Juubi;Protocol
Prologue
X
"Targeting dimension system. System locked!" an artificial voice said through the monitor. Clone086 grinned. He finally made it. The Gate was now about to open but the singularity would only remain open for 0.046 seconds before it would eventually collapse. The most difficult part had been done, and now he was certain he would be able to change the course of time. His hands were gripped down his Divergence Meter. The six first digits were at 0 and it was not good news at all. Moreover, it confirmed direly it would be his last attempt to leap.
"Five minutes remaining," the womanish/mechanized voice finally proclaimed. "Initializing procedures. Tunneling in process. First procedure cleared."
Clone086 eyed thoroughly the coppery arc flooding in light the labs. His ex-mentor Clone002 would scowl at him if he saw energy's discharges trashing the surroundings. This prototype required more electricity than expected. Clone086 feared a shortage but saw no signs of it, just scraps and meal leftovers around. He should have cleaned the place. He would have if he had the time.
"Second procedure cleared, initializing the opening. Opening confirmed."
He sighted and took a sit on a metal chair sixteen meters away from the Gate. He calculated it was the ideal place not to be harmed too much but close enough to plunge forward and cross the distance in time. He harnessed his metallic plates supposed to protect him from the discharge. He glanced his watch. Four minutes and forty two seconds. Damn. His heartbeats accelerated, too fast. He closed his eyes and recited his mantra.
We are but the hand that guides the fate to an utopia. We are but the hand that guides the fate to an utopia.
He knew it was futile but somehow, it worked. He snorted to the irony he recollected the lashes on his back at school. Those were not good memories but they encouraged him to change this messed-up universe. Even though he was not sure if this dimension would persist after his departure... There were many theories about time travels after all, most of which were not satisfying but it was not like he had a choice.
He looked back at his watch. Four minutes and twenty six seconds left. His hands were sweaty. He put his sunglasses on as the flashes started to hurt. He also took the oxigen mask in case. He tried to picture himself in this disguise. You only had to put a flame-thrower on his back and you had the perfect terrorist.
"Shit... Forgot about the background music..." He was about to stand up but conceded. Bad idea and bad timing. He lit up his pipe but he remembered something. It was not without a grimace that he removed his mask to breath the relaxing fumes. His foot tapped with rhythm the ground.
"Hehehe, you should have tasted this stuff old man before croaking" In front of him was sit on a similar chair his mentor, Clone002. The mentor he killed. He then put back his mask. He missed this old man, yapping some bullshits about the Resistance. The last Rampart of Humanity they said. The problem when you fuck too deeply the ethics, it's that you cannot expect others to follow your jam. He was supposed to be dead to begin with. But they had to bring him back, again and again. Save the world my son! Ha! The worst that it was himself, or rather, the other clones who persisted the charade. He was no longer One of the Many or being part of the School of Redemption. Yada Yada.
He stretched his arms backward. By this way, he killed another clone with a knife down his throat. This one tried to ambush him from behind. Clone086 hummed a disgruntled grunt, he had lost the count. Must have been Clone654 or Clone645 for what mattered. He liked to think himself different from the others. Even if in deeps, he knew he was only the result of his own environment. To follow the trope, something had gone horribly wrong. But it felt so horribly right at the same time...
Two minutes left after consulting his watch yet again. With extra help, from some kind of benevolent beings, he would be able staying two minutes without killing himself. If it was one thing he admired in his clones, it was their obstinacy. They never give up. One of the traits he shared with them. He looked behind him and saw supposed Clone645 crawling toward him eight meters from his position. He used to grant them merciful deaths as they were no responsible from their conditioning but he would have to move from his chair and it would risk the entire operation. He glared at the accusing finger pointed at him.
"Yo-You betrayed u-us. You—"
"You betrayed Humanity?" Clone086 laughed. His laugh was dimmed through the mask, it was unnerving enough for the other clone to convulse in rage.
"If on-only you ha-ad not exi-isted, if only—"
"We managed to get through the Gate? Do not worry my friend, I will" and after saying that, he threw his last knife through the skull of the other clone. He was fascinated by the reddish rainbow. He wondered if his own blood turned black after having spilling so much of his clones'.
"Third procedure cleared. Connection established. Stabilizing Naruto's Way. Thirty seconds left for the Convergence." Clone086 dejected. What the hell happened? It was one minute and twenty five seconds too early. He saw the singularity rising at the edge of the Gate. It was as if it was close, but distant at the same time, as if the laws of the universes bent to form this tiny portal. Clone086 stood up and crouched to dodge the energy outbursts to blast him. Clone645 had vaporized already. His hands clutched his Divergence Meter. And then
He crossed the pathway between universes...