AN: Normally I leave my rambling for the end of the chapter, and I will, but I DO need to give my audience a heads up that this one is a doozy. If you get a headache keeping track of everything in this chapter, then it isn't due to poor pacing/writing, it is because that was kind of the POINT. Normally I like to have my experimenting with strange narrative styles as interludes and omakes, but this thing ended up growing too big, and incorporating too many important things to make that a viable option. You can probably skip this one if it really is that hard for you to get through it, and you won't lose too much, but give it a shot. Just keep in mind that I deliberately cut most of the scene-breaks out of this, because as it turns out the story is about Sasuke, and I want it to be presented through his perspective. Sometimes his perspective is warped, and gives the audience a headache, that just comes with the territory.
Louise surprised him with her progress. Though it took finally using a genjutsu with his Sharingan, she'd managed to unlock her chakra. Normally such a thing for someone so old was impossible, but Louise was hardly normal to begin with. Wielder of a lost element, unable to use 'normal' magics, but capable of causing explosions of great power and size with essentially nothing but a thought, and of course the one who managed to summon Sasuke across worlds to be her familiar. She even originally intended to treat him like some sort of pet, she honestly thought that some little girl would be able to cow him at first.
Still, while she was not yet even capable of performing even the most basic of jutsu he had to admit that what she had managed with just access to chakra was rather impressive. Within seconds of her tenketsu being opened she seemed to have an instinctive understanding of how to move it about her body, how it ebbed and flowed. He suspected it had something to do with the sorcery that bound him to her.
Looking again at the runes on his left arm Sasuke reflected on what he had gathered from sneaking into Laurent's study. Apparently familiar runes were designed to subtly 'adjust' the familiar to be more favorable to the master. It worried him, that some force beyond his understanding was slowly warping his mind. Even more since it explained some inexplicable thoughts he found himself having. While he had never been interested in romance in his younger years, he did have certain things that he found attractive in the opposite sex. Louise had none of them, and yet he would occasionally have a subtle craving towards her, an emotional 'need' that felt strangely like the love he felt for his mother.
It was worrying, but at the end of the day there was nothing he could do about it, and so long as he kept his wits about him it was child's play to keep such feelings and thoughts from his mind.
Sasuke walked right on into McCullugh's shop with a scowl on his face. He was greeted by a boy who Sasuke assumed to be the old man's apprentice at the counter. Not having the patience to deal with the young man, Sasuke just hopped the counter and opened the door to the back room in the face of the apprentice's protests.
Hearing the commotion McCullugh looked over to see his new 'favorite' customer standing just a few feet behind him.
"I ought kick yer puny arse right out tha door."
Sasuke was unfazed as he dug around for a scroll, unsealing a few dozen shuriken that clattered to the floor.
"Change of plans, I need that first batch sooner than expected." Sasuke stated in an apathetic monotone, as if this was just normal business.
McCullugh put down the tools he was working on and scratched his chin with a sigh before speaking. "'ow many ya need, and when d'ya need em?"
Sasuke turned to look the old smith in the eyes. "As many as you can manage, by weeks end. Those" Sasuke pointed to the pile of metal tools he emptied onto the floor "Are to help you get there faster. Melt them, break them, whatever you need to do so long as it means you can make them sooner. I'll be staying to help. I may not have ever made them myself, but I know enough about the processes we used to help you figure out a way to make more."
There was a silence in the air for a moment before McCullugh spoke "Ya knew 'ow they're made an' yer only gonna tell me now that ya need em right quick?"
Sasuke actually allowed a small amount of embarassment to show in his expression when he replied. "The technique is a family secret. I wasn't on a timeline, so I had no problem with you figuring out some other way to do it. I don't have that luxury anymore." He paused for a moment before continuing "You can use what I tell you as you wish, and I'll pay extra for the rush job. What you see in that pile there is fifty seven shuriken and thirty eight Kunai. I would like to leave here with at least two hundred shuriken and one hundred kunai at week's end."
