Disclaimer:
Naruto is the creative property of Masashi Kishimoto, who created this wonderful anime/manga series. Anything not attributed to Kishimoto-san belongs to their respective owners, such as other series, references to, for example, "Have Fun Figuring 'Em Out!", and vice-versa. This story is written purely just for fun, guys; please for God's sake, don't sue me! I'm just a college student with too much free time on his hands! On the other hand, any specific author created characters I created for this fic (despite how unoriginal they may be at times) are mine. So without further adieu, let's get on with the show!
The Surgeon General's Warning:
Read at your own risk.
The Idiot's Guide to Nindo
Moetagiru HAATO wo omae to --- makka YUUKI aru chikai wo!/ Kazama Arashi
This blazing heart, together with you --- a blood-red oath, sworn by COURAGE/ Arashi Kazama
Chapter 38:
Wake Up
A Naruto AU fanfic by James "Ray" Edwards
Besides, Admiral Lindy Sieglinde Haraoun Le Fay admonished him that she was already on vacation anyways!
Ugh, the exuberance of youth... They were all going to be the death of him some day, Gil swore to himself. He still could not believe he had married those two off together in the middle of a firefight on a sinking base star just some twenty odd years ago, and was asked yet again, to be the best man at the official wedding after the war was over. But, the youth were too the only ones capable of carrying the burden of responsibility he was about to leave at the table.
"Retirement" was seriously looking better and better, but first things first he had to care of this case and a few more other --- loose ends --- before he could officially leave the stage of history and become yet another power...in the land of shadows.
Uchiha Sasuke was pissed.
His pride and honor had been wounded, and outrage consumed him like madness. It would not do; it just would not do; unacceptable, that he would waste his days away prowling through the dimmed empty hallways of The Cerberus, while his archenemy slipped further and further away each day. He had paid a high price, a month lost to wounds and rehabilitation, not including "losing" his left eye, his vanity. Never again would he underestimate the traitor, Uzumaki Naruto. Why it was a foolish mistake on his part because he should have remembered that Uzumaki was the clan's Number One Unpredictable Mandos. The bastard had reduced him to a caged vengeful spirit with nothing else on his mind except for getting even, and every day, the blazing heat beneath the eye patch that covered his "ruined" eye grew hotter and hotter.
At times, he even swore he could see the black material turning molten when his anger burned hot enough.
"On the prowl again, are we?" the ever cool and collected voice of his "Lord" interrupted his march.
Sasuke could feel those bemused golden eyes glittering out at his back in the darkness, but he refused to whirl upon the insufferable man, "You have imprisoned me on this ship for a MONTH, you devil!"
"All in concern for your good health, of course. As the saying goes, good help is so hard to find these days, and it would be waste for you to rush off to your own death so soon."
"The only one who will be dining in Hell soon enough is Uzumaki Naruto-!"
"Oh, don't you mean you will try...?"
"Tell. Me. Where is HE?!"
"Oh, why not? I think this will be a good lesson to you, that is, why you cannot kill --- a hero."
Sasuke balked.
What...
What did the bastard just say?
"As it turns out, the Jewel Seeds should be arriving on a particular little blue planet out in the Unknown Regions today," Commander Anam went on without missing beat, like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to say. "We will be departing in the next twenty-four hours once I have mustered the crew and pulled the necessary strings for us to --- disappear for a bit; Section XIII will mobilize once more all in the interest of galactic peace, of course."
That --- that traitor is a hero? Was the bastard trying to provoke him on purpose? Did he even have a slightest clue what Uzumaki Naruto had done!?
Absurd!
Yamashita Park, part of the Waterfront Promenade attraction, was one of the many tourist hotspots of Yokohama City. A public park at the foot of Yamate hill, here visitors had a front view of the majestic port of Yokohama, which opened its gates to the western world for the first time a century ago, ending Japanese isolation for good. Many things have come about since then, such as the Marine Tower, a 106 meter tall lighthouse situated nearby, and there was even the symbolic Hikawamaru, a passenger ship that served on the Yokohama-Vancouver/Seattle transpacific route and others from 1930 to 1960, is docked right out in the water in front of Yamashita Park.
