Wohoo, I got my first review after my last chapter, and it was a good one as well :D
And now I am back and would first like to talk about the last chapter, when I first sat down to write it, the story I had in my mind was completely different, it was going to be many scenarios of Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Hinata confessing and the comical reactions of various characters but then the current story came into my mind and I went with it. Hope you liked it.
This time i am going to try and write a traditional Japanese Shinto weeding between Naruto and Hinata, I did a little research about Shinto wedding but might still make a few mistakes in the custom so do not be afraid to correct me if I make any mistakes(I will be adding a few extra details that may not actually take place to make the story better).
And now onto the story and don't forget to R&R.
Btw I still want someone to tell me how to make lines between paragrpahs-.-.
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Naruto waited with bated breath as the remaining members of the former rookie 12, except Team-8,Neji Hyuuga and Tenten, made their way to the Hokage residence from where they would begin the long march, filled with dancing and singing, to the Shinto Shrine present in the Hyuuga Clan compound.
The Hokage residence was chosen as the starting point as Tsunade had been playing the role Naruto's mother and as such her place of residence was decided as the Bridegroom's residence.
Hiashi Hyuuga had wanted a strict traditional Shinto weeding as such Naruto's entourage consisted of close friends, which included his team and sensei, Team-10, Iruka Umino, the Kazekage and his siblings and the Ichirakus among a few others, and Tsunade Senju who was gonna take the role that Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki would have normally taken place.
Naruto was wearing a the traditional Montsuki (black formal kimono, with an orange strip going across the collar), Haori (kimono jacket)and Hakama(Kimono Pants). The Hakama had an orange strip across its belt such that the orange collar, from the Montsuki, and the orange belt from the Hakama seemed to merge together and make him stand out in a good way. The orange while not part of a traditional garment was something that Naruto had demanded be put as he didn't feel right not having any orance in the dress in which he would be married to his soon-to-be wife.
The procession soon started moving from the Hokage residence as soon as everyone was there, with all the people dancing and singing few musicians played melodious tunes on their instruments. The streets were filled with people on either side trying to get a look at the hero of the village in his wedding dress. People started to throw flower petals from windows and rooftops as the procession sang and danced its way slowly to the Hyuuga Clan Compound. While the procession tried its best to move as quickly as they could the people crowding the streets made that difficult.
"Ahhhh!Why is it taking so long to get there, my feet are starting to hurt" Naruto pouted as their slow speed finally got the best of him.
"Shut up brat, we are going as fast as we can. These people are just here to cheer and congratulate their Hokage. You should be happy that so many people care for you." Replied Tsunade.
"I am happy that they care so much for me Baa-chan, and I care about them deeply as well, but Hinata-chan will get bored waiting for us."
"I try and see what I can do Naruto, just stay here and don't do anything stupid." Said Tsunade as she forced her way to the front to see if she could make them move faster.
Whatever Tsunade did worked as after a few minutes their speed increased and in another 15 minutes they were at the Hyuuga Compound.
As the gates of the compound came into the view Naruto saw that Hiashi Hyuuga waiting at the door along with Neji and Tenten.
Once they reached the gates Naruto and Tsunade went to the front of the procession and stood infront of Hiashi Hyuuga.
"Welcome to our humble abode Naruto-san." Said Hiashi Hyuuga as he, Neji and Tenten bowed down, "Tsunade-sama." They turned to Tsunade and did the same.
Tsunade and Naruto in turn did the same and bowed down to Hiashi Hyuuga to show equal respect.
"Let us be on our way, Hinata is waiting for you in the main hall. From there we shall journey to the Shinto shrine situated at the middle of the compound." Said Hiashi.
"I see you couldn't stop yourself from adding a little of yourself to the traditional wear naruto-san." He said as he looked at the orange and on his Montsuki and Hakama with disapproval.
"That's not all I changed." Naruto said with a smile as he turned around to show the spiral on his back to Hiashi and while Hiashi did not like such changes in the traditional clothing, he let it slide for two reasons, one being the spiral was the symbol of the Uzumaki Clan and second he was sure Naruto wouldn't change it not matter how much they asked as such he just turned around and and made his way to the main hall where his daughter was waiting for them.
The journey to the main hall was really short, less than 200 meters, and when they reached it Hiashi opened the doors so that the groom's side could enter the Main Hall and have a look at the bride.
Naruto's heart skipped a beat as soon as he saw his bride Hinata Hyuuga. In his eyes she looked like a goddess that had descended from heaven itself.
Hinata Hyuuga was wearing a completely white kimono which covered every part of her body, the hands had long flowing strips of cloth that reached her knees and had an opening to put her hands through. the dress was long at the back and Tenten went to keep it above ground to make sure it didn't become dirty. On her feet she wore white socks with geta, her make-up was kept at a minimum as her complexion was inherently whiter than most people, and that just added even more beauty to her when seen together with the kimono. On her head she wore a white headgear which almost conical with smooth edges called a watabōshi, her hair was styled and kept inside the watabōshi. Her whiteness symbolized her maiden status to the gods.
