Riding over Sand and Stone
Even after leaving Bayasabhad behind them, Naruto couldn't quite take his mind off of it. Tiqui had been huge, almost overwhelming in it's sheer size. But the people there were mostly as he knew them.
They spoke a language he was still learning, they favoured different clothing, they ate different food, but underneath that Naruto felt almost home. In Bayasabhad things were not so familiar.
It was a city too, just like Tiqui, but it looked nothing alike. Great grey stone towers flanked their path into the mountains well before they came near any houses. The elevated position, carved right onto the mountain range overlooking the road they travelled on, was very easy to defend and mountains like these probably held hundreds of smaller pathways and tracks unknown to outsiders that would make aggression very costly.
Bows were most common among the defenders, but there had been spears, slings and knives aplenty. With the number of armed fighters he had been able to spot, evading all of their arrows would have been quite difficult. Ordinarily, Naruto would have used Shadow Clones to move freely in the air, but without the chakra for that tactic his options were a lot more limited.
Arriving in the actual cities had made something else very apparent.
All the warriors were women, with metal rings piercing exposed nipples and rubies in their cheeks. The first one had been uncomfortable. He had seen breasts before, an unavoidable scenario with Jiraiya as his teacher, but those had been isolated incidents. In Bayasabhad every woman ran around half-naked.
Naruto spent the first few minutes gaping, blushing, and trying to avoid staring in equal measure. He hadn't been very successful and the amused attention of the other guards had only left him when one of the cart drivers had handed over a sack of clinking coins to one of the warriors, her high rank marked by the smaller rubies surrounding the bigger central one in her cheek set in gold.
After that, they had acquired water and supplies and set off again. With the narrow mountain passes there was no need for any outriders except for the front, but their speed was lower. Even a well travelled road was subject to rock falls and mud slides.
Naruto had wondered about the exact amount paid, as had most of the other guards from what he knew. None of their questions had been answered, every single one being refuted with the same response, "You need not concern yourselves. You were hired to guard, so guard. Everything else is irrelevant."
None of them had been particularly happy about that and it had only inflamed the curiosity for many, but they hadn't done anything about it either. They rode on.
When they had left the last of the Bones behind them, they started their track through the aptly named Red Waste. The mountain range still towered behind them but their surroundings were now red plains and hills as far the eye could see.
Naruto had travelled through the Sand Kingdom in their attempt to save Gaara from Akatsuki which meant that at least this wasn't entirely unfamiliar. There was more stone and clay here but the experience was much the same.
The dry heat baked them all in their saddles throughout the day, helped along by a cloudless sky, and both riders and horses bore it with helpless tolerance. The nights were cooler but not by much and hard to enjoy when you were sticky with your own sweat.
Their carefully rationed water supply kept them going well enough and allowed them to avoid the stagnant bitter water found in shallow pools or the dusty remains of dried up rivers.
With the mountain range in the distance to their left and empty red desert everywhere else, they continued on as quick as possible, eager to reach their destination.
Five days from Qarth, the guards that were following their column from a distance didn't return on time.
"I say we hurry towards Qarth as fast as we can." Yon, who had spent most of the trip as one of the outriders to the front, argued. He was one of the oldest among them, and his gruff voice commanded respect from most of the others.
They had waited for an hour and then sent out another four to look for missing two, Yon among them. There had been no sign.
Now they all stood around, debating what exactly to do.
"That's gonna take at least four days. If we are being followed we'll have to fight before ever reaching the city," Jeong said. He was younger than Yon but he did not look it, the scars collected on his body obscuring his relative youth. Some of the other guards nodded along with him, faces grim.
"Are you sure? Out here, whatever happened, it's either common brigands or Dothraki. The first isn't much of a problem. They may have overwhelmed two of us with surprise but eighteen?" Jaro shook his head. He was a tall thin man with amber skin and dark red hair hailing from Astapor. "Dothraki would have fallen on us already. They have no patience for sneaking. We would have been overwhelmed already. If a khalasar were after us we would know."
