Well, I thought I better upload this chapter eh?! I know I wanted to try once a week, but at times I get busy and forget! Plus with Love Thy, I have been adamantly been working on the release of the next chapter and it won't stop... haha

Oh, but then a legitimate excuse is I have started a new career path, and I have been busy with being in training and what not for it since the beginning of this week. Thus, this new exciting path for me has got my mind going a mile a minute with excitement. It has also sparked my muse into overdrive, hence that is why Love Thy new chap is taking up some time!

Now I didn't really do much for proof reading on this, so forgive any weird mistakes! Also its a little shorter than what I usually write, but meh...

Special shout outs to those who commented: chillap (thanks so much for dropping a line of your discovery!), KitsuneJen (always a pleasure to see your smiling face!), I P frealy (it is what it is eh!) and Esuri8 (glad I perked your interest!)

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Sasuke woke suddenly to the sounds of songbirds and the wind whistling through the tree branches and leaves. He looked about quickly to see that he was still beneath the shelter, curled up close to what was now a smoldering fire pit. Sitting up quickly, he looked about to see no sign of the old lady that sat with him. His eyes scanned the trees, looking at every area quickly, his head turning about and seeing nothing but thick brush.

An all too familiar snort and whinny was behind him and Sasuke turned to see his trusted steed bowing his head repeatedly at him, demanding his breakfast. Sasuke smirked at the horse, "okay okay, I'm up now you see?" Glancing around the thick brush again, seeing nothing but foliage he moved to stand up, stretching his arms out before stepping out from under the shelter. "Did you see where she went?" he asked his horse while unlatching the hook from one of the saddle bags. The horse all but snorted in response. Sasuke pulled out a few items to eat, handing out an apple to the horse's muzzle. He began to eat his breakfast and walked a few paces around the area looking about.

"Strange old lady, I wonder where she lives? Odd that she was out here, during a storm, and did she build this shelter herself?" Sasuke spoke out loud, his thoughts thinking about the night before. He recalled the old woman singing the song, and he was writing the words. Gripping his apple with his teeth to free his hands, he patted his hip to see that his satchel was still there. He sighed in relief, 'at least she didn't rob me,' before flipping it open to look inside. His notebook was still there, he pulled it out and flipped it open. The words were there and he read them over and over. He recalled she only sang up to the chaos line and his notes about what she had said about slaying dragons was also in there.

"Inconceivable," he muttered to himself before biting into the apple still between his teeth and grabbing it. He moved to sit beneath the shelter again and reviewed his notebook. While finishing his breakfast, he decided to write about his experience with the old woman. How she looked, what she talked about and how he found her to this moment the next morning. After several moments, he reviewed what he wrote and felt satisfied. Looking around the area again, he still saw nothing that suggested the old woman was ever there other than the shelter and the smoldering charcoal. "Let's get you brushed up before we go alright?" Sasuke called out while digging in the saddle bag for the horse brush. After being drenched, his horse needed a good rub down.

The sun was closer to its highest point in the sky when Sasuke led his horse through the thick brush. Looking at the sun he gathered his barings of where he was and continued to head north, towards the mountains. It was still several days' ride to the foot of the mountains and Sasuke took the time to look at the surroundings. He wasn't aware that this area was filled with a thicket of bushes, and he wondered what else could be living in the area. The strange old woman must be living somewhere in the area, based on how old she was apparently. Elderly people weren't known to wander too far from villages, well from what he understood. He listened to the unique calls of the different birds and briefly wondered if there was any wild game in the area. As sudden as the thicket came upon him last night he was stepping out into the open area among the rolling foothills. His horse shook his body furiously, causing small hairs to fly about and Sasuke chuckled at the sight.

"Well buddy, I guess we better get a move on hmm?" Sasuke patted the horse's thick neck. "Let's see how far we can get this afternoon shall we?" Slipping his foot into the stirrup, he hoisted himself up fluidly and nudged the steed north, the majestic mountains still a haze in the distance.

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The next few days were filled with no real excitement as Sasuke pushed through the hills. He examined the piece of parchment several times in the day, looking over the areas he had already been to, the rock formation under the sea water, the bowl type crevice in the foothills. He went over his notes from what Kushina had shown him prior to leaving; the interviews, the clues, that the Uzumaki kingdom had completed but they were all dead ends. Many interviews were nothing, some interviews were from persons or creatures that decided to screw with their minds and would make up usual stories. Nothing was jumping out at him, or tying together and the more he looked at his notes, the more questions he came up with. He decided to put away the parchment, made some notes in his book about his days thus far and put it away.