Hinata Hyuuga looked at Naruto and instantly her hear-beat increased and she sported light blush on her face, which only made her more beautiful in Naruto's eyes, and immediately started playing with her fingers inside the sleeves of her kimono. She turned around as Naruto finally reached her side so that they were facing the other exit of the Main Hall.
"You look beautiful Hinata-chan."
"Thank you, You look wonderful as well Naruto-kun." Replied Hinata with a bigger blush on her face.
The Bride and groom headed towards the exit followed by the Hiashi Hyuuga, then Tsunade and then the rest of the bride and groom's family alternatively.
As they exited the main hall, they were greeted by the Daimyo for the land of Fire.
"Greeting Naurto-kun and Hinata-kun and congratulations on you wedding, I hope I am not disturbing you by coming unannounced." Said the Daimyo.
"Ofcouse not Fire-Daimyo, we are honoured that you could take your time to attend our wedding." Naruto said with a big-smile.
After walking a few more meters they were greeted by Chiriku, the monk who would preside over their wedding, and Hanabi Hyuuga and Shion, who were the miko for their wedding. Hanabi and Shion wore white kimonos with pink petals drawn on them while Chiriku wore the normal Priest clothes that were needed for the wedding.
Chiriku started walking towards the Shinto Shrine followed by the two miko who waved their shide. Paper cut in a zig-zag pattern, attached to a stick to ward of any evil spirits that might try to harm the bride and groom. They were followed by Naruto and Hinata, the Fire-daimyo, the bride and grooms family and then the rest of the entourage.
When they reached the gates of the Shinto shrine, Chiriku stopped near a wooden bucket and asked Naruto and Hinata to come near him. He then took out the water from the bucket using a wooden spoon and asked the bride and groom to wash their hands so as to cleanse them.
Once this was done they entered the Shinto shrine and took a round trip of the entire shrine before entering the wedding room.
The wedding room was a small enclosed area with two small stools in the arranged at the front for the bride and groom and various stools arranged on both sides, one side for the Bride's family and one for the groom.
Chiriku, Hanabi and Shion crossed the stools at the front and stood infront of it. Naruto and Hinata slowly walked upto the stools and then sat down in a seiza while their respective family and lose friends sat in their respective side, with the Daimyo sitting on Naruto's side.
Once everyone had sat down in their respective places, the two miko began waving the shide from left to right in order to purify any bad-luck or misfortune that any person in the room may have and also to remove any misfortune anyone would have wished upon the to-be-wed couple.
Once that was done, Chiriku to read the rites from the scriptures in order to wed Naruto Uzumaki to Hinata Hyuuga, once he had finished reading from the scriptures he asked the miko to bring the sake and 3 sakazuki of varying sizes, from a small one to a big one.
"And now we begin the San-San-Kudo." Chiriku said as he handed the smaller sakazuki to Naruto.
Naruto held the cup in his hands as Shion came forward and poured sake in his cup. Naruto slightly tipped the cup towards his mouth and drank the entire sake in three short sips. He then handed the cup to Hinata and she followed the same ritual after her cup was filled with sake as well. This was followed two more time with cups of slightly larger size for a total of nine sips from the three sakazuki. The saszuki was then given to Hiashi Hyuuga and Tsunade Senju and they followed the same procedure.
The San-San-Kudo was a ritual with a lot of meaning behind it, it meant three-three- nine times, Ku meaning 9 and do meaning deliverance from the three flaws. The first three sips that were taken by the party were meant for the three couples that were an integral part of the marriage, namely the bride and groom and their parents, though in this case it was just 2 couples and 2 single parents.
The second three represented the three human flaws: hatred, passion, and ignorance, three flaws that the two people being joined in union had very little of, if any. The last three sips taken by the couple finally sealed the union of the bride and the groom and also signified the union of the two families.
There was another significance of the San-San-kudo, the sake, which was not always the best drink there was signified that while their life together might not always be as sweet as they would wish it to be but they would have to persevere through it none the less.
Once the San-San-Kudo was over, the bride and groom got up bowed once and then clapped their hands twice. Naruto then got up and opened a scroll in which he had written his commitments to Hinata and to her family.
"My beloved Hinata-hime," he began, "ever since you first told me that you have left me I have always wondered if this is my reward for all the good that I have ever done in this life. Every deed that I have ever done has been done without any thought for rewards or self-gain and have never asked for anything in return, but I would have to do much more than what I have till now in order to be worthy of the love, affection and kindness that you have bestowed upon my beautiful hime."
Hinata tried to hold back small drops of tears that were starting to pool around her eyes as Naruto kept on reading his commitment.
" I promise you, my hime, that for haven chosen me to be yours till eternity I shall do everything in my power to make sure that you will never regret this decision in your life, for if I fail you then everything I have done till now would have been of no use."
He then turned to Hiashi Hyuuga and continued his speech.
