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Just like the people of Uzushiogakure, The Lord Consort Uzumaki Sasuke, a strong, determined alpha, is undeniably, irrevocably in love with his mate, wife, and omega, the queen of The Village Hidden in the Whirlpools, Uzumaki Naruto.
Who wouldn’t fall in love with their ruling queen at first sight? Both literally and figuratively, as a person with romantic interest or a subject with unwavering devotion, zeal, and sworn fealty.
The newest member of the Uzumaki royal family (by marriage) is truly at awe of his wife’s fiery, flowing red hair, glistening and insightful gray eyes, and looks gorgeous even that horrid orange kimono with white haori he wears, and dangling jade earrings that are usually sealed. (With the way seals are used in Uzushio, Sasuke believes they’re more enchanted than sealed.)
Naruto is feisty, fun, and tries to close the gap between himself and his people as much as he can, without ever sacrificing his position as their queen. He knows when to draw the line and when to cross it. The line is a tall wall, clear, stone solid, and impenetrable when there is work to be done, and is only crossed when he knows when his subjects need a friend, not a ruler.
Plus, as Uzushiogakure’s queen, kage, and jinchuuriki to the Nine-tailed Demon Fox, Naruto is the strongest shinobi in the country. He can level armies with a swing of a single tail and destroy an entire country with a few more.
And, as the grandchild of Her Majesty Queen Tsunade, who stepped down for her daughter, the Queen Mother, Queen Kushina, who also stepped down for her son, Naruto is one of the three greatest medics in shinobi history, with his Strength of a Hundred Seal proudly shining lilac on his forehead, just like his mother and grandmother before him. He can kill without leaving a mark on the body, and nobody will ever find out who did it.
Maybe it’s that Sasuke holds some kind of weird excitement and lust about his absurdly dangerous and powerful wife (he’s not ashamed to admit it to himself), not that he also carries his own weapons that could level armies. Because if Naruto asks him, he will, but Naruto doesn’t (or will never), and Sasuke will spend the rest of his life waiting if Naruto will. Because Sasuke will do as Naruto asks without hesitation.
But unlike with their queen, some of Uzushio, especially the queen’s council, are not very welcoming of the newly installed Lord Consort, despite coming from a prominent, wealthy, and powerful family. The Uchiha, of course, has both fame and infamy. Most only know of their infamy, for they are the kind of warriors who raze, pillage, and burn everything in their path to give victory to their kage.
Sometimes, Sasuke finds himself a bit envious of Queen Kushina’s husband, Lord Uzumaki Minato, whom he’s had the pleasure of spending much time with as Naruto’s father is tasked with training and accompanying the new Lord Consort to his duties. Lord Minato is a well-liked person. Nobody can find fault in him.
Lord Minato is always smiling, his aura welcoming, and a gentle expression on his visage that can make anyone swoon.
Himself, however, he might not be as likable. To the lords of Uzushio, at least.
His personality and presence are not as bright as Minato-sama’s. He rarely smiles, though finding something to smile at is rare for Sasuke (except the queen—he’s finds himself always smiling with he’s with the queen). He's not unkind, but again most people would judge his stony stare before they get to know him. He’s not harsh, maybe just a bit too curt or straightforward. He’s been told he looks like ice personified and that a look from him can disable someone. The problem is, Sasuke can’t help it. How is it a fault of his when he can’t help it that his face looks like he’s ready to behead someone, when it’s at rest.
He’s about to fetch Naruto from their rooms when he overhears the tail end of a conversation he’s not supposed to hear.
“Is that so,” says Naruto.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” says the maid.
“I’ll take care of that, then—there you are!” Naruto grins, delighted by the sight of his husband.
“Your council is expecting you,” says Sasuke as he approaches them, the maid stepping away when she’s done fiddling with and fixing Naruto’s obi.
“Let them expect me a little longer,” Naruto huffs, but pulls Sasuke down by the hem of his haori and peppers his face with kisses, relishing in Sasuke’s scent of warm coals and freshly cut grass.
