I don't own naruto.
Kiba smirked as he changed places with Sasuke. "How's it going?" he asked, pointing his chin out toward him.
"Fine, but I never thought I would be guarding in the princess' room." He kept one hand on the handle of his sword as Kiba walked pass him. He kept a serious look on his face.
A low laughter was heard. "Neither did I, but you know. The most talented gets the hardest, and trying your best not to stare at the princess is hard enough." He smirked and then walked out of the two doors, his shift ending and Sasuke's beginning.
*'.*'.*'.*'.*
Waking up in the middle on the night, a shadow walking in her room immediately caught her attention quickly. Pointing a finger at it, she said, "State your name." Already knowing that it was a knight in her room.
The person stopped walking and then faced the bed, and bowed. "Uchiha, Princess." He paced in the middle of the room, looking at the balcony several times and then pacing once more.
"I mean your full name," she said, rubbing her eyes of the small tears forming. 'Uchiha…?' Her long-sleeved nightgown was comfortable on her as she stepped down onto the soft-carpeted floor.
Several knights were stationed in her room and outside. Out on the balcony stood four knights and even more were further outside the dark doors. "Sasuke Uchiha," he said, stopped his pacing and looked straight at the princess, noticing small tears twinkling on her eyelashes.
Ino pushed herself off the bed and stood up. "I can't sleep…" she quietly muttered, rubbing her eyes, but soon fell back against her bed mattress. She heard his footsteps as he approached and then stood in front of her. Opening her bright blue eyes she saw the pale-skinned dark haired knight in front of her. "And I had a bad dream…" she whispered, brushing at her small tears.
Sasuke looked at her, trying his best not to notice her appearance or the tears that were sticking to her thick eyelashes. "About what? You're crying." He looked away when she answered.
"I am? You can still see?" she brushed at her face, trying to find what had shown that she was crying and eventually found it, wiping at her eyelashes. "Oh, it's nothing …but I don't think I can sleep for a while. It's too hot."
Rolling his dark eyes, Sasuke said, "Then change." He couldn't help but he wasn't even suppose to be talking to the princess unless he was given permission but he had seen countless knights talking to her without the need or permission. It wouldn't hurt to say some words.
Staring back with her blue eyes she said, "I don't really feel like it, sit down, Sasuke. You don't have to stand there." She patted the stop next to her on her own bed. The knight sat down with much hesitation. "You said your last name was 'Uchiha' right?" she brushed some of her loose hair.
"Yes…"
Ino grabbed both of his hands. "I'm so happy to finally meet you…" she said, a sad tone in her voice when she looked out of the balcony rather than at his face.
'Should I just let her hold my hands or should I just …jerk them back?' he looked up at her face. "Why?" he asked the question, having no idea why she would act so friendly to a new knight that she had never met in her life.
She pressed a finger against her chin, thinking back on where to start. "Well, remember the Queen? My mother? They announced when she died, but they never told any other citizens from what, the truth is that she was murdered." She looked at his face, her eyes teary. "Itachi, your older brother that killed your clan …he killed her. She ran over toward the area your clan lived in and tried to help them, but she just ended up dead like the rest of them. I was …a little grateful when I heard that one still survived …her efforts didn't go wasted." She released his hands, tackling him with a hug instead.
'I hate clingy people! I didn't know the princess would be doing this!' he tried jerking his hand out of her grasp. She ended the hug earlier than he expected and he ungracefully fell down onto the carpeted floor with a small thud. He stood up quickly and sat back at the edge of her bed, uncomfortably. "Sorry," he said, "You should be getting back to your sleep. Your birthday is tomorrow after all, your twelfth." He stood up, stationed near the edge of her bed, he stood there, waiting for his shift to end.
As he turned around several ten minutes later, the moon shone down at Ino's face, like it was planned to show her perfect pale skin, her platinum hair fanned out around her, showing her beauty out toward him. He cursed the universe for doing that to him and then turned around, not looking once more at the princess on that night.
~'.~'.~'.~'.~
"Wake up, Ino!" Yoshino's cheerful voice shouted out toward her. Ino groggily woke up, her head shaking as she ran her hand through her white-blonde strands. "Your father is in the throne room," she said to her, slightly giving the princess a light push to give her a start. As Ino ran toward the bathroom, Yoshino placed a small box on Ino's purple pillow, a small smile appeared on her lips.
