Here we go again! Warning… short chapter… I apologize.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

My Prince Charming

Chapter 29

"You can't do this" Sasuke replied.

"Actually we can. All the elders have decided that your maids are inappropriate for you and that it is unacceptable to have them as your personal maids. You boys may be the crowned princes of these countries, but you cannot oppose the elders if every member has come to an agreement. That rule was established for the safety of the people in case the royal family went insane which in this case we, under good reason, assume you have."

"Well, why not just make us choose different personal maids?" Shikamaru questioned, "Why do they have to leave our Castles?"

The Elder smiled smugly back before answering, "We have decided that would be best because even if we made you choose different maids, as long as those girls were still around, you'd find ways to talk to them."

"And what exactly is so bad about talking to them?!" Naruto snapped, "We should be able to talk to them whenever we want."

The man turned to Naruto with annoyance written across his face, "You my young prince don't understand what's going on here. A personal maid is supposed to be at your side, answer your questions, run your errands, do your laundry or any other personal chore that you don't want other maids to do. A personal maid is in other words a personal servant, not a friend, not someone you talk to for fun, she is there to work, not play."

"What about my uncle?" Neji interrupted.

"What?"

"My uncle is now on the council board." Neji stated, "Did he agree to this nonsense?"

The elder smiled as if that was a question he was expecting, "As I have stated before, all the members have agreed. He believes that it is not safe to let you boys have maids that insult you," he looked at Shikamaru, "don't do as you say," he looked over to the glaring Sasuke, "and especially you should not have maids that talk back so rudely and throw weapons at guards." He finished by looking back to Neji, "Your maid seems to be the one that is most dangerous."

Shikamaru interrupted this time, "Well even if you switch our maids around, they'll still be personal maids, we don't want any of the other maids at the castle, so we'll probably just keep the troublesome girls you give to us."

"That may be true," the elder answered, "and maybe this option is also dangerous, but we know for a fact that each of you princes have your own personality and tastes, and they are not the same. Due to your different tastes in girls, I'm sure you'll get bored of your newest maids and want to switch eventually, since they are not what you have initially chosen."

"What about Hinata?" Naruto spoke rather calmly compared to the situation.

The Elder looked over to Naruto, confusion written across his face.

"What about my maid?" Naruto growled, "Why are you taking her away? She doesn't talk back, she doesn't insult me, she doesn't hurt anyone, and she does exactly as I say. You have no right to take her away!"

"You were a different case, but we have our reasons." the elder responded, "You were simply getting too close to the girl, like an infatuation of some sort. In your case we were thinking about what you two looked like to the public eye. You were too close for any maid and prince to be, it was totally inappropriate behavior to be coming from a prince of the Water Country. So with this said, I'll take my leave. Be sure to leave with the right girl my young princes. Naruto, your maid has been given to Sasuke. Sasuke, your maid has been handed over to Neji. Neji, your maid has been passed on to Shikamaru and Shikamaru, your maid is now in the care of Naruto. Good day my young princes." With that said the elder walked off leaving the boys with no room for argument.

The princes looked over at the girls talking on the other side of the room.

"So how are we going to do this exactly?" Shikamaru had decided to break the silence that recently had been cast over them.

"We'll just have to tell them the truth." Neji answered, "That they have been switched."

Naruto spoke next, "This is completely dumb! Besides, why did I get stuck with the loud, annoying blonde?!"

"Naruto, you're a loud, annoying blonde." the Uchiha retorted, not wanting to fight, but it sort of happened anyway, just being an old habit.

"Hey!"

Neji broke it up, "Sasuke's right, your switch makes the most sense; although so does Sasuke's. Putting the quiet one with the one that prefers silence was brilliant. Putting Sakura with anyone of us doesn't make sense since she doesn't listen but I think the worst match had to be the pair of Shikamaru and Tenten. That's putting two exact opposites together. What were they thinking?"

"Who cares, let's just get this over with and go." Sasuke said stoically, as if completely unaffected by what was happening.

It was times like these that the Uchiha really got on the Uzumaki's last nerve, "Teme, how can you be so insensitive! They just switched our personal maids around! We're not just going to let them do that, are we? We won't get to see them agia…"

"Shut up Naruto!" The Water Prince listened, completely surprised at the fact Sasuke had called him by his actual name instead of dobe, "We don't have a choice! Besides, I could care less! They are just maids, and we're princes, and whether you like it or not, they're switched and no one can change that so just get over it!"

After about half a minute, Sasuke started to walk off when a hand reached out and snagged his wrist. He turned around to see Naruto's head turned down before he looked up with a threatening glare, "I swear Teme, if you don't take good care of Hinata-chan, I'll murder you whether we're friends or not."

Sasuke paused for a moment before ripping his wrist out of Naruto's grip and walking off towards the maids, with the other prince's trailing behind. A part of him was even surprised that the blonde was giving in so easily… But of course, what other option did they have? If there was a way around this, Naruto wouldn't be the one to find out. Most likely it would be Shikamaru and due to his current silence, the answer was pretty obvious.

The boys silently walked up to the giggling girls.

Ino spoke first, cheerfully, "What's up?"

Hinata looked over to Naruto who looked sort of down, "N-Naruto? What's wrong?"

He just looked up with an almost pained look in his eyes when Sasuke spoke, "Sakura."

The said girl looked at him with a questioning glance. "You'll be staying here."

"Okay? I kind of figured we would be spending another night."

"You will, I'll be heading back."

"Wait a minute? What?" Sakura was always quick to process words, "What's going on?"

"Yeah, why is Sakura staying the night here with us?" Tenten probed.

"She's not." Neji answered, "You'll be heading back with Shikamaru."