Sasuke chuckles, hands gently landing on Naruto’s waist. “Letting the council wait? That’s unbecoming of the queen, my love,”
Naruto pouts. “They’re all so… boring. And I don’t think they take me seriously. Is it because I’m short?”
“You’re just the right height, Your Majesty,” says Sasuke, “Their Lordships are just too tall,”
“By your logic, then aren’t you too tall as well?”
“Nonsense. I’m just the right height for you,” he leans over to give Naruto a kiss to his perfectly whiskered cheek. “Come, we’ll serve your favorite tea and sweets to keep you engaged, won’t we?”
The servant doesn’t need to be told anymore, who bows to leave and informs the kitchens.
Naruto brightens. “That would be absolutely lovely. Thank you. Now let’s not keep those aging lords waiting. I’ve heard it’s unbecoming of me,”
Sasuke laughs.
Sasuke doesn’t particularly enjoy accompanying Naruto to his meetings with the council. He is the consort yes, but he is also the queen’s last line of defense, which is why he stays standing near him instead of sitting next to him.
The meeting is held in one of the few rooms in the palace fitted with western furniture, and longer, higher risen tables with chairs seemed better for these long, problematic, and most of the time troublesome meetings with Naruto’s lords. Most meetings are boring. Sasuke can barely keep awake himself, even when Naruto is asking for his opinion; which of course, the council hates since how dare he, a new citizen of Uzushio, have opinions on ruling a country as if he hadn’t learned anything from his father ruling his own marquessate.
It’s also not that Uzushio citizens are discriminatory against foreigners. Sasuke is new to this country, and despite everyone saying Sasuke is too frigid a person, they respect him since they see just how much he loves their queen and obviously, because he’s competent and being handsome is just a bonus.
After long hours of discussion, today’s last subject, however, is something he didn’t expect.
“Your Majesty, lastly, regarding the subject of royal succession—”
Sasuke almost chokes.
“No,” Naruto cuts him off. “Thank you for your concern about the future of this country, My Lord, however, while it is, of course, your business to ensure my mate breeds me and ensures the line of succession, that is a discussion between my husband and I,”
Surely this isn’t supposed to be discussed so openly. This is the private life of the Queen and the Lord Consort.
“But—”
“I assure you,” Naruto presses, glaring at the lord, “In the future, you will get an heir, for now, I quite enjoy ruling without children to look and worry after. Now if that is all,”
Before the meeting leader announces they adjourn, Naruto rises from his seat at the capital of long rectangular table. The chair screeches as it scratches the wooden floor, silencing the guests at the table.
“It has come to my attention, My Lords, however not from the victim himself, but some other concerned and loyal subject residing in the palace, that this council is not as civil as I would like to my husband,”
Sasuke tries not to show his surprise. Was this what the maid was talking about earlier? He doesn’t actually care about Naruto’s lords’ negative opinion of him. He didn’t tell Naruto about this because he knew he had to prove himself yet; he’s still new and has a lot to learn.
“Your Majes—” Sasuke tries to stay, but he’s silenced when Naruto raises a finger at him.
Naruto follows the length of the table, observing the reaction of each lord he passes by. Sasuke watches as his omega, half a head shorter than him, long, red hair loosely braided over his shoulder, dressed in delicate silks, and adorned with jade earrings and rings, and a white flowing haori complementing his orange kimono, reduce these lords of all sexes, to quiet and whimpering nothings.
“You know I don’t like dangling my position over my subjects. I don’t like having that divide of class and power. I wish to get to know my people, to be at arm’s reach from them, be there for them when they need me. I wish to be a good ruler, My Lords, isn’t that why you are here? To keep me in line? Of course, I can always overrule something should I not like it. After all, it is the people, and you My Lords, who give me my proverbial and physical power,”
Naruto runs a long nail over one of the chairs, and the lord sitting on it flinches as the sharp, demonic chakra filled fingertip scratches and chars the aged wood. The queen doesn’t like displays of power, but will do it to prove a point, especially if he knows he’s in the right.
