Hidden In the Stars

"Have you thought about it, Chrono?" the admiral asked, leaning against the doorframe that led into the fully decorated quarters.

"Yes, Admiral. I've decided that it's for the best," Chrono said, nodding at her. "Fate and Nanoha will be contacted. I have no doubt what their answer will be. I don't want to interrupt their training, but…"

Chrono Harlaown hated to have to do this, but he did need help from two of the most famous civilian collaborators he knew of. Few had a rise in notoriety as meteoric as Takamachi Nanoha and Fate Testarossa. He knew those two, how they worked and their abilities… it was no wonder he trusted Nanoha and Fate with such an important operation. But this operation… It was nothing like the one prior.

This time, their opponent wasn't a dying mage barely holding onto her sanity. They were no longer inexperienced little girls, tossing around high powered spells without thinking of which one was better suited to the situation. He'd seen them in training, he'd trained with them on occasion, and he'd been there to see Fate be accepted into the Enforcer program.

"Then we should contact them," the Admiral said, clearly giving him a suggestion, before she turned around and left. "Oh, and, don't forget to get Amy a gift. You know that we don't like it when you thoughtless men forget important dates," she said, grinning eagerly.

"Mother..!" Chrono said, his face coloring. "My interpersonal relationships are none of your business."

"I'm your commanding officer for the time being, so yes, it is part of my business, and I'm also your mother, which means I get dibs to tease you about it," she said, laughing as she left, before he could formulate a response.

Chrono took a deep breath and redirected his anger into the computer he was typing into. Sometimes he wished that he had a physical keyboard, so that he could hear the satisfying clacking of the keys as he smashed his fingers into them, maybe it'd help him get rid of the temper his mother had provoked. However, he didn't let it keep hold of his mind for long, and instead, he opened an old document he'd received quite a while ago.

Rereading it, he frowned and dug into one of his pockets, retrieving a silver card and bringing it up so he could examine it.

The book… it had to be stopped. It had to be stopped before it destroyed yet another world. His hand clenched around the shaft of Durandall. Could he..? In the end, could he bring himself to do it?

He hoped he could. It was their last… their only chance to seal it off for good. Eleven years of work… All for this moment. It was… not something he wished to do. Much as he wanted to see its threat ended…

To say that he didn't like the way it had to end would be an understatement.

Chrono's eyes closed as he waited for the Asura to reach the teleporting distance of the coordinates the tracker had given for the book. Admiral Gil Graham's work was exemplary in many aspects, and he'd dedicated too much to this operation. Chrono would not disappoint the man who'd helped raise him by failing now. They'd detected the general vicinity of the book. With a bit of luck, the knights would reveal themselves once more, and they'd be able to track them to a single planet, narrowing the search even further.

Leaving the bridge, and ignoring the calls from around him, Chrono retired to his room. He had to meditate on what was coming.

***

Naruko giggled excitedly as she watched the impressive shinobi fights below her, from the Kage Box, seated on the Sandaime Hokage's right side. Normally, only Kage would be in the aptly named Kage Box, but Naruko had begged to be allowed to watch the fights, and her pout and teary eyes had been classified as a lethal weapon, as of late, so she'd gotten her way regardless.

Really, Naruko could be a spoiled rotten brat at times, and it was only her innate ability at manipulating her own cuteness as well as her less than favorable situation that let her get away with it. Being close to the Hokage didn't hurt.

It took quite a bit of convincing to send the Knights away, since it'd be quite a bit harder to swing armed bodyguards past the Kazekage, and the man would jump at the chance to bring his own security. Since it was a stupid idea to allow a Kage to bring an entourage with which he could distract Sarutobi long enough to assassinate him, they had to forgo Naruko's usual protection detail. Allies or no allies, the Kazekage was still a foreign ninja, and it'd be almost insulting if he didn't at least make an attempt at stabbing such a well presented back.

It was just normal ninja etiquette.

Of course, there was also the fact that the Kazekage had been acting suspicious for a long time now.

"They're all so strong..!" Naruko muttered, mostly to herself. "What's that?"

