7
Sauske Character Sketch:
Name: Sauske Arithu
Age: 17
Born/Raised: Tärmoth
Height: 6'
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown, short, two long bends in front.
Build: Thin, tall, and very flexible
Fighting Style: Fast, often shadowy movement, dodges much, strikes very hard
Weapon: Kusari Fundo
Personality: Vibrant and energetic. Makes friends very easily, and endears himself to most people, no matter how annoying he is. Loves to stick his nose where it doesn't belong, sometimes annoyingly following people to for no other reason than to find out what they're doing. He prefers not to have to kill, and thus chose the kusari fundo over a sword or some other weapon. He despises acts of cruelty by people against someone weaker than themselves, and often turns very serious, very fierce in such situations. When his family is threatened, he often falls into a blood-fury, not stopping until his family is safe or his opponent "surrenders," whichever comes first.
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Sauske tried to drown out the calls of the local market peddlers as he made his way down the street to the city gate. Halfway there, something silver caught his eye. MMmm? He had just seen Hwenumïr, his best friend, rush into an alleyway with a rather concerned look on his face. He must've seen me coming…
Sauske and Hwenumïr were always trying to sneak up on each other, so Sauske thought Hwenumïr was merely trying to find a good time to jump him from the rooftops. Not much escaped Sauske's keen eyes, and he chuckled to himself as he planned his counterattack. Sliding towards a local market-house with a low roof, Sauske jumped and threw his chain over one of the beams that supported the ceiling. Effortlessly he slid himself on top, then turned and peering down to wave at the market owner, Morn. Morn halfheartedly waved back, and grinned. There they go again.
Not willing to let anything get between him and his goal, Sauske, slid from rooftop to rooftop, scanning the intertwining alleys for his friend. "Now where'd he get to?" Sauske asked himself. Three houses over, Sauske spotted the familiar silver sheen of Hwenumïr's hair. Mmm, you're mine now. A wide grin broke out on his face as he prepared himself to jump down.
A second look wiped it right off. Hwenumïr, sword flashing in the air, was being backed into a corner by a group of thieves. Worse still, one of the thieves held a little boy not more than 10 years old captive, pressing a knife against the unfortunate child's throat.
If these thieves had known Sauske, and known he was there, they would have run screaming. He had a tendency to…snap? when he saw people harming others. Especially children. Sauske's hand balled into a fist. It began to shake violently. HOW DARE THEY! he thought. Without a moment's hesitation, Sauske drew his weapon and jumped.
Landing right behind the man who held the boy hostage, Sauske slammed the man's temple with the weight of his weapon, simultaneously wrenching the knife from the man's right hand. The thief never cried out, just crumpled in an unconscious heap on the ground. The little boy shook as he turned around to face the newcomer. With a terrible look on his face, his vision never leaving the five men in front of him, Sauske silently handed the boy the knife of the thief.
"Hold this, if you would please." Although the words seemed colloquial in nature, he spoke them with a grave tone and in total seriousness. The boy silently took the knife, and pressed his back against the wall, wide eyed.
By now Hwenumïr had all but run out of room. Still fiercely defending himself from the never-ending onslaught of knife swipes, sword swings, and fists, he began to fear the worst. Then he heard a familiar voice.
"Hwenumïr! Fancy meeting you here," Sauske intoned with a dark voice. Two of the thieves spun on their heels to face a new threat.
Hwenumïr's voice was calm and flat, as usual. "Sauske, they're trying to take the b-!" Hwenumïr cut himself short as he noticed the limp form of the would-be-kidnapper lying on the ground.
The four thieves obviously thought that their two opponents would make easy prey. Two rushed Sauske, knives raised. Palming his weapon in his hands, Sauske merely took a step back. Just one. As the first knife came hurtling down on him, Sauske released the back weight, and swung up towards the blade. CCRRRACK! The knife shattered into a hundred pieces, which sprayed into the second thief's face. Sauske concealed his chain behind his back. Neither of the men had seen it. Both stopped dead; one now holding his face and moaning, the other staring at his ruined knife in disbelief.
Sauske's eyes opened wide as he struck. Swinging his chain around the feet of the man that tried to stab him, Sauske yanked, pulling the man to the ground before he had a chance to yelp. In a flash, Sauske was on top, and punched the man with the weight squarely between the eyes. The thief went limp as he passed out. "And now you!" Sauske screamed as he lashed out with the chain, raking the man across the face twice. The man staggered backwards, tripped over a box, and landed in a crumpled heap, no longer aware of the world.
Sauske wasted no time, looking up to determine his friend's condition. With the number of men against him dropped from four to two, Hwenumïr had easily disarmed and defeated one of his opponents, who had run from the melee. Wise coward, Sauske snarled. The other, armed with a long saber, continued to fight. Try as he might, Hwenumïr could not best the thief. He shot Sauske a look crying for help.
