Disclaimer: I'm still not any closer to owning Naruto then I was before.
Princess in Purple
I sighed. What was the deal? Just open the door, Shikamaru… People are gonna think you're scared of Queen Tsunade… Just open the door! I hit the door with my shoulder, which wasn't necessary. The Queen gasped, I guess I almost gave her a heart attack. Troublesome…
"What's the meaning of this?" Tsunade questioned pointing at the door.
I rubbed the back of my head. "Sorry, Queen Tsunade… I just had an issue… that's all." I groaned. Great one Shikamaru, that's how you explain it to the Queen…
"Hm." Tsunade put a hand under her chin. "An issue? What type of issue?"
"Ah… I need to ask you something, but I couldn't force myself to open the door."
"You're a strange man, Shikamaru." She gave a small laugh. "What do you need to ask me?"
"About that old painting by the dining room door. With the flowers in front of it? I was wondering who that girl was…"
"Oh dear." The Queen put her hand back on her chin. "It's been sometime since anyone asked about my daughter."
"Daughter?" Are you kidding? I could've sworn that Tsunade said that she never had a child before… Now she's saying she has, had, a daughter?
"Yes. My baby girl… She met such a sad ending…"
"What do you mean, Queen Tsunade?" I cocked my head to the side. I just had to hear this… For once I did care about something…
"I don't know where to start. I guess from the start, eh?" she laughed lightly. "Well, I guess it all started back… say fifty years ago…"
"Mother… There are some strange men outside the village gates." A young blonde girl with curled hair asked Queen Tsunade.
"Strange men? What do you mean, daughter?" Queen Tsunade asked turning to face the teenage girl.
"Men I've never seen before. They were carrying guns and furs, so I guessed they were hunters and trappers at first. But then I saw that they were dressed like royalty, and they pointed one of their guns at a random passer by, and shot him!"
"Ah. Don't worry much about it." the Queen sighed. She wasn't in the mood for her daughters crazy stories.
"Don't you think someone should do something? They did kill someone…"
"Daughter," Tsunade shook her head. "It's nothing." Maybe she had had too many drinks of wine, because the danger wasn't getting through to her.
Her young daughter was angered by her mother's lack of concern. "Maybe next time I won't try to help this stupid village!" she yelled before slamming the door to the throne room. "It's not like I care anymore than you!" Tsunade heard her yell.
The foolish queen rolled her eyes. I guess that's what wine does to you after thirteen glasses- Tsunade downed another glass - I mean fourteen.
The shorter blonde girl stormed out of the castle, not even bothering to lift the bottom of her dress up. The thin fabric tore on the bumpy stone road. "Like I need my mother's help. Hell, I just save the village myself. I don't need all those damn knight' s help." she looked around. Was it possible that the villagers, including the ones who saw what she saw, just let them in without identification?
She heard a gunshot ring out and took off in that direction. She ended up in front of the small bar as another shot was fired. She gulped and pushed open the door, just a small crack.
What she saw scared the hell out of her. A man was lying on the ground holding the back of his head. She saw blood leaking out from the tight hold. She gave a slight gasp and put a hand over her mouth. She followed a pair of legs up to a man's face. It was spattered in blood, the other mans blood.
His face held extreme anger, while his hands held a gun. It was one of the men from before. Another man who was standing by the murderer, was also covered in blood, only on his pants. Even the air in the bar smelled like blood and gun powder. She couldn't help but wonder what the motive was… She also couldn't help but wonder why she was still there.
She turned and took off running away from the bar. If she had known this guys could get this mad, she wouldn't have bothered coming near them. She would admit that she was naive, but she wouldn't say she was stupid.
"She saw it!" the blonde girl looked back and saw the killer in the door. "We can't have witnesses!" her eyes shot open in fear. Were they seriously going to hunt her down and kill her? She swallowed hard as she heard boots banging on the stone road behind her. How was she suppose to get rid of them? "Stop you bitch!" she heard a gruff voice yell, different from the killer's voice.
Then she did something she shouldn't have. "Get away from me you asses! I didn't see anything!!"
One of the men growled like a bear or mountain lion. She didn't want to know who, she just wanted to get out of there. But where could she go? Her focus went to the huge bunch of trees to her left. 'The forest, that might be dumb enough to work…' she thought making a sharp turn.
After that turn was made, she saw a bullet hit the side of a house, thus ricocheting off and hitting her arm. She winced. Of course she knew it was suppose to hurt… she just didn't know it would hurt this much just by bouncing into her. 'These men mean business…' she thought holding her arm.
She turned her head back and saw them reloading the gun as they ran after her. 'This isn't good…' she was getting tired, and her arm was killing her. Not that the bullet went into her arm, it just went past it and burned her badly. That didn't stop it from hurting, of course. And the fact that she was wearing heels wasn't doing her good either. She kicked her shoes off, but regretted it right away. The stones under her feet didn't do good to her.
'Which is worse… running in heels or running bare foot on rocks…?' she thought as a bullet hit the tree next to her. 'Running bare foot and getting shot at!' she screamed inner-worldly.
"Damn it! Next time hit that girl!" the gruff voice from before shouted.
