Chapter 4: Kicking the Hornets' Nest
Disclaimer: Disclaimers don't actually mean or do anything, but tradition is tradition. I do not claim any ownership of Naruto.
Preceding Authors Note: - Holy god this chapter was just an absolute pain to write, what I thought would be a simple 5k chapter ballooned into this 15k monster. Yeesh. Anyway, I'll have a full author's note at the end. Please Enjoy
September 17th Midday, 2016 RY
Kohama
Library
It was a good thing that the library was deserted, otherwise I'm sure my mutterings would have drawn attention. It was an odd look for a teenager to be muttering to themselves while holding a cookbook. I snapped the book shut. I would have to read over it somewhere else, while I could definitely memorize it all right here on the spot. Actually, having the book with me would make the process of transcribing everything and finding any other hidden details easier.
I glanced around. No one was watching, and for a half second I considered just pilfering the book outright. The thought of Old Salt judging me though for not even trying to get it legally wayed me off that course of action. I returned to the front desk and the bored teenager behind it.
"Excuse me, how can I check out this book?" The teenager didn't look up from his book.
"Do you have a card?" He muttered.
"No sorry, I'm new to town," I lied. This caused the teenager to look up and focus on me. His eyes narrowed as he focused on the book in my hand. His face scrunched up for a second then returned to normal.
"Drop 600 ryo in the fee jar and just take it. Unfortunately, it seems that particular copy of the book was lost in reshelving, what a shame to lose such a rare and valuable book," He said, the words dripping with contempt and sarcasm. Guess, he didn't like cookbooks that much. I found the desired amount of money, dumped it in the jar and left the library. I rushed back to the Inn.
Sasuke was passed out in his bed. I sat down at the desk, set both the book and my notepad down, and began to read.
"Dear Reader, if you have not been warned off by the foreword, let me reiterate you should do your best to take what you read in here and disregard it as of any use, besides as a warning. If the information encoded inside is fragmentary or doesn't make sense, I recommend finding older editions of the book. I have done my best to ensure that it is not changed after my death, but one never knows with long term preservation. Anyway, my name is Albert Buckley. I was a cabin boy on the SS Fairfield, when it "disappeared." I will give a brief accounting of how we came to be here. If you are from Earth I would hope you know of The Great War, if not then imagine a war in which millions upon millions of soldiers were fighting and dying for no appreciable gain. It was a calamity that would doom the European civilization to eternal nothingness. So when a cadre of scientists came to the heads of states of the Entente powers, with a proposal for an expedition that could yield incredible energy and power that could be used to break the stalemate, and only for the cost of a single ship, some specialized equipment, and some protection, it was an easy decision. It was definitely a one in a million gamble, but if it paid off it could have ended the war within a week, or at least that's what they and us were told when we first set off. We did find something though, a whole new world filled with people who had incredible powers, powers that we could and did learn. That's where all the trouble started, we learned how to make things, we managed to make weapons that could call down the apocalypse on both ourselves and our enemies.
"What's an apocalypse?" A voice asked. I jerked around as I saw Sasuke standing up looking over my shoulder. I looked back down at my notepad. My dumbass had been naturally writing in the local language not English, when untranslatable words were needed I just wrote out the character that made the closest sounds. I had just spilled the beans of a world shifting secret to some guy I had saved.
"Erm, it's a uh a thing," I waffled trying to stall for time as I searched for a reasonable excuse.
"We managed to make weapons that could call down the apocalypse on both ourselves and our enemies, that sounds pretty important," Sasuke posited. I was screwed. I mentally flipped a coin. Tell the truth or spin more bullshit. I landed on 'Tell the half-truth'.
"It is, honestly I don't understand this much that well myself. I'm really not from around these parts so it's kind of confusing, but I'll do my best," I said before launching to a half explanation of my disappearance from my world, my time with Kawaguchi, my training with Old Salt, and why I was on the run when I ran into him. I told him how I broke the seal, took him here to be healed and how I had found this book. He asked several questions and I answered them as best I could. At the end of it he conceded that it could be true, and that it explained a lot of things about how we had come to this point in time.
"Anyway all that aside, how's your shoulder? I think removing that slave seal caused some damage in your shoulder and I've been worrying about the tissue not healing." I asked.
"It's fine, "He responded, covering his shoulder with hand, before cursing and yanking it away.
"It's clearly not, now stop being a weenie and let me take a look." I said as I stood up. Sasuke didn't move.
"Come on, the flesh was as dark as a bowling ball, it's clearly not a little scrape. Now lemme see, I need to make a run for medical supplies, and I need to know what to get to treat it," I fixed Sasuke with a firm stare. He grunted and slid his hand off his shoulder. I closed the distance to examine it.
Underneath was a site that did not inspire confidence, a purple and black patch covered the general area around the seal, around that was red inflamed skin. It was most certainly not getting better, and I had no idea how to treat it.
"Yeah, this is worse than how I remember it a couple of days ago. The blood vessels leading away from the area are getting inflamed, which is definitely not a good sign. We need to take you to a doctor. This is the kind of thing that can kill you in numerous unfun ways," I detailed. Sasuke didn't say anything. I turned my gaze towards his face. He wore a stony facade.
"I take it you don't prefer going to the doctor?" I questioned, my eyebrows raising.
"No, that would unideal," Sasuke didn't elaborate further.
"Because?" I prompted.
"Reasons," He responded.
"Uh huh, well then I guess I have reason to knock your ass out and drag you there myself, because there's no way in hell that your skin tone should match Barney the-fucking-dinosaurs" I shot back. Sasuke's growing scowl twisted into confusion.
"Reference from where I come from, doesn't matter. Anyway, this is serious, like if this isn't treated and doesn't get better it will most definitely kill you. Are you sure you won't go to the doctor?" I asked. He nodded.
"Okay compromise if we don't see any improvement by tomorrow we are going to the doctor. I saved your ass once; I'm not going to let you kill yourself by being a nutjob. Sounds good?" I pierced him with a stern gaze, the fact that I was a head taller than him and more muscular made the intimidation easier.
He sighed and nodded.
"Good, now I'm going to head out and try and find some medicine to treat whatever that is," I said leaving the room to hunt for medicine once more.
September 24th Morning, 2016 RY
Kohama
Market
The splotch did not improve. I had only managed to convince Sasuke to go to the doctor, by saying we could use fake names, and I would handle all the payment issues. The doctor, an old white haired fellow, was similarly unhelpful with the splotch. He did confirm it was a patch of utterly dead tissue, but his only suggestion was to go see a specialist in one of the major cities. He wrote down both of our basic information with instructions to return and see him if things did not improve within a week's time.
In the meanwhile, with the secret of both my origins and that of the book out, Sasuke became a confidant and helper when it came to translating and making sense of what else was in the book.
I doubted that he actually understood what I had told him in regards to being from another world, and that ancient ancestors of mine had come here before, but with the mention of weapons and other devices he seemed happy to just ignore the strangeness of my situation and work towards our common goal.
For my own part, I was curious what his story was considering the state I had found him in and his reticence for seeing doctors. On the one hand he still could have been an escaped slave, and all of his behavior would line up with that conclusion. The problem was that he didn't act like, though to be fair I've never met an escaped slave so what do I know, but there seemed to be too much confidence and self-assuredness in the way he acted and talked. He was too calm to be someone on the run who had no way to defend themselves. Though did it really matter? He didn't seem too inclined to screw me over. So why should I dig deeper into what his real motives were?
Either way, my previous goal of finding Tsunoda had gone out the window at least temporarily. The discovery that people from my presumable world had found a way here voluntarily, had several implications and posed many more questions. The most important thing though, was that I was not an aberration, and that there was a way to voluntarily make one's way from my world to this world. Prime question being if there was a way to do it in reverse and go from this world back to my own. If that was the case, then these people were my ticket to getting the hell out of here. No killing, no fighting, and no running for my life as my mentor commits suicide by enemy. Sure, it would be me breaking my promise to him, but hey maybe I could bring back proof and force the UN to intervene and do some peace keeping thingy. That could fulfil my promise and also make me not have to fight and kill.
