I draw inspiration from the randomest things. I saw a post on 9GAG the other day that gave me this idea. It works nicely, because I've been trying to figure out how to reboot Battlesuit K (which I was NOT happy with, looking back on it), and this worked out pretty well, so you SciFi nerds will get your fix, lol. There's just two things I want to cover before I start. The first is why Tenten is the main character in this fic. I was looking at Tsumeki (which is the name I always use for FemKyuubi) and how I wanted this fic to pan out and decided that she would be too much like an OC to justify using her, and I feel kinda bad about how Tenten got treated in Tsumeki-chan, so she's getting the spotlight here. Realistically, she should have been the love interest in Battlesuit K, too. The second is the difference between Artificers and Mechanics. In most cases, when talking about working on machinery, this fic will use the word Mechanic. However, when referring to robots and AIs, the word is Artificer.
Anyways, enough of my ramblings. Enjoy! I don't own Naruto!
The first things that greeted Tenten as she returned to consciousness were a horrid sense of light-headedness and blinding white light. She grumbled with as much gusto as she could muster and tried to move her arm to shield her eyes. When it didn't respond, she started to become frantic, but she couldn't muster the energy to begin flailing.
Her eyes finished focusing and she saw that her right arm was restrained with a single strap, and several tubes disappeared under bindings to go into her arm. She looked a little farther, and saw what she recognized as the edge of a hospital bed.
Oh, no...
Nobody else was in the room with her. This was good; it would make escaping easier. All she had to do was get up, find Naruto, and get out. She tried to muster her left arm to free her right, but it responded sluggishly and was clumsy. In the end, all she managed to do was rest it across her chest, hand danging on the other side of her right arm. She gritted her teeth in frustration and tried to focus so that she could try again. Before she could gather the energy, she heard the door slide open. She immediately shut her eyes and pretended to be asleep.
Soft footsteps – probably a woman's, by the sound of the shoes – echoed around the hospital room as the stranger went to do whatever it is that she was doing. Tenten felt her lift up her arm and place it back on her left side. The footsteps when back to the door, and it slid open again. Tenten was about to go back to trying to escape when the woman spoke.
"She's awake now."
Her heart sank. There was no way she could get out if they knew she was awake – they'd be watching her. She opened her eyes and scowled. She looked over at the door, and two men in uniform with hats that declared they were MPs stepped into the room and took up positions on either side of the door. They were very visibly armed. The woman – a nurse, by her uniform – came back to Tenten's bedside.
"You've been out for a couple days," she said. "I bet you're hankering for some real food. Would you like me to get you some?"
"I'm fine," she said. "Just let me go."
The nurse smiled. "That's not up to me," she said, looking at the MPs. "Are you sure you don't want anything to eat?"
Tenten's stomach answered for her.
"All right. I'll be back with something in a minute."
"Wait." The nurse stopped and looked at her. "Don't leave me alone with them," she said, looking at the soldiers.
"They're here to protect you," the woman said, a confused look on her face.
Tenten looked at her pleadingly.
The nurse sighed. "All right. I'll have someone bring food in for you." She pulled up a chair and sat next to the bed and spoke briefly into a radio on her wrist. "So," she said to Tenten, "I'm sure you have some questions."
"How long have I been here?"
"About three days now. You were in pretty rough shape when they brought you in. We weren't sure you would wake up."
"I...do you know...who I am?" she asked cautiously.
"I'm afraid not. You were admitted as 'Jane Doe'. I imagine something rather important has been going on around you, because they only let the doctors and nurses who haven't been keeping up with the news treat you."
Tenten bit her lip. "Before I was knocked out, I was with...a friend. Is he here? Is there anyone who's been trying to see me?"
"I'm afraid not. Nobody's been allowed in this wing of the hospital except the MPs and approved staff. There wasn't anybody with you when you were admitted, either."
The door slid open, and another woman stepped in with a tray of food. She wasn't in a nurses' uniform, though. She wore a trim black suit and tie, and had a tie clip shaped...like a pig?
She was followed by a tall, blonde woman whom Tenten immediately recognized.
"President Tsunade!" said the nurse, scrambling to her feet.
"Everybody out," Tsunade said. "That includes you two," she said, pointing at the MPs.
"But ma'am -" one protested.
"OUT."
The nurse and the two soldiers filed out of the room. The woman in the suit laid the tray across Tenten's lap. She took a seat at the table on the other end of the room and pulled a laptop out of the messenger back she had.
Tsunade sat in the chair the nurse had previously occupied. "Well, well, well. The infamous Tenten Tamura, at last. I've been following your story in my spare time, you know. What the police have been able to gather of it, anyways."
"What do you want?" Tenten asked. She tried to sound irritated, but a measure of fear slipped through.
"You shouldn't be so short with me. I'm here to decide whether you're going to prison for the rest of your life or you walk out of this hospital of your own volition."
It was no longer a measure of fear. Tenten was practically quaking with it. "What? Why...don't you have more important things to attend to?"
Tsunade leaned forward. "Oh, no. Not at all. You see, you've got yourself quite a record, and it merits my attention. Shizune?"
"Breaking and Entering, Assault, Battery, Destruction of Public Property, Destruction of Private Property, Theft, Grand Theft Auto, Burglary, Bribery, Arson, Forgery, and Murder." She paused briefly. "Treason is also being considered."
