Arranged Marriage AU RP [PT 1]
Naruto woke up with a funny feeling that morning; everyone was asleep. He was the only one awake in his household. Since it was the most important day of his life he found himself savoring it, this one last morning he had to be free, single. Alive.
Today was his wedding day, the day he finally said I do and tied the knot and ended his streak of being a bachelor. Today he was about to annex the name Uchiha to the end of Uzumaki.
Uchiha... Sasuke. His groom to be.
It was a strange sort of paralyzing fear that swept through his lower extremities and spiraled upwards to his brain, a freeing plague like feeling that made him want to vomit and run away at the same time. He thought he had more time.. He expected a traditional wedding of bells and whistles, to a woman. Ehh, Naruto didn't really see himself as the married type.. let alone to a man. He had no choice, seeing as how the two clans needed to be tied together and neither side had a daughter to spare.. War was coming, sides were being negotiated; it was unconventional but after weeks of agonizing over a solution this had been the final result. Get hitched and do whatever you want after. There was no shortage of women to have babies with. We just need a binding contract of sorts to move forward. The two of them, Naruto and Sasuke, might as well as be pigs on the auction block for all the importance their clans gave them. Kushina came in his room and gently broached the subject with him; please son, we aren't asking, try to see it as an opportunity to be with more women instead of being betrothed to one man. He's not too bad, he hails from a prominent clan and happens to be a very powerful ninja, with a powerful kekkai genkai to boot. How could the Uzumaki clan deny them this request?
Naruto's hand in marriage, that was all; a simple request. Nothing to be ashamed of. No biggie he was just a pawn.
Naruto thought it was ironic that no one asked him his preferences before agreeing without his consent; they just assumed he would be okay with using this contract as a front, in case he wanted to sleep around with women right after. Maybe he preferred men and was willing to get to know Sasuke before agreeing?
Oh there was no time; he was stuck with the one meeting they had where 200 other family and clan respectives were present. It was the most humiliating and awkward thing Naruto had ever experienced! To be introduced to a man.. With all these other witnesses present.. Ugh, and this Sasuke, he was so quiet and did the utmost of lifting his thick dark lashes to flick his eyes from Naruto's knees up finally to meet his curious gaze.. Once. That was it. After which he went back to pretending Naruto didn't exist.
That tiny window of about-to-be-stuck-with-each-other-for-life-so-let's-at-least-say-the-bare-minimum.. Was all the acknowledgement Naruto was allowed. See him? Your future groom? Good. Now back to the engagement ceremony.
(That was what it loosely was, an engagement. At least they were supplied with lots of Korean BBQ and sake to fill the head's of clans triumphant bellies. Naruto could barely eat.)
Naruto had never felt so.. Vulnerable and invisible, ever, as he did in those few hours.
They didn't even ask if he consented; his dad met with their clan head, Sasuke's dad, and agreed for him. The way his dad went to the market and debated with the butcher over a leg of lamb. Boneless vs fat content.
Throwing his legs down Naruto shuffled his feet into his sandals and thought about Sasuke.. Was he ever going to get along with him? Was there more to him than just his dashing, dark, intense gaze and striking cheekbones? He sounded kind of sullen..
As Naruto brushed his teeth he gazed at his reflection in the mirror... Pretty soon he would be sharing a bathroom, an apartment, a life.. With Sasuke. A complete stranger. He blinked, what if they hated each other?
