The Pink Haired Pirate: An Old Norse Saying

Rated: M for language, future mature themes, violence, gore

Warnings: Spoiler alert for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

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They screamed as the ghostly Argonian woman lunged, making Alessio drop the chest of papers in the process.

"Do you think we can take her on?" Sakura wanted to get ready to fight, but Alessio already grabbed her wrist to run. They slammed through the specter, but passed right on the other side, dashing the hallway. They gasped for air.

Alessio coughed. "Damn, I think I have some of that ghost in my mouth." He stuck his tongue out. "Does it look dead to you?"

Sakura made a face. "Yeah, it's fine. Let's get the hell out of here." She grabbed his arm and started running along the hallway. "I'm not going to lie, I never had to fight with ghosts before. Besides those Nightingale Sentinels... but the only reason they were hostile is that Ebonmere has been closed and they lost contact with Nocturnal." Gallus was the sole exception.

"What do we do?"

"Look, I think this banshee might be the soul of an Argonian who died here."

They heard a loud screech in the distance, so hard they had to clamp their hands on their ears. They gritted their teeth.

"A ghost who lost their voice? What does she even want from us?"

"Her voice?" Alessio suggested. They were finally back in the main hall.

"No shit. But how do we even give it back to her?" Sakura hissed.

The banshee started to weep. The castle was initially silent, with the occasional booby trap going off. But now... now they really wish it was silent again. Weeping turned into wails and horrible screeching.

"Where... where are you!?" She wailed louder. "You can't hide from me! You can't hide from what your ancestors did to me and my people!"

Alessio climbed down the stairs, with Sakura following him short, running. "Oh Arkay..." He prayed. They were back on the ground level.

"There you are!" She screeched and lunged forward. Sakura pushed Alessio behind her back. The banshee's mouth opened.

'Come on, fūinjutsu training with Karin,-chan, don't fail me now!' She pressed her hands in a seal, and before the banshee could scream, two long chakra chains wrapped around her mouth.

Which meant that they had to take a chakra tactic instead of simple melee or a punch because the chains actually worked. They effectively silenced the banshee. It struggled, screeching and trying to break free, clawing at the golden chakra chains that sprouted up from Sakura's body. Another chain shot up, wrapping around a wrist, and dragging her down on the floor.

"Sakura!" Alessio rushed to her side. He watched her succumb to her knees.

"Run! Just go!" She barked. Another chain wrapped around her ankle.

"I'm not going anywhere, you can do this!"

The chains tightened, squeezing out the ghostly essence before the banshee screeched and collapsed in a small pile of translucent muck.

Sakura panted heavily. The adamantine chains disappeared, and she almost collapsed on her face. "I... I think we are safe..."

"What... was that?"

"The Adamantine Chains.. me and a friend discovered that technique..." Sakura got up on her feet. "She's an Uzumaki, so stuff like this comes naturally to her. They don't exhaust her like it does to me." She smiled, a little nostalgic, before inhaling and exhaling deeply.

"But are you feeling well enough to walk?"

Sakura nodded affirmatively. "I don't want to burden you. But what the hell was that? I haven't seen or read about a banshee before. Not here, anyway. Aren't they more of a Breton thing?"

Alessio nodded. "There's something indeed strange going around here. You know... maybe we'll find some answers in the cellar. If the Argonians died here, then there must be a place they have been dumped away. You can't easily dispose of several bodies without attracting someone's attention, so they most likely took advantage of the fact that Argonian bodies rot and wither away much quicker than others."

Sakura shuddered. "If you say so. You really did your homework, didn't you?" They started descending the path towards the cellar.

"I told you. There's nothing much to do while dad is organizing the shipment lists and barks at innocent employees to unload cargo." He gave her a shrug.

Sakura pushed open the wooden door and skipped down the last few steps.

Another fun fact about the former Leyawiin noble family: they were heavy wine drinkers. And to show that off, Leyawiin used to be the biggest wine producer in all of Cyrodiil, exporting wine towards all corners of the Empire and outside of it.

Before they started focusing on timber production.

But the several barrels of Leyawiin wine and brandy were still intact, some not even opened and still sealed to be shipped away, if you counted out the Count's reserves.

You'd also think that an abandoned cellar from two centuries ago would be as dusty and dirty as the rest of the castle itself. But no, it was not. The place was relatively clean, and the candles were lit, so they wouldn't have to worry about carrying a source of light. No, they had to worry about whoever was lurking around to provide said light.

