Disclaimer: I don't owne ye olde Narutoe ore ye olde Worlde of Warcrafte. That said, I also don't own Naruto or World of Warcraft.
Here's the next installment of The Legend Of Uzumaki Naruto!
"Matthias went to retrieve them yesterday, did he?" Benedictus said, clearing his nasal passages with a loud sniff and an inappropriate smacking of his lips.
Kira didn't answer. She was stared out the window at the overcast sky, her eyes heavy-lidded and her brow knitted as tightly as a well-made sweater.
"You're not happy."
Kira looked at him. Again, she didn't answer. The old man rolled his eyes and pushed his glasses up farther along the bridge of his nose, before turning back to the sheets of paper that littered his bed. His mouth was pressed into a thin line.
"My word, I would've thought you had long since grown out of tantrums. Then again, you are a teenager, and I suppose there is little difference between those and four year olds." He picked up one of the papers. "I suppose this answers my question. 'Returned to Kargath, everyone's alive, will return as soon as possible.' Well that's good news, isn't it? I was expecting at least one of them to die, but then again, it doesn't say much else about injuries, so perhaps at least one or two of them have life-crippling wounds that—"
"Stop it, master!" Kira finally said, turning to show him the full force of her glare, mingled with shame, anger and despair.
"Perhaps you should first," Benedictus said. "You're a queen, not a child."
"But you didn't have to—"
"You're angry with them, and horrified that they went and did something so dangerous? You were thinking, if one of them dies, it will be my fault? I thought you had at least some sense, child. This has nothing to do with you, nothing at all. You should feel no anger, no despair, no shame over it. They did what they wanted to do and I'm sure that they will be punished for it in a number of ways, most clearly that I'm sure the first thing that you will do when that boy gets back is slap him or cry into his shoulder, both of which will have the exact same effect and show him that you are both angry and hurt that he did not tell you that they were going to do this and that if he had died you would have been crushed beyond measure." Benedictus took a fluid-filled breath, frowned, and spat something into the bin by his bed. "I'm going to need a new bin soon. I've sufficiently coated the bottom of this one with excess fluid from my damaged, aging lungs. Call the nurse, will you?"
Kira didn't move, and just stared at him. Her eyes were downcast.
"But—"
"What are you contesting now? Getting the nurse or my previous statement?"
She glared at him. "What do you think?"
"At this moment, either one seems plausible."
"The previous statement."
He sighed. "As much as you want to be a part of it, this is truly not your concern. It is a shinobi affair. I'm sufficiently shocked that they would do something as unprofessional as this, but then again, what else can you expect from the boy?"
Kira didn't answer.
"Exactly. Furthermore, they're alive. You have nothing to worry about any longer, and he will return here and continue to help you. Also, they succeeded in their mission and the dwarves have their leader back, and while I don't expect sweeping reforms in the next few weeks, I guarantee you that the boy will be a decent ruler in the future. That was my impression, at least." He yawned, settling back against his pillows.
"And again, they have rid us of not one, but two different individual threats to our society. The Black Flight no longer has power in this part of the world, and the Dark Iron Dwarves have been freed of their tyranny from the Firelord Ragnaros, who, as I understand it, no longer exists as an entity. It was better that he was finished before he gained sufficient enough power to attack beyond his borders. It is a fitting end to such a powerful being as well, don't you think? Lost before he could do a thing. The irony would be perfect in a story, I think. I might write it if I get the chance."
Silence slid into the room and lingered for a few minutes. Kira returned to staring at the window.
"More pressingly," said Benedictus, "I would start communication with Vol'jin again."
She looked at him. "Why?"
"Why indeed? Think about it. I also want to know what is happening with Thrall. Has Tyrande returned to Teldrassil?"
Kira nodded.
"Then have her send someone to seek Thrall out, or at least someone who knows him. We need to know what is going on in that part of the world, and very soon. Something is very wrong there, and I want to know what."
"If nothing," he said. "It will prove a pleasant enough distraction until the boy returns. Act your age, girl, and figure out what's wrong with our alliance."
"I know, master," she said, quietly. "I already have."
"And what is it?"
"A lot."
"Good. Now where's that nurse?"
The ground made sucking sounds whenever Sai's feet pressed into it, despite how lightly he stepped. It had been raining so much in the past week that no matter where he went or stood he was wet, and no matter what time of the day it was, he remained it. The rain was black and angry, falling constantly and when it didn't the black and green-tinged clouds kept the moisture hovering about them in humid haze that made Sai's skin clammy and hot and his wet clothes feel sticky against his skin. It was probably the only weather in which it seemed physically impossible to smile and yet Sai still did it, though it wavered at times, especially at nights when Yamato wasn't watching him and was trying to get as much sleep as he could.
They were on their way to conduct their daily investigation of the keep looming above them. It was called Durnholde Keep, and their observations said to them that whatever purpose it had once held, it was certainly not what it was being used for now.
They had made camp higher up the mountain, shrouded in trees and without fire, so that they were not detected. Most of the time Yamato kept an eye on the keep with his Moku Bunshin, but in order to get the information it gathered they had to travel to meet it; because it was stationed on solid rock, it could not transmit the information constantly through its roots as it normally would have. But it gave them a chance to view what was happening with their own eyes.
And things were happening all the time.
