A Warrior's Death

The Sea of Sighs was a red by day as the southern sky was by night.

They hadn't faced any real trouble on their way yet, their journey mostly a comparatively ordinary sequence of days on their boat, but Naruto could not help but feel continuously more uncomfortable the closer they got to their destination. Sleep did not come as easy anymore, and when he did rest it was usually troubled.

It had started as soon as they had entered the channel that brought them onto the inland sea and only gotten more intense since then. At their current pace they should reach the river flowing in from the east later today or at the latest early the next day, but some small amount of dread had started developing in Naruto.

For all of his excitement and fascination with the idea in the beginning having his nerves permanently on edge and the lack of sleep were starting to take its toll on his temper and ability to concentrate. Not a good situation when they had to be on the lookout for who knew what kind of lethal calamities and not exactly helpful when Quaithe didn't seem to think that their trip was any reason to stop teaching him.

Since bringing any more than necessary was foolishness she had not brought any of the hundreds of books she normally used to teach him, though it did not seem to impede her much.

"-putting an end to the Second Blackfyre Rebellion before it could even begin. Truly it did not deserve the name," Quaithe finished. He didn't answer, focusing instead on their course and the dead water that surrounded them. One hand busy with steering while the other rested on the grip of his newly acquired sword, still familiarizing himself with the feeling of the leather-bound handle and the weight of the weapon.

"Were you even listening?"

"Yes, I was."

Quaithe mustered him with narrowed eyes, clearly not convinced by his words. Naruto sighed and took a deep breath, trying to keep a grip on his temper. Exploding at her would not help.

"There was a wedding tourney at Whitewalls in the Riverlands, Daemon Blackfyre's son, who was also called Daemon, competed in secret and Houses Peake and Butterwell tried to drum up support for him. Brynden Rivers marched on them and took him captive to stop any further rebellions," he said, repeating the broad strokes.

"Acceptable."

Naruto could not help but roll his eyes, hell would freeze over before Quaithe would admit that he had met her expectations, much less impressed her. There was something to the situation that didn't quite make sense to him, though.

"How could Bloodraven know about the whole thing that quickly? Did that tourney take two months?" He had seen the maps of Westeros, and even if they were wildly inaccurate travelling that distance would take a while for an army, certainly more than a few days, and that didn't even include the time needed to muster the soldiers in the first place.

Maybe he was just underestimating normal soldiers, but civilians were incredibly slow, especially over long distances.

"He was Master of Whisperers and Hand of the King, knowing such secrets was his duty and he had informants everywhere," Quaithe responded, but he could spot an evasion when he heard one. It was the obvious answer, but Naruto could not help but wonder where exactly the information could have really come from. A traitor on the inside? Just a well-reasoned suspicion? Luck?

Jiraiya had found and recruited informants from all over the place, giving Konoha access to important intel as early as possible, but even that network could not find out everything. Surely the secret identity of your candidate for king was only shared with those members of the conspiracy that were unquestionably loyal.

Then again, secrecy only went so far. Spoken information could be overheard, written messages intercepted, and codes decoded. Even hand signs for communication could be seen by someone else. Sharing any secret with someone else involved the risk of another unintended party finding out. If you weren't a Yamanaka at least.

"Rumours painted him as a sorcerer, convening with witches and using animals to spy on and hunt down his enemies."

Naruto snorted in amusement. "Did people actually believe that?" He did not doubt that there was some truth to the spiel, rumours like that usually didn't just start out of the blue but taking it at face-value was just as stupid as ignoring it completely.

"He was spymaster, kinslayer, and bastard besides, even legitimised that stain remained. That did not endear him to the people." Once more Naruto got the impression that Quaithe was remembering things she had witnessed herself, not just things read in some historical text.

Only one part of that explanation really meant much to him. Naruto had grown up alone, without siblings or parents, but he had often wondered what it would have been like to have them. Hurting one of them he could at least imagine, but killing them? Even contemplating it made him feel dirty.

