Questions answered
A jump and a tumble sent Naruto falling out of the window and towards the rocky ground fifteen feet below. With Quaithe in his arms and the pack on his back he couldn't roll with the impact, so his ankles had to suffer through the punishment. He continued running dodging debris and what looked like unsafe ground.
He heard the moment that the dragon chasing them impacted the ground with a heavy thump. It looked nothing like the illustration in Quaithe's books, more amphibian than reptile, with a beak-like snout. It was also surprisingly small. Roughly as long as Gamabunta was tall, it was smaller than Orochimaru's snake Manda, though if it caught up to them it would still be able to swallow them whole.
"How far?" he asked, not missing a step. A quick jump and he cleared a small knee-high wall.
"Thirty yards." Normally he would have turned his head himself but with a treacherous environment he had to be more careful than usual and Quaithe was positioned so that she could look over his shoulder anyway.
At least Kurama had taken care of his left hand while he had slept. It still twinged at him from time to time, and the skin was unnaturally hot, but at least he could use the hand like this. Unfortunately, that also meant that the big fox was back to sleep, nothing he tried managing to wake him from his slumber.
On his right the earth rose, the land sloping upwards until it created a small natural cliff no more than ten feet high, more than enough to block him from view. He kept to the left, running along the rocky wall slowly rising next to him. As soon as the slope stopped, he turned towards it, turning the corner so that he was obscured from behind.
The path was narrow, barely big enough to run through, the ruins of former houses boxing Naruto and Quaithe in but also hiding them from above. A poor spot to choose against fiery breath but he knew too little about the creature already. He had to test something.
When it had jumped towards them from its perch on the tower, it had only used its wings to glide before landing and starting to run in their direction. There had been no attempt at flight since then and this dragon didn't really look like it should be capable of it anyway. Then again, he knew next to nothing of dragons and how they worked.
Quaithe's stories and books said they were intelligent beings, but no one seemed quite sure just how intelligent. A smart predator would try to cut them off instead of just blindly chasing, especially since Naruto was sure he was faster on even ground, even weighed down as he was. Then again, the passage created a natural funnel for fiery breath.
Fortunately, the dragon did not try to cut them off, coming to stop at the entrance to the small natural alley he was running down. Unfortunately, that meant that Naruto head to deal with fire in such a small space.
This dragon was on the small side so it's normal range should not be exceedingly big, but the funnel created by the walls on both sides most likely meant that they were dead very soon if he did not do anything against that. The alley continued on for another ten yards at least and he couldn't simply jump out, the raised earth on his right creating a rocky overhang. There was enough of a gap above the wall on his left to fit through, but he couldn't do that like he was. He needed one of his hands free.
"Hang on tight!" Quaithe immediately tightened her arms around his neck, giving him the necessary freedom for a few moments. He half ran half jumped up the man-made wall, the hand that had been holding Quaithe's back snatching the top and pulling them up and over.
Instead of fire roaring down the passage another ear-piercing shriek split the air. Experiencing it once before meant that he was better prepared for this one, but it was still far from pleasant. Setting his teeth on edge and making his ears ring for a moment.
Naruto ran, eyes scanning the surroundings for something he could use. He had used some chakra against the two guardians that had surprised him earlier and Kurama's intervention had taken a bit out of him as well, so he wasn't exactly in the best of conditions in that regard.
"Do you think you can stop it?" Naruto shouted over the ringing in his ears. He had seen her do something to one of the pirates back on the Ivory Price that had stopped the man cold for a few moments, but he had no idea what the limitations of that ability were. Shikamaru used his own strength and chakra in a contest against those he ensnared with his shadow, putting a limit on who or what he could use it on, but maybe what she did worked entirely differently.
"For a heartbeat. At most," she answered eventually, only her proximity to his ear allowing him to hear the words. "Go for the eyes. They are the only weakness in a dragon." He nodded and hoped that it would be enough, but he needed to get ready first. Fighting while carrying her and their supplies against something of that size was beyond him.
