Chapter Text
“I am just not sure what else to do at this point.” The physician admitted with a heavy sigh. “I have ruled everything else out. I think it’s a curse.”
“There is nothing you could do?” Sasuke’s eyes stared solidly at his father’s pale face, which somehow looked so much older than it had a few days ago when he stopped waking up.
The physician shook his head solemnly. “I think you need someone who knows magic to get anywhere else, your highness.” He said in a whisper, as if his father might hear them even in the state he was in right now.
Sasuke set his jaw. It must be pretty grim for him to even think of suggesting something like that. Magic had long been banned in the kingdom, and there was no way that his father was going to agree to magic being used to heal him. He very well might rather die.
His father had spent many years purging the land of magic and anyone who dared to use it. Sasuke had never even met anyone who could use magic because the ban went in when he was young, maybe even before he was born. He wasn’t sure.
Now, what did he do? As crown prince and next in line for the throne, the decisions were falling to him right now, while his father is incapacitated. The public didn’t even know yet because they didn’t want them to panic at the idea that the king may have been poisoned.
The physician made himself smaller. “I can reach out to another physician. I have been sending messages to the best one I know, but she told me the same thing I’m telling you.”
Sasuke tore his eyes away from his father. “I wouldn’t even know where to find someone.”
“I would suggest the Hyuga.” He dipped his head down, almost like the name in itself was taboo. “They may be the last known family of magic users that lives anywhere near these lands. They were too large a clan, and the struggles with them just led to bloodshed on both sides, so they agreed to a split of land just outside the border.”
A family of magic? With the utter disgust that his father had with magic, he was surprised that an agreement could be made, and his father didn’t just keep throwing men at the problem until they were wiped off the map.
“I can write down everything we have done and rolled out, but they will likely have to see him for themselves to know what to do.” The physician explained.
Sasuke’s face twitched. The mere suggestion of bringing a magic user back into the kingdom would normally have someone ostracized, but it had been over a week now, and his father’s condition had not changed.
He wanted to honor his father’s wishes and laws, but he also wanted him to live.
“Write what you must.” Sasuke commanded. “I will retrieve someone.”
“You, sir?” The physician scrambled.
“Yes, me.” Sasuke confirmed. “If I sent just knights, then it would seem like an obvious trap to behead them for setting foot into the kingdom.”
“But isn’t this dangerous for you? What if they are vengeful?” He wondered.
“They will find that I will be less forgiving than my father.” Sasuke countered.
The physician looked like he wanted to continue arguing, but he knew better. “Yes, your highness.” He agreed.
Clops of horse's hooves against well-worn paths slowly faded as they got further away from the castle and the town surrounding it. Fields and forests passed by slowly as they traveled further and further until the town was gone over the hills.
“Who do you think cursed your old man?” Naruto asked, unable to just have a quiet trip.
“Someone who will be hung when I find them.” Sasuke answered dryly.
“Do you think this Hyuga will be able to help you?” Naruto continued to ask questions that Sasuke couldn’t possibly know the answer to.
Sasuke adjusted his hand reins to make himself more comfortable. “One would hope.”
Naruto sped up his horse a little bit to look at him more directly. “Hey, I know that you're stressed out because your dad is sick, but you need to stop looking like he is already dead.”
Sasuke glared at him. It wasn’t just that his father was ill. It was the fact that he had to take on a lot of his duties while he was. He had passed temporary power to an advisor with an express instruction to just try to keep the peace in the meantime while he was gone, but more than anything, he was worried about what would happen if the Hyuga refused to assist him or couldn’t do anything.
He certainly wasn’t ready to be king.
“I heard the Hyuga have magic eyes.” Naruto shifted to the next topic. “What do you think their eyes do? Pop out of their head? You think they can put them on things?”
Sasuke sighed. He should have asked a quieter knight to accompany him.
“The crown prince.” Hanabi whispered, getting Hinata’s attention. She waved at her, trying to snag her until she reached out her hand. Hanabi latched onto it and pulled her in. “He’s here.”
“What?” Hinata blinked. “Why?” Fear dripped down her spine. Hanabi was too young, but Hinata still remembers when every few weeks there would be a new assault on their home until they finally moved here. She still had nightmares of the blood and life she had watched bleed out of people’s bodies, family and foe.
Hanabi shook her head. “He came with some kind of request. Father is talking to him now.”
Hinata watched past the walls into the room where her father’s soul was accompanied by two. She had never seen something like it before. There was something almost vivid about one. That one must be the prince.
“Hinata.”
Her name echoed through the wall as her father called her, making her flinch.
Hanabi blinked in question, wondering what he could want, but Hinata certainly didn’t know the answer. She slipped her hand away and passed through the doorway, from the room that she was in down the hall, and to the main hall where her father was.
Hinata dipped her head in a bow to her father as she entered. “Yes?” She gave a passing glance to the prince and his companion. His companion had an interesting demeanor, a most chipper despite the hostile air between the prince and her father.
“Hinata will accompany you back.” Her father waved his hand at her.
Hinata tried to keep the panic and shock off her face as she tried to piece together what was happening. She was going back with them? Back to where? To the kingdom? To where they killed people like them? Where her family had been driven out of? Why? Was she going to be killed? Was this a sacrifice?
She asked none of the questions. She knew better than to question her father for information before he was ready to give it.
The prince dipped his head partly, almost like he didn’t want to give a full bow to someone he thought was beneath him. “Thank you, I will sign an agreement as soon as it’s written.”
Hiashi nodded. “She will be ready to leave in an hour. Feel free to rest in the garden.”
The prince and his companion headed right back out the main doors, the prince straight out, but his companion turned his head with a small smile at her that she didn’t really understand.
As soon as the door was closed, Hinata turned to her father with questions in her eyes, but did not pass through her lips.
Hiashi stared down his nose at her like he was debating even telling her it was going on. “It seems someone has put a curse on the king.”
Were they asking for reparations? “Are we being accused…?”
“No.” Hiashi cut her off. “I think that Prince is too smart to think that we would need to when we have lived without breaking our agreement for this many years.” He said it almost like an insult. “He’s come for a cure.”
A cure? They were asking for a magic solution.
“In exchange for the help, he has agreed to give us more land.” Hiashi waved his hand to revive the agreement that was being hastily written off to the side.
“And if I can’t cure the king?” Hinata felt like she knew the answer at this point. She was just wondering if her father was going to admit that this was a suicide mission.
Hiashi gave her a long look to let her see he was surprised she dared to ask. “Then you are sent home, and we keep the land for effort.” He turned his eyes down to the document to read it over.
Hinata didn’t believe that. She didn’t even believe that if she found a cure that she would be allowed back out. She twisted her hands into fists as they began to shiver as it set in what she had been signed up for.
“And there is one more stipulation.” Hiashi added, glancing up from the agreement. “He wants assurance that you won’t be using magic.”
Hinata's heart sank to the floor.