I don't own Naruto or Dungeon & Dragons.
- o 0 o -
Dart
"Where is everyone?" He wonders as he circles the forest where Naruto had told him they're going to be at. The various beasts within the forest didn't really bother him during his look see about the mighty looking oaks and whatnot.
Finally, he lands by this mat with a bunch of different figurines on it and metal keeps and towers. A single cast of Detect Magic reveals just how magical the mat and the rest were. "And he said that ninja don't use magic..." He says as he moves around the mat to take a look at the books.
He cocks his head to the side at the titles on the various text books. He sighs as he says out loud, "Ah... why couldn't I join in the fun? It would have been nice to at least visit something akin to my homeland."
He takes to the air and moves to hover over the board for a few seconds before he begins to peek down at various parties of three, although there is this one with five but he figures that it wouldn't contain the person he's looking for. A minor window appears as he draws close to a group of three and finds that none of them had the right characteristics to be Naruto or any of the others.
On his third attempt, he finds Neji and his party. "Hey you guys! Looking good greenie, the scales are a very good touch!" He says softly but the three turn to look at him. "Dart! What are you doing here? I thought Naruto asked you not to attend this part of the exam." The tiny being who looks similar to Neji and yet had subtle differences.
"He did, but it's been a whole day since then and I just wanted to take a peek to know how you all are." He answers and on hearing that, it seems as if all three of their jaws came loose as they fell open. "It's been, like, two years!" Tenten shouts at him.
"Well, this is a very large playing mat..." He admits since it's at least six lengths of him going east to west and ten lengths of him going south to north. "Anko must have something to do with the time difference..." Neji says with a groan and he just shrugs the best he can.
"Twenty-four hours in a day with could mean that every hour is a month in here..." Greenie says, clearly stunned by the idea. "That means that Gai hasn't given up hope on us! Yosh! My fire! Once more it burns brightly!" Greenie declares and he just twitches his tail in dismissal since it didn't have anything to do with him, although he is once more impressed by the fact that a fire has once more appeared about Greenie's frame.
"Ah! A monk, well, I guess that isn't a magical trick that Greenie uses to sprout those flames..." He murmurs thoughtfully and Tenten says, "Yes, well, as nice as it is to see you, I don't suppose you're willing to tell us if there are other teams around us?"
He pulls his head up and moves to hover another group, he sticks his head close enough to cause the window to open and finds a group of unknowns. "Please tell me there's something in my water..." The necromancer says as the white furred tigerman looks down into his water skin.
"Hi, how are you? I just want to know, were you originally ninja of leaf?" He asks and the three glance at each other. He's a bit more interested in the fact that one of them seems to be some kind of bat lycanthrope.
"If we are, then what?" The short crow humanoid asks in a girl's voice. "Well, if you travel south and west, you'll run into another Leaf party, one of whom is a very good friend of mine." He says with a mischievous grin on his face, oh, he knows he shouldn't have given that information away but he wants to see just what a meeting of this group and Neji's could result in.
"Then yes, yes we are Leaf ninja." The Ak'chazar Rakshasa says as he and the bird person nod their head. "Alright then, carry on in that direction and I'll go tell them not to alter their course." He says in a bright, cheerful tone and pulls out of the window.
He studies the group before moving back to Neji's position. "Just keep heading northwest and you'll run into a friendly group." He tells them and they seem highly relieved. "Well, I'm off to try and find Naruto, see you in a bit!"
He did wonder briefly, if the two groups had already run into each other before but decides that it doesn't matter as he once more begins to each group of three for his dear, bewhiskered friend. He did grow bored of shocking various groups after a third time they reacted to his presence.
He did find, on fifth try, Hinata and those ones. "Dart? Is that you?" Kiba asks while Akamaru echo that by a woof. "Well, well, from Warlock to Celestial, must have been a rough transition, huh?" He muses and the Hound Archon just sighs.
"Have you seen Naruto?" Hinata asks and he just sighs as he shakes his head. "Not yet, although I did find your cousin about two thirds of me northeast of you. And no, it hasn't been two years out here, just twenty-four hours have passed." He says and he allowed himself to be amused by their reaction to that news.
"Have you see Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino?" Shino asks and he shakes his head in a slow and deliberate motion. "Sorry, but I'm sure I'll locate them in time." He answers.
"Well, I'll leave you guys to decide on your course of action now. See you later!" He says and pulls himself out of the window.
This time, he carefully glances around the map before heading for this group who's in this city from the looks of things. He finds that the members seem to be split up. He picks one of the figurines and to his surprise, finds who he's been looking for. "Naruto!" He calls out at the blond who seems to be playing some kind of game that involves him being chained to a chair.
"Ah... I'm kind of busy, but it would be great if you can find Sakura to tell her where I am." Naruto says in a voice that he almost didn't hear. He nods and moves to where the closest figurine had been without withdrawing from the window.
"Red hair just seems to add something to your look, Sakura." He says while wondering why it is that she's wearing one hell of a claymore. Not that he's really interested in human females...
"Dart? Dart! Have you seen Naruto? Sasuke and him headed out to some meeting point with a wizard to bargain for enchanted materials to repair this magical ship that I received as a reward for some challenge I won." Sakura says and he blinks as he says, "Well, it didn't look like Naruto was in the middle of bargaining with anybody, not unless it was for his life while welding this staff..."
"Where is Sasuke? Was he with Naruto in this fight?" Sakura demands with an odd edge to her tone, one that seems to be like a growl or snarl.
"I haven't check on him yet, but Naruto's two buildings over." He says and Sakura stalks off with her huge claymore in hand. He turns slightly and watches her go before pulling himself out of the window to find Sasuke.