“And yet you seem to want me to assert over and over again,” Naruto sighs, exasperation very evident in his movement and tone. “Then I’ll remind you, shall I?”
Not a single sound from the table.
“I am your queen. Sasuke is my mate and alpha, and my husband, therefore he ranks higher than you, and yet,” Naruto tuts, “The things I’ve heard you say about him. How awful. I would not have an issue with it had you kept it to yourself, but you say it to other people, say it when my husband can hear it, and to his face. He is your Lord. You’ve not even let him prove himself to you. But I assure you he’s proven himself to me repeatedly. Since we were children—”
One lord tries to reason. “Your Majesty—”
“Did I say any of you could talk?” Naruto snaps and glares at the impudent lord who had the audacity to speak. “How dare you,”
The lord slinks bank to his seat when Naruto’s gray eyes glow red, the demon fox’s power being summoned by the anger.
“I could strip you of your ranks, just to prove a point,” Naruto hisses.
He hears a scoff and that angers Naruto even further.
“You think I jest?” he approaches the lord who scoffed as if offering a challenge. A growl escapes Naruto’s lips, the demon fox’s energy thrumming dangerously close to the surface of his skin. With a claw he lifts the lord’s face up to meet his red eyes and thickened whiskers. “My Lords, I know your all your secrets,”
The whole table stiffens. This isn’t the queen anymore. It’s the fox.
“How observant of you,” the queen grins, teeth all sharpened and elongated into fangs. “But actually, Naruto’s not been here quite a while. Well, don’t I deserve a bow?” the fox demands when they make no motion to show their respect, worship, and subservience. “Aren’t you supposed to be on your knees?”
The lords scramble to get off their chairs and onto the floor to kneel, heads almost touching their knuckles. The fox has never appeared to anyone other than his queens, unlike in the younger years of the country. The lords of Uzushio never really had any reassurance that what their queens are doing is the will of the fox, but now they know.
Sasuke moves to kneel, but the fox speaks. “Stay on your feet, husband,” and Sasuke straightens himself as shivers run down his spine. “Right now, I don’t require your worship,”
“Of course,” says Sasuke with a bow instead to show his respect to the divine being. Though it’s quite terrifying to have the demon fox address him as husband.
“So you do know your place, on your knees, serving me and the people Naruto and I protect,” he says, putting a foot in front of another to pace around the room. “Naruto may not like the divide between him and you, but I enjoy it, and I demand he maintain it,” the fox gracefully almost glides to the side of the lord who had the gall to scoff at him.
Naruto’s head cocks to the side, as if scrutinizing this lord.
“You. Human. You think you’ll somehow find a way to overthrow the royal family. That’s why you want Naruto to get pregnant so soon after his mating. So he’s vulnerable. Then I dare you. You think I will allow it? You think I ever allow anyone else other than an omega with Uzumaki blood born from an Uzumaki omega’s womb in royal succession to be my vessel? After hundreds of years, no other blood has been blessed by it,”
It makes sense, Sasuke thinks, to prefer omega-primogeniture, since the child birthed from an omega queen, is without a doubt, their child.
“It I who rules, I know you know that. The Queen is merely a vessel. And I enjoy it when queens like Naruto and his mother, and her mother before her, enjoy being queen, enjoy my power, and enjoy using it for the good of the people they serve and protect—but you,” the fox growls at the tail end of his words, then grabs the lord’s top knot and drags him up to meet Naruto’s glowing, burning red slit-pupiled eyes.
The lord almost chokes from the force of his hair holding up his entire weight. From the energy emanating from the queen, like there are hands on his neck, cutting off his air.
Naruto, who Sasuke thinks, has been pampered all his life as a princess, has always been petite, graceful, sometimes childish, most of the time regal, but the divine being residing in him, is now giving Naruto a kind of demonic burn to him. Angry, fiery red eyes, sharp fangs, and claws that can rip skin off. It’s terrifying to him, yet fascinating. After all, when he married him, he knew the beast would be part of their marriage, too.