The blonde beauty ran out of the bathroom in her purple dress, one of her eyebrows raised asking for approval or not. Yoshino shook her head, snapping her fingers and then threw another dress in Ino's direction.
As soon as Ino's outfit was finally decided, Yoshino slowly did Ino's hair before standing Ino up and then pushing her out of the door. "Your beloved knight stands in the throne room," she said, and then gave Ino a small kiss on the cheek for good luck.
*'.*'.*'.*'.*
"Ino! My darling, my little princess, my-!" Inoichi held his hands out toward Ino.
"We get it, Inoichi," Shikaku said, sitting on a seat just near the throne that Inoichi had rose from. "It's a shame that my son isn't fit to be a knight," he said, shaking his head. Choza gave a laugh that shook the area, and then returned to the plate of food he had in his right hand.
A line of knights stood in the middle of the room, standing straight and a weapon on each one of them. "Your personal knight can be one of all of these," he said, letting his hand show the amount, all of which were around her age. "Go ahead …pick …but I want you to have a good reason why you picked him." He watched as his daughter moved to the right, walking toward one knight already.
Ino stood in front of Sasuke and then placed a hand on his wrist letting it slide a bit down. "Now, Ino …why?" Inoichi asked, looking at the side of his daughter's face, a small smile on his face. 'I knew she was going to chose Sasuke…'
"Because you're my friend," she said, not toward her father but at Sasuke instead. "And my mother sacrificed her life for your clan." Ino turned toward her father. "Am I allowed to have him as my knight?"
The king looked at Ino, pressing his lips against her cheek. "Oh course. I was expecting that you would pick him anyway…" he revealed an elegantly wrapped gift. "And this is my personal gift to you."
Ino slowly took the gift away from his hands, slowly ripped the paper away, and then threw herself onto her father when she realized what it was. "These were mother's, right?" she asked, remember the photo where she had seen these items. The beautiful tiara she held in her hand along with the necklace and bracelet had small light blue sapphires in them, along with some small diamonds. Inoichi pulled the tiara from Ino's head and then replaced it with the new one. "Thank you, Daddy! I will never know where you keep pulling these things from mommy's!" she gave her father a big kiss and a hug before grabbing Sasuke's hand and pulling it. "I have to show Yoshino!"
"Slow down, Princess!" Sasuke tried his best to keep up with her pace. Knights behind him muttered sentences about their unfortunate bad luck. It was all ended by the sound of the throne room door's slamming shut, ending their chances of being the personal knight of the beauty of the century.
"Why do you always have to run to Yoshino?" Sasuke asked, still running but in pace with the princess. Ino began to loose her speed and just began to walk, a sad look on her face. "Sorry, Princess."
Ino held up a hand. "You should call me Ino from now on. Just plain Ino." She released his hand, using it to push open a door instead. "Yoshino!" she called out throughout the room.
The older woman rushed toward her, a new dress in her hands. "Ino! Come, try out this dress, I was working out the designs since well …I give ideas to make your dresses, and I do care for you." She looked at Ino, and then gasped, pressing a hand against Ino's new tiara. "Your mother's tiara! Your father gave it to you? Oh yes, and who is your new knight? A handsome one I presume? Or a strong one perhaps?" she looked over at Ino, raising an eyebrow.
Sasuke stepped forward, bowing toward Yoshino. "Yes …Sasuke is my knight," Ino said. She looked up at Yoshino's face, still smiling.
"Of course, he reminds you of your mother, right?" Yoshino bent down at Sasuke's height, pinched his cheeks. "He's a sweet boy, but he rarely talks…" she stood back up and said, "Go look up in your room, I left your present there. I can't leave right now, so I'll talk to you later! Happy Birthday, dear princess!" she waved a hand behind her and then made her way back to her station.
Ino waved her hand and then turned around. "Come on, Sasuke. I never really answered your question. I don't run to Yoshino on purpose, she's the wife of my father's best friend, so after my mother died, she stepped in …and ever since she's been really close to me!" she gave Sasuke a smile. "I hope you understand …let's go back to my room! I want to change into something more comfortable and then I want to visit Sakura and Hinata!" she said, running through the halls of the castle, waving at the older knights as she passed.
A hand stopped Sasuke from further advancing. "I heard you're the princess' personal knight now," Anko said, steering him away. "I taught you good, buddeh," she said, patting his shoulder.
"Are you stalling me?" Sasuke asked, and without getting an answer, he immediately ran after the princess.