"That's called a war fan," Sarutobi said. "Though I'm sure Kazekage-dono could explain it more thoroughly than me, right?" the Hokage asked, turning to the Kazekage.

"Don't sell yourself short, Professor," the Kazekage said, shaking his covered head. "Regardless, I suppose I can. The War Fan is an old and well known traditional weapon of Suna. Its use was born of the need to stop the massive sandstorms that assault the village proper every fortnight or so. Any given wind jutsu wouldn't be enough, and so, instead of having to rely on massive teams of wind users, the War Fan was developed. It looks like any normal, if gigantic, fan, but it's actually covered with seals making it tougher and more able to channel wind chakra, which paper excels at."

"So… it's basically an amplifier for wind ninja magic?" Naruko asked.

"Put simply, yes, it works like that," the Kazekage said. "It is a very difficult weapon to handle, and my daughter—"

"Just lost it," Naruko commented.

Indeed, it seemed the Kazekage's daughter had lost 'it', and by it, Naruko didn't mean the fan. It appeared her opponent had gone and done something to anger her, as she had opened her fan fully and was now sending massive waves of wind to ravage the land before her, while her opponent seemed to be dodging for dear life. "Temari needs more discipline," the Kazekage stated, simply.

"That she does. If an insult as simple as 'You should stay in the kitchen and bring me a sandwich when I ask for it' can rile her up to this level," Sarutobi said, shaking his head. "I actually have a ninja who specializes in taunting people. I'm pretty certain they'd be able to make her explode if her temper is this poor."

"I thought that was a rumor," the Kazekage said.

"Ninja who specialize in taunting people are a fairy tale," Sarutobi said, waving his hand.

"That sounds really, really fun though. How did she know what that guy said, old man? We're really far!" Naruko said.

"I can read his lips," Sarutobi said, shrugging.

"He's facing the other direction," Naruko said, frowning.

"I'm just that cool," Sarutobi replied, giving her a cheeky grin.

"Uzumaki-kun, I am fairly certain he heard it when the announcer repeated it. You were just not paying attention," the Kazekage supplied.

"Aw… that's cheating!"

Incidentally, Temari was stopped by the announcer, one Gekko Hayate, before she could actually catch her opponent in one of her jutsu fully, instead of the four glancing hits the boy had taken. It'd been enough to nearly shred him, and so he was carried off the arena while Temari was told to calm down or face disqualification for unruly behavior.

The announcer took a microphone that a stagehand ninja gave him and cleared his throat. He sounded somewhat bored. "And now, could Uchiha Sasuke and Kankuro of Suna report to the arena? If you don't, you'll be disqualified, and that just sucks."

"He is putting a lot of energy into this, isn't he?" the Kazekage stated, dryly.

"To be fair, I saw what we interrupted to draft him to do this. I don't blame him for being unenthusiastic," the Hokage stated.

"What could possibly be so important that he would protest in such fashion?" the veil covered man asked.

"I think Signum said her name was Yuugao, right?" Naruko chirped.

"…Huh. Well, I'd be angry, as well," the Kazekage admitted.

Before long, Sasuke and Kankurou had faced off. Much like the prior battle, there was very little in the way of a contest in this one.

"YOU THINK YOU KNOW SHIT ABOUT POISON!? I'LL SHOW YOU POISON!"

Kankuro had learned that you don't ever want to try hallucinogenic poison against a student of Mitarashi Anko, because they're already crazy, and will just go crazier. The fact that Sasuke was currently chasing him while wielding Crow as a club and swinging it around like a lunatic was just icing on the cake. He wound up forfeiting when Sasuke shrugged off four different kinds of lethal poison and spat a glowing purple glob that melted halfway through Kankuro's metal plated headband before he could remove it.

"…I… don't think we can blame Kankuro for this," Sarutobi said. "He couldn't have expected his opponent would have a psychological breakdown midfight."

"But shouldn't he have gathered some information on his opponents or something?" Naruko asked, tilting her head. "I mean, whenever Signum, Vita or Zafira are going to fight somebody, they always try to gather as much information on them as Konoha has," she noted.

