- Let her go immediately.

  The impatient guard looked at me as if I were a ghost. When I demahings, he looked like my grandmother: eyes ched, lips pressed, not a millimeter tain or expin.

  Sakura freed herself from the grip on her wrist and ran to a ben the garden. Her chest was heaving untrolbly, her hands were shaking, sweat down, her face ale. Didn't the damn men realize she was having a panic attack?

  - Get away! - I ordered, walking over to the bench.

  - I'm sorry, Yhness. But the Queen... - the impatient man began, and I read “Kiba Inuzuka” on his ID.

  - Private Inuzuka, get out of here, because I'm you to.

  It was as if he miraculously became aware of who I was, that Sakura was mine, and that toug her was a crime against me. They left without another word.

  Sakura Haruno had lengthened her hair. If she hadn't been irresistible before, she was even more so now. Her thin, dark greeer trasted with her por skin. If there was a more beautiful girl in the whole try, I didn't know it.

  I crouched down to be at her face level. Tears flowed from her eyes and I took her trembling hand in mine.

  - Are you all right, darling? - I asked softly.

  - I'm not your darling. - She raised her head to face me. I felt intimidated by that look. Suigetsu was wrong, Haruno Sakura didn't have doe eyes.

  - What did I do to offend you? Didn't I release you, just as you wanted?

  I won't lie: I set with her. Wasn't that what I expected - a scathing respoer defending and proteg her like a true prince of stories?

  Her gaze softened, and for a moment, she almost looked like a doe, vulnerable and delicate. A tear was slowly trig down her cheek, and without thinking, I reached for it, gently wiping it away before it made its way to the end of her face.

  - Don't cry, darling.

  She pushed my hand away brutally.

  - Don't call me that! I'm no dearer to you thaher thirty-three strangers you keep in this cage.

  Haruno had brute movements firl and seemed incredibly fortable with offending me. She was half-naked, but she didn't cover herself before my gaze. If my position in the hierarchy didn't scare her, my gaze didn't intimidate her either. She did all this to me.

  - Your cim is false. - I finally said, and she frowned. - All of you are dear to me, I just have to find out whie is dearest to me.

  Suddenly, my position began to bother me, and I sat dowo her on the bench. She didn't look at me.

  - Do you really want to fall in love like that? - she asked, and I realized that no one had ever asked me that.

  - We princes don't have much choi the matter. I haven't met many girls in my life. My mother and father met this way, and before them, my grandmother and grandfather, and they were very happy. I'm ready to find my wife, someone my family and my people will love, someoo help me wele the leaders of the other nations... God, how tedious they are, so it's going to have to be quite a woman.

  I mao make her smile.

  - Do you really think this is a cage?

  - Yes, I do. - Her voice came out calm. - Your Majesty,” she added when she remembered, and I ughed at her embarrassment.

  - But it's a beautiful cage. I've been trying to add a pool for years, but my grandmother thinks it's a stupid idea.

  - A pool would be nice,” she said, ughing.

  The tears had dried and the shaking had stopped. Her skin ink ahy again, and I was close enough to t the light freckles she had on her nose and cheeks, so subtle that I only just noticed them.

  - I like your hair,” I plimented, and she blushed a little.

  - May I ask you a question, Miss Sakura Haruno of the Tea Vilge?

  - Of course you , Prinaruto Senju Namikaze of Konoha.

  I let myself smile for a moment.

  - Are you here for the man or the ?

  Man, or ? Girls used to get fused and think that the two were just one. Fighting for the prince's heart and, in the end, getting the tiara and a life of luxury forever.

  - I'm here by mistake. Well, it's a long story... I'm here. And I'm not fighting. My pn is to enjoy the food until you kick me.

  I ughed so hard that I leaned back.

  - I guess I wasn't very o you,” she said, fixing her hair. - Sakura Haruno, and it's a pleasure.

  - Naruto Senju,” I replied, and took the hand she held out to me.

  She stood; her body framed by the thier.

  Sakura's reply was direct, cutting, but with a touch of teasing that somehow made me smile.

  - Sakura, my dear, I really hope you find something in this cage worth fighting for. After all this, I 't help w what things would be like if you really tried.

  She looked at me over her shoulder, her er smiling defiantly, and my expectation of a softer response soon dissipated.

  - I'm not your darling, Prinaruto,” she said, her voice firm and without hesitation.

  I watched her for a moment, trying to uand the truth behind that defiant stance, but at the same time, a sense of respect for her ce and the way she stood her ground, even in the face of everything, began to grow inside me. She didn't need my passion or prote. She just wao be herself.

  And that, for some reason, fasated me.

  The m, I wasn't woken up by the entrance of the maids - they were already there - or by the sound of water being prepared for my bath - which was already ready.

  An annoying, persistent little tune pyed in my head like some sticky ercial. Naruto Senju, Naruto Senju...

  I tried to ig, but it was impossible. That voice, that name eg over and over, like some kind of nation that stu my mind, stantly reminding me of the weight I was carrying.

  I got out of bed with a feeling of tiredhat had nothing to do with sleep, but with everything that had been accumuting over the st few days. The burden of expectation. The national team. Those girls. My duty. Sakura.

  Vaku