"We can't keep running like this. We have to start looking for a shelter, or we will be buried in the snow storm. And if that happens, there will be no wedding, instead of just a slightly delayed one," argued Izuna for the tenth time since they set off from the Land of Iron. The only difference was that Haruka agreed with him this time. When they first departed, she also believed that if they rushed they could make it in time despite the bad weather, but now, they were barely able to walk, let alone run. It was too dangerous.
A twenty two years old Madara was starting to lose hope too, because he gave a resigned sigh and said, "When we were coming I noticed a small cave around twenty minutes from here. We can set up camp there, and wait for the storm to pass. And, if you don't wipe that smirk off your face right now, my dear ototou, I swear that I will make you sleep outside!"
Izuna just burst out laughing and said, "I am sorry Nii-san, I can't help it. I will officially be smirking and cackling for at least six other months. Everybody was worried about me, and yet you're the one with the shotgun wedding. Our perfect heir! Even you have to admit that this is funny." In the back of the group Haruka and Hikaku were doing a poor job of hiding the small shakes of their shoulders caused by their laughs.
Izuna had a point, the situation was too funny.
At nineteen years old, Izuna was the playboy extraordinaire of their group. Of the whole Uchiha clan if we are being honest. Of course this brought on him a lot of trouble, from Tajima's disapproving glares whenever he came home in early morning or was still nursing a hangover somewhere around noon, to the now classic scenes of one of his conquests catching him the very next day with another. The biggest thing his siblings worried about was some unplanned pregnancy. Izuna would of course own up to it, but they knew that it would make him miserable because he wasn't ready to be a father and leave his single life behind. So Haruka had done her best in advising him about ways to avoid pregnancy and even created some drugs that always seemed to sell out in the clan's pharmacy these days. Condoms were a luxury she couldn't provide, so the Uchiha girls had only had that to avoid problems.
On the other hand Madara, up until a couple of months ago, had the reputation of a saint. To the elders and the older members of the clan as well as his father, he was the guardian of morality, the face of what a true clan heir should be, a model of following the right way. He didn't drink a lot or smoke like his sister, and was in a loving relationship with the sweet Natsuki for four years. The word around the clan was they had both decided to wait until Natsuki was old enough to get married. Which was bound to happen very soon, because she was twenty this year, two years after she officially became an adult, and the right time to get married and start a family by this world's standards.
Imagine their faces, when around a month after Natsuki's twentieth birthday, she came to Haruka's office complaining of migraines and a constant desire to vomit in the morning. Both Madara and she became blushing and blubbering messes when Haruka sat them down that night in a booth of the bar she co-owned with Izuna, and told them the good news. From their incoherent speech, she understood that they had wanted to celebrate the birthday properly and felt too shy to ask her about contraception, so they risked it anyway after some bad math done by Natsuki.
Nonetheless, after the initial shock wore off, they were extremely happy, and Madara proposed immediately. The night ended with a beet red Natsuki and a very drunk Madara, from all the toasts given by the other patrons of the bar, having to listen to a very long lesson about safe sex and precautions to take during pregnancy, given by a very excited future aunt.
They were in the middle of December, so the whole clan understood immediately when Madara insisted that they had to get married in a matter of weeks, instead of waiting until summer. The Uchiha liked summer weddings because they can hold outdoor celebrations, and invite more people. Especially when the groom was the clan's heir. But everybody was excited at the idea of a baby in the main house, especially Tajima, so they let it slide.
This was also due to the changes in the Uchiha clan. If we forget about their booming economy, and quickly growing industrialization, the biggest change was in their social lives. As a clan, they became more open to the world. First through their merchants and bit by bit, they started reaching out to other clans, even if they weren't officially allies, and even the nobles and daimyo
Because they were closed off to the rest of the world before Haruka, they were perceived as snobbish and treated in consequence, which in turn made them feel persecuted and pushed to a corner. It had been hard on them, especially the elders's council, when they had to admit that maybe they were in the wrong, and that they had to start making amends. But under Madara's and Haruka's careful supervision, they did it anyway.
Their biggest allies became the Hyuga. Once both clans get past their childish rivalry, they realized how much they had in common, from their special eyes to their general introversion, and they started working together. Now both clans shared regular visits and worked together on missions, with the Hyuga being the official guardians of the Uchiha's mines, since their compound was closer. They took that trust really seriously and always assigned more men than actually needed.
