CHAPTER TWO

For a moment nothing happened. They were still flying-floating-hanging suspended and then in the next moment they bore straight down, down, down, gravity and turbulent air rushing at them in a frenzied battle that left her gasping for breath.

Then the ground came up at them, grabbing for them as if two giant arms were reaching up into the sky. The jet slammed against the earth. Bounced. Slammed down again. Bounced up higher, metal exploding, popping, screeching until Hinata was sure they would be consumed by the heat and metallic noise, the smell of burning rubber and gas.

A plume of black smoke filled the cabin and as smoke poured into the cabin, the jet skidded sideways, a runaway plane sliding into the night.

The jet's momentum carried them along, and inside the battered plane they were being thrashed about, thrown to the right and left, narrow seat belts barely restraining.

Something bright flared, color, light, heat. Fire.

The plane was on fire.

But the jet was still moving, still sliding, still racing along like a giant's plaything, until the body snapped apart, nose gone, tail falling away, the belly sawing open.

Dazed. Hinata saw the night sky overhead. Blinking, she tried to focus on what must be stars even as something warm and wet dripped on her from above. She drew a shallow breath, finding it hard to breathe. Everything was so hot. The air so thick and steamy. Smoke and petrol burned her nose and she gagged a little. Had to get this mask off. Had to get out of here.

A hand groped at her waist, reaching for her seat belt. Stupidly she tried to rise but her legs wouldn't hold her. It was like coming off one of those carnival rides, the spinning teacup one that threw equilibrium to the wind.

Again Hinata tried to rise, but her chest hurt, her legs trembled. Her body refused to cooperate even as her mind screamed. Have to get off. Have to get out.

Her face was wet, sticky. Must be raining. Or was that acrid burning smell petrol?

"Take my hand." a voice commanded.

Naruto's voice, she dimly registered. But she couldn't seem to find him or his hand, and she turned weakly in her seat, stared back behind her. Realized that the others were gone, that the tail of the jet was somewhere behind.

"Hinata."

He said her name so harshly that her head jerked back. He was standing and she stared at him in shock. His face looked blurry. Only his dark eyes made sense. They were fierce, black.

He pulled her to her feet and Hinata tried to move but her legs were soft, pillowy, the strangest weakest sensation. "I smell fire," she said, her voice eerily calm.

"The tail section is burning."

"Where is it?"

"Behind us."

She nodded, accepting this, and with her hand in his she tried to follow him across the pale taupe carpet with the bold gold and black border. Funny how the carpet looked the same.

But then the carpeted aisle ended abruptly, falling off away, and a huge scrap of silver sheet metal jutted up, twisting into the sky like a postmodernist garden sculpture. "Careful."

Again his voice was hard, ruthless and she nodded. There were no words left, no thought in her mind. She would have followed him anywhere at that moment.

He jumped down first, then lifted her from the carpet into his arms.

"I can walk." she protested as he carried her away from the tangled wreckage.

"You're bleeding.""

Her head fell back, she stared into his face. His jaw was set. his expression ferocious. "I'm not bleeding."

He didn't answer. He just kept walking, carrying her as if she were nothing, moving swiftly to an unseen point in the distance.

From nowhere a siren sounded in the warm heavy darkness, the mournful siren piercing the humid night. Thank God. Help's arrived. Gratefully Hinata closed her eyes.

With the princess slumped against his chest. Naruto carried her from the burning plane to the clearing up ahead. He intentionally was taking her away from the other survivors who were gathering away from the wreckage. He was glad she'd passed out. He wasn't in the mood to talk, or try to explain what had happened.

He'd failed. Plain and simple.

He'd been hired to protect her. And he hadn't protected her. Regardless of the circumstances, he took full responsibility for the crash. The crash should have never happened.

He'd swapped flight crews, substituting the cockpit flight crew for his own. He'd changed flight attendants, too, unwilling to take the chance that the danger would come from one of those that were paid to serve the princess. He'd done his best to screen all those traveling with Hinata. And he'd felt reasonably confident that those flying with her were loyal.

In the end, the problem had been the jet itself. He'd had it inspected. Obviously the inspection hadn't been thorough enough.

You'd think after ten years he would have learned something. He got into this line of work by default. There'd been a breech in family security and he'd paid the ultimate price. The tragedy had turned him into a vigilante, and later a security expert. He was too ruthless, too cold to be a good bodyguard, which was only one of the reasons why he didn't lake personal assignments, but after King Kazuri of Baraka, Princess Hinata's new brother-in-law had explained the situation to him.

Naruto couldn't say no. His company routinely provided high profile, celebrity security detail, but Princess Hinata Hamazaki's situation was different.

