Naruto was the first to see the entrance of Raikanrando and he signalled to Jugo, who stopped the carriage.
He looked at Shikamaru who nodded and continued to stare ahead. There were lycans guarding the entrance, a whole lot of them.
Sasuke, we're here. He mindlinked the Alpha. There seem to be over thirty lycans, heavily guarding the entrance.
It's like they already planned it. Sasuke thought as he faced Masashi. "You know what to do."
The old woman nodded. "I might look old but my strength is still intact."
"It better be. Don't drop her."
Masashi rolled her eyes as they came out of the carriage and Sasuke escorted her to the side of a tall woody tree, carrying Sakura carefully in his arms. "If I do so, I will give away my location and I'll be in trouble. Of course I won't drop her." She retorted before staring into space for awhile. She began to speak in a foreign language and a portal suddenly appeared infront of her.
Then she turned around, adjusted her shawl and stretched out her arms. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her and left her arms hanging.
Masashi bit her lower lip in annoyance. "My lord, you are wasting time and reducing her chances of survival."
Reluctantly, Sasuke placed his mate in the old woman's arms and watched as she walked into the portal steadily. When they were through and the portal closed, Sasuke sighed out in relief. Then he walked back into the carriage.
Let's go.
They began to move, towards the entrance and passing through it.
"Wait." One of the guards shouted at them and they stopped. He moved to Naruto. "What's in the carriage?"
"I'm pretty sure you recognize me as the fiery menace's Beta, you sure you still want to check what's in it?" The spiky blonde inquired. In these parts, lycans knew and feared the Alpha of the Dark Crescent pack.
The guard glanced at the carriage and swallowed but he didn't falter. "We've been ordered to be on the lookout for a human who could be the royal alpha's mate."
"Who ordered you?" Naruto frowned at him.
"Lord Danzo."
Danzo. Naruto gripped the leather reins of the horse harder than he intended to until pale veins began to pop out. He let go and sighed. He shouldn't give in to anger. Danzo seems to have everything going his way. "Go ahead. It's your job."
The guard bowed before going over to the carriage. He knocked on it. "Sasuke sama?" There was no answer. "Sasuke sama?" Silence. The guard fearfully glanced at Naruto and Shikamaru and at the lycans around watching him before he opened the door.
His blood immediately ran cold when he saw the alpha glaring at him from inside, with an aura as deadly as a venomous horned serpent. "My...my ..my lord." He bowed. "Welcome back."
"Welcome back, Sasuke sama." A resounding chorus went out from the guards, all around.
"Close the door." Sasuke told him calmly and the guard bowed again.
"Your father desires to speak with you as soon as you arrive." The guard managed to say, looking around the carriage in the process. There was nothing besides Sasuke.
Father, huh? It was on the mate issue. Very well. "Close the door."
"Yes, Sasuke sama." The guard closed the door carefully and bowed as the carriage was put into motion and it trolled inside with Naruto and Shikamaru.
Set for my territory. He said through the mindlink. I'll need to get ready to meet with father.
"They're here?"
The Luna asked the Supreme Alpha as he put on a heavily gem adorned attire made out of sheep's wool and bear hide. They were alone in his chambers. He was getting ready for a meeting with his advisors and she had rushed down to him to confirm the news she had heard about the arrival of her son and his mate.
Fugaku sighed. His mate could really waste her energy on things like this. "Yes, they're here. Though Sasuke came alone."
Mikoto frowned. "What of the girl?"
"She's with Masashi."
There was a brief silence. Mikoto was thinking "Did Sasuke tell you that?" If her son came in alone even though he'd brought his mate, didn't that mean he was trying to keep the knowledge of his mate away?
Fugaku frowned, looking away from his mate. "No."
Mikoto sighed. "Fugaku..."
"Masashi won't be punished for leaving without my permission so do not be bothered." I've lost one important person because of my rashly decision in the past. "You know I had Kakashi monitor him with the disguise of being a professor in the human world. Who knew Danzo had someone doing the same thing."
He stared into space vaguely. Danzo was dangerous, but he had to continue playing his game of being his thrall. Danzo had control over thousands of warriors and alphas in Raikanrando than he did.
It wasn't surprising. Danzo was an intelligent Lycan.
It was his negligence. He had allowed the pain of the past to blind him in so much that he paid intended ignorance to the real instigator of the crime and lost a friend. Now, he was paying for it.
