I don't even know myself, because it's fun, I guess."
'Naruto, you hentai, so that is the reason why you marry Hinata. I should not worry about you after all. You sickness pervert. Maybe one or more punches could help to pull all of the pervert thoughts out of little your mind'
"Fun, but it does not seem like it to me in the book."
"Sai, listen to me. Marriage is a very very scarce thing. You have to be very careful with it, you should not listen to any imprudent advises, reading any improper books, one misstep and you might be alone for the rest of your life, never blessing with children."
"Oh, I see, thank you Naruto. *took out a note and wrote down very words Naruto said*. If you have time please tell me more about marriage."
"Sure, I am a very experienced husband now. Come to me whenever you need help, but maybe at some later time. Hinata and I are very busy right now with our big plan to have a lot of children, at least 10 of them. There is a lot to be done. First, we should not..."
"Naruto, you baka"
With that Sakura punched Naruto, sending him flying right onto the table, breaking it into half, and left with smok on her head. She took the confused Sai with her, angered beyond words.
"Hey Sakura-chan. Wait. What is wrong with people lately, why my table? I only broke Bachan's desk once and have my table broke twice. Bachan is indeed scary, she must have some special spells to punish whoever dare to go against her. Now, I have to bride Yamato taicho with another expensive meal, I don't know if it is cheaper just to buy the table"
"Naruto-kun. M-maybe, I can help, I'd be happy make a meal for him and you know it's cheaper than eating out."
"Thank, Hinata. I'm sure he'd love it, your cooking is the best. I just hope he doesn't get addicted and come here every day"
"I'm sure he will not. Thank you for praising my cooking. *blush*"
'God, she is so cute, the way she blushes, how her cheek can be so pink. I wonder if it would feel the same if I kiss her again. Last time I did not have time to properly feel her skin yet...No, no, no. I cannot look at her for so long. For our future, for our children, I cannot give in now. Otou-chan is right, it is a very difficult thing to do.'
Then he realized there was another person in the room. Quickly used the Kyuubi chakra to check on Sasuke, he sighed in relief. Sasuke's chakra was very calm. In fact, it was too calm, there was no emotion, no feeling, nothing in particular. It was like his whole body was emptiness, but it was indeed Sasuke and not a bunshin. It was not too bad, though since it was not filled with anger and hate like before, Sasuke was improving; it might take some time for him to recover, but he would be fine, Naruto believed it.
"Teme, at least show some love for your best friend's happiness. You know, marriage is not..."
"Your happiness is none of my concern. And I don't have time to hear your ramblings in something as stupid. I'm leaving."
"Hey"
This village had been too peaceful, it had been bathed in the sun for too long. Sasuke raised his hand, feeling the sun rays beginning to die out. Be more patient, just a little more, and there would be time when the darkness covered this whole village, allowing no more light to enter. But right now, endured a little longer, endured the sun a little longer, until the time finally come.
XxXxXx
Why? Why did she punch him again? That idiot. Pervert. Idiot. Pervert. Idiot. She should not care about him anymore. She just wanted to have a normal meeting with him, talking to him, listening to his tales, telling him about her missions, about the village, not..not to see him with his new wife, and to punch him right into his face. Baka Naruto. She just destroyed yet another tree, but was no where near releasing all of her anger. And...sadness.. and... resentment. Why did he always make she angry and make want to punch him every time they met. Then she smiled, but he was the only one who could make her angry that way, the only one who could make her want to punch him that way. She leaned her back against the tree, Naruto, just being Naruto was fine, being the idiot was fine, too, as long as he was the only one she could punch, as long as she was the only one who could punch him. That was their bond. No one could sever that bond, not even his wife. But then, she put her head on her knee; but then, they, Naruto and Hinata would begin to form their own bond and have their own world that she could never interfere. They would have a new life, Naruto would have a different life that she could no longer be a part of. Naruto. She felt tears falling down her cheek, not being with Naruto was fine, seeing him with his wife was fine, but no longer be a part of his life was something she could not do.
"Master, what is the meaning of this? Why Naruto is marrying Hinata? I know something's up"
"Nothing is up. They are in love, and people who are in love get married eventually. You should follow their footsteps. Although I don't like Sasuke, I don't mind you marrying him either, the village is in serious shortage of shinobi and I have begun some plans to stock up some more. How about this, I give you the permission to marry Sasuke right away in exchange for five new shinobies from you guys? I know you cannot catch up to Naruto and Hinata standards, so I lower it a bit. Here is the marriage agreement, find Sasuke right away and nicely ask him to sign it, I don't mind give him two or three days off to heal up his bones, just don't beat him to death."
