Forced Hand

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.


Forced Hand
By 11


Chapter 03


Dark beaded eyes glanced from the contract sitting on the table to the person sitting across from him. The other’s signature was already provided, and the specified fields in the sheet were generously in Konoha’s favor by a little over half of the two country’s assets values. A dry chuckle escaped him.

“I must admit, your offer is actually quite ingenious for Somuhorm,” he commented lightly.

“Both of our countries would benefit from this arrangement as you can see for yourself,” the youth explained, “there is no downside, as you can see for yourself.”

It was true he had read through the entire of the sheet and there were no drawbacks, no hidden deceptions, everything was very straightforward and clearly outlined in the parchment. With a sigh he raised the pen and signed the second signature spot as the head steward of Konoha currently.

“Thank you very much, lord Jiraiya,” Sasuke said allowing himself a small smile that only came out as a smirk, features matched by the wry expression on the elder man’s face.

Something gnawed angrily at the back of his mind that this wasn’t quite what he should be doing, that he had forgotten to consider something or someone. But he had looked over the sheet multiple times this morning, and after he explained it to Tsunade her logic would also dictate that he had no reason to refuse the offer to their kingdom.

But that annoying hindrance that bit at the back of his consciousness, just wouldn’t leave him alone. Now why ever would that be? He had to wonder.

Meanwhile at almost the exact same time at the other end of Konoha’s palace a young blonde was finally stirring from his slumber. The crack of dawn was after all the best time to sneak down to the weapons training room and attempt to better whatever sub par battle skills the boy had managed to acquire through the observation of others. However he was somewhat stunned when upon entering the training room he found it half occupied by other people.

He blinked, well that was odd. But then again a lot of these were the guards of other princes using the facilities before setting out either later this day or the next. There were however four guards from Konoha that Naruto did recognize, oh well, he’d just come back later, it wouldn’t be seemly for him, as a girl, to walk in and start practicing with the boys. There was room, but again because of this pseudo identity Naruto had to turn away, however it seemed that one of the guards he had spotted earlier had noticed him. No wonder, it was the perfect opportunity to slack from training.

“Princess Naruko, surprising to see you down here, and so early.” The brunette boy said as he walked over to where she was, his sparring partner following with a glare directed at the other male.

“Shikamaru… please, she was leaving, you don’t have to stop sparring to keep the princess company or whatever excuse your bound to give…” the other boy growled menacingly, though it did nothing to deter the slant-eyed youth from his goal-taking a break.

“But Kiba, it’s not to keep her company, it is to discourage any of these others from approaching her,” Shikamaru explained with a calm precise voice that demanded not to be argued with. “In fact, this place isn’t quite suitable for you princess. If I may ask, why are you here?”

Naruto resisted the urge to glare at the both of them, but it was fine to them and to everyone who didn’t know, he was a girl, the princess Naruko. That was fine though, though as he had approached adolescence and puberty it was becoming a slightly more difficult task, especially with the hormones and all.

“Good morning, your majesty,” said the dark-haired boy as he approached the three with a bow to the blonde ‘girl’, his partner just behind him, going ahead to put away their weapons. “Forgive me for not greeting you immediately, your majesty, but Shino demanded that we finish our spar before taking a quick break. What brings you here.”

“I’m not sure actually,” Naruko said glancing out across the room, “I was thinking about a few years ago… we used to all be able to play in here together.”

“Yes, but you are a young woman now, and it wouldn’t be seemly,” the youth defended, though he seemed a bit saddened himself by the idea that their play group since five years of age had been cut in half. With the absence of Naruko, Ino, and a few other girls who used to come down and participate in their games their numbers had been cut completely when the boys had entered their military training for the guard. The soldiers or the maidens who used to be children could now no longer play the games that they played only years before.

“Rock Lee… you’re slacking too?!” Kiba said in annoyance as the dark-haired boy’s partner joined them, and stood in silence near to Shikamaru. Now, having mostly achieved his goal, the said brunette was leaning against the wall in a comfortable position.

“So how are you, Shino?” Shikamaru asked in a bored tone, the conversation having momentarily reached a lull after Kiba’s irritated remark.

The boy only grunted in response, burying his face further into his high collar. Then in an attempt to start conversation again, “So heard about you and that guy Naruko! Gods, that must have been a sight!” however Kiba had very little tact when trying to come up with a subject for conversation, one that wouldn’t bother anyone as badly as it did to Naruko after the moment he said that.

