Disclaimer: i dnt own nrto or wrld of wrcft.
Here's the next installment of The Legend of Uzumaki Naruto!
The air whistled in the mountains above Hillsbrad, through the trees, though it was quickly approaching a howl as they neared the summit of the winding path that they had been on for more than a day. The path was not so much a path however, and more just a scant hint that someone or something had beforehand passed through this place, ascending the mountain in the most indirect route possible. Kakashi did not deviate from the path, afraid that if they did then whatever genjutsu these assassins had set up to protect their mountain retreat would activate and they would never find their way out again. The path had obviously been created by someone who only expected those who were the best at tracking, the best at noticing the most minute details no matter how apparently unconnected and insignificant they might be. Sakura herself was dazzled by their teacher's ability to pick up these details, many of which she did not notice herself (and she'd always prided herself on her observational skills and intelligence). Naruto, of course, was hopeless in noticing these, though he didn't stop trying as they went. He observed what Kakashi did, and imitated, and though he would often spot the continuation of the path—a broken leaf, or perhaps a slight shift in the general disarray of the leafy floor—he wouldn't realize it was something significant until Kakashi had pointed it out.
"Word of advice," Kakashi told him, after a few hours of this. "Overlook nothing, regardless of its insignificance."
Naruto squinted at him. "That's a bit difficult, you know?"
"Didn't say it was easy, but it's necessary."
Naruto nodded, and fell silent.
They spoke little as they ascended the path—Naruto and Sakura were near the back, with Kakashi up front and Yamato and Sai just behind him. Sai was listening intently to Yamato, who was whispering something that neither Naruto nor Sakura could hear above the wind and the other sounds of the forest. The boy's face was, unusually, unreadable. He had become much better at showing everyone what he was feeling in the past few days, though it was still rather exaggerated and he still had a penchant for asking embarrassing questions that no one would answer. He had also given Sakura a nickname, which she'd responded to by threatening both him and Naruto with death if they ever spoke it aloud again.
Naruto, however, thought it was cute.
In the past few days, since they had arrived in Hillsbrad—staying a single night in the decrepit town of Tarren Mill, where they had been met by a number of Forsaken who had given them the general area of the Manor and had served them some rather grotesque cuisine that turned out to be spider meat (apparently that was a delicacy among them, usually served with a side of bear liver and drizzled in a sauce made from spider venom and yeti milk; only Naruto had been able to finish his meal, having long gotten used to their strange eating habits). They'd spent a few hours there, resting from the journey, before they'd set off again, taking two days to reach the base of the mountain, having crossed a rushing river and an open, rocky plain that gradually sloped up. The path had been found between a pair of trees no different from the rest, only identified by the lingering smell of humans, as well as the same smell that they had met in the tunnels of Ironforge.
"That confirms it," Kakashi had said. "We'll just gather as much evidence as we can—maybe they left something behind that could be of use to us."
Since then, they had done nothing but climb the mountains—so far it had taken them two days, as it was quite a large mountain, and according to Kakashi (from his frequent conversations with Pakkun) they would reach it within the next few hours.
In the back, Naruto and Sakura occasionally spoke, but mostly gazed around the forest, in a general attempt to observe as well as their teacher. When they did speak, it was about more general things.
"How's your training going?" Sakura asked, as she was never present when Naruto was training, having been practicing herself.
"Pretty good," said Naruto. "It hurts, though." He flashed her a smile. "Glad you're around."
"Thank your girlfriend for those books," said Sakura, not a little haughtily. "Or it'd be harder to."
"She's not my girlfriend," said Naruto, flushing.
Occasionally, however, they did touch upon heavier subjects.
Sakura just shrugged. It didn't matter to her either way, or so she liked to think. She didn't believe it could work out, anyways, even if they did get together. They were literally worlds apart.
"I thought you liked Kira-chan now, anyways," said Naruto, glancing sideways at her, and pushing the branches of a far-reaching tree out of his face. "So why do you get so angry?"
"I'm not telling you," said Sakura. "And you're wrong—I do like Kira, and my getting angry has less to do with her, anyways."
"What? Why can't you just tell me?"
"Figure it out for yourself!"
Naruto pouted, but this didn't last long, nor did Sakura's apparent fury. She calmed down quickly and was soon back to talking about various things, such as the information in the books, Konoha, and everything that didn't touch upon the subject that would be taboo between them until they had done something about it.
The books that Kira had given her were fountains of information—they contained a lot of things she knew, but the were many more things that she didn't, and indeed, she didn't think had even been discovered in her world. Medical procedures that were so ingenious, but so difficult, that nearly every time she picked one of them up, she found herself astounded.
Kira had told her that much of the medical techniques in the book had been developed by a powerful city of magi that had since gone into total seclusion, and indeed, didn't even have contact with anyone else any more. The city of Dalaran, rather near where Sakura was right now, in fact, had been responsible for most of the powerful jutsu that now existed in Azeroth, and any book that contained their techniques was so valuable that they could easily finance the furnishing of a castle as large as Stormwind with gold and silk. It was said that those born in Dalaran were gifted with an incredible ability to create and learn jutsu and manipulate chakra, almost as if they were another race entirely. For a long time, however, nothing had been seen or heard of them. They had locked themselves away at the end of the Third War when their city had been attacked and razed to the ground; they were now inside a shield so powerful that it would take thousands of skilled magi or shinobi to bring it down, if it were possible at all.
Kira had correctly assessed that not only would Sakura benefit from the powerful techniques the book contained, but from the history of said techniques, which were all painstakingly chronicled in the books. Suffice to say, Sakura had thought that the trip up had been far too short, and whenever she picked up one of the books, she found it hard to put it down, so much so that Yamato had to keep a careful eye on her whenever she was reading, so that she didn't zone out and forget about her own practical training (which, due to the injuries Naruto was sustaining in his own training, was rather necessary).
Even better, Kira had written notes in the margins of the books to herself, containing shortcuts in the making of seals (which Sakura doubted she'd found out herself, and had most likely come from Benedictus), little tips in how to guide the chakra written in far less scholarly language so that Sakura was able to understand techniques that she had thought might require explanation, and occasionally a whole new jutsu, or at least the concept of one. Sakura was amazed—she'd created only one technique herself, so far, but Kira was well on her way to creating a few that could greatly benefit the medical practice, especially Sakura's chosen profession.
