— What exactly are we looking for?
— We're looking for what's wrong here. — Naruto replied firmly.
— What if we don't find anything?
— We went home and smiled.
— You know these houses are infested with rebels, right? Does handing over the crown princes of two great countries seem like a good idea?
—I wouldn't expect to find the Crown Prince of Thunder venturing out into the snow with a hat with holes in it, and I know the rebels wouldn't either. So calm down and act like an Eight.
By noon, they still hadn't found anything or spoken to anyone, but they noticed more movement among the guards on the streets. They knew that their escape had been discovered.
"I've never seen so many soldiers before," said a woman, shoveling snow from a sidewalk. "Maybe then rapes will decrease."
"Rapes?" Darui asked, catching the attention of both the woman shoveling the snow and the man she was talking to.
— Are you strangers? — asked the man suspiciously. — Where are you from?
— From Ikero Village, in the Land of Thunder. We're looking for work. — Darui lied quickly.
The man laughed.
— Turn around, boys. All these colonies have is smoke and shit.
— We're starving. — Naruto tried to put on the best pitiful expression he could.
— You don't look hungry. — The woman interrupted, looking suspiciously. — You look like one of those boys who fuck for money. Is that what you do in the Land of Thunder?
Naruto blushed.
— I thought the Thunder People preferred to fuck goats, not humans.
Darui bit his lips and clenched his fists, but Naruto tried to calm him down with a look.
— We need food, ma'am. — Darui reinforced, trying to remain calm.
— I don't have any. — The woman shrugged indifferently.
— What do you know how to do? What is your caste?
—Eight. — Naruto replied, while mentally reciting the stigmas of the Eights: addicts, runaways, destitute, beggars, panhandlers, homeless and bastards.
"I'm a Six, do you have a job for me?" Darui said with an authoritative tone, adjusting his shoulders and raising his voice. He didn't look like a Six, but the man seemed to believe in him as a Six more than in Naruto as an Eight.
— Have you ever been to Mitsashi?
— Yes, they don't need any more arms.
— Strange. After their niece joined the Elite, they just want to squander money. They think they are already Caste One.
— Do you think I should go back there?
—They never hired anyone from outside. Bastards were good enough for them.
— Bastards? — The woman stopped shoveling snow and laughed, finally interested.
— There are nine, all children of people like us. All of them from the Eight caste, like you. Their mothers were arrested, of course, and Mr. Shery put them all to work for him. To clean for his wife, they say she is hollow, she has never given him a child. Others say they never sleep together.
The man and woman began to chatter about Shery's bastards.
— Does he pay them for this?
— That man, this Shery... — the man lowered his voice. — Give them a bed in the frozen attic and all the leftovers from dinner.
Something tugged at Naruto's heart. He now understood why the dinner man was staring so desperately at the dishes. He was waiting for the time to eat. Shery had nine children and made them all eat the leftovers.
— Hey, Caio! — someone shouted behind them. The man turned around.
— What's new, Vince?
This Vince was a tall man, very tall, with the tip of his nose lost to the cold, almost no teeth, but he smiled broadly. Dressed in rags, he walked like a lord of a large house. Three other men followed behind him.
"Does it have anything to do with this, Vince?" The woman asked, already accusing. "You know that Prince Naruto is our only chance."
— I didn't touch your prince's fragrant ass, Gill. — Vince looked from Darui to Naruto, his crystal-clear eyes assessing them. — Newbies?
— From the Land of Thunder. — Caius explained. Vince extended his hand to Naruto.
— I'm Vince, Caste Seven.
— Leon, Caste Eight. — Naruto shook his thin hand.
Darui introduced himself as Dario.
— I'm surprised...
Naruto watched the three men surrounding Vince, moving like wolves on the prowl. It didn't look good.
—The royal rams came straight into the jaws of the wolves.
His first impulse was to pretend he didn't understand, but then one of them jumped on Darui. Naruto tried to help, but was grabbed from behind, the cold barrel of a gun pressed against his throat.
— Be quiet or I'll blow your brains out, your majesty. — The threat sounded cold and menacing.
— What the hell is this, Vince? — Caius shouted, but Vince simply turned his face away and the man fell into the snow.
— Don't you know your fucking prince, Caio? Were you going to let him escape? I'm going to blind you for this.
Darui tried to break free, but Vince pointed a gun between his eyebrows.
—What would King Ay do if his only son was killed in the Southern Colonies?
Darui stopped fighting.
Like sheep, they were led through streets and alleys, deep into the colony. Not a single damn soldier appeared. They certainly didn't think crown princes would go this far.
The shack where they were thrown was filthy and smelled of all sorts of rubbish. They locked the door from the outside and started talking about something they couldn't make out.
— What do we do now? — Darui asked, finally.
— We escape from here. — Naruto whispered, without hesitation.
Vince opened the door with a bang.
— How much is your head worth, your majesty? — he asked, with a mischievous smile. — Can you make me a Lord in that country of goat fuckers of yours?
Darui gritted his teeth.
A girl came in, trapped, with ropes. Vince pushed her to walk faster. She tied Darui up first, and when she tied Naruto with a loose knot, she looked deeply into his eyes. They were green, like Sakura's. Something in his chest trembled, as if his heart had started beating again in that instant.
— Hurry up, Amina. — Vince urged her.
Soon, they were alone again. Darui undid the knots and looked at Naruto, who was also free. The girl had helped them.
Naruto ran to the wall and put his ear to the baked stone.
"Let's go get Thiago, he'll want to perform a public execution. Then, only the old woman and the girl will be left."
Naruto heard the sound of footsteps moving away, and five minutes later, the door opened. The girl's brown hair appeared.
— Come, please. — she called, and neither Naruto nor Darui hesitated.
Instead of taking them back to where they were captured, the girl led them through narrow, smelly alleys to a dirt road.
— Follow. This road leads to Vila Fronteira.
— Who are you? Why are you helping us?
Amina smiled, though she was missing a few front teeth, and tears were streaming down her coal-stained face.
— I am an Akatsuki rebel, your majesty. I will die today, when Vince returns. I beg you, leave this world a better place than you found it.
She turned, her short hair barely moving in the snow. She wasn't helping them out of kindness alone… but because she believed in him, believed he could change things. Supernatural expectations had always been placed on his shoulders, but this was the first time he felt worthy of them.