Hello. o.o
I offer you chapter one of book two
Do i know what I am doing now, since this is the second installment of a very long fic?
No.
Still. Much love to you all and I'm sorry that i can't seem to make these damn chapters shorter.
Much love,
Inky
The Amir forest was silent during the nights. In it the creatures of the land hid as they scurried from place to place, inching for their life to reach nutrient dense wide leaved branches clinging to the base of the gnarled trunks of needle covered trees.
Within the silence only the rattle of those needles as the wind caressed them dared speak. Like a thousand metal points the racket passed in ghostly procession with the breeze, and only harmonized at the banks of the river with the water's flow.
Amir was a place of spirits, where the moon shattered as it was glowed brightly in the heavens, dripping its light like melting icing sugar through the tree top canopy so that the forest floor glowed a blue gray of solitude.
By it's light, the men moved with sweat slick brows.
Inching forward step by careful step the four slid through the rustling creak of the resin heavy needles. Steps lithe as the hunters they were, the stench of fear still lifted from their skin in invisible plumes of sweat.
Upon the shoulder of one man the bound and gagged body of a girl child struggled in vain. With her wrists knotted with rope and her mouth filled with cloth she sobbed in muffled terror only more horrible as it broke the stillness in the dark.
Softly, hissing with his panic one of the men glanced at the girl again, scanning the darkness of the wood for signs of danger. "Gods, but would she simply fall asleep."
The other three men threw reproachful looks his way with their steps, moving in slow steady procession through the twisted scaled tree trunks.
"Can we not strike her that she may be silent?" This came again from the same young man, his lip beading with sweat, his thick woolen overcoat soaked at the pits and neck with more of his fear.
"You had best be silent yourself if you know what is best for you." Ahead of him the eldest of the four snapped sharply. Dressed in beaten leather soft and pliable he smelled as the forest and moved in it with more care. Most of his face hid behind the rustling spikes of his thick beard, a thing he never shaved for it hid the twisted ruin of his chin and jaw where a creature had once tried to take his life.
The finis had died by his hand and given his skin for his clothing. It had been large enough to clothe not just himself but also his son and wife. There were few things in the North that would acquire you the title of Headman, but slaying the monstrous finis was one.
Nothing saved you from the sacrifice to the gods however, and for that he loathed this land.
A sound, unlike the rustle of the needle pines and the wind over the girl's sobs nestled in his ears then and freezing he lifted a fist in a signal to stop.
The men watched with terror as their trusted leader slid like honey from a jar into the thickening shadows, muscles tense beneath the softness of his leather garb.
The sizzle and pop of resin oil within branches boiling and cracking had them all poised then for it was a familiar song. Fire burned with character in the north. It consumed with passion and energy, bringing the oils within the hardy wood to smoking heat and explosion.
It scented the air with more than just smoke but fragrance that was as familiar to them as the aroma of baking bread.
In the black of night with only the moon's light the fire's glow became obvious with each step they took. Behind it all the river gurgled and hummed, alive and looking innocent as a slumbering child through the dense foliage of it's banks.
It was a lie however. They knew the waters held dark secrets in their bowels and they trusted it not, even as they examined the creature they had found at it's door.
She was small. Smaller than their women and for that reason they thought at first that she must be a girl child herself. Her hair was a curtain of darkness that melded with the black of the night and the obsidian of the cloak upon her shoulders.
The fire glowed on her face as she poked and shifted it, jumping back when it crackled as though unnerved by it's frolicking life.
A cast iron pot sat upon the embers at the center of the flames, bubbling energetically with a thick liquid that smelled distinctly of nourishment.
Sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees her smallness could not be argued. Neither could her loneliness. Besides a pack of soft tooled leather laying by her booted feet there were no other bodies, no bed rolls, no other signs of life.
They had hit upon a gold mine.
Sweat now beaded on the Headman's own brow in a way that it had not until that moment. He breathed in slowly the mixture of cooking food, of fire and resin and woodland air to try to calm his rampaging heart threatening to tear him apart like a wild creature caged.
It seemed terrible to consider, the sin already leaving a sick feeling over his skin despite his having not committed it but to take this girl and trade her for the one they carried would save his village the life of one of their own.
Who would miss this lonely creature left out here to fend for herself in alone?
Swallowing hard the headman signalled for the men to come closer and together they watched this new development poke at the embers again, long lashes lowered over her eyes and soft features lit dimly by the fire's glare.
"Headman." The question was implied in the word as the man at his elbow gazed levelly forward. Could they do what they were all thinking? Could they take this girl and offer her to the god of the river instead?
"What if she is the Hawk Princess?" This was whispered urgently by the terrified youngster of before, and together the other three glared at him over their shoulders, faces mostly hidden in shadow their disdain was still visible even in the dark.
"They say she wanders with a Star." He hissed stubbornly. "They say they slay the demon half breeds."
"This is not her." The headman snarled, and from behind where the girl sat the crack of a branch sounded, drawing their attention back to the clearing where she now stood, glaring into the darkness with a precision that made their skins break out in goosebumps and their sweat chill.
"Who is there?"
This was no girl child. Her smallness had defied the convention of their northern females but standing the curves of her body became visible even in the weak light. It was a woman's face that looked so calmly at the dark as though she had glared into death's face before and not been bothered by it glaring back.
For a moment worry nagged like a splinter in the Headman's mind but he pushed it beneath as he stepped boldly forward.
Following as always the other three came at his heels, spreading slowly so that they cut off easy access to the forest beyond. Behind the river continued to gurgle and preen like a docile child, now holding this young woman between its own unrelenting current and the four men before her.
"Are you alone, child?" The headman moved elegantly through her camp, eyeing the bubbling soup and the smallness of the pot. There were no bowls, no utensil to count.
The girl stayed still as the doe of the forest in the spring, muscles tight and eyes intent on his shadow dancing by the fire's light upon the needle covered ground.
"Why is the girl bound?" Her question surprised him. Steady despite the danger of four unfamiliar men her face was turned towards the chit who had at this point grown silent to listen as the plot thickened around her. The question set her to twisting on the shoulder of the man who carried her, craning to get a look at the voice who spoke.
"That is none of your concern." The headman cocked his head, brushing his rough calloused fingers through the bristles of his beard as he examined this young lady who refused to raise her eyes to meet him but who seemed unfazed by his presence.
"Are you alone, child?" The question was said more forcefully then, and the young woman finally looked up. Perhaps it was the tone in his voice that brought forth her irritation or perhaps she figured it was time. The pearls of her eyes glowed wide and white as the shattered moon above and the Headman paused, realizing his mistake at the speed of his breaths intake.