“What. Of. It?” Naruko asked grounding the words out as if chewing on mud. Kiba blinked at her angry glower then glanced at the other’s odd looks, then suddenly pinkened his cheeks with the realization that he probably should not have mentioned that specific topic in front of the girl.

“Um… nothing, just uh… did you know Lee’s engaged already!” he said suddenly in an attempt to cover his blunder. Lee’s eyes snapped onto Kiba, a wonderful way of saving the princess from embarrassment and anger was to direct it on him. It seemed to be a common tactic used by almost everyone he knew, but it was starting to get old, and it wasn’t that this bothered him so much as he didn’t care to discuss the decision.

“Oh really, you’re engaged Lee?” Shikamaru asked, not really surprised just sort of an ‘oh, I didn’t know that, oh well,’ sort of instance.

“Yes, actually. Rather silly though isn’t it?” the boy shrugged.

“Yup, and none of us are yet, me, Shikamaru and Shino, still single,” Kiba grinned, happily.

“Oh your time will come…” Lee warned gently to his gloating friend.

“So who to, Lee?” Naruto asked curious, “did you propose to someone?” who actually said yes? Naruto added in his mind, he had never considered Lee attractive and neither did anyone else, although many did admire his sense of honesty and direction. Husband material sure, but for an exciting relationship… it’d have to be arranged, right?

“No. It was arranged by both my and her parents,” Lee admitted, “I think you may remember, Tenten. The pretty girl with the long dark hair and brown eyes, she always wore in twin braids?”

“Tenten? The same Tenten from a few years ago, she lived on that ranch just out past the main market and first quarter mile of road?” Naruko asked. She remembered Tenten, a beautiful girl who had lived nearby to Shino and his family and she had come with him one day to play when Shino’s parents dumped her on him. It hadn’t been so bad after she joined their playgroup, and she had even been very fun to be around. Serious but graceful and after she opened up she had been very lively.

“That’s her, it’s good you remember, surprising I must admit, but good,” Lee nodded.

“Why is it surprising that I remembered?” Naruko asked.

“Oh nothing to do with your intelligence, your majesty!” the boy assured her hurriedly, “it’s simply the fact that we haven’t heard from her in years.”

Yes perhaps it would have been surprising, but Naruto always remembered the other girls, especially Sakura, he remembered Tenten, Ino and Sakura, from when they played, but he remembered Sakura’s favorite color, her favorite instrument, book, and games. He remembered her favorite dresses, even some of her habits had remained from when they were younger as he’d been able to note at the party.

“Yeah, Lee’s going to tie up with Tenten in the next month or so,” Kiba grinned, “But, me, Shika, and Shino are still single! I wouldn’t let my parents betrothe me!”

“It helps that you just don’t go home whenever you can avoid it.” Shikamaru remarked. His mother was always overly protective of her son as far as women went and he constantly complained of the other gender besides, except when he knew that ‘Naruko’ was in earshot. But she heard anyway when walking by the areas where ‘she’ wasn’t expected to be and accidentally overheard a conversation or two.

“Yes, but our princess has been working especially hard to not get engaged, though, right?” Kiba laughed slightly at this comment. Naruto was instantly on guard, the boy was being foolish again.

“Huh?” she so eloquently asked.

“We were there at the party, Kiba and I,” Shikamaru explained, “we were at the door, and after things got boring it was difficult not to notice how many times Ino saved you from your suitors.”

“Yeah, except of course for that last incident, with the prince of Somuhorm,” Kiba said, putting the last part quietly, trying the line on the blonde’s temper, this received him a fading glower.

“Don’t remind me…” She grated. Kiba only smiled.

“Well, in any case, you better be careful, or you might get an arranged marriage too!” he laughed good-naturedly, then he added as a joke “To that guy!”

“What!” Naruko said in her outrage, still careful to keep the boyish tone out of her voice, “That’d never happen! I wouldn’t allow it! Besides, if I am to be engaged, and the stewards wish it, they still have to consult me first!”

“Right.” Shikamaru nodded. Keeping up the femininely huffy air, Naruto decided this would be the idela opportunity to storm off and come back later when the practicing room was more vacant.