The old smith had a serious look of incredulity on his face before he broke out in a wide grin and started cackling like a madman before shouting at the top of his lungs. "Ollie!" his voice echoed loud enough that anyone near the building would have heard it. In moments the boy Sasuke pegged as the apprentice rushed in panicked. As soon as the young boy was within view McCullugh shouted out again "We're closin' up shop fer tha week, special order. Find Jimmy, and 'is no good fer nothin' pa and tell 'em that if they make it 'ere t'night they can even keep their cut!"
Ollie's legs snapped together and his hand nearly bruised his forehead as he salute "Yessir!"
"Louise, we only have a week to prepare you to come with me. If I can't get you strong enough you will be staying here while I head to Albion on my own." Louise frowned at this, she thought she was clear before. He was her familiar, so if he was headed to Albion for some suicide mission it was her duty as a mage to go with him.
Even only knowing him for little over a week Louise was well aware that he wouldn't just cave in and listen to reason, she would need to go along and convince him to let her go with. Knowing there was nothing left to lose in trying she did something uncharacteristic of herself and relaxed her body posture, forcing every fiber of her being to exude condescension and haughtiness.
Meeting his eyes directly she simply shrugged with her reply "Hn."
Apparently this was the correct response as Sasuke smirked at her and let his face split into a full grin. "It seems you understand." Sitting up and looking right at her his entire demeanor changed from one of mocking and enjoyment to one of total seriousness. "Body training will have to wait, unless you have access to chakra there are going to be no shortcuts on that end."
Her interest getting the better of her Louise couldn't help but give Sasuke her full attention. She was about to ask what they would be doing, but stopped when she looked in his eyes. She wasn't quite sure how, but she knew exactly what she would be working on. It sent chills up her spine that his taking her with him was going to fall on her ability to use the one thing she was completely incapable of. Magic.
"Princess."
Henrietta jumped to her feet out of her bed, tripping on her gown and ultimately disrobing herself in the process. Screaming as she fell to the ground, her startled shriek caused her attending guards to force her door open and barge their way in just in time to see their half-naked princess in the arms of some man they were unfamiliar with.
"Unhand her you scoundrel!" one of the guards lunged in with his spear to impale the man who currently had the princess in his grip. Spinning out of the way carelessly Sasuke managed to place Henrietta back on her bed in the same motion he used to disarm the guard.
With a monotone inflection Sasuke barked out "Go back to your post, if I wanted her dead or harmed you wouldn't be able to stop me anyway."
"Why, you-"
"Go" Henrietta's voice was stern, that of a commander, one who gives orders rather than a princess who needed protection.
The guard still standing picked up his friend who had been thoroughly out-matched from where he fell on the ground in the short scuffle and grumbled as he carried the man back to their post outside the princess's quarters.
Pulling her clothes back into place Henrietta leveled a glare at the man before her.
"You certainly have some nerve. Sneaking into a royal's bedroom is a serious crime you know." Henrietta forced a childish pout onto her face as she spoke.
Sasuke couldn't help but snort "Do you really see me as the type to care one way or another about that? Something like this won't get me on the bad side of anyone who didn't already want me dead and gone after yesterday." Sasuke paused to take in his surroundings out of ingrained habit "I need access to whatever archives and records you have in regards to Albion's military, fleet numbers, base locations, anything you have about how they operate militarily."
Letting her pout drop the princess poured over the statement before responding with a frown. "The only place that might have anything like that is the war rooms, only the highest ranking generals and the crown are allowed access. I can get you permission, but I would like a reason before doing so." This seems like you started writing one thing and then changed what you were writing but forgot to get rid of the first bit.
Sasuke stood with no expression on his face before speaking abruptly. "I can't render an entire nation's military harmless without any information. Whatever personal dislike you might have for me, you will do what is in your people's interest, and destroying Reconquista is something you won't hesitate in assisting." Pausing for a moment before continuing "In all honesty, if I thought I was in a position to make demands, I would ask for an extra hand or two. I have heard nothing but praise about the Musketeers…"
Henrietta gave Sasuke a glare that spoke volumes. She had not been pleased when less than a minute after essentially proposing to her, Sasuke had then gone on to all but flirt with her head Musketeer as Agnes had attempted to subdue him after he had sent one of the nobles in the room flying. Really, after hearing that he had fought Karin and even managed to survive Henrietta should have felt more annoyance at the count who was stupid enough to attack Sasuke. Yet she couldn't help but feel indignance and animosity at a person who backed her into a corner because of carelessness, and then made a mockery of her guards. He even had the gall to demand that Agnes be assigned to help him in his "State Sponsored Military Action" against Albion.
