ooOoo
Louise felt her nervous anticipation rise as their group came into sight of the fugitives. She could see Kirche standing next to the large form of Osmond the Blade, both engaged in a conversation with the person she felt must be the hermit of the lake. Sylphid was curled up some distance away, and Tabitha was resting on her back. Somewhat incongruously, the blue-haired girl seemed to be deeply engrossed in a book.
It took Louise a second to realize that Sakura was nervous as well. That realization that made Louise even more worried, because as far as Louise had seen, her familiar simply did not get nervous. After the initial shock of her summoning, Sakura had been oddly formal with her, and once they had had a frank discussion about Sakura's abilities, she had been oddly informal; however, she had never shown any anxiety, no matter how Louise's temper had flared. All through the planning and execution of the prison break the girl had remained perfectly calm, and she had not shown any fear at the idea of participating in the capture of Fouquet.
After a moment, Louise noticed what Sakura must have seen immediately. The hermit was wearing a handband much like the one that her familiar had been wearing when she had been summoned. Along with Kirche, the man had turned to face their group when they had come into view, and the headband was plainly visible. Louise wasn't sure, but it looked like his had a different symbol etched into it than Sakura's did. She wondered what that could mean-if the man was from Sakura's world, and the headband indicated a higher rank, that would explain the girl's nervousness, but Louise really didn't have enough information to make an informed guess.
She was brought out of her thoughts when Professor Kaita cleared his throat somewhat theatrically, giving her a significant look as he did so. Face reddening, Louise recalled her part in this plan-she had a chance to talk Kirche into surrendering peacefully. If the Germanian refused to do so, Miss Longueville would strike from ambush, and together with Colbert and Kaita would be able to subdue the criminals. Louise and her companions were spread out along the hillside they were descending, making sure that no one spell from Kirche would be able to disable or disorient all of them at once.
"Kirche! Come back with us now!" Louise called out. "If you come in quietly we can do something to put all of this craziness behind us."
Louise's offer was genuine, as was the regret coloring her voice. She had never wanted to betray her schoolyard rival, and she believed that between the influence of her family and her own confession as to what truly happened, Kirche would be able to return to the academy without facing serious consequences. Of course, as Sakura had pointed out, if Kirche refused to come back there was no point in letting people know what had really happened on the night of the prison break. Louise had reluctantly agreed to hold off on confessing to the authorities until Kirche was safely back at the Academy.
"Ha! It is far too late to speak of such things, Zero!" Kirche replied. "In the end, a Valliere and a von Zerbst going to school together was never going to work out. Better that we get such things out in the open!"
Kirche certainly seemed to be in surprisingly good spirits for a wanted fugitive. She also seemed to be suffering no ill effects from their fight or from the gas Louise had unwittingly used to disable the girl. Louise supposed that the time between Sylphid's arrival at the healer and their own arrival had allowed for plenty of time for a medical procedure.
"You... you sound like you're enjoying yourself?" Louise said, surprised.
"Why shouldn't I? Doing what I want, taking what I want," Kirche said, squeezing the arm of the man standing next to her, his healthy face nearly unrecognizable as the prisoner Louise had seen a week ago. "My family can say what they want about me for now, but they'll welcome me back with open arms the next time our countries are at war."
"This is insane! Please, just come back with us." Louise said, trying desperately to convince her one time rival to return.
"Insane would be turning my back on you again and letting you stab me once more." Kirche snorted. "I only wish I could face you across the battlefield for myself one last time."
Louise did not get a chance to ask for an explanation as a masked and cloaked figure walked out of the woods, dusting off its hands as if it had just completed a difficult task. She could only stare at the figure, who she assumed must be the infamous Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt.
"Well, that's taken care of." Fouquet said, shaking his head. "Sending a secretary to catch a criminal... how ridiculous. She's tied up back in the woods. I believe this completes our transaction?"
"Indeed." The healer replied, speaking for the first time. "One major healing in exchange for the knives and the... opportunity."
"Good." Fouquet replied. "I can't say I've enjoyed doing business with you, but you do good work. I hope I don't have to seek you out again."
With that, the cloaked figure turned to mount the waiting wind dragon, tugging Kirche along as it did so. The two had only taken a couple of steps when there was a shout from Colbert.
