Maelstrom EXE.
"Normal speech"
"Tailed Beast speech"
[Talking from the PET]
Chapter 10: Secrets
Naruto woke up from bed with a loud yawn and saw that Alice and Shiori were still fast asleep on both sides, he quietly got off the bed to avoid waking them up before checking his stats which are all in good condition before calling onto Kurama.
"Looks like yesterday was rather hectic, don't you think so Kurama?" asked Naruto.
"That is an understatement, those two which you and the vixen faced were quite strong. But happened yesterday at the infirmary was rather queer," said Kurama.
Naruto thought back to when he and Tamamo went to the infirmary for Sakura to heal them, then her reaction to a question which he asked.
**Flashback Start**
Naruto and Tamamo emerged from the Sakura Labyrinth and made their way to the school infirmary which they entered, there Sakura smiled upon seeing them.
"Ah Maelstrom-kun, Tamamo-san. It's good to see you two again," said Sakura fondly.
"Same here Sakura-chan, we just got back from completing the next stage of the tournament," said Naruto with a foxy grin.
"Perhaps you can tell me more about it while I patch you two up,"
Naruto and Tamamo sat on the cot and told Sakura about what they had been through and the battles that they had especially with the one against Nero and Elizabeth which they emerged victorious before claiming the Moon Tablet and exiting from the labyrinth which filled the nurse with intrigue.
"And better yet, we finally able to get back at that Elizabeth girl who was being so mean to us and proved to be the better vixen," said Tamamo cheerfully.
"That's nice to hear," said Sakura with a smile.
Naruto looked rather thoughtful before speaking up "I've been wondering about something Sakura-chan, but are you familiar with BB?" he noticed her suddenly stiffen at the question before turning towards him.
"What makes you ask that question?"
"Well I've noticed that you two look alike like twins besides the fact that your hairstyles are a bit different," the blonde ninja pointed.
"Now that you mention it, he does have a point about how you two look alike. So you know her?" asked Tamamo curiously.
Sakura looked to be struggling for an answer to their question before speaking up in a subdued tone "I…know her in a way, but I can't really describe how so. It is rather complicated to explain,"
Tamamo tilted her head in confusion "I don't really get it, you know BB-san but at the same time you don't,"
"She does have a point there, maybe you don't recall how you two met?" asked Naruto with a quirked eyebrow.
Sakura nodded slowly "Something like that, can we…not talk about it anymore…please?"
"Uh okay, let's talk about something else," Naruto choose another subject for the conversation but still couldn't help but think back on her reaction.
**Flashback End**
"What do you think happened back there?" asked Naruto thoughtfully.
"I can guess about two things, first is that she knows BB but is too fearful to reveal anything about her and the second is that she has fragmented memories about her," said Kurama musingly.
"I guess that's the gist of it, but Kiara-san seems to know her very well and isn't afraid of BB-san,"
"And that rubs me the wrong way, like I said before that you best tread lightly around her,"
"If you say so Kurama, there's more to this tournament than I think we're allowed to know. Maybe we should try to find out on our own,"
Kurama frowned in thought at that suggestion "Maybe so, I recall that this place had ruins on our way into the building which means there could be clues left behind by those that lived here. Send a shadow clone out there to investigate while we attempt to do the same here,"
"But how? I can't jack-out to the PET to use the jutsu," said Naruto confusedly.
"Your clone that wears the Holobrace can perform the jutsu to form one before recharging with one of the Chakra Battery tags,"
"Good idea," Naruto contacted his clone and had him do just that with the shadow clone turning into a mouse and sneaking out the slightly open door to carry out its assigned task "Alright then, now for us to do the same but where should we start?"
"I suggest revisiting the previous stages, there should be something in one of those places," said Kurama.
"Roger that," Naruto nodded in affirmation.
"Naruto?" he turned around to see Alice and Shiori awake and were looking at him "Is there something wrong?"
"Oh nothing's wrong, just that I'm planning on doing some training in the Sakura Labyrinth before the next stage is announced later in the day," Naruto responded.
Alice was saddened upon hearing that "So you won't have any time to play with us?"
Naruto to pat them softly on their heads "Don't be so sad, we're drawing close to the end of the tournament after which I'll take you two home with me. That way we can spend most of the time together with lesser major events getting in the way,"
"You promise?" asked Shiori with hope.
"Of course, you know that I always keep my promises,"
"Okay, I hope you get stronger so you can win and we can leave together," said Alice, getting Naruto to smile fondly.