Heaving a sigh, the princess decided that it was a small price to pay if the man before her really did manage to bring those Reconquista dogs to heel. Waving dismissively the princess spoke "You'll have your access. But not until tomorrow." Sasuke's brow twitched at both her dismissiveness and forcing him to wait "Now if you don't mind I would like to try and get a night's sleep without having a heart attack. Figuring out how you snuck in without anyone noticing is going to cause me enough hassle as it is."
Without even a sound Sasuke was gone.
Ten minutes of watching Louise go through all of the spells she had learned, every incantation, every branch of spells, all of them. She was thoroughly humiliated. Even cantrips died in her hands. She was about to cry and give up when he finally spoke.
Ending with the kanji for explosion, Sasuke finished his first attempt at recreating explosive tags. The calligraphy itself was a perfect copy of the notes he already possessed, but Sasuke was aware that there was more to fuinjutsu than just shapes on paper, the special blood-based chakra ink was invaluable, and Sasuke suspected (though it wasn't explicitly stated anywhere in the various texts he had on sealing) that successful sealing also requires chakra manipulation as part of writing out the seal.
Still, the only way to test it was to try it. Arcing his arm back to throw the tag Sasuke put a trickle of chakra into the note.
"Hn. I think we can work with that. If everything is going to be an explosion then we'll just have you learn to cast explosions. Forget the chants, forget everything you know about casting a proper spell. If it'll all explode anyway then we don't need it." Pacing around the wooded area Sasuke examined the gouges in the dirt and trees with a clinical eye. Pointing his hand straight up in the sky he spoke "I want you to make the sky explode. I don't want some piddly little boom. I want the biggest explosion you can manage, the most willpower you can pump into it at once. I need to know what your limits are before we can actually try anything meaningful."
Three hours into his research in the war room Sasuke's silence was interrupted as someone opened the door. Leaning his head to the side Sasuke saw a blonde mop of hair, and a nearly all white beard. Gramont, General of Tristania's navy, father of four and Square-class earth mage. One of the only nobles in the peerage that actually approved of Sasuke's bid for nobility, and longtime friends to the Valliere.
Walking right past Sasuke the older man went right to a back shelf, pulled off three tomes and set them out in front of Sasuke with a thump.
Glancing at the titles of the books Sasuke was rather confused at the knowing look on the old blonde's face. Destroyer of Destroyers; How the Briton-Class Changed Warfare, Siege, and Suppression; Treatise on Aerial Supremacy in Protracted Battle, Windstones and Warfare; Bringing the Fight to the Skies.
"The facts and figures that you have there are all fine and dandy, but if you want to really understand what you're getting into you need to start at the basics of the basics." Gramont plopped himself into a chair and sat down before continuing. "Laurent told me that he didn't think you knew what you were getting into, and wouldn't know where to start. Everything you need to know about how albion fights is in those three books right there, every strategy, every maneuver. What you're up to is a fools errand if there ever was one."
Sasuke was about to make a sarcastic reply when Gramont held up a hand to stop him. "Just sit there and listen to an old man for a little while." Seeing the look in the older man's eyes Sasuke decided to hear the man out before ignoring him.
