[September 24] [Naruto] On Meeting the In-Laws and Other Causes of Wedding Night Jitters

[swollenfoot.livejournal.com]

Title: On Meeting the In-Laws and Other Causes of Wedding Night Jitters

Day/Theme: September 24 / Almost gothic

Series: Naruto

Character/Pairing: Sakura / sasusaku

Rating: G

In a land called Fire, there was a village named after the tree’s most numerous attribute. True enough, the aforementioned village was concealed by the thickness of the forests that took root within, about, and beyond its borders. These ancient trees were slow to grow, as if spending long hours of the day ruminating on profound subjects, sagacious musings on the truths of life often overlooked by the more passionate and more hotheaded human beings; but steady was this growth and security they gave the village, for few sane forces dared mount assaults against their towering walls lest the beasts that lurked about the leafy sentinels devour their mortal numbers. The verdant village flourished and acquired strength that demanded respect, and its ninja inhabitants were keen and unmatched far and wide.

As with any centers of human civilization, however, disasters struck and wreaked havoc on the wooden metropolis. (Truly, though ‘village’ was appended upon its name, the slapdash arrangement of various buildings of either residential or commercial purpose, plazas, streets, farms, and other such edifices, could be called nothing else but a city.) The people remained stalwart and unyielding, subsisting upon hope and love and the inexplicable nature of such abstract terms despite the unkind fates that besieged one generation after another, for their brilliant leaders guided them well through turbulent times with their clear vision and selfless sacrifices. A nine-tailed demon fox, a necrophiliac snake-summoning traitor, and a clique of misguided power-hungry warmongers now things of the past, peace once again thrived in Konohagakure no sato.

Life, as always, went on, and the motions of human evolution strutted on in its speed of tortoises. Man joined with woman to replenish the population with their offspring, and they gathered sustenance from benevolent Nature, the mother of all. The sands of time flowed and with it crying infants became irrepressible toddlers; toddlers became inquisitive children, children became insecure adolescents, adolescents became produtive adults, and adults dwindled serenely into the twilight of their years.

Our tale started when a man of twenty and one autumns and a woman of twenty and one springs were wedded one mild winter morning. They had endured long hardships before this happy day had come to pass and great was their joy now that they were pledged to keep the other’s happiness and health. Taking leave from their multitude of family and well-loved friends, they walked the path that led to their future, and though it was a little dusty from lack of rain, this path was straight and sure and brought them speedily to the young man’s ancestral home.

For a moment the young woman was filled with fleeting trepidation. Ah, but the said house, looming and beautiful in its dark sullenness, was rumored to be infested with the spirits of those long dead. She feared the story so, for the approval of her kinsmen by marriage was foremost in her mind. Also among her worries was the clan’s opinion of their remaining seed. She was, after all, his chosen partner in resurrecting the clan (of course, that was not to be taken literally, or so she hoped.) Their remaining seed had not always had an admirable life, had not consistently taken the righteous roads. She wondered if his dead family were of the same stand as she in disapproval of his vindictive odyssey (well, she had forgiven him and accepted even his most grievous deeds with all her heart so it was no issue to her, his past); he did abandon village and friendship and everything else sacred to seek power from the aforementioned snake-summoning necrophiliac for vengeance’s sake and the object of his retribution was his wayward brother who years before had turned his genius talents upon his unsuspecting clan and decimated each member, excepting his promising younger brother, her husband, whose psychology had been deeply distorted by the traumatic experience.

No, she was not fond of possibly the most powerful forebear of Uchiha, the one named after that ungainly animal, the weasel.

Her husband held her hand as they walked wordlessly past the threshold and into the first room.

“This was where I found my parents dead with my brother standing over them,” he murmured in an almost reverent tone.

She nodded solemnly, only glad that there was no trace of hatred dripping from his words.

The hall they entered into next was dark and awash with shadows. (For the life of her, she could not form a process in her mind on how such shadows came into being with such strange and awesome shapes; there was no light but the one floating in from the previous room and no furniture present with such figures.) Her beloved must have detected the stirring of nervousness in her breast, and he squeezed the slim hand he held in his. She directed a bright smile at him, beaming with the complacent bliss that flooded her being, and he smiled back at her a ghost of a smile.

