The Legend of Uzumaki Naruto: Soul of Fire

by General Grievous

NarutoxWorldofWarcraft Part II Thus begins the second part of the legend. The worlds grow closer, and their many evils begin to awaken and converge. Naruto must now fight harder than ever. NaruxOC NaruxSaku

23. The Descent

Disclaimer: All of the characters not in World of Warcraft and Naruto are mine. How's that for a change of pace? You guys didn't expect me to be serious for once, did you?

Here's the next installment of The Legend of Uzumaki Naruto!

---

Days earlier…

"No good?" Kira asked, when Naruto and the others emerged from the tram station, all looking glum.

Naruto slowly shook his head. "No. They didn't come in through the tram tunnels—it was from Ironforge."

Kira's eyes widened. "But then…" She didn't speak the words, because it didn't seem necessary. She nodded and sat down at the circular table of the great hall, her eyes narrowed and her brow wrinkled. Why would they do that, she wondered? Why would they betray their king? Why would any of them betray their king? It didn't make sense—not now, not ever. The dwarves had never once rebelled against a king, and Magni had been a glorious leader—why had one of his people betrayed him? What's more, who was it? Who had betrayed him? The timing of his death was too perfect for it to have been a run-of-the-mill blacksmith or soldier angry with Magni for his joining of the alliance, or something of that nature, so that left someone that Magni had trusted explicitly. Only a few that could claim that.

"Has Hindenborough-san arrived?" Kakashi asked, interrupting her thoughts. His face was soft and so was his voice. It was clear that he didn't want to cause more trouble for her as it was, though he seemed anxious to leave.

"Yes," she said. "But could you possibly leave later? Perhaps in the morning? I'd like to talk with Naruto about something, if that's possible." She glanced at Naruto, who had cocked his head to the side in curiosity.

Kakashi considered it no longer than a blink of the eye. "Why not? I have something to talk with him about as well, and I'd probably be safer on the ground to do that. I had assumed Benedictus-sama wanted us to leave as soon as possible."

"He does," she said, frowning at Kakashi's words, but deciding not to comment. "But I'd like you all to be a bit more prepared, and well, I didn't know when I'd get a chance to talk to Naruto again." She glanced towards the door. "I have to talk to Benedictus later, but I figured I should let him rest some. Please—you should all as well."

"Fine," said Kakashi, nodding. "Everyone get some rest—meet back here in five hours—you can get sleep on the zeppelin if you need more."

"Thank you," Kira said, smiling.

Kakashi nodded, gave her a small bow, and disappeared from the room. Yamato did the same a second later, though Sai and Sakura hung around, both watching Naruto and Kira and clearly hoping that they might stay for the chat. But Kira, who smiled at both of them, didn't speak or move, simply staring at them and making it clear that they were also to leave. Finally, Sai gave them all a smile and walked from the room, though Sakura yet lingered, still looking as if she'd rather stay and suffer the consequences, which her ego told her wouldn't be half as bad as letting them stay in the same room together. But she did leave in the end, knowing that nothing was going to happen as long as she lingered. She'd ask Naruto about it later.

"So what'd you want to talk about?" Naruto asked, finally.

Kira leaned forwards in her chair, and brushed the hair from her forehead glistening with sweat.

"I'm worried."

Naruto lowered his eyes. "You too?"

"Everything we've done," she said, softly, "could be destroyed by this, couldn't it? If this doesn't work out—if they don't accept Moira or her son as leader, then this could end the alliance as we know it. I don't…I don't know what to do any more, Naruto."

"I don't think any of us do," Naruto said, softly. "But I don't think any of us thought this would happen." He sighed and looked up, towards the stained glass window of Kira's father, whom he had never met, yet had heard so much about from Kira that he felt he knew him as well as she. "I mean we didn't plan for this, did we? Magni-jiisan, Thrall, Vol'jin—all of them seemed so strong, so wise, that I didn't think it was possible for them to be killed, you know? I mean, I fought with Thrall and Mekkatorque and Vol'jin, but all of them still seemed like, I dunno, they were unbeatable. I never even saw Magni-jiisan fight, but just from the way he spoke and carried himself, he felt just as strong and eternal." He glanced at her. "But I guess, he probably didn't feel like that to himself, did he?"

"I don't think they ever do," Kira said, meeting his eyes.

They were silent for a while longer. Then, Naruto said, "Guess that's the responsibility of all rulers, huh?"

"What?"

"To not die," he said, softly. "Because when they do, stuff like this happens, right? It happened with your dad, and it almost happened with Konoha, and Suna too, now that I think about it."

"A leader has to be the pillar of a people," Kira said. "That's why they have to be strong—if they aren't, they can't bear the weight." She shook. "That's why I feel so ashamed, sometimes—because for a while, I was so weak that I couldn't do anything myself, and I had to rely solely on you."

Naruto didn't answer. An uncomfortable feeling was broiling in his stomach, but he tried to keep it from showing anywhere else. He glanced at her.

"But you can't do everything alone."

"Yes," Kira said. "That's true." She took sighed, slumping down into her chair. "I guess I've sort of realized that too—but you can't always rely on the supporting pillars, can you? Magni's death proves that. So you have to be strong yourself…even if that strength requires nothing but will." She smiled slightly at him. "It's so hard to send you and the others away, when I know I could be there with you. But I can't, can I? I have to stay here, because I have that duty to my people. Even with the killers still out there, and with the dwarves falling apart, I can't do anything but stay here and wait, can I?"

"But that's…" Naruto paused a moment, choosing the words. "That's the strength of a ruler, isn't it?" He ran a hand through his hair. "I don't think I could do that. Not now. I guess I still have a lot to learn, huh?"

"We both do, I think." She smiled in the darkness, filled with warmth and kindness.

"I don't think we could have planned for this though, huh?"

Kira nodded slowly, and her smile faded into the darkness. "What do we do?"

"What we've said we'd do," Naruto said. "And hope for the best."

"That's all?"

"Right now," said Naruto. Then, he knitted his brows. "Where's Vol'jin anyways? And what about Thrall—have you guys heard anything from him?"

"I don't know about either," said Kira. "Thrall hasn't answered any of the messages we sent—using our best carrier birds, too, but Vol'jin hasn't been seen in days."

"Why would Thrall not answer?"

Kira's heart jumped a little, and her eyes briefly widened. "You don't think…?"

"No."

"But it could…"

"No," Naruto said again, shaking his head. "I don't think that's happened. There must be some other explanation."

Kira nodded, and fell silent for a while. It was too hard to think anymore. She was too tired, and even now that she had a moment to breathe, she couldn't find the will to grieve.

Magni was dead, yet she wasn't in tears. She felt the sadness, festering deep inside her, an ache that was gradually growing larger, knowing that she wouldn't see him or hear his laugh again, loud and brash; it was another thing that she remembered from her youth, before she could remember much other than her mother's smile. That booming laugh, mixed along with her father's, powerful enough to make your bones feel its joy; it was like a wild beast set free, and she remembered than never had his laughs been short and tempered, or forced and dishonest; always riotous and everlasting, and when it finally did stop, it was never far from being freed again.

But the beast was dead in its cage. She would never hear it again.

So why did she not grieve for it, and for him?

Because, she decided, it wasn't over yet.

She had done enough crying—too much lately, in fact. And though she knew there was plenty of time for it now, and even if for no better reason than allowing her to bury her face in Naruto's chest, she realized that she couldn't do that now. She looked up at her father's face, illuminated in the great stained glass window, and felt calm—not the detached calm of grief, but the alert calmness of someone who had experienced too much grief, and though not immune to its effects, could bear them upright and with pride. She looked at Naruto. He wasn't crying—though, he never cried, did he? He had borne the strength that she was still getting used to nearly all his life, hadn't he? But his eyes, she saw, were clouded and dark. She wondered how much was grief, and how much was from the past.

She smiled a little.

He was probably remembering Magni's smile.

"It's easy to feel calm around you," she finally said.

"Eh?" Naruto turned to her. "What?"

"I said," she said again, "it's easy to feel calm around you." She flushed a little. "Can I get a hug?"

Naruto blinked. "W-what?"

"A hug," she said, leaning a little closer. "You're good at giving them, and I think I need one right now—if that's okay," she added, leaning a little away in case Naruto didn't feel like one.

"N-no," Naruto said. "T-that's fine, if you want." He leaned a little forward, but looked awkward about it, which she rectified by wrapping her arms around him, and pulling him close so that her chin rested on his shoulder. He was stiff for a moment, his movements almost as mechanical as Sai's, before he slowly relaxed and settled into the embrace. He felt her shake against him for a moment, and he thought she would start to sob—but she didn't, and she finally broke the silence with a quiet laugh.

"Good hug," she said.

He nodded, and began to pull away. "That sarcastic?"

"No."

"Didn't think it was that good."

"For you?"

"For you."

Kira smiled against his shoulder, though he didn't know it. He began to pull away.

