“So tell me again, Yugao-sensei,” asked Naruto, he and his team on the way back from another successful bandit camp destruction, “Why did you bandage your hand like that again?”
“Because that curved dagger was so hot it gave me a second-degree burn when I picked it up.” responded Yugao, trying not to wince from the pain. The bandit camp they had destroyed was different from the first one. First of all, Naruto’s Detect Evil jutsu revealed that several bandits had been physically and spiritually corrupted by an unknown evil. Second of all, there was evidence of human sacrifice in the camp. Thirdly, they were acting more like cultists in a dark and dangerous unknown religion rather than people motivated solely by money. Finally the “cultists” had gotten their hands on a book with a golden cover; a compass rose emblazoned on the front; and filled with lines of an unusual script that couldn’t be written. The team decided to utterly annihilate the bandit camp, and when they were finished, they found the book, as well as a dagger with a curved blade with the sharp edges colored a permanent blood red. When Yugao picked it up by the hilt, she suddenly dropped it because of the sudden severe burns on the palm of her hand. While on the way back to the village, Naruto found that the book was receptive to the infusion of Holy Chakra. When the book had seemingly reached its limit on infusion, a pure white compass needle appeared over the compass rose, pointing over to NNW, while they knew that the village was directly north from their current position.
“Maybe we can go to where the compass needle is pointing, and then we can head to Konoha from there.” theorized Shiro. After a short debate, they decided that it wouldn’t hurt to look. When they got there they saw a strange collection of statues, each one carved with such attention to detail that each one seemed ready to spring to life at any moment, as well as a stone box big enough to hold a man (they didn’t know that such things were called sarcophagi).
The first statue was that of a large, well-built man wearing strange armor, a mask covering the lower half of his face, and carrying a large sword, a large bow, and a quiver of arrows on his back. On the breastplate, the helmet, the mask, and on the back of each gauntlet was a strange horizontal oval. Around the statue’s waist was a belt whose buckle was that of a large oval embossed with a closed gauntleted hand. The statue was in a pose that suggested he was ready to knock your teeth out with his fists. He was standing at the forefront of the group, at the foot end of, as if he was protecting them
Standing near the head end of the sarcophagus was a statue of a curvy young woman with flowing, shoulder-length hair. Her armor seemed to be carved to resemble studded leather, which showed wherever it wasn’t covered by pouches, holders, a tool belt, and a cylinder-shaped holder. She had goggles on a strap attached to her forehead. Her right hand was held over the sarcophagus, and the hand wore a thing that looked like a fingerless gauntlet with a strange ovoid bulge at the wrist. At her waist was a belt that had two three-fingered arms protruding from it. On her left wrist was a leather strap that had four strange shaped, charm-like things dangling from it.
Standing a little ways apart from them were two other statues. The first one was that of a tall man with large, swept-back ears, tusks protruding from his lower lip where the canine teeth would be on a normal human, long hair done up in an elaborate style that combined several braids and free-flowing hair, and small horns protruding from his temples. On his head he wore a circlet with what appeared to be a gemstone on it. He was dressed in a robe that had a waterfall pattern embroidered on it and held closed by brooch that was engraved with the image of an eye balanced on a pedestal within a pentagon. Underneath the robe was a peek of a vest that was patterned in fine brocade. He wore seamless gloves on his hands that had raised runes around each finger, and there were strange bracers on his arm. One bracer had what looked like a lens-and-dial contraption on it while the other was plain. He wore fine pants and boots that didn’t look like anything special, but the belt had a strange pouch on the left hip. On the right shoulder was a shoulder bag that appeared to hold a rather large and heavy book. Perched on the left was a larger than average raven. He held in his right hand a large staff with a strange crystal formation on the top of it.
The final statue was that of a mid-to-late teenage girl, which was standing next to the strange man, also having shoulder-length hair. She wore an outfit that would not look out of place on an upper-middle class Parisian during the late 19th century (though the ninjas didn’t know that). She also wore a belt with a strange pouch on her right hip and a shoulder bag with a large book over the right shoulder and on the left hip.