I was only lying to myself and I knew it, but I also didn't care.
'I'm 14, how am I supposed to know any better?' I would tell myself, knowing I knew better.
Despite my own internal reservations about what I would do if I found a way to get out of this world, Sasuke and I worked feverishly on the book. He was a quick study and quickly understood all the letters and their meanings, so he would help me by writing them down on a piece of paper while I would translate them into the local language. His knowledge on the geography, politics, and local common sense was invaluable in making sense of translation. By the time we had finished we had learned a lot, but that had only left us with exponentially more questions.
In general, the story as we understood it went as follows.
A gaggle of scientists and soldiers arrived in this new world. They found inhabitants that looked like them, but who could wield amazing powers to do amazing things. Initially, they worked together with the local inhabitants to solve problems, fight enemies, and generally get along. Simultaneously, they were learning both how to make use of the amazing power afforded by chakra, but also figuring out how to build machines and technologies that would work in concert with chakra to do utterly incredible things. However, the scientists learned something that was an existential apocalyptic threat to everyone and everything, even those back home at earth. This broke their cooperative lethargy, and they began building weapons and other cruel machines to combat this threat. This brought them into conflict with the locals, and then each other. Things got messy, and very bloody. In the end one of them managed to win somehow and then sequestered the important things in a safe location. Here the author told us that samples of the weaponry, medical devices, and a fully complete history of events was located. They beckoned those who could understand this book to seek out this location, gain access to the vault and then use the sequestered information, devices, and weapons to do something that would save the world from the existential threat.
The book was infuriatingly vague on all the important details except one, the location of the vault. Conveniently, the vault itself was located nearby, in a valley nearby the river that flowed through this very town. It was carved into the hillside and it contained a "puzzle" that only someone who understood English would be able to solve. This was nice because the explicit mention of a medical device within the vault had the chance to solve the issue with Sasuke's shoulder, I hoped that I could find details that would help me figure a way home. So we both agreed that we would try and find the vault after Sasuke's last checkup with the doctor. That was the plan at least.
This particular morning I had planned to do nothing but workout and eat. Since arriving, I had made it a routine to go on morning runs around the town, to gain information and because the exercise made me feel good.
"Going out running, wanna come?" I offered Sasuke as I stretched in the room.
"No," He murmured. He had never agreed to come running, and I couldn't fault him for it, he was injured. It was just nicer to run with a partner than alone.
"Suit yourself, see ya later," I said over my shoulder as I left the room.
I made my way out in front of the Inn and took off in a random direction. It was amazing what a little running would do for the mind. The slowly building uncurrent of confusion and self-doubt melted away as my everything became just putting one foot in front of the other. My memories would sometimes intrude, they never weren't pulling at me in some way, but I had somehow begun to tune them out, a process that became easier when I was doing some kind of physical activity. It's partially why I had become so invested in sports; it was a way I could tune out the cacophony of memories. It was odd, the thing that made me so good at some sports was also a thing that sports helped me run away from, life sure did have a sense of humor.
I was snapped out of my musings, by a back of the head warning that something had changed. The rhythmic sound of my footfalls had changed, a different set of rhythmic beats was accompanying my own to the left of me. Turning my head to my left I stumbled in my run ever so slightly as my eyes figured out the reason for the auditory disturbance.
To my left, running in stride with me, was a short girl with a blonde ponytail that bounced in rhythm to her footfalls. Her eyes which had been focused ahead turned to meet my gaze as my stumble alerted her to my new knowledge of her presence.
"I was wondering when you'd notice, are you always so stuck in your own head?" She asked, her lips forming a mirthful smile.
"Always, it's how I come up with witty one liners. Do you always join up besides anyone who's taking a jog?" I shot back with an equally mirthful smile.
"Oh we have a wise guy over here, and not only if they are cute and look like they can keep up with me," She reposted. I chuckled.
"You move fast huh, first you call me cute, then what? I end up paying for coffee and chocolate at this nice little breakfast place you know of for just such an occasion?" I said in a sarcastic tone.
"If you can keep up with me and your offering to pay then I'll consider it," She said in between breaths.
"Well, we're both lucky I usually get breakfast after my run anyway. So, I think we will both be happy by the end of this morning," I mentioned.
"Oh, how do you figure that?" She inquired.
"Well, you'll get a free meal and drink out of me, a cute boy as I recall you saying, and I get to jog and have breakfast with a cute girl. We both win here," I remarked. Now usually, I'd be a bit more guarded when talking to the fairer sex, but the distinct lack of interaction with said fairer sex, and the runners high I was feeling filled me with an ocean's worth of bravado and confidence. She gave a short whistle in response.
"Good to know you're not blind to what your eyes can see, I think that does sound like a win-win situation. Are you a visitor to Kohama?" She inquired.
"Visitor," I answered.
"You here alone or with any competiti- I mean company," She joked. I laughed.
"I'm here with a friend. HE, just needed some rest and to see a doctor," I said emphasizing the maleness of the grumpy friend stuck in the Inn.
"Sooo, not competition?" She verbally jabbed. I let out a snort.
"No not competition, why do I seem like the type?" I asked with genuine curiosity.
"No, it's just there's always at least one thing odd with everybody, you seem like the full package so I was wondering if you're flaw was playing for the team that wouldn't have interest in me." She admitted.
"You're really blunt and upfront about things?" I probed.
"It's the only way to get through the thick skulls of most guys," She stated with absolute certainty. I laughed.
"Fair enough," I conceded.
We continued to run and verbally spar. I learned she was a local girl, she liked hot chocolate, and that her name was Ino. In turn I shared my name, a sanitized (read: a total lie) version of how I had come to be there, and I was a fan of scrambled eggs. Our run took us to an empty clearing of dirt and grass. We slowed to stop and caught our breath. Once my breathing had started to slow Ino stepped in front of me and fixed me with a gaze. She looked me up and down then nodded to herself. A wry grin formed on her lips.
"Think you can handle a couple push-ups?" She teased.
"I think I can handle more than you expect," I shot back, a cocky grin plastering my face.
"Oh, you must think you're very big and strong, huh? We'll see," She said in a faux mocking tone.
I dropped down into the familiar form, that every coach would swear wasn't straight enough even if a ruler laid flat indicated otherwise.
"I'll lead, One!" Ino called.
I pumped my arms up and down.
"Two!"
I pumped my arms up and down. I raised my head for a second to see if Ino was following along, I saw that she was going along with the count among other things my eyes noticed. I dropped my head once more and just focused on the ground.
It was around 45 when my arms began to quake. Fortunately, at 50 she said that was enough. I suggested sit ups, she offered to hold my feet. I was able to get 50 with her helping keep my feet on the ground, she matched me at 50. It was at that point my stomach rumbled, I had been out longer than expected and my stomach was angry at the delay in nutrition. She chuckled at my stomachs anger, until her stomach grumbled in anger. I had the good graces to not say anything.
"So you mentioned breakfast?" I floated.
"I did, and isn't it lucky that I have just the place in mind, assuming you're paying," She did an exaggerated eye flutter at me. I let out an exaggerated sigh.
"Well, if it's the only way to keep the company of a girl such as yourself, then I supposed my wallet can take the hit," I grumbled in the moodiest tone I could manage.
"Oh, I'm sure you can survive a little breakfast bill," She teased.
"I suppose, the things men do to please women are the heaviest of burdens," I bemoaned.
"Who says, I'm not already pleased?" She teased.
"Who says the burden is lighter when the woman is pleased?" I sniped back.
