I'll also have you all know that I've just discovered a short anime series known as "Chouyaku Hyakuninisshu: Uta Koi" - an anthology with several adaptations of some of Japan's 100 romantic poems by 100 different poets, including Murasaki Shikibu (author of the famous The Tale of Genji, which I've used for a past fic, "Moonlight, Rain and Sakura"). This chapter is inspired by episode 1.

Chapter Two

Palace Heart

The years went by.

The imperial prince came of age and made himself renowned in archery and penmanship, and of course, poetry. It was thanks to his father most of all that he managed to win over the heart of the one who hated him since they were children...or at least, he liked to think so since she hadn't refused anything he offered her.

Tonight, he sat with Emperor Minato and several men - young and old - from the imperial court. Tonight was extremely important, though he itched to be anywhere but here. If his father heard him say those words, or perhaps the old woman who was head of the household and raised him in place of a mother, then he was in for it.

Word got back to his ears, making him chuckle and share it with his few true friends, that the one he would see tonight amongst the other ladies was released from "imprisonment" in her own home. Apparently, she'd broken custom and ventured out into the woods late some nights ago. She really hadn't changed at all despite adopting the mannerisms of a court lady and the future Empress of Konoha. He hadn't even seen her face since they were children, so tonight would be the very first time. But at least she doesn't fight me off as she did back then.

Maybe because he was a man now that he started to think of a good way to tame that wild animal rather than beating her like it was alleged her father did to her behind the scenes.

The bonfires were lit, their flames lighting up the gold off those white-and-red fans the performers held before themselves on the stage. All five ladies were garbed in snowy white vibrant with flaming colors in the forms of cranes, clouds, and chrysanthemums. Their hair was set up in the same hairstyle: slicked and thick hills set with a single red flower in the front. The wordless chants in the background droned on and on.

The one on his mind was front and center for his eyes, marking her as the focal attraction of all the other men.

Those black eyes and the long hair, just like night...

"Hope you're not gonna have your sights set on any of the others - who aren't your fiancée," Kiba Inuzuka whispered to him, the dog he was who enjoyed chasing tail all over, but it was nothing new. Coming from the one who let that damned bird get away and allowed ME to take the fall. Naruto sputtered before composing himself before anyone else heard. Thank the gods his father wasn't nearby.

"Look who's talking, womanizer," he hissed back, though grinning. He had to turn his sights back, or else he'd miss the show -

- only to find himself locking eyes with the Princess Sadako, front and center. It was as if the world stopped altogether and imaginary cherry blossoms began to fall around them. Had to think of that, of all things, when they're not in season. Or, what about wisteria...?

Or how about this: just the hydrangeas which he heard bloomed throughout her pavilion. As if they were growing and growing all around them, blocking out the world...

~o~

"Princess Sadako!"

The young woman was in her personal space, surrounded by screens of painted wisteria in light blue-purple and white, and kneeling before her lacquered table in a lush garment changing color from light blue to white and ending in warm red the color of rouge - scattered all over with fan shapes and plum blossoms. Unlike the previous night, her long raven mane was now loose and flowing past her waist to curl all about her sitting position. Two bangs framed her face and extended ways past her shoulders. Dark eyes regarded the young maid curiously and irritably, already knowing as soon as her attention landed on the branch with two blue hydrangea poms, wrapped with a white piece of paper. "Again, Moegi? He just doesn't know when to give up."

The young girl in a sandy hue striped with red and scattered about with blossoms, auburn hair touching her shoulders, blushed. "I'd never refuse anything from the Crown Prince, if I were you, my lady. You yourself haven't discarded them or even that amulet, have you?" Sadako scowled at her, but she didn't disagree or deny everything.

The amulet - the seashell interior - she still wore around her neck, beneath her clothes, after all these years. She could have given it back to him long ago but assumed she must have kept it out of guilt...only for her mysterious friend, "Tobi", to tell her that it was nothing to make her angry and torture her, regardless of her feelings as a child. And she'd trusted him more than she could trust her own father. Elder brother I can, too.

Both Tobi and Itachi said the same thing but in their own ways.

