"So I see you've met Mr Tua." Naruto rolled his eyes dramatically once they were sure he was out of earshot, "I'll never forget the first time he yelled at me, thought I'd be shitting marbles for a week, the nervous twitching was that bad."
"Tua?" Sakura questioned.
"Thermometer-up-ass. Living here gives you a knack for acronyms."
"Ew…" Tenten pulled a face, sitting at the end of Sakura's bed. Hinata silently shook her head from the side and gave the rookie a quick smile.
"I… don't think I want to be here. I want to go home." Sakura mumbled, mostly to herself. She could almost feel some kind of belonging, here, but… that man.
"Sorry, Sakura, but he meant it when he said you would die." Hinata held her hand, "We've seen what he does to people who betray the organization, he straps them to the device and then… well, I've heard it's like a thousand hours of dying in three minutes."
"How do you know?" Sakura was slightly skeptical at the information. If you died going through that machine, or at least went insane, you wouldn't be able to tell anybody, would you?
"He tested it on Sasuke; poor bastard was a completely different man after that. I mean, his own brother… can you imagine? I don't… oh, sorry." Naruto had a grim look on his face, but snapped out of it when Hinata began to tremble. She calmed, reassured him that she was fine, and went off to make another round of Tea.
"Yeah… we've all got problems, here. Some of them we left behind, others we made up ourselves, like Shino." Tenten told her, frowning at the absent-minded fumblings Naruto was making with his bandages while his nurse wasn't looking.
"Injecting his body with Nanobots was entirely his choice, Tenten." Hinata spoke up from behind a little stove with a kettle.
"You have to admit, though… he's a little strange." Naruto spoke up, trying to hide the adjustment to his sling behind his back.
"He's simply quiet. Now, if you continue to ruin my dressings, I'll have to put fresh lime juice on the next set." Hinata gave a cross look to the now bashful man, "And don't give me the puppy face, I'm immune to it… by… now…"
Naruto had looked up to her during the telling off and had apparently taken away all the stops on his 'obnoxiously cute' setting. The vulnerable posture, with his shoulders hunched forward a little and his hands together on his lap, coupled with a wobbling lower lip and big 'Can I has Cheeseburger nao?' eyes, had many different effects on the three occupants.
Tenten gave a suspicious little cough that sounded like 'Manwhore, manwhore!' and waggled her eyebrows at Sakura, who was torn between emptying her mouth, emptying her stomach or just laughing her ass off.
"Hiiiinata… I just wanted to scratch it a little…" Naruto crooned, oblivious to Tenten's stage whisper of 'Can't you two get a room already?' and Sakura's laughter snorting as it escaped through the hand she had clapped over her mouth. Hinata turned a marvelous shade of crimson, further deepened at Tenten's snide remark, and furiously bustled back to boiling the water, which suddenly demanded extreme attention.
Perfectly natural, of course. The water might… well, the kettle could… actually, it was the stove top. It could explode, or start crawling with AIDS. Hinata had to watch it very closely to ensure that it didn't do either.
Sakura opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again.
"I like this place already, Dinner and a show."
The doors opened again, and the first thing that came into Sakura's head was There's far too much blonde in the room!
Two young women, followed by another older, extremely well endowed woman in body armour made their way through into the recovery room. All of them had varying shades of gold and yellow and one of them had a smile that looked entirely too fresh for the morning or whatever the time was.
"Mornin', Musketeer!!" She cried, hopping onto the bed and causing twin squeaks of alarm to sound from Sakura and Tenten, "Must say; I ain't never seen no-one with pink hair before!"
Sakura tried to breathe, what with the blonde's rampart energy to comb through her hair for any suspected regrowth forcing her chest in direct proximity to her face.
"Temari, she isn't a visitor, you can drop the act." The older lady sighed, giving an apologetic smile as the enthusiastic visitor got off the bed. "Sorry about her, she's either going through intel drug withdrawal or she had to go street for more recon."
"I'm fine, Grandma." The newly named Temari growled back, Sakura noted her insane hair from the back, a set of four ponytails in a clover pattern. "I did it so the idiot would make a dick out of himself." She thumbed at Naruto, who was currently sporting a mild nosebleed from the Breasts/Face collision. "Anyway, it's nice to meet ya, kid. Judging from your report, I think we'll get along swell, yeah? Name's Temari, the oldie is Tsunade, she's the only actual medic on the team, and Miss Tail-and-bangs is Ino, our brain specialist, pity she can't perform it on herself."
"I'd practice on you, if you had something to work with." Ino shot back, smiling at the banter. Naruto quickly excused himself, not willing to be caught in the crossfire. Hinata and Tenten tried to put themselves at as much distance as they could, with the pupilless girl hiding behind a chair as she set the kettle down.
"Girls, please. No killing each other until after we take over the world." Tsunade sighed, holding out her hand to Sakura. "We're here to give you a tour once you're well. But I reckon we can give you a nickel job if you're up to it. Or would you rather like us to tell you the basics?"
