The Super-Elite Jounin: Tsuchi's Story
"Tsuchi! Jin just called! He's on his way back from Japan!" Mom called me down from my room. Took him long enough, I thought. My best friend, Jinketsu Yochi, left for Japan a couple weeks ago. He said he was only going to be there for a few days, but it's certainly been longer than that. Kamiko and I have been so bored without him. Whatever he's been doing for so long, it had better be good.
I mentioned Kamiko earlier. Kamiko Kyoumo is another really good friend of mine who is also close to Jin. While the three of us live in different cities—I in Rochester, New York, Jinketsu in Detroit, Michigan, and Kamiko in Washington D.C., we still get to spend a lot of time with each other during visits and video chats over the internet. I've sensed a thing sparking in between Kamiko and Jin for a while, now, but neither of them has acted on it. I have a feeling that will change soon, though.
I called Kamiko to tell her about Jinketsu's homecoming, and we agreed to meet at Tampa International Airport, where our friend's plane was coming in. About eight hours later, we were there, and dead tired.
"He leaves for three times as long as he says he'll be gone, and now he chooses a flight this goddamn late? The second I see him, I'll kill him so hard, he'll die to death." Kamiko grunted. The poor thing didn't sleep a bit because of her excitement, and then she got like that.
"Now who was the one who sounded like a cheerleader on the phone when I told you he was coming back?" I laughed. Kamiko tried to swing at me, but she was so drowsy she missed terribly and tripped from her arm's forward momentum. I, on the other hand, slept on the way there and thus was the first to notice Jinketsu coming from the terminal wearing—wait a second, what was he wearing?
"I'd welcome you back, Jin, but I don't know whether it's you or a random cosplayer." I was still in the joking mood. Kamiko, disoriented, added,
"Really, what the hell are you wearing? You look like you just came from the Hidden Leaf Village or something." Jinketsu just smiled. It wasn't just any smile, though. It was his "I know something you don't know" smile. Judging by what Kamiko had just said, my eyes widened.
"You've got to be kidding me. There's no way you were actually there. The Leaf Village doesn't exist!"
"That's what I thought, too." Jin said something, finally. "Boy, do I have a story to tell you guys."
Jinketsu told us about how he went to Japan, but the directions he got in the mysterious package he received led him to the Hidden Leaf Village somehow.
As open-minded teens, we weren't absolutely shocked, but we were certainly surprised that whatever happened to bring the Naruto world so close to ours did so now. Kamiko concluded that space-time splicing across dimensions was the most plausible explanation. I had no idea what that meant, but I don't think either of my friends expected me to, so I just rolled with it.
Jin continued to tell us about his encounters with the Konoha 12 and how he became a target of a rogue ninja group called the Kurokishi. I got confused when he said that he fought as well, though.
"How did you fight? You can't have used actual taijutsu and ninjutsu. I mean, going to Konohagakure is one thing, but becoming a ninja? That's—"
"More real than you can possibly imagine. When I discovered that I could control chakra, I also discovered that I had a huge amount of chakra in my chakra network. It's almost ten times the amount Naruto has with the Nine-Tailed Fox in him." Jin interrupted me. I looked at Kamiko, who had just the same amount of apprehensive disbelief on her face that I did.
"I bet you plan on becoming some kind of superhero with all this, don't you?" Kamiko smiled.
"Do I look like I'm trying to hide my identity? No, I don't plan on becoming a superhero. I plan on changing the world. America will become the first real ninja nation." Now Jinketsu was wearing his "this is going to work" smile. After all the skepticism, I had no choice but to agree. I could tell Kamiko felt the same. The question I asked next would change my life, and the world, from then on forever.
"So how are we going to help?"