"Sixteen years ago marks the end of the last war. The war took Forty years, and saw three generations of my family fight in it. The war took my father, my uncle, three nephews, several cousins… My wife lost her entire family, an entire county burned to ash. I'd seen what war did to people, I saw what it did to ME. My wife was pregnant, our fourth son. I had nearly lost two sons, and if things didn't change I was certain that I would have to stop saying nearly…" The blonde man looked at the ceiling while he reminisced
"There's a saying my commander, Horline, always told me when I would talk to him about my dream of leading my own battalion. 'There's been a Horline at the helm somewhere in every war this country's been through, and there's only two things I can say for sure Gramont. Only man who gets himself in charge around here are people who are too clever or too stupid to let themselves get killed. And I never met the man who was that clever." Looking Sasuke right in the eyes
"As a general I can say that he was absolutely correct on both counts. After I found out about my wife's pregnancy I couldn't sleep. The only thought I had was finding some way to end the war, by hook or by crook. So I did the only sensible thing." Gramont smiled "I led what should've been an impossible mission, disobeying dozens of orders. Had I failed and lived, I would have undoubtedly been hung for my rank misconduct. Even if I succeeded I expected harsh punishment of the highest order. Instead they promoted me. Now I see someone else on a quest to do the impossible, in spite of the fact that he just set the vast majority of a great nation's nobility as his opponents, and the entirety of the military possessing the strongest navy in the world as who he must defeat."
Getting up from his seat Gramont went to the door turning to face Sasuke one last time before leaving, giving the younger man a salute. "I certainly hope you are the type who is too stupid to die. Because while I have no reason to trust you as our ally, and even less faith that any of this marrying the princess crap is even remotely acceptable or prudent, but I'd much prefer it that my fourth son never has to see war like his brothers." Making to leave but stopping in for one last comment. "Plus, anyone who can turn Guldenhorf that red is a friend of mine."
"... and then once you get the metals, charcoal, and other metals down to a powder, you can put them in a mold. While in the mold you apply pressure and heat to force to take the shape of the mold. The trick is to always keep its temperature below the melting point. So long as you keep the pressure up, the metal will fuse together as one solid piece. For steel, you need…" Sasuke took another moment to recall the closest Tristainian words "Iron, charcoal, and copper."
"Just one problem kiddo. We don't have no blower-upper machine like you're talking about." Sasuke was quickly growing a distaste for 'Pa'. The man was insufferable, why in the world McCullugh wanted him here to help was still beyond all reason in Sasuke's opinion.
"Then how have you been getting your iron? It isn't like you can just conjure it up whenever you want." Looking at the strange expressions on the faces of everyone present Sasuke had to go through what he'd said in his head three times before he realized his mistake. If he'd had less self control he would have smacked himself for overlooking it.
Seeing that the young Uchiha had realized the absurdity of his statement the old smith patted him on the shoulder before pointing at 'Pa' "Thas why we need 'dis lazy idiot. Dumber than a bag 'o bricks, but 'es somehow tha best at magikin' up raw metal I e'er saw."
"... and then finally is the current King's immediate family. King James Tudor has one son and two brothers. His son is my cousin Wales, the crown prince, and his brothers are my father and uncle. As you might tell, I am my father's only child, and his wife never bore him an heir before she passed some years ago." Sasuke scribbled down notes one after another. While it might seem strange to have the princess of a country acting as some sort of private tutor, much of the information about the royal families was so closely guarded that it would require her to be there when he accessed those records anyway.
"Haaaa!" Louise yelled as she released her magic from her wand. Several feet away one of the large trees creaked and groaned as it splintered around the new spherical cavity carved into its bark.
Looking at the line of trees they were working with Sasuke could clearly see the progress. On their left were craters where trees once stood, as his eyes made their way right the craters stopped, and tree stumps of progressively larger sizes were visible. Now next to the stumps there was a tree, a tree with a gaping spherical hole right in the middle of it. Nodding his head Sasuke decided on the next course of action.
"Hn. That will have to do for now." Sasuke kept his face blank while he stared at his pupil. She was certainly no ninja, and he wasn't sure if he could actually make her into one. His attempts at analyzing the chakra flow of the people in the Valliere estate was not giving him useful results. While everyone's chakra was generally low, there were some who had more than others. Yet there appeared to be no rhyme or reason to it. Talking to the Duke had revealed that whatever powers the people of Halkegenia had managed, the use of chakra was not one of them.
Apparently the connecting segment of the seal on the previous note was not done right, too much chakra was allowed to the center of the seal, which caused it to detonate instead of after a couple second delay.
This time Sasuke had remedied it, the amount of chakra allowed through was but a trickle. Arcing his arm to throw the note he put a small amount of chakra into the seal. The explosive tag landed several meters away, and hissed for several seconds before it seemed to have just stopped. Waiting a half-minute to make sure it wasn't just delayed Sasuke approached to see what was wrong. Just as he was bending down to pick up the explosive he heard just the faintest hissing sound, and then heard a great popping at the same time he heard a boom.
