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kuriquinn · 6 years

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Telanadas [5/19]

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first chapter

Sasuke’s bowstring snaps before he even realises he has drawn his weapon. An arrow buries itself in the hapless shopkeeper’s throat with such force that the madman topples backward off Sakura.

Sakura stares down at the shopkeeper as he gives a last dying gurgle and gapes up at Sasuke. Her surprise is almost comical, given the rarity of catching her off-guard. The other two in their party do not seem to find the same amusement.

“What the hell was that?” Naruto demands, though he could be referring to either the shopkeeper’s sudden madness or Sasuke’s actions.

Kakashi is not so vague.

“Was that entirely necessary?” he asks Sasuke, tone wry with exasperated disapproval. “We might have interrogated him.”

“It would have been a waste of time,” Sasuke replies, unapologetic. “Considering how forthcoming the other villagers have been, it would likely take days that we do not have.”

He goes to the door he noticed before and shoves it open; it’s unlocked, surprising given the body dumped inside. The shopkeeper obviously was not expecting anyone to investigate—either because of lack of visitors or because murder is perhaps not so serious a crime in this strange place.

Likely both, Sasuke decides, staring down at the bloated corpse there. It is a day old, and signs of torture show on the skin beneath the tarnished armour and cloak.

His comrades shuffle in behind him.

“Those are Uzushiogakure colours,” Naruto breathes, pain and anger rising in his voice at the reminder of his childhood home. A rare darkness spread across the man’s face. “This is one of the knights Lady Biwako sent out looking for the Urn of Sacred Ashes.”

“This might explain why none of them returned,” Sakura adds softly.

Kakashi studies the corpse with a frown. “The question is, was he killed for being a stranger, or for looking for something they did not want him to find?”

“We will soon find out,” Sasuke determines, catching sight of something moving outside the shop window. “Since we fall into both categories.”

He brings up his bow again and nocks another arrow.

His comrades need no further explanation or prompting, hefting their own weapons. Using only hand signals and facial expressions, Sakura directs them into formation. With Sasuke covering from behind and Kakashi blowing the door open by magic, she and Naruto charge from the tiny shop.

Sasuke counts six enemies in their immediate vicinity, including the guard from earlier, and two archers just out of range. While Naruto charges forward, taking out three of the closest, Sakura clashes with the sentry and Kakashi turns the archers in the distance to statues of ice. The two remaining attackers are dispatched with arrows through their eye sockets.

“Is this whole village full of crazy people?” Naruto demands, gawking at the bodies surrounding them now. All of their adversaries are dressed like villagers, but their weapons are better quality than are normally crafted in a rural area.

“There’s something amiss here,” Sakura says. “In my experience, peasants don’t charge a party of well-armed strangers like this.”

“Not unless they are under the influence of magic,” Sasuke agrees.

“Blood magic, perhaps,” Kakashi corrects, shooting him a reproachful look. “Or it could just be they are determined to protect exactly what we have come to seek.”

“But that makes no sense,” Naruto says. “Kaguya was the Rabbit Goddess, a woman of peace. She stopped war throughout the land before the Maker took her as his bride. If these are her followers, they would be non-violent.”

“That is one version of the story,” Sasuke snorts. “Perhaps there is another we are not privy to.”

“Well, we won’t find out more just standing here,” Sakura points out. “Let’s go. I see a Chantry up ahead, and the guard told us we might find a cleric in there. I’m sure we can ask him.”

They trek out of the centre of the village and head up the incline of the mountain, only to be thrown backwards by the force of a giant, invisible fist.

“Mage,” Kakashi gasps belatedly.

“Really? I would never have guessed,” Sasuke sneers, clutching his ribs.

Bruised, probably, but not broken.

Over the crest of the hill, four men charge them; unlike the villagers, these are dressed in odd armour, with horned and fanged helmets protruding from them. And the swords they wield appear to be—

Another blast of magic explodes in the surrounding air, and the four of them duck out of the way. Rocks and tree branches fall all around them, and they scramble for cover.

Naruto struggles to his feet. “Split up?”

“Not with that mage up there protecting them,” Sakura replies, wiping a lip split by a stray rock. “We need to tempt them out his protective range.”

“And we do not know how many there are,” Sasuke adds.

“You two draw them down the mountain,” Kakashi says. “Sasuke can pick them off from here. I will deal with the mage.”

Without giving them a chance to argue, his form glows and shifts. He transforms into a hawk and takes to the sky.

“Right,” Sakura says. “Sasuke, get in position.”

“Hm.”

It is another odd quirk of hers that he has noticed, this willingness to hand over the reigns of command to any among their party. He has met no other leader that has so willing heeded the instincts of their underlings, but Sakura has a bewildering trust in her companions.

It has served her well so far, so who am I to question it?