He felt more than he heard the dragon impact the rocky ground, already chasing them again. Their path had mostly kept them near the outer edge of this part of the city, a raised platform surrounded by lower ground on all sides. The ruins that could be found here were mostly as destroyed as those they had seen everywhere else, but they still presented cover.
The ground beneath his feet gave away under their weight.
Suddenly going from running on solid ground to being weightless wasn't a new experience for him but for the span of a single thought he was unbalanced all the same. Reflexes kicked in immediately after, letting him retain his balance on the piece of rock. Quaithe tensed up, her grasp on his neck tightening uncomfortably, and a short, surprised shriek left her mouth.
Naruto jumped, pushing downwards on the piece of rock as it started sliding. A touch of chakra empowered his legs, allowing him to clear the collapsing rock with room to spare.
Heated gasses rushed up from below, where rock had sealed them away for years. Even with his pack on his back Naruto felt the sudden heat rush up behind him, overwhelming the usual heat that they had been dealing with already, but he didn't pay it any mind, eyes peeled for a big enough piece of building that he could use. Short as it had been, that moment had still allowed the dragon to get closer.
Where rocks slid and fell away cracks were now spiderwebbing outward, loosening more and more pieces close to the edge. One crack right in front of him in particular widened and continued, leading directly towards the heart of this part of the city. After a few yards it became difficult to make out through the red-lit ash, but Naruto was sure that it did not stop there.
Cr-Crack
The dragon's shrieks had been more painful but this sound, he felt reverberating in his bones. On impulse, Naruto jumped again, clearing the small cracks in the ground easily and giving him more space. The ground shook for a moment, like a small earthquake had suddenly started below him. The cracks that were now behind him widened considerably and the same rush of heated gasses as before occurred again, the air distorting like a haze.
The crack continued to widen, a rift splitting the raised plateau into two halves, and the rocks making up the inner walls were now being illuminated from below as well, the red of the sky being joined by a lighter orange from below. The first pressurized rush of heat had passed quickly but the air above the crack still shimmered noticeably. With every second the space widened, rocks falling downwards only to meet the lava below with a hiss, and he felt better and better about his decision
Dragon are fire made flesh, Quaithe had said to him, but in the Doom, they had still been killed in their lairs by the fires of the Fourteen Flames. The gasses probably wouldn't inconvenience the dragon as much as they did him but stepping into the lava below would definitely hurt. The earth continued to shake and rumble, making Naruto fight to keep his balance. Ordinarily, he would have used his chakra to make himself stick to the rocks below, but he was loath to use any more than absolutely necessary before he actually had to fight. He had a feeling that he would need all of it soon.
By the time the dragon had reached the other side, the rift had grown to be more than ten feet wide. In a pinch he could jump across that without too much of a problem, but it didn't look like the dragon was capable of crossing. Much of its length was made up by its tail and the distance between its back and front legs was not big enough to cover the chasm. If it really could not fly, that was.
It shrieked again, the keening sound filled to the brim with rage and drowning out everything else just it had done the last two times. The force of the sound alone dispersed some of the remaining ashes swirling through the air between them, the rest already displaced by the sudden influx of hot gasses from below.
Naruto got a clear look at the dragon for the first time. Its body was a blackish grey colour that looked sickly to him, not helped along by the slight green hue to the lighter parts along its underbody. Milky, yellow eyes were centred on him and Quaithe, but they didn't look very clear, making him think that the dragon may be nearly blind. It had certainly had no trouble following them until now, but there were other explanations for that.
Though the maw was shaped like a beak the inside was still filled lines of small razor-sharp teeth. Along the head and long neck there were multiple pale-yellow ridge-like growths of varying size. Some were as large as his hand while others were no bigger than his pinky. They oddly reminded him of his mushrooms.
The dragon opened its maw, the purple tongue on display, and Naruto watched its chest visibly expand. He did not need to be an expert on the creatures to understand what that meant. How far a dragon could breathe fire was dependent on its age, but he had no idea if this one's smaller size was an accurate indicator of it being particularly young or just a unique quirk of this type of dragon, it looked nothing like a dragon should after all.
