Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This is fanfiction, after all.

Konoha General Assembly Hall, Konoha – March 15, AK 22

Contrary to what people thought, Hiashi Hyuuga was not a greedy man. He was stoic and strict, perhaps, but not evil. Hiashi merely looked out for the best interests of his family and clan. He never once took action for personal gain. However, even the most unselfish person could not ignore the opportunity that the Hokage offered the previous night.

Hiashi looked around the room and tuned out the debate between the Kurama and the Kohaku clan heads over water regulations. Normally, he would have been paying full attention to what was being said, but today Hiashi was only concerned with the final proposal for the day.

His eyes swept the room and landed on one blond boy at the other side of the room. Hiashi allowed himself a tiny smile as he reflected upon his time with the Fourth. The years had gone by all too quickly. Instead of looking forward to the wedding of the Yellow Flash, he was now looking forward to the wedding of the Yellow Flash's son.

The Hokage had summoned and informed him that the Land of Spring and the Demon Country both requested a political marriage involving Naruto Uzumaki. Uzumaki himself would remain a Konoha ninja, but at least one of the heirs would have to return to the mother's country. Hiashi frowned at the thought of Uzumaki's children potentially living in another country. No matter how peaceful the world was right now, one simply did not freely hand a power like the Uzumaki bloodline to another country. It was already bad enough that there were wandering Uzumaki clan members out in the world.

The Hokage himself seemed to agree. The only way, however to stop such political marriages without offending (and potentially starting a war with) the other countries was a domestic marriage.

Hiashi had many times considered forcefully encouraging or perhaps even ordering his first-born to aggressively pursue the young man, in hopes that the oblivious boy would finally return her affections. Hiashi mentally groaned as he thought about his daughter's fifteen-year crush. Not only was Hinata weak, she couldn't even love a boy properly and gain his affections.

He shook his head. Even though Uzumaki had not responded, fortunately, that crush, affection, love, or whatever Hinata had impressed the Sixth enough to come up with a proposal that would all but cement the Hyuuga's standing as the strongest clan in the village. The Hyuuga, of course, would have to pay a price. But the cost was nothing compared to the gains of having some measure of influence on the future Hokage.

Hiashi would never use the influence for immoral purposes, of course. He merely wanted to contribute a bit more in how the village was run so that the Hyuuga clan would not have to pick up the slack as it did so often. The Hyuuga clan had taken the most number of casualties among the clans because they had to cover the backs of everyone else. That could have been avoided if the Hokage had been persuaded to make the Academy more rigorous for example.

No matter what people said about him, Hiashi was a patriot. The entire Hyuuga clan was patriotic to the village. They had sworn their loyalty all those years ago when they first joined the village and they were honor-bound to protect the village to the best of their abilities. Hiashi had a duty as clan head to be as ambitious as possible to honor that agreement.

Of course, the prestige gained from being the father-in-law the Hokage was a decent bonus, but that was not his primary reason why he was pushing for a marriage between his first daughter and Uzumaki. Hiashi wanted to ensure peace within the village. What better way to do it than to lend his wisdom to a Hokage son-in-law?

Hiashi looked up when he saw the Sixth bring up the last proposal for the day.

"Now that all the…issues…were taken care of," drawled the silver-haired Hokage in a very slow voice. Hiashi resisted the urge to twitch in annoyance. The man was purposely drawing this out to annoy him. "There is one final proposal that was not put on the list. Lord Nara, if you will…"

"Eh?" Hiashi turned to look at the speaker. It had been Shikaku's son. The young man had just recently taken the position as clan heir from his mother after his own political wedding with the Suna princess two years ago. It was what cemented the permanent alliance between Konoha and Suna. There were even talks about uniting the two villages completely. "You want me to explain it? What a drag…"

It was only his Hyuuga upbringing that was able to stop him from rolling his eyes at the comment. The lazy Nara thought everything was troublesome.

"Well, alright," Shikamaru Nara stated in a bored voice, "this only came in yesterday but was so urgent that we had to rush it into today's meeting. We have a couple countries requesting a political marriage."

"Political marriage? With whom?" the Yamanaka regent asked. It was the wife of one of his old classmates, Inoichi Yamanaka. After his untimely death in the war, she had taken up the mantle while preparing her daughter for her eventual rise to the clan head position.

The black-haired clan head merely pointed his finger towards the youngest member of the chamber.

"What? Me?" Uzumaki gaped. "Why wasn't I the first person to be notified? You bastard! I bet this is for the time I painted all your deer orange!"