No sooner had his eyes widened at the sight of her Hawk gaze than from the shadows behind her a darkness rose in a petal slow flaring of wings. The feathers were a glistening darkness mottled with gray and black and as the Star approached in silence the men let out sounds of fear tangling in their vocal chords.
"She is not alone."
His wingspan dwarfed even some of the trees, immense and sharp as blades the looming presence was magnified by his brilliant dark glare and the unhappy slash of his pursed lips as he surveyed them.
Magic rippled like a crack in a frozen pond and the pressure of the air thickened in waves. Terrified now beyond all reason the youngest of the four let out a cry not unlike that of a child and without so much as a glance at his comrades he turned and stumbled into the darkness of the wood, his heaving breaths leaving behind a roucous.
"Rasu." The Star said and from behind him another shadow materialized, black and monstrous the creature had all three men flinching with it's wide toothed smile. Rumbling like a thunderstorm contained in muscle and fur the creature stepped forward, sniffing the air for his quarry.
Softly, keeping eye contact with the Headman the star sighed, "Fetch."
Snarling and growling the beast shot forward into the dark, the ground vibrating with it's heavy landing and from a distance the man's panicked cries were heard as he realized a nightmare came after him.
Frozen now, with no words to say the Headman and the remaining pair stared at the Star as he folded his black wings and tucked them neatly against his back, reducing his size and stature to a barely manageable size.
"That was the weeping you heard then?" He asked the woman softly and she nodded once.
"They intended to take me as well." She added this after his attention drifted lazy and uninterested and it had the desired effect of snapping his gaze back to the man clearly in charge.
"Hn."
"N-no!" The Headman winced as one of his companions let out a strangled lie. "P-please, Fallen One. We... we beg you-"
"Me?" The star snorted with disdain, turning away again. "It is not me you should be appeasing. I could care less what you do. She, on the other hand." And he let his gaze slide to the young woman before him whose pale face and paler eyes remained resolutely on the bound child. "She is very interested in what you have planned."
"We will leave." The Headman cut in, before his companions could dig them all a grave with their foolishness. "We will go, we care not for a quarrel."
"You may go." The woman nodded. "But leave the child."
A wince so forceful it showed the slash of his scar even beneath the beard flashed through the Headman's features. "I... I cannot do that."
From the distance the scream of the runaway man shattered the stillness, causing all but the Star and his partner to jump.
"Do not make a mess." The Star murmured then, stepping back as the woman moved forward, removing the cloak from her shoulders to reveal a black tunic dotted with silver stars, and belts heavy around her waist, thighs and shoulders with blades.
"I... I do not wish to fight you." The Headman breathed, eyes flickering back and forth between the woman and the Star.
The Star's smile was merciless as it was mirthless. "Then, you should not have lied."
With the screams of their comrade in the forest ringing in their ears and their own terror rising up the men scrambled to defend themselves.
Before them the woman moved, turning from prey to predator in two steps.
The wind had snapped to slap them the moment they stepped outside. It howled with winter on it's heels and left the sting of the dying bitter summer on their cheeks. Letting out a huff of air Ino pressed her fingers into her face and breathed upon the digits.
The sky above loomed dark and starless, with the handful of usually visible stars hiding behind drifting clouds in shades of soft gray.
Pausing for a moment they studied the shifting pattern of the heavens, wondering again about the girl who had walked through their village for one day and left it never the same.
Sai standing beside her watched as her long neck stretched while she gazed. Lifting her arms up to pop the joints she sighed, flashing him a condescending look before letting her hand land on her hip. "What has caught your eye? What awful thing are you preparing to tell me now?"
Smiling, because he felt it might render him less menacing than his stare Sai shrugged his shoulders, a thing he had seen Shikamaru do on more than one occasion although he was not sure he was doing it right. "You have a very long neck. It's rather beautiful in the moon light."
Ino blinked rapidly, feeling the length of her blonde hair twist and turn in the breeze as she gaped at him. "What? Who told you to say that?"
"No one." Sai frowned. "Do you have an enemy that would want to insult you?"
"No! What? No, I'm... I'm surprised because it's kind." She began strong and ended in a half whisper before shaking her head. "Forget I said anything, let's go."
"Certainly." Sai followed her lithe form up the hill towards the gate, passing the dark houses of the village among the twisting wind chime song that many of the decorated roof eaves provided in the breeze.
"I hate midnight watch." Ino sighed, shaking her head to clear the cobwebs of the sleep so desired. It had been some time since she had a good nights sleep, watch or no watch. With Jirobo housed in her master's home she had felt uneasy, like sleeping with a wild animal only a door down the corridor.
Tsunade seemed unfazed, and had scolded her more than once for her obvious trepidation.
"You are a force to be reckoned with, and in his current state he would have a hard time walking out of this place let alone fighting. Be wise and stay out of his way and you have nothing to fear."
Easy to say, less easy to accomplish.
"I do not like it much myself." Sai tried out the sentence, feeling it around in his ears after it left his mouth. Was it true? Yes, partly. What he didn't like was the dark. The dark was painful. It was familiar and grating, even if it was wide open.
There were few things that Sai disliked, darkness and closed spaces were two of them. They had a way of coming hand in hand.
"Shikamaru is always grumpy before getting relieved." Ino began, lifting a finger to keep track of the many cons of this particular chore. "It's cold enough to lose a finger or two to frostbite."
Sai nodded, contemplating her list.
"You have to wake up at a strange time which takes the whole rhythm out of the next day."
"True." Sai admitted.
"And nothing ever happens." Ino finished as they approached the gate where Shikamaru's silhouette stood against the navy backdrop of the sky, staring stiffly into the wild before their home.
"Sometimes things happen." Sai countered slowly, thinking of the Rot delivering Jirobo, or the Lady Hinata who arrived before him.
Or the many times the Rot Clan had attacked and rendered their guards and warriors more than just farmers and hunters, gatherers and carpenters but men of sword and bow and rawness.
"Yes, sure." Ino nodded. "But none of those things happened on a midnight watch, it's always some other time slot. If something is going to happen I almost wish it would be when I am-"
"Incoming!" Shikamaru's yell was followed by his rapid steps over the walkway and Chouji's lumbering form coming out of the tower in a flash. Thrashing the bell sent the call through the village, shattering the stillness.
Sai cursed low in his throat and grabbed Ino's hand, dragging her roughly up the stairs despite her gawking stare.