Kiba was always a jerk like that wasn’t he? Naruto though idly as he ‘stormed off in a huff’ as Naruko would. On the way out ‘she’ was sure to ‘thwak’ him in the back of the head on the way out. Not hard, but enough to tell him his humor was not appreciated. It really was stupid… through the years even the boys he’d known since they were all playing together now treated as a ‘girl’ and separate from the rest of them. In some respects it was true… but it was still just so stupid, and infuriating.

“Princess Naruko…” a soft voice spoke from a little ways away opposite Naruto in the hall, glancing up he spotted Hinata’s shy smile.

“It’s so nice to see you, you’re up early today,” Hinata remarked lightly, “would you like to some with me and have some breakfast? It’s fine if you don’t want to… and if you’ve already eaten that’s completely understandable.”

She was quick to add Naruko’s own excuses to the end of her request, her eyes shyly examining the wall to the side of Naruto’s head rather than actually concentrating on the face of the person she was speaking to. “Absolutely. I’d love to eat breakfast with you Hinata.” Naruko said instantly cutting off any other possible reasons for leaving that Naruko might have, the girl’s eyes flitted over Naruto’s smiling face briefly, before nodding, a measure of happiness reflected in her clear colored eyes. “What were you thinking of having?”

“I was just going to have some bread with some butter or jam maybe… is there anything in particular that you wanted, my princess?” Hinata asked her words hesitant, as Naruto fell into step beside her on their way to the kitchen serving area.

“No, bread with jam and butter sounds good,” Naruto nodded, allowing his tone to drop slightly lower than he might’ve allowed earlier in the training room. “Would you like to eat outside?”

“Oh… of course, if you would like to, princess,” Hinata nodded, slightly taken aback by the question.

“If you’d prefer we’d stay inside, we can, I was just wondering if you wanted to,” Naruto told her, smiling at the girl, though she kept her head bowed enough she probably didn’t see. Naruto really wanted to hug her, but they approached the table and already there was someone there, ready to take the order to fetch whatever foods they wished to be served.

Hinata and Naruko took their seats at the table, and settled down to munch on the bread adding either butter or jam alternately. Naruto decided to stick with the jam, though Hinata seemed to prefer the butter first before she tried the jellies and then stuck with that.

“So, do you feel any different now that you’re 14?” Hinata asked amiably.

“Not all that different now that you mention it…” Naruto pondered, the servers had thankfully left for the duration of the meal. “But I am one year closer to the big day.”

Hinata nodded with a smile. The big day of course would be the final date when Konoha would be turned over to Naruto and he could be known finally as the male ruler of his country, instead of a girl with stewards watching the state for her.

“Did you feel anything special this year when you turned 14?” Naruto asked, curious. She looked up surprised, then pondering.

“I had made a promise to myself…” she said slowly. “I didn’t quite complete what I had intended… but I lost my nerve by the time I decided to just enact the first step.”

“What was the promise?” Naruto asked, watching the quiet girl curiously. Hinata’s cheeks pinkened slightly.

“It wasn’t all that important I imagine, I just remember I had made a promise and I didn’t go all the way through with it,” she answered, “unfortunately some time over these past months I’ve pretty much forgotten what it was.”

Hinata never was good at lying, but the girl was so shy that if you tried to force it out of her you would be sure to make her faint because all her blood would rush to her cheeks so that she’d be too embarrassed to tell anyone anyway. Naruto only smiled at her, deciding not to press, it probably wasn’t incredibly important if she didn’t want to tell him, nothing vital in any case.

The dark-haired girl had far more tact than Kiba did, that was sure. Hinata had managed to bring up the subject of Naruto’s birthday without reminding him about the incident, she really was one of the most sweet people that the blonde knew. The finished their breakfast, with another short stubble of cheerful banter before the servants came to clear away the plates and jams. Hinata had to leave, and Naruto went back to his room to change quickly into something more comfortable, since thankfully by this late hour all the guards would be gone from the training room.

Boys clothes fit loosely and comfortably on his body, he still looked like a girl, a flat-chest girl, but a girl. It was sad, but true, and he had no way of changing his appearance, not until later on anyway. As expected the training room was vacant and walking over to the rack of weapons, Naruto pulled out one of the lighter swords to handle, he had tried to wield the heavier ones properly but he had less control the weightier the weapon. So he went with the lighter ones where he could have more control of his movements. Taking his place standing in the center of the empty room he recalled briefly the movements he had seen others performing that morning and at other times, attempting to imitate the techniques that he had often seen, Shikamaru, Kiba, Shino, and Rock Lee employ during their practice times.

