Standard Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is the rightful property of Silver Queen or Masashi Kishimoto.
Centre of Gravity (CG) is the point at which the mass of the aircraft would be balanced if it were placed on that single point. The point changes depending on the loading of the aircraft: fuel, passengers, luggage, etc. Each aircraft has CG limits specified by its manufacturer. If the CG of the aircraft in its current configuration is outside of the specified limits, the aircraft may be unsafe to fly as the control surfaces will have insufficient authority to safely control the aircraft. For example, if the CG is behind the aft (rear) CG limit, the aircraft will tend to stall.
Eventually, after carefully examining her names, and the ones on the boys, Shikako is able to discern that they are nonthreatening – even if there is no reason Shikako can identify for their existence.
The irritation she feels comes from the fact that they are made of some combination of Natural Energy and Spiritual Energy. It doesn't hurt her at all, but it is there and weird and not what she's used to – it's a lot like her first experience with chakra itself really. The redness is entirely the result of her constantly rubbing it, but it's really irritating and distracting and she wants to scratch the itch dammit.
She studies the names present on the boys too, and the results are… well she still doesn't know enough to say…
The colours are slightly different – neither Sasuke or Naruto have any green in Kakashi's name on their skin; but her name on both of them is pure green, they both have green-orange for each other's names.
Shikako really can't make heads nor tails of it, and eventually she cajoles, and begs, and bribes until Kakashi-sensei relents and agrees to allow her to study his chest. It comes at the steep cost of having to sleep for the next 4 hours, but eventually Kakashi opens his Jōnin vest and lifts his shirt up until the names over his heart are visible.
They are all somewhat disappointed not to see his face – but that's life. It's mostly a game at this point anyway, Shikako doesn't honestly know what they'd do if they saw his face. It would probably be horribly embarrassing for everyone, like accidentally seeing a parent naked or something.
Unsurprisingly, the names aren't hurting Kakashi-sensei at all… No green here either… all their names are gold-blue. Shikako doesn't know what the colours signify, but she now knows that they don't have to match up entirely… though there seems to always some overlap. She wonders if the positioning of the names, or the structure of the triangle is significant.
Her name is the base for all of her teammates' marks… and Naruto and Sasuke's names are both Right-Left for herself and Kakashi – but Naruto has Sasuke's name on his right, and Sasuke Naruto's on his left.
Grumbling Shikako settles herself into a recently unsealed sleeping bag, she doesn't imagine that she will be able to get much sleep with all the stress, endless questions, and the general wrongness of the Natural Energy.
She's flat out in seconds; it's been a really long day.
She sleeps too deeply, and comes awake too suddenly to understand what's happening.
Coughing. Coughing and choking because she can't breathe.
The thing about suffocation, is that it makes you feel exactly the same way no matter how old you are. It's a distinct, desperate terror Shikako is all too acquainted with.
For several long moments, she struggles to convince her brain that this is just Natural Energy, just chakra, just like home – but it doesn't listen, and her frantic hyperventilation punctuated by choking/coughing/spluttering is not helping.
Her vision starts to grey from too little carbon dioxide in her bloodstream, and she can't stop it.
But then there are arms, cradling her and pulling her up. A hand wreathed in Healing Chakra presses a Diagnostic Jutsu into her chest, and she focuses on it – uncomfortable but familiar and it is enough to regain some control over her chakra. With a single move, Shikako pushed out with her chakra, similar to disrupting a Genjutsu, throwing off the unnatural-feeling Natural Energy.
She has two hands curled into the rough fabric of a flak jacket, and she uses that to lever herself up; to breathe in a familiar sent, press her face into familiar chakra, while she brings her breathing back into order.
"Have I paid my due four hours?" Shikako rasps, delicate epithelial tissues irritated by her own coughing "I don't want to go back to sleep."
When she looked up, three faces stared down with varying degrees of horror.
"What the hell was that?" Demanded Sasuke, who seemed to be speaking on behalf of the rest of the team.
"Well," Shikako begins somewhat uncertainly "when I was little, this happened… you know, before I got used to natural energy and chakra – all that kind of stuff."
Seeing that this is not comforting to her teammates, Shikako continues somewhat hesitantly.
"It's nothing big, I just have a sensitivity to unfamiliar energies.
