Karin's POV:
I always stayed in the background, longing for a time when it didn't bother me—a time when my father still reigned. I didn't mind sitting on a smaller throne or wearing a simple crown; I liked those times. He tucked me in every night, telling me I was his great pride.
"Promise to take care of your brother, okay?" — he made me promise every night, as if he already knew he wouldn't be here to watch us grow up.
"Your mind is elsewhere!" Suigetsu said, throwing the tennis ball up in the air and catching it quickly, bored.
— You know you don't have to stay here — I said.
— He promised we would play tennis after he was done.
"I didn't promise that," I replied, lifting the spreadsheets to cover my face. Suigetsu pulled the papers down and looked directly into my eyes.
— Yes, you promised me, your majesty.
Extremely stubborn, stubborn and with a free soul, that was the fiancé my grandmother judged worthy of me, as different as day and night. Our relationship was strange, especially after the punishment of the Selected. Suigetsu did not agree with that.
— I'm working, and you should do the same. Didn't your brother send the castle documents to Ondina for renovations?
— I'd like to spend some time with you, Karin. The wedding is coming up, and I...
— I don't have time.
Suigetsu got up and left.
Sometimes I wished I were kinder, that there was some invisible force in my heart that pushed me to be that way. But that wasn't who I was, and I was tired of people trying to mold me into something else. Half of them expected me to be a docile princess, while the other half were content with my firm personality. At least someone in the royal family still seemed to have the capacity to think.
The three o'clock sun warmed the lawn outside the office. A great day for a stroll under the apple trees... and there she was. Under the Konoha sky, Sakura Haruno, that girl who should never have breathed that air, rode her horse. Her pink hair, tied in a high ponytail, swayed to the calm rhythm of the mare's trot.
I didn't realize what time I got up, now at the office door, watching her.
He knew he was imagining things, but as he looked at Sakura, he couldn't help but think of dawn—the exact moment when the sun rose over the horizon, dyeing the sky peach and pink. Maybe that was why Naruto loved her; Sakura seemed like a ray of hope, like the sunrise.
As if she had sensed my gaze, the girl looked directly at me. I don't know how long we stared, her slowly leading the mare toward the office doors while I twirled a lock of hair around my finger.
— Good afternoon, your majesty — she said when the wall of the office separated us.
— Good afternoon, miss.
— Letters from the prince? — A flash of hope and curiosity lit up her green eyes.
— My brother hasn't missed home yet. On the other hand, home seems to be dying of longing for him.
She wasn't the first to ask. Kurenai had asked me about the date of Naruto's return, and Tenten had done the same at breakfast.
Then, a loud bang came from behind the office door that led to the castle. Sakura and I stared at each other in silence.
A scream. And in a second, I jumped over the wall to stand next to the chosen one.
"What's going on?" she asked as we took nervous steps back.
Another scream, the sound of something breaking, and a gunshot.
— Rebels... — I replied, my voice barely audible, the last word I had left.
Another shot.
— Get on! — Sakura whispered, and that was when I realized she was already mounted on the mare, her green eyes fixed on the office door as if she was waiting for a monster to burst out of there.
I grabbed his hand, shaking like never before, and just as I pushed myself up and swung my leg over the mount, a man appeared, furious, as he opened the office door.
— SHE'S HERE! — he yelled, and three more dirty, cadaverous men appeared.
"I AM HERE."
— Hold on! — Sakura shouted, spurring the mare, who reared up, almost knocking me over. I held on to Sakura's waist to keep from falling; she seemed like a pillar, something strong that I could hold on to at that moment.
I didn't stop looking back, not even for a second. They were following us.
"Where are we going?" I managed to ask. "We have to go to the cabin, there are guards there!"
My voice was shaky, but I didn't care, I wasn't going to condemn myself for having it at that moment.
— What if there's no one there? — Sakura asked.
The men had fallen behind, but I knew they were still following us. Smoke rose from the Palace, they had set something on fire, and I silently prayed for Suigetsu.
"Come save me, only you can."
Sakura led us into the woods, into a forest I had never dared to explore before. I thought it was a mistake, since the mare had to slow down, but it wasn't. When we were far enough from the road, Sakura told me to get off and slapped the mare's flanks, making her neigh and run off into the forest. When the rebels arrived, following the mare's tracks, they didn't realize that above them, in the trees, was the princess they had been searching for.
***
Sakura's POV:
The silence had never felt so desolate, and fear consumed me. I was afraid those men would come back and realize Dancer had been a distraction. Then one of them would look up and find us there. Karin was worth something, maybe she would become a hostage, but me? I would certainly be killed.
"We must go back!" I noticed her situation for the first time. I wondered how she had managed to climb up there in that dress. I knew that when people were afraid they did extraordinary things, but climbing that tree in so many petticoats was quite a feat.
Then we heard the leaves rustling.
—We should have come at night—someone muttered.
I didn't breathe, I huddled against the tree trunk, trying to merge with it.
—We could have caught her while she was sleeping.
Two women appeared.
— Tell me, they were riding a horse, we'll never find them here. Haruno knows how to hide well.