"I'm getting creeped out..." Alessio commented. Sakura dragged a finger across the table's surface, and she seemed to share his feelings.

"Someone has been here recently. Do banshees even clean?"

"Or drink wine." Alessio picked up a half-drank bottle, sniffing it. "It was opened three hours ago."

Sakura looked at him incredulously. "How could you even know that? What are you, a hound?" She wiped her hand off her tan apron.

"Now, if I was a maniac that killed Argonians for sport... where would I dump the bodies?"

"In a barrel of wine to preserve them?" He suggested, rather casually, but seeing her facial expression change made him laugh. "Relax, I was kidding. They want to get rid of it, not to preserve it."

"Can you even preserve bodies in wine?" She made sure to stay away from the barrels. Who knew what kind of rotting hand would shoot out from the barrel and grab her ass.

"I don't know, but you can imagine that an alcoholic necromancer might have tried that."

"Yes, with an 'alcohol poisoning cloud' spell. Inducing liver failure from a single breath." She joked as they navigated the basement system of the castle.

Until they heard sobbing. Again.

"Not again...another one?" Alessio whispered. "What do we do? Do you have more mana for another set of chains?"

"Maybe... I think so... I have no idea." Sakura shook her head. "There's nothing else we can do, anyways. We can confront the banshee head-on, or we can run the hell out of Leyawiin and never turn back. Your choice."

She looked at Alessio with a solemn face. It was his choice, mainly. She wasn't someone to back down from a fight, so either option worked for her.

"Let's go." Alessio walked forward. He unsheathed his dagger and gave it a few twirls, before crouching slightly to sneak forward. Daggers were not so effective, but even if he could distract the banshee for one moment... he'd be pleased enough.

Sakura followed him.

"I smell tears... I smell tears and sorrow..." The Argonian lady wailed. "So much blood... so much pain..." She sobbed in the shoulder of a similar specter, male this time, who was rubbing her back in circular motions.

"Shh, my sweet. Soon everything will be over." He hissed, soothingly, stroking her head.

"How? When? Look around you, my love. Look! I can't find our little one, I can't find... " She paused as her tears hitched in her throat. "It's hopeless, my love! Hopeless!" The woman screamed. "My sister... our son... !"

The specter murmured sweet nothings into her ear as the sobbing continued to manifest and go on, just like it has done in the past few decades. His wife never stopped screaming the moment she was brought in. She demanded to see their son, demanded to be released... demanding to be free to go back where they came from.

The beautiful smile of the Countess turned merciless as she left them to rot and spill blood, much like the wine that flowed in their cellars.

Sakura knew instantly they were restless spirits, and even lovers, at some point, because the Amulet of Mara pulsed gently underneath her overalls. Much like it did when she was sent on that divine mission to reunite two lost souls. She looked at Alessio, who seemed just as bad as she did at that moment.

A ghost to stay behind and never move on always had a grudge and unfinished business back on Nirn.

"Alessio," Sakura whispered. "I will try to trap the ghosts. You search the room for anything that can be helpful. A silver mirror, a personal belonging of the ghost... anything."

"Are you crazy?"

"Been there, been told. I just have a higher chance to survive if I confront them head-on than you. You're not a mage."

Alessio grunted and nodded. "Fine. But you'd better know what you're doing."

Sakura stepped out from their hiding point. And they heard her. The Argonian woman's bloodshot eyes opened wide, looking at the young, human woman standing in the doorway.

"Y-You... you killed my sister, didn't you...?" She walked - or more like hovered, closer.

"I..." Now Sakura wanted to take a step back. "I didn't mean to... she was ready to kill me..." Her fingers twitched.

"You killed her!" The claw went through her abdomen, and yet, while it left no physical wound, it still stung. A lot. The banshee let out a screech.

"You killed her and you can't bring her back!"

"You killed my sister-in-law!?" The second one yelled, unsheathing his spectral ax, and running after her.

Sakura gritted her teeth and sidestepped just in time to get an ax to her neck. She shut her eyes tight, letting out a second pair of chains to act as a shield around her body. She looked a bit over to the left, to see Alessio rummaging through the cabinets.

It was a damned torture chamber. The couple was hanging around the room of their demise, where they gave their last breath, and every second spent in that place was torture itself. Just the thought that so many met excruciating deaths in that very chamber was unnerving. Being in almost direct contact with the tools in question was worse.

