Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Zelda or Naruto franchises. Comments/Criticism is fine as long as it isn't straight up hate or flaming. If you don't like it, no one is forcing you to read and you can just leave.
Edit-fixed Darunia's name
Thank you and I hope you enjoy
The Legend of Zelda: Interloper of Time
-Chapter 5-
-Kakariko Village-
Reaching the top of the stairs, the two children and their fairies (who were peeking out from under the twos' hoods) looked around the area. The village was just a bit bigger than Kokiri village, with simple wooden and brick houses. About a dozen or so people could be seen walking about either packing up for the day or doing some last-minute chores.
Several of them paused as they noticed the cloaked duo walked by, before finally one person, a teenaged girl with red hair, wearing a worn but sturdy dress, with angry red bumps running up her arms, walked up and cut them off. "Hello there, I haven't seen you two here before, welcome to Kakariko." Saria inched behind Naruto slightly, still slightly nervous around adults, while Naruto grinned widely. "Yeah, we just got here a few minutes ago. It's nice to meet you." He said cheerily, as he shook her hand.
Laughing slightly at the blonde's enthusiasm, the young woman turned to Saria who shyly reached out to shake her hand as well getting her to giggle. "Nice to meet you as well, may I ask what brings you to this humble little village?" She asked before looking around, "And where are your parents? They must be awfully worried about you." Naruto opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Saria.
"We don't have parents," She said in a quiet, almost blunt tone of voice that stunned the red-head. "We lived in the woods with our… guardian until recently… when he passed." Saria finished in a soft voice as Naruto grew somber. The passing of the Great Deku brought back to the front of their thoughts.
"Oh… I'm sorry, I didn't mean… uh," The woman apologized awkwardly as she stepped back slightly. Naruto was the first to snap back to normal as he waved off the woman's apology. "It's fine, you couldn't have known." Turning his attention back to Saria, he wrapped an arm around her supportively getting her to cheer up slightly. Seeing the two interact caused the young woman to smile slightly before frowning when she heard a loud growling. Both children blushed as they held their stomachs.
"How about I treat you two to dinner, I insist." Looking to each-other, the two shrugged before nodding. "Sure, show the way miss…" "Anju, my name is Anju. Though the others tend to call me the Cucco Lady." She said with a slight giggle as she leads the two to a small house with a pen full of cuccos attached to the side. The inside of the house was simple with a single bed, a table, two chairs, and a fireplace.
"I'm Naruto," "…Saria." The two introduced themselves while taking a seat. Lighting the fire, Anju hung a kettle full of water over it and started chopping a few vegetables. "So why did you come to Kakariko?" Anju asked as she tasted the soup she was making. "We're headed for death mountain."
*Phhht* "What?!" Anju cried out as soon as the words left Naruto's mouth, unintentionally spitting all over them both. "Ohh! I'm s-so s-s-sorry!" She stuttered out as she scurried around and grabbed a large rag. Wiping off some of the spittle and soup while apologizing repeatedly, Anju finally calmed down enough to speak without stuttering.
"Why in the goddesses' names are you headed to there? It's called Death Mountain for a good reason. It is a way too dangerous place for children such as yourselves!" She said, yelling the last part. Naruto tried to speak again only for Saria to shush him with a look. "We were sent to go pick up something important from the gorons and delivery it to the princess." She said, pulling out a small letter with the royal seal that Zelda had given her.
Anju looked at the piece of paper in quiet shock that quickly turned to anger. Returning to the soup, she grumbled under her breath about 'brainless royalty' and 'reckless endangerment of children.' A few minutes later she plonked down two bowls of soup that the two eagerly gulped down, while discretely giving some to their fairy companions whenever Anju wasn't looking.
Once the food was done, Anju lead them to a small enclosed area behind her house that held a small hot spring. "You can wash up in here. One of the perks of being this close to Death mountain is that practically everyone has one of their own." She explained before leaving to give them privacy. About an hour later, the two came back into the house nice and clean to see Anju setting up a pile of hay and some blankets into a makeshift bed. Given that it was rather late, the two thanked her for her hospitality before tucking themselves in.
Naruto was drifting off into sleep when he heard a soft sniffle. Rolling over her saw Saria facing away from him, but he could tell she was crying from the way her shoulders shook. Leaning in, he snuggled up to her while wrapping his arms around her. "What's wrong?" He asked softly. Sniffling much louder this time, Saria rolled over, revealing her red eyes as tears streamed down her face. "I miss him so much." She whispered, "He's been there for as long as I could remember. He cared for me and taught me everything I know. Why? Why did he have to die?"
Naruto didn't know what to say so he simply hugged her closer, rubbing her back as she cried into his shoulder, not even noticing as tears fell from his own eyes as well as they both drifted to sleep.
