A/N: Here's the next chapter! Please enjoy!


Chapter 35: Unsettling Notes and Child's Drawings


The next morning, Shien awoke to a beautiful dawn, the birds chirping faintly outside of her window.

She yawned, stretched, and opened the window, basking in the sweet, humid July air. The gentle morning breeze passed her by, ruffling her hair and filling her nose with the scent of flowers.

She smiled to herself. She felt strangely refreshed after the night before, and her heart felt light after the catharsis with Sasuke. Perhaps it's what her body needed, after all of the stress it had been put under.

"It's going to be a beautiful day today," she murmured to herself as she closed the window and slipped out of bed.

She went about her morning duties, humming an old tune that was popular when she was a child. She bathed, dressed, and was knocking gently on Sasuke's door at exactly six o'clock.

Upon hearing Naruto's drowsy voice from within, she cracked the door open and smiled at the two boys, Sasuke poking his head out from beneath his covers to see her.

"Good morning," she greeted with a smile as she walked in. "It's time to wake up. I'll meet you downstairs for breakfast."

The prince nodded, and Naruto gave a grunt as she set down the fresh basin of water and a towel before exiting and shutting the door. She heard him yawn loudly, but it was interrupted by a squawk of surprise before something clattered to the tile floor. She heard the blond shout "Why'd you throw a pen at me, bastard?!" before she walked away, giggling to herself.

Some things just never changed.


It was quite the uneventful day, overall. More of helping Naruto with the decorations, eating lunch with Sasuke and his parents - and wondering about the king's pensive gaze out the windows.

She was walking to her room when she accidentally bumped into a taller man with silver hair.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" She apologized, looking up at the soldier. "I should've watched where I was going."

"It's no trouble at all," the masked man said, his the wrinkles around his eye appearing, as if he were smiling. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small folded note, handing it to her. "A message from Chiasa."

She immediately recognized the name and gave him a grateful nod, pocketing the paper. "Thank you. I'll try to respond as soon as I can."

He glanced around before leaning in. "She wished for me to tell you that the lady quite misses your presence, and that when your tenure expires she wants you to become her personal guard."

"Does she now?" Shien was pleasantly surprised. She hadn't expected Hinata to feel that way. She was kind of expecting the young woman to be uncomfortable with her at this point, but she definitely wasn't complaining. "Let her know that I'd be happy to."

"Of course." The guard bowed his head for a moment before strolling casually away.

She watched him go before hurrying quicker back to her room, eager to read the note.

As soon as she reached their hallway, she found Naruto walking towards her.

"Oh, hey Shien!" He greeted as she stopped a few feet away. "You wanna come hang out in Sasuke's room for a while? We're gonna play Travelers!"

"Oh, I don't know..." she trailed off, glancing to her pocket. "I've got mail to read..."

"Please?" Naruto begged, clasping his hands together. "We need a ref, and you're the perfect one! Uncle Fugaku is too strict on the rules, and Aunt Mikoto doesn't take us seriously!"

She hesitated. Naruto was supernaturally good at using puppy eyes against others, she'd noticed. She'd even seen the king, the most powerful man in the kingdom, fall victim to the infamous Namikaze Puppy Eyes a time or two since arriving. It seemed to be an open secret that once Naruto unleashed his Puppy Eyes no Jutsu, you would inevitably fall for it. At least he didn't abuse it like the Rasengan or Kage Bunshin. She'd heard a wonder of stories about those two techniques used together, along with one 'Sexy no Jutsu'. That boy was insatiable.

Finally, she sighed. "Alright, I can ref for you."

"All right!" He cheered, grabbing her hand and pulling her in. "Oi, Sasuke! She said she'd be our ref!"

Said prince was sitting at the desk, a board and game pieces set up in front of him. He looked over at them, giving Shien a wincing smile.

"The Eyes?" he mouthed. When she nodded, he shrugged, as if to say "What can you do?"

