The condensation of this...fog just seem to come out of nowhere. It just started rolling in the second the sun started to descend, covering all throughout the village. It was rather thick, but not to thick. Strange. To those who didn't know what was actually happening. But Naruto and the others did. They knew why it came. They had to find the source, the center. Neither Hinata or Neji managed to locate her, it was either she was in the village or not. But from the sudden change in the atmosphere if was clear she hadn't gone far. May was here, just where?
After the sudden explosion that came from the Intensive Care Unit, caused by her. Which surprised everyone, since the girl was in a comatose state. How she became suddenly awake baffled everyone. Her brainwaves from what Inoijin said, were separately active. The part of brain that handled her movements at a halt. Making her incapable of even moving. The synapses to contact everything in her mind, severed so there was no way a signal could be given. Each portion was in way isolated from each other in her mind. She would was going to have go through a very delicate procedure to reconnect her mind. That could either work or not.
Though from the information they received from the members of the Yamanaka clan who were charged with watching and monitoring May, one of them assumed there was something abnormally wrong with her brain function. And decided to see what it was, while at the same time trying to attach her synapses, for it to back fire. But that wasn't all, they recalled hearing her mutter something about home or something like that. Throwing out words here and there. She just got up and left. Despite her physical condition. Which wasn't in the best of shape either. She wasn't healthy enough to move, her body had too shut down. And the only thing/s keeping her functioning the tank and equipment. Without either or both, it put May at higher risk for the virus Tsunade called spread through body. It was slowly degenerating her cells, killing her. With her being in the liquid in the tank it slowed the progress, giving her enough time to figure out how to stop it and reverse it. But now she had not doubt the process had sped up. And she could only imagine how much pain, the girl was in. If they could get find her and get back in time, Tsunade could perform the operation needed to hopefully save her.
Before everyone one went off to find May, Inoijin told them to approach with caution and not to startle her. Her mind is at a fragile state, and like a computer it could crash at any moment. No doubt the fog was from her, having made it subconsciously he speculated was to reflect her own state of mind. Having noticed the fog was different than actual fog and Hidden Mist jutsu. The thickest part of the fog, was where they would find May. Like the mind, it was going to be dangerous. It didn't matter to the others, it didn't scare them off, scare them away. They where ready to tackle it. Inoijin was put in charge of it all.
Naruto, all of Konoha 11 including Akumaru and Sai, Temari, Kankuro, Kakashi, Mighty Guy, Yamato, Tsunade, Gaara, and Konohamaru. Kuernai would have gone, but had to stay behind with her daughter. Wishing she could go, Shikamaru assured her he would bring May back to her. Before he left she gave him something in hopes to help the girl. Shira and the other Suna wanted to come, but Gaara told them to stay back with Natsuki. Who demanded to go, but since she didn't have a level not to mention she was fully condition, but more importantly, Ino told her May needed someone to come home to. Assuring the girl she would bring her back safe and sound. Leading everyone to promise her they would bring her back. Knowing how much May meant to her. Natsuki tired her best not shed any tears, telling them they better or she would never forgive them. Any of them.
The fog was rather thick, but not to thick. Everyone stayed close, Inoijin telling them it wouldn't be wise if any of them were separated. He lead the way. It was eerie. Cold. Damp. Using light sticks to light their way, they saw nothing but endless fog. Neji and Hinata tired to use their eyes, but they were of no use. Meaning no one had sight, going blind. So much for their ace card. Denseness of the fog was a hard to breathe, but they were fine. Not sure how long they had been walking for or if they'd been going in circles. Everyone kept their senses alert, Akumaru and Kiba tired to sniff out May, to come up empty. Naruto and a few others tired to call for May, only for their echos to be returned. To be reminded by Ino what her father said. All this slow pace walking and feeling of loss started to eat the impatient genin.
Naruto couldn't stand it, he want to just find her and bring her back. His impulses he felt starting to take over, but he had to restrain them.
Tenten looks around."This is just creepy."she squirms.
"Even so,"Shino responds to her comment."This is a part of May. Whatever we feel about it all, doesn't matter. We must endure all she has for us."
His words made her think and reflect upon what she said and her memories with the girl. Remembering how she looked once they rescued her, the amount of damage upon her petite body was more than she had ever seen. And from the information she and the others found out about why she did what she, even if wasn't all if it. Left a bad taste in her mouth. The sight of May, made her shed a few tears. But Shino's words made her see her own personal feelings about being in this place was being selfish. Thinking of May smiling at her, made her smile. Her mind lost in thought she didn't notice the others had stopped until she bummed into Lee's back.
"What? Why did we stop?"she rubs her nose.
Inoijin shushes her, without everyone walking the noise level was still. Tsunade notices his alertness. "What is it? What's wrong?"she inquires.
