Author's note, remember, Saber (Arthuria) is referred to as Ria while Shirou is referred to as Saber. Archer is now reffered to as Archer, hope this helps.
Naruto dreamed of Saber once more. He dreamed of Saber waking up from the deathblow. Of Rin calling Saber a moron.
'Serves him right for scaring everyone' Naruto thought
Rin began explaining the nature of summon spirits, Naruto was horrified at the thought of Saber feeding on spirits.
His only consolation was that Saber said that Naruto was providing all the magic he needed. Rin's offer of alliance didn't surprise Naruto at all, it was clear from his visions, that Rin had had a crush on Saber.
He thought back to the funeral, the tears Rin shed, the candid speech of Saber's foolishness, and flaws, they had been covering her love for him. Naruto may not be an expert on love, but he wasn't that dense...though, it looked like Saber was.
Naruto watched as Saber found Ria in the dojo. She was beautiful, they way she sat was so refined. Her hands looked so delicate, one would not have thought they belonged to a sword master. He hair reflected the like to perfectly, Naruto thought Ria might have been an angel.
It was clear why Saber had fallen for her. The two fought, they argued, each were stubborn in what they believed in. Saber refused to let a woman fight his battles. Ria refused to let him get himself killed...again. Yet, they came to an understanding. They would fight, they would defeat their enemies and protect the innocent.
The moment was ruined, when Rin showed up with her bags of stuff. The scene became comical as the three ended up arguing about rooming arrangements. Naruto is, to be frank, confused how they could be so calm after such a horrifying experience. They eat breakfast like it's perfectly normal to heal from such wounds. The two girls make many plans while Saber cooks the meals. Ria's expression while eating is priceless, it's like she never ate anything so good in her life. Naruto could understand that, Saber was the best cook he ever met. Yet, Rin was saying that she could win...
The night passes, and the three plan on eating dinner. Sakura arrives and nearly faints from seeing Rin, Saber moves fast to hide Ria, but Rin makes Saber's life difficult. It gets worse when Fuji-nee arrives, she's like an enraged tiger, though no-one would dare to say that to her. She throttles Saber for a while till Rin offers to save him. Naruto is impressed at Rin's manipulating skills, Fuji-nee is wrapped around her fingers.
'I think I found something Saber could never beat' Naruto thought shuddering.
After they eat, everyone heads to school. Saber receives many death glares from the male student population. Naruto shakes his head at this, Rin is the most deceitful woman he's ever seen. At the gate, they meet Shinji, who dares to harm Sakura in front of them. Rin goes up to scold him, but Naruto is watching Saber. His hands are clenched, his eyes focused. With one word, he would spring upon Shinji, but Sakura does not ask for help, she defends her brother instead.
Thus, Saber cannot get involved. Rin feels no such compunctions, she verbally belittles Shinji. Naruto watches the rage build up in Shinji with much satisfaction.
During lunch, Rin and Saber discuss the future. Naruto is at first, confused by the idea of a boundary field, but Rin explains it well enough. It seems to be similar to a barrier jutsu he heard about in school. It's the thought that everyone inside will be eaten that scares him.
Dinner time comes, and it's Rin's turn to cook. Naruto is blown away by the food Rin makes. He now understands why Saber doesn't claim to be the best. Between Sakura and Rin, Shirou looks average in his cooking skills. What truly surprises him, is the sheer variety of foods Rin prepares, it's like a feast. At first, the girls enjoy the meal, but Saber suddenly stands up. Naruto can see something disturbs him greatly. He goes to his room, in there, he grabs Ria and drags her in. Sakura and Fujimura are frozen, that's the only thing that can describe the two, completely frozen. Not one, but two strange women in less than twenty four hours have been inside Saber's house... 'Not good,' Naruto winced. Fuji-nee goes ballistic. She shakes Saber up, down, left, right, "AAAAAB" she yells "SOOLUUTLYY NOOOT"
Saber tries to calm her down and makes up a lie about Ria being one of his dad's old friends, but she is in no mood for that. She calls Shirou a liar, a moron, a fool.
Fuji-nee is adamant that Kiritsugu would never... "Well, I guess he would have acquiescence in other countries," she mutters off. She challenges Ria to a match. And so, one of the strangest bouts in all existence begins. Time and time again Fuji-nee tries to hit Ria, who deftly disarms her. Fuji-nee tries every dirty trick she knows hidden swords, distractions, even a sword that turned into a bunch of feathers, but Ria is just too strong. In the end, she has to accept Ria, but she and Sakura demand a sleep over.