"Hey! We tried doing this the nice way, but we aren't going to let you go just like that!"
Suiting words to action, the professor summoned up a lance of fire, aiming for the dragon's wing in order to cut off their foe's escape. Before his attack could land, however, it was struck by a torrent of water. Louise was confused-none of the three thieves had a particularly strong water affinity, and to call up that much water so quickly was a high end talent. She was more confused when she saw that the water seemed to originate from a mask attached to the hermit's shoulder.
The steam that arose from the meeting of water and fire moved unnaturally, forming a thick fog between Louise and the fugitives. Beside her Professor Kaita summoned a gust of wind to drive off the fog, but it proved surprisingly resistant to his spell. By the time he had cleared the air, Sylphid was far off in the distance, too far away to be brought down by either of the professors.
"Calm down." The hermit said, chuckling in response to their visible frustration. "I'm your opponent now."
The man slowly turned his gaze along the line of his opponents, apparently not concerned at all about being outnumbered.
"Hmm, fire, wind, and... now this is new." He said, eyeing Colbert, Kaita, and Louise in turn.
The next thing Louise knew Sakura was standing in front of her, arms outstretched and holding onto the hermit's arms at the wrists. The hermit was holding a pair of broad bladed knives that were the size of short swords, and some sort of unnatural vortex of wind seemed to swirl around the outstretched blades. Louise could make out the knives quite clearly, as they were no more than five feet away from her. Then Sakura brought her foot up and lashed out in a kick to the hermit's chest, sending the man flying towards the lake, without letting go of his hands.
Louise winced, anticipating the shower of blood that would come pouring out of the man's severed arms, but was puzzled to see instead a pair of threads extending from the end of the arms to the hermit's shoulders. She was further surprised to see that the hermit was standing on the surface of the lake without any apparent effort, and that the man didn't seem particularly put out to be separated from his limbs. Indeed, the man looked almost contemplative as he examined Louise's familiar.
"Tsunade? I've wanted to test my strength against yours," the hermit said, before raising an eyebrow. "You know, I had heard that you conceal your true age beneath an illusion, but this seems to be taking things a little far."
"The only one living under an illusion is you, if you think sensei would break a sweat before she squashed you like a bug!" Sakura replied. She was still clearly exerting an effort to hold the two arms in place, although it wasn't clear to Louise how they could possibly be exerting any force.
"Sensei? I must have lost track of how long I've been on this world." The hermit almost seemed to be speaking to himself now.
"Sakura! What's going on?" Louise asked, the first of the Tristainians to recover from shock at the sudden burst of violence.
"Those threads..." Sakura said, almost speaking to herself, before turning to look at Louise. "There was a guy with powers like this who attacked the founder of my village. He took the strength of his enemies by eating their hearts... Louise, this fight is above your level."
Louise wasn't inclined to argue. If not for Sakura's quick action, she would have been cut to pieces in the initial attack. Much as she would have liked things to be otherwise, at this point she was just grateful that she had such a capable familiar. Before she could say anything, the hermit spoke up again.
"Only telling half the story, how typical for a leaf ninja," he said, shaking his head. "The thing is, when Kakuzu came back to our village, he was held in contempt for his failure. Eventually he decided he was tired of it and that the best way to keep anybody from Takigakure from saying bad things about him was to make sure there was nobody left in Takigakure to say anything."
The man paused, then spit into the lake. "You have to give him credit for being thorough. He killed every man, woman, and child in the village, took the strongest hearts, and split. I was the only survivor. This-"
The hermit rolled his eyes to indicate his forehead protector. "This is pretty much the last Takigakure hitaite you're going to see. I mastered all of his techniques, and I even developed a seal array that would let me track that bastard down for my revenge... and when I activated the seals to project my spirit to his location the damned Nibi came charging through my seal array."
"I don't know how you got here, little leaf," he continued, casting a hungry look at Sakura, "but I'm glad you did. These mage's hearts are all right, but it's been too long since I've been able to get ahold of a proper heart from back home."
