The Dark Ages

Chapter 1

Maids were walking around the hallways holding trays and cutlery, as the prince walked past them. Even if it was later in the morning in the morning and almost noon, the castle was busy with servants going around and few nobles hurrying towards their designated places.

"You're late, Your Highness." An older voice called from across the hallway.

"Not more then you are, General." Another voice called back walking briskly in the same direction.

As the younger man reaches the end of the hall and they start walking together towards the dining hall, the older man chuckles, "The Queen must be furious for us being this late."

"She'll manage."

It was the time for the Royal Breakfast just like every Sunday. It was the queen's tradition that she wanted to uphold as much as she could. The breakfast was meant to bring everyone together at least once a week. Of course, dinner also required everyone's presence, but it was much more private than this.

The Royal Brunch was meant for higher officers and nobles came together to enjoy good food and converse. The Royal Family joined the Brunch every single time since it was the Queen's idea to arrange such an event. Queen Mikoto was known for her loyal and loving personality. She cherished nothing more than good relationships to everyone in their kingdom.

It was truly something that helped all the nobles to stay in good terms with their rulers, since it also gave time for the king and queen to get to know everyone. Although, normally politics were a subject to be avoided during this brunch, it was almost inevitable topic.

The double doors were opened by two armor wielding guards, to reveal the giant dining hall within. It was bustling with life and light conversation as the two men walked inside. No one stopped to watch them enter, and instead focused on their dishes.

The younger man caught his mother's eyes from across the room, and the look of disapproval was all over her face. The small frown and a glare sent in their direction caught few other's attention. But this was nothing new.

"What is so important that once again you are late for the brunch, my son?" Came her feminine voice.

"The troops need to be trained, mother." He replied calmly and took a seat to his older brother's right.

"At a time like this? It has never been this peaceful ever, and you still think of training out knights." The queen shook her head.

This time the answer didn't come from the prince, but from the king sitting at the end of the table to his queen's right, "My love, you never know when the enemy decides to show its face. You never know if they decided to attack today, tomorrow or next week. Sasuke is only doing what is best for our kingdom."

"All the kingdoms are at peace with each other. There's no chance of another war breaking out." She explained back with determination. Queen Mikoto was a sight to behold. With her long midnight dark hair and chocolate brown eyes, she looked stunning. Pale, heart shaped face and pink lips with not many wrinkles, she was very young looking for a woman in almost her fifties.

Adding to her outer appearance was her intelligence. She knew much about politics and how things were handled in their kingdom.

She gave a stern look to everyone at the table that where now watching the exchange, "From now on, no one comes late for my brunches or they will be scrubbing the basement floors for a year."

"Yes, Your Highness." Everyone except the queen's children and husband chorused.

Laughing voice raised over the small chatter that had started after the queen's command, "Fugaku, if I didn't know better, I would think that the queen is the king." Everyone around the table started to laugh at that.

"Duke Minato, I wouldn't be joking about that if I were you." The king's face was passive as ever, but going by the smirk from the blond he took it everything but as a negative comment. Everyone in the court knew of Minato's fiery red-haired wife, and Duchess, Kushina. She was as elegant as ever, but also known for not having tolerance for idiotic behavior or anything annoying.

Kushina was laughing at Minato's side.

Mikoto looked rather smugly at her husband before grinning at her two boys. Sasuke shook his head slightly. His mother could be too over the top sometimes.

Suddenly the king cleared his throat and everyone's attention was back at him. He glanced at his oldest son, "I would actually like to announce something right now concerning my eldest son, Itachi."

All the cutlery was carefully placed on the plates as everyone waited. Sasuke was as intrigued as everybody, since he had no idea what was going on. Being the general of their army sometimes took him away from important political meetings. His brother, Itachi, however being the next on the line for the throne had to attend almost every meeting, sometimes knew things that Sasuke didn't.

But with the passive look on Itachi's face, Sasuke had a very bad feeling about this.

"We have come to the agreement with the king of the Land of Wind that prince Itachi and the king's sister, princess Temari, should marry. The plans for the announcement ball has been started and we should expect everything to be ready in two weeks." At first the dining room sat in shocked silence until people started clapping and cheering.

This news was a long time coming and people had been waiting for the prince's engagement announcement for years now.

Itachi gave a small smile as he continued to cut his pie with a fork ignoring the whole event going around him.

Mikoto reached her arm across the table to held onto Itachi's hand.

"I'm so happy for you, my dear. Temari is a fine woman with intelligence not many possess."

"Thank you, mother."

Champagne was brought out and they toasted. Rest of the brunch was full of bubbly laughter and conversations, with Sasuke trying not to act too suspicious. There was something wrong with Itachi, but he just couldn't confront his older brother right now. It had to wait at least until the small gathering had ended.

