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.Heaven's Gate: Princess.
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Six: Preparation.
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They are preparing for the Starry Night Festival.
She's heavily guarded. Can't make a move.
I'll tell you once I'm able to make a move.
Sasuke.
He looked at the short note and nodded silently once to himself. The lie sounded convincing enough. All he need to worry about now was how could he fool the next person sent to check on him. Now he hoped it was Karin, it was easy to fool her.
He walked toward a cage in the corner of his room; he bent down and opened the cage. An eagle with red eyes was staring at him. Sasuke gave the eagle the paper and the eagle squawk softly. Sasuke smiled and open the back door, the eagle leaped off at once.
He sighed and a soft tune caught his ears. He became alert at once. He leaped off toward Sakura's room and found her door open. His heart beat faster all at once. He ran toward the secret door and found the way to the garden was open. He landed on the garden and found her.
Sakura stopped singing when she heard the leaves shuffled. She turned and smiled at him.
"Sorry if I wake you up," she said. Sasuke walked toward her and sat on the ground because she was sitting on the bench. She looked at him, frowned, and joined him on the ground. He looked at her confused but she smiled at him. "It's better this way, right?"
It took him a while to react, he shrugged.
They sat in silence for a long time, watching the moon, feeling the cold breeze.
"You should be in you bed, princess," Sasuke said when he caught her shiver. She looked at him and nodded once.
"Let's go then," she stood up. "My name is Sakura by the way, I hope you know that." She smiled. "You can start calling me that."
Sasuke watched her disappear into the room and he smiled.
"Sakura then," he muttered under his breath to himself, a smile was still across his face.
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"This decoration should be placed there," Sakura pointed to different places. Sasuke followed close by, his eyes never left her, except in some times when she asked for his opinion and when he needed to greet the villagers with a bow, but his heart leaped every time he looked at back at her.
Her strength made him wonder. They had been walking for hours around the western side of the country and she didn't look exhausted at all. He was fine, of course, he could take a 2 days journey leaping and running without even feeling as much tiredness.
"Princess," he called out when the sky started to turn orange and the sun was setting. "It's time to go home."
She stopped and turned at him. She looked at him sadly and he felt as if he had done something really bad, like killing her Father.
"I have a name," she said. "Princess is a title, you know that. Didn't I ask you to call me by my name?"
He looked at her; his eyes said what he was thinking: "That's all? You're upset because of that?" She looked into his eyes, knowing what he was thinking but ignored it.
"It's so much easier if we see ourselves as friends, don't you think?" she smiled. "All the ANBU are my friends, even their perverted captain…" she shuddered as she imagined him. "Now, let's try this again, shall we?"
She held out her hand, waiting for him to grab it. He looked at her and then at the hand, and then at her and back at the hand again. She nodded, smiling; he reached out his hand to grab hers slowly, still hesitating. She waited though, until he finally grabbed hers and she shook it gently. He felt a rush of warmth forced its way into him, sending his heart to beat faster. And maybe, even force some of his blood to form their way into his cheeks.
She smiled at his embarrassment and, without her knowing, she herself blushed. And of course, he found this amusing.
"Hello," she said after a while of shaking hands. "My name is Sakura Haruno."
He nodded and decided to follow her.
"Hi," he said, feeling even more embarrassed at his scratchy voice from feeling so panicked. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke."
"It's nice to meet you," she smiled.
"Same goes here," he smiled as well.
They let go and continued walking.
"That's better, isn't it?" she looked at him and he had to nod. Because it did feel better.
They arrived at the palace not long after. A man with a cat mask on his head looked at them and sighed in relief. He ran toward them and looked at Sasuke, he nodded his head in acknowledgment and Sasuke did the same.
"Thank you for keeping the Princess alive," he said. Sasuke's eyes widened in shock.
"You're… welcome?" he said, unsure of what exactly to say.
Sakura, again, rolled her eyes.
"Kakashi-sensei, you're being too hard on him," she said. "Of course he'll keep me alive. He's the best shinobi Matsuo Tabi has, and he's an Uchiha."
Kakashi smiled awkwardly and nodded. He turned to Sasuke and frowned as he studied his face.
"You Uchiha look exactly alike, huh," he grinned, obviously remembering Itachi. Sasuke rolled his eyes once. "And that habit seems to run in your blood."
"Are you talking about my brother?" he snapped.
Kakashi looked shocked.
"Itachi? No," his expression changed. Angry, disappointed, sad. "I was talking about my best friend who was also an Uchiha."
"Oh," Sasuke felt guilty for accusing. "Ehm, how is he?" Good, change the subject.
"He's dead." Kakashi answered, a tear formed on the edge of his eyes.
Oh, crap! Sasuke's mouth snapped open. He wished he could just throw himself off the top of the palace.
"I'm sorry," he said, unsure of what to say… again.
Kakashi nodded and leaped off, tears falling down from both his eyes like waterfall. Sakura giggled after he was gone, Sasuke turned and looked at her, once she saw his expression she laughed. So loud that some of the ANBU around that area came to see what happened. They saw Sasuke's expression and went back to patrol with giggles and smiles.
"What's so funny?" Sasuke asked, offended.
Sakura kept on laughing and he waited, rolling his eyes again.
"You should look at yourself!" she laughed. "Kakashi did the same to Itachi and somehow your expression is so much more valuable!"
He narrowed her eyes. He would never look foolish; he never looked foolish in his life before. Well, that was before he came to this strange country, serving this strange princess.
She was also the only that said Itachi's name without any other expression and tone other than loving, well except for Ten-ten and Ino who seemed to respect Itachi more than the other ANBU.
Weird.
"It's getting cold," he tried to stop her from laughing. "We should get inside."
She nodded, composed herself, although her smile was still on her face and walked inside. She looked at his hand for a while and took it into hers. He looked at her, dumbfounded but she ignored him and looked forward instead.
He was actually happy that she had held his hand. But… what if she was trying to relive the memory of his brother?
He shook his head slowly and the thought went away. Replaced by the warmth from her hand.
She finally turned at him and smiled.
It was a smile he needed to return.
And so he did.
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Promised you more romance and this is just how much I can manage for the moment.
I mighty hope I can update soon, but I'm afraid I would be delayed due to the big pile of work.
Reviews are always appreciated.
Thank you.
~ButterCan'tFly.
