Chapter 8: Tremors
Six months prior to Emergence Day...
Vasgar had done quite well since joining the COG. Since the front had moved on from its borders, Kashkur's neighboring country had flourished under the protection of the Coalition, and their trade agreements hadn't hurt either. That being said, the refinery and power plant Hoffman had taken offline during the Siege of Anvil Gate sometimes needed repairs from time to time. And instead of calling in engineers from Tyrus – expensive ones at that – they called in a local construction expert.
Naruto Namikaze stood with a look of intrigue on his face as he examined the new delivery system in the refinery. Instead of piping the Imulsion up from deeper within the ground, it was brought up in buckets and refined at the surface. This made things easier because of the number of buckets that could be used, instead of one pipe that shut down production if anything happened. Imulsion was hot, thick, corrosive, and oily; a maintenance nightmare on pipes, and plastics dissolved in it altogether. But there wasn't anything to be broken with the bucket system except the track, which could easily detach faulty parts and keep production rolling while maintenance fixed the issue.
The reason Naruto was there, however, was that the foreman and his suited bosses back in their comfy offices had decided to add a second bucket lift. They were willing to shut down production for a day to do it, but there were still a few loads of Imulsion swinging about. Several of Naruto's clones disguised as workers were taking measurements necessary for the lift system, while the original pondered where exactly he was going to put the blasted thing.
I can make it a tandem lift with two buckets without taking up much more room, but that would be twice the loss if something went wrong. It would also make operating on the catwalks dangerous unless we moved them, and some are fastened to the walls and ceiling. An alternating track might help, but it would be harder to access if things went wrong... Naruto grimaced and laced his fingers into his shaggy hair in frustration. THIS is why leadership by committee is a bad idea! It's also why I disbanded that stupid Council of Elders years ago.
While his clones took measurements and surveyed suggestions from the local work force, Naruto hopped up on top of a nearby bucket. This one was only partially full, the uncomfortable heat eased into a warm glow. He sat down on the bar above the bucket and balanced himself perfectly, entering the lotus position and beginning to meditate. To others, it looked to be a precarious position above a very hot pool of Imulsion, but he was in little danger.
Meditation had been a form of relaxation for Naruto for a long time. He always found peace in centering himself, though here on Sera there was no ambient Nature chakra to immerse himself in. He still found the peace and calm he sought in meditation, but there was no power to be found in it. Still, he did search for Nature chakra every now and then, hoping to find some locked away or isolated. There were no exaggerated or unique biomes on Sera, so there wasn't any source of Nature chakra like on his world. But as he searched within the body of a refinery composed of metal and concrete, the blonde shinobi felt a spark of Nature chakra he hadn't felt in a long time. And it was coming from the Imulsion.
Naruto frowned as he concentrated on the strange, glowing liquid that the entire world fought over. It was emitting a faint trace of Nature chakra, though the energy seemed more potent than he was familiar with. It moved sluggishly, but Naruto tried to summon a little bit of it in an attempt to understand it better.
The sluggish energy suddenly became much more fluid, causing Naruto some alarm. His eye opened slightly to see a yellow tendril of gas shoot towards him from the pool underneath him. Acting on instinct, the shinobi pushed off of the bar he had been meditating on and landed some distance away. By the time he landed, the gas was gone, and several refinery workers were staring at him oddly. But Naruto was more focused on the Imulsion.
That didn't make ANY sense. He thought to himself. Back home, regular chakra could be stored in inanimate objects like scrolls or weapons. There had even been huge sources of it within the Stones of Gelel, or in a giant pool under Loran in the Ley Line. But Nature chakra was different. It required life, from flora or fauna, to exist and perpetuate. But Imulsion was a hot, destructive substance with no form of life whatsoever.
Using what little Nature chakra he had absorbed, Naruto used his Sage senses to probe the energy further from a safe distance. Usually, the Nature chakra he touched make him feel warm and secure, as if he was a part of the environment. But the chakra he was feeling coming from the Imulsion felt vile and wrong, almost... hungry. He had only dealt with conscious chakra constructs like the Bijuu, the great Tailed Beasts, but the Imulsion seemed to have a purpose. It was not enough of an effort to suggest it had thoughts and desires, but the sickly yellow-green substance felt alive.
"This isn't good." Naruto said to himself. He had to talk to someone about this, and there was only one person he trusted that was smart enough to understand his fears, and trustworthy enough to keep them a secret.
Naruto finished making plans to build the lift system, but he made sure not to go anywhere near the Imulsion again.
Adam Fenix knew he didn't have much time left. He'd run through as many formulas as he could, but he just didn't know enough about this particular enemy. He'd designed the Hammer of Dawn, perfected the COG's greatest weapon. He was hailed as a genius across the COG, and would likely be credited with the end of the war, once diplomats send to each UIR capital returned with signed treaties of surrender. But his greatest enemy was microscopic. And it would bring about the end of mankind.
