She Who Brings The Hurricane

The feeling of being in a free fall didn't cease when reality once more assumed well-defined shapes around me: I went from being barely out of exhaustion in a warehouse next to the hospital, to hurling towards a deadly impact with the unforgiving ground while harsh winds pelted me from every side.

Sharingan spinning in my eyes, I could barely make out the presence of a cliff a few dozen meters far to my left, and after a second that I spent to stabilize my fall, opening my arms and legs as if I was some kind of shuriken, I threw a couple of kunai with considerable strength, ninja wire secured to their handle and both of my forearms.

To my eyes, everything was clear while I tore towards the ground at unbelieving speeds, so, when my thrown projectiles embedded themselves into the cliff, even with their trajectory slightly off course due to the wind, I pulled on the wire securing me to them.

When the wires went taut, I kept my closed fists close to my chest, trying to reduce the unbelievable tension that threatened to pull my shoulders out of their sockets, and my momentum saw me being flung towards the unforgiving wall. With a twist of my core muscles, accompanied by the sharp exhale that brought forth an explosive expenditure of chakra, I managed to land on the side of the cliff cracking it under my feet.

With my hands and feet keeping me steady on the rocky surface, I looked around carefully, seeking any tracks that could give me a clue as to what I was about to face. I turned my head to look down, the winds still buffeting me as my Bloodline sought patterns that may indicate tracks of any kind. I had genuinely no idea about what kind of animal I was similar to, mostly because, even if Jiraya had told me that they'd be similar to me personality-wise, that wasn't exactly a clue: without my metaknowledge, I wouldn't have known that Toads were the same thing as a big-ass Yakuza Family.

My first instinct was to slide off the cliff, humans were not meant to... fly? I blinked as I spotted small black dots in the sky that were anything but clouds: "Okay, sharp winds, and those things are clearly birds..."

They moved at a constant speed, and separately, so clearly they weren't a flock: "I just hope they don't..."

As I spoke, a gust of wind turned into a cutting edge that forced me to dart on the side of the cliffs, my head swirling around to allow my bullshit eyes to avoid the neverending streams while one of those dots grew steadily bigger.

My eyes spotted a single, small pine tree that jutted out of a crack of the cliffside only for its trunk to twist at an almost 90 degrees angle to point towards the sky, and my darting movements turned into a steady run towards it. These are Rapacious Birds of some kind, no matter how faint the cover, that tree will avoid me being picked out with negligent ease with a single swoop.

I ducked suddenly, my hands digging into the cliff as I pivoted on my run towards the tree and barely avoided a sequence of cutting gales of wind. With a faint ripping sound, I grimaced as I felt my left shoulder being grazed despite the insane agility I was displaying.

I reached the tree just a second or two before the steadily growing black dot earned a well-defined shape: and I knew immediately what I was looking at.

Technically, with chakra not involved at least, the only difference between Hawks and Eagles is size. But there was no mistaking the white feathers that covered the head of the rapacious creature that was quickly coming closer. There was no mistaking the sharp yellow of its beak and talons, nor the warm brown of its body's feathers that would have allowed it to almost hide on certain stretches of the cliff's surface.

Still the bird of prey covered the distance between us in an incredibly short amount of time, and I felt in my gut that it was seeking a way to sunk the sword sized claws into me: without really iving it much weight, I let heat build in my body, and as the bird swept by, I unleashed a wide fireball, more a warning than an outright attack.

The harsh winds almost immediately snuffed out my attack, but the kicker was that like nothing had just happened, the eagle that I had almost actually tried to cook alive landed on the sturdy pine tree that seemed to grow almost horizontally on the cliff's surface, the plant wavering dangerously for several seconds before proving its mettle and easily supporting the added weight.

"Not prey?" the horse-sized eagle ruffled his feathers, because his voice made it clear that it was a 'he', while he tilted his head with a sudden motion, blinking twice to stare at me as if I was the most interesting thing ever seen, "Not hunter." he decided after a second, before flapping its wings, as if unsure about what he was supposed to do.

Well, when in Rome... I decided to ignore the barely avoided conflict: "I'm here for a Summoning Contract." I spoke confidently, grimacing inwardly as I realized that I too would have tested an unknown before trying for an alliance.

"You've already touched the Queen's wind," the eagle tilted his head, his bright eye pointing at my scratched shoulder, "if you want to reach her, and don't pass her test, you'll die." the strangely informative summon ruffled its feathers, "You could sign a personal contract with me instead, and walk away in safety."

I frowned, instinctively bristling at the suggestion: Sure I hell I wasn't going to settle for a single summon, not when I was so aware of the challenges that I would have eventually to face. "Her test?" I asked the Eagle ignoring its offer, only for the creature to click its beak in what I assumed was a burst of mocking laughter.