Sasuke sighed, looking to the north as the mountains had slowly gotten larger over the last few days. The foothills were becoming steeper, rockier and foliage was starting to develop, which would eventually lead to the thick forest that surrounded the mountains. He had managed to snare a few rabbits and wild chickens to eat along the way, his horse content with the random feed bars he had. But both horse and rider were familiar with camping in the wild, therefore, neither were complaining.

Sasuke could see well worn paths that lead around the areas where the trees weren't as thick, most likely paths to travel between villages. But Sasuke noticed that so many of the paths were growing over with greenery, meaning that the paths were being used less and less. No doubt due to the Uzumaki kingdom slowly losing wealth, since that night 10 years ago, as Itachi had explained, Queen Kushina has been struggling. He stopped at the edge of where several foot paths passed each other, looking about the area and contemplating his next move. Areas that were traveled by humans, most likely wouldn't have any new clues, it would be better to move through less traveled areas. Nudging his steed, they both headed in the direction of where it seemed the forest would eventually become the thickest and away from any well formed paths.

After several hours, the sprigs of trees and bush, the rolling hills of long grass, had now become steep inclines, littered with rock and thickening trees. Slowly the tree trucks were becoming thicker, wider, and taller. Sasuke had taken to walking next to his horse to give him a rest from carrying him up the continuous rise of the land. He had not seen any sign of possible humans, or other types of questionable creatures and he thought about how far he should travel within these mountains. Taking a break by a river, he let his horse take a long drink of water and took the saddle off. He then gave the horse a brush down and let him wander through the shallow waters while Sasuke sat against a large tree and ate a light lunch. He pulled out his notebook, deciding to review his notes some more.

He studied about the dragon, what the villagers had seen and reported. He hummed under his breath while taking in the visual evidence that came from the interviews. The dragon was said to come into the village, hidden in the shadows and that often no one had seen it until the dragon was upon them. Sasuke tapped his chin. 'Didn't anyone see the dragon in the daylight?' He flipped through the numerous notes, finding the common factors with all the sightings and interviews. From what he could tell, all dragon sightings were in the night, coming out of the shadows, hidden within the darkness. The one common factor that Sasuke made a note on, there was no moon apparently. 'Interesting…' he thought to himself. Glancing up to see what his horse was up to, he noticed that there were several noises of wildlife, one he happened to recognize, sounded like wild turkeys.

Snapping his book closed, the thought of getting some game came to mind. Gathering up his articles and shoving them back into his bag, he decided to take a walk and see about nabbing a turkey or two. Giving his horse a pat on the neck and giving the command for the horse to remain in the area, Sasuke made his way towards the sounds. He didn't have to walk far, only into an area that was thick with trees and rock, when he found a rafter of turkeys, pecking away at the small bugs that were scurrying away from the predators. Kneeling close to the ground, around lower trees, Sasuke counted the various birds and planned his attack. If he was lucky, he could probably score at least two, and that would certainly last a few days at least.

A noise startled the birds and Sasuke swore under his breath as the birds began to scatter. He darted out after the flock, still intent on catching at least one. The birds fluttered away quickly, darting between trees and bushes, and Sasuke slipped about the moss covered areas, swearing under his breath. He zoomed in between the trees and bushes, leaping over fallen logs and rocks. His plan on catching one or two was literally flown out the window as he scrambled to grab at least one. Catching the movement in the corner of his eye, he saw that two had ducked beneath some hanging greenery against a large area of rock. 'Perfect! Little shits will be trapped!' He smirked and slid to a stop, grabbing a hold of a large tree truck to get him turned around. Because he was near the foot of the mountains, several areas of large rock sprouted from the ground, creating large cliff-like formations covered in moss and vines. 'Stupid birds, thinking they can outsmart me!' Sasuke grinned to himself as he quietly made his way to the area where the birds had hidden behind the hanging vines and leaves.