-The next morning-
Waking up, the duo honestly felt more tired than when they had gone to sleep. Drudging themselves up anyway, they stumbled outside to see Anju feeding the cuccos with a happy smile. Seeing them, that faded as she walked over. *Sigh* "The best route to Goron City is straight that way and around the corner." She said pointing to her left. "I still think this is a stupid idea sending children up there but I can't really argue with royalty."
Thanking her again, the two bid her ado and headed the way she gestured. While walking, the temperature began rapidly rising while the once lush grass and plant life shifted to dull red rock and dirt while large cliffs stuck out to the sides of them. Navi and Elia sat on Naruto's head lazily while fanning themselves before hiding when a big metal gate came into view with a single guard standing in front of it. "Halt! What the hell do you two brats think you're doing out here!" He yelled as they walked closer.
"Hey! Who are you calling a brat!" Naruto yelled back while trying to get right up to the man only for Saria to hold her back. "The princess sent us to retrieve something for her. She said this would explain everything." She said while shakily handing him the letter from before. Eyes widening in surprise, the man tore open the envelope and quickly read the contents.
"… … … BwaHahahahahaha!" The guard burst into laughter while holding his sides. "Hahaha… ho, oh I needed that. The fate of hyrule… hahaha… in the hands of two runts like you." Calming down but still having a big smirk on his face. "Well miss hero, Ha, but I can't just let two brats through here because they had a 'letter from the princess'. Run along and go play or something." He said while waving them off with one last chuckle.
Growling in frustration, Naruto finally had enough and walked up to the man. "Hey, I told you to scram bra- *THUMP* AAIIIIEEE!" The guards voice rose several octaves as Naruto punched him straight in the crotch. Before he could recover, Naruto snagged the keys hanging from his belt and quickly opened the gate. "Book it!" He shouted tossing the keys back at the guard while rushing away, Saria right behind him.
After reaching what they hoped to be a far enough distance, the two stopped to catch their breaths. "That was *huff* quite possible the *huff* the stupidest thing you've *huff* ever done." Saria panted out. "Oh, come on *huff* what about the time I pranked the know-it-all brothers by… Watch out!" Pulling her towards him, Saria shrieked as a large four-legged crab creature landed where she just stood with an angry clicking noise.
Not giving it a chance to move again, Naruto drew his sword and swiftly sliced the thing in half. "By the goddesses that is foul!" Elia groaned as the two halves of the monster released a pungent smelling gas. "That's a red tektite, they'll eat just about anything they can pounce on. The smell is most likely from high concentrations of sulfur dioxide built up in its body. Be careful as its highly poisonous." Navi stated from Naruto's shoulder, only to freeze when the others stared at her. "What …I liked to read." She muttered while glowing brightly in embarrassment.
Hearing more clicking, the group paled as half a dozen more tektites were hopping towards them. Naruto head up his shield protectively and charged forward while Saria pulled out her slingshot and a handful of… seeds.
Pulling the sling back, she launched one of said seeds directly towards the closest monster. *CRACK* The seed burst in a small flash of light that stunned the tektite long enough for Naruto to impale it in the eye and move on. Slashing and stabbing, Naruto made short work of the remaining creatures with Saria's support.
Continuing along, they thankfully only ran into a few solo tektites by the time they passed an enclosed area that looked to had a recently rockslide. Walking among the rubble were two yellowish-tan creatures with white rock-like patches on their backs and heads moving the debris out of the way. "I do believe that those two are Gorons. If so, they should be able to point us to their village." Navi said, getting a nod from Naruto and Saria.
"Excuse me!" Naruto yelled getting both of the supposed gorons attention. "Could either of you point the way to the fasted way to your village?" He asked once they got a little closer. "Village? Do you mean Goron City?" The first asked, his voice deep and tired, while the other went back to work. "It's just up that-a-way." He pointed to the side where a steep path lead upwards. "Though what are two fleshy people do- Hey! where'd they go?" The goron asked only to see them rushing the way he pointed. "Thank you Mr. Goron!" Saria called to him as they rounded the corner. The goron blinked in surprise for several seconds before shrugging and going back to work while grumbling about hunger.
-Goron City-
All four of them sighed in relief as they entered the underground city, the temperature being noticeably cooler than outside only to stop in shock at what they saw. The gorons was rather simple, being a large carved out cavern lit up by large glowing crystals in the walls, a large hole sat in the middle revealing the multitude of levels below them, but that wasn't what shocked them at all.
What did was the sight of most of the gorons lying around in misery while holding their stomachs. "What's wrong with them?" Saria asked worriedly, wincing when the cries of a baby goron rang out. Naruto stayed silent for moment as he gained a dark look in his eye that worried Saria a lot, "… Their starving."
