Day 2 Evening

[Sasuke Uchiha]

A scorching warmth blanketed the terrain as Sasuke found himself back in the land of fire and brimstone. The day’s sky, overcome with a collection of smolder, ash, and hazardous sprays of lava, was slowly beginning it’s descent into twilight.

Day two, the sun was already setting, and the shinobi hadn’t seen heads or tails of any guardians. In fact, the most menacing thing he’d encountered on the island had been the wolf pack of yesterday; he could hardly count the squabbles of Victor Wolfe and Jak Mar as such. They were about as menacing as two scorned lovers, quarreling through passive aggression, about a fight neither of them remembered who had started in the first place.

Sure, Sasuke disliked working with the schizophrenic criminal of Nippur, Jak Mar, same as Victor, but…The enemy of my enemy is, the shinobi recounted, observing the small Elvin fighter… yup, definitely, a pain in my ass.

It wasn’t all bad, though. The shinobi had, once again, found himself in the presence of a strong female, capable of handling herself. This one was just as attractive as the last, however, unlike the last, she genuinely seemed to dislike violence. Almost as if she were new to it, but with the way she moved in battle, that didn’t seem to fit quite right either. Orihime puzzled the Uchiha; if she wasn’t a warrior, why had she trained like one?

Either way, the shinobi had managed to encounter and assemble quite a ragtag group of primes to aid him in his search, and though it wasn’t quite the grand militia Gilgamesh had assembled in Dante’s Abyss, Sasuke felt this group very capable of completing the task at hand. And even if they weren’t, the ninja would gladly sacrifice himself before he allowed some impotent warlock to prevent him from his vengeance. Tuecer really had nothing to worry about. He would get his freedom; it was literally tied to Sasuke’s vengeance.

The party had covered so much distance, the land had literally transformed itself, trading the lush grass beneath their feet for scorched, black earth instead. “Let’s stop here,” the shinobi began as he halted the group, “I want to scout the area and see what we are working with. Each of us take a point on a compass and scout that direction. We’ll meet back here in thirty minutes, got it?”

“Got it.” everyone agreed and like that, thirty minutes later, the four of them returned to share their findings. Jak, Orihime, and Sasuke all returned without much luck, but it was obvious by the smug expression on Victor’s face that he hadn’t been so unlucky. Just fifteen minutes to the east, Victor reported having found a group of four or more primes, currently battling some hideous, giant fiend.

“A guardian,” the ninja pondered, “well, that settles that.” The ninja slung the pack off his back and rummaged through it before withdrawing from the contents within. With a confident and ambitious expression, the shinobi held the object within the palm of his hand, “Let's see what these guardians are made of!”