A Maiden's Tale || NaruHina COMPLETED

Chapter 2

I sat in the gardens, surrounded by the wilting flowers. I sighed, fingering a single shriveled petal on a dying rose bush. The fragile bloom snapped beneath my touch, and drifted like dry paper to the ground. Replacing my hand to my lap, I leaned back against the archway and closed my eyes.

It was the end of summer, when the flowers should have been ripe and blooming. But in an outburst, Shion had sent away all of the grounds keeping staff, claiming that they were incompetent to take care of simple plants. For months, they had been dying away, so I sat on the grassy floor of a path, saying goodbye to the blooms.

A shout caught my attention, and my chest erupted into panic. I quickly scurried to my feet, and ducked behind the bushes of a hidden cove. Down the path came the powerful voice I had heard before. I recognized it, and my body began to quake with fear. I peered around the bush, and my suspicions were confirmed.

Shion stood proudly in a dress made of violet lace, the plumes of her skirts swirling viciously as she stomped along the path. Her smooth face curled back into snarls, pink lips peeled back to reveal her grit teeth, and her blonde hair swirling down her back.

"Honestly," she hissed, "those gardeners were imbeciles. Just look at these flowers!" She reached out and snatched a crumbling bud in her hands, her long fingernails twisting at the fragile petals and turning them to ash. "This whole garden will have to be rebuilt."

"Then we shall tear it down and begin again, Your Majesty," said a looming man behind her. My body shrunk back even further at his deep, rocky voice. Kinshiki Osutsuki was a beast of a man, made of solid brick and empty of all feelings inside. The staff liked to call him Frankenstein, because his looming form made it seem as if some mad scientist had taken the most ferocious pieces of a dozen humans, and sewed them together to create the monstrosity of the queen's advisor. He had come with Shion from her homeland.

"No," she spat, rolling her eyes.

She ripped another flower from the hedged walls, and dropped it on the ground to press it under the toe of her boot. It crackled under her foot, and she smiled. "I want it burned to the ground."

My heart sank in my chest, knowing that it really would be the last time I saw this place. I kept the small sigh from escaping my lips so as not to be heard.

Shion snapped her fingers. "Butler."

I peered out again, and saw the final figure step into view. "Yes, Your Highness."

My eyes widened. The young man now bowing politely before the queen was young, possibly no older than I. When he stood up straight again, his blonde hair fell away and I could see his bright, blue eyes glittering in the summer sun. His whiskered face was a serious, but when he spoke his lips trembled into something like a smirk.

Shion spun on her heel, speaking to him directly. "Don't you think that's a good idea?"

The butler only bowed again. "Whatever pleases you, Your Highness."

Shion tapped a finger to her lips. "Kinshiki," she said, almost sweetly. "Can you leave Naruto and I alone for a moment?"

Kinshiki bowed stiffly, and turned around to leave the gardens. Only a moment after he had left, Shion pulled on Naruto's lapels and yanked him down to her lips.

She kissed him forcefully, smashing her mouth onto his, and he only closed his eyes and accepted it.

Shion pulled away from him, batting her eyes and giggling. "Good boy, Naruto. Always the obedient little servant."

I watched her hands move down to Naruto's slacks, and gasped when she slipped her fingers beneath his waistband. As quickly as the noise had escaped, I slapped my hand over my mouth and sunk against the shrubbery.