Certainly, it was not a bad locale to pick out for a evening date with one's sweetheart, not to mention a convenient spot since it is only five minutes away from the Motomachi-Chukagai Station on the Minato Mirai Line. From there, the ambitious can even stick on the Minato Mirai Line's trains and continue all the way to Tokyo's Shibuya Station through the Tokyu Toyoko Line. Of course, for the foreign individuals who were about to "arrive" at the ungodly hour of midnight amidst the electric night of Yokohama City, they had "other" concerns in mind.
When the clock struck midnight exactly, something began to happen. Stray animals in lonesome alleyways howled and fled, as birds idling on power lines and neon billboards suddenly took flight in a flutter of feathers. There was a spike in the city's power grid, causing a temporary flickering effect across the city, but not enough for anybody still awake to notice. However, if there had been a scientist or some curios individual out there with the right equipment, they would have noticed something "abnormal" occurring in the airspace around Yamate Hill.
Though, if they cared to look further, the anomaly was actually spanning an area that covered the entirety of both the Tokyo and Yokohama port authority. Bursts of spontaneous electromagnetic radiation were growing with increased frequency and intensity; the air literally abuzz with something invisible and electric. The wind had picked up, the clouds churning and darkening, as precipitation began to build. It was a phenomenon unlike anything meteorologists had ever seen, but even they had no clue, this was a smoke screen for what was about to happen.
There in the park, right near an elaborate water fountain, a cataclysm of forces was at work. To the observer, it was first a kind of visual distortion, like heat radiating off from a fire, but in reality, it was literally the metaphorical fabric of reality --- space-time --- contorting into a perfect sphere. Gaining momentum, generating gravity, drawing in particles from the air like a vacuum hose, sparks and arcs of electricity exploded around the surface of the phenomenon.
And sure enough, figures appeared in the invisible sphere: white silhouettes, poised in action. There were two, one falling back, and the other falling forwards reaching out for what appears to be a staff. Slowly, the white gave way to color, flesh and blood, hair, clothes, and unbelievably so, human faces. Faster and faster, the sphere spun as the voices of the two boys crept out seemingly in slow motion, both shouting at the top of their lungs in a rising crescendo.
There was a terrible crack of lightning, as if the world had been torn open, and suddenly, the sphere ceased to be, the boys cries set free at last, wherefore the more mundane laws of nature applied to them once more. Chief among those laws was: "What goes up, must come down," as they were about to find out the hard way.
Kkra-thud!
Clangggg...
Ouch, that had to hurt, though they should both be grateful it was only a drop of about five feet or so...
"Guh-hoooo..." the dark blue-haired one coughed, his metal staff laying just out of reach before him from where he was face down on the tiled pavement.
"By --- ugh, the S-s-Stars...!" the blonde-haired one added, from where he lay flattened out on his back, while his legs were tossed over the back of the other boy.
For a moment, the two "visitors" simply lay in a heap: moaning and groaning their pains. Judging by their foreign manner of dress, they certainly were not locals. Lightly "armored" two-piece cassocks, the jacket being a separable component, complete with gloves in a matching set of dark blue, almost black, gray trim, and armored combat boots was definitely not standard dress. They were closer to recruits from some knightly order of yesterday, minus all the heavy metal, and they could pass off for priests, if they were not so young and actually had some kind of identifying regalia on them.
Of course, the real kicker was the fact they technically were not speaking Japanese or English at all.
"En-force-er Ap-pren-tice Yu-uno Scrya, ge't y'er legs off a-me, NOW," the dark blue-haired one choked out in an irate pained growl. Apparently, the extra weight on his back was not doing wonders for his pain coping routine, namely restoring his breathing to some normal while giving the pain a chance to subside.
"Ouch...oh! S-Sorry, Sir!" Yuuno scrambled off hurriedly, being careful not to kick his superior on the way off. Kicking an officer was definitely not a good idea, and even less so, when the said individual was his "childhood hero."
Special Enforcer Chrono C. Haraoun, commissioned officer of the Time-Space Administration Bureau, clearance: Commander --- was having a bad start, well, end to a long day. He was hurting, his head was all kinds of FUBAR, and he did have a clue as to whether this heaven or hell? For that matter was he even really alive right now because the last thing he remembered was being aboard the GRS Elsa, caught in the explosion, deck decompressing into hyperspace, the Jewel Seeds, and a...
"...A flash of light?"
"Sir?"
Chrono froze, struck he was by a sense of impending doom, as he craned his neck about to meet the gaze of...
"SCRYA!"