Slowing his heart and taking some deep breaths, he grabbed a handful of vines and pushed them slowly to the side, his ears listening carefully for the familiar call of the turkeys. He wanted to surprise them and be able to grab at least one. A strong smell hit his nose with a breath of wind when the vines were moved. 'What the hell…' Sasuke, intrigued, pushed the vines to the side with more force than he had originally intended, realizing that there was no rock wall behind the thick curtain of vines. He was expecting some smaller clefts in the rock face, but not an entire cavern opening! He squinted his eyes to look into the small dark opening, trying to see past the opening, but to no avail. His ears picked up the echoing of the squawking noises from the two turkeys that had made their way into the cave, so, being that the turkeys are in the cave, there may not be anything dangerous living in the darkness. Grabbing his sword hilt, he crouched down and stepped into the darkness.

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Itachi flicked his fingers through various documents and parchment scrolls, reading various lines diligently and carefully. After his consultation with the elders and council members, naturally the honourable members were joyous at the thought of Itachi melding with King Yuki's kingdom. The union would mean more strength, power and financial gain to the Uchiha kingdom and Itachi scoffed at how the elders only took into consideration wealth and power. Of course they mentioned the probability of heirs to carry on the Uchiha line and Itachi could swear some of them were actually drooling. He let out a long sigh at the memory of his meetings and continued to flick through the papers. He needed to familiarize himself with the details of when two kingdoms were joined through marriage. Not only for himself but with the possibility of his otouto marrying Queen Kushina. He frowned at the thought of Sasuke marrying the Uzumaki Queen. How had their kingdom come to this? 'Oh right, Sound kingdom…' Itachi growled out a noise of displeasure of King Orochimaru.

A knock on the door disturbed his thoughts and he called out for the individual to enter in. A small lad of maybe fifteen summers walked in and bowed deeply. "Your highness, this has arrived for you." The small boy held out a small rolled up scroll in his palm in his deep bow.

Itachi raised a brow and then released a small smile, recognizing immediately where this small bit of paper would have come from. "Thank you," Itachi said gracefully as he plucked the small paper into his fingers. "Has the notification gone out to King Yuki?"

The small boy rose and nodded his head eagerly. "Yes, your highness. I sent it myself." The small boy beamed a smile so proudly and Itachi hummed out an encouraging noise.

"Thank you again, you are dismissed." Itachi dismissed the lad who practically skipped out of the room and Itachi chuckled quietly to himself. He quickly unrolled the small bit of parchment and looked at the delicately written words.

'Nii-san, I have made surprising discoveries, and now heading north to the mountains. Will send word when I have reached my destination.'

~S~

Itachi pinched his lips in thought. "Discoveries otouto? I certainly pray they lead you to a more positive outcome." He discarded the small piece of paper into the fireplace, watching the flames swallow the paper quickly and silently. He slipped back over to the pile of documents and scrolls still on the table. His thoughts went back to Sasuke, he had been gone for several weeks now, with small notes of updates arriving every other week. In turn, he had been in contact with Queen Kushina as well, only to learn that the king of Sound had made his plan known to the red headed queen. Clenching his fingers around a leather bound book, his anger began to seeth within him. These new developments were beginning to get under his skin and he felt as if he was being dragged down into a pit of quicksand. He slammed his hand on the book before running his hand through his long black locks of hair. He turned around and headed towards one of many bookshelves in the room.

Wringing his hands, eyebrows furrowed in thought, he gnawed on his bottom lip, willing his emotions to calm down. Being angry meant cloudy thoughts and often irrational decisions. He was a king for fucks sake and needed to be at his best. He leaned against one of the bookshelves and rubbed at one of his legs. In his haste, he forgot to grab his cane that still leaned over by the table with piles of documents and scrolls. Grumbling to himself, he shuffled his way down the bookshelf, hanging onto the large wooden sides and went to lean against the one wall. Taking several breaths and rubbing at his one leg again he slid down to sit on the floor, suddenly feeling exhausted. 'How did it come to this otouto?' he thought sadly to himself. Being on the floor he was able to massage both his legs with both hands and he groaned out slightly at the discomfort. 'Damn these legs. Damn it all to hell.' He sighed out loudly and leaned forward, bowing his head as his hands massaged the aching muscles.