Holding a weapon was different. Said weapons usually became someone's end in a fight, not an execution.

Alessio was quick in checking every chest possible, every drawer and every shelf, for anything that could ward off ghosts. The torture instruments, the stretching table, or the all-too-comfortable spiked chair were effective on the living, but not really on the dead. He felt disgusted with himself and knew he had to take at least ten showers.

"You and your ancestors will pay for everything you have done!" The Argonian man tugged at the chains locked around his wrists. With a wicked gleam, he gripped onto them right and pulled, dragging Sakura off her feet in the process. He slammed her against the stone wall, leaving a deep indent with the shape of her body.

"Ngh..."

She was lifted off again, but before she could collide with the wall, she held her feet in place, firmly, on the cobblestone surface.

"You little-" he started dragging her closer and closer, and the blue chakra surrounding her foot collided with the stomach. The chains broke, as the Argonian let go of them, and stumbled across the chamber. He got up, from the middle of the table.

"My beloved..." He held a hand over his chakra wound. "It's your turn."

"With pleasure, my love." The grief-struck banshee flashed and opened her mouth, letting out a deafening screech. Alessio fell to his knees, covering his ears, and so did Sakura.

But she couldn't stop fighting. Sakura removed her hands, even if her instincts told her not to. She ignored the strand of blood that dripped out of her earhole. Her fist connected with the woman's jaw, slamming her away, almost through the opposite wall, and not a second later, several chain-like tendrils trapped them in place.

"A-Alessio... have you found it?"

"No! I'm... I'm still looking for it!" He yelled. His legs were wobbly and shaky as his balance was thrown off.

"Let us go!"

"We just want to find our son!" The woman wept.

But her cries fell on deaf ears.

Should have thought twice before letting out that deathly wail. The chains wrapped tighter. And tighter. Until she collapsed and the chains shattered.

Alessio forced the lid of a chest open.

A red light pierced the specters and called them away. They vanished, and haven't even left behind the typical ectoplasmic residue. They just... disappeared. Alessio watched a man in clad black robes lift Sakura from the floor.

He didn't say anything but shake his head, and open her jaw gently, before slipping in something that resembled a red cranberry. Sakura chewed gently before the man released her.

She fell on her feet, drowsy but the internal damage was starting to heal. She opened her eyes. "Sam?"

"You're Sanguine's follower!" Alessio ran up to them, almost forgetting about the mysterious chest. He recalled the name, as Sakura has mentioned it a few times on their way to Leyawiin.

"It's much more complicated than that, kid. Follow me." He raised a hand that seemed to have torn apart the fabric of reality itself, creating a surge of white light that resembled a portal.

"Why should we go anywhere with you?" Alessio narrowed his eyes. Sakura was healing, but who knew what awaited on the other side?"

"It's simple. Because I have the staff Sakura has won. Are you coming or not?" Sam already had a foot inside, awaiting them to follow.

"Come on, Alessio. After this whole shit, I'm not leaving without the staff." She held her head. Alessio wanted to say something else but kept his mouth shut, and simply followed her and Sanguine's follower into what seemed to be the most magnificent forest scenery they have ever seen.

It was so magical... that even the pain in her healing body dulled. "This is..."

"Amazing, right?" Sam chuckled. She nodded mutely.

"Welcome to the Myriad Realms of Revelry. Every single one of these tiny pocket dimensions is created to cater to everyone's whims and desires. And this here, I believe it's yours." Sam stopped by the rose bush and plucked a flower out.

But along with the fiery flower head, came a long and thorny stem that challenged her height and actually won.

"This is the staff?" Sakura held the stem, as the flower head towered over her own, and she knew she had to tie it around her back to be able to carry it properly, in a diagonal fashion. Luckily, the ANBU uniform came with all sorts of holsters to carry all sorts of weapons, where a bo staff was replaced by Sanguine's Rose.

"Indeed. You see, I have been looking around for a suitor to wield my not-so-holy staff, rather than this waste of flesh." He pointed at himself, making Alessio take a step closer.

"What do you mean by your staff."

Sam simply smiled. "Exactly what I meant, young Motierre. It's been hundreds of years since I had so much fun. Two, in fact. You see, it's not a coincidence I have picked the Leyawiin Castle. A young hero summoned me just in time for one of Alessia Caro's boring dinner parties. And the rest it's history." He put a hand on Sakura's shoulder.