I couldn't convince her. I don't have enough time... Adam worried. He hadn't heard word from his correspondent for some time. Her last message had been simple: we are coming. Despite several attempts to make contact again, there was no further sign of her.
Adam watched his computer simulation fail again with a sigh, and almost didn't notice the sound of shuffling papers behind him. Fearing that one of the Chairman's agents had snuck up on him in his own home, the aging scientist whirled around with a start. To his relief, is was only Naruto. He had agreed to have a 'seal' placed on his home for Naruto to use his strange abilities to visit, though he did not know why the blonde decided to drop by now, and without Samantha no less.
"Adam." The blonde shinobi said grimly. "We need to talk about the Imulsion." For a moment of thrilling terror, Adam's stomach sank to his shoes. How could he know?! I spoke to no one but Myrrah about the Lambent!
"Whatever do you mean, Naruto? What about the Imulsion?" Adam's surprise worked in his favor, though it was not an intentional ruse. Naruto set down the reports he had been reading and turned to face Adam fully in the study crowded by surveying equipment, printed seismic reports, and the occasional award or medal.
"I was out at the Vasgarian refinery near Kashur, and I sensed something in the Imulsion. Do you remember the discussions we had about my old home, and the Nature chakra? Well, I sensed it in the Imulsion." Adam's pulse slowed at that. Naruto did not know about his deal with the - almost literal – devil. Still, the discussion before had piqued his interest, and this one did as well. He had to learn everything he could about the fuel that threatened to tear the world asunder in ways far greater than the Pendulum Wars had.
"Tell me more. And please, refresh my memory with Nature chakra. It has been some time since we spoke on the subject." Naruto nodded, and stood patiently as Adam cleared enough space on a small couch near the desk. Once seated comfortably, Naruto leaned forward and rubbed his hands together as he collected his thoughts.
"Alright. As I said earlier, chakra is energy created as a byproduct from activity within our body, captured by the body and malleable if one's biology allows for it. There is a part of the brain and nervous system, specific points on the body known as tenketsu, that allow this energy to be collected and controlled."
"Right right, you said that this energy allowed for manipulation of the elements, like fire or water." Adam added, his memory coming to him of their long conversation several years prior. It was also a good distraction from his current predicament.
"Correct. And Nature chakra is the same energy found naturally occurring, as a product of energy released within an ecosystem. Different ecosystems create different kinds of Nature chakra with different effects, though it always appears mutagenic. In every case, however, life is required to create the Nature chakra."
"It's capable of changing foreign lifeforms to conform to the environment it permeated, I believe you said earlier."
"Yes, exactly. However, the Nature chakra must be actively channeled and sought out before it will have an effect on an organism. It's passive effects are only felt by wildlife living within the environment for months, sometimes years. However, within the metal rigging and empty desert of Vasgar, I found a source of Nature chakra, something I haven't been able to find anywhere else on the planet. And it was coming from the Imulsion."
Adam's eyes widened at that. Naruto had demonstrated to him the abilities of those to channel chakra, from walking up walls and across water, to creating a ball of pure energy that destroyed anything in its path. And according to Naruto, this Nature chakra was even more potent than the kind he had seen Naruto use.
"So, the Imulsion is somehow generating an energy only found in or around living creatures, and you haven't found anything of its like across Sera?" The Fenix patriarch asked. Naruto shook his head.
"I used the stuff quite a lot back home, and channeling it grants the user incredible power, as well as a deeper connection with the natural world. However, there was a time where not even Nature chakra existed in our world. There was a cataclysmic change in the world. First hand reports were lost to time, but the general idea was that there was a single colossal creature that possessed all of this energy. Upon this creature's death, the energy became widespread across that entire region. Soon, people became able to control this energy, and the shinobi was born."
"So before this creature died, it was the only source of chakra?" Adam asked, a contemplative from on his face. Naruto nodded grimly.
"And it was a large creature?"
"Several stories tall, if the legends are to be believed."
This wasn't just enlightening; it also means the stakes have been raised. Adam realized with growing dread. If the Imulsion – and the Lambent – had the same energy Naruto spoke of, then there was all the more reason to find a countermeasure. And sitting in front of him was a highly intelligent and very deadly man that could help. But if he told, if he included one more person with this damning secret... I would be condemning this man in the eyes of history. No. I will bear this burden alone.
"That is greatly troubling. I may look into this further, as soon as I finish the Hammer's diagnostic report. Hopefully, the topic of this conversation won't require the use of my new orbital weapon's platform." Adam said as a joke, though the pained wince betrayed how likely such a case was. Naruto nodded with a grin as well, though the smile didn't reach his eyes.
"I'll look into this further, Adam. But if my fears are true...the UIR will be the least of our worries. And I'm not sure I can stop the coming storm." Naruto said with a shrug. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his battle coat and turned to leave.
