Chapter 8

The sun descended to set, soon it would take the warmth away, and the Land of Iron would fall into the state of frostbite.

No one would want to go out at that time except for important tasks or business, they would rather stay at home and lit the fire up to comfort themselves.

But Okita hadn't moved a single bit, in front of him was a tomb; his father's tomb.

In the midst of brewing cold, the icy air crept into the skin, his eyes, however, remained dull, no matter the coldness, they were lifeless... emotionless.

His father, his brother… both had gone, leaving him with no one, alone, Okita felt his entire life was thrown into a dark hole.

Should he weep? Should he scream? But the tears wouldn't come out, the grief and depression sank so deep in the marrow of his bone that he realized they had sucked the tears away.

Hatred and sorrow, one mixed with another and formed a new emotion; a desire, one might lead to justice or another sorrow.

So Okita just stood there, confused, like a child lost a toy, like an adventurer lost a map,

If people passed by, they would have mistaken him for a statue, his coarse skin resembled those of stones, and his hair was gray.

Okita knew the mission, the parting words his father left behind.

Take over the land of Iron, revitalize the Samurai Empire, set war against the Shinobi, and kill Sasuke Uchiha.

These goals were too much, at least for someone like him, because all he got is worthless katana and a technique; prideful one, but insufficient…

To take over the land, he couldn't just go to Mifune, asked for a duel, and demanded the land if he won, no, that's not how it worked, there were a set of rules to overcome.

For instance, the seat of the leader would fall to the people from the royal family first, and if there were no qualified people, their next of kin would become the most obvious first choice, and no doubt, there would be someone among them that was qualified.

To revitalize the Samurai Empire, it built upon the 4 pillars; ideology, the talented people, the supremacy rule, and the stable resource.

To set war against the Shinobi, would require long preparations, including the first two tasks, then a massive amount of war assets and money.

However, killing Sasuke Uchiha... some people would have thought it would be the easiest among the other tasks, well, yes if Sasuke Uchiha was just any regular people.

Who didn't know Sasuke Uchiha? The friend of the War Hero, Naruto Uzumaki. The man who fought alongside him to defeat Kaguya Otsutsuki, the man who earned the nickname the prodigy of the Uchiha clan.

If Okita challenged Sasuke Uchiha, the chance of him would win no even close to 1%, even assassination would just increase his chance of winning so little that it was not worth mentioning.

Okita sighed, for the first time in the few hours following his father's burial, he let out a complex emotion, he was shivering, but not due to the cold, but the heavy burdens rested on his shoulder.

What could a man with worthless katana and a technique do to finish these missions? A samurai was someone who observed their oath, whether it was because out of the willingness of the heart or not, and breaking it meant betrayal, betrayal meant Earth and Heaven condemnation.

"Heaven, give me strength..." Okita mumbled, his eyes were staring weakly at the grave.

...

For the rest of the three days, Sasuke and Erza spent their time training and conversing, Erza knew Sasuke was from the Elemental Nation and became curious about the land, but Sasuke's talent in this manner was horrible, the way he described things similar like an old man's tale, Erza managed to resist the urge to fall asleep, thanks to her willpower.

She noticed that he was missing an arm; she didn't have the courage to ask him about it until one day ago.

It was after another intense training, she was dead tired, but he didn't lose his cool at all, making her frustrated but she had slightly gotten used to it, then they were relaxing under the tree, the breezing of the wind and the warmth of the sun were undeniably perfect, the conversation between them also smooth, there was even a little bit jokes flying about.

"Sasuke, can I ask you something?" Erza said with a hesitant tone.

The man glanced at her, his purple eyes seemed to hold enigmatic presence, and then he nodded.

"What happen… with your arm?" she silently prayed she hadn't offended him.

Sasuke shifted his attention to the missing piece; he said in a coy manner, "Two people took it from me."

"Were you in a fight?"

Sasuke nodded.

"How it happened?"

"Well, they are stubborn people," Sasuke said.

"What happened with those people?"

"…" Sasuke went silent, and then Erza saw a smile crept at the corner of his lips, he said, "the most stubborn win and they rekindle."

"Hm?" Erza tilted her head; she didn't understand the meaning behind his words. However, Erza didn't pursue the question any further.

Now, the time had come for them to fight the monster, or at least they hoped so because the monster's timing to attack was pure Erza's assumption.

Sasuke and Erza stood above the roof of a house, they had ordered the townsfolk to evacuate further in case things got out of hand, and Sasuke also had summoned a clone to watch the mysterious ruin inside the forest.

He remembered the footprints, he knew they must have belonged to something big, probably the monster, but when he checked it a few days ago, the monster was nowhere to be found.

"Have you ever fought the monster based on the Chief's description?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't know," Erza said, "I fought a lot of horned monsters, so I may have."

One hour passed, two hours… three… four…

"Maybe I was wrong…" Erza frowned.

"Who knows," Sasuke shrugged.