Widowed at twenty-seven, she was a stunning member of the royal family with a four-year-old daughter and someone wanted her gone. Dead.

The maliciousness of the intent, as well as the fact that a young child would be left orphaned, made his blood freeze. The widowed princess was tar too visible, and far too vulnerable.

After studying the files. Naruto knew he couldn't refuse the job. King Sai Kazuri and the elder Shinobi royals didn't know how to handle this sort of threat.

But Naruto did. When it came to offering the dirtiest form of protection and intimidation. Naruto was on a level of his own.

He didn't mess around.

He usually didn't make mistakes.

He'd made one today and he'd never forget it. The princess and her family could damn well believe he wasn't going to make another mistake, not when it came to her safety, nor her daughter's future.

The ground grew soft beneath his feet and the voices and cries of the passengers faded with the distance. They'd found land in the middle of the Atlantic. God only knew how the flight crew had managed to do that, he owed them hugely. They'd be compensated.

He heard a dull roar, the endless, monotonous sound of water against sand.

Apparently the jet had landed within a couple hundred feet of the ocean. If they'd overshot the runway even a little bit, they would have broken apart in the water.

Another miracle.

Naruto crouched down, set Hinata in the still warm sand. He checked her vitals as best as he could and she seemed line. It was the bump on her head that worried him. Part of the upholstered wall in front of them had come flying back at them.

He wished he had a flashlight. He wanted to check her eyes, see if they were as dilated as he feared.

She stirred, lunged forward. "Kaori?"

The terror in her voice cut him. "She's fine. Hinata." He wrapped an arm around her to keep her still. "Lie back, relax."

"Where is she?"

"Home."

Her expression cleared and she drew a slow breath. "She wasn't on the plane."

"No."

Her eyes closed. "Thank God."

She drew another breath and her eyes opened. She looked at him in the dark. He could see the whites of her eyes, the glimpse of white teeth as she bit her lip organizing her thoughts, controlling her emotions. "We made it."

"We did."

She swallowed. "And the others?"

"I know there were survivors. I saw quite a few passengers gathering outside the wreckage."

She struggled to free herself. "We should go. We need to be there. I should be there." Her voice sounded hollow. Numb. She was in shock, probably had no idea what she was even saying. "I need to go help. People are hurt—"

"Can't."

"I must."

"It's not safe."

"Why?"

He stared at her for a long moment, before shaking his head, expression grim. "Too volatile."

She frowned, bemused. "The plane, you mean?"

"Among other things." he said, gently releasing her and watching her settle back on the soft sand.

The sand fell surprisingly warm beneath her and pressing her knuckles into the fine grains. Hinata's brow creased. Were they really still alive?

It seemed impossible. Improbable.

Eyes narrowing, heart pounding, she struggled to focus on Naruto's face and process his words. It had sounded as if he were speaking in a megaphone, loud but not clear and she struggled to understand why her hearing was off. Why he sounded so far away when he was standing so close.

Gingerly she reached up to touch her forehead where it throbbed. It hurt to lift her arm, and her fingertips came away crusty when she touched her temple. She probed a little more and felt something gummy, still warm and sticky. Blood.

She must have hit something pretty hard then. Odd. She didn't remember hitting anything, but in the moments when the plane had been on a collision course with the earth, everything seemed to fly at her, a leather purse, a high heel, a paperback novel. It was as if they were in outer space: astronauts operating in zero gravity.

"Did you ever lose consciousness?" she asked tiredly. Wiping her hand on her short suit skirt. Somewhere along the way she'd lost the matching woven pink and mossygreen jacket.

"No."

She nodded. She felt so strange. Almost otherworldly. How could they have survived what they did? "And you're not hurt?"

"No."

Again she nodded, thinking that time had changed, evolved, become almost 3-D.

She could see them on the jet. Could feel the terror still, could taste the smoke and blood and fear, and yet here they were, on some remote island off where? In the middle of the Atlantic?

"Where are we?"

His thickly built shoulders shifted. "Off the coast of Africa, I believe."

"It's impossible. There was no land..."

"Our excellent flight crew found some."

Hinata gave her head another bemused shake. She felt as if she'd been through the spin cycle on a washing machine but they were safe. Alive. "Where's the plane?"

"Over there." He gestured inland, back to the thickly forested land behind them.

"Everyone's just on the other side of the trees."

"We're that close to the water?"

"We very nearly parked offshore."

She didn't know why but his expression, his dry tone, even the words he used, made her smile faintly. "We're lucky to be here.''

"Very."

Nodding numbly, she stared off into the distance, seeing the endless line of dark water, feeling the heavy humidity in the air, the glance up into the sky which revealed a half-hidden moon.