His body was engulfed in a red aura. As tall as he was, Sam had now gargantuan proportions compared to the humans. Taller than an orc, taller than a high elf. The skin darkened to an ash color with red markings, and even the robes were replaced by a set of marked ebony plate armor. Two sets of horns protruded his forehead and curled in the end.

Sakura's eyes widened as she took a step back. "Daedra..." her hand automatically equipped a kunai.

Sam simply put his hands over the unsheathed small blades both Sakura and Alessio were holding. "Please. Two little knives won't hurt me. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sanguine, the Daedric Lord of Debauchery!" He announced, rather dramatically. The men and women behind him, sitting under the misty glow of a few lanterns were drinking and eating in his honors, but they dared not to interrupt their Lord. Alessio recognized him already, having been born in a country that has not quite condemned Daedric Worship, but it has just come onto Sakura what kind of Daedra Sam was. Just like Hermaeus Mora and Nocturnal. A Prince.

"You see, it's easy to be bored when you have all the time in the world. So I saw a little Arena fighter that could use a drink and spread some merriment here and there. That's all."

Sakura put the kunai back in her pouch. "But... why me?"

Sanguine looked down on her. "Why you, indeed. To be honest, I don't have the habit of thinking my decisions through. But you, kid... you're going places." He patted her head. "I thought that maybe some influence from your old uncle Sanguine would adjust your course a bit. After all the fun and the drinks, I decided to settle something for you to enjoy too. I know your 'hero' type, so I organized a murder mystery for you. Did you like it?"

"Old uncle Sanguine..." Sakura pondered on it before chuckling. She stopped. "Wait. That was you? The arsenic?"

"Hid it before you came here. Fine, I had one of these half-brains to do it."

"The marked book?" Alessio asked, stepping forward.

"It was an interesting chapter."

"The ghostly Argonians?"

"Someone dabbled in necromancy way before you were even conceived."

"So everything's fake? The murderous Countess? The missing Argonians? The records?"

Sanguine shrugged. "No, those are all true. Did you really think that I would bother to fabricate a whole story to last two hundred years just so two kids could solve it? Maybe I would, but it was not my doing this time. That woman was fucked in the head, I give her that. I merely laid out a few clues for you to get on the right track. Now, I think it's time for you to get the hell out of here." He started to nudge them out. "There's no point in keeping you locked in here with the staff. Use it, throw it away, try to plant it and grow nothing... you do you."

Neither of them struggled, as Sakura was too deep in thought. Alessio did start to walk faster, so he wouldn't have to be dragged out like a ragdoll.

"Thanks, I guess."

"My pleasure. But I have a feeling we might meet again."

For some reason, Sakura truly believed him. It also kind of made her realize that maybe, not all Daedras were that bad. But she hurried up after Alessio. Who knew how temporary that banishment spell was, and the ghosts could go after their asses in any moment now. It made her a little jumpy.

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"I don't know what the hell was that cranberry... or strawberry... or whatever... but it did some miracles in my body. You see, Alessio, this is why you normally don't perform hiden techniques if you don't belong to that certain clan. It's bound to malfunction, it's bound to be used by those with the necessary genetic makeup that can pull it off without damaging their bodies." Alessio hasn't bothered much about asking why those 'hiden' techniques meant, but he guessed she referred to those chains she has talked about earlier and conjuring them twice. Even those were not perfect, far from it by her standards, as while she was skilled enough with sealing arts to pull off the Hiraishin, there were certain Uzumaki techniques that she could simply not perform as flawlessly as she wished. Not even her Sharingan could aid her with that.

Naruto could. If you could have sat down for more than three minutes without his mind flying off elsewhere, he could have mastered the Sealing Chains. Because that's what they were supposed to do, to seal and create strong barriers. They were not really offensive, to begin with. Her and Karin made them offensive while experimenting with seals before the third task. It gave her the necessary boost of confidence to wipe the arena with that bratty Kusa teammate of hers. She would have bloodied his nose herself if it wouldn't get her disqualified.

"Did you take the scroll?"

Sakura nodded, waving the red ribboned storage scroll in her hand. "Here. If we're lucky, we might find a book on Argonian burial customs."