At this point, things began to happen very quickly. First, Professor Colbert and Professor Kaita combined to launch some sort of wind-enhanced fire attack at their opponent. In response, a wall of water lifted out of the lake to absorb the attack, bursting into steam as it made contact. At almost the same time, one of the hands that Sakura was holding onto dropped its knife before moving its fingers in some pattern that made no sense to Louise. Sakura responded by throwing the arm away from her, but it had not gone very far before it was surrounded by an explosion of fire.
Louise was thrown back by the force of the explosion, landing on her back a good distance away. Sitting up, she saw that Sakura looked slightly singed, but was standing resolutely where she had been before. At that moment a beam of concentrated fire blasted through her familiar, but before Louise could begin to feel grief at what had happened Sakura disappeared, revealing a singed log where she had been standing.
Louise was just as happy not to be the focus of their enemy's attention, but she was a little worried that she wasn't able to see either the hermit or her familiar anywhere on the battlefield. On the lake where he had been standing a white masked figure was trading spells with Colbert and Kaita. The figure, the details of which were shrouded in a black cloak, was switching off between launching blasts of water at the professors and drawing water up from the lake to protect itself from Colbert's flame attacks. Meanwhile, Colbert was focusing on offense while Kaita was using various wind spells to protect the pair from the water that was sent their way. Closer to herself Louise could see the two knives that she could only assume were the Lightning Cutters, lying on the ground near one of the hermit's severed arms. A thread still trailed out of the end of the arm and disappeared underground.
Louise was looking for the other arm-she felt it was too much to hope for that it had been destroyed in the explosion-when the arm near her disappeared in a puff of smoke, replaced by another white-masked figure. Louise instinctively backed away from this new threat, her feet sinking into the mud created by all the water that was being thrown around. The figure turned to face her with what looked like amusement, before making a sharp gesture with its arm, generating a burst of air that knocked her off of her feet.
Louise felt the mud oozing down the back of her blouse and was struck by an incongrous burst of irritation at the damage being done by her wardrobe. She snapped out of it as the figure advanced on her and drew her wand with what she hoped was an impressive flourish.
"Stay back! You should know that you're challenging a Valliere!" Louise called out, more to bolster her own confidence than in any real hope that her adversary would back off.
The figure did indeed stop moving, although its body language still looked more amused than frightened. Standing in place, it spread its arms out wide, as if inviting Louise to take her best shot. As it did so, she felt the faint stirring of a breeze around her, and was reminded of watching Professor Kaita demonstrate the effectiveness of wind-based shields in the classroom. Forcing down her misgivings, and ignoring the lack of success that her professors were having against their adversary despite the use of some very high end spells, Louise did her best to protect herself.
"Fine, then, you're asking for it!" She called out, before beginning the chant for the fireball spell. Louise had never actually targeted a living thing with a spell before, not counting the familiar bonding, and she was curious if it would make any difference in the result.
As usual, Louise's spell failed to produce a fireball. Still, at the moment she released the spell, a great gale sprang into being between her and her opponent, as he apparently decided it was better to be safe than sorry when taking on a noble. Much to Louise's surprise, the wind had no effect on her magic-though she was targeting a living thing, rather than targeting a wall or the ground or some magical contraption, her magic did what it always did-her magic set out along the path she had chosen, and she was as shocked as anybody when the figure in front of her disappeared with a soft popping sound.
There was a pause in the combat, as the figure atop the lake and her professors both turned to stare at Louise in astonishment. The brief cease fire was broken when the remaining enemy directed a blast of water directly at her. Kaita deflected the brunt of the force, but Louise was still soaked. She and her professors were all standing in several inches of water by now.
Before Louise had a chance to try to repeat her success, another black clad figure popped out of the water next to the one that was already there. It opened its mouth, and a small spark flickering inside was the only warning it gave before unleashing a massive bolt of lightning into the ground near the Tristainians. Louise winced, anticipating the searing pain that would come when the water conducted the lightning into her body. When nothing of the sort happened, Louise realized that she was floating some inches above the water. Looking at the professors, she saw that Kaita was holding a levitation spell, while Colbert was finishing a spell chant of some type.
"Flame bomb." Colbert intoned solemnly. Louise feared that her professor was running short of willpower, as a small fireball left the tip of his wand. Even worse, it was aimed well over the heads of their enemies.
