The Green-clothed Warrior
An InuYasha/Legend of Zelda Crossover Fanfiction
By: Patriot1776
Chapter Thirteen: Walking Underwater
Link put on a pair of the magic boots, then tossed Miroku the other pair.
"Put 'em on." He said. Miroku did so as Link took a deep breath and jumped into the water hole. Instantly, the soles transformed on the boots and Link sank to the bottom of the hole. In front of him stood a door. Instead of opening it up immediately, Link decided to try something. He tapped his feet-and the boots-together. Instantly, the soles on the boots changed back, and Link was able to float again. He tapped his feet together again, and the soles changed back to metal. He was just reaching to open the door when he started choking. He was starting to drown! Link immediately tapped the boots together again and swam hurriedly back up to the surface.
"Blah!" Link shouted and then started breathing heavily as he treaded water and caught his breath.
"Forget you needed to come up for air? What was down there?" InuYasha asked with a smirk. Link ignored his insult and took a few more big breaths before replying.
"Our way…out of here…is down there…,an unlocked door." Link said in between gasps. He finally got his breath back, and continued. "Miroku, the boots can be turned 'on' and 'off' in the water just by simply tapping your feet together while wearing the boots." Link said as he climbed back out. Miroku then jumped into the hole and repeated Link's experiment with the boots. He then swam back to the surface.
"Very interesting Link. Come on. I've got the door open." Miroku then said, before reactivating the boots and walking through the door on the bottom. Link followed him, while InuYasha and Sango jumped in and swam through. On the other side of the door was a ramp leading out of the water and into a passage that led back to the cave entrance.
-
Kagome had been studying her Algebra book when she started to hear footsteps coming from the passageway. Kiara got up and looked expectantly at the passage, having already smelled who it was. Shippo was still sound asleep.
"Guys, you made it back!" Kagome said excitedly as InuYasha, Miroku, and Sango walked down the ramp and joined her. Shippo then woke up.
"You all are okay!" he shouted. Link meanwhile, stood beside King Zora with one of the bottles in his hand.
"What's Link getting ready to do?" Kagome then asked.
"Thaw the king out." InuYasha said gruffly as Link opened the bottle and poured the blue fire on the red ice. Kagome watched in amazement as the red ice slowly melted. King Zora's eyes fluttered open and he saw Link staring at him. Link backflipped off the throne and landed where the others were. He then knelt before the Zora king. The others, except InuYasha, followed suit. King Zora shook his head a moment to clear his thoughts, then looked down at them.
"You may rise. Was it you who freed me from that ice?"
"Yes, your highness. You may not remember me, but I am the green-clothed Hylian child who saved Princess Ruto those seven years ago and brought her back here. I have grown as you can see. My name is Link. We've come to lift the curse that has left your realm in this unfortunate state." Link said as he then introduced the others to King Zora.
"Now that that's outta the way, how the hell do we get into the Water Temple so we can kill whatever monster is in there?" InuYasha then asked rudely. WHAP! Miroku smacked him across the head with his staff, earning a growl.
"InuYasha, you are in the presence of royalty! Act like it." Miroku chastised him, earning another snarl from InuYasha. Miroku then spoke up at the king. "Please forgive InuYasha of his words, he doesn't spend that much time around royalty."
"No offense taken." King Zora replied stately, then continued. "To enter the Water Temple, there is a carving above the door that must be pulled out. Do any of you have a grappling hook that could latch on to it?"
"I do." said Link.
"Much of the Water Temple is flooded as well. You'll need the magic boots, which I see that Link and Miroku, already have. Approach me, you'll also need these." the king said, then reaching over and opening a box that was beside him as Link and Miroku walked up to the throne. Out of the box, King Zora pulled out a pair of blue colored tunics and hats that looked like blue colored versions of Link's clothes, and handed them over. "I grant you these clothes. They are magical and allow you to stay underwater for extended lengths of time without breathing. If you are going to clear the Water Temple of this curse, you'll have to spend great lengths of time walking on the bottom of completely flooded rooms, and these clothes will allow you to do that without drowning. We Zora, being evolved fish, have no need of such things, but we keep them around for those rare occasions we decide or need to let non-Zora enter the Temple, such as the case here. Now I have a question for you."
"What is it?" Kagome then asked.
"Where is Princess Ruto? I fear for her safety again."
"A young man named Sheik managed to free her from the ice, and she immediately left for the Temple." Link explained.
"I see. In the years since Ganondorf came and we first learned of the curse, she has journeyed into the Water Temple numerous times to try and lift the curse. Each time she failed. She said that what had stopped her each time were strange locks that have appeared on many of the doors in the temple, including the one that leads to the inner-sanctum. Those locks are probably still there." the King then said.
"She'll need our help then. King Zora, this curse shall be lifted, I give you my word. Miroku, everybody, let's go." Link then stated formally. They then turned to leave.
"Hold on a minute. Don't you want to test the tunics out first? I certainly would if I were you." King Zora then said to stop them.
"Where can we do that?" Miroku then asked.
"Zora's Fountain, where you have just come from. The water there is over 70 feet deep. Perfect place to test your new clothes."
"How do you know they still work?" InuYasha asked suspiciously.
"Three years ago, Sheik came by wanting to enter the Water Temple himself to see if he could do anything. I let him borrow the same tunic I've given to Link. The one Miroku has has never been used yet. Don't worry and put your faith in them." King Zora finished. Link and Miroku then left the throne room and went to another area of the cavern to change.
