Chapter 9

"Okay, I might have invented some advanced stuff in the past, but, I gotta admit it, whoever is backing you scares me."

Akari raised an eyebrow, looking across the workshop to where Tony had HK-47 hung up on chains while he examined it. She did sort of hope he'd forgotten about his request for her to let him examine the droid, but he hadn't, and so when she asked if she could use his workshop to mess with some stuff, he bartered with her to get access to HK-47. Since she didn't care too much if he learned something new or freaked over the impossible tech inside the droid, she let him have at it.

The reason she needed his workshop was to work with the Vibranium she'd gotten. Considering she only managed to make about 10 grams of the stuff with a full 100 million Energy, making more would be a long-running process, and using it to replicate any Wakandan tech was out of the question, so the idea of breaking into the country or hunting down that crazy guy Andy Serkis played and stealing his Vibranium sounded like a good idea.

It wasn't like she really needed it, there wasn't anything she could think of that she'd want it for aside from maybe thinning it out into fibres and weaving it through all her clothing, since it'd absorb the kinetic energy of an impact and pretty much nullify the attack. As far as she knew, Vibranium was utterly unbreakable, and so if she just encased herself in a suit of it, she'd basically be un-damageable. Of course, that sounded like a lot of hassle, and the chances that she'd be saved by it pretty minimal. If she encountered an enemy who could actually hurt or kill her, the chances were high that having some Vibranium armour wouldn't save her, not from that level of strength.

So, while he messed with the droid and occasionally remarked on impossible sections of construction, she was working on theories of what exactly she could use the Vibranium for. Despite the collective lives her clones had lived while she was frozen, the vast majority of those memories were never received by her brain. That amount of mental input would probably fry even her brain, which meant that while she knew certain important sections of memory, if someone asked her to repair a regulator on the Fenris somewhere, despite her clones having probably done that many times, she'd be utterly lost.

That also meant she really didn't have a lot to draw upon when it came time to actually use an extremely versatile metal for...well, anything. There was the chance of thinning it into microfibers and weaving them into her gear, but since it was all indestructible anyway, that was a moot point. Her hand stalled from where it was flipping her pen end over end, chancing a glance towards a distracted Stark. "Well screw this, I'm gonna go relax." She muttered loudly enough to be heard, flipping the notepad shut and inventorying it.

Tony just made an agreeing noise as he pried a piece away from HK-47 and flipped it in his hand. She shook her head, slipping out through the door and upstairs, then up again and to the room Tony had given her to use. There were no cameras in there, she would have ripped his nuts off if he had any in there, so she was safe to use the Banbutsu Sozo no Jutsu to create herself a brand new outfit, quickly tucking her own gear away in her inventory and equipping the regular and thus far more breakable equipment. She still had her regular indestructible Kunai, it wasn't likely that they would cause an issue, but if someone stabbed her and a few moments later the clothing had sealed itself over again, tough questions would be asked that she couldn't easily answer.

With that done, she flopped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, her mind drifting to other, less immediate issues. The Hulk existed already...apparently. She didn't realize how early he was, but then again, she barely even remembered any of his movies, only knowing him from his Avengers appearances, so she could be forgiven for that. What irritated her was that apparently he got in a big knock-down-drag-out fight with something they called the Abomination, and the pictures made him look pretty imposing, someone she might actually enjoy fighting.

Akari then recalled she had levelled up a few times and totally forgot to do anything with her points, dumping the 15 spare points into her luck. She still held out some small hope that when it hit 1000 she'd get another perk for getting all of her stats up to 1000, but since all of her more physical and less nebulous stats had merged to give her Serenity, she doubted luck would get incorporated. Maybe it would give her a perk of its own.

