There was something odd about the Princess.
Naruto had known it since the moment he had met her, but for the life of him he could'nt figure out what it was about her that tugged at his senses so sharply. He had tracked her here thinking that maybe he could figure out why he was so damn intrested in the female, but so far he was coming up blank.
He had thought at first that it was his protective instinct towards the fairer sex. Or maybe his protective instinct towards his nakuma, which was technically what the girl was thanks to her ties to Tsunade. But strangely that just was'nt the case either.
He supposed that it could be because she was an unfamiliar female that didn't act the way one born to a royal family would act. And while he was sure that that was part of the reason he could'nt seem to take his eyes off of her, again it was'nt really the case.
He got the feeling that his attentions toward her went deeper than he thought they did, he had even felt Kyubbi stir in the back of his mind when he was close to her. The damn fox didn't say anything but for some strange reason or another it purred and rubbed up against the bars of it's prison when he was close to her.
Even now, with the girl cradled in his arms, carrying her back to the palace so that she could rest before the ball, he could hear the demon purring loudly, the sound echoing in the deepest part of his mind and soul. The demon seemed much calmer, almost happy as it rubbed up against the barred gate. The anger, hatred and rage that it had displayed in all of his previous encounters with it; was gone.
There was nothing dark or malviolent about the way the demon was purring. If anything it confused the blond more. What was it about the Princess that seemed to calm the demon and make it act so damn strangely? Just who-no what was she? He wondered as he noticed the palace up ahead and tapped the large ink bird under his feet to signal it to fly in lower to the ground so that he could jump down and take the Princess to her room.
Kakashi and the others were no doubt almost back, having left shortly after he had because they had been busy trying to assure Morgan that she girl would be safe with them.
Morgan as it turned out was the captian of the guard at the palace, and had a bit of a crush on the Princess. Not only that but when he had seen Yamoto supporting the girl with his body, the soldier had looked like he would like nothing more than to take the nin out around one of the damaged buildings across from the ruins and beat the shit out of him. The bird flew as close to the ground as it could and the blond tightened his grip on the girl for a second as he stepped off of the bird and landed lightly in a crouching position.
The sudden falling action jostling Uzu and making her gasp and twitch spasmically in his grip. He looked down at her face and noted the pained expression on her face and realised that the movement had hurt her ribs. "Sorry about that. Try to close your eyes and drift off, I'll take you to your room and leave you." He said gently as he shifted his hold slightly so that he could free one of his hands and used it to brush some of her hair back from her pale face, tucking some of the lose black strands behind her ear then slipped hsi arm back under her legs and stood to his full height and took off running across the grass.
He had'nt mentioned that he would be using Kyubbi's sharp sense of smell to find her room, or the fact that he would probably slip in through the window. He had'nt wanted to alarm her or frighten her, thinking that she had suffered enough trauma for one day.
Pulling corpses out of a place that had burned down was never easy. Naruto had had the misfortune to do it once and could still recall the scent of burned flesh, and blood. He had pulled nine bodys from the remains of an old apartment building before he had broken down and started puking and crying. it was just one of many terrble experiences that he had had, just one more that he tried to block out when he went to bed at night or he would wake up screaming.
The Princess would likely have nightmares and wake up screaming for the next few months due to the fire incident, but hopefully it would'nt break her.