There was a small pause as snickers were heard around the chamber. Hiashi wanted to groan. This prankster was going to be his future son-in-law. Even if he was a strict father, he was not a cruel one. Hiashi would normally never throw his daughter away to an uncultured brute. It was only because Hiashi recognized that Uzumaki had much more depth and strength—both physical and political—than most people realized that he was allowing a marriage between Uzumaki and his first daughter.

"That was you?" The Nara exclaimed. "I didn't even know although if I really think about it, there's no one else who would have used orange paint." The Nara rubbed the back of his head in irritation, "Ugh, Naruto, you're such a troublesome idiot." There were more chuckles around the room. "In any case, we're telling you now. It's only been around twelve hours since we got the message. We figured you might appreciate a good night's rest without something like this hanging over your head. The two interested parties are the Demon Country and Land of Spring. They are all but demanding a political marriage to Priestess Shion and Daimyo Koyuki Kazahana, respectively. It seems that they have heard of recent events."

The chamber became eerily quiet as everyone was reminded of the Fifth's apprentice. It had been a few months now since the death of Sakura Haruno. It wasn't a minor matter when such a high profile ninja, one who had been a candidate for the position of Hokage and on the verge of achieving S-rank, unexpectedly died via assassination. When it happened, the fact that Naruto Uzumaki was a free man was not lost on anyone in the village. But now, it appeared that even the other countries had gotten the memo as well.

Hiashi saw a flash of intelligence and awareness flicker in the Sage's eyes. Uzumaki's tone became uncharacteristically dangerous. "I see."

The Sixth interrupted before anything could happen. "Let's calm down now. We all understand how you feel, but we still have to follow protocol."

Uzumaki had matured a great deal and had finally developed some control of his emotions, but the loss of a loved one wasn't easy for anyone to deal with. Uzumaki, for all his talents and skills, was still quite the emotional boy. It was obvious to everyone present that he still had not gotten over the death of Sakura Haruno.

The Sixth motioned for the Nara to continue.

"Lord Uzumaki," Nara said in a formal voice that sounded rather bored, "do you agree to accept either of these offers?"

"No," came the curt response. The tone was still dangerous and Hiashi felt himself shiver slightly. There was no killing intent in the air, but the young man, despite his still somewhat brash attitude, was still able to command such a presence. It was extremely fortunate that he had such dedication and loyalty to Konoha. Otherwise, the village might have been torn apart many, many times before when the villager had mistreated Uzumaki when he was younger.

The Sixth chose this time to enter the conversation again.

"Naruto," he said, breaking all rules of conduct by being informal, "wars have been started for less. You can't just flatly refuse requests from leaders of their respective countries. Even if you refuse these two, we've heard rumors that the Daimyo from the Land of Birds is also considering to send a request for political marriage with you as well. Something like this is going to be a regular occurrence for you if you don't find someone soon."

There was a long pause.

"They can all go to hell. I still refuse and will refuse them all. I'm only going to marry someone I love or intend to love."

Hiashi looked around and met the eyes of some of the other clan heads. While it was likely that they were now all trying to get one of their clan members to marry Uzumaki, they had to cooperate to even get to that point.

"Lord Uzumaki, may we ask why? Your late teammate and girlfriend is no longer alive and you yourself have expressed an interest to revive your clan. So shouldn't you have been emotionally prepared for something like this?" Shibi Aburame asked in polite tone.

"Indeed, Lord Uzumaki," Reina Hagoromo said in the characteristic melodious voice of the Hagoromo clan who used angelic songs to put their enemies in a genjutsu, "I am not personally familiar with you, but your greatest ability, according to the late Lord Jiraiya, is your capacity to accept and love others. Can you find it in your heart to accept someone else in your life?"

Uzumaki shook his head sadly. "Accept? Yes. Love? I'm not too sure. My heart itself is not something that can just be given away so freely."

"I thought that you might say that. However," the Hokage paused, "we must give a valid response. Otherwise, we'd risk offending them. War might not happen now, but anger from such offenses lingers until a valid enough excuse for war comes around. If you want to protect those in the village you love so much, then you don't have a lot of choices. In fact, there's only one option if you want to avoid these political marriages."

Uzumaki's expression became hard once again. "I see. You're forcing me into an arranged marriage with a girl from a prominent clan or family at home then."