"You have gotten a good enough handle on controlling the size of the explosions." Louise beamed at the praise, something she never managed to obtain at the academy. "But control is about more than just that. If we assume that your explosions work on the same general principles that fire manipulation do, then it is important to control not just the size of it, but the intensity of it." Making a series of hand-signs, Sasuke made a ring of stone columns form up from the ground. "Next, you'll be keeping the explosions the size that you had just now, but trying to increase their power as well. When you can knock down these pillars down without destroying them, I think you will have demonstrated significant control."
Pointing at the empty space in the center Louise yelled out again as she caused an explosion smaller than her last one. The stones shook around the shockwaves, but otherwise didn't move.
Sasuke could not wait until the week was over. If the man wasn't so useful Sasuke is sure he would have killed 'Pa' by now. It was quite unfortunate that the man was the only hope of having these shuriken finished in the next few days. It was hard to figure out exactly what was the most infuriating, the fact that nobody appeared to actually know the man's name, the fact that nobody seemed to care, the fact that all he did all day was wave his wand and sleep, or the fact that waving his wand every few hours and otherwise sleeping all day somehow managed to somehow make more raw iron and copper ready to be worked than slaving at any of the furnaces that smiths back in Konoha ever managed.
No, Sasuke knew what it was that irked him the most. It was the fact that for all of his talent in bringing up the metals, 'Pa' lacked the finesse to actually do anything more. So there Sasuke sat in front of a cast-iron pot using tools to crush pure iron blobs into fine dust.
Sasuke threw shuriken after shuriken at the wall. They had finished the first test-batch just hours ago, since then Sasuke was spending his time where it was most productive. Against the wall he was using as a broad target were four stars that actually stuck, and close to a dozen that had broken, chipped, shattered, or otherwise were not usable in any meaningful fashion.
A loud boom, followed by silence. Silence, the lack of sound, no chirping of the birds, or the other expected sounds of the wilderness. Several seconds of silence, followed by a loud whistling screech. The loud whistling screech was accompanied by a strange intermittent sound. Like tarp that was being ravaged by a hurricane, or someone aggressively tearing and ripping apart thick canvas at rapid speeds. After just a few moments of this was a clinking sound, like it was raining wood blocks somehow. Then a slight rustling, and then silence again.
Deciding that having to make another clone every time he wanted to test his notes was getting tiresome, Sasuke decided to use his wires to transmit chakra to the tags.
Even the successes were ultimately failures, every one of them was unbalanced to an unacceptable level.
Pop, pop, pop, the third batch of notes began exploding one after another. Sasuke smirked to himself at finally succeeding at crafting the notes. Now that he had the hang of it he finally didn't have to worry about running out of them anytime soon.
"Agnes" Sasuke couldn't help the smirk on his face as he talked to the head of the Musketeers.
It took the better part of the night, but Sasuke confirmed what had gone wrong with the first batch. The ones that were cracked or chipped were the easiest to figure out, some of them had the wrong powder distributions, others weren't given enough pressure while in the mold, and others still weren't heated evenly enough. These were all relatively simple to spot. The tricky part was figuring out why the ones that had the right balance of metals, were just the right hardness, and weight, but were utterly off-balance. After having no progress just staring at the hunk of metal in front of him Sasuke decided to do something he probably should have from the start, he checked the mold against the original shuriken. They didn't quite match.
Realizing what the problem was, Sasuke went over to McCullugh and had the man begin making a new mold.
