Hey, long time no see! It's been a while since the first chapter was posted and I apologize for the long wait. I had lots of midterms I needed to focus my attention on, but I had time now to write up the second chapter. I would like to warn you that it'll take time to post the next couple of chapters, due to finals coming up soon and I'd like to focus my attention on that. Also happy belated birthday Sakura!
Disclaimer: All characters, places, things and any ideas used in this fiction belong to Masashi Kishimoto. While the plot idea and the names of towns used belong to Sorata Akizuki.
Ch 2 - let Bygones be Bygones
"What do you mean the apple was poisoned?" Suigetsu yells out, as his face switches from playful to serious. He looks over Sasuke's facial features, noticing his discomfort. Karin quickly runs into the backroom, before reemerging holding a damp cloth. She then hastily sits down and begins dabbing the cloth gently onto his forehead.
Sakura begins to panic as she searches through her bag, looking for any antidotes she may have packed away. While Ino searched her own pack for any.
Sakura pulls out a few, only to realize that they weren't the right ones.
"I only have a few but they won't work on this type of poison. And it'll take me half a day to make the antidote myself."
The antidote required many types of herbs, such as the Digitalis purpurea originating from Tanbarun. While others Sakura would often buy from a local store. There were some Sakura owned back at the pharmacy, but she wasn't ready to risk her life to go back there. Not after how far they've come.
Ino quietly makes her way over to Sakura, slowly shaking her head, "I don't have the right herbs either. What do we do now?"
All eyes turn to Sakura, watching as she tries formulating a plan. On one hand, she could run out now and go look for the required ingredients. But she might not be able to make it in time. On the other hand, she could maybe lie her way out and instead, run away. It's not like they'll be able to track them down, right?
Sakura looks around from face to face, noticing their worried expressions. She slowly opens her mouth, "I-"
The sound of knocking before the door being barged open was heard from behind. All eyes turned to look behind as Suigetsu quickly unsheathed his sword, pointing it directly at whoever was at the door. Sakura quickly whips her head around to come face to face with a man she's never seen before.
The tall guy scans the room, before spotting Sasuke's limp body near the back.
"It seems to me that an apple was eaten by the wrong person." He says as he continues to stand at the doorway.
"What did you do to him?" Suigetsu demands from behind, his sword aimed at the man.
The man paid him no heed, as his eyes landed on the pink-haired girl standing in front of him, "if you want to save him, you're going to have to get the antidote yourself." He says, before adding on, "from Prince Neji that is."
Sakura's eyes widened as she stared up at the man. If she wanted to get the antidote, that meant she needed to meet the one person whom she was trying to run away from. But, was she prepared to give up her life to save someone she barely just met? They did somehow help her and Ino out by allowing them to stay in the cottage so, it's the least she could do to pay them back for the hospitality.
Ino quickly whips her arm in between Sakura and the man, "she's not going back to Tanbarun!" She yells out.
Sakura hesitates before coming up with a decision, slowly moving her arm away which causes Ino to give her a weird look.
"I'll go," Sakura says, before turning around to address the two huddled around Sasuke, "The poison won't fully kill him until after 24 hours so just… hold on a while longer while I bring back the antidote.
Suigetsu nods his head once, while Karin angrily pushes the rim of her glasses up. Sasuke on the other hand didn't look too good, he was shivering beside Suigetsu as sweat could be seen rolling down his face. Ino on the other hand looked like she was going to burst into tears. "It won't take long, I promise." Sakura smiles at Ino. Turning around, she slowly followed the man out the door, only to halt in place by Ino's hand stopping her.
"Don't take too long," Ino says, scanning over Sakura's facial features.
"Don't worry, it won't take long," Sakura reassures her.
Ino hesitates, before deciding to release her grip from her arm, watching as Sakura takes one final look before walking out the door to catch up to the man. A small carriage was seen stationed by the trail, as the man took a seat near the front. She makes her way over and takes a seat near the back, hoping to get over with this fast. Once seated, the carriage abruptly lurched forward, causing Sakura to stumble a bit, as she tried regaining her composure.
The small, yet welcoming cottage could be seen disappearing from sight as the carriage continued down the path.
Sakura watched in amazement as the castle began to come into view. Its tall yet sophisticated exterior made everything look as though it came out straight from a fairytale. The carriage paused by the gate before continuing along further into the castle. Along the path, there was a garden stationed on either side, full of colourful flowers and trees filled with life and animals. Sakura spotted a couple of people tending away to the garden, with some snipping away the bushes and others watering the plants. They paused their work and watched the carriage go by, causing Sakura to shyly look away in embarrassment.