"Naruto." The blonde stopped. "I can't say we can stop it, but we can try to prepare. We owe it to our family." Adam's voice hardened. "And there is nothing more important than family."
Naruto nodded, and disappeared in a flash of light rather than responding. He didn't have to. Adam knew that he agreed. With the blonde shinobi gone, Adam turned back to his test results with new eyes. The Imulsion was giving off every sign that it was alive. And now, he had some place to start.
Samantha Byrne was not having a good day. That jerk Tim Casani – Mayor Casani's nephew – had not stopped flirting with her since she had turned sixteen. Even a year later, the oblivious idiot had marked her as his 'prize', and that only someone of his pedigree deserved the daughter of the hero Naruto Namikaze.
Pfft. Pedigree. Casani's a mayor, not a monarch. She'd shut him down in every way except physically laying hands on the slightly younger teen, but the young man still chased her attentions. And today had been no exception, what with him publicly declaring his affection to her among the bustling stalls of Anvegad's market district. Curiously enough he never approached her while Naruto was around.
"That stupid, useless idiot. When is he going to take a frigging' hint?" She grumbled. It wasn't that he didn't have a point; according to several young males, she had grown into quite the looker as she neared adulthood. Her chest had grown out somewhat, and she had filled out in all the right areas according to the local male population. Her height put her above most of the other girls in the village, something else to make her stand out, but her training with Naruto on their trips made her into quite the athlete. She was also capable of making idiots one with the ground if they didn't understand the concept of 'no'.
Samantha climbed the steps of Anvegad that led to her house, and noticed that her father was still out of town. It was a subtle sign, the door mat pulled inside the house, but it was the best way for them to communicate his absence in a subtle fashion. So when Samantha walked into the house, she did not expect two suited men to be seated at the table in the kitchen.
Samantha didn't gasp in surprise or scream. Instead she simply walked into the kitchen with a frown on her face, stopping and crossing her arms.
"Alright, who are you and why are you in my house?" Naruto had drilled a sense of calm into her since she had turned fifteen, citing that calm in any situation can give you an edge over the people running around like their heads were cut off.
The two men wore matching black suits and had black sunglasses lying on the table. One was a middle-aged man with gray sideburns and a thick brown mustache. The other was much younger, a man with thick but groomed black hair, piercing blue eyes, and a strong jaw. The two both looked capable of handling themselves in a fight.
"Are you Samantha Byrne? Daughter of the late Sheraya and Samuel Byrne?" The elder man asked.
"You answer my question before I answer yours. It's only fair since I found you in my house uninvited." Samantha said, her near snarl offering the word 'trespassing' in context. The two agents looked at each other, and the younger man cleared his throat.
"I'm Sterling Branam, and this is Tommy Williams. We both work for the Office of the Chairman." He said, revealing a folding badge that advertised the logo of the COG leader's staff. Samantha's eyebrows lifted at that, but she remained silent. Agent Williams spoke up next.
"We're here because something was brought to our attention that has been neglected for seventeen years." He said gruffly, with the air of a man in charge. Samantha immediately disliked him.
"And that would be?" She inquired, her shoulders slouching as she kept her arms crossed.
"You have been in the care of an illegal alien since the day you were born. Due to this, we have no choice but to consider you an orphan of war and place you in state custody." Williams finished. THAT caught Samantha off guard. While she knew that there was no public record of Naruto staying in Anvegad, nearly everyone in the town owed him their lives and thus kept his secret. It would only have been through close scrutiny of tax records or the like to realize that there was no listed guardian for Samantha Byrne. But why had they figured it out now, just before she was of age?
"I hope you brought more than two, because there's no what I'm leaving peacefully." Sam said with a smirk, her slouched form dropping into a practiced martial arts stance. The two agents looked at each other, and the younger one sighed. Samantha kept equal distance from the two agents, but neither seemed to rise from their chairs.
"I'd really hoped that it wouldn't come to this." Agent Branam stated as he picked up his sunglasses. As she watched him put them on, Samantha only just heard rapid footsteps behind her. She spun to face the new threat, a third agent with a bald head and brown eyes that had attempted to grab her. Samantha stepped back just as she heard the chairs move. Agent Branam came from behind her right side, attempting to grab her arm and restrain her. As he threw his arms out to control her, she grabbed his wrist and rolled with his movement, then delivered a palm strike to his ribs. The blow knocked the man's breath from him and forced him to his knees, just in time for Sam to duck under a grab from Agent Williams. Two lightning quick jabs to his sternum and solar plexus sent Williams to the ground as well, gasping as his diaphragm was temporarily paralyzed.
