Grace under Fire

A/n: Greeting people who read fan fictions! I have an new fic to waste my time on once again!lol I’ve been thinking about this a lot and it has been cramming my brain, and it hurts, bad! TT.TT This fic is based on the book A Rose in Winter by…um…Kathleen something….uh…I forgot! -.-‘

Anyways! Read on if you’re willing to waste your time with this time-waster!lol Enjoy! Er…that is…if you can…

Dedicated to: wapulos. She’s a good friend of mine, and I wouldn’t be making this fic if it wasn’t for her! Jeez, I sound like I just won a Grammy! Weee! A Grammy! Yay for me! Not! XD

Disclaimer: So far, there hasn’t been an announcement about me inheriting Naruto, so yeah…I think I’ll stick to writing fanfictions without owning anything, except maybe the plot.

Chapter One: The Option

BOOM!

“There she blows,” A silver-haired nin whistled out from the Hokage Tower, watching the intimidating pillar of dusty smoke ascend to the sky.

“It’s an expected reaction from her,” the blonde woman commented glancing down at the nin sitting on the window ledge of her office.

“Are you really sure about this, Tsunade-sama?” he asked craning his head to look at his respected Hokage.

He’s always looking after her, isn’t he? She sighed meeting his solemn gaze. “It’s not like we have a choice, Kakashi. The Hyuuga heiress is unable to carry out this task and given her status, she’s the only person left for the job.”

“Isn’t there another way?” The copy-nin asked just as another earth wracking ‘boom’ exploded from the distance.

A heavy sigh came out as a response to the nin’s question.

.:flash:.

The grim silence around the stone room was deafening. They all stared at her unable to find their voices to utter a single word. Her voice seemed to echo around the room distressing every soul situated in it.

This…was not possible…was it?

They shifted their gaze to the Hyuuga heiress who was just as mortified as anyone in the room. Her eyes plastered itself on the wooden table. She couldn’t look at them. She couldn’t look at her father. Tears were starting to well up in her beautiful pearl orbs…

“I…” she trembled trying her best to find her voice as she tried to summon all her strength and courage left. She loved him…that’s all she knew right then…and that she couldn’t leave him. She loved him too much.

“Hinata,”

She cringed. Her father’s voice was tight. He was trying to suppress his anger. She knew she had shamed him. She dipped her head lower, guilt washing over like a tidal wave.

“Hinata-sama…is this true…?” One of the Hyuuga council members asked her in complete disbelief.

She swallowed, still keeping her eyes glued to the table. “I…I’m sorry…father…” she squeaked.

Hiashi stood up from his seat abruptly and started for the door without a word. Finally, the salty tears fell, cascading down her creamy pale cheeks. I’m so sorry…

“Hyuuga-sama!” a firm voice called out stopping the Hyuuga master from his tracks just as he reached for the doors.

“Sakura-san!” Shizune gasped trying to stop her fellow apprentice from being hasty. One slipup was enough. They couldn’t afford anymore conflict.

“Hyuuga-sama, listen to me.” Sea foam orbs flashed brightly with determination.

“Haven’t you said enough for today, Haruno-san?” Hinata’s father grunted in a gruff voice, his back still facing them.

“I haven’t even started yet,” the pink-haired kunoichi responded coolly.

Tsunade frowned, unhappy of the current events. The last thing they needed was to upset Hyuuga Hiashi. “Sakura, that’s enough—”

“Hinata loves him, Hyuuga-sama. She’s pregnant with his child because she loves him. Surely you understand that. Please let her marry him!”

Hinata looked up at her pink-haired friend, surprise written all over her features. “Sakura-chan…”

The door closed shut…and the Hyuuga Head’s faint footsteps were they only resonance they heard from him.

- - - - - - -

“Marriage?!”

BOOM!

Naruto’s clear purplish-azure orbs grew larger seeing the large crater implanted in the middle of the training ground. Quickly snapping out of his daze, he jumped backwards, expertly dodging four razor-sharp kunais that flew his way. “Sa—”

“MARRIAGE?!”

