Eyes reflecting blood ,

Hair as dark as night ,

For this my dear friend is the tale of the fair

Snow White.

17 years prior...

Into the late hours of the night, the midst of winter, deep within the heart of the Leaf Kingdom the late Queen lay in her chamber, her hands running delicately over her plump stomach. She smiled to herself as she felt the movement beneath her flesh. She was due any day now and she couldn't help but reminisce in the last months of her life as she waited for her husband to return to her as he retired for the night.

But beneath the Queen's smile was a flurry of mixed emotions. She was so conflicted, on one hand she was filled with unadulterated joy as she was about to give birth to her second child. A second son, she could feel it in her bones, but, on the other hand she couldn't help but let the sadness and guilt wash through her as she was keeping a secret from her husband. The man she had grown up with, fallen in love with and married. They had lived together happily, had their first son Itachi at a young age in their early twenties. The Queen couldn't have been happier, had never been happier before. She believed that she had found her happily ever after, the stuff of bed time stories that her mother had read to her every night as a little girl. Oh but she was wrong only a few months later her husband, Fugaku's father, the King at the time had passed and that the eldest living heir was to take up the throne.

Fugaku and herself had thought that when the time came for a new king it would of course be the eldest, Fugaku's brother to take the throne. But when summoned to the Kingdom's court to plan the crowning ceremony it was made known that the eldest had fled the kingdom, run off with a stable boy. Since that day Fugaku came to despise his older brother, the man who abandoned his Kingdom and put disgrace to their fathers name all for a stable boy.

Not a day later had Fugaku been crowned the new King of the Leaf, he had chosen to withhold the tale of his brother from the people, instead feeding them a story of a gallant prince dying a noble death protecting the Kingdom from a group of bandits. He wouldn't let his brother's actions soil their fathers name. For in Fugaku's eyes, it was the worst crime he could have possibly committed.

It had only worsened from there on. As the years went on the King grew distant, he grew colder with each passing season, and as it seemed the days grew colder with him. The land was prosperous; enough to feed the people of the Kingdom and export goods to others. The kingdom was seeing as good as it ever had, but, the people were however not. Within the kingdom an unsettling mood instilled into their hearts. Seeming to be in sync with their cold King.

As Mikoto watched her King grow distant and cold so did her heart. With each passing day, as she watched the man who had once captured her heart slowly transform she knew that one day she would wake and no longer be able to recognise him. Her fears had come much sooner than she could ever hope. She no longer knew the man before her, she saw a flame in his eyes that she had never seen before. The power in which he had was going to his head. She could no longer speak to him without feeling a wall between him though she could see he still loved her she could no longer say the same.

That was when she had met him, a young sorcerer who had been passing through the Kingdom at the time. He was different from what she had come to know. She had never meant to fall in love with the man, the man with eyes as deep as blood, that flickering crimson that consumed his irises as he let his magic course through his veins.

He had reminded her so much of the Fugaku she had once knew. Loving, kind, passionate; and she thinks that within those similarities she fell in love with not only the sorcerer, but a silly dream. A dream of before, before her King had been crowned. Back to when she had been happy, when she could play with her new born son, care for him, look after him. Now she barley ever got to speak to him. Fugaku had been putting him through so much, and under so much pressure as of late. She barley got to see her son anymore.

As time went on she only grew deeper in love with the wandering sorcerer. And before she knew it a year had passed and she had found herself pregnant with her second child. That was when the guilt had begun for she knew that the child was not her King's. Though she did not regret that her child had been conceived through love rather than what was now a one sided marriage. She regretted the thought of the lie in which she had created.

Fugaku was convinced that the child was his own, though she had never received the courage to tell her sorcerer of what they had created together. Instead, for the sake of her Kingdom she left the young man, breaking his heart and hers along with it. For the months of her pregnancy she noticed that the old Fugaku that she had once known was starting to shine through once again. The thought of another child had seemed to warmed his heart. He smiled at her more, his voice laced with warmth and affection. The days had begun to grow warmer, taking them out of the once static fall like state the Kingdom had been in for so long. It seemed as if spring was coming to the land, flowers blossomed, trees leaves grew green once again.

Alas, the pain in her chest only grew. The King was slowly becoming the man who he once was all because of a child who was not his. She could not bare to tell him, but she feared that she would live her life in despair if she did not. That, when her unborn child grew through the ages that she would come to resent him. The child who had caused her so much pain; and that she could not possibly bare.

So as she lay here, in her bed trying to find the courage to tell Fugaku of her affair she felt a surging pain in the pit of her stomach. She screamed out in agony she had not felt the pain of contractions since she had had Itachi nine years prior. One of the maids must have heard the Queen's screams as one naked open the doors and ran into the room, calling out for the other maids available to follow.