Sakura took the hand, giving it a tentative shake. "Another hour and I think I'll be fine. My body is weird like that."
"Right, well, let's start from the beginning…"
--
The year was 2018, and mankind had really screwed things up. The Earth was in a bottleneck of resources, and human greed had tipped the scales in favour of self-extinction. Wars began over trivial things like boundaries and quota rights, but escalated over Fresh water, land and even solar angle for the electricity panels. By 2020, the world had become a battleground; the crust was pockmarked with craters, disease and famine stalked the seven continents and claimed all they could.
Some scientists in Greenland, however, had made a strange discovery just as a new philosophy was made. If one could convince a man, they said, in that he had everything that he could ever desire, he would not war nor envy for the best in quality. One could serve him rusty water, so long as it was clean, and he would drink it like finest mineral springwater if you could convince him so. Production could support the world if people didn't always want the best, yes?
The question arose as to how. Mass-hypnosis was not an option, and coercion led more often than not to outright rebellion. No, within science and biology and computer advances a cure to the instinct of man was found, a remote chip installed in the neural stem that intercepted the inputs of the five sense and converted them into more favourable outcomes. Simply dubbed the CHIP, the scientists found that one could create a virtual simulation of a city or township where the person lived, and control him via the means of the CHIP to act in harmony with the others that he knew.
By 2023, the CHIP was finally in supply to the ever-growing world population. By 2024, the last vestiges of human wealth were spent on installing and integrating the CHIP into human society, relying on the giant floating MITEs, or Mass-Illusion-Transmitting-Emulators to guide the populous.
Surprisingly, it worked. Humanity had learned to do with less, so long as they could carry on the fantasies worked inside a tiny square of silicon.
Eventually, the corporations that owned and marketed the chips became targeted by various criminal organizations. It came to note that the corporations had basically taken over the normal spheres of Governmental duty. For extra 'Rehabilitation fees', or simple taxes. A corporation supplied water, shelter and the basics of life to the controlled civilians.
A bribe here, an 'Unfortunate accident' there, and the corporations found themselves in the hands of criminals, using them as a front to carry out their activities. Due to the dissolvement of the traditional governmental structures (Nobody cared, anyway.), the boundaries of nations vanished, replaced by new ones, ones created and maintained by the influence controlled by the Syndicates.
In 2050, the last government collapsed, destroying all possible armed resistances against the black market.
To expand and defend their territories, the Syndicates utilized a variety of Cybernetic enhanced humans named Agents. Men and Women in good health were kidnapped, sedated and placed in the mysterious Leonardo device, having their CHIP modified to take direct orders from a Syndicate-controlled MITE.
They were coated in bullet-resistant rubber polymer, given a few cyborg operations (If they were lucky) and sent out to mindlessly perform the will of the Syndicate. Controlled with the aid of Adrenal stims, Perception-altering drugs and semi-autonomous brainwashing, they could move three times faster than the average human, perform feats of impossible strength, and could take heavy rounds to the chest with low effect.
"Which brings us back to you. For whatever reason, you saw the world as it was, as do the rest of us." Tsunade nodded after accepting yet another cup of tea (And pouring a liberal amount of rum into the bargain). "Difference is, we had to have our chips remodded before that happened, yours just happened naturally, and there wasn't anything wrong with your chip that we can perceive."
Ino piped up after discontinuing her glaring contest with Temari, "That could mean that you're not only immune to the illusion, but you could also have a resistance against the Persuaders. I don't think I need to tell you how valuable that is."
"Ino, she's been mind-wiped." Tenten reminded her.
"Fine. Persuaders are tools that destroy the 'mercy' of implanted chips, overdrugging the brains of those affected and causing them to be completely susceptible to suggestion. They effectively lose their free will. Not only that, but persuade enough civies and their chips will work together to overload the security around higher chips, like policemen, guards… eventually other Agents. If you're resistant, you'll be a harder person to capture, and we may be able to place you in recon, since your resistance would make interrogation tricky."
Ino gave out a little breath, "Too much talking… sorry."
"You finally reached your yakking limit, huh? Never thought I'd see the day." Temari smirked, and the glaring began anew.
"Well, that's the lowdown on us so far. Think you can stand?" Tsunade smiled.
"Yeah… yeah, I think so." Sakura groaned, pushing herself from the bed. She shivered a little as the warmth left her, but Tenten pulled a rumbled suit from underneath the bed and handed it to her, coughing meaningfully and leaving with the others as Sakura began changing out of her ward shift.
After a little confusion regarding the stockings (At least the skirt wasn't that short.) and some serious frustration concerning her high heels (Much too tiny.), she let herself out of the bleak little room.
What greeted her were the others, standing around in a bleak little corridor. Lights flickered down each end, the door behind her read 'Meat storage 7', which didn't reassure her.
"Heh, sorry about that." Temari laughed, noting her disapproval, "We're out of paint."
"Shall we be off? I think you'll need to learn about the facilities." Hinata gave a serious look towards the others, "And I think we all have our projects to work on, yes?"
