Chapter Text
Naruto gets stood up at his own wedding because—to be honest—that’s just how his luck runs. Orochimaru’s smile becomes increasingly calcified with each passing minute until in the end, he looks waxen, inhuman and grotesque with his pale skin.
The church is stifling. The windows are letting in all the sunlight but none of the breeze, and Naruto can hear his daughter making uneasy noises. His eyes drift over to Sakura, who is holding Kushina; he’d dressed Kushina in cotton for the day, knowing that the sun would be bright and the ceremony long, but he hadn’t anticipated the delay. She must be getting hungry. She will need a diaper change soon. He can see the bright red of her hair, and the occasional plump fist she raises or leg she kicks out before resettling again.
Kushina is a quiet child, but even she has limits to her patience. Any longer and she will start crying, and then what? It’s not like Naruto can abandon the altar and go to her. Sakura is more than capable of handling Kushina, but Lee is sitting to her right, holding Sarada in his lap, and Sarada looks like she might blow any minute now in this pressure cooker.
Naruto glances towards the heavy double doors, propped wide open now to let in the breeze—and maybe herald the groom’s arrival. If he chooses to show up.
Naruto makes sure that he does not fidget in the heavy drapings of his kimono for this occasion. He is wearing the Hatake tribal colors—ivory white with a slate gray sash—but the robes draped over his shoulders are Uzumaki orange. Kakashi adopted him when he was young, fulfilling a promise to Naruto’s absent father, but he is his mother’s son. On this day, his wedding day, he will not hide that about himself.
Iruka steps forward from to murmur, “You’re doing really well, Naruto.”
Naruto smiles at Iruka and tries to make it genuine. “Thanks, Iruka.”
He’d asked Iruka to officiate the ceremony, and here they are now, both stranded at the altar. But then again, what else was Naruto expecting? What was Kakashi expecting with this alliance? He is Konohagakure jinchuuruki, the demon vessel. He exists only to house the Nine-Tailed Demon; he was given the gift of a daughter to ensure that the Uzumaki bloodline would be continued—as his mother was given the gift of a child to raise and call her own—but that is the extent of his value.
Naruto will be the first to admit—he was the first to argue— that his value is not enough to buy the allegiance of Otogakure.
But Kakashi had persisted. They needed Otogakure’s allegiance because they share a vast northern border. Kakashi is weakened from a drawn-out war with Iwagakure, while Orochimaru is fighting battles of his own--the northern tribes within the borders of his country are fracturing, rising up against the warlord who claims to subjugate them under one banner. Orochimaru is a new warlord, still, just a decade into his reign, and he is beset by dissenters. He will need Kakashi’s aid when the time comes.
Orochimaru offered Kakashi men for the war against Iwagakure. Three hundred men. And in return? A show of good faith, a promise that Kakashi would one day return the favor when Orochimaru’s civil war eventually breaks out.
Marriage is the easiest way to demonstrate good faith. Kakashi has two adopted children of his own, but Sakura is already happily married to Lee. Their love blossomed when they were just teenagers, and Kakashi secured the marriage between their clans gladly. He knew Lee’s father, Gai; they were good friends growing up together. Now, Sakura and Lee have a three-year-old child together.
Naruto will not complain, and he will obey Kakashi because he will not give cause for Kakashi to be embarrassed in any way. Kakashi is Kage, and Naruto is a Kage’s son. That comes with responsibilities. All children have responsibilities to their clans; no marriage is agreed upon without approvals from clan elders, and Naruto happens to belong to the most important Clan in the Village.
But Naruto was hoping for a solitary life. He is fine alone, thank you very much, because he is the demon-vessel. His father apparently loved his mother— very, very much, Jiraiya will insist often—but he could not marry her (Naruto will wonder just how much his father loved his mother, if he couldn’t marry her; Namikaze Minato died in war when Naruto was born, so he never had the chance to ask).
Jinchuuruki’s do not get married. They are required by law to bear children so that the bloodline does not end, but in the history of the Uzumaki Clan, there has never been a marriage. Eleven generations, and not a single marriage. They die with no one but their child by their side (and just a single child, no more, because for the ritual that transfers the demon from one Uzumaki to another, there can never be more than one; the chakra of the demon will split and fracture if there is more than one option for a vessel).
This is the fate of a jinchuuruki. They are cursed. They are the harbingers of death and destruction.
Naruto accepted this fate when he was seven years old. It was an easy decision to accept because his mother promised him that one day, he, too, would have a child of his own to love and cherish. Like she loved and cherished him. You are the love of my life, she promised him, and one day, you will find the love of your life, when you have the next Uzumaki child.
He has found the love of his life. He has Kushina, a daughter birthed with a surrogate he never met, but will forever be grateful to. She is his, his alone, his blood and love. He named her after his own mother, because she has the same red hair as his mother, and sometimes, when she blinks up at him with her bright blue eyes and smiles, he thinks, That’s Mama’s smile.