Thinking about her luck reminded Akari of her Rolling Table item, idly flicking over its icon in her inventory. She had been utterly neglecting it, even after the Entity fixed it for her so long ago. She pushed it, listening to the click as the table rolled across the innumerable count of items contained within. Being entirely honest, she didn't even know what it could possibly give her that would be useful, and as it rolled to a stop, she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the rifle-shaped thing that got dropped into her hands, even as she observed it and blinked in surprise.

Portal Gun - This tool is able to tear holes in reality, attaching two separate points and allowing instant traversal. (Warning - Do not fire at Moon!)

It was...well, it wasn't that useful since she had the Hiraishin and her Fast Travel, but if she'd gotten it a while ago then maybe it would have been useful then? Curious, she fired one portal at the floor, taking note of the size, then fired another beside it. Akari then hopped into it, experiencing a little nausea as she got weirdly flipped around by the portal, gravity asserting itself then seemingly reversing a few times before she pulled herself out of the portals.

Humming, Akari then pointed the portal gun upwards and fired one at the flat ceiling, then hopped into the one on the floor, experiencing the acceleration the fall generated until she hit terminal velocity. So, it could theoretically generate infinite energy, since it didn't seem like the gun had any ports or a way to reload or recharge it, which meant she could possibly figure some weird way out to abuse it, not that she gave a shit. If she wanted to give the world infinite energy she'd start pouring out lightning-natured Chakra or hook herself up to a power grid. To get out of the fall she used her flight magic to lower her speed to a stop, landing on the floor beside the two holes.

She pushed a second button on the gun in front of the two triggers and watched the portals vanish, then threw the gun into her inventory. While it wasn't super useful, it did remind her of the Subtle Knife, so she whipped it out and looked the blade over. It wasn't really that useful to her, but maybe if she ever wanted a holiday away from annoyances she could just cut a hole in reality and disappear for a while to some alternate dimension, maybe she could find one where the air was just helium and the water was all lemonade or something equally bizarre...

...on second thoughts, that was a pretty fun idea.

"Fuck this shit!"

Reeling her arm back, Akari tossed the small bar of utterly-infuriating metal across the workshop, growling when it made very little noise impacting the other side of the room. Even with all of Tony's advanced metalworking tech, she just couldn't figure out how the fuck Vibranium was molded. It was obviously doable outside of Wakanda, Cap's shield was testament to that, but how the fuck it was done was utterly beyond her.

She would have already given up and let Tony try, but didn't fancy him getting suspicious of her when Wakanda was brought into the spotlight. As she got up with a sigh and picked the piece of metal up, her clone in Times Square dispersed, leaving behind a Hiraishin marker and informing her that Captain America had just broken containment in New York and was now running into Times Square.

Quickly transporting herself there, she activated her Sharingan and peered down, picking the old soldier out of the crowd near-instantly thanks to his imposing physique and the fact he was practically sprinting. Akari turned invisible and leapt off the side of the building, using short bursts of flight to control her descent as she landed carefully amongst the crowd.

She used the cover of the crowd to become visible again, her Sharingan helping her pick the exact right moment to become visible again without attracting attention. Anyone who might have seen her appear peripherally would dismiss it as just her not being easily seen in the crowd. Shoving her hands into her vest, she made her way quickly towards where the soldier was, standing on the edge of the street as he sprinted out and was shocked at the sight. Then again, last time he'd seen Times Square it was in the 40's, and most definitely not covered in animated billboards.

She briefly debated the pros and cons of getting mixed into the situation, but the stray reminder of Peggy stayed her from doing anything long enough to really think about things. Sure, she could have gotten close and spoken to him or whatever, but what was the point? What would she say? No, getting to see him was pretty cool, she still held a bit of that old hero-awe she used to have watching the movies before everything went to shit, but she felt no real need in speaking to him. Besides, she lived in Tony Stark's mansion, that was enough.

