Hey there! Autumn here! I have come with a new chapter of The Sakura's Fire series. ^-^ Hehe about the update.. I am taking CST'S and Common Core this month till May 7th so updates MAY be slow.

Of course I won't abandon this story nor will I ever delete it. It's to grow my skills as a writer. It would be great to have a beta reader I guess but I am new so it can wait!

Enjoy this chapter~

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice nor the characters. They belong to Tachibana Higuchi.

If I did, well I would be rich.

"Together, they would watch everything

that was so carefully planned collapse,

and they would smile at

the beauty of destruction."

― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

Chapter 2: The Hyuuga Kingdom's Attack

Dark clouds had rolled in, making the country dark. Many villagers hurried inside in fear of the dark. The men clouded in darkness invaded the now empty streets of the village. Taking in prisoners of anyone they saw, they headed towards the castles. The soldiers, frightened, informed their kings right away.

"Your highness, invaders are in the village. T-They appear to be headed this way." The soldier was shaking in fear of what the king would do.

"Invaders you say?" The kings' eyebrows creased in frustration as he got lost in thought. He closed his eyes to think and as he opened them, fire shown in his eyes.

"Protect the queen and the prince. Make sure no harm comes to them. If the invaders come to the palace, get the queen and the prince to safety. " Ioran said strictly. The soldier nodded at his command. "And if it absolutely necessary, use the secret passage. Keep them safe. Those are my orders to you, Tsubasa." Tsubasa, who had heard his name, stiffened and bowed. "Yes your highness. I will do everything in my power."

Ioran creased his forehead and called for his men. "We will protect this kingdom at all costs. Grab your weapons and be prepared to fight back. Atsushi, bring me my weapon." The man handed a sort of sword to the king as he stepped down. "Let us fight for this kingdom. We cannot let them win."

The soldiers raised their weapons one by one, each raised weapon signaling that they are ready to fight. The men including Ioran, stood guard outside and inside the palace, ready to attack. Meanwhile, Tsubasa was talking to Kaoru about what is now happening.

"I see. Invaders have come. Then Tsubasa, we must protect Natsume at all costs. He is special, not just because he is my son, but because one day he will come to save this kingdom if we were to fail today." Kaoru said as she looked at a sleeping Natsume while looking back at the man before her, her eyes filled with pain but determination.

At that moment, the raven haired lad understood what the queen had meant by protecting the young prince at all costs.

They had to protect Natsume, even if it cost their own lives. Kaoru and Tsubasa looked each other in the eye, as if swearing to protect Natsume without words. Kaoru had picked up the sleeping prince gently and was ready to save her son. "There's one thing I want you to do, Tsubasa. If I do die today, I want you to take care of Natsume and keep him safe. Please Tsubasa. I want him to have a great life."

She looked out the window to the full moon that now took over the sun. "I want you to promise me that you will do this. But you must not tell him about this day until you feel he should know. I know that one day, he will be a great king." She closed her eyes, holding tears back.

Her voice was trembling already as she spoke. "I know you will take good care of him. I am saying this to you because I sense that something terrible will happen today. I cannot say what will happen, but I fear that Natsume will be left alone. So I feel it is absolutely necessary to say this now." Kaoru gave Tsubasa one last look before a loud explosion was heard.

Ioran stood his ground as the explosion covered his view from whoever these invaders were. He stood guard as the smoke soon cleared. Cloaked men were all that was seen when the smoke cleared as the king could not believe his eyes.

There in the midst stood the people he feared most would come.

There stood the evil group of people from the darkness. The people who would bring darkness to the world if they were not stopped. At that moment, Ioran inhaled deeply as he set the command to attack. He found himself facing the strongest there. The commander of these invaders. A man who's eyes spoke nothing but war.

"I will not let you get away with this!" He exclaimed to the man. All the mysterious man did was smile evilly. He through a blow at Ioran but he quickly dodged and attacked himself. "Oh, but your highness, the war has already started. The destruction of this kingdom shall come and it will soon fall, deep into the darkness."

The man struck a blow slashing Iorans' shoulder. Ioran let out a small cry of pain as he struck a blow at the man's arm. The fighting continued and soon blood was all over the ground. Ioran was getting tired fast. He knew he wouldn't last long. "If you surrender now king, we won't hurt your people any longer." The man clenched his fist as he looked away.

He had to protect his people. He looked at the ground and thought of what he should do.

Then the mighty king, Ioran Hyuuga, had dropped to his knees and surrendered to the enemies.

To protect his people he gave up his pride.

The man smirked as he signaled the men to stop, ending the fight. They took the king as the cloaked men disappeared. The leader of the men looked back to the kingdom, an evil smile planted on his face. 'This job must be done correctly or you are dead. Bring me the prince alive. Kill whoever gets in your way.'

He turned away and started towards the dark forest with custody of the king.

Kaoru and Tsubasa were now running down an endless maze of corridors to escape from the now eerily quiet palace. Kaoru tried hard to hold back her tears as she ran as fast as she could. "Something might have gone wrong."

Tsubasa was panting hard as he ran looking for the room that had his only option of escape. He looked at the woman running next to him and the child in her arms. The child he would have to protect. "No. Something has gone wrong. We need to hurry out of here." Kaoru let a few tears fall but quickly held them back once again.

The queen nodded as she turned around to see if they were being followed. To her horror, there was a shadow figure with red eyes close on their trail. Kaoru knew what she had to do. She stopped running, causing Tsubasa to stop, and handed him Natsume. "It is time for you to fulfill your promise to me. Take him to a safe place and keep him safe. He must not know of this. Not yet. I'm counting on you, Tsubasa."

A sad smile was on her face as she stepped back, tears were surely streaming down her face. "But your highn-" Tsubasa was cut off by her. "Quickly now, before it catches up. Please take good care of our prince."

With those final words she gave Tsubasa a push. He started running as fast as he could towards the room with the secret passage. As Kaoru watched his figure get farther away, she wiped her tears and turned around to see the shadow creature get closer. She knew that this would be the end for her, but she put up a fight to stall time.

Tsubasa finally entered the room and put Natsume down for a minute. He pushed the couch and pulled the handle to a hidden door. He jumped down the passage and the small opening soon closed slowly, leaving behind the palace. Tsubasa knew he didn't have much time and ran quickly to wherever the passageway led.

The shadow figure soon had left Kaoru on the floor, bleeding to death, but it lost sight of its objective. It searched many rooms for the prince but he was gone. It's red eyes flared up in frustration of losing sight of Natsume and Tsubasa, but it decided to retreat.

Tsubasa had reached the end of the passage after many hours of walking. At the end of it, he found a ladder that led up somewhere. He climed up, now with the baby prince awake, to open the little door. He had put Natsume on his back halfway to the end with a piece of cloth he hung on his shoulder.

He had reached the top of the ladder and reached out to the handle. Tsubasa was frightened of what lied beyond this door, but he knew he had no other choice and opened the passage. He climbed out of the darkness, only to find himself in an unknown meadow full of life.

He was now in a land unknown to him. But he had to continue on for the sake of his kingdom.

For the sake of his promise.

Hey! That's the end of Chapter 2! What do you think?

Please leave a review and tell me what you think.

Help and advice is much appreciated! Thank you for reading my story!

A big thanks to MitsukaiYuki for reviewing and giving me advice! I really appreciate it!

Until next time!

~ Autumn (✿◠‿◠)