Title: Dancing Diplomats
Author: LightMyWay
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto because if I did episode 200 would already be out.
AN: I posted a little later than I hoped too...due to vacationing in Puerto Rico where you have to pay for the computers! -growls- But I didn't forget about you guys in fact I missed you all! -gives everyone a hug- So I'm gonna let you read and I'm gonna go work on chapter 7 And thanks to the reviewers:
Sweet and Sour –shikaino-
Tiffanylicis
Ilikecookies.
(Thanks for the self-esteem boost! I'm dedicating this chapter to you guys!)
Chapter 6: Two Proposals In One Day? Nah!
A great marriage is not when the 'perfect couple' comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.- Dave Meurer
He was tired, sleepy, out of it, weary, exhausted, drained, drowsy, fatigued, and did he mention tired? And everything, absolutely everything was troublesome at the moment. Even her. All he wanted to do right now was plop down on a bed and go to sleep. But that wasn't an option. After running through the night, fighting, and then running the entire next day, he still had to keep going. The only person who got to sleep was Suzuki and she was the center of all envy (due to the fact that she was sleeping in Gaara's arms)...Gaara was too due to the fact that he didn't really sleep. Hinata kept saying that their destination was only a little while away. Shikamaru was at the point where he was ready to yell that they weren't close in anyway, shape, or form.
"We're here!" Hinata's quiet voice rung out in the silent forest. The kunoichi and shinobi around her sighed in relief.
"BED!" Shikamaru cried flat out sprinting up to the doors leading to the city. Everyone blinked. No one, absolutely no one, had ever seen Shika ran that fast. They blinked again.
"It's a fricken miracle!" Ino said running after him whipping out a video camera seemingly from no where. She chased after Shikamaru taping him running up to the walls and kissing them with relief. Everyone simply stared for a minute before coming back from the, oh exciting place of la-la land.
"We're never mentioning this again, agreed?" Sakura asked and the rest nodded their heads in agreement. They followed Ino and Shikamaru up to the gates, stopping to watch as Ino continued to film Shikamaru who was yelling something along the lines of, 'Sweet sweet walls!' Silently around him the other citizens from the Leaf and the Sand made a pact never to talk about that either. Although they were all grateful that there would be a bed for them to sleep on.
The gates slowly opened up to reveal a city much like Kohona and Suna. People were hustling and bustling about. Some people looked at them strangely, wondering what they were doing in their city. Most people passed them by without a glance obviously hurrying to get things ready for something. The formation of shinobi's could see lanterns and streamers and booths being set up, for some type of festival. Then it dawned on them what exactly was going on...the people were preparing for that ball thing Suzuki had been talking about. Now, the only question they had was why it was outside instead of inside?
"Why are you here?" a guard inquired staring at the ragged ninja and Shikamaru who was hugging the wall.
"We've come to make peace," said a small voice from someone else's arms, "I'm Tsukino Suzuki." The purple haired diplomat allowed Gaara to gently place her on the ground. The guard grew wide eyed and bowed.
"Tsukino-sama! I'm sorry! I didn't see you!" he said still bowing to Suzuki. Suzuki rolled her eyes before putting on a smile.
"Stop bowing and lead the way to the castle please," she said, "It's been a while since I've been here." The guard bowed again, but quickly corrected himself before leading the way to the castle. It took about twenty five minutes to reach due to the amount of traffic throughout the city. It also would've gone faster if Sakura hadn't gotten in a fight with another lady for pushing her out of the way (AN: --'). Upon reaching the gates to the castle they were interrogated, however five minutes into the interrogation Suzuki got terribly annoyed and threatened to hurt the men guarding the door unless they let her in (AN: O.O). The men obviously remembered hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and they stepped aside letting the party enter into the palace grounds.
The gardens that they entered were unlike anything the ninja has seen, Suzuki told them to stop acting like fish and keep walking. Sakura stopped to stare at the waterfall that lead to a rushing stream that ran under a bridge that ran all the way out of the castle grounds. The other ninja all stopped to look at things too. Tenten stopped to stare at a swing and Neji stopped to watch Tenten stare at the swing. Hinata watched a couple of birds, while Naruto tried to scare a squirrel (AN: Imagine if Lee was there.lmao.), until Hinata told him to stop. Sasuke snickered at Naruto listening to Hinata, until he got hit on the head of Sakura, who thought it was sweet. Shikamaru wanted to sit and look at the clouds and actually get some shut eye, however Ino had other ideas and she dragged him along the path up to the castle. The rest continued to walk around while staring at everything. Kiba had to pull Temari away from a tree she was about to run into.