Sasuke had been like a brother to him, even if they didn't have a drop of blood in common. Fighting him, Naruto had accepted easily enough but he had never been able to go that final step, to really go at it with intent to kill. Sasuke was a traitor to Konoha, had joined Orochimaru and then Akatsuki, and had almost killed him, but for Naruto just the thought of killing Sasuke made his body flinch.

If he had ever done that, he didn't think he would have come back from it the same person.

"How could he do that?"

"Do what?"

"Kill his brother," Naruto said. "He fought against Bittersteel in the First Rebellion too, right?" Bloodraven had lost an eye in that battle, but neither of them had died that day, unlike their other brother.

"And the Third. Daemon was traitor to another brother as well. For all his faults Daeron was the rightful king, certain rumours notwithstanding. Death is the usual punishment." Quaithe shrugged as if the whole thing did not deserve the importance he was giving it. "As for Bittersteel, they disliked each other even before any rebellions."

"Disliking someone usually doesn't mean you fight or kill each other," Naruto countered, though he immediately felt like a bit of a hypocrite. Fighting Neji in the Chunin Exams may have been a result of the tournament, but Naruto had still enjoyed kicking him down a few notches in the process because he had been pissed off. The second part still stood though.

"Aegor and Brynden did not kill each other," she pointed out. "Though I admit it was not for a lack of trying. They quarrelled often, as brothers are wont to do, and then they ended up on opposing sides in a war. There is no great mystery in it."

"They were brothers."

"Half-brothers only, and even that meant little and less. They shared a father in Aegon IV but what did that matter? They grew up apart, only meeting when they were nearly men-grown, and the family relations had never been entirely positive among Targaryens. They were little more than strangers."

There was another retort on the tip of Naruto's tongue, but he was already developing a headache. Arguing about this wasn't worth the discomfort. Rubbing his forehead, he accepted her words. "I guess you are right. I just thought it would be different."

"You did not have siblings?"

"No." Naruto shook his head. "My parents died the day I was born." Saying that didn't hurt as much as he would have thought. Growing up his lack of family had been quite the sore spot for him, and those old wounds had been reopened by the vision of them in the House of the Undying. Even if he had closure about the whole thing, having met his parents that single time, it was far from his favourite topic.

"My condolences," Quaithe said. Naruto thought she almost sounded honestly apologetic.

They reached Oros ahead of schedule.

The city was further from the Fourteen Flames and the greatest damage than Valyria and much of the lands had been somewhat preserved. Blackened, blighted, and dead most of time but the Valyrian Road was still mostly intact, and the rivers had been completely usable.

All that good fortune did nothing to make Naruto feel any better.

Where in the past there had surely been a beautiful city there was only destruction and desolation now. Great rifts rent the earth and lava flowed in streams and rivers throughout. No plants grew anywhere in the vicinity, and they had not seen any animals in days.

Oros was no warmer than Volantis had been and yet the air seemed ready to burn, just waiting for a spark to ignite it into a fire storm, making every breath so uncomfortable as to be painful. Wet cloths worn over mouth and nose counteracted that effect slightly, but the smell of sulphur and ash still hung heavy in the air.

Every stray breeze picked up mountains of ash, filling the air with grey clouds that irritated his eyes and made it hard to see details for more than a few feet. The poor visibility forced them to stay close to each other or run the risk of encountering the dangers of the place alone.

Naruto could feel natural energy. Taking any of it in was a bad idea with his current chakra supply but ever since mastering Sage Mode, he could perceive it in his surroundings if he wanted. His experience with volcanos had been limited and entirely theoretical before but he had a gut feeling that nature should not feel this way after an outbreak, certainly not almost four hundred years later.

When Konoha had been destroyed by Pain it had been a wasteland of destruction, but it had not been dead. In all that destruction and death there had still been life and the potential for life.