"So what? Because these are common brigands we don't have to worry? They killed two of us already. Do you volunteer for the position next?" Yon asked, crossing his arms. Jaro rolled his eyes.
"I'll take the back, I don't fear brigands. We continue like we have, with outriders in both directions, but closer. Any sign of anything and we group up and hurry to Qarth." The suggestion seemed sensible enough and almost all of the others nodded their agreement. Yon didn't seem happy but acquiesced after a moment anyway.
Naruto wasn't sure what the correct course of action was. With Tazuna they had hurried on as quickly as possible but a single civilian was a lot easier to protect than three wagons while on the move.
He knew nothing of Dothraki and their actions but brigands were familiar enough. Bandits of any kind had simple goals. Money and food most of the time, other loot if they found it, hostages if they could think carefully enough to take them, and women to be used and abused.
Their group counted no women among them. They had loot but Naruto wasn't sure what the precise worth of that was, since none of them actually knew what they were transporting. Food and water and maybe a bit of money but why would common bandits attack a caravan this well guarded?
Bandits preyed on the weak as a general rule. Either they were facing truly desperate men or the whole Dothraki idea had more merit than the others thought. Unless there was something else entirely going on here. In the end Naruto didn't know.
With their course of action decided they all mounted up again. Jaro wheeled his horse around towards the back, spear in hand, and waited a moment. He gave everyone else a considering look and waited for any volunteer.
No one came forward so Naruto carefully spurred his horse. He was still not particularly good but at the very least he wasn't entirely at his horse's mercy anymore.
"I'll come with you."
Jaro gave him a nod and trotted off to the back of the line with a grim smile, Naruto not far behind him. The others began moving down the road, the carts between them.
"Are you going to fall from your horse when it comes to a fight?"
"If we have to fight I'll get off of my horse first." Naruto gave the other man a confident grin as they waited for the distance to the caravan to grow. For a moment Jaro looked unconvinced but then he gave a quick chuckle.
"I hope you are as good as you think you are," he said, eyes trained on the horizon. Naruto looked in the same direction trying to spot any movement through the haze of heat flowing above the dry ground as soon as possible.
An hour and a half of riding and there was still nothing to see or hear. Naruto had taken off his headband as soon as they had entered the Red Waste, the sweat gathering under the cloth made wearing it extremely uncomfortable and no one here recognised it anyway. His neck and face were scratchy from all the sweat and dust and he wanted nothing more than a bath. It would have to wait though.
The caravan was about a hundred yards in front of them. Easy enough to see on flat terrain and a loud shout would get their attention if it came to any development. The terrain was flat for a bit longer but Naruto could already see the hills in the distance that would make visibility more difficult.
Jaro rode on next to him. The Astapori was a good rider and had taken to sitting the other way in the saddle, allowing him to look backwards. Naruto was sure that it was a lot more difficult than it looked and didn't even attempt the same manoeuvre, only turning his head to keep an eye on the surroundings.
Conversation seemed to suit Jaro well and Naruto thought of himself the same way but with the spectre of his friends and the war hanging over him he hadn't been in the mood for pointless talking ever since he turned up here. It didn't stop Jaro.
"The zorses of the Jogos Nhai eat that grass." Jaro was still turned around in his saddle and pointed at a small clump of brown grass they were passing with the butt of his spear.
"Zorses?" Naruto asked. He had never heard the word before.
"Mounts, white with black stripes on them. They are smaller than a horse but stronger and mean to boot." Jaro waved his free hand in the air, revealing two missing fingers. "Tried to ride one once," he added.
It wasn't funny, but Jaro spoke about it with such nonchalance that Naruto could help but chuckle in amusement.
Hooves on the dry ground.
Naruto snapped his head around to the west, facing the direction of the distant noise. He could see nothing but a small red ridge and hanging in the air like a cloud.
"You hear something?" Jaro asked.
"Behind that ridge," Naruto pointed in the direction, still entirely focused on the spot, "it sounded like horses."