Hiashi couldn't help but be slightly surprised at the boy's sharp mind. Perhaps he wasn't talented at memorizing rules and history, but Uzumaki was definitely quick on the uptake in surprising situations. Yes, Uzumaki wasn't the ideal son-in-law, but Hiashi knew he could do a lot worse than the Golden Sun of Konoha.

Hiashi knew that the rest of the elders and his own father, the Grand Elder, hated Uzumaki with a passion because of his lack of respect for tradition, but Hiashi was sure he could convince them by playing the "a Hyuuga will be the wife of the future Hokage" card. They were not so shallow as to let their hatred for a boy make them overlook the potential benefits of being a clan directly associated with the Hokage and his family.

And also, Hiashi thought darkly, none of them care enough about Hinata to stop her from marrying someone they hate.

Nara let out a loud sigh. "Look Naruto, you're one of my best friends and I really feel for you. But, there's not much we can do. Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri withdrew from the Grand Ninja Alliance fairly early after the war and since then we've been trying to keep the fragile peace in the world. We cannot make enemies out of two friendly nations—especially ones that are quite wealthy—by saying you just don't want to marry their leaders. The only validexcuse would be if you were already engaged and married to someone here. Look at it this way, if you choose someone here, at the very least, Konoha and the involved clan can be flexible and give you a lot more time to sort out your feeling with regards to Sakura. So while you might have to marry as soon as possible, you won't be pressured to father an heir any time soon."

The Hokage added, "Furthermore, the girls at home already know you and may love you for who you are."

Hiashi knew that that was his cue to jump him.

"Lord Uzumaki, my first-born daughter, Hinata, has been rather enamored with you. To be honest, she has had you in her heart for fifteen years. I can assure you that she, above all else, loves you for who you are."

Hiashi ignored the envious murmurs of the other clan heads and civilian councilors around him and carefully studied the young man as his expression softened. Hiashi could notice the warring feelings playing out in Uzumaki's heart. It was clear Uzumaki did not love Hinata, but the Sage also felt that he owed Hinata a debt.

Hiashi had initially berated his daughter—out of love, of course—for rushing in without thinking to save Uzumaki's life during the Akatsuki leader's attack and using her own body to shield him in the last war, which led to Neji's death, but her foolhardy actions were about to pay dividends here.

Sensing the loosening of the tension in the room, the Yamanaka regent, Inoichi's wife, joined in. "My daughter has been your classmate when both of you were in the Academy and has been on friendly terms with you for a long time. If you were to choose her, she could definitely give you all the time you need. After all, she herself is rather heartbroken about Sakura. Perhaps the two of you may become close because of your close bonds with a mutual friend."

Hiashi carefully waited as the other clan heads took their turns in offering girls to the young clan head. To be honest, the practice was distasteful and it sounded as if they were trying to sell cattle, but unfortunately, political marriages were often what kept people alive. Sounding like bartering idiots and objectifying their daughters were small prices to pay for either peace or power or both. While he himself would not deny that a political marriage with the future Hokage was beneficial to the Hyuuga clan, his daughter at least genuinely loved the young Uzumaki. Unlike others, he could at least convince himself that he was acting as a caring father on behalf of his daughter.

"I refuse." The blonde crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "I tried to convince myself to do this, but I can't just give away my heart like that. If all of you don't like that, then you can all just kiss my ass."

"Naruto," Hatake said with a touch of irritation in his voice at the vulgar statement. "Let me list out a bunch of reasons why this would be good for you. If you marry a girl from a prominent clan, you have greater influence in the council." Hiashi could see that Uzumaki was about to speak up, but Hatake continued on. "You might not care about what the council thinks, but having more influence on this council would help in your attempt to become a good Hokage. This is not a military dictatorship where the Hokage makes all the rules. You can't just pass proposals unilaterally; you need the support of those you rule over. Being connected with one of the other noble clans would help you immensely."

"Don't care," came the short response.

The Hokage groaned. "Look, if you need more convincing, think of this: your fan club will lose a ton of members once women see you're off the market for good."

There were some snickers at that last sentence. It was no secret that Uzumaki was popular among the girls in Konoha. It was rather entertaining to see dozens of clones running away from rabid fangirls from time to time when the clan head was not away on missions.

"I…" Hiashi saw his chance when he saw the boy's resolve crumble even more.

Hiashi cleared his throat as he pulled out his trump card. "Might I point out that the Hyuuga clan has its own ramen chef and a copy of the Ichiraku's recipe for their miso ramen? We could offer you free ramen whenever you visit."