The men who inhabited the keep dressed all in black and kept their faces completely hidden at all times. They moved with rigid discipline and did nothing wasteful. They did not carouse or drink or show any visible signs of emotion, and even though Yamato prided himself on having keen eyes, he could never distinguish one man from another. During the day they were seen little, and during the evening and into the night they would gather in the large ditch that scarred the keep's courtyard, where several groups of log houses had been built, and bring crates, bags, chests and bottles, all of which were filled with riches, and then they would count everything they had.
It did not take long, despite how much they had to count. They went through it daily and did it no less rigorously or accurately than the previous day. They broke everything into several groups and then counted everything in that group, before adding it all together. They would repeat this, twice—sometimes thrice— just to make sure everything was accounted for. Then they would put it away and extinguish the lights and all would be silent until morning, where they would leave the cabins and the keep and vanish in the early morning light.
Every day their stash would grow, however. They brought back more crates, more bags, more chests every day to add to the pile. Sometimes after counting a few of them would quickly leave, and later that night return with a bag or two more of gold and silver. Then they would count again, no matter how late it was.
"They have to meet a quota," Yamato had said earlier in the week after observing one of these sessions.
"Yes," said Sai. "But for whom?"
"The man they work for. Perhaps Akatsuki."
"But why so much money?"
"Funding."
"For what?"
Yamato hadn't answered.
Nothing had changed in that week, even since they had received one of Kakashi's dogs, citing the attack on Southshore. Yamato had sent a Moku Bunshin to investigate, and had left it there to help when he had received ample information on the situation. Hopefully Stormwind would send more help; it was getting worse, with new attacks apparently every day.
Sai had suggested they return. Yamato had refused.
"This is more important."
"Than these people's lives?" Sai wondered, with a smile.
Yamato hadn't answered.
Now, the day's observations were already underway. Yamato would be off to rejoin his clone, and Sai would keep watch on the western half of the keep. Sai wondered if today would be different, if they would discover something different, or if it would be the same counting ritual as before. Yamato had a feeling that it would differ, but Sai didn't know what that meant.
"Do you have precognition? Or is it an emotion, like camaraderie?"
"It's neither," said Yamato, before they parted. "It's just a feeling. In your gut."
"Gut?" said Sai. "What do you mean? Is it a stomach infection?"
"No." Yamato sighed. "I can't explain it. You'll probably figure it out eventually, or you may not. Either way, it doesn't really matter. It's sort of a cold feeling, in your stomach. As if it's submerged in ice. That's all I can really tell you about it." He raised an eyebrow, then. "You really have changed, haven't you?"
Sai smiled. "I hope I have."
Yamato grunted. "Get to work."
Sai nodded, and they parted. Sai made his way along the walls, swiftly and as silently as possible. His body was light with chakra and he tried to stay atop the soft earth and stop it from making the annoying sounds. He curled around the corner, went a little ways down and then scaled the wall in the safest place he knew for that time of day. The guards did not patrol much towards the evening, and they would be at the other end of the castle right now.
The breeze was stronger atop the walls, and it began to rain as he moved along the ruined stonework towards the center, where he could view the central ditch from a good position. He lifted something from his pouch, a small rectangular pad of paper only the size of his palm, and crouching so that his back shielded it from the rain, he inscribed a quick drawing on it with one of his smallest brushes. A crude drawing which he frowned at for a good while before putting his materials away and placing the paper on the wet stone. The water soaked into the paper until it was transparent, and the ink began to run. Sai placed a hand on it and with his other made a seal.
'Ninpo: Minor Tattooing'
The ink did not spring from the wet page as normal—instead, the figure it formed—a small fox—skittered across the stone completely two-dimensional, and vanished over the ledge. A thin trail of ink was left behind it, and in his ear, Sai could hear it moving across the wet stone down the wall, and then across the cracked cobbles and down the wooden walls of the ditch, and then along wet mud until he could hear voices. He smiled when he came close enough to hear the speech of the men inside one of the cabins. He sighed; once again, there was nothing of interest. Places they had looted, places that had yet to be looted, what they must do for the coming counting session, how to make quota. They mentioned nothing else, nothing of who had set the quota, nothing of what it was to be used for.
Hours passed. The rain stopped once, and then continued. Sai moved his ink-creature a few times so that he could hear better, and kept watch with a pair of binoculars.
When dusk arrived, the rain tapered off again, and the houses went silent except for the clunking of boots on wood. Sai watched the ditch closely now, noticing the absence of another sound—they were not moving the chests and bags of gold, which made so much noise that often Sai had to move his creature far away from the house to avoid being deafened by it.
He watched keenly. His ink-creature moved with them into the center of the ditch. They were completely silent.
Through his binoculars, he could see something happening. Movement near the keep's gate, two men parting.
Then, a new man entered the keep, one that Sai had never seen before.
Ah, he thought. Yamato-san was right then! What a useful feeling that must be.
The man was gigantic, at least seven feet tall, and dressed in a mask that covered his head and most of his face. His eyes were visible, but not from so far away, and his skin was darker than the rest. He wore a cloak, matted by the rain, with crimson clouds embroidered along the bottom.
He made his way swiftly across the bridge over the ditch, which separated the western and eastern portions of the ditch as well as the ruined central keep from the rest of the walls. He went down a few steps to where the men of the Syndicate had gathered, just before the bridge. They were all on the west side, nearest Sai, which was good, because that meant he could see the best.
The man did not break stride until he was dead in the center of all of the men. They stood rigid, just watching him. The man was silent for a long time, which was good, because it allowed Sai's creature to get in close so that he didn't miss a word.
