They spend the next half hour in silence, focussed on her injury.

Luckily for both, the bone implement has not caught on anything, and Sasuke is able to pull it free without trouble. Blood fills in the wound at once, but it is not the wet gush of a clipped blood vessel or ruptured organ. Sakura talks him through stitching it closed. Liberal applications of her "little elfroot and deep mushroom" knit the flesh back together as he goes.

She dozes for a little while as he puts away the supplies, carefully erasing any trace of what was done here. Kakashi has sharp eyes, and even a fleck of blood might have him asking questions.

Sakura was right about one thing: they cannot afford him expending more magic than he must.

Just as he clears away the last of the soiled bandages, he hears a low, lyrical hum behind him. Slowly, he turns around and notes Sakura, eyes still closed in slumber and barely breathing even as her throat moves around the notes of a wordless song. Normally, she is as tone deaf as a mabari howling at the moon. He knows this because she tried to teach Sai, another of their companions, the words to a dwarven drinking song not long after he joined the outfit.

The memory itself makes him wince.

But this tune she hums under her breath is different. It makes the hairs on the back of his arms and neck stand on end, but not because it is unpleasant.

It is because it is not.

"Sakura," he says, something in his gut telling him he needs her to stop that.

Her body startles a little, the way one might when woken suddenly from a dream, but considering she never fully dropped off to sleep he doubts that it is. Still, the noise stops, and her breathing suddenly evens out.

"Something about this place...it calls to me," she tells him after a moment, eyes still closed, and face still relaxed. "It almost feels like lyrium, but...different."

"Different?" he echoes.

"Like a voice on the wind...just out of earshot, words garbled...and you know they're speaking to you, but can't for the life of you make out the meaning..." She opens her eyes and notices his concerned expression, and quickly straightens. With a sheepish grin, she says, "Sorry. I think I'm just getting ahead of myself. We're almost to the top of the mountain which means we're closer to ending this journey. I can see the end in sight, and then we get a nice long deserved rest."

"Until the next errand of overblown importance is thrust upon us," he replies, still frowning at her behaviour. He wonders if this is another one of those Warden quirks, hearing music no one else does. "And the next."

"Until we stop the Blight, that's the job," she agrees. "But still, the prospect of a moment's peace, however short, that's valuable—don't you think?"

"I would not know."

"Oh, come on! You've had to have at least a little downtime!" she protests, pulling herself stiffly to her feet. He makes a move to help her, but she waves him away. "Don't the Crows give days off?"

"There is time between contracts, if that is what you are asking."

She shoots him an unimpressed look as if to say she knows he is deliberately not answering her question. "And what do you do in your spare time?"

"Prepare for the next assignment."

"That's it?" she deadpans. "Seriously? Isn't there anything you do for fun?"

"No."

"That's..." Sakura sighs then. "I'm sorry."

This brings him up short, and he stares at her. He can see her finding his lifestyle distasteful or boring, but he never would have expected pity from her. "Sorry for what?"

"For whatever made your life so joyless that you spend every waking moment doing sensible stuff," she tells him, offering a comforting touch just above his elbow.

It is not pity, he realises in amazement. It sounds like...regret? On my behalf?

But that makes no sense to him.

He does not have time to ponder this development in his study of her character because at this moment, Naruto and Kakashi return.

"There is nothing between this village and the ruins up ahead," the mage informs them without wasting time on a greeting.

"He means nothing," Naruto adds, a hint of complaint in his voice. "No people, no shelter, no supplies..."

"We checked the temple door, but it is locked by an odd mechanism. Apparently, it needs a key to get in: big, round, sort of the size of a fist?"

"That must be what the medallion is for," Sakura suggests, digging into her pocket for the disc she was given earlier.

"I thought so, too."

"Then we are going in blind," Sasuke says in irritation.

"Looks like," Naruto shrugs, before a jeering grin appears on his face. "Don't worry, elf. If you're scared, I'll let you hide behind me while I take out the nasty, possessed cultists."

"Will that be before or after you run for cover, demanding I take out the enemy trying to set you on fire?" Sasuke returns crisply.

"Oi, that happened once, and in case you didn't notice, that was a rage demon that came out of the damn floor!"

"I am confident we will manage somehow," Kakashi says, intervening before Naruto punctuates his complaint with a flying fist.

"Are you ready to go?" Sasuke asks Sakura, carefully avoiding looking anywhere near where her wound is. Still, she knows what he is really asking.

"Never better," she chirps, and grabs her supplies.

Kakashi notices something in the byplay, judging by how his eyes rove between Sasuke and Sakura, but if he suspects anything concrete, he does not address it. At least, not until Naruto has followed Sakura and is safely out of earshot.

"If you two needed a moment, you did not need to send us on an arse-freezing wild-goose chase in the mountains," the older man says dryly. "All you had to do was ask..."

"Shut up, mage," Sasuke replies. "Or I will find a better place for that stick than your hand."

"Well, if that is the sort of thing you are into..."

Sasuke snarls a wordless curse at him and stalks after the other two. He knows there is no point in stooping to Kakashi's level. Unlike Naruto, who will shout and scream and throw a few punches, and then forget the matter Sasuke does not wish to talk about, Kakashi is more patient. He will refuse to engage with any threat, but make sly, would-be-innocent comments over a matter of days. It is amusing to watch him bait others in this way—in particular Obito; it is not so entertaining when Sasuke is the one on the receiving end.