He pivoted on his left foot and ran, hoping to put as much distance between them as possible in the short time that remained. Even if the flames would extend way past any attempt at running away, they would still slow down and lose heat. Naruto hoped.
Swinging its head forward the dragon breathed out. Instead of flames greeting them from its jaws it exhaled a light red powder in an upwards arc, the cloud rising high before starting to drop towards the like a cresting wave.
Just a glimpse already gave Naruto a bad feeling. It reminded him of the poison clouds and powder Shizune had used the rare few times he had seen her fight. Ordinarily that wouldn't concern him. Poisons usually just got burned out of his system in moments by his accelerated healing thanks to Kurama but with them both being weakened he didn't care to find out just how well that still worked. More importantly, Quaithe had no such protection in the first place.
One deep breath in and he turned around, his fleet sliding over the rocky ground for a few yards. Naruto leaned back slightly, his chakra surging within. He had done this once, on the Ivory Price, but he needed more force this time. Usually he sharpened his wind, creating a blade of air with an edge superior to any ordinary material, but doing that this time would defeat the point.
Wind was a blade of air, a sword, a knife, even tiny needles, but it was also the hammer-blow of the hurricane. Crushing, not cutting force over a large area to push everything in front of him away and keep them safe.
He breathed out as slowly as he could, careful and controlled, exhaling a continuous stream of air. His own breath was just a motion he strengthened, just like the swing of a sword or the flight of an arrow.
'More,' Naruto thought to himself, watching his wind impact the reddish cloud and arrest its momentum. Yet he did not push it back immediately, what force he had imparted losing power quickly. Keeping a tight enough grip on his chakra farther from his body was incredibly difficult. He had never managed it with a Rasenshuriken while not in Sage Mode, where controlling his chakra became far easier. That still did not stop him from trying.
Wider, broader, stronger. More chakra, more power, more wind, and yet he did not let it start to cut. Only push. There was no point in lamenting his inexperience with doing it this way; in this moment it just had to be enough. Though this stand-still lasted only seconds he felt the toll it took on his reserves and concentration.
Even if he had enjoyed a restful sleep after his injuries had been taken care of, that alone did not erase the horrible rest he had been getting for days now. Controlling and shaping most of his chakra so quickly pushed his frayed nerves to their limit.
Cutting of the flow of energy left him with barely enough to shape wind along his sword for a single cut. He would have to be precise if he wanted to make it count. Naruto took a deep breath to replace the air he had been breathing out.
What little ash that had still been close to them or the drake had been blown away by his wind, clearing the hot air in a way that even the hot gasses had not managed. Seeing things fully detailed and clear for more than a few feet underscored just how much the ash tended to obscure their surroundings in this place.
The dragon seemed to glare at him, its pale eyes somehow even more angry than they had been moments before. It backed up a few steps only to release another scream that drove itself into his brain like a piece of steel. Its wings, which until now had been folded in and upwards, stretched wide. Folded close to the body, they had not taken up much space but in stretching the black membranes out the creature revealed its full size once more.
Naruto was sure that his experience with Summon Bosses and the Tailed Beasts were the reason that did not impress him that much, which, he belatedly realised, was pretty abnormal on his part.
He needed only the tensing of muscles to know what the dragon would do, and he was already turning to run before it took its first running step. The split tower was his goal again.
Half the distance there had already disappeared behind him when he heard the dragon impact their side of the lava-filled rift. The rumbling impact was immediately followed by a cacophony of squeals. Though much less loud, the noise was as unpleasant as one of the dragon's shrieks.
Naruto didn't turn his head, but Quaithe stiffened in his arms and released a shocked whisper. "Firewyrms."
Focusing on their surroundings and the potential dangers made trying to recall all of Quaithe's lessons even harder than usual, but no matter how hard he tried, he drew a blank on the term. The dragon replied in kind. Its high-pitched shriek was starting to lose some of its effect on him, but it was still painful.