Finally, the giant spoke. His voice was bottomless.
"The fucking fun has fallen, the final fury has been finished. With what weather does which witch work?"
Confused, Sai shook his head and drew out the paper pad again. He wrote down the phrase, even as it was answered by one of the men. He did not even break from the line, so Sai could not tell who said it.
"Thick thralls have the thoughts think and the things thought. Possibly people have permissed portions of pork to pipers who pick passed pickings for a price of possibly point two. Rats ring rowdily on the rocks."
The giant nodded. "Brats bring bottles of becoming to barmy the bitch's birth. Lie little lark, make my morning mat."
Sai frowned. It was a code, but Sai was decent at those, yet this one had none of the characteristics of a real code. Aside from the alliteration, there were no similarities in any of the words they spoke, though verbal codes were the most difficult to crack, since their meanings could lie even within the sounds they were delivered with.
The conversation continued.
"Just joking joker, jingling jacks jibe the jackass to join the joiner."
The Akatsuki member scoffed. "Hear, humans, hurting hearts heat hinges to higher heights."
"Things thank the thoughts."
The giant jerked his head. The crowd dispersed, and the man himself went into one of the cabins, followed by a single man, while the rest went to the other cabins and began their nightly duties. Sai's creature followed the man into the cabin. He could not see anything, but he could hear the man's light steps, amazing for someone so huge.
There were no words, neither man spoke. Then, a step, and a sound like branches whipping in the wind. Then a terrible ripping, wrenching, gushing sound, flesh pulled apart, blood and vomit welling up in a throat, gurgles and choking sounds, bones cracking and then a body falling, and then silence, save for the drip, drip, drip of blood and the final choking gasps of a dead man. The whipping sound returned, and then more footsteps.
The giant Akatsuki emerged from the house. Sai did not need the binoculars to see that he was covered in blood. Most of his black cloak was now wet with dark red stains. The rain began to wash it off, as the giant moved away from the house towards the center of the ditch again.
He did not move from there for a long time.
Meanwhile, the others had not emerged from their cabins. Sai checked in on them with his creature, finding that they were still in total silence save for the clinking of coins and precious metals. So he kept close to the silent Akatsuki member, who just stared at nothing. Sai did not want to get too close, in case he sensed something of the chakra. It was so minor he shouldn't have been able to, but this man was obviously very cautious, if he spoke in code even among in his own subordinates.
The entrance to the keep moved again. The two guards moved forward to meet whoever was entering. Sai directed his binoculars there.
A group of men entered, dressed in purple robes and hoods, moving as one. They followed the same route the giant had into the ditch, never once falling out of line or stopping.
Sai adjusted his binoculars. He could see the men clearly, even in the rain. Their cloaks were very fine and looked expensive, trimmed with gold and blue, but he couldn't make out their faces. They bore no sign other than a blue and gold symbol etched on their right sleeves. Sai sketched it in a few strokes, and then returned his attention to the Akatsuki member.
The men in purple reached him.
"Six-two-four," one of the purple men said.
"Eight-eight-three," the giant said.
Sai wrote the numbers down.
"Seven-twenty-three," the giant said.
One of the purple men nodded. "Four-four-four."
The giant gestured to the cabins behind him and in front. "Fifty-four-eight."
Sai noticed that before the purple man spoke, his left hand moved back behind him. After he had spoken ("One-seven-two.") the hand returned to his side. He watched the giant answer. His hand went forwards, as if to brush something from his cloak. It returned after he had spoken.
"Ah," Sai said softly. "He is very clever."
Not verbal code then. Signing. Sai smiled, even as a strange feeling bubbled up somewhere between his gut and his chest. An uncomfortable feeling that made him restless. He recognized the symptoms, recalling them from a dictionary.
Annoyance.
The men had finished their conversation, and each one of the eight purple men spread out, moving swiftly to the individual cabins. The giant did not move immediately, but eventually followed one into the nearest cabin. Sai followed them inside. Once again, he could see nothing, but heard everything.
No more words were spoken. Just signing, Sai guessed. Maybe Yamato-san understood before I did, perhaps he recorded the conversations. He heard rustling within the cabin, and then a metallic whirring, and then—
A mass exhalation of air, like a summoning jutsu. Sai caught the tail end of a curl of smoke from the chimney of one of the cabins that he had not seen before. His eyes quickly went to each of the cabins, seeing similar signs in the distant windows. There was suddenly silence in the cabin, dead silence.
Sai stood up, and uncaring of the consequences, leapt down to the ground and then over the ledge onto the roof of the cabin. He slid off the roof, silently and no more conspicuous than a shadow at night, his eyes catching the inside as he passed the window.
Nothing.
They were gone.
--
"I understand what Master Kang meant when he spoke of that man." Yamato muttered.
"He treads very softly indeed, I hardly heard him walk," Sai said. They had returned to their camp, and were holding a brief debriefing session before they would return to Southshore, and hopefully Stormwind, with the news.
"He's very cautious," said Yamato. "Extraordinarily so. I don't think I've heard of someone using so much caution…"
"Perhaps he knew we where there?"
"He could have easily removed us, if he had. I don't think so." Yamato shook his head, frowning at the ground. He brushed a mosquito from near his ear. "Did you catch any of the signs?"
"Only a few. I missed the first conversation."
"Did you notice anything about the men in purple? Anything unusual?"
Sai nodded. "Yes, they were wearing purple, and it was a very vibrant purple that stood out and drew attention to themselves quite a bit. I do not think they were part of that man's group."
