Lightning Strikes
Chapter 11: The City of Iron

Hello there my fellow fanfictioners!
It has certainly been a wait hasn't it? I apologize for taking my time with this but I had been feeling rather uninspired and so I took some time off to go on a reading sabbatical, checking out the works of other authors as well as some of my old favourites.

Well alright there were other reasons which I allude to in my ending notes but that isn't important right now.

But now I'm ready to continue my work.

For the long wait, I wrote a longer chapter this time. I wasn't quite happy with it so I might update it at a later date just to flesh it out a bit more.

Disclaimer: I do not in any way claim ownership of the Metal Gear franchise or the Naruto/Naruto Shippuden franchise. These are the rightful properties of Hideo Kojima and Masashi Kishimoto respectively.

I do however claim ownership of my OC's and all fanon in this story.

Now then enough of this senseless prattling! Let us move on with the story.


The first time she woke up, she promptly blacked out from the blinding pain. The second time she woke up she was able to stay conscious for a whole minute before yet again she blacked out from the pain. The third time she woke up she managed to keep conscious long enough to actually take notice of her surroundings.

The first thing she noticed was that she couldn't see out of her left eye. In fact it seemed that the majority of her head was bandaged up including her eye.

Her whole body ached terribly and she wanted nothing more than for the blackness to take her once again. But it seemed that the Higher Power or Powers were not so generous and her body and mind decided to remain stubbornly conscious despite Rose's own wishes to the contrary.

So in defiance to herself she did the only thing that she could.

She began screaming.

Oh God! It hurts… It hurts so much!

The last time she had hurt this much was when the Patriots made her undergo reconstructive surgery six months before she was assigned to seduce Jack or when she had given birth their son.

"Doctor… I think she's awake." A female voice called out. Rose was able to make out a pink-uniformed, blurry blob.

You think?!

"Let me see." This time a far older, gruffer voice spoke, its presence commanding the room.

She was suddenly blinded by a pen-light shining into her eye and a finger pressed against her throat, interrupting her scream.

"Ah, so you are awake then." It was a statement not a question yet Rose tried to nod anyway. A terrible mistake as the pain sharpened like a razor and she couldn't help but to moan in agony all over again.

The doctor let out a sickening laugh, amused at her efforts.

"Yes, I'm quite sure that hurts a lot." The doctor removed his finger from her throat. The act seemed to sharpen her eyesight and dull the pain slightly.

She dully noticed the faint blue glow around the finger already dissipating into nothing.

"Now then, my name is , I'm going to ask you a series of simple questions and I want you to answer them as best you can. If you can scream then you can speak." He told her.

"Can you see me? Any problems with the vision in your left eye?" A simple question she supposed.

Fighting through the pain as best she could, she managed to bite out her answer.

"No… what happened?" What was meant to come out as a voice sounding sure and strong instead came out as more of a pathetic croak than anything else.

Despite this, Fujikawa laughed and leaned in close to her ear and began to whisper.

"Ah well, to put it simply it seems that when you were assaulted your attacker infused their fists with a small amount of chakra. When this type of attack occurs and meets with the face of someone with very little chakra strengthening their muscles and skeletal structure, well… the bones in your face were partially pulverised." Fujikawa told her cheerfully.

Rose's eye widened in horror and immediately reached up with her hands to try and assess the damage for herself.

With a small chuckle Dr Fujikawa gently restrained her.

"No need to worry, we managed to make use of several advanced chakra healing processes and we have successfully repaired the bones in your face. You're going to be fine… Rose is it?"

She nodded slightly to confirm his guess before pressing on with her own question.

"My son? My husband?" She asked desperately.

"From what I've been told your husband has been rescued and is on his way here, with luck he will arrive sometime within the next two to three hours."

"Oh thank God." She gasped painfully before focusing on the next question.

"What about my son?"

The doctor stopped smiling and looked pensive.

