Title; Fading

Disclaimer; Nope I don't own any of the Naruto characters.

A/N; I thought I should point out that this story isn't about heroes and is very much a grey and grey morality affair. Sasuke in particular is a Byronic hero and will at times border on being a villain protagonist in his actions. Bare that in mind with every chapter.

Chapter - 24;

Magic was impossible to really class into different categories outside of very basic classifications.

There were the Human magicks. The Divine Gifts, the Greater, the Lesser and the Corrupted inane magicks that appeared in the form of Mages, Alchemists, Summoners and sometimes other Unique flavours. The Chaos magicks too were available to humans that were far from a Gift but instead a painful exchange.

There were the Devil magicks, the bizarre arcane abilities wielded by the Divines minions. It was far more dangerous than the human forms with its slow aching build up, instead the Devils commanded their elements like simple extensions of their bodies sending tunnels of fire and razor edged shadows as easily as a man would swing a blade.

Other creatures of Chaos mirrored this control, the Fair Folks in particular controlling magicks with the ease of a Devil and yet with the versatility of Human Chaos users without any of their penalties.

And above all those was the Divine magic itself, Wraiths and Dragons used it on a purely physical level with no ability to manipulate the power. The Gods themselves though could command all in there realms without stress or difficulty, or at least it appeared so to humankind. It had been a long time since the Gods fought a battle against something even close to a challenge or one another. Most feared the thought of a clash that would exhaust beings so powerful.

There were two simple distinctions though, momentary magic and eternal magic. Most destructive magicks were momentary and faded soon after their purpose was complete, or if not then once their master was disposed of they too came to an end. The eternal magic though found a magical source or came from a creature of Divinity and would never fade.

Hesitating would have made sense, but I supposed that this was perhaps a place outside of wisdom or logic.

As Sasuke lunged forward wolf like and heedless of the magic burnt hole in his chest plate, his single fang gleaming menacingly, I darted past my sister and swung at the monsters back hopeful that my blessed blade might at least bother the wretched creature and allow Sasuke a free strike. The Fairy however ignored me, I was certain he felt my presence even if he didn't react to me, instead he blocked Sasuke's swing easily…and gasped in shock as blood was spilt.

My own strike connected squarely with the creatures slender lower back drawing a surprised gasp from the thing as my blade held still but failed to cut forcing it to stagger forward in pain from the blow. The Uchiha was more successful though, as his blade had been parried the Wraith had pushed forward into the creature half jumping and smashed his elbow into the unnatural crooked nose of the Fair Folk. Wraith flesh and bone could hurt this thing it seemed.

It howled inhumanly high and twisted with unnatural furious power glancing both Sasuke's and my own guard pushing us backward. One hand banished the jewelled sceptre at Sasuke as the other grasped its face trying desperately to stem the flow of its dark golden blood. I smirked at the back of the thing's head in satisfaction and it reared on me lashing out viciously and pushing me on the absolute defence, I seemed always to be a half step behind the creature and with only my natural strength I was forced to deflect the blows much too weak to block them outright.

It's rage had forced it into a mistake though, unable to sense him it should never have taken its eyes off the Uchiha. He appeared behind the wild swinging beast sword flashing as he cut into the monsters back a splay of beautiful gold marking the brutal wound rendered. My own blade smashed into the things still weeping face as its guard fell, Titan's strength coursing through my veins, its nose crunched further with a wet squelch. I allowed what I knew of Sasuke's strange weapon to flash before my mind's eye, corrosive Daemon blood that seared iron could have been used to polish it, a Wyvern had fallen to it and I remembered the Shadow God Omlan Cistus's mixture of fear and disgust at the blade when it had possessed me. The blade seemed to channel Sasuke's own magical invincibility.

Something approaching terror entered the things eyes as it read my thoughts and turned to face the Uchiha swiftly. I thought to capitalise on the opening but as my blade rose it's long angular leg struck out sharp and accurate striking me in the ribs and I was certain cracking at least two of the thin bones on my forward left most side under its force.