Sakura was also able to map out Kira's own course of study, which seemed to take place over a series of years. But then, about halfway through one of the larger books, it came much quicker, and the notes contained more current information some of which Sakura could understand, and even relate to. Sometimes the notes were not simply notes, and seemed to be more like a personal diary, containing snippets of information about Kira's life, her thoughts, and her feelings. It was sometimes so personal that Sakura felt almost guilty reading them, as if she were peeking into Kira's personal diary that she had snuck out from under the girl's pillow while she was sleeping. She kept reading, however. She wondered why Kira had given it to her, knowing that it contained so many things. Had she wanted Sakura to know all of these personal details, some of which she might not have even told Naruto? She couldn't believe that Kira would be so absent-minded.
So why?
They exited the forest, and reached a cave.
The mouth was wide and dark, but the cave itself was not very large, and consisted of a single passageway only a couple dozen yards long—they could even see the exit. There was nothing odd about the cave itself, as they passed through, save for a large wooden box that sat halfway in, in the middle of their path. Its top was smashed in, and there didn't appear to be anything left inside.
"What's this, do you think?" Sakura asked, frowning.
"Probably to tempt the more greedy," said Kakashi, tilting his head slightly to the side. "Though it being in such an obvious location, I don't know why they would—it's possible that it held some sort of jutsu which required you to open it to pass, though that seems to have been broken with the chest."
At the end of the cave was a field, surrounded by walls of rock, and a small sloping hill, which took them to the former manor of the Ravenholdt Assassin's Guild.
The house was mostly ruins—a skeleton of charred wood and fallen stone, surrounded by a scarcely intact outer wall that could have easily stopped an invading army. A small path crept up to the ruined building, branching off slightly to the side and leading soon to a cultured field where crops must have been grown, beside which was a stretch of bare earth where training dummies had been set up.
"Start looking," said Kakashi, with a sigh. "There's not much ground to be covered, so do it thoroughly."
Nobody, upon seeing such devastation, could contest.
Naruto and Sakura searched the fields, which had remained relatively untouched. Sakura didn't expect to find anything there, but it was possible that the killers had crossed it at some point, and had left some clue behind. The trek upwards, however, had shown her that she would likely not recognize it if she found it, which was why she continually conferred with Naruto on everything she saw. It helped.
"They didn't leave the way they came in," she said, aloud.
"How do you know?"
"There are footprints in a steady line all the way across the field," she said. "Two pairs."
"So there were two of them, then?"
She nodded, uneasily. "How could only two people do this much damage? I thought these people were supposed to be the best assassins out there?"
"Myrdraxxis said that they were not much better than any other assassin's guild, they were just larger," said Naruto. "But that's just as strange. How could just two guys defeat all of them?"
At Sakura's shrug, they returned to checking the rest of the field, which showed nothing more—they returned to the manor, but on the way, Naruto was struck by a horrible idea.
"Hey, Sakura-chan," he said.
"Yeah?"
"You don't think it was…" he glanced back at the field, as if expecting the killers to be lurking somewhere beneath the soil, waiting for him to speak their names.
"Who?"
"Well you said there were two of them, right? Who do we know that are strong enough to beat dozens of skilled shinobi, even when there are only two of them?"
Sakura frowned a moment, and then it struck her.
"That's…" she stared at him uneasily. "That can't be right. Why would they do something like this? I thought their goal was to…?"
"Me too," said Naruto. "Let's talk to Kakashi-sensei, maybe he knows a bit more. It'd be better to talk to Ero-sennin, but that's impossible right now."
"Do you think it could be them?"
"Maybe," he mumbled, frowning. "But it's weird. Why would they do something like this?"
The manor was bare of bodies, though the stench of death lingered. The first thing that Kakashi noticed when he entered was the blood, strewn about the floor and some of the portions of the wall that had somehow remained standing. The blood was long dried and had become almost black, but it still stank and there was so much of it that it was more like a new coating of paint.
"It didn't last very long, did it?" Yamato mumbled, glancing around. "It probably took them a couple of minutes to do the worst damage—they must have been immensely powerful."
"Stronger than I thought, at least," said Kakashi. "To cause this much destruction, especially to trained professionals…."
"There could have been many of them."
"Could have been," said Kakashi.
"You don't sound so sure."
"We'll see," said Kakashi. "I think Naruto and Sakura have something to tell us."
Indeed, the two had arrived, with Sai in tow. The boy had been checking around the walls of the castle, and around the outer edge of the mountaintop.
"What did you find?" Kakashi asked. He noticed Naruto and Sakura's troubled looks, so he directed the question mainly at them.
"As far as we could tell," said Sakura, glancing at Naruto briefly, "there were only two assassins."
Yamato's eyebrows rose considerably. "Two?"
"Two sets of footprints," said Naruto. "And that got us thinking a bit…Kakashi-sensei, do you think it was Akatsuki?"
Kakashi blinked.
"Truthfully, I didn't even consider it," said Kakashi, but his brow furrowed and he began to scratch his chin. "But I can see how you thought that—and it's worrisome that there's no way we can disprove that theory."
"What was there purpose, then?" said Yamato. "Could there have been something they wanted here?"
"Maybe," said Kakashi. "But as far as we know, their only goal, currently, is the capture of the bijuu. There certainly wasn't a bijuu here, that's for sure."
"Why not?" Naruto asked. He was not looking at Kakashi anymore, but all around as if some trace of the creature was there. When his gaze settled on Kakashi's again, the man spoke.
"Because all nine bijuu are, and have always been, in our world. I believe that the majority of them are accounted for, or at least the intelligence reports say. Which means that they would have nothing here, that we know of, that could be of any use to them."
"They stole everything valuable, though," said Sakura. "Maybe they want money."
"That's possible," said Kakashi. "But again, it seems unlikely—Akatsuki's plans don't seem to revolve much around money, and at this moment their only goal appears to be the bijuu, at least in our world. In this one, of course, it could be very different, especially since we have no idea how strong their influence is." He frowned again, and paced around a section of the wall that had fallen. He glanced around the entire room again as he did, taking in nothing but the sound of the whistling wind and the looks on his comrades faces—all confused—as they glanced about the room and attempted as best they could to spot something they had missed before.
