A turbulent undercurrent.

A medium sized park filled with Sakura trees, had been decorated with the colours of pink and green with paper lanterns hung from the low hanging branches and on bamboo poles lighting up the early darkening evening sky.

Megumi looked amazed at the arrangements that had been made by Kizashi and Mebuki for celebrating Sakura's birthday.

'Rura! Why didn't no one tell me earlier that you had basically become the business princess of the village!?' Megumi asked Sakura mentally through a communication seal they had made for each other personally, so they wouldn't ever be separated again from each other randomly, but they were now using it to talk since neither could talk verbally in the situation they were in.

'Well...it just somehow happened to end up this way? I stopped wanting to celebrate my birthdays without you and then one time there was a business meeting on the same day as my birthday so we ended up celebrating my birthday as a way to improve our business connections? But even I hadn't expected it to be so big this time.'

'What do you mean you hadn't expected it?'

'Just that I didn't estimate so many people coming to my birthday today, especially the nobles from the court. They shouldn't actually even know that today was supposed to be my birthday or even this business meeting since mostly the business people in the village meet each other here to talk and make connections.'

'What do you mean? Didn't mom and dad invite them?'

'I don't think so. Some of the people here are really important in the court of the daimyo. Like the guests I am talking to right now, they're from the members of the head family that manages the finances of the nation. They've got a lot of pull in the court, or literally most of it, if you look at it another way.'

'Oh...that's weird.'

'True. Look over at Mom, even she looks tense, looks tense with the appearance of so many high-profile guests. So many things can so easily go wrong when so many ignorant and powerful people are at the same place. I'm starting to feel tense now.'

Sakura said as she started to nervously tap her foot, while standing beside Mebuki and Kizashi as she tried to talk to the son of the parents that were talking with her parents, confused by what exactly was happening, that had caused the necessity to facilitate such a gathering of important people.

'Don't worry too much, as long as Tsuna-nee's here they can't really do anything bad-'

*hoorrrrrrnnnnnnnn*

A sudden blaring horn interrupted the gatherings as a rather large man with a rather large wife, along with their rather large dark cat walked into the gathering.

Having been informed earlier of Kizashi and Mebuki's location along with the family of the minister who managed the finances in his court, the royal family made their way toward them.

'Oh! Look Rura! It's madam Shinji!'

'Exactly Megumi! It's madam Shinji! Why would the daimyo and her wife come here!?'

'I dunno, perhaps they're a fan of the food here? Weren't their new entries based on the recipes in the notes I had given you guys?'

'Stop being so stupid Megumi. This is making me tense.'

'Hey! Maybe they just want to compare whose cat is the better one, I'll call ou-'

Before Megumi could finish his sentence he had to stop because of the unnatural silence that had gripped the atmosphere. 

As soon as the Daimyo arrived by their side. The family that was talking to Mebuki and Kizashi looked at each other and nodded.

Using the aftermath of the silence because of the entrance of the daimyo and his wife, everyone grew further curious about the family at the center of all this attention from the royal family, as everyone wanted to see what exactly the daimyo wanted to say to them.

Megumi who was playing around with a few civilian kids stopped and quickly squinted his eyes as he felt something wrong was going to happen.

His senses were tingling as he watched the daimyo open his mouth to speak.

"My happiest greetings to you and your family on this joyous occasion. Is this the little girl who has her special day today?" The daimyo said as he placed his hands on Sakura's head and greeted her lightly.

"Happy birthday to you dear."

Madam shinji then looked to the side, off into the crowd, from where a few people walked in holding large boxes of presents and bestowed them over to Sakura who felt overwhelmed for a second but soon became relieved when Tsunade came over and helped her pass the presents to helpers who took them for safekeeping where the other presents were being kept.

Everyone was confused about why the daimyo was giving the family so many presents, since a single expensive present would have sufficed very much to show his sincerity.

"Thank you for choosing to grace us with your extravagant presence, lord daimyo." Kizashi greeted them with a formal bow along with Mebuki and Sakura.

Tsunade though remained standing tall. It showed off just how politically important she was, or more likely how much she had skipped her political classes to go and learn medical ninjutsus.