And so, Naruto dreamed of awkward moments and complex girls.
Naruto's new home
Naruto wakes a few minutes before the alarm. He has been getting up so early lately, he's now used to waking up at dawn. As always, Saber is making breakfast, judging by the smell, it's miso soup, grilled fish, rice, and some fruit. Naruto goes to the bathroom to clean up and prepare for the day. Sasuke will soon be joining them for breakfast as usual. Sasuke had also been one to sleep in, but Shirou had adamantly taught Sasuke the importance of waking early using ice water the same way he did on Naruto. Now, Sasuke got up as early as Naruto did.
As Naruto sat down to eat, Sasuke opened the door and sat down as well.
"I had a dream last night," Naruto said looking at Saber. Shirou nodded at that, "Well, I guess you can tell us later. After we're done eating, we need to work on painting the southern wall of the next house."
It had taken months, but the compound was now looking much better than before. Naruto was no longer terrified of the atmosphere.
If not for the fact that the area had been almost completely abandoned, it looked almost like the rest of the village. Naruto had found himself surprisingly talented in carpentry, while Sasuke was better at fixing machinery.
Saber, of course, was far more experienced than both of them combined, but they were making good progress on fixing the area up.
One place only Saber was allowed to work was the sewer system. He didn't trust either of them to work on he delicate plumbing. In addition, he found several unburied bodies in the sewers. Some were only a few years old, but two of them had obviously been there for at least a decade. Saber chose not to think of the meaning of the bodies, those responsible were probably all dead. The bodies were all discretely handed off to the morgue for autopsy and burial. Saber formerly requested that Sasuke not be informed of the find. He didn't need that on the boy's consciousness.
Sasuke had agreed, as he planned on keeping as much of the land as he could for his clan. He still bristled that Naruto now owned a home in his clan's compound, but at least, it was at the edge of the place. Sasuke had to admit, he really did need Saber to help him build the place back to it's former glory. The place still had months of work ahead, but afterwords, it would be better than ever. One change to the compound, were the gardens. The family had always kept a small vegetable garden, but Saber had Naruto and Sasuke plant small window gardens all along the place. Some were for food, but some were for decoration. According to Saber, not only did it make the place look nice, but the scents would add a soothing atmosphere to the place.
The only other change to the compound had been Ichiraku. Saber's Special was so popular, that Teuchi and Ayame had enough money to buy a restaurant.
It had been Saber's suggestion that the building across from Naruto's new home was converted into the new location for Ichiraku Ramen. The agreement was that Teuchi would pay a modest rent for the use of the building.
When Sasuke had restored his clan, Teuchi would willingly move out. At first, Ayame had worried that moving into such a remote area of the village would affect customers, that the deal would be a bad idea. Shirou sweetened the pot by giving Teuchi three new recipes for his shop.
Ayame had hopped for joy at the news. Now including Saber's Special, Rin's special, Matou's Secret ingredient soup, and Berserker's challenge were big hits, especially Berserker's challenge.
The idea of eating a mammoth sized bowl of ramen with many layers of meat, eggs, and noodles for free if they ate fast enough had been too tempting. Of course, Shirou had made sure that the sheer size of it was impossible for even the Akimichi clan to eat, that in itself was a giant feat.
Saber had had to renegotiate the terms of free ramen with Teuchi when Naruto had ordered Berserker's challenge. Instead, Naruto and Iruka would pay only half price when they failed to finish.
Naruto and Sasuke had just finished breakfast. It was time to go to work on the compound.
Walking out , they headed towards the middle of the compound. Grabbing paint brushes, the three of them began whitewashing the wall. Yesterday, the three of them had covered any damage to the walls with plaster and let it dry over night. Now, they coated the walls with paint, covering the traces of battle from the wall.
'Somethings never change,' Shirou mused 'War and violence scars the world, only to be covered up by men until the next battle'
Shirou shook his head clearing his thoughts, as time wore on, he found himself more and more adrift. His whole life had been to be a hero and be with Saber. When he had been called back to serve, he had thought his job was to protect Naruto. As far as he could tell, all he was doing was giving Naruto a better life, there were no real threats other than Mizuki, who was now imprisoned. Shirou found himself brooding more and more as time passed. Part of the reason he was always visiting Hanabi was to distract himself from the longing and depression. If this peaceful life continued, however, he would go stark crazy.