They still don't look particularly convinced.
"Are you actually chakra hypersensitive?" Kakashi-sensei asks at last, sounding distinctly like he didn't want an affirmative to that question – but expected one none the less.
"Oh, no. I'm not in pain or anything, it's just that… differentiated natural energy, or any abundance of energy, is-" She frowned slightly, looking for the right word. "Noticeable. Not painful, but… like breathing thicker air? Like... emmm..."
The boys look deeply sceptical, and sensei is examining her closely with the Sharingan.
Shikako could have sworn that was covered a moment ago.
"The Land of Snow!" She settled on, glad to find a good example that wasn't the Dead Wastes.
"The natural energy there was being channelled by the chakra conductive metals in the earth, and it made the air unpleasant to breathe. This is just like that."
"I don't remember you choking on air in the Land of Snow…" Sasuke notes, dry as dust.
Shikako waved them off and stands up slowly, stretching as she goes.
"This is more different," she shrugs, takes a drink from a canteen to smooth over the worst of the gravel in her throat and adds "I also didn't sleep as deeply. The reaction is due to my enhanced perception – not any kind of- inflammation, or allergy. or something like that."
"Guess you could say it's all in my head, ya know? Psychosomatic reaction."
Maybe now that Shikako's hands have stepped shaking, they'll believe she's alright.
They don't look like they believe she's alright.
"It's really nothing." she says, glossing over the fact that breathlessness is one of the most unpleasant experiences a being could suffer (as Kakashi-sensei must be well aware, being the cause of it during the bell test).
"Now, what are we doing today?" Shikako asks with affected cheer.
She watches as her team visibly tuck away their concerns for later perusal, and Kakashi-sensei rises to a slouch.
"Maa, well I guess that depends." He says finally "I don't suppose my cute little Genin can reverse-engineer a seal to take us back to our own dimension in a day, can she?"
There is no way sensei is not trolling her right now.
"We'll, not today…" Shikako teases out with a playfulness she doesn't feel, and then more seriously adds "and not without more sealing and technological resources than I have with me."
A heavy silence settles over them.
Naruto breaks said heavy silence without noticing it's there.
"So, what are we goanna do now? Rob a library?" His face scrunches up like he's trying to figure out where the nearest library is that they can pilfer.
It's not a bad… plan, strictly speaking.
They are ninja after all, stealing is something they are singularly equipped to do.
(See exhibit A, the book of Gelel currently taking up space in a pocket dimension inside her body, which might actually be a starting place if not for the… stolen part. And the bit where its existence is classified by proxy…)
Shikako tries to think of a way to explain that the information they need won't be in any public library on the continent, or that it might not exist at all.
They might have to do this the old-fashioned way, and science this shit from the ground up.
Which would take… much longer than Shikako feels comfortable contemplating.
Thankfully, Sasuke saves Shikako the effort and scoffs.
"Really, dead last? You think that level of sealing knowledge is just going to be on a shelf next to his dirty books?" at the 'his' Sasuke jerks a chin in Kakashi-sensei's direction, and his eyes flicker disdainfully at one of the many pockets of his flack jacket – presumably the current residence of said dirty book.
Kakashi makes a hurt noise and shields the pocket defensively as Naruto squawks indignantly in the background.
Normally, Shikako would be all for a Fawlty Towers moment, but now doesn't seem quite the time.
"Anyway," she begins purposefully, then deflates – because it's not like Sasuke isn't right.
Shikako coughs awkwardly, then continues "what do you suppose the security on Konoha R&D looks like right now?"
Kakashi-sensei gives her a look that strongly implies he hopes that was a poor joke.
"Kusa?" She offers somewhat hopelessly as an alternative.
Sensei looks at her very dryly.
"Okay then." Shikako brings her fingers together like she hopes the 'thinking seal' will magically summon the answers they need.
Unsurprisingly, it does no such thing.
"Erm," is honestly the best Shikako can come up with, and then she ruins it by asking a very, very stupid question "how do you feel about making some old friends?"
The look becomes impossibly dryer.
Unsurprisingly, Shikako finds herself relegated to the corner with her sealing supplies as sensei takes over the short, mid, and long term planning.
The very worst part of it is, that Shikako is almost certain that he's not going to think of anything better.