"Tread carefully you may be cute, but that doesn't make you invulnerable," She warned.
"I yield!" I threw up my arms in mock surrender.
"Are you gonna keep messing around or are you going to go on a breakfast date with yours truly," She motioned to herself.
"Oh so it's a date now?" I inquired.
"If you're smart about it and keep being charming, then maybe it will be a date," She opined.
"Duly noted, lead the way," I gestured towards town, a big grin plastered to my face.
We walked back to town; we talked the whole way. It was fun, really fun. I hadn't realized how much I had missed the company of a fun, witty, and genuinely interesting person. The burdens and mental strain that I hadn't noticed eating away at me, fell away and I stood a little taller as we walked home. It was a moment of serenity and joy.
I noticed that the place she was taking me too was in the same district as the Inn. The roads were mostly empty as everyone had already rushed off to work and the midday shopping rush wouldn't start for another 3 hours.
"So what is this place called anyway?" I asked,
"You'll see," She said in a sing-song voice, my stomach did a flip flop at her words.
"It's right nearby let me show you a shortcut," Ino grabbed my left hand and pulled me forward as she led right into a deserted side alleyway. She let go of my hand and jogged ahead of me.
"Over here!" She beckoned to me to jog with her, so I did. All of a sudden the back of my head began to howl in alarm, something felt wrong. This was confusing, I was just in a deserted alleyway with a cute girl leading me to a breakfast place. My spine shivered, and the voice in the back of my head broke into my stream of consciousness.
'She's leading you into a trap you idiot! We aren't alone!' Too late.
My body came to a screaming halt as a tingly energy froze me solid.
"Shadow Possession complete," a male voice from behind me stated.
"Wha?" I yelped.
"Good job Ino," A older male voice came from ahead of me as an older man stepped out behind a wall.
"What took you so long? I've been standing out here for ages," the male voice from behind me complained. My eyes locked on Ino as she turned around in front of me, her eyes having gone hard with determination.
"I'm a skilled craftswoman so if you think you can tell me how to fool a guy, then I'm all ears Shika,"
"Ino, can you confirm the details we were given by the source?" The older man asked.
"He admitted to traveling with someone who needed rest and medical attention, so it does line up with the sources report," Ino commented, her voice carrying a steel edge.
"Asuma-sensei I can confirm nobody is around," a quiet voice belonging to a dark haired girl.
"Excellent, Shino can you confirm the scent of our target is on him?" The older man named Asuma said.
A brown haired kid with sunglasses and an oversized jacket stepped forward and held out his hand, a beetle took off and landed on my chest. The eyebrows of the sunglasses kid knitted together for a second then relaxed.
"I can confirm the scent of Sasuke Uchiha, is on him and is recent," He said in a flat monotone. The name of Sasuke being dropped made the pieces all fall into place, these must have been the people who had put the slave seal on him. They were the slave catchers sent after Sasuke. These were the same group of people that had put that seal on that one girl that Kawaguchi had 'rewarded' me with, these were fucking scum. The worst evil bastards on the planet and now they were back for their 'property.' As the puzzle came together, all the emotional energy behind my confusion, bewilderment, and betrayal untied into single emotion, fury.
"Good, okay since we have confirmed the target's location we can start with phase two. Ino?" Asuma prompted.
"Ready!" She said standing in front of me, she wore an evil grin like a cat catching a mouse.
"Anything you want to say?" Asuma the Slaver asked me.
"I get it now; you guys are the fake excuses of humanity that put that fucking slave seal on him. You people are the fucking shitstains that enslave free people and sell them to the highest bidder, does that make you feel good? Selling little boys and girls to whichever old fat man can pay the most? You must be pissed that I broke that slave seal on his shoulder, well too fucking bad! Because I swear I'm going to beat you evil fuckers into pulp and then feed you to the fucking pigs! You better finish me off, or else I'm going to return with a fucking vengeance!" I howled in rage, all the emotions that I had locked away came rushing to the top. The emotions from being snatched away from my family, the emotion of seeing a fucking slave girl, the emotion of learning that there was doomsday threat hanging over the heads of my whole planet. All of the bottled up feelings that I had pushed aside to keep myself alive came rushing into my head to tell me one thing.
'Break this grasp and beat the living hell out of these evil bastards!' I strained against the invisible bindings that held me, I pushed with all my strength both chakra and physical to break the binding and fight. My rage drove me to give 110% so I did, and that was enough. I started to move, slowly, and forcefully but I was yanking the jaws that held me apart with pure rage.
"Do it fast! He's starting to break free of the jutsu," the voice from behind me groaned.
The slavers in front of me though looked troubled, my outburst of rage had seemingly struck them dumb with confusion and trepidation. Whatever they had expected me to say, I had gone in a completely different direction. The grip on my body began to collapse as I took a single step forward.
"Ino!" The voice behind me yelled in alarm. This snapped her out of the hesitant confusion that had taken grasp of her.
"Right!" Her hands formed an odd looking seal aimed at me.
"Mind Transfer Jutsu!" She yelled, as a pulse of energy emanated from her and sped towards me.
"What the fu-," was all that I could get out of my mouth before the energy pulse slammed into my body, and I was all of sudden at war with myself.
It was an odd experience, it was like my mind's hands were ripped off the controls of my muscles, and senses. I was cut adrift of my own body and forced down deep into a place I didn't know existed. A deep unawareness, more cutoff than anything else I had ever experienced.
September 24th Midmorning, 2016 RY
?
?
I awoke to find myself in a grey room with a door. The shift of perspective was jarring, and I collapsed on the ground. I was supposed to be in the clutches of those slavers, why was in a room.
My head swiveled as I searched for details that could help me figure out what was going on, and where I was located. I was thoroughly disappointed; it was just a grey concrete room with overhead lighting. I started to rise to my feet as the door burst open to reveal a standing figure, me. The eyes of me locked on to me and he stormed into the room.
"Be quiet we don't have much time, let me help you up and then we can walk and talk," He raised a finger to my mouth as I was already starting to form a question. Instead, I nodded, took the hand he offered and rose to my feet.
"Good, it seems like our body has been taken over and you've been pushed out of control. I have a plan to fix that, but I need your help. Got it?" He asked me. I nodded.
"So are you my subconscious or something?" I asked as we jogged out the door into a long blank corridor. He laughed.
"Hell no! I've never even met the subconscious, I mean that's why they call it the subconscious, it's the foundation of the conscious mind." He responded.
"Then what are you?" I asked, keeping pace with him as he jogged.
"I'm the fragment of your conscious mind that is constantly doing maintenance and queuing up memories," He responded.
"Isn't that the subconsciousness job?" I asked.
"Usually, yes. But, we are different, we remember everything and anything. All of our experiences constantly being so fresh it was as if we experienced them just the second before! So before it was the job of the subconscious to queue up memories, sort information, and generally do all the low level processing that goes unnoticed in everyday life. But, when we started remembering everything that lazy fuck, threw up his hands and outsourced the entire job to the conscious mind," He responded.
"So us?" I guessed.
"At least initially, remember how for the 32 days of being able to remember everything, it was impossible to not recall everything? How were we just sitting in our room curtains down trying to shut out everything?"
"Yeah?"
"So do you remember, when all of sudden memories started appearing less and less after we chugged that energy drink we stole from Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"In that moment, your sugar infused mind came up with a brilliant idea to split off a piece of the consciousness that would only be focused on controlling the memories. Which is me, though I'm still a part of you," He responded turning left at an intersection.
"Wait, are you the one who keeps assigning emotional meaning and judgement to my recent memories?" I inquired.
"Yeah, and I'm the one who has been figuring out all the shit you've just mindlessly accepted as your own work. Who do you think spent fucking ages fixing our pronunciation and grammar? Who do you think spent a fucking eternity figuring out how to manipulate and understand all the Chakra that your dumbass just dumped into our body? Who do you think was the voice screaming in your ear to not follow your dick and be wary around cute girls who just suddenly 'appear'! It was me! While you spend all your time just prancing around in the real world, I'm in here slaving away trying to keep your dumbass alive!" He ranted.