"He doesn't know of the new rule." Mikoto told him with a small smile and Fugaku scoffed amusedly, snapping back to reality as he turned to face her.
"That's why I'm going to tell him infront of the others today." He paused, rethinking his decision. "Or the day Sasuke chooses to come." His son was a grown lycan now, an Alpha to be precise. It won't be easy to pull that one by any leash whatsoever. It wasn't a little wonder he made a name for himself even before becoming an Alpha. Fugaku remembered when he took the role of the Alpha of Dark Crescent pack after gifting the previous Alpha a bloodbath. He had always preferred the use of action over words when he wanted to make something clear to someone.
Then there was Itachi. A calm, quiet, collected and overly calculative lycan, who didn't want to shed blood to become an Alpha but still got the position of the Head General, effortlessly. A small smile stretched on the Supreme Alpha's lips. His sons.
"Changing the rule wouldn't cause any issue?"
He understood what his mate meant. True, starting an issue with Danzo could be unavoidable, but..."I believe I can still get something straight here." His eyes smiled at his precious mate. "I am the King and Supreme Alpha. Seventy percent of the Lycans in Raikanrando might not be under my command but I still make the rule."
The Queen let out an unsteady breath with a straight face before she lit up. "Well, I'll be idling away with the girl." Then she added. "When she wakes." She was excited to meet her son's mate. She wanted to know about her and how they met because she was a little skeptical of Sasuke's reaction at first hand. Itachi hadn't found his yet and he didn't bother to search.
She remembered what Kakashi told her but she wasn't worried about the girl. She believed she was strong. From what she'd heard about her, she's smart, witty, and tough. She also wanted to ask her how she got to Sasuke after he'd transformed.
Oh, she had so much to talk about. So, she was optimistic about the girl's recovery. Also she had to keep a low profile and seal her excitement away for awhile. She wouldn't want Danzo suspecting her and adding something to whatever he was plotting, and she wouldn't Sasuke to start being skeptical about her knowledge of his mate.
It all sounded so amusing, she wanted to kidnap the girl, keep her in her chambers and subtly watch Sasuke's reaction while she laughs at him mentally.
Sasuke started work as soon as he got to his territory. There were a lot of data and files regarding the villages he oversaw with the lycans in his pack. He didn't need anyone to lead the pack while he was away. They could manage just fine on their own. They were aware of what would happened if they defied his orders and didn't follow them to fruition.
Two days. Sasuke thought as his dark, calculative eyes ran over the papers in his hands and the ones scattered over the mahogany table as he sat, alone and unbothered in his wide, dim office.
There was a case of contaminated source of water in the village close to his base. The cause: an anonymous phenomenon. If Sasuke could guess, he didn't say it. There was another in the nearest village close to the borders of Drakkodo. Rogue attack. They had robbed the inn there and had killed some incessant 'nuisance'. All these amongst others. He needed to check the affected areas and supervise the security of the village, and also plant some necessary defense in some places. His Beta and Gamma would secure the other areas.
Just two days and I should be done. His father would have to wait. His brother also wanted to meet with him. He had forgotten his brother wanted him to come home at once before.
No, he didn't forget. He just didn't find it efficient. He was also requested to have a meeting with some of his father's noble advisors, led by Danzo.
He rejected the meeting. He didn't decline it. He outright rejected seeing them. If he was to meet with his father, possibly with his brother, wouldn't he still see them there in the court?
As far as he was concerned, he had nothing to discuss with that irritating one-eyed schemer.
Then he remembered he won't be able to see his mate and he sighed. He dropped the papers in his hands and leaned back in his chair. He was using all his willpower not to leave his territory and head to Masashi's shrine to check on her, considering the fact that it was only two hours since he last saw her.
He closed his eyes as the image of her beaming smile and shining green eyes came to his mind. If she was here, she'd probably be talking about this and that, getting excited over things she barely knew, trying to annoy him as he focused on the papers, asking questions and trying vigorously to help him imagine things she saw or dreamt about. She would have been everywhere. She would have made the quietness disappear.
He sighed as his eyelashes fluttered open and locked on the high, eerie ceiling. He missed her.
He frowned immediately when that thought crossed his mind and his heartbeat picked up a slight pace. This mate bond is distractive. His eyes trailed to the papers on the table. I have work to do. Yes, overseeing these cases and the meetings with brother and father in two days time.
But two days later, the first message he received made his mind go haywire and for a moment he wasn't able to think about anything else. His mate had woken up.