Chapter Text
You’re led into the little room, cuffs jangling the whole way. The guard that came for you just said “legal consult” and nothing more. Maybe one of the kids parents decided to be a character witness for you. You had written over a dozen letters, maybe one has replied. You sit down facing Mr. Whats-His-Name Schmuck-Smile once again, your shitty public defender.
“How do you feel about travel? Extended stays abroad” he opens with, why the hell is he talking about travel, you're a literal prisoner.
“...I’m sorry?”
“The Otsutsuki clan is coming for a summit soon, how would you like to travel with them?”
“What the fuck?” there's actually nothing you'd like less,
“The United States needs a liaison, and you need your record cleared”
“Seriously, you’re really gonna say it so plainly?”
“What’s the benefit in beating around the bush? We’ve been over all your charges, no one advocate for your case, no one to update on your status”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t deserve all due processes like anyone else.” You know it more than anyone that there was no one, so why does it sting so bad in your chest to hear him say it?
“Of course, and would you look at that, we've processed it all! We're offering you 15 years prison for your criminal charges and 15 years indentured servitude for your debts. Or you could serve your country and leave scott free as a liaison between the state of California and the Otsutsuki nation.”
“You say liaison like those women ever return, if we’re truly speaking bluntly here call it for what it is, a mail order bride service.”
“A liaison ensures good relations, their presence here isn’t necessary as long as relations are good, which they are, and have been for a long time”
“Doesn’t explain why they’re never seen or heard from again.”
“None of them choose to return of their own volition”
“Yeah right” You scoff, those poor women probably aren't even allowed to call home for help. They're probably not even checked on. However, neither were you.
“It’s true, we receive word that they are well and choose to remain in… Well… wherever they go.” He even goes as far as to shrug.
“Then why do we ship off a poor young woman every 5 years? What’s wrong with the previous liaisons? Can they no longer liaise?” That's a word right? “If it is really about maintaining the alliance, why do we send people periodically and never bring any Otsutsuki people here?”
“That’s not in terms of the alliance we have with them, it never has been, and it’s not changing. And neither is the date in which Urashiki Otsutsuki is arriving, expecting a liaison, preferably in the form of a young blushing bride.”
“How convenient they never ask for grooms, I bet that alliance would’ve been challenged a long time ago” you grumble and sit back in your chair, hopes thoroughly dashed about your case improving.
Mr. Schmuck-Smile tells you you have 24 hours to decide. You're led back to your cell, your roommate is on her bed glaring daggers at you, a kind greeting considering her usual routine. She didn't cuss you out for something she thinks you did, or start rambling about the conspiracy she thinks she discovered that landed her in here.
Later that night when its lights out your thoughts spiral to the depths. 52, that’s when you’d be free, and to do what? Start all over again? There's no way you'd ever be allowed to renew your nursing license. You'd never pass a background check. You'd be back to where you started when you came to San Francisco, homeless, no career, and no one to ask for help. The reality that was your life stared you in the face every single day as it is, in prison there's little to think about but your own terrible circumstances. But the thought of spending more time in prison and servitude for longer than you've even been alive, with not even the promise of returning to loved ones waiting for you when it was over, crushes something in you.
So you lay there, a boulder over your heart, and consider the Otsutsuki Clan. All you know is that these ‘celestial beings’, in other words aliens, come every 5 years and demand a bride, the United States supplies one, and then they leave for their home planet. A place no human has ever been, we don't even know where it is or what it's called, and once a woman leaves they never return.
Well isn't that just fitting for you? You don't have anything to return to. You wonder if they always send criminally challenged women to the Otsutsuki, do they have an understanding that the liaison was really just moving from one prison to another? Did they really have nothing more they could tell you? You can't recall any details of the last summit, it's not a televised or even very public event, most Americans pretend it doesn't happen. The Otsutsuki do come to California every time though, but for what reason is undisclosed.
At least you can say no, you still maintain that right. You could say no, and carry out your sentences. Or you could say yes, and carry out a completely different sentence. Its more comfortable to know whats coming, but thirty years was such along time, completely too long seeing as you had only been trying to help people… and you would never get the chance to do that again, not even after doing your time. Knowing you'd never practice again is not comfortable, or even acceptable. So you can say yes, and find out what you could and couldn't do when you got there. Your record wouldn't follow you into space, you could hypothetically be free, you could also hypothetically be miserable. Which you already are, so fuck it.
