"Naruko, what're you doing?!" yelled Sakura as she saw me lying on the grass.

"I'm looking at the sky..." I replied softly as I closed my eyes to try and nap.

"Are you crazy?! Lady Tsunade called us all in for an emergency meeting, so get your ass off the ground!" she yelled as she stomped on the ground, making the Earth shake beneath me.

"But Sakura-chan~ I'm sleepyyy! The old lady can wait a second," I said as I turned to my side, ignoring her violent stomps.

"But Naruko-!" she was then quickly cut off by the voice I most detest.

"Sakura..."

I flinched as I heard that familiar voice. I sat up and looked at my rival with hateful eyes.

"Don't waste your breath talking to a wall," he stated while walking up to her.

I frowned angrily and took the chance to stand up and point at that idiot in annoyance. "Who the hell you callin' a wall?!"

"You're right, you're more off a slug: slow, lazy, and ugly."

"What?!" I shouted as I clenched my fists tightly.

"Ooh Sasuke~, you're always so clever~!" Sakura said lovingly.

"Who's side are you on?!" I yelled at Sakura in disbelief.

"Sasuke's~!"

I face palmed with a sigh. Shocker...she's always on his side when he's around. What a great friend she is...

Sasuke looked at my with a smirk, content with my angry face.

That damn good for nothing bastard! I'm gonna clock him in the face!

I began to run up to him, ready to throw a punch, "I hate you, Sasuke!"

Before I could reach him, Sakura stood before him, then grabbed ahold of my fist, and threw me to the ground. "Now Naruko, what did Kakashi-Sensei say about fighting~?"

I twitched as I felt the pain cosume my face. "He...started it..." I said with pain in my voice. I slowly sat myself up and looked at them with a frown.

Sasuke crouched down before, looking at me with belittling eyes and a prideful smirk, "The dirt really emphasizes your trashy look."

"Damn it Sasuke, I'm gonna kill you!" I yelled as I tried to punch him again.

He caught my fist and lowered his face to my ear. "Baka."

I felt my face warm up slightly in embarsssement and quickly pushed him away. "I hate you!"

He stood up and walked away with that prideful smirk. "Let's go, Sakura."

She squealed happily as he said her name. She then quickly walked next to him, smiling at him with her dopey grin. Sasuke paid her no attention as usual, so she took the chance to look back at me. She then mouthed the words, "he said my name!" to me, and all I could do was sigh and give a small smile.

She may be a two faced bitch, but she can still be cute. It must be nice to be in love.

"You all may be wondering why I called you guys in today," said Lady Tsuande as she crossed her arms in front of the group of ninja.

"As you all know, we are experiencing a great shortage of young ninja in this village. Our population is dying out, and there are no children to take the places of those who have died," she paused and looked around the room to create a tense feeling in the air. "Look around the room!" She shouted angrily, "What do guys all share in common?"

I rolled my eyes at the old lady's words and began to pick my ear. "Whatta lame meeting. It's not like we were told this info like a billion times or anything," I said sarcastically as I looked over at Sakura.

"Shut up Naruko and listen to Lady Tsunade for once!" She said as she forced my hand out of my ear. "And could you also try to be more lady like? For God's sake, you're 18 now, so act like a woman!"

I sighed at her truthful words. "Yeah yeah..."

"You're wasting your time, Sakura... you can't teach a slug how to be a butterfly." He then looked at me with another one of those smirks.

I clentched my fist angrily. This stupid jerk-! I'll kill em!

I was about to say something back, but I stopped myself. "You know what? I'm not gonna insult you back. Sakura's right. I'm a grown woman now and grown women don't result to petty bickering."

He looked at me displeased while Sakura gave me a satisfied nod.

Lady Tsunade looked around the room as she called everyone to silence. "Everyone in this room is single and of age to marry and have children!"

The word single struck Sakura and I hard. Shit, she acts like we wanna be single.

"As off today, everyone in this room will be paired up with someone of the opposite sex to marry and procreate!"

"That's bull!" I yelled angrily.

"Yeah, that's not fair!" Someone else yelled.

Everyone began to shout angrily at the news. Tsunade grew impatient and struck the wall angrily, getting the attention of everyone.