Samantha turned to face the third agent just when she heard the crackle of electricity, and then pain was all she knew. The probe made contact in her lower back near the base of her spine, causing the young woman's muscles to contract painfully. Samantha hit the ground hard as the pain rolled over her, forcing the air from her lungs as her eyes went wide in shock. The pain let up as the agent removed the stun gun, but Branam was there with a pair of handcuffs and something much more worrisome: a syringe filled with a clear, unknown liquid.
Samantha struggled as the two agents wrestled her arms to her back, pushing chakra to her arms to increase her strength. She didn't have the capacity for a long drawn out fight, but it was enough to keep them from cuffing her as the Kashkuri woman forced her arms apart. But as she struggled to rise, she heard the static spark of the stun gun. And this time it made contact at the back of her neck.
Agony raced through her body as Sam lost control of her nervous system. She was barely aware of the metal cuffs being placed on her wrists, nor the prick of the syringe as it flushed something into her body. The pain went away after that, the agent letting off with the stun gun now that she was restrained. Sam's clarity was short lived, however, as the tranquilizer did its work. Her vision swam, and her breathing became slow and lethargic. Every thought took effort, and even her rising panic gave way to a gray, dreamless sleep. Soon, Samantha's eyes fluttered closed, and she was out like a light.
Agent Williams recovered from her strikes as the other two stood up from the ground as well. Branam and the bald man stood over the comatose teen, both breathing a sigh of relief. Settile had told them that the girl would be difficult to take down, but a teenager putting up this much of a fight was still a surprise.
"So where do we go from here, sir?" Williams asked gruffly, adjusting his suit back to somewhat pristine condition. The bald man motioned toward the back door.
"Take her out the same way we came in. The sedative will keep her out for a few hours, long enough for you to reach Illima. I'll stay here and explain the situation to her father." Branam and Williams shared a look, then both focused back on their superior.
"Are you sure about that, sir?" Branam said hesitantly. "This is a guy we have on video record tearing people apart. He's not going to take too kindly to us abducting his daughter."
"We're not abducting her. She's being taken into custody. Now go." With a shared shrug, Williams and Branam grabbed an arm and hauled Samantha onto her shoulders, heading towards the back door. The bald man turned at the last minute.
"Williams, make sure Minh finishes his studies tonight. I'm probably going to be late, and he has graduation exams tomorrow." It wasn't a goodbye, but they knew that this was dangerous territory. The elder agent turned and looked back at his superior.
"You should be there with him, Ho. This kind of work won't help you see him enter Leadership Academy when we're dealing with a guy that can bench press trucks." Williams smirked. "But I'll make sure he does it."
Ho Sung Kim nodded and pulled up one of the chairs in the kitchen. He sat down in it heavily as the back door slammed shut. Williams was right; this encounter could very well be the end of him. But his orders had come directly from the Chairman, and there was a greater game being played.
I just hope I'm not an expendable little pawn.
Naruto arrived home an hour later, expecting to here the sound of cooking in the kitchen and see the welcome mat placed on the front porch. However, no odor of delicious food met his nose, and the welcome mat was nowhere to be found. It was odd, and Naruto got an uneasy knot in his stomach. Something was wrong. Naruto walked into the front door quickly.
"Sam? Are you home, sweetheart?" He called, expecting her to maybe be passed out from training or something. When he entered the kitchen, his heart nearly stopped. A strange bald man with brown eyes sat somewhat comfortable in one of his chairs, leaning against the kitchen table in a black suit usually reserved for clerks and security guards for wealthy people. A folded badge was sitting on the white tablecloth, the emblem of the Office of the Chairman gleaming in the artificial light of the kitchen. To his credit, the bald man stood as Naruto entered the kitchen.
"Are you Naruto Namikaze?" He asked, not offering a hand or any explanation about the absence of Sam of his presence in Naruto's house. Willing to play this out, Naruto nodded.
"Yes I am."
"My name is Ho Sung Kim. I'm here on behalf of the Chairman."
Naruto glanced around, and noticed the linoleum of the kitchen floor was cracked, indicating that a fight had occurred in the kitchen. And it hadn't been there when he had left that morning.
His blank visage quickly turned into a snarl.
"Where is my daughter?" He asked, the bass entering his voice as he held his anger at bay. The bald man cleared his throat awkwardly, as if he did not like being the messenger in this particular scenario.
"She has been taken into custody as an orphan of war, due to the loss of both of her parents in a conflict recognized by the Coalition. Because no legal citizen of the COG has claimed guardianship over her, she will be placed in an orphanage of our choosing." Kim said quietly. He could hear Naruto's knuckles pop as his hands curled into fists.
"She was perfectly happy and healthy right here! This is her home, goddammit! SHE'S MY DAUGHTER!" Naruto roared taking several intimidating steps toward Kim. The agent did not step back, but he did raise his hands in a placating gesture.