She couldn't absorb it all.

The danger was still so recent, so real, she couldn't quite believe they'd come through relatively unscathed. And then her heart tightened. What about the others? She had to know about her attendants, her staff. Most of the young women that worked for her weren't married yet. But they were still someone's daughter, sister, girlfriend. She had to check on them. Had to know the facts.

She struggled to rise, the effort making her body throb. She hurt. All over. "I need to get back to the plane."

"No."

Teetering to her feet, she ignored him. Just as she ignored the pain pulsating hot and sharp around her lower ribs. "I'll never forgive myself if they're hurt and I sat here doing nothing."

He rose and settled his hands on her shoulders. Firmly. Heavily. He held her immobile. "I can't let you go back."

"You don't understand—"

"I do." And then suddenly he pressed a finger to her lips, silencing her. "Shh. Someone's coming."

His gaze was fixed on the grove of trees behind them and he touched his side, just beneath his arm. She knew the gesture. Her secret service detail had done the same thing numerous times before. He was checking for a weapon. A firearm.

He carried a firearm?

Naruto was moving in front of her, shielding her. "Who's there?" he called.

A male voice replied in Greek.

Naruto relaxed slightly, but not much. She felt the power in his body, his broad back light, muscles hard, ready. He spoke to the other man rapidly, his voice deep, short, no-nonsense.

He was a man accustomed to being obeyed.

Hinata glanced up at him took in the back of his head, the width of his shoulders and wondered who he really was and what exactly he was doing on her plane.

The man by the trees faded back into the darkness and Naruto drew her down onto the sand.

He sat close to her. "You can rest easy now." he said roughly. "That was the pilot. There are some injuries, no casualties."

She fell an almost dizzying wave of relief. "You're certain?"

"Everyone's been accounted for, and while some of the injuries aren't pretty, none appear life threatening."

"Thank God."

He nodded. "They've radioed for help. We're going to stay here until help arrives. It's safer."

She wanted to ask. How was it safer? But she didn't have the strength, or energy. She was tired. Sore. She thought she'd do just about anything for a couple of aspirin. Maybe it was better to sit, and rest. She felt as if she could sleep for months. Years. "Okay."

"Okay."

And some of the weight rolled off her shoulders. Her head fell a little lighter. The worries less agonizing. There was nothing she needed to do. Nowhere she needed to go. She could just sit here and be.

How strange. How wonderful.

Time passed. Slowly. Hinata felt drowsy and yet she struggled to keep her eyes open. As the hour passed, a warm wind picked up, banking heavy clouds overhead and sweeping the sand into whirling dervishes.

"Follow me." Naruto said, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet.

She winced as he tugged on her arm. Her ribs were really sore.

He found a spot on the beach he liked. The position faced the water, was backed by a high hard dune, and provided an unobstructed view of the forest and the clearing. If anyone approached, he'd see.

Gathering some fallen branches from the forest, a few palm fronds, several fragrant eucalyptus branches, he buill a miniature lean-to into the sand dune. It didn't take him long to put the shelter together, but by the time he was done, dark storm clouds had virtually obscured the white moon.

"It's going to rain." she said, frowning up at the now nearly black sky.

He nodded, and watched her gingerly creep backward into the lean-to, her lips pinched, her face a study in concentration. She was hurting.

He'd felt her tense as he drew her to her feet a few minutes ago, and he'd thought perhaps she was simply stiffening up. Maybe she was. But it could be more serious, too.

He didn't want to confront her or risk offending her unless he absolutely had to.

But he'd been hired for a job and he'd do his job. He took a seat next to her in the little shelter, the warm sand against his back. "Why don't you take your shoes off, Princess? You might as well get comfortable."

She glanced at her high heels. They were the palest pink suede banded by a darker pink leather trim. Biting her lip she bent down to slip one shoe off and then the other. As she tugged each heel off her lips pinched again, a needle of pain between her brows.

"Where does it hurt?" His deep voice sounded harsh even to his own ears.

"I'm fine."

"That's not what I asked."

Her fine dark eyebrows furrowed with displeasure. "Pardon me?"

She sounded positively imperial and frigid, shifting into the glamorous and untouchable Hamazaki Princess. "You're hurt." he said bluntly.

"No."

"You wince every time you move."

"A little bruising. Mr. Uzumaki."

She was trying hard to put him in his place, but she didn't know that he didn't believe in a caste system. He'd come too far to subscribe to class, status or social pecking order. In his world, people were people. Period. "It's worse than that."

"It's not." She averted her face, tilled her small straight nose higher, and yet he saw her hands burrow deep in the sand.

She might want to project cool indifference, but she was suddenly afraid. Afraid of him. She wanted to leave, to return to the others.

