The Milk Drinker Ninja (Naruto/Skyrim Crossover)

Chapter 7: Trial of Wisdom

Following the orb of light in silence seeing as she knew by now that it wouldn't answer any of her questions, Nia didn't even need torches or braziers anymore as the light produced by the... whatever it was that she was following, was enough to light every dark corner of every room that they came across. However, even if there was ample light now, she still didn't feel any better about her situation at all as her body was still shivering from both her recent combat as well as from the sharp chill in the air. Though seeing as she couldn't do anything about the cold, she instead focused on attempting to ease her mind from the battle. After all, she knew that she needed to get over it and fast seeing as ninja were trained to fight and this probably wouldn't be the last time that she would be forced to kill in order to survive. Though, this time it had just been a zombie, so was she really correct in saying that she killed it or was it already dead and she just... killed it again?

"To pass through the gate, you must show wisdom." The orb made her jump by talking so suddenly as they passed through yet another door that opened automatically for them. Though once they were through, the light now revealed a room that had a massive metal gate blocking any further progress on the far wall. And above it, four oval pictures were just barely visible past the cobwebs with the first being a whale, the second a wolf, the third a bird and the fourth a dragon.

"Are you serious?" Nia asked as she looked at the small pillars beneath each of the symbols that had the same designs on them but with each only having one of the symbols on each of their four sides. And after leaving the orb that had stayed in the center of the room in order to provide light, Nia walked up to the pillars and examined them before reaching out and attempting to turn the first one as she saw that it had a circular base and could possibly be rotated. Though once she tried, she was thankful that her assumption was correct as the pillar turned easily as if the the mechanisms allowing it to move had been oiled only recently.

"This... is a trick question, isn't it?" Nia asked to herself as she continued to rotate the pillar until the symbol on it matched the picture of the whale directly above it and it snapped into place. And while it would be great if it really was simple, she was suspicious seeing as even a first-year at the ninja academy could easily do something like this and a fully graduated ninja like her was overkill. Though after snapping all of the pillars into place, Nia couldn't help but sigh to herself as the giant metal gate clicked and started to open at an incredibly slow rate. "Seriously..."

"Well done. You have passed the Trial of Wisdom." The orb of light spoke again before continuing through the opening.

"Yeah, that's nice... So are you going to tell me why I'm here now?" Nia asked.

"Next is the Trial of Endurance, and its task is a simple one." The orb explained while ignoring her again Though, rather than continue towards the stone door just past the gate, it hesitated right before it as they both stopped at the closed door. "Your task is to follow me and reach the end."

"Follow you?" Nia asked doubtfully while wondering if there was anything else to the trial such as traps or something similar before she suddenly let out a loud yelp as the gates that had only just opened slammed closed in the blink of an eye. And if it wasn't bad enough that her escape route was cut off yet again, both the gate and the wall that it was attached to were now somehow started moving towards her, forcing Nia to move towards the last stone door before she began to panic as it didn't open. However, while it hadn't opened for her, it did for the orb. Though as the door opened and while she'd already been cold before, Nia immediately covered herself with her arms again as she was blasted by a howling wind that carried thousands of snow flakes inside of it. And while she'd hoped that it had just been some frost that had fallen from the ceiling, it turned out that she wasn't that lucky as she'd finally made it outside of the tomb only to find herself in the middle of a blizzard. And as blast after blast of cold and stinging snow struck her skin, she had no choice but to continue as the gate behind her finished moving and she was nearly practically thrown out of the room.

"Follow me." The orb commanded and Nia's heart sank when it started flying through the middle of the snow storm. And it wasn't long before she had to start moving seeing as the orb's light faded behind the dark clouds of drifting snow and she had to hurry to catch up with it. Though as she did, she found that her situation was getting worse by the minute as the freezing wind only intensified and she was already being chilled to the bone. And while the snow had only been a few inches deep at her feet at first, the farther away she got from the entrance to the tomb she'd been in, the higher it got until she was eventually attempting to wade through it with the snow coming up to her waist.

Continuing through the storm for an unknown amount of time, Nia could only just barely see the orb that she was trying to follow through the snow. Or rather, the only thing that she could see was its glow, and even that was only because it appeared to be night and there was nothing else to provide light for her in the otherwise dark surroundings. Though that soon changed as, just as suddenly as she'd entered the storm, she seemed to leave it as the snow began fading rapidly in the air around her before she found that she could finally see for more than a few feet in any direction. And as she looked at her surroundings, she couldn't help but be awestruck as she finally realized something important.

Seeming to spread out for miles, Nia found herself in the middle of what looked like the eye of the storm, which was strange to say the least seeing as she'd never known of a snow storm that had an eye before. Though seeing as there was one one, it had at least cleared the air enough so that she look around to see that everything was strange. And while she'd first thought that she'd been kidnapped for something, she began to have her doubts as she found herself in the middle of a large and strangely flat expanse of snow. Behind her, the tomb that she'd left was still hidden by the grey wall of the snowstorm, but in front of her were tall mountains and what looked like pine trees which she knew about but had never actually seen before. However, while everything seemed to scream that she was no longer in the Land of Fire, Nia nearly collapsed to her knees when she saw the two gigantic moons in the sky and the purple lights dancing over the clouds. And while the change in atmospheres was amazing, Nia couldn't really see it as such as everything only made ask herself the question that had been on her mind ever since she'd awoken in the tomb.

"Where am I?" Nia asked herself in a whisper while already knowing that no one was going to tell her.