The air, the earth, the stone. Nothing here was like that. Here, everything was dead and terrible. Shikamaru's shadow techniques, Quaithe's magic. Both were dark and cold, but there was nothing inherently bad about them. Shadow was as much a part of nature as light.

This? This was revolting. Naruto wasn't even sure what he should call what he felt, demonic? Cursed? Kurama's chakra was so potent as to be harmful on contact, especially when he entered the version two cloak and that had been likened to demons in the past, but he didn't think it compared. Every single instinct he had screamed at him to avoid this, to leave and never come back. For now, his resolve overruled those instincts but he couldn't wait for the day they left.

They had no map of Oros to make navigation easier, though its potential usefulness was questionable any ways, so their path was entirely decided by those few remaining landmarks they could make out in the distance.

Naruto walked in front, carefully eyeing his surroundings, and testing every step he took, while Quaithe followed a few feet behind. After their first contact with ground that had looked solid but actually crumbled away to reveal a rift filled with gasses hot enough to distort the air, they were reasonably weary. Without the protective clothing they had put on that could have easily led to a lot of burned skin.

Recognizing much was difficult when everything seemed black, grey, or red, and was covered by a curtain of ash besides, but the shape of towers in front of them was unmistakeable.

"The one on the left looks most promising," Quaithe said from behind him, turning his attention towards the mentioned landmark. Of the nearest three it was the biggest, though if that had been the case originally was impossible to tell. Naruto nodded at her and started on the path towards the half-buried building.

His sleep had continued being troubled and he was starting to feel exhausted, even his boundless stamina having reached its limit after days of insufficient rest. Quaithe had not seemed any worse for wear, though perhaps she was simply better at hiding it than he was at picking up on it.

What had formerly been a straight tower reaching towards the sky was now a half-collapsed ruin standing at an angle. It was hard to tell how much of the lower part was covered by the pumice and other volcanic rocks that had buried most of the city but there were at least four floors accessible above ground. That did not include the half ruined one at the top that had replaced the original top as the tower's peak.

The tower itself only remained standing because it had crashed into another building while collapsing, a building that now cradled the underside of the tower with its collapsed roof.

Clearing one last rift in the earth they stood in front of the ruin, the river of lava running through the rift heating their backs.

Using the door was impossible, seeing as it was buried under rocks, earth, and ash, but it would not have helped them much either way. The likelihood that a usable connection remained between the lower buried floors and the uncovered ones was so low as to be irrelevant.

The pack on Naruto's back contained the greater part of their supplies, food and drink chiefly among them, but also held everything necessary to make an entrance through one of the upper levels possible.

Placing the heavy pack on the ground he carefully inspected the ruin for handholds and entrance points. He could climb perfectly well without rope or any other equipment, but Quaithe couldn't and if they did find anything of value, they would need to get whatever it was out as well.

The easiest way was climbing the side of the tower that now roughly faced the sky and finding some kind of entrance point that had not completely collapsed in the destruction of the building. What glass had been used for windows on the top and bottom floors had most likely been melted in the great heat produced by multiple volcanos drowning their surroundings in death and desolation but there were floors without windows in this and hopefully many of the other uncovered towers that could still contain usable finds.

Well, there was no use thinking about it.

"I'm going up."

Rope slung around his torso and a lit lantern fastened at his belt Naruto started carefully ascending. The ash covering the ruin made his footing unsure and with the added danger of any part of the tower collapsing underneath his added weight at any point speed was an easy sacrifice to make. Even without using chakra to stick himself to the fused stone making up the remaining floors Naruto was an able climber and quickly reached the very top.

The wall that faced the sky had collapsed completely, most likely during the fall of the tower itself, leaving only a little more than half of the roughly circular room with a wall. The former stairs had been covered in too much rock and earth to clear quickly but another part of the floor had collapsed inwards, allowing entry into the floor below.