However the room was just not as vacant as he had first suspected. He was about ten strokes into his practice when a soft yet mocking chuckle clearly was heard in the relative silence. Whipping around Naruto’s blood ran cold noting the last person he would have wanted to even see that morning. Dark onyx colored eyes set into a flawless pale face framed by equally dark hair… how he hated that face.

Oh… crud. How long was he there…? Naruto wondered watching the other boy and his eyes for any sign of what exactly the boy’s impression of this whole situation was. Surely in Somuhorm, it wasn’t common practice for princesses to dress in boys clothes and come down to attempt and train with swords… however his eyes didn’t change, they remained locked on Naruto’s own blue, knowing and mocking. Something like laughter that said I know something… and it may very well be something that you don’t know…

It irritated the blonde to no end.

“What?!” he snapped, surprised at how easily the boyish tone he had used earlier with Hinata just slipped out. Hopefully he hadn’t noticed, dang, if he wasn’t more careful he’d be in real trouble. He may already, in fact… this infuriating youth might already suspect. It was entirely likely.

“That’s… just not right.” The boy said swiftly crossing the distance between them, circling around behind Naruto. The blonde didn’t move, and remained mostly tense with most of his body held rigidly still, all except for his arms and hands which the youth had reached around and was now adjusting… his grip on the sword’s handle?

“Raise your elbow a little,” he instructed quietly, the same soft voice fluttering briefly against Naruto’s ear from where he currently stood behind the blue-eyed youth. “You should probably also turn your hips at more of an angle.”

Naruto felt his muscles tighten further when the youth’s hands dropped to his hips and gave a soft tug to correct the stance. His hands were warm, it seemed surprising at first, but, Naruto reasoned, the boy was sadly human, and humans did have blood and so their hands were often warm, like the rest of them… why did this thought not sound quite right?

“Your strikes are too scattered,” he noted, his hands coming up again to cover Naruto’s guiding the blonde’s hands and the blade down from the side, and then back up, before repeating the process in reverse. “It’s a V shape, if you attack from an angle, you have more chance of cutting into your opponent, if you do strictly horizontal or vertical attacks it won’t work as well.”

“What was wrong with how I was doing it before then?” Naruto asked, annoyed, the girl’s voice slightly seeping in, not sure if it was worth it, but somehow this didn’t seem like so much a hit on so much as he actually wanted him to learn.

“Your movement’s were flat, and too wide in range.” He stated, “you need to be more precise with your movements, otherwise you waste energy needlessly.”

“Right.” Naruko said. The dark-haired youth stepped back a bit and allowed Naruko to attempt to swing a few blows in the correct pattern.

“Good.” He noted with a nod, “now, if you’ve already got a man down, a vertical blow with a lot of power would be enough to finish them off. To put more power into a flat blow, you need to step forward to give it more solid strength behind it.”

Naruko nodded and with a vertical blow stepped forward, slashing downward. He shook his head, “no, you have to move your arms first before you step,” he said stepping around behind her again and covered her hands again with his. Guiding the hands slowly to move before prompting from behind to step forward enough to reach the imaginary target.

Stupid jerk… Naruko though sourly, trying in vain to ignore the warm body standing closely behind her. I can do this on my own! She wanted to say… but then she shouldn’t technically even be here, but the boy probably knew a lot more about it than she did, and if she could learn to fight she could put up with the jerk… for a while. But he didn’t have to stand so close either. Couldn’t he just instruct from where he’d been standing before? Probably an excuse to touch her; thankfully though he wasn’t being as scary as he’d been out on the balcony before Sakura saved her.

He stepped back after a few swings to allow Naruko to try on her own. He nodded before getting a box out of the corner, those hadn’t been used except for the training of the younger boys, a large collection of dully colored spheres. The boy had an amused look in his eyes when he glanced back up at the blonde, and she frowned, whatever it was he was planning it probably didn’t bode too well for her.

“This next exercise requires control and focus,” he said, tossing one of the spheres before catching it again. A smirk on his face now, oh great, Naruko though unhappily. “But I think you’re up to it.”

“You have to hit them, with your sword,” he explained. Naruko frowned, hit what, she wondered. “The balls.” He answered her quizzical look, that infuriating cross between a sneer and a smile still on his face.