"Just a moment longer?" she asked.

"Sure."

When she finally pulled away, she looked refreshed and was smiling a little. She seemed far better than before. Naruto was amazed at the simple power of a hug—something he had never fully comprehended until now.

"You should go talk to Kakashi-san," said Kira. "And I have to speak with Sakura, and then Benedictus."

"About what?"

Her smiled did not fade, but it became sadder with her downcast eyes. "I wanted to give Sakura some of my healing books, as she might not have some of the jutsu in them. She might need them, you know?"

Naruto nodded. "She'll like that."

Kira nodded slightly. "Hope so."

"What are you talking with Benedictus about?"

"What else? My mother."

Naruto nodded once, then lowered his head. "I'll be back soon."

"Good. I can't wait," said Kira, smiling again.

---

"What'd you want to talk to me about?"

They were outside—it was not much later, and Naruto had easily found Kakashi, standing at the steps of the castle that the other team had a few hours earlier just left. The moon low, and in the very distance an arm of daylight was creeping over the horizon, preparing to stretch out and embrace the rest of the sky. They wouldn't wait much longer, and neither held the illusion that they would be getting any sleep.

"A few things," said Kakashi.

"Where're Sakura-chan, Sai and Yamato-sensei?"

"Senpai," Kakashi said, with a smile. "He's not your sensei, just a team leader in my absence."

"Yeah, but he did teach me some things."

"At my direction," said Kakashi. "I just feel jealous when you refer to other people as sensei."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Oh. Sorry."

Kakashi chuckled. "I wanted to talk to you about your elemental chakra use. Can I ask you something?"

Naruto nodded.

"What have you been able to use it for, so far?"

"Just the sword, mostly," Naruto said, touching the hilt of the blade tied to the back of his belt. "I've been trying to use it for other things as well, though."

"Such as?"

"Kazaashi," said Naruto. "I can make myself go a little faster, but not much—it still feels a bit strange, and it's hard to use both at the same time, like trying to rub your stomach and pat your head at once, or something like that. It's not impossible, but I'll need a lot of practice."

"Keep working on that," said Kakashi. "Make sure you've mastered it as best as you can, because that's going to be invaluable to you. If you can make yourself faster, and have better control, then that technique can easily become the strongest and most versatile in your arsenal." Before Naruto could say anything in response, however, he drew something from his pouch and held it out to Naruto.

"These again?" Naruto took one of the little papers that he had once used to determine his primary elemental affinity.

"Put more chakra into it this time—not just a little like last time, but do it until something happens to the paper that isn't dividing it in two."

Naruto stared at him, confused. "Why?"

"You're going to find out your secondary element, and once you do, I want you to train with that as well."

Naruto stared at him, but receiving nothing but Kakashi's typical lazy, impassive stare in return, he sighed and did as the man asked. The chakra flowed easily into the paper, which immediately divided into two pieces—but Naruto kept going. He did it until the paper began to glow and blacken, eventually shriveling into ashes.

"Fire," said Kakashi. "As I thought."

"Why'd we have to do that if you thought it, and I knew it?" said Naruto. "I told you fire was easier for me."

"I just wanted to make sure. I want you to practice some more fire jutsu. I'll teach you some, if you like, but I want you to become as familiar as possible with both your elemental affinities, especially when they're as useful as yours."

Naruto frowned. "Useful? How?"

"It's a curious mix, wind and fire," said Kakashi. "Because wind is used to enhance fire, which means that using one you can vastly increase the power of another."

"But doesn't that only work if you have a kekkai genkai?" Naruto said.

"Normally," said Kakashi, with a brisk nod. "But you've already demonstrated that you can use ice—which means that there's no telling what other abilities you might be able to use. I want you to work on trying to combine those, in some form or another."

"You're not giving me any help?"

"Can't," said Kakashi, shrugging. "I have no idea how." He ignored Naruto's gloomy stare, and leaned forwards toward the boy. "But there's one more thing I want you to work on. Yamato told me about your attempt with the wind chakra and the Rasengan. That's good—you're already trying to complete it."

Naruto knit his brows as tightly as an expert clothier's finest quilt. "Huh? Complete it?"

"Right," said Kakashi. He tugged a bit at his facemask, adjusting it to fit his face more comfortably, though he never broke eye contact with his blonde student. "I want you to complete it—the Rasengan that you have now is only a third or so completed. You've gone as far as the Fourth did in his life, but he never intended to stop there. The primary power of the Rasengan was originally meant to come from the elemental property added to it."

Naruto thought a moment. It sounded familiar, though he couldn't remember where—

"That's right," he mumbled. "Ero-sennin told me about it once, he said there were eight levels, so that must mean…?"

"Right," said Kakashi, nodding. "Five more levels, one for each element. That was his intention, but as I said, he wasn't able to complete it, before he died."

Naruto stared at him. "…So you want me to complete the jutsu?"

"Yes," said Kakashi. "If you do, it'll become more powerful than you can imagine. It'll be, in the words of you young people, a sure-kill technique." He grinned, visible through the mask.

"You want me to complete something not even the Fourth could?" Naruto said, stunned.

"Pretty much."

"Alright."

Kakashi chuckled. "I thought you'd be a little more troubled than that."

Naruto shook his head. "Not really. I'll do it, and that's a fact. I don't care if the Fourth wasn't able to do it—I'm going to become stronger than him, no matter what."

"You speak those words well."

The voice drifted from out of the darkness to their left, towards the side of the castle, where the gardens were. She appeared robed in white, as she always did, but her skin and hair were almost invisible in the pale, moonlit night. Tyrande Whisperwind spoke with confidence, yet her voice was smoother and more beautiful than the finest silk, but carried as swift and direct as the moonlight that now shined down on them.

"Tyrande!" Naruto said happily. It was such a swift change that Kakashi was only struck by it after Naruto had bolted from his side, abandoning his determined face as he wrapped his hands around the dark-skinned elf, who embraced him back as a mother might a child.

He gaped.

So this was the Tyrande of infamy?

He looked closer. Wow. For some reason, he now felt unduly conscious of his scruffy hair, his wrinkled uniform, the ratty facemask that he almost never took off even in the privacy of his own home, and the worn, orange book he kept against his breast. He found himself reddening, even as Tyrande turned her attention to him, and glided across the grass towards him.

"I have heard much of you."

"Likewise," he said, clearing his throat, feeling a little restless, and smiling far too wide. Tyrande smiled back, and Kakashi found he had never smiled quite so large in his life. He wondered if his face would be okay after it. He always did have a problem with a clicking jaw. He hoped too that it wasn't too weird. But he was aware that he was smiling through a mask, so he decided there wasn't much hope for that. He probably looked kind of creepy, now that he thought about it. But even as he did, he didn't stop smiling because it was hard not to when faced with such a beautiful, flawless carved visage such as Tyrande's, overflowing with such warmth that it shamed his own mother's kindness from when he was a child of about four, before she had died. He was quite aware that this was the first time he'd ever been uncomfortable around a woman. He wondered what that meant. He should probably stop smiling and start talking, he realized. He probably looked a little foolish standing there, so straight-backed, with such an eerie smile on his face.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the man's actions, and looked at Tyrande, who appeared perfectly serene, as always. He looked back at Kakashi, who looked like a one of those clown blow-up dolls that Naruto had seen in toy stores around Konoha. He wondered what would happen if he punched the man. He decided not to, even though it was tempting, as he was slowly becoming creeped out by the man's smile. Tyrande appeared unaffected.

"So you're Tyrande-sama?" Kakashi said, nodding very quickly. "I've heard of you. Naruto speaks very highly of you."

Tyrande nodded. "As he does you. I also appeared to have interrupted something. Should I leave?"

"Ah! No no no, that's fine…um, we were just finishing anyways," said Kakashi.

"We were?" Naruto said.

"Yeah. You said your required 'determined guy' line, so it's done. You don't need to prove it to me." He smiled at Tyrande again, in a way that Naruto hadn't quite identified yet, mostly because of the mask—but he was beginning to think it looked rather like Ino or Sakura-chan when they had been besotted with Sasuke. Only to see it one Kakashi-sensei's face was a bit…odd (though that words hardly did it justice, he wouldn't be able to explain it properly until he had someone with a slightly bigger vocabulary with him).

"I have heard of your mission," Tyrande said, softly. Her smile faded, and the moonlight seemed to follow it.

"Ah," said Kakashi. His smile was gone, as had all traces of his former oddness. "What is your opinion on this situation, if I may ask?"

"In what way?"

"Do you think this situation is salvageable?"

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't think so," she said. "But I do not believe that even if this situation is salvaged, that things will return to normality—not now. This act will have done exactly what it was intended to."

"Oh?" Kakashi said. "Foster prejudice, right?"