Although she didn't want to be here, she can't deny how beautiful the castle itself is.
The carriage gradually came to a halt, as a woman popped out of nowhere, ushering her to follow along. From her attire, Sakura could tell she was one of the maids working there. She was seen wearing a long black dress with a white apron over it and a pair of black heels. Her hair on the other hand was done in a messy bun. Sakura hops down from her seat and begins to follow behind.
Sakura gasps in surprise as a fountain was seen near the stairs leading up to the entrance of the castle. It's been ages since she's last seen a fountain that big, with birds casually resting atop. The maid, noticing her distraction pauses to say, "Hurry along, he doesn't like to wait."
She takes one last glance, noticing the light being reflected against the surface of the water. The birds seemed to be at peace, with no burden or stress weighing them down.
"If only I was at peace like a bird," Sakura mumbles before turning around to follow the maid up the stairs and through the tall doors. She then leads her down the halls, passing by what seemed to be the dining room, with a long table containing cutlery and dishes placed about. She spotted two girls, whom had midnight dark hair were seated on either side of the table, taking their time eating the food placed before them. They must've noticed her staring as the two looked up, causing Sakura to quickly continue on walking. Too distracted, she didn't notice the maid stopped walking, resulting in bumping into her back. The maid turns around while Sakura awkwardly moves back to make space.
"He's waiting for you inside," was all she said before walking past her and disappearing out of sight.
This was it, the room which contained that one person whom she was trying to get away from. She could feel her heartbeat increasing as she awkwardly stood in front of the door, not ready to open it just yet. The faster she gets in and leaves, the quicker she'll be able to get the antidote and make a run for it.
Taking a quick deep breath, she knocks on the door with the back of her hand.
"Come in."
Sakura grabs hold of the knob, turning it over and slowly opening the door. The room was grand yet spacious, with barely any furniture around. Taking a step in, she notices Prince Neji seated near the far back of the room, situated in front of the grand glass door, leading out to what seemed to be the balcony. To his side, there was a small table that contained a bowl full of fruits.
Neji notices her arrival, as he takes a quick sip from his cup and places it neatly on the side table. Sakura, not knowing where to stand, awkwardly stands near the middle of the room. Silence filled the room as Sakura continued to stand in utter silence, unsure of what to say, while Neji continued to look her over.
"I see, the hair you left behind was in fact real." Neji abruptly says, slowly getting out of his seat, making his way over to where Sakura stood. Sakura pauses, trying to register what he meant by that before realizing he was talking about the little gift she left behind.
"I'm happy you received it." Sakura replied back, before switching topics, "since I'm here, I would like the antidote right now."
Neji blinks before turning around to stare out the glass door, "Don't be so hasty now," he says while turning around to take a seat on the chair. "There are still some things I'd like to discuss."
Sakura gives him a questioning look, what more is there to say?
"After the whole ordeal of you running away from my attempts of courting you, I've become a laughing stock among the neighbouring countries as well as by my own people. My popularity has plummeted because of this, with many looking down on me."
'Well, that is what you deserve after what you put me through.' Sakura glares back, not wanting to express her opinion out loud. Neji casually takes another sip from his glass, too oblivious to Sakura's thoughts, before placing it back on the table.
"However, there are some who believe that it is your fault for all this," he clarifies, pointing a finger towards Sakura, who became wide-eyed.
"Wha-"
"Now," he interrupts, "I do believe that you should pay me back after everything you've put me through. That is, I'll have to ask you to be my concubine."
Sakura gapes back at him, unsure of how to respond. Becoming his concubine was for sure not going to solve his whole problem and she was sure not wanting to go along with it. Neji continues to stare back, waiting for a response.
Realizing she doesn't have much time, she stretches out her hand, "The antidote. Hand that over first."
Neji slowly shakes his head, "You got to agree to my terms first and then I'll hand it over. Unless, you would rather visit your friend with one of these?" he asks as he grabs an apple from the fruit bowl and points it at Sakura.
Sakura stares back at the shiny red apple glistening in the sun, thinking of her possible options. If she doesn't get that antidote fast, who knows what might happen to Sasuke. For all we know, his tolerance to poison might not be as good as others. He may even end up dead before she's even able to return. And besides, it's the least she can do after he ate the apple for her.
Too busy zoned out, she didn't realize Neji had gotten up from his seat once more and was now standing arm's length distance away, slowly reaching out to grab ahold of a couple of loose strands of her pink hair.
