Freedom. Chapter 12: "Unite The Clans!"

(Note: Well, this chapter is going to be pretty interesting, and you'll see why. Also, it's a reference to the line that William says to Robert about "uniting the clans" (hence the title of the chapter). It's also the title of one of the songs on one of the "Braveheart" soundtracks. Anyway, without further ado, hope you enjoy the chapter! :D)

Disclaimer:
I do not own Braveheart or Naruto. Braveheart belongs to Mel Gibson, and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. No copyright infringement intended. All copyrights are reserved.

After finding out about Longshanks declaring war on Scotland, William told Hamish to ride to Edinburgh to assemble the council.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Council were discussing their plans about how to defeat the English at war again, while Hamish was watching them.

Then, William, Campbell, Stephen, Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura came bursting through the door, and everyone looked at them.

William walked down the stairs, and spoke to the Scottish Council:

"My army has marched for more days than I can remember, and we still have preparations to make. So I'll make this plain. We require every soldier you can summon. Your personal escorts, even yourselves. And we need them now."

"With such a force arrayed against us, it is time to discuss other options," Craig stated bluntly.

"Other options?" William retorted with anger. Team Kakashi was pretty frightened to see Willliam like this... especially Sakura.

"Oh no. I can't let this go on. I have to calm William down before he blows up," Sakura panicked to herself.

"Don't you wish at least to lead your men onto the field and barter a better deal with Longshanks before you tuck tail and run?" William was furious.

"William-" Sakura tried to intervene, but Craig ignored her, and continued speaking with William.

"We cannot defeat this army."

"We can!" William shouted.

"Sir William!" now, it was Robert's turn to try to interrupt William.

"And we will! We won at Stirling, and still you quibble! We won at York and you would not support us. If you will not stand up with us now then I say you're cowards," William insulted the nobles who were about to yell at him. However, as Lochlan was about to attack William, Naruto was about to crush the table with his fist to stop Lochlan from hurting William, but Hamish beat Naruto to it by smashing his battle axe on the table, shocking the nobles as they started to grow silent. Robert got out of his chair and stood up.

"And if you are Scotsmen, I am ashamed to call myself one," William said.

"Please, Sir William. Speak with me alone," Robert voiced as William looked at him. "I beg you."

As William and Robert began to walk away from the table together, Sakura was going to try and calm William down, but Naruto grabbed her left fist with his right hand.

"Sakura, while William talks with Robert, I need to talk to you about something. It's rather important," Naruto urged as Sakura looked at him, concerned.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, it's about William," Naruto replied.

Sakura looked at William and back at Naruto.

"What about him?" she asked.

"Sakura, there's something I've been meaning to ask you. I've actually been thinking about this for a while since William joined Team Kakashi and after our battle with the English at Stirling," Naruto said.

Sakura listened on with a worried look on her face. Was this conversation going to turn into something good or bad?

"In fact," Naruto continued. "This question has been on my mind lately, because I've started to notice that the two of you are spending a lot of time together, even though we haven't known him that long."

"What is it, Naruto?" Sakura wondered as Naruto looked at William and then at Sakura.

"Alright. I'll tell you, but please don't get mad at me for saying this."

"Okay," Sakura responded.

"Okay. Here it goes," Naruto took a deep breath and looked her straight in the eye while asking:

"Sakura, do you love William?"

Sakura was taken aback by this. Now normally, if it was Stephen or Naruto that asked her about her feelings for William, she'd punch them. However, this time she didn't do that, because she was in a state of shock.

"What?" she gasped.

"Do you love him?" Naruto repeated his question to Sakura who looked at William as he was talking with Robert.

"Unite us! Unite the clans!" William determined with a serious look on his face, and anger in his voice.

Sakura stared at William for a moment, and then gawked back at Naruto with a smile.

"Can I think about it for a little bit?"

"Sure," Naruto nodded as William and Robert began to shake their hands in agreement, while William walked back to Team Kakashi.

"So. How did it go?" Kakashi asked William.

"Very well. He's joining us at the Battle Of Falkirk," William assured them.

"When will that take place?" Naruto wondered.

"July 22, 1298," William answered.

"Alright! Time to kick Longshanks' butt once and for all!" Naruto exclaimed with a fist in the air.

Then, William noticed that Sakura had a sad look on her face.

"Sakura?" William looked at Sakura who was spacing out and gazed at him.

"Huh?"

"Are you okay?" William asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Sakura spoke.

"Alright. Come on. Let's go do some training," William demanded.

"Right!" Naruto agreed as he, Kakashi, Hamish, Stephen, Campbell, Morrison, Sakura and William left Edinburgh, and went back to William's campsite.

"Sasuke...," Sakura thought to herself while thinking of Sasuke.

As soon as Naruto questioned me about my feelings for William, I was stunned, yet almost speechless. I didn't know what to say.

At that time, I was still hurt about how Sasuke broke my heart by betraying Konoha. Not to mention that he called me "annoying."

But then, I met William. He changed my life forever, and taught me to believe in freedom as well as stand up for what I believe in, and to be a little more confident in myself.

Inside, I felt so torn. Torn between William and Sasuke.

However, as I started spending more time with William, little did I realize... that I was starting to fall in love with him...William Wallace, a Scottish rebel, and the man who stole my heart.

To me, he was my brave heart.

(Note: Ooh. So Sakura seems to be falling in love with William, our favorite Scottish rebel. But little does she realize that another woman has also fallen in love with him – Princess Isabelle. Will Sakura finally able to tell William her true feelings for him? Anyway, the next chapter will be the Battle Of Falkirk, so stay tuned for Chapter 13, and please read and review! :D)