- Up on Konoha Palace's 3rd floor, where everything is too pretty and too comfortable -

The bed is too plush.

The rug is too fluffy.

The candlelit room is too warm, and the furniture is too thoughtfully placed.

Sasuke, who has lived many recent years of his life between rundown inns and abandoned huts and deep-wooded forests, can hardly stand the grandeur of this palace bedroom. There stands an earthy, rugged Snake Mage amongst heavy, crimson drapes and porcelain pottery and finely crafted wardrobes. He pops out like a fire in the cold night.

This, he's sure, will not do.

Sasuke is there for a minute or two, and then he leaves. The maid that had led him to his designated room is nowhere in sight, so he continues down the corridor, trots down a staircase, and takes a good gander at the royal stables outside through one of the windows. He'll have to go retrieve Aoda eventually. If the giant snake is to be homed somewhere, the stables will have to be the place.

The only issue is — Sasuke doubts him going down to inform the stable boy that he'll be housing Aoda will do any good. He and his companion have come across enough people to understand that great snakes are seldom welcomed. If there is anyone Sasuke will need to convince to allow Aoda's presence, it will have to be the Empress herself.

So he's off to find her, and he is pleased to see she has not yet left the room overlooking the hourglass lake. But, unpleasantly, Sasuke is reminded of the sole reason why he's come in the first place: the curse. The curse that just so happens to cause daisies to sprout from her ears and prevent her from hearing.

How is he to convince her of anything if she cannot hear him?

Before Sasuke can escape and reassess his plan, however, Hinata turns, spots him, and smiles.

Great.

Feet stuck like the carpet has morphed into mud, Sasuke stands there as Hinata lifts from her seat to meet him by the door. He bows his head, a habit his mother stuck deep into his brain since he was young, and when his eyes lift to find her once more, he sees that curious, slightly questioning tilt of her head. She's probably wondering not only why he has come, but how he will be voicing that reason in a way she can understand.

Sasuke thinks, and then he pulls back the front of his robe to bring out Caduceus from its sling. Long ago, when Sasuke and his brother had first found Aoda — just hatched and barely longer than a greyhound — he used to take him out to the gardens at night when most of the guards and other such important people who'd be on the royal grounds were asleep. One night all those years ago had been the first time he had met Hinata, just a princess back then, dressed in a white gown, hair kept and pretty; she hadn't screamed, and she hadn't cried. She had let Aoda coil gently around her arms, and she had kept it a secret that the youngest Uchiha boy was hiding a giant snake in his room.

That was years ago. But if Hinata still remembered, somehow . . .

Sasuke displays Caduceus, and Hinata dips her chin to inspect it, her daisies hanging like wings.

He taps his index against one of the serpents' heads. Her lips pinch.

"Aoda," he says. "Do you remember? Aoda."

Her eyes go from his sceptre to his mouth, trying to decipher his words. He taps the snake head again, then stretches his hands apart to gauge the relative size Aoda had been when she had first seen him. Still, recognition does not come to Hinata's eyes. She shakes her head, and he frowns.

"How do people communicate with you?" While he's aware talking to this cursed Hinata is the same as talking to a stone wall, his frustration does not regard logic at present. "Have you been useless this whole year?"

One does not need to read lips to know that he is angry. Hinata's smile is guilty, and she nods her head to the door. She wants me to leave? He stays. When she tries to make her way to the door, he takes her arm, stopping her. Is she scared of me?

But she doesn't act like she is. She doesn't wiggle free from his grasp or scream for the guards stood on the other side of the door, alert, ready to come to her rescue if they're needed. Sasuke takes her further into the room, brings her to her seat, and plops her down in it. Then, he points out the window, towards the lake.

"Look out there." Then, slower, so she might read his mouth, "Look. I'll be back."

It takes a few tries, but she nods, and Sasuke leaves in a hurry.

…

The sun is close to setting when Sasuke reaches the lavender field where Aoda stayed, resting. His mighty head lifts from the flowers, and a great breeze pushes the strong smell into Sasuke's face, making his nose wrinkle.

"You've returned," Aoda rumbles.

"We're going to the palace. Come."

The rest of his body lifts, and Aoda slithers into the open field where Sasuke stands. "I am allowed?"

"I'm working on that. Hurry. She can't wait all day —"

"She?" Aoda lowers his head so that Sasuke can climb on top. With his feet planted between the snake's eyes, he's able to balance himself with ease as that great head rises. "Hinata?"

There's a hopeful lift to Aoda's tone.

"Yes," Sasuke says. "Hinata."

…

Thankfully, with Aoda's help, they manage to reach the palace before nightfall. Sasuke navigates him to the back end of the gate, far away from that annoying Konohamaru's gaze. The fence is still tall, but it's nothing a giant snake cannot climb.

"Are you sure?" Aoda asks.

Sasuke puts his weight on the snake's snout, urging him forward. With only a second more of hesitation, Aoda slithers up and over the gate. Guards call and yell, and there's the clanking of armor and iron weapons shortly followed, but Aoda roams freely into the royal lands. Sasuke steers him left, past a crowd of terrified nobles, and soon the lake is within eyesight.