*
You're pulled back into the little room again, same time next day, you accept, you're congratulated, then shoved back in your cell for another month, with plenty of time to go back in forth in your head if you've just made a horrible mistake or if your get out of jail free card was on its way.
The days were long but the weeks were fast, and before you know it you're being pulled from the cell, not without a middle finger behind your back to your asshole of a cellmate before your wrists are shackled like always. And then you're taken to a government car, and driven to city hall downtown. A gaudy, shiny building that makes its surroundings look like a slum. You remember when they built it, having grown up downtown, and you were too young to understand that the tax dollars could go to something better. Like say, a new group home for you and the other kids, or improving infrastructure, or beach clean up. Literally anything else. You used to watch the cranes work after school, nothing better to do.
Within the hour you're showered, blow dried, makeup did, and dressed in a humongous cupcake of a wedding dress. The gown had a cathedral length train, and matching mile long veil, and after you're dressed they cuff you once again and tell you the wedding is in two hours and to wait here quietly.
After a mere twenty minutes your dress begins to feel heavy. Anxiety and the gown weigh you down, like a shackle all over you. Your stomach twists and flips with nervousness, like you're about to face a lion for sport. Logically you know you're not sacrificial entertainment, and that it's just your wedding day. But you only saw a picture of the groom a half hour ago. You know his name and nothing else, and you're completely unprepared for marriage. Being a virgin at the age of 22 didn't normally upset you, it wasn't a marker of pride for you either, you just hadn't met a guy worthy of the act. You may have had some commitment issues, an orphan with attachment problems, what a shocker. Would he be irritated with your inexperience? Is he expecting to be wowed by you in the bedroom tonight? You want to vomit from the thought. You're so screwed, 1 hour and 30 minutes to go.
*
You’re about to walk down the aisle, you’re absolutely nervous as shit. Shaking like a leaf. The tension in the large hall is thick, with the Otsutsuki clan separated by the aisle from random politicians and whoever else was invited to your wedding. Not one familiar face for you to gaze upon.
You took short breaths as you measured your steps down a royally wide wedding aisle. There was a long way to go, after you passed the rows of guests you had to walk up a large, grand staircase. The inside of the city hall was so ornate, with arches surrounding the room, the grand staircase covered in flowers, leading to a second level, with pillar after pillar making a gallery around the open space below. Above the staircase and second floor landing there were many balconies, also to observe the space below. A large skylight is the peak of the stately building, several stories high, with more arches and alcoves lined with gold and art.
Your groom looks… otherworldly, he's shaped like a man but that’s about it, his pupil-less eyes are wholly different from what you’ve ever seen in real life, and the horns, can't forget the horns that wrap around his entire head. The picture you saw of him was a portrait sent to your governor, they let you hold it while your hair was done, he wasn't horrifying or anything, but now that the Otsutsuki are here in the flesh it’s unnerving. Actually the closer you got, carefully stepping upstairs, the uglier he looked. He had a scowl on his face, and his freaky milk colored eyes locked on you. He had a white complexion, not pale, and grey hair but not salt and pepper, just grey.
Slowly, an aura grew around him, black and reeking, your steps got even slower, and faltered all together when a creepy smile cut his face. That eerie smile grew and grew, larger still, splitting his lips and cheeks. You backed down a step, no one made a sound around you, no one was screaming and you wondered why not? Then Urashiki Otsutsuki stretched before your eyes to at least 9 feet tall, looming, assessing your fear. A whimper escapes you and you turn to run and smack right into a man, a human man thankfully.
You cowered into him instinctively, too scared of who is behind you to look up and see who it is, and warm arms wrapped around you. Spots and sparkles danced around your shut eyes, just like when you rub them too hard, you open your eyes to find swirling pastels around a blue sky, like the clouds took on the full spectrum of the rainbow and were passing over and around you at their leisure, contorting and shifting like they would naturally in the sky but at a quicker, fantastical pace. You blink and look around some more and the terror is leaving your body as you take in your surroundings.
A beautiful, handsome man is walking toward you now, and his smile is dazzling. He dips his head to you, like a bow, and his inky black, very long locks shift with the movement. His equally dark eyes watch you, and as he lifts his hand to you he actually winks at you. Your cheeks immediately start to heat and you reach your hand up to take his, he brings your hand to his lips where he kisses your knuckles while his eyes fall closed under his lovely thick dark lashes.
“Im so happy to finally meet you” he says and smiles wide again.