"What?" he said, his voice raised to carry over the noise. In front of him ash reduced his vision again and he had no idea if another guardian was hiding behind the next ruined piece of wall. Even if he had dealt with the last two easily enough, fighting guardians right now presented the same problem as actually fighting the dragon chasing them. He needed to get Quaithe to a safe spot, making himself the only visible target somehow.
"There are young firewyrms in the lava. They are fire-breathing snakes, said to roam the mines under the Fourteen Flames. They are distant kin to dragons," she said quickly.
He nodded his head, some of the implications already running through his mind. They already had enough trouble with this one dragon, adding anything else on top would likely destroy any hope of continuing this expedition of theirs, if they even got out alive.
Clearing another few large pieces of debris brought him close enough to the ruin he was heading towards to get a better look. The tower looked like a giant sword had cut it in half, one half still standing mostly intact while the other had almost completely crumbled away.
There was nothing of note revealed on the inside of the building, only wrecked floors covered in ash, volcanic rock, and more ash but the standing walls would still make for adequate visual cover. On his current approach the left side was the one still standing. Instead of continuing that way, Naruto adjusted course until the destroyed side was completely hidden from view behind the unbroken outer wall. That put the tower in front and slightly to his right.
The dragon was still chasing, its heavy footfalls a clear indicator of continued pursuit but the distance between them had grown slightly.
"I'll put you down behind the tower. Wait for my signal and try to stop it for as long as you can."
Naruto could see Quaithe nod in his peripherals. He had half expected her to argue with him despite the situation, but he was grateful that she refrained. Maybe there was a better plan, but he was working with limited resources already.
After more running, he rounded the tower at a sharp angle, releasing Quaithe into the destroyed room before he had even come to a stop. She stumbled for a few steps before catching herself and then quickly trying to find a suitable spot in the broken room. The shadows in her chosen spot seemed to somehow deepen, slightly obscuring her from view even though he was looking directly at her.
He threw off his pack of supplies as well, the impact whirling up some of the gathered ash. They shared a quick look. "Be safe," he said, already turning to leave before she could answer and then he was off again, half-climbing half-jumping up two stories before leaping to the highest nearby point and very obviously entering back into the dragon's field of vision.
The dragon adjusted its course, pale eyes immediately fixed on his location and path away from the tower ruin. The insistent whisper in the back of his mind that had been repeating the risk he may be exposing Quaithe to quieted. Naruto unsheathed his sword, the weight of the weapon a great comfort even if he had not been using it for very long.
Without the added weight, his speed was slightly greater, quickly creating a gap between him and the dragon, but more importantly, between the dragon and Quaithe. He drew a rough circle around the creature, putting its back to the tower ruin he had just come from and putting her in its blind spot. This way, if it released more poison, he would only have to worry about himself. For now, he needed to get a better feel for how the dragon would even deal with him when he got close. Involving Quaithe came after.
Fifty yards separated them now and he was already coming up on the lava river that had just been created. On flat even ground he could cross that distance in slightly less than three seconds, this debris riddled stretch would take slightly longer, but running straight towards the dragon would just be greeted with another poison cloud to his face. With so little chakra at his disposal, dealing with that scenario had become far more difficult.
It was quite unfortunate that Quaithe's lessons had included so little details on the actual dealing with dragons, understandable but unfortunate. Going for the eyes was easier said than done, with a long flexible neck and a teeth-filled beak standing in his way but it was all he had. They had died out, mostly in the Doom, and afterwards at the claws and teeth and flames of other dragons, so deliberating on the proper way to go about killing them was justifiably pointless now.
Basics. Dragons were animals like any other. What did it matter that they could fly and breathe fire, or poison in this case? They still bled, breathed, and died like anything else.
Naruto stopped and turned to face the dragon head-on. He had never shied away from doing things just because he had never done them before, and he wouldn't this time either.
The dragon continued running at him, wings once more folded upwards. This way they did not give it such a wide profile, making the traversal of small gaps or tunnels far easier. On this open stretch of rock, that did not present much of an advantage.
Besides the poison breath, the beak was the most obvious danger, but with its size and weight it could probably crush him under its feet too.