Finishing the wall, Shirou reviewed the needs of the old house. It needed a new pipe in the shower, two floorboards were rotting, and the whole house needed a good dusting. Looking at the horizon, Shirou estimated that they had less than a half hour before they had to go to headquarters. Shirou ordered Sasuke and Naruto to shower and get ready for the nest mission. The team had accomplished a good sixty D rank missions in the past several months. Turns out, Team Kakashi was becoming famous for it's quality work on repairs and housework. Over a dozen customers asked for Team Kakashi by name. While this was good for their paycheck, it was frustrating for the ninjas to be thought as the handyman squad.
Once inside, Shirou asked Naruto what he dreamed about. Naruto told Shirou of the lectures, the alliance, and the reactions of Fuji-nee and Sakura.
Shirou smiled at the simpler times, but what was coming next made his blood boil. "Naruto," Shirou said.
"What is it Saber?" Naruto asked.
"You're going to see another Servant in action soon." Shirou warned
"Who?"
Shirou sighed, "Rider" Of all the servants, he had a felt sorry for that Servant because of her Master Shinji. Once, long ago, Sakura accidentally drank sake instead of water. In her drunken state, she had revealed that she had been the one who summoned Rider, but because when felt sorry for Shinji, she gave him the command seals. What Shirou had found out about what Shinji had done to both Sakura and Rider, made Shirou feel the need to bash Shinji's head in...if Berserker hadn't done it for him. How dare he rape his sister, how dare he rape a servant. Shirou had known that Shinji occasionally beat his sister, but he had never suspected such horrors were inflicted on her.
"What's going to happen?" Naruto asked, he saw the rage in Saber's eyes.
"A lot of people are going to be put in danger." Shirou warned, "They'll live, but it will be a close thing."
Once Naruto and Sasuke were ready, they headed over to the Hokage's office. There, they met Sakura and settled down to wait for Kakashi. The three genin sat down and began the mental exercises that Saber had taught them. Kakashi showed up about an hour later, making an excuse about falling in mud and needing new clothes. "Liar" the rest of Team Kakashi said, this had become standard routine for the whole team. Sakura joked that the day Kakashi showed up on time was the day pigs flew. Saber said more realistically that it would mean that something had gone horribly wrong.
The team entered the office, Sarutobi barely looked up from the pile of paper work and help out a piece of paper.
Find a cat
Mission rank D
Target: Tora, a brown cat with a red bow around the ear
Belongs to: Fire Lord's wife Madam Shijimi
Last seen in the southern forest
Naruto was angry, he had graduated the academy only to have these lame missions. "No way, we've done enough of these missions give us something harder."
Shirou understood the feeling, but Naruto needed to learn manners. Shirou bopped Naruto on the head and bowed slightly, "My apologies Lord Hokage, we will endeavor to complete this mission quickly."
As the team left the Hokage pondered Naruto's outburst.
True, the team was still new, but they had displayed a great deal of teamwork in their missions. 'It's probably about time I gave them something a little more difficult' The Hokage thought, 'But what should it be?'
The team entered the southern forest, Naruto used his shadow clones to fortify their numbers for the mission. When one of the clones saw the cat, he dispersed himself so that the other Naruto's would know the location.
The hunt was on.
Tora was terrified, the last thing it wanted to do was go back to that insane woman, time and time again it had managed to escape that fat woman, but time and time again the shadow men would track it down and bring it back to the terror. Tora shuddered, that woman would end up killing it. Between the death grip, the overcooked food, the painful petting sessions, and heaven help it, the scratching post of doom, Tora was certain that the only way to live was to flee for its life. The latest escape had been through an unlocked window, the foul jailor had forgotten to lock it up for her damn tea party.
Unfortunately, that evil woman hadn't ordered the window to be oiled. Escape had been slowed by forcing the window open, and it generated a lot of noise. That how that cursed monster had seen Tora fleeing, he had to dodge the guards getting away, but he was now in the forest. Now, it was Tora against the shadow men. Tora smelled one of them, but the scent had disappeared. What ever happened, Tora knew that its position was compromised. Tora had to move quickly, the shadow men could always track it down.
'The river' Tora thought.
Oh, how the thought of water sent Tora into a fit of shivers, the horrible baths had nearly drowned Tora countless times, but the river was the only way it could escape.