Naruko nodded, not caring to say anything for the moment. At her affirmative of understanding he tossed the first towards her, she swung, but just managed to miss the projectile as it went whizzing past. “Relax, you’re arms are too tense.” He told her. Naruko let her muscles fall lax. She was surprised to find that without even meaning to she had been anticipating them to move, a dull ache now filtered along her arm as the blood was allowed past the now loose muscles.

He started again tossing the small sphere’s one after another, Naruko tried to keep her peripheral vision open, and though she missed some of the time she was delighted to find that she did now make some improvement. Two out of the five spheres he tossed she had hit.

A few more rounds, went by in relative silence, and when the bombardment suddenly stopped, Naruko watched him in question. A small smirk on his face now, great what now… Rather than launch another attack he only nodded to her in acknowledgement, a motion of approval.

Naruto couldn’t keep the shock from entering his eyes, but a moment later it was replaced by happiness as blue eyes glanced away. This guy acknowledges him for that… it wasn’t as if saying gee, your sewing designs are really unique… it was different… fighting was what boys did… and if not perfect he was at least getting to do a correct practice. The whole exercise had been kind of fun, especially since now he knew he was doing parts correctly.

The sound of another blade sliding from the rack on the other side of the room drew his face back up. Why was he getting a sword? “Care for a light spar?” he asked approaching again. Okay… before had been comfortable, but now Sasuke looked predatory again… and spar? Already? He barely knew anything… didn’t he? But he’d said light…

“Don’t worry I’ll go easy on you,” Sasuke said, and Naruto scowled… he didn’t want to be gone ‘easy on’ he was a guy too even if no one else knew. But he didn’t know that much either…

“Come on, not scared are you, kitty-cat?” he teased, there was an underlying emotion beneath the mocking tones, but Naruto didn’t care to pay any further attention to that.

“Of course not.” He growled, trying to keep it a feminine growl and failing miserably. Not that he really cared or was paying attention to his voice right now.

Lunging in quickly, there wasn’t much distance between them, and he easily was close enough to land a blow. Actually landing one was another matter entirely. The boy’s lanky-ness must somehow really help with speed somehow. Because every time Naruto got close enough and brought the blade down on a limb or otherwise, he struck the wood of the floor as Sasuke’s body whipped around his own somehow and he made it to the other side of the room.

Naruto cursed under his breath angrily as again he swung and contacted with the floorboards, what was worse was that Sasuke hadn’t even been trying to hit him…

“You’re not even doing anything!” Naruto complained swinging around to face Sasuke at where he had run to, the same infuriating smirk, still on his face. Lunging forward, not so surprisingly Sasuke managed to dodge.

“Guess I’ll fix that,” his soft whisper brushed past Naruto’s ears, before warm fingers sifted through the hair at the back of his neck and brushed along the backside of his neck, the touch leaving a trail of fire across the small place of skin. He hissed and thrashed away, just as Sasuke escaped the danger area, his hands trailing through Naruto’s hair. Since he did so, a few pale strands clinging loosely to the pale boy’s fingers.

Naruto felt the blush as he put his hand back to rub at his neck trying to rub out the skin’s nerves that were suddenly flaring to life where the other boy had touched him. “You jerk! Not like that!” he ranted angrily; Sasuke only chuckled in amusement at the response.

In only steps Sasuke had come forward, an overhead offensive strike, Naruto blocked, and the clang of metal sent vibrations though the metal to his arms. His very bones receiving an uncomfortable sting it seemed. Sasuke’s blows however kept raining, Naruto had no idea about how to get away, if he ducked and tried to run he’d leave his neck open, but surely if he stayed he’d get cut up anyway. A hit near his hand made him lose his grip on the sword and it clattered to the floor, and to avoid the blade now at his neck, Naruto backed up, until he could go no further and his back was at the wall.

He glared at the boy, he wasn’t smirking… his expression was unreadable… he wouldn’t kill him, would he…? No… but even if he was, there was no reason to show any fear to this jerk. “You lasted 30 seconds. Five after I went of the offensive.” He stated, “I went easy on you. Since you’re not that skilled yet.”

