AN:
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Thank you all for the support and on with the show!
Obito's thoughts were scattered as they entered Dunharrow. He was surprised to see so many white tents all neatly lined up on the flat field in the shadow of a tall mountain. The wargs he, Anko and Kakashi rode drew looks of fear and amazement from the Rohirrim, who were reporting on their numbers to the king. Susano'o's clone's memories had returned mid-morning, before he and Kuro set out to Minas Tirith, sending the bandaged boy into a nightmare-riddled coma. He had refused to say what had happened to his clone, only that Hoshi was safe. Still, the Uchiha worried for his brother.
"What if he has a fit, or gets seriously injured?" he fretted. "Or if he accidently angers the wrong person and gets his stupid head chopped off?"
"We have to ride up that?"
Anko's incredulous cry brought Obito back to his current setting. They were at the base of a very steep slope, and their camp was a good ways up the mountian. The road up had many swichbacks, and didn't look very safe. Kakashi sighed, urging Rocky to trot behind Aragorn. *"Stop being such a scardy cat, Anko. The horses are ascending just fine, so Cookie shouldn't have a problem,"* he snapped, reverting back to their native language.
Obito quickly followed his teammate, who looked quite annoyed. The kunoichi did not seem to be swayed by the masked shinobi's words.
"Yeah, but accidents happen," she yelled back at him, not bothering to respond in kind. "Besides, I'm scared of heights,"
The Uchiha had to stifle his laughter upon hearing the violet-haired daredevil's excuse. Mitarashi Anko, afraid of heights? It was more likely for Hoshi to throw caution and dignity into the wind and live for once! But their problem was solved by Cookie fearlessly galloping up the incline after the last of the horses, much to the kunoichi's chagrin.
*"Oi! What are you doing you stupid mutt! Stop it, stop-ayeYiii!"*
Hideous piebald hound had bounded up to the edge of a swichback and had stopped short, nearly throwing the clearly terrified Anko over the edge. Obito cracked at the sight and began to choak with laughter as he watched his fellow villager compose herself after nearly being tossed. He felt slightly guilty because the fall would have hurt quite a bit, but half of the situation's hilarity lay in the fact that the drop was practically non-existant. Anko shot a venemous glare up at him, causing him to shut up immediately.
*"As soon as I get up there I am going to set Cookie on your ass,"* she growled, oozing killer intent. The short-haired Uchiha had no qualms in hiding behind Kakashi for the rest of the climb up. When they reached the encampment, the students had no trouble finding Minato-sensei after they settled their wargs in a rather isolated corner with a generous tether, a couple half dead rabbits and tub of water. The yellow-haired man was standing at the edge of the cliff with Aragorn and Thèoden, discussing the number of soldiers present. Obito strolled over to his Sensei, half out of curiosity and half out of protection from Anko.
"Six thousand spears," responded the king to a question from Aragorn. "Less than half of what I had hoped for,"
The Uchiha's eyes widened in surprise and Minato-sensei whistled apprecitavely. "That is still quite the number," he said cheerfully.
Aragorn, however, did not look very pleased. "Six thousand will not be enough to break the lines of Mordor," he murmured.
That comment worried Obito. Six thousand was already a huge number, so what did Sauron have in terms of the size of his host?
Minato-sensei didn't seemed phased. "We should be fine," he said flippantly, waving his hand. "Gamabunta should be equal to roughly a hundred of your men,"
The goggles-wearer groaned and hit his face against the palm of his hand. "Sensei, there's no need to summon the toad boss,"
"If this Gama-bunta is a help, then by all means summon him," said Thèoden, who was not wearing a lost look like Aragorn was. The blonde man then addressed the befuddled ranger. "More men will come," he declared.
The tall man sighed, casting off his confusion in favor of morose pragmatism. "Every hour lost hastens Gondor's defeat," he said. "We have until dawn, then we must ride,"
Minato-sensei gave Aragorn a huge smile. "Excellent!" he cried, clapping the ranger on his shoulder. "The Lord of More-doors won't know what hit him!"
As Obito watched his Sensei walk off, he got the sense that something was off with the yellow-haired man. In fact, everything about this place was off. The horses kept spooking and the Rohirrim looked quite nervous. The black-haired boy looked up at the grandfatherly king, who was scanning the camp along with Aragorn.
"Is this place haunted?" he asked. When the question slipped out of his lips the Uchiha wondered why he thought the place was haunted.
"You are quite perceptive," remarked Thèoden. "The entrance to the Dimholt, or the door under the mountain, is at that cleft in the rock. It is said that a cursed army dwells there,"
Obito felt his blood drain. "Cursed?" he thought, feeling compelled to follow the grey-eyed ranger to get a better look at the entrance. The tall man was peering down the rocky corridor, an apprehensive look on his face. Curious, the genin decided to follow Aragorn's gaze to figure out what held the man's interest.