"Yes," said Tyrande. She glanced at Naruto, who had become solemn as well, and was listening to their conversation dutifully. "The elder generation will not have forgotten the past, and they, in all of our kingdoms, will be pressing for action. I have already heard many things from Darnassus—those that were originally angry with my decision will use this situation to argue—a very compelling argument, I might add—to cut all ties and exist as we had before Naruto arrived. I've heard whispers among the people of this town, too, about their close living neighbors and the trolls that have set up shop in the outer portions of the city. Even if we quell this situation, we will not be able to stop what is inevitable."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "So what do we do about it? If we know it's going to happen, then what do we…? Do we try and stop them before they rebel, or something?"

Tyrande shook her head. "It will do nothing. We can only assuage their fears, and at best, bring the real killers to justice—this kind of prejudice can only be cured with time, although we don't have much of that, do we?"

"No," said Kakashi. "That has always been the problem, hasn't it? The wound is always reopened before it can completely heal, and no matter what, the past continues to flow into the present. People will never forget their hatred."

"You speak like a wise king," said Tyrande, smiling.

Kakashi blushed beneath his mask, and around the top edges it was just visible.

Naruto didn't respond to Kakashi's words, though he couldn't resist a raised eyebrow at the man's strange reaction. He stared off in the direction of the town for a while, thinking about what both had said, until he turned to Tyrande and asked, "How long are you staying?"

"As long as needed," she said. "Archdruid Fandral—who is as much a leader as I—is overseeing everything that is necessary in Darnassus. It will, however, likely be only a few more days, for there is only so much I can do. I intend to speak with Vol'jin, before I leave, however."

"Where is he?"

"The forest, or so I'm told," she said. "I do not know if he is hiding or oblivious, though the latter seems doubtful—when the Alliance last battled him, there was never a point where he did not seem to know things that seemed so unlikely that prediction was impossible. He was an excellent strategist, and we lost many battles, due to his cunning and guile. He is not doing it without reason, then."

"Do you think he'll talk with you?"

"Perhaps," said Tyrande. "Although, truthfully, I am not looking forwards to it."

"Huh? Why not?"

Tyrande shook her head. "No matter what I do, I also cannot forget that he was once my enemy—it will be difficult to speak with him civilly, especially when we are alone." Her smile saddened a little. "Forgive me."

Naruto gave a little shrug, but didn't answer.

"The sun's almost up," said Kakashi. "Go wake up Sakura and Sai, and we'll—"

"We're already up," Sakura's voice, in the midst of a yawn, wafted into the morning from behind them. She came through the door, stretching and looking a little bedraggled, and Sai trailed a little behind her, smiling, not a hair out of place.

"Are we ready to go?" Sakura asked.

"Pretty much," said Kakashi.

"There is one last thing," said Tyrande. She reached into the folds of her robes, and pulled an oval stone inlaid with shiny blue gems that made the picture of an eye. She handed it to Naruto, who recognized it immediately.

"A hearthstone?" he said.

"It will save you the trouble of returning with Matthias, which takes time—this will take none at all, so use it well. I have bound it specifically for here."

"Do you know if Gai's team has one of these?" Kakashi asked, peering at the stone with interest.

"I would hope so."

"Fine then." He nodded and turned.

"I'll tell them that you have left, so that you are wasting no time," Tyrande said. "Good bye, and good luck." She leaned down, and planted a small kiss on Naruto's forehead, which made it and the rest of his face light up like the dawning sun.

"Say goodbye to Kira-chan for me."

"I shall."

---

Present

Ino and Neji returned that night, when the black clouds were no longer highlighted with fiery orange, and the black fog had become almost as thick as solid stone—Neji had to guide Ino back, once they met up, because she couldn't see anything, and it took them both over an hour to get back, through the winds that were blowing ever more violently.

They were both exhausted, but unharmed, and when they had safely devoured their share of water and some food, they told everyone what they saw.

"There are guards swarming the entrance," said Ino, tugging her hood up farther so that the ash didn't get in her face, but at the same time making it harder for them to hear her. "And inside it's no joke either. They're everywhere. I was barely able to snatch one from where I was, and I managed to get a fair ways down before I got out of range of my jutsu. There aren't many guards inside, per say, but there are still tons of dwarves—laborers, I think. They were all filthy and malnourished, like they hadn't eaten in weeks. They didn't seem too attentive, either—they just shambled around, doing whatever they seemed to have been told to be done, which was mostly moving rocks and other things like that."

"Did you speak to anybody?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yes," she said. "I took a guard, so it wasn't suspicious."

"Did you ask where Moira-sama was?"

Ino raised an eyebrow. "Are you kidding? Of course not. I asked when the next shipment of stones was being taken down."

Now Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "Why, exactly?"

"You're the brainiac," said Ino, grinning. "You figure it out." She glanced at Neji, who took it as a sign to report what he had observed.

"The tunnels below are simple up until a point. They are direct, and simply lead down to a series of circular chambers with smaller ones—perhaps dozens to each large chamber—branching off, until they reach a large hole. I'd say the depth at that point was around two or three miles, probably more. I wasn't able to see much of what lay beneath that—it must have been miles deeper—only the topmost portion of another set of caves, which I assumed was the Molten Core—there, the passages are more complex and much larger, though there did not seem to be anything living in there."

Gai nodded. "What of the numbers of dwarves?"

"I observed hundreds—perhaps thousands—in the main chambers, though that got progressively lower as one descended. There were only a few near the bottom, at the top of the large hole. There was only three chambers there—one large one, with two smaller branching off."

"That's likely where the throne room is, then," said Shikamaru, nodding. He glanced at Ino, and smiled. "When did the shipment of rocks leave, then?"

"They leave all the time," she said, smiling. "Which I why I followed up that question with, 'where did they go again?' so the guy just thought I was an idiot, or just a very sheltered guard—which I guessed wasn't terribly out of place. I think each chamber is a tier of sorts, for social classes, maybe. Like Neji said, the most dwarves were in the first chamber, which I was able to get to. They were all workers." She scratched her nose with the inside of her hood, so that she didn't smudge her face with her dirty fingers. "The guard told me that they all go to the bottom, where they're given to 'our true king,' just as they always have been."

Undrig scratched his beard, uncaring of the dirt. "Bit strange, tha'. Dunno what that thing would wan' with a bunch o' rocks."

"I can answer that, too," said Ino, frowning. "I decided to finish it off by asking why, and since he was already well aware I was retarded, he answered just as easily." She took a sip of water.

"'For our war,'" she said.

Undrig's eyes grew very narrow, like bottomless crevasses in a mountain.

"War…ye say?"

"Yeah," said Ino. "He didn't say against who—I don't even think he would believe I was that stupid."

"Right then,' Shikamaru said, after a moment. "I think our best choice then, would be henge."

Gai nodded, but he was not smiling in approval as he normally would.

"A fine plan," he said. "But you're forgetting something—Lee."

Shikamaru winced, and glanced at Lee. The boy, however, kept his head up and his eyes focused, unwilling to let himself feel that old scar—his inability to use jutsu entirely.

"Sorry, Lee," Shikamaru said, wondering how he could have forgotten.

Lee nodded, and smiled, but didn't speak.

"What about a combo henge? Or a multi-henge?" Chouji asked.

"Neither would work, given the amount of time we're going to be down there," said Asuma, sighing. "We'd be in no shape to fight. None of us have the chakra to keep a multi-henge going for that long. We'll be down there for hours, it sounds like, with hardly any chance of escape once being discovered, and a combo henge would be too big for a dwarf, unless they were a particularly fat one…but they probably won't believe that."

"However," said Gai. "That does not mean that henge must be eliminated entirely—in fact I agree with you that it's our best bet for entering. We must simply accommodate." He looked at Ino. "How, exactly, are the rocks transported?"

"Either by hand," said Ino, frowning, "or by these small carts they have everywhere there." Then she began to nod. "I see where you're going."

"So do I," Shikamaru said. "And I like it."

---

Benedictus' nose twitched and he rubbed it—the first movement he'd made in over six hours that hadn't consisted of turning a page, and Kira knew that because she'd been timing it. He'd started reading at six that morning, after a rushed breakfast (it had consisted of a cup of tea and a single roll with jam, and according to her healer instincts, neither was sufficient for a full day's work), and he had holed himself up in the chapel since, and it was now—she glanced at the clock again—twelve thirty-four.

She glanced at the book she was reading, as well, but found it hard to read. She needed more sleep, and the words were blurry and she was fighting to keep herself focused but it wasn't working, and the worst part was that her hundred-year-old master seemed perfectly fine.

"What have you found?" she finally asked.

The old man briefly glanced up. "Many things," he said, hoarsely.

"Anything useful?"

He gave a little shrug, and returned to the book. "Perhaps."

They'd been at this for almost a week. Every day she had asked that question. Every day he had responded the same. The man no longer seemed human—he seemed to run on merely his thirst for knowledge, and hardly got up at all or even touched the food that was brought to him. He went to the bathroom twice a day, something that she didn't believe was possible in old men like him, and he hardly spoke, so that when he did, he sounded hoarse like a coma victim first waking up.