"Personal or otherwise." Tenten sniggered along with everyone else at that remark, triggering the now famous Hinata-blush. Huffing indignantly, the dark-haired woman tugged Sakura along, bracing her when the heels started to jam in the pits in the metal flooring.
"What was that about?"
"I… they… they always tease me about a guy I like." Hinata sighed, "They mean well, really they do, but I just wish they'd stop… I mean, I'm this close." She held up a forefinger and thumb together, "Just another week, I swear, and I'll ask him out, but do they care?"
"It makes you wonder why he hasn't noticed; you kind of wear your feelings on your sleeve, from what I've seen." Sakura noted as they took another turn, the sign overhead reading 'Caution, uncyrogenical Agents present. Have your ID ready.'
"Cryo?"
"Agents have to be kept in deep-freeze when they aren't in use. Saves wear and tear." Hinata answered promptly, using an Access card on a side panel. A section of the wall slid out, revealing a clean and well-equipped room filled with electronics. A large man with red hair was busy tinkering with a massive gatling gun on a lab bench; the barrel was easily half his height.
"Chouji, this is Sakura, she'll be working up at the Medical labs from now on."
"Hmmm? Oh, excellent. Be a doll and hand me a seven-callibre shell, would you?" The man grinned with his eyes closed, pointing to a different bench covered in ordinance. Hinata tossed him the explosive bullet and he caught it with a little flourish, winking at the Pink-haired newbie.
"We talked about him before, remember? Our Heavy-Weapons specialist?" Hinata pursed her lips and tried to recall actually telling her that. "Oh, we didn't. Still, Chouji, Sakura, Sakura: Chouji."
"Pleasure." Chouji laughed, picking up the massive weapon without so much as a grunt of effort.
"Holy shit…" Sakura breathed as he moved the piece of hardware over to the next bench, where a firing simulator lay hooked up to a processor and monitor.
Chouji noticed her stares and thumbed his chest proudly. "Pretty cool, huh? I've got a full chest augment, with arms and legs setting at tech three. I could carry seven of these bastards, easy."
"Doesn't it hurt?"
"No idea, they put you in Cyro for the operation, the body doesn't reject mechanical implants, but they're so intimate with the structure that you gotta stop the system while they work it in."
Hinata gave a little cough, pulling Sakura away, "Sorry, Chouji, but she has to meet the boss, just thought I'd drop by."
Chouji waved them off as the door slid back, Sakura giggling a little. "So, was that the guy you like?"
Hinata gave a start, "What? No! Not Chouji! I mean…"
"Why not? He seems like a cool guy, and he's got all those improvements…" Sakura nudged her new friend, slyly conveying the possibilities.
"Yes, I know, but… I mean, I might have done, but no… not Chouji." Hinata gave a sad little smile, "He doesn't have the energy. He makes you happy, but he doesn't make you laugh. Not like him."
"You sound like you worship the guy."
"Who?"
"This 'him'."
"I…"
Hinata avoided the question by swiping her card and opening an elevator booth, pressing number 224 and settling against the metal bars inside.
"Wait, haven't I already met the boss? That dark-haired, sleepless weirdo?"
"No. That was The boss. You're meeting our boss." Hinata explained, "We're only a small part of the Syndicate, of Eurocorp. Our executive is the one we get our orders from."
The journey continued on in silence, unbroken by anything but the sound of straining metal from the pulley system.
The door opened out into a small square room that had the air of a reception.
Except for the two figures in Trenchcoats with shotguns aimed at their faces, Sakura could have been forgiven for thinking the atmosphere was welcoming. The gun-totting Agents were truly something that sent creeps and chills running around her body. The dead-white eyes, the false-red hair, the fact that she could see scars running all over them from the implants they'd received.
"State your purpose and name." One jerkily ordered, its voice dropping and rising unpredictably in a mechanical whine.
"HYUUGA Twelve. Here to represent HARUNO One. Presenting Identification now." Hinata spoke in a drone, offering her access card. The Agent looked at it, eyes flashing red.
"Accepted. Please Proceed towards door."
The door opened, revealing a much larger room bathed in a mild green light. The two walked through, waiting for the Agents to put their weapons away.
There was a desk, but the view was that of a dead city. There was no smoke, but there was no life, no sound coming from the rolling metal landscape. There was a man at the chair, swiveled so that he was facing away from them.
"Sir Sasuke, I've brought the new recruit."
Sakura walked towards the desk, until she was standing right at the edge of the pseudo-wooden platform, waiting for the dark mop of hair to acknowledge her.
"Excuse-"
He spun around in his chair; she saw the red eyes, the cruel and handsome face, and the slim, filled plains of his body. She wondered why she was taking so much in at one time. And then she saw the gun.
It was pointed right between her eyes. No wonder her body had gone into sensory overdrive.
"Good Afternoon." She heard him say in a maleficent tone.
He pulled the trigger.
Now then, what next? Suggestions are appreciated... and kindly review. More reviews, more updates.