"That's a little bit more complicated…"

That old familiar feeling of cold dread trickled down her spine.

"What do you mean? What's happened to my son?!"


"How much further do we have to go?" Raiden asked her for what felt like the hundredth time.

If the annoyed exhalation of air was anything to go by then it was clearly leaving a distinct impression on Ayame's psyche.

"It's not far to go now, just over that hill there." She told him once again pointing in the direction that they were heading.

And once again he looked ahead at the 'hill' they were to climb only to groan in frustration.

Less of a hill. More like a goddamn mountain.

Nevertheless he soldiered on, keeping up with the gruelling pace that Ayame had seemingly set for them. Sure enough they managed to reach the top of the 'hill' in less than an hour.

Raiden was almost left speechless.

"Whoa…"

"Here it is Ronin, the Iron City."

And a city it was. Dark and grey buildings of every shape and size rising up from the ground like ant hives. There were no cars like in the cities he knew but he could almost see the hustle and bustle of the crowds of people meandering throughout the maze of streets and pathways. The archaic design and layout reminded him of a cross between mediaeval London and Tokyo. The city lay nestled between the bosoms of two great mountains and was surrounded by two sets of massive walls consisting of steel and stone respectively.

"My wife and son… they're down there?" He asked.

"Yes, they're probably in the city's main hospital." Ayame replied with a small nod of her head.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Ayame laughed lightly, slapping him lightly on the back and the two began making their way down the hill and toward the stark grey metropolis that lay before them.

It took them a little over five minutes to descend the hill and reach the city gates, giant corrugated things with an array of barbed wire blanketing the top of the gate and along the outer walls. Raiden didn't find barbed wire strange in itself but rather their point on a wall that was at least twenty feet high.

Ayame noticed his staring and let out a small huff.

"It's defence against shinobi. We take our privacy very seriously and more than a few shinobi have tried scaling our walls to learn our secrets. It's a recent addition all things considered but it seems to have worked well." She explained, gesturing with pride at the defences.

The gates opened up before them and Ayame's eyes widened considerably when she saw what lay beyond.

"Shit…"

Striding forwards from the gates came a column of samurai on horseback. At the head of the thirty or so men and women was another, larger samurai covered in ebony black armor and with two large white horns rising from the sides of his full-masked helmet. He wielded some sort of long spear in his right hand.

As they approached the two, the leader raised his fist, signalling for the convoy to come to a halt.

"Ayame." The voice was male and quite deep, distorted by the helmet's breathing grille.

"Tokugawa." The tone with which she said the name indicating that she wasn't too fond of the man.

"I'm surprised to see that they still let your kind into the city and with a foreigner as well!? The Iron City truly has fallen to the dogs."

Ayame ignored the insult and asked another question.

"Where are you headed my lord?"

The man straightened in his saddle, as though considering whether or not to answer her.

"To Robusuta village on the coast. We've had reports of Cloud ninja moving into the territory, terrorising the local villagers into hiring their genin for simple missions. As you know, we don't tolerate criminals let alone shinobi to operate within our lands."

Raiden blinked slowly before trying to move past the samurai to make his way into the city. Before he had taken his second step his entry was barred by Tokugawa's long spear.

"And where do you think you are going Ronin? I do not recall authorising your entry into my city." The man asked in a drawling tone.

"Get out of my way." Raiden growled, slapping the offending object away, an act which served to spook Tokugawa's horse slightly.

If the look of outrage present in Tokugawa's form were any sort of indication, then he didn't take kindly to the cyborg's actions. Thankfully Raiden was spared any form of indignant reproach thanks to his new partner's intervention.

"This city doesn't belong to you, it belongs to the people, and Lord Mifune holds the title of Protector". The pride with which she said this, informed Raiden that this 'Lord Mifune' was someone that Ayame greatly admired.

Apparently this only served to make Tokugawa bristle with indignation.