No, instead she went invisible again, but stalled just before she used the Hiraishin to leave. Sighing, Akari pulled her notepad from her inventory, tearing a page off and then quickly writing a note for him. A quick few steps saw her break the crowd, and she snuck up beside him whilst Nick Fury arrived and spoke to him, slipping the note into his pocket unseen. Maybe he'd see it, maybe he wouldn't check his pockets before getting changed next, but even if he didn't, she knew the rough region that he was going to be in at some point, the old gym he used couldn't exactly be common.

With that done, she teleported away, back up onto the rooftop overlooking Times Square, cracking her fingers then spawning several dozen Shadow Clones, each one turning invisible and running off in all directions. She hadn't yet found Peggy Carter, she wasn't even sure if the movies showed where she actually lived and if they did she didn't remember it, and while SHIELD definitely had her location, breaking in there a second time just didn't sound as fun as finding Peggy herself.

Humming to herself, Akari thought about HYDRA. They were currently infesting SHIELD, that wasn't her issue. What she didn't like was the fact they had Bucky. Well, it wasn't that so much as they were controlling him. She had recently sworn off using the Imperius, and to recall that HYDRA were pretty much doing the same thing to people just kinda rankled her the wrong way.

Now, she couldn't just start cracking skulls together, for once she was going to have to play things a bit smarter than usual, owing to the entrenched position HYDRA had and the fact she knew where none of their things were, but that didn't mean she couldn't start tying a noose around their throats. To start with, she set a few clones off to start following the few HYDRA members she remembered, Jasper Sitwell and Alexander Pierce being the most notable ones she knew of.

She already had a clone following Stern, and as for the rest of HYDRA, well, she just didn't remember enough about the organization to know who she needed a clone to be following. That didn't mean she didn't send a few clones to watch the Triskelion, plus anybody Alexander, Sitwell or Stern met who her clones recognized as being HYDRA would promptly find themselves being followed as well.

Her plan was that since they had to contact other HYDRA agents eventually, she would steadily grow her network of clones, each one following a HYDRA member. When the time was right, all of them would suddenly and inexplicably find their throats cut out. It would be a self-propagating network, steadily expanding out to many of those HYDRA agents and then suddenly at once closing the trap. Maybe she'd even get lucky and catch Pierce going to Bucky, but she didn't hold her breath for it.

No, it was time to start taking things more seriously.

"What...the actual hell?"

Okay, maybe that was moving a bit quickly. Akari had decided that, after thinking about it a little more, Tony was incredibly unlikely to give up her secrets, not after she'd proven able to keep his until it was necessary as with his palladium poisoning, to which he indirectly owed her his life as well, adding to that. With that in mind, she had decided to reveal a few abilities to him.

Nothing insane, she just showed where Whiplash had injured her, which was completely healed, then took a plain Kunai and opened a gash across her arm, letting him see it practically snap shut in an instant, the incredibly low-damage weapon being utterly ineffective at hurting her. Maybe if she'd put all her strength into it she'd have been hurt enough that the wound wouldn't close instantly, but there was no need during this display.

Needless to say, he was fairly curious about how it worked, and that was the point she gave up trying to actively keep secrets. There was no real point, so she told him that her 'organization' didn't actually exist, it was just her, before spawning a pair of Shadow Clones to back her point up, which stalled his amused voice as he was telling her how impossible that was.

He spent a few moments poking and prodding the two clones, asking her questions about how they worked, how they could possibly have physical form. He seemed pretty sceptical when she said they were made from energy that she generated, but the fact they both were able to draw Kunai and start slashing at the wall, leaving clear physical impressions, sold him at least on the fact they were genuinely corporeal clones.

When he looked at her after touching one of those gouges, she knew he was now just waiting for the next bit of insanity to dump in his lap. That came in the form of her requesting he find somewhere where an object 1.2 kilometers long wouldn't be noticed to suddenly appear. The insinuation that she could make something like that appear out of thin air was the straw that broke the camels back...or rather the cinderblock that broke it, since this pushed him over sceptical into bet-making.