"AHHHhhhhhhhhh! Please, don't blast me! I swear, it wasn't my fault! There was the explosion, the Lost Logia going nuts, and-and-and-!"
"SILENCE."
Now, despite appearances, that is both himself and Yuuno looked to be the same age; Chrono was in fact the elder at 14 cycles while his subordinate was only 9 cycles old. Granted, he was kind of feeling raw that for whatever reasons his growth spurt had been delayed quite a lot, probably a side effect of ingesting Ambrosia just a few years back: an expensive, dangerous, not to mention rare life extension "agent." He swore time and time again to his mother it was not on purpose and that the thugs at the scene of the crime had forced him to take the illegal narcotic as a test guinea pig.
But the long term impacts and the tomfoolery that resulted from it is a story for another time. Anyways, more to the point, he was the one in charge, which meant the changeling boy across from him shut up real quick with a whimper. Taking a deep breath to calm his own frayed and jumbled nerves, he turned himself fully about and sat up, ignoring the protests of his back, as he tried to recall the series of unfortunate events that lead up to this very moment.
"Scrya --- are we alive right now?
Yuuno blinked at him, a dumbfounded expression on his face.
"I said! Are we alive right now?"
"Ah, err, uh, well --- you see..."
"No need to rush. Collect your thoughts and think about it... Are we alive right now?"
"Well, sir, with all due respect, I think this pain --- ow! --- feeling pain isn't something the dead ought to be able to experience."
"Based on that argument..."
"We've got to be alive, and my gambit paid off! Yeah!"
Oh crap.
"Yuuno..."
Ooooohhhh crap. He is addressing me by first name! Not good. Not good!
"What. Did you do exactly?
"Well --- sir, with all due respect, I --- I modified the standard Temporal Force Field spell's parameters on the spot to essentially form a Warp Field for us. As you know, simple organics such as ourselves couldn't possibly survive in a vacuum, much less hyperspace unprotected! At the time, we were both good as dead, so I figured why the hell not?"
Chrono shot him a long hard stare, which frankly flustered Yuuno. It had taken a lot of crying, running around the bush, and proving himself to convince the Bureau to allow him to enlist at just the tender age of 8 cycles. He was a cycle below the minimum age requirement of taking the contract mage examinations, and quite frankly, they just thought he was a liability. But oh no, Yuuno Scrya was having none of that; he was determined to take his place beside his "childhood hero", whom he had sworn to serve in exchange of paying off the life debt he owed.
Of course, the oath was part of a whole macho tribal honor code thing he got drawn into just before his fifth birthday; a life changing "accident" where he met his "hero" if you will...he was young, impressionable, naive...but that was a story for another time.
"Enforcer Apprentice Yuuno Scrya," Chrono began in an airy preamble.
Oh dear, here it comes... thought Yuuno, bracing himsef for the worse.
"To this day, I still do not understand this whole business about a 'life debt' and cultural eccentricities of your people..."
By the Stars! He still does not get it? They have served together as a "team" now for close to six months! It took him ages to finally meet up again with Sir Haraoun, and this is the sort of treatment he gets? Ahh, woe is Yuuno Scrya to have such an insensitive master!
"But for once, I am grateful for your spontaneity to not follow protocol to the latter. Experimenting with standard spells is certainly not something you have been licensed or authorized to do, but... Well, you saved our lives. If you were a female, I would probably kiss you right now."
Well...
Wow...
Right?
Yuuno coughed as politely as he could; he was flattered on one hand, but on the other hand, he was kind of insulted too. His idol always did have a strange give-and-take manner when it came to giving out compliments:
"Sir, with all due respect, save the kiss for the Goddess of Victory that I'm going to get you married off to one of these days. But! In the short term, I'd be happy for recommendation on my next promotion, Commander."
"Duly noted, Enforcer Apprentice," Chrono gave a grunt of acknowledgment, as he hauled himself up to his feet once again.
The situation report for now was simple enough: they were alive and the prototype intelligent magical device they had been transporting originally was still in one piece, that was the good news. The bad news? For starters, one look around them spoke volumes that they were far away from civilized space, stuck on an underdeveloped planet, with chances of rescue on the slim side of Lady Luck. A quick diagnostic check revealed both of their magical devices were damaged, thus unable to access certain "Spell Protocols" at present.
They were tired, getting a little hungry, disoriented, and their evening was about to get a whole lot worse.