BOOM!

Another crater erupted from the ground.

“Are they crazy?!”

BOOM!

BOOM!

Smoke, debris, craters came one after another.

And another…

BOOM!

And another…

Okay. This has got to stop.

Now.

“Sakura-chan! Calm down!” the blonde shinobi called amidst the falling debris and insane shrieking. He couldn’t see very well due to the dusty smoke. If there was one thing a blonde learned throughout the years of being a leaf shinobi, it was never ever, no matter what, aggravate a Haruno Sakura. Especially a PMSing Haruno Sakura. Jeez. What did Tsunade-baa-chan tell her to cause her to act so demented anyway? Marriage? To who? Who was getting married?

“Calm down? Calm down? You want me to calm DOWN?! Naruto, when you’re practically ordered to marry someone by your Hokage, THIS IS CALM!”

“Ahhh!” The poor Kyuubi vessel cried out when, through the decreasing smoke, he saw his beloved Sakura-chan charge towards him at full force, her deadly fist pulsed with uncontrollable power. His already very wide eyes bulged out of their sockets. He definitely didn’t want to be Sakura’s target practice…beaten to a pulp by his teammate was never an option to begin with anyway.

Note to self: Remember to never ask Sakura-chan to train with me when she’s in Destroy-Everything-I-Come-Across mode ever again!

“SAKURA-CHANNN!!”

BOOM!

.:flash:.

“Sakura, what you did at the meeting was reckless and uncouth.” Tsnade bit, eyes piercing through her young apprentice.

“But Tsunade-shishou—”

“Enough! I know your intentions were for a good cause Sakura, but haven’t you thought about your position?” she was reprimanding her like a mother would.

“I know Tsunade-shishou, but they couldn’t just do that to Hinata! I had to tell them that she was—” Sakura tried her best to explain. Didn’t they see she’d be miserable? If she didn’t do anything at that time, who knows Hinata would be married to a guy she didn’t even love! And then where would that have left Naruto…?

“Hinata is a princess. The heiress of the Hyuuga clan. It was her responsibility, Sakura.” She pointed-out.

“…” Sakura looked down. She had a point…

“But, due to your abrupt revelation, Hyuuga Hinata was spared. However, we also had to revise our plans…”

Sakura looked up at her teacher, wide-eyed. “Does that mean Hinata’s free? That she isn’t going to marry some bastard anymore?”

Tsunade nodded, sighing heavily. “Yes. Due to Konoha’s current relationship with Sound, Cloud and Rock, you can’t really expect us to betroth a pregnant heiress to marry the heir of a rising clan, can you? It would only make matters worse. It was a good thing you told us…but…” she trailed off, wearily eyeing Sakura with her glazed over amber orbs, a frown embracing her features.

“…Tsunade-shishou…? What’s wrong?”

“Hinata won’t be marrying anyone except Naruto…”

A smile slowly crept up her lips. “Really?”

She nodded. “Yes. But you are.”

.:flash:.

BOOM!

“Maybe coming to see how Sakura’s taking it wasn’t such a good idea, was it?” Jiraya croaked as he held on to the bark of the tree he was standing on. He, Tsunade, Shizune, and Kakashi stood on the trees surrounding the training ground watching Sakura, Sai and Naruto train together…er…okay. It was more like Sakura trying to demolish the very earth she was standing on as Naruto dodged, whether it was Sakura or the rubble, for his life while Sai criticized, only provoking their pink-haired human destruction machine to obliterate anything that came her way.

Yep. Typical Team Kakashi. A weird bunch…yet the best. It was always irony at its best with them…Especially to a certain pink-haired kunoichi who was loving her single life…and then having it crash downhill when the person her friend was supposed to get married to gets betrothed to her. Yep. Simple irony for simple Haruno Sakura.

Why was life always so sadistic?

BOOM!