"What do we do now, then?" said Yamato. "There's no point in staying any longer, especially when there doesn't seem to be anything more here that what we already know, and the answers it did provide us come with even more questions."
"Seems to be the case," Kakashi said, rather distractedly, staring hard at a section of the floor. Then, he reached up and shoved aside his forehead protector, revealing his left eye.
"Then again," he said with a widening smile, "maybe not."
Everyone's attention snapped to the silver-haired man. Naruto spoke first.
"What is it?" he asked
"Chakra," said Kakashi. "On the floor."
"What?" Sakura looked at the floor, where Kakashi was staring, but saw nothing. "What do you mean?"
Kakashi bent down, and gestured to a small dark smear near the edge of the fallen piece of wall he had been pacing around earlier. It crept out just beyond the edge of the wall, clearly blood, though long dried and almost covered by a thin sheet of dust, which made it appear faded. "That blood," he said. "It has some traces of chakra in it. Powerful chakra, too, but very black, like it came from a demon of some sort."
"Do you think—" Naruto began.
"Not at all," said Kakashi. "I said it seems like it might have come from a demon, but I don't think it did. That's human blood, if I'm not mistaken, and for some odd reason, it still contains traces of life energy as well."
"That's impossible," said Sakura, though she didn't sound at all sure, the longer she stared at the spot. "Life energy disappears when a person dies—that's why they call it life energy."
"I'm well aware of that," said Kakashi, with a quick smile. "But that doesn't change the fact that there is indeed life energy still present in that symbol."
"Symbol?" Sai said. "It appears to be nothing more than a smudge."
"To you, at least," said Kakashi. "But the chakra forms a symbol, about five feet in diameter, mostly covered by the wall section." He pointed to the other sides of the rubble, "See? You can see more edges of it there. It's not a very complicated symbol either—just a black circle with a single triangle in the middle, as if somebody were trying to finish a pentagram, but forgot."
"So what does that mean?" Naruto mumbled, staring hard at the piece of rubble, as if trying to see the symbol beneath it. "What's a symbol like that mean?"
"Who knows?" said Kakashi. "But it's a start."
"I'll tell Tsuwabuki, then," Naruto said. "Hopefully Benedictus-jiisan will know what it means, if anything."
"It means something," said Kakashi, "that I'm sure of. I think it belonged to the one of the two assassins that killed Magni. Perhaps, even, the one responsible for the mysterious wounds. It might be part of some elaborate jutsu." He glanced at the sky. "But I think that's it, at least. We found something, and hopefully it'll help, but the last chance we have is in Southshore. We'll head back to Tarren Mill, and then head to Southshore from there."
They left the ruined building and the quiet mountaintop, now as silent as the grave and as dead as its contents.
Shikamaru awoke to the smell of ash and sulphur. It was so strong that he flinched and gagged, a stray thought passing through his head as to how the hell he had managed to stay asleep for so long with such a noxious smell assaulting his nose. His eyes opened but he quickly shut them, as a searing heat dried them out and made it impossible to see for a moment. He coughed and tried to sit up, but his back and leg were on fire so he couldn't even do that. The ground was solid, but hot as a stone road on a sunny day in the middle of summer, making it uncomfortable now that he was awake and at least partially coherent. But he lay still, coughed a few more times, and then opened his eyes to what he was quite sure was Hell.
He was in a vast chamber, or at least he thought so at first. It was so huge that it could have fit an entire tower in it—the ceiling was so high it might have been a second sky. But it quickly realized that the cavern was not actually a chamber—it was long and narrow, and when he finally managed to sit up and turn his head, he saw it stretch on into complete darkness. It was an immense tunnel. The rock was completely volcanic, and the ceiling dripped with boiling red streams of fire, which would cool as they traveled down the walls, or dripped into a puddle on the nearly flat cave floor.
He moved his hands, warily, to discover them covered in black soot and covered in small cuts and bruises that had nearly dried, though they ached as much as his back. His left arm burned whenever he moved it, even slightly, and when he touched it he found a huge gash down the side, likely due to a fallen rock or because of the impact—which he then realized should have killed him.
His head glanced up, as he suddenly remembered what had happened. The ceiling was intact, however, save for the minor cracks leaking molten rock. He then glanced around and to his side, coming face-to-face, far quicker than he would have liked, with Maito Gai.
"You're awake." His voice was uncomfortably grim, and his eyes were narrowed in gravity of the situation. The man's face was blackened by the same soot Shikamaru's hands had been, and at least partially burned as well. His shinobi vest was ripped in several places, and just as dirty as his face.
"Gai-sensei," he said, and coughed a few more times. Gai handed him a small canteen, and he took a few gulps, before handing it back and trying again. "Gai-sensei, what happened?"
"We fell," said Gai. He jabbed a finger behind him. "Somewhere in that direction, if I recall. It was a long drop, long enough that you would have died if you'd fallen the whole way. Thank Chouji for the save—he was able to keep most of us alive at the expense of a few larger injuries."
Shikamaru worriedly glanced around. Behind him, tucked as near to the wall as could be, in a small indentation, Ino, Neji, Tenten, Lee, Undrig and Asuma were sitting before a fallen Chouji. The boy was unconscious, and his face was heavily bruised and his shirt and armor had been removed and laid to the side. His chest was covered in blood and burns but the boy appeared to be breathing, even as Shikamaru struggled over, wheezing as worry filled his stomach almost to the point of bursting.
"Chouji!" he hissed.
"He's fine," said Ino, shaking her head. "It looks worse than it is, but most of that black stuff is just soot, not blood. Undrig-san and I healed most of the bigger wounds, so this stupid lump could live." She said stupid with affection, and smiled at the large young man laid before her. "He's an idiot, though—he fell nearly on top of a few stalagmites and almost rolled into a pool of lava."
Shikamaru let out a sigh, and slumped back, coughing a few more times. "Is everyone…?"