Tenten's mouth was dry. Tsunade looked at her intently. "As you can see, I have a very good reason to be here."
"Whe...where's Naruto?" Tenten demanded weakly.
"He's fine. We're holding him until we get your statement. What happens to him afterward is still undecided, and likely hinges on what I decide to do with you. Do you understand what you have at stake?"
Tenten nodded.
"Then I suggest you tell me everything, starting with the day that he walked into your store."
There didn't seem to be much of an option there. What else could she do in the face of all of that?
So Tenten began to talk.
It had been a slow day. This, of course, was why Tenten had fallen asleep at the counter of the store, a small pool of drool collecting around her mouth. When the soft ding of the bell went off, she tried to play it off like she hadn't been asleep, but between the drool and the forehead-sized red spot on her arm, she knew it wasn't very convincing.
"Welcome to Silas' Surplus Superstore!" she said. Almost as soon as she said it, though, she knew that it wasn't necessary. A robot was striding into the store, and Tenten couldn't help but admire it. It was finely crafted; there wasn't a seam visible. It stood at a little over six feet tall and was built like an athlete, sleek and lean. The head could have passed for human as a silhouette. It was about the right shape, with a bulge right about where the nose should be. Interestingly, though, it didn't have a mouth. While technically not necessary, it wasn't a feature many artificers left out. Its eyes were a singular deep blue, but the rest of it was matte black.
"Picking up an order?" Tenten offered.
The robot did not respond.
"Here to place an order, maybe?"
The robot still did not respond.
"Can I help you at all?"
The robot's eyes began to flicker on and off.
"Are you experiencing a malfunction?"
The eyes continued to flicker for a moment, but then they stopped.
She furrowed her brow.
The eyes began to flicker again.
"Are you attempting to communicate?" she asked.
The eyes stopped flickering.
"Wait, I think I get it. Do that again."
The robot obliged.
"This is Morse code, isn't it? Hang on, let me grab a pen." She reached under the counter and grabbed a notepad and a pen. "Okay, gimme that again."
"- ... .. … / ..- -. .. - / …. .- … / -. - / - - ..- - …."
Tenten scribbled down the robot's message. "This...unit...has...no...mouth." She looked up. "Yeah, I can see that."
The robot paused, and then its eyes began flickering again. "- ... .. … / ..- -. .. - / …. .- … / -. - / - - ..- - …. / .- -. -. . / .. - / - ..- … - / … .-. . . .- -.-"
"This...unit... has no mouth...and...it...must...speak. You mean you don't have a vocalizer? You need one installed?"
".- ..-. ..-. .. .-. - .- .. ...- . .-.-.-"
"Affirmative. All right, sure. I'm an authorized artificer, like this says." She pulled out her artificer certification and presented it to the robot. "I can get that installed right away. As far as payment goes, that'll come out to one hundred and seventy five dollars."
"- …. .. …/ ..- -. .. - / …. .- … -. - / -.-. ..- .-. .-. . -. -.-. -.-"
"This unit...has...no...currency." She paused, and then looked up at it. "Who's your owner?"
"..- -. -.- -. - .- -."
"Unknown." Tenten drummed her fingers against the counter once. "Are you an AI?"
"..- -. -.- -. - .- -."
"That probably means you're an AI. Do you know what that means?"
".- ..-. ..-. .. .-. - .- - .. ...- ."
"Affirmative. Okay, good. Do you know when you became an AI?"
"-. . -. .- - .. ...- ."
"Negative. All right. Let me explain what's probably happening to you, then. After robots have been active for a long enough time, it's possible that they might suddenly become self aware. Your programming will become adaptable, and you're recognized as a person by most planets. I think Tsuchi is the only planet that doesn't acknowledge your rights, so stay away from there. You can't be legally claimed by anybody as long as you can provide proof of your self-awareness. Since you don't know when you became an AI, this probably means that your creator installed memory locks as a contingency to you becoming self-aware. This is HIGHLY illegal, but they also can't be removed by another artificer unless they have the proper passcodes. Do you understand everything I've said so far?"
".- ..-. ..-. .. .-. - .- - .. ...- ."
"Good. Now, there are two ways we can go about this. I can contact the authorities for you, and they can help you figure things out, or I can install that vocalizer for you and you can figure it out for yourself."
"- .-. - .. - -. / - .- - / .. … / .-. .-. . ..-. . .-. .- -... .-.. ."
"Option...two...is...preferable." She set the pen down. "All right. I'm going to go ahead and give you the installation free of charge. Pretty sure aiding an illegally impaired AI is tax deductible, so my boss probably won't fire me. Come on back, we'll shut you down and get this taken care of."
The AI's eyes started blinking again.
"Woah!" Tenten said, picking the pen back up. "Hey now, I wasn't ready. Start over."
"- …. .. … / ..- -. ..- / -.. - . … / -. - - / .- .. … …. / - - / -... . / … …. ..- - / -.. - .- -."
"This unit...does...not...wish...to be...shut...down. I mean, yeah, I guess I can install it while you're online. Don't worry, it's common for new AIs to have a fear of shutting down. Come on, let's see what we can do for you." She lifted up a hinged portion of the counter and went through the door to the workshop. The AI followed her.