"Sasuke" Said musketeer managed to have a similar smirk on her face. Whatever animosity she held for the young man before her for humiliating her was far outweighed by his apparent distaste for magic in general. She only had a few conversations with him, but he seemed to be of a similar philosophy in regards to combat. 'Honor is for samurai, I prefer pragmatism'
"Chakra is a combination of spiritual and physical energy. Spiritual energy comes from the soul, spirit and mind, while physical energy is created within the body." Sasuke paced around Louise who was sitting with her eyes closed. "Meditation is used to harmonize the spirit and the body. This is necessary to unlock the use of chakra. While all living being possess chakra, few can actually utilize them in a meaningful way. The reason for this is that they lack a method with which to shape and give intention to it." Sasuke poked at various points on Louise's body "Humans have Tenketsu, these are places where chakra can be expelled from the body, where it can then be shaped, and molded for its myriad uses. Unfortunately, people are not born with the innate ability to expel chakra from their Tenketsu. The reason for this is rather straightforward, chakra is life energy itself, if one were to push too much of it out unintentionally they would quickly kill themselves." Sasuke looked up at the sky letting images flow through his mind in recollection before speaking again.
"Shinobi are those who live with death on their shoulders. Indeed, the very first act of unlocking the chakra that shinobi rely on is one that our body will not naturally do, because it risks our death. It is probably for this reason that we have an obsession with death."
"Those… Pistols? I would like to try them, and possibly to acquire some for my own use. While horrible for stealth due to the noise, they are dangerous nonetheless" At this Sasuke rubbed at his wrist where one of the lead balls had lodged itself just a few days earlier. Sasuke was familiar with crossbows, slings, and all variety of thrown weapons, but these 'guns' as they were called were truly something new.
Glancing at Louise with his Sharingan active Sasuke could tell that Louise was finally in a calm enough meditative state to attempt unlocking her chakra. It was actually rather impressive, it took most children weeks of practicing meditation to be able to calm themselves enough.
Sasuke frowned as caught himself mid thought. Louise was no child, even if she didn't look the part she was actually older than him.
"Feel your heartbeat, the pressure in your lungs as you breathe in, how it relaxes when you breathe out. Feel for something, something between the beats, between the breaths. It should feel warm, like the heat that radiates off of a person's skin, or even of a small ember." There it was, her chakra began to focus near her throat, where the Gate of Life resides. While there was some variation seen amongst ninja, it was most common for one of the Eight Gates to be the one that children aspiring to be ninja used to unlock their chakra.
Sasuke went over the marvel in his hand one more time. Eleanor had gifted him with one part of a set of journals that were capable of corresponding with another one in real-time, and was enchanted so that its pages would rid themselves of the writing with a simple command. The Duke had insisted that he be able to keep in contact with Sasuke during his escapades in Albion, and promised that he would provide assistance where possible if he was kept in the loop.
Apparently there were only three of these journals, one that was in Laurent's study, one that was in the possession of the queen, and the last in Sasuke's own hands. Once again Sasuke found himself befuddled at the versatility of magic, he wouldn't be surprised if there were other functions it were capable of that he was simply not being told since it appeared to be a rather old artifact.
Agnes's smile grew as she unhooked one of her pistols and threw it over to him. Pointing behind her with her thumb "Follow me to the range, follow my instructions and you'll be firing like a pro by the end of the day." It wasn't often that she had the opportunity to teach a noble the fun and greatness of mundane weaponry, humiliating him on the range would be a fine way to spend her afternoon.
After the new mold's first test batch was off balance, Sasuke gave in to McCullugh's suggestion that they bring in an earth mage to help with making it.
Sasuke sighed for what felt like the tenth time in the hour. It shouldn't have been possible, but he witnessed it himself. This was unheard of, at least as far as he knew. Sasuke had never heard of someone who managed to get enough control to focus it behind one of the gates, and then be unable to push it through. Those who simply could never access their chakra despite meditation were relatively common, even those who could draw it out and not utilize it in any meaningful way were a regular occurrence. Rock Lee, someone who Sasuke begrudgingly respected for his desire to continue being a shinobi despite not being able to mold chakra properly for ninjutsu was more than capable of pushing it through his chakra points.
If she simply lacked the talent to use her chakra he would have just stopped her and cut his losses, but to have someone who actually should be capable of it somehow be stopped was just frustrating to him. He couldn't be blamed if his 'student' simply lacked any aptitude, but for him to not be able to coax her ability out of her when it was sitting right there was a slight against his pride. If she didn't manage it in the next few hours he would have to resort to more drastic measures come sunrise.