High above in the black skies, the thunderstorm grew worse. The drumbeats of thunder roared louder and the whips of lightning cracked more frequently, as the wind howled ever boldly, whipping the air into a frenzy. Even the exhausted Bureau mages below began to consider where they should seek shelter, despite fears of encountering the local populace. Their fears, however, would have to wait for trouble had arrived.
Chrono huffed irritably, "This weather be damned. Come on, Scrya, we are getting-!"
He never got to finish his sentence, when a sudden explosion went off in a brilliant flash of light. Flying, tumbling, electric, impact: Chrono was deaf and numb, his vision a blurry mess. The constant ringing in his ears; intense searing heat, he could feel the steam coming of his skin and barrier jacket; burnt flesh and the coppery bitter taste of blood.
His staff? Where his was --- ah, he was still holding it. Good.
"S-Sir-!"
A voice?
"Chr-!"
Who?
"Chrono! Get...Oh hell!"
Again, Chrono found himself weightless, knocked aside carelessly (like hit by a land speeder?), crashing through something wooden; breaking, splinters. The air was sucked out of his lungs with a hoarse cough. Stars were twinkling in his eyes, blurry, but hearing was returning.
"Gleipnir: Temporal Force Field - Set UP!"
An eerie feral shriek cut through the air as a shimmering humming pulse of energy dispersed through the area in a vast shockwave. Some twenty or so meters off, a human figure with seemingly glowing arms squared off against a huge writhing mass of shadow, big as a two story house, amorphous with only a pair of glowing red eyes and rows of gleaming razor sharp teeth for a "face." The human's arms were ablaze with fiery light for a spiral of silken ribbons, materialized out of thin air, wrapping themselves around its arms.
"Behold, the power of Gleipnir, that hath bound the hound of end time, Vaanargand: Spiral Bind!"
On command, a plethora of glowing ribbons shot out in a spiraling pattern, difficult to track and overwhelming in number for they ensnared the beast of shadow in seconds and pulled taut. The surprised creature reared back with a terrible howl that would have robbed the courage of lesser men, but the human --- boy --- no --- Yuuno held on for dear life. He leaned back with all the power and strength he could muster out of his body, arms straining to wrangle the black writhing thing under his control. True, it was an absurd sight to see a boy of some nine years subduing a monster so gross, but such was the nature of magic.
"Chro-Chrono, I've-I've got --- urgh, him! I-I, rrghh! --- think it's a J-Je-wel Seed...rghh!...out-of-control."
A Jewel Seed? Out of control? Oh, that's right. The Lost Logia with the power to grant wishes...the Jewel Seeds. Back on the ship...
"G-Gah! He's-strong! I-I will-will, ugh...! Quick, r-run! Run away! Get help!"
Rain, pouring down... Cold, wet, loud, a rising crescendo of needles... Pitter-patter-pitter-patter...
"Run! R-Run, dammit!"
Run.
"Get help! That prototype device is no good to us. Find someone who can...ugh!"
Help. Prototype. Compatibility factor.
"Go, Chrono Clyde Haraoun! You can't afford to die here like this! GO!"
That's --- that's right. I'm...
"S-Sorry, Yuuno," the older boy grunted, using his staff as a cane to support himself, "I'll --- be back soon, I promise."
Chrono had been wounded earlier by the lightning blast, taking the brunt of damage upon himself by shielding his subordinate unconsciously. The younger boy had not asked to be saved, and to make things worse, Chrono had been tackled aside too by the newly materialized Jewel Beast when it came charging through, adding more to his injuries. It was amazing enough as is that he could even manage to stand, and between the two of them, Yuuno knew it would be up to him to hold the line as long as he could. After all, it was his fault for not being quick enough to protect the one he swore to serve, becoming a liability himself.
Idiot, I should be the one apologizing, thought Yuuno with a smiled, as he saw his "master" take off into a limping run.
He ran and he ran: blindly, through sheets of rain swept sidewalks, past a phantasmagoria of neon signs, department stores, skyscrapers, buildings of all shapes and sizes. He saw empty streets, idling traffic signs, hollow crosswalks, not a soul in sight, further and further he ran, lungs burning, numbing pain, tiring, darkening...tripped, a misstep. He fell, tumbling, rolling, skidding, sliding across the slick surface to stop in the middle of an intersection.