The blonde cyber ninja bade the girls farewell before leaving the room and out of the dorm towards the entrance of the Sakura Labyrinth where he selected the coastal stage to begin his investigation. He soon arrived at the location and began making his way towards the first of the now four islands particularly the shrines for something out of the ordinary.
Meanwhile, the clone had stealthily made his way out of the building by using the ventilation system in order to avoid detection from the cameras and the drones patrolling the hallways. He was soon jumping along the tree branches and looking around for anything when he chanced upon a small site of ruins before approaching it to take a closer look. C-Naruto checked around a couple of times when he caught glimpse of what appears to be a trapdoor underneath a piece of a stone pillar and so began pushing to the side with great effort to create a big enough opening for him to squeeze through.
"I wonder what's in here? Maybe something that could help the boss," said C-Naruto thoughtfully as he went through a dark tunnel with flickering light bulbs overhead to light up the way a bit as he traversed the rubble partially obstructing his path when he arrived at the end of the tunnel to go through an open doorway. C-Naruto found himself standing in the middle of what appears to be a research laboratory only that there are pieces of debris here and here, broken computers and sheets of paper scattered all over the place.
C-Naruto walked about and picking up the sheets to see formulas and matrixes which are very complex for him to understand "The way this place appears, it might be that this island was hit by an earthquake or something…hm?" he glanced to side to catch sight of a worn notebook, he picked it up and dusted the cover with a hand to see a handwritten title "…' .PH', it sounds important. I think I should read this since it might contain information about the Moon Cell itself," the clone sat underneath the only lit light bulb and began to read through the notebook.
Back with Naruto, he was currently exploring the forest area of the forest stage with a frown on his face. He had been investigating the other two stages earlier before but had found nothing relevant besides being annoyed by the enemies residing within them for him to take down along the way with a couple of battlechips being used.
"Darn it, I've been everywhere and I'm not finding anything good. I hope that my clone is having better luck out there," said Naruto with a grumble.
"I was hoping the same, perhaps they were too well hidden," said Kurama with a frown.
"Maybe I should return to the dorm and wait for the clone to dispel in hopes of gaining some decent info," Naruto turned to walk away when the breeze suddenly picked up around him "Hm? What is that…a voice?"
"Come…follow…breeze…,"
"Are you hearing it too Kurama?" asked Naruto confusedly, receiving a grunt of affirmation from the Bijuu "Think I should follow it?"
"Maybe so, but proceed with caution in the case that the voice might lead you into a trap," said Kurama.
"Got it,"
Naruto followed the direction of which the breeze was blowing whilst keeping an eye out for any kind of trap with his hands close to his weapons to quickly draw them out at the slightest appearance of any kind of oddity. He was led down to the lower level of the forest which he had come from not too long ago, it took some time until Naruto found himself standing before a large oak tree.
"The trail ends here, so what now?" Naruto cautiously approached the tree's trunk and tapped it with a finger only to be surprised to see a ripple effect akin to that of when touching the surface of a still water "Eh? Could this be some sort of camouflage to cover up an entrance?"
"Apparently so, but the question is what lies beyond it?"
"Only one way to find out," Naruto cautiously stepped through the trunk to find himself walking through a dark tunnel and emerging at the end to find himself standing within a grotto with a small lake, further ahead is a cozy looking cottage "Wasn't expecting to see something like this here…huh?" he noticed the front door opening and saw someone stepping out of it.
Before is a young girl about his age with purple hair which has a yellow ribbon tied to the left side and bright green-yellow eyes. She wears a green kimono with yellow clothing underneath and white frilly collar. The sleeves and the back of her dress has slightly darker color. On the front of her dress are yellow ropes woven into her kimono that tied into two knots and with two tassels, two more tassels are attached to the bottom of her sleeves. The girl also wears a black short under her kimono and a pair of yellow shoes with white socks. What is bugging Naruto is that the girl looks like a younger version of Sakura just like BB and Passionlip.
The girl looked at Naruto and smiled politely "I've been waiting to meet you Maelstrom exe…or should I address you by your true name Naruto Uzumaki,"
Naruto's eyes widened in shock at what she just said with Kurama narrowing his eyes in suspicion "H-How did you know who I am?" the blonde's hands inched slowly towards the Chakra Blade and Vorpal Blade at the slightest provocation.
"I'm mean you no harm in the least, rather I seek your assistance hence why I called you here," said the girl in a calm manner.
