Fire X Wind
Chapter 1: Take-Off
Written by: Purple pin
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to the very talented Masashi Kishimoto sensei
Translations: Foreign languages marked with asterisk (*) and translated/explained at the end of the chapter before Author's Note.
Author's Note: At the end.
Pairings: Sasuke x Naruto; Kakashi x Iruka...More to come.
A tropical breeze blows across the airfield sending ripples through the lush grass and carrying with it scents from the North Atlantic Ocean. A team of six walks with purpose towards the small four-seater plane parked in the landing bay, two of the group were carrying some equipment in their hands.
"Please check if you have everything, first the meteorological instruments, then the aquatic research instruments". One of the senior scientists wearing an eye-patch addressed.
"Pyranometer, tick; Cielometer, tick; Barometer, tick; water sampler, tick; sediment corer, tick; Acoustic Doppler current profiler...", answered a blonde as he carefully read down his supplies checklist "and ditto for all the others. Yes, Danzo san, we've taken everything we needs for our project, we're ready!" He said excitedly, and gave a thumbs-up to the group while flashing his wide grin.
"Brat, at no point are you to enter the Bermuda Triangle zone, I want you to stay well away from there. You got me?" A woman with honey-brown eyes and two pigtails said in an authoritative tone to the blonde, and he starts to protest "ok, baabaa*, trust old ladies to worry too much. Besides I've chartered plenty of times before".
"NO BUTS" a vein popped on her forehead "you're still a brat – even at twenty, and you're still gonna taste my fist if you misbehave! Iruka, make sure he does not trek-off the chartered course". She ordered the brown haired male, who is Naruto's research supervisor.
"Yes, Tsunade sama*, I'll make sure of that, and Naruto will simply fly on the boundaries of this island in the pre-planned course, landing at various spots on the coastline to collect samples. We will not traverse into the actual Bermuda triangle zone at all." Iruka quickly said to the two head scientists Tsunade and Danzo, and gave them a reassuring nod. He and Naruto then went to place the equipment onto the backseat of the plane, before heading back to the crew to say their goodbyes. Being a man of few words, Danzo simply nodded to the two leaving and headed back to the waiting lounge with his assistant.
"Be safe, Iruka sensei and Naruto kun, I can't wait to see your wonderful findings when you come back", a brown haired woman said and winking at Naruto, she added "Such a beautiful day, I think it'll prove to be a good flight for you".
"Thanks Shizune san! Heehee" Naruto said as he beamed. There was nothing he enjoyed more than flying in the boundless blue sky.
"Will do our best Shizune chan" Iruka confidently said.
Having made sure that Danzo was fully behind the glass research cabins and out of earshot, Tsunade turned to Naruto and opened her palm "I want you to wear this, she put a necklace with a shining deep blue crystal around his neck." Meeting his surprised eyes "It was your dad's, you're now its keeper". Her voice turning gentler, then with barely concealed concern "Be safe ok kit?"
Naruto held up his necklace, ocean blue eyes observed the gem intently, feeling the cool stone against his fingers. "This was dad's, why are you giving it to me now? Thanks baachan*. Hehe, no worries I'll be fine, ya know, I'm good behind the wheel, and I've done it plenty of times before". He beamed at her, Naruto wondered whether it came with age, baba was always so brave but whenever he goes to fly-off she'd have this unvoiced concern over him. "I'll tell you when you come back tonight ok, so you'll have to come back to hear it brat" She slapped him on the head, and Naruto ducked behind Iruka before she could do it properly.
VROOM! VROOM! The engine of the small plane roared to life, Iruka waved off to the crew on the ground as Naruto gave them all a thumbs-up before pulling the plane off the runway at full speed and taking flight. The plane soon disappeared to a small dot in the boundless sky.
"Tsunade sama, Namikaze sensei's necklace...are you sure about giving it to Naruto kun so soon? It's powers are relatively unknown ..." Shizune quietly asked.
With a slight knot to her brows, Tsunade sighed then replied "At least I hope it'll protect him" something just feels odd about Danzo, and that bugging feeling in the pits of her stomach just annoys her to no end "get me some sake Shizune!"
"Hai, Tsunade sama." Shizune answered.