Lightning crashed, a white flash in the black sky, temporary, and thunder rumbled. Chrono did not know how far he had come, but it had to be far enough, and enough for a little time to breathe. Rolling onto his back, the rain soaked boy hobbled back up to his feet with a pained grunt, bracing himself against his staff once more. He was far from being in top form, but he could not afford to falter now, when his subordinate was waiting for help to arrive.
Muttering a spell under his breath, the enforcer mage reached out with his free hand as if to grasp something, as particles of light gathered rapidly in his palm coalescing with a sparkling flash into a gem. A perfect ruby sphere, small enough for him to envelop entirely in his fist yet not so small that it would fit well on a ring for this was their hope. It was a prototype Intelligent Device entrusted to himself and Yuuno for safe transport to a secure location, and they had no choice but to use it for the first time in a real battle with their lives hanging in the balance.
However, Chrono and his comrade were incompatible with Intelligent Device XID-301e, code named "Raising Heart". It was all up to the fates now for he would seek out with his "heart" for one who could wield her in battle. He would pray their was such a person in this city, on this world; someone, anyone who could lend their strength, a strength they never knew about it, a strength they could only dream about it, and now that sleeping power would awaken!
"As I pray, hear me! Open thy ears, One whose will is as my own, so that My voice shall be it engraved upon thy blazing heart! Hear me, for grave danger hath come to thy world, a terrible power not meant to be wielded by selfish hearts. Please, hear me! Lend us thy strength, a gift that hath slumbered long inside thee, and awaken this sword meant for One who is worthy. 'Tis named: Raising Heart, behold --- Her Crimson Song!"
And with the proud decree on his lips, Chrono stood proud and tall, brandishing the perfect ruby to the thundering heavens from whence erupted forth an awesome display of power. A brilliant column of crimson light set the scene ablaze, as it parted the unnatural thunderheads aside, piercing the veil of night to illuminate all. For several minutes, the display went on, before at last its herald could stand no more, collapsing to his knees once more, his staff barely holding him up.
The enforcer mage had done the best he could with his wounded and exhausted body. Now, it was all up to the stars to decide: that someone had heard his prayer, that the right person had seen Raising Heart's light, and that they would come to help before all was lost.
Shaaaaarrrrgh...!
By Fey and the Stars, Jewel Beast caught up to me so soon? thought Chrono with a bittersweet smile, as he glanced over his shoulder.
There stood the dark beast, rain rippling off its writhing form that had taken on a much more --- solid state, resembling a perverse parody of a krayt dragon from the deserts of Tatooine: it was four legged, huge, reptilian, with a decidedly draconian head and a gaping maw of razor sharp teeth dripping with venom, but all similarities ended there. The creature had only one eye, dead center in its forehead, which frankly was not even an eye but the actual Jewel Seed that held the entire nightmare together, while tendrils and coils sprouted spontaneously across its form like feeders.
To compound matters, it seemed the thing had a level of intelligence too, because it had left Yuuno alive --- for now. The changeling boy hung suspended amongst the tendrils on the Jewel Beast's back, just breathing to stay alive. He was a mess of burns and cuts, proof that he had put up one hell of fight, but alas, he had still been no match for the nightmare.
And now, it is up to me, thought Chrono, pocketing away the perfect ruby, as he rose once more to the occasion, a handful of blue magical knives materializing in his free hand.
"Song-Two-U: Stinger Blade..."
The Jewel Beast too prepared its hand, a mass of crackling purple energy gathering rapidly from its maw.
"...Burst Shift, standby..."
Ready?
To be continued...
Author's Notes:
Well, there you have it. Chapter 38 in all of its glory. Thoughts, feelings, questions: hey, fire away, fellas. And yes, I know it's been a while. Just when you thought this thing was dead, turns out I am still writing it, and I will continue to mess with your minds. Doesn't mean I like messin' with your minds, but I am determined to somehow communicate the fun and meaning of this fic, so until the day you honest to god get it, bear with the controversy. To the rest of you who do get it, my greatest apologies for not making it easier and congrats.
Thank you all for tuning in and remember, I always encourage each and everyone of you to feel free to comment, review, and/or discuss the story. Your comments can really make a difference, I assure you, and if you're up to it, feel free to ring me up on AIM, or even send me an e-mail (although you really don't need to boost my ego too often). You know how to get in touch with the maestro here.
Tsudzuku!