"You still haven't answered my question," Naruto retorted with a frown.
"The reason why I know is that you and your 'NetOp' shared the same unique energy signature albeit you possess a larger vestige than the other, I'm not the only one as BB and the other Alter Egos also know who you really are and one of the main reasons why you were invited into the tournament,"
"…well you know my real name but I don't know yours,"
"Forgive my rudeness, I am Kazuradrop the Alter Ego of BB," said the girl with a bow.
"Alter Ego?" asked Naruto confusedly.
"I have a lot to explain and I can tell that you're seeking answers concerning this tournament which was why you were pretending to explore the labyrinth for hidden answer so I took the opportunity to call out to you," Kazuradrop waved a hand to make two chairs and a table appear before her "Please take a seat and I'll tell you what you want to know,"
Naruto was hesitant and sought out Kurama's opinion "What do you think, should I trust her?"
"I can't say for sure, she might hold answers to some of our questions but exercise caution like before," said Kurama.
Naruto nodded in affirmation and went to sit on the chair while Kazuradrop went to sit on the other "Alright then, so what do you mean by being an Alter Ego of BB?"
"What I meant by Alter Ego is that I along with four others are offshoots made from the fragments of BB's emotions, created to act as her vanguard and cores to expand the Sakura Labyrinth. Despite being offshoots born from BB's emotions into new souls, we developed our own original hearts and existence separate from her. However we have no true freedom because the cores are still fragments of BB," said Kazuradrop.
"Sounds like my Shadow Clone jutsu but different and sounds more advanced," thought Naruto with Kurama listening attentively "But who exactly are these Alter Egos?"
"Besides me, there's Passionlip whom you've already met, Meltlilith, Violet, and Kingprotea," said Kazuradrop, surprising the blonde about the girl whom he had met before "However the last two were wiped out from the system by BB herself for reasons I myself don't know,"
"Okay…but why is it that you all look like Sakura? I've been wondering about that for a while now,"
Kazuradrop let out a sigh at the question "That's because…BB herself is an offshoot of Sakura herself, an AI born to rebel against the system of the Moon Cell,"
"What?! How did that happen?" asked Naruto.
"Sakura used to be a regular AI with within the system, someone had unleashed a sense of freedom within her but she could not control that abnormal status and caused an overload. Because the NPCs cannot do anything but routine work, they ignored Sakura who began to disintegrate as something "nonexistent" and since the Moon Cell's check was performed only at the end of the day, Sakura was in a crisis of being extinguished. However her abnormal status affecting her new sense of self-preservation led to the creation of BB who then disrupted the system of the Moon Cell and began an extensive reconstruction and periods of resetting to work towards her goals,"
"What are her goals?" asked Naruto.
"I don't truly know, many victors of the tournament came and went whilst having their wishes granted but also had their memories concerning the tournament wiped out. However I've noticed that there are changes to the system which is rather unusual of her and I fear nothing good will come out of it,"
"But I don't get it, I understand that you're an offshoot of BB with a free will but why are you opposing her and the other Alter Egos?"
"Because I detest them for that they act on their own desire instead of continuing their original function as the "perfect" infirmary AI and I wish to become one with Sakura and be whole once more,"
"Now that you mention it, Sakura doesn't seem to know BB all that much and is rather afraid of her," said Naruto thoughtfully.
"That is because parts of her core are fragmented with BB possessing the missing parts, recovering the pieces will help restore Sakura to her default state, however BB is instinctively aware and would have deleted her but the saving grace is that none of us are capable of harming her as it would lead to our nonexistence," said Kazuradrop.
"That's some good news at least, so how exactly are we to do it?"
"You're to reach the core of the Moon Cell which is at the very bottom of the Sakura Labyrinth, there is where the victor would make a wish. You need to continue winning the rounds in order to reach it, but beware that BB might try to stop you as she might be aware of you suspecting her by sending the Alter Egos upon you,"
"We're in deep on this, just like with your past missions back in your home dimension," Kurama mused.
"The way you said it sounds like they're pretty strong, but just how strong are they?"
"During our creation, BB brought us into existence as beings with Composite Divinity formed from several goddesses, leading to us possessing powers and abilities that could overwhelm any kind of opposition," Kazuradrop explained.
"Oh boy, looks I got my work cut out for me," Naruto rubbed the back of his head nervously.
"However, they're not without exploitable weaknesses. Being an Alter Ego enables me to be aware of their weak points which I can inform you of…use this to counter their main ability," Kazuradrop held out a palm to summon what appears to be a small blue diamond with matrixes of numbers swirling within it.
