Chapter eleven: She's coming

Everyone sat awkwardly around the table as servers set plates in front of them, filled their glasses with whatever liquids their hearts desired and made sure everything was absolutely perfect before leaving the royals by themselves.

Even after the doors to the room were closed by the guards standing outside of the room, nobody said anything. Nobody touched their food or drinks. Awkward silence filled the room as no one knew what to say.

And what were they even supposed to talk about? What were they going to say if there was a conversation? Sakura doubted anyone wanted to talk about the weather.

They were sitting at a long table in one of the larger rooms of the castle, the one where Myra had lead them to. It had large windows on one side and showed a beautiful view of the palace grounds. The table had been set for eight but only six of them were present as two of the princes were nowhere to be seen. The girls had quickly taken their places on one side of the table, while the boys took the other side.

Suddenly Naruto cleared his throat and rose from his seat, lifting his glass up in the air. "To our guests. To your health and safety."

Mostly out of habit, a bit out of relief, everyone raised their glasses as well for the toast.

"Probino tibi," the girls chanted before bringing the glasses to their lips. Naruto and Neji tried to seem unbothered while Sasuke didn't react at all, but the girls quickly picked up that this wasn't a regular custom for them.

Sakura cleared her throat, lowering her glass. "Our apologies. This obviously isn't your way."

Naruto softly laughed and placed his glass back on the table before gesturing everyone to sit back down. "There is no need to apologize."

"But now I'm curious," Naruto said as everyone sat down. "What does it mean?"

"Probino tibi. I drink to you." Surprisingly the one to speak was Hinata, who until this point had been completely quiet.

Sakura was honestly surprised. Maybe this lunch wouldn't be so bad after all. Silence fell into the room as they begun to eat, but it wasn't the same uncomfortable silence as before. They had broken the ice. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"So," Tenten started, her eyes on Neji. "Do you always kidnap your guests."

Sakura let her cutlery fall down onto her plate as she turned to look at Tenten, completely shocked that she would go there while everyone else were trying to play nice. "Tenten!"

Naruto let out a rather nervous laugh while Neji stayed completely silent. "No, it's quite alright. Honestly, that wasn't what we were trying to do at all and I deeply apologize for the," he searched for the right word, "roughness of the way we met. You are our honored guests here and may roam the castle grounds freely."

He raised his glass filled with scarlet liquid with a smile on his face. Neji was quiet, but he kept eyeing Tenten the same as she did him.

At this exact moment the double doors swung open again, a familiar raven haired boy waltzing in.

"His royal highness, prince Sasuke Uch-" one of the guards standing by the doors started to announce but was interrupted by Sasuke lifting up his hand to silence him.

"No need for that," he declared as he walked over to the table, his eyes resting on the pink haired princess for a moment before meeting her emerald eyes. "They already know who I am."

"Ah, Sasuke," Naruto was more than glad for the interruption as it gave them something completely else to focus on for the moment. "So glad you could join us."

Sasuke gave a curt nod to Naruto and down on the empty seat to his right, which coincidentally was also the seat directly on the opposite side of the table from Sakura. "There's no place I'd rather be."

Their eyes met and Sakura felt her cheeks get hot, like they were sharing something that none of the other people in the room knew. His gaze made her feel suddenly very self conscious about the way she was dressed, how she looked. Even if she looked great in the black dress, it wasn't hers. It was someone else's. A friend's, someone's lover's - she didn't want to know, but the fact was hanging over her head and it made her nervous.

"That was obviously a misunderstanding," Ino said, finally responding to Naruto and waving his apology away, wrapping up the moment in a neat bow before leaving it in the past. "But now that we're in understanding, I hope we can take a unified step to a better direction."

"Yes," Sasuke spoke out instead of Naruto. "Let's do that."

He didn't smile, but his tone voice was kind enough to which Ino smiled and nodded. It was enough to get the situation under control and back to easier lunch topics.

It was Hinata who spoke next. "So this is your diplomatic castle?" she asked, gesturing at her surroundings. "How does that work?"

Naruto smiled, they had discussed this briefly before. "Yes, it is. The castle is technically in the western kingdom, ruled by Teme's family," he tilted his head towards Sasuke, who stayed quiet. "But it actually isn't. The ground the castle stands on and the lands that surround it are no ones and each of the kingdom's at the same time. No one rules here, since it was specifically built for the purpose of hosting diplomatic meetings. Here rulers and diplomats can meet, settle differences and make plans on neutral territory."

Ino nodded in understanding. "That would be convenient. But it is so empty here, why is that?"

"Our kingdoms have been at peace for as long as we can remember," Naruto explained. "For the longest time this castle had no real occupants except for the people taking care of it. There was no need for diplomacy, which is still the case. Every now and then there will be a celebration and the royals, the gentry come here to meet and have a laugh, but other than that there is barely any reason to be here, which is why the castle is empty most of the time."

Sakura took the turn of asking a question. "Why are are you here then? Is there a need for a diplomatic meeting of the princes?"

Naruto nudged the sides of his friends, softly laughing as if he was thinking of something funny. "We are here to get away from court."

"Ah." Sakura lifted her glass to her lips and took a sip. "Quite understandable."