The daimyo spared a glance at the simplistic behavior of Tsunade who just nodded at him when she met his eyes and carried on as if it was normal.

"You are closely related to the little girl, Tsunade-hime?" The daimyo asked, looking unaffected.

Tsunade nodded and spoke concisely, "Yes. I would happen to be her mentor."

It was clear to everyone that Tsunade was laying her claim over Sakura so that they don't do anything by overstepping their boundaries.

The daimyo and the finance minister shared a knowing glance after which the daimyo spoke with a friendly smile on his face.

"Haha Tsunade-hime, it must be all because of your mentoring and care that the little girl and her family are able to become one of the richest in the shinobi village."

"You must be flattering us, Lord Daimyo, we are humble civilians who happen to have some of our past actions repaid to us by the grace of god. Our wealth must have the worth of what a few pennies are to a normal man, in your eyes lord daimyo." Kizashi responded calmly in a flattering manner with a business-like smile.

"Haha, worry not I am not here to take your hard earned wealth, your Hokage provides me enough as it is." The daimyo worded as if the Hokage had acquiesced to their conversation.

"Then I thank you for having come here to this event to deepen the relatively newly formed ties between us." Tsunade spoke, clearly mentioning 'us' making her take the Hokage's side in the conversation.

"That's great Tsunade-hime, I indeed am there to further deepen our newly forming relationships, because.." the daimyo said with a dramatic pause as he then continued without making anything seem unnatural, "...I had a marriage proposal to be considered."

Before anyone could react Tsunade had already spoken a response in a spirited tone but maintaining her focused look at the daimyo.

"I'm not going to be marrying anyone. How could I? At this old age!! The nation would laugh at me! "

The reply Tsunade had given was not meant to be taken as a direct one, it was clear to everyone that by saying so she was giving face to the daimyo, so that he would not step over his boundaries and take the hint and back away.

But the daimyo continued after a short pause with a short confused look on his face, "Haha! You misunderstood Tsunade-hime, but the proposal is for this boy, the son of my finance minister, to be betrothed to-"

Tsunade was one again the fastest to respond with another sense of humorous and polite decline as if giving him one last warning.

"Haha! Surely you jest! Even though I am called a princess anyway, I'm not to be married off to little boys."

This time the daimyo truly paused to consider what was happening as if this was not how he had expected this talk to happen.

Under the persisting silence, the expressions of all the ninja to become cold as they all frigidly glared at the daimyo and his entourage, the finance minister though continued to speak as if he had not been under any duress and his ruler hadn't just pissed off an entire shinobi village while standing in the middle of it.

After all, what were they going to do? Kill him? A civilian? One that practically the entire nation at that?

So he opened his mouth 

*gluck**gluck**gluck*

But before he could even begin speaking he was choking. Choking on balls. On Megumi's balls of steel.

'Oh!'

That was what the expression of every single person attending the party conveyed, As neither the ninja nor the civilians could believe that someone had done that, unnoticed by everyone present. So they had to rationalize that the finance minister loved money so much that he had eaten some of it and was now regurgitating a part of it at an unfortunate time.

Amidst the stunned silence with the finance minister choking while he stood beside the daimyo, a childish shout was heard.

"Oh! Rura! How are you!? I was just wondering where you were!"

Under the gazes of everyone present and now even the finance minister who had ended up having to swallow literal balls of steel to stop himself from choking, Megumi walked up to Sakura with a rather plain looking and slender present box in his hands.

After giving his present which Sakura mechanically accepted, looking very confused and bewildered, Megumi quickly went down on one knee as he took a different smaller box from the mouth of a black kitten that had arrived from among the crowd without anyone realising.

He held the box open and showed it to contain a shiny ring inside of it as he began speaking by making eye contact with Sakura.

"You know Rura, ever since I have come into this world, you've been the person closest to me. A person that I felt has connected to me so deeply that I doubt any other person ever could. So I implore you to please give me an honest response to the question following this one, would you?"

To which Sakura nodded, her eyes containing confusion, excitement and fear all within it.

"Then from the bottom of my heart, until existence itself parts, would you let me reside in your heart just like I have done in my part?"