The shadow men would never expect it. Tora ran to the sound of water, but an orange shadow man blocked the way. Tora had to flee, dodging left, Tora swept past a pink shadow girl. A blue shadow man almost grabbed Tora's tail, but Tora was faster. Tora dashed through a bush, only to ram into a flat piece of metal. Tora was stunned by the impact, quickly, a red shadow man grabbed him.
The smell of the shadow man hit Tora like a bullet.
'This is wrong' Tora thought, it didn't smell like a shadow man, it smelled wrong, it smelled like dead grass, dead trees, dead everything.
There was too much blood in the scent. Tora struggled, yowled, scratched, but the shadow man would not let go. The shadow man was bringing it back to the village, but Tora cared not. All thoughts of the woman had been replaced by the dead man. Tora didn't care if it went back to the woman, but it had to get away from the dead one.
Shirou was in pain, the cat could tell he wasn't human. Dogs and cats have a special detection ability for spirits. As a Servant, he knew that any animal would view him as a wrong. The cat was clearly willing but not able to claw it's way out of Shirou's grasp. Luckily, the cat's claws had been filed short, so it was unable to do more than scratch his outfit or himself. The team had done a good job hunting the cat, but they still had problems with anticipation.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had all missed the cat, and it was the timely intervention of a dull traced sword that had stopped the cat in it's tracts.
Shirou refused to leg go of the cat as he was the only one in any semblance of armor. The cat would literally flay anyone who got in it's way of escape.
When the team returned, Tora, for the first time in its life leaped into the the cursed woman's arms. Anything, anything would be better than being in the arms of that monster. Tora could tell, anyone near that...that...thing would meet an early grave. Tora would gladly stay in the embrace of that woman's arms if it kept the dead man away from Tora.
Two weeks later, Tora would be fleeing from the Daimyo's wife for the 172nd time, because after all, Tora is a cat, and cats are too smart to keep foolish promises.
Team Kakashi watched the interaction between the cat and the Daimyo's wife. Sakura looked over at the scratched Saber ad asked "You okay Saber?"
Shirou shrugged, "I've had worse." How much worse, only Naruto would ever know.
The team looked over that the Hokage waiting for their next mission. The Hokage actually looked up from his mass of papers. He folded his hands and looked directly at them. Every fiber in Shirou's being tensed, this kind of behavior meant that things were going to get harder.
"As you know," Sarutobi said, "the village receives numerous requests from babysitting to assassination. Each mission is graded from S, A, B, C, and D rank missions depending on their difficulty. You have all been performing various D rank missions, and I believe it is time for you to accept a C rank mission."
The Third Hokage gestured for Iruka to open a do while the Hokage continued, "Your mission will be to protect a certain person from various bandits until the completion of the mission."
"Who?," Naruto cried, "A princess? A lord?" Shirou had doubts that the protection of such individuals would rank as low as a C mission, a B rank possibly, but not a C rank.
"What's this?" came a new voice from the doorway. Shirou could smell the alcohol in the air. Out came an old man wearing simple clothes and a string of rope wrapped around his head. Shirou observed that his hands had calluses from both writing and heavy lifting,. 'Probably a foreman or an architect that helps with his projects' Shirou pondered
The old man continued, "They're all a bunch of brats, especially the shortest one with the stupid face.
Shirou shook his head, "No, I'm a bodyguard"
Naruto was looking around hoping the old man was not talking about him. He was about to yell at the old man when Saber held a hand in front of his face. Naruto took the signal and kept quiet. The old man looked Saber over, while unarmed, he could tell that this man in red was a formidable man. His body was toned, and he had the face of a warrior. Nodding slightly at Saber, he said, "I am the greatest bridge builder ever. My name's Tazuna. I expect you to protect me from any threats until my journey is over and my bridge is complete."
Shirou held a hand to his chin and asked, "How long do you expect the bridge to take?"
"Two months," Tazuna replied.
Shirou shook his head, "I meant when you factored the delays in." Shirou grinned at this.
Tazuna focused for a second, the man was clearly used to delays on construction, "Probably no more than three months at the worst. The ground work is finished, all it takes is time to finish placing the stones and my magnificent bridge will be done."
Kakashi directed the others to prepare for the journey. Tomorrow, their mission would begin in earnest.