Dark points were appearing above the red stone and sand, rapidly growing in size and number. With every second it became more and more obvious that he had heard right. The shapes were undoubtedly mounted warriors. Naruto counted at least thirty.
Jaro had spotted it too and was already turning around in his saddle. He reached for something at his neck and spurred his horse. Naruto did the same. They need to warn the others. Before, even thirty opponents wouldn't have worried him. He could have turned that numbers advantage around in seconds if he wanted.
A small whisper grew in the back of his mind. Death had never concerned him, he had always been confident that he would be capable of meeting every challenge head on and come out the other side alive.
What happened to you if you died in a genjutsu? Naruto didn't know and he didn't want to find out.
Jaro finally fished out his whistle and blew a shrill sharp sound as their horses raced along the road. Naruto glanced towards the front and blanched. The others had just crested a small hill, obscuring them from view. The sound would reach them, the only question was if they would act accordingly.
They rode on and their pursuers got closer. The were all riding, some holding bows others holding a curious curved sword high in the air. Now that they had cleared the ridge completely their true numbers were visible. Thirty nine riders.
"Curse the gods, it really is Dothraki," Jaro muttered beside him.
Naruto wasn't sure if it was habit or nerves that had him checking his weapons. He was strong but training to fight without any chakra had never been high on his priority list.
They crested the hill. The carts were moving as fast as they could, six guards in front and eight behind. Naruto barely spied the two outriders to the front further along the road, Yon and Jeong, on top of another hill, standing in place and turned in their direction.
He waved his arm in the direction of the enemy riders, hoping that they understood the signal for the warning it was. The idea that they could ever reach Qarth before the Dothraki reached them was wishful thinking. The carts were slow. If they killed the horses they may hold out for an hour but no more.
The time crawled on. The hoof beats were a steady drumming on the dry ground overpowering every other noise. The other guards in front almost disappeared in the dust their pace kicked up.
Naruto tried to keep an eye on their pursuers as much as possible without falling from his horse. The Dothraki were fast, gaining on them every minute but there was still about two hundred yards between them.
He couldn't throw a kunai that far without chakra if he wanted to actually accomplish anything but he didn't think their bows would effective at that range either.
Minutes passed. They gained on the wagons and the Dothraki gained on them. The first arrow missed. Naruto tracked it's flight from the moment he heard the bow string being released. The arrow arced high and landed wide, burrowing into the sand a few feet from his horse.
They caught up with the last cart and the other riders. Jaro turned to him with a wild grin. "There is one good thing. No deserters. If the Dothraki get us, we'll end up slaves or dead. And they don't let cowards live," he shouted over the rattling of the wooden wheels. All the other riders heard him easily even if Jaro didn't pay that any mind.
The next arrows missed as well. Two lodged into the wooden exterior of the cart but the others hit only stone and sand. Jaro cursed beside him after one of the arrows only missed him by inches.
"Hold my spear!" Naruto accepted the weapon with one hand, awkwardly holding the wooden shaft upwards while trying to ride properly with the other hand. He had no real experience with spears.
Jaro unlaced a satchel at his belt and procured a metal ball a bit smaller than an egg. He placed the projectile in a small leather square attached to two cords. One rotation, two rotations and the ball went hurtling towards the Dothraki.
Naruto tracked it's flight and saw it hit one of the archers in the shoulder. He couldn't hear the bones breaking with all of the noise at that distance but he could see the effect of the impact easily enough. If Dothraki weren't half horse the man would have fallen off of his mount then and there but he held on with a grimace and a scream of pain.
The all rode on. Jaro flung another stone. This one missed it's target, cutting through the air between two of the horses. He wasn't deterred and wound the sling again.
The distance continued to shrink and arrows and stones hit their mark.
One horse went down on Naruto's other side, two arrows stuck in it's hindquarters. He heard the legs break from the fall and the animal squealed in pain. The rider took the next arrow through the chest and didn't get up from the ground.
