Memory of Sand Ch. 6

The drop was deeper and longer than Yuki had expected, for a split second she though perhaps she had fallen into another trap but seeing the dark outlines of statues along the walls in the dim light allayed that fear.  Focusing her chakra Yuki imagined herself reaching out and becoming one with the air around her.  A little trick she had learned from Neji, emitting chakra from multiple points on her body she could temporarily harden the air around her to stop kunai or slow herself while falling.  It was not useful in combat as it required too much concentration to properly release the technique.

Touching down, she released the technique and caught her breath from the exertion.  Stilling her mind she got her head back to her task and examined the room as best she could.  To say this chamber was large was an understatement, twelve statues stood in a circle around her, arms upheld as though holding up the ceiling, each statue had a door built into its base.  Each of the stony faces seemed to have a different expression, but it was hard to see in the dark.  Eventually she worked out the details; faces were looking at each other, directly, or in triangles.  All except for one statue, that one was blindfolded and not looked at by any of the others.

Trusting her instinct she went through that door and found herself in a hallway lined with more statues and doorways, but these were smaller in scale, only three meters high instead of hundreds.  There were five types of floor tiles: black, white, tiles with stars mosaics, diamond mosaics, and moon mosaics.  The problem with traps is that it is sometimes difficult to perceive the nature of the traps.  Yuki saw that the first statue had a diamond pattern on its forehead, but a white enameled gold collar around its neck.  Other statues had black enameled silver collars and other patterns on their bodies, did that mean those tiles were safe to step on or would set off the trap?

"When in doubt… don't play by the rules."  Focusing her chakra into her feet, Yuki jumped up to the ceiling and began walking upside down, avoiding all the tiles entirely.  That strategy paid off as eventually the hallway opened up on one side upon a vast room that was bathed in moonlight.  That did not make sense at first until she saw a gigantic stone in the side of the wall shaped like the moon that seemed to be the source of all the light.  On the wall opposite from it was an equally large stone shaped like the sun.

The rest of the chamber was equally impressive, circular in appearance with columns that looked like natural stalagmites and stalactites joining together.  Water flowed from ground wells into a circle around a central dais.  Dark stone statues surrounded the ring which ended with a bridge that led to a door that was had four additional statues posed as though in combat in such a way that blocked the way to the door.

"He's running amok out there and all you want to do is delay him?"  A voice came from down in the chamber.  Yuki pressed herself against the ceiling and was grateful she had remembered to tie her clothes tight.  Two people were talking, a woman with hard, dark-blue eyes had her faced covered though honey blonde hair was visible, the other was a very large man, grey haired and stone-faced but from his physique Yuki thought he was still in his prime.

"Our men are doing their jobs.  They hid the fact that we made it though the main tunnels, forcing Gaara to take the side passages to get down here.  All we need is to take control of the stone golems and he'll be finished.  Meanwhile our reserve forces are about to ambush his reinforcements, soon we'll be in the vault and all the knowledge of Sunagakure will be ours."

"Yeah, but you still haven't been able to get into the vault Unsho."  Unsho, that name sounded familiar.  The large katana strapped to his back meant something, but she could not place it.

"We're just one seal away, no mistakes.  We can't afford to trigger the traps until we get control of them.  Until the last seal is released, they'll obey the Kazekage."

She could see the eyes of one of the men begin to look around the room.  Taking cover in the shadows of one of the pillars hid her from view, but somehow she did not feel content with staying still.  The traps all seemed to be designed to keep people moving, the moving walls and the trapped floor tiles; to what end she could not say.

Staying high to the ceiling, Yuki made her way around the room on the upper floor.  Stairways led down to the center of the room from the upper balcony, but she remained up high.  Hidden behind the stone head of one of the statues was a small door, which would be invisible from ground level.

'Another trap?' She thought to herself.  No, the previous door she saw had been marked by a different emblem, this one had newer marking, the symbol of Sunagakure made from a shield with a spear above it.  'The shield and the spear.  It can't be just a coincidence.'