Unfortunately, Sasuke knew well what his brother was like. He didn't share his burdens easily and opted to keep quiet as long as it didn't hurt anyone else.

Sasuke glanced over his shoulder at his best friend since childhood. The bright blond hair similar to Uzumaki Minato, the Duke, was known by everyone in their kingdom. The furrowed brows were indicating that something was on his mind. Not to forget that during the brunch Naruto was oddly quiet.

Blue cerulean eyes soon caught the dark brooding stare and a bright blond brow was raised.

"Something wrong, teme?" Raspy voice of Uzumaki Naruto asked with a tint of humor, "Trying to assess your competition?"

"As if you are match to him." Came a laughing voice of Inuzuka Kiba, a son of the late Duke Arion. Now being the eldest and only son of his household, he held the title of Duke, by birth right.

"Shut up, Kiba!" Naruto growled back with a glare. "I will beat him any day!"

"We will be seeing that in few hours, don't we? The one who catches the biggest prey wins." Kiba challenged and mounted his horse.

Sasuke strapped his sword on to the saddle, securing it tightly and testing the latch.

"Sasuke! I'll beat your ass tonight!" Naruto hollered loudly and pointed at the prince. The worried that had bothered him were obviously long forgotten as he mounted his horse at the same time with Sasuke.

The familiar grin was on his face showing off his white line of teeth.

"Don't count your chickens before they're hatched." Sasuke replied back and tugged at the reigns commanding his horse forward.

"You'll see, bastard! I swear on my own-"

"Don't make promises that are plain stupid." Sasuke retorted instantly.

Running footsteps echoed towards the front gates of the castle catching all of the three men's attention. A middle-aged man ran towards them with horrified expression. He didn't bother with bowing or anything, he just pointed towards the outer wall of their large village.

"A-a woman!" He was panting so hard that his face was red and he was having hard time speaking, "I-in da-danger!"

"Where?" Naruto lead his horse closer to the man.

"Outside the walls!" The man suddenly yelled and once again pointed at the direction.

Neither of the three men needed any other directions as they galloped towards the pointed direction. The group of servants and a stable boy were left alone with two pouches of food for the men. They stared at each other confused before the man now leaning against his knees snapped, "Get some medical help!"

They hurried back inside the castle walls starting to look for the Royal Healer.

The trip from the center of the village to the outer walls was quick with their horses. People jumped out of the way especially as they neared the front market that was bustling with people. Many had gathered around the gates to see outside as a group of men dressed in black cloaks ran in circles near the walls.

Sasuke moved his horse to the fore-front of their group, yelling at the peasants to move. Men, women and children quickly dodged the massive black animal coming their way, but few people couldn't move away quickly and luckily were only roughly pushed to the side. Older men and women were pulled away by their loved ones and for a moment Sasuke wished none of them got badly hurt.

In seconds, they were past the group of people and directly heading towards the huddled figure being surround the by men with weapons. The men yelled in a foreign language and one pointed an arrow towards the figure. Naruto suddenly yelled, "Assholes!"

The man wielding the bow and arrow was startled just like the rest of his group as they took in the trio riding fast towards them.

Sasuke had already pulled his sword from the strap along with Kiba and Naruto as they attacked towards the men. No one else was allowed to hurt anyone on the Land of Fire if they weren't part of the Royal Trial Committee. Accused were supposed to have a fair trial before any sentence was given to them.

One of them men yelled something that sounded like a profanity, before the word was followed by a command. With their hoods' still on their heads, the group turned around quickly on their horses and headed towards the forest.

"You bastards!" Naruto yelled again and was ready to ride after them.

"Naruto, no!" Sasuke quickly commanded which caused Naruto to pull on his reigns. His horse quickly stopped causing grooves to form on the soft grass ground. At that point, Sasuke had already leaped from his horse and was running towards the huddled figure.

While running towards the small figure, his eyes took in the wet spot on the back of the cloak and an arrow end pointing directly upwards. Swiftly but still gently he grabbed the figure by its shoulders and turned them to the side.

Instantly he was met with a pale face, brightly colored hair and markings on a face.

"Who is it?" Kiba's worried voice asked as he was still mounted on his horse moving in a circle around his prince.

"An elf."

"What?" Naruto joined them.

"She's an elf." Sasuke said levelly looking up at the men, "She needs help now."

This is a short one because of my busy week. Next update will take another week.

Thanks for reviewers:

IheartSasuSakuIta

anonymousfetishes

Harijime

Elf-Cast

Also huge thank you for everyone who favorited and followed this story. It's nice to see some new people come and follow my stories.

- Jakura