Despite the length of time since it had happened—nearly a week—Benedictus had spoken little to Kira after their conversation about the events that had occurred at Stratholme. Truthfully, it had hardly been a discussion at all. She had told everything to Benedictus, who in the end asked her merely a question.

"So do you know her now?"

"Yes," Kira had said.

"Then there's nothing more to discuss, is there? I suppose that boy beat me to it, then."

Kira flushed.

They didn't speak again, but neither got up and left the quiet chapel. The silence was only broken when Sevenius Coutrend entered with two attendants, each carrying an armful of thick, old books.

"This should be a start," he said. "I'll get more if you need it."

"I think you mean 'when'," Benedictus said, pulling a pile towards him. "I think this is hardly sufficient."

"Oh? What is it that you are looking for, exactly?"

"A faith whose name I, curiously, cannot remember—I can only, in brief, describe the practices of it, which is why I have been looking for more information."

"Describe it to me," Coutrend said.

"It is an ability that allows them to destroy their attacker without ever touching them—creating wounds where wounds cannot be created," the old man said. "That is all I know, at this point."

"It sounds familiar," Coutrend said, frowning. "It is odd. I don't know why I cannot recall it—I am no stranger to ancient faiths, and for some reason this practice that you describe I can picture very easily, but I cannot name it nor can I recall any other information."

"Odd indeed," said Benedictus, opening the book he had set in front of him, and no longer looking at Coutrend, "that an archivist of your caliber would be thrown by this, isn't it? I wonder." He said no more, and so Coutrend swept from the room, saying that he would do some research himself.

Since then, all they had done was read, or at least, that's all Benedictus had done. Kira had spent a lot of her time around the city, allaying the fears—or trying to—that they were in danger through their alliance with Thrall and Vol'jin. But she was startled at the amount of fear—and by proxy, hatred— they still held for their former enemies; people who had formerly been more or less accepting of the help the orcs and trolls had given them in the past in rebuilding their city. Fears, however, did not end with just the orcs and trolls—it spread to tauren, and it had always been there with the Forsaken. The newcomers to the city suddenly frightened its people, even though many saw them everyday and had been doing so for several months, trading with them and working alongside them, without notable incident. She heard from the guards many accounts of prejudice—whether just name-calling and sneering, or outright violence, which despite their publicity, nobody seemed to notice or care about. She found it heartless that her own people could be so uncaring.

Benedictus just asked her to understand them. She found it almost impossible.

The trolls, and what few orcs had stayed, she did not see at all. She encountered occasionally a passing tauren, but they did not speak to her, and her efforts to talk to them were largely ignored.

Kira tried to force the rising despair away. She didn't let herself think of it, and tried to face each day with a fresh face. When things got too much, she went to the chapel and helped Benedictus read, or talked with Kylia and visited the Dwarven Quarter, which remained as barren and lifeless as it had when her father had driven them out.

She tried too, not to think about the shinobi parties. Whenever she did, they were never good thoughts.

It was a week since both parties had left, and in that time, they hadn't learned much—at least in Kira's opinion. The Archive books yielded a wealth of information, but none of it seemed useful. The only good news was that they had heard from the Blackrock group, and Kira had been delighted when she had found Undrig had joined them. They, according to Benedictus, would be within range of the Blackrock Mountains at this point, and had probably already begun the mission into it. She had no idea when she might hear from them again, if at all—and once she got on that track, she found it difficult to get off.

Naruto's group had arrived four days prior, but since then they hadn't heard much, other than that they would be investigating the ruins of Ravenholdt first, which would take several days just to reach it. She wondered what they would find, and kept checking with Tsuwabuki to see if they had sent anything. But the fox yielded nothing, and merely slept by Kira's side at all times, as faithful as Kylia, who at that moment appeared to be nodding off over her own book. It made Kira smile; one of the few things she could currently smile about. She did her best to find as many as she could—she talked to the cooks as often as she could, which brought back memories of her childhood as well as provided her with enough trash-talk and cursing to win most battles without even lifting a finger; but which she knew she would never be able to use in front of Benedictus because the old man would certainly attempt to wash out her mouth with soap, as he had often done in her youth when she'd used naughty words. She lingered among her people as well, and focused a number of her conversations on everything but the current situation with the other races. She mostly talked with those who owned restaurants, asking them for the best noodle shop in town, which Naruto had yet to find, and she hoped she'd be able to surprise him with when he got back and everything was over. She had a few names that she hoped to try.

She simply tried to smile, because it delayed the worry that she felt, both awake and in slumber.

But they had had other news: from Tyrande and from Tsunade. Tsunade had said that they should not expect her return for some time—she had other matters that needed her attention, but should they need shinobi, they merely need to ask. Tyrande's news was more troubling.

"I have met with Vol'jin," she said one day. She had appeared in the great hall, unannounced, sitting in her chair, as the last vestiges of night were swept clean from the sky, and the moon had descended into its den for the day.

"Then tell us," Benedictus had said. He seemed less eager to know of the troll's whereabouts than with the forthcoming reading.

"Has something happened?" Kira asked, worried.

"Nothing terrible," said Tyrande. "He thought it wise, once he had heard the news, to make himself scarce—but he has remained in the area."

"Why?" Benedictus asked, calmly.

"Because he is worried," she said. "That the killers will come here next."

"Would they?" Kira asked.

"It is not impossible," said Benedictus. "You are certainly a target, and killing you would no doubt be the greatest blow to the alliance than any other leader's death. But that would suggest that they know a whole lot more about our alliance than most outsiders—which begs the question of who has 'snitched' as they say."

Kira stared worriedly at him. "In Ironforge?"

"Most certainly," Benedictus said. "But there is no telling where else. What else did Vol'jin say?"

"He has seen something, in the future, or so he says."

"Do you not believe in precognition?"

"Of course I do," said Tyrande. "But I don't not believe it lies in what patterns bones make when they fall, or the sounds they make when rattled together. But I am not going to deny that I don't hold stock in his prediction—he has shown that he is capable in it before, against us in the previous war."

"What has he predicted?"

"All he said was—"a rain-soaked shadow from the north plans, two shadows from beneath the earth are close, and two giants will soon battle, while an icy wind blows across everything."

"Very portentous," said Benedictus. "Will you write it down, Kira? I am sure we will need it soon enough."

"You are rather unsurprised," said Tyrande.

"I am too busy to be bothered with it now," said Benedictus. "I will discover it soon enough."

"Discover what?"

"Who has slain dear Magni. I am just hoping that Naruto and the others will be able to provide the necessary information, when they arrive. As for this prediction, it may prove true or not, but I also have a feeling that something, perhaps many little things in quick succession, will soon occur. I have no idea what, however, though I will take Vol'jin's words to heart. Is he still in the area?"

"No. He has returned to Stranglethorn. I believe he intends to discover the fates of those trolls that ended up dead at Magni's feet. And he intends to contact Thrall."

"A wise move. I have done ordered that done repeatedly, but I have been unable to reach him."

"Why do you think he is not responding?" Kira asked.

"I cannot say," said Benedictus, with a little shrug. "But it must be a grave thing to cut all ties at this point. We shall see what happens."

---

Lee didn't like the plan one bit.

The ground shook beneath up, as the cart rolled along on the rocky floor of the passageway that led down to the first great chamber, that belonging to the workers and slaves of the Dark Iron Empire. He lay at the bottom of the cart, with rocks strategically placed above him so that though they did not crush him, they came close to it, and even closer with each jostling movement of the cart. He did not dare chance asking one of his teammates, who were pushing the cart, to slow down and avoid the bumps—even though he couldn't see it, he knew that they were surrounded.

Getting Lee into the cart had been difficult—it had taken a group of three—Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji—to transform into Dark Iron workers, while Asuma had assumed the role of an overseer guard. Though Neji had commented that his acting had seemed a tad forced, the guards and other overseers didn't see anything out of place when Asuma ordered a group of workers to return to the mines, and that these ones would take their shipment of rock. "They were slow and clumsy," he had told them, with a cruel sneer. "So they're doin' double. Better not be the same." The dwarves had quickly hurried off, afraid of what Asuma might do if they lingered.

After that, the plan progressed as smoothly as a skiff across calm waters on a breezy day. They unloaded the rocks, and let Lee get inside, and then placed four large rocks on each side of his body that would allow him a tiny space to lie so that his body wasn't crushed, before loading the rest back in. Gai, Neji and Tenten all assumed the roles of guards, as had Undrig, though his was much cruder than there's—he wiped and smudged soot on his face, and dirtied his hair until it was black as pitch. Yet it worked perfectly, and he seemed to make an even better Dark Iron dwarf than any of them—he hadn't looked at all that different from them anyways, save for a slightly lighter toned skin and hair that wasn't black. They entered before the rest, to mingle with the others and gradually make their way down. Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji stayed with Lee and pushed the cart—Asuma acting as the cruel overseer every moment of the way. Lee would hear him shout every so often—it was easy to tell his voice apart from the others, because the accent was still lacked inflection at points, and he rarely contracted his words as the other dwarves did, though none of the workers seemed to care and Asuma didn't speak up around the guards.