"Here," Sasuke says. "Lower me here."

Aoda does exactly that, and when Sasuke's boots crunch against the crisp grass, the sun is nearly gone under the horizon. The dimmest of lights cloak their figures, and Sasuke looks to the back of the palace, hoping Hinata followed his orders and sees them.

Soon enough, a slew of armored men and guards and horses come, their weapons pointed for Aoda's head. Their spears and swords could hardly dent his scales, but fighting off the royal guards won't help convincing anyone of letting either of them stay.

But before anyone can try to attack, Hinata comes running across the yard, the skirt of her dress swinging behind her legs, her tidy hair now wild, wind-like. One of the men, with eyes matching her own, stops her, both hands on her shoulders, warning in his gaze; but she only smiles, pulls away from him, and continues towards Sasuke and Aoda.

The Empress is slightly breathless, but her cheeks are a healthy pink, so unlike the dull white Sasuke saw earlier. Her hands tug at his robe, and he gawks. "What are you —"

Her hand slips in, grabs, and brings out Caduceus. She giggles, holding it up above her head, analyzing it in the very last beam of red sunlight. She compares it to Aoda, then approaches the great snake. Her hands are wide open, and they are able to take his chin when Aoda lowers his head slowly and gently. Her fingers run along his scales like she's touching the face of an old friend, and Aoda's tongue peaks out, tasting her joy.

Sasuke watches as the guards flounder in their heavy armor, weapons lowered, unsure what to do with themselves now that their empress has come to hug and greet the very thing they had aimed to attack. The one with the white, royal eyes sees them off, muttering something to the captains. They leave, and the man approaches them, eyeing Sasuke.

Hinata is laughing as she whirls around, tapping at the twin snakes wrapped around Sasuke's septre. Her eyes are startlingly bright in the dark of the early evening, and her daisies almost seem to lift with her spirits.

"I see," the man says, smiling, which Sasuke can tell is entirely for Hinata's sake. "So this is what you meant with your staff." Now, his eyes turn to Sasuke. "We were wondering why you had presented it to her."

Sasuke can only suppose Hinata had updated this man, whoever he is, of his earlier attempt at communicating with her. It makes sense, if he thinks about it — Hinata is not mute, after all. She can laugh, so she can talk.

Why she has yet to talk around him is still a standing question, but Sasuke will dwell on that later.

Properly reunited with Aoda, Hinata returns Caduceus to Sasuke, then takes his hand to bring him to the palace, her other hand waving through the air to motion for Aoda to follow. Sasuke, personally, is not pleased to be led around by the hand like a child, but he grumpily follows along, still trying to figure out who this man is that comes with them. He is not her cousin — Neji, if he remembers correctly. He's met Neji plenty of times. But he must be Hyuuga based on his eyes — someone with some hold to the royal throne.

They go up a stone staircase, then back into the room where Sasuke had left her. Aoda stays out, chin resting on the railing.

"I'll get the paper," he says to Hinata, patting her hand before going to the door. He comes back within the minute with paper and quill and ink in hand. "We rely on writing to communicate with the Empress, Snake Mage. We keep a collection of inks and quills and readied paper in most areas of the palace, including the next room over."

Is that what she had meant to get? Sasuke wonders. Had she not been trying to force me out?

They sit around a table. The Hyuuga man dips the quill in ink as Hinata looks expectantly at Sasuke.

"My name is Ko," he says. "I am Empress Hinata's translator, of sorts. Allow me to be the middleman between the two of you as we discuss."

Sasuke gives him a look. "I know how to write."

"Yes. I'm sure you do." Ko's smile is thin, unyielding. "Can you explain why you've brought that snake with you?"

Out of spite, Sasuke almost stays quiet. But Hinata leans forward, waiting for his answer, so he mutters, "His name is Aoda. He's my companion. If I am to stay here, so shall he."

Kō writes his reply quickly and neatly, but in a way where there are far too many swirls and curls. Noble handwriting. Hinata is able to read it with ease, of course, and her hands clap together as she nods.

"It seems our generous Empress has allowed . . . Aoda to stay," Kō says.

"I want him to stay in the royal stables." Scratching. Dipping. This is written down with equal speed. "I will stay with him."

Hinata reads this, blinks, then tips her head in confusion.

"You want to stay in the stables?" Kō asks.

"It's best that I stay with my companion."

Those daisies bob as Hinata sits back, thinking, eyes swimming. She looks like she has a million things to say. Sometimes, her mouth opens, then closes, and her lips twist, unsure. Kō watches her patiently, not saying anything.

Eventually, she nods, smile guilty for a reason Sasuke cannot understand.

"We'll see to it," Kō says. "Kiba will not be too pleased, but it's an order straight from the Empress, so he'll have to follow no matter the case."

He rolls up the paper and cleans the tip of the quill with a handkerchief. Hinata stands to join Aoda in the damp night, combing her nails down his snout and along the large shape of his head. Aoda is pleased and smelling of lavender, and Sasuke stands back, watching the two.