After the 15 minute trek across the gardens they came to another set of gates that were opened again. When they entered another woman bowed to Suzuki, who looked annoyed, and directed some other women to take the packs and any other tools from the ninja. Once that was done they were all taken to the rooms they would (AN: -drum roll-) share with other people.
"We're sharing!" Tenten yelled scandalized, "Who's bright idea was that!" The other girls said something in agreement to the statement. Being the smart person Suzuki slipped out of the group and sprinted to a room.
"I CALL THIS ONE!" she screamed slamming the door closed and locking it, so no one else could get it. The others looked at each other. Gaara backed slowly out of the group watched by everyone else. It took a few seconds of staring before anyone reacted and they all scrambled towards him, but he was faster. He threw open the door and slammed it shut before anyone could do anything.
"Mine!" he said through the door. The rest looked at each other for a few seconds before screaming and running towards rooms.
"Hinata over here!" Sakura yelled grabbing a room. Sakura and Hinata hurled themselves into the room.
"OURS!" they yelled before slamming the door closed. Sasuke and Naruto grabbed a room together through an unspoken agreement.
"Ino!" Tenten yelled after grabbing a room. They both turned around smirked at all the people still running around still trying to figure out who they were going to room with. They snickered and high fived.
"We rule," they said to each other closing the door behind themselves to inspect their room. Neji opened the door to a room and looked a Shikamaru, who ran into the room and collapsed on a bed and went to sleep.
"Damn," Neji said going through the door and closing it. That left Kiba and Temari who had stood in the middle of the whole fiasco and watched it unfold. They looked at each other and shrugged. Kiba took Temari's hand and led her to the only unoccupied room. They opened the door to reveal a spacious room. There was a balcony that lead off from the living room. They had their own kitchen, which was good for all those romantic evenings Kiba had planned (AN: Kiba -laughs- has -laughs- plans -laughs- Where did I get that from?-laughs-). They found the huge bathroom complete with a marble tub and shower. There were two closets lining the hallway that lead to a door. Upon opening the door the two found their bedroom...with only one bed.
"This count as living together?" Kiba asked staring at the bed they'd have to share unless he slept on the couch, which he wasn't to keen on doing.
"I think it does," Temari said with a playful smile as she pulled Kiba into the room, "Let's see if we both fit on the bed." Kiba gave her a half smile and shut the door behind them.
The Poor Having To Get Dressed Up Suzuki
They pulled the silver obi even tighter than it had been. She gasped and tried to breath and found that she could just barely. The kimono was a beautiful dark blue with a moonlight lake depicted on the bottom up to the obi. Her purple hair was done up with a bunch of combs and ornaments, but she didn't let them put makeup on her. She might have to get dressed up, but she wasn't gonna let anyone touch her face. She took a deep breath to calm herself physically and mentally. She slowly walked out the door to find the hallway in chaos. Naruto was chasing Sasuke, who was calling him names. Sakura was threatening them both with death, while Hinata and Tenten watched everyone with wide eyes. Shikamaru and Ino were fighting over something or other. Neji was actually yelling for people to shut up, so that he could sleep. Kiba and Temari were missing. Gaara was leaning against a wall and Suzuki joined him.
"What the hell-?" Gaara was interrupted her question.
"Sasuke and Naruto got into a fight in their room. Neji knocked on the door and both answered. He told them to shut up. They told him no. Sasuke said something to Neji and then Naruto insulted Sasuke. Then Sasuke insulted Naruto rather badly and Naruto chased him. Sakura was brought out of her room by the yelling, "he took a deep breath, "and started yelling at both of them. Tenten and Hinata came out and watched the fighting. Shikamaru came out a started yelling and he said something about troublesome, which Ino heard, so then she came out of her room. She hit Shikamaru, who due to lack of sleep, is cranky and started fighting back," he paused for another breath, "I came out and started watching everything and now you're out listening to me explain everything." By the time he was done the entire hallway was quiet and they were listening to him talk. If anyone walked by right then they would have though someone had died.