"As far as I'm concerned, now that I know how easy on the eyes you are, I do not wish for you to be far from me." He mumbles, continuing to stare down at the strand of hair in his grip.
"I-"
A loud thud was heard from behind the doors, causing Neji to look behind as the doors slammed open.
"I object," A familiar voice yells out.
Swirling around, a smile crept onto Sakura's face as she registered who it was standing by the doorway.
"Ino!" Sakura happily says as Ino runs over to give her a hug. "But how…?"
"They helped out," Ino gestures behind.
Sakura looks behind to notice Suigetsu, Karin and Sasuke standing by the door, looming over a couple of guards who seemed to be knocked out. What really surprised her was the fact that Sasuke looked completely fine, as though he wasn't poisoned at all. Which made no sense, since the last time she saw him, he was in excruciating pain. Wanting to make sure he was feeling okay, Sakura runs over, "How are you walking around just fine?" She demands, noticing his face was still pale white. Sasuke eyed Sakura for a bit before extending his injured wrist out.
"Could you tighten this real quick?" was all he replied with.
Sakura looks down at his now loosed-up bandage, promptly reaching over to retighten it as requested. When she realized he still didn't answer her question, she opened her mouth to ask but paused as he turned his attention to Neji, who looked furious at being interrupted.
"Is this your friend who was poisoned?" He asks, slowly approaching Sasuke. Ino runs over to stand beside Sakura while Suigetsu and Karin stood on either side of Sasuke who continued to glare back.
Sasuke blinks, "So you're the one to blame for the poisoned apples?"
Neji frowns, "Watch your tongue, my social status is far superior than yours."
Sasuke seemed unfazed at that comment while Suigetsu bursts out laughing. Karin had to elbow him in the shoulder to make him shut up. Sasuke then slowly walks closer to Neji, causing him to awkwardly take a couple steps back.
"Excuse my manners, first prince of Tanbarun...what was your name again?" he paused, thinking over his answer. "Right, Prince. Neji. Hyuga." he slowly enunciates.
Both Sakura and Ino watched as Sasuke slowly pulled out his sword from the casing and presented the crest displayed near the hilt. While Sakura thought nothing of it, Neji on the other hand could be seen losing his composure.
"Y-you," Neji says, too stunned to speak.
"Let me formally introduce myself." Sasuke smirks, "The name's Sasuke Uchiha, second prince of Clarines."
Both Sakura and Ino turned to one another, shocked at what they just heard. "Did he say what I think he said?" Ino whispers, while Sakura slowly looks at Sasuke, "Did the poison affect your thinking? No wonder you're not able to think properly."
Suigetsu laughs once more, "No, his brain is working perfectly fine." he reassures her while Sasuke continues to stare Neji down.
"I'd never expect the first prince of Tanbarun to be bold enough to poison their neighbouring prince."
Neji slowly backs up, before stumbling into the chair behind him. "It wasn't me I swear. You have no proof to justify that." he panically says.
"We'll see about that once we take you to court for poisoning a prince. If you have something to add, discuss it there." Karin blurts out from behind.
Neji begins to quickly shake his head, "It wasn't me, I swear."
"Let's make a deal." Sasuke says, slowly striding closer to Neji, "I'll forget all this happened so long as you stop trying to court Sakura."
When he received no reply, Sasuke kicked the front of the chair, causing Neji to awkwardly stumble backwards and out into the balcony.
"Alright alright, I accept," Neji says, accepting his defeat.
Once satisfied, Sasuke turns around to look at Sakura, who continued to stand by Ino watching everything unfold, "If you have anything to add, now's the chance," before moving to the side to allow space.
Sakura walks up to Neji, who continued to stay on the ground, too scared to get up. She picks up an apple from the fruit bowl and holds it out towards him, causing him to flinch.
"I hope you can cheer up," Sakura suggests. A sudden thought pops to mind, as she remembered why she was here in the first place.
"Oh right, the antidote. Hand it over." Sakura demands.
Neji slowly nods his head as he quickly gets up and makes his way towards the side table, pulling out a small vial from within the fruit bowl. He then shakily hands it over to Sasuke before awkwardly saying, "I'll give you guys some privacy… If you need me, I'll be in the library." before darting out the room.
Sasuke quickly digests the antidote while Suigetsu starts laughing once more, "Did you notice how scared he became after finding out who you were? Man, that was so funny." Karin glares at Suigetsu before approaching Sasuke, "Are you feeling better now?" she asks.
"Hn" was all he replied with.