"Captain," Sai began, reaching the top of the gate and pausing as his eyes flashed over the clearing before them.
Screams, twisted and unfamiliar echoed through the dark and the sound of snarling reached them ominously through the dark.
Holding the bell now for some quiet while the village roared to life behind them Shikamaru watched the trees, mouth dry and hand at the ready on the short sword at his side.
"Those are horkneys."
"A lot of horkneys." Ino agreed, face white as another scream echoed, it's humanity and desperation making her skin crawl. "Veil and Heaven- what do they hunt?"
"Who." Shikamaru corrected grimly, grabbing a bow and quiver from the ground at his feet. "The question is who."
Sai followed his Captain's example and armed himself, drawing back with the arrow notched and his eyes trained on the still edges of the wood where something might appear.
"Ino." Sai murmured, voice more terse than usual drawing her blue worried eyes to his face.
"If someone comes out of those woods they are going to be in shreds. You should be preparing to use your expertise."
Licking her suddenly dry lips Ino turned and stormed back down the stairs to Chouji's preferred watch spot by the gate chains where emergency supplies were kept.
"Are we going to let them in?" Sai glanced over at Shikamaru poised with his arrow at the dark, brow furrowed.
"With a pack of horkney at their heels?" He didn't let his eyes flash to Sai, focused and determined to slay whatever came crashing through the bracken.
Lips pursed Sai swallowed and hoped Ino stayed downstairs.
In the silence that followed the snarling growls and half barked threats the village gathered at the base of the hill, with women and children now awake and listening to the silence and the racing of their hearts in their chests.
Within Tsunade's home the Chancellor and Healer rose, brow furrowed as she moved to leave, glancing back in time to see Jirobo frowning at her from his bedroom doorway. A shadow of himself, thin and sunken with the crude scar of his missing eye claiming any hope of loveliness from his face.
There was no need for her to give him orders. Even if he tried, the best he would be able to do accomplish in his state would be the front door before collapsing.
Without a word, she left hurrying towards the gate where it seemed so many guests kept arriving.
"Is it over?" Sai whispered as the long silence grew thick and his palms clammy with sweat. From his collarbone to his wrist and up into his neck his body ached with the tension of holding his arrow in place, but he did not shake.
"If it is," Shikamaru sighed deeply. ", then they are dead."
The words had hardly left his mouth before the bushes ripped open. Spat from the forest like a rejected bit of food the three figures crumbled on the ground in a heap, feet tangled by the bush roots.
Frantic, one of the women, for that is what they were, grabbed her fellow and throwing her arm over her shoulder scrambled towards the gate. From her neck and face blood flowed freely, shining violet in the moonlight and she grunted with the effort of her movement.
Behind them both a third drew a blade tucked between her shoulder blades, the whine of the sword on leather as it was bared harmonizing with the snarls coming low and deadly from the darkness.
"Please!" The hoarse voice of the speaker made Shikamaru start, surprised by the roughness of the sound coming from such a young frightened face. "Please, sanctuary! We beg you!"
"Captain. Orders." Sai snapped, bow moving uncertainly from the three figures to the materializing hackles of horkney prowling dangerously forward into the clearing. There were many, at least five they could see and likely more of the pack hidden somewhere behind, waiting in the safety of the shadows cast by the forest canopy.
"Please!" The girl was at the gate then, pounding desperately on the iron wood. Shikamaru could picture the bloody smears her fists were leaving on the bark, how with the stain of Jirobo still dark their doorway would become a place of blood letting and dying.
"Curses." Shikamaru growled. "Take the horkney, as many as you can. If they do not retreat then..."
"Shikamaru!" Ino's frazzled cry echoed from above. "Shikamaru do something!"
Their arrows flew, one after the other slamming home into starving ribs and skeletal animal heads. The sudden burst of blood sent the girl with the sword careening backwards in shock, landing on her bum in a heaving heap that seemed unable to right itself again.
The horkney however yipped and snapped, furious at being outwitted but also not willing to die. With a last furtive glance at their dying brethren they withdrew, rushing back into the safety of the forest saplings.
"Cover them." Shikamaru panted, patting Sai's shoulder as he scrambled down the steps shaking with the mechanical grunt of the gate rising.
Ino was already there, sleeves rolled up and hair pulled back, face set grimly as the girls on the other side collapsed into the entry.
"Heaven Above." Ino whimpered, scrambling to catch them and nearly succumbing to gravity herself under their combined weight. With Chouji's helpful bulk they lowered the two girls to the ground, one already having lost consciousness did not protest but the panting second strained against Ino's hands to look for her companion still outside.
"I have her." Shikamaru called, catching her pleas for someone to help her. Sword hilt in hand but not drawn he rushed forward to where the young woman was struggling to stand, using her sword to leverage herself back to her shaky feet.
"Here." Shikamaru called, throwing her arm over his shoulder. Too weak to protest and bleeding heavily from a tattered wound at her side that was soaking her clothing the girl clung limply.
"Horkney." She mumbled, voice gravelly and torn as the damage to her torso. "So many horkney."
"There are archers. You are all right." Shikamaru soothed, struggling with her into the safety of the wall and as they entered he lowered her down to the ground, glancing back to the forest with her in time to see the glowing gaze of a dozen or so horkney eyes glaring and bidding their time.
Trying not to think too much about how badly that could have gone should the horkney have realized their upper hand in numbers he turned, searching the crowd standing back at the base of the hill for Tsunade, who was storming forward with sleeves already rolled up.
"What happened?" Shikamaru asked ripping off his vest to press against the girl's bleeding side. "What were you doing out there?"
"We... we come from the Scaled Worm's Palace." The girl panted, wincing as he pressed hard. "We are messengers on the way to the Valley of the Hawk Eyed."
Startled, Tsunade paused from where she had crouched beside them, taking Shikamaru's sweater away to examine the wound. "The Hawk Eyed? What have you to tell them?"
"We have news of their Princess." The girl winced, leaning back with eyes closed to breathe through her teeth sharply. "She and the Star have defeated the Worm and set the Rot Clan free."
Wide eyed Tsunade glanced at Shikamaru sharply, tapping the stone on her forehead before letting her magic rise thick and scented as tea tree oil through the nighttime air. "Are you Rot Clan?" she pressed her hand to the tatters of skin coated in blood, too brutal to be even cauterized. Nothing but magic would save her now.
"Yes, but..." The girl heaved a long shuddering breath full of pain, her hoarse and twisted voice a whisper. "We serve the Princess and the Star now."