What Alessio discovered right before Sam flashed out of nowhere, was a storage room and a chest filled with remains and personal belongings of the missing Argonians. There were mostly skulls, but there was also a small rag doll that might have belonged to a little girl or boy that have been captured alongside their parents. Some skulls were child-sized after all. It made her angry, but nobody could undo the past. All they could do was offer them a proper burial, so their souls could pass on in the afterlife, and return to the Hist, letting their souls swim back up to Aetherium. So Sakura pulled out a scroll and sealed everything up, not wanting to leave a single remain in that hell hole, and both she and Alessio agreed that should at least be remembered and honored properly. Maybe the banshees wouldn't haunt the Castle anymore.

"But hey, at least we're alive, and nobody has to come to bury us too." Alessio joked, but he was not quite sure why has Sakura froze in her place out of a sudden. Then he looked ahead and gulped.

"Yet, anyway." A voice cleared its throat. Marcurio was standing across the castle gates, with his arms crossed and a stern Tora sitting on his shoulder, like some sort of little, fuzzy, guardian angel. She was just like Sakura remembered, brown, with black markings, but instead of the ugly red bow Madam Shijimi clipped around her ear, there was a simple black ribbon tied at her neck, to show she was not a stray cat, like some sort of collar. Neko-nin usually wore the village's headbands or something that specified their origins (like the toads and Mount Myoboku), but the simple ribbon signaled that Tora had no allegiance but the foreign summoner, stranger to ninja arts and everything related it.

She could be damned... he actually signed the contract. Yet the thought didn't upset her at all. It was quite the opposite... for some reason.

"Big brother..."

"What in the name of Arkay's favorite pair of slippers were both of you thinking?" They flinched. "Our parents were put under an illusion by a fucking Uchiha, you have been a clone this whole time," He pointed at Alessio. "on top of being a damned thief of all things," then he looked at Sakura, who looked just as remorseful as his little brother. "And you put everybody to sleep on a range of a few hundred feet, after having Tora track you down to a tree, wasted and passed out. Do you want to know what could have happened? You could have been killed, or much worse while you were that vulnerable."

They were silent because they knew he was right.

"Look..." Alessio began. "You have all the right to be angry. And we can explain, really. Just... help us out this one bit."

Marcurio watched Alessio and Sakura, and even if they weren't giving him exaggerate and comically huge puppy-dog eyes... there was something about their facial expressions that was hard for him to refuse. He looked at Tora, who simply shrugged her ... well... not shoulders... but what should have been her shoulders if she wasn't a cat. He let out a deep sigh. "What... what do you need help with?"

Sakura smiled. "Do you know any Argonian burial customs?"

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They all decided it might be the wisest to wake everyone up only after they returned from the border with Black Marsh, just to be safe. It was said that an Argonian that died in slavery or captivity could not move on, so Marcurio described the whole process of 'freedom' to be a bit more complicated than just digging a damn hole. It had to be returned to their homeland, buried in the swam soil of the marshland, so they would be both buried and open to the wilderness, just like how their ancestors intended. Or something like that. Imperials usually buried them, embalming the dead and blessing them with Arkay's rites, so their souls wouldn't be taken and used by a necromancer and their will. The dead Argonians lacked that, but necromancy was uncommon in Black Marsh because the corpses decayed too quickly anyways. It was pretty much useless unless you had an army of more human flesh puppets.

Luckily for them and unfortunately for Marcurio, he also had to explain why was he in the possession of a summoning scroll, known to be more or less private to the Uchiha clan.

The number may have been reduced to four living members, all clans looked to preserve their techniques from outsiders.

Their stories were connected, and Alessio decided to start. All of them knew the gravity of the situation if Alessio was caught being a thief. Sakura remembered Niruin's backstory, as the son of a rich winemaker in Valenwood. He started running with a local guild of thieves out of boredom, but when his father found out he gave him an ultimatum: leave the country or be turned in to the authorities. He was lucky to have made some contacts outside of Valenwood, including old Delvin Mallory.

Sakura could swear, that guy knew everyone and everything.

But, back to the point, both Sakura and even Marcurio feared that would be the case for his younger brother if Vincent Motierre ever found out that his son was a thief, especially about how afraid his mother was of the Gray Fox.

