Sacrificed To The Banished Prince

Chapter 2

Sasuke's frown deepened as he read a letter sent by his new fiance. When he sent one to her, he fully expected her to cooperate as the previous women had but was mistaken. This was the first time he'd received a written reply or a reply at all. Skimming the short letter once more, the prince asked the maids standing before him, "Lady Haruno personally handed this to you?"

They nodded, bowing lower with pale faces too afraid to meet his gaze.

He didn't dwell on it because their behavior was nothing new. All who tend to him cower in fear, and they have since his twelfth birthday, ten years ago. That's when The Curse awakened. On that day so long ago, the royal castle's doors were open to celebrate the second prince's birthday with a massive celebration. People traveled from far and wide to witness his debut in society.

A foreign-looking man approached a naive and soft-spoken Sasuke, who was too nervous of insulting guests to say something. That was how he ended up bitten on the back of his shoulder by razor-sharp teeth.

The next thing he remembered was waking up in chains, the sound of his mother's soft weeping stirring him from his rest. After that, each time the moon was visible at night, his appearance and personality would morph into something akin to a beast. His skin would turn many shades darker, nails and teeth would sharpen, hair would grow wildly down his back, and hand-like wings would grow from his shoulder blades. The mild-mannered boy became a bloodlusting demon each and every night.

Changing his appearance like that put Sasuke through agonizing pain, and his family searched far and wide for ways to break the curse while also searching for the man who'd bitten him.

Itachi, the first Uchiha prince, managed to locate the attacker, a snake-like wizard named Orochimaru. When Orochimaru was captured and brought back to Konoha, he claimed to be unable to eradicate the curse. The king and queen begged for a way to help their precious son, leading to the awful wizard tricking them into giving up their lives.

Now, Sasuke's appearance barely changed at night, minus on nights of full moons. Orochimaru claimed that the royal family stole something from him, and this was his way of enacting revenge. He told the terrified child that the curse would be broken only when he, too, lost something he held dear.

The previous king, Madara Uchiha, left retirement to run the kingdom until the first prince was ready to rule. His first act was to banish poor Sasuke to the abandoned snowy forests of Northern Konoha. The man claimed keeping someone so volatile near the inner cities was too dangerous. The second prince's appearance may only slightly change most nights, but the murderous personality shift wasn't destroyed.

Each evening at sunset, Sasuke chained himself up so his alternate identity wouldn't be free to wreak havoc. As a result, the Uchiha man rarely slept, leaving him stoic and lacking in energy. After a decade of this struggle, he began to lose hope of ever breaking the curse. That is, until his eighteenth birthday when the king started arranging marriages for his nephew. Sasuke was nervous but excited to finally have someone other than the standoffish staff of the manor to speak to.

That first woman, a pretty brunette named Maharu, did not obey the rules. She came to the third floor in the night, only to witness Sasuke at his worst. As one would expect, Maharu fled the manor in terror. In the morning, the prince was informed that she'd fallen down a ravine in her distress and broken her neck. His first fiance died.

The next fiance lasted much longer, almost two months. Their wedding day was closing in when The Curse broke free of his binds and attacked her. She was the second woman to die.

After that, Sasuke was overcome with guilt. He refused to cause a third casualty. When a new fiance would arrive after that, he'd give them the option of returning to their home or offer to provide them with enough money to start a new life elsewhere without their families' knowledge. Every single one chose to disappear. This led to the public believing the second prince was murdering each and every one of the poor women. In Sasuke's eyes, he was okay with that because he deserved it. Two people died because of him.