Day 4 Morning

[Sasuke Uchiha]

Before Easter Egg

Thunder crackled and terrifying lances of electric might followed, impaling the landscape hap-hazardously as Orihime, Victor, and Sasuke marched against the coming storm’s vicious winds. Their recent battles had taken their toll on the group and though their morale was high, serious signs of fatigue had begun to show.

Sasuke favored his right shoulder as he led the trio of primes through the island’s underbrush. His clothes were torn, stained with blood, and stuck to his skin with sweat. His pace had slowed immensely and with every step the ninja took, tiny alarm bells, the size of pins and needles, rang throughout his psyche. The ninja was wounded. He had thrown caution to the wind and been too overzealous, forgetting that which was most paramount. Caution had very much been an attribute to his success in the Abyss.

Still, the shinobi wore a million and one Omnilium smile as he trudged through the malnourished foliage and undergrowth. They had acquired not one, but two relics and they were that much closer to completing the task. An extraordinarily better position than his first two days on the island, but, not quite the cause for the shinobi’s delight. Tried and tested, his dragon eggs were the real deal. Mythical creatures of legend that pierced the battlefield with aerial assaults of death, inspiring vigor within any who bared witness. Gnarly as the warlock’s abomination they fought was, it fell all the same, and to think, he could have unleashed both of his dragons! The shinobi’s glee freely expressed itself, very soon Sasuke would catch wind of Itachi, slay him, and avenge his clan.

Alarm. Shock. Fear.

Pain, anguish, and feebleness overtook the shinobi, halting his progression against the island. His injuries were more than serious, they would be debilitating if he didn’t rest. He cursed himself with foul criticism; the Uchiha believed himself an adept shinobi, capable in almost any situation and he knew it to be true, but here he was wounded like some novice Genin.

The ninja’s eyes grew in size before he allowed a chuckle to escape from his diaphragm. He was, in fact, just a Genin of the Leaf. Omni had seen to that, when he interrupted Sasuke’s bout with Gaara, all that long time ago. Still, the shinobi had been through this, he was no novice, and should have avoided such careless injuries; his criticism was well-earned.

The ninja felt the presence of someone observing him and composed his posture. “Sasuke-” it was Victor who spoke, but the ninja quickly interrupted him.

“Not yet,” lightning pierced the sky, illuminating the ninja’s face as he growled, “just a bit further,” feigning rejuvenation and concealing the severity of his abrasions, “then we’ll make camp. We can all rest up, I’m sure we all need it.”

“That’s fine,” the ginger-haired female stepped forward and agreed before voicing her own concerns, “but all those people that died. We haven’t said one thing about them. They died! What about them?!”

Victor’s expression shifted, catching the stern eye of the Uchiha before he answered with, “Do not fear death. For as long as you interest me, you will be reborn.”

Orihime blinked a blank expression and the ninja elaborated, “I’m sure you got the same greeting with your invitation, like the rest of us.” Compassion exuded from the shinobi as his words left his lips, “If anyone put on a show, worthy of being reborn, it was those androids. I’m sure this won’t be the last we hear of them.”

Androids. Androids? That’s what they were, right? This fuckin’ place…

The girl’s swollen eyes seemed to retreat in size, “You think?”

“I know,” the ninja all but winked at her, “now, let’s get a move on. We still have a helpless spirit to free.”

“Right!” the girl exclaimed, completely reenergized and motivated back on the task. Victor nodded his head in agreement and like that they fought their way through a storm that fought as hard as any guardian they had encountered.

***

*CRASH*

“WHERE ARE THEY?!”

Victor Wolfe awoke to a start with his leader thrashing and ransacking the make shift camp they had assembled just hours before. “What’s going on?” the assassin inquired.

The shinobi turned away from the target of his current wraith, revealing a set of blazing red, crimson eyes upon the assassin, “That harlot has played us,” the Uchiha fumed, “she has gone and stolen both relics!”