Naruto and Sakura venture forward, preparing for the oncoming onslaught from the foot-soldiers. Even as they brandish their weapons, they are forced to dodge fireballs and projectiles of ice raining down on them from the sky. Sasuke, in turn, slips into the shade of the snow-laden trees, covering himself in shadow to keep the enemy from noticing him when he shoots. Just as he reaches for his first arrow, his ears twitch and the hair at the back of his neck stands on end.

Instantly, Sasuke ducks downward, hearing the swipe of a blade through the space once occupied by his head. His fingers fasten upon the dagger in his boot, and he twists, shoving it into the stomach of the unlucky rogue that attempted to sneak up on him.

“You breathe too loudly,” he growls, yanking the dagger out and rising to meet the blade of the second assassin waiting in the shadows.

Out in the open, Naruto and Sakura are faring about as well. The blond man catches an enemy blade on his shield and then charges forward with several swipes of his sword. Sakura, surrounded by three men, grunts with effort as she heaves her two-handed axe about, warning them away from her when they venture too close.

Fire continues to fall from the sky, narrowly missing Sasuke’s comrades. As soon as he dispatches his second attacker, he raises his bow again and fires a torrent of arrows into the sky, angling their trajectory to fall behind the enemy. Each volley forces the brigands around Sakura and Naruto to dart away, distracting them enough to give them both openings. Naruto bashes his shield up under the jaw of his assailant, while Sakura slices her axe in a broad arc, cleaving clean through the torso of her nearest opponent.

Before she can make a run at the third, a patch of icicles, sharp as knives, burst out of the snow around her. She is forced to throw herself to one side lest she be gored to death.

“Somebody needs to kill that void-damned—”

Until the magical onslaught suddenly stops.

Far up on the crest of the hill, a cage of lightning encircles the spellcaster. As he jerks and screeches, the electricity reducing him to a charred skeleton, Kakashi materialises beside him, waving them forward with his staff.

“—mage,” Sasuke finishes.

“Isn’t it funny how he can be on time when he wants to be?” Sakura asks cheerfully. She pushes herself up from where she landed and retrieves her axe.

She and Naruto hurry on up the hill, and Sasuke scowls.

“Show-off,” he mutters, picking up his pace.

The steep mountain path is ringed with trees and wooden arches, man-made and looking far too much like crucifixes for his liking. As soon as they round the bend, they are waylaid by yet another warrior, a taller and bulkier man than the others, also dressed in the gaudy, twisted armour.

He emits a roar of fury and winds his arms back, throwing a short-axe at them as they charge forward. The first almost hits its target, pinning Kakashi’s thick robe to a nearby cliff-face. While the mage busies himself with getting free, a second weapon is thrown at Sakura and Naruto, which they duck. It flies somewhere to Sasuke’s left as Naruto pushes forward with his shield.

The brute snarls, dodging to one side and roughly shoving Naruto away bodily. Sakura is waiting in the wings, swinging overhead with her two-handed blade—

Which he catches in between his hands.

For a moment shock rings through the snow-covered battlefield, because nothing has ever stopped Sakura’s axe before now.

The enemy warrior wrenches it away, taking advantage of the dwarf’s momentary loss of balance by grabbing her by the throat.

“Sakura!” Naruto cries, while Sasuke nocks an arrow.

One through the face and I can free her—!

There is a burning, stabbing pain in Sasuke’s hand, and an arrow that is not his punches through his palm. Both his bow and arrow drop, as Kakashi yells, “Archer!”; at the same time, Sakura is thrown backward by her assailant. She slams into the side of the cliff so hard that snow and rock rain down on her in a small avalanche.

“I will take care of this!” Kakashi declares, crackling electricity sprouting from the tip of his staff. Naruto is once more charging the indomitable warrior, and Sasuke’s eyes flit to the rubble beneath which Sakura is buried.

She could be—

He orders himself to focus and turns his attention to where the enemy has picked up Sakura’s axe and now seems to be trying to split Naruto in half.

Sasuke grasps for his bow, but his bleeding left hand is numb; likely a paralysing agent coating the arrow that hit him. Even if he were to power through it, any arrow he tries to shoot might hit Naruto instead.

With no other recourse, Sasuke ducks down and grabs enemy’s discarded small axe, hefting it with his uninjured right hand, and prepares. Just as the giant brute swings downward on Naruto, who has tumbled backward in the snow, Sasuke whips the axe forward.

It ploughs into the face of the man, sending him sprawling onto the snow several feet away.

In the distance, Kakashi finally deals with the archer.

“Nice shot!” Naruto tells Sasuke as he gets to his feet, but the elf ignores him, turning instead to the spot where Sakura fell earlier. A queer, hollow sensation trembles in his gut for a moment, until the snow and rock move. Sakura crawls out from beneath it, looking a little bruised but no worse for the wear.