"Fine, sorry I didn't know! You don't have to be such a dick about it," I grumbled.
"You're just being a dick to yourself moron!" He chided.
"Huh, yeah I guess so. Anyway truce? What can I do to make things easier on you?" I asked.
"Ugh, fine truce. And if you want to make things easier on me, just do some of the hard mental work yourself instead of just tossing it on me! Maybe, write out a math problem or two instead of just kicking them back for me to finish, maybe actually think about what sounds you're making to say things instead of just 'intending' to say something and make me do the actual translation work. The list goes on and on, but in general just try and actively use your brain more instead of making me do all the work," He complained.
"Okay, okay I gotcha. So is there any way I can come down here more often? I feel like this is a valuable skill. Maybe, I'm just going insane, but being able to communicate clearly with the part of me that controls the memory hose seems like a good idea," I asked.
"I haven't the foggiest, honestly I didn't even really have a manifestation until that blondie hijacked our head. If I had to guess I'd say try some of that mindfulness bullshit that hippies were always offering as the solution to every problem under the sun. Maybe meditation? Maybe drugs? I don't know. I'm still just you," He answered.
"Okay, fair enough so what's the plan to unhijack our body and not die?" I asked.
"Fear not, for I am an utter genius and I noticed several things that will help us evict this freeloader!" He fluttered his hand dramatically.
"God, I'm a real arrogant prick aren't I?" I asked.
"Oh totally, but that's what makes us great! There it is!" He pointed ahead, to where the tunnel opened into sunlight. Reaching the threshold of the opening I surveyed the land ahead of me.
"It's a bit roomy," I commented. Before me lay a picturesque river valley, grasses and trees blanketed the valley, a bit upwards of where we stood, was one end of a massive concrete dam that spanned the whole valley.
"Har de har, it's your brain too moron. And I only had like a couple milliseconds to decorate and design it before you appeared here, give me a month and this place will be phenomenal!" The other me yelled as he started to run up to a staircase that went to the top of the dam. I followed him.
"This doesn't explain shit!" I yelled at him as I pounded up the stairs after him.
"When blondie was hijacking your brain I noticed something, her jutsu only focused on taking control of the areas that relate to voluntary motor functions, and sensory information! It totally avoids any interaction with the memory system, which in any normal wired person would mean no access to memories! However, we are wired differently our memories flow directly into our sensory channels which is why I assume we are able to recall them so accurately! So when she took control of the sensory areas, I noticed an unsteadiness in whatever chakra energy bullshit she used to take control! It seems that the normal flood of memories we normally experience is straining her control of our head! So that got me thinking and allowed me to come up with a plan, that you'll understand when you get up here!" He had been yelling over his shoulder at me as we ran up the stairs and had just reached the top.
"What the fuck is that?" I asked as I reached the top and saw what was behind the dam. It was a lake, no ocean of the simultaneously clearest and bluest water I had ever seen.
"That is the entirety of your memories. Or at least that's the metaphorical representation of them," He swept his hands over the nearly endless horizon of memories. "And this," He stamped his foot on the dam. "Is the metaphorical representation of the system I created to keep the unending memories we have from flooding our mind and conscious sensory experience and driving us insane."
"Okay, so how does this help us?" I prompted.
"Well as we both know it's easier to destroy something than it is to build something, and since the blonde hijacker is struggling to maintain control over the measly number of memories we normally experience. I'd have to assume if we hit her with the full dosage it will make her weak enough that we can counter hijack our body back. After which, you'll follow the battle plan I'll give you, we escape with Sasuke, and then get to the vault. Maybe, we can find something that can beat these guys and heal his shoulder. Got it?" He said opening the door of a small metal shed that stood atop the dam.
"How do I counter hijack our body back?" I asked, having no idea how to do that. He shrugged.
"I don't know, that's your problem. You're the one who is in usual control. Think of everything as a metaphor and that might help you figure things out. I know that the command post of the body is downriver here so maybe when we blow the dam you can metaphorically hit her so hard she flies out of our body. Just remember in here, everything is metaphorical." Inside of the shed, there was a small red box with the words 'Break to access emergency hammer' scrawled along the top. Other me picked up the hammer hanging by a chain and broke the glass of the first case, which yielded a bigger hammer which he used to break a bigger emergency glass box. Inside of that box was a cartoonish, red TNT plunger box.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me," I groaned.
"Hey, we liked Looney Tunes as a kid, anyway one last thing is that after I do these things are going to be a bit like the old days, when I didn't exist. I'll do my best to ensure that only relevant-ish memories and information appear, at least until I can get things back under control here," Other me explained.
"How long will that take?"
"Maybe a week to a month? I honestly have no idea. But, as long as you don't die I will figure things out and repair whatever damage we are going to do right now," Other me fixed me with a gaze.
"You ready?" He questioned.
"Yeah, let's do this!" I held out a fist and he bumped it, then he depressed the plunger.
A quick succession of quick popping noises assaulted my ears. Other me dropped the plunger and ran outside of the shed, I followed. Underneath our feet the damn began to shake, and groan as deliberate sabotage pushed it past the point of survival. Other Me grabbed two surf boards that were laying against the shed's wall and set them down, tips overhanging the edge of the collapsing dam.
"Wanna retake our body in style?" He asked wearing a sly grin.
"I knew there was a reason I like you," I responded.
Underneath us, a flood of water was pouring out of a hole in the dam. Cracks spidered up the walls as jet of water went from being sedan sized to jetliner sized.
"Last one there has to fix this!" I yelled as I jumped onto my surfboard, my momentum carrying it over the edge and down the sharp incline of the dam.
"You sneaky fuck!" Other me yelled as he also started his slide down the dam face.
I rapidly picked up speed as I surfed my way to the jet of water that was shooting out of the dam face. When the surfboard met the jet of water, it bit deep into the flow and I was shot out into the air like a cannonball, though my feet stayed planted to the surfboard.
"Oh shit!" I heard Oher me scream, twisting back I saw that he had also been launched, followed by the dam totally giving way to the flood racing down the valley. The raced ahead of us getting underneath us as we hit the apex of our flight and started falling back to the ground. My trajectory rapidly went downwards, and I nosedived into the torrent of water that was storming down the valley. Luckily, I popped back to the surface like a cork, my feet still planted to the surfboard. A familiar and odd tune reached my ears as I rode the waves of the flood, Wipeout by The Surfaris. My mouth twisted into a grin.
"We are the fucking coolest!" I yelled to Other Me.
"Fuck yeah we are!" He yelled back.
The flood of water tore through the valley, picking up trees, boulders, and chunks of dirt and tossing them with the chaos and fury of an angry toddler. It was like a scene out of a movie, two hero's surfing a massive wave off the save the day, scored to generic surfing songs.
Ahead, I saw a log cabin standing alone at the bottom of the valley that just seconds away from being washed away by a massive wall of water. The door swung open and inside looking out was the blonde hijacker herself. The shadow of the flood rose over her and the cabin and in the brief moment before her certain inundation, I somehow perfectly heard her say three words.
"What the fuc-" Then nothing. She was lost in the chaos of the flood for a moment. Then, I spotted her being towed along by flow nearly under our surfboards.
"It's showtime!" I gleefully howled as I took a deep breath and dove into the torrent after her. The currents were cooperative, and they drove me straight towards her flailing form. Her eyes locked onto mine and mine onto her. I winked my right eye. I cocked my right fist and swung. She dodged under it. She threw a left hook at me, it went wide. I tried to jab her with my left fist, but she blocked it. We were barely a foot apart when she drove her right fist into my gut. It hurt, but I powered through to grab both her shoulders.