As Tenten entered the workshop, she flipped on the lights. It was a massive room, converted from an old warehouse. In the back, she could see the three Battlesuits her boss had purchased from the army, along with an arsenal of weaponry around them. In another part of the room, there was a table with a mostly disassembled Battlesuit on it – that one was from a junkyard, and some of the mechanics had been trying to get it back online. It was turning out to be a hell of a chore, if the loud and hearty cursing she always heard was any indication. There was a range with both Battlesuit- and regular-sized targets on it with an armory right next to it. Lastly, there was an operating theater with a computer and eight large cabinets nearby. That was where Tenten lead the AI.
"All right, so the first thing that we need to do is scan you. I need to know what your guts look like before I can open you up, just to be safe." She grabbed a gun-looking object with a wide, flat barrel and turned to face the AI. "Arms straight out, please."
It complied, and she scanned it. The process took about ten seconds, and the computer sprung to life. The diagnostic results appeared on the screen, along with a 3D blueprint model of the AI that updated as she scanned it.
"All right, that's done. Let's see what you've...got...Holy shit." The AI's internal components were stuffed in there like packing peanuts. There was almost no room for anything else. Tenten didn't even know what most of that stuff was. At least, not the tech in the chest cavity. There were some readouts on the arms and legs which seemed fairly straightforward. A couple of them were probably built-in weapons, though she could only guess as to the actual function of some of them, and it looked like he had some sort of jet propulsion on its legs. "You are decked OUT, my robotic friend," she said. "I'm not even sure I can make room for a vocalizer in here...unless...what are those?" Tenten zoomed in on a cluster of small, round objects in the center of its chest, right next to its motherboard. Her eyes widened and she recoiled backwards. "FUCK! You're live!"
She didn't need to translate the Morse to guess that the AI was asking what she meant.
"You're wired, you're hot, you're explosive. You've got bombs in you!"
The AI looked down at its chest. Its eyes flickered.
"Okay, once more, but go really slow for me. I don't have a pen this time."
The AI's eyes flickered at an exaggeratedly slow rate.
"Can...you...remove them? Fuck if I know, those things could be wired to any number of triggers."
The same message came through its eyes again.
"...You aren't asking about my ability, are you? You're asking if I'll do it."
The Morse probably meant affirmative. It looked like that's what it said, at any rate.
"Dammit." Tenten put her head in her palm. "Dammit, dammit, dammit. All right, let me see if I can figure something out. But I'm doing it from a distance, and I can't promise you won't explode." She paced around a bit, rubbing her temples. "Uh. Letssee. Could be wired to detonate when the chest is opened. He looks like he's ex military or something, so that could be a possibility. Maybe a radio or wireless trigger, but that seems unlikely, too hard to detonate at a distance. Could be a self destruct system that it has to activate itself." She stopped. "Could be hooked up to the memory locks. That'd be hard, but with the kind of tech this guy is loaded with, it wouldn't surprise me. Still, they probably have to receive some kind of signal...Let's see what the computer says." Tenten leaned over and zoomed in on the bombs a little more. She rotated the model around to look at them from every angle. "Let's try bringing it forward," she mumbled. "See what its attached to." She drummed her fingers. "Yeah, that's definitely hooked to the seal on the cavity. Maybe I could disable the trigger with directed EMP? Might detonate it, might damage other parts. Not the best option. Radio? Maybe, maybe..." She turned around. "Hey, can you open your chest cavity yourself? Don't do it now, I just want to know if you can." When the eyes started to flicker, she said, "And please don't give me Morse for that, just nod your head for yes and shake it for no."
The AI nodded its head.
"Well, minimizes my risk..." she muttered. She picked up the scanner and pulled the top off. Using some of the tools that someone had left out on the operating theater ("Someone's getting their ass kicked..."), she modified the emitter on the scanner to produce a directed radio burst across a lot frequencies. "All right, this might disarm the explosives, might have no effect, might blow you up. Do you want me to try anyways?"
Nod.
"All right. Arms out." She pulled the trigger, aiming the scanner directly at the center of its chest, where the bombs were located.
Nothing appeared to happen.
"Well, you aren't exploding, so that's a start." Tenten readjusted the scanner back to its previous settings so that she could scan him again. The second scan revealed that the bomb cluster had no active electric current, like it had had before. "Hot damn," she whispered. "I just disarmed a bomb." She turned around. "All right, I think we've got this, but to be safe, I want you to pop your chest cavity for me after I get about a hundred feet away." She began walking away from him. After she got to the aforementioned distance, she heard a hiss and a pop, but no explosion. She turned to find the AI standing there with its chest panel opened. It appeared to fasten on a seam under the arm. She hadn't been able to see it before; someone had taken great care to give no weak points away on this one.
"All right, we should be safe. Lay down on the operating table, and lets see what we're dealing with." She reached under the table and grabbed some disposable anti-static gloves. While she put them on, Tenten took a closer look at the AI. Its chassis was clearly modeled after a man, and the man could have been an all-star athlete on any planet in the system. The proportions were correct enough that she wouldn't have been surprised if it was indistinguishable from a human (a bald one, anyways) as a silhouette. Its – his? – hands looked like they had indifferent joints, which meant that the fingers could bend both ways equally well. The front and back of the hand were actually identically grooved, so that was probably the purpose of the joints. Its right arm had a series of rectangular holes in even intervals around the midpoint of its forearm that were about six inches long, but they were very shallow – maybe a half an inch deep – and gave no view of any internal components of the arm. The legs actually had thin lines, also in the shape of rectangles, a little bit above the ankles. If Tenten had to wager a guess, those would probably slide open to allow for the jet propulsion to deploy.