"Huh, I wonder what Sakura's reaction will be on learning that you're being tormented by some kinky woman while chained to the bed." He wonders at Sasuke who not only has dry blood marring what's left of his shirt but sweat. "Naruto... fight... game..." Sasuke croaks before the half-fiend faints.
"I already know that." He says with a roll of his eyes. He pulls out and head off to inform the other two of what's going on with Naruto and his party.
)-o-(
Sakura
Without missing a step, she kills the two guards at the gate before using her claymore to destroy the weak, rusty gate that leads into the private game hall of the Sorceress of Early Dawn. I knew something must have come up when they didn't appear by noon the next day... She thinks as she continues towards the main building and continues not to miss a step as various thugs appear out of the shadows to attack her.
They weren't much of a challenge to her, not after dealing with various waves of Orcs in defense of a pass while Naruto tries to save Sasuke's life from some enchanted poison or after dealing with a Frost Giant in conditions that had favored the giant.
The two guards at the door fled by the time she got within sword range of the door. A kick causes the doors to open wide and she shifts into her hybrid form at the sound of cheers. A number of statues suddenly spring to life but they crumbled under the weight of her claymore and power of her swing.
She manages to block a few crossbow bolts coming from behind with her huge sword. "Get. Lost. Now!" She snarls at the assassins as she glares at them with her fangs bared.
Two faint but the rest try and fire at her with another round of bolts. She slams the edge of her claymore into the floor before her and picks up a bit of statue. It hits the first pair and they land on the back one with the stone statue bit rolling a few more feet, likely crushing the group even more.
Not that she cares as she grabs a hold of her sword and yanks it out of the floor boards as she continues down the hall. On entering the indoor arena, she just scowls at the sight of Naruto trying to make due with his broken staff. She glances around to see if Dart is looking on but it seems as if he weren't.
Well, it's not as if he could do anything anyway. She admits as she walked down to the edge of the seats and then begins to whirl her sword around. When she lets it fly, it hits the magical orb that powers the enchantments of this game.
"Thanks Sakura!" Naruto shouts as the Shifter does a kick into his opponent's groin before backing away to cast some spell. The others who were chain roar in approval of their freedom and turned on those 'masters' in the chairs while the crowd did nothing but cheer at the violence going on.
She makes her way to her fallen claymore and sighs at the damage done from destroying the magical orb. "Sasuke is pretty banged up and chained in her chambers." Naruto says as the viewing scroll burns to ashes now that its been used.
"Oh... Well... Let's got save his red ass then." She says and Naruto raises an eyebrow but doesn't comment on it. By the time they make it to arena entrance that leads into the back parts of the arena, she turns and asks, "You do know where he is, right?"
"I do, but I believe we could kill two birds with one stone by grabbing the stuff we need from the warehouse built to connect to the manor where Sasuke is." Naruto says as the blond Shifter begins to pocket various potions and scrolls from some secret cabinet that's next to the entrance/exit they came through.
"Well, that's handy." She muses and Naruto just nods in agreement. "Well, they do need immediate medical attention coming off of the arena floor." Naruto points out and she just sighs as she says, "I didn't think they would make such an investment in their... players."
Naruto doesn't reply and once he's emptied the lot into his bag, the druid takes the lead while guards gave them a wide berth as they move into the arena floor to try and capture the other players.
)-o-(
Neji
"What do you mean Sasuke's chained to a bed and looks like he's been tortured while Naruto's chained up to some chair?!" He demands and Dart just huffs.
"It's exactly as it sounds! Don't worry, sword girl Sakura is on her way to rescue Naruto." Dart states with a flash of pointed teeth. He couldn't help but stare dumbly up at the floating head of the Faerie Dragon, trying to come to terms to what that implies in the grand scheme of things.
"Sword girl?" He murmurs in a dazed fashion. After all, he had expected Naruto to make his female team-mate into a healer or magic user, not a warrior.
"I guess that makes Naruto the wizard of the group?" Tenten muses and Dart snorts. "I'd say druid since he seemed to have this forest thing clinging to him. Or it could be because his staff had a carving of a stage on one end..." Dart muses thoughtfully, even going so far as to cock his head to the side.
"Doesn't that still make him a type of magic user and divine healer?" Lee asks and he nods as he concerns the possible reason behind Naruto's choice in making Sakura the heavy hitter and himself the... well... he doubts that Naruto's weak, not if they've lasted two game years, but Naruto definitely can't the most powerful of his team in physical terms.
"And Sasuke Uchiha's a half-fiend, huh? I would bet my gold that Naruto made him a rogue too." He murmurs as he turns away from Naruto's role on the team to hazard a guess to the third member of that trio.
"Well, I'm going to tell Hinata and them about this. I'll tell them you said hi!" Dart says and the huge, scaly head belonging to Dart seems to vanish in the sky above, leaving them, once more, alone.
"I guess we can't really do much about their situation other then pray it ends with them coming out of it more or less alive." Tenten says and he send a slight smile in her direction, more then a little glad for her presence at his side. Tenten blushes and turns to look away.
He moves and brushes some of her bangs from her forehead. As Tenten looks up and leans forward to kiss him... Lee coughs and they look away from each other, it's been pretty hard to stick to their conviction to not pursue a relationship while within this world but it was just so hard.
"Right, let's get moving." Tenten says as she steps pass him as he just finds himself staring off into the distance. Lee pats him on his shoulder and he tries to clamp down on his emotions to follow after his two team-mates.
-)Be Continued . . .(-