Hiashi smirked as he saw Uzumaki's eyes widen slightly. He had to hand it to the Hokage. The Sixth really did know his student well. It had been the Hokage's idea for the Hyuuga clan to buy the recipes for the boy's favorite ramen. The recipes cost a lot more than expected, especially since he demanded exclusive access, but the loss of money was trivial should Uzumaki became his son-in-law.

There was dead silence for about ten seconds. Then all hell broke loose as the other clan heads and councilors—minus the grumbling Nara—claimed that they too had excellent ramen chefs. Hiashi looked on with amusement as Chouza Akimichi claimed that his Akimichi chefs made even better ramen than Ichiraku's and the Unkai Kurama claiming that they could even make vegetables taste like ramen with their genjutsu.

Surprisingly, the Toad Sage remained quiet for a long time and seemed to ignore everyone else. His eyes bore into Hiashi.

"Hiashi," Uzumaki said, not even bothering with honorifics. "Before I agree to anything, let me ask you something. Are you doing this for Hinata or for your clan?"

Hiashi closed his eyes and restrained himself from growling in irritation. He knew it was in the boy's nature to be informal, especially with his manners, so he decided to overlook the blatant lack of respect. In fact, the boy probably did that on purpose just to prove his point that Hiashi was more about cold rules and less about love. Hiashi had to be careful with his response and could not overreact. The boy…no…man was still the Toad Sage and would not be fooled by a lie or even a half-truth. Hiashi decided to speak the full honest truth.

"Sometimes, in those fortunate rare cases, the desires of a father and the duties of a clan head are aligned. I will admit that this is one such case."

"I see." Uzumaki nodded sagely. Hiashi merely hoped that his sincere response would be enough to satisfy the young man. "I'm curious to see which of those aspects comes out on top. Because I don't want to marry Hinata."

"Naruto!" Nara shouted in an exasperated tone before anyone else could eagerly "advertise" his or her own daughter or niece again. "She loved you for years! Why can't you even give her a chance? Don't you remember what it was like when Sakura kept rejecting you? You're doing the same thing with Hinata! She almost died for you twice!"

Hiashi took note of the fact that Uzumaki was still looking at him. He prided himself for being a master at reading people and knew that Uzumaki's response hadn't been a simple rejection.

"Naruto!" The Sixth admonished before trying to carry out his end of the deal. The Sixth Hokage had promised to do his best to swing Uzumaki's favor towards Hinata for the Hyuuga clan's support in future proposals. "Think about what Hinata's done for you over the years. Don't be so self—"

"Kakashi-sensei," Uzumaki cut him off. Hiashi was beginning to feel unnerved by those blue eyes but continued to match the Sage's gaze. "Shut up."

The silence was deafening. Almost everyone in the room was gaping at the young clan head. One did not simply insult the Hokage like that.

"Naruto…" the Hokage growled.

"Hiashi, I don't want Hinata as my wife." Uzumaki repeated, ignoring the Hokage.

Hiashi nodded. There was something more here. Perhaps a deal? "You have said that already. And?"

Hiashi suddenly had a foreboding feeling.

"I want Hanabi."

Yamanaka Flower Shop, Konoha – March 16, AK22

"Mom?" Ino said after returning home from a walk around the marketplace.

"Yes, dear, what is it?"

Ino paused to carefully word her next words. "Is Naruto getting married?"

Her mom froze. "Ino dear, where did you hear that?"

Ino mentally frowned. Based on her mother's actions, there was something to the rumors that she had been hearing all morning. "I heard rumors from the villagers. Something about how the general assembly yesterday forced him to marry a girl because he was the last of his clan. Everyone's been talking about it."

Her mother relaxed. "Well, you know that the details of the general assembly are classified. Even if you're my daughter, I can't give away details like that." Her mother gave her a sad look. "No matter how much I might want to," she added.

"But everyone knows that information from the general assembly is leaked out to the public by the civilian representatives. You can't just tell me that it's classified when half the village already knows something is going on!"

"Well, Ino," her mom said with a chuckle. "Yesterday's meeting in particular was special. The civilians only know the surface story, but the ninjas carried a secret conversation yesterday."

"Ugh. Just tell me if he's getting married or not!"

"That's a secret, dear," her mom smiled.

"Mom! You know I can keep a secret! I'm not the department head of the communications department for no reason!"

Her mother laughed. "Well, that's because you're good at communicating. Secrets require not telling other people," there was a knowing look in her eyes, "as in not communicating."

Ino groaned. "When will people ever get over that? I'm not a gossip! I haven't gossiped in years!"

