Chapter THREE
Sasuke is not sure what he had been expecting, but it was most definitely not for some old shoe to drag him and his teammates on a less than pleasant spiny ride. Beside him, he hears Sakura let out a scream of surprise and opposite him, he hears Naruto shout. He instinctively reaches out to his teammates and seconds later, he, who only has one arm, has Sakura pressed into his side and Naruto, who has two, wraps his around them in order to keep the three of them together.
"Do we just keep holding on?" Naruto shouts. "Or do we let go?"
"What if we fall off somewhere completely different?" Sakura gasps. Her voice is muffled by his clothes, and Sasuke loosens his grip just a little. The pinkette takes a deep breath before she buries her face in his shirt again. "I think I'm going to be sick."
"Wai-wait-Sakura-not down my shirt!" Sasuke awkwardly moves his arm around her to grip her under the chin, trying to drag her away from him. "Sakura!"
The pinkette gasps and squeezes her eyes shut. "Sorry," She mumbles. "Trying"
He hears Naruto snicker. "Do it, Sakura-chan."
Sasuke scowls at his blond teammate and uses his finger to shift Sakura's head so that she is facing Naruto, who lets out a yelp. From the way she does not protest, though, Sasuke can tell that she is being serious and tucks her back underneath his arm.
Naruto seems to notice this too. "Sakura-chan, are you okay?"
The pinkette nods weakly.
Luckily, their trip does not last much longer. A few seconds later, Sasuke feels himself jerking to a rough stop and suddenly, they are falling. He tries to turn to see how far from the ground they are, so that he can right himself and his teammates, but he cannot see anything through the smoke. He feels Naruto grab him roughly around the upper arm. Trusting the blond to keep them together, Sasuke wraps his arm around Sakura, trying to cushion her head. Naruto, in turn, wraps his arms around him and when they land, it is on a messy pile on top of the Jinchuriki.
The blond lets out a sharp grunt as his breath his knocked out of him. Sasuke decides that his teammate can deal with playing cushion a while longer and he checks on Sakura first. "Sakura?"
The pinkette groans. "No," She says. "No, no, never again," She rolls out of his grasp and off of Naruto then sits up, a hand pressed to her head. "Ugh."
Naruto, who appears to have been waiting for Sakura to get off, roughly shoves him off. Sasuke scowls at the blond who merely grins. "I thought that was fun."
Sakura glares at him. "We'll see how fun it is when I puke all over you," She rasps.
Naruto frowns. "Are you okay, Sakura-chan?" He rubs a hand over her back and Sakura's glare dies away. She sighs and presses a glowing a hand to her head.
"I'm fine," She says. "If I had known, I could have prepared. How did neither of you feel anything?"
"I'm just that awesome, Sakura-chan," Naruto snickers. "I thought that was an established fact."
"Maybe you're just too stupid to notice you're feeling sick,"
Sasuke scoffs at that. "Stupid? Me?" He ignores Sakura's eye roll and instead turns away from them to look around. They appear to have landed in a huge garden of sorts. A little away, he can see the black outlines of a fence and when he turns his head, he can see a manor. "Guys."
His teammates both look up and seem to notice their predicament.
"Do you...do you think Lucy Malcy and the 'Dark Lord' live here?" Sakura asks.
Naruto shrugs. "I can see lights in that manor," He says. "I'm sure someone would notice our arrival, right?"
Sasuke fiddles with his sleeve and shifts his sword so that he can reach for it better. "Just is case," He murmurs, and his teammates both straighten, shoulders tense.
Kakashi had said this might be a trap, after all.
Sure enough, Sasuke soon sees rapidly approaching figures in the distance. He steps back to that he is flanked by his teammates.
He feels Sakura shift. "What are they wearing?" She asks.
"Dresses," Naruto says, eyes wide. "Are they wearing dresses?"
Sasuke does not say anything. Soon, they are surrounded by a group of people all dressed in what he realizes are robes. He eyes the stick several of them are pointing in their direction. The man in the lead had long silver hair, and when he opens his mouth, he hears a language he has never heard before.
Naruto blinks. "Uh...what?"
The mystery figures blink in surprise, then begin whispering among themselves.
"Do you understand what we are saying?" Sakura asks slowly.
"I don't think they do," Sasuke scowls. "That letter was written in a language we understood-"
"That's right!" Sakura slowly reaches towards her bag, draws out the letter, and holds it out. "Do you think they about this?"
One of the figures takes the letter and inspects the paper. He then waves his stick at it and frowns, before he says something to the others, who instantly lower their own sticks. The man then turns towards them and begins to speak again, their time much more slowly.
Still, Sasuke has no idea what the man is saying and the man seems to catch on. He holds up his stick and gives it another wave. Something shoots out of the tip towards them and Sasuke tenses, but he does not feel any change when it hits them.
That is, until he hears Naruto speak again.
Update, my friends~
Darque: Yes, update, my friends.
Raven: Ooooo.
Darque: Just like we first said, this is mostly purely humor.
Raven: But hey, stick around, yeah?
Read and Review~
