Of the twenty-four pulled here by Naruto's "rescue girls no jutsu" (as he was now calling it) - six were of these dark elves.
Four were gladiatorial slaves. One was a maid. One was an assassin. All chose to rename themselves after hearing their names mangled by the local citizens.
Naruto knew all this. He also knew that they had some weird ideas.
"Musei?" asked Naruto as he stepped into his apartment. "You don't gotta do anything here."
"Of course not, my lord," said Musei.
"You also don't gotta kneel on the floor and that stuff," said a clearly uncomfortable Naruto.
"It is only proper, my lord," said Musei.
Naruto tried to think of what to say. Unfortunately, he didn't really have a clue what to say in a situation like this. "So - you're here why?"
"I'm a maid, my lord. Your domicile was in need of cleaning."
"My wha?" asked Naruto. "You mean my apartment?"
"Exactly, my lord," agreed Musei.
At this point Naruto noticed something else. "Why do I have a door on that wall that wasn't there this morning?"
"Hokage-sama was kind enough to allow your humble servants to move into the empty apartments on either side of my lord's small apartment," said Musei, though a bit of humor had crept into her voice.
"Huh," said Naruto, crossing to the door. "Then what's in here?"
Musei was turned away from Naruto, therefore he couldn't see the smirk appear on her face.
"Ba-Wha?!" managed Naruto.
"AH! Goshujin-sama! You are ready for your bath already?" Splashing noises. "Let me prepare the rinsing tubs at least."
SLAM!
Musei just turned her head enough to see Naruto holding the door shut as if he feared torch-bearing mobs would be bursting through at any moment.
"Wha- wha- what?!" managed Naruto.
"Myucel Foaran," said Musei. "Your other maid. Though she is a half-elf, and of a surface breed, she seems adequate in her skills."
"Why is there a large bath next door?" asked Naruto.
"Because your own bath was inadequate for your needs, and the needs of your servants, my lord." Musei sounded a touch TOO innocent in her reply.
"Wait. 'Both sides'?" asked Naruto, remembering something said earlier.
"Yes, my lord."
Naruto stared at her for a moment. "Why are you two here?"
"Because my lord is eleven years old," said Musei. "In elf terms, you are still practically a very young child. While in human years, it means that you are - still a very young child. While this is a very different culture, it was argued that at your age you should have someone to look over you and be sure of things like your nutritional needs being met."
"Eh?" asked Naruto.
"To make sure you eat right and get enough sleep," clarified Musei.
"Oh," said Naruto. "I got that covered myself."
"My lord, you had unidentifiable things growing in your refrigerator. The milk had expired. You have no fresh foods thata are edible. You had dust bunnies under the sofa."
"Lots of people got those. I think."
"My lord, one of them had a health bar."
Of the twenty-four pulled into this world by Naruto's jutsu, six were dark elves. Four gladiatorial slaves, skilled with weapons or spells. One maid. One assassin.
Of that same twenty-four, another seven were "moon elves" as referred to by some. Two were children and likely to remain at that age category for at least a pair of decades. Of the remainder: one was a Tower Mage, with many powerful spells at her command. Another was termed a warrior/thief by some, a scout by others. The third non-child moon elf was a specialist archer with some stealth and woodcraft skills. Fourth came an artisan with some fighter skills, but was mainly a woodcrafter and jeweler. The last of the moon elves was a tailor who happened to have some clerical leanings.
One of the remaining eleven was a half-elf maid.
Two were of dryad stock, who'd needed to find new trees immediately. Fortunately, there were plenty of suitable ones in and around Konohagakure. Their only problem then had become choosing which one.
Three were pixies. Small, pastel-colored, flying elflings. Due to their flight speed, manueverability, and ability to turn invisible - the Hokage had immediately seen the possibility of using them as couriers. Though only one of them seemed to have an attention span where such a thing might truly be feasible.
Of the remaining five, one was called an avariel - a winged elf capable of flight. Another two were aquatic elves. One was a "sun elf" and apparently something of an artisan herself - a "minstrel" apparently. The last was a lythari, a type of elf able to transform herself into a sort of wolf.