Forty yards. Thirty yards. Twenty yards. Every step brought the dragon closer to him. It shook its neck, head moving from side to side, and shrieked a challenge at him.
Naruto spun the sword grip in his hand and lowered his stance, knees bent and ready to explode into a movement in any direction. His breathing was even, heart beating like a drum in his chest and his eyes were sharp and clear. There was a headache moving into his temples again and he could feel how the exhaustion of the last few days of just existing in this place was dragging at him, but he squared his shoulders and focused only on the moment.
This was the thing he was good at, really the only thing it seemed sometimes. Fighting, no matter the odds or situation.
Ten yards.
He pivoted to the side in the last moment, dodging the snapping beak and the sharp teeth hidden within, and lashed out with his sword for a quick cut at the long neck. The sharp steel edge did not cut into the thick hide, simply sliding along the body without biting. He had suspected as much, but it never hurt to be sure.
A backward jump brought him outside of the range of clawed feet. Naruto saw the muscles near the front-limbs move under the leathery hide. The wings folded outwards with a snap of air catching in the membrane-like skin. From his position in the air, there was little he could do but rolling himself into a tight ball. The wing only clipped him in the air, but he was still sent tumbling away.
Fortunately, a dragon, or really anything of that size, running at its full speed could not stop quickly, much less turn on a dime, giving him a few seconds. Unfortunately, it had very good control over its tail. He had not gotten a particularly good look at it before now, but the long appendage widened towards the tip, giving the impression of a mace or club of some kind, with the notable addition of a single long thin spike perfect for impaling in the middle.
"Hngh." The club-like tail was all horn and bone and crashed into his side while he was still turning in the air. Naruto was sent flying away. He thought he heard one, maybe two, of his ribs crack beneath his chain-shirt, but he was unsure, and the breath was knocked right out of him.
His earlier pivot meant that he was sent flying parallel to the lava rift, while the dragon slowed, turned, and started chasing again. Naruto righted himself while still in the air and scanned his surroundings with a glance. When adrenaline was high, it felt like you could take in everything that much quicker.
Naruto rolled in the air and landed on his feet the way he had done more than a thousand times while training with Jiraiya and being punted over their chosen training ground. His momentum made him slide for a few feet and his free hand ventured up for a questing touch along his side. He grimaced slightly. Definitely cracked.
Still, at the moment he could barely feel the injury, just a sting when he breathed deeply, adrenaline dulling his perception of pain.
The flight had made him cover quite a bit of distance, but the dragon was already closing what remained of it. He picked out the closest piece of rubble bigger than himself and started running.
It was a corner piece, a few feet of wall extending in both directions at a right angle. All of the ruins they had seen so far had been round towers, spiralling upwards for many floors, so it was most likely an internal piece, dividing one part of the interior from the other. Nonetheless, it was still dragonstone, as durable as all the other exterior walls they had seen. He did not think that the dragon would be able to smash it to pieces.
Naruto positioned himself a few feet behind the piece of wall and waited for the dragon to come to him. The steps were easily audible and growing louder with every one it took. He bent his knees, toes flexed, and jumped towards the wall as the dragon was about to pass the stones. He grasped the top of the wall and kicked off, gaining more height.
The beak snapped at empty air, missing him by a few seconds as he started descending. Sword angled towards the ground, he stabbed down with all of his weight and the force of gravity behind him. This dragon had no rigid scales armouring its body like the ones Quaithe had told him about, only a leathery hide preventing weapons from cutting but there were limits.
He scoured a thin line down the mid-section. Nothing major but an injury all the same. The dragon shrieked in anger and pain, and where the hide had been parted the same red powder it had exhaled before, was released. This close, he realised that it was not poison he was looking at, but spores. Naruto retreated on quick feet, not interested in being reintroduced to the dragon's tail. The head swivelled to take him in again and the tail lashed out, but he was already out of range. There was no use thinking about his inability to enter Sage Mode, but it would have made this a lot easier.
Opening its beak, the dragon released another cloud of spores his way. He turned and ran in the direction of the tower ruin he had left Quaithe in. He could hurt the dragon normally, if need be, and he was quick enough to get close and out again if he needed, that was enough information for him.