“Actually, she’s taking this rather well…” Tsunade answered, her voice shaking. But it wasn’t shaking because she was scared or anything. The Hokage wasn’t afraid of anything…well anything except maybe the debt collectors…but that wasn’t the point. The point was her voice was shaking because the tree she was on was shaking.

Why? Because the tree was shaking because the ground it was on was shaking.

Why? Because a certain Haruno-gone-demented couldn’t keep her fists to herself…Poor training ground. Poor forest. Poor Naruto…

“I bet.” The ero-sannin looked down at his student, feeling sorry for him… At this rate, Naruto will never make it to his own wedding! And something tells me, Hiashi isn’t going to take it lightly…

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” The slug sannin glared at the Icha Icha Paradise Author.

“I mean I can’t say I don’t know how my student feels. You were just as bad…maybe even worse…” The ero-sannin shivered recalling the ‘good old days’.

The blonde Hokage narrowed her eyes at him dangerously. “Oh? Do you want to find out?”

Jiraya sweat dropped. “Eh…I’d rather not…”

“Now, now Tsunade-sama…” Shizune cut in raising her hand about in a calming motion before her teacher got into the action…older version… “I’m sure Sakura-san’s going to calm down…”

BOOM!

“…soon…” she sweat dropped.

Kakashi chuckled at the scene displayed before him. Two bickering senior citizens, a frenzied kunoichi, a beaten to a pulp groom-to-be—even though said groom didn’t have any idea he was going to be waiting at the altar soon enough—and an over criticizing artist fueling the frenzied kunoichi’s destruction fetish…Well, everything seems to be normal.

Right. Normal. This was normal for Hatake Kakashi. Heh. Go figure. And with everything still at its place, he turned back to his little orange book and read his eyes out. Yes…normal…

“How do you think is Sakura-san going to react when she sees her husband-to-be?” Shizune mused out loud pausing both sannins and the copy-nin from what they were doing.

A pondering silence soon took over the four shinobis in the trees and left the noise to Sakura’s screams and ‘booms’ and Naruto’s desperate cries of agony.

“Sakura’s a loyal girl. She’ll deal with it…someway…” The ero-sannin said after a while.

Tsunade nodded. “You’re right. She’s a shinobi and my apprentice. She won’t let her village down.”

“She won’t last.” Kakashi’s calm voice stood out from the rest.

Somehow…they knew it was true. Even they haven’t seen the heir she was to be married to yet. How were they so sure, that she’d hold out?

…then again, how could they be so sure she wouldn’t?

But even though the hesitation in the air was evident, Tsunade wasn’t one to give up on her apprentice easily. She had complete faith in her. “Of course she will! This is like a life long mission for her! She wouldn’t let us down!”

“Realistically…we don’t know that…” the copy-nin pointed out solemnly. He knew Sakura. And from what he knew, she was a proud girl. Not one to be looked down upon…and he knew, from extensive research that the clan she was to be married in was very strict when it came to traditions. And he knew some of those traditions wouldn’t suit her former pink-haired student well. Especially when she it came to her feministic ways…

Narrowing her bright amber eyes at him, she dared to challenge the renowned shinobi as a confident smirk graced her lips. “Do I hear a wager coming along then?”

“Eh?” Kakashi stared at the Hokage, the greatest gambler he’s ever known, blankly. He laughed sheepishly “No thank—”

“Okay!” chirped a cheerful Jiraya who was grinning from ear-to-ear.

He sweat dropped. I should have known this was coming!

A/n: It’s soooo short! Ack! I usually make longer chapters but I think I’m losing my touch…-sigh- whatever! Anyway, other than this being short, there are a few other things I need to apologize for…like it being so crappy and boring and idiotic and boring and pathetic and mind-numbingly terrible...and boring! Gah! Sorry. I tried! –cries- I failed you Sasuke-kunnnnnnn! –sniff, sniff- I'm SOOOORRRY! -tackles sasuke to the ground-

-sigh-But I guess if you’ve come this far…I want to say thanks for putting up with it anyway!lol Thanks for reading!