Louise's skepticism was silenced, however, as the tiny fireball set off an enormous explosion as it passed over their enemies. She briefly saw a bright white light where the cloaked figures had been standing before the blast wave knocked her for a loop. When the blast subsided Louise found herself hovering over the ground some twenty feet back from where she had been. Colbert and Kaita floated nearby.
"So, did we win?" Louise asked, her voice trembling.
Before either professor could respond, there was an explosion of dirt from where they had been standing before the explosion. Louise could recognize the pink-haired form of her familiar as she flew threw the air, maintaining a tight grip on what looked like the hermit they had been fighting this whole time. Sakura let out a war cry as she came crashing down, slamming the hermit's back across her knee with a vicious crack as they hit the ground. Hardly pausing to catch her breath, she snatched up the knife lying nearby on the ground and slammed it through her opponent's heart.
"Shannaro! That's what you get for attacking my friends, you bastard!" Sakura shouted triumphantly, before pausing as she realized her companions were staring at her in shock. She chuckled nervously, scratching the back of her neck.
"Is there something you forgot to tell us, Miss Haruno?" Colbert asked. Although his tone was neutral, Louise noticed that neither her nor Kaita had put away their wands.
ooOoo
"Heh, I guess I owe you an explanation." Sakura said, sheepishly. She was doing her best to sound contrite while she tried to think of a way out of this mess.
It had seemed like a simple plan: just avoid attracting notice at the Academy while they worked on sending her back home. Sakura could play the cute little medic easily enough, and while being a sixteen year old girl with pink hair could be annoying when she wanted to intimidate somebody, it did have the positive effect of forestalling any real investigation into the threat she represented. She hadn't figured on being drawn into a deathmatch with some interloper from her own universe.
The fight underground had been close. There was no doubt that her opponent had been more adept at earth manipulation than she, and she honestly felt pretty proud of herself for being able to maneuver him into arm's reach. Unfortunately there was no way she could have guaranteed a kill without removing the man from his home element, making it impossible for her to finish the fight underground. If she was being perfectly honest, once her blood was up and she was in the middle of a combat Sakura liked to end things with a flourish anyways.
The problem now, of course, was that the two professors had just seen their cute little medic stab a man through the heart. Sakura eyeballed the distance between them and their readiness, and reluctantly concluded that she couldn't be sure of killing both of them if she attacked. She wasn't really worried that they would be able to subdue her, but it only took one of them getting back to the Academy to end the research aimed at sending her back home. And that wasn't even getting into the problems she would have with Louise if she murdered two of the girl's professors.
Taking stock of her companions' emotional state, Sakura wasn't surprised to see shock reflected in Louise's face. The girl had just lived through her first experience with serious combat, and had probably just seen somebody killed for the first time. Professor Kaita was regarding her with open suspicion, while Professor Colbert looked... remmarkably understanding. Sakura thought for a moment-the explosive spell that had distracted her opponent at a key juncture had been surprisingly powerful, not something you would necessarily expect a teacher to produce in the heat of battle-she decided to test the waters before committing to a story.
"You see, where I come from... it's not a very nice place. I'm only sixteen," Sakura said, gesturing at herself to indicate how undeveloped her body was, "but I've been an active duty soldier for five years."
"And you didn't see fit to share this information with us before?" Kaita asked, obviously upset.
"I didn't want to be pressed into service." Sakura said, looking down as if she felt ashamed. "I felt I had earned some time away from the front lines."
At this point hiding her skills was no longer an option. Better then that they see her as a war weary veteran or traumatized child soldier than as a cheerful and competent assassin.
"If you had-" Kaita began speaking angrily, but was cut off by his fellow professor.
"At the Academy we don't judge people based on their past." Colbert said. "However, if you aren't honest with us about who you are, it's hard for us to trust you."
"I understand." Sakura said, doing her best to look open and honest while furiously considering how to put herself in the best possible light. "Let me tell you about the world where I come from."
"My village has been involved in three major wars in the last fifty years. During the 'peace' between wars there are constant low level skirmishes that take a toll on the soldiers on all sides." Sakura said, looking steadily at Colbert. "You have to understand, for us this is perfectly normal. My first toys were play weapons, and being selected for military training at the age of six was a major honor. When I graduated at eleven I was proud to serve my village."