"Keep telling yourself that, honey, and you might actually believe it."

"Ugh. You're so hard to deal with. How difficult is it to just say yes or no?"

"Look, Ino," her mother sighed. "If Naruto is getting married, then you'll eventually find out. Why is it so important that you find out now?"

"Because I want to know now," Ino fired back.

"And that's what makes you a gossip, Ino."

"I can't believe my own mother is insulting me," Ino said in exasperation. "I want to know now so I can do something about it!"

Her mother laughed. "It's not something you have control over, Ino. And besides, from what I can tell you, nothing is confirmed yet."

Ino looked at her mother hopefully. "So those rumors are just rumors?"

"Ino?"

Ino and her mother both turned their heads to the door. "Oh, Shikamaru, what brings you here today? Flowers for Temari?"

Ino snorted. "As if he has it in him to do that. He'll just call it troublesome or something."

"Because it is troublesome. It's annoying carrying around those things all over town. People keep asking who the lucky, or in some cases, unlucky, lady is and it takes at least an hour longer to get back home."

Ino scowled. "Yes, exactly. An hour of your time declaring your love for your life in public is such torture. I can't believe that she even agreed to get married to you."

The shadow user just yawned. "In any case, I'm here because Ino gave me a call earlier and told me she wanted to see me."

"I'm guessing it's about the same question she asked me," her mother laughed. "Ino wants to know if her love interest is getting married."

"Mom!" Ino screamed with embarrassment. "I do not like Naruto in that way. He's cute and he's an old friend, but he belongs to—"

Ino quickly shut her mouth at that point. She was moments away from revealing that Sakura was alive. Fortunately, however, her mother took the somber expression on her face as sadness and reminiscing.

"Ino," she said gently, "Sakura is dead. The faster you come to realize that, the better off you'll be. I know you're heartbroken over losing your best friend, but you can't keep living in the past."

Ino nodded, not looking at Shikamaru who was undoubtedly giving her a hard look.

"Yeah, but…" Ino began.

"In any case," Shikamaru interrupted, "I can't reveal anything about last night's meeting either. If your mother wouldn't, why would I? Ino, sometimes it's just better for you not to know things until the proper time."

Ino turned to glare at him. "Well, excuse me for wanting to know if my friend is getting forced to make a decision he doesn't want. I'm just looking out for his best interests. I even heard you were a big part of doing this to Naruto. You should know better!"

With that, she stomped out of the flower shop. Damn them. Damn both her mother and Shikamaru.

She didn't know what to believe. Usually the rumors had some grains of truth in them, except Ino couldn't see Naruto agreeing to get married. He wouldn't betray Sakura like that, would he? He would raze half the village before someone took his chance with Sakura away.

She was suddenly hit with the realization that Naruto didn't know that Sakura was still alive. If the rumors were true—Ino refused to believe that they were—then Sakura would be devastated upon waking up. Sakura was already betrayed once by Sasuke. Even if it was unwilling, if Naruto abandoned her too…

"UGH!" she screamed in frustration. "This is just so ridiculous! Why does the world have to be so damn complicated?!"

"Ino," Knowing who it was, she took a huge swing only to find herself completely immobile. "Too predictable," Shikamaru drawled. "The first thing you do when you get angry is to lash out."

"Shut it, you lazy ass," she growled out. "You just had to completely ruin my mood for the day."

"Me? That was completely on you. You were about to reveal classified information. How can we trust you with more if you can't even keep the things you already know confidential?"

"I didn't reveal anything, you shitface." Ino rarely cursed, but Shikamaru was really getting on her nerves. In the past, it had been because he was insufferably lazy. But now, her teammate's dull tone just sounded condescending. She was not in the mood for his holier-than-thou lectures today.

"Not with your words, but your body language and attitude," Shikamaru fired back. "You're living with the attitude that she is still alive when, for all practical purposes, she is not. You'll just ending up hurting yourself even more."

He was right, but she was too stubborn to admit to his face. "How would you react if Chouji died?" she said scathingly, hoping that Shikamaru would recoil back in shock.

He didn't give her that satisfaction.

"I would mourn him and then move on. He would want that as well," he replied simply. "Do you think Sakura would want you to act like a spoiled child? You're an A-rank ninja. People suffer. People die. This time it just happened to be your best friend. Get over it! At least with your best friend, it's not permanent, you troublesome ingrate."

"Why, you!" she resisted the shadows binding her as much as she could before giving up. "Ugh! It's not even that classified. The civilian councilors leak information all the time. So what if I hear a few more details?! I just want to help my friends! I don't want Naruto making a decision he'll end up regretting later on!"