"We're fine," said Neji, attempting to restrain a surprising amount of bitterness from his voice. "You were hit on the way down by a rock, while the majority of us managed to avoid that. It's lucky, as well—if any more of us had been knocked out, we would have been dead. You've been out about two hours."
Shikamaru nodded, wiping sweat from his brow and trying to restrain another cough. He glanced back at Gai, and then thought of something else. He looked around.
"Where's…?"
Neji pointed without a word, and Shikamaru followed it to where the Dwarven child sat, tucked up close to an older stalagmite; he was so dirtied with ash that he could have been merely an addition to the rock formation. He had buried his head in his enrobed arms, and was still as stone.
Shikamaru a horrible image suddenly flashed through Shikamaru's mind—a burning skeleton, speaking in words not from this world.
"Oh God…" he mumbled under his breath. "So I guess…Lady Moira is dead, then?"
Undrig's face was hidden mostly behind his beard and shaggy hair, which now covered his eyes. "Aye."
"What…why did?"
"Told ya 'afore," said Undrig. "That thing don' give a damn about life, so it don' make any difference between some no name dwarf an' the king and queen themselves. Probably happened by random chance, unless it needed to talk ta' the king directly. Musta' been pretty urgent."
"You're taking it well." Shikamaru said, shakily. He coughed.
Undrig looked briefly up, so that his eyes could be seen beneath the veil of dirty black hair. The dwarf looked decades older. His eyes were clouded and cold.
"Ye ain' lookin' too hard, then," the dwarf said. "But no point in grievin' now, is there? Got somethin' to do 'afore we can do all that, don' we?"
Shikamaru nodded. He turned back to the child, and then, very slowly, began to crawl towards him. He waited until he was about a meter from the boy before speaking.
"You alright?"
The boy looked up. His face was the same—eyes glinting with a frost quite out of place with the general setting.
"I'm fine," he said, waspishly. "I would have survived the fall anyways—I'm a dwarf, our bones are far less breakable than humans, or so I've read." He glared hard at Shikamaru. "You're responsible for this, aren't you? You're responsible for bringing me down here, for getting me mixed up with that horrible monster, aren't you? I though you were supposed to be protecting me, and bringing me back to my kingdom?"
"I was," Shikamaru said.
"Congratulations, then, at screwing it up!" the boy shouted. "We're going to die down here, you know? It's not possible for us to live any longer."
"Calm down," Shikamaru said, and coughed again. "Nothing is—"
"You don't understand at all," the boy said, dropping his head back into his arms and not looking up again.
"We went through the same thing," said Ino. "Though he should thank you, at the least, for taking most of the damage from the fall. You wouldn't let go of him until we had safely landed."
Shikamaru merely nodded. "How far away from the entrance are we?"
"That depends on what you define as entrance," said Asuma, blowing a ring of smoke into the air before snuffing out his cigarette on the wall, and lighting another. "The big chamber we entered through the fall is about thirty minutes in that direction," he pointed down the tunnel, to his left. "But that's hardly an entrance, and there's little point in going back, due to the danger."
"Danger?" Shikamaru said.
"There were things there," said Asuma. "Giant rock men, if you'd believe it. They appeared almost as soon as we fell, so we had to run to get away—they stopped chasing after about ten minutes or so."
"Rock men?" Shikamaru said. "What?"
Asuma shrugged. "Don't ask."
"They're golems," mumbled Undrig, hoarsely. "Creatures made o' nothin' but rock and chakra an' a bit o' life energy. Dunno how they were made so big, though, 'specially since it'd take a lot o' life energy to make all that rock move. Then again, we're talkin' about the Lord of Elemental Fire 'ere, so it ain't so surprisin'."
"Do you know if there is anyway out of here?" Shikamaru asked, trying not to sound as desperate as he felt.
"Doubt it," Undrig said. "Be na point, would there? Na Dark Iron dwarves down 'ere— just rock and elementals. They have na reason to make an entrance or exit." He scratched his beard, looking at Shikamaru with grave eyes, barren of hope. "Dunno if we'd survive down 'ere very long, anyways. Water'll run out quick, an' there's na food na drink down here, unless you eat fire an' brimstone."
"Then what do we do?" Ino snapped. The girl was glaring at the dwarf, angered by his pessimism.
"Dunno," said Undrig. He shrugged, and said no more.
Ino slumped back, but looked no less furious. She stared at the obsidian floor, her eyes sharp like daggers, her brow knitted as she thought of the same thing Shikamaru did—what they would do next, how they would get out.
"Can't we just climb back up the hole using chakra?" Shikamaru suddenly said.
"We're talking a walk, straight up, of about a mile or so," said Asuma. "I don't know about you, but I don't have the stamina for that. That technique isn't meant to be used for long distances, anyways. That's why we don't run across the sea, you know."
"If we all had Naruto's chakra, maybe," said Neji.
"Be better if we 'ad an hearthstone," said Undrig. "Surprised they didn' give yeh one 'afore yeh left."
"What's a hearthstone?" said Shikamaru.
"Don' matter much now. You woulda known if yeh'd gotten one."
"There is no use in wishing," said Gai, shaking his head. " It would be our best bet to find some other way of getting out—there has to be, especially if this beast ever intended to fight this war that we have learned of."
"How do you know about that?"
Everyone turned to the boy, who had picked up his head and was glaring now at Gai.
"How do you know about the war?" the child said again.
"Everyone was mentioning it above. What is it?" Shikamaru said.
The child's eyes narrowed a little, but his face turned white so he hid his head again. He didn't speak again for a while.
Shikamaru inched closer, desperate to know. "What is it? Is it soon?"
"I don't know," said the dwarf child. "Nobody knew when it was, but it was something everyone feared, especially my father, because he knew that once it happened he would have very little chance of surviving. He wanted to hold onto his kingdom as long as he could."
"Who's it between?" Shikamaru was now very close to the child, so that he might have been able to embrace him had he thought the child needed it. But the child's eyes remained the same, even as he spoke the next few words with a sort of reverence that one leaves for gods and kings.
"The Firelord," said the dwarf child. "And the black wings."
Shikamaru frowned. "Black wings? What are those?"
