The cursed prince

{37}

"It was the kiss... wasn't it..?" Naruto asked as he placed his fingers on his lips before looking back up at the Hyuga in front of him. The everlasting smirk on his face said everything. Naruto couldn't help but shiver in disgust at how accomplished and satisfied his coadjutant looks like. A look fitting for a predator chasing after its prey.

Before the Hyuga could answer back, the sound of marching footsteps halted the actions of not only the Hyuga but the prince himself as well.  Two royal guards patrolling the hallways passed by the obscured teenagers, completely oblivious that what is going on behind the corner.

"Let's head to a more private place, my prince." Neji instructed as he led Naruto out of the corner and into the hallway once more. However, this time The prince stood his ground as he glared at his coadjutant. Neji turned around to grace his prince with nothing but a bored look.

"I don't know if you have been listening or not, but I have lessons to attend to.  And if you seriously want to keep this entire ordeal a secret, then you would follow with my schedule.  After all, father will get quite suspicious if he found out that I skipped on my lessons." If anything, the prince would more than willingly inform his father over the threat the Hyuga is holding above his head, but if this is the most freedom he could get from him, then Naruto wouldn't hesitate to pull every trick up his sleeve to achieve some sort of semblance.

With a frown, the Hyuga reluctantly allowed his prince to continue past him before quickly holding onto his arm tightly. "Well then my prince, I will let you be on your way, just don't forget about the rules I gave you, after all, the curse is still working inside you." The coadjutant grinned wickedly at his prince before letting his victim go, following slowly behind him curtesy to his current job.

Naruto couldn't help but mentally curse his coadjutant. Who does he think he is? He can't just pop out of nowhere and start treating him like some plaything. The prince just couldn't understand how someone as sweet and kind as Hinata could share the same blood as someone vile and wicked. And what he couldn't understand the most is how the Hyuga has passed radar free from not only both his parents but also his older brother.

The trek from the ground floor hallways to the first floor library was quite excruciating to say the least, and the palace guards didn't make it any better with their confused stares and obvious whispers. After all, not everyone in the palace has ever seen their young prince glaring so intently at the floor as he walked. The event during breakfast could attest to that as even after the punishment given to the prince by his mother, he quickly went back to his cheery self.

The doors to the library were slammed open before the guards themselves could open it for their prince as Naruto walked towards the back of the library. There, in front of the large blackboard holding the map of the kingdom on the two left corner, stood Iruka who happily conversed with his formal personal guard, oblivious to his students arrival.

"Kakashi? What are you doing here? I though you were supposed to supervise the admission exam for the new guards." The prince asked as he took his seat on his respective desk by the board as he stared intently at both his teacher and his ex-bodyguard. Iruka twirled around to face his prince in slight shock whereas Kakashi just gave his young prince his famous eye-smile.

"Good morning my prince, it has certainly been a while. Where is your brother? I haven't seen prince Kurama for a while now. I stopped by to see how things are going on in the palace, life in the countryside tends to get quite boring." Kakashi laughed as he ruffled his young prince's already messy hair which ultimately brightened Naruto's mood to a certain extent.

Ever since Kakashi has been released from his bodyguard duties, Minato assigned his former student the duty of selecting the best guards from the newly applied citizens of the wind kingdom. And for that, the entire operation was taking place in the countryside to allow the new applicants to show off their full potential without risk of damaging the kingdom property.