Hi! You all are awesome. I can't say much more, that's it. Please continue to read and review.
I DO NOT OWN NARUTO... Wish I did... so it wouldn't end. Ever.
AU
The Blind Prince
Chapter 9: Hot Pursuit
The scarecrow man looked upon the brunette girl with a saddened expression and slowly rose to his feet. She walked passed him, almost as though she didn't know or care about him at all. And prince Hyūga was not the prince she had been going on and on about finding. This was a spell that the Dark Lord must've cast for his own evil purposes. Kakashi knew that whatever hat purpose was, it was not good. He also knew that he had to do something about it, he had to bring Tenten back! And there was only one person in all the land who could help him do it.
"Lady Tenten!" He rushed after her, taking her hand in a gentle manor. "Please, let me help you to your prince." He said with a kind and hidden smile.
She looked upon him with an emotionless expression. "Take me to him." She commanded, folding her arms across her chest, after yanking her hand away from his.
Kakashi did not like this new Tenten whatsoevrr, but for the sake of the old Tenten, he would help her find her rightful prince, while defeating the Dark Lord. "Oh, absolutely my Lady."
"Your Highness." Came the voice of a guard that had been helping Sasuke track down the girl who had a hold on Itachi's heart. He pointed out the hounds and the fact that they had finally picked up on her scent.
Sasuke dismounted his horse and looked around carefully, meticulously studying the area. "She is not alone. Someone is with her..." He paused for a moment, looking at the ground with squinted eyes. "It had to have been a man, these footprints are too large to have been from another woman."
"So she could've been taken? Kidnaped?" The guard inquired.
"No, what we heard from Tenten's father, Lord Momochi, was that she ran away on her own. So someone found her while she was alone in the forest. Someone such as herself would most likely be an easy target."
"What do we do, Prince?"
Sasuke returned to his horse and firmly took the reigns. "We find whoever took her."
"These tracks are relatively fresh." Came a deep voice as a second search party arrived and stopped right next to the younger Uchiha prince.
"Hyūga." Sasuke glared intensely, but kept the rest of his face quite calm.
"Uchiha. Here to do your brother's bidding? Why can't he do it himself?" Neji stung as he smirked venomously.
"Enough, Prince Hyūga." Zabuza said quickly, trying to diffuse any anger before it could escalade into a brawl. "What's important right now is that we find my daughter. We could use their help. I'm assuming you're looking for her as well?" He looked toward a fuming Sasuke.
"We'll find her on our own. No one disrespects my brother that way, you're lucky I don't end you right here." He growled, ignoring the request that Zabuza had given.
"Hn, you couldn't even if you tried." Prince Neji replied with a cunning smirk. "Come sir, let's find Lady Tenten." He said bowing his head to Zabuza before taking off ion horseback, following the mysterious trail Tenten was believed to have taken.
"Hya!" Sasuke called quickly, following behind the Hyūga prince, hot on his heels.
"Are you certain this is the way to the Hyūga Palace?" Tenten inquired of her guide through the forest. She wasn't sure why she felt the way she did, but her mind felt quite foggy, and she was rather apathetic. She could not remember if that was how she normally felt, or if something was missing, but she didn't care much.
"Oh I'm positive, My lady." He responded, hoping she couldn't tell he was lying through his teeth. It appeared as though she didn't, because she continued following him contently, without another word.
He looked back at her occasionally, frowning when he did so. It angered him that Orochimaru had taken his new friend away from him as quickly as he had found her.l Luckily for him, they had almost reached their destination, he could see the small cottage just ahead, a small billow of smoke coming from it's chimney.
He grinned to himself, his hope restored. "Lady Tenten, we shall make a quick stop here to rest. I'm sure you're tired." He said, looking back at her.
Tenten nodded her head in response and followed him silently to the door to the cottage and stopped when he stopped. She looked at the peculiar man, with a strange inclination that she knew him from somewhere, but couldn't recall much about the stranger. She shrugged, so long as he took her where she needed to go, she did not care.
She noticed strange garden gnomes around the front garden of the cottage, paired with small frog statues, all posing in strange and unique ways. Tenten shuddered, unsure why they made her feel so uneasy.
There was a long, awkward pause after Kakashi had knocked upon the little red door, but it finally did swing open, revealing a rather tall man with white hair just like Kakashi's. But instead of short, and wild, his was long and even more wild, spiking on the top and sides in every which direction, and the length reaching almost to his ankles. The man was older than Kakashi, Tenten guessed it would be around ten years difference, though difficult to tell when Kakashi's face was covered almost entirely. He had strange red tattoo-like markings on his cheeks, coming from his eyes in a straight and narrow rectangular line. He wore earthy colored clothing and strange looking sandals that made him even taller. His shoulders were broad and his smile warm and genuine.
The man let out a loud and hearty chuckle when he saw who stood at the door. "Kakashi, my old friend!" He boomed with a loud, thick and cheerful voice. "I never thought I would see you again in all my life!" He gripped Kakashi's shoulders firmly, causing the shorter man to wince just a tiny bit before yanking him into a warm embrace.
Kakashi chuckled lightly and patted the man on the back. "Been a long time, Jiraiya."