"She will be taken care of to the standards of the state. The Chairman himself ordered her retrieval." He said carefully. "And if you take her back, she will be hunted as a fugitive. As will you." Kim sat down in his chair and crossed his left leg over his right.
"I can disappear in seconds, and you would never find me." Naruto snarled. This little man had taken Samantha, his precious little girl. And he thought that there would be no retaliation?!
"Yes, we've seen you disappear many times. But is that the kind of life you want the daughter of your dear, dead friends to live?" Kim asked. "Is that the kind of life she deserves?"
"It would be better than a damned orphanage!" Naruto growled. "I know all about living in an orphanage, and I would rather die than make her live through that!"
"Oh, I doubt she would be there long. Seventeen years old is not exactly a ripe adoption age. And because she is an orphan of war, she would be subject to mandatory conscription." That did little to help Naruto's mood.
"Her parents were taken away by war, and you're going to force her into fighting another? That's insane!"
"War orphans have shown to be resilient and accustomed to loss. We're not turning them into weapons, we're simply recognizing that they are survivors. These children have lost more than most civilians could dream of, and they continue living regardless. Once she completes her mandatory four years of service, she'll have a pension, several trade skills, and a social network of friends. Besides," Kim added for Naruto's benefit more than anything. "the war is all but won, anyway. Once the treaties are signed, the Pendulum Wars will be at an end. Long before she comes of age."
Naruto clenched and unclenched his fists, his mind going a mile a minute trying to figure some way out of this. It was true that he was no legal citizen, but with friends like Casani and Hoffman, he'd lived an invisible life free to care for Samantha without scrutiny. But any answer he came up with would mean estranging the one person he cared for the most from the most powerful alliance of nations in the world. It was isolation he could take, but he could never wish it upon Samantha.
Kim sighed in relief as he watched Naruto's shoulders sag. He had hoped that the blonde would see reason, and avoid needless bloodshed. And honestly, it was the only thing keeping Kim alive.
"What do I have to do?" Naruto asked, his tone broken and defeated.
"The Chairman is interested in your unique abilities. He asks that you visit our research facility in this file, and allow us to run some tests. Should another war break out, we intend to be ahead of the game." Kim stood and reached into his jacket, pulling out a manila folder with the name Dawnbringer stenciled across the front in red ink. Naruto took it dejectedly, making no move to open it as he simply stared at the folder. Kim moved past the shinobi and headed for the front door, intent on making it back to Ephyra in time to see his son off for his exams. He did stop, however, when an iron grip suddenly latched onto his arm.
"Understand this." The words were growled into his ear as the deadliest man in the COG held him captive. Some small amount of fear welled up within Kim. "Should any harm come to my daughter: physical, mental, or emotional; I will tear the Coalition down and burn it to ash. And your Chairman will die in ways he can't even imagine."
Kim turned and looked at the blonde shinobi, somewhat disturbed by the elongated canines and bristling whiskers. It gave the blonde the visage of a savage wolf, or a snarling fox.
"Careful who you threaten, Namikaze. We hold your daughter's life in our hands. And there's no way to guarantee her safety should combat break out." Naruto released the man's arm. Kim hurried out the door as quickly as he dared, but Naruto's parting words haunted him all the way back to Ephyra, and during his report to Louis Settile.
No. She holds your lives in hers.
The wrought iron gate read 'New Hope' across the top, but Naruto had no such illusion about the slightly creepy facility he approached. It was certainly out of the way, high in the mountains on the edge of Ephyra. According to the Dawnbringer file, the facility was a shadow of its former self, run only by a skeleton crew of scientists and security personnel. The New Hope Research Facility had originally been built to study Imulsion, but for reasons that went undisclosed to Naruto, it had shut down for several years.
He entered the double doors into a circular reception area, his heavy heart palpable if the few scientists that approached him were anything to judge by. They actually seemed apologetic in their movements as they divested him of his battle coat and kunai pouches, all under the watchful eye of several security guards. Once divested of his weapons, he was left in his blue shinobi pants and a black mesh shirt that showed of his defined muscles, much to the appreciation of a few female researchers as they averted their eyes and blushed.
Naruto was led into an examination room not unlike the medical area he had first awoken in at Anvegad so long ago. However, this one was dusty and mostly bereft of equipment, and likely had not been used for some time prior to his arrival. There was, however, a shaped restraining table in the center of the room, it's arms spread out like a rib cage. Naruto was stripped of his mesh undershirt by two masked orderlies, and stepped onto the upright table slowly. Said orderlies then restrained his arms in the outstretched manacles, and then brought two heavy bars across his ankles and knees. Once the restraints were locked in place, Naruto's lidded gaze faced toward door as his pseudo-captors inserted an intravenous tube into his right arm and attached a blood pressure cuff to his left.