Lee had shed himself of his annoyance in not being able to use jutsu a long time ago. But it was a times like this that he felt it return like a ravenous cancer, and he found himself during the descent hovering between depression and anger, though he released it by repeating a slow, calming mantra to himself, one that he'd used since he had started training with Gai.

I don't need it. I don't need it. I don't need it.

He didn't need jutsu to be a shinobi. He had never needed it. And no matter what situation came about, he could always come out on top, as good as his comrades even without their tricks. He'd learned it from his mentor and first friend, and so it had to be true.

His condition was a stigma among shinobi families, though Lee had no such family to speak of—they had been shinobi, but had died in a mission when he was very young. He had been sent to the local orphanage, where he had still been teased and harassed for his weird eyes, and later when he had joined the Academy, for his inability to perform jutsu. Even his Academy teachers had lost hope that he'd ever become a proper shinobi. Lee had too.

Then he'd met Gai-sensei, of course.

Gai had shown him that it was hardly the jutsu that made one a shinobi, and he didn't need such a thing for him to become as strong and as useful as the rest. All it took was hard work, and a goal.

And, of course, the flames of youth.

By the time they reached the first tier, crowded with Dark Iron dwarves, stinking of melting iron and dust, hotter than anything Lee had ever dreamed of, and so loud—the clanking of chains, the hammering of metal on metal, the shouting, the moaning, everything echoing off the immense ceiling of the chamber— that for a while Lee lost all sense of direction, and at a point felt almost abandoned amongst the sounds of the deep. He couldn't tell if his friends were there or not—he couldn't here Asuma's voice, and the movement of the cart blended in with the tramping of a thousand feet inches from his ears.

But he didn't feel frightened,

He felt calmer than before, and the humiliation of earlier had completely worn off, when he realized it was silly. He hadn't been abandoned—the very fact that he was within the cart proved that. His friends had augmented the mission for his sake, had changed their plan to fit his disability. They did it because he was their friend, and they were his.

So they wouldn't leave him.

Lee felt the passion of youth begin to once again burn within him—a flame hotter than anything an elemental Firelord could manage. It was something, as Gai had always said, that could never burn out, no matter how many years passed.

So with the flames of youth burning raw and uncontrolled in his chest and eyes, Lee waited and listened, and took comfort in his friend's invisible presences, as they trundled along to their inevitable meeting with the one who, as Gai believed, would now need the flames most—deep within the caves, where a very different flame burned, and had burned, for almost as long.

The cart jumped, and Lee smacked his face into the rock mere inches from his face. He was lucky it was loud outside.

He didn't like the plan one bit.

But he'd do it anyways.

---

The heat was unbearable in the midst of the mass of toiling dwarves, though the majority of it seemed to come from the branching chambers, where smoke steadily rose and an intense heat wafted at all times; despite this, Shikamaru refrained from wiping his forehead, because as he looked around, he found that the dwarves were not sweating—indeed, they didn't even appear fatigued. Their tasks appeared random and at points, entirely pointless—they hammered the large rocks, breaking them into smaller and smaller pieces until they were nothing but dust. Sometimes they found chunks of a black metal within, and then put this into other carts, which then were taken into one of the side chambers. Sometimes they did nothing but shuffle back and forth, doing nothing but looking dazed until an overseer whipped them back into work. He had watched them as his team had guided the cart down, and seen that though they grunted in effort and did not appear at all happy, they did not complain and nor did they seem bothered at all by the situation they were in. They appeared as bored as Shikamaru would if he was forced to do paperwork all day.

It was commonplace to work so hard.

He remembered how long they had lived here—near three hundred years ago Ragnaros had arrived and enslaved them. For three hundred years, their kind had been cooped up in this place and forced to do the same things, for lifetimes. No wonder it had become bored to them. They had been raised doing it.

He observed the guards, too—and they rarely looked any more excited than their lower-class brethren. He guessed that the second tier—the chamber below them—would be the warrior class, consisting of guards and probably the standing army, if there was one. Below that would be aristocracy, and below that would be…The Elemental.

But it seemed a little strange, that despite being ruled by a creature so much stronger than them that it could be compared to an invading human in a colony of ants, they yet retained some semblance of a culture—in other words, they were proud enough of their existences as Dark Iron dwarves to retain their individuality, rather than falling completely under the heel of the Firelord. It was unlikely that the creature had cared enough about them to swat it out.

It probably didn't even understand them.

Their progress was already severely hampered—the sheer number of dwarves, and the large number of carts similarly being taken down, held them up long enough for Undrig, Gai, Neji and Tenten to move on ahead—he had lost sight of them long ago, amidst the thousands of other similar faces. Shikamaru would wait until there was less confusion—and noise—to call them using the stones Undrig had given them.

They crossed the cavern in almost half an hour, due to both its size and the constant need to stop and wait for the other carts to continue moving, or for a group of guards to pass by. Eventually they were led to a small passage that sloped down, and was much smaller than the previous—there were few guards here, and seemed only to be a train of carts which led deeper and deeper into the earth. The smell of sulfur became especially noxious by this point, and Shikamaru was struggling to keep his face as composed and unobtrusive as the other workers—he noticed Asuma looked hardly the different, and he guessed his smoker's lungs had something to do with it.

This passage stretched on for almost an hour, and even then they had reached no end.

Ino leaned in towards Shikamaru, several hours after they had left the first chamber. "Where's the second chamber?" she whispered.

"I don't know." He glanced at Asuma, and made a quick motion with his hand. Asuma nodded, and fell back a bit, and then pretended to see Shikamaru slacking off—he gave the boy a slight kick, and shouted at him to speed up. The dwarves a head of them glanced back once, only to see Asuma glaring menacingly at them, before they returned their focus forwards and did not look back.

As Asuma stood just behind him, under the guise of "keeping a close eye on him" Shikamaru removed the stone from his pocket, and made a quick seal. He held it up to his throat, and began to whisper.

"Can anyone hear me?" He held it to his ear.

There was no response for a moment. Then, a soft voice whispered, "Shikamaru, that you?"

"Tenten," he said. "Where are you?"

"The second chamber. It's full of blacksmiths and weapon makers—it's kind of amazing, to tell you the truth." She stopped and seemed to rethink her situation. "There are far fewer guards here though, and there aren't many blacksmiths either."

"I don't know," said Shikamaru. "We should've arrived at the second chamber by now, but…"

"You've passed it." It was Neji's voice now, quiet and strong as if he were right beside Shikamaru, but only he could hear the voice. "I can see you—you're already on your way towards the last chamber, though you won't ever make it. The passage you're in will take you beyond that, into a room of it's own, with another hole. Probably where they dump the rocks."

"Are there any chambers branching out?"

"No."

Shikamaru growled. Crap, he thought. How were they going to get there now? They had already lost a lot of time, and they seemed to be trapped, too. How were they going to—

Shikamaru's breath suddenly hitched. That was it. They had no choice. He glanced at Chouji, and leaned towards him.

"Chouji, when I say so, hit the wall or the floor with all your strength. Enough to cause a cave in."

Chouji stared at him. "What? But all of those—" He looked at the workers in front, and in back.

Shikamaru grit his teeth. "There's no time. Reduce as many casualties as possible." He told the same thing to Asuma and Ino, the latter looking just as horrified as Chouji, the former just nodding in mute response. He then told this to Tenten and Neji, and then Lee, as well.

"I'll use multi-henge," he told the boy, softly. "We'll have to do it quick, so I'll tell you when to come out so that nobody is watching.

"I trust you," was Lee's somber, determined response.

"What should we do?" Tenten asked softly in his ear.

"Keep going. See if you can locate Moira-sama and the child. We'll catch up as soon as we can."

"Right."

Shikamaru asked Ino to use a jutsu to create enough confusion so that when Chouji caused the cave in, there would be little chance of Lee being seen.

Shikamaru waited a few moments before he gave the signal. He had to wait for a place where visual acuity would be minimized for at least one half of the cart train—in this case, the front half, so he chose a particularly sharp bend in the passage.

He nodded to Chouji, who had been watching and waiting for his signal near the front of the cart.

The boy made a quick seal, and his foot suddenly swelled as thick as an oak trunk, and he drove it into the ground. The entire cavern shook and roared as loudly as a waking volcano, as cracks darted up the sides of the wall and met at the ceiling, dislodging the rock amidst a chorus of screaming dwarves. The ceiling exploded, dust flew, but they had already acted.

Ino blazed through a series of hand seals. 'Ninpo: Rouzeki no Jutsu'

It worked. Disoriented and terrified, the dwarves running up the crumbling passage barely noticed them, wildly flinging their arms in the air and howling like animals, as Lee burst from the side of the cart, grabbing hold of Shikamaru's outstretched hand. A moment later there were two dwarves, each nearly identical.