With testing feet, he descended into the interior of the ruined tower. His experience in exploring ruins was limited to his short visit to his clan's homeland but that had been an entirely different beast. Uzushio had been destroyed by war and fighting, not catastrophic calamity, which had left the remains in much better condition, not to mention that the Doom was far further back in time.

Inside the room Naruto found little of interest, more than half of the room was covered in ash and rock, most likely swallowing whatever had been stored inside in the past. Unfortunately, that also barred him from entering floors further down from the inside. Even if he completely exhausted his chakra, it was unlikely that he could break the stone floor easily.

Naruto returned to his entrance and pulled himself back up to the top of the tower. Quaithe was still standing below, keeping an eye on the surroundings and their packs. Of the four uncovered floors only, the lowest one could possibly yield anything now. With the top one covered in debris, access to the two below was cut off from above. Unless there was a way upstairs from the bottom one they would stay that way.

As he turned to inspect the openings into the lowest floor something at the corner of his vision caught his attention for a moment. The ash hanging in the air like fog had moved, most likely from a stray breeze, creating patterns when he looked at it from above. If he had been on ground-level he wouldn't have even noticed, Naruto rationalised. He was just tired and on edge.

The lowest floor refused any of his attempts to enter the tower and after trying each former window he gave up. There were still other towers and ruins to inspect.

He shook his head at Quaithe's questioning glance, "Nothing of use. There is no way to enter a floor that isn't completely wrecked."

"Well, the day is young yet."

Agreeing with that statement he reached for his pack, ready to continue their efforts.

Something moved behind him.

Panic, reflexes, and adrenaline made so that the blade missed his heart, only cutting into his side, scraping along his ribs despite his chain-shirt. The did not feel deep, though that was normal in the middle of the action. More importantly it did not seem impede his movements much.

With proper rest and an environment that didn't take such a toll on his senses maybe things would have been different, and he would have noticed sooner, but he had no access to either at the moment.

Whirling around, Naruto put Quaithe and the ruined tower to his back and faced the attacker. Unsheathing his new sword wasn't as practiced and effortless as getting a kunai but the longer reach would be an advantage to him.

Naruto only got a dark glimpse of his assailant before it melted back into the fog of ash. The amount of ash in the air should have made that impossible at that distance and yet he could not see a single black inch of the creature.

Memories of the fight with Zabuza and Haku jumped to the forefront of his mind. Fighting without really knowing where you would be attacked from was difficult and usually deadly.

"What was it?" Whispering was no use, so he asked the question at normal volume. If the thing was as good as Zabuza at this their position was completely obvious any ways.

"I have no idea, but it looked almost human."

Naruto didn't waste time thanking her for the nugget of information, surviving came first. With his senses now on high alert and the element of surprise lost he was better prepared for the second strike. When a sound pierced the relative silence from his right he didn't react, his mind already sure of the correct answer.

'Distraction.'

The attack came from the left instead and his own blade came up to meet the attacker's weapon. He had never learned to fight with a sword, but at least some of the lessons from kunai could be translated pretty literally.

It was some kind of night-black golem. Thin, long limbs strained against him with surprising force and the head had no face to speak of, made up of a single uniform plate of black obsidian.

Naruto pushed upwards, forcing the golem back with his greater strength. Whatever it was it wasn't human and not really alive either. It felt the same way that the glass candle did to him, but more potent by a hundredfold.

Unbalanced it couldn't defend itself against his attack but the stab that would have pierced right through mail and leather only glanced off the angular obsidian body, leaving nothing more than a scratch in the glass.

"Tch." The thing melted back into the fog, but Naruto didn't pursue. He was its current target, but he was definitely not as good as navigating the ash-filled air and any window he left could be used to go for Quaithe. He didn't know if he had been selected as the first target by chance, but his gut was telling him that the thing had at least some grasp of proper target selection.