The Uchiha was unable to bite back a yelp when he saw green, rotting thing beckoning the tall ranger. His cry caused Aragorn to jump, along with Gimli, who was standing behind him.
"Goodness, laddie!" cried the dwarf. "What was that about?"
Obito looked down the path again, but the space was empty.
"Nothing," he said, embarressed. "Just my imagination,"
Both Middle Earthlings raised an eyebrow, but let the matter drop.
"Let's find some food," proposed Gimli, causing Obito to grin and follow the dwarf into the maze of white tents.
Kakashi had somehow ended up having dinner with Eomer and Thèoden's assistant Gamling, and Anko had joined them sometime in the middle. The Hatake sighed, his eyes fixated on the campfire he sat in front of.
"So I guess this is it. The battle that will either completely crush us or allow us to fight another day. I believe that I have a pair of arm guards I have yet to wear, and I might have to dig out my father's tantō,"
The chūnin was broken out of his musings when Merry exited the tent, decked out in Rohirric armor and quite skillfully whielding a strange sword.
"Why on Middle Earth does Merry have a chakra-filled sword?" he wondered, sensing life energy ooze from the blunt-looking blade. Anko seemed to notice it too, because she shot him a look but said nothing.
"To the smithy, go!" cried Eowyn, who was urging the hobbit off, presumably to get his sword sharpened.
Kakashi couldn't help but chuckle at the halfling's antics. Eomer, however, seemed to be less than pleased about the whole thing.
"You should not encourage him," he said while eating a strange meat. The blonde man's sister gave him an icy look.
"You should not doubt him," she responded coldly.
"I do not doubt him," defended Eomer. "Only the reach of his arm,"
Gambling and Anko chuckled at the joke, but Kakashi was a little less amused by the point he feared the horselord was going to make.
"Sometimes the smallest creatures can be the mightiest killers," he murmured. "Something so small that even an insect cannot see it can wipe out entire countries. Hoshi calls it Plague, but we call it bacteria,"
Anko snorted at him. "I think we can leave disease out of this, Scarecrow. The point of the matter is that Merri is inexperienced, and will probably run from a fight,"
Kakashi glared at the kunoichi. "He and Pippin tackled a cave troll and helped defeat Saruman. You call that inexperianced?"
"No, that's not it," snapped Anko. "It's foolish to run into battle without an idea of what is awaiting you. I don't think that Merri-san is prepared for what awaits him on the battlefield,"
Eomer raised an eyebrow at the brown-eyed girl. "You have been in a battle?" he asked, a sceptical look on his face.
The Snake Sannin's student shook her head. "No, but I've been on what the elite forces call "Reaper Rounds", which involves collecting bodies, patching up or killing the wounded and dealing with the captured enemies at the aftermath of a battle," she murmured. "I've gotten nightmares about the dead coming after me to avenge themselves," she ended with a shudder.
A chilling breeze swept, through the camp, causing the young chūnin to shiver slightly. Hairs rose on the back of his neck as sensed a strange prescense.
"Don't you have the feeling that you are being watched?" he said, looking up and around at the mountain.
"I wouldn't be surprised," said a spooky voice directly behind him. "I was told that an army of cursed men live with the mountain,"
Half out of instinct, half out of fear, Kakashi elbowed whoever was behind him in the gut, hard. The resulting gasp and string of curses caused him to relax. Eomer looked highly amused.
"Were you ever told that it is not polite to sneak up on someone?" said the Rohir with a crooked grin. The masked shinobi looked behind him to see Obito cluching his stomach and grinning at the blonde man's remark.
"As a matter of fact," wheezed the Uchiha, pulling himself upright. "Adults tend to encourage it," The black-haired boy turned to his two peers. "Minato-sensei wants you both to turn in now," he said shortly.
Anko groaned. "But the sun just set an hour ago," she whined. Kakashi merely shrugged and stood up, bowing slightly to Eomer and Eowyn.
"Thank you for your hospitality," he said the the siblings, before turning to the kunoichi. "Come, Anko. I doubt we will get much rest tonight, and there is no use in being dead on our feet in the morning,"
The Snake Sannin's student rolled her brown eyes, but pulled herself off the ground without much fuss. "Goodnight, you all," she said. "See you at dawn,"
The Rohirrim inclined their heads slightly in farewell as the three young foreigners walked off to their tent.