"Of course, the war you learn about in the classroom is a different thing from the war you fight out in the field." Sakura said, and saw a flash of sympathy in Colbert's eyes. She kept the triumphant smile off of her face as she continued her story. "I still remember the first time I had to kill an enemy, the first time I killed a civilian..."
"Miss Haruno, that's enough, you don't need to-" Colbert said, obviously moved by her confession.
"No! No, he's right, this is something I should have told you before." Sakura insisted. "After a while I put in for medical training. I thought if I focused on healing people, I could help the war effort without doing anything morally wrong. Heh. I should have known that medics get sent to where the fighting is the worst."
Sakura shook her head, then focused off into the distance in a fair impersonation of the thousand-yard stare she had seen on some of the more battle-hardened jounin she treated. A little bit of real emotion leaked onto her face as she remembered her teammate's defection from the village, and the fear she had felt waiting to see if Naruto would make it back from his retrieval mission alive.
"Miss Haruno, whatever you were ordered to do, we don't-" Kaita began, apparently uninterested in hearing any details about Sakura's experience.
"Ordered? You think we needed orders?" Sakura interrupted, some real heat in her voice. "After six months of killing and dying over the same patch of land? If a prisoner needed to be patched up so we could get more information out of him, I was happy to help. If an interrogator needed to know where to cut to hurt without killing, I was right there with a knife. After a while it almost got to be routine."
"You know, when I was first summoned, I thought the enemy had captured me for interrogation and execution. But part of me was just glad it was over." Sakura said, shaking her head. "When I found out I was in a different world, I thought I could start over, be a real doctor. I thought maybe if I saved enough lives the spirits might have mercy on me on the next life. I guess it's just not meant to be."
"I know I wouldn't want somebody like me near a school." Sakura concluded. "I hope you'll let me collect my things from Louise's room before you send me on my way."
"Hey!" Louise exclaimed. "You're my familiar! You can't leave just like that."
"We'll let the Headmaster be the judge of that." Colbert said, putting his wand away, apparently satisfied that Sakura wasn't an immediate threat. "For right now, we need to focus on finding Miss Longueville."
Finding Miss Longueville took longer than anybody had expected. After searching the woods for some time without any success, Sakura finally backtracked along the trail to the point that the group had split up, retracing Miss Longueville's path through the woods, looking for any sign of a scuffle so that she could track Fouquet's path to Miss Longueville's location.
She retraced the trail into the clearing several times before she finally figured out what had happened. She couldn't help letting out a burst of laughter, which drew dirty looks from her companions.
"Miss Haruno, this is a serious matter." Kaita reprimanded her. "You need to focus on the search! Miss Longueville could be seriously injured and in need of medical attention."
"She's not injured." Sakura said, shaking her head.
"You've found her?" Kaita asked.
"No, but I can tell you where she was an hour ago," Sakura replied stifling a chuckle. "When she walked right past us and hopped on the back of a dragon."
ooOoo
It was a dispirited group that stood in the headmaster's office later that day. Colbert had just finished reporting on their ill-fated expedition, and Old Osmond's expression was grim.
"My secretary was the famous criminal Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt?"
"Yes, sir." Colbert replied. "Once Miss Haruno pointed it out, the trail was easy enough to follow. She separated from us, waiting for us to meet with the hermit, and then walked right past us under disguise magic. She fooled all of us."
"What a shame." Osmond said, shaking his head. "Still, she was quite lovely..."
As the headmaster's voice trailed off, he seemed to be making vague groping gestures with his hands. Sakura felt that her position was precarious enough without adding an assault to the headmaster to her record, and the others seemed unsure of what to do. After a moment Osmond seemed to snap out of it, his gaze coming to rest on Sakura.
"And as to the matter of Miss Valliere's familiar, concealing such a thing is a serious matter," he said, before he shrugged. "But I suppose we can hardly expect a soldier in a foreign land to feel comfortable sharing all of her secrets, can we?"
Although the headmaster's tone was friendly, the look he was giving Sakura was entirely too sharp for her to feel completely comfortable. She had spent enough time around the Third Hokage to be wary of kindly old men in positions of power.