Sakura's eyes widened and so did everyone else's as reflexively and overcome by the sheer amount of joy and bliss, Sakura hurriedly nodded and practically gushed out a high pitched, "YES!!!!"

At which point under the very nose of the finance minister Megumi pulled out the ring and placed it onto Sakura's finger, finalizing his engagement with her.

The daimyo looked at Mebuki and Kizashi with confused eyes and then at the finance minister even more confused, but his minister stared at them with what could only be described as bitter hatred.

"Does your silence mean you accept this farce? A proposal by a nameless ugly civilian taking precedence over the Daimyo's itself?" The finance minister seethed out.

The daimyo just looked at the finance minister in shock as if he had been betrayed, but stayed silent and let his minister speak as he did not want to undermine him publicly.

"If you are referring to our daughter's betrothal by the term 'farce', then yes we accept it, after all the daimyo hadn't mentioned who the betrothal was going to be for, so he wasn't the first one to propose to our daughter." Kizashi reasoned with wit.

"You mean to say that that single piece of gift, given by a random nameless civilian with an ugly face in the village is more valuable than the splurging of the daimyo?"

Kizashi was tongue tied, since he not only remembered what was in the gift but also because this matter was no longer only about his daughter and Megumi. It was about the reputation of the daimyo.

All the ninja in the village had their faces scrunched up in annoyance, and some in outright anger as they felt this was a clear showing of a court official attempting to take over the wealth of the village by marrying away their richest family.

Before the Daimyo could even begin speaking to clear up this misunderstanding, Sakura had reflexively and in anger opened her mouth.

"Any gift my fiance gives me is worth more than the entire world to me."

This caused the silence between everyone to become awkward as Sakura's words could now be twisted.

Which the finance minister did, happily.

"Ha! This isn't any place for little girls to talk. How would you know what the value of what the daimyo has given you is? If he wanted he could buy out the entire business of your parents and leave you with nothing. But now that you have spoken, this means that you must be courting death since you are directly insulting the daimyo."

Sakura couldn't speak as she panicked, since this wasn't what she meant and her emotions had gotten the better of her but a small voice called out in her mind.

'Stand your ground and show them the present.'

Hearing Megumi's voice calmed her down and she did as he said.

"This gift is worth more than what the daimyo has given me."

"Oh...?" The finance minister now smiled sinisterly as if he had something to use again.

"So why don't you show it to us?" He said in a calm manner, "And then we can all be the judge of it."

Sakura nodded but looked at her thin box and then at the ton of boxes that the daimyo had given and then at Megumi who had just nodded softly with a smile.

Just as she was about to open the box, Kizashi interrupted as he said, "Why don't we open the daimyo's presents first?" Since he thought he was the only one who knew the value of the things inside the box and was worried about the result hence he thought of a way to waste some time to think of a solution to this mess.

The minister just smirked as he said, "Sure why not. We can wait, we have all the time in the world."

A few court servants arrived as they began what to Megumi was a long and unskippable unboxing session with diamonds, jewelry, precious silk and even tools and weapons made out of high quality chakra metal appear out of the matryoshka dolls, that were the boxes of gifts the daimyo had given.

With each box unboxed, The finance minister's smirk grew larger and sinister as Kizashi's face grew paler and paler.

Once everything was done, which had taken nearly half an hour. The minister was at it again. "You can still beg for forgiveness and be let off with a light punishment for so blatantly insulting the daimyo's wealth." But sakura remained resolute ao he challenged her further, "So why don't you open your box now then little missy?" As everyone around already wore a disappointed expression since they felt there was no way a simple box that didn't even have any designs made on it could compete with the gifts of the daimyo.

They pitied the young blood that ran through the veins of both the young kids who didn't really know the true value of things.

Sakura was a little worried but still confidently opened her box under the hyper scrutinized gazes of everyone present.

Sakura's eyes grew worried as she spotted a beautiful made yet very plain looking sword which made her question her trust in Megumi for a second.

The Finance Minister had already counted his victory and began speaking, "So now would you like to apologize for so publicly and openly humilia-"

When Sakura interrupted him by whispering in an inaudible fashion what Megumi had asked of her, "Scatter, Senbonzakura."

