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[aidahwedo]

so if there’s one single trope i’m always down to fight it’s the animal bride (folklore motif 402??) which a lot of you are probably familiar with as the selkie - the fisherman either falls in love, steals her skin to trap her on land/gain power over her, or they fall in love and THEN he steals her skin to keep her from leaving, and either way she spends a lot of time gazing sadly out to sea and then she or her child finds the skin and never returns again. and that’s awful on a whole lot of levels - it’s not love, it’s control.

BUT. but the thing is. you how selkies/seal women was a pretty common variation of this? another really popular one was swans.

i just want you to think about that for a moment. swans. like…I get it, they’re pretty, graceful birds, certainly it’s easy to imagine them magically becoming pretty graceful ladies? but have you ever fought a swan. swans are awful. swans are the devil’s geese. imagine seeing a pretty magic lady and being absolutely enchanted by her, and stealing her magic feather cloak, and then you go up and say ‘hey i’m in love with you, let me make you my queen, it will be great, we’ll be so happy’ and she just looks at you for a moment and…

you know i was going to say maybe she just shouts for her sisters and suddenly you’re realizing you’ve made a terrible terrible mistake bc you’re surrounded by big fucking birds who are all hissing. but honestly if this swan lady is as aggressively down to brawl as any other generally unhappy swan, then she’d straight up fuck you up on her own. she’d just deck you roundhouse, honestly. you don’t fuck with swans. why does this trope exist

[aidahwedo]

Outline of Fight Scenes

I’ve noticed people struggle with writing fight scenes so I made a little guide on how to organize things.

Setting

Setting can be an important component in your fight scenes simply because of the interactions characters can have with the setting. This can also serve as another way to dispose of info-dumping and have a more organic way of revealing more of the world to the reader.

The biggest thing to keep in mind are how do the characters utilize the setting (i.e. through their powers, through throwing items within the setting, using walls as cover, and so on). It’s always fair game to experiment and play around with the dynamics of the scene to keep things interesting and to capitalize on parts of the setting that could help a character in a fight or shows the effects of a particular attack within that setting.

Note that setting can also encompass the people in it so essentially you could take routes like holding people hostage or attempting to shield bystanders. It’s all how you make it out to be.

Character

When we talk about fight scenes, there are three main points when approaching the topic of character: the motivation, the skill-set, and the personality. All three play off each other and affect the orientation of the fight which can create interesting dynamics between the opponent(s) and the character themselves.

Personality dictates the way a character would carry themselves throughout the fight. The consistency in their personality must be present for them whether they’re extremely confrontational or pacifistic within that scene. If there is a dramatic shift in personality, there always needs to be an explanation as to why they’ve adopted that attitude at present time or otherwise (ex: character development throughout the course of the novel). Dialogue and how they fight are your best friends when it comes to overlaying it with personality. If your character is extremely cocky and arrogant, they tend to act overly confident in their abilities and have zero hesitation but if they’re non-confrontational and timid, they tend to run away or at least de-escalate the situation.

Motivation presents to us why the fight is happening in the first place whether it be short-term motivation or long-term motivation.

Short-term motivation is usually in place for minor, one off fights that involve taking out enemies simply because they’re in your way or just because maybe you’re confronting a hostile person; these fights usually find themselves being action sequences that are either for discovery of power, setting the scene, or etc.

Long-term motivation is a motivation the surpasses short-term simply for the weight of it like having to fight the main villain; simply put, the small fights gear into the larger one and often are a culmination of all the skills the protagonist has built up. It has more consequence than those of short-term fights.

Skill-sets are divided into two main sections: Physical and non-physical. Physical meaning their physical capabilities such as strength, mobility, endurance and so on. Non-physical encompasses things like weaponry or magical elements such as sharp-shooting or pyrokinesis. Again, consistency is key with this so you’ll always need to inform on why a character has gained a particular ability or how they perhaps evolved their powers (either through training or the fight alone). Be careful on how you approach them since you have to provide reasons for limitation existing in the scene or throughout the story (ex: if character A is exceptional at being fast but they cannot use that particular ability).

Stakes/Impact

Usually fight scenes will need a sense of urgency for the characters and the person observing these characters. To create a sense of tension, you need to establish what’s the loss of the character whether it be the world ending, them dying, their powers vanishing, and so on. For minor fight scenes, stakes don’t have to be extreme since usually those are reserved for the huge confrontation with the villain but it’s good to know what’s the end result should the protagonist suffer a loss.

Consequently, what are the gains of the fight? What investment should they have to tip the scales? Again, these don’t have to be incredibly huge because they could be things like protecting people from more harassment from these villains.

*Note that stakes/impact almost always tie in with motivation.

[aidahwedo]

I really want a science fiction story where aliens come to invade earth and effortlessly wipe out humanity, only to be fought off by the wildlife.

They were expecting military resistance. They weren’t counting on bears.

[aidahwedo]

I blame @blackkatmagic for this, her "Can't Deny This Beast Inside" has consumed my brain. Also Jorogumo Genma is canon now, i refuse to believe otherwise.

[aidahwedo]

Awesome Sites and Links for Writers

Just about every writer out there has several go-to websites that they use when it comes to their writing. Be it for creativity, writer’s block, to put you in the mood or general writing help. These are mine and I listed them in hopes that you’ll find something that you’ll like or find something useful. I’ve also included some websites that sounded interesting, but I haven’t tried out yet.

Spelling & Grammar

Grammar Girl – Grammar Girl’s famous Quick and Dirty Tips (delivered via blog or podcast) will help you keep your creative writing error free.

The Owl – is Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) it's a great resource for grammar guides, style tips and other information that can help with your writing, especially academics.

Tip of My Tongue — have you ever had trouble of thinking of a specific word that you can’t remember what it is? Well, this site will help you narrow down your thoughts and find that word you’ve been looking for. It can be extremely frustrating when you have to stop writing because you get a stuck on a word, so this should help cut that down. 

Free Rice – is a great way to test your vocabulary knowledge. What’s even better about this site is that with every correct answer, they donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. So, please disable your adblock since they use the ads on the site to generate the money to buy the rice.

HyperGrammar – the University of Ottawa offers up a one-stop guide for proper spelling, structure, and punctuation on this site.

AutoCrit – the AutoCrit Editing Wizard can check writing for grammar errors, clichés and other no-no’s. It also provides a number of other writing resources as well.

Writer’s Digest – learn how to improve your writing, find an agent, and even get published with the help of the varied blogs on this site.

Syntaxis – it allows you to test your knowledge of grammar with a ten-question quiz. The questions change every time you take the quiz so users are sure to be challenged each time around. It definitely helps writers know if there’s something that they need to brush up on.

Word Frequency Counter – this counter allows you to count the frequency usage of each word in your text.