Movement caught his eye and he glanced over to see a small grey mouse run across the lowest shelf of books. He sneered at the critter but then smiled softly. Castles were not immune to rodents, they were part of the world too but he knew there were cats inside the castle walls to take care of such things. "It would seem you would be a lucky little tyke, hmm?" Itachi chuckled to himself when the small mouse stopped briefly and appeared to look his way, his nose twitching and whiskers bouncing with each sniff. Itachi watched the small critter before it turned quickly and squeezed itself between two large leather bound books that were on the bottom shelf. Itachi snuffed out a noise when he squinted his eyes to see the silver embedded letters on the books. Reaching for one of the books, he pulled it out and blew the dust off the top. "Well, this is new…" he mumbled as he opened the aged book. His eyebrows rose with surprise at what lay between the leather covers. Laying the book on his lap, he opened up a document that was folded in three, aged and had his family royal seal. There were several pages laced together with ribbon and the paper was aged yellow. While gently thumbing through the documents, Itachi's eyes became wider with each line he read until a small smile rose on his lips. "Well, this is definitely going to cause a turn of heads," he chuckled loudly as he continued to read through the papers.

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Sasuke stood still for a few moments allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the cave. He could smell the musty smell of the air, common for a free standing cave such as this. With no apparent airflow, the air was thick with the smell of age and whatever animals may have lived in the enclosed area. As his eyes picked up on what little light that came in from the entrance, he could see that the cave went in deeper but the opening was small. 'A good size for a bear at least,' he thought to himself. 'Hopefully it isn't still living here.' But with his sense of smell and knowledge of caverns and animals, he was pretty sure that there were no large predators currently living in the space. Especially since the turkeys that went in here weren't afraid, it had to be empty.

Reaching out to touch the side rock walls, Sasuke began to further venture into the darkness, his palm his guide. The ceiling was still rather low, so he trailed his other hand over his head to ensure he didn't smack his head onto the rock. After several meters, he found that the ceiling was no longer close to him and the floor was becoming less rock and more sandy. Steadily pushing forward in the now pitch dark, Sasuke grabbed his matches from his pocket and felt around for something to light. As luck would have it, his fingers came across a few thin sticks and he could feel some dry vines on the wall. Wrapping it up together, he managed to get a small slow burning flame on the sticks, his eyes adjusted to the area quickly. The cave opening was getting larger but not much. He looked to the ground and yes, the stone was slowly being replaced by sand. The walls and ceiling were not much other than dry rock and dry plants that appeared to try and grow at one time, but with the lack of resources, they became dry husks. He pushed forward, curious to see where this tunnel led and he still had yet to find those turkeys!

Sometime later, Sasuke felt moisture in the air. 'There may be an underground water source in here,' he thought to himself. As he pushed forward, the walls became moist and his flame began to flicker now and then, signifying an air flow. He listened carefully, not hearing anything inconspicuous, he continued further in. The tunnel came to an end and opened up to a larger area than the tunnel. As Sasuke took in the area, he estimated that it would be the size of a village home. Not extensive but cozy, for a small family. Leaning his small smoldering stick over the area, it created flickers of lights in the small room and on the floor. "What the hell…" Sasuke whispered when the lights flickered on items in the far side of the room. Items that apparently weren't found in a place like this.

Stepping over to the area slowly, he held the small torch over an item that was buried in the sand except for a small section. Placing his fingers gently on the small item, he tugged gently and it surprisingly came out easily through the soft sand. He held it up to his eyes, his eyebrows raised in question. "A wooden spoon?" he spoke aloud, his soft voice echoing off the walls. He turned it about, confirming that the item was just a wooden mixing spoon. He had seen many in the kitchen at his home. He dropped it to the floor and held the flame to the side. A reflection caught his eye next and he stepped to the side, kneeling down and poked at broken pieces of what appeared to be dishes? He gently brushed at the sand and found that indeed there were several broken pieces and when he arranged them, it appeared to be what used to be a dinner bowl. "Curious…"

Holding the small torch up, there were more wooden pieces sticking out of the sand against the wall just a few steps away. He moved towards them and gently kicked what looked like a large wooden spindle. It fell away and out of the sand, bringing out more wooden pieces that were attached to it. Reaching down, he grabbed the long wooden spindle and pulled it up. What came out of the sand looked to be a broken chair. 'What the hell is this? Was there actually someone that lived in this cave?' Dropping the broken wooden article, he saw more pieces of wood sticking out of the sand. Sasuke dropped to his knees and began brushing the sand away. After several minutes, he found that there were several broken and twisted wooden items buried shallow in the sand. What looked to be a rake or shovel handle, a baby cradle and what looked to be a small wheel, perhaps from a wagon. Wiping his forehead with the back of his hand, he felt puzzled on why these items would be here. He stepped back, intent on pulling out his notebook and writing on his findings until he saw a pile of what looked to be a mess of fabric mainly buried in sand.