"The things that live above us," the child said. "In the Spire, where we can never go. They rule half of this kingdom, really, and that's why the Firelord wants to fight them, so that he can conquer the entire mountain and then move on. It's why, too, I was so eager to leave this place, even though I had no idea who all of you were, or even if you were telling the truth."
"How old are you, kid?" Asuma called from behind Shikamaru.
The child leaned to the side to look at Asuma, scowling. "Why?"
"I've never heard a child speak like you have," he said. "And no offense, it's a little frightening."
"If you're scared by this," the child said, turning away. "Then you'll wet your pants when the war begins. That's what my dad would've done, too, even after he'd relieved his frustration on my mother."
Asuma didn't answer. Shikamaru sighed, and drew back a little, to stare at the child as if he were a foreign substance. How could a child talk like that, he wondered? His first guess had been correct, then—this child was a prodigy, not unlike Sasuke or Neji. It was disgusting to hear the words of an adult fall from a child's mouth, even more so the words of an adult who had lost any notion of companionship or love.
The child's voice was dead, not unlike his mother and father. But Shikamaru knew that it had been dead long before then.
But something nagged him. He wished he was Naruto, suddenly, or at least had Naruto's innate understanding of people. He wanted to know what was wrong with this boy, even though it appeared so clear he knew it was different—deeper and more complex.
"What's your name?" he suddenly said, realizing that he didn't know it.
The child looked up at him, very briefly.
"Thoraan," the boy said.
Shikamaru nodded. He then turned back to the others.
"Ino, could you heal my arm, and could somebody get me a soldier pill? This place is too troublesome, so I figure we should leave, you know?"
While Thoraan stared at him as if he were a moron, his friends broke into gales of laughter, Ino especially.
"Suppose you can't play shogi here, can you?" Asuma said, lighting up another cigarette and getting to his feet.
"Or eat at a barbecue steakhouse," said Ino, with a sidelong glance at Chouji, who immediately awoke at the word "barbecue" and was sitting up by the end of "steakhouse."
"Did somebody say steak?" the boy mumbled, blinking blearily around.
Everyone laughed for a moment, save Thoraan, who simply stared at the foreign sound in what he had assumed would be a barren, hopeless and final world. Gai too did not laugh, though his gaze was far more warm than Thoraan's, and his face was lit with the brightest smile as he looked upon his students and friends, who even in times like these, did not look down, but merely forward, as the young should.
"Yosh!" Gai suddenly yelled, pumping a fist into the air. "Then let's get started!"
Southshore was a small town on the coast of the Hillsbrad Foothills, so sparsely populated that it could no longer be called a town; it was more a garrison for the soldiers of Stormwind, used primarily during the previous war to combat the rising Forsaken menace in the area. When that war ended, it's purpose became less defined, and the soldiers who had previously occupied it could get away with far more than others of their kind could in cities closer to Stormwind. It became a den of passing thieves and highwaymen, sometimes even murderers and professional killers. It allied itself with the Assassin's Guild of the area, mostly for protection, though occasionally the mayor of the town— Magistrate Henry Maleb—would meet with Lord Ravenholdt for a game of cards in which both would attempt to cheat the other out of their money, and both would usually leave no richer than they had come. They received trade only from the passing goblin ships, bound towards or coming from the Undercity. In Anduin's final years, Southshore degenerated ever further into its more destitute practices, until an order came, not six months ago, for the reformation and repopulation of the army garrison, and the town once more had a use.
Since the formation of the New Alliance, it had regained some semblance of its former nicety. The thieves became scarce when fresh, uncorrupted soldiers arrived, and the corrupted soldiers were mostly discharged; the whores were regulated and confined to a specific time slot; and the assassin's guild was no longer so obviously welcome, though Magistrate Maleb still met with Lord Ravenholdt until the assassin's demise a month earlier. Of course, not everything was corrected, either, as the new soldiers began to fall into the ease their predecessors had done in dealing with the town's problems, namely, doing little at all and spending their wages on the finest whores and gambling houses.
It had become more a hub town where the different races of the area—mainly the Forsaken and the humans, as well as a few dwarves from the mines to the south—could gather and trade and exchange what little information they could give, much less would. Far away from Stormwind, Southshore was nowhere near as tolerant, despite Benedictus' strict orders and his constant surveillance of the area. The humans of Southshore considered the dwarves as allies, but predictably treated the Forsaken who might appear as little more than pests that should be driven off as soon as possible. Of course, they didn't drive them off with pitchforks and torches, as they might once have, but they did scorn them in the streets, raise the prices of their goods to nigh-unpayable levels, and treat them as unfairly as one possibly could without declaring outright war upon them. Hence, Forsaken rarely entered the town, usually confining themselves to their own Tarren Mill.
The impression Naruto got when he entered the city was that it might have been pleasant once, but neglect and time had decided to reduce most of it to a place that looked no better than Tarren Mill—the houses were shabby and in need of repair, the lawns and gardens were almost full of dead grass and decaying flowers, the crop fields were overgrown and very obviously neglected, and the people appeared as kind as the drifters that Stormwind nestled in its darkest parts, or the waifs that populated the towns surrounding Konoha.
"Didn't expect this," was the first thing that Kakashi said when they passed the guards into the town. The main street was hardly populated, and the entire town appeared lonely and forlorn.
They had shown the guards Kira's orders, which had been written and signed in paper. They directed them to the end of the street, to the largest building on the left, which was the infirmary. When they got there, Sakura gasped at the state of the building. It resembled little more than a large shack, and was obviously not used regularly, if at all.
"What the hell is this!" the girl snapped, hurrying up to the door and thrusting it open. The others followed quickly, hoping that Sakura wouldn't do anything rash.
Inside wasn't much better—it was dusty and unkempt, and there were only seven beds, one of which was occupied. It was at the far end of the room, near a large window.
Sakura didn't notice this, however—she was in the midst of arguing with a rail-thin man who appeared quite affronted at Sakura's sudden entrance and consequent lecture.
"Are you the presiding healer here?" the girl demanded.
"Yes," the man said. "I'm—"
"Look at this place!" she cried. "It's filthy, and completely not sterile! What kind of place is this?"