EditMinion – is a free robotic copy editor that helps you to refine your writing by finding common mistakes.

Proofreading for Common Errors – this is a simple tutorial on proofreading your writing by Indiana University.

BBC – has a section for helping you with your skills, especially in writing, from grammar to spelling, to reading, to listening and to speaking.

Tools

Copyscape – is a free service that you can use to learn if anyone has plagiarized your work. It’s pretty useful for those that want to check for fanfiction plagiarism.

Plagium – is another a copy detection system, that provides a very similar service to Copyscape and uses Yahoo! rather than Google to perform its searches. Just keep in mind that searches for simple text up to 25,000 characters remains free of charge, but any larger requires credits to be purchase.

Write or Die – is an application for Windows, Mac and Linux which aims to eliminate writer’s block by providing consequences for procrastination.

Written? Kitten! – is just like Write or Die, but it’s a kinder version. They use positive reinforcement, so every time you reach a goal they reward you with an adorable picture of a kitten.

Fast Fingers – offers you an easy way to improve your typing skills. It’s puts you through a quick typing game that tests your typing speed and improves it at the same time. It’s also a great way for writers to warm up.

Information & Data

RefDesk – it has an enormous collection of reference materials, searchable databases and other great resources that can’t be found anywhere else. It’s great to use when you need to find something and check your facts.

Bib Me – it makes it easy to create citations, build bibliographies and acknowledge other people’s work. This is definitely something that academics will love. It’s basically a bibliography generator that automatically fills in a works cited page in MLA, APA, Chicago or Turbian formats.

Internet Public Library – this online library is full of resources that are free for anyone to use, from newspaper and magazine articles to special collections.

The Library of Congress – if you’re looking for primary documents and information, the Library of Congress is a great place to start. It has millions of items in its archives, many of which are accessible right from the website.

Social Security Administration: Popular Baby Names – is the most accurate list of popular names from 1879 to the present. If your character is from America and you need a name for them, this gives you a accurate list of names, just pick the state or decade that your character is from.

WebMD – is a handy medical database loaded with information. It’s not a substitute for a doctor, but can give you a lot of good information on diseases, symptoms, treatments, etc.

MedlinePlus – is the National Institutes of Health’s Web site that contains information about diseases, conditions, and wellness issues in language you can understand. It also offers reliable, up-to-date health information, anytime, anywhere, for free.  You can use the site to learn about the latest treatments, look up information on a drug or supplement, find out the meanings of words, or view medical videos or illustrations. You can also get links to the latest medical research on your topic or find out about clinical trials on a disease or condition.

Mayo Clinic –  is a nonprofit medical practice and medical research group.

World Health Organization (WHO) – is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. Its current priorities include communicable diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, Ebola, malaria and tuberculosis; the mitigation of the effects of non-communicable diseases; sexual and reproductive health, development, and ageing; nutrition, food security and healthy eating; occupational health; substance abuse; and driving the development of reporting, publications, and networking.

Google Scholar – is an online, freely accessible search engine that lets users look for both physical and digital copies of articles. It searches a wide variety of sources, including academic publishers, universities, and preprint depositories and so on. While Google Scholar does search for print and online scholarly information, it is important to understand that the resource is not a database.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac – this classic almanac offers yearly information on astronomical events, weather conditions and forecasts, recipes, and gardening tips.

State Health Facts – Kaiser Family Foundation provides this database, full of health facts on a state-by-state basis that address everything from medicare to women’s health.

U.S. Census Bureau – you can learn more about the trends and demographics of America with information drawn from the Census Bureau’s online site.

Wikipedia – this shouldn’t be used as your sole source, but it can be a great way to get basic information and find out where to look for additional references.

Finding Data on the Internet – a great website that list links that can tell you where you can find the inflation rate, crime statistics, and other data.

Word References

RhymeZone – whether you’re writing poetry, songs, or something else entirely, you can get help rhyming words with this site.

Acronym Finder – with more than 565,000 human-edited entries, Acronym Finder is the world’s largest and most comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initials.

Symbols.com – is a unique online encyclopedia that contains everything about symbols, signs, flags and glyphs arranged by categories such as culture, country, religion, and more. 

OneLook Reverse Dictionary – is a dictionary that lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept. Your description can be a few words, a sentence, a question, or even just a single word. 

The Alternative Dictionaries – is a site that you can look up slang words in all types of languages, including Egyptian Arabic, Cherokee, Cantonese, Norwegian and many, many others.

Online Etymology Dictionary – it gives you the history and derivation of any word. Etymologies are not definitions; they’re explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago.

MediLexicon – is a comprehensive dictionary of medical, pharmaceutical, biomedical, and health care abbreviations and acronyms.

Merriam Webster Online – the online version of the classic dictionary also provides a thesaurus and a medical dictionary.

Multilingual Dictionary – it translate whatever you need from 30 different languages with this easy-to-use site.

Writing Software

Open Office – why pay for Microsoft products when you can create free documents with Open Office? This open source software provides similar tools to the Microsoft Office Suite, including spreadsheets, a word processor, the ability to create multimedia presentations, and more.

LibreOffice – is a free and open source office suite. It was forked from OpenOffice.org in 2010, which was an open-sourced version of the earlier StarOffice. The LibreOffice suite comprises programs to do word processing, spreadsheets, slideshows, diagrams and drawings, maintain databases, and compose math formula.

Scrivener – is not a free program, but it’s certainly a very popular one. It's great for organizing research, planning drafts, and writing novels, articles, short stories, and even screenplays.

OmmWriter – is for Mac OS X, a free simple text processor that gives you a distraction free environment. So you can focus only on your writing without being tempted or distracted by other programs on your computer. They are currently working on a Windows version of their software as well, so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested.

FocusWriter – is another free distraction-free writing application that keeps your writing space simple and clean without sacrificing functionality. It includes a daily goal tracker—work count and time spent writing—spell checking, real-time feedback on variables like word and page count, and tabbed document browsing. The great thing about this is that it's available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Q10 – is a free portable distraction-free writing tool for Windows. The interface includes nothing but a tiny bar at the bottom that displays the character, word, and page count—you can toggle the bar off for a totally distraction free workspace. 

Evernote – is a free app for your smartphone and computer that stores everything you could possibly imagine losing track of, like a boarding pass, receipt, article you want to read, to do list, or even a simple typed note. The app works brilliantly, keeping everything in sync between your computer, smartphone, or tablet. It’s definitely a useful app for writers when you have ideas on the go.

Storybook – this open source software can make it easier to manage your plotlines, characters, data, and other critical information while penning a novel.

ScriptBuddy – is a full-fledged screenplay software program. It handles the proper screenplay format automatically, so you can concentrate on your story. It is easy to use and the basic version is free.

TheSage – is a free application, which is a comprehensive English dictionary and thesaurus that provides a number of useful and in some cases unusual search tools.