He didn't answer back, just remain silent. He scans the surrounding area, seeing nothing. But that didn't mean something wasn't heard. It was voice. No voices. Voices they hadn't heard, seem to be all around them. And with these voices came names. Leonardo. Michelangelo. Donatello. Raphael. Casey. Leatherhead. And others. Everyone began looking around trying to pinpoint the actual location of the voices, that seem to be coming from everyone. Some close, some distant. Laughter, giggles, yells echoed all around. Keeping everyone alert. Ready to strike.
"Where are those voices coming from?"Kiba growls suspiciously along with his dog.
"They've got to be close." Lee, who kept his guard up.
"The other question is, who day they belong to?"Shikamaru said.
Listening to the voices carefully, Temari realized who the names belonged to."Their...Her friends. Their May's old friends, back home."The others look at her."I'm sure of it, I remember her talking about them fondly. Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael. Those are their names. And that laughter...it's-"
"May!"Naruto cuts her off. He bolts in the direction he heard the laughter the strongest."Hang on May!"
"Naruto! Don't we have to stay together!"Sakura calls after him, trying to stop him from breaking formation. But her reaction time was too slow, luckily though Yamato managed to bind him with his Wood Release.
Naruto tired to struggle to get free, but it was no use."Grrr..let me go!"he demands.
"Calm down Naruto."Yamato tells the hothead."You can't just go running off like that. Remember?"
"That's May's laughter, I'd know it anywhere."Naruto states."She's close by. Now let me go!"He demands.
Kakashi walks over to his student."No. I understand you want to find May, but if we don't do this delicately there is a high chance we can actually lose her."Hearing his words, Naruto calms down and looks at him. Kakashi locks eyes with him, reading the boy and his feelings. He understood the importance to Naruto. His desire to find her, he needed to redeem himself. Feeling ashamed. The guilt. It weighed so heavily in his eyes and soul.
Naruto understood. He knew this mission was very delicate and fragile, everyone had to be careful. The slightest mishap, as Inoijin put it could either damage May or worse. And worse, was not what he wanted to happen. His drive to find her fast, was leading him to be reckless. It wasn't just the thought of not just her condition she was in or that she was slowly dying, which was a big factor, but just the fact...the fact she suffering. The fact she was pain. She was hurting. Confused. Lost. Alone. Crying. Afraid. He just had to help her, get her back. Bring her back. Let her know everything is okay. She didn't have to keep suffering for everyone. None of this was her fault. She had to stop punishing herself. She just a child in a way. New to this world and from what he's seen she wasn't thinking right nor understanding life. Making decisions based off logic. From others feelings.
What were they to expect, she wasn't fully taught to see the two can hand in hand. Still..."I know."Naruto said grievously."...It's just..."he tries to think of the words to say, but he couldn't formulate them. He didn't know how. His silence was enough. Everyone understood.
They had the same feelings, some more than others. Minus Inoijin, but he could feel it from them, looking at his daughter. Who was distraught. The many times Ino would just randomly bring up things about May, expressing how frustrated she would get about the girl, while at the same time state she knew she had to be there for May, to take care of her. He had seen May maybe twice before this unfortunate circumstance. Looking at everyone, he saw how much she meant to them. Looking to his daughter he makes a quick decision in his mind. Which he would present later, right now the mission. He had to get everyone back on track, remembering the amount of time they had to find her, Tsunade calculating to it being less than 24 hours. So she could administer something that could slow down the virus, giving them enough time to get May back to the village for the operation.
Coughing deeply getting everyone's attention."We have to keep going."he reminds them."As for those voices..."he notices in the fog a silhouettes some human some not. Some of the voices coming from them.
The others noticed them too. Looking at them moving as if real. Calling each by their names. Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael or Casey. A few times Splinter's name was mention. Along with the Kraang, even Shredder. Upsetting a few. What was this? This sudden movement? These life silhouettes? Where they spirits? Aberrations? They didn't seem to notice the others nor moved over in their direction.
"What the heck are those?"Konohamaru whispers, pointing to them.
"Their manifestation of May's memories no doubt. Of her life it seems."Inoijin speculates."As I said before, this fog is a reflection of May's mind. It seems she's projecting her memories as...possibly illusion. Not Genjutsu. It's something else."
"So their not real, is what your saying?"Kankuro sums it up.
The man nods his head."Precisely."
"These look like good times."Sakura studies them. When she noticed some of them started to actually take form, with color, shape beginning to fill out. Even with a background.
In fact it seem like the whole area was starting to change, tall buildings on one side, a dark damp place, the sewers. The figures started to actually started to move towards them, but didn't notice anyone. Phasing straight through them. Acting out whatever memory or scene it was. And in those memories, they saw...
"May."Hinata gasp.