"His father must have started to set him straight, but it will take years for him to learn how to deal with a woman," her brother had said with a shine in his eyes, mirroring his smile.

And years later, by the rolling of the harvest season this year, they would finally be husband and wife. They would be nineteen, her birthday coming up a month from now. She couldn't say she was enthusiastic, but she no longer had a hard heart toward her husband-to-be, either. It had been years since they'd seen each other, but poems had been traded back and forth...just like this latest one she had no choice but to read aloud to her gushing servant.

"The need for water and the stars in my form - years of waiting has brought everything to full bloom and all the nourishment there is. Should I be a great storm to rid of that screen to behold the sleeping flame within...if I were the water, I would quench your thirst. I should come to see you, with nothing to hold me back, before our fates are linked by the first autumn full moon."

She was known as the "lady of the fan" because all it took was a stroke of two wooden sticks and then a great gust of wind to burst her to life - just like this man's annoying demeanor when they were children. But now...

Now he just made it blatantly clear to her that he had no hostility towards her, but spoke of liquid desire. Sadako gritted her teeth as she struggled to fend off the slowly growing sparks in certain parts of her body that her mother never got to mentor her about.

Prince Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze shamelessly promised her he intended to see her, disregard decorum, and have her all to himself so they could get "better acquainted". She had no idea whether or not to be appalled, or what would happen once he arrived and took her unawares. Men breaking code for their secret trysts isn't new, but I do not wish to be confined again after last time.

She'd been with Tobi that night, after a long night of archery in secret and having mastered it to the level she was meant to - he even patted her head as though she were still that child he encountered so long ago, even placing a kiss on her forehead like her father used to when she was young, sending a pleasant tingle over her body - but after all these years of secrecy, she'd thought she was safe only to find him standing there in the middle of her rooms. She would rather not repeat the harsh words he issued to her, telling her that she was to wed the Crown Prince and therefore was suspected of becoming like one of those promiscuous ladies of the court.

Her own father had accused her of becoming a harlot when he arrived at the conclusion she was seeing someone who wasn't the emperor's son. That was NOT true, but she couldn't tell him of her mysterious friend who understood her more than anyone else. The man who allowed her to be free from the confines of society, who helped her get through a lifetime of an engagement she never asked for...

Ever since I began to grow and blossom, Father has been strict towards me, because that's how the Uchiha are towards their women, to make sure they remain in line - very few know this. But elder brother doesn't treat his wife like this.

If there really was such a thing as love, her father had a funny way of showing it.

"My lady, you haven't denied it, but you are in love with the Crown Prince."

The princess swallowed before coughing in her throat, jaws clenched. Love - so loose a term and thrown around the court far too easily. Several of her intended's friends were such lechers, especially that Kiba Inuzuka who she'd later learned had been responsible for letting her beloved sparrow escape. Naruto was let off the hook, but he still stood by when it happened. That was a long time ago, her rational mind persisted. You are not young ones anymore.

What had been written before they were born couldn't be changed. She had the pendant around her throat, this newest poem, and her favorite flowers from HIM in both hands...and though she intended to play hard to get like other women did, she anticipated the prince's arrival at some unidentified point.

Suddenly, it seemed Moegi's tiresome, lovestruck rants of being the one to deliver the messages weren't so bothersome after all - and here was Sadako's response, which made her smirk and thrill in the parts which already seared:

"It doesn't matter if you become water or the strongest winds to knock down the strongest barriers. No one shall let you inside...you have to wear down before you succeed."

~o~

Days and days went by until the second month of summer lay on the horizon.

The moon was beautiful, even if it were less than half-full tonight, but it didn't make the night less magical. He could have had sake or something to get in a better mood, but he was intoxicated without its need. Too many sleepless nights and too much listening to that damned Kiba's leers, Shikamaru's awkward but insightful tips, Gaara's monotonous one-sided singular simplicity as he had yet to have a score of his own, and of course his father's lifetime of traditional wooing...all of which was going to be put to the test.

Maybe it was because he was young still that his body and heart would be acting this way whenever he would think of his bride-to-be. But either way, he'd heard of men forcing themselves onto their new partners or ones they had already, and the women could only play hard to get for so long, but if rumors were to be believed, Naruto was NOT going to do that.