"What?" Now it was Ino who jumped into the conversation.

Shikamaru didn't give any time for the blonde to speak before he continued, "Ino, you're leaving with Naruto tonight."

"Shikamaru, what's going on here?"

Hinata looked back at Naruto with wide eyes that looked scared, "N-Naruto?"

He looked down as someone grabbed a hold of her wrist. She looked over to see Sasuke, "You'll be riding back to my castle."

"I d-don't understand what's going on?" she stated out loud, hoping for someone to answer the obvious unasked question.

"Yeah, you guys, I'm completely lost here." Ino piped in with a trace of fear lacing her voice.

"Can you guys just explain to us what's happening?" Tenten seemed pretty level headed, given the situation.

Shikamaru sighed and looked away, not wanting to bother with it. Neji also glanced to the side as Naruto didn't move and continued staring at the ground. Sasuke looked over at Sakura who was staring at him with an unreadable expression. It was a mixture between confusion, anger, misunderstanding along with understanding. It was completely confusing. Sasuke looked away. Obviously, no one else here was going to talk, not wanting to show how little of power they actually possessed against the council. He was no exception, and he quickly changed his mind from telling the truth, replying with, "We're tired. We don't want maids that disobey all the time and this seemed like the easiest way to go."

"Yeah, that was an excellent way of saying something and explaining absolutely nothing at all!" Tenten retorted, "If that were true, then why wouldn't you guys just choose different maids."

Sasuke's voice turned unexpectedly cold, even for him, "Maybe because we want you guys out of our castles. We're tired of seeing your faces."

Tenten almost wanted to laugh. That just sounded ridiculous, "You guys might want to choose a different spokesperson; this one has limited vocabulary. Not to mention that your excuse sounds as if it were coming out of a five year old child! If that's really the case, then why not just send us home!"

Neji was the one to speak this time, "That would just be rewarding you girls. You know that Tenten."

The blank look on Neji's face drove the Wind maid insane, but she didn't have anything else to say and just settled for glaring. Neji stared back with his uncaring look when he spoke again, "I think it's about time you leave Shikamaru, and take this girl with you."

Shikamaru just nodded his head while replying, "We'll go get our things." He turned around and started walking off when someone latched onto his arm. He looked over to his side to see Ino gripping his arm; her head was buried in his shoulder as she spoke.

"I never meant to insult you." She replied softly, not looking at his gaze. He continued to look down at her, but refused to say a word. He should've guessed she would be the one to make a scene. He knew her opinion and thoughts would come out sooner or later. "I insulted you and I know I'm hard to get along with, but I didn't do it on purpose. It's who I am. I know I can get annoying, but you told me to be this way. You said not to change. You said you didn't like people who tried to act like someone different. I did as you said, but is it really that hard for you?"

Shikamaru was trying to come up with something to say. He looked at the other two emotionless princes that insulted their maids to get them to let go. He knew he had to do the same. He looked over at Naruto who couldn't stand it anymore and just walked off without saying a word. He then looked over to the Hyuga girl to see a torn face, silent tears streaming down her cheeks barely noticeable. He knew then that when Naruto turned away, it was like a rejection to the girl. He knew that Naruto did it so that he would not have to insult the girl but to her, it was the worst insult of all. His silence hurt her more than any rejection could have, because it proved that he wasn't even going to waste his time to give her an explanation as to why he was giving her up. She turned away and walked off to go get her things. Sasuke followed her.

Shikamaru looked back down to Ino, still attached to his arm. He sighed and replied, "I didn't lie. I really do hate people who lie about who they really are and I'm really glad that you listened to me. I would've hated you if you tried to act different for me. I really would have, but the thing is… I can't stand your real self either… It's better than a fake personality that you could have put on, but it's still too troublesome for me to deal with. You're just too loud; I wouldn't be able to have any peace and quiet with you around."

"I'll shut up." Was the broken reply that left the girls mouth as she looked up at him with tear streaked eyes, "I'll be quiet. I won't make a sound. I won't even talk if that's what you want. Just please don't do this!" Shikamaru could swear he heard a heart breaking, but whether it was hers or his, he couldn't tell. All he was even sure about, was that he knew he couldn't take much more of this. He wished she would just quit talking, before he felt even more of these burdensome emotions, but of course she continued, "Even if it means I have to hold my tongue when I'm around you, I will!" Her voice wasn't screaming but it was loud enough to cause a scene. People were staring at them, some curious, and others shaking their head at the pathetic state the girl was in.

"Ino… you wouldn't be able to live that way." he answered back, "Not happily at least. You would be miserable if you lost your voice." With that said, Shikamaru untangled his arm from the beautiful, sobbing girl, just letting her crumble to the ground. "Come on Tenten, Neji's right. It's about time we take our leave." Shikamaru walked off and Tenten walked over to the blonde that was on her knees with her hands covering her face. Her dress skirt was splayed around her perfectly, like a photo.

'A beautiful, heart-wrenching portrait.'

Tenten glared at the people staring at the girl as if threatening them to mind their own business, which they in turn looked away and went back to their conversations. Tenten tried to help her up, but she refused to stand. Sakura then went over to the two girls, telling Tenten that she better go, and she, herself would look after Ino for now. Tenten just silently nodded before glaring angrily at Neji, not a hint of sadness was present as she walked away. Neji in turn, spun around and headed the other way. Leaving Sakura crouched over the sobbing Ino.

Woo-hoo! I know it's short! But the next chapter is sure to come out soon!

Please read and review! I love reviews! I didn't get many the last chapter! Just one… =(

But for you who did review, Thanks a Million! (You Know Who You Are!) P.S: I have also read some of your stories and have to say I am a fan of your writing as well!