Sakura watched the three talk amongst each other, confused as to how they were able to make it here, with Sasuke poisoned and all. He should've been passed out, so how…?
"He wasn't really passed out, ya know?" Ino blurts out as if reading her thoughts.
Sakura turns towards Ino, "What do you mean by that?"
"Sasuke has built an immunity to all sorts of poisons to better handle situations like these," Karin replies for Ino. Sakura turns her attention toward the three of them, "Is that how you guys were able to make it here?"
"Fortunately, yes. Although, this dumb prince of ours was too stubborn to get up." Suigetsu says while eying Sasuke.
"Geez, we managed to get him here around ten minutes after you left. Even though he was awake the entire time the man entered the cottage." Ino sighs.
"What? I wasn't fully awake yet." Sasuke yells back in self-defence.
Sakura looks at the three of them before blurting out, "Thank you," causing all eyes to turn her way.
"What for?" Karin asks.
"For getting me out of a situation like this. Since you're a prince and all, you probably had more important matters to attend to rather than helping out a basic girl like me. So, I'm sorry if I wasted your time."
Silence filled the room as Sakura stared at the ground below her.
"There's no need to apologize." Sasuke sighs, "I had a lot of time on my hand anyways."
"It's Sasuke's fault for eating that apple in the first place." Karin adds, "We should've been watching him more carefully." She smiled at the two of them. "And besides, Suigetsu even became all teary-eyed, and went about declaring that he'd go down with Sasuke if anything were to happen to him," she laughed.
"Hey! I thought I told you to keep it to yourself," Suigetsu cries out of embarrassment.
"You guys are loud, you know that?" Sasuke mumbles, causing all four of them to burst out laughing.
"So, where are you guys planning on heading now that you got all this sorted out?" Suigetsu asks.
"Oh," Sakura says, taken by surprise. They haven't really thought of that question. Sakura looks at Ino as they both came up with an answer.
"We'll probably head over to the next country. I think it's time for a new change." Sakura says.
"Tanbarun is kinda getting boring the more you live here, no offence or anything," Ino adds.
"Well, we could give you a ride to Clarines, since we're heading back." Suigetsu suggests, "Sasuke won't mind right?" He looks over at Sasuke who is seen casually placing his sword back in the case before making his way out of the room.
"We'll take that as a yes," Suigetsu says back as all four run to catch up.
"What are you guys planning on doing once you get to Clarines?" Suigetsu asks.
Once they formally said their farewells to Neji, who became too afraid to look them in the eye, the three of them got onto their horses, with Sakura and Ino riding along behind. Time seemed to pass by in a blur as the country walls came into view, with the castle seen way far back.
"Both of us will probably look for jobs to begin with." Sakura says before carrying on, "it won't be too difficult since a pharmacist is always needed in every country."
"And a botanist," Ino chirps in.
As they neared the gates, Sasuke showed some kind of badge before the gates were opened allowing entrance to the city.
"They probably wouldn't have let you in had you not been with us," Karin explains. Had they not tagged along, it would've taken hours to get through the gates since they have to make sure of your identity.
The town itself was quite lively with more stores found about and many people seen walking around the paths. It seemed as though none of them knew who Sasuke was as they ignored our presence. Voices could be heard here and there, ushering customers to come buy from their stalls.
The horses came to a stop near a building as Sasuke says, "you can rent rooms here," he points out. Sakura and Ino take one glance at the building before saying, "Thank you for the ride," while hopping down. They both waved goodbye as the three continued along down the path, before disappearing out of sight.
Ino takes a sigh of relief, "I'm glad we were able to run into them. Who knows what could've happened if we never got their help." Ino says.
Sakura nods her head in agreement. It's not every day where you happen to run into a prince, better fact one who was kind enough to help out.
"I'm glad everything worked out in the end." Sakura replies back, "Let's head inside and see if there's any rooms available."
The both of them make their way inside, noticing how small the lobby area was. There was a desk near the far end of the corner, with a woman stationed right behind it. The interior itself seemed empty, with barely anyone around. Slowly approaching the desk, Sakura notices a set of stairs leading up to the next floor, probably where all the rooms were.
The woman seemed to notice their presence as she looks up from what she was doing.
"Here to rent out a room?" She asks once the two made it to the desk.
Sakura and Ino both nod their heads, "One room please," Sakura replies, before adding on, "One that has two bedrooms in it.".
Nodding her head, the woman gets up from her seat and makes her way over to the backroom, seemingly grabbing a pair of keys. She then walks back to her seat while placing the key in front of them.
"Room 306. It'll be on the third floor," she says.