Shirou called off the training for the day, everyone would need to pack and rest for the journey ahead. The trip to the wave country would take over a week (1) so everyone needed to pack accordingly. Shirou watched as Naruto began gathering items for the trip.
Shirou had to restrain Naruto several times from packing unnecessary items. Naruto was upset that he couldn't bring along all the stuff, but obeyed Saber. Saber shook his head, Naruto would have regretted packing the excess weapons and supplies with them. The team needed to march long and hard to reach their destination, and any weight increased as the journey moved on. Shirou was in no mood to act as a mule when Naruto felt tired. After making sure that Naruto was packed, Shirou and Naruto went to pick up Iruka from work. From there, Iruka and Naruto went off to bond, while Shirou went to break the new to Hanabi.
Hyuga Compound
This was going about as well as expected, which is to say it wasn't going well at all. When Hanabi had heard that Saber nii-chan had to leave for a mission for several months, she had reacted violently. At first, she pounded her fists on Shirou's chest screaming "NOO, Onii-chan can't leave me. You promised to watch over me! You promised!"
Hyashi watched from the side, he knew this kind of reaction would occur eventually, but he had not expected it to be so violent. He had moved to stop his daughter, when Saber held his hand out to stop him.
'It's better for her to get it out now,' Saber thought. "Now Hanabi," Shirou started to say. He planned on telling her that he had other obligations.
The pounding grew worse as Shirou tried to calm her down. It came to a head, when Hanabi hit him with a gentle fist attack.
Pain. The world was suddenly filled with pain.
Shirou could feel something in his body shift horribly. His odo was shifted, his body spasm from the blow. Shirou could feel his circuits shift out of line.
While Saber could tell the gentle fist revolved around internal damage, that hit was excruciating. The last time he felt this much pain was when he face the White Beast. It felt like his insides were on fire.
Hanabi was about to hit him again, but he grabbed her arm firmly. One blow was killing him, two might finish him off.
Hanabi stared accusingly at Saber. Saber would have none of that, she may be traumatized, but she was not going to be spoiled. Using an attack like that had crossed the line. True, had he been prepared for it, the attack would have done little, but because he had relaxed, the blow had done massive damage.
SLAP
Hanabi held her cheek that Hyashi had hit. "F-father?" Her father never hit her, oh, he had sparred with her, but he had never hit her to punish her before.
Hyashi pointed at Saber and activated Byakugan. Hanabi did the same and was horrified by what she saw. Normally, Saber was a brightly glowing mass of energy, his entire body radiating power. Now, now his body was pulsing like a strobe light. His power was out of control, surging like violent waves on a beach in a storm. Her attack was literally ripping him apart.
"O-onichan..." whispered Hanabi, horrified at what she had done. Her tantrum might kill her knight. No. No it wasn't supposed to be this way.
Shirou could tell they knew something was wrong with him, there was no way he could tell them he was fine, but he had to be strong. Shirou stood up, his body rejecting every motion, trying to force him to collapse.
But Shirou, Shirou would not bow to pain. His whole life had been filled with pain.
Keeping his voice steady, "I'm sorry you two, I cannot stay any longer today." Shirou bowed and began walking out.
"Wait!" Hanabi called, "I'm sorry Onichan, I didn't mean it."
"I know Hanabi, but you need to think over what you have done." Shirou said kindly. "Don't ask for forgiveness, I've already forgiven you."
Hanabi was crying, it looked like Saber was getting worse by the minute. Hyashi tried to stop him, but Saber waved him off.
"It's alright" Saber lied, "I've had this happen before" No, no he had not had this happen before as a servant. The last time something like this happened, he caused his real body to go numb. He wasn't sure what his new body was going to do, but he hurt everywhere.
Hyashi was about to order his clan to restrain Saber and take him to the hospital when Saber fled. Saber was moving as quickly as he could, his body was burning. Behind him, he could hear people yelling, demanding Saber to turn back. He couldn't, he could not risk the full nature of a Servant from being discovered. If they did, custom demanded he would have to kill them. Saber would not, of course, but he would be extremely vulnerable. Not just him, but Naruto as well. Shirou cared not a wit what happened to him, he would not, could not let Naruto be harmed under his watch. The boy had suffered too much already.
Hyuga Compound
Shirou had to focus to keep from staggering inside.