The cloud expanded quickly, rushing after him and seeking to envelop him in its grasp but there was only so much force imparted on it by the dragon. Vaulting and jumping over debris and ruins quickly brought him out of range and closer to Quaithe. He had no idea how close she needed to be to make her magic work but closer usually meant more powerful, no matter what.
He was itching to use his chakra, to let wind run along his blade and turn it sharper than a razor, but he only had maybe two seconds of that left in him. He needed to wait for the right moment.
Still running at full speed, he reached for the pouches at his belt. Taking out a kunai and one smoke-bomb he banked slightly, turning to the right before reaching the ruined tower that hid Quaithe. Before he turned around, he threw his kunai straight into the sky. Naruto had spent years learning to estimate the flight of projectiles, throwing a kunai so that it landed within Quaithe vision after reaching its apex was more than simple.
Sword in his right, he rolled the smoke-bomb between the fingers of his left hand, waiting, anticipating. He had to make this count. There was another one in his pouch but that was it. He should really find some way to get new ones. A thought for another time.
The dragon seemed almost rabid as it approached, snapping at the empty air with a loud clack, even though the wound he had caused was largely negligible all things considered. It shrieked and thumped the rock with its club-like tail and then crossed the remaining distance to try and bite his body in two. It seemed like some of the growths along its neck had shrunken.
Naruto ducked low and to the side, lashing out with his blade at the already retreating head. He cut only air and ash, instead of bouncing of the leathery hide but he already knew what would come next. The long tail came in for another crashing impact, but he jumped in the right moment, letting him push off the bony end with both legs and bringing him above the reach of the wings.
He knew the moment his kunai met the earth by heart even if he could not hear it. His chakra was right under the surface, only waiting for the moment that he used it. A flip and he landed on the dragon's back. The perch was narrow and immediately made unstable by the movements of the creature, but he did not intend to stay anyway.
Naruto pushed off again while throwing the smoke bomb, bringing him behind the dragon where he was not exposed to it breathing spores. After impacting the dragon's back, the sphere split and then instantly produced a small cloud of smoke that continued to grow, blocking either of them from seeing. The dragon was not covered completely but it could not see him moving through the air.
Landing on his feet, he ducked under a wild swing of the tail and quickly made his way to the head again. Muffling his footsteps was easy enough, even on unfamiliar ground, evading the dragon lashing out wildly with its limbs even simpler.
He dashed out of the smoke, the head turning to meet him quickly. Pivoting towards the dragon's body allowed him to evade the snapping beak, and with a thought wind travelled along his sword. Quaithe's magic was distinctive to his senses, alerting him to his chance immediately.
Stabbing with both hands, he sharpened his wind as much as he could, creating a penetrating spike where there had only been a normal steel sword before. The dragon tried to move away, tried to flex its neck and step forward, tried to move so that he could not reach its eye but in that moment, it seized up, frozen in place for just a heartbeat.
Naruto drove his weapon home with a roar and all of his strength, piercing the eye and everything behind it.
The moment passed and movement returned to the stabbed dragon, but this was only the muscles contracting on account of a damaged brain, not conscious actions in an effort to defend. Quickly everything stilled and the dragon died with a shrill keening sound and collapsed to the ground.
Naruto pulled his sword out and heaved a deep breath, exhaustion already setting in. Using all of your chakra always instantly made you feel a lot worse. Instead of expending any effort in remaining on his feet, he let himself fall to the rocks below, hands braced against the ground behind him.
His cracked ribs were already making themselves known, no more adrenaline dulling the pain, and he grimaced again. Moving so much with that kind of injury was never a good idea or pleasant but there had been little he could do.
Not even a minute had passed when Quaithe stumbled into view, the smoke created by his bomb already fading away. The wet cloth obscured the lower half of her face, but he could see exhaustion and worry warring for dominion on it, nonetheless.
She breathed out deeply when she caught sight of him, tension leaving her body. "You are alive," she said, her relief obvious.