The horse-sized bird of prey flapped his wings, chakra exploding out of him as he launched himself off from the tree, my Sharingan almost blinded by the Wind-Nature chakra that he just unleashed: "If you reach her, you gain the right to talk to her, but she'll test you on her terms."

"Where should I go?" I shouted after the bird, to receive no answer as he returned to soar the skies above.

I grimaced as I abused my Bloodline to observe the cliff, consciously ignoring the potential parallelism between me and canon-Sasuke, who had somewhat gained the ability to summon a hawk in his battle against Danzo, only to ignore that ability ever since.

I could barely see ten meters in front of me, then the harsh and unforgiving winds, laced with wind-natured chakra as they were, turned the rest of the cliff's surface into a confusing haze, but it was clear, at least by how the far away clouds constantly swirled in the sky, that the air currents grew increasingly stronger the higher one went.

"To the top then." a muscle in my cheek twitched as I became aware of the wind sapping away my warmth: to meet the Boss Summon I'd only need to brave an apparently neverending vertical surface buffeted by potentially lethal winds, in the cold, and without shelter. If I don't solve this in a hour or two, I'll be too exhausted to face whatever test the Boss will task me with.

I breathed slowly, Katon simmering in my gut to keep myself from slowly freezing, and I darted on the vertical surface, my eyes spinning as I sought the optimal route across the ever-shifting winds.

After maybe half an hour, I started to consciously stoke the Fire Natured chakra in me as if I was preparing for ninjutsu in order to stave off the cold, but slowly, I fell into a trance-like state, aware only of my need to keep going up as I twisted out of the deadly gales of wind and occasionally managed to use them to my advantage, if only by proceeding in an oblique direction instead than vertically.

Time lost significance as I downed a ration pill without stopping, kunai tied to my forearms ready to plunge into the rock to keep me from falling to my death if I ever lost my grip. My muscles started to burn uncomfortably at some point, even to occasionally tremble, causing me to waver temporarily before I gritted my teeth and kept going.

There were no thoughts reserved to the beauty of the environment, not a single moment dedicated to the introspection that a potential contract with the Eagles of all Summons could mean, only the apparently never-ending climb.

After a time that I would be hard-pressed to define, the vertical slope turned ever so slightly inward, and frozen snow covered the rock, still, I kept going, feeling that I was getting closer even as the sun's rays became uncomfortable.

Finally, the wind seemed to change, and I had to use chakra only to not slide off the frozen snow, instead of needing it to fight the pull of gravity.

With my breath heavy, and my fire nature the only thing that kept me from freezing, I walked over the snow, and eventually, with the occasional shadow cast by a large bird of prey soaring over me, I walked up to what looked like a fortress of tree-trunks, but that was instead a chaotic-looking nest: only it was of the appropriate size for the being resting in it.

Eventually, I managed to climb the imposing structure, and once my eyes spotted the one that was obviously the Boss Summon, I froze: grooming its feathers on one side of the nest, there was the largest living being that I had ever witnessed. Easily as big as a three stories house, an eagle, once more, there was no mistaking it for a hawk, occasionally tilted its head, the air rippling with the sheer intensity of the Wind-Natured chakra that it let off.

Its back was covered with slate-black feathers that glinted under the still-too-close Sun, while its underside was mostly white, except for the beginning of its legs, which were striped black before revealing the coarse yellow-brown of its feet. There was no mistaking the sharp edge of each of its feathers, a feature that I had already encountered as I climbed the mountain: I knew that each of those feathers could cut me in half with insulting ease. To my Sharingan, Futon chakra swirled around the Summon Creature almost like a second skin, and the words of the first Eagle I met about a 'Queen' assumed a much more concrete and practical meaning.

A broad black band of feathers crossed the eagle's upper breast, separating the gray head from the white belly. The head itself was of a pale grey, and it was crowned with a double crest of dark plumage that was edged with a golden coloring.

However, as the Queen, because it couldn't be anyone else, turned her attention towards me, my eyes fixed themselves on her beak, a black beak that could cut through me faster than I could blink.

Sharingan spinning, I met the gigantic Harpy Eagle eyes, its red irises glinting off the light of the still-too-close Sun in a way that I couldn't help but feel threatening.

"Greetings." I tilted my head in what I assumed was a respectful manner, but I refused to take my eyes away from the Summon Creature's ones, as I observed her red irises, I immediately realized that the being's chakra would cut through whatever illusion I tried to ensnare it in. Very much like Jiraya's chakra was too potent to be casually enthralled by mine, this Eagle seemed able to summon a gale of wind simply by breathing, and its eyes were as sharp as mine, if lacking the powers of my esteemed bloodline.

"I am here to..."

