Lost in His World (A Sasuke Fanfic)

⇜Chapter 37⇝

            Our group finally continued our journey south where the Land of Snow lies. We all moved twice as fast as we normally would to compensate for the lost time due to my abduction. Interestingly enough, Sasuke has been more impatient and yet noticeably protective of me. He’s always checking on where I was in proximity to everyone else. At one point, he yelled at me for being distracted by a field of wild flowers and falling a little behind because of it. I know, yelling because he’s concerned. But it’s Sasuke so what else would one expect?

            It took us only three days to reach the Land of Snow instead of four. We all wanted to get there as fast as we could due to the anticipation of a big commotion and possibly a misunderstanding between the Lords of the Land of Snow and Land of Light, caused by our delay. We were moving the whole time during our journey and barely stopped for anything. Sasuke wasn’t saying a word, but I could tell that he was being extra cautious. His eyes were constantly scanning the area as we move and I bet he heightened his senses even more than usual.

            As soon as we reached the borders of the Land of Snow, palace guards greeted us with katana swords and spears held to our throats. Surprisingly enough, Sasuke didn’t fight them. He remained calm and civil the entire time.

            “The king and queen were expecting princess Misuko to arrive two days ago. Where the hell have you all been? What did you do to the princess?” asked one of the guards who scowled at us.

      “We had to deal with an unexpected…distraction. I do apologize,” Shikamaru answered then bowed low. The guard gave us all a disapproving look before he motioned for us to follow him. He led us to the palace where the royals were already waiting. A messenger bird has been sent to the palace by the guard ahead of us to inform the royals of our arrival, so it wasn’t a surprise that the king and queen were already seated on their thrones when we entered the palace doors. 

        “Sire, your magesty,” the guard addressed the king and queen and bowed. “I have here with me the ninjas of the Leaf Village and princess Misuko and her sister, princess Kanako, from the Land of Light.”

            The king barely nodded in response. The guard bowed once again then left.

            “We have been waiting for the princess. The wedding is to occur in two days. Explain yourselves,” demanded king Ikeda.

            “I do apologize for the delay, sire. But as what we asked our ninja toad to inform you, we had to take care of an unexpected occurrence,” said Shikamaru.

Queen Hera replied.

        “Yes. Your toad arrived three days ago bearing your message. Is your friend alright?”

            “Yes, your…”

    “Nevermind that,” king Ikeda, obviously unpleased, cut Shikamaru mid-sentence. “What I want to know is how did things go the way they did? Aren’t you all a ninja? How can you allow one of you to get abducted?”

          Shika was about to speak but I replied before he could utter a word. I felt like I needed to be the one to answer the king’s questions.    

“Sire, your magesty…it was my fault. I wasn’t paying attention like I should and…I was abducted. Please forgive my short comings,” I said, carefully choosing each word then bowed my head after, to show as much respect as I could.

“How could you be so incompetent? You call yourself a ninja?” the king lashed out. Queen Hera, who’s a little more understanding, tried to calm him down but to no effect.