Finally, perched in front of the large man was a waist-high column topped with a dome that seemed to be made of the same material as the cover of the book with the unknown script.
“I wonder of infusing the dome with celestial chakra might have an effect.” wondered Shiro.
“Well, let’s find out.” suggested Yugao, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
“Okay.” said Naruto. He didn’t use up a lot of chakra infusing the book. Placing his hand upon the dome, he began the same process that he used on the book. He was surprised when the dome began sucking in his chakra to the point where almost 75% of it was used up in empowering the dome. When the drain finally finished, he collapsed, and the dome started glowing. The eyes of the statues also started glowing. After three minutes of cracking, the statues shattered as if real people had been covered in special clay and fired in a special kiln, while keeping them alive using special magic.
--- After they were all free, the people who were once petrified introduced themselves. The large man’s name was William Wallace, and the best way to describe him was a loveable, righteous musclehead. He meant really well, and his heart was in the right place, but he was prone to violence when it was not the only option. The girl with the many pouches and tools on her person, Sharla d’Cannith, was best described as a person who was personally fascinated with technology; ancient, modern, or otherwise. The horned man, Lord Khadgar, was best described as extremely intellectual, but not having very good interpersonal skills. The raven, Nico, was described as a real mischief maker, but not given over to excess or cruelty. The other girl, Miss Sophie Cumberton, was best described as an idealist and a romantic.With Sharla’s help, they rolled back the lid of the sarcophagus and revealed a woman made of metal, wood, and stone, with a strange sword at her side. Sharla confirmed that the thing (Sharla called it a warforged) was merely inert, and proceeded to repair her. When the warforged was fully online, she introduced herself as Ironheart. She had a personality that could be described as slightly distant, eager for conflict, and smart enough to know when violence is not an answer.
While on the way back to Konoha, Naruto and his team learned that these five were part of an organization called the Lightbringers, which defeated a great evil named Tharizdun nearly 1800 years ago at the cost of being frozen in stone for most of that time (or in Ironheart’s case, rendered inert). They also caught up with ninja history so far. When Naruto showed them the book with the strange writing, Lord Khadgar remarked that it was written in the Celestial language, that the cover was meant to point a “chosen one” toward other members of the Lightbringers, and that it was written by a scribe of the Lightbringers not long after the defeat of Tharizdun over 1800 years ago. When questioned about Tharizdun, Sophie revealed that he was an insane god that seeks out the unmaking of all reality. The gods of Oerth sealed Tharizdun away in a great, extraplanar prison, well away from the reality he hoped to destroy. The cultists of Tharizdun often try to open breaches in the prison, the last time being 1800 years ago. When they finally got to the Hokage’s office, they found it full of the Hyuga clan. The Hokage was arguing with the Hokage, mainly about clan traditions and the Ritual of Purification. William got fed up with all the arguing, and barged in there.
“Anyone who has a problem with any facet of the Ritual of Purification deserves to be kicked until they can’t stand up without pain for at least three weeks, and I’m the one who’ll do the kicking!” he roared, in a very intimidating voice, “Any volunteers?”
Hiashi expected his whole clan to back him up on this matter, so he was surprised when the whole clan who were capable of doing a replacement technique doing so and leaving him standing alone with various styles of Tanuki statues. But before Hiashi could gather together a proper defense, William was on top of him. He pummeled Hiashi with a combination of grappling moves combined with Greek Pankration, all to cries of pain and shouts of “Not the face!” and “I’ll be good!”. He only stopped when Hiashi finally got this lesson into his head: Be wary of one’s pride, for it makes one challenge the gods. As Hiashi was hauled to the hospital, Khadgar arranged for a meeting with the ninja council.
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(Posted Fri, 26 Jul 2013 21:31)
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