With such a grouping, the half-elf maid felt herself a bit overshadowed. Okay, a lot overshadowed. She was used to pureblood elves looking down on her with a bit of disdain. Even the moon elves typically were a bit condescending towards her in her experience. Drow? They almost scared her to the point of requiring a change of underwear at first.
When it became obvious that she was not to be a living sacrifice to certain dark deities, she calmed a bit.
Myucel Foaran thought the dark elves had better figures, the sun elf had that whole regal beauty going, the moon elves were more graceful and attractive, and everyone else was more exotic. She was plain old Myucel, a half-elf who was used to working for a noble human family in Waterdeep.
Each of them, in hurried conference after interviews with the scary scarred human, determined that they had all died during the Spellplague. Several of them knew only that there was a great calamity happening, at which point things went to darkness that even a drow's eyes could not see through.
Yes, it was quickly determined by comparing notes - several of them had died or been within moments of dying when the summoning had taken place.
Myucel herself remembered the manor she'd worked in, and getting a VERY good look at the chandelier above her coming down as the ceiling cracked apart.
So here she was, in a village of trained killers. What could she do but swear to serve her summoner and the village? Sure, she'd learned a bit of fighting in her time. She wasn't that bad with a bow or sword, and she had some useful magic - but she was a maid and not someone who would sneak through enemy lines and put one of those odd daggers in someone's neck. No, thank you.
She was determined though - to do a good job and help Naruto achieve his goals in the future! Somehow.
Why had he gone running off though? She was wearing her swimsuit, and she'd just been preparing the bath for use after the tiles had finished drying.
He didn't find her offensive or something, did he? He hadn't given her that impression previously, but some humans were like that. Perhaps he had hoped to find one of the others in the bath and was disappointed?
Maybe, being as he WAS eleven, he was one of those children who insisted he didn't need a bath? She would have to make sure he did though - whether you were a ninja or not - hygiene was important!
Musei found the whole thing amusing.
She was used to being one of the maids for a powerful Matron of the Drow. There were slaves under her in the pecking order, but that wasn't much of a distinction. Scars from whippings crisscrossed her back, as healing potions were expensive and couldn't be wasted on a mere maid.
Her Matron had been fond of various forms of punishment, and not particularly caring of whether the target had actually done something to be punished for. Musei had spent time as a statue decorating the garden, tied to the prow of a ship as a living figurehead, dangled as a treat over a pit of hungry ropers, bound in place as a living wall decoration, naked except for webbing and bound to a tower with a Light spell cast on her face to act as a beacon, hobbled in such a way that she had to crawl around on knees and elbows, and a large number of other things that had been even less attractive.
Serving as a maid to a stammering young human was therefore not a terribly daunting thing. In fact, it was becoming a bit of fun to see how far she could push him.
When he got a bit older, perhaps she could show him how to properly tie her up for a bit of fun and games? Unlike with her previous employment, there were ways to make it a bit fun. Actually, it'd be somewhat comforting to be secured away and knowing that all she had to do was ask nicely and the boy would free her. He seemed the sort of softie.
He had some growing up to do before that though. Okay, a LOT of growing up to do.
And maybe that half-elf could join her at the appropriate time. Double the fun!
Years away though, so there was plenty of time to plan.
She glanced up and could see a flash of movement, then gone. She was pretty sure it was that drow assassin, Higure and that the flash of movement had been deliberately letting her know of the other's presence.
"So what do we do now?" asked the sun elf, fingering one of the local musical instruments as she worked out how to play it.
"Don't know," admitted Kairyuu, whose real name was in sea-elven and was 'Deep Current Rushing Through Narrow Channel' - but which apparently NONE of the locals would be able to properly pronounce much less remember. Hence 'Kairyuu' or 'Deep Ocean Current' would have to do.
"Isn't that river awfully shallow for one of your kind?" asked the sun elf, leaning out over the railing of the bridge in order to consider the depths.