Once airborne, the plane rapidly climbs higher and higher in the sky. The temperature dropped as the plane took to the upper cloud levels, and the engine's steady turning motion settles into a monotonous humming rhythm. Outside, visibility was dramatically reduced due to the density of the clouds in this part of the sky, and it looks like a haze of white fog surrounded the plane. Naruto pays rapt attention to his control panel and both him and Iruka keeps an eye on whats ahead.
CLUNK! CLUNK! CLUNK! Suddenly the peaceful journey was abruptly interrupted by several loud outbursts from the right propeller engine. The body of the plane shook with the vibrations.
"What was that?" Iruka asked alarmingly, turning to Naruto.
Beep, beep, the display boards sounded and red started to flash on the control panel indicating the affected area as the right propeller engine. Naruto hurriedly pressed several combinations of buttons on his control panel, while adjusting various buttons and moving a few knobs. "Iruka sensei, something's wrong with our engine on the right wing".
CLUNK! CLUNK! It happened again, and Naruto looked at his right engine with fear, as he could see the propellers slowing in their turning motion.
"Shit! Something's stopping the propellers turning, and the right engine looks like it's slowing down too. I didn't see any birds on the radar, so I'm sure nothing's trapping the propellers and this shouldn't be happening. What the fuck!" Sweat was gathering on his brow, and blue eyes blazing with anxiety while Iruka tried to see if anything else was amiss. A sudden air current gushed through, veering the little plane off-course as if it were a helpless bird lost in the vast sky. A sudden idea struck Naruto.
"The right engine looks like going Kapput, I don't think it'll start working any time soon. I'm going to catch this current, and glide us to safety Iruka sensei, hold-on"!
On the display radar, Iruka mentally noted the direction of the air current was south west west, which could spell trouble. "Naruto, Wind speed is around 50km/hr blowing south west west at 280 to 290 degrees, but this current will take us into the zone of the triangle. We can't go there, take another course".
Barely finishing his sentence, suddenly, the plane tipped even more towards the right, and the propeller gave much laboured and slower turns. Looking quickly at the propeller about to give out, Naruto turned back to Iruka and said "We've got no other choice, Iruka sensei, we have to go into the zone because the right propellers are stopping. We need to ride on this wind current".
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The speakers sounded the alarm tone, while the indicators on the map blinked red around a certain area on the map. Naruto punches some buttons in rapid succession, and two smaller flap opens on the mid and end sections of the right wing like mini-wings to increase the plane's air resistance and uplift.
"Alright, I guess we've got no choice. Just do your best like you always do Naruto." Iruka was full of worry at the emergency they were in, but tried to look reassuringly at Naruto.
After flying in a lopsided manner for around thirty minutes, the plane glided to a lower height.
"Ok Iruka sensei, we're now in the Bermuda triangle zone, but the plane is riding the current, we're now stabilising our flight." Naruto commented. Even before any of them could so much as breathe a sigh of relief, an enormous grey mass headed towards the plane at great speed. It was violent and angry, like it was trying to break open the heavens, this angry twist of great magnitude warped all the way up the clouds, and thunder was making the atmosphere cackle with electricity sparks, the clouds turned into an unfathomable purplish pink.
In a hurried tone, Iruka said "Naruto get ready for us to eject from our seats and escape, that's a tropical cyclone – in the Bermuda triangle the weather and seas are unpredictable and cyclones seem to appear without warning". Brown eyes looked at widening blue ones as the plane plunges head-first into the cyclone.
"Eject the emergency seats on the count of three, ONE, TWO, THREE!" Naruto shouted as their seats broke out from the main body of the plane.
"Iruka sensei!" "Naruto!" they called out to each other, and these were the last things they both heard before the cyclone angrily ripped the small plane to pieces, splintering its wings, twisting its body and cracking its windshield into a million pieces.
Two figures seemed to dance in the air like dandelions as their safety parachutes bloomed out, and they were sucked up by the vortex.
List of foreign words
*Baabaa/Baachan – Old lady
*Sama/san – An honorific title, such as Mr/Ms
*chan/kun - title of address used to indicate familiarity with the speaker
*Sensei – one's teacher
Author's Note
I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this story, please review or leave me a PM. I hope you give me feedback to improve, tell me what you liked or disliked, thank you so much for reading.