"You...spoke," Sakura said pushing on Sasuke's head with one hand and holding Naruto's neck with the other. Gaara gave her a small glare.
"I've talked before," he muttered still glaring at her.
"But never that much," Ino said with wide eyes with her hand poised to slap Shikamaru's face, who was silently thanking Gaara.
"Right! Well...," Suzuki tugged on Gaara'a sleeve to get his attention away from glaring at everyone in the hall, "Are you coming with me Gar-kun?" Gaara nodded and shot everyone a warning glare. Once they'd walked out of the hall, well more like Suzuki dragging Gaara out of the hall because he kept giving everyone death glares, everyone raised an eyebrow.
"Gar-kun? She did call him Gar-kun right? I wasn't hearing things?" Naruto asked looking terribly confused. Ino and Sakura looked at each other and slowly an evil smile started to spread across their faces.
"I know that smile! It's bad! Bad I tell you! Don't do it Sakura!" Naruto yelled running in a circle only to get smacked in the head by Sasuke.
"Want to go spy on them?" Tenten asked Hinata who nodded and the two walked off. Followed by Shikamaru who couldn't stand the arguing anymore...and he didn't want to get hit by Ino. Sasuke trailed behind them hiding from a pissed off Naruto who'd yet to notice that he'd slipped away. Naruto finally figured it out and went after Sasuke. Sakura followed ready to kill both Naruto and Sasuke, for annoying her to death. Ino ran to catch up with everyone after realizing that'd all walked away.
The group quietly walked behind Gaara and Suzuki being careful to hide their chakra, so as not to be discovered. They hid behind anything that they could find in the hallway. Suzuki talked to Gaara, while Gaara just nodded and listened...or at least pretended too. Once or twice he had to pull Suzuki out of the way of a statue she was about to walk into, but didn't notice because she was talking. The two halted when a young boy stumbled up to Suzuki. He looked scared and bowed.
"Your Highness," he said shaking a little bit as if scared she'd hit him. Suzuki only sighed and bent down to the boy's level and looked him in the eye.
"Why did you call me that?" she asked her eyebrows knitted together. The little boy looked scared. He stared from side to side as if to find a way out.
"I can't tell you!" he yelled lunging for Suzuki's left side, but she only stuck out her arm and stopped the boy, "I'm not supposed to tell you that the only way for you to make peace is by marrying the Feudal Lord's son! I'm not allowed to tell you!" The little boy yelled climbing over her arm. He raced down the hallway looking like he was going to cry.
"Married?" Suzuki whispered looking stunned, but it only lasted for a few seconds before it turned to rage, "MARRIED! SATO DAICHI!" She stomped down the hallway quite obviously pissed off.
In A Room Down The Hall
"Aw crap. She's heard," a certain feudal lord named Sato Daichi said to anyone who was in the room. The doors to said room burst opened to reveal a highly pissed off girl. She walked right up to the feudal lord not even bothering with the normal formalities. She showed no emotion as she circled the chair Daichi was currently sitting in. She stopped circling him and stood in front of him. She cocked her head to one side still studying him.
"ARE YOU CRAZY!" she screamed forgetting the calm demeanor in which she decided she'd act in, "Married? Do you even know how old I am? I'm 15 if you must know and I don't plan on getting married! What if I have a boyfriend? Who's going to tell him that I'm getting married to your son? It wouldn't be me! And your son has about the whole female population ready to marry him if I remember correctly! So why in the world DO I HAVE TO MARRY HIM!" She stared the feudal lord down obviously scaring him.
"She's not getting married to your son," a calm voice from the back of the room said. Gaara decided that with her ranting down that it was safe for him to come out.
"Why not?" Daichi said forgetting Suzuki for a moment, which was a bad idea because she became even more angry.
"Because she's getting married to me," Gaara said, while Suzuki stooped fuming for a moment to stare at him with her mouth hanging open, "And I'd like to keep my future wife thank you. And if you wish to have peace with Sand Country than it would be wise not to upset their Kazekage." Gaara gave the man a quick glare before becoming unemotional again. Suzuki's mouth open and closed like a fish for a few seconds before she closed her mouth and stood tall.