The thief was clever. He had been slowly forcing Hwenumïr back towards a rocky part of the road, attempting to trip Hwenumïr up. It worked. Hwenumïr gave a strangled cry as he felt himself rock backwards. The thief raised his sword above his head, attempting to cut Hwenumïr in two. CCRAAAAACK! Sauske viciously destroyed the saber, and the thief, striking down with all his might. But now that he had no sword to counterbalance, he lost his balance and fell over. "YAA!" Sauske shouted smashed the back of the thief's neck with his weapon, and the man's vision faded to nothingness.
Sighing gently, Sauske shut his eyes and formed the familiar pose he always used to calm himself down...his left hand a fist, two fingers pointed towards the sky, his right hand balled into a fist placed on the wrist of his left, both close to the heart. He let his rage go as he took a deep breath.
His concentration was shattered when Hwenumïr's voice reached his ears. "Hey, you gonna help me up sometime?" Sauske, fully calmed, turned back into the person he had been before the fight. His face breaking into a mischievous grin, he kneeled down and lightly tapped Hwenumïr's chest with his weapon. "Dead," he declared, tauntingly. "Gotcha this time."
Hwenumïr just rolled his eyes, grabbed Sauske's arm, and flipped him over onto the ground. They laughed for a moment as they dragged themselves up.
"Where's the boy?" asked Hwenumïr evenly.
The pair looked over to the spot where Sauske had left the little one. He wasn't there. Panicked, Sauske rushed over. He frantically tore up the area where the boy had once stood. Relief swept over him as he caught the sheen of the knife. The boy had hidden himself in a hole in a stack of boxes to escape the brutal fighting.
Sauske kneeled, leveling himself with the child's eyes. He extended his hand to the huddled form of the boy.
"Hey. We'd better get going. Mm?" Sauske asked, exuding confidence.
The boy just sat there, shaking. He was gripping the knife so tightly that he had squeezed all the blood of his hands, now white.
"I'm here to take you home!"
Shaking, the little boy crawled from his hiding place, still clinging to the knife.
"Relax…we're here to help." He winked at the boy, who just stood there.
The little boy stood up slowly, carefully eyeing the two men now before him. Could he trust them? The one with the silver hair stood a little taller than the other, but the shorter one was definitely more cheery. Perhaps it was because the silver haired one was hauling the limp forms of the thieves into a pile. He was snapped back into reality by a voice?
"So what's your name, kid? Where you from? And where're your parents? You live around here? what did the thieves want with you?"
The questions came so fast the child had no chance to keep up with them.
Hwenumïr grunted as he hefted the last body over to the pile. "Sauske, you have to give the boy a chance to answer one question before you assault him with the next."
Sauske turned. "Ever the critical one, hm?"
Hwenumïr just laughed.
"Okay, I'll try again," Sauske said, undeterred. "What's your name?"
The boy relaxed a little. "M..my name? It's Venth."
Sauske pondered this for a moment. "Venth, huh? 'Iron Mountain'." The boy nodded.
"Care if I call you Ven?"
The boy smiled, all traces of tenseness vanishing from his face. "That's what my parents call me." He paused. "Oh! Here…" Venth said, holding out the knife to Sauske.
Sauske waved his hands. "Nah, that's okay. Keep it. I think you've earned it, mm?"
Awed, the boy stared at the knife, examining every detail of his new possession. Sauske stooped over, picked up the fallen sheath, and handed it to the Ven. "Here, you'll need this."
Ven proudly sheathed his weapon.
Hwenumïr came up and punched Sauske on the shoulder. "We'd better find his parents. And we need to let the soldiers know about these four." He pointed behind himself at the pile of bodies.
"I'll take care of the boy," Sauske offered. "Shouldn't be too hard to locate his parents."
"Yeah! We live not far from here just a little ways off the main road in town!" Apparently Venth had a quick recovery time.
Sauske peered over at Hwenumïr. "See? Not hard at all."
Hwenumïr just raised an eyebrow. "Just see that he gets home in one piece."
Sauske couldn't help but laugh. "All right, master." Hwenumïr rolled his eyes. Sauske bowed, turned. Hwenumïr despised being called 'master,' which was probably why Sauske called him that so much. Together he and Ven started down the alleyway. They had not gone far before Ven stopped. He turned, and shouted a warm "Thank you!" back at Hwenumïr, who waved in response. "And thank you," Ven said to Sauske, beaming.
"No problem." Sauske paused for a moment. "But what did they want with you, anyway?"
Somewhere on the way home, during the conversation, Ven and Sauske became fast friends.