You don’t reply, you can’t, you hadn’t been expecting to meet this gorgeous man, who had you been expecting to meet again?
Using the hand he is tenderly holding he brings you closer to him, then he gives you a spin and you let out a tiny eep! You weren’t expecting it! The clouds shift much too quickly as you’re dipped back just slightly, not low, but enough to rely on him to hold you without dropping you. The dark eyed stranger is close, very close, so close you can smell the flower in his tux lapel. When did he put on a tux? It’s just as well, you’re in a freaking wedding dress.
At this thought you suck in a breath, you were just at your wedding facing your nightmare groom, how did you get here? Who is this man holding you? Why were you letting this stranger handle you like this?
The beautiful man’s eyebrows crease, and its with this expression his under eye bags come into view, hes still too gorgeous to be real even with them,
“How are you breaking my genjutsu?” he asks quietly,
He lets you go now, and you fall into a puffy pastel cloud until he’s out of your sight.
You hear the screams before you open your eyes, which shoot open to find yourself looking down on the wedding party in pandemonium. Vertigo makes you sway, How did you get up on a balcony? But you are relieved to be away from the Otsutsuki. Relief is incredibly short lived as now the shouts and screams were unceasing.
“An Uchiha!! Stop him!”
Horrified shouts and screams sound off below you. Some Otsutsuki people pointed, while a few took fighting stances, most of the politicians were hiding or fleeing. You followed their points of terror to see the face of your rescuer. It was the beautiful man from the dream! Or was it hallucination? Here he has the same onyx hair, thick lashes and flushed high cheeks, but now with a calculating expression over his face with a slightly furrowed brow and pursed lips. He looks equally as handsome now as he did with his huge grin, you think. He's still very gorgeous outside of the cloud world, and someone you’d be attracted to if you saw him on the street. But you wouldn’t see a man on the street like this, no one had eyes like his. The only alien quality he had was deep red eyes, darting unnaturally fast. They were striking, yeah, but they looked like red contacts for movies or halloween. He at least had pupils like your eyes. Well, are those several pupils he has? He notices your staring now. Oh, when those red eyes fixated on you they spin to life, swirling slowly, definitely not contacts.
You blink twice, quietly stunned and too frozen by the chaos all around you to react more, and he mirrored the movement. You feel your eyes widen to what feels like the size of the moon, and he smiles a small shy smile. This might be his best expression.
“We’re leaving, hold on please” he has a deep voice, but he's so soft spoken
He then swoops you up bridal style, as was your whole style today apparently, and hops off the balcony, you scream and when you make it to the second level with pillars you, push against him,
“Why would you jump that far? Put me down right now!”
Several knives imbed into the stone and railing right in front of you, acting like your shield.
“Pick me up! Pick me up!”
He hoists you back up into his arms, leaping to the other side of the gallery a millisecond later, dress flying behind you.
“Do you want to get out of here?” He asks,
“Yes!”
“Then please, hold onto me”
Before making another jump for it he sets you down, but the train of your dress is still partially dangling from the railing. Taking a knife out so fast you must have missed it, he sliced the wedding dress, the tearing sound was dramatic because of the sheer amount of fabric.
The Otsutsuki people below keep shouting 'Uchiha! An Uchiha! Get the Uchiha!'
Whatever the hell an Uchiha is, must be this man in front of you. You've never heard the name, but the Otsutsuki have and they seem to have an onsight order.
He doesn't look alien like they do, but his eyes, and the way he's moving aren't natural, there's also the magic he can do, how he can twist the world around you. He must be like them then, strange and powerful.
But he’s obviously here to rescue you, right? To free you from being nothing more than a peace offering sent away, never to be retrieved again.
You let out a “Tsk”, a little sound you make when you're frustrated, and you hug your arms around his neck, shielding your eyes to whatever he was about to do. When he jumps down from the second level you hear a strange metal on metal noise and feel that hes using his arm to throw. But his arm returned to you as he spun and landed, he started taking off down the great hall. The doors were open for caterers bringing in food, wine and delicacies. He leaped high over the cart of dining plates, you screamed again, moments later you heard that same cart being smashed to pieces by pursuers, fine china and all.
Now you’re fully out of building and you say,
“They’re only allowed in city hall, they won’t follow much further!”
“There’s no where your country’s army could prevent them from going, but I’m making a show leaving the city so they don’t tear it down looking for us” he replies, voice low and focused
Hmm, it's probably true, the Otsutsuki are literal celestial beings. He's running and jumping on rooftops now, way faster than a man ought to be able to go. You'd surely break your necks if you fell at this height and speed.