Minato shivered slightly, gladly gathering the camouflaging cloak around him. The shinobi had no desire to sleep, due to the feeling that he was not going to wake up from such a rest. The yellow-haired jōnin was leery of the mountain ever since he set his eyes upon it. The whole camp stank of death, and he could practically feel the spirits floating around. In fact, the wind felt an awful lot like little hands...
"No! Don't think about ghosts! Maybe it was a tengu. A horrible, madness inducing-No, No! Definatly not a tengu!" The Yellow Flash squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to repress a flood of fear-inducing thoughts. Being outside of his safe tent in a strange, dark, and certainly haunted area was not helping him in the slightest.
"Didn't Hoshi say that ghosts and yōkai didn't exist here?" he thought miserably, deciding to put words into his student's mouth to calm his strained nerves. Minato's ears pricked as they caught the hushed sound of feet crunching gravel beneith them.
"Me-naa-to?" whispered a lilting voice
Despite the warning, the jōnin still jumped when he heard his name called. Springing to his feet, the yellow-haired sensei whirled around to see a glowing elf. He blinked in surprise when he saw another, which looked exactly like the other. The two male elves had pale skin, deep brown hair, unnerving grey eyes, and if it weren't for their pointed ears, clothes and the presense of pupils Minato would have mistaken them for another pair of Hyūga twins.
"Can I help you?" he said, cautious. He knew that elves didn't live in Rohan, putting him on his guard.
"We are friends of Aragorn," said one elf.
"He would like to see you, if possible," finished the other.
Still wary, the jōnin nodded slightly. "Please take me to him,"
The two ethreal creatures beckonded with their chin for the yellow-haired man to follow them. As Minato trailed the two through the maze of white tents, a troubling thought hit him.
"What if they are yōkai, but just a new species we haven't heard of? Or just a pair of crafty Onryō?"
Before the increasingly terrified shinobi could make a break for it, the pair stopped in front of a large tent and gestured for him to go in. Keeping his tired face emotionless, the jōnin walked in. Within the well furnished space stood Aragorn and another, older elf, who was definatly related to the younger two who stood outside.
"Ah, Minato," said Aragorn. "This is Elrond, Lord of Rivendell,"
The introduced elf inclined his head slightly, and the yellow-haired shinobi bowed in return.
"So this is the leader of the elusive shinobi?" said Elrond-sama with a half-smile on his face. "It is a pleasure to meet you,"
Minato gave the dark-haired elf a sheepish smile, and rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess that I am, but only as third-in-command,"
Elrond-sama raised an eyebrow in interest, but declined to persue the matter. "According to Estel," he gestured to the ranger, who looked a tad embarressed. "You believe that six thousand men would be enough to support Gondor. But that is not enough. A fleet of Corsair ships sails from the South and they will be in the city in less than two days,"
The jōnin's blue eyes widened. "How stupid of me to allow Kuro to go off with the palantír! And none of the radios are working either!" he thought. "We need to warn them," he said aloud.
"Warning them wouldn't do any good," argued the elf lord. "Everyone will have their hands full dealing with Sauron's main force,"
"What about Orochimaru?" Aragorn proposed. "Do you think he could help?"
Minato shook his spiky, yellow head. "I am not keen on sending any of my summons into More-doors just to deliver a message that might never be given,"
Both the ranger and Elrond-sama looked horrified. Two identical heads popped into the tent.
"Who is in Mordor?" they asked in unison, startling the jōnin badly.
"By the Byakugan!" he swore, doing a double take. Both Aragorn and Elrond-sama chuckled in amusement. "Not to be rude, but who are you?"
"Forgive us for neglecting to introduce ourselves," one elf, clad in dark grey stepped fully into the tent. "I am Elladan,'
"And I am Elrohir," introduced the other, clad in light grey. "We are Elrond's son's and Estel's brothers," the finished in unison.
Minato looked over to Aragorn, who was looking slightly uncomfortable. "I am guessing that you were taken in by Elrond-sama at a young age and dubbed "Estel" for one reason or another," he said cheerfully.
The tall man nodded affirmatively. "You guessed correctly, but let us try to stay on topic. I am going to assume that Orochimaru is just fine or dead and in either case cannot help us. The fact remains that we cannot take on this threat with our current number of men. Fortunately, there is an army that dwells in the mountains which owes its allegiance to me,"
The Yellow Flash could feel his mind begin to shut down. "You command an army of cursed men?" he cried, interrupting the man.
Aragorn sighed. "I would like for you to join me in recruiting them," he finished tiredly.
"I thought you already had their allegiance?" The jōnin declared, baffled. Elrond-sama promptly hushed him.
"Estel simply needs your help in convincing them to join us, which they eventually will,"
Minato blinked. "I am not a very convincing person," he said, confused. "So why do you need me?"
