Reviews:
Milkis96:
Glad you're liking it. Oh, and just in anticipation for this chapter's ending…ehm…Bwa ha ha!
Saydunka:
Glad you're liking the story. I'm pleased to know that the romantic aspects of the story are having the right sort of effect. Those always seem to give me trouble when I'm writing them.
Tregun:
Happy to hear it.
Nitus07:
I have to disagree. Sam seemed to me as being the key to Lara's development to eventually becoming the Tomb Raider we all know. She served as sort of the carrot for succeeding in the Yamatai crisis, while also bringing her out of her shell to begin with, since without Sam helping Lara with coming out of her shell, it was unlikely that Lara would have even attempted this trip to begin with. But that's just my opinion.
A/N: Alright, a quick announcement: I just noticed that FF hadn't been posting the 'greater than' and 'less than' signs that I've been using to separate the English speaking from the Japanese, so it will now be italicized. Anyway, please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.
"This is speaking in English"
"This is speaking in Japanese."
Chapter 4:
Climbing the Mountain
Lara used her climbing axe to climb up a cliff face, while Minato used his chakra to just walk straight up.
'Show-off,' Lara thought in annoyance and amusement, despite a storm starting to pour rain with high-speed winds and lightning. She pulled Minato's coat tighter to her body, keeping the hood on her head to keep the rain and the wind off of her.
Since he reached the top of the cliff first, he would always make certain that no one was waiting to ambush them before waiting to help Lara to her feet when she reached the top.
Reaching the very top, Lara decided to break the silence, "So, Minato-kun, um, d-do you have anyone waiting for you back at your home?"
"You mean, like family?" Minato asked, leaning his head to the side with a cute (in Lara's opinion) confused expression.
"Family, friends, a…girlfriend?" Lara said, looking away from him so he didn't see her blush.
"Why do you want to know if I have a girlfriend, Lara-chan?" Minato asked, teasingly, playfully poking her shoulder. "Will you get jealous if I do?"
Lara's face turned a red that was so dark that it was if every drop of blood in her body was now in her face, "O-of course not! W-why would I be jealous!?" she said, trying to deny what a part of her thought might be true. She didn't believe that she could fall in love with someone in the short time that they've known each other. She thought it was more of a 'love on the battlefield' sort of situation, where as soon as they were out of harm's way, the feelings would fade. It was yet another reason that she really hoped they found Sam soon. She'd been in far more relationships than Lara had and would be a lot of help in helping her figure out how she really feels. Where Lara spent most of her time at UCL with her head in a book, Sam was partying, dealing with boys and relationships, and having fun, which she often tried to drag her friend to.
Despite Lara's disagreement with his teasing question, Minato still smiled and said, ignoring her question, "Well, since you're so curious, most of my biological family is from my mom's side, like my Aunt Hanabi and Grandpa Hiashi, since she was an heiress to a large and prominent clan, but Tou-san was an orphan, so all of my biological family from his side was dead by the time I was born."
"You said biological family, like you have family you're not related to by blood," she said, her tone questioning what he meant.
"Yeah, Kaa-san and Tou-san both made a lot of friends over the years that became so close that they were considered family, like my mom's squadmates, Uncles Kiba and Shino, my dad's squadmates, Aunt Sakura and Uncle Sai, one of Tou-san's squadmates and best friends died fighting the goddess Kaguya, Tou-san's godmother, Granny Tsunade, and his brother-by-bond, Uncle Gaara. There are a lot of others, but those are the ones that I saw the most," Minato said, "So, what about you? Do you have any family?"
"Not anymore. At least, I don't think so. Both of my parents disappeared years ago, so Roth took care of me. He became as close to family as anyone," Lara said.
"Sorry, Lara-chan," Minato said, putting a reassuring arm around her shoulders, "I'm sure you'll find them some day and know that you can always call on me to help."
She smiled at him, "Thanks, Minato-kun."
They reached a group of rundown buildings perched precariously on a waterfall. Minato put a finger to his lips to signal for Lara to remain silent. She looked at him in confusion, but obeyed regardless as she followed him up the last cliff wall. She immediately heard voices of more of the Solarii. They'd apparently been searching the area for more survivors and decided to wait out the storm in the buildings.
Lara pulled out her bow and nocked an arrow while Minato circled around to get closer to the waterfall. Lara fired a single shot to kill one of the men, which alerted the others to her presence and made them miss Minato, who was standing on the surface of the water, making handsigns. The guards fired their weapons, be they bows or guns, at Lara, who stayed behind cover, waiting for Minato to finish whatever it was he was preparing to do.