~'.~'.~'.~'.~ (Don't like describing things when they're little cause I'm really loosing my youth here. -_-'' and it's not like I'm going to spend too much time talking about this…they is going to be a time skip ahead, just so you know people) ~'.~'.~'.~'.~
Two Days Later (At Night)
"I can't sleep…" Ino sat up on her bed, wearing a nightgown that touched her knees. "Sasuke …are you there?" a small movement was made before Sasuke was beside her bed. "Can we go for a walk? In the garden?"
He crossed his arms. "Can't you sleep in peace for one night?" he held out his hand that Ino quickly grabbed. "Let's go, the garden." He looked at Ino, up and down before saying, "You're going to walk around the castle wearing that?" he cocked his head out at her dress.
Ino spun in it. "Yeah, so? It isn't that bad. It's pretty good, don't you think?" she smiled, letting a small giggle leave her pink plush lips. "It's not like there's going to be too many people up, it's only some guards." She twirled a strand of hair around her finger.
Releasing her hand Sasuke said, "No, change into something a little more decent. Put on a long robe on." He looked away as Ino grabbed her robe, and then slipped on some decent slippers.
Stomping her feet Ino said, "Can we go now? I really don't want to go when it gets too late …it's midnight right now…" she smiled. "The darkest time of the night." She grabbed his hand once more, running through the doors of her room slowly, making her way down the set of stairs, and not hearing too many words out of the other knights.
"We really shouldn't be doing this," Sasuke whispered toward Ino. The beauty beside him laughed. Amazingly, Ino managed to remember her tiara in a time that they weren't even suppose to be out at.
She laughed once more. "It's no problem …I had Kiba do this with me several times," she said, "A lot of knights saw me actually, but they don't mind. I had Kiba beside me, and now I have you," she said, looking up at Sasuke, but he refused to even look at her face.
When they reached the garden Ino walked over toward a wooden swing that Inoichi had made himself for her. It had two thick ropes attached to a strong branch in the big tree. Ino sat down on the seat and kicked off the floor. She leaned over toward one of the ropes, feeling herself in peace when the wind hit her face.
"You can at least push me," Ino said, a small teasing smile on her face. Sasuke sighed, standing up instead of leaning onto the tree, and walked behind Ino's swing, pushing it several times.
"Isn't it calm out here?" Ino's voice said, snapping Sasuke away from his thoughts. "It's really beautiful too …the full moon looks beautiful…" she stopped the swing by placing her foot down onto the ground. "You're not really into this are you?"
Sasuke shook his head. "No, no. I like walks. I'm just going to consider this as a walk then, no matter. And I have to stay with you wherever you go anyway." He followed closely behind Ino.
Ino stopped suddenly, turning around to look at him she said, "You know, you don't really have to follow me around. You're free to live your life the way you like it." Tilting her head toward the left, she said, "Why did you become a knight again? I don't remember seeing you in the training grounds." she continued to walk.
"Hn." Sasuke walked next to her, like an equal. "You don't remember? The sword through your tiara, standing up holding the sword, and then you attacked, so what did I do? Attack without mercy." he was pushed back near the pond by Ino.
Turning back toward her, it was a funny expression. Her mouth was open. "I can't believe that was you!" she walked toward him, pushing him against one of the tall trees. "That was so rude of you! You attacked me without thinking about the fact that you would be executed if you killed me!" she pinned him against the tree.
Still in the position, Sasuke pushed himself off the tree, pushing Ino toward the floor instead and pinned her toward the ground. His body slightly hovered over hers when several knights on guard duty walked pass. He pressed a hand over her mouth just when she was about to scream out loud. "Shut up," he said, and looked behind him.
Her two hands shoved at his chest, trying to get him off her. Pushing his hand away Ino said, "Get off me!" Realizing the position that he was in, Sasuke pushed off the ground, standing up, he heard Ino say, "I want to go back to bed now!" she crossed her arms.
"Fine, let's go. It wasn't my idea to come out here anyway." Rolling his eyes he slowly began to lead her away.
Ino muttered, "Digusting…" and then wiped at her dress.
Sasuke rolled his eyes again. 'Stupid princess.'
"Oh yeah! I have to ask Yoshino about my stomachache…" she winced slightly but discarded the matter as she walked back toward her room.
I know, a frikin boring chapter...but I just needed this one.. I promise it's the only boring one? XD so..wats with the stomachache? ignore alllll ALL mistakes please? XD