His eyes continuously scanned the surroundings, carefully tracking every little twitch, while he slowly slid backwards, bringing him closer to Quaithe and their supplies again. As soon as his foot bumped against his pack, he snatched it up with one hand, throwing it onto his back and then grabbed Quaithe.

"Wh-!"

One chakra-enhanced jump put them on top of the ruined tower he had just searched. The position reduced the possible angles of attack and made the ash smokescreen less effective, which made defending a lot easier for him.

Eyes peeled he channelled wind chakra along the leaf-shaped blade of his sword. He had decided on a shorter sword, so that carrying the weapon wouldn't inhibit him in his movements as much while still giving him an advantage in reach over his kunai but right now that meant that he was being out-ranged. Additionally using wind with a bigger blade was more chakra intensive. He could keep it up for more than a minute now, after working on his control and precision for weeks, but he would reach his limit eventually.

The shape of the blade in combination with the wind should make cutting through the obsidian possible. If not, he would have to rely on blunt force with his fists. He had not brought his bow with him, leaving it with their boat after judging that he wasn't good enough with it anyway and the ash made aiming too difficult, but he still wished he had taken it with him all the same.

Ash shifted in front of him, and he was ready.

Naruto dodged to the side, avoiding the stabbing point, and swung for the head, if it could be called that. The golem leaned back, avoiding the strike, and used the same movement to retract its blade and go for slash at his neck. A few more exchanges and he was sure.

'This thing is good.'

He was faster and stronger than the golem but, he had to admit, in terms of pure swordplay he was outmatched.

His overhead blow forced a direct block for the first time, and he pushed his advantage to the limit. Wind chakra and all the force he could bring cracked and then snapped the blade in two. He forced the swing further down, but a sidestep moved the golem's torso to the side. Instead of cleaving the whole way through he only hacked of an arm, though that neutralised the remaining part of the sword as well.

Unlike a human opponent however, losing an arm was no more than an inconvenience to the thing. Before the obsidian limb had even hit the ground the golem used its other arm like a spear. The four night-black fingers were longer than normal and melted together into a sharp point.

Naruto reached for it with his own free hand while turning his torso in a desperate attempt to avoid getting impaled through the chest. Once had been more than enough for one life.

The obsidian that made up its arm was as sharp as the glass candle had been. An instinctive surge of chakra strengthened his hand enough to make a handhold in the material, his fingers crunching into the glass until he found enough purchase to halt the arm's movement.

There was no time to wonder how close the stab had been to his chest, wondering about it would just slow him down and the golem was already lashing out with a kick. Unlike the sword swings before the kick lacked the same grace, though it did not lack for power.

Naruto blocked with a raised knee and brought his sword around, wind still enhancing its cutting power, and cut the head off in one swing. The loss of an arm hadn't fazed the golem all that much but with the head cut off all the tension left the obsidian body.

Exhaling a deep breath, Naruto let go of the spear-like hand that had almost impaled him. The arm slackened, suggesting that however the golem worked, cutting off the head had done the trick in disabling it.

That assumption turned out to be flawed.

Strengthening his hand with chakra had given him the necessary grip to stop the appendage but the force he had used meant that the obsidian edges had pierced his gloves, lightly cutting into the skin of his hand. His blood ran along that arm in tiny rivulets now.

Instead of dropping like a puppet with its strings cut the now three-limbed golem seemed to gain some new life for a moment, snapping its arm forward and grabbing him by the wrist with an iron-grip. Slightly unbalanced by the short moment of reprieve Naruto failed to react quickly enough.

All along the obsidian body crimson fire bloomed, and his arm was wreathed in burning pain.

Naruto gritted his teeth and lashed out with his sword, cutting off the second, burning arm. The armless torso fell backwards, impacting the tower ruin and then the ash-laden ground where it continued to burn. The fingers that had been shaped into spear before had fused into a ring around his wrist, trapping the flames against his body. Seeing no other choice he dropped his sword, grabbed the burning arm with his free hand, and yanked with all his strength.

