Day 19

Prompt- The snake and the Princess

"Sasuke-sama…there has been an issue" one of his servants said. He did not enjoy when there were issues because that usually meant his snakes were getting killed by the nobles around the forest, but truthfully, he had been bored for a while now, so some trouble was welcomed.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked, not raising his head from the scroll he was reading.

"Over 20 snakes have gone missing in the past 3 days around the castle walls, every snake that I sent to retrieve the bodies did not return either"

20 snakes in only 3 days was more than ever before. Was the Royal family using his children for something? Were they simply killing them with no mercy?

"Thank you for informing me" Sasuke said and he got up "I shall go there right this moment to retrieve them"

It had been a really long time since he last left their lair and went to interact with other people than his servants, the castle wall wasn't very far away from their lair but the gate was on the other side and the wall was too big to climb. Upon inspecting it carefully he found the small hole his snakes probably used to go inside the walls. Sasuke closed his eyes and turned himself into a snake and wet inside the wall. The surroundings were quiet, he would not turn back to his human self unless it was absolutely necessary, which he hoped wouldn't. it would be far easier to go around the castle as a snake and not be noticed by the guards.

He started heading towards the garden, most of his children loved flowers and would go that way. After looking around for a short while Sasuke saw the end tail of a snake. He recognized the scale patter as being one of his own but the snake was very much alive.

He crawled closer and took the turn after a rose bush and saw all 20 of his children surrounding a girl, said girl was singing and making a flower crown. She appeared not to be bothered by the snakes that rested their heads on her legs, or the one that was draped over her shoulders sleeping.

Sasuke was very confused about what was happening. He looked at the scenar before him a moment longer before hissing and gaining the attention of all his children, who hurried to his side, but also the attention of the girl.

The girl looked at him, compared to his children he was a big and long snake, venomous as well. Most of the snaked around her were small children. If the girl got scared and tried to harm him or the children or if she called for a guard Sasuke was ready to transform into a human and fight to protect his snakes. But that was not the case. The girl simply looked at him, watched as the small snaked moved behind him.

"You are very beautiful. I've never seen you around before" The girl said and smiled at him. She slowly extended her arm and with her index finger toughed him on the head. "Did you come looking for the smaller snakes? I'm sorry. I saw the first two and thought they were lost s I fed and kept them and after that more showed up. I didn't think someone was looking for them, I did not mean to make you worry" the girl said as she continued patting his head softly.

She stopped and placed both of her hands on her lap. "You can come here I won't hurt you. You have nothing to fear" Her actions were confusing to him. Never in his life did anyone leave themselves as open as she did around him no matter if he was in his human form or his snake form. He was a big and venomous snake, if he wanted to he could bite her, he could strangle her, he could kill her in many ways yet she did not seem to be scared at all. A couple of the children looked from him to her and seeing that he did not attack the girl they returned to her side but the girl did not move to pet them or to continue her flower crown, her gave was on him.

"I won't hurt them either, you can come closer" for unknown reasons Sasuke listened to her and moved closer, as if in a daze her laid his head onto her leg and curled himself around her. The smaller snakes that were behind him followed his lead and happily returned to the girl. She petted Sasuke's head for a couple moments before continuing to make her flower crown and singing the song. Her voice was soft and warm, the sun shone on him and he started feeling drowsy. Before knowing it he fell asleep with his head on her lap.

He was awoken by something strange touching his head. He looked up to the girl. Her flower crown was ready and she had it on. "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you" she said as the righted the thing on his head "the small snakes are too small for me to make them flower crowns but I somehow managed to make one your size. It looks lovely on you" The strange feeling onto his head was the flower crown she just put on him. Without thinking about it Sasuke turned himself into his human form. He was laying on his stomach, head still in her lap, the flower crown sitting awkwardly around one of his ears.

The girl only gasped, she did not scream or call for any guards. That made him question her sense of danger even more. Seeing that their kind was in his human form all the small snaked crawled around his neck and shoulders.

Sasuke got up slowly and took the small flower crown from around his ear. He inspected it for a moment before looking at the girl. "Thank you for taking care of them and not killing them." The girl was still starting at him with her mouth half open. He turned around to leave and only then did she get up and talk.

"Wait, no! where are you going?" She asked, took the skirt of her dress in her hands and started running after him.

"I'm going home. I only came to retrieve them and now I must return" He said and looked over his shoulder at the girl running after him, her hair was long and straight and dark, in the sunlight it had a blue hue to it. When he was a snake, she looked large and bigger than life but being in his human form now he realized that she was quite small.

"Will you return?" her voice was shaking a little, was she scared of him now? For some reasons he did not like the idea that she was scared so he stopped and turned around to face her and, in that moment, she ran straight into his chest. Instead of taking a step back the girl tightened her fists around his shirt and looked up at him. "Please don't leave"

Sasuke was confused as what to do. Was she not scared? Why did her voice tremble then? Why did she not want him to leave? After looking at each other without a word she took a step back, drew a breath in and confidently said.

"I, Hinata Hyuuga, the first princess of the Leaf, order you not to leave"