The Uchiha also struck up friendships with other clans like the Hatake and the Aburame. It was a really nice change from their regular companions. Up until then, they only had deep relationships with the Hagoromo and the Kaguya, both bloodthirsty clans that only saw life as a constant battlefield and refused to change. And their reputation greatly affected the Uchiha too, who were often put in the same basket.
Slowly, other clans started seeing them in a new light, and forgetting some of the prejudices they held against them. They couldn't exactly cut their relationships with the Kaguya because they were cousins after all. The Uchiha valued family, and their cousins relied on them for a lot of things, so they were always respectful and minded their own business anyway. But after the Hagoromo leader had thrown one too many tantrums, insulting the changes they were operating and calling them sellouts, Madara unceremoniously told him that the Uchiha no longer wanted to be associated with them and kicked him once and for all from their compound. Tajima was greatly dissatisfied with the fact that his heir didn't even consult him, but he couldn't do much about it. Madara, by that point, controlled everything in the clan, and Tajima was a mere figurehead. He was just dragging out his retirement as much as he could.
On the more individual level, the clan had started changing too. With a liberal modern woman like Haruka in such a high profile position, changes were bound to happen.
The moment she hit seventeen in this world, she decided that she had been a proper role model for the kids long enough, and changed a few things about herself. Or a more appropriate way of describing it would be to say that she went back to her old self. This body had the exact same features as her old ones, and so she enjoyed going back to the old style that she had spent years perfecting. She stopped with the bangs, and started parting her long hair in the middle to show her flawless pale skin and showcase her black eyes and slender eyebrows. Her slightly wavy hair was always in a sloppy ponytail that rested charmingly on her shoulders. She also created a shade of lipstick that was the exact glamorous red as the rhombus between her eyebrows, which she wore daily. She almost always wore a black haori with the Uchiha crest on the back. Underneath she put on a, red or blue, kimono-style blouse with no sleeves, held closed by a broad black obi that matched her capris. Her blouse always closed quite low, revealing a sizable cleavage, to the desperation of her close male relatives. She closed the look with open-toed, strappy black sandals with high heels, red nail polish on both her fingernails and toenails, and her copy of the Uchiha crested necklace she had gifted her brothers years ago.
Her confidence in herself and high status pushed a lot of the girls that admired her to adopt parts of her style, even if no one was as daring as her. She looked every bit like the femme fatale she knew she was.
Not many men could keep themselves from taking a double look at her, and she had quite the long list of admirers, be it Uchiha clansmen, non-uchiha shinobi or nobles. The best example was her brother's best friend, Hyuga Jinshi, who could never keep his eyes off her whenever they met. Izuna often complained that his friend only visited him so often to satisfy his obvious crush. But it was only an innocent harmless flirt, because both of them knew that it was impossible. He had a duty to his clan and she had no interest in getting married. Other suitors who were less polite, especially the ones that come when you always hangout at the most popular bar of the compound, quickly came to understand that the most beautiful kunoichi in the world was also the strongest one for a reason, when she broke a couple of their bones and refused them treatment in her hospital.
The funniest thing was when they were in skirmishes against the Senju, or the Wind nomad shinobi, and they looked for a second too long at her, only to get stabbed or burned by a member of her clan.
On their first battle after she changed her look, Hashirama had gawked so much that the overprotective Madara almost burst a vein in his head trying to kill him. Haruka couldn't help but throw a smug look at Uzumaki Mito. Word had gone out that the surviving Uzumaki were trying to force a wedding between her and Hashirama to stabilize their new position in the Land of Fire. The girl herself had become an outstanding kunoichi, and a pain in the ass for Haruka, who had found herself facing her all the time when she rather be doing her job as a doctor.
After their confrontation in the capital, something in the eyes of the Uzumaki had changed. She clearly didn't harbor the same strong hate she had for Haruka anymore. It was like she was trying to compete with her. Haruka knew it because it was the same look that "Three" used to give her all those years back. A look that had always brushed her in the wrong way. So you could safely assume that she didn't like Mito that much, and that even petty stuff, like tempting the girl's soon to be fiancé under her eyes every chance she got, were not beneath her. If anything, the rest of her clan and she enjoyed the scandalized looks the conservative Senju threw at them, especially that the Uchiha no longer shied from showing a bit of skin.
Haruka knew that she was to blame for her brother's promiscuity, along with the slightly looser morals of the young Uchiha. As a modern woman, she had a lot of liberal ideas and, coupled with the Uchiha's passionate and wild personalities, she was bound to have an influence. Compared to the other clans, the Uchiha had grown a reputation for being a lot more open to new things.