Yamato stared at him.
Sai smiled in return. "They were all quite dry, despite it having been raining for so long. Almost as if they had just come from someplace dry, or the rain simply didn't want to touch them. They also wore a symbol."
"What symbol?"
Sai fished out his sketchbook and held it out to the men, the desire page already up. Yamato took it, frowning at the image.
"It looks like a 'D'," he said.
"It does, does it not?" He shook his head, and continued to smile. "But it looks very much like something else I've seen before I met all of you."
Yamato stared at him. "Where did you see it?"
"Danzou-san had it. It was a small pendant, very small, that he kept around his neck. I do not know what it was for but I never asked him, because I knew he would never tell me. I do wish I had asked him, however, because it seems very strange that he would have something from another world, especially when this world was supposedly only just discovered by us." He tilted his head. "Do you believe me, Yamato-san?"
Yamato watched him for awhile.
"Yes. For once, I do."
Naxxramas.
She didn't even know what it meant. It was a horrible word, but it sent chills down the spines of everyone who heard tell of it. It was not hard to see why—it was so cold.
The darkened, dank halls that smelled of rot and dead things were filled with screams that day. Even though she knew the source of the screams, Karin felt chills with each one, and a growing feeling of despair within her chest. Her feelings like this never usually lasted long, because another part of her would well up and take control and that part of her didn't care about such feelings. But for some reason these screams always chilled her, always disturbed her, and always left her with a feeling of weakness and helplessness that she had always hated. It brought her too much back to a time when she had been nothing but helpless, and she wanted that part of her to stay dead and in the past, because she was no longer helpless.
At least she hoped.
"Tut, tut, tut," the thing before her said, shaking a thin, bone-white head smattered with a few strands of white-blonde hair like the head of a ruined broom. "This annoys me, quite a lot, you know? When one's creations fail so spectacularly it really irks me because it means more work and more hardship and how I hate that feeling…"
"What's wrong with him?" Karin choked out. "What's happening?"
A dead stare was leveled at her. The "man" before her had no eyes, just empty sockets framed with drapes of wrinkled skin that made them cunning slits. His face was more a skull than not, just white, dead skin stretched so tightly over bone that his lips were so drawn back that he appeared to be eternally grinning. His teeth were rotten and yellow and filed down into points, and the stench that was released with each breath would have slain a normal human should they lean close enough. The Plaguemaster of Naxxramas wore no more than a simple white robe, but it was obvious to everyone within the necropolis who he was and what he did, because no matter where he went, the feeling of impending death came with him.
The Plaguemaster licked his teeth with a rotten, black tongue. "That should be obvious, girl, I should think."
"In what way?"
"The symptoms of course, the symptoms you stupid girl. How I hate explaining such things to such newborns, it disgusts me but I'll do it because I know how annoying you creatures can get especially when you still have your autonomy. Yes, yes, alright." He licked his teeth again, and then tapped the brow of the boy who lay on the table before them. Stripped naked, Uchiha Sasuke lay writhing in physical pain as great as the emotional scar that had plagued him since his brother had ruined his life.
"This boy is rejecting my master's plague, girl," he tapped the boy a bit harder on the forehead, the skin bunching up even further around his sockets so that he appeared to glare. "Impossible, I thought, but no, not impossible, quite possible! He is rejecting it, rejecting such a perfect creation, how is this possible you ask? Well, it is annoying to explain, but I shall do it."
"What does that mean, he's rejecting it? How can you reject death?" Karin asked, slowly.
"How indeed!" the Plaguemaster laughed. "How indeed. That is the question, isn't it? Death is impossible to cure, true death at least, and though this isn't true death it is the closest thing to it, right? How does one regenerate dead cells, well, one doesn't, because it is impossible unless you have a considerable healing factor which this boy does not, so how, how, indeed can it be possible that this boy is rejecting a plague that has completely removed his humanity? How can a human resist such a power?" He shook his head, and then pointed to Sasuke's eyes, shut in agony.
"These," he said. "These wretched things, these beastly eyes are the cause. It is impossible to think that such eyes could do it, but they do, they are fighting off my master's plague. That disgusting, violent being's eyes are ruining my master's perfect creation. It is annoying, is it not? How I hate it, hate these pathetic eyes which have no purpose other than to destroy and take—they are so greedy, these eyes. They have no respect for perfection, it's pathetic and pointless for them to exist. I should get rid of them, but I am not allowed to." He whipped his head around to face Karin, making her jerk back in shock. "Don't you find that annoying? How I hate having my creativity stifled. But I do not care, not really."
Karin knit her brow as the undead stared at her. "His eyes?"
"Yes," the Plaguemaster said. "His eyes…"
"Who—"
Sasuke's scream cut through their conversation, and Karin abandoned her question to stare in horror her companion. There was blood seeping from his eyes now, and dribbling from the corner of his mouth, and his skin looked redder and darker as bruises began to engulf his bare chest and flow outwards to his arms and legs.
"How annoying," the Plaguemaster said, tilting his head and licking his teeth.
"Help him!"
"All that requires is more Plague, girl, a lot more, oh yes, so much more that it makes my exposed spine tingle with the thought. His heart is already stopped but it might begin to beat again soon, that ice might begin to melt, but who knows? Once the ice melts then he might return to what he was before, albeit undead, but with those eyes…" he laughed. "With those eyes, oh how wonderful!" He snapped his head to look at her again. She recoiled in the same manner as before.