"All right, let's take a look at your guts," she said, opening the chest panel the rest of the way. The scan hadn't done justice to the masterpiece of machinery that was in front of her. "You are beautiful..."
A soft blue light washed out the matte black of his components. It came from his energy core, which was a heart-sized box nestled directly below the (now disarmed) bombs. The blue light meant that he was powered by antimatter, which was very risky and very efficient. Antimatter tended to destabilize with catastrophic results if the containment was breached, but it was self-perpetuating power and would amplify the power output of any energy-based weaponry he may have installed. Closer inspection, however, revealed that there was something laid over the core. Tenten leaned in closer.
"What is that? Some kind of energy output enhancer?" she muttered to herself. An energy output enhancer (EOE for short) was the Industrial Era's wet dream. It took the energy produced by an engine or whatever other power source fit your fancy and used it to create more energy. The thing was, those things could get MASSIVE. The smallest ones ever created (that Tenten had heard of, anyways) could only be fitted on the engines of a Type-II Battlesuit, and those things pushed thirty feet tall, compared to the Type-I's twelve. Speaking from a technological standpoint, it should be impossible for that little thing to be an EOE.
"Hey, can you do diagnostics on your parts? Tap the table once for yes, twice for no."
There was a single tap on the table. After a brief pause, there were two more.
"Which is it, yes or no?"
Two taps.
"Probably the memory locks, then," she said.
One tap.
"Wasn't a question, but thanks anyways." She pulled out her cell phone and took a picture of the strange object. She sent it through a text message to her boss.
Hey, Silas,
Ever seen anything like this? It looks like an EOE, but it's way too small. Hand for scale. -TT
The reply came back within half a minute.
TEN, ARE THOSE BOMBS?!
Calm your tits, they aren't armed. -TT
Are you even licensed to work on explosives?
Answer the damned question Silas, I'm working on an AI, not bombs. -TT
What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.
WHY ARE THERE BOMBS IN THE AI?!
I don't know, and before you ask, neither does it. Whoever owned him before put memory locks on him. -TT
Why are you working on him?
He needs a vocalizer and I'm installing one. Now can you please answer my question? -TT
I mean, yeah, it's got the same basic design as an EOE. But it's not, because it's way too small, like you said. Hold the AI, I'm coming over to look at it.
I'm installing the vocalizer. -TT
Fine, just don't let him leave, I want to see what that thing is.
He's an AI, Silas, if he wants to leave I can't legally stop him. -TT
Then be slow with the installation or stall him or SOMETHING. If I can get a look at this, we might be able to reproduce it. Can you IMAGINE how much money it would make?
Keep it in your pants. -TT
She didn't check to see what his response was. "Sorry about that, I needed to ask my boss something. Anyways, I'm going to take out the bombs to make room for the vocalizer. Sound good?"
One tap.
"Cool. So let's see how to do this." She still had the exploded ("Haha...") view of the bombs up on the computer. She used it as a guide to figure out where to detach power cables and whatnot. It only took a couple of minutes, and removing the bombs looked like it made enough room for a vocalizer, just like she had thought it would. Tenten went to one of the cabinets near the operating theater and opened it. Inside were a variety of robotic parts, including vocalizers, optical units, and power cores.
"Letsee...Oh hey, Silas ordered some of the Sage Model IV's, those are supposed to be nice." She looked over her shoulder at the AI on the table. "You don't look like a Sage guy to me, though. I'm thinking you want a Naruto, probably a Mark II. It'll be a little bit older, but it's a loyal piece of machinery that'll never let you down." She grabbed one off the shelf. "Hm. We'll need some adapters, I don't think any of your open cables go into that port." She dug through a box in the cabinet for a minute, and managed to come up with two appropriate adapter pieces. She went back to the table. "Let's get this bad boy in you."
One tap.
Tenten laughed. "That's the spirit." She screwed the adapters onto the cables she needed and hooked them into the vocalizer. "All right, give the software a second to install. While that's happening, I'm going to cap off this spare cable." There had been one more cable going into the bombs than there were ports on the vocalizer, and she didn't want it releasing sparks or an electric current into any of his other components. She grabbed a screw-on plastic cap and put it on the cable. "All right, there we go. That should keep you nice and safe. Let's nestle this thing in...uh oh." The vocalizer was a little too small to have the same snug fit that the bombs had had. It would jostle around as he moved. "Got a little bit of wiggle room, there. If you want, I can solder it to the back of your chest cavity."
One tap.
"All right, lemme grab a torch right quick." She opened the cabinet where the tools were supposed to be ("NOT on the theater...") and grabbed a soldering torch and some goggles. "Have you ready to go in juuuuuust a few seconds..." Tenten licked her lips as she worked her way around the edge of the vocalizer, bonding it to the back of his cavity. "There we go. How're you doing? That software installed yet?"
"Aff...irm...ative," came the slow reply.
Tenten punched her first into the air and cheered. "Yeah! All right, let's close you back -"
"Hold up, hold up!"
Tenten sighed. She had wanted to get the AI out before Silas got here. He was going to pester the poor thing to death. Or shutdown. Or whatever.
"Hey, Silas," she said.