They were already running.

The passage continued to fall, and behind them a wall of smoke was surging towards them, black and consuming as night. The ground cracked and shook as they ran, passing abandoned carts, their contents spilled over the ground, and many dwarves who had stumbled this way—and had met their ends at the feet of their comrades. The ceiling shattered and tumbled down behind them, and before them as well, peppering them with small rocks and debris. Chouji leapt out of the way of a larger rock, which could easily have killed him, and Shikamaru twisted and dodged as best he could, keeping Lee as close to him as possible so that the henge was not broken. The roaring grew only louder, and it seemed as if the world was ending.

For some of the dwarves, it must have been.

By the time they had reached the central chamber again, it was filled with panicked, frantic dwarves. All of them had stopped working, and the guards were trying desperately to quell the pandemonium that had broken out—but it was perfect.

They slid from the rest of the crowd and took only a moment to retransform into guard uniforms, before they descended the much wider cavern. They met a torrent of guards rushing up who hardly noticed their presence due to the din from the preceding room, and it took far less time to reach the bottom.

The second tier was surprisingly different from the previous cavern, not only in its size, but in it's very structure. Running throughout the room was a flowing river of molten rock, which entered through a pipe at the very end of the room to Shikamaru's right, circled in a ring around a platform in the center, before flowing out into a drain at the opposite end of the room. In the middle of the room, a hundred hammers fell upon a hundred anvils, working the glowing ends of a hundred terribly black swords. Shikamaru guessed this was dark iron. He had also been wrong about the warrior tier, after all.

A number of guards stood near the entrance, unsure if they should move up and investigate or remain at their posts. When they saw Shikamaru and his group, they hurried over, demanding to know what had happened.

"A cave-in," said Asuma, huskily.

The guards looked suddenly, and unusually, worried. Shikamaru wondered how many times they had had cave-ins, and he guessed from the looks on their faces that it was not often. They began whispering, and asked what had caused it.

"We don' know," said Shikamaru, attempting the accent as best he could. "We only jus' 'eard it, like yerself. I don' think anyone knows yet."

It must have been the fear that prevented him from noticing Shikamaru's horrible accent. "D'ya think, well, it coulda ben…?"

"Been what?"

"Them? 'As it begun?" The dwarf sounded very worried now, and hurried past Shikamaru, followed closely by his partners.

"What were they talking about…?" Ino whispered, directing her frown to where they had just left.

"Do you think they meant the war?" Lee whispered. The boy stood just next to Shikamaru, and had not since left his side in an attempt to minimize the boy's use of chakra.

"Most likely," said Shikamaru. "But with whom are they fighting?"

Nobody had an answer, so they moved on.

---

Tenten, Neji, Undrig and Gai reached the final tier just as their allies reached the second. It was pitifully small in comparison to the last two, but there were triple the number of guards, all of whom were dressed far more elegantly than the rest—their armor was polished and gleamed in the artificial light, which came from a large chandelier above them, made entirely from crystal. Their weapons were drawn at all times, and they stood straight up, focusing all of their attention on the empty throne in the center of the room.

The throne was massive, and easily fit for a king. It stood on top of a pyramid of stairs and was forged from the same gleaming black metal that the guards' armors had been formed of. Spiraling designs and runes had been soldered to the sides, armrests and back, and it was done in such a fashion that the runes seemed to rise from the metal—there seemed little sign of any actual tampering done. In fact, the throne itself did not appear crafted at all. It was as if it had existed there, had grown from the earth in that exact position hundreds of years ago, and since then it had done nothing but exist.

Gai glanced about the room a few times. They were positioned near the entrance, but had not been spotted yet. They did not dare rework their forms any further—that would be too much cause for suspicion. They probably had a certain number of guards for each shift, which meant that if they took the forms of those guards, they would have a few too many. But there were easier ways of hiding than simply sneaking around.

He made a series of complicated motions that only Tenten and Neji could decipher, and they both nodded. Undrig glanced at the three of them, confused, until Neji whispered to him to do as they did. Just as he said that, Gai strode out into view, gasping.

The guards turned all at once. Their weapons flew up.

"Cave-in!" Gai gasped. "Upper tunnels…thought His Majesty would…"

"Would what, slave?"

The voice was brittle and sharp—not like a king's. It came from the very far end of the room, from a small passage that Gai had not yet seen. A dwarf walked out, but he was different from the rest—his body was rail-thin and his face sunken and skull-like. His hair and beard were black like his dark iron namesake, and he shuffled—not strode—into the room, glaring like a rat at a piece of cheese. He did not stop until he was standing right next to Gai, where he stood a few inches shorter than the already short shinobi.

"Would what?" he asked again, coldly. The dwarf's black eyes, as beady and small as the tiniest ashes in an old fire pit, moved quickly from Gai's face to Tenten's and Neji's and Undrig's—where they lingered a little longer than usual, before snapping back to Gai again. "Tell your emperor what has happened."

"Cave-in," Gai said, having taken a few moments to "breathe", when he had been looking towards the chamber the king had emerged from. "Above, in the industry channel."

"Which one?" Emperor Dagran Thaurissan snapped, pushing his beaked nose forwards so that it nearly touched Gai's. He was jittery and his soot-colored eyes were constantly moving about Gai's "face" as if attempting to recognize him out of the hundreds of other similar faces.

"The m-main one," Gai said, pretending to tremble.

The emperor's eyes grew a little wider, and he stopped sneering. He started to shake, and he quickly drew back, looking worried.

"Well then fix it! Now! Quickly! Go! Go! GO!" he snapped. He turned, scuttling back into the passage he had emerged from, and did not look back. He muttered as he left.

Gai stood awkwardly for a moment, while the guards returned to their immovable sentry stances. He glanced around at them, but they showed no reaction other than to stare at him hard in a manner that suggested that Gai should do as he was told, or they'd make him do it. He then turned and began moving back towards the passage, and the others slowly began to follow. He stopped at the entrance for a brief moment, and then continued on, very slowly, with Tenten and Undrig trailing a little behind him.

But Neji stayed.

One of the guards glanced at him. He opened his mouth and his brow knitted in preparation for a barking order, but then it froze on his face and the only thing that erupted from his mouth was a soft "guh!" which none of the other guards seemed to hear, because they remained in their upright stances and did not even twitch at the sound. Their expressions didn't change—though, their eyes had. They had become slightly wide, and were shaking, as if struggling to look away from some awesome sight that would inevitably become their doom, which wasn't so far from the truth.

"Ninpo: Osaekomu Nami no Jutsu."

Crouched at the very top of the slope, deep in the shadows, Ino could just see the entirety of the room for her jutsu to take effect. She had her hands knit in a complicated seal, and she no longer had her henge in effect. As soon as she had begun the jutsu, Shikamaru barked a quick order to Neji, who was already halfway around the room before it reached his ears.

His hands flew in short, simple jabs at their foreheads and chests. Pulses of chakra lanced through their dark iron armor and into the flow of their chakra, slicing the minute, nearly invisible vein-like structures to pieces and severing their connections with the organs that they were wrapped around—the brain and heart. It took but a single blow for it to work, and they toppled like stalks of corn hewn by a scythe. Neji finished every one of them, before coming to a quick stop in the middle of the room, slightly out of breath, as the last dwarf fell with a rough clang against the earth. None of them moved again.

Gai, Tenten and Undrig returned a moment later with Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, Lee and Asuma. Everyone had shed their henge, though Undrig kept his Dark Iron makeup on, unbothered by the soot around his face.

"Where's the king?" he rumbled.

Gai pointed down the hall that Dagran had just left through. "There," he said.

"Couple o' you have to stay here," Undrig said. "Figure out what we're gonna do next. They in there?"

"Yes," said Neji, his Byakugan blazing. "I can see them all—the boy is in an adjacent room and Emperor Thaurissan is currently speaking with Moira-sama."

"Then you' an' yer team come wit me," said Undrig. "You guys stay our 'ere, okay? Figger out 'ow we're gonna get outta here wit Lady Moira and the Prince."

"No," said Shikamaru. "That'd be better for Neji. My team will go—you guys stay here and plan our root. By the way, where's the giant hole you mentioned before?"

"Beneath us," said Neji. "Beneath this very room. I can see no passage for reaching it, however."

"That's fine then," said Shikamaru. "I just don't want any accidents, or surprises. Let's go."

The passage led them to a small but heavy door, made of dark iron and guilded with ornate beasts—a gryphon in battle with a dragon, and a door handle formed as a leaping lion. Shikamaru slid up to the door, and pressed his ear against it. He heard nothing, though it wasn't surprising. It must have been very thick. He stood back, and for a moment felt stonewalled. What did he do—kick the door open and rush in? Did he wait for Emperor Thaurissan to come back out? For once he wasn't clear what to do, because this situation required almost no strategy—there were few choices and he had no idea how it would turn out anyways. He glanced at everyone else. Ino was staring past him, at the door, but met his eyes briefly. She stared hard at him for a moment, and offered no aid on what to do; Chouji merely nodded when their eyes met—he too left it entirely up to Shikamaru. Asuma and Undrig weren't even looking at him—their eyes were fixed upon the door.