Lighting up the darkness with the glow of the gem on her forehead Tsunade clenched her jaw, hair flaring around her face as she began to knit the flesh beneath her palm.
"There are not many things that can shock me now. However this, I think has done it."
The only place that was big enough to house the Vigil was the Altar. Once a place of worship now it was a place of death. Every summers end with the lick of autumn and winter close at it's heels the log built shelter made of a sturdy roof and only two walls was the place where dances and feasts were held. It was on this one night turned into a mourning hall.
With the lights of dozens of candles and even more torches to circle around them and keep the dreadful monsters of the Amir forest at bay the women of the village sat together on the bark woven mats and prayed. Eyes closed but unable to keep themselves from weeping they prayed that the sacrifice they made would be enough.
In the morn after the long dark night they would watch the suns rise. It was only at the end of summer and with the coming chill that the mists rolling from the river covered the needles of the trees in a million watery diamond droplets, setting the forest into sparkling strings reaching to the sky.
In the beauty of the dawn there was no more room for mourning. The tears would be put aside, the candles blown out and at the approach of the men who had delivered the sacrifice they all wept for it would be over, to be forgotten for another year.
Humming softly at the center of the gathering was the eldest of the women and the most severe. With her wrinkled brow furrowed, eyes closed and knees crossed she tapped her long knobbed staff on the ground rhythmically with her long eerie humming song. Only the fluttering whir of insect wings and the hiss of wind through the trees chorused as accompaniment.
The night was at it's deepest, and the thickness of the dark was only accented by the troubling thoughts within all their minds. It did not seem to matter how long this tradition endured, every year without fail the weeping continued and the village struggled.
A sound through the semi silence made a handful of lashes flutter and pairs of eyes blinked curiously in the direction of the path that led to the woodland beyond their village small main road.
Coming down the long dirt scar amongst the grass and stone made homes was a handful of bodies that were partly familiar, partly not.
The creature on four legs dark as black night and with grinning incisors was certainly new.
Cries of alarm echoed through the crowd and women scrambled to their feet, hands wringing at the thick skirts flowing out from their waists, pale cold fingers now not just freezing but shaking in terror.
Only the ancient shriveled thing that was the eldest woman remained unafraid, her gnarled staff rising from it's place across her knobby knees to assist her to her feet.
The women were tall here, but it seemed this was not a permanent thing for the older they got the more stooped and rounded. At the end of the spectrum was the elder who faced off with the incoming men, and the monster unafraid and unrepentant as she glared them down.
"What is the meaning of this?" Her hands fiddled with a myriad of stone necklaces that dangled from her leathery throat, too many not to weigh significantly. Her eyes travelled back behind the bristling creature that herded the beaten men forward to the two quiet shapes watching silently, one with the sacrifice splayed across his arms.
The same one whose wings glimmered in the light of their many candles.
"Heaven Spawn." she breathed in answer to herself.
"Your men need a healer, some may be concussed." a young quiet woman's voice rose forward, and with steps too light to hear she moved into the elder's line of sight. "I believe one may have a broken nose and without it being set he could suffer to breathe."
"You seem to know much about the pain of these men." The elder woman commented, her thin drawn face assessing then wisely. "We are the people of the Amir, enemy of the finis. We have no healers, only our determination."
From beside the young woman the star shifted his wings in a bristle of annoyance, meeting his companions gaze with a look that informed her he had expected this reception. "Fools."
Sighing deeply, the girl moved forward taking the shoulder of the man who held a rag to his face to staunch the bleeding, purple bruises already setting along the undersides of his eyes.
There was no warning, no explanation. One moment her hand was on his shoulder, and the other at his cheek examining his face and making him freeze.
The next she gripped his nose and twisted.
The sound was wet as well as solid, the scream out of his mouth shattered the frightened stillness and set the women to fluttering like pigeons.
"You are in charge then." The star cut in before the elder could open her mouth to scold.
Patting the man on the back lightly the girl moved back to stand with the Star, studying the people carefully. More were arriving from the darkness of the village homes, their tired faces confused and then fearful at the sight of their guests.
"No." The elder woman admitted, though the reluctance was clear. Her gaze fell heavy on the bearded man who had attempted to withdraw from them in the woods. "Headman Oicken. Would you care to explain this all?"
Before the bruised and battered headman could even formulate a sentence the Star charged on.
"We found the four men wandering in the woods towards the river with a bound and gagged child." He motioned to the sleeping girl in his arms, hardly five and light enough to carry with one arm. "After attempting to take one of my own party and finding that harder than they had anticipated they were educated and as a result, we are here."
Realization seemed to dawn on all the faces in the crowd and with his head hung low Oicken sighed.
"The child is my grand daughter."
Besides Rasu's snort of disbelief the rest of the watching crowd stayed still. Only the light in the candles danced by the curling touch of the breeze.
"The river god demands sacrifice. We offer a child once a year for the sake of keeping all the others alive. It is a fair draw, and my family was unlucky this day. When we saw you..." he drifted off, unable to look Hinata in the eye. "I saw a chance to save her."
"River god." The disdain could not be more palpable from the Star's lips and Hinata only frowned, studying the headman intently.
"We offer our apologies." The elder woman bowed low and at her cue so then did the rest of the village, some trembling from head to foot and still wary. "We are a poor village and cannot offer much more in return, Fallen One. What more reparation do you seek?"
"You cannot sacrifice the child." Hinata's voice was steady and unshakable. Behind her Sasuke restrained the urge to roll his eyes in exasperation.
"Hinata."
"Where is the river god?"
Glances were being exchanged, furtive looks of curiosity and wariness followed by the hiss of the villagers murmuring amongst themselves.
The elder frowned, leaning on her staff heavily after so many hours of kneeling on the cold dirt ground. "What does this concern the Star and Princess Hawk?"
Annoyance flared fast on Hinata's face then and Sasuke had to focus on keeping his face from shifting to a smirk. Quickly, to keep his lips occupied he asked, "You have heard of us?"
"You are all we hear about in the region. Your trek through the land is on all the lips of traveling traders. But we know nothing of Hell's Maw and cannot offer information in payment for your services."
"S-services?" Hinata surprised even herself with the sound of her repulsion. "We do not offer services."
"Are you not mercenary nightmare hunters, slaying monsters for information you seek?" The elder frowned. "It is what we were told."
Sasuke turned, dumping the child into the arms of the first man closest to him. "Rasu." A click of his tongue and he began to head back towards the forest, finished with the conversation so taxing his patience.