Time seemed to slow as our eyes met again. I saw fear, panic, and confusion in her eyes. In my eyes she saw triumph, arrogance, and determination. How I knew this fact, I had no idea. But, what I didn't see in her eyes was a trace of the evil, callousness, and apathy one would need to possess in order to carry out the evil act of human slavery. She seemed to reach a similar conclusion about my character being unable to carry out whatever evil act she had pinned on me. We both came to the same understanding.
'You aren't capable of the evil I blamed you for, I'm sorry.'
It was a serene moment in what was supposed to be a fight between life and death. My heart made a single beat and time restarted. I pulled my head back and then swung forward, my forehead slamming into her forehead.
"I win" I gurgled.
A tearing sensation consumed my consciousness as I felt myself retake control of my body and expel the invader.
September 24th Midmorning, 2016 RY
Kohama
Alleyway
Information, and sensation flooded my perception. It had only been 30 seconds since I had been mentally taken over, in the meantime Ino's comrades had gotten closer as she had started clenching my head in pain 10 seconds ago. The locations and disposition of everyone around me became clear. Other Me's battleplan flooded my mind. I had a way to win!
I had once read in a book that if you were outnumbered and outgunned, the only way to gain an advantage was to be willing to resort to total and sudden violence. Shock (in the military sense) is one of the most reliable avenues to triumph and shatter a more powerful foe's willingness and ability to fight.
On the one hand, I now knew that things weren't what they seemed and both myself and them had made a couple fatal assumptions along the way. However, that didn't matter because I had the choice to win now, or not win at all. I chose to win.
*Ba-dum*
I funneled all my energy and swung my right arm backwards, my hand clenched into a fist. It contacted the face of the guy named Shika who had come up behind me, and sent him flying.
*Ba-dum*
My left hand reaches over and takes hold of a heavy clay pot holding a plant. I pitch it on a perfect trajectory toward the dark haired girls face.
*Ba-dum*
I flex my right foot and explode towards the glasses guy, my right fist swinging under and up for a furious uppercut.
*Ba-dum*
I bring my right foot forward, plant it, and twist as I torque my whole body's power into the uppercut, which lands right under the chin of the sunglasses guy.
*Ba-dum*
The first shouts of alarm are almost finished being vocalized as I reach my left hand down to my right pocket and grasp the handle of a metal trash can.
*Ba-dum*
I follow through with my uppercut, balancing on balls of feet so as to completely twist myself 180 degrees. This twist adds immensely to the power of my left arm which slings the metal trash can over my left shoulder and on a perfect trajectory towards the Asuma guy who is now holding a Ino.
*Ba-dum*
I bend my knees and tense my muscles to explode into motion. My back is to my enemies as I hope I have earned another heartbeat of inaction.
*Ba-dum*
I explode out of my stance into a full sprint. I hear the sound of the potted plant impact something soft.
*Ba-dum*
I reach full speed as I try to make my escape.
*Ba-dum*
A ninja shuriken zooms past my right ear. I don't flinch. To get to the Inn I will need to make a right turn 3 blocks down the street.
*Ba-dum*
I clear the first intersection.
*Ba-dum*
I make it a quarter the way through the first block.
*Ba-dum*
A reflection in a window shows me that the Asuma guy has already exploded into motion to chase me. He will reach me in three heart beats.
*Ba-dum*
A come up with an insane plan, that might just work.
*Ba-dum*
I plant my feet and twist 180 degrees to face Asuma. My eyes meet his and I see cold calculation, experienced observation, and determination. I meet the challenge with passion and hunger.
*Ba-dum*
I do a classic stutter step, pumping my arms in motion with my legs, creating the illusion that I might try and bolt past him. This draws his eyes away from the important detail. My hips, which stay dead on his vector of movement.
*Ba-dum*
His lapse in focus allows me to plant my feet, brace my body, and square up my arms in preparation to lay out a hit on him that would make Steve Atwater wince. His eyes began to as he understood his folly, but it was too late.
*Ba-dum*
He and I collide at tremendous speed. He has a couple of inches on me, but I am definitely his match or better in weight. He was overextended and off balance. I was compact, braced, and ready for contact. He may have been a skilled ninja, but that didn't mean he could shrug off a technique perfect hit from someone with leverage and a weight advantage. The kinetic energy he had driven into me was being used to compress my muscles too.
*Ba-dum*
Having absorbed the energy of Asuma's collision I gave it right back to him. Exploding forward with my feet, legs, and body, I directed my force right below his center of gravity. When the force of my hit combined with him being off balance and stunned, I was able to fully lay the wood on him. Asuma went flying backwards from me, eyes swimming in confusion and pain. His comrades who had just gotten themselves organized being in the flight path of Asuma the bowling ball.
*Ba-dum*
I rotate on my heels again and take off. Other Me's plan has worked to perfection and I have for a little moment given myself breathing space and time. I pick up speed and rapidly make it to the intersection that leads to the Inn. I execute a decent cut and manage to not lose much speed in the 90 degree right turn. As I'm turning I'm able to glance over my shoulder, and assess the pursuit given my Ino's comrades. To my slight dismay, they all are back on their feet and are in hot pursuit of me, but the distance I have earned so far is allowing me to pull away.
The Inn is about 6 blocks down the road from the intersection, and I have already traveled 4 of them, when another shuriken goes whizzing by my head. I turn my head to look back at pursuers and I have enough time to register the kunai rapidly flying towards my face. I duck as it zooms by overhead. My pursuers are 2 blocks behind me. Well within shouting range.
"You're going to put out someone's eye with those fucking toothpicks you kindergarteners keep throwing around!" I holler back at them.
"Your right and it's going to be hilarious when I poke out of yours!" Ino who had somehow joined the hunting pack hollered back.
"You say that now, but when you're up to your elbows in legal fees and subpoena requests from how hard I drag you through the court system you'll wish harder for your own death than mine!" I sniped back.
"Fuck you!" She screeched back.
"Only in your dreams, sistah!" I taunted. But before she could throw out another insult, while her comrades looked increasingly more and more embarrassed by the whole affair. A loud boom erupted from in front of me, forcing me to swivel my head back to figure out what new fucking crisis was going to show up and take dump on my front porch.
I took in the scene before me, with surprising detached calmness. Sasuke was sprawled out in the road, debris was scattered everywhere and was still raining down. The bags containing all of our money and the books were also scattered on the ground. The walls where our room had been were just gone, along with a good portion of the entire front facing wall of the Inn. Finally, to top it all off a guy was standing on the second his neck extending like a giraffe, withs fangs glinting in the sunlight as he shot towards Sasuke's left shoulder.
I determined that I would be unideal if the giraffe man sank his fangs into Sasuke's shoulder. A memory surfaced of there being a perfectly hand sized stone to the right of my foot, digging my sandals under the rock, I flipped it into the air perfectly. This allowed me to snatch the stone with my right hand as I set my footing and reminded myself and the world why I was the best closing pitcher in our entire high school. I knew this not because anyone told me, but because the coach nearly had aneurysm when I switched my main sport to football. I gauged where the giraffe man's head would be when the rock would arrive to ring his bell. Thankfully, my overcharged brain was up to the task and spit out an answer that I could work with, it would be close. But, where's the fun in having no chance for failure in life.
I wound up, raised my knee, said a little prayer to lady luck, and then I exploded forward. I drove my foot into the dirt, rotated my body and hips to maximize power as my chakra enhanced arm sent the rock flying fast and true. The masonic projective intercepted the head of the giraffe man roughly 3 feet away from the sprawled form of my comrade. His bell rung and his aim spoiled the giraffe man's head did not bite down on the shoulder of my comrade, but instead became an innovative way to remodel homes, but punching holes in the wall.