"The village will no longer exsist if we don't work on solving this problem. If you really love this village, you will do this mission, for this is our only solution!"

Everyone stayed silent, realizing the truth they never wanted to admit.

This is our only option...

"Well, now that we're all on the same page..." she motioned her hand towards Shizune, signaling for her to bring in the two boxes she was carrying.

"Your pairs will be determined by luck. There will be one box for the ladies and one for the men. Whoever you get will be your partner until you can conceive. After, you can do whatever you want with your 'marriage.' Are there any questions?"

I lifted up my hand quickly and began to shout, "What if we don't like who we get? Can we redraw?!"

"No!" She retorted. "You cannot redraw."

"You guys will take turns drawing names. If you were selected and you had not drawn, you will go with the person that selected you. If not, you will have a chance to draw a name. We don't have an even equal amount of both genders, so if you weren't chosen or the names run out, you will not have to be apart of this mission. Any other questions?"

Suddenly, hands went flying up, and people were now full of questions. She sighed as she massaged her temple, not wanting to answer all the questions she saw.

"Look people, I'm basically giving you guys permission to go and sleep around and have messy sex, legally. I know the majority of you guys like sex. Sex is good. Sex is fun. And now you won't have to worry about protection cuz the point is to get knocked up. So why are y'all complaining?"

She kinda has a point, but not all of us just want to go around and get pregnant with a stranger. This is morally wrong. We're marrying a stranger, having a kid, and then probably divorcing just so we can have a chance at real love...it's not fair...it's not fair to the two partners or even the kid!

I felt Sakura look at me, so I looked over to face her. "This is wrong," I said.

"I know..." she replied as she looked over at Sasuke, "I know..."

Poor Sakura...She might not end up with him...but then again, who would wanna actually spend their life with him?

I was deep in thought, wondering what I could do to stop this ridiculous mission. "I'm going to say something-"

"Don't!" yelled Sakura quickly. "Don't...We have to do what we can for our village, even if it means sacrificing ourselves."

"Sakura-chan..."

I looked at her sad expression and felt pity for her. I then glanced over to Sasuke to see him completely unphased by the situation. It was the same emotionless face.

Stupid bastard doesn't even care about Sakura's feelings...

He suddenly looked over and made eye contact with me. I quickly looked away and continued to think.

After the constant back and forth with questions, everyone went up to pick a name from the boxes.

Dozens of people had gone up, yet mine nor any of my team mate's names had been called.

It was finally my turn to go up. I went up to the box and held my breath.

I'm scared...I've never been so freaking terrified of anything in my life before! My whole future rides on a stupid draw! All my firsts, all my dreams, everything's being taken away by a random guy! Ugh and it'll be even worse if I get paired up with one of my friends! It'll be so freaking awkward!

"Naruko...we don't have all day," growled the old lady.

I took a huge gulp and reached into the box.

But...I have to do this...for Konoha...If I'm going to be hokage one day, I need to put all my personal feelings behind for the sake of the village...This mission is a test of my resolve to be hokage...

I shuffled the papers with my hand before finally deciding on one to pick. Please, please, please~ let it be someone I'll be able to get along with- or maybe even fall in love with- so this whole damn mission won't be so painful...

I pulled out the sheet of paper slowly, shaking and the thought of who could be on it. I stared at the paper that laid in the palm of my hand in fear, afraid to open it.

"Naruko, I swear if you don't-!"

"Calm your tits old lady, I'm opening it up right now!"

Just open it...rip off the bandaid, Naruko...

I opened it quickly with my eyes closed, afraid to read the name of my husband-to-be. I then took another deep breath and opened my eyes, only to stare at the black ink in disbelief.

As soon as I saw the name, I quickly dropped the paper onto the floor and looked over at my fated man. My eyes widened in terror when I realized who I was going to be spending the next year or so of my life with.

"Naruko, please read the name you recieved," Shizune said as she tapped my shoulder, trying to get me to snap out of my shock.

My lips were trembling and I couldn't make a sound.

"Naruko?"

I took a deep breathe and closed my eyes to speak.

"Sasuke Uchiha."