Sigil – is ideal for e-book authors because it's a free EPUB editor with a stack of essential features.

YWriter5 – is a free word processor and is designed for Windows XP, Vista and beyond. It's a small but very comprehensive tool which helps you to plan your novel. It breaks your novel into chapters and scenes, helping you keep track of your work while leaving your mind free to create. You can set up deadlines, for instance, and the program’s Work Schedule report will let you know how much you’ll have to do, each day, to finish on time. You can even enter your characters, locations and items and freely organize them into scenes. This definitely sounds like it’ll be useful for NaNoWriMo writers.

Kingsoft Office (WPS Office) – is an office suite for Microsoft Windows, Linux, iOS and Android OS. The basic version is free to use, but a fully featured professional-grade version is also available. This software allows users to view, create and share office documents that are fully compatible with dozens of document formats, including Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel. In other words, the format is similar to a Microsoft Word document (.DOC or .DOCX file) and supports formatted text, images, and advanced page formatting. Kingsoft Writer documents can be converted to Microsoft Word *.doc files in the software.

Creativity, Fun & Miscellaneous

National Novel Writing Month – is one of the most well-known writing challenges in the writing community, National Novel Writing Month pushes you to write 50,000 words in 30 days (for the whole month of November).

WritingFix – a fun site that creates writing prompts on the spot. The site currently has several options—prompts for right-brained people, for left-brained people, for kids—and is working to add prompts on classic literature, music and more.

Creative Writing Prompts – the site is exactly what it says. They have 100+ and more, of prompts that you can choose from.

My Fonts – is the world’s largest collection of fonts. You can even upload an image containing a font that you like, and this tells you what it is.

Story Starters – this website offers over one trillion randomly generated story starters for creative writers.

The Gutenberg Project – this site is perfect for those who like to read and/or have an ereader. There’s over 33,000 ebooks you can download for free. 

The Imagination Prompt Generator – click through the prompts to generate different ideas in response to questions like “Is there a God?” and “If your tears could speak to you, what would they say?”

The Phrase Finder – this handy site helps you hunt down famous phrases, along with their origins. It also offers a phrase thesaurus that can help you create headlines, lyrics, and much more.

Storybird – this site allows you to write a picture book. They provided the gorgeous artwork and you create the story for it, or just read the stories that others have created.

Language Is a Virus – the automatic prompt generator on this site can provide writers with an endless number of creative writing prompts. Other resources include writing exercises and information on dozens of different authors.

Background Noise/Music

SimplyNoise – a free white noise sounds that you can use to drown out everything around you and help you focus on your writing.

Rainy Mood – from the same founders of Simply Noise, this website offers the pleasant sound of rain and thunderstorms. There's a slide volume control, which you can increase the intensity of the noise (gentle shower to heavy storm), thunder mode (often, few, rare), oscillation button, and a sleep timer. 

Coffitivity – a site that provides three background noises: Morning Murmur (a gentle hum), Lunchtime Lounge (bustling chatter), and University Undertones (campus cafe). A pause button is provided whenever you need a bladder break, and a sliding volume control to give you the freedom to find the perfect level for your needs and moods. It’s also available as an android app, iOS app, and for Mac desktop.

Rainy Cafe – it provides background chatter in coffee shops (similar to Coffitivity) AND the sound of rain (similar to Simply Rain). There’s also individual volume and on/off control for each sound category.

MyNoise: Online Fire Noise Generator – If you love the sound of fire crackling in a fireplace, this is the site for you.

8tracks – is an internet radio website and everyone can listen for free, well it use to be completely free. Unlike other music oriented social network such as Pandora or Spotify, 8tracks doesn’t have commercial interruption (that’s if you get 8tracks Plus). Users create free accounts and can either browse the site and listen to other user-created mixes for as long as they like, and/or they can create their own mixes. It’s a perfect place to listen to other writer’s playlist, share yours or find music for specific characters or moods. Note: Joining is still free, however you’re now limited to 1 hour of free listening for each week (or more depending on how much people like your mixes). If you want unlimited access it’s $30 per year or $5.00 a month.

Playmoss – with 8tracks no longer having free unlimited listening and no commercial interruptions many people looked for an alternative and Playmoss is what 8tracks use to be. It has all the same basic features that 8tracks has, only with extra goodies like unlimited skips, able to see the entire tracklist before playing, start at any point in the playlist, see how many playlists contain a certain song and even collaborate playlists with other people.

[aidahwedo]

I blame @blackkatmagic entirely for this concept sketch and her "Baby I'm Preying on You Tonight" series which gave us Jorogumo decendant Genma....The idea ate my brain.

[aidahwedo]

There is a specific and terrifying difference between “never were” monsters and “are not anymore” monsters

“The thing that was not a deer” implies a creature which mimics a deer but imperfectly and the details which are wrong are what makes it terrifying

“The thing that was not a deer anymore” on the other hand implies a thing that USED to be a deer before it was somehow mutated, possessed, parasitically controlled or reanimated improperly and what makes THAT terrifying is the details that are still right and recognizable poking out of all the wrong and horrible malformations.

[aidahwedo]

if you would be so kind as to reblog this if you feel insecure about your writing skills.

[aidahwedo]

I made these as a way to compile all the geographical vocabulary that I thought was useful and interesting for writers. Some descriptors share categories, and some are simplified, but for the most part everything is in its proper place. Not all the words are as useable as others, and some might take tricky wording to pull off, but I hope these prove useful to all you writers out there!

(save the images to zoom in on the pics)

[aidahwedo]

Who wants to hear my new conspiracy theory about lawyers

[aidahwedo]

Submission: Can't forget that Alien DNA

Hybridization of an alien and a human working out and producing viable and stable off-spring is one thing. Doing so for another generation and having Indra and Ashura? Also possible, for all that they probably wouldn’t be precisely ¼ alien because after ½, genetics is more along percentages than progressively smaller fractions, so Indra and Ashura could feasibly be closer to half-alien than not.

Their eventual descendants doing cousins? That’s when things get nasty and not because of how close some of the bloodlines were bred. Because people and shinobi are ruthless enough to do that -especially when at war- but because as different species they have different balances in neurochemicals and hormones. When you get a strong enough throw-back to the alien like Kimmimaro, you get very puzzled med-nin.

Genetics being as they are, you have two sons with varying amounts of alien and they weren’t celibate before they fought their mother; the Hyuuga being the result of Kaguya’s younger son getting frisky before deciding to go off to the moon and live there for the rest of his life according to the Naruto wiki. Honestly with both of them being ‘sons of the Rabbit goddess’ they could easily have offspring they’ve never met; for all that Indra and Ashura have the same father, it’s never mentioned if they have the same mother in the manga.