Shikamaru turned back to it. He took a breath, grasped the handle, and pushed.

It gave way easily, so much so that it was open faster than Shikamaru had predicted—it must have been, for someone as small and feeble looking as Thaurissan. The room that greeted them was large and furnished as beautifully as any king's would have been above the ground—beautiful tapestries, woolen rugs, a large four-poster bed with black and gold drapes obscuring most of it, a number of animal skins and heads adorning the walls, and a some beautifully crafted weapons decorating the walls. In the center the Emperor himself stood, in the midst of turning from when Shikamaru had opened the door.

"Wha—" he began, but didn't finish. His eyes widened, and he let out a strangled cry, backing away quickly. He pushed a small woman dressed in an elegant but simple robe with fiery red hair out of the way, so she stumbled and tripped over the edge of a carpet, while he backed against the end of his bed, shouting furiously for his guards.

"They won't come," Shikamaru said, softly. "They've been defeated, and with the cave-in upstairs, there won't be many more coming."

"You!" Thaurissan snarled, pointing a twitching finger. "Human! What are you doing here! How dare you! HOW DARE YOU! How dare you come to this place—my home, my kingdom, you filthy, filthy huma—"

"Tha's enough o' that," Undrig rumbled. He pushed past Shikamaru, making his way towards the short woman, who was currently in the process of picking herself up, looking as if she had just awoken from a deep sleep.

"Lady Moira," Undrig whispered. His voice shook.

The woman stared at him, cocking her head slowly to the side. "Yes? Who might you be?"

"Paladin o' Ironforge," Undrig said, bowing. "At yer service, milady."

"Ironforge? IRONFORGE?" Thaurissan bellowed, skittering across the room so that he stood just a few feet away from Undrig, shaking and twitching in fury, his finger still extended from when he had pointed at Shikamaru. "I knew you weren't one of mine! I knew it! What are you doing here? Why? How did you get in, Ironforge dwarf, how did—"

"Jus' a bit o' makeup, is all," said Undrig, scowling at him. "Looks like ain' so differen', eh? Nobody recognize tha' I wasn' a Dark Iron like yerself, Yer Majesty." He said the last two words as if he was cursing his mortal enemy.

"Why are you—" The Dark Iron Emperor began again, but was again interrupted, this time by Shikamaru.

"We've come to retrieve Moira-sama, and her child, and return them to Ironforge."

Thaurissan's face at once changed from furious hatred to simple confusion.

"What? How did you…? What?"

"Where's the child?" Asuma asked, glancing around. There was another door, just across from the bed, as dark and heavy looking as the previous.

"You wish to take them back? To Ironforge? Why?" Thaurissan snarled. "What purpose does that bring? And how will you?"

Asuma didn't answer, and Shikamaru didn't particularly want to either. Instead, he made for the door.

"Answer me! ANSWER ME!" Thaurissan roared, his face and voice flooding again with rage, his body shaking in small fits, his arm once again raised, his index finger extended. Shikamaru glanced back at him.

"Because it needs a king," he said.

Thaurissan's face changed again. The anger dissolved. Joy and laughter replaced it.

"He's gone? The old fool is gone? MAGNI IS DEAD?" He laughed, his entire body shaking like the victim of a seizure. "He's dead! I can't believe it! He's dead, he's dead, he's dea—"

His interruption came from Undrig this time, but not in words. The dwarf had crossed the distance between them and without warning had driven the head of his hammer into the skinny dwarf's stomach with such force that it threw him back into the wooden footboard of his bed, which caved in with a loud crack. The Emperor slid down, spitting blood and coughing madly.

"Don' talk about—" Undrig began in a snarl, but stopped as something blurred past him.

"Dagran!" Lady Moira cried, dropping down to her husband's side and placing her hands on his wounded chest. Healing chakra began to flow from her hands, as she muttered furiously and desperately under her breath soothing words to the pained emperor, who twitched and moaned but didn't speak to her.

Undrig stepped forwards. "Milady, didn' ya 'ear…?"

Moira ignored him, and continued to heal her husband.

Undrig tried again, breathing desperately. "Please, Lady Moira, yer father, 'e's…gone, 'e's gone, Lady Moira, can' you 'ear me?"

Again she didn't respond. But Thaurissan did, with a burbling, pained laugh.

"She does'na care…." He sneered, abandoning his more proper accent in his pain. "She's mine, ya see, mine, mine, MINE! I got 'er, an' that bloody dead fool does'na! 'E's dead! DEAD!" He laughed again, ignoring Moira's whispered pleas to stop speaking, to rest. But he pushed her away, roughly, so she slammed against the wooden poster of the bed, and fell to the floor. Undrig rushed forwards, but stopped when Thaurissan got up, leering, and kicked her in the ribs.

"She's mine!" He said, laughing. "Always was! Always mine!" He kicked her again so she spat up blood, and Undrig roared in fury. The dwarf rushed across the room, but stopped suddenly in mid-stride, and then stood up straight.

Shikamaru stood at the other end of the room, lowering his hands from the nezumi seal.

'Ninpo: Kagemane no Jutsu'

"What're ya doin'?" Undrig roared.

"Stopping you from making a mistake," Shikamaru said. "You too," he added to Dagran, who had been frozen as well. He released the jutsu. "Let's find the child." He didn't want to think about what he knew they had to do now.

"We won't have to," said Asuma, calmly. "He's here."

Sometime during the last few moments, the unopened iron door had crept open, and a small face appeared within the crack, watching them. Seeing that he had been spotted, the face disappeared for a moment, before the door opened and the child entered the room. The boy—if it was indeed one, because Shikamaru, despite his own pride in his observation skills, was having trouble identifying the gender of the creature that had just stepped into the room—strode in audaciously, its scrunched and nearly bald head held absurdly high with its large, hooked nose pointed almost skywards. Its face was squashed and affixed in a perpetual sneer, it had coal-black eyes like its father but its hair was a strange mix between the brilliant amber of its mother's and the obscene black of its father's, so that it was a murky black with auburn highlights. Its skin was rough looking and the color of light stone, and it was rather rotund, appearing almost wider than it was tall. The only reason that hinted to Shikamaru that it was a boy was its short hair, resembling moss growing on the rocks in a deep cave. Its—his—voice then rang out, and it was definitely a boy's voice, though it was nearing a gravel that could have matched a man ten times his age.

"Who are you?" he demanded. He was staring at Shikamaru, of all, but his squinted black eyes focused on the others in due course, before it settled on his mother and father, but only briefly. The boy was soon looking back at Shikamaru, as if the sight of his mother in pain and his father standing over her grinning maniacally was such a common occurrence that it hardly deserved notice any longer.

Shikamaru glanced uneasily at the Emperor for a moment, and Lady Moira. He swallowed.

Undrig was the first to speak, but before that, he bowed graciously to the dwarfling, who noticed it with a puzzled frown, as if no one had bowed to him, the son of an emperor, before.

"Milord," he said, "an 'onor ta' meet you."

"Why?" the little dwarf asked.

"Bein' in the presence o' King Magni's grandson and Lady Moira's son is an 'onor o' course," said Undrig. "But beggin' yer pardon, milord, we can' stay much longer."

The boy frowned. "What? What are you talking about? Why can't I stay? Where am I going?" he looked at his father, very briefly. The Emperor did not speak.

"We've come ta' take you back ta Ironforge, you an' your mother," said Undrig. He paused, knowing that the next few moments would be the clincher—would the boy accept the offer and return quietly, or would they be forced to do what Benedictus had told them should only be a last resort?

Would they need to kidnap him?

The boy hardly noticed the words being spoken, and only reacted a few seconds later, when he tore his eyes away from Shikamaru, Asuma, Ino and Chouji. It was the first time he had ever seen humans, evidently. It was obvious that he would be surprised by their appearance, but he seemed to be taking it far better than any of them had expected—he was evidently not as much of a child as they had previously thought. Shikamaru could see it now as well—behind the beetle black eyes there was a certain cunning and cleverness that he had evidently inherited from his rat-like father. He had little idea of what to make of Shikamaru and his group.

Finally, he spoke.

"Take me back?" he finally said. "That isn't possible. I've never been to Ironforge. Why would I want to go there?"

Undrig licked his lips. He didn't need to choose the words because they had been on his lips from the moment he had seen the boy.

"Ta become king."

The boy focused all of his attention on Undrig now. "What?"