"Disciples! Fetch some fresh Plague for us! The highest concentration, highest, I tell you! I will overcome these eyes. By the end of this, His eyes will become ours! Go! Go I tell you!"
Behind Karin, there was movement. The robed undead that presided over the circular, solid iron room were moving out in swift but orderly steps, until Karin was alone with the Plaguemaster and Sasuke.
"Girl," the Plaguemaster said. "Don't you have somewhere to be? I don't like being disturbed in my work."
"You haven't got anything to do right now," said Karin. "Not until they return."
"Says you!" the Plaguemaster snapped, his voice rising in pitch so it sounded like sloshing swamp water rather than bones grinding against each other. "I have many projects. Do you remember that head you brought me? Oh, it's wonderful! You should see how it grows."
"You're disgusting," Karin said.
"Perhaps," said the Plaguemaster. "But I am a genius as well. To think someone could create such a wonderful plague that was not my master! It angers me that it destroys my master's Plague, totally and completely, but I love it how it affects humans and beasts and everything—it makes no distinction, this plague, not like my master's Plague. But humans are the most lovely, they are affected so many ways, so many ways! It is a wonderful plague, I wonder how he did it?"
Karin ignored him. Her eyes lingered on Sasuke for a while.
"Cure him."
"Cure? I'll do no such thing."
"Make him well again, I meant."
The Plaguemaster was grinning, still.
"Of course, of course."
--
"How is he?" Juugo said, calmly.
The tall young man stood, propped against the stone archway that led down a twisting corridor from which Karin had just emerged. The Plaguemaster's territory lay beyond it, the most rotten, foulest quarter of the necropolis Naxxramas. Sickly orange and violet mold clung to the walls and made the floor squish with each step as one went further down. Karin was happy to be on solid ground again.
"He will recover," she said, calmly. "As soon as the Plaguemaster does what is needed."
Juugo nodded. He followed Karin as she moved away, down the steps and into the main foyer—a massive circular room with six branching paths. Karin made her way directly across the room towards the path opposite the Plaguemaster's wing, but stopped when Juugo touched her shoulder lightly from behind.
"What is it?"
"I feel that I must tell you something," he said.
Karin turned, frowning up at the large man. "This isn't a confession is it?" she snapped. She might've been pretty but she didn't need somebody like this having a crush on her, especially when…
"No," he said, quickly. His pallid cheeks seemed to color a little. She blinked. She'd never seen him do that before.
"No," Juugo continued, turning away. "It is about Sasuke."
"I see," said Karin. "What about him?"
There was silence for a while. One reason Juugo liked the foyer was because it was silent. The way a necropolis, a house of the dead, should have been. Not even the sounds of the Training Area comforted him; they were not natural sounds of battle. There was life here where there should have been death. It disconcerted him, so he kept to the foyer where the sounds were distant or unheard, and the feeling of life was stifled. It was like a prison—the prison he had been trapped in, once, waiting to die or kill again. Perhaps that was why he liked it so much. He felt safe, at least a little more than he did anywhere else. He knew what to expect, and the laws of life meant something in this silence, where all around him they were broken and ridiculed.
"I do not think I like the direction he is taking us in." Juugo turned to meet her eyes abruptly. He seemed nervous, and his huge body made it far more obvious with its twitches and shakes.
"You don't?" Karin said, sighing. "Why should I care about something like that?"
"Forgive me," said Juugo, "it is something I have to say, regardless. I thought you may have had similar thoughts."
"You're wrong."
Juugo nodded, and fell silent. Karin did not continue on her way, though, and just kept staring at him. Finally, Juugo spoke again.
"I do not like these changes that I am experiencing."
"You sound like a teenager going through puberty," Karin snapped, ignoring the fact that she was in fact a teenager herself. She was more of one than Juugo was though. She'd had hair for ages, and he sounded like he was still as bare as a baby's bottom.
She winced at the image.
"I am finding this transition unpleasant, and I do not like this situation," he said. "It is foolish of me to say this, but I feel that I must. I am losing my humanity."
"Humanity?" Karin rolled her eyes, snorting. "What humanity? Do you remember what happened when we found you? You went berserk, nearly killed Sasuke and I, and if Sasuke hadn't been so much stronger than you, we would've been killed. You hardly remembered anything about it. What kind of human is that?"
Juugo was silent. She almost felt bad, but like always she was able to keep it from piercing too deeply into her thoughts to care too much.
"I know that I am sometimes less than human," said Juugo. "But I am of the opinion that I am still at least slightly human. I can think rationally sometimes, or so I believe, and I enjoy things that other creatures do not. Things above the base instincts that we are all born with. You must understand that?"
"I do," she said. "But I don't think about it. After all, we're not supposed to be human. I'm a shinobi first, and we're just tools."
"Yes," said Juugo. He went silent again.
Karin shifted, trying to hide her growing discomfort. She wanted to leave, but couldn't take her eyes away from the awkward young man before her. She threw him a patronizing glare.
"What the hell is this about, anyways? You said you respected Sasuke. What happened to that?" She crossed her arms, wanting to lean on something, but stopped when the walls reminded her of their frosty disposition.
"I did respect Sasuke. But only for one reason…" He turned away again, and shifted. Neither of them could hear much in the distance; the ancient, immense walls of the chamber, dark and lifeless and bitterly cold did not carry their voices far. It seemed like a crypt here, and while Juugo may have enjoyed it, Karin felt stifled and restless in the silent walls. She did not like the darkness or the silence or the lifelessness. Even the manufactured life of the Abominations was preferable to this encroaching death.
