Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 1: When Fate Plays With You

March 27th, 1789.

'Oh, I'm so happy for you, Hinata! Finally you're getting married!' sighed Ino happily. 'I really don't know how you've made it all these years without being that, Hinata. I love my marriage.'

'But you don't love your husband,' Sakura added with a raised eyebrow. Ino gave Sakura a reproachful look.

'Not that nonsense again, Sakura,' Ino complained. 'You always whine about how weddings should be about love. Not all relationships need to contain love, Sakura. It's more about… cooperation.'

'And money,' Sakura retorted with disgust. 'You don't love him, Ino, you love his money!'

'And his villa, his servants, his everything,' Ino sighed again. 'Oh, it's all so beautiful! And luxurious!'

'I actually agree with Sakura,' Tenten threw herself into the discussion. 'Weddings should be with love.'

'Oh god, would you stop that?' Ino groaned. 'Just respect me for the way I am, can't you?'

'Fine,' Sakura muttered. 'I'm just saying marriage without love hardly ever succeeds.'

'Good.' Ino looked satisfied. 'Congratulations anyway, Hinata!'

'Thanks…' Hinata sighed. 'I don't really know if I want this. I… I'd rather like to love someone truthfully. I don't know if I love Kiba-kun…'

'Hinata,' Ino said with shock, 'Not you too! Marriage can be without love, don't you know? You don't have to love him, Hinata. As long as he's good, never mind your feelings.'

Sakura snorted. 'I don't agree on that.'

'Either way, she has to marry him, right? He proposed, and she said yes. She can't turn him down now,' Ino said, playing with her hair. 'Anyhow, the marriage is tomorrow. I'm so excited! Hinata, your wedding gown is gorgeous.'

'Thank you.' Hinata smiled. 'I do like it too.'

'Like it? I absolutely loved it! For such an amazing dress, I could remarry…'

Sakura made a disgusted grimace. 'I've to go; I must prepare myself for the dinner with some duke and duchess from Sweden.'

'Alright. I'll see you tomorrow then,' Tenten shrugged and waved goodbye.

'Goodbye, and have a nice trip home!' Ino laughed. Ino always made fun of Sakura, because she lived close to Versailles, where neither of the girls lived. The girls lived in the fancy quarters of Paris, while Sakura, whose family was one of the richest in the entire country, lived in a castle.

'Goodbye,' Hinata said.

'I honestly don't know what she's doing,' Sakura muttered to Tenten one month later as they were getting prepared for the wedding. 'I mean, I know Ino says marriage isn't about love, but if it isn't about love, what is?'

'I don't know.' Tenten shrugged. 'I'm not really that much into weddings, to be truthful. I don't know any gentlemen that would actually be interested in marrying me. I'm not interested in any gentlemen either, so there you go.'

'I wasn't saying I'm interested in weddings,' Sakura protested somewhat irritably. 'I was just saying… oh, forget it.'

'Sakura? Tenten?' Hinata smiled shyly as she walked into the room.

'Wow, Hinata! You look gorgeous,' Tenten complimented as she eyed her friend's navy dress. 'I bet Kiba will start drooling when he sees you.'

Hinata giggled. 'Thanks, Tenten.'

Tenten grinned back. 'Good luck – and don't be nervous now, it's only a little wedding.'

'Yeah,' Sakura agreed. 'Good luck.'

'Now listen, if we want to show we dislike those snobs, what we're going to do is to get into that room, and kidnap the bride, okay?' a long-haired man with pale eyes in his early twenties hissed.

'Yeah, Neji,' a man who was the same age as the man called Neji, but who looked much more boyish with his sapphire, mischievous eyes and untidy blond hair. 'I was just wondering… who's going to kidnap the bride? And what're we going to do with her?'

A silence appeared. 'Okay, we're in a hurry,' Neji said at last. 'Sasuke, you do it. And just take her into a room, lock her into it, threaten her that she'll risk her life if she makes any noise, but don't hurt her. We shouldn't damage the ladies. We're merely showing our disapproval, not creating an uproar… yet.'

'Why me?' Sasuke growled. 'How will I know who she is, anyway?'

'Just take the most beautiful girl in the room,' Neji snapped. 'She should be the bride.'