"All right, you can sit over here!" he gestured to a chair near the fireplace, where a good blaze was going. She settled into the cushy chair with a pleasant sigh. "Note to self: ask the queen about her decorating secrets before I leave. I could die in these armchairs."

Speaking of leaving, she brightened when she remembered the note in her pocket. She reached for it, but then hesitated. The boys were only a few feet away, starting a board game. Naruto was going over the booklet of rules and Sasuke was shuffling the deck of cards.

She bit her lip. Should she?

"It's now or never," she finally decided, reaching to slip it out.

When she flipped it open, another note fell out. She swiftly caught it and put it in her lap. She smiled at the familiarity of Noh's handwriting... but her face dropped when she began reading.

"The prized clay pot's been misplaced. We won't have any more religious rites for a while. The storm is brewing quickly now; on the night of the lightning strike, you must douse the fire in the hearth... or else."

She lowered the note to her lap, frowning. The clay pot must have meant that Deidara was missing. And if he was missing, then 'religious rites' no doubt meant that Hidan was out too.

"Damn," she thought as she turned to gaze at the flames. The invasion must have been moved up because of Deidara and Hidan, and they wanted her to... t- to kill...

Sasuke must have looked over and noticed her troubled look, because he stood from his chair and walked over.

"Are you okay?" He asked in concern.

She blinked and turned to look at him, the light from the fire blinding her a bit. "Huh? Yeah, I'm- I'm fine."

"You don't look it." He snorted, sitting next to her. He noticed the note in her hand and gently plucked it out. He scanned through it quickly, scrunching up his nose.

"Are you..." he hesitated for a moment, but he turned and asked, "Are you... receiving blackmail?"

"What? No." She answered quickly - maybe a bit too quickly, because his eyes narrowed in distrust.

He shook his head, stood, and tossed it into the flames. He turned back to face her, dusting off his hands. "Don't worry so much. If you ever get weird mail like that, tell me, and I'll personally make sure that no one ever threatens you again."

He said it so nonchalantly, but as he turned away she could see the stiffness in his hands. It bothered him immensely, but she doubted he'd ever divulge why. For some reason, it made her heart skip a beat.

She glanced back at the fire, trying to locate the note. It had burned rather quickly, because she didn't see it anymore. Truthfully, she was kind of glad he'd done her job for her; less chance for her to be discovered if she was so careless again.

But then came time to read the other note. As she held it up and flipped it open, her eyes widened a fraction at childish, scrawling handwriting.

"thank you for helping me get Momma's comb back. I think your very pretty. thank you angel."

It was signed 'from Arata'. It promptly made her heart begin to ache. The paper had a drawing of him holding hands with both her and what looked like Noh on a sunny day, all three of them smiling widely. Her parents were in the background, but the drawing's main focus was of her, Arata, and Noh. The drawing radiated a childish innocence that made her keel over a little, her hand going to her heart as it began to ache. Sasuke glanced her way in concern for a moment before going back to the game.

She cursed herself, folding the paper again. Just when she had gotten over her guilt of leaving him behind, he is sweet and adorable and makes her feel worse. Dammit, she just wanted to run away and apologize to him and feed him all of the sweet bread in the world (a treat usually reserved for a birthday for their family). Kami.

Naruto's angry, raised voice snapped her out of her thoughts, and she rose her head to look quizzically at them.

"No, you're cheating!" The blond exclaimed, showing him his tiles. "The rules say IF you have to pass up three turns, not WHEN you decide to!"

"If you have to and when you have to are the same thing, idiot," Sasuke snapped back.

"You clearly have enough cards to use your turns, teme!" Naruto declared, looking over at Shien. "Back me up here! Aren't I right?"

She pocketed the drawing, standing and walking over to them. She studied the board with a contemplative hum. "What's the problem now?"


A/N: I hope you enjoyed that little bit of banter. Also, adorable Arata is adorable, even when he's not actually present.

Ugh, I've been playing the heck out of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It's so addictive!

Please tell me what you thought! See you next week!