"Come inside, Son." Fugaku urged his anxious son, Itachi as he paced the boundary line between their property and the Forest of Death.
"No, I need to wait here for her." Itachi protested, continuing to pace. By now he knew the line, and knew where the trees were so he did not run into them. His heart was heavy and it pounded hard with worry. He hoped that she was alright, knowing that she would be lucky to make it out of there in one piece, but he couldn't bring himself to think like that.
"It'll be dark soon, and it gets dangerous at night." Fugaku urged once more. "Sasuke will find her, I promise."
Itachi took a moment to contemplate the 'what if's'. What if they didn't find her, what if they did and she was dead, what if she decided to chose the other prince? His mind raced in every which direction, he wanted so desperately to be with her, to comfort her, hold her close and make sure she was safe. But right now she was God know's where.
"I have to stay." He resolved firmly. "She's going to need me when she comes out of there, and I don't care how long it takes. I can do nothing to help them find her, this is what I can do."
Fugaku applauded his son's decision, proud of his strength and resolve. He really loves that girl, doesn't he? He smiled to himself. "Then I shall stay and wait with you. It's no good to be alone at night."
The rescue entourage came upon another clearing just as the sun was about to set, at a place they had all deducted that Tenten and her accomplice or abductor had stopped. Sasuke and Neji both got off their steeds and scanned the area, doing their best to hold their tempers.
"There are now more tracks." Neji stated, looking around.
"You're right." Sasuke admitted, though he absolutely hated to. His gut turned at the thought of two other men finding Tenten in the woods, let alone just one. This was not good, and things were looking rather bleak. But he continued looking, noticing something incredibly strange. "The man who was beside Tenten..." He pointed out the tracks with his finger, suddenly disappeared..."
"Or was thrown..." Neji continued, pointing out rift in the dirt beside a nearby tree. "His tracks continue from here though, and the other two do not follow. These are Lady Tenten's."
"And those are the original tracks that were with her." a Sasuke finished.
"So who were the other two men that had run into Tenten and her abductor?" Zambia inquired nervously.
"Those tracks don't lead anywhere. They appear and disappear." Sasuke frowned deeply.
"That is completely illogical." Neji crossed his arms in disbelief.
"It isn't if it was the Dark Lord who visited them." Sasuke said in an ominous tone.
Tenten looked about the cottage curiously, wondering who this man was and why his home was so strange. She had been left alone for a moment with a warm cup of tea, which she relished and was quite thankful for. She hadn't realized how hungry and tired she actually was. She couldn't recall how long she had been traveling, but she supposed it didn't matter much.
With a shrug of the shoulders, she took another sip of tea and continued to look about her surroundings while the two older gentlemen spoke in a separate room.
Jiraiya looked at his old friend with quite an inquisitive expression and scratched his thick white hair. "So, you mean to tell me the Dark Lord has done something to cause her to forget the prince she truly loves?"
"Yes, and this prince happens to be ItachI Uchiha. There's a reason Lord Orochimaru doesn't want her to be with that specific prince." Kakashi informed.
"Ah, that is because it would most likely break the curse upon the young Prince." Jiraiya noted as he began looking through shelves if strange little bottles of liquids of every color imaginable. The bottles clanged together as he continued searching.
"Wait, Prince Uchiha is cursed? Why is that?" The scarecrow asked the Sage, curiously.
"Orochimaru has a deep seeded lust for revenge against the Uchiha family, that revenge starts and ends with Prince Itachi."
"But, this curse can be broken?"
Jiraiya bobbed his head in response. "All curses can be broken, as can all spells. Curses are much, much harder to break, and it appears as though little Lady out there is the key to breaking the one upon the Prince."
"I knew there was a reason behind Orochimaru wanting to eliminate Tenten, but his henchmen convinced him not to kill her." Kakashi said as he watched his old friend begin to mix a few of the bottles together.
"Yes, and as long as they both remain, they will continue to be threats to one another." The older man turned to face the younger and handed him a small glass that contained the strange liquids he had cryptically mixed together. "She has not been cursed, but rather a spell has been cast upon her. This will break it."
"What exactly is it, Jiraiya?" Kakashi grimaced.
"It's an elixir. She needs it right away, so go coax her to drink it. She won't take it from a perverted old Sage like myself." He smiled in response.
Kakashi nodded and rushed back out to his brunette friend.
She was right where he had left her, sitting sleepily at the small wooden table in the kitchen area. She looked up at him and forced away a yawn. "Hello."
"Hello, Lady Tenten." He said softly as he approached her. "You're looking rather weary."
She nodded her head tiredly, silently.
"Drink this, it'll help." He offered her the cup, and she took it warily, and quite unsure.
"What is it?" She inquired hesitantly.
Before the scarecrow had a chance to respond, the front door burst open and two young princes stood in it's wake. "Lady Tenten!" Neji exclaimed.
"Tenten." Sasuke said at the same time.
Her dark eyes widened when she saw the two standing there, and quickly she rose to her feet. "Prince Hyūga." She bowed politely before looking at Sasuke. "Do I know you?"
Sasuke growled. "Of course you do!"
"Please," Kakashi bowed. "Allow me to explain everything to you."