The man glared at her. "Who are you, girl, to tell me how to—"
Sakura cut him off. "I'm a healer, and I'd wager a far better one than you. This place is disgusting—how do you expect to heal anyone in this place?"
"I don't," he said, nastily. "There are such limited resources here that the best I can do is offer my patients a little potion or a minor healing jutsu and send them on their way. Don't lecture me about—"
"You're affiliated with Stormwind, right? So why not just ask for more help—they have plenty to give!"
"I—"
"Hold on, Sakura," said Kakashi, touching her on the shoulder. She snapped her head back to look at him.
"What?" she said.
"Give the poor man a break," he said, smiling. "And as it stands, we aren't here to lecture him on his poor housekeeping abilities—we're here to have a look at his patient." He looked at the man. "You have a patient, at this moment, do you not? A Master Kang?"
Still red-faced from Sakura's rant, the man nodded and pointed to the end of the room. "There, but don't expect to hear much. It—he's out cold and won't wake up for quite a while, I imagine, given the wounds he had."
"What were they like?" Kakashi asked.
"Mostly blunt wounds—I'd say a mace of some sort due to the strength, but it was more than likely a fist, given some of the bruises. He also had some burns and some piercing wounds around his arms and chest, as if stuck with a hundred needles as thick as my little finger."
"Anything mysterious about them?"
"If you're talking about the mystery wounds we found on the others, then no. This one had none of that."
Kakashi nodded. "Thank you." He looked at Sakura, who was still shaking, but was gradually calming down with a few whispered words from Naruto. "Have a look at him, will you?"
Sakura nodded. She headed for the bed, Naruto and Sai in tow, while Kakashi and Yamato talked with the healer.
The bed was cleaner than the rest, though still covered in a thin layer of dust, which appalled Sakura nearly as much as the condition of its occupant. Master Kang was an orc, a very old one, who might have once given the impression of power—but his body was skeletally thin now, and his face shrunken so much that he seemed as small as a goblin. His green skin was covered in a dark flush, and his breathing was unsteady and harsh.
Sakura threw off the covers, and examined the rest of his body, which was covered by a thin white robe, slightly parted in the front. The orc's body was mostly recovered, with the burns and bruises the doctor had mentioned long gone; but it was clear that Kang was far from healed, and his situation wouldn't be getting better.
"What did he do…?" Sakura muttered to herself, checking the state of his chest and the head.
Naruto glanced at her. "The healer?"
Sakura nodded, but didn't answer. One of her hands, glowing with blue chakra, rested just above his stomach, while the other remained on his head. She nodded to herself, made a seal, and the chakra changed from blue to green tinged with gold. She pressed her hands against the areas, taking a few deep breaths. Naruto and Sai watched quietly and calmly. Naruto had a few questions, but he wouldn't disturb Sakura's work, which was far more important.
He glanced at the doctor across the room. He didn't like the man. He gave Naruto the definite impression that he was not doing his job right, and the only reason he was doing so was because of Master Kang's green skin. He suddenly felt a rising disgust, and at the same time, a slow emptying of his good thoughts. He pushed the coming thoughts away, but he knew they would come back. It looked like he'd been a bit too naïve. He should've guessed there would be more places like this, with people like him.
Some time later, Yamato and Kakashi walked over. They didn't address Sakura at all, because she was still in the midst of her treatment. She had stopped healing his head and stomach, and had moved on to mixing up a small batch of medicine from the herbs that she had acquired from Stormwind, and from her own stores. Occasionally she would move back and place her hands back on the two areas, filling them with more healing chakra, before moving back to her chemistry.
The healer watched them the whole time, with scarcely hidden disgust.
Finally, Sakura backed away, leaning against the windowsill. "It's done."
"Is he okay?"
She nodded. "He should be. I still don't know when he'll wake up, however." She sighed.
"Right," said Naruto. He turned away, advancing towards the healer. The man held his ground until, in the dim light, he caught site of the look on Naruto's face.
"What the hell is your problem?" he snapped. He kept his voice dangerously quiet—he'd learned from Myrdraxxis that that was far more effective than shouting.
The healer stepped back. "I don't know—"
"Why didn't you give him proper treatment?"
"I—" the man faltered, and backed away again. "What does it matter?"
"What do you mean what does it matter?" Naruto growled. "Sure he's not human, but what the hell does that have to do with anything?"
"He's a—" the man began.
"It doesn't matter what he is!" Naruto shouted.
"Calm down," said Kakashi. The man had come from behind, and was now resting his hand on Naruto's shaking shoulder. He glanced at the healer, his gaze as warm as if he were facing his mortal enemy. "Don't expect that this won't go unpunished. The racism charge isn't much, but preventing valuable information from being obtained due to your personal feelings is another story, I imagine."
The healer didn't answer, and nodded a few times.
Naruto looked at Kakashi for a moment, then thrust another glare at the man, before returning to the bed.
"You okay, Sakura-chan?" he asked. The girl was still leaning, very quiet, against the window.
Sakura nodded once. "Fine." She gave him a weak smile. "I guess you have to deal with this a lot, huh?"
Naruto gave a helpless shrug. "I kind of wish I did. Then I'd know how to deal with it better."
They had no idea where they were going, truly—but all agreed that merely staying in one place was pointless. They set off down the tunnel, Neji in front with his Byakugan active and searching. Because he could see through solid objects and in almost every direction, he was able to accurately judge the depth and incline of their travel, which kept them from going deeper into the Core. They passed through tunnels that led up, finding them nothing but dead ends, and had to backtrack in these situations, and find another way.
But it became increasingly clear that no matter how far they traveled up, they would never totally reach the top. Neji claimed that the final tier of the Blackrock Depths was only just visible from their current position, and he could barely see through it's entire vastness, which covered the majority of the Burning Steppes. More than that, some areas of the core he couldn't see past—likely protected by some natural rock that prevented Neji from seeing through it. He had never heard of such a rock or substance in his life, but he didn't deny it was possible; as it was highly unlikely that anyone was doing it purposely, because that would require an deep understanding of the kekkai genkai itself, something only members of the Hyuuga clan possessed.
The smell changed over time, becoming less like sulphur and more like burning pitch. They decided that going down might be a better idea, since if there was an exit it might be closer to the center, where everything seemed to be situated.