Apparently, my pursuers also didn't expect the giraffe man's appearance; the sound of their footfalls came to a screeching halt. This gave the excellent opportunity to get ahead, and snatch up both my bag and comrade in a single stylish slide. Which I executed to perfection, managing to grasp and sling both my bag and the torso of my stunned buddy Sasuke over my shoulders. Kicking backwards as I was able to convert my remaining sliding momentum into a quick stand up.
"Who dares interfere with the business of Orochimaru of the Sanin?" A new and altogether unpleasant voice screeched behind me at eardrum bursting volume.
Now any other time that voice and fury probably would have sent me into 'suck my thumb and wish for mama to make the bad monster get out from under my bed mode.' However, I was so hopped on adrenaline, the thrill of outfoxing my opponents(read: delusions of victory), the energy of an evolving and challenging competitive environment(read: delusions about situation), and an absolute love for the values of true sportsmanship(read: delusions about the result of failure). I was having an absolute blast, and as such I turned to face my new opponent and size them up as I hefted my cargo.
I was met with a face that leaked pure malice, hatred, and many other scary things that should have terrified me, instead I gave voice to my true impressions of the appearance of Orochimaru of Sanin.
"I do not want to know what thing your mom banged for you to come out looking like that! God your ugly!" It was stated as absolute fact for in my mental state it was absolute fact at least in whatever small corner of rational thought still existed in my messed up brain.
Luckily, my harsh words played a decisive part in keeping me from getting run through with a sword that had extended out of the mouth of Orochimaru of Sanin, for my cutting insult had cause him to choke with fury and that spoiled his aim, once more as he drove the sword right between my feet.
"Okay time to go," I squeaked my voice climbing as many octaves as there were kids of the octomom. I turned on my heels and sped off. Several loud booms behind me letting me know that my two groups of pursues were fighting each other and not going after me. A groan from the living passenger on right shoulder let me know he was still conscious.
"So can you explain to me what the hell is going on?" I asked, as I ran full tilt towards the river canyon.
Before he was able to answer simultaneous shrieks of "Sasuke!" from both Ino and Orochimaru were directed at us as I made good our escape.
"You know what I don't wanna know at least until we are safe, whatever you tell me will just confuse me more." I said jokingly.
"They are gaining on us," He said matter of factly.
"As in a minute or 30 seconds?" I cheerfully asked.
"Ten seconds," He informed me.
"Well shit, we need roughly 45 seconds," I complained.
"Hold on," I felt him rapidly move his hand and pulse his chakra. A great amount of light and heat appeared behind me, followed 5 seconds later by a resounding boom.
"25 seconds now," He stated flatly.
"What did you do? Wait, never mind I don't wanna know, tell me later," I panted as I poured my energy into my legs.
"You could put me down," He offered.
"No, it would take too much time and frankly I don't have to explain the vague outline of a getaway plan I have," I declined.
"Vague outline?"
"More like I imagined what the vague outline is and I'm waiting for inspiration when we get there," I elaborate. He just groaned in response.
To be honest I was exaggerating a bit, how little of a plan I knew. During my run with Ino I had spied things that looked remarkably like paddle boards leaning against a wooden shed. That shed being located right near the wooden staircase that locals took to get down to the river, for the river that ran through Kohama had cut deep into the ground and was in a canyon that was nearly 60 feet deeper than the Kohama street level. So I figured I could "borrow" one of the paddle boards and get us down river as fast as possible. In fact, there was a rather imposing waterfall a mile down river than was a natural barrier to anyone who was sane. I was not included in such categories and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to lose any pursuers. How we would actually survive a fall down a 300 foot waterfall I hadn't the foggiest, but it wasn't like I was going to tell Sasuke that little 'detail'.
"They are gaining on us," I felt Sasuke do more hand movements and pulse his chakra once more. Another flash of light and heat cooked my back before going a loud boom echoed through the streets six seconds later.
"Never mind, that got us 30 seconds. Both Orochimaru and the leaf ninja are having to prioritize their focus between fighting and trying to pursue us, we should be fine assuming you actually have a plan," He grumbled.
"Leaf ninja? Oh so that's what they were, I thought they were slave catchers," I wheezed in between labored breaths.
"What is a slave catcher?" He asked.
"A very bad person that you don't seemingly have to worry about, considering I've been assuming a lot recently," I chirped back, "Anyway are you good?"
"Am I good?" He snorted, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"You know what I mean, no bruises? No cuts? Has little Suzie stopped putting dirt in your lunchbox when you're not looking? Maybe she doesn't hate, but she just has a crush on you." I shot back with equally venomous sarcasm. That earned a full laugh out of him.
"If by dirty you mean shrunken, and by lunchbox you mean your head then no she hasn't. That's me telling you to duck your head by the way." I snapped my head down and a pair of shuriken zoomed through the place my head was a second ago.
"God, you guys really have full on stormtrooper aim with those things," I quipped.
"Stormtrooper aim?" He questioned.
"Another reference from where I come from, don't worry about it," I sighed as we crossed the last block before we ran up against the edge of the canyon. I made a swift cut to my right and I was able to maintain my speed as I zoomed down the pathway towards the shed. To my great relief, the paddle boards and paddles were there.
"Okay, the vague outline of a plan has now just become a finger-painted representation of a plan," I said triumphantly.
"Well that's good, because they are right behind us, and I'd rather not die or be captured today if I can help it," Sasuke sarcastically requested.
"Wow me too! We have so much in common, wanna be pen pals?"
"Pen pals?"
I sighed. "My wit is wasted upon those who cannot appreciate its genius," I bemoaned.
"Rightttt," he drawled in response.
"You're a lot more talkative now than you usually are," I observed.
"Running away with the chance of combat and death tends to do that to me," He sniped.
"Duly noted, anyway things are about to get a little hectic so hold on tight," I advised. Up ahead, were the three items I needed to make my great escape, a wooden paddle board, a long double bladder paddle, and a straight set of stairs that lead directly to a straight dock, straight into the river.
As we ran by the shed I pilfered both the board and paddle with the hand and crook of my arm respectively. This allowed me to do a running and jump start on the board by tossing it out in front of me, right on the lip of the first set of stairs going down. I planted both my feet on the board, jerked my arm back so I could grab the paddle out from the crook of my arm, and I prayed once more to lady luck to give me a set of double sixes.
Which surprisingly she did give me, considering we managed to somehow slide down the length of the staircase actually on the paddleboard.
"Johnny Knoxville eat your goddamn heart out!" I howled as we hit the bottom and skimmed right over the dock and into the river, just as planned. Spray blanketed me as we skimmed across the water.
"Brace yourself, I need both arms to paddle," I said to my passenger before spilling him unceremoniously onto the board.
"Moron," he grumbled.
"I know you are, but what am I?" I mocked. The paddle bite deep into the water as I put my many summers in Minnesota lake country to good use. My arms already ached, and my chest hurt from running so much, but what other choice did I have other than to keep going. So I paddled.
"Are you a five year old?"
"Not for at least 9 years if I still remember how to count," I reposted. Sasuke just groaned.
"Are we losing them?" I inquired.
"Yes? Oh no there they are, yeah they are just running along the riverbank. Remind me why are we taking a boat which is slower than what either of us can run?" He accused me.
"You'll see, I have a plan and it will only work if we have something that can float," I soothed.
"If you say so, incoming," The clang of steel on steel contact rings out from behind me, until I feel a stabbing sensation in my thigh.
"Ow!" I yelp.
"Missed one," Sasuke says as a way of apology.
"Gee ya think?" I snark back. I look over my shoulder. Orochimaru is on the left hand bank and the leaf ninja is on the right hand bank. I can't figure who threw it so I just raise my voice so everyone can hear.
"When I find out who threw that stupid shuriken, I'm going to sue them up the goddamned wazooo!" I howled in anger and pain. No one responded to my jeers. I kept paddling, as if my life depended on it.