"But what you're doing is not helping at all, Ino." Ino felt the shadow binds release her. "Let's say that Naruto is getting married. Then what will you do? March to his house right now and demand that he stay loyal to his dead girlfriend? Or will you try to go to the person he's getting married to and threaten her? None of those actions help the situation at all. There's a reason why no one is confirming or denying anything at this point, even with all the leaks."

"I can tell that there's something going on. It would be much easier for you to deny it quickly instead of having a prolonged discussion."

"Perhaps," Shikamaru admitted. "You know better than I do that rumors have a grain of truth to them. But honestly, at this point, I can't say anything because nothing is for sure right now. We are just as confused as you are right now, Ino."

Ino raised an eyebrow. "What is that supposed to mean? Isn't it a simple question of whether he's getting married or not?"

"Ino," Shikamaru said in an irritated tone, "nothing we do is just simple. Every decision we make affects the balance of power in this village, and of course, in the Elemental Nations."

Ino gave up trying to pry information from her friend. It just wasn't going to happen.

"I hate it when you talk like that. You make it sound like another war might break out," Ino said grumpily before letting her shoulders slump. "Every decision we make has to be deliberate so we don't cause problems in international affairs. Why do we have to continue doing something stupid like that instead of just living? When will all of this be over? Wasn't the last war supposed to be the war to end all wars? Why are we still fighting, damn it?!"

"To protect the future generation. Every time I feel the same way you do, I look at Kurenai and little Mayumi. I owe it to Asuma to make sure that his daughter grows up in peace."

"Peace?" she repeated. "This is just the appearance of peace. This so-called peace is built on the backs of those who suffer and die. Do you think Naruto would call this peace?"

"No, he wouldn't," came the honest response. "But I know him well enough that he won't give up until true peace finally arrives. It's that same hope that keeps us all moving forward."

Tazaku Town, Land of Fire – March 16, AK22

Sasame traced the mark on her right upper arm that marked her as a slave. It was currently covered with her gear, but she was always conscious of it. It was a constant reminder of how her clan completely fell apart and how much her life had changed.

Sasame had nothing to shame her clan. She had been quite strong, but her clan had gone bankrupt from the lack of missions. The great villages, especially Konoha, had a monopoly on all types of missions and so the remnants of her clan had decided to sell her off to cover their debts. She had managed to fight her captors off, despite being heavily drugged and before they managed to slap a chakra restraining seal on her, but it had been too late. She had already been branded with a chakra burn. That had been three years ago.

"You're always doing that. Stop."

Sasame looked up at the blond man who had just grabbed her hand. "You would be too, Naruto, if you were a slave."

"And stop calling yourself that. A burn on your arm does not determine your worth or status."

"A permanent chakra burn, I should point out. A burn that signals to the nearest slave trading station that I'm on the loose," Sasame remarked sadly.

"But you're strong enough to escape," Naruto pointed out.

Sasame shook her head. "Only until someone cares enough about me to start sending a squad of jounin after me. I might be able to fight off the first squad, but it's only going to get worse after that. Eventually, I'm going to have to start fighting multiple elites and that's not a war I can win."

"Tch. Who'd pay that much money to go after just one person?" Naruto asked. "No offense, but it just seems like a waste of money to me."

Sasame snorted. "You might not recognize it," she teased, "but I am a pretty woman. Men would love to have me serve them, even if just to keep them company at night. Then there are always those who feel like former kunoichi are exotic 'specimens' to have around. My clan was paid a huge amount of money when they sold me so the company that purchased me won't simply just let me walk around freely until they get some return on their investment."

"Ugh. How revolting," Naruto muttered.

Sasame nodded sadly. "Perhaps, but that's the way of this world. Anyway, enough about that. What brings you here? On your way back from a mission?"

Naruto frequently visited her after his missions. He claimed it was to take a break and to get information about the outside world, but she knew that he was primarily just checking to make sure that she was safe and still free.

Naruto shook his head. "I got back to Konoha two days ago after a quick two day mission. My team is currently on a C-rank mission here and I thought I'd visit," he said.

"C-rank? Since when did you get missions that low?"

"I got assigned a genin team."

Sasame smiled encouragingly at him. "Since you had to fight for your own teacher's attention every step of the way, I'm sure you'll know to shower your students with the care they need. And besides, they're not your first students either. You have already taught—"

"Sasame," Naruto warned. "We're in public. Don't talk about those kinds of stuff freely like that."