The other thing to remember? Kaguya’s twin sons are fraternal and so have different alien DNA; hence why they look different and have different eye-techniques. That then passed on to whomever they were frisky with in varying amounts. Again, you have Kimimaro a thousand years later who is utterly alien to an expert med-nin, but more on him later.

So you get to Indra and Ashura who despite having the same father, did not inherit the same Alien DNA at work; see Indra getting the eyes and Ashura getting the ‘body.’ Because meiosis is messy and unpredictable.

Add on further dilution of Alien DNA and then mostly breeding with other clan members? Or other 'ancient shinobi’ who were possible alien-cousins of some degree? You have a bottle-neck of genetics so Alien DNA isn’t 'lost’ and neither are the expressed traits aka which ever bloodline technique it is.

And then you get 'throwbacks’ and not just recessives at work. The clan model of 'breeding’ ensures it and raises the likelihood of it.

Where in theory someone gets the genetic lottery of x% alien + y% alien > z% human ala Kimimaro.

In practice, it is something like Russian roulette with a timebomb. So yes, genetically lucky in 'look at all the alien DNA in one place’ = 'superior shinobi’ but that may or may not have a time-bomb attached depending on how the DNA works out. Because DNA to RNA to protein and if the protein isn’t right, you have problems. Proteins form ion channels, act as hormone receptors, talk to your immune system, catalyze chemical conversions/breakdowns. Add in how cross-species regulatory DNA can get messed up? Yikes.

This is Kimimaro’s pale hair and skin, his bones and utterly alien healing mechanisms because the boy tears his own bones out of his flesh. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if Kimimaro’s kinsmen were thought to have some sort of self-healing bloodlimit because that sort of DNA had to exist in clan for Kimimaro to have it in the first place. The fact that Kimimaro’s skin is pale is explainable as not having much sun; his hair being so pale when what few of his relatives are shown with dark hair implies some sort of recessive gene within the Kaguya clan or a mutation. Probably recessive, but I wouldn’t rule out some form of protein mutation somewhere. Dude died of 'mysterious disease.’

Problem is that just because someone is born, survives infancy and childhood does not mean that person is healthy physically or mentally from the onset without considering circumstances. Both Kimimaro and Itachi die due to 'mysterious disease’ and both clans they come from have a history of emotional instability with the Kaguya being super aggressive and warlike. See the Kaguya clan deciding to go to war against Kiri for funsies, see 'the Uchiha feel emotions more intensely than others.’ See the lengths Madara, Obito and other Uchiha go to for what they believe in. They have alien brains that do not comply with human normal, for all that some can pass as human. If messed-up humans due to the shinobi system being messed up.

From the perspective of 'alien brain’ you can’t use 'standard human’ psychology as by nature it is inherently different; in the 'short/overwhelmed with different neurotransmitters’ and/or possible issues in a regulation/feedback loop because there’s differences in what the body needs and what it gets and what it can and can’t process. Part of the Sharigan’s ability is to store everything the eyes see, re-writing existing memory which obviously alters brain chemistry. The Magenkyo Sharigan is implied to go further with this sort of thing and that’s why the Magenkyo sharingan users go blind in the first place. How and why eye-swapping fixes that is unknown but that can be chalked up to aliens. But using the sharigan makes brain traumatized, as the Uchiha get more erratic from using it, even more so from Magenkyo usage.

People think, 'Thousand years, Alien DNA should be diluted to inconsequential.’ And it would be, if you know, the Shinobi and Clans hadn’t bred for it and kept doing so. With the lesser 'successes’ of their not-entirely intentional breeding program dying in the Clan Wars. So it’s very plausible for the older shinobi clans to easily have individuals up to thirty or above percent alien and for those individuals to have offspring that are more human than not. Or offspring that are more alien than not. Especially when marrying inside the clan.

Add on that Itachi’s been using the sharingan since he was tiny, has had his Magenkyo for years and seems to constantly have his normal sharingan on while part of the Akatsuki? Itachi’s brain is so far from human-standard that it’s no wonder he has trouble being a person. His brain doesn’t do human-standard and considering the sharingan’s effects on the brain says that some part of the Alien DNA was lost that would prevent that from being a problem because mental instability due to eyes re-writing brain is bad.

Meanwhile the Hyuuga, for all that they have their issues… their eyes don’t cause them to go crazy. Crazier. Because apparently the Uchiha found the crazy as something to encourage, the fire-loving maniacs that they are.

[aidahwedo]

First Meetings (part B)

It had been approximately two days since he had been thrown through the portal and landed here. Cattie-Brie’s anguished blue eyes and last despairing cry echoed by Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Regis haunted his moments of quiet. He was no wizard or sorcerer to just open a way back. Given the circumstances he was not even sure that he was still in Faerun let alone Toril. All he knew was that he was no where near Mithril Hall or the temperate dale that was nestled in the cradle of the four peaks that marked the Hall’s location.

The humid heat and towering trees, far taller and thicker than any he had seen would indicate that if he were still on Toril then he was farther south than even the Calimshan Desert. While that would explain the reason that much of the local flora was unidentifiable, there was a feeling to the surroundings that hinted that this was another plane of existence entirely.

At least, if that were truly the case, it is a habitable one, Drizzt thought.

Settling his crossed arms on his knees as he leaned forwards chin resting on his arms, Drizzt contemplated what would happen should he not be able to find some way back to his friends, his home. He knew that he would continue on carve out some semblance of a life here, just as he did when he first made his way to the surface. But oh, it hurt, just the thought of having lost forever what he had struggled and fought so hard for.

Guenhywvar’s heavy black head settled onto his shoulder as the panther leaned her considerable bulk against his back. That was more comfort than anything else could be. At least he still had her with him, even if he never was able to get back to his friends, his oldest companion was still with him.

A commotion startled Drizzt out of his melancholy thoughts, and caught his attention. It sounded like a child yelling and marked the first signs he had seen or heard of sapient life. He could not understand the language, but that was not surprising, given what he suspected. Deciding to take a closer look, Drizzt could almost hear Bruenor Battlehammer’s gruff voice saying, “Ye got more curiosity than a pile o’ kittens, ye blasted elf.”

Creeping quietly through the under growth towards the sound, Drizzt tried to pin point exactly where it had come from. Gwenhyvar slipping easily through the brush and bushes like a silent shadow. He had just pin pointed the exact location of the commotion when the party dropped almost on top of him into a small clearing. Four men all with the same easily forgettable common features, though he did note the shape of their eyes was unusual by the standards he was used to, for humans at least. One of whom was carrying a small blond child no more than five years old, if he had to hazard a guess.

The child was struggling, kicking, biting, and yelling in a very obvious attempt to get away. From the adults’ irritated and nervous glances back towards the way they had come from, it was clear that they had most likely abducted the child.