Thirty seconds? Felt like longer than that for some reason…

Sasuke lowered the sword, setting it aside up against the rack nearby. Naruto felt his shoulders relax, a breath released in some relief. Offensive Sasuke was scary…

Naruto’s body tensed again when suddenly the dark-eyed youth stepped in closer, now instead of the metal sword it was his body that was pinning him to the wall. And panic filled Naruto… quickly she shoved him away, a surprising show of strength on her part. Sasuke looked slightly ruffled in any case. Dark eyes for some reason seemed sad as they studied him.

Cautiously this time, he stepped closer, and Naruto’s heart rate started to speed up, again the youth was standing so close… near emotionless dark eyes studied angry blue, and again, slowly he leaned his head down to the side of his head. Naruto didn’t give an inch, and the dark bangs brushed against the side of his cheek as Sasuke’s cool breath puffed lightly over his neck, and still the blonde refused to move.

Half of him wanted to run, the other wanted to pull the boy to him again, and this was what confused him. He hated this guy… he was freakish… had he somehow come to respect him within the time they spent here training him?

Sasuke pulled away after a moment and left the training room. Naruto stood still, struggling to process what had just happened here… he had thought he’d pushed him away soon enough, he shouldn’t have felt anything too incriminating…

Jerk… left another odd situation. Naruto fumed silently as he took his fallen sword and Sasuke’s propped one sliding them back into their rightful places before heading upstairs. Every movement seemed slow and sluggish, and he was glad he didn’t run into anyone during the whole process. It seemed to take hours and through every minute his fury started to burn brighter and brighter, a slow approaching tidal wave of anger, and yet he mostly had no idea why he was so angry. He just knew he was and didn’t care how or why for the moment, he’d have to wonder later… if he remembered.

Laying down on his bed, the room was vacant, and that was good. Pulling the pillow up over his head, it effectively muffled an outraged scream that would have otherwise erupted from the blonde. THAT JERK!! Naruto seethed angrily, not yet feeling quite safe enough to let go of the pillow.

It was because his head was buried under a pillow that effectively kept the blonde from noticing the red fox that leaped in his window muttering to itself. “Stupid racoon…” the fox said under his breath agitatedly scratching behind his left ear with a hind paw. Imbecilic thing he had been hunting he’d almost caught it, but somehow the moronic beast had managed to flee to its burrow.

Sadly it would have simply been too much work to dig the thing out of it’s home. He went easy on it, he told himself as he shook his fur out of the imaginary semblance of the disgusting bile of failure. He didn’t *have* to hunt for food anymore anyway.

Noticing the blonde currently laying on his stomach, head buried under a fluffy comforter, the fox immediately forgot his all but failed hunt and hopped up onto the bed to see what was ailing the boy.

Shifting his physical form to one of a human he poked the pillow lightly, “Naruto…?” he asked, then when the boy didn’t move slowly started to pry away the pillow. He succeeded with no resistance from the blonde, blue eyes rimmed with red, he hadn’t been crying, but he was obviously distressed. What had happened while he was gone?

“Naruto… what happened?” he asked, an ‘ are you okay’ was hardly necessary as he was blatantly not okay. Naruto’s eyes shifted up to the fox, the distressed anguish in his eyes, made a part of Kuubi clench painfully, “Hey cheer up, you’re starting to hurt me too…”

Naruto turned away, something so lightly muttered the fox couldn’t hear it, leaning closer he heard it again. “…I hate him…” the blonde whispered.

“Sasuke?” Kyuubi asked curious as to what it was that the boy could have possibly done now to cause his keeper so much inner pain.

A knock at the door startled both fox and boy, “Princess Naruko?” came the soft askance. “Lord Jiraiya is requesting your presence.”

Naruto stayed silent turning away from the door, burying his head in his hands. “Naruko?” the voice came again, slightly worried by the silence.

“I’ll be there in a minute.” Kyuubi called back to the girl in the blonde boy’s voice.

“Oh…” she paused, “I just thought I’d warn you before you went, this meeting also included the prince of Somuhorm.” Kyuubi saw the muscles across the blonde boy’s back visibly tighten. The soft footsteps of the girl retreated from the room.

“Kyuubi… I’m sorry…” Naruto started, “but can you go… instead of me…?”

At any other time Kyuubi might have laughed and teased the boy about it, and tell him to suck it up and do it himself, but after the way Naruto looked now, and the pain in the fox’s chest…

“Of course.” Kyuubi assured the youth, as he slid off the bed and choosing one of Naruko’s dressed let it slide on before strutting out.

