Sasuke's frown deepened as he read a letter sent by his new fiance. When he sent one to her, he fully expected her to cooperate as the previous women had but was mistaken. This was the first time he'd received a written reply or a reply at all. Skimming the short letter once more, the prince asked the maids standing before him, "Lady Haruno personally handed this to you?"

They nodded, bowing lower with pale faces too afraid to meet his gaze.

He didn't dwell on it because their behavior was nothing new. All who tend to him cower in fear, and they have since his twelfth birthday, ten years ago. That's when The Curse awakened. On that day so long ago, the royal castle's doors were open to celebrate the second prince's birthday with a massive celebration. People traveled from far and wide to witness his debut in society.

A foreign-looking man approached a naive and soft-spoken Sasuke, who was too nervous of insulting guests to say something. That was how he ended up bitten on the back of his shoulder by razor-sharp teeth.

The next thing he remembered was waking up in chains, the sound of his mother's soft weeping stirring him from his rest. After that, each time the moon was visible at night, his appearance and personality would morph into something akin to a beast. His skin would turn many shades darker, nails and teeth would sharpen, hair would grow wildly down his back, and hand-like wings would grow from his shoulder blades. The mild-mannered boy became a bloodlusting demon each and every night.

Changing his appearance like that put Sasuke through agonizing pain, and his family searched far and wide for ways to break the curse while also searching for the man who'd bitten him.

Itachi, the first Uchiha prince, managed to locate the attacker, a snake-like wizard named Orochimaru. When Orochimaru was captured and brought back to Konoha, he claimed to be unable to eradicate the curse. The king and queen begged for a way to help their precious son, leading to the awful wizard tricking them into giving up their lives.

Now, Sasuke's appearance barely changed at night, minus on nights of full moons. Orochimaru claimed that the royal family stole something from him, and this was his way of enacting revenge. He told the terrified child that the curse would be broken only when he, too, lost something he held dear.

The previous king, Madara Uchiha, left retirement to run the kingdom until the first prince was ready to rule. His first act was to banish poor Sasuke to the abandoned snowy forests of Northern Konoha. The man claimed keeping someone so volatile near the inner cities was too dangerous. The second prince's appearance may only slightly change most nights, but the murderous personality shift wasn't destroyed.

Each evening at sunset, Sasuke chained himself up so his alternate identity wouldn't be free to wreak havoc. As a result, the Uchiha man rarely slept, leaving him stoic and lacking in energy. After a decade of this struggle, he began to lose hope of ever breaking the curse. That is, until his eighteenth birthday when the king started arranging marriages for his nephew. Sasuke was nervous but excited to finally have someone other than the standoffish staff of the manor to speak to.

That first woman, a pretty brunette named Maharu, did not obey the rules. She came to the third floor in the night, only to witness Sasuke at his worst. As one would expect, Maharu fled the manor in terror. In the morning, the prince was informed that she'd fallen down a ravine in her distress and broken her neck. His first fiance died.

The next fiance lasted much longer, almost two months. Their wedding day was closing in when The Curse broke free of his binds and attacked her. She was the second woman to die.

After that, Sasuke was overcome with guilt. He refused to cause a third casualty. When a new fiance would arrive after that, he'd give them the option of returning to their home or offer to provide them with enough money to start a new life elsewhere without their families' knowledge. Every single one chose to disappear. This led to the public believing the second prince was murdering each and every one of the poor women. In Sasuke's eyes, he was okay with that because he deserved it. Two people died because of him.

'The way this letter is written makes it seem as though Lady Haruno doesn't want to return to her family,' Sasuke thought, grabbing a pen and paper to scrawl out a response to the woman's letter. 'This will be another one to choose to disappear rather than go home.'

"With all due respect, this is a manner that I cannot change my position on. Please reside here for the next month while I prepare for your departure."

A sharp pain flared up Sasuke's neck from the back of his shoulder. It made his teeth grit. Somewhat shakily, he folded the letter and quickly shooed the maids away before approaching the double doors at the back of his bedroom. He opened it, hands trembling while latching thick metal cuffs around his wrists.

"It's no use. This one will die. I won't let another one slip through my fingers." A raspier version of the prince's voice eeks out as the man pants for breath to prevent himself from verbalizing his pain.

In the midst of transforming each dusk and dawn, there are a few moments where the two personalities overlap. Sasuke could see everything The Curse saw at night, and The Curse could see everything Sasuke saw during the day, but it was only at these brief minutes that the two could communicate.