Hinata ignored his departure, frown furrowed as she stared at the elder. "Where is the river god?"
The murmurs continued, eyes shifted and the elder and Headman exchanged a long look. From a distance now Sasuke cursed under his breath in annoyance.
"It lives where the river forks, only a handful of leagues from where you made camp." The Headman finally said, ignoring the sharp glare the elder woman shot in his direction. "On the island at it's center, there is it's lair."
Wordless as her companion, Hinata turned and followed her Star, disappearing after him into the darkness.
"Breathe deep."
The blood still stained her mouth from her last bout of coughing. It did not take a healer of Tsunade's caliber to know she had been at death's door. Hanging on by her fingernails at the threshold. The other two girls watched as the last of Tsunade's magic faded in a wave of sparkles, sighing deep like a summer breeze before leaving them in the warmth of the crackling fire from the grate.
Standing with arms crossed and brow furrowed Shikamaru watched the proceedings, with Sai glued to his side and Ino washing the blood from her hands in a basin by the fireside, shaking her head as she did so.
"Will she be all right?" One of the girl's companions whispered, eyes anxious over the bloody smears and dirt smudged on her face. "Can she breathe now?"
"Yes." Tsunade replied, face pale beneath the sheen of sweat that coated her skin. The jewel usually glowing from her forehead looked dull in comparison to the crimson sheen of blood on her hands and tiredly she wiped at her face with her forearm. "She breathes, but I must say the fact she is doing so is a sort of miracle."
"Thank you." Together the two conscious newcomers gazed at the healer with earnest faces. "Thank you for saving her."
"Do not thank me. I am afraid it was largely a selfish move." Tsunade muttered, surprised by their genuine eyes and emotional hands clasping together. This was a Rot Clan unlike any she had ever seen before. There was not a speck of dirt to be found upon them, their clothing was well made if torn by the attack and besides the fact that they had fought off a pack of starving horkney they looked human and calm.
If you ignored the tatters of their voices and the story they brought with them. A story which Tsunade was very interested to hear indeed.
"You say you are of the Rot." The Chancellor murmured, pushing herself slowly to her feet and motioning to Ino with a nod she settled on the dining room bench behind her. Ino slipped from the room quietly, to check on a curious Jirobo housed only one floor above them and to gather food and water for the weary travelers.
"Yes." Looking around slowly the girls ended their examination of their surroundings by looking intently at each other, transmitting information rapid fire through their gaze.
"We... we know that our interactions with your village have hardly been amiable."
Shikamaru's minute cough was choked on sharply at Tsunade's glare. Beside him Sai remained silent and still, flat dark eyes focused with a laser beam of force on the creatures that had wandered into their home with teeth at their heels.
"We are always looking to improve our relationship with those not of our village." Tsunade replied carefully. "I would very much like to know why you say you now serve the Star and the Lady Hinata. Did you see them? You saw a star with your own eyes?"
"Yes." All three girls answered in unison, the one carefully placed on the stone ground closing her eyes with the effort, tunic still stained with blood from her recent bump with death. Surprised that she was even awake Tsunade placed a hand on her forehead to quiet her.
"The Lord Star is the one who gave us back our minds and burned away the poison of the Scaled Worm's blood." Only one remained focused on Tsunade, her gaze intent and heavy with meaning as she looked back. "The monster used our bodies for tests, made us consume of his blood and had us forget ourselves." She looked away finally, at the touch of her friend's hand on her back. "We are half of who we used to be now. Our Clan told us our names but they mean nothing to our ears. We are, and likely will forever be Chattels."
"Chattels?" Tsunade frowned, and started at the sound of Sai whispering suddenly beside Shikamaru, voice flat as slate. "Chattel... means a thing owned."
"The Worm tricked our Clan into hunting the star, knowing that under his might there was no chance for victory. They were defeated, as... I am pained to say they should be. The Lord Star, the Princess Hinata have too much good to do in this world to be stopped by so feeble a need as those of our Clan. Had we asked for their help..." The one girl drifted off, exhausted by the story so that she closed her eyes against the sorrow.
"They arrived at the Mountain of the Worm, where the rest of our Clan had been enslaved as downpayment for the help the Worm said to have provided our warriors. It is there that we met them."
Picking up where the last left off the supine Chattel continued, voice raspy with thirst and exhausted. "They defeated the Worm, freed our people from his spell, and the Star bled himself to rid us of the poison in our bodies."
Lips parted slightly as she took in this information Tsunade let out a long breath. "So, the Hawk Eyed had more than just fairy tales to fuel their strange desires."
"The Hawk Eyed are where we journey." The Chattels continued. "Their Princess goes with the Star even now further North, in search of Hell's Maw. In search of a cure."
"A cure?" Tsunade frowned then, as did Shikamaru.
The Chattels nodded as one, all three pairs of eyes opening and glowing by the light of the fire they fixed themselves upon the healer. "A cure for the Rot that threatens our world."
Sai let out a heavy breath, pushing from the wall with tense muscles. Clipped, and dry he stared at them. "Impossible. The world is ending. Worlds end, it is the way of things. Death comes for us all."
"Does it?" The Chattel who had just so recently faced the possibility of her demise blinked slowly in the dark, feeling with a sort of reverence the beating heart within her chest. "Sometimes, it can be delayed."
Opening his mouth again Sai moved to say something else and Tsunade raised a hand to stop him.
"So, you were tasked to take word to the Hawk Eyed. I fear you have a long ways to go. You will face many more things than the horkney, if you are determined to reach your goal."
"We have already faced many a nightmare." The Chattels replied, and their eyes flickered to each other, reminiscing.
"The wasteland heat, the deadly sand."
"The silence of the wood, the barren forest of ancients."
"And before that, the beasts."
Shikamaru finally let out a long breath, his mind rapidly accessing all this information so difficult to come by in their isolated world. "Beasts? What beasts?"
The haunted look that passed over the Chattels faces was darkened by the question.
"They came at the downfall of the Worm, and with Princess Hinata still weak from the battle we urged the Star to take her away. She was and still is the Scaled Worm's desire since her arrow locks him in his monstrous shape. Before they arrived we set our Lord and Princess North, through the rivers that rush beneath the mountain's heart."
"The creatures move faster than any animal we know. They arrived calm and refreshed, as though the wasteland trek had been but a stroll."
"They wanted the Star, and so we fought them..." The Chattel drifted off, shuddering. "One blue and silver like the fish of the rivers but with teeth like a legion of spears."