"You are an interesting specimen, you know." A scratchy voice said from behind the table. Naruto glanced sideways in a halfhearted attempt to see the man that had spoken, but the leather strap across his forehead and his depressed lethargy prevented his head from moving. Still, the man obliged him by stepping more clearly into view.
He was most likely in his late forties, Naruto guessed, judging by the gray creeping into the man's sideburns and up into his otherwise dark hair. He wore no spectacles and was clean shaven, a sign of a meticulous man, perhaps? (Yes, Reed Richards. Shut up.)
"There has never been anything like you in the history of Sera. In fact, I'm inclined to believe the reports found in Dr. Rosa's destroyed files when she theorized that you were alien." The man said as he leaned in closer to examine Naruto's whisker marks, fingers extended as if to touch them. The doctor decided otherwise, and let his hand fall to his side.
"I am Dr. Richards, and I must formally welcome you to New Hope, Mr. Namikaze. I'm sure you have a lot to teach us." The now identified Richards said with a small smile. Naruto merely stared at the man, in no mood for petty titles or men that thought themselves above others. The doctor frowned at his lack of response.
"I understand that this arrangement isn't exactly one you volunteered for, but rest assured; we will make every endeavor to treat you as humanely as possible. We want to see if your abilities can be passed on. Once we discover the source of your power and its application, you shall be free to go." Dr. Richards offered. Again, only a lidded gaze of apathy. They had taken away his daughter, why should he care for their experiments?
Richards sighed heavily, and then motioned toward the two orderlies. The men began cranking on something outside of Naruto's vision, and the room tilted as his table rotated and placed him on his back, staring at the ceiling. A third assistant approached his right side, and an icy stream raced through Naruto's veins as something was injected through his IV. Naruto fought the slight nausea and moderate drowsiness as the sedative failed to knock him out. Richards clearly noticed this.
"Ah, I see you are resistant to the drugs. No matter. We simply need you calm while you are transported." Richards paused, then spoke more loudly, as if he were addressing someone else. "Niles, prepare a stasis pod in chamber four."
Overhead, a speaker chimed in response, and the heavy metal doors that led further into the facility slid open reluctantly, a testament to how long the facility had been left alone by the Coalition. Naruto's gurney was attached to a rod running through a track in the floor, and he was pulled deeper into the labs as Richards continued to talk.
"Our spectrometers have been keyed to detect the energy you call chakra. It is a fascinating prospect, and I doubt we could ever fully cover the applications. However, our attempts so far to recreate it have been met with...complications." Richards' voice acquired an irritated edge. "We gathered that it is an energy created by living organisms, but our efforts to cultivate it haven't been met with credible success. I hope that you will change that."
Two hallways and more of Richards' self-important nattering, and Naruto was brought into another large room. In the center of it, surrounded by consoles and cables, was a tall glass pod full of a light green liquid. It stood nearly ten feet talk, and was framed with steel. Naruto's gurney rolled straight up to the pod, stopping just a few feet short from the glass. Richards walked up to his right side, the dim glow of the room hiding some of his features.
"We will treat you as humanely as possible in our search for answers. Unfortunately, our research requires tissues samples, blood work, bone marrow, perhaps even some cerebral spinal fluid. Therefore, to prevent any undo distress on your part, you shall be kept unconscious in this stasis pod. It's filled with a vitamin bath and you will be provided with oxygen and intravenous nutrients, completely unaware while we perform our tests. Once we ascertain the source of this chakra, we will wake you for further tests."
Naruto's gurney rotated once more, and his restraints were undone. He stepped off of the table and into a small metal circle in front of the pod. The orderlies instructed him to keep still as they connected the leads from his IV and his blood pressure cuff to the pod. A few lights along the edge of the pod flashed from green to red, and the sickly green translucent fluid drained from the thick glass tube.
Naruto looked up at his new home for an indeterminate amount of time with a mixture of apathy and curiosity. Despite how terrible he felt about being separated from Samantha and the rest of his friends, the seasoned warrior still observed as much as he could of the stasis pod without causing suspicion. From his view, the glass was very thick, and the metal frame was sturdy as well. Considering he was going to be floating in whatever that green goo was, breaking it would require leverage he didn't have.
"Please, step inside." Richards said with a wave of his hand. The now drained pod opened up to him like a gaping mouth, the front sliding forward and back and allowed for him to step in. Naruto's leads in his arms pulled into the machine from their connections on the outside, following tracks in the frame to prevent tangling as he stepped into the pod backwards. The large container instantly began to close, clamping shut eerily quietly. The quiet way that the pod shut and his sudden shortness of breath confirmed that the pod was airtight, which he could have figured out from its ability to hold water. He held his breath just as a strange breathing apparatus descended from above, a mask with a short tube on the inside and no eye holes. He immediately grabbed the mask and looked at it uncertainly. From the looks of it, the tube had to go down his throat...
Aw man. This sucks.