"Since I can't marry your son," she shot the feudal lord a glare, "I'll help him find a suitable wife. Would that make you happy?" The feudal lord thought about it for a few seconds.
"Fine. If you can find a suitable person for my son by the ball then we shall have peace," Daichi said. Suzuki mentally breathed out a sigh of relief. She started to walk away when she noticed that Gaara wasn't following her. She turned around and grabbed his wrist to drag him outside, but he looked at her and without saying anything she let go and left Gaara to talk to the feudal lord.
"Is it true!" some excited voices came from all different directions. Sakura was standing to her left. Ino was in front. Hinata on her right and Tenten behind her. They'd boxed her in. The guys watched slightly amused.
"Are you really?"
"When?"
"Details please!"
"What did he say?"
"How did he do it?" And other questions were thrown at her one right after another.
"Don't bother her," Temari said from in front of them all. Kiba went to talk to the guys. While Temari went to figure out what was up with all the surrounding Suzuki and interrogating her nonsense.
"Did you know?" Ino asked looking a little angry, "And what have you been doing this whole time?" Temari blushed and mumbled a nothing.
"Oh, it ain't nothing!" Sakura yelled, "Tell please!" Temari just blushed some more and told them to shut up.
"Now, what's this information I'm supposed to know?" Temari asked getting the subject off of her and her blushing cheeks.
"Suzuki's marrying Gaara," Tenten answered looking at Temari whose face slowly changed from confusion to shock to happiness.
"Really! Oh my god! When? How?" Temari said just as excited as the other girls. Suzuki grimaced realizing her saving grace wasn't going to help at all.
"Technically what he said in there was his proposal," Suzuki mumbled, "And I don't think we're really getting married-"
"Who said that?" Gaara said eyeing her from his position on the wall, "I don't say things I don't mean." Everyone stared at him, while he stared at Suzuki. Suzuki remained speechless for a while before finally letting a smile spread across her face. She walked up to Gaara and gave him a kiss on the cheek before walking away with the other girls in tow. The squealing of delight were heard and the wedding planning was heard too. The guys all looked at Gaara.
"Good luck," Naruto said.
"Congratulations," Kiba said.
"Have fun," Shikamaru muttered.
"You just made this mission interesting," Neji said a slight smirk on his face. They all walked away leaving Sasuke and Gaara.
"Got some advice for you," the Uchiha said, "Don't break her heart." Gaara raised his eyebrows.
"That's some advice coming from you," Gaara muttered.
"I speak from experience," Sasuke said, "It was the worst thing I ever did." Sasuke gave him a sad smile before he walked away.
AN:
I must say that this is a random chapter. And everything went kinda quickly between Gaara and Suzuki, but aw well. And no one can guess what Sasuke was talking about at the end -rolls eyes- And I don't even know where I got half the ideas for this chapter. But I liked it. What about you guys?
Next time: We get to meet the errr...lovely, yeah let's go with that! So we get to meet the lovely feudal lord's son!
"Hey babe!" Sato Akio (aka feudal lord's son) said while putting his arm around Ino's shoulders. Almost immediately Ino's eye started to twitch a crystal clear danger sign. Shikamaru glared at the man with more anger than Ino did.
"Get off," Ino hissed, but the man only tightened his grip on her and slid his arm down to her waist. Out of nowhere Shikamaru slammed his fist into Akio's face.
"She said get off," Shikamaru hissed looking completely pissed off.
Shikamaru's jealous! -gasp- Such interesting things will happen to our ninja over the next couple of days. -evil smile- And there are some more people that show up. Who could they be? I gots cookies for the people who guess right -holds up cookie jar-
But it'll all be helped along with the reviews I get. So to all those people who read the story and don't review it'd be nice if I had your opinion on the story. Please and Thank You. And one last thing school has started for me and I have a lot of high classes, so excuse the random updates. I will not however put the story on hold or drop it or anything because I like you guys too much and since I like you all I won't do that! But reviews will make me more inclined to skipping my hw and writing chapters -hint hint-