The party makes their way up the next section of the mountain together, hobbled against the wind and the incline.

Kakashi was not making light of the temperature for dramatic effect.

They were wrong about the place being completely empty, because even with the howling din of the wind, Sasuke can hear the distant roars of a dragon. He only hopes that they get to shelter before the thing makes a pass above this part of the mountain.

As they amble onward, Sasuke keeps a careful eye on the figure at the head of their procession. Sakura tramps through the snow with her usual determination and uncomplaining nature. He would never have known she had been gravely wounded earlier from the way she moves. It seems her healing skills and balms are far more powerful than he imagined.

Eventually, the four of them arrive at the giant, ridged stone door, and Sasuke sees the lock-seal Kakashi and Naruto mentioned.

Sakura brings out the medallion and presses it into the slot. There is a hissing noise and the ensign glows green, shooting a light into the crevices and cracks of the door. A moment later, the sound of creaking, shifting gears fills the air, and the door pulls open before them.

Sasuke enters first, bow raised in case there is anything lurking that may jump out at them, but this entry passage is empty. The walls and hallways are made of stone, covered with such a thick layer of ice that it is as if the place is built from glass. It is cold in here, too; not quite the knife-sharp frost of the mountain air, but still as frigid as a tomb.

"This will be fun," Naruto whispers excitedly as they proceed up the corridor.

Despite his game face, they are all careful in their explorations, investigating every corner of the passages in a slow, methodical manner. Sasuke leaves discreet markers in room corners and by doorposts to find their way back should this place be as cavernous as the countless elven ruins he has explored. Snow has tumbled through the walls and ceilings of the temple, casting dark shadows across the corners and making the floor more slippery than it might be under normal circumstances. At one time, this building might even have been a comfortable living space.

They slip through close passages and well-built chambers, rooms with ancient books and scrolls that have Kakashi's fingers twitching and Sakura's eyes coveting. There are at least two armouries with discarded weaponry and armour that is ancient, but well-made.

"Ooh, swords!" Naruto declares, gleefully going to check the balance and sharpness of the blades, while the others look for more useful supplies. Sasuke finds several quivers of arrows—some spelled with magic runes to bewitch their targets. He does not like magic, but in this place, using it might be necessary. He adds these to his own supply.

That turns out to be a good idea.

Entering a large, vaulted chamber that seems trapped by time and thick snow, the shadows are suddenly alive with more blade-brandishing figures. These men are not dressed like villagers, but in billowing red robes and burned bone armour.

"More cultists," Sakura murmurs, hoisting her axe.

Sasuke can see right away that they have the high ground, perched upon the grand staircases up ahead. They send down volley upon volley of arrows, interspersed with blasts of fire that suggest the presence of mages as well.

The party divides, Sasuke claiming the left side of the hall and Kakashi the right, both of them aiming to destroy the ranged fighters in the distance. Naruto and Sakura take the more direct approach, dealing with the incoming wave of close-combat attackers.

Once Sasuke and Kakashi reach the edge of the staircase, most of the archers and at least one mage are dead. Then, they climb upward together, moving around and behind one another in a slow rotation that allows them to divert any incoming projectiles.

Once, Sasuke even snatches an arrow from the air right before it pierces Kakashi's temple.

The mage repays the favour by turning a wall of icy projectiles into a spray of rain using a fireball. It is a massive blast of flame that grows larger as it travels through the air and immolates the last mage. Sasuke inclines his head in thanks.

Times may have changed, but he is not about to stoop to thanking a mage of all people.

Down on the landing, Sakura and Naruto's opponents are less feeble. The hulking, bone-wielding warriors appear immune to pain, forcing Naruto and Sakura to hack away at them. Limb by limb and inch by inch until nothing but pulp and bone surround them on the floor.

Sasuke's stomach rebels a little.

There is a difference between a quick kill and this carnage.

"It is a type of fugue state," Kakashi explains once the last body drops. "They do not realise they are mortally wounded until all the nerves in their body have been severed. Dwarves have an ability like this, yes?"

Sakura shakes her head, pale. "No...not like this. Dwarven berserkers can ignore pain, yes, but that's because they're're fueled by battle rage and blood lust. They still feel. This..." She swallows. "This was like fighting those corpses we encountered in the Circle of Magi when we met you, Kakashi-sensei."

"Except these guys weren't walking corpses, they were actually alive," Naruto adds with a shudder. "Look, there's the blood to prove it."

"Alive may not be the right word," Kakashi muses. "After the amount of brain damage, hypnosis and blood magic they have been subjected to, I doubt you could really call it living."

"Pity," Sasuke says, staring down at one of the discarded arrows broken upon the ice-encrusted stone floor. It is the broken arm bone of a child, "That would mean we are putting them out of their misery."

"Let's keep going," Sakura says, heading for the grand staircase. "We don't know how big this place is, and there could be more of them. I'd like to get rid of as many as possible be before we lose the last natural light."

There is a distant rumbling, and once again Sasuke hears the keen of a dragon. The others do as well, and Naruto shifts uncomfortably.

"Maybe after we do that we can set up camp?" he suggests. "I have this bad feeling we're not getting off the mountain without coming face to face with that. And I'd really rather do it with the sun overhead than stumbling around in the dark..."

It is a sentiment none of them can argue with.