"The other looked a man but inside something rotten lives." The girl speaking shook her head. "We were no match. Not even with Lord Kabuto and Lady Anko to help."
Surprise flickered on Tsunade's face. "So then..? How come you to be here, alive?"
"They did not want us." The Chattels murmured together, a choir of morose sigh. "They wanted the Star, and when the Worm told them of his departure they too departed after conversing with a white clay songbird."
"A songbird?" Shikamaru's face was a myriad of confused wrinkles.
They nodded. "The creatures were familiar to the Worm. He called them dogs of the Apostate. To the bird whose voice we did not recognize they referred to as Captain Itachi."
"Lord Kabuto says he is the Fallen One's brother."
Pushing the heel of her palm into her eyes for a moment Tsunade stood, watching as the color drained from Shikamaru's face, his mind working rapidly to put all of this together into a picture of the end.
"The Apostate, and the Vindicator, moving through the realm." Tsunade whispered. Face tense despite the paleness Shikamaru nodded. "Ender of Worlds. It makes sense now that Lady Hinata did not bring him into the village. Was she protecting him, or us?"
"But what is this about looking for a cure?" Tsunade blinked rapidly, eyes focused elsewhere as she thought. "How does that fit?"
"They came looking for him." Shikamaru whispered sharply then. "After the Rot Clan left Jirobo at our door." He could see now the blue skin of the monster whose politeness had unnerved and the flashing craze of the other's eyes, more frightening than his companion's strange appearance.
"Jirobo." Tsunade murmured then, remembering him once more. "These are his kin. We have to tell him so."
"Stop!" Ino's voice in the hall made all but Sai turned to look at the door, startled when it was flung open half heartedly and a thin and rankled Jirobo tumbled in, breathless and shaky enough to collapse against the dining room table, eyes freezing on the three girls by the fire.
"Forgive me, Master Tsunade- he is stronger than he appears." Ino gasped, gripping the frame as she gasped for breath.
"Jirobo." Tsunade sighed with resignation, opening her mouth to speak only to be cut off by his stunned wide eyed stare, focused behind her on the three uninvited guests.
"Sister."
"Ino." Tsunade shook her head, flopping onto the bench again. "Please, bring me something to drink. Stronger than tea, mind you."
The fire that had been lit in the grate was a large one. Larger than he thought was needed although he was not going to complain. The chill was seeping into his bones in ways he had not thought was possible for a star. The wind ripped at the heat of his heart and blood and when he looked at Izumi all he could see was the worry in her eyes, shoving for room around the affection that burned ever brightly.
Above the sky was black as the endless voids of space. The moon hid behind clouds that shifted eerily in the wind, hiding and showing the remaining stars in an endless game of peek-a-boo.
Memories of his brother, chubby cheeked and small flickered through his mind. Dusty bits of his past life filled with Sasuke's delight at Itachi's face appearing from behind his hands, his one stubborn tooth peeking through the pink gum, the downy puff on either shoulder a laughable attempt at wings that would with time become beautiful and deadly in spades.
"Are you warm enough?" Izumi asked. He smirked a little, feeling as her body wriggled beneath the cover of his cloak and pressed further against him so that there were no curves, no softness of her that he did not feel intimately.
"Once upon a time I used to ask you this question." He whispered, ignoring the pain of his toes cold in his boots for the pleasure of her legs straddling his waist.
"And I used to answer." Izumi replied, pressing her lips to curve of his jaw. "I was honest."
He was freezing.
Inside him the fire of his life flickered and fluttered with tiredness. It was possible for fires to burn out. They scorched and heated they rose and roared and when their anger and fury was finally free they died. It was the way of things, it was the way of stars.
He had known that his habits and the friends he kept would accelerate the burn, but there had been no way to know how quickly he would diminish. Time it seemed, was catching up to him.
"I am very warm." He lied and smiled against her forehead while he watched the fire dance in the ancient grate. Of all the ruins they had found on their northward journey these were the ones that had begun to take a real shape. You could see the other walls of a courtyard, the curving arches broken in the middle like some giant had taken a bite out of their brick work. The roof long gone had made the steps decay and the second floor of the abode collapse so piles of rock huddled together against the snow.
Only the fireplace remained unshakable, made of some hard rock that glinted black and blue and violet in the light of the flames. It remained resolutely standing amongst the chaos. The only survivor of it's world's end.
Deidara had left. His steps could be seen heading out into the tundra in search of solitude to create his artful birds. The white beauties would glint pearly and dead in his hands by the light of the moon when the clouds allowed her to peek and only when he breathed upon them would they blink themselves awake.
It was a skill he had developed long before meeting Itachi decades past. Along with this skill he had developed other fascinations, namely ways to pour his magic into the clay that formed the birds, to make them not only fly but die in suicide missions that wrecked havoc through the lands he visited. Their white shapes would explode and devastate enemies or those he chose would be a good fight.
It was not uncommon to find such men. Wielders of blades that sang and who made their living from destroying others sometimes for money, food and a roof over their heads such as Kisame and others for the sake of spilling blood like Hidan.
None of these creatures had been able to stand against Itachi's might in battle however, succumbing to the wild magic of the heavenly realm only to face a final question. "Fight for me and I will keep you living long past the natural span of your life, or die now. I promise glory in your death either way. Which shall it be?"
Only a handful had chosen life in servitude with the promise of a battle to end all battles as their end and they were Itachi's chosen band.
Deidara had not been the only one to wander however. Sasori, sensing a chance to get himself a moment of peace had escaped into the tundra as well without citing a word of explanation. It did not matter however, Itachi knew him through and through and out of all his followers it was Sasori who craved the blood he provided the most.
There would be no leaving his side, not until death took him. Addiction was woven into the marrow of his bones and what best to be addicted to than the ichor running in an angel's veins?
In the solitude Izumi shifted, listening to the creak of the wood in the fire and sizzle and pop of the snow evaporating where it came into contact with the heat.
Once upon a time she too had worried she would evaporate in Itachi's presence. He burned too bright for her, too urgent. Now her mind festered with worries of a different sort.
"Will you kiss me?" Whispers in the dark were their best loved language, furtive breathless gasps and strangled cries. Loving through the years had had to be a skill they perfected in near silence.
Smiling still Itachi complied, dragging his fingers through the hair at the nape of her neck before pressing his mouth to her own. Despite the years she still tasted sweet, and dangerous as a blade on skin. It was humbling having his heart out of his body, capable of making choices of her own accord.