"King Magni—yer grandfather—" He ignored the obvious sniggers of joy from Thaurissan behind him, "—has jus' been…assassinated." He had no idea why he said that instead of simply "killed" but it seemed more appropriate for a child's ears. "An' wit yer mother an' you here, Ironforge 'as no king. Tha's why we're 'ere, milord—to bring you back ta Ironforge, so that ya can become king, yer mother too, o' course." He glanced at Moira, then, who had gotten up, and was staring at both of them in a way that made Undrig sick to his stomach. It was a hauntingly vacant look—her eyes were wide and her face framed with a pleasant but unnerving smile, considering she had just been brutally beaten and the evidence showed in her bleeding lip and bruised forehead. She didn't look like the Moira he remembered—standing beside her father when he addressed the kingdom for war talks and announcements, flowing with vivacity and a powerful gleam in her eye that none of the precious gems they mined could have matched, nor could the hottest of forges have ever compared. A smile had never been far from her lips then, but it was a wholly different smile than this.

This was terrifying.

"She doesn't need to come."

The words didn't come from Shikamaru's mouth, though he had been thinking something like it, nor did they come from Thaurissan's in a bitter attempt to assert his dominance over Moira once again.

They came from the dwarfling, who was not looking at his mother, but rather at Shikamaru again, in a sort of fascinated way like you observed an ape performing tricks in a zoo.

"Wha'…?" Undrig said, uncomprehending.

"I said she doesn't need to come," the child said. "There's no point in her coming anyways, since she doesn't really have a mind of her own anyways. You might as well take my father too, because that's all she is—my father's puppet. Isn't that right father?"

Thaurissan grinned, but it came less quickly than before, Shikamaru noticed. And it was almost as unnerved as the looks Ino, Chouji and Asuma were displaying towards the boy.

The boy went on, moving swiftly past the subject of his mother. "I am to become king then? How strange, I had no idea. I didn't think that I would become king ever, but if I can get away from this place, I'll happily go." He smiled, and turned. "But let me get some things, first, since I'll probably need them when I—"

"Hey," said Shikamaru. "You don't care?"

The dwarfling turned to him, seeming delighted to here him speak, probably to the extent that he had no idea what Shikamaru had just said."

"Care about what?"

"Your mother," Shikamaru said, calmly. He glanced at Moira again, but her look hadn't changed, although she had stood up, and was beginning to totter towards the boy with an affectionate smile that seemed slightly more genuine. "You don't care if she isn't coming?"

"Why would I?" the dwarfling said, passively. "She isn't my mother—she's my father's puppet. Just a puppet. What kind of mother is that?"

"Wha—" Shikamaru began, but was cut off. Thaurissan had worked himself into a rage again that seemed to equal the heat of the forges burning far above them.

"How dare you! Boy! You think you are going with them? DO YOU? DO YOU? You're staying right here, brat! I MEAN IT!"

The boy stared at him. "I don't think you have a choice, do you father?" He glanced at Shikamaru. "Does he?"

Shikamaru forced down the needles of worry, and the feeling of wrongness that he now felt. This wasn't how it was supposed to have gone. True, he hadn't truly known what to expect, but he hadn't expected this. The boy didn't seem like a child at all—he was cold, impassive, almost frighteningly like someone Shikamaru hadn't thought about it some time.

Uchiha Sasuke.

The way the dwarfling spoke—properly, without any sort of Dwarven accent, plus the fact of his age (though he conceded he knew nothing of Dwarven developmental stages, so this could have been common, but he doubted it) and the subjects the boy spoke of with such a dispassionate drawl—could only speak for a prodigy. Shikamaru had only known two proper prodigies in his life, one of whom he disliked, the other of which was in the other room currently seeking a way out, and he had known neither of them in their childhood, but he imagined that this was what they had been like. In fact, that's probably what Uchiha Itachi had been like, before he had killed his entire clan.

It was frightening.

"Does he?" the dwarfling repeated.

"No," Shikamaru finally said. "I suppose not."

"Then I'll get my things," he said. "How are we leaving?"

"We haven't decided yet," said Shikamaru. He glanced at Asuma, who was frowning as well. "Ino, restrain the Emperor, we're going to—"

A curious smell had arisen, and it just then caught Shikamaru's attention. It was an oily, fleshy smell like cooked meat, but with an earthy smell, a little acrid, as if pitch were burning too. It was not of any variety he had smelled in a hibachi steakhouse that he'd been to with Chouji, Ino and Asuma in their genin days, nor had he smelt it anywhere else in his world. Its source became apparent just a moment later, when smoke began to arise from it, and the hideous sizzling sounds began.

Lady Moira Bronzebeard was smoking. It came from her skin, almost red in color, but with more brown and black as well, rising from her flesh which began to bubble and blister and soon slough from her bones as easily as the most tender of steak meats. Her hair began to catch fire, as did her white robe, and then her flesh, while her eyes sizzled and frothed and eventually burst like juicy, overstuffed sausages being pricked with a fork. Flames coalesced around her quickly disintegrating form, forming an aura around her, and keeping her shape and holding her bones together so that they were—blackened like coal—just visible beneath the white-hot flames.

That's when she spoke. The voice was less a voice—it was more a rhythmic roaring of fire, up and down, forming such minute differences in tone and pitch, that it had successfully duplicated the most hideous voice Shikamaru had ever heard in his life. Each word seemed separate of itself, a whole power in itself.

"WHAT…IS…THIS?"

Thaurissan screamed. He was backed against his bed again, shaking and wailing.

Moira, or what was left of her, turned her attention to him.

"WHERE…ARE…THE…MATERIALS?

THE…WAR…IS…ALMOST…UPON…US. I…NEED…THE…MATERIALS…WORM."

Thaurissan was now wailing like a child, as everyone watched the beast in horror. Nobody could move, could think, could react to what had just happened, least of all Undrig, who was standing close to the flaming Bronzebeard, unbelieving of the sight.

"Milady…?" he whispered, softly, but it was lost in Thaurissan's wails.

"WHY HER? WHY HER?" the Emperor screamed, standing up and tottering forwards. "You promised…not to take…her! Why! WHY!"

"YOU…ARE…ALL…THE…SAME." The beast said. But then, it seemed to turn—the skeleton in the inferno was suddenly facing Shikamaru, because he could now see both hollow eye sockets, belchingfire, and the full view of bare ribcage.

"HUMANS…" it said. "HAS…HE…ENLISTED…YOU…AS…WELL? PROMISES…OF…POWER…UNENDING? SPIES…FOR…HIM?" The fire then issued a series of minute explosions, each one making it flare slightly brighter, and soon Shikamaru came to realize that it was almost a sort of laughter.

"NOTHING…FOR…YOU…THERE…YOU…WILL…ALL…MEET…YOUR…ENDS…AS…HE…WILL…"

"NO!" screamed Thaurissan, leaping upon the flaming remains of his wife and embracing them; the flames wrapped around him too, obscuring his form in blackness, before it reduced him to as little as his wife, but they soon feel in a heap, while Moira's remained suspended.

"YOU…WILL…SEE…IT…FIRST." The demon said to Shikamaru and laughed again, before the fire abruptly went out, and Moira's ashes fell in a heap next to Thaurissan's, so that they became indistinguishable.

Shikamaru twisted around, and streaked across the room. Without warning, he lifted the dwarfling up, and roared for everyone to run. They cleared the room, and had made it just down the hallway before the rumbling began.

In the throne room, something had happened. The stone floor was falling away, and the ceiling was crumbling. Gai, Neji, Lee and Tenten stood near the doorway, roaring at them to hurry up. They had to go! Now! The room was crumbling, the passage leading up falling away just as much as the floor beneath them. They only had a few scant seconds to move, to get up and out of danger, before—

Shikamaru took a flying leap across the room. He didn't make it halfway across before a falling rock struck him in the side of the head, and he fell into blackness.

---

The beginning of the Blackrock Team's troubles. More will soon follow, it seems.

I want you guys to know that I have taken all of your criticism to heart—this chapter contained little humor, but some respite, and that's what you guys seemed to have wanted. Some of you think I'm being a bit hard on my characters—well, yes, that is true, but that's the entire point of the conflict, isn't it? A lot is going to happen in the next few chapters, believe me. Just try to stay with me, okay?

That being said, I presented this extra-long chapter because I will probably not be able to post anything in the next week or two—I'm returning to school (I'm on a plane as I write this) and will be readjusting (by that I mean partying) and will probably not be in much shape to write or post. Whatever the case, look for a chapter near the beginning of October, or a little after.

Sorry to leave you with a cliff-hanger. Ain't I a stinker?

Well, hope you guys enjoyed that, and leave reviews if you can spare them, since they don't take that long and help be make it a better story for everyone.

See you!

General Grievous

Next chapter: Ravenholdt Manor, The Molten Core, Stratholme, Southshore, and Northrend.

Scroll of Seals:

Ninpo: Osaekomu Nami no Jutsu (Immobilizing (lit. To immobilize) Wave Technique)

Ninpo: Rouzeki no Jutsu (Mass Confusion (lit. riot) Technique)

Ninpo: Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Imitation Technique)