"Completely fine." He smiled, raising a hand towards her. The movement pulled at his side, aggravating his cracked ribs, and making him flinch. Quaithe noticed.
The dragonstone trapdoor did not budge no matter how hard Naruto pulled on the ring and abused his still tender ribs. After a fifth and final try, he gave up. Quaithe was still busy looking through the remains of books they had found in the room. Most were just scraps of paper, destroyed by heat and age, but she had already found one half-page that had survived barely legible.
His feet had disturbed some of the ash and dust covering the floor and the lantern light illuminated small dark shapes beneath. Naruto knelt and swept away what remained to get a better look. Scattered around the trap door were glyphs or runes of different shapes and sizes. He could make neither heads nor tails of them, but they seemed vaguely familiar all the same.
Tracing the patterns, he felt something hidden within. There was some mechanism at work here, shallow but intricate, hidden in the layers of fused black stone under his feet.
"I can't open this," Naruto said, standing up. Quaithe lowered the page she was inspecting and looked over, quickly taking in the glyphs on the ground. Interest visibly flashed in her eyes, and she quickly joined him near the trapdoor.
"Hmm." Quaithe lightly traced the glyphs with gloved fingers and then grabbed the steel ring. The glyphs flashed red, a glowing light that seemed to have been buried deep in the stone before, and then they dimmed again. When she pulled upwards the stone trapdoor still did not budge.
A second attempt elicited the same exact reaction.
"Hm." Quaithe did not sound particularly surprised. "This is a locking mechanism. It only opens for the correct bloodline. Then again, maybe…," she trailed off, clearly thinking of something. "I need you to step away, fifteen feet at least," she said. The distance got his attention. Quaithe had experimented with his effect on the glass candle for days, measuring distances and the strength of the change.
Naruto obliged her even if he did not know what exactly she was intending. If he asked, he would not get a straight answer until he had done what she asked anyway. The room was big enough to allow him to remain inside and still create enough distance from the door, but only barely. He pressed himself against the wall farthest from Quaithe and watched.
She repeated her earlier attempt, pulling on the steel ring, and was met with different results this time. Instead of the glyphs flashing red again they did not change and Quaithe opened the trapdoor to the scraping of stone on stone. Once the door had been completely opened, she waved him over again, obviously pleased with herself.
The room below was plunged in darkness and Naruto collected one of the two lanterns they had placed on the stone floor to illuminate the room they were in.
"So... why did that work?"
"Your presence powers the magic in the glyphs. Without you being close enough the door is not locked and can be opened by anyone." That explained one part.
"And why did the glyphs react to you but not to me?" Naruto did not truly expect an honest answer from her. Quaithe could be spectacularly evasive and tight-lipped when she wanted to be.
"I presume that it judged me close but not close enough."
He nodded at her and turned to inspect the dark room below.
"You do not wish to ask anything?" Quaithe asked, stopping him. She was fingering something on her neck hidden under the heavy outer robe they both wore for protection.
"No." Naruto shook his head. He had questions of course, but there was no need to ask now. It was just another puzzle piece to fit into his theories. He could wait. "If you wanted to tell me, you would. I trust you."
For what felt like the first time since they had met indecision crossed Quaithe's face. Whatever internal battle she had been waging ended quickly and she reached for her neck again.
Brown hair lost its colour until long silver-gold hair remained and the angle of her face changed as it had done on the Ivory Price, revealing the true shape hidden under the illusion. The most noticeable change were Quaithe's eyes. Light filtered into the dark colour, until a beautiful pair of green and blue remained.
Naruto could not help the heat crawling up his neck. Quaithe was a beautiful woman, possibly the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, but his embarrassment had another source. He had thought that view only a dream, some figment of his imagination helped along by the pain he had been in, but if it was real, it meant that his reaction had most likely been real too. Unfortunately, he had no chakra left to bury himself in the ground.
"My real name is Shiera Seastar," she said. Pieces slotted into place that he had been throwing around in his head for weeks now.