There she was. Everywhere. Sitting with, with what was humaniod looking turtles each with different colored masks. Blue, red, purple and orange. Each of the turtles a different height, the one with the orange mask, had freckles and baby blue eyes, the one in purple was the tallest with a gap between his teeth, the rougher and edger one wore red and the last one had blue. The calmest looking out of them all. They had weapons attached to their shells, the blue had twin katanas, the red had two sais, the purple's weapon a Bo staff and orange one had two nunchucks. It was a bit of a strange sight to see the four talking humaniod turtles, being humans. Having human characteristics. These four were her friends and apparently family too. No wonder certain things didn't surprise the girl. Focusing back on May, they the memories of her hangout with the guys along with...her sister April. A girl who looked nothing like May at all, having fair skin and orange hair in a short ponytail, than again consider May's history. Still, it was clear to see the bond between the two was very strong. The two adored each other.
To the other memories, showing May with just her sister walking down the street of their city. The term May used 'Concrete Jungle' was starting to make sense. There was another memory of May training with April and guys, Master Splinter was there monitoring them. All six of them in-sync with their movements. Thought it looked like April wasn't as superb, still on point though. Another memory with some teenage punk looking boy, who wore a black bandanna, he too had a large gap in his teeth, calling himself Casey. Either spending time with everyone or talking with May.
So this was her life? Back home, how interesting. Focusing on the expression May had, she clearly loved it there. Loved everyone back home in her world, the smile she had on was radiant a smile none had ever seen before with her. This smile was filled with life, joy and delight. Even when she spoke. When she laughed, giggled. The look in her eyes. It was so different from the ones she gave to them.
"...So, this the real May."Shikamaru points out with a smirk."Crafty troublesome girl."
Feeling tempted to touch one of the figures, Sakura reaches out to one. Inoijin noticed this and luckily commands her to stop."Stop! Don't touch!"
She froze, stopping looking over to him."I'm sorry."
"Don't touch anything, in here. These are memories, the slightest touch can be dyer. Now, let's keep going."he tells everyone."We can't get distracted by everything we see. We're barely just scratching the surface of her mi-"
Out of nowhere a loud screaming shriek was heard. Alerting and alarming everyone, the memories that surrounded them vanished quickly.
"What was that!?"Hinata worries.
Everyone on alert, the scream happens again, this time it sounded closer. And that wasn't all, it sounded like running footsteps approaching. Which was strange, there shouldn't be anyone here, Tsunade gave the orders to not allow anyone into this part of the fog. Still though it was possibility someone else might have gotten caught in this. Though it was a manifestation of May's mind it was set in reality. Listening closer to the footsteps approached faster, unsure what was coming Hinata and Neji get ready to activate their eyes, when something comes bursting through in the distance. They couldn't really make out who or what it was, all they could see was the distant silhouette, it fell down and get back up quickly. And continue running their way. Painting loud and hard, hearing them scream again. When they trip and come stumbling out into the somewhat clearing. Hitting the ground, landing in the center of everyone. What everyone saw shocked and surprised them.
Flat on the stomach, slowly picking themselves up now on their hands and knees. A child? It seem like one, the only difference they soon saw. Having dull bronze skin color, dark grayish slightly shaggy hair, dressed in nothing but a simple off white night gown it seemed, they wore no shoes so their feet no doubt dirty and cut. They looked a bit meekish, and feeble. Lifting up their head, the see it was a little girl, they could tell by their big large dull gray eyes that looked upon everyone panicked and frighten. As well confused. Because of this, they push themselves up disregarding the injury they had sustain. Clearly in a hurry, but their injury prevented them from running off and they fall back down. Luckily someone caught them. Surprising the child, they look to see who it was and find Naruto was the one who caught them. He smiles at her, while she just stares at him like a deer.
"Are you okay?"Naruto asks. The girl remain speechless, seeming shocked by his concerning words. It took a few seconds before actually responded, nodding her head."That's good." Feeling her heart racing wildly. Naruto thinks of something to say to calm her down. Though before he does, he noticed this girl looked oddly familiar and he wasn't the only one. The others seem to notice an uncanny resemblance the little girl had. Pushing that aside, he says what wanted to."My name is Naruto Uzimaki. What's your name?"
Again the girl was in shock, she looks to the side uncertain if she should say something. Shifting her eyes to Naruto than to the ground a few times. Biting her bottom lip before debating on what she should say.
"Don't you have a name?"Naruto asks, a question he received an answer this time. The girl looks at him and slowly nodding her head."Alright then, what is it?"
Her frighten look returned, which turn into hesitation but the girl points to the back of her neck gesturing for him to look there. Placing her down, she turns around and lifts up her hair for him to see. And what he saw and the others conformed it. On the back of her neck branded: 13-1-25.