Still, he strapped the mask into the place around his jaw and behind his ears, then took the breathing apparatus into his mouth. His gag reflex fought somewhat, but he managed to get the tube down past his tongue. He figured this would keep him alive even if he was unconscious, something he anticipated would be happening very soon. And with the mask covering his eyes, he couldn't see anything beyond the stasis pod. He could, however, hear the fluid rushing back into the pod, and felt the cold goop as in rose to his knees, then his stomach, and so on. He felt it enter his ears and shivered at the cold, and soon his hearing was gone too. All he could hear were vibrations through the goop, and it proved to be very stable.
He floated in darkness, his every sense blocked from the outside world. An icy rush climbed his arm, and suddenly it was very hard to stay awake. He had no stimulus to keep him awake as the drugs dragged his consciousness down into sweet oblivion.
Samantha...I'm sorry sweetheart. I couldn't protect you forever...
And then everything was gone.
Three months prior to Emergence Day...
Sam had not been enjoying herself when she woke up in Illima. The agents had continued to drug her into a state of half-awareness as they transported her, until she found herself in a bed at Dr. Watson's Wayward Children orphanage. The nurse there had calmly explained the situation as best as she could, and there had even been a letter from the Chairman himself. So far, she had refused to open it. It took six days before the numbness and fatigue of being constantly sedated wore off, and Sam spent a majority of those six days in sadness and anger. She was upset that her father had been taken from her, and furious that, despite all of the training he had put her through, three hostiles had taken her down.
Once she was on her feet, she had started to move around the orphanage, which was bustling with activity in preparation for the start of classes. She hadn't really made any friends, as even among the home for unwanted children she was an outsider. No one wanted to hang out, and none of the younger kids approached her. As far as Sam was concerned, that was fine by her.
The orphanage was built to house quite a few children of all ages. Because the older kids needed more private space, there were dormitory styled rooms where four children of the same gender and age group would bunk up. Sam was initially going to have a roommate, but she was adopted the day before Sam left the medical ward. That left the Kashkuri girl all to her own.
And this is where we find her, idly reading a book she had borrowed from the library on the bottom bunk of her bed. The book was incredibly boring, but since she had already learned everything she would ever need to know from Naruto, classes weren't exactly something she planned on attending. She had written Dr. Watson earlier that day to request a exam waiver, so that she could test out of the classes for the coming term. What she did want to work on, however, was chakra exercises.
Every night, she walked on the walls while everyone else was asleep. It was both to perfect her control, and to try and increase the amount of chakra she could use. She could now stand on a wall or ceiling for over 30 minutes before her concentration failed. But with most of what she needed to know in Naruto's battle coat, the next steps in training were lost to her. So chakra control exercises were the only thing she could do.
I wish I knew where they had taken Dad, at least. She thought with a sigh. She couldn't even write him this way. And all of her stuff was still at their house in Anvegad. Well, almost all of it. There was a storage seal inscribed into her jacket, the one she had been wearing when the Chairman's agents had nabbed her. It held basic survival tools and first aid supplies, none of which could help in her present condition.
Sam gave a frustrated sigh and looked out the small window of the dorm. The evening light started to fade, and the excitement downstairs from the younger kids moving around had subsided. The little tykes had likely all gone to bed.
I could go check out the kitchen, I suppose. With a shrug, Sam threw on her jacket over her black tank top and gym shorts and walked out the door, closing it behind her. The dorms for her age group were near the top floor of the building, and there were seven other rooms like hers in the hallway. At each end of the hall was a bathroom, complete with two showers and several sinks and toilets. Also at each end was a staircase. Because she was at one end of the hall, she always turned right and walked down the stairs.
Two flights later, and she was on the main floor. Dr. Watson was an accomplished psychologist, and his practice had helped him open the orphanage. That being said, rumor around the children was that the building used to be an old psychiatric hospital. While it would explain how the doctor had known about it, Sam didn't really care what the building used to be. For the next eight months, this place was home.
Two more hallways, one inhabited by a boisterous group of young boys, and a set of double doors later Sam was in the kitchen/cafeteria area. There was a curfew imposed at eleven, but the cook left out crackers and other snacks for kids that got hungry at night. The rest of the food was locked up in the freezer, but Sam could live with a few crisps and an apple. She weaved in an out of the tables, grabbed a couple apples and a package of crackers, and was back on her way out as if she were never there. Just as she opened the double doors, however, the pack of young boys decided to meet her at the door.
There were four of them, ranging from fifteen to seventeen, and they were all clearly hormonally driven. The leader, a red headed boy fighting freckles and acne, grinned toothily at Sam as she munched on her apple.
"So, you're the new girl around here? You sure you don't want to come hang with us for a while?" He asked haughtily, his eyes leering at the space where Sam's jacket wasn't fastened. His three cronies all snickered behind him, though the fat one almost snorted. Sam wasn't amused.