She pouted. "Awww…I figured you'd have privacy seals around us already. I could activate my own if you're feeling lazy. I have a lot to tell you abouther." She just smiled mischievously when he glared at her. "Hey! I didn't say her name out loud so don't scold me."

"It's not like I want to be all secretive." Naruto scowled. "I can't do that because my cute little genin constantly try to spy on me and would get even more suspicious if I put up privacy seals. Look," Naruto pointed at a nearby table where three large men just sat down, "they're in those pathetic disguises thinking they could fool me." There were three identical puffs of smoke, which revealed three little kids who scampered away after being caught.

Sasame laughed heartily at that. Naruto appeared to be annoyed by his students but she could tell he was fond of them. "What did you do to them that they want to find out about your secret life?"

"Oh nothing like the usual. He would say I'm being too soft of them because they're kids. He'd be asking me to smack them around like I did to him. But, to be honest," Naruto sighed, "it's because they think I have a girlfriend."

Sasame nearly jumped at that. "A girlfriend? Since when? I thought S…Sakura was…"

He scratched his head. "Ah, well. That's part of the reason why I'm here."

"Huh?"

"I wanted to offer you something."

Sasame looked at him. "Offer me something?"

She briefly wondered if he was going to make her pretend to be his girlfriend to satisfy his children's curiosity. It wouldn't be a bad thing necessary and she would be more than happy to do it, but she was worried that she might actually start believing it once she started to play the role. And then when it ended, she would be devastated.

"Well, you're always living in fear that you'll be caught for being a slave and sent to a cruel master who'd take advantage of you and abuse you in every possible way. I'm taking that fear away."

She groaned and mentally kicked herself at her foolish thought. Of course…Naruto would never ask something like that of her.

He was probably offering to send money to bribe the company that was hunting for her. That might get that particular company off her back, a slave without a master or a sponsoring company was just free for the taking. Sasame would be free to move about for some time, but soon, freelance slave hunters, often missing ninjas, would come after her for profit. "Just because you keep telling me that I'm free does not make me free," She looked at him hopefully in a joking manner, "unless you're suggesting that you'll be my master."

As it was now, she couldn't enter any of the capital cities or the hidden villages because they would instantly discover her status. If Naruto claimed her as his servant, then she would actually become freer than she was now.

Sasame had never asked, however, because she knew Naruto would refuse to indulge in the slave system even if meant making her happier. And she couldn't ask him to spend that much money to purchase her even if he was her close friend.

So she constantly lived in fear that ninjas would be sent after her and that she would be caught.

"That's exactly what I'm offering."

Her jaw dropped in shock. "Wh…what? You are? What changed?!"

Sasame was a sensor and knew that the person in front of her was Naruto, so it wasn't someone trying to trick her, but she was confused as to why he would do something so out of character. The Naruto she knew would never agree to have slaves.

"I'm probably getting married in a few weeks. It's a political marriage. That's why my kids are being suspicious. They've heard rumors going around this morning. They think, and ironically, they're actually right, that it's with a girl they saw with me a week ago. But they're following me around to make sure."

She felt as if she had been slapped in the face. What he had just told her wasn't relevant to her status as a slave, but it was still just as shocking. And in some ways it was even more disappointing. Ever since Naruto had found her two years ago, she had kept up a girlish hope that he would marry her. She knew it wasn't possible, but she still…on rare occasions…fantasized about Naruto razing an entire village for her and declaring to the world that she was his.

Sasame also knew he had been dating his pink-haired teammate for some time, but despite being grateful to the girl for helping her find her brother Arashi all those years ago, Sasame knew the girl didn't truly love Naruto. Sakura did not deserve someone like Naruto. Sasame felt that even sheherself had more of a right to claim Naruto than Sakura did.

Sasame at least genuinely cared about Naruto in a romantic manner. It was clear to everyone but Naruto that Sakura did not.

And so, it was good that Naruto had moved on. Sasame had been worried about Naruto during the entire time that Naruto and Sakura were dating.

But…to think that he was getting married so soon after the incident with Sakura was stunning.

"And?" Sasame tried not to stammer. She didn't want to burden Naruto with the knowledge that she had feelings for him. He did not need more emotional angst in his life. "What does that have to do with you taking me on as your servant?"