"Lord Mifune is old and our lifestyle doesn't guarantee survival for the elderly. The time will come when our lord closes his eyes for the last time, then I will succeed him. You would do well to remember that." Despite his words it was clear that the man also seemed to hold a great amount of respect for this Mifune.

A fact that Ayame didn't seem able to pick up on, if the snarl on her face were anything to go by.

"You should watch your tongue, your words border on treason!"

Tokugawa snorted and waved her off.

"I merely speak the truth outcast."

"Let us pass… my lord." Ayame ground out through gritted teeth and clenched fists. Tokugawa stared at her for a few long moments before giving her a small nod.

"But of course".

Signalling with his free hand, the column began marching onwards. Looking over his shoulder as he moved forward, he stared at Raiden as though presiding judgement over him.

"I'm sure that we will meet again very soon Ronin, hopefully in more pleasant circumstances."

Judgement passed then.

"Charming man." Raiden told her dryly.

"Hmmm, he's right though. That man will rule the Land of Iron someday." Ayame replied with a grimace.

"I see… and you two don't get along because?" Despite his desire to get to his family, he couldn't help but be curious.

"That's… irrelevant, let's get going." She told him nonchalantly, moving swiftly past him to enter the city even as the gate began to close.

Raiden stared after her for a few moments before following her lead.

"If you say so."

The gates swing shut behind them with a loud clang.


"Ah… Mr. Raiden I presume?" The doctor squinted in his direction, as though he wasn't quite sure that he was addressing the right person. The man sounded quite jovial nonetheless, irrespective of his uncertainty.

Unfortunately Raiden didn't have time to indulge the man and decided to get straight to the point.

"Where's my wife and son?" He asked, surprised with himself at just how difficult it was keep the desperation from his tone.

"In a lot of agony I'm afraid." The man's tone maintained its levity, an ever so noticeable chuckle forcing its way out from the older man's lips.

In a flash his desperation disappeared only to be replaced with something far darker.

"…What did you say?" He hissed.

"Well your wife is anyway, your son's in an altogether different predicament." Fujikawa giggled, clapping his hands together excitedly.

That was the last straw.

"You son of a bitch!" Raiden roared, grabbing the man by the lapels of his coat and slamming him into the nearest wall.

"Raiden stop! Don't hurt him!" Ayame gasped, grabbing at his arms and attempting to pry his fingers loose to no avail.

Why is she defending this lunatic?!

"Why not? You heard what this nut said!" Raiden released his grip, turning to face her.

"Doctor… give us a moment." Ayame asked him, her voice gentle.

"Of course! They're not going anywhere!" Fujikawa hurriedly shuffled away, eyeing Raiden warily as though he were a rabid animal.

"Lay off the doc, will you?" Ayame told him, snapping her fingers to get him to focus on her and not the doctor.

"You people let someone like that, look after the health of my family?"

Ayame scowled at him, her tone indicating that she was not happy with him.

"Doctor Fujikawa is the best doctor in the elemental nations! I've seen him perform miracles with medicine that even chakra healers would find impossible! So treat him with some respect!"

"Then why is he like that?"

"It… he wasn't always like that. During the last war, he and his family were taken captive by the Hidden Leaf, he was… interrogated by the Ogre of the Leaf, Ibiki Morino."

"I take it he isn't the nicest guy?"

Ayame gave a humourless laugh to that.

"Not exactly, the things he did… they broke him, did something to his mind and forced him to murder his wife and daughter. It took Lord Mifune ten years to convince him to return to us. He's harmless to his patients, just don't mention Ibiki or Konoha in the doctor's presence, those two things will set him off."

They made him kill his family?

"Damn."

"So be nice, and smile whenever he does anything weird." She ordered, emphasizing each point with a finger prod to his chest.

Raiden didn't say anything, mulling things over in his mind.

They made him kill his family.

That thought frightened him more than anything else had in a long time.

"Alright."