That was unacceptable, Drizzt thought, even as one of the men, clearly the leader, barked an order in an unknown language at the one holding the struggling child. Drizzt frowned, eyes narrowing as he judged the situation. The most likely scenario was that the men were slavers, if that was the case then the best way to rescue the child and any other possible victims would be to track the band until they made camp.  As if following her master’s train of thought Guenhwyvar leapt silently onto a low hanging branch of a tree the tip of her tail flicking back and forth agitatedly. While his attention had been drawn to making sure where Guenhwyvar was in relation to the party, one of the men had withdrawn a long over large needle.

Familiar enough with poison, it was a favorite weapon among his race for a reason, Drizzt felt the cold rage of the hunter’s mindset snap into place. There was no more time to plan. Whirling out of the foliage that had given him cover, Drizzt gave Guenhwyvar the order to grab the child and get him to safety before giving himself over to the dance of blades and flesh. The first man fell to his blades caught by surprise at his entrance. The one holding the child didn’t even have to attempt to grab a weapon before six hundred pounds of panther dropped onto back and her powerful jaws locking around his neck crushing windpipe and spine alike.

Once thoroughly sure that her prey was dead Guenhwyvar snagged the back of the boy’s shirt and dragged him into the underbrush garnering a startled yelp.

Noting that the child was safely out of the way, Drizzt focused his full attention to removing the threat the other two men posed. Which was proving to be more difficult than expected as the men seemed to be sorcerers or possibly rogues with sorcerer training. Only honed reflexes and his elvish senses allowed him to avoid being pulled into the earth. Reflexively shrouding the area in darkness to give himself the advantage Drizzt listened for any sound that would tell him where his opponents were. The scuff of grass and leaf litter shifting to the left and slightly ahead of him reached his ears ad he leapt forwards as the tell tale rumbling behind and almost below him gave warning to another attempt to drag him into the ground.

Bringing both scimitars to bear in a scissoring motion he caught the man in the throat neatly slicing through his throat. Allowing the momentum of his swing to whirl him around to face the last enemy, his swords sliced through the man’s gut. Giving the man a mercy stab through the heart, Drizzt canceled the globe of darkness. Taking a moment to tear a clean strip of cloth off of the corpse he cleaned his blades feeling the hunter’s mindset draining away leaving him feeling tired and sore.

The child bursts from the underbrush at full tilt slamming into his legs like a sling bullet, even at five the child is as tall his waist.

Human then, most likely, Drizzt thinks and confirms when he sees the child’s rounded ears. Though there is a sense of something other, about the child that makes him not quite sure.

“Are you unharmed child?” he asks in common, hoping the child understands him. Given the way boy’s nose wrinkles and golden brows knit together in confusion over eyes as blue as the sky, he obviously doesn’t. Drizzt asks the question again in Illuskan, goblin, elvish, and in a fit of desperation High Drow and undercommon. None of the those languages garnered any recognition, and he wasn’t even going to attempt to use drow hand sign, he had learned that most of the surface races did not use hand signs to communicate, that seemed to be strictly relegated to spell casting.

Unfortunately it meant that getting the child back to his home much more difficult. It was also solid evidence that he was no longer on Faerune, even if they didn’t speak it most surface races understood common, and a fair bit could understand either elvish or goblin. He could only hope that someone was looking for this child. The boy babbled at him in a clearly questioning tone though he could not answer. Unable to understand the staccato slightly nasally language, Drizzt could only shake his head ruefully. Taking a chance he points to himself and says “Drizzt Do’Urden.”

Shoving the painful memories of the Thistledown family, he motioned to the boy who is currently sounding out his name though the pronunciation is warped almost beyond recognition. When the boy realized that Drizzt is asking for his name the boy breaks into a wide grin.

“Uzumaki Naruto ‘ttebayo!” the child exclaims brightly complete with excited hand waving and a little joyful jump. That at least was far different then the incident with the Thistledown children and soothes some of the old pain those memories. The boy continued to talk animatedly hardly pausing for breath, almost all questions based on the lilting tonal rise at the end. Uzumaki clearly didn’t mind the language barrier or the fact that he was essentially carrying on a one sided conversation content to happily babble away as Drizzt proceeded to search the bodies for any useful supplies. Ignoring weapons that he was unfamiliar in the use of he found some strange type of rations, which would supplement their food stores for a while and what appeared to be currency of some type.

He turned to Guenhwyvar and ran a slender fingered hand over the panther’s head. She had been in the physical plane for almost two days now and he could see that the strain was starting to pull at her form, it was time to let her rest. Though he would dearly miss her until he could summon her again.

“Go home and rest. I’ll be fine for the time being,” He told her gently. There’s a slight heat shimmer and the panther vanishes leaving a small onyx figurine in her place. No sooner as Guenhwyvar returned to the ethereal plane eight figures seemed to melt out of the foliage surrounding them. Drizzt curses himself for allowing himself to be so distracted by Uzumaki’s chattering and field stripping the bodies that he missed their approach. A four were perched on large tree limbs above and four on the ground. It wasn’t the best odds but with a child to protect it was better to err on the side of caution and wait for them to prove themselves enemies. In the mean time he studied the newcomers in an attempt to gauge any weaknesses.

All were dressed in black cloth with what appeared to be bone white bleached hide armor chest plates, bracers, and greaves. The most unsettling feature though were the white ceramic masks painted in the likeness of animals covering each and every individual’s face. Drizzt glanced at the child to gauge his reaction to these newcomers. The lack of fear on Uzumaki’s face and the way he was talking animatedly to at least one of them caused him to relax slightly. These must be some sort of guard similar to the Silver Knights of Silverymoon. Stooping to pick up Guenhwyvar’s statuette he took notice of the way all of the strange warriors tensed. He sighed internally he had hoped that since they had not attacked him on sight that his race was unknown to these people but that did not appear to be the case.

He slipped the figurine into the pouch at his belt and slowly raised his hands in a show of surrender to indicate that he intended no harm. Uzumaki noticing the situation seemed to be arguing with the leader. Though he could not understand what was being said it seemed that the child was arguing on his behalf which while he was grateful for hoped that it didn’t cause problems for the child in the long run. Apparently not getting the answer that he was looking for the the boy planted himself in between Drizzt and as many of the masked warriors as possible.

It appeared that he would be taken prisoner, normally he would flee and hope for a better reception elsewhere. However, given that he had no idea where he was, this was the first sign of settlement that he had encountered since landing here, and the fact that he didn’t know the local language it was probably better to go along with them. At least for now.

[aidahwedo]

First Meetings

The sensation of air rushing by his face roused Naruto towards awareness, enough to feel the rhythmic momentum of a body moving under his and hands holding him in place over someone’s shoulder. 

Had one of the animal masked ANBU rescued him from angry civilians again? He wondered groggily. He could hear low voices but couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. His head felt fuzzy, like the time he managed to steal some of Tiger san’s senbon and accidentally stabbed himself with one. The fuzzy feeling was starting to clear up and it was easier to concentrate. He could also make out what the voices were saying now.