"She is right," the Kazekage said. "Let me be the first to say that, weren't it for your unfortunate condition, you'd have made a splendid ninja, Naruko-chan," the Kazekage said, absentmindedly patting her head.

Naruko giggled. "Thank you," she said, grinning.

"Kankurou should've researched his opponent. I believe just asking around would've yielded an answer. Mitarashi is… not particularly low profile, and neither is Uchiha-kun. Still… his breakdown was very well faked. It almost convinced me."

"Oh, you noticed?" Sarutobi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, yes, I've seen my fair share of crazies. They are rarely as efficient as Sasuke showed himself to be. No, I do believe he was faking it to intimidate Kankuro. It appears that unlike my son, Sasuke might have researched his opponent…"

After Hayate took center stage once more, he coughed a little and faced the audience… which was all around him. "Now, would Rock Lee of Konoha and… I can't pronounce that, I'm gonna try anyway, Ikutsk… Ikustu… That Guy from Ame reports to the arena?"

"…It's not that hard," Naruko frowned. "Ikutsuki," she said, almost as if testing it.

"I think he did it on purpose," Sarutobi said, nodding.

The fight lasted like ten seconds anyway. Rock Lee simply ran to his opponent and decked him before he could throw his needle umbrella into the air. Just like that, it was over.

"That had to be the most boring fight yet," Naruko said. "I demand a repeat! With Lee-kun's hands tied behind his back, and a weight tied to his legs!"

"Maybe later," Sarutobi said.

"Now, will Gaara of Suna and Aburame Shino of Konoha report to the arena?"

"…Shino-kun will forfeit," Sarutobi said.

"Of course he will. Gaara being here is just a formality, after all," the Kazekage said.

Sarutobi nodded.

Naruko tilted her head, confused. However, Shino did exactly that.

"Discretion is an imprescindible part of valor. That must be commended, don't you agree?" Sarutobi asked, turning to the Kazekage.

"Truly, I do. Knowing when to fold has saved me many a hand," the Kazekage noted.

Most of the fights were quite boring, with the highlights being commentary made by the Kage. Naruko was actually treated to what amounted to two expert players critiquing everything that the newbies did wrong, and praising them whenever they showed potential or promise. The fact that those two clearly knew everything ninja from inside out certainly made a great deal of difference in whether their commentary was entertaining or not.

It was a lot easier to laugh at their jokes when you knew that they were right.

Finally, though, the matches became more entertaining as the third and final rounds approached. The semi finals had the two Kage be a lot more silent, as they chose to watch the fights and comment only afterwards, while Naruko was treated to the cream of the genin showing exactly why they'd been the ones chosen to represent their villages.

Finally, though, the finals rolled around. After a semi final round with really amazing matches, it was up to the two final contestants.

"This is it, Hokage-dono, the final fight. The pride of my village, my son Gaara, against Uchiha Sasuke, the last of an once illustrious clan. A bout for the ages, eh?" the Kazekage asked.

"Perhaps," Sarutobi admitted.

And then the fight was on. Sasuke moved really, REALLY fast! Like, he was just a blur and Naruko could barely track him fast! But it seemed that no matter what he did, he just could not pierce Gaara's defenses.

However, it seemed that Sasuke had one ultimate plan.

And like any good Uchiha, it had him defaulting to what his clan did best.

Kill it with fire. And if fire doesn't work, then it's because you're not using enough fire.

It turned out that the sand shield wouldn't really work against heat, so to speak. Which meant that while Gaara was not being hurt by the flames themselves, he was being cooked alive the more he remained close to the fire. Running away didn't help, since whatever technique Sasuke had used seemed to chase Gaara no matter where he went, even if Gaara created walls of sand, the fire just parted and flowed around them.

Eventually, he was surrounded by fire and cornered, at which point he created a sphere to shield himself. That turned out to be an even worse idea, however, as now he was practically in a sealed oven.

However, when it parted, what emerged wasn't a piece of toasted boy…

No.

What came out of the sphere was instead half a boy, and half a monstrosity made of sand.

Feathers rained down the stadium.