As far as the crowd was concerned, and the individual throwing the piece of scrap, Naruto went down into the river and didn't come up. Which really upset the watching Hinata, didn't sit at ALL well with the ANBU (Cat) currently watching him, and pleased the scrap-thrower for perhaps two minutes before the ANBU stood up from the resulting search for Naruto to drag that individual before the Hokage. The Hokage handed off the civilian to Ibiki to see what could be learned.
Hinata, crying at the side of the river because a boy she liked was apparently dead, screamed like a little girl and fainted when said little boy abruptly reappeared before her.
Naruto grabbed her and vanished again before any of those who had started running towards the spot could see what was going on.
Slowly, Hinata awoke. Not because she was lazy, or particularly fond of sleep, but because this was one of those all-too-rare occasions when her sleep was not being troubled by nightmares of inadequacy.
Voices were enough to draw her attention to something going on nearby, and when she was able to sleepily glance in that direction, she came fully awake.
There was Naruto, who looked to be firmly in the category of "not quite so dead" but a bit wet.
There was also a tall woman with dark skin, long white hair, burning red eyes, somewhat transparent, whose red eyes flickered to her before returning to her conversation with Naruto.
Hinata's eyes then flicked all over the place as she tried to figure out where she was.
She had died. Not only had she died, but her soul had been destroyed.
So it had been rather unexpected to have her essence scraped together, revitalized, and to be holding some odd device which she learned was called a "phone" and to be seeking with some ancient god of mischief.
Rather than return to nonexistence, Qilue Veladorn had decided to take up the offer.
Some drow, even some of the followers of her goddess, didn't care for humans at all. Human males especially. They tended to be smelly, hairy, crude, and have way too great an opinion of themselves. There were even those so crude as to go whip out parts of their anatomy and relieve a full bladder on just about any convenient vertical surface. Some of their women were just as bad, and seemed to regard hygiene as some form of torture.
Qilue, as well as a number of other drow women, had instead found something intriguing about human males. Not the barbarians amongst them, even after a Delousing spell they tended to be irritating. No, it was others who intrigued her. Prior to her marriage, she'd 'dallied' with a few intriguing humans.
All of which meant she regarded the child with more amusement than disdain, and took her role as the librarian and magical guardian of this extradimensional university seriously.
"Please, Uzumaki, do NOT drip on the scrolls," said Qilue, shaking her head at him.
"It ain't my fault," said Naruto.
"Nobody said it was your fault that you're wet, child, just that you are not careful to avoid damaging valuable scrolls."
"Oh," said Naruto, backing away from the papers.
"Better," said Qilue. "Now, Uzumaki. Have you made a decision?"
"About that 'sorcerer' stuff?" asked Naruto. "No. I ain't had time."
"Very well," said Qilue. "I'd like to point out that you won't be able to access this library again until tomorrow. You've done your initial entry, plus the single entry you can do per day, and that means when you next exit - your key won't function until one minute past midnight."
"Gotcha," said Naruto. It didn't make sense to him, but then neither did this magic stuff.
"Your friend there can study if she likes," said Qilue.
"Who, Hinata?" asked Naruto, glancing towards his classmate. "I don't think she likes me. She seems nice but..."
"Oh, but I think she wants to be your friend," noted Qilue.
"Really?" asked Naruto, turning towards her. Hope and Skepticism waged a brief skirmish, visible on his face.
Hinata managed to sit up, blush fiercely, play with her fingers, but eventually nod.
Naruto blinked before a wild grin stuck itself into place. "Great. There's some pretty powerful jutsu here."
"Naruto, the Sorcerer path is not for your friend," said Qilue. "She might become a wizard, a mage who becomes powerful through the study of books and scrolls - and who casts spells only to lose them until the next time she can study. She might become a cleric, there are ways of doing that here. A cleric being one who can cast healing and support spells. She seems a bit shy, but perhaps she could overcome that and become a paladin - a holy warrior?"
"Worry about that later," said Naruto.
Hinata, on the other hand, was intrigued by the idea of becoming:
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(Posted Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:25)
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