Sasuke walked over to the small pile of fabric. It was piled into a corner of the cave and it was obvious it had been here for some time. There were no insects in the cave that would eat the clothing, there wasn't much moisture to slowly disintegrate it and the sand most likely preserved most of it. Sitting on the soft sand beside the pile, he stuck his small still burning torch into the sand so both his hands would be free to investigate. There was nothing large, just small blankets, towels and maybe a pillow, judging by the ripped up fabric and Sasuke began to believe that perhaps someone was hiding up in this small cave at one time. He dug around in the sand with his hands, slowly and carefully and a glimmer of light got caught in the small flame of his torch. Being careful to dig around the small article that was reflecting the light, for he didn't want to cut himself on the potential of something being sharp, he managed to scoop his fingers under the item and pulled it out. He breathed in a sudden breath of surprise.

He was certain he knew what this was. It was the size of a dinner plate, impossibly firm like the steel in his blade and it reflected rainbow colours when he turned it slightly in the slight flicker of light. Excitement bubbling up in his gut, he began to dig around the sand more, curious to see if there were any more. He could feel the smile on his face as he found several more of the same hardened pieces, in various other areas of the sanded area. Most were buried, but he counted at least a dozen of them, all varied in width of each other, but not by much. He fell back on his ass in the sand and grabbed his notebook.

'I have found various dragon scales in this cave. It is apparent that the dragon had been shedding its scales to grow, as suggested in such books…' Sasuke couldn't stop his hand from moving as he wrote his discovery down.

It was some time before Sasuke leaned back on his arms, his face held a smile as he stared up at the darkened ceiling that had dancing flickers of firelight. He had quickly built a small fire with the pieces of broken furniture so he could continue with his writings and looking for more pieces of scales. What he had discovered had him feeling excited and exultant, as if he had discovered a whole new species or land. With all his years of researching dragons with what was available to him, there was limited information due to dragons being practically extinct (except for the one that was wreaking havoc on the Uzumaki lands) and only stories were left in the world. Secretly he had hoped to find this dragon in his travels and learn more about it to the best of his ability, since dragons did not have a history of being as tame as a house cat. Sitting up, he ran a dusty hand through his hair before tucking his notebook away and gathering up some of the dragon scales in his satchel to take home.

His eyes caught the messed up fabrics that he haphazardly threw aside when he discovered the dragon scale. Sliding back over to the fabrics, he realized he should look through the spot thoroughly before dismissing it. He carefully lifted out the fabrics that he identified earlier and shifted the sand about seeing if there was anything else he may have missed. His fingers picked up the corner of the material and pulled it out of the sand. It was buried somewhat deeper than the other pieces, but a quick pull had the coloured material fluttering out. It was slightly damp, due to the moisture under the sand, but Sasuke could see the faded colour easily in the flickering fire light. His lips pinched tight and his brows furrowed as he examined the small piece of apparent clothing. The colour was faded, but it was once a shirt, Sasuke knew this by laying the small piece down and laying it out flat. There were several areas of the shirt missing, but it was the deep copper coloured stains that had Sasuke biting his lower lip to stop his emotions getting the best of him.

"Don't let this be…" he whispered to himself when he flipped the faded fabric piece over, to see one sleeve still intact. "Fuck." Sasuke's fingertips traced the embroidered symbol that he knew all too well. It was small, stitched into the shoulder as it was on all of the clothing he knew from his memories. "Fuck, Naruto," his voice quivered when he spoke. The Uzumaki crest was faded and several threads were missing or hanging off, but there was no mistaking it's design. He clenched the shirt and shifted so he was sitting beside the small flames, his fingers shook as he held the small tattered and ripped shirt up to the light, recognizing the deep copper coloured stains all over the faded fabric. Blood. He clenched the fabric in his fists and held the tattered piece of clothing to his forehead, his body quaking and his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

The dry crusted deep coloured stains of blood, the shirt design and colour he knew all too well, the one sure fire remaining artifact that showed the most likely result of what happened to his friend lay crumpled in his hands. His shoulders shook as the sobs began to rise up his chest, threatening to spill out between his lips, he bought his bottom lip under his teeth to suppress. 'This couldn't be, no-no this can't be-' Emotions were too thick to restrain when his head fell back and a cry echoed from his lips through the small cavern.

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As always, thanks to those who dropped in. Comments and thoughts are always appreciated!