'What did Hanabi hit me with?' Shirou thought He had seen the Hyuga attack before, he saw how the blows had sent damage to the organs. Did the Hyuga posses as special ability to be anti-Servants, did Hanabi just get lucky, or possibly was it just Hanabi? Shirou was trying to to ponder on the questions, but the pain was getting worse. It felt...it felt like his insides were being eaten by worms. His powers were definitely weaker, his entire body felt like it was under immense pressure. If he didn't know any better Shirou would have sworn Naruto used a command seal on him.
Shirou tried to shift into spirit form, but his body wasn't listening. He tried and tried, but he remained in corporal form.
He was going to need rest, a lot of it.
'No,' Shirou pleaded, 'Not now, we've got the mission tomorrow.' Why did Murphy's law always have to affect him?
Shirou had to lean on the wall to support himself, his vision was blurring slightly, his ears were ringing. Yet, through the ringing, he heard frantic steps coming his way. He had a minute or two to decide what to do.
'II am not going to worry him with my pain. I need to get somewhere to rest in quiet.' Shirou knew exactly where to do that. Shirou quickly scratched on a piece of paper 'Naruto, I'm hurt, but all right, I'll see you in the morning.
Shirou had to hide. If he were to rest, it would be best to rest somewhere where they couldn't see him. Shirou trudged to the hidden door. Popping it open, Shirou kept himself from falling in. He painfully crawled down the ladder and shut the door over him. With the door shut, Shirou allowed himself to fall.
It was by mere chance that his hand caught the cloth over the mirror. No, not Chance, Fate.
Shirou crashed onto the floor. Above, he heard people busting into the room above. Frantically searching, searching for him probably.
'Please,' Shiirou said holding his body close together. It felt like the worst hangover he had ever experienced. 'Stop making that racket.'
Yet, a new sound was entering his ears
"-rou!"
"He- -ing- Shi-"
It sounded like someone was calling him.
"What are you doing Shirou!" a familiar voice yelled. Loud and clearly.
Shirou instinctively looked up at the source of the voice. There, in the mirror was the last person he expected to see, Rin. She had a her favorite red shirt on, but her hair was a mess, the same old mess she had when she woke up in the morning. Her eyes had deep black circles around them. Rin would never have let that happen before, she had always taken great care for her appearance in memory of her father. Shirou noticed that her eyes were lined with red and cracked. She had been crying, in fact she was crying right now.
"Are you deaf?" Rin yelled at him, "What are you doing right now?"
"Dying?" Shirou tried to joke. Bad idea.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN DYING YOU FOOL? ARE YOU DAFT!" Rin screeched making the mirror jump.
Shirou winced at her volume. He was surprised no-one heard her upstairs. They were still trying to rip the house apart to find him.
Looking at Rin, Shirou said , mournfully, "This body has taken a great deal of damage Rin. Right now, I've got too much damage, an overload of magic inside me, and my control's been shot to hell"
Rin went silent for a minute. She had been surprised when the mirror in her teacher's room had suddenly glowed. Seeing Shirou had been a dream come true, but her beloved reunion was cut short.
Once again, he had landed himself in a situation that had gotten him severely injured. While his body looked fine on the outside, it was clear he was in pain. A part of her wanted to scream, another wanted to confess her feelings before he died, but there was another part of her still that began analyzing the situation.
Rin quickly figured that the symptoms were similar to when a magician burned himself out. In fact, Shirou had probably done just that, he had used so much power, that it had overloaded his body.
"Shirou" Rin said calmer than she felt. "Concentrate your odo and focus it on the end of your finger tips."
Shirou knew that tone of voice, he could only obey. He felt his magic fighting him, by will, force, and a bit of fear, Shirou forced his odo into his hand. "Then?" Shirou asked through clenched teeth
"Reinforce the ground under you, keep it up until the pain is gone" This had to work Rin thought, If it failed, Shirou was dead. For a second time he would die, but this time, he would die in front of her.
Shirou followed her instructions.
"Trace on"
Shirou tried to analyze the ground beneath him, but his concentration was shot. He'd have to forgo the analyzing. Shirou felt a new wave of pain and nausea, and had to repress the urge to vomit. Instead, he sent the pain down his arm and into the ground. Wave after wave, Shirou sent the pain and power into the ground. How long he was there he couldn't say. It didn't matter really, Rin was watching, Shirou would not let her cry anymore, not for something as little as this.