"I know why you're here." the voice of the Boss Summon, because it couldn't be anyone else, swallowed mine, and I had to use chakra to remain rooted to the nest, the gale of wind that accompanied her words almost throwing me off my feet.

She, because there was no mistaking the powerful feminity of the eagle, rose from her nestled position and took a single step towards me, revealing the objectively terrifying black claws that she could use to either shred or crush me: "I heard you speaking with a greedy little eagle almost at the base of the Cliff. But you're greedy yourself, aren't you? To refuse personal summons only to climb here and seek for the Queen herself."

At that, I shrugged unapologetically: "In the next years, I'll need all the power that you and yours can muster, retreating while being able to summon a single companion would mean nothing in the long run."

"Hmmm," the Queen of whom I still needed to learn the name took another step in my direction, before lowering herself a bit, staring me down from the height of her unreal size, her eye the size of a minivan: "focused on your prey, are you? You'd risk everything in order to win... then we'll speak, but know that lies and obfuscations have no place in my Nest."

After her grave warning, the enormous Eagle clicked her beak in the manner I learned to associate with laughter: "You are free yourself, and so you could sign a Contract with me... My kin isn't like most summons, we form a clan, yes, and I ultimately can order anyone weaker than me around, because the very sky is mine."

With the Sharingan allowing me to pick a split second ahead, I flooded myself with what little chakra I had left and crouched down, my hands clamping over one of the oversized twigs that composed the unnaturally large nest at the top of the mountain.

No longer than three milliseconds after I had completed my preparatives, the sky seemed to backflip, gravity and weight becoming meaningless as a wind that felt strong enough to rip an entire forest from the ground almost threw me off the side of the mountain. My eyes followed the flow of chakra, and I saw a lump of clouds break apart to reveal the unmeasurable vastness that topped the world.

The Harpy Eagle that had almost casually killed me folded back her insanely large wings: "If any of my kin defied me, I'd strike them from the sky, but I don't order them around like lesser creatures, for a being of the sky, freedom is everything, and better to die above the clouds than to live in a cage."

And as she spoke, I realized why I had been able to reach the top of the mountain while canon Sasuke had apparently only access to a single hawk, besides the fact that I lacked a Contract with the Snakes, for which I had no doubt this Harpy Eagle would have killed me, her words had echoed the main reason behind my every choice since I had first appeared in the Elemental Nations.

Remaining in Konoha, riding canon for all it was worth... it would have been safe. Worst came to worst, I could have somewhat rocked the boat just before the chunin exams in which canon-Orochimaru would have attempted to mark me. But following the footsteps of another had never truly been an option. I wanted to live, and that had obviously meant making my choices and living with the consequences.

And now, seeing the vast, undeniable beauty of the Sun above the impossibly tall mountain, I knew that I didn't regret a single step that I had taken thus far.

"I see you understand." the Eagle's red eyes met mine once again, her sharp tone echoing with all the strength of the wind, "None have ever managed to sign a Summoning Contract with me, because they weren't what I wanted, in a way or another."

"I am Sukaikuīn, She-Who-Brings-The-Hurricane." then she tilted her head again, and I was reminded that I had yet to introduce myself.

"I am Uchiha Sasuke," and feeling that giving only my name was too little, instinctively aware of the fact that lying now would spell my doom, I threw the only truthful title capable of earning some of the Harpy Eagle's respect: "He-Who-Travels-The-Worlds."

The Boss Summon's eyes gleamed with interest as she looked at me sharply: "Interesting Title, we'll speak about it, if you pass my test."

Another one? I grimaced, popping my last chakra pill in order to have a chance of passing through whatever crucible Sukaikuīn had planned.

I shivered as I felt my chakra reserves quiver as some energy returned to me, and a second later I squawked indignantly as the Harpy Eagle grabbed me within one of her feet, the unbelievably sharp black talons forming a sort of cage around me while the Boss Summon flapped her wings, and for the second time since my appearance in that Realm, I was airborne.

Her powerful command over futon and her nature allowed her to cross unbelievable distances in a short time. Soon, we left the mountain behind, and I could only see the neverending sea of clouds which we were flying over: "Survive this jump from my Nest, World-Traveler, and come to me to sign the Eagle Contract."

"Do you know how eagles learn how to fly?" the impossibly vast Harpy Eagle clicked her beak in the way I had learned to associate with laughter, "Survive the fall Uchiha Sasuke, and find me again."

An instant later, I was falling for the second time, clouds all around me and blinding me.

AN

Watching canon, the only time Sasuke summons something different from a snake is against Danzo, and is a single brown hawk: that makes me think that it is a secondary summon: as in, he found the contract with that single creature at some point, and kept it as support (absurd since it would have been useful against Deidara if nothing else).