He was extremely curious now, he wanted to see this boy that the blonde hated so much, and could cause him so much suffering.

Maybe he could eat him…

Entering the room, Naruko didn’t say anything until she was seated, keeping her eyes firmly focused on Jiraiya and no one else. The man looked uneasy, and Tsunade stood behind him, looking beyond pissed. “You requested this meeting, Uncle Jiraiya?”

“Yes.” He nodded. Naruko glanced at Ino and Hinata who sat on her other side, but both shook their heads, so they had no idea what this was all about either. “I just managed to tell Tsunade a little while ago.” He risked a glance at the irate woman, yes she was still fuming. Jiraiya shifted his hands on the table uneasily, glancing at Sasuke, who sat on his side opposite from Tsunade, looking slightly bored with the affair. “And uh… yeah…”

Silence followed. “He has already agreed to engaged you, Princess Naruko, to the prince heir of Somuhorm.” Tsunade explained for him, since the old guy lost the nerve.

Ino and Hinata’s eyes went wide, glancing back at their mistress. Besides being shocked themselves it was sure there would be some kind of raging outburst along the lines of ‘WHAT!!?’, but there was none. Tsunade, Jiraiya, Hinata, and Ino watched the blonde girl for any sign of anger, but there was none.

Kyuubi in fact had not even noticed what was being said, since Jiraiya had gotten so uneasy and hadn’t seemed to keen to say anything or meaning very soon, he had let his eyes wander to the dark-haired boy who Naruto so seemed to hate.

Gods the boy was tasty… in more than one way. He had been studying for about a minute so far, noting the smooth porcelain texture of his pale skin, dark hair contrasting so beautifully with the boy’s pallor. His form was lithe and he had long arms and legs, he was a very pleasing sight in the fox’s opinion.

If he were a bit older the fox might’ve considered making some sort of excuse to drag the boy off somewhere, and postpone the meeting, to take a kind of action that he was sure Naruto would never approve of. But then the boy had been very biased against anything but being straight. But then who was he to try and tell him otherwise, the poor boy was made to live as a girl, of course he more or less hated his own gender.

At the continued silence from Naruko, Sasuke’s eyes slid open and his face turned slightly to look at the blonde, startled a bit by the strange look in the clear blue eyes. Eyes dark like black holes, they seemed to suck the light in leaving no reflection off the eyes. Again the boy was beautiful.

“What…?” he finally asked, finally able to note the other stares in the room, upon a brief glance around the room, since he had seen the boy’s eyes. He was about to try and explain that he didn’t hear, but Jiraiya started speaking again.

“Uh… well… yeah, I agreed this morning actually to the prince’s treaty, I even signed it…” he explained, “you, Naruko, Princess of Konoha, are currently engaged to the prince heir of Somuhorm.”

Kyuubi felt his veins run cold. Well yikes… maybe Naruto should have come. He thought, then again absolutely not the boy might have just decided to destroy the place if he knew this… he still might if he found out. Either way… Naruto was kind of screwed… and not kind of. Naruto was screwed. There was no other way of looking at it… then looking over the double meaning of his own thoughts, Kyuubi had to hold back the smirk that threatened to break out when his head was suddenly filled with pleasing, but to some disturbing, images.

“The contract is in fact irreversible,” Jiraiya continued with more confidence now, seeing that Naruko wasn’t about to start screaming and threatening to have them all castrated for doing this to her. “Because I signed it after all. It’s completely legal I’m afraid, because I am the steward and am technically in charge instead of you, until your married anyway.”

Jiraiya paused when he realized the evil stare he was getting from the girl, Kyuubi didn’t have to work hard to project anger, in fact his anger he found more effective than Naruto’s destructive fit, people merely ran away from the destruction zone with that. Instead it seemed to fill humans with a general fear of everything, it shut them up, and often had them running on the opposite direction for hours, if not cowering in their fear, attempting to find some way to appease his anger. It had worked for millenias after all.

“I don’t believe any of us were very happy with this arrangement, Prince Sasuke,” Tsunade started, “you strike me as a reasonable young man, so I’m sure you know full well that this was an out of bounds agreement. It was done without the consent of her highness; it wasn’t even a proposal to herself in person. It was a contract, like the signing of a mansions’ lease.”