"What reason is that?" she snapped.
"He is…he was…something like a friend, or perhaps he could have been." Juugo looked at her again, lost but as rigid as ever.
"I don't recall you guys ever getting chummy," said Karin. "You barely knew each other existed—"
"That is not true. Kimimaro died to protect him, so I—"
"So what? Does that make you guys friends?"
"Kimimaro was—"
"Your friend, but Sasuke never was. He didn't even know you existed until a few months ago when Orochimaru showed him to you and told him the reason why he has—why we all have—a curse seal! He selected you because he thought you had power and would be a good asset to our team, not because you were his friend or anything like that bullshit." She adjusted her glasses, and brushed some of the wild, tangled hair on the left side of her face out of the glasses' frame. She slowly shook her head, looking exasperated.
"You just don't get it, do you? It doesn't matter if we're human or if we are fucking monsters like the rest of the things in this place—we're shinobi, and we're under Sasuke's orders, so we do what the fuck we have to and nothing else. You should be able to accept that. Kimimaro did."
"Kimimaro did as he was told," said Juugo, softly. "He did it because Orochimaru-sama was his life and his soul. Kimimaro was my friend, but Orochimaru is not my master nor my friend." His arm gave a slight twitch, and his face jerked slightly to the side. His left eye shivered for a moment, and Karin stepped a few feet back, her eyes widening.
"Kimimaro could control me, he helped me try to live as a normal human might. He did not believe I was a monster, and I feel it is a shame to his spirit to accept that I might become one, truly and irrevocably. I feel it is as much a shame to let Sasuke lead us towards that end. I respect Sasuke because Kimimaro died for him. But to lead us to unending not-life is surely not what he would have done." Juugo gave a small shrug. The twitches stopped and he took a few steps away from Karin.
"We are losing our humanity," he said. "Kimimaro, I believe, would not want that. He enjoyed it too much."
"His goal was to become Orochimaru's container," Karin said, directly. "If he loved life and humanity so much, why would he do that?"
"Because he loved Orochimaru more," said Juugo, very quietly now.
Karin was silent. She sighed, and turned to observe the corridor she stood in front of; an old, vicious wind was blowing from it, even though she knew it led to the deepest part of the necropolis.
"I'm not saying I agree with you," Karin finally said. "I'm not saying that Sasuke's wrong in what he's doing or where he's going. I can't make that judgment and nor can you." She straightened her glasses. "But I don't like this feeling I keep getting, this coldness inside of me. I don't like that coldness inside of Sasuke, either. It's…" She shook her head. "It's just wrong. I don't get certain urges anymore, certain urges that make me human and though I know it's not a problem I…" She turned, adjusted her glasses, brushed the straight, perfectly kept hair on her right side. "I kind of miss them."
Juugo nodded, but he didn't say anything. The two of them just stood there for a while, in the silence, until a thought sprung into Karin's mind that she couldn't throw away.
"Where's Suigetsu?"
Juugo shrugged. "I don't know. I have not seem him, but I guarantee that he does not want to see me very soon."
"He's still angry, is he?"
Juugo nodded. "He has every right to be."
"You just kicked his ass, it's not a problem."
"I did nothing. I did not want to hurt those innocents in the village, so I directed my rage upon him. He has a right to be angry, even hate me."
"He does, I'm sure," said Karin, rolling her eyes. "He's a fucking moron, though. Don't know why Sasuke found any use for him when there are dozens of perfectly good fighters like him. He's the only one who seems to be enjoying this as well."
"His heart is black."
Karin snorted and then glared at him. "Nothing's that simple. He's just a moron who doesn't know any better. He's like a little kid who hasn't been taught his lesson. Can't say you're much different, though." She turned, and walked towards the steadily increasing cold. "See you later, Juugo. I'm going to get some sleep."
She didn't turn back to see what his face looked like, but didn't particularly care. The cold was increasing as she walked, and she found it very hard to feel anything as the cold lightly brushed her skin and took her slowly into its embrace.
It was kind of nice in a way. Kind of like how a dream was nice until you woke up, or it became a nightmare.
"Kira-chan's gonna be furious," Naruto said, scratching his head. He shifted restlessly against the wall of the Hindenborough's inner cabin.
"I suppose she has a reason to be," Sakura said. She looked to the side at Naruto, the only other conscious figure in the cabin. Lee lay in front of them, as comatose as a boy at his coming-of-age party, with the exclusion of any sort of alcohol. The young man was so drugged up on painkillers that Sakura didn't expect him to wake for a while, which was why he needed someone to tend to him—give him water, mostly, and check that his heart didn't stop beating or his lungs hadn't stopped working.
Naruto was staying because he liked listening to Lee's drugged sleep-talk, which more often than not made reference to Sakura-chan and a bottle of chocolate sauce, and it was funny to see Sakura twitch and blush but not hit anything in return.
"I'll have to speak to Lee-kun about some things after he wakes up."
Naruto grinned at her. "He's got some pretty good ideas, I'd say."
"You might be injured, but I'm not above hitting you, Naruto." Her eyes flashed with a menace that only she could conjure at the drop of a hat, something that made Yamato's ghoulish gaze pale in comparison. Naruto drew away slightly, flashing a placating smile and nodding his head until she turned her eyes back towards Lee.
"This was stupid," Sakura said, finally.