Asking around, they were informed that the landslide outside had blocked the place they got their food. With the directions some of the more coherent gorons gave, Naruto and Saria found themselves before a carved stone door with a cushy rug in front of it. Naruto tried pounding on it but only ended up his hand instead. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Well I got nothing, any ideas Saria?"
Thinking about it for, she hummed softly before snapping her fingers and pulling out her ocarina.
(Play Zelda's Lullaby)
As soon as she finished, a loud thudding could be heard before the door shook violently and slid to the side. Behind it stood a goron with long, spiky 'hair', a large beaded red necklace around his neck, and a seriously grumpy look on his face. Stomping out, he paused once he saw the two children standing before him and growled loudly.
"Is this some form of joke?!" He asked in a booming voice, "Are my people's struggles this unimportant that the royal family sends mere children?!" Behind pushed back slightly by the force of his voice alone, Naruto stood protectively over a terrified Saria as he glared back at the goron.
"OI! Don't start yelling at us for no reason you jerk!" He yelled back getting into the gorons face much his surprise. "We didn't do anything to upset you! We just came here to get some stupid spiritual rock thing for Zelda-chan!" At these words the goron seemed to get even madder. "So! You are here to steal the Gorons Ruby from me as well?! Well I'll tell you the same thing I told the last man! You will have to pry it from my cold, dead hands!"
The two continued yelling at each-other back and forth for several minutes until Saria finally got up the nerve to speak. "Um, M-m-mister G-goron?" Naruto and the goron stopped yelling to look at her. "W-w-who wa t-the other pers-son who t-t-tried to take the r-ruby."
The goron growled slightly, before stopping and wincing as he saw the terrified look on her face. Backing up, the goron seemed to calm down and coughed awkwardly. "My apologies, hunger tends to make me irrational and easily angered. A stranger came here days ago and demanded the Gorons Ruby, but I could smell the evil on that man and I Darunia swore to keep it safe from ones such as him." The now named Darunia stated, stomping his foot down in finality before growing somber. "He did not take my refusal well and thus sealed off the source of our food, Dodongo's Cavern, with a rockslide."
Growling quietly, Darunia continued, "Normally such a thing would be no problem for us gorons. But once we cleared the majority of the rubble and tired from hunger, somehow we were attacked by dodongos which used to be extinct, most likely that man's work as well. The explosions they caused upon their deaths caused another rockslide to happen and now my people are too exhausted to clear it up again, let alone defend themselves."
A loud grumbling was heard as the intimidating leader grabbed his stomach and groaned. Naruto and Saria watched as the once intimidating and fearless leader of the goron turned into one of starving desperation. Suddenly a lightbulb went off in Naruto's head as he asked. "What if we clear out the monsters for you?"
Whatever Darunia was expecting, that clearly wasn't it as he, and Saria, looked at him incredulously. "What?" "You heard me. We clear out those dodo-thingies and in return you give us the ruby." Still somewhat stunned, the leader of the gorons shook his head and thought about it before sighing. "I haven't much choice in this as without help, we gorons shall starve to death. You have a deal pipsqueak. Wait on second and I'll get you something that may help."
Ignoring Naruto's indignant shout at being called a pipsqueak, Darunia headed back into his room before coming out holding something that he tossed to Naruto. It was a small golden bracelet shaped kind of like a crown with an odd symbol stamped onto it. "Here, that little trinket slightly increases the wearers strength so it should make things a little easier."
"Cool!" Naruto said gleefully while trying to get it on. Unfortunately, he couldn't get it passed his knuckles so ended up giving it to Saria while pouting. She was at least able to slip it on and immediately felt the sudden burst of strength within herself. Bowing, she started to say thanks only for Naruto to cut her off by dragging her away. "Don't worry Darunia, we won't let you down!" He called over his shoulder getting the goron to smile slightly as they vanished up the stairs.
-End Chapter-
AN: This chapter was mostly to focus in on one big, glaring issue that always bothered me in the game. Who in their right mind would just ignore an unknown child wandering around on his own. In Castle Town sure I could understand cause of all the people there, but in a small town like Kakariko, nuh-uh. Especially when said child is trying to go up an ACTIVE VOLCANO! Seriously! Anyway, the other thing I would mention is about Saria's bursts of shyness. Despite her physical appearance, Saria is estimated to actually be a few hundred years old (Being an immortal child and all), and all those years she'd only really had contact with the other kokiri, the Deku Tree, and the Fairies. So, she would naturally be rather shy or nervous around adults or large people. And finally, Darunia suddenly acting nice. Darunia isn't a bad guy, just proud and hungry, seeing Saria's terrified face would most likely snap him back to reality long enough to realize how he'd been acting. Thank you for reading and please review.
