One of the perks about being the best was being allowed to do whatever you wanted.

At least, Sasuke was one of the best and he was allowed to do whatever he wanted, like dragging his dumbass boyfriend out of the village to collect bounties.

"Naruto, hurry up. You're only slowing us down," he called, knowing that needling Naruto was the easiest way to convince him to get his act together.

This was a higher bounty but nothing the two of them couldn't handle. Something was out here snatching unsuspecting travelers; there'd been conflicting reports about whether a monster or some sort of spellcaster was behind it but they would all die the same.

Behind him, Naruto huffed and cursed, weighed down once again by his overstuffed backpack.

"Hey, shut up, bastard! I'm doing just fine; you're the one who won't let us take a break!" Naruto retorted, glaring back at him.

Sasuke snickered but stopped for a couple seconds, enough for Naruto to get caught up before he continued on.

"If you were a real ranger you'd have no problem keeping up with me."

Naruto scrunched his nose at Sasuke, his face slowly turning tomato-red. "And if you really loved me you'd help me carry some of this!"

"It's not my fault you haven't learned how to pack properly. Maybe you just aren't cut out for real missions," Sasuke remarked, smirking back at him.

Naruto yelled, running to catch up and almost knocking Sasuke down in his clumsy fumbling.

"I'm twice as cut out for this as anyone else! I'll kick your ass here and now to prove it!"

He was about an inch from Sasuke's face and Sasuke couldn't tell if he was about to be kissed or headbutted. Or, as it was sometimes with Naruto, both.

He settled for a hip check and walked off before Naruto could decide, only willing to tolerate his bullshit when it wasn't slowing them down.

Naruto yelped, but quickly recovered, throwing a jab back. It almost would have been threatening if he wasn't seconds away from falling onto his back. Moron.

Sasuke turned to comment on just who would be kicking whose ass here, but something felt off. He closed his eyes, feeling the almost electric ripple through the air. No. Something was definitely wrong.

Behind him, Naruto was still blabbering about fighting.

Sasuke held up a hand. "Hey, stop whining for a second. Did you feel something?"

Naruto shut up and looked over at him, confusion written on his face. "I didn't feel anything." He narrowed his eyes and turned both ways before shrugging. "Nope, nothing."

Before Sasuke could reply, Naruto leaned in with his worst shit-eating grin. "What, are you scared or something? 'Cause if you are don't worry, you've got a big strong man to save you," Naruto said, flexing even though it only made him look like an even bigger idiot.

Sasuke pushed him away, shaking his head. "No, you dumbass. I'm not scared; I'm being smart. We're dealing with magic here and if we aren't paying attention one of us, probably you, is going to fuck up and get us killed."

"Yeah, well I'm going to be the one to find the monster first and you can watch me slay it!"

"Tch. Good luck tracking it down when every squirrel, mouse, and sparrow within a two mile radius can hear your big mouth."

"Yeah, yeah you say that but let's see if you're still thinking that when you're up against the big bad beast and need a real warrior to come save you."

Sasuke snickered. "I'll remind you that my mission success rate is a full ten percent higher than yours. I think I'll be fine here."

He looked back to see how Naruto would respond, but his partner was looking past him, pointing into the distance, squinting his eyes in confusion.

Naruto met his eyes. "Hey, you can see that too, right? That isn't what you were talking about earlier, is it? What you heard or something?

He followed Naruto's line of sight, uncertain. "What are you talking about? I don't…" but then, out of nowhere, he did see it.

It wasn't a house or a cottage as they'd read in their mission assignment but a castle. A full goddamn castle in the middle of nowhere, complete with high walls on the sides and an entrance directly within their line of sight, a bright metal gate pulled up to let them walk straight in.

Sasuke let out a breathy laugh. Of all the wasteful shit he'd seen spellcasters do this had to be pretty high up there. He closed his eyes again, trying to get a feel for the area to get a confirmation.

Like most magical things, it felt wrong, a strange mix of neck-tingling unease and nervous excitement. It even looked wrong, like the dimensions were somehow wrong for its shape, or that pieces of it were somehow missing even when it was entirely within view.

You could stare at it and the edges would never feel entirely settled; no matter how close you got to it the object would always seemed distant, vague.

Magic was unnatural. Even though it could mimic real life, it would never quite get there.

"Well?" Naruto asked, gesturing towards the grounds. "What do we do?"

The castle itself seemed innocuous, but disturbingly so. It reminded him vaguely of one of the castles in storybooks Itachi used to read to him when he was a kid, charming and dreamy but probably not the least bit practical.

In the same sense it was unlike any castle Sasuke had actually seen in real life; the turrets and walls were brightly colored and in pristine condition; the banners it flew had no sigil or crest. It was seamless, too, as if the entire thing had been built in one attempt, no signs of repairs having been made or additions added.

Most castles he'd visited looked like they'd been through hell because, well, most had. That was the point.