"Don't rush me or I'll kill you too!" that was the killer. The princess was starting to panic. She was in the forest, not deep though, and they still weren't turning back. Wouldn't they know it's not smart to be in the forest? She looked up at the sky, since she could still see it, and saw that it was nearing sunset. Either these men were really, really stupid, or they really didn't want a witness, maybe a mix of both.
She was starting to loose feeling in her feet. Whether that was good or bad, she didn't know. at least she wouldn't feel the sticks and stones going into her feet as she ran. Another bullet was fired, only this time it didn't hit a tree or rock. It hit the princess in the back. She let out a loud scream as she feel to the dirt. She tried to stand back up, but someone pinned her down. She turned her head to look over the shoulder, it was the man that killed the other man. How did she know? He had blood and a pissed look on his face… like before.
"Thought you could get away from me, eh?" he barked into her ear. Her blue eye went wide as she tried to scream again, only nothing came out. She blew her voice out with the previous scream. The man let out a sick laugh. "Not possible, missy."
"Sir, this girl might not be worth killing. She no longer has a voice." a tall and fat man commented handing his boss his gun.
"Plus, look at those clothes. It's possible that she's royalty." another man said.
"I make the orders! Not you two!" The man exclaimed grabbing his gun and rising off of her. He shot her in the back of the head. "They'll never find her out here." he then smirked and turned back to his followers. "Remember what I said about killing you too?" he but another bullet in and shot the fan man in the forehead.
"Boss! You've gone mad!" the other said holding his hands up and turning to run as the princess's murderer reloaded. He didn't get far before a bullet hit the back of his head. "I wasn't kidding." the murderer finished dropping his gun to the ground. He turned back the princess's body. "Might as well get rich off this." he shrugged grabbing her necklace, earrings, and tiara.
The Queen finished with a sigh. "I was dumb back then. Maybe if I had listened to her, she might still be here."
I sighed as well. It was all I could do not to cry. Anyone who would do that to a girl, let alone princess, might as well be the devil himself. "What happened to her body?" I asked suddenly while looking at the ground.
"Eh?" She asked.
"What happened to your daughter's body." I repeated.
"Oh… After a while, I was on a walk and found it. Just bones. But from the dress, I knew it was her. I called my guards and had a proper funeral for her, buried her in that exact spot."
A tear hit the ground from my brown eye, making me look manly (not). "Was her killer ever caught?" I looked up at the queen, she was silent. After a minute, she shook her head, meaning no. I could've sworn my jaw hit the ground. "You're kidding."
She shook her head again. "And he's most likely still alive. One of his followers, who wasn't killed, came and told me, after I fond the body of course, that his master had some kind of spell that would make him live forever and a day."
Was she serious? I couldn't believe it. And after all this time, fifty years, he still hadn't been caught. It wasn't like me to care so much. What in God's name was wrong with me? "What was her name?"
"Ino." Tsunade answered quietly. Ino… What a pretty name. Troublesome, why was it always the young girls with pretty names that have to die? "I know this isn't like me… But I will find that girl's killer."
"Shikamaru! Are you serious?" she asked jumping up from her seat. I gave a slight nod. "Any man who killed a girl so savagely needs to be hunted down and killed!" I exclaimed.
"Oh Shikamaru!" I felt a pair of arms wrap around me, oh shit… I was in a place I didn't want to be, in-between Tsunade's two friends. "If you complete this mission and come back alive, I'll make you king of the valley!" I didn't know if that was good or bad. But nevertheless. This had to be done, no matter how troublesome it was going to be.
"But you will need backup. NARUTO! GET YOU'RE SKINNY ASS IN HERE!" I couldn't cover my ears, seeing as I was still stuck with Tsunade's two good friends. Naruto came running through the door with a piece of ham hanging from his mouth.
"Yes, Queen Tsunade?" Naruto asked, with a mouthful of ham.
"You and Shikamaru here are going to be hunting down my daughter's killer, even though he's immortal. You're goal: Hit him in the heart with this silver arrow." Tsunade let me go and pulled a silver arrow out of her top.
"Is that a good place to keep that?" I asked.
"No. But it's convenient, eh?" she smiled handing the arrow and a bow to me. "I'm not much of an archer." I groaned. She looked at Naruto, "Neither am I!" Naruto yelled.
Tsunade sighed. "You're lucky Princess Hinata of the next land is visiting, otherwise it'd be the dungeon for both of you!" I sighed and put my left hand on my right shoulder as the Queen called for this Hinata.
A girl with purple-ish hair and silver eyes appeared in the door. "Y-Yes, Queen T-Tsunade?" she stuttered. What? This wimp was a great archer?
"Men, meet Princess Hinata Hyuuga. She may be shy, but she hit's the target every time." with that being said, she turned back to Hinata. "You'll be helping these men. and I use the term lightly, with catching my daughter's killer, correct?"
Princess Hinata gave a small nod. "How do we know where this guy is?" Naruto asked swallowing the last of his ham.
"This map is a little outdated, but it should give some clue to were he is." Tsunade smiled pulling a map out of her top and handing it to me. I help it with my index finger and thumb, who knows what this touched… I shoved it in Naruto's hands and he unfolded it and looked it over. "How outdated is this?" he asked. "About forty-nine years." The three of us sweatdropped. Great… "You leave tomorrow!" Tsunade grinned. We all looked at her, "Are you kidding?" was written on our faces. We have a forty-nine year old map to led us… And that's it… Troublesome, don't you agree?