His father never said anything about it, but he didn't want to think of Minato as that kind of man. And Granny Tsunade would have both his ears if he sunk that low.

I'm gonna get my point across and right into that heart of hers. Plant the seed and give it time to grow, just like the trees and plants around us do every day.

He left the Imperial Palace on horse, under the cover of night, and made damned sure her father and brother - and the servants - would not be around. Her response to him was all the motivation he needed. She accepted the challenge but wasn't going to let him in so easily...

...and then when he arrived at the site of the Hydrangea Pavilion - the large blue balls of blossoms in bloom below every angle of HER personal corridors - there she was, in a brushwork of soft sky blue, cloudy white, and red rouge, covered all over with ume blossoms and fans, over the gentle white for sleeping and relaxation. No embellishment, either, but the mane of raven's wings gently sloping in the summer night breeze. He couldn't get enough of that stubborn beauty who had no idea he was there...until he slipped up to where she was, gazing up at the moon on the very open end of her property. He cleared his throat to get her attention, as well as whispered the words as softly as he could.

"Evening, Princess."

She yelped in shock, whirling around. "What the -?!"

He quickly covered her mouth with his hand so that she wouldn't alert her father, her brother, or any of the servants. "Please, don't scream. I'm not here to scare you or hurt you." Naruto bared his teeth in that smile he knew she couldn't stand. "So, no one will let me inside, huh? No barriers here except this elevated porch. Nothing to stop this man who declared his burning -"

Sadako said something, but his hand muffled her words. He took it off so she could speak. "P-P-Prince Naruto, do you realize you're at my home? When you shouldn't have disregarded decorum?!" The horror in her eyes was enough to tell him that she was terrified he was gonna get her sooner than expected. It was enough to make him laugh.

"You don't have to be so scared and hostile, you know. Not even when I tease you like this; it's only my way to have fun. Your problem is that you take life too seriously, and you yourself are one to talk when nearly everyone knows you choose to get out of the house at night." Her brother did speak of that amongst the courtiers, sometimes to him. He wanted to know himself as to why the woman chose to be out in the wild, endangering herself good and well, but he would let her tell him on her own time.

Her lips parted in shock, but she was rendered speechless. "Yeah, I don't want to do anything you don't like," Naruto assured her, reaching and taking one of her hands into both of his. "But that heart of yours needs some warming up. I know just how to do that." Then he looked her over, the right words fluidly sliding past his lips.

"Fair skin concealed by a robe of the sky and rouge, the first signs of spring, and the fan of her name. The world was never graced by such beauty in the age of the ancient gods." He stopped there and took it seriously now that he was sure he had her calmed down, and then took one hand of his own from hers just to accept the other which still had her fan.

"When I saw you again that night of the bonfire dance, I saw nothing but you and those hydrangeas I know you love so much, so I sent you two - one for you, and one for me. Your beauty on that stage that night enflamed me and made me long to get away from everyone else; it took me unawares at that moment, and I couldn't control it. It's just made me all the more fired up about our wedding day in the harvest...and to see you standing amid the maple leaves..."

Her face got so red he could have sworn he saw steam rising, and her eyes seemed to gloss over. And he could have sworn he could HEAR her heart beating from where he was standing.

~o~

Red eyes hid from the forestry, narrowing at the sight before him, and his lip curled in the darkness.

Had she been caught in this improper position, she'd have been shamed to the highest levels, as would he. But thankfully, he could use this to his advantage. It seems he is getting through to her, but will her heart truly turn away from all the years of grooming her for the freedom she longed for...?

Princess Sadako had grown up to be a fine young lady of the court, set to be the bride of the future emperor, but that would mean everything she dreamed of would be at an end, as with everything else in life. There was no other way, no other option. He had to do something soon before all his years of planning were dashed, and he was ruined. His blood boiled when the Crown Prince leaned in and stopped many inches away, the lips reading that he would come back and see her another time for her response to what he'd said - his profession of lifelong blossoming love.

Love was dangerous as it was wondrous. It would destroy you in the end; everything that couldn't be controlled lived in the heart that he'd once wished had been torn out of his being.