She, as did probably every single person sitting at the table, knew exactly what they were talking about. Sure, life at court in itself seemed easy. Dancing on rose petals, one could say. But in reality for someone like her, like them, it was far from that. So many rules, so many responsibilities. The atmosphere could strangle the life out of you, make you feel like choking and alone in a room full of other people. The etiquette. The people. The clothes. The the hair. The everything.

In a way she was jealous how the princes could just flee away, have a place where they could run to and just have fun while no one was watching. She doubted they could've taken her and her friends in without a question if they had a watchful eye on them.

"So, if I may ask, what made you flee your kingdoms?" Naruto tried to lightly grace the subject they had danced around for the whole lunch.

Sakura's eyebrows went half way up to her hairline. Okay so they were really going there. So much for having a quick and easy lunch and playing nice.

Naruto noticed the surprised and taken aback looks, the hesitation. "I assure you, nothing that you say here will leave this room. We will protect you and your secrets. I promised you that this would be a safe place and I intend to keep that promise."

"I understand that this may be a difficult subject for you but I assure you, we only want to help."

"I-It's a little complicated." Sakura tried to explain, trying to figure out how much to share or if you even share anything at all.

"Oh just a little complicated," Ino said before taking a big sip of her wine.

"We were forced," Hinata finally said, quickly drawing Naruto's eyes on her.

"Forced?" the blonde asked. Even Neji seemed to be interested in the subject. "Forced to do what?"

Hinata's lips spread into a small but sad smile, her voice lowering to almost a whisper. "Get married to prevent an unpreventable war."

Naruto didn't say anything as the room seemed to get more uncomfortable by the second.

"That's a weak excuse."

"What?" Tenten demanded, her eyes now strictly trained to Neji, who hadn't even bothered to lift his gaze up from his plate as he continued to eat.

"It's weakness. Isn't the only one purpose you were raised for to protect and serve your kingdom? And you left because you didn't get what you wanted? That's-"

Neji didn't even get to finish his sentence before the knife that had been in Tenten's hand just a second before was now sticking out from the table just inches away from his hand.

"Tenten!" Ino exclaimed, surprised by her friends actions, who had abruptly stood up and threw the knife in her hand.

"You," Tenten was visibly seething, "have no idea what you're talking about."

But Tenten's actions had no effect on Neji, who calmly stared right back at her and pulled the knife out of the table with one smooth motion.

"But then, how could an entitled prince like you ever know what it is like to be stripped of any basic autonomy over your body and life for something that isn't even going to benefit your kingdom and just end up with your death."

The two stared at each other for a while before Tenten turned around a stormed out of the room. Dead silence fell into the room as they tried to process what was happening, Tenten's stomping footsteps echoing and slowly disappearing.

"Neji!" Naruto bellowed, turning to his friend. "What the hell, man?!"

"Oh god," Ino said as she stood up as well and started for the door. "Someone should go after her."

"I'll go," Sakura rose up as well, but Ino was already past the doors.

Sasuke, who until now had been completely quiet, was slouched in his chair and was resting his face in his right hand and tightly pressing . "Amazing," he groaned. "Fucking amazing."

He lifted his gaze from his hand. "You just couldn't keep your mouth shut, could you?"

But Neji wasn't listening to them. His gaze was first on the knife in his hand and then on the doorway where Tenten had disappeared just a few moments ago.

Awkwardness filled the air as Sakura and Hinata both looked at each other, not knowing what exactly to do. Sakura didn't know whether to chime in and say something, but ultimately decided on not saying anything. She and Hinata looked at each other, both coming to the conclusion that they ought to take their leave and let the princes deal with the situation since half of their group was already gone and there was no way of salvaging the lunch.

"Well, as lovely as this has been," Sakura said, not being able to help the slight sarcasm. "I believe if it was best if we left to find our friends. If you'll excuse us."

All of the three princes turned to look at them. "Yes," Naruto quickly responded, glancing at Hinata as if he forgot she was still there. "Myra will show you to your rooms. My apologies, this wasn't what I hoped our first proper meeting to be."

Hinata softly smiled. "No, it is us who should apologize. Tenten most definitely shouldn't have thrown the knife," she said, even though she and most likely all of her companions thought that Neji had most definitely deserved it.

"I think there was fault on both sides," Naruto admitted, gesturing toward the door. "But as I said, you are free to roam the castle grounds. If you ever need anything, you only need to ask."

Just as Sakura and Hinata had taken their leave, Shikamaru rushed in the room. He stopped half way to the table and took a deep breath. He wasn't panting, but he was breathing harder, as if he'd been running the whole way there.

"Great," Naruto exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "Finally you arrive. Where the hell have you been?!"

Shikamaru waved Naruto away with a gesture of his hand. "Yeah there's no time for that right now."

Sasuke cocked an eyebrow at Shikamaru who seemed agitated, which was a drastic change from his usually calm composure. He could sense something was off.

"Yeah, well, we were actually having a good time until someone," Naruto aggressively waved his hand towards Neji," decided to just completely ruin everything."

Shikamaru gave Sasuke a look.

"What is it, Shikamaru?" Sasuke asked, interrupting Naruto's rant, who stopped yelling after realizing that something really was going on.

Shikamaru shook his head slightly, slight worry creeping over his face. "She's coming."

Sasuke clenched his jaw, his fists tightening so that his knuckles became white.

"When?"

"Soon."

❦ Goddess of Glam