"Look, big brother. I know that you're maybe furious at me. But I want you to know that you've been gone for so long... a lot of things have changed. And I never did anything to openly provoke or cause harm against our family." Alessio began. The little pranks he'd pull with his sister, his 'partner-in-crime', didn't really count. Even her kind of grew out of them. "I became a thief kind of by accident, actually. I more or less became an involuntary piece in a heist and the Gray Fox acknowledged my potential. Two years ago. From that point, he became my mentor and offered protection to our family. If you go outside the house, you will see a symbol carved on the lower side of the wooden pillar. That's how thieves know who are under the protection of Gray Fox and the Guild, and who are not. Sakura can confirm."

Even if she was theoretically a junior compared to him, she had to cram in quite a lot of information to catch up with everyone else. Especially since she was going to fill the Guildmaster spot. "Yeah. It's true. The thieves use symbols to communicate with each other." But she didn't elaborate further than that. Marcurio was still an outsider.

"So... do you understand why did I join? On top of honing my skills, I'm also helping my father and mother. Mother doesn't worry about being mugged and father doesn't have to worry about the shipments being robbed. It's the least I can do." Alessio shrugged. "Please don't tell them..."

Marcurio looked at him and nodded. "It's not my job to be a tattletale. If they find out, it's on you. Which brings me to the next point. Why are our parents under an illusion? Hell, Tora even said that it was cast by an Uchiha, and Sakura has been away this whole time."

"That was boss. The Gray Fox. He sometimes casts illusions so I can go train or do missions for the Guild. He also happens to be..."

"Uchiha Shisui. He's my brother... that was supposed to be dead." Sakura filled it in. "He washed on the shore of Cyrodiil ten years ago. He became the next Gray Fox and has been leading the thieves ever since. I thought he was dead too... until after my first Arena fight."

The name was pretty familiar, but only because not very long ago, he has seen a few pictures in the Cat Manor. Shisui has been the tall teen with curly hair that was holding a little Sakura after their paw print game. He looked at Sakura and the small smile growing on her face.

"But you've been a thief before I asked you to join me on my way to Cyrodiil? How in the span of a few weeks did you manage to join the thieves in Skyrim?" If she knew beforehand that her brother was alive and a thief... then he would have more or less understood her motives. But like this... something was missing from the picture. Which meant it was Sakura's turn to give her round of explanations of 'what' and 'why' and 'why not'.

"Do you remember Septimus Signus... right?"

How could he forget?

"He sent me out to collect blood when he considered I was prepared enough to face Skyrim on my own. I scraped some coin together from all the bandits that attacked me on the way to Winterhold, the first settlement I came across. I stopped by the inn for the night, and the innkeeper and his wife knew immediately that I was a traveler. They kindly asked me to look for one of their patrons' fiancee. The man has been drowning his sorrows, never paid the tab and when he did, he drank all of the money his sister made by running the local pawn shop. So I agreed, in exchange for a few supplies and information to guide me. They say she ran with a thief named 'Vex', and the patron thought that she was leaving him, not knowing that 'Vex' was not even a 'he', and she was just looking for a way to earn their fortune and never have to worry about money again. I agreed to look for her because at least I had a point of reference to start looking for blood too.

So they pointed me towards Riften. I stayed the night and the next morning, I met Brynjolf, who you can guess, was a thief. In exchange for helping him with a little job, he would lead me to Vex and in consequence, towards the whereabouts of the missing woman. I tracked her down in a necromancer lair. It was too late for her but the least I could do was bring her body to her lover, so she could have a proper funeral. Look, if there's something I learned about Skyrim, is that they put a lot of value in the afterlife. So if there's a way I can help them pass on, then I will."

"But why did you become a thief?" Alessio asked, a little curious too. He knew from the Fox that Sakura was supposed to be the Guildmaster of their sister branch in Skyrim, but has never known why, since he has heard about a 'foreigner with pink hair putting Mercer to sleep and out of a sudden, Lady Luck was back on their side.'

"Look, the first thing I noticed about Riften is that it's corrupt to the core. The guard at the gate asked for a 'visitor's tax' and has shut up instantly when I called him out. The job I had to help Brynjolf was to steal a ring and plant it in someone's pocket. Someone I had to bail out using the money from the job because all he did was be in the wrong place at the wrong time and Maven Black-Briar wanted to be sure he won't rat her out. Because of the series of misfortune related to the inner workings within the Guild, they had to turn to someone like Maven to keep them barely on a floating line. And by inner-workings, I mean that Nocturnal has been having the Guild's back for decades and maybe centuries, using proxies called Nightingales, and the former Guild Master stole one of her artifacts and effectively cutting down all of her influence in the guild.