Sasuke muttered. 'It's stupid.'

'Whatever.' Neji rolled his eyes. 'And you others, just wreck some havoc. That'll do.'

'How troublesome,' a man with spiky black hair in a ponytail muttered.

'Dearest Messieurs, Mesdames and Mesdemoiselles, we're gathered here today to –'

Suddenly, shouts could be heard, and the doors to the room where the wedding was held was flung open. A group of boys, led by four ones that were, amazingly enough despite their filthiness, incredibly handsome, marched into the room and began throwing around chairs, glasses and things. Soon, the tumult had begun.

Sakura looked around, but as she approached the exit, she suddenly felt someone grab her arm. Screaming, she kicked him in the shins without any effect. He expressed a grunt of dislike, and began dragging her towards a closed door.

'Leave me alone! Leave me alone!' she screamed. 'Let me go, you bastard! Leave me –'

A hand covered her mouth, and she felt nauseous as she felt the taste of mud on her tongue. As she was thrown into the room, a boy – or was it a man? – with black hair in a weird "chicken"-ish hairstyle and obsidian eyes locked the door.

'What the hell are you doing, idiot?' she yelled at him loudly. 'Look, you made my dress dirty!' She did a gesture at her expensive, wine-red evening gown.

'Just shut up,' he snarled. 'Don't make any noise, if you don't want to risk your life.'

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "What the hell are you doing, anyway?" she repeated her question with irritation.

"Shut up, I'm holding you hostage," he snarled in a low voice back. "That way they won't hurt us."

"Why are you taking ME hostage? I'm not even the bride!" she snapped.

He blinked. "You aren't?"

"That Sasuke-teme!" Naruto groaned to Neji over the noise. "He took the wrong person hostage!"

Neji cursed their unluckiness under his breath as he threw some glasses at the wall. "Damn. It's too late anyway, unless…" He paused for a while and dodged a lousy punch from a duke, rewarding him with a mighty kick in the stomach. "… Naruto, you go take the bride. Just for a while, we need to distract people. A lot of people have already fled the battlefield, so I guess it won't be such a big problem. I need to tell Sasuke that we have to go. If we don't hurry, we'll get caught."

Naruto nodded. "How do I know who she is?"

Neji made a grimace. "She looks like me. Same eyes. She's my cousin."

"What?" Naruto looked at him in astonishment. "Your cousin is a noble?"

"No time for that now," Neji snapped. "Go!"

Shrugging, Naruto ran off in the tumult, looking for the new target.

"Argh! Get your hands off me, you pauper!" Ino screamed as she bluntly swung about with her high-heeled shoe at the black-haired man.

"Whoa! Take it easy, woman!" he burst out.

"You've ruined my dress!" Ino went on. "You've ruined my hair, my shoes, my makeup, my perfume… argh! I HATE YOU!" she bellowed, trying to hit him with the shoe again.

The black-haired man sighed. "How troublesome." He grasped the shoe in one of her violent swings, which made Ino glare at him murderously.

"Just you try anything," she snarled. "I've heard about your kind!"

"Troublesome woman," the man, whose name was Shikamaru, muttered. "... Just shut up."

"What? How dare you talk that way to me, eh?!"

Heaving a sigh again, he said sharply: "Listen, we're not here to kill you or anything. We're here to show our disapproval. So just shut up, okay?"

"Disapproval? For what?" Her glare intensified. "Aren't you happy enough, huh? You've food, you've a home, what more do you need?"

"How about you?" he retorted. "You're complaining about your dress and hair. What more do you need? While we're starving at home, dying out of exhaustion, what're you doing? Eating luxurious food and doing your hair? We're not animals, woman. We're humans, like you. We weren't born to be slaves. We deserve liberty.'

For a moment, Ino was silent. That was enough for Shikamaru to snort, "How troublesome", and turn his back to walk off, but before doing so, throwing the shoe to her. Catching the easy throw, Ino could only stare as he went out of sight.

Meanwhile, Sakura expressed a moan and slapped her forehead. "How stupid can you be? First, you kidnap the wrong person. Then, you ruin her dress. What's wrong with you, anyway?"