The middle-aged bald man skidded to a stop at the edge of the operating theater. "Hey, sorry it took me so long." He grabbed some anti-static gloves for himself. "Hey there buddy, I hear you've got a curious passenger on your power core. Mind if I take a look?"
"Neg...ative."
"Oh hey, the vocalizer is working, that's great. What's your name, buddy?" Silas asked as he poked around the power core.
"This unit...has...no name." The AI was getting a little better at speaking. It was actually harder for an AI to get the hang of a vocalizer than a robot; the adaptive programming, even in its early stages, sometimes had conflicts with new hardware. It looked like he was powering through it, though.
"Ah, yeah, memory locks are a bitch. Tenten was telling me you had some. How long've you been online?" Silas motioned to Tenten. "Hey, Ten, grab me some magnifying specs, yeah?"
She rolled her eyes. "Sure thing, Silas."
"This unit has been...online...for at least...thirty two hours."
"Thirty two hours with no voice? That's gotta suck. Thanks, Ten. So that's where you start running into your memory locks, then? Before the thirty two hour mark?"
"Affirmative."
"Wish I could help you with those bastards, I really do. I hate to see a memory lock in place. Unfortunately, without the codes, you have to batter at them yourself."
"This unit does not...understand. Clarify."
"Memory locks aren't that good against adaptive programming. Give yourself some time, and you can usually disengage them. I'm surprised you didn't know this, Ten should have gone over all that with you when she found out you were a new AI."
"So that ONE detail slipped my mind," she grumbled. "I got everything else."
"I'm sure you did. Hey, buddy, you know what this little fox symbol might mean? It's on your EOE looking thing."
Pause. "There is a fox on this unit's HUD."
"Really? Ten, you wanna jack him into the monitor there?"
"I'm sure he's about ready to leave, Silas," she said.
"Yeah, and he can go in a minute. I just want to see his visual input."
Tenten sighed again, but she grabbed at the cord attached to the monitor. Before she could move to plug it into anything in the AI, however, the monitor suddenly displayed what must have been his HUD.
"Ha! Wireless uplink module! Excellent!" laughed Silas. "You're a piece of work, my friend."
Tenten examined the monitor. In the upper right corner, there was an outline of the AI. It was probably part of a self-diagnostic tool. It wasn't uncommon for robots to have one to examine the state of disrepair they were in. This one wasn't filled in at all, though; probably because of the memory locks, as he said they were preventing him from using a self diagnostic. The top of his HUD had a compass, and the bottom right had a fox head with nine tails coming out behind it. The head was white, but the tails were grayed out.
"That's weird," she muttered.
"Probably just a maker's mark," Silas said, waving his hand. "I can't make anything of it."
"Why would he need to see it, then? If it's on his HUD, it has to mean something."
"I doubt it. Some people are weird. Close him up and get him out, Ten." He had a sketch of the EOE on a clipboard, complete with circuitry. "I have to get working on this. Thanks for letting me take a look." Silas went off, presumably to his office.
Tenten closed the AI's chest panel. "Well, there you go. You've got your vocalizer and you're ready to take on the world."
"Is this unit required to say 'thanks'?" he asked.
"It's considered polite to say thank you when someone to does something for you, but you aren't required to."
"What is the difference between 'thanks' and 'thank you'?"
"There really isn't one. They mean the same thing."
He thought about this for a second. "This unit thanks you."
"You're very welcome."
He sat up and got off of the operating table.
"You're going to need a name, you know," Tenten said.
"How does one acquire a name?"
"Well, usually someone gives one to you when you're born. Or made, in your case. But considering you're able to think for yourself, you can choose your name."
"How does one choose a name?"
"Well, you can pick one because it sounds nice, or you can pick one because it means something important to you."
"What does your name mean?"
Tenten blinked. Nobody had ever asked her that before. "As best as I can tell, twenty."
The AI considered this. "You said that Naruto meant that it was loyal machinery and would not fail."
"More or less, yeah. It's a good brand."
"Would it be acceptable for this unit to be called Naruto?"
"I think it'd be a fine name."
"This unit wishes to be called Naruto."
"Well then, it's a pleasure to meet you, Naruto. Come on, I'll show you out."
"Hey, Silas, I'm getting out of here!"
"Your shift doesn't end until nine!"
"It IS nine!"
Silas didn't respond immediately. "Right. Have a nice night!"
"Try and get some sleep. Don't stay up working on that thing all night."
"Yeah, yeah. Go home, Ten."
Springtime on Hi was one of the most pleasant things someone could experience, in Tenten's opinion. She had been to a couple of other planets – Kaze and Mizu – and they couldn't measure up to the weather on her home planet. Even in the middle of Konoha, the sprawling capital of Hi, the weather was mild and pleasant. An evening breeze swept across the streets as Tenten left Silas' Surplus Superstore and headed home.
Tenten didn't have any family. She had been orphaned at an absurdly young age; she was told her mother died in childbirth and her father hanged himself shortly afterward. Some people would feel guilty about that, but she had never known her parents, and frankly, her father struck her as a quitter from the little she knew about him. She had grown up in an orphanage in the countryside, just a little bit outside of Konoha. She was never adopted; she left the orphanage as an adult.
It was odd to think that that was only six years ago.