He was ready to have a child because he had everything else he needed: a family, friends, inheritance, a guaranteed position as Sakura’s right-hand when she ascended the steps to become Kage herself. So Naruto waited, patient, until he was twenty-three before asking Kakashi for a surrogate to bear his child. What he didn’t anticipate was having to walk down the aisle so soon after Kushina’s arrival.
But of course, now that he is at the altar, he has no one at his side.
Naruto takes a deep breath. He’d warned Kakashi. He’d warned Jiraiya. He’d told anyone who would listen. No one, he said, will want to marry a jinchuuruki.
Times are changing, Hinata promised him, because she is one of his best friends and loves him unconditionally. Everyone else said the same thing, trying to cheer him up, because Naruto does not lack in nonsensically optimistic friends.
Even Kakashi and Sakua started to have faith. Jiraiya even said something inane about arranged marriages sometimes leading to love.
Naruto scoffs at the memory of Jiraiya’s optimism. “What a load of—”
“Naruto,” Iruka warns, and looks pointedly over Naruto’s shoulder. Naruto glances to see if the groom has finally arrived, but no, it’s Orochimaru getting to his feet to talk to Kakashi. They exchange some words, with Jiraiya huddled close by. A moment later, Tsunade joins them, and Naruto can’t help but smile at the look of fierce determination on her face. She is his Great Aunt; although she is Senju, she is related to the Uzumaki—her grandmother was an Uzumaki, but she was one of twins, and did not inherit the bloodline’s gift. After a few moments, Orochimaru turns to the crowd assembled—and what a crowd it is; the entire Village showed up for this event, a jinchuurki, marrying , has such a thing ever happened in Konohagakure’s storied history?
“Lords and ladies,” Orochimaru begins. His voice is smooth and even. It makes Naruto’s skin crawl. “I apologize for the delay of my captain. He is busy, as you can imagine, with the northern skirmishes.”
Kakashi takes over neatly. “Lord Orochimaru will stand in the groom’s place.”
Naruto takes another deep breath. He’d anticipated as much. It’s not an uncommon thing to do because at the end of the day, a marriage is about aligning two clans, not two people. The people getting married have nothing to do with it; it’s a treaty being signed by proxy. He’s surprised that Orochimaru didn’t propose this solution half an hour ago, when it became clear that the groom wasn’t just running ten minutes late, he wasn’t going to show up.
Orochimaru steps onto the dais fluidly, his cloak billowing behind him. He’s a tall man, lean, but there’s a danger about him. “Master Naruto,” he says with a smile, and holds out a hand.
Do not punch him, Naruto tells himself, and places a hand carefully in Orochimaru’s hand. The man’s hands are completely dry; Naruto can feel the scaly protuberance of his calluses from wielding a sword. He turns to Iruka and gives him the warmest smile he can even though he is fairly certain he’ll need a shower after this.
“Well, then,” Iruka says, returning Naruto’s smile. He doesn’t look at Orochimaru when he speaks. “We are gathered here today to celebrate the union between two Clans, two villages, and two nations.”
The usual words are that the gathering is to celebration the union between two people, but there’s no point in keeping up appearances for a marriage so blatantly political: a jinchuuruki—the biological son of a Kage, the adopted son of another Kage, godson of a Sannin, and heir to the Senju inheritances—marrying a widowed soldier with no land, no name, not a single thing to claim as his own. For all of Naruto’s pedigree, he isn’t worth much at all.
Iruka turns to Orochimaru. “Do you, Lord Orochimaru, on behalf of—”
“I do,” Lord Orochimaru interrupts neatly. It’s rude, but the man smiles to soften the insult. He pitches his a fraction lower, making it obvious he wants the crowd to overheard. “We’ve kept the crowd waiting long enough don’t you think, Master Iruka?”
Iruka doesn’t return Orochimaru’s smile. Instead, he turns to Naruto and holds his gaze steady. I may never see you again , Naruto thinks, and has to breathe deep against the thought. He will go north. He will leave behind all that he has known and loved for three hundred men in battle and the promise of more if the need arises.
“Do you, Uzumaki Naruto,” Iruka says, and pauses, making it clear that he’s giving Naruto one last chance. You do not have to say yes , he told Naruto just the night before. He’d said it over and over again the minute Kakashi announced his decision, but Naruto hadn’t responded. He is a Kage’s son—twice over. He knows what his duties are. Countless daughters and sons before him have walked down the aisle for far more trifling reasons. There are wounded soldiers returning from the front lines every day. There are men being carried home for their last rites. Kakashi needs more men to overwhelm the Tsuchikage’s immense manpower. There is a war to be won.
“Do you, Uzumaki Naruto,” Iruka repeats with gentle care, “take Uchiha Sasuke as your lawfully wedded husband?”
Naruto takes a breath and squares his shoulders. “I do.”