One of the Dothraki caught Jaro's stone in the forehead and flopped backwards in his saddle, barely held there by his stirrups. Sixty yards at most now. Almost close enough.
Another two arrows found their mark. Three more hit the cart in front, the rest missed. Two of the remaining five guards accelerated their horses, passing the cart and creating more distance. There was still one to his right and three to the left of Jaro.
The spear's wood was growing slick with sweat in his hand and he had an idea.
Naruto nudged his horse as far as he dared to the right. The other guard, Tao, gave him a fearful look and made to move his horse aside to avoid a collision but Naruto gestured for him to stop.
"Take my horse!" Naruto passed Tao the reins and removed his feet from the stirrups. Carefully balancing he stood up on the saddle, judged the distance and speed and jumped to the top of the cart. His horse made a noise of complaint but obediently continued galloping along with the others.
The wagon shook for a moment and the driver turned and looked at him, fear dominating his expression.
Naruto stood on the cart, spear in hand. More arrows flew through the air and Jaro nailed another rider with one of his projectiles. A few arrows came close, some burrowing into the wood of the cart to join the others already there, and one was about to puncture his arm when he snatched it out of the air by the shaft.
He discarded the projectile and changed his grip on Jaro's spear, hefting the weapon over his shoulder with one hand. Killing one or two Dothraki wouldn't change anything, he needed to take out as many of them as possible.
Ideally, he would have been capable of raising an earth wall in their path. With their horses unusable, they wouldn't be able to pursue any further. But he had neither the chakra nor the knowledge on how to do that, so he would have to make do with the tools he had on hand. His caltrops may serve but he didn't have enough to cut off the whole road.
Naruto widened his stance, coiled his muscles and threw with a step forward. The spear cut through the air almost as fast as one of the arrows and found it's target.
The foremost horse squealed and died, crashing to the ground in a heap. More importantly, the four riders behind couldn't get out of the way quickly enough and trampled their comrade to death before crashing to the ground themselves, the obstacle breaking at least six horse legs.
The Dothraki had not been riding in formation, lessening the impact, but it still meant that the single group that had been hot on their heels had been cut into two smaller groups for a few moments.
The cart rattled on, the horse gave their all and the distance shrank further. He vaulted off the cart and back into his saddle. The horse complained and almost missed a step. Naruto paid the astonished look Tao was giving him no mind, snatched away his reins and worked on getting himself properly seated again.
"What's the plan?"
Jaro was still slinging projectiles backwards but spared him a quick glance nonetheless.
"No idea," he answered. "Don't see how we can win this. There is just too many." For how bleak his words were Jaro's voice was surprisingly calm at the two-to-one odds they were facing. He flung another stone that took another horse in the forehead. The mount collapsed like a puppet with it's strings cut and one horse behind dropped right after, breaking a leg when it stumbled over the corpse in front.
More arrows flew and two impacted the shield on Tao's back. A third one pierced the neck from behind, the steel head protruding from his throat. Just as Tao's body fell to the side and off his horse another arrows took Naruto's own horse in the hindquarters. The animal had already been exerting itself heavily for minutes but even without that strain it would have buckled under the wound.
Naruto adjusted his balance more on reflex than conscious thought, freeing his feet and pushing off of the saddle with his hands. The downward force he applied propelled him into the air and he brought his limbs in close, so that he presented as small a target as possible.
The other horses thundered onwards at full speed and the shrinking distance to their pursuers meant that the Dothraki were almost within arm's reach when he started to drop.
He twisted in the air, angling his body so that his hands were below him, ready to grab or catch anything that came close. The first Dothraki held one of their curved swords high and made to cut him down while he fell.
A twist of his wrist and the kunai hidden up his sleeve was in his hand and cutting through the air a moment later. The man caught the blade with his forehead and dropped backwards, his weapon falling from nerveless fingers.