When they returned, Link didn't look much different, save for his blue clothing. Miroku however was a different story. The blue shirt and white under coverings looked distinctly out of place on him. He looked strikingly similar to how Link now looked, and almost could have passed off as Link's brother. What marked him and Link apart however, were his staff, his black hair, and his covered and bead-bound forearm. Sango and Kagome smirked at him.
"This just isn't me." Miroku said in a defeated voice as he handed his normal robes to Sango.
"A small price to pay to help me out, Miroku, but it is necessary." said Link.
"Cheer up Miroku. This new look has freshened you up. In my era, people don't like to wear the same clothes everyday." Kagome then said with a slight smile.
"Now that you two have changed, let's get this over with." InuYasha said gruffly then as everybody save Kagome, Shippo and King Zora then made their way back to the lagoon, Zora's Fountain. Walking up to the altar where he had once entered Lord Jabu-Jabu, Link took a deep breath, and then jumped into the water. Miroku said a brief prayer before jumping in as well.
The boots transformed immediately and they both began to sink, both of them holding their breaths. They looked down, and saw the bottom was a long, long way down. Miroku looked over at Link and saw that he was very blurry looking. Link couldn't hold his breath anymore and let it out. He was expecting to have deactivate the boots and swim back up, but then when his body automatically attempted to inhale again, the strangest thing happened. Instead of water, Link inhaled air! Link was completely flabbergasted at this. He looked over, and saw that Miroku had the same look on his face as well. They both continued to sink, still in shock at being able to breathe normally.
On the surface meanwhile, InuYasha was fidgety. He was afraid that Miroku and Link were not going to come back up.
'How in the hell am I going to get them out of there if I have to go in there and rescue them?' InuYasha thought.
"You ready for me to dive in and get them? Those tunics are probably not working." he finally said as both him and Sango continued to look into the water. BAM! InuYasha was now on the ground, his head spinning from a hard smack by Sango's boomerang.
"Don't think things like that! If I could, I'd sit you right now ten times in a row for saying that! Unfortunately, that rosary doesn't respond to me, so a good whack from the Hiraikotsu will have to do." Sango then said angrily at him. InuYasha just growled in response and sat up, his vision still hazy.
Back in the lagoon, Link and Miroku were just now reaching the bottom of it, and much to Miroku's delight, there were rupees scattered around in the soft dirt. They both started to walk around on the bottom, testing more thoroughly how the boots felt in this environment. The boots felt like they did out of the water, but due to the underwater environment, Link and Miroku's movements were understandably restricted somewhat. They both started picking up the rupees.
Link then tried to speak, but instead of actual words, only incoherent and inaudible gurgling sounds came out, causing Miroku to look at him rather oddly. Link then pointed toward Miroku, then himself and then up toward the surface, twiddling his fingers to mimic kicking legs. Miroku got the signed message and tapped as feet together as Link did, and they began to swim back to the surface.
When their heads broke the surface, a strange scene was before them. InuYasha lay on the ground unconscious, Sango wielding her boomerang in a whacking stance, waiting to see if he would stir again.
"Sango, what happened?" Link then asked.
"He was getting ready to jump in and drag you two back up. He seriously thought you two were dead by now. I told him to just wait a minute, but he wouldn't listen and was about to jump in. I bashed him over the head to stop him, but he was persistent, so I decided to do the stopping for him." she replied in an agitated voice.
"Why does that not surprise me?" said Miroku sighly as he climbed out, Link following him.
"How did the clothes work?" Sango then asked.
"They do their job well. Somehow, they allow you to breathe normally while underwater." Miroku said.
"That part takes a little getting used to. Anyway, I think it's high time we bed down for the night. We leave for Lake Hylia in the morning. Miroku, we need to work out a system of hand signals to use to communicate during the trek tomorrow, since we can't talk normally underwater, even with the clothes." Link then said.
"Understood. Let's go and get some sleep now." Miroku then said as they all headed back to the throne room, Sango carrying a still unconscious InuYasha. Kagome had set up camp next to the brazier she was still sitting next too. King Zora did not object at all to them bedding up in his throne room. He knew they all had a long day of traveling to Lake Hylia tomorrow.
-
They were now back at Lake Hylia looking at the still submerged entrance to the Water Temple. Link was looking at the carving above the door.
"Well, you think the Hookshot can dig into it?" Miroku asked.
"It doesn't look it could at first glance, but with things like this, looks are usually deceiving." Link said. He jumped into the water and deactivated the boots so he could swim normally, and swam over to the carving, which was just a few feet below the surface. He swam down to it and grabbed it. Amazingly, he found the statue wasn't made of stone, but clay seemingly. He swam back to shore and pulled his Hookshot from the saddle bag they'd brought down. He then went back in, boots activated this time, and walked up to a spot in front of the iron gates and under the statue. He pointed the Hookshot at the statue, and fired. The Hookshot actually dug into the soft clay statue and yanked it out. As it let go of the statue, the statue started to float up to the surface! Meanwhile, a harsh metallic grinding noise was then heard, and the gate slid open with a metallic groan. Link then went back up to the surface, smiling after he emerged and while treading water.
"Gate's open. Let's go Miroku." he said. Miroku nodded and joined him.
"We'll be waiting here." Sango said.
"Find that damn monster, kill it, get the medallion, and get outta there." InuYasha then said. With that, Link and Miroku then sank back down to the Water Temple entrance and went in.
-
Author's Note: I did a very, very, slight revision. This is not the original version of this chapter.