Backstage Politics (Naruto Fanfic)

Theater politics meant Rasa never thought he would marry for love. A marriage involving family politics meant his future bride was already selected, but the arrangement ended through the manipulations of a family nuisance to whom the politics meant nothing. Fortune has other things planned for him.

Disclaimer - I don't own Naruto.

For the Fanfic Friday contest Curtain Call, I decided to go with a romance involving Japanese puppet theater. Bunraku is one of the major traditional theater disciplines along with Kabuki. Kyogen and Noh. The play mentioned in the story, Sonezaki Shinju, is also equivalent in Japan to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The fanfic focuses around Bunraku, but also, the family politics involved for a family ingrained in the Japanese theater tradition.

For this story, I'm using the possibility of Rasa being related to the third Kazekage, Chiyo, Ebizo and Sasori to round out the head family of the Bunraku troupe. The ex-fiance is the daughter of Onoki, and mother of Kurotsuchi who are the third and fourth Tsuchikage respectively, though it is not known whether Onoki is Kurotsuchi's maternal or paternal grandfather.