"Master!"
Face burning red, Sakura stomped out of the office.
"Hey, how about the marriage agreement?"
"Tsunade-sama, I don't think she has any intention of marrying the Uchiha.", Shizune sighed.
"I know, but I don't want to hear people nagging about the marriage any more. She is my favorite student, but she could be annoying sometimes. That's the only way to send her off. Now, let's go back to the main business, what's wrong with Neji?"
"Hai, Tsunade-sama, it seems like Neji has developed some serious feelings toward Hinata. For the past two years he has kicked out any man within 15 feet near Hinata, regardless of their intentions."
"That's kind of strange. Is this some kind of bother complex?"
"More like he is obsessed with her, and the main reason could be because of their new ninjutsu. They are developing a new technique to enhance the Hyuuga juuken, if this technique is a success, they can triple the power of juuken and other Hyuuga techniques; in addition, they will have no blind spot and could double their chakra conserve. They are now in the process of adding healing effects into the jutsu so that they can heal faster and their chakra will automatically regenerate over time."
"Wow, such a powerful technique! They would be useful to Konoha, but I hate it when Hiashi and his clan become more powerful. But then again how does it affect Neji?"
"This justsu has some side effects. This technique requires two people to incorporate; to success, they have to clear their mind and in the case of a woman to have a pure body so that they can control the flow of their chakra precisely. If the body of the woman or I should say the girl is not pure, the flow of the chakra would get disrupted easily and be very difficult to control. Also, the two have to be prefect in niche and have their minds somewhat resonance so that they could control and support each other chakra flows, power up their technique and make their absolute defense even more difficult to be interfered or destroyed. For those reason, Neji has tried to prevent Hinata from getting into any kind of relationship or get close to any of the opposite sex, but at the same time their closeness during training sections and meditating together seem to affect Neji greatly, and makes him to...well...I don't know... have some feelings for her. Like he really thinks they are one and ...well she somehow belongs to him."
"What does Hiashi think of it?"
"I'm not sure if he is aware of Neji's feelings toward Hinata but he seems pleased enough with the training and encourage them to complete the technique in a due time."
"But, how about Hinata and Naruto' marriage?"
"Tsunade-sama, please don't be angry, but it seems like they have not consummated their marriage yet.."
"What? That idiot! Explain more clearly."
"It seems like Hiashi-sama has predicted Naruto's inexperience in *cough* becoming a husband in general, and has Neji watching the couple closely. Whenever there is any sign that they will get close together, Neji will intervene at full force. Plus, to ensure that Naruto will not give in to his instinct, Hiashi-sama has given them some...advises about marriage in which he told them not to get close to one another."
"BUMPS"
"Please be careful with the desk, Tsunade-sama, like you said, we are in a tight budget right now, and with Naruto reduceing his time during missions we really really need to be...you know..saving and reserving.."
"I gave him time to produce more shinobies for the village, not to become a spawn in Hiashi plans. Called him right away and let him return to his normal schedule."
"Tsunade-sama, how does that even help? Beside, Naruto seems to want to spend time with Hinata. The marriage is such a rush anyway, I think it's best for them to take thing slow.
"Huh, how is about Hiashi? I can't stand the way he has everything he wants, he has a powerful son-in-law to show off and strengthen his clan reputation while cleverly arranging it so that the said son-in-law would not touch a hair of his daughter so that she and his nephew could develop a powerful ninjutsu that will make his clan even stronger. Am I correct? That's damn old fox. Shizune, gather every single shinobi that you can get to the tower immediately; we will start a war against Hiashi now."
"What? War? Tsunade-sama, I'm sure we can find another way, it's not good to start a war because of your personal conflicts."
"NOW"
"Hai hai"
A/N: Yes, War! Hooray. Do you really believe there will be a war in a romance/humor story? Hopefully this story will not stray too much from it's right path. Just kidding, I know what I am writing. I just try to experience different styles and ideas here since I really don't want to make a typical arrange marriage that everyone could find on the web.
This chapter has been beta-ed (reviewed by a beta).