Immediately her countenance brightened and she waved Fujikawa over. The man immediately shuffled over, his posture relaxed and his mind seemed more composed.

"You ready to see the old ball and chain?" The man said this with a beaming smile, his hands rubbing together nervously.

Scratch the composed mind.

"Yeah… sure."

"Right then! To the hopeless cases ward!" Spinning on his heel, Fujikawa marched down the hallway as though he was planning to murder somebody. In all honesty, Raiden wasn't certain that this wouldn't happen.

"… I miss Doktor." With a great sigh he followed after the man ignoring the questioning glance that Ayame threw his way.

Fujikawa stopped outside one of the doors, his expression turning oddly grim before he turned to face Raiden.

"They're in there." He told him, throwing his thumb over his shoulder to the door. Raiden gave a small nod and waited for Fujikawa to open the door.

"I'll wait here." Ayame called to him from over his shoulder.

Moving forward slightly, Fujikawa placed a hand on Raiden's shoulder, his face morphing into something akin to sympathy.

"It's best if just you go in… want some advice metal man? Put your family before your blade."

Raiden nodded slowly with a frown.

What could he mean by that?

Before he could ask he heard someone scream in agony from a nearby room. Fujikawa let out a twisted laugh before removing his hand and reaching into his pocket, withdrawing a syringe filled with morphine.

"Coming!" With that the man walked towards the scream, whistling a merry tune and twirling the syringe between his fingers.

With a deep breath he turned the door handle and entered the room.
It was a simple hospital room with four stark white walls and a stark white ceiling and tiled floor. The ever-present smell of disinfectant still lingering strongly in the air.

There was only one bed in the room, the one in which his son lay. Rose sat facing away from him, huddled over John, stroking his face lovingly.

"Rose? It's me… Jack." He called out to her cautiously.

"Jack? Jack…"

Something's not right

"Rose what's wrong?" He asked, moving to where she sat in front of Little John.

"Why's John so quiet? I thought they would have cured him by now."

Rose let out a shuddering gasp before she was able to compose herself enough to answer him.

"They did, but they had to sedate him soon after."

"Why?"

"See for yourself."

"I don't…" The words died in his throat. Something was very wrong with his son. There were no obvious injuries that he could see, his son was sleeping peacefully from what he could tell.

So what then? Something wasn't right.
Something was very wrong.

"Oh God."

There. On his son's face.

His eyes were closed but they were all wrong. The lids seemed to fall a little… flat.

"They took his eyes Jack! They took our son's eyes!" Rose couldn't keep the black fury from seeping into her voice.

They took his eyes… They took my son's eyes!

"I'll kill them for this, all of them."

It was the only thing he could promise her as he stared into her single, visible eye turned crimson once more… and he aimed to deliver on that promise.

"Good."

No one hurts my family.


Well then, that was Chapter 11 of Lightning Strikes. I'm sorry to keep you all waiting so long but I was struck with a case of Examititis. I'm still in the middle of them so this chapter was all I could wrangle out for you guys right now.

I know that my writing was quite abysmal with this chapter and I am going to flog myself later don't worry. As I said in the opening notes I do plan on updating this chapter in the future to flesh it out a bit. (I'm also doing this solo, no Beta so it is slightly more difficult)

As for any who might think that I am making the Leaf Village out to be the bad guys, well you're absolutely correct!

Remember Naruto only ever showed the Leaf Village in a positive light, from their perspective. In the eyes of the other villages, I'm sure that Konoha must have been monsters, that they committed their own fair share of war crimes. Now I won't keep Konoha as the villain all the time. To do so would be counterproductive especially if this story ever progresses to the Fourth Shinobi World War.

For those of you who hate OC's don't worry! I can only handle so many characters so I will try to keep the number of OC's to a minimum.

Now then, Reviews are love and I know you guys love me, so give me a review! ;)

I will see you guys next!

Next time on Lightning Strikes:

Chapter 12: The Moving Pieces