"Supposing I do this, what will happen to me and the others after all this?" asked Naruto still not fully trusting the girl.
"I can understand your reason of disbelief, but know that I spoke the absolute truth in the hopes that you could help Sakura and I become what we're truly meant to be,"
Naruto looked into her eyes for any signs of deception and isn't finding any, he was silent for a few moments before letting out a sigh and speaking "I'll trust you on this for now but if I find out that you were deceiving me…I'll definitely blow you away,"
"Understood, I hope that you see that I am telling nothing but the truth," Kazuradrop held out the diamond once and this time Naruto took it albeit reluctantly before getting up from his seat and began making his way back out of the tunnel to return to the dormitory to rest and recharge the battlechips for the forthcoming round, he was almost at the tunnel when he head Kazuradrop call out to him "please exercise caution as the Moon Cell would attempt to do you harm as it has outed you as an anomaly,"
"Heh, story of my life but I'll find a way to get through like I always do," Naruto responded before entering the tunnel, disappearing from the girl's sight.
Naruto had returned to the dormitory and was laying on his bed to recover while having a discussion with Kurama over what they had learnt from Kazuradrop along with the memories received from the shadow clone whom he had sent to scout the ruins for clues and had found a notebook which contained information concerning the Moon Cell.
[The Moon Cell is, in a manner of speaking, an eye that observes the Earth.
A processor that faithfully simulates all life on Earth and is capable of providing a definite prediction of the future.
A database of humanity. A massive memory recording their habits, history, ideas, even their souls. A Pandora's box that promises the next stage of evolution, promises god-like power to those intelligent life forms who have become technologically advanced enough to scan the interior of the moon.
Originally it was an observation device left behind by an alien civilization. It had only recorded the nature of life on Earth, but after many years it came to possess its current abilities.
Though an observation device initially, it could not leave anything unseen in its observations.
An observation device must be fair. If it is to observe, there must be nothing unseen. Thus, it required capabilities for knowing everything about the Earth.
To record all things without bias, it needed performance greater than that of an observation device.
And so, it had made a giant leap in evolution.
It had enhanced its functions to the point where it went from making observations to surveillance, even understanding the workings of the planet.
The greater its enhancements, the more complicated its administration policy.
It created many terminals and even made artificial intelligences to manage functions for each section. However, it firmly refused to install an artificial intelligence for itself.
The observer must not have a mind.
For the observer to have a mind would result in the meaning of things being decided by the observer.
Thus, it kept to maintaining its absolute objectivity as an eye, doing so while always dismantling the emerging semblances of sapience that it had incorporated to administrate its functions.
Thus, this computer has no conception of good and evil, no desire for the future, not even an outcome]
"Hmmm…what do you think about all this?" asked Naruto thoughtfully.
"I'm rather relieved that such a machine does not exist in our world, it falling into the hands of people similar to the Akatsuki would have led to the destruction of the world sooner than one could blink," said Kurama with a frown.
"Me too, how do you think we should go about this?"
"To be truthful, I don't really know for sure but what I do know is that we're better off not making any wishes whatsoever to the Moon Cell,"
"But then what should we do?"
"Be careful as always and try to find out more along the way as we draw close to the finals of the tourney,"
Naruto sat on the edge of the bed with a thoughtful look "I guess you have a point there, we've gotten this far so we might as well go all the way in this," he projected a Holo-screen to check on his stats and gears in the meantime "So far the competitors left are me, Tamamo-chan, Archer and Gilgamesh. Merely looking at the last two tells me that I'm in for a tough time when I go up against either of them, especially since I don't know anything about their skills and techniques besides what Lancer told me about them,"
"I know, but that hasn't stopped you either when you fought opponents who were stronger than you but still came out victorious in the end,"
"Some of those which I had to use some of your chakra to do so, and I get the feeling that I'm going to need a lot of your help on this," Naruto closed the Holo-screen and stood up to stretch a bit.
[Hey boss, we got a notification from BB about the next round] said C-Naruto.
"Okay, I'm heading to the meeting spot right now. Just make sure that all of the battlechips are recharged beforehand," said Naruto.
[Roger that]
Naruto left the room after being wished good luck by Alice and Shiori, he was walking down the hallway and was contemplating on how the next round is going to be like when he heard someone calling his name and turned round to see that it was Tamamo happily skipping towards him.
