Naruto looked around but didn't see anyone.
"Stop looking around and keep your voice down. This is Bat."
"Ah, Bat-san," said Naruto. "Okay, Sakura? Teme... Sasuke. This is the deal I made."
"You didn't have my permission to make any deals involving me, dobe," stated Sasuke.
"It was that or the oni would have put Sakura in that spiky box," said Naruto. "Or we would'a ended up being sold off as slaves. This sounded like the best deal I could get."
"I heard you arguing with the oni," admitted Sakura. "But I could only understand your half of the conversation. What's with that?"
"Oni said I had a gifted tongue of some kind, apparently I can understand languages and when I'm talking they can understand me, said it was some kinda blessing but I don't know how," said Naruto. Somehow he doubted it was the Kyubi.
"Hmph. So what's the deal?" asked Sasuke.
"We get training, food, rooms of our own. All we got to do is win fights," said Naruto. "I don't understand a lot of it, but I got testing arranged. Apparently the local jutsu stuff can only be learned by certain kinds of people. So we test, find out what we can, learn the local stuff, and then when we find a way home - we can try to escape then."
"Hmph," indicated Sasuke. Though honestly he couldn't find any fault with that since they didn't really have that many choices set down in front of them.
"Fights like against that big thing we fought awhile back? Are you crazy, Naruto?" asked Sakura.
"Oh, and they're bringing you some clothes," said Naruto.
"That'll be good. It's chilly," admitted Sakura from her hiding spot.
"The testing of the three children is complete," said Tolan.
Lord Shivak paused and then motioned the slave away rather than have her continue to feed him grapes. He understood it was traditional, but honestly he'd rather have bananas. "Go on."
"The pink-haired girl shows no aptitude for traditional magery. Odd as she seemed to be the most bookish of the three. She might be a decent cleric if some deity accepts her, but has no faith of her own to give an indication of what deity might be acceptable. Decent knife-throwing skills, good accuracy."
"Blue stated that they were fledgling assassins of some kind, stealth operatives," said Shivak. "Erastil of the hunt might be a good place to start. If not, try Irori or Sarenrae."
"I know of a cleric of Bastet that owes me a favor, I was considering having her give it a try," said Tolan.
"Very well, try her first," said Shivak. "The others?"
"The black-haired child is very skilled in hand-to-hand combat, with a number of small weapons and throwing blades. I have already arranged for a rogue of my acquaintance to work with him on boosting those skills," said Tolan.
"Good, but not enough," said Shivak. "Swordsmen are always popular. Have him trained with one style of sword. Plus an exotic weapon of some type. Blue said they were of some distant land, find one of that origin and see that the boy is trained in that. Exotic weapon play can really fire up the crowds. Hmmm. May have to have a special night of it once or twice a year, play up the mysterious land aspect - distant and forgotten arts sort of thing."
"As you say, Lord Shivak," agreed Tolan.
"What of the blond?" asked Shivak.
"Ah, well, that one turned out to have some talent after all," admitted Tolan. "When tested:"
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(Posted Sat, 17 Jan 2015 18:24)
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