Shadows in the Sand

Keeping Score

The passage that lead to Awrutshimaru's tomb was exactly how he imagined it; dark, ominous, and painfully dry.

Not that the young archaeologist hadn't seen this coming, and he wasn't talking about the suffocating desert air. As he reached into the backpack he'd planted near his feet, he pulled out his makeshift torch, scrutinizing the passage. The hostel he'd been staying in wasn't happy when they found out their table was missing a leg, but it was for a good cause, and he swore he'd make it up to them. Although his hunch might've been wrong, there was no such thing as being too careful in a tunnel assumed over three-thousand years ago.

Steady, nimble fingers pulled out the zippo lighter from a sand dusted pocket and he flicked it on, setting the torch ablaze.

The all consuming darkness gave way to a distinct slithering sound from just a few feet away.

Of course there would be snakes.

With its body craned towards him and its scales rubbing together in a threatening display, the snake gave a drawn out hiss at being discovered. Then, just as quickly as it emerged, it slithered back into its hole. The man clad in a white field shirt and khaki's whistled with relief, signaling that the coast seemed more or less clear. Of people anyway.

"Isn't this great?" His voiced peaked, on the verge of screaming. His blood ran hot through his veins and his smile, wasted on an audience of none, could easily outshine the blazing desert sun. "I swear, that wasn't just any snake. That was an Egyptian saw scaled viper, in here of all places! Man, I must be dreaming..."

Stumbling through the entrance, which had previously been covered in sand, short black hair and dark eyes gazed at the surroundings with a frustrating amount of apathy.

"It was just a snake," the man remarked blandly, as if he were talking about the color of the sky. He dusted off some sand from his robes.

"You are in Egypt. There are snakes everywhere, dickless."

"Ugh, y'know Sai, it wouldn't kill you to be excited about, I dunno, the fact that we might find the burial chamber of an Egyptian pharaoh? Whose tomb's been hidden away for thousands and thousands of years? We're about to make history here you asshole, and I told you not to call me that."

Golden tufts of hair swayed as the man turned around, blue eyes rounding sharply on its target.

"It's Naruto Uzumaki, remember?"

Sai flashed him a smile, reeking of ingenuity and something else.

Naruto didn't have time to mull over the bad feeling though, not when the distance between them became non existent. Sai closed in, bringing their bodies into full contact. His hand brushed not-so-subtly against Naruto's hip.

Naruto's fist tightened contemplatively around his torch.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. You aren't dickless," Sai said, serenely ignoring his discomfort. An index finger slyly smoothed over a crease in Naruto's pants, "after all, I've already seen this package you smuggled into Cairo. Your penis is a far cry from absent."

"And your face will be a far cry from recognizable if you don't move your hand." Naruto growled through gritted teeth, not missing a beat. He slapped Sai's hand away and stepped back to put some much needed space between him and the weirdo.

A pervert. It was just his luck that he'd end up with a pervert as a guide.

Word on the street was, Sai Salih, a Japanese-Egyptian man who'd grown tired of swindling tourists in Sharm El-Sheikh, claimed to have found a tunnel whilst scouring the desert for valuables. A tunnel inscribed with Awrutshimaru's Serekh. When Naruto had heard, he'd almost jumped for joy. He'd been searching for a lead for the last two weeks, having spent months prior buried in his research, yearning to find a clue. That clue, unfortunately, came in the form of the money laundering brothel owner who'd promised to show him the way if he'd promise to show him his... jewels. Sai traded valuables for money, and apparently, body visuals for information.