“Are you absolutely sure about his identity? I mean you saw the way he was treated.” The voice is vaguely familiar but Naruto can’t quite place it. His thoughts still sluggish and the movement was starting to lull him back down into unconsciousness.

“The kid is the spitting image of him give or take the baby fat. He’s the right age too. Even if he isn’t he’s got too much chakra to be a no name civilian brat.”

That voice is familiar, and Naruto starts fight against the pull towards unconsciousness harder. The tea merchants! He remembers, with a start of adrenaline, they had been handing out samples. They hadn’t shooed him away from their stall like most of the merchants in the marketplace did whenever he got too close, one of them had even given him a sample. It tasted funny but better then nasty bitter stuff Hokage-jiji sometimes gave him when he came to visit him in this office. The meaning of the words finally registered to Naruto, causing him to open eyes that felt grainy and gritty as if dirt had been thrown in them, again, wide.

He had been kidnapped by spies! He had discovered enemy shinobi, they would have to make him a full shinobi now! Then the belated thought occured to him.They thought he resembled someone important! Excitement coursed through him before he realized that he had been taken from the village. He didn’t know how far away they were and with a sinking feeling he realized that the likelihood of anyone other than Jiji wanting him back was not very good and, as Hokage, Jiji couldn’t just send shinobi to look for one missing orphan. Especially one that no one else in the village wanted back, he would have to save himself.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto let loose his best war cry  before sinking his teeth into the nearest bit of flesh. Causing his captor to stumble and drop him. Naruto went plummeting towards the ground from the branches of the tall fire country trees outside the village walls from the Hokage’s window. Unfortunately one of the others managed to grab him again before he hit the ground.

“Sage dammit, Jizo, I thought you said that toxin would keep him out until we were out of Fire Country,” one of his captors snapped at the one fighting to keep a hold of him.

Naruto lashed out with fists, feet, and teeth aiming at any soft vulnerable spot he could in an attempt to make his captor lose his grip on him again to no avail.

“It should have kept him out most of the way back to Iwa. I don’t know why the brat woke up barely an hour out from the damn village!” The one holding him, Jizo, hissed back angrily. Letting loose a growl of pain as Naruto sank his teeth into the man’s arm yet again.

“Well, it would be preferable to have him alive, if he is who I suspect, dead works too. We can’t risk being caught and we have the information we came for the kid was just a bonus,” the first speaker stated. Naruto could see him pull out a senbon that been concealed in his sleeve before advancing on him.

Redoubling his effort to escape, he squirmed kicking out with his feet and tried to throw himself forwards. Anything to break the man’s grip or throw him off balance. Hoping that his feet would at least catch the guy between the legs if nothing else. Clawing, kicking, screaming, Naruto raked his finger nails down the guy’s face.

Please someone, anyone, save him. He didn’t want to die! He thought desperately even though he knew that the odds of someone saving him were slim to none. Suddenly as if in answer to his desperate prayer someone exploded out of the bushes into the small clearing taking his captors by surprise. Naruto could see the swirl of a cloak and white hair as the figure became a whirling dance of two long curving blades.

The man holding him turned as if to run only for a low snarling growl above to pull him up short. Naruto glanced up over the main’s shoulder and saw the largest black cat with golden eyes, that he had even seen. The cat leaped down from the tree above onto his captor’s back. The force threw them forward, finally breaking the man’s grip. Naruto landed on the ground a few feet away staring as the black tiger summon’s, for he couldn’t think of any other cat that would be that big, jaws closed around the kidnapper’s neck with a sickening crunch. Chancing a glance at the battle still raging, Naruto gaped as the strange shinobi seemed to whirl and dance out of the way of kunai and jutsu alike.

This was so cool! A real shinobi battle, maybe when he got back to the village and he told the other kids about about this they’d think he was cool and finally let him play with them. After all he’d bet they’d never seen a real shinobi battle before.

He started inching closer to the battle to see it more clearly when a grip on the collar of his shirt stopped him. Looking over his shoulder at whoever had grabbed his shirt put him eye to eye with the black tiger. The tiger started dragging him towards the bushes.

He started struggling a bit afraid that the summon was going to eat him. The big cat didn’t stop dragging him backwards until they were under the cover of the bushes and brush at the base of a tree. Letting go of his collar briefly only to bat him gently to the ground with an enormous paw, the summon curled up about him before he could even consider escaping. A breath of air huffed by his ear as the cat let out a rumbling exhale.

Apparently the summon wasn’t going to eat him, but it also meant that he was missing the battle! How was he supposed to tell people about the epic shinobi battle that he had witnessed, been part of even, if he missed all of it?! Every time he tried to squirm out of the tiger’s hold the cat just shifted until he was once again partially pinned by its bulk.

Naruto froze when everything went black as if he had been locked in the supply closet at the orphanage again. Shivering he huddled just a bit closer to the summon, who let out another one of those rumbling huffs and nuzzled his head a bit. The comforting gesture reminded Naruto that he wasn’t alone. It wasn’t long before he felt something warm, wet, and prickly scrape across his cheek and through his hair.

The tiger had licked him! outraged Naruto gaped at the cat as best he could in the darkness. Finally after what felt like forever  the darkness was gone as suddenly as it appeared. The tiger shifted just enough for Naruto get up and he went running to see if the battle was over and to greet his rescuer. He hit the person’s legs at a dead sprint, clearly startling them but not knocking them off balance. Looking up at his rescuer, he almost gapes. He had never seen anyone like this person ever! For one their skin was as black as the laquered boxes that Shimizu san sold, though he had never gotten to look at them very closely before getting swatted at for getting too close to his stall. Their eyes were bright purple, and they had white hair even though they didn’t look old. This person’s ears also came to strange point almost like the portrayals of youkai in their human form in some of the mangas that he had managed to find. The stranger’s face softened and in a low pleasant voice asked him...something.

Naruto scrunched his nose and frowned as he tried to decipher what had been said. He knew he didn’t exactly pay the most attention in lessons at the academy but he was pretty sure that was complete gibberish. The guy, definitely a guy even though his features were a bit delicate, tried again with slightly different gibberish. A rueful expression flitted across his face as he tried again and again with more different types of gibberish. Finally he stopped and looked slightly frustrated, Naruto just grinned brightly at the man. He had learned long ago that people frowning or looking frustrated around him usually ended up badly for him. Better to look cheerful as if it didn’t bother him. He heard the man sigh and saw the man point towards himself before slowly saying, “Drizzt Do’urden.”

It sounded funny, the sounds not translating until it dawned on him that that must be the shinobi’s name. He sounded the family name out to himself, well as close as could to it. Hopefully he wouldn’t be mad at the slightly mangled pronunciation, “Do-ri-tsu, Do-ri-tsu.”