My efforts were richly rewarded as soon the roar of water became audible up ahead. If we could just make it over, and not die in the process, we might be able to make a clean getaway.
"Keep them off our back a little longer, then we might be home free!" I yelled back to Sasuke.
"Are we heading towards rapids!?" He shouted back.
"No, a waterfall!" I answered.
"A waterfall!?" He shouted in worry. I could see the edge of the falls clearly now, only 40 feet of separation between us and a long fall.
"Yeah! Keep your feet planted at all costs!" I ordered, as I sped up my paddling to an unsustainable speed. I wanted us to gain as much horizontal distance, so we could get clear of whatever lay at the bottom of the falls.
"Are you insane!?" He accused me.
"Who dares wins!" I shouted, being glad no one could call me out on my grievous plagiarism. I put all my energy into a single last stroke, as we shot over the edge.
Unfortunately, I had not come up with a better plan than fall and try to not die. I glued my feet to board, using the tree walking technique taught to me by Old Salt. This allowed me to swing my body forward and backward to shift the balance of the paddleboard as it sailed through the air. The best I could mentally figure it if we kept the board at a roughly 15-30 degree angle of attack, we could use the wide surface area of the board to both keep us from hitting terminal velocity, and have it absorb the majority of impact force with the water. If we were both lucky, then our chakra enhanced bodies might be able to absorb and dissipate the force of the landing without breaking anything, at least in theory.
The view was exhilarating. I found us yelling in a mix of joy and terror, as our ballistic trajectory pulled us ever downwards. To my panic, the paddle board began to tilt forward, out of the 15-30 degree sweet spot.
"Lean back!" I howled as I threw my weight backwards. This had the desired effect as the angle of attack improved back to the sweet spot. The ground reached up to meet us as we descended ever faster.
"BRACE!" I shouted as I bent my knees and tried to replicate the feeling of total relaxation I had once had on a beach in Florida. It was difficult, but I had read that being utterly relaxed was the best state to be in when in a car crash. This was just like a car crash, but off a cliff into a river while being chased by people who wanted to kill me, so totally like a car crash.
When the back of the board sliced into the water first it caused a levering motion which slammed the rest of the board downwards into the water. It turned the straight fall into more of a slapping motion, which was a good thing because it increased the time we had to decelerate from our fall. This prevented the total force being exerted on our bodies from ever rising above the critical threshold where you break bones, rupture organs, and generally just die.
I crumpled on impact, as my bent legs and relaxed muscles allowed for my body to disperse the force more evenly and slowly. My breath was forced from my chest as I collided with the thick wood of the board. I saw stars as my head whipped back and slammed into the wood. Lightning shot through my body as every single neuron screamed in protest at the abuse they were being put through, but the worst of the pain was short lived.
I let out a wheezing cough and groaned as the rest of my body caught up to the fact that I had just fallen 300 feet and that I had not died. Nothing felt broken or torn, but strained and aching probably described 80% of the tissue inside me. The sounds of coughing brought me back to the fact that I was not alone.
"You alive?" I said groggily. A grunted acknowledgement was the only response I heard.
"Good stuff, let's say we just relax for a bit then we get up and continue trying not to die or get kidnapped?" Another grunt of acknowledgement confirmed Sasuke's agreement to the plan. So we lay there for a bit, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the water was nice and cool. It was a beautiful day to not be dead.
The quiet moment of reverie was broken by a distant voice.
"There alive!" I heard a male voice yell.
"Oh shit, we better get going," I said dragging myself back to my feet.
"They won't be able to get down here right?" I asked looking up at the cliff to five figures looking downwards at us.
"Not quickly at least, I bet this gives us at least an hour of breathing space," Sasuke commented.
"Well then let's not waste it. If we follow this river for a couple miles, spotting the valley that the vault is in should be easy."
Pulling my gaze away from the cliff face I eyed the riverbank. During the fall I had lost my paddle, and it was out of easy jumping reach. In theory, I had learned how to water walk from Old Salt. In practice, I had never done it anywhere besides still bodies of water. I eyed the running water with suspicion
Sasuke being the jackass that he was just stood up, and started water-walking over to the shore. I sucked in a deep breath, recalled the sensation of balancing out the chakra flow in my feet, and confidently put my right foot into water. The water gave way and I fell right in.
I came up sputtering, and cursing. To my chagrin I saw Sasuke looking at me, a small grin creasing his lips.
"Oh laugh it up why don't you," I barked as I started to paddle my way over to the shore. Sasuke took my suggestion and started to laugh. I grumbled as I struggled my way onto dry land. Sasuke came over to me as a small smile was still etched onto his face, that's when I noticed something was different about him.
"Hey, is it just me or are your eyes like red now?" The smile on Sasuke's face faded away going back to the usual more neutral expression he wore. His gaze bore into my eyes, seemingly searching for something in my eyes that would inform him of if I was being genuine in my curiosity. He seemed to find something because the tenseness in his body relaxed a bit and he sighed.
"The redness you see is the Sharingan, a unique trait held only by the members of the Uchiha clan."
"Oh, that's cool I guess. Does it let you see through walls or something?" I asked.
"No, it's abilities are varied and powerful; the most important being is the extreme clarity of vision and the ability to copy techniques it sees. Seeing through walls is something that the Byakugan can do, but the Sharingan is much more flexible and powerful," Sasuke said, shaking his head.
"Wait there's more of these unique eye thingies?" Sasuke simply nodded in response.
"Huh, neato. Let's run and talk, I think I have some misconceptions to clear up," I nodded my head towards the forest. Sasuke nodded in agreement, and we quickly took off through the trees towards the valley where the vault was supposedly located.
We talked during our trip and several things became clear. Sasuke was most definitely not a runaway slave, but rather a runaway ninja. The Orochimaru guy was the person he had been trying to run to before I had accidentally collided with him and broke the curse seal. It seems that it had been having a large influence on his personality and decision making. So now with the seal blown up, and me having done the apparent impossible according to both sides. Conveniently, I had also provided a way to both fix him and help him achieve a goal, that being apparently advanced healing technology and a superweapon.
In turn I shared my secrets and goals, them being my perfect memory and wanting to get home. It was interesting, realizing that we both had overlapping abilities in regard to visual memory and that we also had overlapping goals. In short, we had both realized that a partnership was both mutually beneficial and the only option both of us had. He was highly trained in the ways of combat, and I was the only one who could decipher and understand what had been left behind by the initial visitors from earth. I still didn't know the reason why he needed a superweapon, but he didn't seem like the evil bastard type, so I let it slide.
The fact that I wasn't even a fully trained ninja but rather just some amateur who had a good memory, some chakra, and some basic instruction seemed to surprise Sasuke.
"I thought you were lying to me about your background, you seemed too confident and competent to be just some guy who appeared out of nowhere. The fact that you not only broke free from Yamanaka's mind possession jutsu, out ran an entire pursuit squad with a jonin, and then managed to scrape by one of the deadliest people on the planet with barely a scratch, made it very hard for me to believe you to be just some random guy. But, from what you've told me and from what I've seen I'm actually starting to believe it's all true." Sasuke commented.
"Thanks, I guess. Honestly, I have no idea how I'm not dead considering what you've told me about your former comrades' abilities and skills," I replied.
"If you could teach me more about your language and writing system and I could teach you more about how to properly fight like a ninja, we could both accomplish our goals," Sasuke mused.
"Doesn't seem like a very fair trade on your end of things, I'd just have to teach you to speak and read, but you'd have to go through and teach me all the intricacies of combat. I'm not complaining, it just seems like you give up more than I do," I said.