They did not encounter anything dangerous, as they walked. The giant halls were deserted, though they did not appear to have always been. Shikamaru noticed the indentations in the rock, as if something very large and very hot had walked across it. The apparent footprints—nothing more than huge, misshapen circles—were large enough for their entire group to stand in them at arms length apart. Shikamaru did not want to see what had made them. But he did find it odd that they had seen nothing since the entrance—where could this army of Ragnaros be?
Shikamaru walked between Gai and Lee at the back, and a limping Chouji, supported by Ino in the front. Asuma and Undrig stood on either side of Ino and Chouji, and past them was Tenten and then Neji in front. Thoraan walked beside Shikamaru in quick, little steps, but appeared annoyed by the arrangement. The boy's face was completely blank as he walked, but his posture changed occasionally from proud stride to heavy trudge, so he could tell the boy thought it was useless to keep going. He might have believed it was simply the personality of a child to be bothered by forced physical activity, but given the situation, and the child, he knew better.
It was sad to see a child give up hope like a jaded adult.
The deeper they went, the hotter it became, and less Shikamaru was able to breath clearly. He coughed often, as did all the rest, as the smog from the deepest parts of the earth became steadily thicker and the smell of pitch became so intoxicating that they could not walk a few steps without someone needing to stop.
It became clear, soon, why none of the Dark Iron dwarves existed this deep—it would be impossible for them to survive for long. There was no way this place could harbor any sort of nourishing substance fit for humanoids to eat, let alone allow them to sufficiently breathe. But they pressed on, because they had nowhere else to go, and no other choice.
"What's the point of doing this?" Thoraan snapped at Shikamaru, at some point during the endless trudge. Recently, sounds from below had begun to catch their attention, so Shikamaru was only half-listening to what the boy had said.
"What?"
"Why are we still going? What's the point?"
Shikamaru glanced at him. "To die faster, I imagine."
The boy stared at him for a moment.
"I'm kidding," said Shikamaru, smiling a little. "We're doing it because we have no other choice."
"Of course you do," the child said.
"What's that?"
"Just give up."
Shikamaru shrugged. "That's not a choice any of us would acknowledge, however—so really, it isn't a choice at all."
"Why not?" the child demanded.
"Because we want to live," said Shikamaru, brushing more sweat from his eyes and coughing into his arm. "So thus, we have no other choice. If we die, we die, but until that happens, we're going to do the best we can to live."
Thoraan stared at Shikamaru a moment, before looking away and snarling something under his breath. Shikamaru looked at the child again, marveling at how absolutely unlike a child he was. What the hell had happened to this kid? He couldn't believe that it was the boy's intelligence that was providing the sense of pessimism—it had to be something else, and he believed he knew what.
"Thoraan, what did your paren—"
There was a sudden crash from in front of them, a long, echoing boom that was suddenly everywhere around them. It did not stop with one, however, and more followed. The tunnel they were in began to shake and it was so loud that Shikamaru couldn't even hear the shouts of his friends, standing no more than a few feet from him.
Ahead of them was movement. Not coming towards them, but crossing their path, just out of their field of vision, half-obscured by the darkness and the smoky veil.
They were as tall as the tunnel was, and there were dozens of them. They were giants, little more than clumps of rock stuck together into a vaguely humanoid shape, oozing and dripping fountains of molten rock, which flowed through the thin crevasses that made their joints and faces. They took great strides, each simultaneously, so that they never got closer to the giant in front of them, marching in step to an unheard rhythm. Their footsteps shook the cavern and they called out in booming voices that were almost indistinguishable from the shifting of rocks, amplified a hundred times over, perhaps tinged with the roaring of flames.
"Golems," Shikamaru said aloud to himself, as he and the rest rushed to the cave wall, hugging it and obscuring themselves behind one of the stalagmites, which was puny in comparison to the golems.
Their march continued, undisturbed, and none of them looked in the group's direction.
Shikamaru shimmied over to Undrig, who was breathing fast against the wall, staring at the giants with both wonder and horror.
"Where are they going?"
"Dunno," the dwarf said, after a second, and then again because Shikamaru wasn't able to hear him the first time. "We'd best find out!"
"We have a new mission," Sasuke suddenly said, as he gazed upon the glowing coal-like horizon of Stratholme.
Karin glanced up at his words, and there appeared a hopeful look in her eye, which quickly vanished as she saw his stone-cold face, pale as frost. She nodded and stood, dusting off her black cloak as a mere force of habit, since the charred wood she had been sitting on would not show up on the incredibly black material. She adjusted her glasses, and nodded.
"What are we to do?" she asked, as business-like as she could manage in the face of the young man who made her heart beat as fast as a rabbit's being chased by a hawk. It hadn't always been like that, though; at least the prey and predator part. He had still made her heart beat just as quick.
"I don't know yet," he said, calmly. "We're to report to the Baron immediately."
"Finally!" Suigetsu roared, jumping to his feet and swinging the monstrous blade he held up and over onto his shoulder. "This place sucks! I need some action, now!"
The giant figure next to him, Jugo, who was watching the endless river of Scourge below with an unreadable look, looked at Sasuke.
"Is it like the last one, do you know?"
"I don't know," said Sasuke. "Perhaps."
"I don't know if I want to do that again."
"Like you'll get a choice," said Suigetsu, sneering. "Besides, you enjoyed it the last time, didn't you?"
Jugo didn't answer.
"Let's go," said Sasuke, without emotion. He turned away and leapt from the building onto the ground. The Scourge parted for him, and the rest of them as they leapt into the circle he had created. They did not attack as they sped down the street, towards the looming building formerly known as the Scarlet Bastion.
The smell of rot greeted them, and so did those that carried it. Twelve Scarlet Crusaders, or rather ghouls who had once been them, pulled open the door and parted to let them enter, and then led them in a lumbering fashion through the halls, saying nothing except making grunting sounds and licking their chops whenever they saw Karin. At times the girl would glare defiantly at them, with a sort of sneer on her face that petulant children gave to other petulant children, but sometimes she would jerk back and stay close to Jugo.