It started with small things like wearing slightly revealing clothing or allowing even women to smoke in public and went to bigger stuff like premarital relationships, and one night stands. Their once small reunions held in their house, to talk about peace and change around juice and cookies, had now turned into nights at the bar co-owned by her and Izuna. They didn't run it personally because of their busy schedules, but they were there almost every night they were at the compound. Sometimes, they even bartended themselves. This of course contributed to the popularity of their concept, and the place was always crowded. It even caused the opening of two other competing bars in the compound, and the Uchiha were now known for their intriguing nightlife.
Of course the more conservative voices complained a lot, but the new generation was free, uninhibited, and frankly didn't care. A lot of them had started moving into the studios in the new singles district, and basically everyday they walked a fine line between tradition and libertarian values. Madara had helped put in place a system where the clan head and the elders's interference in the personal lives of the clan members was greatly reduced, and the Uchiha took advantage of it. So cases of single people like Izuna and Haruka,or couples like Madara and Natsuki were becoming more common. The general rule was to let every person do what made them happy.
Some also chose more traditional settings, like Hikaku, who had had an arranged marriage when he was eighteen, and was now expecting baby number three. He and his wife were really happy that their child will have Madara's to play with.
Preparing a wedding took a lot of hard work. They had decided to hold the ceremony mid-February, when Natsuki was still not showing too much. It was barely enough time to get everything ready, make sure that the weather wasn't too bad for their guest from outside the clan to come and to leave Madara enough time to enjoy with his wife before he had to pick up the weapons again.
Everyone in the clan was busy, because even if Madara wanted a private ceremony, he couldn't exactly order people not to celebrate with him. Haruka as his only female relative and Natsuki's best friend had a lot to do. She had to prepare outfits for every member of her family, help Natsuki with the food, decorations and venues. She also had to make sure that there were enough guest houses ready for their guests with attendants to help them, and that every single member of the clan was seated, well fed and entertained during the whole day.
For someone who loved to have absolute control over everything, planning the wedding of an heir and his every-day-growing-bigger bride was too much to ask, and she was on her nerves. The vice-president of the hospital and her second in command, Yachiru, had officially relieved her of all her duties there, Touko had taken over her share of the teaching program at the hospitals school and Izuna split his time between his duties as Madara's advisor and helping her, but it was still nerve wracking. There was no way in hell that she would plan a wedding for herself in the future. She would be done with all this after Izuna's third failed marriage.
But it was still worth it when the soon to be married couple thanked her and gave her happy and fulfilled smiles. Natsuki didn't fail to sarcastically thank her for putting in a good word for her, and both of them laughed at the memory of the day they became friends, while a confused Madara wondered what they were talking about.
Everything was going just fine, until they received news that the daimyo of the Land of Iron was finally out of his palace. This was important because they had been waiting for this opportunity for a while.
The Land of Iron was samurai territory, and the leader of their faction shared the authority with the daimyo. However it was a land covered in snow about half the time, and most of its revenue came from the samurai, while the daimyo just lazily took a share. The samurai wanted to get rid of him, but they were bound by a code, at least officially, and if they murdered him in the open their image would take a huge blow. Some of them were Madara's friends from their meeting at the capital, and after years of making sure that he was trustworthy, they finally asked him to do it in secret. The Uchiha were especially good at silent assassination, and were more than willing with the incentive of a lot of money, and influential allies in the future.
The problem was that the bastard lived in a closed fortress that was impossible to infiltrate. They had to wait for him to come out, which he rarely did because he wasn't stupid enough not to know that there was a target on his back. They had left a really good team behind them to monitor the situation and wait for the proper moment, but they hadn't expected a slight change in the situation.
The daimyo was indeed out for a visit to the Land of Hot Water, but he had made sure to hire the strongest shinobi he could to ensure his protection. Which, in this case, meant Senju freaking Hashirama and his squad. The Uchiha squad knew that they were no match and thus sent for Madara and his team. It was about a week before the wedding, so they decided that they had the time to travel there, intercept them and finish the job before coming back in time to get Madara married and inform his samurai friends that the job was done.
For the most part, they were right. Even if Hashirama was the strongest shinobi alive, by the admittance of Madara himself, and even if Tobirama was not that far behind him, both of them could be stalled by Madara and Izuna working together. It came down to Touka and Mito, who had replaced Itama in their team, versus Hikaku and Haruka.