On the second desperate try the burning obsidian cracked and broke, freeing his arm though the damage was already done. The flames had not taken long to burn through the gloves and long-sleeves he had been wearing for protection. Normal fire would have taken far longer but these were no normal flames.

Crimson and black, this fire sucked the light from its surroundings and burned with corruption and death.

His headache, which he had been trying to ignore for days now, helped along by the adrenaline of fighting for his life, returned with a vengeance and he became aware of the exact pain he was in. The slight throbbing from the cut in his side was the least of his problems and seemed entirely insignificant compared to his suddenly dry mouth and agonizing hand.

Where the protective clothing had been burned away scorched flesh was visible, reddened and blackened even from such short exposure to the cursed flames. For a moment he was sure that he could see the white of his bones peeking through the burned flesh.

"Hngh!" Moving that wrist led to even more pain, driving the breath from his lungs. Where the flesh had blackened from the extreme heat cracks spiderwebbed outward. His mind was trying to tell him that he was going to be fine eventually, but his burned arm didn't particularly seem to care at the moment.

'Pain, it's just pain.' Pain was a warning. Ignoring that warning wasn't easy, but it was possible. There was time to be sorry for himself later. Right now, they were in unknown territory with who knows how many possible enemies. Now that he had been exposed to one of the golems, he should be able to sense them but fighting like he was now wasn't a good idea.

Taking deep breaths, he relaxed his body from the instinctive hunched position he had assumed. He had gotten too lax, just because this world didn't have enemy shinobi didn't mean he could be this sloppy.

Carefully not moving the burned wrist he sheathed his sword and took up his pack again with the other. He paid Quaithe's expression no mind, simply looking for a defensible position. Going into this tower was possible but staying in the same place was idiotic.

"We need to get somewhere safe." Exhaustion, discomfort, and pain shunted to the side he led the way to the other two towers with all senses on high alert, looking for an entry point he could use without the use of one hand.

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter in Valyria. I am not quite finished with number 14, since I couldn't write much last week, but I will be soon and I didn't want to delay this one too much.

I drew some inspiration from Pompeii for the situation on the peninsula among other things. The volcano in that case was a lot closer than any of the Fourteen Flames were to Oros so the city isn't covered in as much material as Pompeii was before we started digging up the preserved remains. The conversation at the start is mostly inspired by the events of the Mystery Knight. The Dunk and Egg stories are very enjoyable if pretty short and the last of the three features the Second Blackfyre Rebellion. It is implied heavily that Walder Frey betrays the other rebels and Bloodraven attends the tourney under a glamour as Maynard Plumm.

The sword Naruto uses is roughly equivalent to a Gladius Hispaniensis, the usually longest version of roman gladius. The leaf-shape is supposed to give the advantage of a curved sword when slashing without inhibiting stabbing too much. I can't imagine Naruto using a longsword or a greatsword, simply because carrying one inhibts you more while moving like he wants to. The weight isn't the problem, but the rigid shape. I use longsword the way Martin does here, not in the historical way, so a longer one-handed blade and not a two-handed one.

The golem is an invention of mine, though they will be named guardians after the next chapter. Imagine a mannequin made of black obsidian. Consider that some of the things that happen here are caused by Naruto being there. In effect he strengthens all magic and magic-adjacent events in his presence, even those used against him. I hope it came across well but even traversing the land is basically impossible for normal people. Naruto's physical abilities just allow him to do it anyway. He is also hurt very badly at the end. Burns of the severity are no joke.

Since I saw the question from someone: I don't publish all the finished chapters I have because I often go back and change small details after writing later scenes. I did it pretty heavily with chapter 13 and only a bit in this one but it happens quite frequently so I try to give myself the opportunity. I am loathe to go back and edit already published chapters, especially if the change is important for the character development or the plot.

As always thanks for reading, reviewing, and all the other things and until next time.