Suddenly, Minato stopped his movements and shouted, "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" He created a large dragon made of pure water that smashed into the remaining three men, knocking them off the cliff and fall to their deaths.
Lara looked at him in shock and awe.
"What?" Minato asked, confused at her expression.
"I didn't know you could do that."
"Yeah, that's one of my many offensive jutsu that I can make using one of the five elements, namely wind, water, lightning, earth, and fire," Minato said moving back to her side.
"Wow, that's amazing. Is there anything you can't do?"
Minato put a finger to his chin and looked up at the sky while he considered her question, "Wellll…I can't whistle," he said, jokingly.
Lara responded to his smartass comment by smacking him upside the head, making him chuckle. Lara decided not to mention that she'd come to enjoy Minato's jokes and playful nature, despite the seriousness of the situation. It helped her to remain calm, despite the danger. The two continued climbing further up the mountain to reach a half-destroyed bridge, after Minato used his shadow clones to search the area for ammo for Lara, artifacts, scraps, and documents. Lara was especially fascinated to find the documents that were logs of a diplomat that came to meet Himiko. The instant they stepped on the bridge, it began to crack under their weight, so the pair ran to the destroyed edge of the bridge before jumping to try and reach the opposite ledge. Minato managed to grab onto the wall with his chakra-covered hands, but he saw Lara wasn't going to make it, even with her arm holding her climbing axe stretched out as far as she could, so he grabbed the handle of the axe with his left hand and pulled her up to the ledge above him before pulling himself up.
The two laid on the ground, gasping for breath and their hearts pounding in their ears.
"Well, that was close," Minato joked, as he and Lara sat up.
"Yes, it was," Lara said, looking at him as if she was deep in thought before she suddenly gave him a quick peck on the cheek, "Thanks," she said before hurrying off down the trail, leaving Minato temporarily stunned, a slight blush on his face.
As the fact of what happened sunk in, Minato got a giddy smile on his face and he muttered, "Anytime, Lara-chan. Anytime."
A voice that Minato didn't recognize came over Lara's radio, "Lara, are you there?"
The English citizen frantically pulled the radio free from her belt, "Reyes! Did you find Sam?"
"We're still on her trail," Reyes replied.
"Minato and I going to try and send an SOS from an old radio tower up here. Any tips?" Lara said.
A new voice, this one male, came over the radio, "Hey, Lara! You're gonna need to find the communications console. It'll look like a bunch of old switchboards."
"Okay. I'll let you know when I find it," Lara said, putting the radio back on her belt.
The two then took a zipline down to the ground in a canyon, which put them right in the line of sight of more of the Solarii.
One of them spotted them instantly and yelled to a sleeping comrade, "Hey! Hey! Wake up! Wake up, we got an intruder!"
"Please…you don't need to do this!" Lara begged, trying to prevent more meaningless death, which went ignored by the Solarii.
"How did they get up here!?" one of the Solarii asked rhetorically as they began to fire arrows and bullets at the pair, forcing them to duck behind cover.
"Lara-chan, I'll distract them and you try to get the angle on them!" Minato called out as he threw a pair of kunai at the rock pile that two of the Solarii were using for cover.
"Uh…right!" she called as she moved to a new cover more to the left and closer to the Solarii. She drew her bow and shot an arrow into the eye of one of the Solarii. The other lobbed a Molotov cocktail at where Lara was hiding, forcing her to roll out of cover to avoid being lit on fire. Unfortunately, the remaining Solarii guard attempted to take advantage of her being out in the open by leveling a shotgun at her.
Before he could fire, a shout called out, "Wind Style: Wind Bullet Jutsu!" With Minato's shout, he fired a blast of wind out of his mouth, which hit the Solarii and slammed him so hard into the stone wall that his head was bashed open, killing him instantly. "You alright, Lara-chan?!" Minato called, as he ran to her side.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Lara reassured, making Minato sigh in relief.
A final Solarii tried to attack them with a machete and an axe, but Lara used her climbing axe to first block his attack and push him back before driving the blade into his ear. She put it back onto her belt and started to go through the pockets of the dead to grab any ammo they might be carrying as well as retrieving her arrows that were still useable from the corpses.
"Lara-chan?" Minato asked, trying to get Lara's attention.
"I'm fine, Minato-kun," Lara said, continuing what she was doing and not looking up.
"You sure? I know killing's not exactly easy," Minato said.
"I'm sure. You were right. It was either them or us. I can handle this," Lara insisted.
"Alright," Minato said simply, deciding to let the matter drop.