They reached the great chamber before the golden doors, and where once had been beautiful, stainless white walls was now a blood-bathed slaughterhouse. It coated the walls and settled in pools amidst tangles of human limbs in every state of decay. Karin gagged and covered her mouth and nose. Jugo did the same, and he and Karin fell slightly behind the other two. Suigetsu merely looked irritated. Sasuke showed nothing at all.
The throne room was not so different from when the demon Balnazzar had used it. But the holes remained and so had the battle scars. The throne itself was gone, replaced by a chair made of black iron—very simply in nature—which the Baron now sat on, watching them. His Deathcharger stood beside him, pawing the ground and giving a few ghostly neighs as they entered and stood before him.
"You have a mission for us?" Sasuke said, as softly as the dying.
Baron Rivendare nodded once.
"There is a place to the south that His Majesty wishes for fear to envelope—a place to show the world that our time is coming very soon. You and your companions will bring the Plague to it, and make it a bastion of the Scourge."
Karin lowered her eyes briefly, but glanced first at Jugo, but the man showed nothing on his face.
"Fine," said Sasuke, without hesitation. "But they," he gestured behind him at the others, "are still relatively human. They have only been treated once with synthesized plague, and might still be susceptible to the airborne form."
The Baron looked at them. Karin shrank back, but a second later glared as if she might attack a second later. Suigetsu grinned like a shark. Jugo did nothing.
"Then they will have another treatment."
"What if we don't want one?" said Jugo, calmly. "I do not like being a guinea pig. We don't even know what its effects might be, in the long run—however detrimental" He glanced at Sasuke uneasily, however.
"Then you will become a zombie, no better than the rest out there," said Sasuke. "Take the treatment. It is far better than the alternative."
"I like my humanity," said Jugo, though the force was gone from his voice, as he looked into Sasuke's frighteningly cold eyes.
Suigetsu laughed. "Like you ever had that, monster boy."
Jugo looked away, but his eyes went very narrow at Suigetsu's words.
"I don't mind," said Suigetsu. "I can already feel some changes. Heh, I can't wait for what the next one might bring me!"
Karin merely nodded, though she didn't like the idea. Her fit of rebellion had already passed, and listening to Sasuke seemed like the best idea at this point. But she was with Jugo. Even though she had done some horrible things in the past, she enjoyed her humanity.
She glanced at Sasuke. She had enjoyed his, too.
"What is the name of this place?" Sasuke finally said.
"Southshore," said the Baron.
Tsuwabuki's head shot up from the floor, and she glanced around. Kira noticed the action immediately, and leaned down in her chair to meet the fox in the eyes.
"Is it Naruto?" she asked.
The fox nodded once.
Kira made a seal, and then placed her first two fingers against the fox's brow, just above her eyes. There was a spark of blue light, and then a silky soft voice filled Kira's head—Tsuwabuki's. She never got tired of hearing the fox's voice, which was so much different from a human's, and so much more beautiful.
Tsuwabuki told her what Naruto had said, and not a second after she had finished, Kira whipped around, breaking the connection, and staring at Benedictus. The man was looking up from the ancient tome he was now reading, his face deadly serious, his eyes fixed solely on Kira's.
"What is it?"
Instead of answering, Kira grabbed one of the spare pieces of paper and a pen that they had been using for notes, and quickly drew a simple symbol, and then pushed it towards Benedictus.
"They found a symbol exactly like that," she said. "In blood, still filled with life energy and a very dark chakra."
Benedictus stared at the symbol for a long time.
"Ah-ha," he said, with nothing but cold dread. "I've found it."
"We there yet?"
"Shut up, Hidan."
"Hey! It's a fair question! We've been walkin' for like, days! How far do we have to keep going? My fucking legs are killing me!"
The giant man stared down at the silver-haired man, and narrowed his strange eyes, like a photographic negative.
"Why the hell did we have to go all the way back to that dumb place anyways? Just because you needed to stash some of that crappy loot you got off that heathen dwarf?" The silver-haired man, Hidan, slapped an intervening branch out of his way and growled in the back of his throat. He sped up, while his partner remained slightly behind with his lengthy but leisurely stride.
"Shut up," the giant said again. "I did not want to carry such a potentially valuable item around with me."
"It was a fucking ring, Kakuzu!"
The giant, Kakuzu, narrowed his eyes again, but he didn't respond. There was no point in trying to convince someone who fought only based on faith—someone who didn't appreciate the value and power of money. It didn't matter how small a sum it was—it was money, and therefore it should not be wasted, nor should it be put in potential danger, especially on a dangerous mission like this one.
"This forest sucks," Hidan said aloud. "It's no fun."
"You're easily the most annoying person I've ever met."
"Shut up, Kakuzu!" Hidan glared into the brush for some time. Then he said, "We have our tracks covered here as well?"
"Of course."
"I can't wait. There's a church there, you know? A Church of the Holy Light. The biggest in the world. I can't wait to desecrate it. I can't wait to spill all of those bastard hypocrites' blood all over the place. It'll be divine!" He laughed to himself, rubbing the small pendant hanging from his neck. "I'll bring true Judgment to them. The Judgment of the true faith! I'll show those pretenders how wrong they really are!"
"I hate you."
"So?"
"Don't expect to be put back together if you're hit."
"I don't need it!"
"Fine."
"Fine!"
They walked further on.
"We're almost there," Kakuzu finally said, as he spotted the white steepled towers in the distance, just above the tree line below the hill they were cresting.
"Good." Hidan grinned, trying to spot the great castle of Stormwind beyond the walls—it was also just visible, far in the distance, standing higher than all the rest of the buildings. He grinned at the sight of it, and licked his lips eagerly.
"Don't get killed, Hidan." His partner said.
"Like I fucking could!"
Done, another fairly long one as well. Sorry for it being so late, but as I said—classes. This year has been a lot more intense than the last, but I'll try to keep updates as regular as I can. This might mean shorter chapters.
And just to let you know: I won't quit this fic. I'm staying with it until the end. Just be patient with my updates, as they might get slower.
That being said, how was the chapter? Leave a review, let me know.
See you next week or so!
General Grievous
Next time: Molten Core Center, Blackrock Spire, Stormwind, Southshore, Northrend