For us to be prepared to face a Nightingale, we had to become Nightingales too, but that would mean selling our souls to Nocturnal, so now I'm here, joining the Arena to get the Cowl and get my soul back. And to answer your question, I became a thief so I can watch Maven burn."

Marcurio stared her down for a while. "You... you two are going to gray my hair out prematurely." He sighed. "And the staff on your back?"

Sakura snorted. "After the fight, Shisui-nii and I went to have a few drinks. I had a drinking contest with someone who later revealed to be Sanguine, and the drinks were more likely laced with some weird Daedric knock-out syrup or whatever. Alessio tracked me down and we discovered that many Argonians have been kidnapped and murdered in the Leyawiin Castle. Right now we are heading to Black Marsh to bury their remains, so they won't haunt the castle anymore. Does that answer your questions?"

"It's really more serious than I thought. And I assume you know that it's either win or die in these tournaments."

Sakura nodded.

"Good, because you won't die. If you can punch through a Centurion, you can get that damn cowl. I believe you can."

It might have been a trick of the light that a light pink dusted across her cheeks, but it was something that never went past Alessio. He noticed it almost instantly.

"You know, big brother, I think you owe Sakura some answers too."

Marcurio nodded. "Look, Chihiro has been sitting on my head for a while. She nudged me to sign the summoning scroll, stealing it from your room while you were gone. I summoned Tora and we had to visit Neko-baa to give us the final task. She handed me this amulet so I could speak your language." And as a proof of his words, he lifted out a round, silver pendant from the inside of his tunic shirt. It was as basic as it could be, looking more like junk with sentimental value than an useful artifact.

"We collected Richie the Lion's paw print, I had an audition with Matatabi the Boss Cat, and Chihiro showed me around the Hidden Leaf." He shrugged. "That's all. I had some ramen and met your blonde brother, who can eat his weight in noodles. And your other former mates."

It did sound simple enough.

"So this dagger then..." Alessio unsheathed the three-pronged kunai.

"It was the Fourth Hokage's signature weapon." Sakura confirmed it. She took the kunai for a moment. It was not the same kunai, of course, because the handle was blank. "He would add his own formula of the Flying Thunder God technique right here. He would throw it and teleport in the direction of the kunai immediately. He was called the 'Yellow Flash' for it. It's a space-time technique, actually. Much different than what my brother was known for, the Body Flicker."

Then, she drew out one of her long needles. "It's all in the seal work. I have personally put my own formula on senbon, because it's easier to scatter across a battlefield, carry around and less of an eyesore." She held it in front of her, letting the sunlight reflect a bluish hue, which normally should have been silver.

"So you can perform the Flying Thunder God?" Alessio raised an eyebrow, as he took his dagger back, looking at the handle.

Sakura nodded.

"How do you think I could cover so much ground in so little time? I usually leave a senbon here and there, but it drains away my chakra very quickly if I use it on long distances."

"That's fascinating. Space-time... it's like your body gets suck into a pocket dimension for a fraction of a millisecond, before dropping you at the seal's location." Marcurio concluded.

"That's the gist, yeah. Sorta." Sakura nodded.

"Do you think I could ever pull this off?" Alessio sheathed his dagger back. He seemed truly fascinated by the way Sakura's people made seals and techniques, much more interesting than what Marcurio has been studying. He has broken into his room many times before.

"I don't know. You can always ask my brother too, and I can let you borrow my notes on the technique. After I translate them." Sakura promised.

It didn't take them long to that point to finally reach the border with Black Marsh. There were close to the outskirts of Gideon, where they decided to stop. Sakura handed Alessio the scroll, as she pulled up the long elbow-long uniform gloves and coated her arms in chakra, before starting to dig in the swampy soil.

Alessio then handed Marcurio the scroll and helped her out, pulling up two sets of gloves on each hand. Marcurio watched them work, with Tora sleeping on his shoulder. He sighed, slipping the scroll in his bag, before conjuring something that resembled a spectral shovel, and started to dig.

The grave was then filled with the skulls unsealed from the scroll, along with whatever belongings they had found in the storage room. Neatly folded leather clothes, a blade, a child-sized cotton dress with the pink color work with time, a ragdoll resembling a sheep, a shield and an amulet.