He seemed pretty confident that she couldn't do that, and wagered that if she couldn't, he got to keep the 'robot' she had given him. In return, she decided that if she won, he would make, maintain and upgrade a singular suit using her mystery metal. There wasn't much else she needed, and having a vibranium-coated Iron Man Suit sounded really cool, even to her.

Of course, this would have the side-effect of letting Tony examine and work with Vibranium, meaning maybe in the future she could happen to 'find' a certain stash of Vibranium to give to Tony, which would let him upgrade his suits. Imagine if the nanomachines in Tony's suit during Infinity War had been made of Vibranium, he would have been much better off.

His shocked statement when, after finding a secluded region of the States and taking her out there, she suddenly made a Venator-class Star Destroyer appear on a quant field in America, was therefore reasonable. What was amusing was that he actually recognized the ship, which immediately had him ask JARVIS to rescan the droid and search all Star Wars information related to droids, coming up with what he was looking for.

That look he gave her, as he realized what he was dealing with, would amuse her for weeks.

"So, let me get this totally straight, you came from Star Wars, but before that you were in an entirely different Universe?"

Akari hummed her agreement, having already gone over this with him. "Yeah, before Star Wars was one with magic and a magical school and some would-be Dark Lord who honestly was pretty disappointing. Then before that was the first world I came to before I...well, died." Tony gave her a hard look as she trailed off for a moment. Even for what she'd shown him, he was evidently sceptical that she was able to come back to life after dying.

Then he gained a more thoughtful look. "Well, if you were in a Universe created by the imagination of a human, maybe this other world was also a fictional one, one that possibly just didn't exist, since it's entirely possible your original world doesn't match mine. Tell me some names, see if I recognize them." She tilted her head a moment, but shrugged and decided to go along with it.

"Well, there was Toki...Harry, sorry, I kinda picked him up from a bad spot and named him that since his last name was Potter and so Toki was a good way for him to-". Tony's face told her all she needed to know. "Lemme guess, recognizable?" Tony snorted, laughing when he couldn't hold it in. It took him a few moments before he stopped laughing, during which Akari's curiosity grew.

"So, let me take a stab in the dark here. You picked up a boy called Harry Potter from an abusive situation, in a world where a place called Hogwarts exists as the magical school you mentioned, with a Dark Lord called Voldemort." She nodded her agreement, to which he laughed a little more. "Well, congratulations, you were in the Harry Potter Universe, the entire story was based around him and the prophecy and probably other things I don't care to remember. Wait a minute...Jarvis, search for Shadow Clones."

"Just a moment sir." JARVIS was also in on things, keeping it a secret from him would be basically impossible, though she did need to tell Tony to upgrade his security so Ultron didn't do whatever he did to him. Hey, Age of Ultron was one of the movies she never got around to seeing, she only knew bits and pieces from clips like him cutting off the arm of the guy who Serkis played. "The most probable result is for a manga and animated series, Naruto. The main character uses-"

She had already started laughing the instant she heard the name of the boy she had raised. She was two-for-two with accidentally getting involved with main characters when she didn't know who they were. It was likely she'd have ended up coddling Anakin if she didn't know who he was, but she wouldn't have ended up with the Fenris and Jormungandr anyway, and probably would have ended up trapped by The Father. In this Universe, it would just be her luck to get mixed up with Peter Parker if she didn't already know what was up. "What's so funny?"

Wiping a tear away from her eye, Akari shook her head. "Naruto is the name of the kid I practically adopted after his parents died. I mean...I-...err, well I think maybe revealing quite everything I can do might be a bit hasty, but suffice to say that Naruto spent his early years thinking I was 'okaa-san'. The scamp still calls me by that name, even married as he is. Huh, maybe it's time to go back for a visit..." Akari spoke quietly, noting the gleam in Tony's eyes and sighing. "Fine, I'll bring you as well." Then she tilted her head to the side. "But no cameras!"

His snort told her all she needed to know about that little tidbit.