"Hn." Sasuke glared at her. "Don't talk with me about who's wrong here. What about you, mademoiselle? Don't you have your faults? Aren't you one of those nobles who look at us peasants with scorn? Who think that all poor people are scum?"

Sakura silenced. Then she continued quietly, "… I once did. I've been taught so my entire life. I was taught poor people were supposed to be my servants, that they were not like us. But then I met somebody that taught me I was wrong. I only knew him for one day, but that was enough for me to realize how wrong I was."

Sasuke looked at her in disbelief. "Who did you meet?"

"His name was –"

Just then, the door flung open abruptly. Neji came in, shouting: "Oi! It's time to leave. We've been here long enough."

"M-Monsieur! What're you doing?" Hinata stuttered, terrified, as she was gently dragged out of the hectic battlefield, where more peasants had joined the four boys/men.

"Shh, be quiet. I'm not going to do anything," he said gently as he dragged her into the shadows of the woods nearby. "It's okay."

She looked at him thoughtfully, before saying: "… I can trust you?"

"Yeah." He grinned. "Hey, you've a cousin named… Neji, right?"

"Neji-onii-san?" Hinata's eyes widened. "Why, I haven't seen him for years. Not since his father's funeral… then my parents never spoke of him again. Do you know him? How's he doing?"

"Well, he's doing fine. Or as fine as somebody's who's not rich can do, anyway," Naruto muttered. Then he grinned at her again. "And yeah, I know him! He's a bit cranky, but otherwise he's a great friend."

Hinata giggled. "Yes, but he's not always been like that. Back when we were children, we had a lot of fun playing together. But then…" A sad face expression replaced her smiling one. "… his father died. It was very tragic – I don't know how it happened – and then my parents wouldn't let me visit him anymore. Whenever I asked for him, they'd change the topic."

"Really." Naruto paused. Then he smiled cheerfully at her. "You two look like each other a lot! Except that, well, you're cute and he's not."

A faint tint of pink colored Hinata's pale cheeks. "Merci…"

Naruto just grinned. Until Neji, Shikamaru and Sasuke were dashing out of the mansion, and Sasuke shouted: "Oi! Dobe! Hurry up, we've gotta leave!"

Naruto turned to her hurriedly. "Gotta go. Um… see you… someday!" And he ran off, waving before joining his friends. Hinata looked after him for a long time, before Tenten appeared by her side.

"What're you doing, Hinata? You're… blushing."

"Oh. Am I?" Hinata laughed nervously. "How're the guests?"

"They're a bit wounded, but everything else is fine." Tenten paused. "By the way… was it just me, or was one of those guys… Neji…?" She looked hesitant, and a somewhat painful look appeared in her eyes.

"Tenten-chan…," Hinata sighed. "I don't know. I'm sorry…"

"Oh." Tenten smiled a bit sadly. "Well, I guess it was just my imagination then. Should we go look for the others?"

"Yes… I think we should."

Sakura sat in the room for a long while, thinking of the boy who had kidnapped her. "Sasuke… kun…?" she whispered doubtfully for herself, then shook her head with a little laugh. "Impossible…"
Author's Note!
Okay, so I really should keep working on that 27th chapter of This Is Not My First Time... -.-; But I've such a huge Writer's Block! By the way, my test about the French revolution is already over, and I get the max points! Heh, I can't say SasuSaku didn't help me, I did think about it a lot when I studied...

Sorry for the slow update, by the way! I hope this chapter didn't suck. I seriously need another cup of cappucino, even though I had one already. x.x; Yes, I know I'm thirteen and I aren't supposed to drink too much coffee, but I've a headache..

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Thank you...

annoyed child

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Fading Nightmares (Lawl... xD I don't know. Paris is the city of romance? Besides, I was hugely inspired by my trip there last summer. :3 Also, I'm fascinated by everything that's French, especially the language. X3)

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Sneak Preview of Next Chapter: Secrets

"You're the girl from the wedding!" he burst out, mostly surprised, but somewhat suspiciously. "What're you doing here?"

"I..." Sakura took a deep breath. "I've come to join you for the fight for liberty and justice. And for peace."

"Oh." He still looked suspicious. "And your name was...?"

"My name is Sayuri. That's all you need to know."

(A/N: Yes, I know that's the same name as in Forbidden Memories, but I like to use that name. XD)