Jiraiya had been gone for hours, highlighting two very important details.
One, sitting still had never been one of Naruto's skills, and two, he was getting very hungry. They had started the initiation ceremony very early, like pre-dawn early, so breakfast had come and gone, and now it was lunch. So those two aforementioned facts kept getting more and more important to the young lad's condition.
Being depressed was one thing, going hungry was another. And as a turbo-energy-bomb, the kid typically ran through a lot of calories, enough that even when he wasn't doing much his metabolism was still set somewhere on beyond 'high', hanging out near 'ludicrous'. So missing out on two meals, while not on par with losing one's limbs, certainly was enough to pierce a mere fog of depression and demand he eat something.
Still not of a mood to stir much, the lad simply made a clone of himself and sent it out to fetch back lunch.
Twenty minutes later when it had not returned, Naruto sent out two more shadow clones. Thirty minutes after that, he'd sent out a grand total of five dozen and was wondering what could be the holdup?
A single Hunter, a troll who'd been with the group that first captured Naruto, and an orc Death Knight from the same group, lurked in Stormwind's temple district, watching in shocked amazement as rogue after rogue materialized to sap and then sack their target.
"That's got to be the third blood elf," the Hunter observed as yet another kidnapping of the blond boy occurred before their eyes, the rogue stealthily escaping with its prey afterwards.
"No, fifth," the Death Knight grunted.
Three more copies of the boy came out, one heading to eat of the major exits to the temple district, all fell prey to concealed rogues, one forsaken and two trolls, who each ambushed their targets in alleys, hit them with paralysis or (far more common) stasis seals, then vanished away to sneak out of the city.
If the Hunter had to guess, he'd say none of them even knew they might not be capturing the real boy. If he hadn't seen the boy make quasi-real copies with his own eyes, he never would've guessed he could. Eye of Kilrogg still came up with 'Unidentified' on the scan.
"How are they all getting in?"
"Same way we did," the war-scarred hulk of an orc replied gruffly. "Patrol schedules for Stormwind's guards are for sale for the right price, and with half of the Alliance doing flying tours over Durotar to watch the destruction..." rage over their lost homeland clammed the Death Knight up.
A few people to play distraction, and all sorts of holes had momentarily opened up in Stormwind's defenses. It took neither troll nor orc long to determine that they'd been far from alone in making use of that.
Word had also apparently got around that this human kid was once the prison to the demon beast even now tearing up horde territory like a nursery went through diapers.
"Second night elf."
And apparently not just the horde.
The scarred Death Knight loosened his sword in its scabbard. "So the horde is not alone in thinking the key to defeat that orange demon fox thingy must lie in the body of the boy who'd once contained it."
The troll Hunter gave a noncommital grunt.
Suddenly twenty copies of the lad that was their target all came pouring out of the temple at once, and both hordies tensed. "They're coming right for my Frost Trap," the Hunter said unnecessarily.
"Bag 'em all," the Death Knight ordered, double checking that his ghoul's stun ability was on manual control. "Just one Freezing Trap after another. We've got enough seals for the lot of 'em."
"And if none of them are the real kid?"
"We'll wait."
Naruto's sympathetic guards looked down on the obviously hungry child, his increasing discomfort obvious to their eyes. They would have done something, save that all had vowed not to let him leave their sight that day until his godfather returned, nor did any of them carry food low enough level for the kid to consume. It was uncomfortable for all involved, as they dared not eat their own food in front of the hungry youth, yet could not share due to level restrictions.
And yet it was essential to the character of a paladin to be a nice guy.
"Come on, kid," the lead Paladin at last stood up. "Let's all go get something to eat together."
As the first of Naruto's guards cleared the building, small groups of concealed horde saw them coming and began to flee as quickly and silently as they could in all directions.
"We waited too long," the troll Hunter stated unnecessarily.
"Shut up. Who uses a full Raid group for guards?" the Death Knight gnashed his teeth angrily.
"Apparently he does."
"Just focus on getting out of here alive. Maybe our Shamans and Warlocks can do something with the clones we've captured."
"Food here's good enough," one of the Paladins declared, placing a tray before Naruto before taking a seat himself. "There's another inn just like this in the Mage's Quarter, but that one's said to be haunted."
Naruto honestly didn't taste the food, he ate so quickly to satisfy hunger. After a while though, as the knights still dined, Naruto took out the love letter from Hinata and stared at it moodily.
"That from a girl?" one of the knights asked.
Naruto nodded moodily and drew in a shaky sob, "I may never see her again."
"Bugger that," the Paladin declared, standing up and grasping the letter in one mailed fist. They'd all had enough of watching the boy be miserable. "This I know how to fix. Come along."
"Oh blast!"
The troll Hunter and Orc Death Knight had miraculously gotten free of Stormwind without trouble, only to run smack dab into dozens of Alliance members flying back from having watched Durotar burn.
"Whatever you do, don't drop the bag," the Death Knight growled as he drew his sword.
The troll dropped the bag containing their captured and sealed Naruto clones over water, then Hearthstoned.
Cursing up a storm, the orc followed.
What neither had remembered was to reset their Hearthstones, which were still set to Ogrimmar, and they arrived to find the Kyubi in residence.
Neither ever returned for their bag.
Naruto followed the knight out of the inn more by reflex, trying to keep hold on the precious letter, yet the entire unit of guards went with him, and before he knew it they were all in a basement somewhere where the guard turned Hinata's letter over to a warlock, along with some coins.
"That enough?" the Paladin asked of the Warlocks brusquely, getting a nod in return as the Warlock turned with his fellows to a large, complex seal that began to burn with purple light.
"What's he..." Naruto began to ask, before running out of words as emotional fog choked off the thinking centers.
"Warlocks can summon people. All they need is a connection. Love letters count," the Paladin declared, returning to his side. "I'll gladly give my apologies for the inconvenience to the girl when she arrives, and pay for her return teleport through the mages at the end of the day, but we all want to see you happy, lad. A day with a friend should be good for you."
See other episodes by Sapphire Cat
(Posted Mon, 27 May 2013 22:47)
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