A/N: Helloooooooo! Some of you (well, okay, hardly any of you) might recognize this fic. This was originally posted to Ao3 a while ago, but I decided to post it here instead. As per usual, I own absolutely nothing (except a few OCs). (And yes, this is another mostly-angsty 'rebelling against a corrupt government/royal family' AU. It's my weakness (aside from fluff), sue me.

FULL SUMMARY:

AU. A tumultuous kingdom, an arranged marriage, and a group of traitorous spellcasters that call themselves 'Riot'. On the eve of the marriage, the bride is killed, and Riot moves in to attack the castle. Enraged, the crown prince orders that anyone practicing magic is to be killed. Riot is heavily crippled, but luck turns in their favor, in the form of six girls - a 'dead' princess, the daughter of a long-lost rival family, a florist, a soldier, a missing prisoner-of-war, and a lady-in-waiting.

The usual rules apply: please keep it civil in the comments, feel absolutely free to question what will happen next, you know the drill by now. (if you absolutely must tell me what a piece of shit this is, please PM me about it. If you absolutely must tell me that you think a certain pairing is the worst thing in the history of the show, please just PM me about it. Of course, no hard feelings if you do!)

Oh, and one more thing: this WILL have a bit of SasuSaku, NaruHina, the usual pairings. There will also be others (such as HinaSaku) that I don't normally write.

Full list (so far): SasuSaku, NaruHina, ShikaTema, JiraTsu, FugaMiko, and another one involving Kakashi (NO SPOILERS YET!)

Minor pairings (so far): HinaSaku, ShikaIno, slight, slight SasuHina.

Without further rambling (and making this super long), here's the prologue! Enjoy!

Prologue

MAY 31, XX18

HIDDEN LEAF VILLAGE, FIRE KINGDOM

The capital city of the kingdom of Fire was alight in celebration. Banners and streamers decorated the sparse, brick walls, and the air was sweet with flowers.

Villagers, coming and going, greeted each other cheerfully. Children ran up and down the streets, laughing, and the elderly stood, mingling with pride as they recounted the event to take place the next morning.

High above the city, in one of the castle's towers, a beautiful princess-to-be gazed nervously into a mirror as a girl with hair like fire slowly adjusted a pearl circlet on her head.

"You look heavenly, my lady," she murmured adoringly as she pulled her hands away. "I'm quite sure that the prince will have some trouble keeping his eyes off of you tomorrow morning."

The woman, having only scarcely turned eighteen, tried to smile at her new lady-in-waiting. This marriage troubled her, and it was, by no doubt, not either of their decisions. Nevertheless, she bowed her head humbly and replied quietly, "Thank you, Karin-san."

Karin bowed to her and respectfully backed out of the room, leaving her to herself in what would be her wedding dress.

The garment was lovely, or at least it was to her standards. It was a rather modest dress, pure white and ending at her shoulders. The skirt opened like a rose with its many 'petals', and even if she lifted her foot, she couldn't see the snowy slippers she wore. On the back was the crest of the royal family - a white and red uchiwa fan.

Gone was her family's crest, she noticed with a frown. Her father would surely be at least mildly affronted that she was forced to throw away her heritage, but at the present time, he seemed mostly satisfied with the match and would not openly oppose.

A fortuitous alliance between two very powerful families; the ruling Uchiha and the influential Hyuuga. She herself wished she could call it off, but to call off a marriage to the crown prince would be a fate worse than death.

If he actually let her end the engagement cleanly, she would face worse at home. She would be considered a disgrace to the family and would be treated like a pariah. They wouldn't even skip a beat - as soon as her sister came of age, they would probably propose to marry her to the prince. Her sweet younger sister, whom she loved more than anyone else in the world- well, except one.

The prince's best friend and personal bodyguard, the man with tresses of sunshine and eyes like the vast sea. Namikaze Naruto was his name, and Hinata was a woman deep in love.

Sadly, this match would never be. As much as she pined for him, he'd never actually come out and returned her feelings. Plus, the only time she'd recently been to the castle was when their arranged marriage was being planned, and it would be considered near treason to snatch the prince's intended.

So she sighed to herself, careful not to cry her makeup off. The prince was not to see her until the morning, and thus she was forced to wait, wait, and wait some more, passing the hours and growing more and more anxious as the sun set.

When Karin came back into the room to disrobe her and get her ready for bed, she noticed the noirette's suppressed tears and shook her head.

"Milady, don't worry so much about this." Karin placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, leaning in. "I have a plan to get out of here, if you wish to leave."

"I can't go home, remember?" Hinata whispered back. "I would be - nay, I am - a disgrace."

"You are beautiful, yes, but you are also the kindest mistress I've ever had." Karin objected with a soft smile. "Listen- I'm in contact with a member of Riot."

"No!" The woman gasped in horror. "That criminal rebellion?"

"The very same." The grin on the redhead's face was almost malevolent. "They plan to fake your death and recruit you to their side. We only have tonight to do it, though. Are you in?"

Hinata blanched when Karin smoothly slipped a small vial out of her sleeve. Despite not quite catching its color, she knew what it was - 'poison' designed to slow your breathing to the point of perceived death. It'd been used before, as a plot device in that old tragedy her tutors had read to her, but seeing it in person was enough to make her skin crawl.

"A- Are you sure that this is the only way?" She asked, desperately trying not to imagine swallowing the translucent liquid.

"The attack will happen a little after twilight. We don't have much time left." Karin shook her head. "It's now or never. In fact-"

She peeked out of the curtains, only faintly catching a glimpse of a flash from the gardens. "- I'd say they're already here."

Hinata gulped, clasping her hands on her chest. When she'd prayed of a way out of this marriage, she hadn't thought of poison. And what would her dearest sister say when she found out?

But... she eyed the vial once more. This could be the way out she prayed for.

The night sky lit up with an explosion, one of the castle towers gutted in its wake.

The guards began shouting, readying for battle even as the rebels stormed the capital.

A few managed to slip inside and made their way through the corridors. One kicked open the door to Hinata's chambers, only to see Karin protecting her with her back to the flames.

She looked up, gritting her teeth in pain. "She did it... the explosion was too much for us. My back- it's burned badly. Get us out of here!"

They carried both Karin and the noble's body out before that part of the floor could crumble away, carrying nearly half of the room with it.

As the room collapsed, a single article of clothing fell with it. The wedding dress floated to the ground, the skirt charred and ripped. Shreds of fabric scattered around the site like blackened confetti.

The dress, having been removed and placed back on the mannequin next to the wardrobe, fluttered as it fell in pieces to the castle grounds, the flames charring it so badly that it was reduced to nothing but ribbons, the uchihwa fan completely singed from the back of the garment. It proved a macabre threat for the guards when the arrived at the crash site.

A/N: How about that. I've got a lotta chapters saved up (until chapter 13, I think), but I'll still be dragging out the uploads (to be exact, one every week) so that I can write some more in the interim. I have no clue what the final count will be, but I'll definitely let you know when I finish!

Please tell me what you thought of this first chapter, and I'll see you guys in the next chapter.