"You're sure about this?"

Tony didn't seem too comfortable about things now that he was actually about to be pulled into another Universe, and even though she told him she'd already brought people over with her before, he was suited up and seemed pretty wary about actually going through with things. "You'll be fine. Now stay still unless you want me to leave half of you behind by accident."

If anything, that made him shift even more, not that it mattered. She grasped ahold of his wrist more firmly, then opened her menu and selected a spot a little ways from Konoha, feeling the tug behind her similar to Apparating as they popped out of existence in Tony's garage, spending a few seconds in transit before they appeared in the forest.

Immediately, she let go of Tony, narrowing her eyes. "What's wrong?" She left a hand up to silence him, staring in the direction of Konoha. She could feel flashes of Chakra, strong chakra, being used repeatedly. With a quick glance at Tony, she nudged her head in the direction of Konoha then took off, leaving him to come after her on his own. It was the work of a minute before she broke the forest, coming to a stop on the other side, her brain taking a few moments to figure out what she was looking at.

Konoha was being attacked. But it wasn't by enemy Shinobi. Instead, there were...things attacking. They were pure black with an almost fuzzy outline, glowing red eyes being the only indication of a face. They were humanoid, but didn't seem very content to stay in that shape since they changed and fluctuated constantly. As she watched, she saw a pair of Konoha Shinobi running across the wall, one of them stopping to flip through hand seals and fired a Katon Jutsu at the nearest group of forms, splashing them with flames before returning to their run.

As she watched, the flames receded to reveal that the black beings had been seemingly damaged but not destroyed by the attack, steadily reforming themselves. For once, she actually faltered. She vaguely remembered them, they were a Marvel creation, but not what they were from. But...how could they be here? It was an entirely different Universe, how the fuck could they be there?

Whatever the case was, from the scattered and mutilated bodies she could see around the walls, they weren't friendly. She sprinted across the open area in front of the walls and then straight up them, hooking herself on the edge and slingshotting her momentum forwards, over the wall and into Konoha itself. Inside the walls the situation was even worse, no large Jutsus could be used without destroying swathes of the village, so the weird black masses had the advantage.

It was then that she felt another much bigger blast of Chakra, a windstorm suddenly forming in the middle of the village that filled with darkness as the enemy were lifted up. Then fire filled the storm, turning it into a firestorm and roasting the black masses within. The large jutsu was held for a full minute before being dropped, during which AKari kept an eye on it and homed in on whoever cast it.

She came to a stop atop a building just as the storm receded, spotting quickly a familiar mass of blonde hair stood beside another. "Naruto! Temari!" The two of them glanced up, surprise across their faces as they spotted her even as naruto threw a Kunai towards her and grabbed his wife, using the Hiraishin to appear beside her. Before they could move she grabbed them both in a brief hug. "Nice to see you, but what the fuck is going on?"

"We don't know, they just appeared from a rip in the sky a little over a day ago." Naruto said as he gave her a hug back and then broke her grip, Temari being surprised but doing the same. "Tou-san figured out that fire hurts them, but putting them down for good is a lot harder than just hurting them." Akari bit her lip, looking at the destruction that had already been wrought across the village. "It's gone for right now, but every so often the rip re-appears and dumps more of these things here."

She turned her eyes skyward, nothing out of the ordinary even when she activated her Sharingan and Rinnegan and swept her gaze around. "Has anybody tried sealing them?" Naruto grimaced, and Temari looked a little uncomfortable as well, telling her that sealing was probably not very successful. "Right, I'll want to know more. For now, where are your parents or Hiruzen?"

As soon as she asked, she knew something wasn't good. "Tou-san...when it happened, he bought us time by using a scroll he and Kaa-san had been working on, it stopped everything in Konoha except for everyone who was meant to be here using the wall barrier to identify people. But to do it for a reasonable length of time he had to drain his coils to practically nothing. Tsunade had him stable immediately and he's now under the mountain, but he was unconscious when I last heard. Kaa-san lost her arm when one of the wraiths grabbed her and she had to cut it off when it started growing towards her, and she went under as well. I don't know where Hiruzen is or where Jiraiya or anyone else is."