The hair, the sorcery, her intimate knowledge of events a hundred years in the past, the way she spoke about Aegon IV and the Great Bastards. Her eyes were such a dead giveaway that it slightly infuriated him to have needed it. The refined mannerisms of a noble, her obvious education, the way she walked everywhere as if she owned the place. He should have seen it much sooner. There was just one factor lessening the sting.
"That would make you a hundred years old," he blurted out, forgetting what little tact he usually used. He almost slapped himself.
Quai-Shiera wrinkled her nose slightly, it was a very pretty nose. "Not quite, though it makes no great difference."
Tsunade had used an elaborate illusion to cover her real age, but Shiera was way too able for that to be the explanation. No hundred-year-old would endure their travelling until now so easily. She could pass for twenty-five in appearance and actions. His mother's family had been renowned for their strong life-force and longevity, but this went beyond even that.
Further questions were on the tip of his tongue, how and when and why, but he asked none of those. Naruto buried his curiosity. Even if he could not sense emotion without using his chakra cloak it was blindingly obvious that this was important to her, that telling him this meant a lot, meant that she trusted him. But that trust was fragile and needed supporting.
"I won't betray your trust. I promise."
I hope you enjoyed Chapter 14. I'm not quite done with number 16 but I hope to be done by wednesday at the latest.
The next chapter will be the last one for Valyria before we move to the final stretch of this part of the story.
If anyone wants a visual example of what this dragon roughly looks like, take a gander at the DnD 5e Deep Dragon. Really more Komodo Dragon than Smaug. Not quite identical but you get the idea. Of course, in ASoIaF this would actually be more drake than dragon, on account of the missing fire but Naruto has better things to do than think about proper naming.
It's unclear just how resilient dragons are supposed to be. Drogon gets stabbed by a spear in the fighting pit in ADWD and four of the Targaryen dragons were killed by peasants in the storming of the dragon pit. Shrykos dies from an axe to back of the head, but a sword slash is a lot less weighty than the impact of an axe and has a harder time getting through armour, man-made or not. Older means harder in terms of scales, but this one does not have scales exactly and is older than its size suggests. So I tried to make it understandable. The eye of course is always exposed and a weakspot. The wind is to make sure he finished the job.
Naruto's abilities with wind are my main focus in making him stronger for now, which is one of many reasons I depowered him in the first place. In the war he is presented as a stronger wind user than Temari but since he uses it for nothing but his Rasenshuriken I think that rings rather hollow. Sasuke uses his lightning and fire for more than just one thing, why can't Naruto do the same?
As for Quaithe/Shiera's abilities. Shadow binding has to be more than just birthing shadow babies surely and I though that something comparable to Shikamaru's techniques would be appropriate. In my mind the shadow babies are the final step, which comes with its own caveats we'll get to later.
Even if that opportunity had not presented itself Shiera would have taken the intiative another way to tell Naruto. This was just convenient. How exactly Shiera is alive and kicking, and young to boot, will not be spelled out for a bit at least, if ever, but I'm trying to drop some hints here and there.
A glamour of course is just an illusion, so it changes nothing about your physical state, or at least it shouldn't. Just another factor that makes the Melisandre reveal in Season 6 pretty shit. Suggestion may make people think you are spry and young but she has wrinkles and a humpback. You can feel that.
Some people have understandably been unhappy with the chapter endings being rather cliffhanger-y. Unfortunately wanting to change PoV for some scenes necessitates that sometimes. I understand the frustration but its sadly an effect of publishing this story chapter by chapter and not all at once.
One guest left a very long review on the topic of canon-changes regarding the rebellion and future plots. Sadly I can't reply to guest reviews. In short: I will be making some changes that will have ripple effects that are felt in the canon timeline but not everything will be different. Naruto needs a motivation to interfere after all. Personally I'm a big fan of having certain things in the books be true in a slightly different way than they are/we think they are in canon. Something that the vague storytelling GRRM likes to employ lends itself well to.
I am very grateful for the overall positive reception this fic has gotten.
As always, thanks for reading, reviewing and everything else. Until next time, which will most likely be in two weeks.