It took Naruto a few moments to realize that the man was pointing towards him in a now you gesture. Realizing that the man wanted Naruto’s name, he smiled widely and answered, “Uzumaki Naruto ‘ttebayo!”

He couldn’t help the excited waving of his arms and the little jump that he gave as he said it. He had so many questions. Maybe the guy could understand what Naruto said, even if he spoke funny? Only one way to find out.

“Hey mister, why do you talk funny? Is the tiger your summons? Is it a boy or a girl?” he asked unable to stop himself as he watched the man, rifle through the spies’ belongings. Naruto noticed that he took anything that resembled rations and any currency that they had but left the weapons. That wasn’t good field dressing, they hadn’t covered it in the academy but Naruto had hung around outside enough shinobi bars or resturants jounin frequented to over hear all sorts of useful information.

“You’re not doing that right, always take the weapons, you never know when you might need them. Are you a missing nin? Do you belong to a village? Will you take me back to Konoha? I’m sure that JIji would let you stay if you need a home. After all you saved me so you must be good.” Naruto continued. Drizzt was really nice, he hadn’t told him to shut up yet or told him to go away. He even asked for Naruto’s name. He hoped that Drizzt would stay in Konoha, it would be nice to have someone other than Teuchi san, his daughter, and Jiji in the village that was nice. He watched Drizzt turn and pet the black tiger’s head murmuring something in that gibberish. The tiger faded away as if it had never been there all. He had so been right, the tiger was a summon animal, just like in Hokage-jiji’s stories!

There was no warning, as soon as the tiger faded from sight, ANBU ghosted out of the forest surrounding them. Naruto recognized the one in the tiger mask and the one in the dog mask as two that occasionally stepped in when the villagers got really nasty.

“Hey Tiger-san, I was kidnapped! Doritsu rescued me! It was so cool, he has a really awesome black tiger summons,” Naruto excitedly babbled at the friendlier of the two familiar ANBU.

“They thought I looked like someone important but I started to fight back because I didn’t think anyone would come after me and they were going to kill me because I woke up too soon. I was fighting too much and then Doritsu just burst out of the bushes, he didn’t even need to use any super cool jutsus! The tiger dragged me into the bushes and sat on me, so I couldn’t see the fight, which was no fair! How am I supposed to tell about the epic shinobi battle I saw when I didn’t get to see the end of it?” Naruto took a breath before continuing on, not letting the ANBU get a word in edgewise.

“Then things got dark, like locked in the closet dark. Then everything got bright again. I don’t know how long it was dark for, but i wasn’t scared. Doritsu talks funny. I can’t understand him at all he only talks gibberish, I only know his name because he was pointing to himself when he said it. He’s still really nic...” Naruto trailed off as he noticed the ANBU tense suddenly. Looking around for the threat he saw Drizzt raising his hands slowly palms out fingers spread in surrender.

That wasn’t right! Drizzt wasn’t an enemy. He had saved Naruto and he was nice. Turning back to the tiger masked Anbu he frowned mulishly.

“Stop it! He’s a good guy! He saved me, even if he talks funny. Let me tell Jiji, he’s not a bad guy. Jiji will understand that he’s not a bad guy, so stop it!” He cried out fists clenched. He couldn’t let them hurt one of the few people who had been nice to him. The tiger masked shinobi sighed in a voice muffled by porcelain, “Uzumaki kun, even if he saved you we don’t know who he is, where his allegiances lay, or even if he is missing nin.”

Naruto frowned and scrunched his nose as he tried to figure out the meaning of one word, “What does allegiance mean?’

It was the dog masked shinobi that answered, “It means loyalty, kid.”

Naruto stuck his tongue out at the man’s gruff answer.

“Why didn’t you say that in the first place?” He demanded of Tiger.  Noticing that the other ANBU had started inching closer and tighter as the conversation had been going, Naruto ran, planting himself between as many of them and Drizzt as possible arm crossed and eyes narrowed in a defiant glare.

“Look kid as long Doritsu cooperates and comes quietly without trouble, we’ll take him back to the village with us. After asking a few questions if you’re right and he isn’t an enemy or a spy then we’ll talk to Hokage sama about letting him stay. Sound good, brat.” An unfamiliar ANBU in a bear mask said with an exasperated sigh. Naruto straightened, that was all right then. They would see that Drizzt san was a good guy! Then he could live in the village, maybe he could even live with Naruto in his apartment.

**************************

Notes:

For those not familiar with Japanese and or the Naruto ‘verse

Jiji- translates into Old Man or Grandpa

When introducing one’s self the family/last name is presented first not the individual’s first name. So Naruto thinks that Drizzt is his family name and that Do’Urden is his first name. This will be a running joke through the story, with much embarrassment and horror on both sides when the mistake is figured out.

ANBU stands for Ansatsu-Senjutsu-Tokushu-Butai literally meaning Special Assassination and Tactical Squad, they are basically the black ops of the village.

Also Naruto keeps calling Guenhwyvar a tiger because as far we’ve been shown in the Naruto ‘verse panthers/leopards are not known however tigers are and are native to Fire Country so that would be the only cat that he knows gets that big.

[aidahwedo]

it’s all you americans talk about… liminal space this… cryptid that

[aidahwedo]

Kat you’re reblogging drizzt stuff and damn that brings back memories. (But also now I’m thinking of drizzt einding up in konoha and just. Adopting naruto and sasuke. That’s it that’s the plot.)

Omg, write it. I would pay to see that, ngl. Imagine Naruto bonding with Guen! Image Sasuke trying to get her paw-print. Imagine how well ranger stuff would mesh with ninja stuff. It would be perfect. 

[aidahwedo]

sparklecryptid replied to your post “Kat you’re reblogging drizzt stuff and damn that brings back memories….”

okay but artimes enteri coming to the naruto verse with drizzt and open finding out drizzt has adopted children of all things he comes to konoha only to wind up adopting naruto and sasuke too. grumpy dad enteri and awkward dad drizzt is what im getting at

So like. Should I be paying in souls or chocolate here? 

(Also, Jarlaxel.)

[aidahwedo]

Though I wander, I am not lost

I blame @blackkatmagic and @sparklecryptid for this snippet of story that will not leave me alone. There was a conversation on blackkatmagic's tumbler a few weeks ago about a crossover with the Legend of Drizzt Series and Naruto. Their conversation sparked this plot bunny and so here have an excerpt of the story idea that will not leave me alone:

Inoichi kneaded his brow trying desperately to stave off the migraine that was threatening to split his head apart; as he observed the puzzle that was driving Shikaku to frothing fits. Said puzzle sat calmly in the interrogation/observation room with his eyes closed and seemed to be meditating. The unusually cooperative prisoner was a study of contradictions and mysteries.