Akari brushed a finger against her jaw as he spoke, trying to piece together just what the actual fuck was going on. She already knew that she had to have been causing this, there was absolutely no other explanation for why these things were appearing. It was as she was thinking that she realized where she recognized them from, a tingling running up her spine as she felt the air around them get heavier. "The rip is coming again, we should get to cover."

Shaking her head, Akari turned her gaze skyward. "You should get away from here, this is my fault. Guess maybe this is what I get for hopping around so much." As Naruto opened his mouth to question her, reality itself split in half above Konoha, a gaping void from which more of the dark masses appeared. She quickly used observe on one as it fell, noting the name as being Mindless Ones even as she adjusted her gaze back up through the rip. After a few seconds, a giant and very recognizable head peered through the crack.

When a colossal hand them smashed into one side of it, tearing the rip open wider, she threw her inventory open, pulling out her Kotta Jikan Fuinjutsu and activating it, planting it on the rooftop and thereby freezing time in the area. While Naruto and Temari both were understandably surprised at the fact she had literally just stopped time, Akari was already hastily going through her inventory, trying to come up with a way to beat something as fucking terrifying as Dormammu.

Doctor Strange literally needed an Infinity Stone, something that was literally a primordial embodiment of time itself...wait...Akari turned her gaze back towards Dormammu, watching as the colossal entity opened its mouth and...laughed. Another chill ran up her spine as she glared upwards at the laughing face of Dormammu, even while time itself was stopped for everything else outside of the small bubble around her seal.

This...was bad. Really bad. Dormammu was only unable to resist Doctor Strange because he was wielding literally a stone of infinite power. By comparison, sure her seal was powerful, but it didn't nearly have the power of infinity behind it. For a being like Dormammu, who controlled an entire dimension, ignoring her seal was probably easy. No, that wasn't right. He definitely had to exert some effort, since for a moment her seal had actually stopped him.

But she was still fucked, and Konoha as well, if she didn't fix this fast.

Sorry about the break, I really just...ugh, I feel like this story has dropped so much in quality recently.

I came back after my break and after writing Chipped Surface hoping that this break would have let me take some steps back and come back with fresh ideas, but...I don't know, it just feels off to me. I hope you enjoyed anyway, and if you didn't then hey, you aren't alone, even I'm not super keen on this chapter.

Honestly...I just don't know what to do, and that's mirrored in Akari, she bounces between things not because of any explanation I give about her being unstable, but just because I can't think of anything for her to do. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed whatever you could from this hot mess!

Name: Akari Uchiha

Level: 1298

Age: Ageless (17 - Appearance)

Experience: 828,629/1,298,000

To Next Level: 469,371

Title: Animal Tamer - Rank 5 - 100% chance to dissuade creatures from attacking during encounter. Prolonged or repeated exposure allows reputation, rapport as well as affinity to build with any animal. Note - familiars and mind-controlled creatures are exempt from this ability.

Secondary Title: Assassin - 200% increase to damage on unaware enemies, 100% experience for stealth kills

Health Points: 150,015,000 - (((100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 10) x 3) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 50,000,000/m - 833,333.33*/s - (((Vit x End) x 2) x 5) x 5

Energy Points: 225,022,500 - ((((100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10) x 1.5) x 3) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 50,000,000/m - 833,333.33*/s - (((Int x Wis) x 2) x 5) x 5

Strength - 1000

Vitality - 1000

Endurance - 1000

Intelligence - 1000

Agility - 1000

Wisdom - 1000

Luck - 765

Affinities - Fire, Lightning, Earth, Water, Wind - Primary Affinities granted by Rinnegan