“Yes it was. But I’m afraid that the contract is still valid, despite your bartering.” Sasuke told her calmly. “That is how our government works does it not?”

“Very well, but you realize she is only fourteen years of age, if you were to come back five years from now, you would find an appropriate bride,” Tsunade advised.

“I’m sorry, but this was my purpose in coming here to begin with, reversing the answer or contract is out of the question,” Sasuke told her. “And there was nothing in the contract specifying an age for the bride.”

Tsunade bit her tongue back angrily. There had to be another loophole somewhere where she could save the boy, but nothing was coming to mind. Was there no way out?

“If it is irreversible,” started Naruko in a calm voice with an underlying cold tone, her eyes still laced with one of the coldest glares she’d been capable of in her fourteen years, “Jiraiya… you will take full responsibility for your actions. If I have no choice, then there is no choice.”

Jiraiya cowered slightly with the thought of what taking responsibility for his actions might mean… especially considering those eyes… he had never seen the girl with so evil a look before.

“This is unfortunate, but it is simple what has happened.” Naruko continued in a level tone; still laced somewhere with a poison, and everyone in the room could easily hear it. “I am glad that you have finally taken this opportunity to inform me as to what you agreed to without my permission or Tsunade’s.”

“We will be leaving in the morning,” Sasuke noted as Naruko stood from her seat. Blue eyes settled over it, cold to everyone else’s senses, there was something in her the boy sensed that meant danger.

Nodding to the youth, Naruko turned and headed out of the room. Hinata and Ino followed closely behind her, the coldness disappeared instantly once the girl was on the other side of the door and walking down the hall. “I’m amazed Naruko…” Ino said as she hurried to catch up to her mistress falling into step beside her.

“Yes… I don’t think any of us expected you to take it so well.” Hinata agreed, walking up beside Naruko on her other side.

“Really?” Naruko wondered idly, “I hardly thought I took it well.” Maybe compared to Naruto’s regular outbursts he took it well. “That pompous white-haired pervert decided my fucking future without consulting me! I really don’t think I took it well!”

Ino backed away a little when Naruko’s voice rose a tone in anger, “well yes, but compared to how you usually are… I think you could have done worse I guess…”

Naruko sent Ino a withering glare, though it wasn’t even half as concentrated as the glares Jiraiya received. The fox had never liked that human. With an irritated groan, Naruko started for her room, “I just need some alone time.” She said, Ino and Hinata stopped at the base of the stairs, if the girl needed to be alone, which no doubt she did, they didn’t really want to stop her. Whatever she did now out of anger, would probably be completely justified.

When Kyuubi was starting up the stairs, and opening the door to Naruko’s room, he had completely been planning to tell Naruto this horrible development…

“So what’d the old guy want?” Naruto asked tiredly, still laying on his bed, although now he was facing upwards, lying on his back.

All thoughts of telling Naruto left his head… he had planned to, he really had… but uh… it wouldn’t be wise to disclose this information just yet, right away. “Oh… just, we’ll be taking a trip in the morning.” Kyuubi said, sitting down on the edge of the bed after shedding the gown, allowing to fall over the back of a chair unceremoniously.

“Really? Where? How come?” Naruto asked, curious. Kyuubi bit his tongue a moment to think, he had really been hoping the boy wouldn’t ask those questions…

“It’s odd we’d be going on a trip,” Naruto noted, “are we leaving Konoha?”

“…Yes.” Kyuubi answered, knowing that this admittance would probably provoke further questions from the boy. But thankfully it had the opposite effect and the fox was saved.

“Awesome…” Naruto grinned. He’d needed to get out of here, a trip was just what he needed, maybe they were going to go visit the Fire Country or the Kingdom of Mist, either would be fun. Both of those kingdoms still had families, and the Mist country had one son, who thankfully had never seemed interested in Naruko, and the Fire country had fifteen girls, the heir girl was already married too.

“I’m getting out of Konoha, who cares why or how, yipee!” Kyuubi could just see this thought going about the blonde’s head. Changing back into a fluffy fox he hopped on the bed, and cuddled over on a pillow. He would of course be coming, but by the time the trip actually started… things could be bad… ah well. He’d deal with that when it happened. It was a question of when, because it would, no doubt about that much.

He brought this mess on himself… but Naruto wouldn’t be too angry if he told him tomorrow, would he? He’d waited almost all of today after all… what would another twelve hours mean?

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