The two continued down the path before squeezing in between two cliff faces to come out in a new area that was littered with scrap metal and old tents. There was even an old and rundown truck.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Lara muttered.
"I know what you mean," Minato said as he moved over to the truck, "Hey, Lara-chan, what is this?"
"It's a truck. A motorized land transportation vehicle. Think of it like a carriage without the need for horses," she explained.
Minato nodded his understanding as they moved to a nearby campfire.
"Let's take a rest here," Lara said, sitting down next to the fire.
Minato nodded and sat next to her, "Alright," he said, shrugging.
Lara pulled out Sam's camcorder and started replaying the stored video, this one showing Alex and Reyes working in the engine room of the Endurance. Minato looked over her shoulder at the small screen, so Lara explained who the two were and translated what they said.
"I'm telling you, Reyes, it's mechanical, not an electrical problem," Alex said, looking at a magazine, while Reyes worked on a machine.
"Now, Alex!" she ordered, making Alex sigh and pull a lever on a nearby machine, causing it to spark and shoot out smoke, surprising the glasses-wearing man. He coughed as he inhaled a bit of the smoke and waved it away with his magazine.
"It looks like it might be an electrical problem," Alex agreed, half-heartedly.
"You think?" Reyes asked, sarcastically.
"Oh, hello," Alex said, holding a photo, "Who's this little fox, huh?"
"She's cute, huh?" Reyes asked.
"Very cute," Alex agreed.
"That's Alisha," Reyes said.
"Alisha, I like that," Alex said, flirtingly.
"It's my daughter," Reyes said.
"Oh."
"14 years old," she said, pulling the photo from his hand and making Alex's mood drop like a rock, "And smarter than you'll ever be."
"She must…must get that from her father," Alex said, trying to get back some measure of dignity.
Reyes spoke to the person holding the camera, "Don't give him the attention. And…yeah," she said gesturing to the machine.
"I'll take a look at this," Alex said, "Probably electrical," as he turned back to the machine to continue muttering to himself, "From her father. Nice one."
The scene then changed to an old man that Lara identified as 'Grimm,' who was speaking directly to the camera.
"So, I was on the loch, right, doin' a spot of midnight fishin'," Grimm's story was interrupted by Roth coming into the room and speaking to him.
"Grimm, time to batten down the hatches," Roth said.
"Aye, I'll be right with you," Grimm said, standing up, before continuing his story, "So…I was on the loch, right. An' this thing comes looming at me, looming outta water, it was! So I gives it the old Glasgow kiss. You know…" he explained by headbutting the air with a chuckle, "Gets you out of trouble nine times out of ten, that does! Took me a week to sleep that night off and I've not touched a drop since! See you at dinner, Sam." With that, Grimm left the room with the camera following him out to watch him walk down a narrow hallway. Hearing a sound, it turned in the opposite direction and found Reyes and Roth, softly laughing, while holding hands. Reyes started pulling him into a room behind her. Just before he went inside, Roth looked at the camera before it abruptly went black.
"This Grimm guy seems like a cool guy. I can't wait to meet him," Minato said, smiling.
Lara smiled at him, "Yeah, I could see you two getting along pretty well."
She continued the video and Minato's mood plummeted when he saw the scene being on the deck of the ship with the subjects being Whitman and a large man that Lara identified as Jonah each holding a fish and a knife.
A female voice that Lara said was her friend Sam spoke from off-screen, "Alright, can we take B-Roll please?" The camera turned to show a woman, who Minato recognized as Sam when she spoke again, and Alex, who was working another camera. "Thank you," she said handing the camera to someone, "Dr. James Whitman, filler 15, take 3. And action!"
Jonah started instructing Whitman, "Okay, now take a firm grip, then slice him down the belly like this," he said cutting the fish with his knife before Whitman tried to copy Jonah, "Yeah, you've got-" the fish and knife slipped out of Whitman's hand and slid across the table, making Minato laugh at the man's clumsiness.
"Good lord, cut! Cut! Cut!" Whitman shouted, slamming his hands on the table, "Cut," he muttered before storming off, leaving Jonah standing there, confused as to what to do.
"Er, is he…is he coming back?" Jonah asked before the camera looked at Alex and an exasperated Sam.
Minato and Lara could hear Whitman muttering around the corner where he'd stormed off, "I am Dr. James Whitman, I'm an archaeologist…"
Sam sighed, "I'll go get him."
She went off to talk to him while whoever was using the camera watched as she appealed to Whitman's pride to calm him from his temper tantrum, telling him how 'it's just a fish.' The scene then changed again to show Whitman back at the table with his enemy, the dreaded fish. He was muttering angrily saying how he was 'meant to be bringing culture to the people and not dinner.' Sam once again calmed him down by telling him how they need this sort of footage before Whitman tried the fish-cutting scene again.