Having a bold mind of her own.
"I can taste the lie on your lips." She whispered, the brush of her words against his skin making him close his eyes in defeat.
"Itachi, we must slow down. You must rest more."
Slowing meant perhaps not reaching the door to hell before his body weakened and he was unable to accomplish his task. Slowing meant facing his brother who chased after him even now. Slowing meant dying in her arms.
If only she knew how much he wished he could do as she begged.
"Your realm dies a little every day." He sighed and shuddered as her lips slid slow down his neck, her hands finding places on him that always made his heart beat faster. "Every day I fail to accomplish my goal. I cannot. You know I cannot."
Fingers fluttering over her cheeks he winced, eyes still closed before bringing her to him again, first her lips soft and warm and familiar, then her cheeks where her affection exploded on his tongue in citrus sweetness spiced with mourning.
The heat of her rushed through, sizzling the tendons on his tired legs, burning the blood in him so his toes finally thawed and he sighed both at the pleasure of comfort and the feel of her hands warm against the smoothness of his stomach, rummaging among their clothes.
"I know." She always relented, always came to agree with his decision if the merits were too great to ignore and for that he was going to be forever grateful.
"I pray he hurries." Her kisses grew urgent, as though the press of her mouth to his skin would aid Sasuke in his quest. "I pray he reaches us before we get to our goal. I pray he stops you."
She did not speak again, but moaned in muted strangled pleasure as he kissed her back. Even as he did so, he tried not to think about the sin he was committing in hoping that her words would be true in the end.
"This is not our problem."
"I do not recall saying it was." Hinata's reply was soft as ever, although the understated grit could not be ignored. Marching back towards their camp was going to take half the time it took to get to the village. Sasuke's speed often had a lot to do with his mood and his current mood was boiling.
"Hinata." His glance was sharp as the fletching on her arrows and she kept her eyes down to avoid being slayed by it. "You do this every time."
A long pause followed in which Rasu whined about his dinner and Hinata patted his shoulder now standing at eye level by her side.
"Has this happened enough times for you to use the phrase every time?"
Incredulous, Sasuke clenched his teeth and continued forward despite wanting to turn around to take her by the shoulders and shake her.
"Just three days ago I was pulling you out of that giant rotting lizards throat." Icily he shoved through the last of the trees to where the embers of their fire still glowed, their dinner forgotten.
Carefully, as delicately as plucking petals from a bloom Hinata gathered her bow and quiver tucked neatly in it's oilskin casing from beneath a prickly bush. "If...if I do recall..." She began slowly, feeling his scorching glare on the back of her neck. "I was only in the lizards throat because you forgot to order Rasu back when I was going to take the shot."
Rasu keened softly then, a little hurt to be thrust into the argument.
"I overestimated your pet's intelligence." Sasuke snapped watching as she slid the quiver over her head and tightened it's strap. "Where are you going?"
Blinking rapidly, as though surprised by the question Hinata looked at him, swallowing any words that might have come up to defend herself.
"No."
"They will just bring her back. I cannot let them sacrifice a child-"
"This is not our problem." He snapped, arms crossed to show his position absolutely.
"Fine." Stubbornly Hinata clenched her fists, attempting to glare back and failing as she always did.
"Fine?" He was too surprised not to ask, and she nodded.
"I will go on my own."
And without another moment she pushed back towards the river bank where their vessel lay tethered, serene and restful in the moonlit water.
Rasu rose, looking back and forth between Sasuke and where Hinata had disappeared, his indecision so pathetic Sasuke grimaced openly. Grabbing his cloak and hers he stormed down to the river bank, fuming like a mountain about to explode.
"I know you do not like this." Hinata began conversationally.
The river sighed and smacked her lips at them as they docked on the smallish island where the water forked and in the moonlight she could see the flick of his eyes as they lifted to her from tying off the mooring rope to the sapling on the shore.
"Is that so." The flat reply was more than just irritated and she sighed, following Rasu as he hopped from the vessel and sniffed the air for intruders, ears wide as palms.
"Y..yes. I know you feel a sense of... urgency." She followed as he turned, cloak swirling around him like smoke. Tugging at her own cloak feebly to keep it from tangling in the branches of the trees she quickened her step to keep up.
"You are the one that is concerned with saving this realm. All these detours have hardly got us closer to that goal."
For a moment the silence wore on with HInata struggling to reconcile his truth with the one that she knew also existed. "But... we saved lives."
The sigh that escaped him was full of a choked exasperation that stung in her ears. Rasu hung back at Hinata's side as they hiked, avoiding the cloud of frustration that was the Uchiha ahead.
"It must be exhausting, being so kind all the time." Sasuke finally growled, shoving branches aside with the edges of his wings and setting droplets of sap scented water to splash on their heads, earning a disgruntled yip from Rasu.
"Sometimes." Hinata allowed feebly, pressing her lips thinly together.
"There." Sasuke said, deciding he was going to ignore the possible jab at his temperament with her last comment. Through the trees the clearing came into view. Rising above the water line in rocky uneven ledges it lifted high until the trees cleared or became too small to challenge the ruined outcrop of what looked to have once been a citadel.
The thickness of the air alone hinted at magic on the wind. Nothing moved, not the silky twists of mist through the dark, wrapping lavishly around stones and the tall broken pillars of the tower long cut off at an angle on it's fourth floor.
The forest had creeped upon it, and lichen clung to the rows and rows of narrow archers windows in clumps of hairy green. The steps leading to the entrance were cracked, dusted in the hard resin filled needles of the trees and the stains of drying water from times the river had flooded and receded with the suns' brilliant light on the hotter months.
Letting out a breath to expel any misgivings regarding their task the Star shifted, fingers flexing on his sword hand itching for the hilt of the blade.
"What do you see?"
Hinata's gaze had grown distant already and with her bow strung and gripped tightly she could have been part of the wood. Still from head to foot she gazed, moving her pale eyes slowly from area to area.
"Nothing peers from the windows, I see no traps but if there were any they would be hidden by the passing of the years, even from my eyes."
A sob, muffled by the rocks echoed from within, and like a switch had been flicked the air lightened to normality and the mists began to creep, sweeping as the wind rustled. Time had restarted, and nothing but an abandoned piece of crumbling stone stood in their path.
"It knows we're here." Sasuke whispered, unable to suppress the barest lift of his mouth in a smirk of anticipation at an incoming battle.