Rin watched as Shirou struggled through the pain. It was the hardest thing she had done in years. She could see every pulse of pain in him. Yet, he never screamed, never whimpered, heck, he was barely grunting. She knew he was doing it for her. He knew a scream would shatter her will, so he didn't scream. Thus, she could not break down in front of him. She wanted to wail, she wanted to throw dignity to the wind. But, he was going through worse. And so, she would endure, just as he endured. Rin could feel the tears falling down her face, but she would not acknowledge them. Tears were useless, tears would get in the way, she had to watch to see Shirou live. If he died on, she would never forgive herself. So she watched and waited no matter how long it took.
Hours passed by as Shirou kept sending Prana into the ground. The ground was turning to dust beneath his hands, but he kept on sending more into the ground. Hours passed, but the pain was lessening.
Finally, after who knows how long, the pain was gone. Shirou felt hollow, he felt like he was on his last drops of magic. Yet, Naruto kept pouring Prana into him. Shirou felt like a near empty water tower with a garden hose filling him up. In time, he would be restored, but for now, Shirou was barely better than a superior human. Right now, if a Servant came, Shirou would be no challenge for the least of heroes.
Shirou slowly stood up an looked at the mirror. Rin was still in it's reflection.
"Rin, what is going on?" Shirou asked
"How should I know Baka" Rin retorted. "Where are you?"
"Honestly Rin, I'm not on Earth"
"Then where are you?"
Shirou shrugged, "I serve as the Servant Saber for my Master here in the Village hidden in the leaves"
"Huh? What kind of name is that? And what do you mean Servant Saber?"
Shirou shrugged again, "It's the name of a village of ninja's. All I know is that I have been summoned to serve my Master"
As Shirou spoke, he noticed Rin was fading.
"Wait!," Rin called out, "What do you think you're doing?"
Shirou shook his head, "I'm not doing anything."
Rin clenched a fist, Shirou was clearly not running away from her, he wouldn't dare. Not to mention, that he never had any magic like this before. No, this had to be Zelretch's doing.
"Shirou, try to contact me later." Rin called out.
Maybe the spell had run out, it had been working for hours. In the mean time, she was going to get some answers from Zelretch. Both Luvia and herself had been given more advanced assignments after receiving the jeweled swords from Shirou. Whatever was happening, Zelretch was probably at fault. He had been one of the founders for the Holy Grail war. The fact that Shirou called himself the Servant Saber told her something was up.
Shirou watched as Rin vanished entirely. He felt a shiver of fear run down his back. Rin looked pissed before the image faded, he just knew this would come back to haunt him. But for now, he had to deal Naruto. He had been away from his Master for too long. They had an important mission coming up, it wouldn't do for the team to cancel the mission on account of him.
Shirou climbed out of the room and saw Naruto sleeping at the table. Clearly, Naruto was waiting for Shirou to return, and had fallen asleep. Shirou looked at the clock and was surprised. He had been in the hole all day and all night. Dawn had broken, and Naruto was asleep. Shirou checked the fridge, and saw that breakfast was ready to be eaten. The only thing left was to wake Naruto up.
Shirou traced Torashinai and raised it over Naruto's head. Shirou frowned at the effort it took to trace the sword, Not only did it require more than twice the normal amount of magic to trace, but it had been slightly harder to form. This did not bode well for the future if all his weapons were like this. 'But for now,' Shirou thought, 'time to wake him up.' Shirou quickly brought the wooden sword down on top of Naruto's sleeping head.
SMACK
Unknown Location
"So, you're saying he hired some ninja from Konoha?" a man with a large sword asked
"Yes Master" came a quiet voice from the shadows
"Hmph, send the demon brothers to deal with them. In the mean time, get to work around the village."
"Understood Master" The second voice answered
"Rider," the man said, " I don't want any mistakes"
"Yes master, your order will be obeyed"
Author's note
1) One thing I noticed about the Wave arc is the sheer improbability of the ignored time skip. If you look up a map on the Naruto world, you will see that the Wave country is about one to five hundred miles away at least. There is no way that three kids, one adult and one senior will ever be able to enter the Wave country in a few days. I've extended it to about a week, but I have no real ability to tell how far the two destinations are.
Why, why can't I sleep, it is two in the morning, I really want to sleep. Sigh, well, it looks like I got this chapter done early. Lots of action in the next couple of chapters
Chapter Beta-ed by the incredible L33t Horo-sama, god only knows how he can deal with me.