Sasuke didn't say anything because there was no use. He spent years trying to reason with The Curse to no avail. It'd be a waste of breath at this point.

"Coward."

The following day, Yamamoto appeared to free the prince from his restraints and bandaged his wrists which were bleeding from The Curse attempting to escape. The pale man spoke calmly because this wasn't a new situation, "Lady Haruno requested to meet you face to face."

'Why did he refer to her like that?' It almost seemed like the butler was trying to insinuate something, but Sasuke didn't understand what it was.

Apparently, that was obvious because the butler lowered his voice while cleaning up the first aid kit mess, "I may be speaking out of turn, but there is something peculiar about this woman, My Lord."

"Elaborate."

Yamamoto bowed with his gaze low, "I'm unsure if I'll be able to properly explain. Perhaps you should accept our lady's request to meet."

Sasuke tried convincing himself to meet his short-term fiance but couldn't. Whenever he looked at a woman, he could only see the terror on his first two fiances' faces when they discovered his secret. He also didn't want to give The Curse a chance to memorize his target's face. Though the Haruno woman might see his avoidance of her as an insult, it was for her own good in the long run. It was to keep her safe.

A day passed.

Another letter awaited when he woke. 'Please reconsider.'

"...This is all she wrote?" Sasuke asked.

Yamamoto nodded with an uncomfortable expression. Sighing stressfully, the prince writes a politely worded letter to deny the woman's request again.

Another day passed.

No letter arrived for him after that.

The butler explained that Lady Haruno had become agitated. She wasn't eating or sleeping. She wouldn't speak to the staff or even her personal maid.

'Is she throwing a tantrum because I won't give her what she wants? I'd heard Baron Haruno's eldest daughter was pampered but thought it was just a rumor. It must be true. She sounds spoiled.'

Sasuke's curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to try to sneak a peek at his fiance if only to grasp what Yamamoto was talking about. Carefully and quietly, he roamed the halls of the manor. Any staff he encountered would gasp, bow politely, and scamper away in fear without meeting his gaze. The prince stopped acknowledging how uncomfortable their reactions made him long ago, so he ignored it all and continued with his goal in mind.

'I can't let her see me. That's the most important thing.'

Finally, he reached the hallway of her bedroom and was surprised to see the door ajar and the room empty. Since the woman wasn't present, he wandered inside. Snooping around in a lady's dwelling was rude. He knew that, but he had no choice if he was to learn anything today. It was spotless, the entire room, though he was sure the maids mentioned that Lady Haruno refused to have them tidy up on her behalf.

'Does that mean she's cleaned on her own? How peculiar….'

He opened the wardrobe door, and his eyes widened. It was almost entirely empty. The dresses inside were shamefully plain, as well. This confused the prince further because the Haruno family was incredibly well-off and notorious for flaunting said wealth.

His brow furrowed as he sighed and closed the door, 'They must've sent her empty-handed in hopes of me purchasing her a new wardrobe. Greedy leeches.'

Sasuke assumed this was all the information he'd be able to gather today, so he wandered to the window absently, only to freeze when his gaze landed on an unfamiliar woman. Long pastel-pink hair ran down her turned back as she swept the dirty snow and leaves off of the walkway to the garden.

'She's so small. Is she really sixteen? And why is she doing manual labor?'

The prince's head tilted as he watched Lady Haruno briefly. For some reason, the picture bothered him. It felt somehow sad.

He tore his gaze from the petite woman and left her bedroom to find a maid, who trembled under his watchful eye, "Why is the Lady outside? It's inappropriate. Who told her she had to perform such tasks?"

'Did one of the staff members try to bully her?'

"We've tried to stop her, but she refuses to listen, My Lord. She insists on earning her keep while she's a guest here."

'Maybe she's bored. Her room had nothing in it to pass the time.'

Sasuke couldn't accept things as they were and shook his head, "When she comes inside, take her to the library. Give her full access. Ask her what her hobbies are and provide anything she asks for. Do not allow her to do things like this in the future."

"Yes, My Lord. As you wish."

After returning to his own dwelling, the prince fell into the seat at his desk to focus on work. Though he'd been banished by the king, he was still expected to manage Northern Konoha's villages as a royal family prince. He tried to focus for hours but couldn't because the image of that pink-haired woman plagued his mind.