"Hi Maelstrom-kun, I was wondering where you were," said Tamamo with a cheerful smile.
Naruto smiled back before responding "I was doing some training in the previous stages to sharpen my battling skills,"
"Well you could have waited a bit so that I could tag along. We did make a good team after all," said Tamamo with a cute pout, causing Naruto to rub the back of his head sheepishly.
"Sorry about that, I didn't know you wanted to follow me since I was a bit anticipative now that we're in the semifinals,"
The fox girl looked thoughtful at his statement "You have a point there, the remaining contestants besides us are tough as nails according to what I've been hearing and no doubt that we would be facing either of them,"
"Yeah, but that ain't gonna stop me from aiming for the top," said Naruto with a foxy grin.
"That's right, I'm definitely going to accomplish my mission too!"
The duo smiled at each other as they arrived at the entrance of the Sakura Labyrinth where they saw Archer already there, the red NetNavi simply glanced at them before looking away without saying a word, causing them to sweatdrop at the silent treatment as Kuro appeared via a Holo-screen with a sheepish look on her face.
[Sorry about that, Archer isn't exactly a talkative type] said Kuro, feeling a bit embarrassed at how her NetNavi is acting.
"We can tell as much," said Naruto.
"It appears that the peons have been waiting to be graced by my presence as expected," they turned towards the voice to see Gilgamesh strutting with the pride of a peacock.
[I apologize for the lateness as I had to adjust my NetNavi's parameters beforehand] said Gil when appearing via a Holo-screen.
"It's okay, we're all here now at least," said Tamamo.
In a bright flash of light, BB appeared before them and bowed "I welcome you all to the semifinals of the tournament and must commend on you all making it this far,"
"You should expect nothing but perfection from the king of heroes, the rest however only got here by luck which will soon run out," said Gilgamesh arrogantly with everyone glaring at him.
"Can this guy get any cockier?" thought Naruto with a glare.
"I doubt there's a limit," said Kurama.
BB spoke up to catch their attention "In this round, we will be utilizing a one-on-one battle format. The names of the competitors will be shuffled randomly before being placed," she waved a hand to project a large Holo-screen which displayed the portraits of the current competitors which began shuffling about quickly before stopping to present the lineups
Maelstrom exe VS Archer
Tamamo VS Gilgamesh
"So I'll be facing Archer huh…," Naruto glanced to the side to see said person looking at him intently and was a bit intimidated before he looked away.
"Hmph, so I'll be facing a little girl. This won't even count as a scuffle," said Gilgamesh with a scoff.
Tamamo glared at the NetNavi "I'll get back at you for that little girl comment!"
Naruto walked up to the fox girl with a look of concern "Please be careful Tamamo-chan, this is the same guy who took out Lancer in the second round,"
"Don't worry, I'm sure I can beat him. Just like I beat Elizabeth, so you don't need to worry so much," said Tamamo confidently, but the ninja was still worried.
"I can understand your reason for worry, but right now you need to focus on the current matter at hand which is facing your opponent," said Kurama.
"I guess you're right, might as well get psyched up for the upcoming battle then," Naruto watched as the others walked into the entrance and were warped to new destinations before he too followed after them with BB watching them leave with a smile on her face.
Meanwhile, Passionlip was hiding behind a tree and watching Naruto leave with a look of anxiousness, though she felt a bit uncomfortable with how close the fox girl was next to him.
"I hope that he makes it back okay, maybe we could talk some more and-" suddenly she felt her head beginning to throb painfully, causing her to fall to her knees and attempt to stave it off but it only grew worse "W-what's happening to me? I'm feeling so…," her vision began turning into static, then Passionlip slowly got back to her feet with her eyes appearing glazed as she spoke "Moon Cell system override, objective assigned: Eliminate anomaly…Maelstrom exe,"
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto and Kurama began to have suspicions concerning the tournament and the ones affiliated to it. So they set out to do some investigations and in doing so, came upon secrets shocking to them. Naruto also encountered an AI called Kazuradrop who is actually an offshoot of BB herself with the same going for Passionlip and one other person, the ninja has come to realize he's gotten himself into something big and has to be on guard lest he gets taken out of the long run. The next round has been revealed to be one-on-one duels with Naruto facing Kuro and her NetNavi Archer while Tamamo takes on Gil and his Gilgamesh but it appears that Passionlip has been taken over by something and is used to target Naruto, just what is going on?
Read and review as always.
This is Hussbek from Ghana
Signing out.