"How?" Naruto's grin had faded, and he was trying to catch a view of the sky through one of the small portholes in the cabin.
"It served no purpose, and no matter how we try to rationalize it, it was entirely for revenge, wasn't it? What kind of shinobi are we?" She stared at him. Naruto didn't take her gaze for a moment, still seeking a patch of glorious blue.
"Different ones," Naruto said, softly. "What's so wrong with that?"
"We could've died, Naruto! And even if it was just for avenging Gai-sensei, what purpose was there—?"
"Lots," Naruto said. "I don't think it wasn't all revenge, not how I saw it." He scratched his chin, and then turned and stared at her with his sky-blue eyes. "Sure, revenge was part of it, but I think it was mostly about change. It was like everyone was both a team of shinobi and individuals, they all had their nindo and they were all different and not like what we were taught. Really, when you think about it, it was kind of us showing Gai-sensei that he was a damn good teacher, don't you think?"
"What?" Sakura said.
"He said that change was needed," Naruto said. "Well, we did change things, didn't we?"
Sakura stared at him a moment, wondering where on earth he managed to come up with stuff like this without even thinking about it.
"Nindo, eh?" Sakura muttered, leaning back a little, so that her shoulder rested mere inches from Naruto's. "I suppose so. We were fighting for what we believed in, weren't we?"
"Damn straight," said Naruto.
"And what was it?"
Naruto blinked. "What was what?"
"What we were fighting for."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "For Gai-sensei."
"Talking to you, amazingly, sometimes makes my head hurt." She shook her head, but smiled warmly as Naruto laughed.
"Just getting you back, Sakura-chan!"
For a little while longer, they laughed like this. When they stopped, the cabin sank into silence for a while as the zeppelin picked up speed and the engine grew louder and the blustering wind grew fiercer.
"What do you think Tsunade-sama will do when she finds out?" Sakura said.
"Who knows? Hope it's not much."
"It's a serious offense. She might have to do something." Worry crept into Sakura's stomach, and she shifted nervously, brushing against Naruto's shoulder more than a few times. "She might even tell us to quit."
"Don't think so," Naruto said, shaking his head. "You don't have to overreact. Baa-chan's probably pretty lenient about stuff like this. We're all alive, after all."
"She's Hokage. It'll be her duty to punish us, whether she wants to or not, Naruto!" She puffed out her cheeks. "And I'm not overreacting!"
"I'm more worried about Kira-chan's reaction." Naruto said. It was his turn to shift nervously. "I hope she doesn't cry."
"I hope she does," Sakura said, smirking. "It'll serve you right. And anways, what's so terrifying about a crying girl?"
"I don't know what to do!"
"You hug them, obviously," Sakura said.
"It's not that easy…!"
"It is," said Sakura. "Sometimes you don't even have to say anything. But you probably will and anyways, you'll know what to say when the time comes." She smiled. "You're good at that."
"I am?" Naruto said, the dimness thankfully concealing his reddened face. Was she actually complimenting him or was this another one of her tricks?
"Yes," she said. "You know what to say at the most important times, it's not something that everybody has, but you know, you're pretty good at it. If you just do that, you shouldn't have a problem." She looked down at Lee. "Besides, she won't be angry for long, anyways."
"Why's that?"
She blinked. "No reason. It just seems like her. I don't think she's one to hold grudges, do you?"
"No," said Naruto, nodding a little. "I suppose she isn't." He then looked up. "You should get some rest, Sakura-chan."
Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Why? I don't feel tired."
"But you haven't hit me in a while. I'm just a bit surprised. Maybe you're a bit tired." He flashed her a cheeky grin.
She rolled her eyes. "I only hit you when you deserve it. And I admit, it's getting rarer, but I doubt you'll grow out of it. Kira might have to gain some backbone enough to knock you one when you're out of line."
Naruto blinked curiously at her. "Can't see her being like that. Good thing I have you, though!"
"Ah," Sakura said, nodding a little too quickly, trying to keep her eyes fixed on Lee. "True enough."
"But seriously, you should get some rest. We've got like, six hours before we get to Stormwind." He nodded to Lee. "I'll look over fuzzy-brows and I want the opportunity to tease him when he wakes up about all those things he says about you and marshmallows and syrup. It's a man's talk, so you probably won't want to be around for it anyways."
Her eye twitched. "This is one of those times, Naruto."
"I promise I won't use Oroike no jutsu. And hey, did you know that when I was in Konoha, Konohamaru showed me this version he'd come up with that—"
Naruto grinned a little later from the cracked floor of the room, as Sakura stormed out, her face flushed and her eye twitching like a hummingbird's wings.
Least she was okay, he thought.
--
The zeppelin landed where it always did, in the expansive clearing between the northern wall of the city and southern wall of the forest of Elwyn. Since Matthias now more often than not made his way to Stormwind and because the goblin traders had returned to business to the world at large Kira had ordered it specially cleared and had planned another zeppelin tower to be built in the center for easier and quicker access. It was a cool day with a soft breeze that lightly touched the forest, which was changing from emerald green to burnt orange as the days crept by.
The shinobi had gathered on deck and by the time they had landed they were shivering in the whipping wind as the zeppelin settled into place in the center of the clearing where the tree branches could do no damage. Naruto spied them first. They stood at the edge of where the grass met the dusty earth of the road that led into the city. One stood in front of the others, the very person he wanted to see most out of all of them but at the same time dreading what might happen. They were a bit too far away for him to judge what she was thinking or if there were any impending tears. He was tempted to ask Neji or put on his gnome goggles to discern her facial expression but he thought better and just swallowed, prepared for the worst. He looked at Sakura, a little nervously, but the girl didn't register his glance. She was staring forwards as well, but for a different reason.