" Hiashi-sama, I know that when I first came to your house for Hinata's hand in marriage you were not sure if I would be able to take care of your precious daughter and give her a life of comfort that she deserved. I vow to you now in front of all the people present in this room that your daughter and my hime will never face any difficulties as long as I am with her and I shall always look out for her health, both physical as well as mental. I shall also make sure to be there for Hyuuga family whenever they are in dire straits as Hinata's family is my family and I shall look after for the well-being of her family as I would have of my own."
"As long as it doesn't interfere with the well-being of the village, that is." Naruto finished sheepishly as he closed the scroll and sat down again. This cause small laughters to echo around the room and even Hiashi smiled.
Soon after the laughters died down the two miko took another instrument that was a stick with metal balls attached at the ends and waved it from left to right once in front of the couple and then once more while moving all around the roomto once again purify the room.
After this sake was given to all the members present in the room along with the bride and groom and the cups were raised in the air and everyone gave their best wishes to the lovely couple on their life together.
Once everyone had finished their sake the bride and groom got up and went to offer small twigs called Sakaki to kamisama in order to gain favor of the Kamisama for the life together ahead.
After the symbolic offering of Sakaki the couple went another round of the Shrine temple and then left it in order to go to the reception which would take place in the Hyuuga clan Banquet Hall. While Naruto went straight to the banquet hall, Hinata was taken away by Tenten, Sakura and Ino in order to change her clothes.
The Hyuuga clan banquet hall was really big, big enough to fit over five hundered people in it, and while traditionally dances were viewed in an open ground, the Hyuuga clan had decided long ago to hold and dances and reception together and as such while three sides of the banquet hall had walls with doors on each side, the fought side, the one that opened up to a big ground, was devoid of any walls so that all the people could see the dancers and performers without problem.
The reception was an occasion for the other members of the society that were not allowed the attend the marriage ceremony to see and wish the newly wed as such the room was starting to fill up quickly with the Daimyos and other important figures of the ninja world that had come to wish Naruto and Hinata Uzumaki on their wedding.
A few minutes after everyone started trickling into the reception hall after giving their gifts of money, as was tradition, to the receptionist at the entrance Naruto talked to the guests that were already there as he waited for Hinata to join him at the banquet Hall. Soon the doors to the Banquet Hall opened and Sakura, Ino and Tenten came in followed by Hinata who was wearing a dark blue Kimono with floral designs on it and a white sash. As last time, Naruto was left speechless as he looked at her wife.
"Dobe close your mouth, you are drooling, You can drool all you want tonight for now go and bring her to the table."
"You are one lucky bastard Naruto that our Hinata chose you." Kiba said.
"I know." Naruto said as he went up to the door and held his palm out for her, Hinata shyly gave Naruto her hands and he led her to the table that was at the front of the banquet hall. Hinata sat down on their respective seats with Hiashi seating beside Hinata and the Fire-Daimyo beside Naurto, while Tsunade sat beside the fire Damiyo.
Once everyone had sat down in at the front, the performances began at the grounds outside. The people who were just beginning to come in started rushing to find suitable to seats to watch the performance from.
The first to perform was team-9. Neji and Rock Lee played the drums while Tenten threw weapons at different targets spread throughout the grounds in accordance with the beats being given by her two team-mates.
Soon as the team-9 left the grounds team-8 entered a kind of animal show, Kiba doing tricks with Akamaru while Shino made obstacles for them with his bugs, thought by the end of the show Akamaru and Kiba were constantly scratching themself.
The next to perform was Sasuke Uchiha and Sai, they used the respective techniques, fire techniques and fighting skills that he had learnt from Uchiha clan and the skill to bring paintings to life, in order to give the audience a spectacle as Sai brought beautiful beasts and life and Sasuke used his ninja abilities as if he was dancing in order to beat them. Naruto was surprised as he expected Sasuke to give a performance with Sakura and wondered why Sakura hadn't joined Sasuke in his performance.
His answer was given next as Sakura and Ino came to the grounds in Kimono and started dancing as Shikamaru and Chouji played the Koto and the kane to produce beautiful music. You could see from the way Sakura and Ino moved their bodies in beautiful ways that they had practiced really hard on this. And it had paid off as no-one was able to take their eyes off the two beautiful woman dancing before them, no one except Naruto.
As Naruto turned towards Hinata and smiled he agreed with Kiba, he really was a lucky to bastard that Hinata Hyuu- no- Uzumaki chose him out of all the people and he would make sure she never forgot why.
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And finally I am done, this is my biggest chapter yet. I was a damn headache. How to hell do people write 10k+ words of chapter, it boggles my mind. I think I could have made this a bit bigger but my patience was really running out, I wanted to finish this today and not leave for tomorrow. Who knows? It could have gone to may 5k+ words if I had the patience. ^^
Well I am sure I made loads and loads of mistake, and I am just going to post this without double checking as with all other chapters. :D
Review if you want me to write another wedding chapter, might write another couples wedding, not a Shinto wedding next time though, will try something else.
Anyways don't forget to RE&R.
Hasta La Vista Amigos.