the ice queen | hatake kakashi

60; epilogue

Spring came to Konoha.

Far deep in the village, inside a certain former kunoichi's house, you can see a swarm of women surrounding the house, fighting to see the person inside preparing herself. It was safe to say, a hectic situation.

"Your Highness, please stay still!!! You're going to ruin your makeup if you move again!!!"

"For the last time, please call me Nami when I'm here. It feels weird hearing you guys calling me that."

"I'm sorry." Kurenai forced the queen to stay still. "I mean, if we're talking about being weird or awkward, calling you by your real name is already odd enough for me, Fuyu." The queen turned to lightly slap her friend on the shoulders, only to be restrained by the other kunoichis surrounding her. "God, you're still feisty even after all these years."

"It's the anxiousness from thinking about her wedding." Sakura snickered as she helped fix the queen's hair for one last time. "Everything is going to be alright, Nami. Marriage isn't that terrifying. Take it from someone like me."

"Or me." Hinata popped out from the kitchen carrying a tray of drinks. The queen groaned as she looked at her reflection on the mirror. Amazingly, she looked like how she was a few years back. The girls managed to hide the queen's eye bags very well. "Wow."

"Wow indeed. Kakashi is lucky." Tsunade came as well, everyone close to the former ninja came to help her be prepared for her wedding. "You guys went through a lot, I'm sure everything will go well now."

"How are you guys so confident when just last week I almost died from getting so many embarrassing questions from the press at the formal wedding at the Islands??" Nami complained before she took a drink for herself, gulping it down in one go.

The queen always knew that the day she announced marriage, half of the world would go tumbling down upon hearing the news. She remembered how the second she announced it to the counsellors, half of them were a bit disappointed, while the other half supported her choice. "Marrying a Fuyuhana is useless in this era, we need this change. Besides, Hatake-san is a great candidate for our queen, unlike those far cousins of the Fuyuhana."

"They'll declare a family war. We don't want that." One of the counsellors piped in. Nami looked at Kōri, asking for help. The latter rolled his eyes before he interrupted the debate. "There were rumours that the Sixth Hokage and our queen were together for a short while, right? Well, those rumours were true, but the queen ended it for the sake of our nation's prosperity. She sacrificed a lot for us, so isn't it time that she gets to do something for herself?"

"Besides, like what counsellor Hwang said; the Fuyuhana nowadays are pretty useless. No offence, my Queen."

It was worse when they were to announce it to the press.

As the queen expected, people thought it was a diplomatic marriage. "How do we explain that it isn't a diplomatic marriage without explaining that the rumours were true?" She asked Kōri and Kakashi before they were to go to a press conference. "That sounds impossible though, your Majesty. Otherwise, it does sound like what one would do to pull diplomatic ties." Kōri looked through the Snow Islands' document, hoping to find something they could use to defend the press' attacks.

"There is one document that could defend you. Try searching for one document that was around... 2 years ago? That was my last document as the Sixth Hokage." He looked at the queen with loving eyes. "I purposely make sure my last work as the Hokage was related to you."

"Weird way of showing affection but o-kaay." Nami helped dig into the documents until she snatched one from out of nowhere. "Oh my god, I forgot this existed. We're saved." She ran to hug her fiancee tightly. "Thank you so much."