Sage of Hearts

Disclaimer: I certainly don't own Naruto, Disney or any of its affliated properties. If I did, I wouldn't be writing this now would I?

"The connection of our hearts…" : Speech (Bold for yelling ,Bijuu, or massive creatures)

'The connection of our hearts…' : Thought

Queen's quarters, after Naruto's self – defenestration

Queen Grimhilde fancied herself a reasonable and collected individual – she prided herself on her ruthless dissection of any situation presented to her and her manipulation skills to favor her own agendas. However, she now found herself in a peculiar predicament – torn between womanly outrage that her wily feminine seductions had failed and uproarious laughter at just how Naruto 'escaped' her clutches (a testament to how much Naruto's influence affected the queen's mindset – she could find humor in many more things now), she was at a loss at how to proceed. After noticing that Naruto ran off into the forest, she knew that finding him would be a waste of effort – the man had already surpassed all the inhabitants of the kingdom in terms of his ability to meld into and co-exist with nature. So, she simply heaved a long winded sigh before putting on a fur coat to cover her body and sat down in her armchair, waiting for Humbert to return with Snow's heart.

"It appears as though your seduction was too much for the young man my queen. While he did run away from you, at least it did appear that your efforts did appeal to him and it was a sense of loyalty to Snow White that enabled him to refuse your advances. That will soon be addressed upon receiving news of the princess' demise – he will fall into your hands quite readily then." The Mirror said, its expressionless face betraying a slight sense of derision for the queen's attitude regarding her rejection (as a mirror, it was natural for it to hate high pitched noises, such as the queen's angered screams, of which it endured two in just one day!).

"Ugh…that may be true but I was hoping to kill two birds with one stone today. Now that Naruto has absconded to the forest, who knows when he will appear? I can only think of a public funeral announcement for the princess as a means to lure him out, even if he only came to mourn her death. I guess I could also brand him a criminal and simply have him imprisoned so he can't escape me but I don't think that would work…he's too strong to be captured through such means and he wouldn't love me after that anyway…" The queen said as she chewed on her lip pensively.

It was a shocking change to see (the Mirror could attest to that) Grimhilde actually respecting Naruto as an equal and considering more humane means to sway him into her embrace. If it didn't know any better, it could almost swear that the queen was truly falling for that oaf (thankfully, it seemed that the queen didn't know the true depth of her emotions for the man, meaning that it could still sway her decisions regarding him somewhat…)!

While the queen was in her pondering state, Humbert arrived in her room, carrying the box she had given him. He then bowed and extended the box to her, head held low for fear that she would discover his deception (it was a pig's heart in the box, as far from royalty as you could get).

"I have returned your Majesty; here is the heart of the princess, freshly plucked from her warm corpse." He said as the queen perked up, quickly snatching the box from him and placing in a secret pocket in her coat.

"Excellent work Humbert. Make arrangements to announce her death, I want there to be a small funeral procession in town square. There shall be more arrangements regarding my engagement to Naruto as well – I shall be publically naming him my King consort when he returns from his impromptu excursion into the enchanted forest." The queen said as Humbert looked up in surprise, not expecting such a rapid turn of events. Looking around the room, he also noticed the shattered window.

Quickly connecting the dots, he then hid a smirk of his own – the queen may have called it an impromptu excursion but he knew what really happened. Naruto must have simply run away from the queen, rejecting her seduction and escaping to the forest, where he knew he wouldn't be followed. Hopefully he would meet the princess there and start a new life somewhere far away, far from this kingdom ruled by such a cruel and capricious monarch.

"As you command my queen - I shall inform the castle page immediately."

"See that you do…"

Meanwhile, with Naruto and Snow…

"Hey Snow?"

"Yes Naruto? What is it?"

"I can understand why I'd be comfortable tromping around the forest like this, I know it like the back of my hand. Do you even know where we're going?"

They were walking hand in hand, with Snow seemingly able to communicate with the woodland creatures, surprising Naruto with the depth of her connection to nature (he thought he was the only one with a weird proclivity to nature energy as his chakra seemed to resonate with it readily).

"The animals are leading us to a place we can stay – I simply trust them to lead us." Snow said as she smiled up at him, Naruto humming his assent.

They then walked through the woods in silence for about an hour before finally coming across a quaint little cottage tucked away in the very centre of the forest. Naruto hadn't really noticed this house before (he was comfortable in the forest but that didn't mean he knew literally every nook and cranny) in his formative years growing in the forest and was a little wary but Snow had no such reservations.

"Look there Naruto! What a cute little cottage this is – perhaps the residents will let us rest our weary heads there. Come on, let's go and say hello!" Snow said as she pulled Naruto with her and knocked on the cottage door.

The house was very small – Snow had to bend over a little to knock on the door and Naruto was already dreading the very thought of having to live in the house – maybe he could live in the garden, roughing it out under the stars (it would be better than having to live in such tiny quarters, especially since Snow would need the shelter more than he did). So, having made up his mind, he watched as Snow waited for someone to answer the door, only to find that no one appeared to do so. Slightly befuddled, she turned to Naruto curiously since he could maybe tell her how to proceed (she really needed to rest but she didn't want to be rude either).