"Be gone insect." I heard the Fairy hiss, it's voice low and dangerous.

My vision blurred as I toppled backward and tumbled in agony away from the clashing beings so much one another's opposite. I found my head cradled in Hinata's lap as she attempted to comfort my wounds somehow. Of course there wasn't anything to be done for those wounds, outside of magical healing. With Hinata's help I climbed to my feet and rolled my shoulder stiffly, I had decent movement but pain flooded my side as I tried to lift my weapon above shoulder height.

"What of this skill your wet whore boasts of." I glanced upward at the insult to see Sasuke forced backward at clear disadvantage signally armed. In a second the Fair Folk's arm swung high and pointed towards us, I didn't have time to think and acted on instinct shoving Hinata as far away as I could with my enhanced strength.

There was no flash or blaze of magic like I had expected but instead an icy emptiness took a hold of me. I glanced down to my feet where the feeling was strongest, in horror I saw what appeared to be the grey floor crawling its way up my body. In a second I was stone and immobile up to my knees. I looked up to Sasuke's blazing red eyes and saw confusion lingering, he couldn't see the magic at work swallowing me.

"Get out of here!" I allowed the self-indulgent roar knowing Sasuke would ignore it completely at worse or perhaps more likely snatch up and secure Hinata before returning to free me or die. In hopes of avoiding the later coming to bare I flung my long sword at the Uchiha to reequip himself with.

I glanced at the horrified face of my sister just before my vision faded completely and I lost all movement.

The sight of Hanabi swallowed in stone shook me and I found my overwhelmed instincts screaming at me to simply run from this horror while I could, and perhaps I would have if my legs would stop shaking.

The creature approached me swiftly as I continued to quiver weakly trying to summon the courage to do something, run, draw my useless knife in at least a show of bravery or even scream. I had to do something.

Sasuke appeared behind the Fair Folk and forced him to turn. Now armed with Hanabi's long sword he proved his skills to be every bit as fearsome as the voices in Naru had whispered. What trilled me the most was how he never seemed to move backward during the confrontation. The Fairy thing clearly feared the curved blade that had wounded it earlier more greatly than Hanabi's as it focused almost entirely on it. Sasuke had noticed it too and the longer blade usurped the creatures guard more than once smacking the bright skin painfully more alike an iron bar than a blade. Each strike bought a howl of pain from the creature.

A light flashed once to my left and then closer to me on the right and I realised the thing was aiming magic at me I guessed in hopes of forcing Sasuke to retreat for my sake. He did but not before a stray bolt tore through the floor directly at my feet. I think I squealed or made some other weak shout in terror as the dust flew high and blinded me. Sasuke appeared through the dust tackling me as another attack, this time an elongated spear of glittering ice, flew above my head.

He rushed me away dragging me to my feet, my vision found itself soaring all around the room in my confusion and I barely noticed which direction I was being pulled until we were falling, plummeting through darkness. A shoulder hit a stone here and a knee scrapped against jagged rocks in another place before we tumbled to a halt on rough grounding.

I screamed.

Sasuke hushed me harshly in the weak light and pushed me back down as I tried to get a look at whatever wound was causing the newfound agony in my leg. In fact I felt his knee press on my stomach to keep me down as he worked on my wound. He stripped away the cloth on his left arm beneath his arm brace and I felt him tightening the fabric around my thigh just above the wound to stem the blood flow.

He shoved a tin canister into my hand and commanded me to drink, I took a healthy mouthful thinking it was water and almost choked on the bitter tasting liquid. As I choked he retook the canister and splashed my wound in the foul stuff, it burned with an unholy fire and I cried out again before Sasuke shushed me again and thrust the canister back into my hands. Despite the awful taste I took another mouthful of the drink appreciating its ability to distract me from the pain.

Sasuke was drawing things from the pockets on his belts as he continued his amateur medical work upon my leg, I saw the glow of a needle as Sasuke took the canister once again the wash the needle. I didn't feel his work on my leg after another few swigs of the magnificent drink, instead there was only a dull warmth settling itself in my stomach and a pleasant numbness spreading though my limbs.