The Finance Minister's and everyone's words were stuck in their throats as their eyes widened when they saw Sakura holding what was now just the hilt of the sword as its blade started breaking apart and splitting into a million petals, slowly, along with the hilt at the end.

Megumi looked on and prided in his work as Sakura just stood there dumbfounded, watching as the petals converged around her to form a protective embrace and further into a large tree of petals behind her.

The petals just hung around in the air, floating about, waiting for Sakura to command them.

With a confident smirk Sakura just looked back at the minister who was now equally shocked, but soon recovered and said, "That is just decorative and holds no practical-"

Before he could finish his words, the petals shot out and sliced up the smaller branches of a few Sakura trees around, sending a flurry of normal petals into the air.

Under the stunned silence from everyone, the petals just returned back and formed the katana sword that she was holding.

The finance minister gritted his teeth and spoke again "You still have to deal with the charges of attacking a court official of the Dai-" but was interrupted and silenced when the daimyo suddenly spoke with authority in his voice.

"Isn't that enough, Nobiro?"

The finance minister just glared at the daimyo and walked away along with his wife and a seemingly enamored boy who now wanted what he thought was a new toy.

*sigh*

The daimyo sighed, seemingly disappointed at his minister's actions and began speaking.

"I apologize on behalf of the actions of a Minister from my court. I was told that the little girl had already agreed to be betrothed to his boy unofficially and this event was only meant to make it official. It truly is a terrible outcome that might have soured the moods of everyone present here."

Then looking at Sakura and Megumi he smiled a little as he said, "But I thank you for allowing me to witness such an interesting event! Since you've promised yourselves to each other right here, do make sure to always stick together just like you trusted each other today. And I wish the two of you a happy married life here after."

The daimyo said as he turned around with his wife who smiled and winked at Sakura seemingly promising her something and left along with her cat Tora in her arms, putting a close to the event on a high note.

...

"Mom! I'm leaving!"

"Hai! Hai! Go! Go!" Mebuki said, smiling at her excited daughter as she talked with the workers about cleaning up after all the guests had left.

Sakura rushed through the night streets with a katana attached to her waist as she found herself standing in front of her home.

Quietly making her way up with anticipation, Sakura touched the metal ring on her finger that Megumi had placed on her only a few hours ago.

She stood outside the door to Megumi's room as she felt a little worried but then the sword on her waist grounded her and gave her the courage to move ahead.

Which she did, by opening the door and spotting Megumi, looking right at her.

She rushed at him, hugged him and then immediately transferred into his mindscape.

Megumi smiled a little at her eagerness as he remembered it was just this morning when she had pretended to ignore him with mock anger.

He arranged her on his bed as he too lay by her side and entered his own mindscape, following after her.

As soon as Megumi entered his mindscape and before he could even turn around he was pushed to the ground by a joyful looking Sakura who kissed him with as much force as she could and then rested on his chest, as they both lay on the grass under a Sakura tree in full bloom.

"How was it? Did you like your present?"

"I loved it. But I want one more thing...." Sakura explained a little coyly.

Megumi, confused about what this was about, asked her, "What is it?"

"Could you show me all those dresses you made that day once again? I want to wear them."

"...alright, they're in your room in the castle."

Sakura quickly got up and left Megumi standing as she spent about half an hour inside the castle when she peeked her head from behind a door and shouted, "Close your eyes!"

Megumi did as he was told and shut his eyes as he heard Sakura walk up to him slowly with deliberately placed steps, seemingly creating tension by stretching out the time it took her to reach him.

Megumi felt Sakura walk behind him as she then proceeded to hug him. After which Megumi's mind blanked, because he felt something or rather a lot of things.

Whispering in his ears, Sakura said. "You gave me the best gift I could ever receive, so here's my gift to you."

Megumi just stood there frozen, confused if he should make a move.

"Aren't you going to ask what my gift is, Megi?"

"....wh- what is my gift Rura?" Megumi stuttered somehow.

"What would you like to do tonight? Food, movies or...me?"

-------------------------

Thank you for reading!

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