The scene hanged one more time to show Lara talking to Roth about her worries about her worries about being wrong in regards to Yamatai being in the Dragon's Triangle, while she played with her necklace.
"I remember when you found that on one of your father's digs," Roth said, "You ran up and showed it to me dressed in your penguin pajamas."
Lara laughed at the memory, "I was five years old. It was my first find."
"You've got great instincts, girl," Roth said, "You just have to trust them."
"That's what my father used to say," Lara said.
"Now there was a man that ran on instinct," Roth said, looking at Lara, "For better or worse. He would have been so proud of you, Lara."
"We're getting closer to the storm," Lara said, her smile now gone.
"Well, whatever's coming, we'll get through it, eh?" Roth said, giving the girl a shoulder hug. The camera then looked at a group of storm clouds before going dark.
"Penguin pajamas, huh, Lara-chan? That's just adorable," Minato said, teasingly, while pinching her cheek.
She swatted his hand away from her, her face a dark red, "I knew I shouldn't have translated that part to you," she said, pouting, "I'm surprised you aren't more curious about the camera. Your people don't seem to have much in the way of technology. No offense."
Minato waved off her concerns, "Most of our technology is based in medical and communication, though my uncle Kakashi's wife's land has some unique technology we can't find anywhere else. She's even a famous movie actress."
"Really?"
Minato nodded, "Her movies are some of my favorites."
"There's actually something else that I wanted to ask you."
"What's up?"
"Why is it that, despite the rain and the low temperatures, I'm not cold at all?"
"Look on the inside of the coat," Minato said and when she did, she saw more of the seals littering the inside of the coat, "Those are climate control seals. It'll keep your body temperature at normal no matter the temperature of the outside world. I have the same seals on my own clothes."
"Fascinating. You'll have to show me how these seals of yours work later."
The two got up from the fire to follow the path before they heard voices up ahead. Lara quietly told Minato how they were complaining how cold it was and how much colder it was at the radio tower. The two moved around the corner and saw a spotlight shining over a large area ahead of them, which appeared to be the front of an old stronghold. There were also more Solarii guards with one having his back to them.
"Shit, a machine gun!" Lara whispered.
"What's a machine gun?"
"It's like the other guns you've seen only it fires its shots even faster and they are more powerful. Basically, if you're caught in their sights, it'll rip you apart."
"So, stealth is definitely the best option here," Minato said, "Stay right behind me. I'll take out the spotlight and the guy up there."
Lara simply nodded and Minato began moving up the tunnel to hide behind another truck before throwing a kunai at the spotlight, shattering it, though Solarii below thought it had only burned out. Minato snuck up behind the one with his back to the tunnel and quickly grabbed him around the neck before plunging a kunai into his chest. Lara was then by his side and took out two more with her bow before Minato killed this last by throwing his kunai into the cultist's neck. The pair moved into the concrete building. Lara spotted a Solarii welding some scrap metal to make a wall, so she moved past Minato to choke the cultist with her bow. Minato moved past her again as she dropped the dead Solarii, nodding to her his approval of her growing strong enough to deal death on her own.
The two moved to the next floor where the now abandoned machine gun was located. They leapt across a collapsed path. There were a pair of Solarii on the new section but they fell quickly to Lara's axe and Minato's kunai. They climbed to the top where there was a zipline to the next area.
"This bunker…World War 2 era. Probably Japanese," Lara muttered more to herself than her companion.
"There was a war that spanned the world?" Minato asked, "And people actually let there be a second one!?"
"Yes, it wasn't exactly a good time for people and they just let their problems lead to creating more," Lara said, "If you're interested, I'll tell you more later."
Minato nodded before the pair took the zipline to reach the next area.
While they were moving forward, a large form was discussing their progress with a smaller one.
"So, the threat has been released from his prison," the large form said.
"Yes, sir. In fact, we believe that he is steadily making his way to the temple," the smaller one said.
"Hmm, he must be captured by any means necessary. Our Lady will want to decide his fate herself," the large one said, making the smaller one nod, "You said that he was traveling with one of the invaders?"
"Yes sir."
"Alright, then. I think we've allowed these invaders free reign long enough. Any that are found are to be killed save for this woman that he's traveling with. If we fail to capture him, she'll make sufficient bait and if we succeed, she will be a good hostage to ensure his behaving."
"Yes sir. I will relay your orders now," the smaller form said, hurrying away.
A/N: Please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.