“You who seek to use this sweet queen to further your own agendas. Oh, did I strike a nerve? Look at that, fear,” he inhales, “Fear of a tiny little queen. How delicious,” the fox runs Naruto’s tongue over the sharpened teeth, then lifts another hand and with his nails as sharp as claws, cuts the top knot off the lord’s head. “You’re stripped of rank,”
That catches Sasuke off guard. He’s read almost all Uzushio’s recent history, and not in the last few hundred years has this happened. Is it because of the modern times? These lords have lingering doubts about the existence of their patron and are questioning its will.
Sasuke guesses now there aren’t any more doubts.
The lord gasps when he falls to the floor, the knot of hair dropping right next to him. “No, Your Reverence, please—!”
“If someone else speaks, everyone is stripped of rank,” the fox snaps. Silence falls like a blanket over the council. “Do not test me. You will show the queen’s husband the respect he is owed and deserves. Remember, I choose to give the queen my power, and I can also choose to use the queen as I see fit to rule properly, and to keep the peace,”
With that, red cat eyes turn grey and Naruto’s whiskers thin out. “What are you all doing on the floor?” Naruto asks, looking around blinking, a bit confused about the situation. He sees the top knot on the floor and understands but doesn’t comment. “Guards!”
The doors open and officers rush in. “Yes, Your Majesty?”
“Please remove Takeda-dono from the premises,” says Naruto, “He and his family are no longer allowed into the palace or the royal estates.”
“No! Please!” begs Takeda, the lord whose lordship was removed. He stays on the floor, scrounging. “I have children!”
Naruto is just about to leave but turns back to the former lord. “But Takeda-dono, common people have families and children, too,” he says, “But they don’t come to me begging for lordship, do they? Don’t worry, the money you swindled from your province’s taxes will be removed from your personal treasury and your possessions confiscated,”
“Your Majesty!”
“Remove him before I remove him myself!” Naruto roars, patience having run out. “Everybody out!”
The commotion eases when the doors close, and the only ones left in the room are the queen and his consort.
Silence stretches as Sasuke keeps quiet and lets Naruto gather his calm.
“What will happen to Takeda-dono?” Sasuke asks, slowly approaching the queen.
“He and his family will be removed from the lord’s mansion. His children will no longer be eligible for the lordship that was removed from him. He will be audited and anything that does not tally with the investigation will be taken from his personal effects,”
“Are you still mad?”
“Why?” Naruto snaps.
Sasuke chuckles and leans in to inhale his mate’s scent of sugared citrus, and whispers in Naruto’s ear. “There was just something so erotic about you displaying the fox’s power,”
Naruto’s eyes widen, then his face heats as his anger washes away, replaced by embarrassment. “Y-you pervert!” He buries his face in his husband’s chest, welcoming the arms that wrap around him.
“You said something about requiring my worship?”
“He said that?” he mumbles into Sasuke’s chest.
“Mmm,” Sasuke hums as a confirmation. “And he called me husband,”
“He is so embarrassing!”
Sasuke laughs. “I think it was sweet of him to be so considerate of you and I,”
“It is not!” Naruto argues.
“How then shall I show you my worship? Shall I lay you to bed, and leave a trail of kisses from your feet to your knees, and up to your hips?”
“Sasuke!” the queen whines, “Stop teasing me!”
Another laugh escapes Sasuke’s lips. “Alright, alright,” Sasuke presses a kiss to his hair. “You barely touched the tea and cake, how about we ask for a fresh pot, a bigger slice, and I’ll take My Queen out and have a picnic under our tree?”
Naruto raises his head and pouts up at him. “No more teasing?”
“No more, I promise,” says Sasuke as he lets Naruto go. “Thank you for coming to defend my honor, my love. Are you still mad?”
The queen huffs. “Not as much, but that issue is not over. Now, I thought you were taking me on a picnic?”
“Will the fox join us?”
“He better not!”