They took a step back, covering the hole with the dug-up soil, and stayed silent for a little while, before heading back to Cyrodiil.

"I will scout ahead." Alessio broke the silence and started to walk forward. "Tora, come on." The cat understood his hand gesture and hopped on his shoulder. He wanted to give them a bit of privacy, but he stayed close enough so he could still eavesdrop on their conversation.

"I'm sorry." Sakura admitted. "I know you were just looking out for your family. I shouldn't have walked out like that and kick yours and your family's hospitality."

"I'm sorry too. I misjudged you... and never gave you a chance to explain yourself."

"Maybe I would have had that chance if I didn't leave. I was lucky I met Lady Valentia just a while ago."

"Just drop it. Focus on the tournament right now. Speaking of which, we should move faster. You'll get in trouble if you're late. Like you always do. In all sorts of trouble."

"Very funny." She wanted to say something else, until he flicked her hard over her Yin Seal. "Hey!"

It was only after they passed Leyawiin, they realized they have forgotten something.

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A/N: Done! Okay so for the umpteenth time ... I'm sorry for the fighting scene. I tried to imagine some cool stuff happening and that's all I could do. I'm still trying to improve them tho!

The Adamantine Sealing Chains is a fūinjutsu technique specific to the Uzumaki clan. In my story, Sakura is the one who saves Karin from the bear during the second task of the chuunin exams. They strike up a quick friendship and they get to the Tower just in time, so her Kusa teammates do get to participate in the preliminary rounds. She also gets to whoop her arrogant teammate's ass with the newly developed Attacking Chains, the derived jutsu they learned together. It obviously fits her more since she's an Uzumaki, and Sakura is not, but they have trained together long enough for Sakura to be able to use it too.

If there's a type of fic I hate the most... it's bashing. Bashing a character and most of the time it turns them OOC too. I mean I have some OOCness too... but I don't think it reached on that level. Most of Karin-bashing is ridiculous. She's a loud and boastful person but she's not really a bitch. Just very loud. I actually like Karin more or less. Plus she's some kind of cousin to Naruto and he deserves to have some blood family around and alive, even if he has Genma, Sasuke and Sakura. And Kakashi, as a sensei. Well, whatever.

Did I tell you how much I like Sanguine? I'm not sure if he was too OOC but he's such a chill guy. I did base his behavior on the original dialogue and took snippets from that too. His next encounter will be even cooler. Whoever played Oblivion knows that the 'hero' reference is based on the quest where the Hero of Kvatch attends Alessia Caro's dinner party and casts that spell to make everyone run around naked. The guy knows how to party. Hence why he's my favorite. Sheogorath is a fun character but I hate him too. You know, the whole Malacath incident. Read it up, the lore's fun.

The technique Marcurio used to conjure a shovel is based on the real spells: Bound Sword and Bound Battleaxe. If you can conjure a sword out of mana... why not conjure a shovel too?

Oh and I almost forgot. I actually made Sakura into my real play-through. I used the Uchiha Clan and Naruto mod... plus something for an enhanced character creation mode. Her Rinnegan is on the wrong eye but I could do nothing about it. I also chose Madara's path since she has his Eternal in my story. Shisui's would have been more appropriate. She's over-powered as hell compared to normal creatures. There's even a weapon, 'Chakra Enhanced Strength' that punches the hell out of everybody with ragdoll effect.

It's kinda fun, but the shit is literally invisible. Like, it's considered a weapon you have to equip, even if it looks like you're unarmed - and you're fighting unarmed too. But in-game it's a weapon. But since it's invisible, if you drop it it's gone. True story. Had to buy it again. The only other techniques I bought her were some water but mostly lighting jutsu, some fire and a sabre cat summoning scroll. And the usual walk-on-water power. It's a good way not to get fucked by Slaughterfish when crossing large bodies of water.

The mod also let me set her height... she's so small. XD Nah, just like shoulder-tall. It's funny to see the NPCs bend down their necks to talk to her. It's just... fun.

Who's up for some Perfect Susano'o Sakura vs Miraak fight? No one? Just me? I will also buff the hell out of Miraak because why not. He's already God-like, since Herma Mora actually intervenes to finish him off, but whatever.

What else did I want to tell you? I swear I will remember only after I post the chapter. Whatever.

I'mma go now.

Cheers!