"Oh shit," Shikamaru muttered in front of Naruto. "Look's like word's already gotten out."
Naruto scanned the group. Four of them were guards, one of them dressed in golden robes—the old man, leaning heavily on a crutch with a nurse behind him; Asuma smoking up a storm beside him; Kylia just beside her mistress, and—
"Ero-senin?" Naruto mumbled. What the hell was he doing here?
Kakashi nodded. "Looks like they've perfected communication." He sighed. "I wish I'd prepared myself for a chew-out beforehand."
"Ero-senin doesn't chew out anybody," Naruto mumbled. "He's not very good at it, at least."
"Obviously he's never been truly angry with you," said Kakashi. "My sensei told me a few horror stories. Besides, chewing out is the least of our worries when Jiraiya-sama is concerned."
Without knowing why, Sakura, Ino and Tenten shuddered and drew slightly away.
"Best get goin' then," Undrig growled. "Dun wanna stay 'ere fer too long."
"Naruto, you go first," Shikamaru said.
Naruto glanced at him. "Why me?"
"You're better with this sort of situation than I am." The young man lifted something from his pocket and put it in his mouth—a cigarette, one of the two he had been given by Asuma. The first he had smoked after their battle with Nefarian, whereupon he had promptly vomited what little food he had in his stomach. The second he had decided to save for when he got back, and met with Asuma personally.
The first one had been for Gai.
"Fine," Naruto said.
The ramp was rickety as ever, though he had never quite noticed it as much as he did now. The wind had died and it was no longer so cold—he was sweating even, and he suddenly grew slightly conscious of how he smelled, which wasn't good, because they had no bathing facilities in Kargath, where water was as scarce as genuine goodwill.
When he stepped off the ramp, onto soft grass—which was quite green—he looked up and was promptly smacked as hard as an adolescent girl's arm could muster.
Naruto hardly staggered, but the slap hurt. Her eyes were piercing, powerful, much like the eyes of her mother's alter-ego but without the madness, fixed solely on two emotions that fought to a stalemate as he watched.
"Don't ever, ever, ever," Kira said, her eyes narrowed as slits, "do something that stupid again."
Naruto rubbed his cheek. It didn't hurt as much as Sakura's did, but he certainly felt what she had wanted him to feel.
He nodded.
"Can't promise a thing."
The blow came from behind this time, driving him solidly into the grassy earth. He recognized it at a moment's notice, even as he spat out a sizeable chunk of dirt and grass.
"Idiot, wait until she forgives you to say something that stupid." Sakura rolled her eyes and smiled at Kira. "He promises."
Though he couldn't see her face, he could feel her smile, and hear her rising laughter, hardly stifled by her hand.
"I know."
Naruto tried to speak, but there was still far too much dirt in his face for him to be understood. It came out as more of a choking sound, which sent Kira into further fits of laughter and even made Sakura begin to giggle.
"I know it's funny," a voice drifted into Naruto's ear from farther away, sending an unconscious chill down Naruto's spine that he'd only felt once before, when he'd accidentally offended the man's "date" for the night by calling her a cow. "But while the drama is cute and all, we have a few things to speak of, don't we?"
Naruto lifted his head from the earth. Jiraiya stood just behind Kira now, staring down at him with an unreadable face. The man then looked behind Naruto, at all the rest of the shinobi standing before him.
"Suppose you start at the beginning," Jiraiya said. "It'll make it more like a story worth telling, which I hope it is, or Tsunade-hime won't be inclined to give it a good review, and you know how that might affect it in the long term." Though Naruto had no idea what he was saying, the way he said it was cause enough for alarm.
"So, who's first?"
Far across the world, in perhaps the darkest, most cramped little crevasse between the tallest, thinnest huts in Orgrimmar's Cleft of Shadows, two figures stood facing each other. One filled the space, scarcely able to move within it; he was hunched and wore a dark brown cloak that hid only his features, but nothing of his massive physique. The other one was tall and narrow, like the buildings they stood between, dressed in a cloak of velvety dark blue. The larger scoffed at her appearance.
"I'm surprised you didn't just advertise your presence, elf."
The smaller figure's head bobbed as if in laughter. "It makes it that more of a challenge."
"That wasn't the point of this meeting, now was it?"
"No, I suppose not. This is a pretty cliché meeting isn't it, though? In a dark alley, in the middle of the seediest part in town, I feel like I'm in one of those human fiction stories involving rogues who try and solve murders, you know—"
"I don't share your fancy. And cliché has nothing to do with this. We are not in a story, girl, this is very real and we must act quickly, so I'll ask you kindly to shut the hell up and listen to what I have to say."
Neera nodded. There was no remnant of the cheeky smile on her face.
"Sure, go ahead, Golbarn."
Much faster than last time, wasn't it? Hope you guys liked it. While it didn't focus so much on Naruto, I used it as a chance to build up tension for what's to come, build up a relationship or two, and help introduce the next arc in a better way. We'll see what happens in the next few chapters, eh? Won't be much fighting, but we'll see what happens!
See you guys next week, hopefully!
General Grievous
Next week: Stormwind, Orgrimmar, Naxxramas, Dalaran.