Next they climbed up to the second floor, bringing themselves much nearer to their endmost goal that night. The stairway creaked and croaked at each step they made, sending shivers of unholy fear down her spine. They unerringly reminded her of the dying, and being as she was a woman both of medicine and of assassination, well-versed in the final stages of a human being’s demise, be it an event she brought about or failed to stop, she was very familiar to this chilling sound. Her companion seemed unaffected and she took heart in his steady bearing, feigning a nonchalance to hide her escalating terror. (The Uchiha ghosts were lurking behind her, she just knew it, nipping at her heels with their invisible little teeth with relish. Oh, would they have fun with the newest member of their family! Sasuke was a serious child; he wouldn’t have been entertained by chains clanking or piteous late-night moaning. She, however, was new and very much fair game in their haunting expeditions.)

Finally, they reached the bedroom, and her husband (what a thrill even thinking the term brought her!) switched on the electric lights. The room was illuminated by the healthy glow of incandescent yellow, and basking under that warmth, she forgot all the anxieties that hounded her thoughts. The Uchiha ghosts were naught but figments of overactive minds of misinformed, impressionable children. Sasuke had spent years haunting his domicile alone, but that was about to change very soon. She was there now and then more will come in the future... who knew?

Tentatively, he helped her untie the complicated mass of her obi. Then into the bathroom, she shyly went, to prepare for sleep and other such indulgences. Her clothes already were neatly arranged in the closet, side by side with his garments. She changed into her bedclothes, a flimsy material that boasted of her slender girlish figure and whispered constantly against her body till her skin underneath was sensitized and rendered a healthy rosy flush.

When she came out, he was already changed in his sleeping attire and was tucked in bed with the thick covers hugging him to his neck. Envious of the warmth he must be relishing, she hopped into bed as well.

As she did so, a terrible thing happened.

The lights shut off by themselves.

And she screamed with absolute terror. The Uchiha ghosts! They were real and they were coming for her! Oh, trust them to be so dramatic and theatrical with their entrance. Hideous, hideous, they would crawl from their graves to meet their sole survivor’s bride. Be it in welcome or be it in vindictive rage, she would not be able to stand such a confrontation. Surely the disturbing meeting would effectively rend her from sanity. Surely she would lose her mind! And then what of her poor husband? He would be wife to a gibbering mindless creature. And oh, oh, oh, she was so scared! And she shut her eyes and curled up right there were she had been standing, hoping it would go quickly, hoping it was done now.

A cold wind came from nowhere and whipped past her, blowing her rose-tinted hair aside to slither past her neck and ears insidiously. Up her spine came trickling that prickly sensation that attested to the presence of the paranormal. They were coming! They really were. And they were very, very near her now...

“Sakura.”

Great was her fear when she heard her name spoken thus. What would their pronouncement bring? Would they say, welcome, dear child, you are now one of us: dead. And they would cackle upon the fact that she had died from sheer fright—wasn’t that just absolutely ridiculous and unspeakably pathetic?!

“Sakura, what are you doing?”

Sak—what? What was she doing? Well, she was much preoccupied with cowering in fright, thank you very much. Now, if they would just get on with the ripping her sanity to pieces part then—

“I forgot to pay the electric company.”

She opened her eyes to darkness. Vaguely, she could make out Sasuke peering at her from the foot of their bed.

“W-what did you say?” she asked.

“I said all those wedding preparations made me forget to pay for electricity,” he repeated rather testily. “Sorry,” he added in a mumble.

“Oh.” Sakura sat up, giddy with relief. “Oh, don’t be sorry for anything, Sasuke-kun. Gosh.”

“Okay then...” Her husband said. “Well...?”

“Well, what?” She was too exhilarated by her bout of silliness to do anything more than stand around grinning.

Sasuke grumbled something.

“Oh. Oh yes.”Sakura became nervous again at that point, but for an entirely different reason. Shaking from her toes to her pink hair, she padded silently to the side of the bed and sneaked in under the covers. Rather promptly, she forgot about vindictive ghosts, gothic romance novels, and other such silliness the rest of the night.

Until, that is, breakfast the next morning, when Sasuke casually that mentioned his mother “likes” how Sakura prepared the miso.

~23:24