"Even with my background, I can still serve as a familiar, right?" Sakura asked.
"Of course. I suppose we should be glad that Miss Valliere summoned such a capable familiar." Osmond replied.
"That's a relief," Sakura said, "although now that I'm a civilian I would really rather just focus on healing people."
"I'm afraid that might not be possible." Colbert said. The bald professor was looking at her with an expression of open sympathy. "The runes on your hand are an exact match for the runes of the Gandalfr, the legendary familiar of the Founder. Gandalfr was legendary for his mastery of all weapons, and for the constant conflict that marked his life as a familiar. If fate has brought you to us as the next Gandalfr, I'm afraid that fate also seems likely to draw you into future battles."
"Surely battles won't seek me out while I'm with my master here at the Academy?" Sakura asked. She had been taught from a young age that luck was the residue of design, and that fate was a fiction used by the strong to maintain their position over the weak. She didn't believe that some runes on her hand could inevitably draw her into a life of conflict. Not that she had anything against a life of conflict, but she believed that she could pick and choose which conflicts she participated in.
"Perhaps not." Colbert said. "But to confirm my findings, I must ask you once more if you have noticed anything strange happen when you use a weapon."
"Hmm..." Sakura said, thinking. There was no real reason to hide the effects of the runes, and she may even be in a better position than before if they thought she was some kind of figure out of legend. There was certainly no need to show off the extent of her skill, but it seemed a small demonstration wouldn't hurt. She would just have to make sure that they didn't slack off in their research on sending her back home out of a desire to trap their legend in Tristain.
Sakura reached out to where the Lightning Cutters rested on the headmaster's desk and picked one up in her left hand. The runes on the back of her hand were in plain view as they lit up and the familiar rush of power ran through her. With a twist of chakra that was at the same time utterly simple and utterly foreign, a small vortex of air appeared around the blade as it became unnaturally sharp.
"This knife is designed to channel wind chakra so it can cut through anything." Sakura explained. "I have never been able to produce wind chakra, but now... it's easy."
"Most interesting." Osmond's eyes were alight with interest as he examined the blade. "I haven't seen the blades do that since the night I came into possession of them, some thirty years ago now."
The headmaster settled back into his chair, all eyes on him as he continued his tale.
"I was taking a leisurely stroll through the forest when I happened across a remarkable battle." Osmond said. "Two men were moving at tremendous speed and utilizing amazing techniques in an all out attempt to kill each other. In the final exchange, one of them put his fist all the way through the stomach of the other, but the dying man used those knives to cut off the head of his enemy."
"Once I knew it was safe to make my presence known, I rushed out to aid the surviving man. Unfortunately his wounds were beyond even my ability to heal. He gave me the knives and told me to find somebody who would put them to good use, as they were his legacy." The headmaster shook his head. "He died before I could even ask for his name. I don't suppose you've heard of these knives before? The name seemed somewhat unique."
"I'm afraid not." Sakura shook her head. "In my world there is a tale of a legendary swordsman of such skill and speed that he was able to cut lightning. So any time somebody comes up with an impressive cutting weapon or technique they call it Raikiri, lightning cutter."
The headmaster chuckled. "I shouldn't be surprised. I couldn't count the number of 'Staffs of Destruction' you'll find across Halkeginia."
He paused for a moment before continuing. "Still, it looks like we've found somebody who can put blades like this to use. Please keep them, and use them to protect Louise."
Sakura nodded, taking the other blade before sliding both into her belt. "I will, although I hope it won't be necessary."
"We all can only hope." The headmaster replied. "At some point we will speak further of the power of the runes, and of this 'chakra' that you use."
"But enough of these weighty topics!" Osmond suddenly exclaimed, bringing his hands down on his desk as if to physically cut off that line of conversation. "Miss Valliere, I have good news! You are to receive the title of Chevalier for your role in revealing the crimes of Kirche and Tabitha."
"What?" Louise asked, clearly shocked. "But I- that is- I didn't-"
"Ah, your modesty does you credit." Osmond said, chuckling. "Don't worry, you have a week to work on your acceptance speech."
ooOoo