"How about you boys run on back to your room with your porno. That's more action than you're getting from me." She said in a deadpan voice, moving to brush past the hooligan in front. There wasn't a chaperon in this part of the building for another hour, something the young lads seemed to be counting on.
When the hand grabbed her by the arm, she was entirely prepared for it. Her food went into her jacket – the pocket, not the seal – in a flash and her foot pushed behind his inside heel. Sam gripped his wrist and twisted, breaking his hold on her and wrenching the boy's joint. The sudden pain made the boy lean with his wrist, which put him off balance when he tripped on her foot. Once she had the hooligan floundering, Sam pulled her foot back in a sweep and pushed on the wrist, sending the boy to the ground with his wrist still held in her grip. The other three doofs just stared in shock as their 'unbeatable' ringleader got floored by a girl.
"Now then," Sam said in a bored tone, one hand on the boy's wrist while the other dipped into her pocket. "Do I have to break your wrist, or are you gonna go back to your room like momma said the first time?" She asked, taking another bite out of her apple. The red headed idiot beneath began nodding vigorously. Once she released his arm, the four scampered out of her sight in ten seconds, leaving Sam standing there, eating her apple with a smug grin on her face.
Boys. They should at least TRY to think with the right head. Her prizes still in her pocket except for the apple she was currently munching on, Sam stepped lightly back up to her room, a little bit of pride in her stride. In the time it took her to climb back up to her floor and enter her room, she had finished the apple and dropped the core into her waste bin just inside the door. Sufficiently fed and satisfied, Sam shed her jacket and turned in for the night.
The next day, there was a notice in front of Samantha's door. It was a paper that had been slid underneath her door, a paper folded in a trifold brochure. Sam had nearly stepped on it on her way to her morning shower. Still bleary from waking up, Sam had to blink a few times before the words came into focus. It was a recruitment brochure, with a grinning Gear in his dress uniform, the giant cog of the Coalition in the background. Because she was technically orphaned by war, she would be evaluated by army officials after her eighteenth birthday anyway. But the brochure she held was different. It boasted of an advanced training program to prepare for the army, and allowed for her to pass up two weeks of orientation when the Army sent her to basic training.
Samantha had little qualms against joining the military, despite Naruto stressing the importance of neutrality. She loved her father, but his ideas of peace through mutual inaction didn't sit well with her. She had seen the actions of soldiers on both sides of the war. If they were neutral in the first place, there wouldn't be any problems. But once they decided to fight, merely keeping the peace wasn't enough. Some problems required permanent solutions. She knew that Naruto had no problem killing people in the name of protection, but he felt that neither the COG nor the UIR had a justified reason for open warfare. Samantha's reasoning was this: if she was going to be a COG citizen, her only solution was to either kill the ones coming to kill her, or force them into submission.
The decision needed to be made with a clear mind. Samantha placed the brochure on her bed and gathered her showering stuff. She turned toward the bathroom and just caught sight of someone disappearing into the bathroom. Thus, she stood outside the shower for thirteen cold minutes. Thankfully, her attempted 'boyfriends' didn't make an appearance in the hallway as she waited. After the other guy came out – he barely noticed her as he quickly went back to his room – Sam entered the bathroom and shut the door, hoping to still get some hot water.
Because it was a shared bathroom of boys and girls, the bathroom was kept somewhat clean and only partially smelled like death. The ladies were required to discard the leftovers from their cycles in a separate container that was taken out every day. Once the water was running, the brochure slid under her door once again entered Sam's thoughts. Her father had stressed training and preparedness in his teachings. The military enlistment would only last for four years, and all former Gears received a sizable pension to help with their life after service. On top of that, military service is respected and almost expected in COG society, contributing to the idea that society is greater than the individual. Despite the fact that Samantha personally knew a person that could become a society, she agreed to the idea. The water started to get cold as Sam contemplated her decision.
Before long, the cold water became to much for the Kashkuri girl, and she turned off the shower and began drying off. After brushing her teeth, Sam found her way back to her room. She dressed into her cargo shorts, tennis shoes, and tank top before sitting back down on her bed. The girl stared at the brochure with a frown. The military life was hard, and even though the Pendulum Wars were over, there was still the possibility of injury or death. Gears were moved from place to place frequently, and their training was both rigorous and demanding.
And yet...
Sam looked around at her empty room, and remembered growing up with Naruto as a father. The man could multiply himself, and doted on her as much as he dared. But he was still only one man. The kids around the village had been fun to play with, but none of them really connected. Even in the orphanage, there were more things whispered about her than she ever confirmed. No one spoke to her, or wanted to hang out. The idiots from the previous night were the some of the few people she said more than two words to. The Army offered something that Naruto couldn't, despite how many people he brought into her life, and how hard he tried. He couldn't provide a family.
Well, let's do it.