Naruto extended his other arm and grabbed onto the bridle of the riderless horse. He pulled his body along the animal and barrelled leg-first into the rider behind the one he had just killed. The man's nose broke under the kick. He felt one of the blades touch the back of his jacket but paid that little mind. The chain shirt he wore underneath prevented any cutting and he had to focus on other things.
Flying through the air feet-first while almost horizontal to the ground presented a few problems, mainly that he couldn't see particularly well. The Dothraki had been riding three or four men deep, four where he was positioned, and he had already dealt with the first two.
One of his hands found purchase for a few moments and he pushed upwards with all of his strength righting his body and allowing him to see the blade coming in for a slice. Naruto pushed off with the leg that had just broken a nose, using the face of the Dothraki warrior as a springboard to jump over the third rider and dodge the curved sword that would have cut into his leg.
He twisted the other wrist this time and palmed the kunai hidden up that sleeve and let it fly. The fourth rider had a bow in hand and had been in the process of shooting when the blade burrowed itself in his throat.
The third rider passed under him unharmed and he twisted once to land on his feet after the fourth horse had passed as well. He rolled with his landing to protect his ankles from having to take the full impact and then sprang to his feet and turned, facing the Dothraki from behind.
Naruto saw some of them slow down and then stop after shouting a few words in their unfamiliar guttural language. Two with bows turned in their saddle and shot at him while riding away. One arrow went wide and missed him but the other was on target. He turned his body, allowing the projectile to pass him by.
Six riders wheeled their mounts around towards him, two with bows in hand and the other four brandishing curved swords, leaving twenty to follow the carts and remaining guards.
Naruto lowered one hand to the holster fastened to his right leg, ready to draw a kunai at the drop of a hat while the other crept towards one of the pouches at his belt. The two archers nocked arrows and took aim, only refraining from loosing the projectiles when one of the other riders barked a command at them.
The speaker was tall with a strong build and a long scar on his chest, his long black hair braided behind his back. Naruto could hear bells ringing when the man leaned forward in his saddle to say words he did not understand while brandishing his weapon.
The distance wasn't very big, certainly not enough for a horse to accelerate to it's full speed, which meant the big beasts were more of a hindrance than an advantage. The real problem were the arrows but Naruto was confident he could dodge or catch them as easily as he had done before.
Two of the sword-wielding riders nudged their horses to move around him. They wanted to surround him. Their leader shouted more angry words his way but Naruto ignored him.
Arrows flew. Naruto skipped to the side, avoiding both, and drew his own weapons. He flung two shuriken at the man coming from his right, one hit the horse in the eye the other burrowed into the rider's sword-arm.
He followed behind the projectiles. Against multiple opponents you needed the initiative, needed to not fight multiple opponents but a single opponent again and again.
The rider recoiled from the hit and winced in pain while the horse reared up, buying Naruto precious seconds to advance. He dodged around the flailing hooves and pulled the rider down by the arm. He buried his kunai in the neck to the hilt and let the corpse drop while retrieving the weapon, eyes already moving to the other riders.
The two archers had gotten their hands on arrows but had not yet drawn their bows and the other swordsmen had not advanced more than a few steps. The closest Dothraki was the one that had been talking at him before.
Naruto spun and threw his kunai. The horse took the blade in the head and fell over after an agonised whine. The Dothraki was unable to get off in time and got trapped under the animal, his leg probably broken or crushed.
The other two charged him and he grabbed for more shuriken. He let them fly, two for each swordsmen. One died, the other was able to pull his head out of the way at the last moment, a red line decorating his face from eye to ear.
Arrows flew and Naruto ducked low, to avoid the first. The second came a bit later and he snatched it out of the air as he got back up and discarded it just as quickly, already running towards the still-living sword-wielder.
He feinted a step to the left and went right instead, moments before the horse reached him. The swing missed completely. Naruto ran for the archers who were going for new arrows. They urged their horses to turn and run but he didn't give them the chance.