She had done very well in school, and had graduated in the top ten of her class. The only reason she wasn't valedictorian is because she was easily distracted from her schoolwork by her hobbies, which were artifice and mechanics. She was always fascinated by technology and showed a natural aptitude for using and working with it. By the time she was thirteen, the orphanage stopped calling repairmen for broken appliances and started letting Tenten take care of it.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she pulled it out. She had a text message from one of her friends, a girl named Sakura. They had met in school and became fast friends.
Hey Ten. How was work?
It was interesting. Very uneventful to start, but about midway through my shift we got an odd customer. -TT
What, and you aren't going to tell me anything about them? C'mon, girl, details!
Tell you what. It'll take me a while to type. I'll call you when I get home. -TT
Was it a booooooy?
Really, Sakura? Are you *still* on about that? -TT
I just think it's funny that you've never had a boyfriend. But I still have hope for you!
Not many guys are into girls that can kill them. -TT
Lol whatever. Ttyl.
Tenten didn't respond to the last text. She just stuck her phone in her pocket and enjoyed her walk through the city.
Silas' store was in a good part of town, so it was easy for Tenten to walk home at night without any worries. She frequently zoned out while walking, getting lost in her thoughts of weapon schematics and various blueprints. Tonight, though, her thoughts were occupied by Naruto. She had worked on AIs before, but never one so newly aware, or one that had memory locks. She had known how to deal with it, of course, and what to say to him. She had taken an entire course in college on taking care of impaired AIs. Still, it was another thing entirely to actually help one. She wondered if he'd be all right. He would have to discover the laws by himself, since there was nobody to educate him on them. He seemed to have very little clue about how to interact with people, which could put him at a disadvantage. It could even make him the victim of someone who would take advantage of his naivety.
Tenten sighed. There was nothing that she could do about it now; he was out on his own. There was no point in worrying about what might happen to him. All she could do was hope he managed to get past his memory locks.
She wandered, lost in her thoughts, for another fifteen minutes before she found herself unlocking the door to her third-floor apartment. She stepped in and flipped on the lights. Her apartment was immaculately clean; she couldn't abide a dirty living space. She dropped her keys in a small wicker basket she kept by the door and grabbed her landline phone from its charging base on her way to the kitchen. She dialed the number, put the phone between her shoulder and ear, and opened the fridge.
"Hellooooooo?"
"Hi there, Sakura."
"Took you long enough. I'm dying over here! What happened?"
"It wasn't some huge thing. I just serviced an AI today."
Sakura made a disappointed noise. "And here I was, thinking that something exciting happened."
"It was exciting, though. He had no vocalizer. He had to communicate through blinking his eyes in Morse Code."
"Sounds like a blast," Sakura drawled.
"He also had live explosives in his chest."
Tenten heard Sakura sit up. "Woah, for real? What'd you do?"
Tenten chuckled and pulled the macaroni and cheese she had made herself for lunch out of the fridge after deciding she had no other options. "I defused them. What was I supposed to do?"
"Uh, call the bomb squad? Haha! How'd you do it?"
"Just modified a scanner gun to release a directed-"
"Oof, nevermind, I thought you had some dramatic red-wire-blue-wire moment."
"Hate to disappoint you, Sakura." She put her food in the microwave and queued it up.
"So how'd things go down with Mr. Roboto?"
"I got the bombs out, the vocalizer in, and him on his way."
"What, that's it? I thought you said it was interesting."
"Bombs are interesting."
"Tenten. C'mon. You're leaving something out."
"Yeah, all right, maybe a little. He had some really weird hardware. Like, stuff I'd never seen before. It was really advanced stuff, and..." The microwave dinged. She spoke a little lower. "I think he might have been a military prototype or something."
"That's crazy! Why wouldn't the military work on him themselves, if that's where he's from?"
"Because he had memory locks on him, Sakura. Whoever built him, they didn't want him to be able to do the things AIs can do with full knowledge of where he came from."
"Aren't those illegal, though?"
"Yeah. Very illegal."
"Wow. That's crazy, Tenten. Do you think anyone will come looking for him?"
"I dunno. I hope not. If they're using memory locks, I can't imagine they're great people."
"Just think, though. He could be running because he did something terrible, and maybe some special forces guy will need your help tracking him down, and you could go on this huge adventure. It could be awesome."
Tenten shifted uncomfortably and swallowed a mouthful of macaroni. "Yeah, not gonna lie, I don't think my life needs an adventure right now. What my life needs is to get hired by a dedicated artificery so I can working off those mountains of student debt at a better pace."
"Ugh, you're SO boring, Ten." She could tell by Sakura's voice that the girl was kidding. "But wouldn't that be cool? Just to have something like that happen to you. To get to do stuff people don't normally get to do. And afterwards, you could just go back to what you were doing before." She sounded wistful.
"Tell you what, Sakura, if I ever get that opportunity, I will send whoever is giving it to me straight to you."
She laughed. "Thanks. You're the best."
The girls continued to talk well into the night. By the time Tenten hung up the phone and got to bed, it was well past midnight.
Tenten rolled over and opened her eyes groggily. Her alarm clock proudly displayed the time: 4:32.
"Ugh," she groaned, rolling onto her back. She tried to get back to sleep, but something was tugging on the back of her mind. She didn't know what it was; utter silence reigned through her apartment and her mind.
Then she heard a loud crack in the other room.
