"Avez-vous entendu un bruit?"
"Non."
Two workers wearing unfamiliar clothes. He wasn't getting any sort of combat awareness from either and they didn't walk like warriors. Plus the two were carrying what were clearly toolkits of some kind. Those unfamiliar clothes had buckles and clips and pockets with wrenches sticking out of them.
So, civilians. He could kill both of them without making a sound or raising an alarm. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that the language wasn't something he'd ever heard before. In fact, the idea that there were other languages was a bit strange. Didn't everyone speak the same one? The only time he'd heard of such things was in ancient manuscripts.
"On dirait que la pression est en baisse en nombre de trois."
"Quoi? Pièces italiennes fous."
Killing them wouldn't give him any answers, and as they were apparently keeping the ship from falling to the water below - it was actually in his best interests NOT to do anything to them.
Sasuke crawled backwards into the framework. Apparently he needed to wait until they landed this thing. Hopefully he'd find someone who spoke something he could understand by then.
Sakura woke up, found herself lying on a pile of straw in a room made of stone, and considered what to do.
She was all alone, but she had packed a few things. After all, they HAD been planning to meet their sensei for Team 7. It was entirely possible they'd immediately be going on missions.
So she had her makeup kit (had to look her best with Sasuke there), breath mints (just in case!), brush, small spool of ninja wire, seven kunai, four shuriken, a notebook and small pencil, her coinpurse, and that was about it. Unless you counted her clothes and headband.
Option 1: She could take a kunai and stab that little girl in the throat. If she was correct and that girl WAS responsible for her being there - then that might end this jutsu-thing.
Option 2: She could try and sneak off. Go more cautiously this time instead of just making a dash for freedom. Problem: two moons in the sky meant getting home would be a problem.
Option 3: Have her emotional breakdown now and get it over with. She was TWELVE for crying out loud! A new genin! She shouldn't have to deal with this stuff for another year AT LEAST!
"Hmph, useless familiar. Can't even get me up at the proper hour."
Sakura's head whipped around. "I. I understood that!"
"What?" asked Louise. "You're speaking something other than gobble-gobble? Hmph. Must have been a delayed effect. Well, now that you're able to properly understand your Master - you can begin your duties by dressing me for the day."
"Sakura Haruno. Registration number 012601. Konohagakure. I am just a genin so whatever torture you use will get you no information - dress you?"
Louise finished rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Even when I understand your language - you make no sense. You are a familiar and a peasant. I am a noble. You will obey me. Now get my clothes out before you anger me."
"You're saying I'm a slave? Your slave?" asked Sakura.
"Well, of course," said Louise.
"And you are a noble of this country?" asked Sakura. "What makes you think that I'm not a noble?"
"Because you have no magic," said Louise confidently.
Sakura blinked. She'd seen that odd ninjutsu they used. But if ninjutsu was magic. "Clone jutsu!"
Louise's jaw dropped as the girl performed a very simple spell - but did so without the use of a wand at all.
"I know you are awake," said a soft female voice. "Open your eyes slowly - you took quite a fall."
Naruto did so, noticing the light was a bit odd before he could focus on the window. Little colored glass bits fitted together like some picture-puzzle to form a scene with an armored warrior fighting something he couldn't quite figure out. Were all those long snaky things tentacles? With mouths at the end of each?
"Hound brought you to us," said the voice from earlier.
Naruto focused on that and almost jumped off the bed in alarm. It was a woman, old and gray, wearing an outfit that almost completely concealed her. Only the hands and face were visible.
"'Hound'?" asked Naruto, thinking of the Inuzuka.
"I knew it," declared Kirche before slicing away at the eggs on her plate.
"I suspected it," admitted Guiche between sips of the "spring wine" available at this hour.
Tabitha said nothing, apparently finding her book fascinating. She did, however, make a slightly agreeable noise.
"Some kind of spell that scrambled her words?" asked Guiche as it had become apparent that the girl hadn't originally been able to understand a word being said to her.
"Most likely," said Kirche, stabbing a bit of bacon with her fork. "The whole thing was probably sprung on the both of them with at most a few days warning. So they are still sorting through their feelings about it."
"So: lots of denial, excuses, bad acting following real confusion?" asked Guiche.
"Eh? Hmmm. Likely," said Kirche after she'd had a chance to chew on her bacon while thinking about it.
"Experience," practically whispered Tabitha.
Guiche caught it though, and nodded. "Yes. Mind you, such things are not spoken of."
"Of course," agreed Kirche.
Tabitha nodded and turned a page.
"You did magic," said Louise, staring.
"Ninjutsu," automatically corrected Sakura.
"Magic," said Louise. "Without a wand."
"I used handsigns, and ninjutsu," said Sakura.
"My familiar was able to get a spell to work..." said Louise, drooping in place.
"I was top of my class," admitted Sakura. She might be stuck here on an unfamiliar world with some girl insisting that she was her Master - but she could still take pride in her own accomplishments.
"It doesn't matter," said Louise. "We WILL discuss this later, familiar."
"Sakura," stated Sakura. "Sakura Haruno. Ninja of Konohagakure."
"What does that mean?" asked Louise, hoping something would start making sense.
"That my name is Sakura Haruno," stated Sakura. "That I'm a genin, lowest rank ninja, of my home village of Konohagakure."
"Never heard of a 'Cone-oh-ha-guy-koo-ray'," said Louise after trying to remember if there'd even been something close she'd heard of previously. "So a 'ninja' is what you call nobles?"
"No," said Sakura. "It's..."
"Going to have to wait," declared Louise. "I need to get to class."
"Should I come too?" asked Sakura. If she was stuck here, at least attending classes would be something familiar.
"No. Yes. Maybe." Louise let out a deep breath. "I need to think about this. Nothing is as it should be. I wanted to get something amazing for a familiar like a dragon or a griffon. Instead I got a foreign noble of some kind. I can tell this is going to be troublesome."
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(Posted Thu, 22 Jan 2015 17:11)
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