Touka and Mito were a good team, and both were very strong kunoichi that could take dozens of men twice their size. Mito especially had grown from a foolish hot headed young woman, to a strong, poised and deadly kunoichi. Tragedy does that to a person.
But they weren't Hikaku and Haruka strong. Both of them were powerhouses probably as strong as Izuna, and their teamwork was flawless. They covered both short distance with Haruka's taijutsu and long distance with Hikaku's ninjutsu. Haruka's brutal strength combined with his deadly genjutsu left no way for anyone to escape. And finally since both of them were proficient in the manipulation and control of chakra, with a little help from Haruka's chakra storing seal, they were virtually indestructible as a team. And they had the most important advantage of them all: Their enemies didn't know the true measure of their strength.
Haruka had long since noticed that rivals in this world seemed to always evolve with each other. Whenever Izuna or Madara came up with a new jutsu, Hashirama and Tobirma would come up with one that counters it by their next meeting. And her brothers did the same. It was a sort of vicious cycle that kept them always growing in strength, to equal each other. So she theorized that the only way to have a decisive advantage was to break away from that circle. She shared her thoughts with Hikaku, who was by far the wisest member of their team after her when it came to strategies, and they came up with a plan. The next time their rivals came up with something new, they would focus on dodging it, but not countering it. Of course, they secretly came up with jutsus that could counter them, but they never showed them on the battlefield. The cycle repeated itself three times, before what she had been waiting for happened. Touka and Mito stopped evolving. They thought that they were the strongest, and since Hikaku and Haruka didn't mind coming back with a few more wounds than necessary, everybody believed it too. Only their team, Tajima and the elders were made privy to what was really going on.
And sure enough, it came in handy. They didn't even have to show all their strength. A simple technique was enough.
The Senju squad wasn't sloppy in the slightest, but they were blindsided. There was no need to try and sneak in on them because they knew that Tobirama probably knew the exact moment they left their compound with his sensory skills. They made the attack look like everything was still the same, but at the last moment, Hikaku and Haruka switched places using a Raiton technique they had co-developed, and Haruka knocked out Touka, while Hikaku paralyzed Mito. Before anyone could react, Haruka found the daimyo and lodged a small senbon in his neck, took it out, and picked up a heavy looking ancient sword that was with him. It happened so fast that he probably didn't notice that she had injected him with a poison, and would probably think it was a mosquito bite if he noticed the small wound later.
The daimyo wasn't meant to die that quickly. Her senbon was coated with a slow acting poison of her conception that will take three months to take his life. The sword she had with her was an antique, worth millions on the black market. It was one of the symbols of the monarchy in this country, like those ridiculous hats, and the daimyo couldn't lose it. So they had fashioned their assassination plan based on it. First, Madara had someone put an anonymous, but generous offer for it on the black market. Then he let the word circulate about the Uchiha being interested in the job, so that everybody will suspect that it was the reason for this attack. After that, they waited until many attempts had been made to steal it so that theirs wouldn't stand out, and then attacked.
The last part of the plan also went off without a hitch. Madara feigned inattention while Haruka stepped dangerously close to Hashirama, and the greatest shinobi alive naturally fell for it and sent one of his branches to capture her. She barely dodged but "accidentally" let the sword fall. A "vanquished" Madara then ordered the retreat after a few Katons, and they disappeared. They silently made their way back to the inn where they had been staying before, and once in their room they all burst out laughing at how easy it was to trick the over confident bastards.
What they hadn't accounted for was the bad weather of the Land of Iron, especially at this time of the year. The inn owner had tried to warn them about the storm, but the wedding was in two days and they would barely make it in time. They were all shinobi and even without their mantels, they could use chakra to keep themselves warm, and Haruka had spent weeks planning this wedding, she wasn't going to let anyone disturbed her perfect day. Madara had other concerns, like his bride worrying too much and hurting their unborn baby, but the point still stood. Hikaku was always on board, and Izuna was convinced after they pointed out that many girls from outside the clan would be coming to the party. The poor guy couldn't go to the other villages or towns all winter, and was in desperate need for a change of scenery. And so they all set off anyway.
The snow storm kept getting stronger and they were all relieved when they found the cave Madara had talked about. There was still a bit of a stretch from here to the compound, but once the sky cleared, they would summon Takai and Kyujusho and get there on the morning of the wedding. They could rest now and after. They started a small fire and took turns napping and standing guard.