The Prince and the Serpent

Cursed

In retrospect, they must have looked as bad as they felt. Boruto and Shikadai staggered into town, filthy, exhausted and leaning heavily on each other. Well, Shikadai was doing less leaning and more half carrying, half dragging Boruto, whose arm was slung over his shoulders. To his credit, Boruto was trying to walk. He would say the effort in moving was split more 70-30, no matter how it may look. Judging by the reactions they received, the townsfolk didn't see it that way. The women they met screamed and covered their mouths while the men shouted and called for the guards. Boruto's head spun from the din of voices that filled the air.

"Prince Boruto?!" "What happened to you, my Prince?!" "Guards! Come quick! Prince Boruto is hurt!" "Something happened to Prince Boruto?!" "Oh No! Was he attacked?!" "Who would do such a thing?!" "What happened to the Prince?!"

"Great..." Boruto muttered to himself as the guards rushed over. He was really going to hear it from his dad.

"You're dad?!" Shikadai responded sounding incredulous. Boruto belatedly realized he had said that out loud. "You, the Prince, were injured on my watch. My mom is going to KILL me." Boruto flinched both from guilt and pity for his friend. The Lady Temari was a proud and severe woman who took the honor of the Nara family very seriously. Shikadai was not kidding.

"Sorry. I'll talk to her." He promised.

"No! Don't do that, You'll only make it worse. Damn it, this is such a DRAG!" Shikadai lamented his fate and existence respectively as Boruto was pulled from him by the guards.

"Geroff, I can walk." Boruto protested weakly as he tried to push them away but the guards ignored him. They carried him in the center of what he could only assume was an emergency escort to the safety of the castle. He must look worse than he thought. He could feel more than see Shikadai being dragged along behind and drilled for information. Boruto groaned internally and maybe a little externally too as he was whisked away past the gates and into the palace. One of the guards broke from the group and instead hurried up the grand staircase, no doubt to inform the King and Queen. Great. Spectacular even.

Within moments, he and Shikadai were deposited in the Lady Sakura's medical chamber. Lady Sakura was Sarada's mother, the most skilled white mage in the five lands and personal friend to King Naruto. People came from far and wide to seek her aid but she had gladly agreed to stay in the palace and care for the Royal Family when Naruto came to power. Her medical chamber was relatively small or maybe it was just cramped from everything crammed inside.

A large stone fireplace took up most of the wall opposite the door. A cauldron hung over a crackling green fire and simmered a sparkling liquid that smelled strongly of flowers. A broad rectangular clawed-foot desk with a plush leather top sat in the middle of the room, its matching chair pushed a little to the side. The floor-to-ceiling book cases lined the walls on the left and right, heavily laden with special medical instruments, leather books, and jars filled with herbs and other powerful medicines. The bookshelf on the right split around a single pointed window that flooded the room with natural light. The atmosphere would have been very cheerful if the situation hadn't been so dire.

The guards locked them in and Boruto knew they were positioning themselves outside the door. They must have assumed that he and Shikadai had been attacked and, looking at his right hand, Boruto wasn't entirely sure they were wrong. They sat in a silence that got louder as time went on. Finally, Shikadai was just opening his mouth undoubtedly to complain about what a 'drag' this all was when the clicking of the lock interrupted him. The heavy door swung open and Lady Sakura rushed in, slammed the door behind her and immediately started checking Boruto's vitals; a hand to his forehead, fingers on his pulse, light green eyes staring intently into his.