Another hour passed…

"You should come to visit Fairy Tail," Erza smiled at him, despite they were standing for these many hours, neither the man nor the woman looked bothered.

"Not interested," Sasuke said with deadpanned tone.

"That's not nice; a beautiful lady has invited you…" Erza sighed.

"Even the king himself invite me, I wouldn't go."

"Fine, never come to Fairy Tail!" Erza crossed her arms and looked the other way.

Sasuke glanced at her, and he shook his head with a little helpless smile, said, "I was kidding."

"I am not!" Erza snapped a look at him, making Sasuke wrinkled his right eye.

"Pu…" she suddenly chuckled, couldn't help but cover her lips.

"Alright, I was joking too."

"About the invitation?"

"The invitation is real!"

A couple of hours passed, the sky above had changed color.

"Maybe a missing lottery…" Erza said with some boredom in her tone, Sasuke had to admit that his time was being wasted a lot.

"Should we keep waiting?"

Erza didn't answer; she just looked at the town's gate, but nothing was coming.

Sasuke laid down on the roof with his hand under his head, his sight set straight toward the sky.

"Erza, what do you think about the sky?"

She glanced at him, then shifted her attention upward, said, "It's a boundary no man has known about."

"Up there, from the limit of our sight, a vast universe spread, our presences are no different than a drop of water, falling into the enormous sea," Sasuke extended his hand.

"So big… so far to reach…"

"…" Erza declined her eyes, she looked at the outline of the settlement, and then her eyes wandered around; looking at the forest, the mountain, the green hill, the river, and the town.

"I am not that interested in what lies above, to me this world is already beautiful," she mumbled, "If we look too far, we may have missed what nearby."

"Because we look too far, we also have seen the nearby…" Sasuke responded.

They both went silent, they had different perspectives of lives but they didn't bother each other.

"It's getting late, maybe the monster isn't coming…" Erza nodded.

"Maybe it no longer wants to attack this town," Sasuke said.

"That will be both a blessing and a nightmare, who knows what kind of trouble the monster may raise," she frowned.

At this moment, the clone who watched over the ruin suddenly saw a distortion of space in front of the gate of the ruin, a black vortex circulated and not long a figure appeared; its eyes were red, the size of the figure was gigantic, it had two horns on the head similar to an ox, while its strong hand-carried a sizeable ax.

Even Sasuke and Erza from the town could see the figure in the distance, their expression immediately changed, Sasuke stood up and entered the fighting mode.

"We wait until it comes," Erza said.

They both crouched to hide from the monster's vision, the monster moved rather steady, his walking speed not face, but due to the size of its legs, it carried the body much quicker to arrive at the town.

"Aarggghhh!!!"

The monster screamed, Sasuke and Erza widened their eyes the moment they heard it.

'My body feels sluggish, and what is this… fear?' Sasuke frowned, even though the appearance of the monster indeed was threatening, it didn't frighten Sasuke at all, but how come he felt this sense of fear.

"Erza…" Sasuke glanced at the red-haired wizard, and he noticed she was absentminded, her expression was lagging.

"Erza!" he said louder, only now Erza blinked her eyes, she blinked a couple of times then looked at Sasuke with a slightly disoriented look.

"Sorry, I uh…" Erza said with discomfort, and then she shook her head, said, "I thought I saw something."

"What?"

"Never mind," she returned her serious look, said while glaring at the monster, "let's attack the monster."

"Wait, have you recognized the monster?"

She shook her head, "It does resemble other monsters, but no, this is my first encounter."

Sasuke nodded, the monster at the moment had swung its double ax, destroying one building with one swing.

Erza could not wait to attack anymore, she changed her armor to her winged-silver armor, which she dubbed as Heaven-Wheel, and she flew toward the monster, Sasuke leaped down and charged toward the monster from the ground.

The monster noticed their arrival, but Sasuke was fast, he shot a fireball from his mouth and struck the monster with it, the monster groaned and stumbled backward, then Erza launched several swords toward the monster, stabbing its large body in several spots, causing the monster to shriek in pain.

Erza followed up with two slashes with her sword, forming a kind of delta formation, and she drew blood coming out from the monster's body.

"It's finished," Sasuke said, his right hand engulfed in lightning and struck the monster right on its chest with Chidori, the force from his speed and strength causing the monster to lean backward and crashed onto the ground with its back, the monster opened wide its ox-like mouth as it whined painfully, then the sound stopped, Sasuke felt its' heart had stopped beating.

Sasuke dropped from the body of the monster, Erza landed beside him, she said, "That is unexpectedly easy."

"Thanks to you," Sasuke said.

"Your job is also magnificent, efficient," Erza nodded.

Sasuke glanced at Erza, he remembered what happened before, he did feel the monster's roar seemed to do something to him, but it didn't impact him that much, but Erza was absentminded for a while back then, what happened to her?

"Erza-"

"We should report back to the Chief," Erza said after she inspected the monster, then she traded her armor again and walked away.

Sasuke looked at her back, he shook his head and chased away the thought, it's not like it was a matter to him anyway.