The first and foremost of which being where the hell had the man come from? His coloring would suggest Kumo or Lightning country in general; however, his skin was far darker than even that of most Lightning Country natives. It was almost the exact shade of fine lacquerware. His clothing and weapons did not give answers either, in fact just invited more questions. A heavy cloak lined for cold weather, leather bracers and chest piece over a shirt of linked rings so fine it draped like knit fabric, and knee high leather boots that were obviously not of standard shinobi issue. His swords were an unfamiliar style and make, and far too ornamented and gaudy for most shinobi. If they had not examined the blades closely they would have assumed they were purely ornamental blades more for show than use.

Then there was the reason he assumed his friend and teammate had dropped this puzzle in his lap; the man did not speak any known language. It simply wasn't a matter of him speaking a dialect that had wandered so far from the main language it was practically a different language; no the languages, at least five different ones, that the cryptology department could make out, were unrelated to any of the dialects that were spoken in the Hidden Countries. That knowledge had sent the cryptology department into gleeful caffeine fueled all nighters trying to decipher them only to collapse in despair as they realized that they were unrelated to any known language.

"What do you think?" His friend murmured quietly as he leaned against the wall next to him. Inoichi shot a glance at the scarred visage of Shikaku Nara.

"You would drop this puzzle in my lap, my friend," he replied with an exasperated sigh.

"It's rare enough that I find a puzzle I can't solve and this one is costing me sleep. Hopefully you'll have better luck before the brat stages a coup to try and get him released." The jounin commander rubbed a weary hand over his face before groaning, "So troublesome." A slight twitch from the prisoner at the groan caught the Yamanaka clan head's eye.

Better than baseline human hearing. Might indicate a kekkai genkai,he noted.

They would need to be careful with anything said aloud, even if they weren't sure that the prisoner understood their language at all. Still he turned over Shikaku's last comment. He knew of course the circumstances that had landed Konoha with this enigma; however, the idea that their jinchuuriki had gotten so attached to the potential threat in the space of half an hour. Less if one counted the fact that approximately twenty minutes of that time frame was the actual fighting. Shooting a speculative look at his friend and raised a brow in askance, knowing that the Nara had caught the movement from the prisoner. At the slight nod the other gave he gave in to the impulse to voice that last thought.

"How did he get so attached in such a short amount of time? Genjutsu?"

"Worse," Shikaku murmured disgutedly, "He was kind to him, that's all." The realization at just how easy it would be to shift the boy's loyalties chilled the Yamanaka clan head to the bone.

"Damn," he said because there were no words for just how badly the village had screwed up in regards to the boy.

"Troublesome." The jounin commander agreed with him gravely. Well he had spent enough time stalling, and he trusted his friend to be able to protect his body while he was vulnerable. He took a deep breath and triggered his clan's kinjutsu.

Inoichi's conciousness fled his body and flew like a stooping falcon towards his target. It feels like hitting water at high velocity a sharp stinging impact that shatters the surface when his mind encounters the other. The resistance that the other mind gives is startling but not entirely unexpected; the serious push backwards is, however. Redoubling his will and narrowing his focus into a honed point he pushes forward harder. The resistance suddenly gave way as if it had never been at all.

He found himself standing on the slope of a rocky crag, snow dusting the ground and a shallow cave at his back. A snowy tundra stretches out before him giving way to a looming mountain range. The mountain range tapers off into four nearly identical peaks with a temperate valley cradled at their base. Even farther to the south a verdant grove can be seen and nestled into the boughs of several trees a sprawling tree house could be seen. It was a mindscape unlike any he had ever encountered, with a depth of imagery and detail only found in an Uchiha's memories. The sound of shifting rocks behind him at the mouth of the cave sent Inoichi whirling to face the mindscape's owner.

Calm bright violet eyes regarded him with suspicion and calculation. The man's easy stance belied the tells that only a trained shinobi would notice meant the individual was prepared to spring into battle at a moments notice. The fact that the other considered his weapons an extension of himself to the extent that they appeared in his mindscape was a testament to how dangerous this individual was.

"So they've brought a psion to try and pry my guilt or innocence from me." The other's mental avatar said in a low, pleasant oddly melodic voice that did little to disguise the threatening undertone. Inoichi did not sigh in relief when he could understand what the mental avatar had said, including the odd word that seemed to translate into mindwalker or mindreader, but it was a near thing only prevented by years of shinobi training.

"If this is the only way to prove to you that I mean no harm to you and yours then I will allow it. However 'ware your steps psion, a human's mind was not made for the length and breadth of an elf's memories and lifespan." he continued, seemingly unaware of the relief Inoichi was feeling. Furrowing his brows at the words, the way the other spoke about himself it was as if were not human. Though he had heard of some clans with kekkai genkai using that fact as validation that they were more than human.

"Are you not human yourself, then?" He asked before he could stop himself. It was better to find out now if this individual suffered from that particular delusion, rather than later. The mental avatar cocked his head to the side just enough to show an ear that tapered into a delicate sharp point that had until now been hidden by thick white hair. White brows furrowed in confusion.

"Is that not why you have held me captive? Because I am drow? You speak as if you have never encountered or heard of elves, let alone my people. If not because of my race's reputation then why have you held me prisoner?" The other man asked confusion and a growing thread of threat in his voice.

The pressure of will tinged with killing intent threatened to forcibly eject Inoichi from this individual's mind. A warning that he was only allowed in this mind so long as the owner allowed it. Thinking fast on how to answer the question, he decided to tell as much of the truth without giving away sensative details as possible. Hopefully the other would not lose the tether on his temper that Inoichi could feel was ready to rage at a moments notice in whirlwind of killing intent and bloodlust.

"I've never heard of your race, for all I know you're another mentally unstable shinobi with god complex because he has a kekkai genkai. No, we've held you prisoner because your appearance was too convenient. An enemy village's spies manages to kidnap one of our citizens and you just happen to show up in time to stage a rescue conveniently close to our village. You aren't listed in any bingo book that we can find; we cannot figure out where you came from or where your loyalties lie. Add to that you bear a resemblance to the people from native to a country that we are on uneasy terms with. Given the recent breach in our security, you can understand why we are suspicous can't you?" He states carefully. His only response is a huff of breath and an easing of the mental pressure that had been prevasively bearing down on him.

"My name Drizzt Do'Urden. I stand by my earlier words, I'll allow this invasion if it will convince you that I mean no harm to you and yours. If you want to know who I am and where I come from my earliest memories are through this cave. 'Ware your steps psion I've made my peace with those memories I've no wish to revisit them. I'll not play guide for you, when you wish to move beyond those years follow the cooler air out. Tread carefully your presence here is only by my allowance." He said stepping aside from the cave's mouth, no longer shallow but a yawning black descent.