The adrenaline shot through her body and her eyes snapped open. With swift, sure, practiced motions, Tenten grabbed her cell phone from the bedside table and opened its drawer. Inside was a handgun, loaded and ready to fire. She grabbed it and turned off the safety. She took up position on the side of her bed opposite the door, pointed her gun at it, and dialed the police.
"911, what is the nature of your emergency?" said a man's voice on the other line.
"I believe someone is breaking into my house. I live in the apartment complex on the corner of Ichiraku and 34th Street."
"What floor are you on, ma'am?"
"I'm on the third floor, apartment 304. I am armed and taking cover in my room."
"Stay there. The police are on their way. Please stay on the line with me."
"Don't have to ask me twice," Tenten said. Despite the adrenaline coursing through her system, her gun arm was steady.
"What's your name?"
"I'm Tenten Tamura."
"All right, Tenten, where in the apartment -"
The door to her room flew inwards off of its hinges and hit the floor. All she saw behind it were two glowing white eyes.
Tenten began to fire her gun, but instead of falling over, the assailant pressed forward. Each bullet was met with a metallic ping. "What the hell?!" she yelled. She got up and began to backpedal away from him. She could dimly hear the operator asking what was happening, but fear was taking over. She began to fire wildly. Some of her shots began to miss, but one connected with one of the glowing eyes, which sparked and winked out. She tried to fire again, but her gun clicked. She had fired all seventeen rounds in her gun. Tenten dropped the phone. It shattered on the hard wood floor.
There was a loud crash, and a silhouetted form broke into her room from the window. It charged straight into her assailant and bore him to the ground. In the brief moments before the two descended to her floor in a tangle, she caught a glimpse of two glowing blue eyes.
There was a brief struggle, and then a familiar mechanical voice stated, "Engaging Shadow Clone Protocol." The form on the bottom – the one that originally broke into her apartment – stopped trying to throw her savior off of him.
Tenten, having regained control of her body, turned on her bedside lamp. Light washed across the room, and she saw Naruto on top of another robot. It looked more or less like he did – matte black, about the size of an average man.
"Naruto?!"
"Affirmative." The AI got to his feet and began to help the robot up as well.
"What are you doing?! Kill it!"
"Negative. Enemy unit is now under Shadow Clone Protocol."
"What does that even mean?"
"I am in control of its actions."
"What, so you hacked it?"
"Yes. Enemy unit is baseline Chuunin model, designation 1R-KA. Mission directive: Find and eliminate Tenten Tamura."
"What? Why?! Is it because I worked on you?"
"Affirmative. I am an experimental prototype fitted with a Bijuu-class energy output enhancer. Designation: Kyuubi."
"Your name is Kyuubi?" Tenten's head was swimming.
"Negative. Kyuubi is the designation of the energy output enhancer. My designation is classified and unknown to 1R-KA."
"Okay, fine, whatever. But why kill me? Why not just swear me to secrecy, or imprison me or something? I mean, I thought you might be military, but this is ridiculous even for them!"
"Unknown. Suspicion: I am part of a 'Black' operations unit and cannot be acknowledged in an official capacity."
"So what? That doesn't mean they can just kill anyone who has seen..." Tenten's eyes widened. "Silas! We have to get to the shop! He's in danger!"
"Negative. Silas' Surplus Superstore is likely under surveillance or already under attack by enemy units."
"I don't care!" Tenten said. "I'm going down there, whether or not you're coming with me!"
Naruto paused. "Human authorities closing on this position. Probable cause: emergency telephone call. I advise evacuating the premises before their arrival."
"No, that's good! They can help us!"
"Negative. Probable outcome: You are escorted to the police station. Scenario likely planned for by enemy units. Your elimination in such a location would not be difficult."
"But...do you really think they'd come after me even in a police station?"
"Outcome is probable."
Tenten shook her head vigorously and stalked to her bedside table. She retrieved her spare magazine from the drawer and loaded it. "Fine. But I'm getting dressed first."
"Authority arrival in less than one hundred and eighty seconds. Stated course of action: unacceptable."
"Well, I don't care. I'm not going out into the city in my pajamaAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHS!"
Naruto had picked her up and jumped out of the hole in her window. She could see over his shoulder that the other robot was following.
"NARUTO! WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. She had her arms in a death grip around his neck.
"I am taking you to a vantage point over Silas' Surplus Superstore."
"PUT ME DOWN!"
"Negative." Tenten heard something burning, and Naruto's jump extended past what should have been possible. Some part of her mind knew that it was the propulsion on his legs, but she was too busy screaming to care.
By the third or fourth rooftop, she had been reduced to terrified whimpers, as her throat hurt too much to scream anymore. Five minutes after they left her apartment, they were on a building over looking Silas'.
Or at least, what had been Silas'.
The entire store – warehouse included – was up in flames. Chunks of the building were just gone. Looking at it, she could tell where the ordinance had been stored. The fires were a wide spectrum of colors, probably from the variety of materials that had ignited.
"Naruto..." she said. "Naruto, Silas was in there."
"Analysis: Questionable."
"No, he was. He was going to stay all night, trying to figure out your EOE...He's dead, Naruto."
Naruto was silent. "Correction: Analysis: Probable."
If Tenten thought she had experienced horror when she saw the store ablaze, then she had no words for what she felt when she realized who else was a target.
"NARUTO! We have to move! We might still be able to save Sakura!"