Bandages were the last to appear and once he'd dressed my leg the warrior spent a moment searching the room we were in finding nothing that served his purposes as he released a soft swear. I poked at the bandage curiously unable to see the previously painful wound, my finger came away scarlet and sticky, the bandage was now stained red where I'd touched it but I was far away from the worry.

"Come on." I heard the Wraith whisper as he pulled me to my feet circling an arm around his powerful shoulders. Through my blurred vision I noticed his still bleeding cheek. I leaned in awkwardly and planted a kiss on the scarlet shaded flesh heedless of the taste of copper now on my lips. The Uchiha fixed me with a puzzled look and I laughed I feared shrilly in response the alcohol poisoning my mind.

"You fixed my cut, so I'm kissing yours better." I explained in a slow slur allowing my head to roll onto the tall warriors shoulder. Sasuke didn't seem hugely concerned with my strange lapse of sanity, or perhaps he was only more worried about our imminent deaths.

We moved through the strange half-light of the corridors slowly Sasuke supporting most of my weight and dragging me as I drained away the last dregs of the burning fiery water. I handed the empty tin back to the Uchiha.

"Got anymore?" I slurred allowing a finger to trace the hole burnt into the warriors armour just above his heart, it was still warm with magical heat.

"There're two bottles in my pack, but I dropped that before I engaged that Chaos creature." He answered dully, I wondered at that for a moment but abandoned the thought for another just as quickly. For a little while there was only the sound of our footsteps, Sasuke's light breathing and my own heavier panting.

"Am I pretty Sasuke?" I asked pressing my finger through the armours hole to touch his bare flesh, Sasuke's brow furrowed darkly at the words.

"I think you know the answer to that question Hinata." He answered without commitment as he refused to look at me instead focusing on pressing forward.

"I'm not." I answered heavily trying to pull away from the warrior in a moment of stupidity. The Raider held me fast, though it didn't keep us from fumbling as I threw off our balance. I grunted in pain as my leg jostled and my back hammered against the wall, I looked up through teary eyes at the Uchiha kneeling before me.

"Why would you say that?" he asked softly. Perhaps it wasn't what he meant but my mind flashed back to our first meeting and my state during it, he knew I'd had plenty of attention from the men in the tower.

"Oh I've been fucked plenty enough, but that's hardly proof that I'm pretty...I've never even been kissed you know." I told the man, had I not been lacking in blood and abundant in booze I might have thought better than to say that exact sentence to the object of my affection. Something hard entered the man's eyes as he looked at me in what I feared was disgust.

Then he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine in a chaste kiss.

"You are pretty." He spoke looking pained I could imagine at the act of betrayal to Hanabi and I felt tears spring to my own eyes. His wounded expression deepened further and it only pressed my own grief further as I pressed my head into his chest and wept. Sasuke I knew was that type, I could tell from our first meeting, I knew he would eat up such a story and forsake some part of himself too easily for a friend. And I cried because that wasn't my first kiss, the others before had taken that from me too. I hadn't cared at the time, I hadn't expected to find this man and now all I seemed determined to do was lie and try and manipulate the dark and in his own way kind swordsman.

"Come on." Spoke the solemn Wraith lifting me gently, I tricked him and he felt guilt…that left a bitter taste on my conscious. And yet somehow I was determined to press deeper, I couldn't leave it like this. I swung around and looped my other arm around Sasuke's neck hobbling in front of him, the warriors hands moved to my hips to steady me and for a moment I allowed the content thought that this was a lovers pose we were in swim through my drunken mind. Then I leaned in pressing my curves against the man forcefully aiming for his lips.

There was a flash of golden red all around us and fiery pain overtook my senses as flames roared all around and I heard a cackling laughter down the hall.

Sorry for the short chapter but I'm in the middle of travelling and writings been difficult but I don't want huge gaps in the narrative. Also I felt this was the best place to finish.

Aren't I a bastard.

Anyway as usual all opinions are greatly appreciated…if not outright demanded. The next chapter of Witch should be out soon.

R&R