"Eh…it appears as though no one is home Naruto – the door appears to be unlocked so maybe we can just wait indoors until the residents arrive right?" She asked as Naruto nodded, seeing nothing wrong with that.

"Sure we can! I can't have you catch your death of cold and hunger just because you were worried about good manners now can I? Besides, I think I might know who might live in a place like this so if things get hairy, I can take care of it." Naruto said, rubbing his chin sagely while Snow pouted at his good natured teasing (he knew quite a bit about magical creatures and the tiny house was indicative of the shorter races – dwarves and such…).

They then entered the house – it was a cosy one, if a bit cluttered. The various knick knacks and furniture looked old but lovingly cared for, the rooms also designed in a way suggesting that the residents lived in a communal fashion, with the beds close together in one room and the dining room having one huge table and little else. Naruto whistled in appreciation at the sight of all the clutter as Snow elbowed his chest to scold him.

"Well this is a right mess we've found ourselves in! What do you say- want to clean up together?" Naruto said as he looked over to Snow, who looked positively radiant at his suggestion.

"Why, how magnanimous of you Naruto! I was just about to suggest the same – maybe the children who live here will let us stay here if we clean up for them!" Snow said as Naruto disguised a chuckle as a cough as he looked away for a moment.

'Children she says! This is a dwarf house if I ever saw one but her innocent mistake is just funny to think about! Especially if these are the dwarves I remember!' Naruto thought as he worked with Snow to clean up the dirty house.

Two hours later…

Naruto had just finished up cleaning up the storeroom of the house, leaving the dining and living room to Snow seeing as the girl was a little tired from her little 'adventure' in the forest when Humbert was trying to kill her. As he wiped his sweaty brow, he suddenly heard a whole bunch of commotion in the other rooms, particularly on the upper floor.

"Ah. The dwarves must be here. Wonder why I couldn't hear them bumbling about – must have been too focused on clearing up all this junk. Well, better go and check out what's happening – they might think Snow and I are bandits or something~." Naruto said as he loped up the stairs just in time to see the leader of the dwarves (named Doc, for those curious…) pull the blankets on the beds away to see Snow sleeping, the other six dwarves ready to strike, only to be flabbergasted when they beheld the girl sleeping on three of their beds pushed together.

"Hey! Hold your fire there fellows! It's just a girl you know? No need to be so aggressive there!" Naruto said as he walked over to Snow, who was just coming back to her senses after her rude awakening.

"N-naruto! Is that you my boy?! Look how much you've grown! Last we saw of you, we were able to see eye to eye. Now, well…now we're about waist height for you now aren't we?" Doc said as the other dwarves came closer to Naruto and Snow as they remembered Naruto (he used to play pranks on them as a child – while they were harmless, he certainly had a great deal of fun with them, especially with how Grumpy used to grumble about his meddlesome antics…good times).

"Naruto? You know these dwarves?" Snow asked as Doc turned to her with a merry glint in his eyes.

"Know him? Girlie, we practically raised him! This scamp was a right menace as a young'un he was! Seeing as he had no parents, we raised him together with the help of fairies and other woodland creatures! When he left fifteen years ago, we thought we'd seen the last of him but I suppose we weren't so lucky~!" He said, teasingly nudging Grumpy, who, true to his name, grumbled in affirmation.

"Oi! I wasn't that bad! I know some of you actually enjoyed my pranks – looking at you Happy and Dopey!" Naruto said as the aforementioned dwarves looked away bashfully.

Snow was just listening to all of this before she piped up, wanting to know just who the dwarves were, seeing as Naruto seemed to know all of their names.

"Are you going to introduce your friends to me now Naruto?" Snow asked as she bent over and smiled at the dwarves, further charming them (Bashful was ready to faint out of cuteness overload as he seemed to have fallen for the girl at first sight).

"Right – well the leader's Doc of course. Scowling dwarf is Grumpy and the others are called Dopey, Happy, Bashful, Sleepy and Sneezy – they are named for their chief qualities but don't say that to their faces. Grumpy doesn't like it." Naruto said as Snow hummed and turned to Doc.

"Alright. Well mister Doc, can my friend and I stay here with your family? We are on the run from my step mother Queen Grimhilde and my life is in danger – Naruto only needs to fear for his chastity~!" Snow said, Naruto huffing as a blush crawled up his face remembering how Grimhilde behaved earlier in the day.

"That's no problem Snow White (knowing the princess' name was expected of the kingdom's subjects). You pull your weight around here, clean up the house and cook for us and you can stay. Naruto can join us in the mine or hunt for food in the forest – lad's worth an entire army of workers with his energy!" Doc guffawed as Snow smiled and nodded before being startled by the sound of a kitchen pot boiling.

"Oh! The soup's ready – Naruto, please get your friends ready for supper! Soup's on!" Snow said as Naruto nodded at her and headed to the kitchen with the dwarves.

And so, Snow and her protector found refuge in a new place with familiar faces. Deep in the forest in a quaint cottage, they lived in peace…for a while at least.

And that wraps up chapter 7! Bit shorter than other chapters but next chapter finishes the Snow White arc. I have a new post on my P***eon page on the subject of rebalancing the benefits of level one supporters since weekly chapters should be for them but I seem to doing that for free for about a month now…(dun' goofed there).

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