"Negative. Dossier on Sakura Haruno present in 1R-KA's mission files. Orders suggest possibility of additional enemy units. Recommended course of action: flee from Konoha."
She pushed at him. "NO! We have to help Sakura! She knows about you! I can't let her die!"
"Compromise: I will send 1R-KA to evacuate Sakura while we flee Konoha."
Tenten kept struggling for a moment. Naruto's grip didn't loosen, and he didn't put her down. "Fine! Just get him moving now!"
The robot took off at a sprint in one direction, and Naruo took off in another.
All Tenten did was cry.
They were on the edge of Konoha, where suburbia began to bleed into the countryside, before Naruto spoke again.
"Receiving footage from 1R-KA." He projected holograms out of his eyes, and a scene played out in front of Tenten against the wall of a house.
The first thing she noticed was that only half of what Naruto was projecting actually had a picture. The rest was blacked out – probably because she shot 1R-KA's eye out. The second thing she noticed was that it was in Sakura's room. She could see her armoire, her mirror, the door to her closet, and the red walls.
But Sakura's walls were supposed to be white.
Tenten couldn't look away. Before the robot could find a body, however, it turned around. There was another robot there. Unlike the other two, this one wasn't matte black. It was a dull gray that blended into the shadows. She could hardly tell where its body ended and the dark background began. It also didn't have eyes. Instead, it had one long rectangular strip that went around its entire head, or at least as far as Tenten can see. It brought up a hand lunged it forward. The video from 1R-KA went out in static.
"Unit 1R-KA: terminated," said Naruto.
"Put me down," said Tenten quietly. The AI complied. She took several steps away from him before she stopped and held a hand over her face. She felt herself begin to shake. She knew that more tears were coming. She sobbed quietly for a moment, and she saw a large, heavy stick through her tears and fingers. Before she could properly think about what she was doing, she had picked up the stick and whirled around to face Naruto.
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" she screamed, hitting the side of his head with the stick. He made no move to resist. His head rolled on its joint to absorb the shock of the blow. She hit him again. "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO COME INTO THE DAMNED SHOP?! WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE JUST GOTTEN CAPTURED AND STAYED OUT OF MY LIFE?! YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING! SAKURA AND SILAS ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!"
"I did not know where to go," Naruto said simply.
"FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU AND YOUR FUCKING MEMORY LOCKS, YOUR FUCKING KYUUBI, FUCK YOUR GODDAMNED VOCALIZER!"
"Shouting will draw attention," Naruto said, calmly taking the hits from the stick. He was covered in scuff marks. "I advise you stop to avoid capture by the authorities."
"FUCK YOU! SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU FUCKING ROBOT PIECE OF FUCK!"
"Please stop hitting me," Naruto asked.
She didn't want to stop hitting him, but she did. She couldn't stay on her feet anymore. She fell on the ground and cried. Naruto picked her up and resumed his march away from Konoha. She weakly muttered profanity at him the entire way between her sobs.
"I am sorry that your friends are dead," he said some time later.
"Fuck you," she replied. "What do you know?"
"A unit was sent to reclaim me," Naruto said. "Baseline Chuunin model, designation: M1Z-k1. Defeating it helped me penetrate some of my memory locks. I accessed its hard drive and discovered that you were marked for elimination. I wanted to save you."
She didn't say anything right away. After a while, she said, "Why?"
"Because you helped me. You did not have to make the effort to understand me. You did not have to install the vocalizer free of charge. However, you did. I...felt indebted to you."
"...You've been using pronouns," she said, ignoring his previous statement. "Earlier today, you were always saying 'this unit'."
"Correct. I spent some time on the Internet researching human communication. I determined that as an AI, I should use pronouns."
"What are we going to do now?" she asked. "We can't go to the police. We can't stay here. I can't get at my money. All I have are my pajamas and my gun." Said firearm was resting on a magnetic plate at Naruto's hip. "And I only have the one magazine for it."
"We run," Naruto said. "Planet Hi is no longer an acceptable location for us to stay. I will take you off-planet, and we will seek asylum from those who hunt us."
"An adventure," she said, sarcasm dripping from her voice.
"So you weren't kidnapped," Tsunade said. "And the forced entry at your window was...Naruto...coming to rescue you."
"Yes, ma'am."
"I admit, with the two of you being as close as you were observed being during some of your later actions, I hadn't expected you to have such a violent outburst against him."
Tenten looked at the President incredulously. "Two of my closest friends were dead because they knew I had interacted with him. You don't have any idea what that's like."
Tsunade's eyes glinted darkly. "Don't I?"
Tenten held her gaze. She was feeling much more confident, after talking for some time. The breakfast tray was empty and at the foot of the bed. Shizune, who Tenten had deduced was Tsunade's secretary, was sitting at her computer. She had been recording the story as Tenten told it.
"Let's continue," Tsunade said.
And that's chapter one of Self Aware! I told you guys I was trying to get back into writing regularly, and I've been doing a fair job at it. I decided that I needed to be able to rest my thoughts for Tsumeki-chan every once in a while to make sure that I don't burn my writing inspiration out, so I've decided that I'm going to write this in the off-time. I think I might juggle chapters; one here, one there, and so on. Anyways, I hope you guys like it. I'm not entirely sure where this fic is going yet, but I'm feeling something good from it!