“Cant you run on the ground? We're too high up!”
“I would never drop you” he says, so calm so sure of himself,
You're watching his hair blow back and his profile as he runs, perfectly proportioned and so good looking.
“Where are you even going?” you ask,
He glances down at you now, wow he’s…
“You and I are going to The Land of Fire"
Your heart drops, where on earth was that? Is he kidding?
“The Hell I'm not!”
Apparently the beautiful Uchiha man didn’t come to free you, he came to steal you and take you away, just like the Otsutsuki but without the preamble of a stupid wedding.
He runs all the way to the city’s edge, and stops here in the forest, only barely beginning to pant from effort. His muscled chest rises on you, heat pouring onto you and into you from his gaze, he sets you down but doesn’t let you go.
“You were planning on leaving the city anyway, to go to Otsutsuki territory, but instead you’ll come to mine”
You knew it, now you’re double pissed. “Which is where exactly?”
“Hidden, you’ll be safe there” he continues, “because unlike your city, the Otsutsuki cannot entire the Land of Fire, nor your democratic government”
“But! But-“ you start then knives and spears fly at you. He picks you up bridal style again.
“Stop picking me up like thaaat!” You shriek as something whizzes right past your ear, he speeds up his running.
He chuckles now, “What other way? You’re the bride, I’m the groom, this is how it’s done here, right?”
You swear a stone lands in your gut, or maybe one of the weapons flying all around you. You're really doomed to remain a bride today? Even with this Uchiha mystery man and his mystery land?
“We’re almost there” he says, he darts up into the trees leaping faster and faster between branches then out of nowhere a cliff comes and he leaps off, you start to scream and instead of looking down you find yourself looking up. His dark long hair is flying everywhere, but the moon looks so huge, with glittering and shooting stars everywhere you can see, large ones pulsing bright and turning like diamonds under the sun. But this wasn’t the sun, this is the moon and it’s never this huge and glittery. You snap your gaze back to him.
“Stop warping my mind!!”
“My apologies, I only wished to spare you the height we dropped off the mountain…” but he looked sorry and devastatingly handsome, even with his bright red eyes, and stressed appearance.
How frightening he could show you horror but also immense beauty… and dammit he is beautiful, too beautiful. Were his long eyelashes real? Was his pouty bottom lip as soft as it looked? Did it make sense for this handsome man to save you on your wedding day of despair?
“Are you doing it right now?”
“No?” he says sheepishly,
You frown, he’s really this gorgeous? And he wants to marry you?
He lands gently, you literally jump from his arms only to sink knee deep into cold water, your dress is soaked and so much heavier instantly, you're hoisted up by your waist and pulled back towards his chest, he has you suspended above a huge lake, holding you up with only his strength. Oh and the fact he’s standing on the fucking water!
You gasp audibly, then string together all your favorite cuss words, so irritated and confused that you're angry now.
“Let me help you, I’ve got you” he offers.
Your gaze snaps up to him, then down at the water, then all around you, even up towards the sky because what the hell is going on here? You feel like one of his eyeballs back at city hall, you look at him again to see those eyes, still red, but a hint of amusement. You could scream you’re so frustrated!
“Don’t look so pleased!”
Lightning quick you’re hoisted up, you’re suddenly taller than him, he’s supporting you and your dress with its puffy thick tulle, and still long train even after being cut, which is so bunched up it acts like a cushion between your butt and his forearms. Your hands land on his biceps and you can’t look away from his face because that small smile is back. You flex your fingers and he’s solid muscle under your fingers. You shiver slightly, it’s just your wet dress making you cold, whatever!
“I’m Itachi of the Uchiha clan,” he says as he looks up at you, “please marry me and accompany me back to my village”
You felt your face fall then got the experience of his falling, too. Surely he was going to let you fall right back into the water to sink, crushed and drowned by the weight of your dress quite literally this time.
“Look, thank you for saving me back there, but why do we have to get married? You don’t even know my name” you say timidly,
“Tell me it then” he replies cooly
You roll your eyes, “it’s (Y/n)”
“I’d be honored to be your husband, (Y/n)”
“Are you like, also an alien? That's at war with the Otsutsuki?”