"Yes," agreed Kairyuu.
There was brief silence before the sun elf spoke again. "Not much for talking, are you?"
"No," agreed Kairyuu.
"Well, I have to learn the local instruments," explained Lady Arrna Sunstrider, as Kairyuu had learned the sun elf was named. "Everything I had - I had had enchanted. Minor things really - keeping strings dry or increasing the volume. Blue fire took everything. Quite a loss actually - I'd had some of those for at least a few centuries. You?"
"Yes," agreed Kairyuu, still sunning herself.
The sun elf sighed very unhappily and continued plucking strings. "If I had any of the local coinage, I'd hit a bar. If I had my old instruments, I'd go to a tavern and make a few coins. What it really comes down too though - I want to get drunk. You?"
Kairyuu sighed.
"Fine, fine. I'll be quiet. I just get chatty when I'm nervous," said the sun elf aristocrat, turning her full attention to the learning of the instrument as she tried to pick out a tune on it.
"(Intruder?)"
Hisakata blinked and looked up at the roof. Where there was a wolf a little larger than herself with one ear missing and an eyepatch standing next to a woman.
"I don't recognize you," said the woman, baring fangs.
"(New to this territory,)" responded Hisakata, before shimmering and taking elven form again. "Probationary allowance by your Hokage. Is this then a human version of my race, the lythari?"
"I smell an interesting story here," said the human.
"You buying?" asked Hisakata, indicating a place that sold some sort of alcoholic beverage from the scent.
The woman snorted. "Why not? It better be an interesting tale though."
"My name is 'Moon's Fang Over Still Waters'," said Hisakata, the liquid syllables of the elven language flowing easily past her lips.
"Hissy-ae-what was all that?"
"Call me Hisakata," said Hisakata. "It's better that way."
"Maybe I'll just go with that," admitted the woman. "Tsume Inuzuka, this is Kuromaru."
"You smell of wolf and not-human. Interesting," said the large dog in the human language.
"So anyway, gladiator games are just as much about showmanship as they are skill. If you don't have any skill, it doesn't matter how good you are at carrying off an image."
"I see," said Kakashi Hatake, sitting at the bar and glancing at the other jonin with him. Seeing a bunch of color-coded weapon-wielders hanging outside a bar, who were quite obviously NOT from around here, it was just sensible to keep an eye on them. Getting them to drink a bit had seemed like a good idea to get them talking.
The one with all the knives had introduced herself as Deba.
"Yeah," said Deba. "So we specialize in a particular weapon, and have a color-coding, and were usually fielded as a team. Sometimes we fought one thing. Sometimes something else. Sometimes other teams. Usually we got some exotic beast that someone would find in some gods-forgotten corner of the world. What can you do though? If you're an arena slave you at least get fed decent and keep in shape. There were a lot worse things you could face than sudden death in combat."
Kakashi nodded and held up the bottle. When the knife-wielder nodded, he refilled her glass. "Not that much different from ninja life I suppose. You have to have a certain amount of 'flashy' because employers expect that and on C-Rank missions and above there's always a chance of running into enemies."
"Well, we know how to maintain our equipment," admitted the knife-wielder. "And we know how to fight. Kind of limits our choices. I'm into knives. Throwing knives, piercing knives, cutting knives. Don't have any of those kunai though. Have to get a couple for my collection when we can get some of the local cash."
"Do you have a real name or just 'Deba'?" asked Kakashi.
"We had real names once. Long ago. After our House fell, we ended up with these arena-names." Deba sipped at her drink, trying to make it last. "In the Underdark tongue, I'm (Yellow Knives That Flash Like Lightning) or just (Yellow Knife) but last time I heard one of you try to pronounce that - I decided to follow everyone else's lead and just go with a localized name based off of it. So now I'm 'Deba' which has the benefit of being short."
"I see," said Kakashi. "And the others?"
"Gusari, Yari, Tate," said Deba. "Named after their weapons of specialization."
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(Posted Thu, 01 May 2014 18:55)
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