Terrifying her would solve nothing. He sought to gentle his voice. "I need to check for injuries."

"Absolutely not."

"It won't hurt."

She drew a deep breath, her nostrils flaring. The wind rustled through their small shelter, tugging at the princess's hair, catching one long tendril and blowing it across her cheek.

She caught the curl, and forced it back behind her ear. "I want to return to the plane."

"You know we're not going to do that."

Hinata attempted to rise but Naruto's arm wrapped around her pulling her back against him.

She inhaled sharply as she felt the heat of his body through his shirt, the hard planes of his chest against her back. "Let me go."

"I'm not going to hurt you."

His deep voice sent shivers through her and she felt a sob form inside her chest. He was so much stronger than she was. He was completely overwhelming her... dominating her. "You've no right to touch me."

"You're making this harder than it has to be."

She closed her eyes, turned her face away, her cheek grazing his chest. She felt the smooth thick muscle of his shoulder, felt the warmth of his skin and the even thud of his heart.

He was strong. Very strong. It crossed her mind that nothing invaded these walls of his arms. He was a power unto himself. Law.

Like the ancient Greek warriors and conquerors, the Greeks that founded civilization, changing the world forever.

"Please let me go." she whispered, a new fear welling.

"After I make sure there are no other injuries."

"There are none. Trust me."

"Can't take your word for it. Princess. Sorry."

Her breath was coming more rapidly, and opening her eyes she looked up at him, into the hard edges of his face. His cheekbone was high, almost too high, giving his face a harsh angle, and his chin, blunt cut, did nothing to ease the arrogant lines.

Pulse quickening, she knew he wasn't someone she wanted to negotiate with. "I haven't broken anything."

"I have to check you anyway—"

"No." He was mad, out of his mind. "No, no, no, and no." There was no way she'd let his hands go anywhere on her body. "I'd know if I'd hurt something—"

"You didn't know you were bleeding."

"I thought it was rain."

"Exactly." He shifted, placed her on the ground and he crouched in front of her.

She avoided looking at his chest and her gaze settled on the taut muscles of his thighs, his trousers snug around his quadriceps.

"If you'd unbutton your blouse, Princess."

She nearly choked on her tongue."Mr. Uzumaki."

He didn't reply. He was waiting. And he was patient. Very patient. Patience alone gave him tremendous strength.

Hinata felt a stirring of genuine panic, sensing she'd lost power, considerable power. "I'm not about to take my clothes off. I'm wearing very little as it is."

"I'm only asking you to unbutton your blouse. It's not as if you're naked under your blouse. You're wearing a bra."

Naked. Bra. Blouse. This was her body they were discussing, her clothes, her privacy. "Yes. but—"

"Do I need to unbutton your blouse for you?"

"Don't you dare. You've no right, no—" She broke off. Startling when his hands reached for her fingers brushing the full curve of her breast. "Stop!"

"I'm not in the mood to argue."

"Backoff."

"Be quiet."

Hinata's jaw dropped. My God, another Hiro. These insufferable arrogant boorish males were everywhere. She slapped at his hand. "I might be a silly thirtyyear- old princess, but I'm not a complete fool. You don't have to take my blouse off to check for broken bones. You can inspect for damage through my blouse just as well."

"I'm looking for deep contusions."

"Thank you very much, but I have my own doctor in The Tea Country."

"We're going to be here all night, possibly all day tomorrow. We can't afford to wait until you reach The Tea Country. Now please unbutton your blouse. I promise I won't lose control."

She felt her cheeks heat. "Don't make fun of me."

"I'm perfectly serious."

She didn't know whether to be offended or chagrined. "I'm not accustomed to undressing in public."

"Then you can relax. This is definitely private."

Unconsciously she crossed her arms over her chest, scared, chilled, shivering at what? Being looked at by a man?

Yes. Precisely.

No one had touched her, looked at her since Hiro had died, and when he'd been with her, he hadn't been particularly... kind.

Hiro had married her to create a political and economic alliance and while the countries had benefited, Hinata had died on the vine.

It was worse than she'd ever imagined. It wasn't the life she thought she'd ever live. She'd been the oldest, the bravest, the surest of herself. She was going to do it all right, make things work for her sisters, her grandparents, for Konoha's people.

She could do anything, be anything and oh—she'd failed.

She'd been so wrong about everything.

Hiro didn't love her. He hadn't even tried to love her. She'd been anything but what he really wanted.

Silly Hinata. Silly disillusioned princess living in the tower.

Naruto's hand settled on the middle of her back, his palm was warm, firm, and it slid up to wrap her shoulder. "Your blouse. Princess. Now."