"Someone weeps." Hinata breathed, body poised to move forward but despite her earnest desire to run inside the hair on the back of her neck was rising on end, a chill that seemed unreasonable considering her cloak creeping into her bones.
"Someone baits." Sasuke corrected, eyeing Rasu's flattened ears and the rising tufts of fur around his head and shoulders.
Moving confidently albeit slowly he began to climb the shaky steps, watching as cracks in the stone shifted uneasily beneath their feet. Above the moon deigned to show her face between the clouds, gazing with it's scarred left side as they approached the looming tower with no hint of sunlight to ease the tension. Dawn was still many hours away, light would not be coming from the sky to dispel the trepidation rising between their shoulder blades.
The entrance gaped wide and dark, bringing forth memories of the catacombs beneath the Scaled Worm's mountain, complete with the trickling murmur of the river rushing on either side and warily Hinata glanced at Sasuke, throat tight.
They had not spoken about the darkness they had faced within the bowels of the mountain pass but Sasuke's black eyes sliding to meet hers communicated that the same memories were rising to the surface of his mind as he stared into the pit that was the citadel entrance.
"Neji says to be brave one needs fear." Hinata murmured then. "Anything else is foolishness."
Unable to bring forth a response with the knots twisting in his gut Sasuke stepped forward.
"Please, let us not be fools." With a white knuckled fist on Rasu's fur Hinata followed into the dankness of the citadel, leaving behind the meager touch of the moon's light.
Air moved strangely in the shadows and ahead Sasuke paused to let his eyes adjust to the dimness. Light filtered in from above where three of the four floors had been shattered. Gaping holes in growing wideness echoed each other ever upwards to the black sky where only a pie shaped slice of moon peered in.
Tangled roots of trees had entrenched themselves on the stone of the walls, cracking the brickwork and further destabilizing the structure.
Pillars rose around them in uneven increments amongst piles of rubble that was one part citadel stone and one part bones.
Letting out a breath that twisted in her chest like a knife Hinata leaned into Rasu painfully. The skulls were broken, mandibles removed and eye sockets cracked, femurs askew amongst dirty rock piles, the delicate necklaces of spine thrown carelessly as though discarded in haste.
Clothing rotted snared on jagged edges of debris, in dusty piles with clumps of hair. It was unnerving that there was no smell but the dusty dryness of white flecks that rose with each of their steps, catching into glittering sparkles by the weak moonlight.
"Where is it?" Hinata whispered finally, lowering her hand from over her mouth where a sob had been firmly stopped.
Sasuke let his eyes sweep the disaster, flexing his fingers again as he assessed the space. The light filtered down in weakening increments but a few steps before him the strongest of the moonbeams pooled on a shattered tile surface.
A coat of arms had once been clear among the tiles, it's smears of purple and gold barely discernable beneath the dust. Idly he pushed at the dirt with his boot, studying the insignia with a frown as Hinata and Rasu inched in behind him, tense as foxes at the scent of a hound.
"Might it have hidden at the feel of your magic?" Hinata whispered, nerves making her glance over her shoulder and around again. "Will we have to hunt it?"
Sasuke opened his mouth to speak, only to freeze as the purple and gold of the insignia triggered something in his mind. A memory, faded and worn with years of neglect stuttered to arise in his mind's eye. Had he seen this coat of arms before? The roundness of the symbol, the sharpness of the lines...?
"S..Sasuke?" Hinata's hand on his forearm made him turn, realization slamming home just as the ground gave way beneath them all.
The crash of the bones and stone collapsing beneath their feet was like no sound they had ever heard before. A combination of breaking dry timber, shattering pottery, collapsing dry clay. Hinata's strangled shriek and Sasuke's grunted discomfort were drowned out by the chaos, wrapped up nicely in the howling wail of Amaterasu who was the least impressed by the sudden collapse of the ground beneath him.
Puffs of dust lifted in the darkness lit only by the slivers of moon that dared pierce the black. Coughing and tasting what was most likely the remains of long murdered children Hinata scrambled to get up, and froze as her hand slammed to a stop on the hard smoothness of Sasuke's warm chest.
Looking down she stared, realizing that either leg was around his waist and for all intents and purposes she was in a very compromising position.
The choking gasp was less to do with her breathless fall then as she scrambled, and failed to gather herself away from him, the tangle of her cloak beneath his pinned body making it impossible to remove herself.
"Stop. Squirming." The bite in his tone was as vicious as ever and freezing, she tried to gather her breath, swallowing a mouthful of the bitter tasting debris coated air into lungs no longer working.
Her heart was doing a fine job behaving as a rabbit however.
"I...I can't get off. I'm so sorry-"
"I realize that. Stop moving and I can-" Sasuke froze, one hand burning where it rested on her thigh as his attention was drawn to movement, dark and sinister from behind.
Twisting as much as he could with her weight pinning him he stared at the dark and after a long still moment where neither breathed the black stared back.
The glint of wet eyes shimmered from the puffs of white bone dust and behind Hinata Amaterasu growled low and furious, hackles rising and ears flat to his head.
Frozen in place HInata stared, fingers tight on the knife at the small of her back and ready to slice through her cloak she breathed in a tiny mouthful of air and squinted.
"It...it's a child, Sasuke."
"No." His disagreement was disregarded as he tugged her cloak free and she stood swiftly, her weight and warmth leaving him suddenly cold as he shoved himself fluidly to his feet behind her. "Hinata-"
"It's all right. We're here to help you." Hinata extended a hand slowly forward at the shadow, watching as the dark shape cocked it's small head, eyes blinking slowly in response to her gentle tone.
"I promise, we just want to get you out of here. Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"Hinata." Sasuke snarled, hand twitching at his side with the hiss of electricity and magic. "I can feel it. It is not-"
The ripple of power was like being hit by a heatwave in the middle of winter, hot enough to make the world dance and the light shimmer.
Stunned, Hinata stared some more, mouth slowly falling open as the small delicate silhouette rose and grew taller.
And taller.
And taller still, making her head crane back painfully on her neck, blinded by the brightness of the moonlight that hung behind it, brightening the decaying clumps of hair that clung limp and rotting from the skeletal head.
"Oh Veil." Swallowing, Hinata sighed. "I wish you weren't right all the time."
The scream the thing let out was horrific and loud pitched, spraying the dusty brittle world in a disgusting stream of spit.
Sasuke shook his head, the flash of his sword coming to life in his hand brightening the cave so that the creatures face glared down at them, gaunt mouth cracked and rotting, eyes the glow in the dark orange of heathen demons.
"Honestly. I do as well."
TBC