Telanadas

16

The room where they must face the final trial is smaller than the last, but grander in a way. The sweeping ceiling is decorated with stone mosaics; ancient, solemn statues hold court in tiny alcoves hewn into the walls. At the other end of the chamber, Sasuke can make out a final staircase that leads to a raised platform. Any other details are obscured by a wall of flame that bisects the room.

The line stretches from the right wall to the left, with no break in it to slip through. The flames themselves rise twice as high as Sasuke's head and give off such a punishing heat that even standing in the archway, he begins to sweat. Several feet in front of the flaming curtain, they find a low, crude altar, little more than a dusty slab blackened by the flames.

Carefully, they approach. Sasuke winces as they get closer, the heat searing his skin even from a distance. Only Sakura seems unbothered, and she busies herself with studying the pedestal from all angles.

"I don't see anything that can stop the flames," she says, "There's something carved here, though." She squints. "I can't read it. The language isn't one I know."

"Let me," Kakashi says, and takes her place. "Ah, that is an old common dialect from the Suna Empire. Not something you would find in most linguistic books."

"But you can read it?"

"Yes."

"Just like that?" Sasuke asks, sceptical.

"It is always good to have hobbies," Kakashi returns, and refocuses on what to Sasuke seems like meaningless scratches in the surface. "'Cast off the trappings of worldly life and cloak yourself in the goodness of spirit. King and slave, lord and beggar, be born anew in the Goddess sight.'"

"What's that mean?" Naruto asks.

"You do not understand? It is another riddle," Sasuke returns.

"Sakura?"

"Read it again, Kakashi?" she asks, and the mage does so. She frowns in contemplation. "Hm. It's a lot vaguer than the ones I answered before. And if I'm wrong, I think the consequences would be worse than a few wraiths."

Sasuke eyes the wall of flame. "More Rage demons?"

He is not keen to face that overwhelming, burning anger again so soon.

"No, I don't think so..."

"Why can't they ever just say, 'go to this place, here's the urn, use it wisely'?" Naruto bemoans.

"'Cast off the trappings of worldly life'...they can't mean to die, can they?" Sakura wonders. "Or maybe you have to be willing to die...?"

"We've all already proven that though!"

"Or perhaps it's a literal directive," Sakura suggests. "It wouldn't be the first time an ancient spell was verbatim."

"Ah," Kakashi nods and quips, "Speak, friend, and enter."

"Right!"

Sasuke and Naruto exchange looks of confusion; it must be some dwarven myth. Though he does not understand what they are referring to, their meaning at least makes sense.

"So, when you mean literally cast off the trappings, you mean..."

Naruto's eyes go wide, and he emits a startled guffaw. "Take off our clothes?!"

"It would seem so."

"Hah! Okay, Sakura, after you—ow!"

Sasuke is not even aware of his hand snapping out and slapping the other man upside the head. When Sakura raises an eyebrow at him, half-amused and half questioning, he explains, "I was closer than you were."