Konoha Hiden - The Wedding

Chapter 2: The Wedding Ritual

'Thoughts'

"Dialogue"

It was the single most disturbing thing Sukea had ever seen...

It wasn't the most traumatizing thing he had ever seen. It wasn't something that caused him great emotional and physical pain. It wasn't something that would irrevocably scar him and cause him to have nightmares for the rest of his life.

(Kami knows he has had his fair share of those types of experiences over the years)

No, it was the single most disturbing thing he had ever seen. As in what he was witnessing right now caused him a great sense of discomfort and unease, as well as a sudden urge to drop every single thing that he was doing and run straight for the hills. It was disturbing him and it was affecting him in ways he never thought it would be possible...

...The bride was cupping the groom's cheek in her hand and she was smiling at him...

...and the groom was cupping her hand and smiling back...

...in a way he had never seen him smile before...

Two hours ago...

Flash! Click!

The priest was not having a good day...

His trip from Yugakure (oh how he could use the hot-springs right about now) was long and tiring, and he hardly had any time to rest since he had arrived. The wedding was going to be one of the biggest religious events in the known shinobi world, and arranging the specifics -setting up the temple, placing the ornaments and the saké, interviewing/interrogating the Miko maidens - was taking a huge strain on him.

His face involuntarily scrunched up as he recalled some of the answers he had been given from some of the Miko Maidens. How many times did he have to tell them? No, they couldn't have their cake and eat it too. They couldn't pursue relationships AND keep getting that precious virginal Miko maiden income...

...no matter how creative they were in pursuing that goal...

...there was something seriously wrong with young girls today...

Adherence to religious morals was very important to him. He was from a family whose members were all involved with religion in some shape or form. His mother was a former Miko maiden (she was very strict in matters of purity and reverence), while his father was a former practitioner of a strange religion that believed in reincarnation and Nirvana which worshipped some sort of guy in meditating position. His sister left home to become a Shinmei-Ryu priestess while his cousin...

...was exiled from the village for worshipping a strange dark god called Jashin who required constant blood sacrifices in order to obtain eternal life, or more accurately prevent corporeal death. Normally, Yugakure was a place where all religions were tolerable, where all faiths and systems of belief were welcome...

...but him chopping off his torso after hanging himself on a lamp-post to show off his god's greatness, was going a bit too far for the visiting daimyo's tastes.

The priest sighed. He rather missed his cousin. He was fun to be around. Especially when he started rambling and the little bits of frothy spit started appearing around his mouth. Last he heard, he joined a strange organization that was working on bringing about the end of the world.

He always wondered how that turned out...

He turned his attention back to the hopefully-soon-to-be-wedded couple.