"Lady Galadriel learned from your snake-like friend that you have a knack for dealing with demons," explained the elf lord. "Cursed men shouldn't be to difficult for you,"
The yellow-haired teacher stifled a sigh and made a mental note to kill Orochimaru on a later date.
"So when are we leaving?" he asked.
†*†*†*†*†
Minato stood by Aragorn as he readied his horse.
"I am not sure why you need to bring an easily spooked creature into a haunted mountain," he commented, shifting his backpack on his shoulders.
"Riding a horse is faster than walking and conserves energy," returned the ranger, who wore a morose look on his face. The tall man's expression piqued the jōnin's curiosity to the point that he had to meddle.
"Why the long face?" he said, prompting Aragorn to give him a look. "What is making you so depressed?" he explained. "It is not as if we are running off to our death,"
The grey-eyed man was silent for a bit as he placed the saddlebags on his horse. "Somehow, Sauron has sickened the one I hold dear. If he is not brought down soon, she will die,"
"Ah," murmured the yellow-haired shinobi, sympathetic. Aragorn looked up at him, concern flicking across the tall man's pale face.
"I sense fear from you," he said, his brow furrowing. "Are you alright?"
"What? I am just fine!" declared Minato, taken aback. "I simply have no love for ghosts,"
The ranger shot him a disbelieving look but did not comment as he put a bridle on the steed.
"Are your brothers coming with us?" asked the jōnin, who wanted to assess the number of people who were joining them.
"No," Aragron answered. "They are going to return to Rivendell with Lord Elrond. The roads are dangerous and it is folly to travel alone,"
As the ranger was double checking the saddle, Minato noticed Eowyn walking toward them.
"Why are you doing this?" she cried in a hushed tone, ignoring the shinobi completely. "The war lies to the East. You cannot leave on the eve of battle. You cannot abandon the men,"
The jōnin-sensei noted how infatuation colored her voice and a fear of abandonment shone in her icy eyes.
"Poor Eowyn," he thought. "Her heart is going to get broken,"
"Eowyn," Aragorn started, trying to calm her down.
"The men need you here," she pleaded. The yellow-haired shinobi could practically hear her plea of "I need you,"
After a moment of thought, the tall, dark-haired man turned to her. "Why have you come?" he asked.
The blonde princess looked slightly surprised. "Do you not know?" she said quietly.
The ranger gave her a sympathetic look before breaking it to her. "It is but a shadow and a thought that you love. I cannot give you what you seek,"
The words seemed to physically strike her as she backed away, into Minato. A blush rose in her cheeks and the jōnin could see her holding back tears.
"Sorry," she whispered. The jōnin shook his head slightly.
"Don't bother yourself over this," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder, pretending Aragorn wasn't there. "There are plenty of trees in the forest, as we say back at home. He means you well, but he is already taken,"
Eowyn nodded, tears falling down her face. The White Lady looked back at the ranger, who gave her an apologetic look.
"We'll see you in battle," the jōnin murmured, walking toward the entrance to the Dimhold. Aragorn followed after shooting a look back at the heartbroken shieldmaiden.
"Pleanty of trees in the forest?" he said with a raised eyebrow as they walked through the camp.
The yellow-haired shinobi rubbed the back of his neck. "Breakups and rejections are quite common back at home," he explained.
The two continued along in silence until a gruff voice interrupted them.
"Just where do you think you're off to?" queried Gimli, who was sitting outside a tent with Obito.
"Yeah, were you both just going to up and leave without a note?" added the Uchiha.
Minato blinked in surprise. "What are you doing up, Obito?"
"Anko put a whole bunch of unmentionalby gross stuff in my sleeping bag," grumbled the student. "But where are you going?"
"Where Gimli is not supposed to follow," answered Aragorn, giving the dwarf a look.
"Have you learned nothing of the stubborness of dwarves?" said Legolas, who had joined them, leading his white horse.
"You might as well accept it," finalized Gimli. "We're going with you, laddie,"
The ranger smiled, clearly glad that they decided to join him. Obito gave the yellow-haired sensei a pleading look.
"Can I join you?" he asked.
Minato raised a sun-colored eyebrow. "Do you want to meet a cursed army?"
The Uchiha's eyes widened. "Have fun in yomi!" he cried, before taking off into the camp.
Legolas watched the boy go. "What is yo-me and why did it upset him so?" he asked as they started to walk again.
The jōnin sighed. "Yomi is the place where our people believe the dead live. It is not very pleasant,"
Finally reaching the area where the others could mount their horses, Aragorn looked into the path they were to take. "I think your student has given this place an accurate discription," he murmured.
With a shudder, Minato followed the ranger and his friends into the Dimholt.