"My lady are you alright?" Asked the head maid Rebecca, she had been there with Mikoto since the beginning. She was the only other to know of the Queen's affair but remained unaware of the origin of the child. Rebecca had come to be Mikoto's best friend since she had been crowned alongside her husband.

Mikoto grabbed hold of the middle aged bruntte's wrist and held them tightly. "The baby." She breathed. "He's coming!" Rebecca's eyes widened. Quickly she ordered one of the other maids that had followed her to go seek out the doctor and bring him here immediately, then she ordered another to find a servant and pass the news of the situation to the King at once.

What felt like within moments Mikoto was screaming in pain, the doctor had arrived and was trying to calm her, get her to breath through the pain. Fugaku had just arrived to their chambers and was now at his wife's side, gripping her hands tightly. He smiled down at his wife and ran a hand across her sweat stained forehead pushing stray strands of her hair as dark as the night. At the moment her skin was paler than usual but you could still see, still recognize the most beautiful woman in the kingdom. Fugaku did not fail to tell her this as went through another painful contraction.

He looked down into her eyes, all she could see within his truly dark eyes was his love and devotion and as he bent his head forward to push a soft, loving kiss upon his Queen's forehead she could feel her heart break. She knew she could no longer hold it in anymore.

"Fugaku." She panted out before she screamed once more as the pain coursed through her. Fugaku squeezed her hand and shushed his queen whispering sweet nothings trying to bring her through the pain.

"What is it my dear?" He asked kindly, Mikoto could feel the tears she had been trying to hold back tear away from her eyes and flowed down her cheeks. The pain, not the physical which she felt, but the emotional pain she had felt for so long had become so overwhelming she could o longer hold them back.

"I'm sorry." She cried. Fugaku brought his hands to her face, the pads of his thumbs wiping away the tears from her cheeks.

"Why are you sorry? You are giving me the greatest gift I could have ever asked for." He smiled. This only cause the Queen's tear to flow faster.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered. "For I have betrayed you." Her whimper was so quiet it went unnoticed by the King.

"How?" He asked softly, his smile dropping from his face. "How could you have possible betrayed me?"

"I broke our sacred bond." She whispered as her distraught subsided the pain of the contractions. "I fell for another. I'm so sorry." She sobbed silently, no noise coming from her tears.

"What?" Was all the King could muster. He felt the dull crack of his already damaged heart.

"I fell for another, but it's over, I broke it off long ago. As soon as I knew of the child I left him. I'm so sorry. I love you." The king couldn't believe her words to be true after what she had just revealed to him.

"Who." He said quietly, the Queen missing the malice in his voice.

"A young sorcerer, he reminded me so much of you, before you became King. I couldn't help it, I fell in love with him. I'm so so sorry! I swear my heart belongs to you!" She wailed as the doctor instructed her to push.

"And this child?" He asked stiffly. Staring into the Queen's eyes. She clenched them shut and remained silent, biting her lip to not cry out in pain.

"Mikoto." The King's voice wavered dangerously. "Tell me my-our child is not...his." he hissed through his teeth.

"I'm so sorry." Her voice shook. Furious the King stood, seething as he crossed the room towards the desk. He threw his clenched fists onto the the table. He could no longer hear anything around him, not the doctor telling his wife-no that woman to push. Nor Mikoto's screams of pain as she gave birth to her infant.

The King found himself in front of the balcony, all he could feel, all he could think about was how this was the second time someone he held dear had betrayed him. He felt numb. His mending heart had now been shattered into pieces by the same red thread that had bound hid soul to his Queen's promising him a life with whom he was destiny with; leaving a fresh wound that could never heal.

The King was broken out of his daze as the cries of the newborn child resonated off the room's stone walls. Soon following was a panicked cry from one of the maids.

"Sire!" Called the Doctor. "We must call for a sorcerer! She is losing too much blood, this is something I cannot fix, we need a healer and fast!" He called out. He could hear the scurrying of one of the maids.

"Stop!" Fugaku yelled without turning his gaze from the night sky.

"But my lord!" The maid cried.

"No."

"Sire, without a healer the Queen shall surely perish." The Doctor tried to reason.

The King could no longer see, his vision clouded with a blinding rage and hatred that had begun to burn inside of him.

"She's going to die-!"

"Then let her." He seethed, the only thing he could hear was the high pitched cries of the new born child. The sorcerer's child.

That night as the Queen lay dead on the bed of her chambers the King's heart froze, and with it, the Kingdom was plunged into everlasting snow.

Mind you, this is an adaption of certain concepts presented in Snow White. That means that most, not if all is inspired by snow White and not Snow White with the Naruto characters.

Ah, I hope you enjoyed. This was an idea I've been developing for a while now and I am really excited with where it is going. The rating will stay T for the time being but it might change further on in the story. I'll be updating this once a week, every Monday. Reviews are always appreciated and I'll see you next Monday!