After a brief glance at the metal mold they had been using before the young mage they borrowed from one of the other vendors tapped on the shuriken they were trying to replicate with his wand, hummed a short incantation and sprouted a mold made out of stone from the ground.
"So. What happens if Wales and the King both end up getting killed in this civil war? Would the throne go to you, since you are his eldest brother's only child?"
Four hundred and seventy six . . . Four hundred and seventy seven . . .
After a few more hours, and some revisions to the mold's structure to make heating it easier, Sasuke threw the first shuriken made from the mold. It felt exactly like the original, same balance, same weight, really the only difference was that he hadn't sharpened the blades.
After paying the young mage to make several more of the molds Sasuke went back to the bench where he was assisting in grinding down hunks of metal into powder, a mental note firmly stuck that despite whatever lack of fighting skill and prowess mages had their ability to change physical matter with their spells was terrifyingly diverse and precise. Sasuke would be surprised if there were even a half-dozen earth users who could make a mold for weapons in the way just displayed, and would be even more surprised if they could do so with the timeliness and effortlessness displayed.
Henrietta's expression went cold. She had never considered such a possibility. "If Wales… Yes, assuming that James does not have another child before his death that somehow survives then next in line for the throne would be myself…" Turning to face Sasuke Henrietta did something that he never expected of her, she bowed in deference to him. "Don't. Don't let it come to that. Our latest information tells us that the Prince is still alive, and fighting. Take this as a request, or a pleading, or begging, or whatever you will. Save Wales, or at least stop him from being killed before you destroy reconquista."
To such honesty there was only one response the head of the Uchiha could possibly give, the noncommittal signature of his family. "Hn."
It took Sasuke a moment after waking up to gather his thoughts into one coherent whole. The Kage Bunshin technique was not one to be taken lightly. Even if wasn't so damned chakra intensive, the simple horrors is played on your memory were enough to drive even stronger minds to lunacy if used too frequently or with clones that lived too long. Sorting through his jumbled thoughts, he managed to confirm that he had managed to meet all of his objectives for the week, and had even picked up an extra mission and some support on the way. Apparently the princess had some business with the crown prince, and was giving him access to Viscount Wardes for the duration of his self-imposed mission so long as he agreed to help her with her princely problem.
He would stop by McCullugh's later to pick up the artifact his clone had dropped off, and also the armaments he had helped make there.
AN: So, for those who didn't get it themselves. This chapter takes place over the span of about a week. Each hard-break is the separation from day to day. Sasuke had too many things to get done on his own, so he had to enlist help, in this case some Shadow-Clones.
I find it unlikely that Sasuke doesn't know the technique after seeing so many different character use it while he had his Sharingan active. The reason he doesn't use it normally himself is because it is immensely disorienting when they are dispelled, and not worth it in combat for him. A finesse-style fighter has little use for them, as it is more likely that the brief memory-lag from their dispelling will be more detrimental than the benefit of the extra body.
To make it a little bit easier, there are four timelines going on here, Sasuke working with Louise at the estates, Sasuke clone(s) working on sealing tags and kind-of-sort-of hanging out with Eleanor (mostly off-screen), Sasuke clone gathering information about albion and interacting with various people at the palace, and Sasuke clone helping make sure that his shuriken are getting finished in time.
We meet three OCs in this chapter, who if things go well we will never have to see again. These are of course the Ollie, Jimmy and 'pa'. They were really there to give the scenes at McCullugh's some character and realism, and also to help delve into the economic reality of a world with magic, and how it has impacted things like technology and labor, in this case with respect to blacksmithing.
There was FAR too much research that I needed to do to make this chapter as 'realistic' as I had wanted. I myself knew nothing about metallurgy, or how things like that are made... I suspect even after everything I am still getting something wrong somewhere. Similarly I was trying to align the Halk timeline roughly with the real-world timeline, which led to some uncomfortable realizations... I was under the impression that Tristain was supposed to be roughly analogous to France, Albion to England, Germania to Spain, and Romalia to italy. I was batting 500 in this case, as apparently Tristain is approximately the Netherlands, Germania is the German territories (to the east and northeast), and GALLIA is France. As such coming up with what the state of the military and recent wars looked like was difficult (as cromwell's real-world ascent to power was in the mid 1600s around 1650, with his machinations leading to his becoming lord protector beinga s far back as the early 1640s, this meant that the closest conflict I could take advantage of for Gramont's backstory was the Thirty Years war. Because I decided I disliked the number thirty, it became forty for this story.