As Ino reaches down to grab the keys, the woman then asks, "I haven't seen you guys around here before. Did you just move here?"
Sakura and Ino looked at one another, deciding it wouldn't hurt to disclose this much information.
"Yes, well… we just came from out of town and were hoping to settle in Clarines." Sakura smiles, while Ino slyly takes the key from the desk.
The woman eyed them suspiciously for a couple of seconds, before seemingly changing her demeanour, "Well, I hope you find this place nice. Let me know if you ever need help finding something." she says.
They both nod their heads awkwardly before turning around to quickly get settled in. Only, Sakura paused as she then turns around and walks back to the woman.
"Do you happen to know of any job openings around here?" She asks, adding, "One relating to pharmacies?"
The woman looks to the side, pondering over the question while Sakura stared back with hopeful eyes. It'll be less time-consuming to have to walk all around town looking for a job, when potentially there may not be one.
"I do know of a couple of pharmacies here that you could check out," She says. Sakura watched as the woman reaches over to the side of the desk for a map, making a couple of circles here and there. She then hands the map over to Sakura, who then looks down to realize that there were the locations of the pharmacies.
"I've marked down the pharmacies you could find here. I hope you'll find this somewhat helpful."
Sakura gives the woman a warm smile, "Thank you for your help." Turning around, she spots Ino waiting by the stairs. She then runs over while swaying the map around, "I found some places we could visit once we've settled in," Sakura says to Ino as the two make their way up the stairs, and towards the third floor.
They spot Room 309 by the far end of the hall, as they then unlock the door and make their way inside. The room itself was pretty basic, with a small kitchen on one end of the room and a couple of couches placed on the opposite. There were two rooms which, upon further discovery, were the bedrooms.
Sakura places her things on the bed, deciding to organize everything later. First things first, finding a job. Since it wasn't that late outside, probably around the early afternoon, it won't hurt to go job hunting now. Sakura makes her way over to Ino's bedroom, spotting her already designing the room to her liking, which was typical of her. Sighing, Sakura enters the room, "You planning on tagging along to find a job with me?"
Ino looks up from the pile of clothing she had placed on the ground, "Oh right, jobs." she says, getting up from where she was hunched over and walking towards the doorway.
"Where we headed first?" Ino asks.
"Well, this is the last one." Sakura sighs.
After trying to figure out how the map works, they were finally able to stumble upon a couple of pharmacies. But most ended up shooing them away, denying any help needed. Whereas others didn't believe Sakura to be an expert, with many seeing her as a random kid seeking any job possible. At this point, they began losing all hope that anyone would offer them a job.
"They better have some kind of job for us," Ino tiredly says, on the verge of giving up for the day.
The two make their way inside, noticing a couple of patients seated near a window waiting for their prescriptions. While on the far end of the room were where a few pharmacists were seen moving about as most were busy with prepping medications. There was one man seated near the front, too busy looking through a random newspaper.
Sakura takes a deep breath before marching over to the man.
"Do you have any job openings available here?" Sakura asks, as the man slowly looks up at the two of them. He looks at the backroom where everyone else was before turning back around to say, "I'm sorry but we don't need any more help."
Not even bothering to hear his suggestion, the two swirl around to walk out the door, only to pause as they heard the man say, " Wait!"
Turning back around, they look at the man, waiting for his response.
"There's a test happening at the castle. Looking to hire a few royal pharmacists. Here," he hands over the newspaper he was reading a couple of minutes before, pointing to the one section containing the information regarding the test.
"If you have what it takes, maybe they'll hire you. Although I'm not too sure of that since you're just a bunch of kids,"
"Why you-" Ino says before Sakura quickly cuts her off, "thank you for the information. We'll be on our way then." Sakura apologizes as she drags Ino behind.
Once they made it outside, Ino quickly removes Sakura's hand, "why'd u stop me?" She demands.
"He just disclosed something better than what everyone else has been telling us for the past few hours. Better this than having to go home empty-handed." Sakura replies back.
When Ino didn't fight back, Sakura smiles, "great! I guess we'll be taking part in the exam. We've got a lot to study," she added while grabbing onto Ino's arm and dragging her along towards the direction of home.
Author's Notes:
I apologize if Neji was too ooc, I felt because of the current situation they were in, it was better he acted like that than his usual self. I hope you find the storyline so far interesting, and do not fret, more drama will be introduced later on in the story. Right now, I want to work on their characters and own kind of introductions throughout. Please do leave a review of how u found this chapter and hope to see you in the next!