Naruto bounded forward as fast as he could, outpacing the horses. Taking a page out of Lee's book he leapt and spun. His extended leg met the first archer in the chest and threw the man from his horse. Naruto landed in front of the man and lashed out with a fist to put him down for good.
He heard the horse of the remaining swordsmen coming for him, while the remaining archer put distance between them. Naruto pivoted to see a horse but no rider coming for him. He jumped out of the animals way only to see the rider right behind his mount.
Ducking under the horizontal swing he blocked the sword-arm from coming back with one of his own while hooking a foot around the man's leg. With the feet swept out from under him, the Dothraki flailed his arms wildly in an effort to regain his balance but he hit the ground all the same.
Naruto kicked the hand that was still stubbornly gripping the curved sword and the man released his weapon. Some small bones had definitely cracked with the force of the strike. The Dothraki went for a knife with his uninjured hand but Naruto stepped on that one before the weapon could be drawn from it's sheath.
An arrow punched into his right shoulder from behind.
His head snapped around, the foe on the ground forgotten for the moment and Naruto laid eyes on the remaining archer, some forty yards away, one hand reaching for a new arrow and a satisfied grin on his face.
He lashed out with the foot he had used to control the healthy hand and the man under him ceased his struggling. Not dead but unconscious for now. In one movement, Naruto bent down, unsheathed the downed man's knife, flipped it in his hand, and threw. The archer had just placed his new arrow when the knife penetrated his throat.
Despite the sounds of dying or injured horses and the angry voice of the Dothraki still trapped under one, the surroundings felt almost quiet to Naruto now. He stepped away from the unconscious man at his feet and took in the remains of the fight.
Four of the six that had stayed behind were dead and one of the remaining two would probably join them soon. Naruto had no abilities in medical jutsu and if the leg was crushed the man would bleed out in the desert, the way to Qarth was too long.
Naruto hated himself for the thought he had then, but he didn't shy from it either. He hated killing, probably always would, but leaving the man to slowly die out here was worse. Better a quick death.
First came his own weapons and his wound. The arrow hadn't gone deep, mostly stopped by the chain armour he wore but pulling it out still hurt. After ripping up some clothing he bound the wound as best as he could. He would need to clean it properly soon, but the spot was difficult to reach and he didn't want to waste water. His shoulder twinged when he moved it but he'd had worse.
Naruto gave his jacket a rueful smile. The hit he had felt along his back had cut through the material easily enough, leaving a cut from his shoulder blade almost to the small of his back. The arrow had left a hole as well.
He collected shuriken and kunai until his equipment was assembled again, wiping the blood of before putting them away. Naruto debated taking weapons from the Dothraki but both of the bows had been cracked and he had no training with a curved sword. If he used a sword it would be a smaller weapon. That suited his hand-to-hand fighting far better.
The trapped leader had blacked out by now, most likely on account of the pain. Naruto inspected the leg but there was nothing he could do. Freeing it was no big problem but the leg was already flattened. A few slaps brought the man back to consciousness and he woke with a grimace.
Naruto didn't speak the man's language but he drew a knife from one of the others and held it out for the man, gesturing towards the leg. There was anger and agony there, but Naruto thought the trapped warrior understood what he was trying to communicate.
The Dothraki accepted the weapon but hesitated on doing the bloody deed. Naruto left him to it. These warriors struck him as proud, they'd never accept his mercy if they could do it themselves.
With nothing else to do here, Naruto mounted one of the uninjured horses, one of the Dothraki steeds, and spurred the animal down the road. He still needed to get to Qarth and he'd catch up with whoever remained soon enough.
Well, people certainly seem very happy with my approach. /s
Seriously, though at least give me a few chapters before complaining about Naruto being too weak. He hasn't even been paired against anyone and already some people are losing their minds. No, I did not nerf him because I'm lazy. I did it, because the nerf and the reason for it have significant importance for the story and the actions of other characters. And because I wanted to. Because I want to write this story, this way.
Anyway, for now, I am still pretty quick with finishing chapters but it won't stay that way for very long. See you in the next one.