Also for those who didn't quite get the slight joke I made. The Albion is the name of a ship in the British royal navy IRL, and Albion is one of the older/original names for the British isles, yet by the timeline of Zero no Tsukaima, it should already have long been referred to as England. As such I decided to name the ship Briton, and have mentally be the case that where Albion was the old name of England IRL, in Halk it was Briton, and so naming a ship after it makes sense. Hooray futsing around with history in a fictional universe!
Wardes manages to get in on the "destroy reconquista" action. So that is going to be fun. I had been arguing with myself on whether I wanted him along or not. On the one hand having him there emulates canon a little bit more than I wanted, on the other he is just SUCH a useful device for so many things. In the end my need for him to help with certain events in he future trumped my desire for originality, and so here he is. Neither Sasuke nor Henrietta know about Tiffania, who while having a weaker claim for the throne of Albion than Henrietta in terms of blood (as she is the illegitimate child of the youngest sibling), she also does NOT have the problem of being the heir-presumptive of another sovereign power. Fun fun fun stuff all around.
Next chapter is going to be the trip to Albion proper, and then after that we get to have our two Ninjaskiteers, and out one Griffoniteer get up to all sorts of subversive activity in a foreign land.
I do feel it is only proper to warn everyone reading that while I do personally tend to write in all manner of small lighthearted tidbits and scenes, this story was never meant to be lighthearted. I will not be surprised if it gets noticeably Darker and Edgier, and potentially pulling itself into Cerebus Syndrome Station.
I have noticed many comments about how people are overjoyed with the idea of Sasuke as king. While personally the idea does allow for all sorts of cool things, I feel the need to come clean and admit that in no version of the original idea for how this story is going to progress did Sasuke ever actually get to DO anything as king (in all the "how this COULD end" scenarios I have, all of them either have the story ending with his coronation, or have him never actually getting to take the throne for one reason or another. The closest he gets in any of my current loose 'sketches' of what is to come is as a Prince Consort (which means he has no real power, though his children will), and even those do NOT END WELL for him).
Realistically I just don't see how Sasuke manages a happy ending. At best it will be bittersweet, with all sorts of underlying angst and drama. The most likely case is either an outright tragedy, or something that is very close to being one.
I suppose my opinions on this matter can change as I go to putting things down on paper in actual storied form (rather than just lists and brainstorms of what the 'world' of halkegenia looks like at the snapshot of the end of the story that it is now), but I feel it is only right to let those hopefuls know that it is very likely that their dreams of Sasuke as a king are likely to be utterly crushed in one way or another.
I also had many people comment about how they hope that Sasuke doesn't try to take the Harem route and all manner of similar things. While I did play around with the idea for a brief period of time (Which will likely be turned into a spin-off oneshot of its own entitled something like "What if everything had gone horribly wrong? An Uchiha in Halkegenia Side story" at some point in the future), it just really doesn't make sense. On the other hand, I don't see Sasuke at present of being capable of a real emotional connection with anyone except for Louise, and the only reason it even works with Louise is because of the personality warping mind-magic from his familiar runes. He most certainly sees marriage to Princess Henrietta as a mere means to an end, and while he would do everything he could to make it work, and make his home as loving for his children as possible, he didn't exactly have the best model of how that is all supposed to work from his own experience (His mother seemed doting, but his father seemed very distant, his brother was a murdering psychopath, and the whole clan was rather uptight about everything. His 'second father figure' in Kakashi isn't going to help him any, and his 'third father figure' in Orochimaru can't possibly mean anything good).
Hopefully the strangeness of this chapter doesn't alienate too many readers.
In the very likely event that I do not manage to scrape together the next installment in the next couple of days, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and have fun!
Oh, and again special thanks to Viktor who took it upon himself to help me clean up some of the language in here. I was told reading it gave him a headache, which I think can only mean that it was working.