“It’s a good thing dwarves have thick skulls,” she jokes, pulling off her spiked helmet and rubbing the back of her head. She glances over at the downed man, and whistles. “Nice shot, Naruto.”

“Nah, that was all Sasuke,” the blond man grins. “And here I didn’t think he could do anything without that pansy-ass bow of his.”

“Come here and I will show you how much I can do,” Sasuke growls, raising his hand to form a fist. He winces when he remembers there is a hole in it. The paralysing agent is wearing off, but that does nothing for the pain.

“Sasuke-kun!” Sakura cries and is instantly by his side examining the wound. “Are you alright?”

“Hey, what about me, Sakura?” Naruto wants to know. “I’m the one who almost died…”

“You’re not bleeding out in the snow,” she retorts.

“I am not bleeding out,” Sasuke mutters, trying to tug his hand away from her, but Sakura keeps a tight hold on his wrist. “Kakashi will see to it when he gets here.”

He doesn’t like being cured by magic, but his hands are too valuable to his trade and too necessary to their survival to heal by natural methods.

“I can’t believe you threw an axe in someone’s face,” Sakura says, shaking her head but with eyes dancing.

“Is that not how your people solve disputes?” he challenges. “Perhaps I am acclimating.”

“Mm, a man after my own heart,” she teases. “If I weren’t buckled into my armour or, you know, half-frozen to death, I’d take you right here and now.”

Sasuke stares at her, his brain slowing to process what he just heard. A second later, his treacherous mind offers him a brief, lewd image of the Warden straddling him in the snow, wearing nothing but her smallclothes.

Below his belt, a certain part of his anatomy gives an interested twitch before he can control himself. Naruto’s roar of laughter brings him back to himself, just as Kakashi makes his appearance.

“Did I miss something?” the masked man wonders.

“Just Sasuke, stunned beyond all forms of belief,” Naruto sniggers.

Sakura protests. “Oh, stop it!”

“A pity…I would have liked to see that,” Kakashi observes.

“Shut up and fix my hand, mage,” Sasuke orders, thrusting his fingers into his face. Business-like, the mage reaches over and presses his fingertips to Sasuke’s ruined palm. Blue energy encompasses the limb, and with a short burst of cool energy, bone, muscle and skin knit together. Not even a scar remains. “Now is not the time for childish antics—or have none of you noticed the weapons our attackers have been wielding?”

Sakura wanders over to the dead man and yanks the axe out of his skull; after cleaning it off in the snow, her eyebrows rise almost into her hair.

“Human bone,” she gasps, confirming what Sasuke’s keen eyes saw earlier. “Every weapon here is carved from bone…”

“But then…how are they so strong?” Naruto asks. “I mean, I know a bone can be strong, but against silverite?”

“It’s magic,” Kakashi says darkly. “Runes carved into the bone while the victim yet lives, and blood magic to prolong the process and bind it.”

“That’s barbaric!”

Kakashi nods. “It is a practice outlawed for centuries. Even the Suna Empire no longer practices this.”

“How horrible,” Sakura shudders.

“That is not the worst thing,” Sasuke murmurs. Sakura looks at him askance, and he hesitates to speak this truth to her, but she needs to know. “That blade you hold was hewn from the pelvis bone of a child.”

A horrified silence falls over them.

The gravity of Sasuke’s words takes a moment to sink in, but when they do his comrades expressions shift noticeably. Even Sakura’s habitual bright demeanour vanishes, something smouldering and angry entering her eyes. It is the same look he saw the time a blood mage suggested the only way to save a village from rampaging corpses was to sacrifice a child’s life.

“It seems we have discovered why the people are living in such a remote outpost,” he continues coolly. “This type of crime…this is punishable only by being removed from the land of the living.”

“Which is exactly what we’re going to do,” Naruto growls. “These bastards have just read themselves out of the human race. Out of any race! There’s some stuff you’re just not allowed to do, and killing kids…they might as well be darkspawn!”

Sakura does not speak for once. Instead, she stalks over to retrieve her own axe, grips it expertly in both hands, and then heads in the direction of the Chantry. Sasuke watches her go, a minor note of alarm simmering beneath his usual calm.

“I do not disagree with any of that, but recall that this quest is not just about weeding out the undesirables. We still need information, and someone has to remain breathing if we intend to get it from them,” Kakashi remarks.

“I guess,” Naruto allows, though the words are reluctant. He rubs the back of his head nervously. “Som which one of you wants to be the one to stop her and tell her that?”

Kakashi clears his throat and fiddles with his mask, raising an eyebrow at Sasuke in question.

The elf rolls his eyes and marches off after Sakura.

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#naruto fanfiction #fusion fic #dragon age #sasusaku #dwarf!sakura #elf!sasuke #mage!kakashi #human!naruto #romance #adventure #AU #slow build romance #drama #humour #warden!sakura #sfw for now

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