Sasuke scanned as much of the grounds as he could see through the gate. There wasn't a single maid, knight, or groomsman walking about even though it was the middle of the day.

He looked down, noting how none of the vegetation seemed disturbed by any recent activity. They were days away from the next major city and there wasn't a single path leading out or in through its gates.

This place would be enormously disturbing even if it wasn't brimming with magical energy.

Sasuke approached the threshold, unhooking his bow and notching an arrow. At the very least, it didn't seem like they were about to walk in on an army. When he crossed into the grounds, he threw a look back and jerked his head in the direction of what was probably the main residence, a wedding cake-white building with light blue accents on the doors and windows. Wasteful. So fucking wasteful.

"Naruto; stay quiet and keep behind me."

Naruto nodded and unsheathed his sword, holding it out carefully in his gloved hands.

Carefully, he walked past the gate, pausing after a few steps. The reports they received had come from normal people, civilians who had wandered onto the grounds and been trapped by some kind of magical creature. People who could be caught unawares and taken out without too much of a fight. Or, according to some of them, let go with no reason.

He took a step further and quickly withdrew when his foot sunk into a soft patch of earth.

No, not earth. It couldn't be. None of the ground was wet and it didn't look like it'd rained in days…

Sasuke only had a moment to react but a moment was all he ever needed: a second of adrenaline and his body was moving, knocking into Naruto to get him out of the way, getting him as far away as he could.

As he did, he heard a resounding series of clangs and snaps and the giant gate that hung over their heads came crashing down, trapping Sasuke inside.

"Hey! What the hell was that about?" Naruto called, face down on the other side of the gate, the contents of his backpack a mess around him.

But safe. Sasuke let out a sigh; for now, Naruto was safe.

He just had to make sure he stayed that way. "Stay back, Naruto! This isn't an ordinary house."

Naruto scowled at him. "Okay, well no shit! You just hold on a second! I'm going to get a rope or something and get you out of there."

Sasuke looked up. The walls were easily a couple dozen feet high, possibly more. There was no way they'd have enough rope for that. It'd be have be through the gate.

He stood back up, readying his bow in the event whoever was here might try ambushing him. So far there was no sign of anyone else.

They had already trapped him; Sasuke supposed whoever it was could take their time waiting to find him.

"Naruto! Hurry it up!" he called back. "Forget about rope—you've gotta get through the gate."

"Oh, um, right! Okay!" He could hear Naruto rummaging through his backpack behind him. "How do I do that?"

Sasuke groaned in exasperation. "It's solid metal. You're going to have to either file it down if you've got a metal file somewhere in that damned bag or we can try explosives on the stone holding it in place." Naruto kept emptying out his bag but didn't respond. "Naruto. Did you pack any of those things?"

The long pause that followed was answer enough for him. Of course, out of the million things Naruto packed none would be useful… How typical.

Sasuke let out a sigh and shook his head. "Listen to me, Naruto. You're going to have to go back to the village and get help. I can hold my own here for long enough but I'm not getting out until whoever is in here is dead or that wall goes down. Your sword is no help when it's on the wrong side of the gate."

"I'm not leaving you here!"

Ahead of him, he could hear muffled booms as doors within the castle were slammed open and shut.

Someone was coming and fast.

Assuming the giant front doors of the main building weren't just for show, he trained his arrow right on them, ready to take on whatever sort of beast was going to walk out. Hiding at this point was probably pointless, given how easily he fell into that first trap. He wasn't in the mood to be prey today either.

Outside, Naruto was still running around and fussing. He groaned and scuffed his shoe on the ground.

"I'm telling you to run and get help you moron, not stand there like some clueless trainee. Go!"

He could hear Naruto give the gate a hard kick. "I can't just leave you here! I don't leave my comrades behind!"

"You can and you will! I can take care of myself, Naruto. I've got this."

"I'll come back, Sasuke!"

"You better, you dumbass!" And, though he didn't turn to look, he could hear Naruto breaking away in a dead sprint, his haphazardly repacked backpack jingling all the while. Idiot.

Ahead of him, the doors of the castle were slowly inching open, the hinges squealing like they needed a good oiling. Either a cautious occupant or a weak one. Sasuke let out a derisive snort; they could take as long as they wanted; they were gonna die all the same.

When doors finally did open all the way there was no monster waiting for him, only a short, red-headed woman in a knit sweater standing there, looking winded from forcing both doors open.

"Well, hey there. It's been a while since I've had company," she said, holding up a hand in greeting.

From the looks of it, a human.

He knew better than that.

Sasuke let his arrow fly.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

NOW we are getting somewhere!

Midterms are over so hopefully this next chapter will be out within the next week. Fingers crossed?

As always, you can find me on tumblr as cherryberry-a03. All your comments, kudos, sweet dreams, and questions are appreciated and partially responsible for getting me through the week!