Before she dropped down in front of the door her hand slid along the smooth surface of the ceiling as she felt a faint vibration.  For a moment she thought it could be Gaara and the dynamite, but it did not have the power or jolt of dynamite, it was subtle.  'Hidden rock jutsu.'

Pulling free the senbon from her sleeves, Yuki dropped to the floor as a ninja emerged from the rock itself.  The sound of a blade slicing through empty air where she was just a moment before was more relief than frightening.  'A missed opportunity exposes the attacker, you have the advantage.'  Giving a silent thanks to her teachers, Yuki twisted as she fell; grabbing the sword hand she pulled herself back up to the ceiling.  Resetting her internal sense of gravity was a trick she had learned from Tenten (and all of her nausea inducing acrobatics), the world shifted before her eyes as the ceiling became her ground.

Only now did she realize her opponent was a kunoichi, older than she and dressed in black desert robes.  Before she could let out a sound, Yuki threw her senbon at the girl's neck, the first she blocked with her sword, but the second was hidden in the shadow of the first.  The girl removed the senbon from her neck, as it was a slight penetration and turned her head towards the main room as if to yell, but no sound came.  The needle had done its work and shut down the muscles controlling her vocal chords.  A wound like that would only work for a few minutes until the local shock wore off, but that was enough time for Yuki.

The older woman tried to disappear into the rock, but Yuki charged forward and wrestled the sword from her hand before she did.  Just from the way the hilt felt Yuki knew the blade was good.  From their position on the ceiling it was still another ten feet until the wall face where she could jump out into the center of the room.  Running forward and staying in the shadow of the statue's head, Yuki listened to the faint sound of stone scraping and pierced her sword into the rock.

A jolt shook the entire cave, as dust long accumulated on the hall's ceiling shook off and fell to the ground.  The sound of the blast that followed confirmed that it was the dynamite.  Another, much closer, shake came as the kunoichi fell out of the ceiling and down to the ground clutching her cut arm.  Jumping down, Yuki reset her balance and pulled out the wire cord she kept in her supplies.  Tying up the woman, she left her on the ground.  Then taking pity on her, she bandaged up the wound on her arm.  From the sound of her breathing her vocal chords were starting to recover.  Wadding up the rest of the bandage she shoved it into the woman's mouth before walking over to the door.

Yuki waited there, feeling the door.  It was pressure sensitive, designed to open when it was pushed.  But she knew it was going to make quite a sound.  She waited for the next pressure wave from the dynamite to hit.  The anticipation combined with her short but intense struggle made her shake in spite of herself.  Still, this was a tomb.  Tombs are supposed to be scary; at least that's how the stories go.

The earth shook under her feet and she pushed forward just as the sound from the explosion hit.  Reverently walking into the room Yuki found numerous sarcophagi lining the sides of the room.  Each seemed to be part of a pair, matched with one on the other side of the room.  It did not take her long to see that the pairs were linked, husbands and wives.  An odd practice, but one she did not have the time to consider.

'Is this the real burial chamber?'  Yuki asked herself.  Gripping the sword tighter, she turned and opened her senses towards the hall behind her and the room around her.  She was not being followed nor did there seem to be any devices to this room.  But if this room was so easy to enter, what was the room below with the statues guarding it?

At the end of the hall was a great dais, bathed in the same moonlight as the main chamber.  Upon it were two thrones with many tables surrounding them.  On the smaller throne, with a moon above the head, lay a very simple looking shield.  On the other, a grand throne with a sun above it laid the grandest spear she had ever seen.

A sound from behind her filled the hall; it was a low, monotone voice.  "Stay here.  I'll come get you when I finish with him."  Gaara, who had appeared so suddenly, was walking out of the room again.  Trying to follow him, Yuki stepped in a pile of sand and felt her feet stuck to the ground.  Something felt wrong about this.  Gaara was walking down the stairs, and Yuki could not help but notice that sand seemed to be leaking off him, his sand armor was falling off.  But the sand was not the only trail he was leaving behind, but he was wet with blood.  Gasping in horror, Yuki realized that it was Gaara's own.