The blonde sighed. "Well it's not completely certain yet and it's been hushed up a bit in Konoha because she hasn't had a chance to accept. So my offer is contingent on that. Sort of. Even if she refuses, I would still have to get married to another girl and the offer would once again be open to you. Anyway, the girl I'm about to be engaged to is a noble so she's not likely to be able to do things on her own. She acts tough, but from what I know, she really can't take care of herself. You, on the other hand, know how to do everything so I was wondering if you take care of her and also act as a guard."

The orange-haired girl internally sighed. Of course. Now everything made sense. Naruto was always worrying about others. It would be very much like him to worry about his future wife, even if he didn't love her.

"So you want me to play big sister to this little girl of yours?"

"Well, it's an offer," he said, while frowning, "I've already decided to go purchase," Naruto made an expression as if the word left a bad taste in his mouth, "some servants for her, but I figured it might be best to ask you first since you're on the run and you'd probably prefer me as your master than anyone else." He looked both sad and resigned at the idea. "You're also near her in age. She's a bit more than four years younger than I am so you're only about three years older than her. It's my hope that the two of you can get along. You don't have many close friends because of your situation and Hanabi gets lonely at times because she's considered untouchable in Konoha."

Hanabi. The girl's name was Hanabi. It would be the name of the person who would unintentionally torture Sasame every day with her mere existence. Unless…

"Just wondering, Naruto," she asked carefully, "but are you going to take concubines?"

If he did, then this would be a no-brainer for her. She would instantly jump at the chance to be with the one man who has cared for her. Even if she would be little more than a glorified sex slave for him. A glorified sex slave for Naruto would be treated better than most queens.

"No, I don't think so," Naruto shook his head, "I know I'm expected to, considering that I'm trying to revive my clan. But I want to minimize loveless relationships as much as possible. I'll already be in a loveless marriage with Hanabi and it'll already be hard enough to properly love her. Adding more women to the mix would only make things more complicated and would hurt Hanabi if I ended up loving someone else. And that's not even considering the moral issues with taking concubines. It just isn't…right." Naruto gave her a pointed look. "Why? Does it matter either way?"

It did matter but she couldn't let him know that.

She was disappointed, but given what she knew about Naruto's moral code, it had been expected that he would be monogamous. Naruto would not even consider concubines unless this Hanabi girl agreed to share. Even then, it would be an uphill battle.

However, despite the somewhat disappointing offer, being closer to Naruto was something she wasn't going to give up. She would accept his friendship and accept the ironic freedom that being his servant would bring to her while becoming best friends with the wife of the person she loved. It was a shame that she would never be the recipient of Naruto's affections, but Sasame had known that she had no chance from the very first day.

In the end, she was just a slave. She wasn't a human; she was just property.

"Okay. I'll be your servant. Hm…Master Naruto. Haha. It looks like I finally get to call you that."

Sasame smiled, knowing that Naruto missed the dual meaning of that statement. Well, it wouldn't be entirely accurate to say that. She was sure Naruto knew of the dual meaning, but he didn't know that she desperately wanted to call him "Master" in that specific context.

Naruto groaned and rubbed the back of his head. "I have a feeling that you're going to be enjoying this a lot more than I will."

Her smile became slightly sad. She both would and wouldn't. But she owed it to him to never let him find out why.

"Indeed, Master."

That last word left a bittersweet taste in her mouth.

AN: More reviews please, especially those that comment on writing style or character development. They really do help. Or if enough people demand it, some changes to how future chapters are written. Like if people want a certain character to appear more often, I'll try to accommodate. It won't change the storyline too much unfortunately. For example, requests to change the pairing will not be granted. I understand that many of you are Naruto x Hinata fans, and in some ways, so am I, but unfortunately, that's not part of this story. The kind and sweet Hinata that everyone knows and loves just wasn't suited for the female lead of this story. I needed a girl sort of like Sakura—prideful but insecure—but without all the baggage that she comes with.

Someone asked…so I'll address it. There are two very specific reasons why I am not using Naruto's POV as much as I should for a Naruto story. First, much of the introduction arc was building Hanabi's character up, which I had to do since she's been given less than five minutes of screen-time. Second, as you already noticed, Naruto is not what he appears to be. Therefore, I cannot write from his POV too much if I want to hide certain information that only Naruto knows from my readers. Some of you may have figured out what the certain information is. I'm not going to confirm or deny anything.

The scenes written from Naruto's POV will appear from time to time but will increase quite a bit after Chapter 20. You'll just have wait until then. For now, you'll have to look at Naruto from the eyes of everyone else. Please be understanding. I'll try to make it as entertaining as possible without his POV.