this was amazing to write. im so excited
PART FIVE
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, focusing on his chakra, and a group of snake summons appeared in front of him with a collective puff of smoke. He would've used hawks, as having the snakes slither around had the potential to cause largely unnecessary panic, but ultimately didn't use the birds, deciding that snakes would be easier, and he wasn't about the patrol an entire castle by himself.
And Kage Bunshin was out of the question, as stupid a sentiment as that was.
After explaining the situation to the snakes, Sasuke rushed to the Room of Requirement and paced in front of it before pushing open the conjured door to reveal a huge, empty room. He had no intention of going soft anytime soon, he resolved, and began to push chakra to his left shoulder, testing the restraint placed on the black marks. The Uchiha had been intent doing so ever since the stronger seal had been placed on his Cursed Seal Of Heaven, for the reason that not only would it weaken the bonds, but he wanted to see how much it would take for the chain to snap. He hadn't gotten the chance during the first few months that he returned to Konoha, as he was constantly being tailed by his teammates, or watched over by ANBU, but now he was finally alone.
And he was nothing less than opportunistic.
Voldemort has returned, and he is coming after Harry Potter - and most likely his friends and peers as well. The Minister remains in denial, the incompetent fool he is. Meanwhile, this rip-off of Orochimaru has spies everywhere, and is recruiting more and more powerful wizards. And that's ignoring the werewolves and giants on his side.
True, it's nothing I can't handle, but damn. Sasuke sighed, more than a little frustrated, This job is shaping up to be a real pain in the ass.
At this point, I can only hope to infiltrate the Ministry. Dumbledore's got people there, but there aren't that many of them, and they're not high-ranking enough to pose a threat to me, other than maybe the one called Shacklebolt - and he can be easily silenced. But if I were to go to Voldemort, I would be put under real suspicion. Severus Snape, that potions professor, definitely has a Dark Mark, and I have no idea who he truly works for. The chances of success in that area isn't worth the risk.
It was also quite obvious that Dolores Umbridge was also allied with - or at least sympathetic to - Voldemort and his Death Eaters. If she came to him with a job from the Dark Lord, Sasuke decided he would take it and find a way to circumvent the complication brought forth from Snape, and juggle three sides of a brewing war. The money offered helped, too, he supposed.
The Uchiha wasn't really greedy, despite understanding the importance of money. It was really information he was after, he acknowledged, glancing around the massive library. Not only from the tomes collected in Hogwarts castle, but also the mountains of records stored in the Ministry, and especially from the information on the Dark Arts that the Death Eater army was bound to have.
After all, knowledge was a shinobi's most powerful weapon.
Sasuke was tempted for a split second to abandon the mission for the most part, leaving behind a clone like he did earlier and searching the Wizarding world himself, but opted against that course of action. If he did, it could easily be interpreted as treasonous thought, and not even the mess that was Team Seven could shield him from Tsunade. Or, and this was more likely, Root. Becoming a fugitive never struck him as particularly appealing, but the feeling was heightened now, as he sat in a corner of the library's Restricted Section (despite the material being rather tame, in his opinion). It would be far easier to stay within Konoha's folds before…
He clenched his teeth, beginning to feel the all-too-familiar burn behind his eyes grow.
Yes, if there was one thing Uchiha Sasuke was determined to do, it was to annihilate Shimura Danzo.
In a fit of boredom, the shinobi decided to leave the library in the dead of night. He had run of of interest in the books shelved there, and hoped that after roaming the building, the curiosity would return.
For what seemed to be an eternity and yet no time at all, he stumbled upon a girl dressed in cream-colored pajamas, with a wand holding white-blonde hair in a messy bun. He recognized her as the Ravenclaw witch that people often referred to as "Loony Lovegood". She turned and regarded him carefully, as if somehow sensing his presence despite his absolute silence.
Sasuke stared back, not wholly uncomfortable with the thick quiet. "You're not going to send me back?" she asked.
(He found her voice mildly unsettling, for a reason he couldn't quite pin down.)
"No."
Luna nodded, almost to herself, before speaking up again. "If you're wondering, I'm out here because I can't sleep," she explained.
Something about the way she said it made the Uchiha doubt her, but he didn't oppose the statement and merely cast an henge over his eyes before cautiously activating his Sharingan. There's no way someone who acts like this isn't under a genjutsu. Or the Imperius, come to think of it.
"Are you alright? Your eyes are red."
Sasuke blinked, hastily shutting down the Sharingan. There was no spell, and there was no jutsu. She obviously wasn't a ninja either, so the sheer strangeness of the witch could be chalked up to simple eccentricity, and as for her ability to see past the henge… he had read things about Seers, but never really thought about it too much, after seeing Sybill Trelawney in action.
He huffed silently. Wizards, he thought derisively, although the thought didn't hold much venom. Unconsciously, the shinobi stepped closer to the blonde witch and grabbed her wrist, holding her left hand in his line of sight. He had noticed something distinctly off about her behavior, a hypothesis strengthened by the way she tried to hide the back of her hand when he activated Sharingan. And he found that he wasn't quite surprised when he saw that carved into her skin was I will not disrespect my betters in glistening crimson. Wizards, he thought once more, the white noise of anger humming inside his skull.
Sasuke had to admit that his grasp on medical ninjutsu wasn't particularly good, but he had good chakra control and a decent amount of knowledge on how healing small wounds worked. With that thought, he began to channel chakra to his right hand, still using his left to hold Luna in place.
With the differences between magic cores (which was somewhat or a pool of energy between the body and the soul) and chakra coils (a system of "circuits" that connected the physical to the spiritual) , Sasuke doubted that healing the delicate cuts - most likely from some sort of Dark artifact owned by Umbridge, the toad - on the witch's hand would work the same way and healing another shinobi. His eyes began to grow red with the Sharingan's power, not bothering to hide it anymore.
"I already used Murtlap Essence. It doesn't really hurt anymore, so…" the witch started and trailed off, uncertain.
Sasuke purposefully ignored the girl, concentrating on the task at hand. I had originally thought that the power's wouldn't mix, but it's not like that at all. Magic cores are completely disconnected from the user's body, so I don't have to worry about accidentally harming her while trying to heal. Which saves me a lot of trouble, he thought, placing his hand over the cuts.
The Ravenclaw witch gasped as the words closed and faded, until not even a scar remained.
A minute of silence stretched on between the duo, before Sasuke spoke up. "Now, will you go to sleep?" he asked, not waiting for an answer as he ushered the still mildly awed witch to the Ravenclaw tower.
"Thank you," she smiled. "You're not really scary at all."
i want to make it clear now that Ruby will not contain ships of any sort.
mainly bc i cant write that to save my life.
anyways.
i freaking love luna lovegood.
and thanks for reading.