“I am not an alien, nor am I at war with them”
“Then if you're not an alien how are you-”
“Were ninja, like the Otsutsuki”
Ninja? You've never heard them described as ninja,
“Not an alien, but a ninja, and we're going to a hidden village?” you ask, just to get the facts all straight
“Yes,”
You scowl at this, “and you just want to get married for fun?”
“More accurately, you need to become my wife and take my name to enter the Land of Fire”
“Then leave me here”
“No” he answers immediately, he doesn't even consider it,
“Why not?” You hiss, “I’m from here!”
“It’s not safe, the Otsutsuki are looking for you”
“And it’s safe at your mystery compound, who knows where, a place hidden where no one has ever heard of or ever been allowed to visit? Assuming it's even a real place,”
He sighs now, “It’s safe for my bride yes”
“What a charming coercion”
“Please agree," he pleads with you, "the jutsu to enter won’t activate if you’re not an Uchiha, and it’s best we don’t stay here, we’re actively being pursued by many alien ninja”
“The Otsutsuki are country’s allies, your clan is unheard of and you just stole me from a peace offering of a wedding, it’s probably chaos in the city right now”
He considered for a beat, “It was chaos even before that, and you were ready to leave for an alternative mystery compound, so mine will suffice. I promise the Otsutsuki do not take brides for alliance purposes. There is no peace for you with them or with the city who traded you”
You start to tear up, it’s true, the city has always been hard to live in. And your sack of shit justice system is currently really screwing you over. And the Otsutsuki were scary, and it was even scarier that the government just gives them human women periodically.
He lowers you to eye level and his eyes scanned around quickly.
“There is not much time, I Uchiha Itachi accept you as my wife, and you will inherit the Will of Fire as Uchiha (Y/n), till death do us part, do you accept?
Goodness his voice is soothing, even if his words were not, what is the will of fire? Like you would ever have heard of it. The words ‘Uchiha (Y/n)’ are sobering, this is really happening to you, till death you will remain Uchiha (Y/n), which could be minutes or decades.
Why does life keep bending you to its will and not the other way around… You almost wish you had this will of fire he spoke of, maybe then instead of clawing your way through life, pushing forward only to be shoved into corner after corner, a cell, and then into a wedding dress. You had accepted the thought of being a Mrs. Otsutsuki. So rather than reswallow all the bile that led you to accepting the liaison bride deal, you nod your head. It’s like he said earlier, you resigned yourself to this already, who cares which mystical clan you went to anyway?
“I accept” you say quietly, your eyes locked onto each other's, with the redwood trees as your only witnesses to your vow to be his wife.
If he notices your inner conflict he doesn’t comment. He raises his hand, contorts it in a variety of ways before bringing his two fingers to his mouth. Oh god, is this how his people seal the marriage, is he going to kiss his fingers then press them to yours? That sounds... kind of nice, like when he kissed your hand earlier, or was that not real at all?
“The Land of Fire” he shouts and ignites flames through his lips like a kiss to his fingers. He sends the flame out and it forms a large gate, with a flaming archway and more fire inside, it blazes so big and bright. Now you’re walking toward it, led by the beautiful stranger, Itachi. Somehow walking on water beside him, you tense the closer you get and shriek when you’re only a foot or two away from the portal made of fire, when he lifts you back to his arms.
“I can make it look like something else if you’re scared, but the flames won’t harm you while we pass”
You squeeze your eyes shut and shake your head, he sighs softly then carries you across the threshold. You lock your muscles for the charring agony but it doesn’t come. The light behind your eyes is red like you’re laying under the sun, he didn’t change what you saw like you asked. You opened your eyes and sure enough it’s hellish all around you, but not hurting or even hot tempered. It's like there's a bubble around the both of you, guarding against the flames. You remove your hand from its hold on him, fingers trembling toward the licking flames. The red fire under your touch turns blue, 5 points of connection burning a deep blue, and then the flames are gone.
You see torches lighting the forest around you, and Itachi shifts, you look at his face, his eyes are black like when you first saw him. No, saw his first vision, but the excited smile is gone, his stressed expression remains.
“Welcome to the Land of Fire, (Y/n)”
Itachi pov:
What did this woman ever do to end up a sacrificial bride to the Otsutsuki? She was young and beautiful, with her whole life ahead of her still. Surely she had been coerced, or even forced to leave her life behind. Itachi was sure of it, it was obvious that not only did this woman not want to be Otsutsuki's bride, (although this is preferable to a woman who was eager to be one), she didn’t want to be anybody's bride. Itachi sighs inwardly, things just couldn’t be that easy.