"No, if what that book said was true. Helping me gain access to it secrets and the secrets of whatever was left behind will be infinitely more valuable to helping me rebuild the Uchiha. Me teaching you how to fight and stay alive is also helpful to me. Even if I can read and understand your language, putting what I read into the proper context remains almost impossible. If you hadn't been able to explain the hidden meanings and idioms in the first book, I would have never found the location of the vault even if I had been able to read it in the first place," Sasuke elaborated.
"Makes sense to me, hey why have you become so talkative recently? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it just seems like beforehand you were more of a quiet person," I asked, the candor and frankness in our talk giving me the confidence to ask the question. Sasuke hesitated for a moment before answering.
"I've had my entire worldview shaken up three times in as many weeks. You're the first one who hasn't wanted something from me or had some hidden game underpinning why you bothered to help me in the first place. For the past 13 years of my life I've always been a pawn in someone else's game, and now you've presented me with the option to take control of my life for the first time, with no expectation of me providing anything in return. It's a refreshing break from the usual tedium and idiocy I have had to put up with my whole life. So I guessed I might as well try a new way of working with people," Sasuke finished with a shrug.
"Fair enough, I've been a bit aimless in how I've been dealing with things, so having a pal who knows what's what here is going to make getting home and not dying significantly easier. You also seem like a smart and driven dude, and considering you're the one person who hasn't tried to coerce or kill me. I figure it's the natural option for us to team up," I said, pulling up next to Sasuke. I held out my fist, he looked at it, and he bumped it with his own fist, formalizing our alliance.
We made quick time as we zoomed through the trees, reaching the lonely valley within three hours of our plunge over the waterfall. The lonely valley that was said to contain the vault, was home to a tributary river that fed into the main river we had ridden right off the waterfall. I had feared that finding the entrance puzzle would have been a difficult and time consuming affair, but was surprised when it was hidden in plain sight.
On a solid stone wall that formed the one edge of the valley wall was English letters indented into the face. They were squiggly, a bit out of proportion, and faint to see, but if you knew what you were looking for they stood out like Christmas lights. I read them out loud.
"Draw the flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain on the face below, using the provided water." Underneath these words a small stream of water gurgled out of a hole in the rockface, right next to an unusually flat piece of stonewall.
"What's the United Kingdom of Great Britain?" Sasuke asked.
"It's a country from my world," I answered.
"Do you know what it's flag looks like?"
"Yep, it's easy to draw," I said as I stepped forward and dunked my finger into the stream. I traced the Union Jack onto the rock wall, the water darkening the stone. When I completed the last line of the cross, the whole outline started to glow with blue energy. A circular plug of rock popped out and swung aside as a Johnson bar lever extended out of the hole, it had a white arrow pointing downwards. I squeezed the handle to release the latch and pulled the lever downwards. A loud clunk came from behind the wall, as some piece of machinery was engaged. The Johnson bar pulled back into the wall out of my hand and the rock plug resettled itself, into the wall.
A hiss then kerchunk came from behind the rock face, all of a sudden the wall had split into two doors that were slowly swinging outwards. This revealed a small iron and rock room, illuminated by hanging light bulbs.
"Huh, I guess we found it," I joked. Sasuke snorted in agreement.
"Let's get inside, and see if we can close these doors behind us. Hopefully, that can allow us free reign to figure out what's in here at our leisure." Sasuke nodded in agreement.
Slowly we both crept out way into the entrance room, it was bare aside from a long hallway that led deeper into the complex. A lever set between the words open and close, was nestled into the wall. I walked up, shifted it close, and the disguised wall doors swung back into position. This left us alone inside, with only the illuminating of the lightbulbs.
"Let's search this place, and figure out what we have here," I muttered.
"Yeah, we should stay together though, we don't know if any traps are planted," Sasuke said.
"Good idea."
Over the next two hours we thoroughly examined every aspect of the small complex. We appeared to be in a front section, which was sealed off from the rest by a large metal door, we didn't see any clear way to open it so we ignored it and focused our efforts on the four room's we could search. These included an armory, library, device storage, and a medical lab.
We took careful notes of all the objects, books, and weapons we saw. We didn't take anything; we would have time for that later. For now we just spent our time ensuring there were no traps or items that would pose an immediate danger to us.
We entered the medical lab and found it chocked full of both recognizable and unrecognizable items. It looked like a modern outfitted hospital room with beds, cabinets, and other machines, whose purposes I could only guess at.
However, one item drew my gaze, it was a large tube cut into the wall, with buttons, knobs, and other control pieces that I could barely understand, I read out the label above it.
"Matter-Information Regenerator… Sounds interesting," I mused as I walked over and examined it closely. Besides it was a book titled, 'Usage of the Matter-Information Regenerator' I flipped it open and began to read it out loud.
It rapidly became apparent that this would be the exact item we needed. As I understood it this Matter-Information Regenerator was able to scan a body or item, and by using a combination of physics, chakra, and some kind of sealing jutsu would be able to figure out the exact composition of the item down to the atomic level, along with the entire movement history of all the atoms scanned. It would then be able to reconstruct a new copy or repair damage at the atomic level. So in theory it could scan a person with a failing liver, figure out what the position of all the atoms in the liver were when it was healthy and then replace and repair the liver at the atomic level to a previous state when it was healthy. So not only could it heal a person, but it also had the ability to make a near perfect clone of them at any point in their life.
During my reading Sasuke would stop me to ask pertinent questions about the words, concepts, and overall meaning of some of the dense jargon laced explanations of the machine. When I was done, he asked me one final question.
"Do you think it will work?"
"Maybe? Who knows?" I answered. He seemed to hesitate for a second before nodding to himself.
"Let's do it," he said with a notion of finality as he stepped into the tube.
I stepped up to the control panel. Looking down at the panel, I located the green 'Initiate Scan" button. I hovered my hand over it, and looked up to Sasuke. The question was evident in my gaze because he nodded.
"Do it."
I hit the button. The rim of the tube flared to life in a low green glow. A tinny voice spoke out.
"Initializing Scan. Please wait." A glowing green disc filled the bottom of the tube, and began moving upwards. It flowed around the clothes and body of Sasuke, moving upwards at a sedate pace. It was like a paper scanner back home. When it reached the top of the tube after sliding up the entirety of Sasuke's form, the voice spoke.
"Scan Complete. Major damage detected, highlighting." A transparent green sphere formed around the area of the dead splotch of tissue.
"Would you like to repair?" The voice spoke. I hit the yellow repair button. The voice spoke in response.
"Repair selected, please indicate the required time to use as the repair template. Provide time as the number of days previous you want to use as the template." The voice spoke out. We already knew this was a required input, so Sasuke had told me a number of days that should be before he was branded with the curse seal. I said the number anyway and he confirmed it, I spun a dial on the control panel that counted up, to the required number. I hit the yellow repair button again. The voice spoke.
"Number of days to roll back selected, please check and confirm this is the correct number." I looked down at the dial, and hit a blue confirmation button.
"Rollback date confirmed, beginning matter repairs now. Please do not leave the capsule, and minimize movement during the repair operation." The voice commanded before the green sphere turned opaque. Sasuke winced, but didn't move. The green sphere began to glow with ever increasing intensity. It was mesmerizing. For 30 seconds the sphere glowed with an intensity that stung the eyes, but by the end of the half minute the glow began to fade out and the sphere became transparent. The voice spoke.
"Repairs complete, subject information has been stored if a full back up or cloning operation is required. Have a nice day!" It chirped happily.
I looked at Sasuke, who looked at me then glazed down at his shoulder. He pulled the side of his shirt to expose the shoulder, the blotch of dead tissue was gone. In its place, was fully healthy and pale tissue.
"Huh, it actually worked," I said in amazement. Behind me a low noise reached my ears a slight hissing sound. I whirled, and my eyes began to scan the room. But, before I could locate the source a new sound assaulted my ears from the door frame into the lab, a voice.
"It seems someone has finally taken the bait, and has wandered into my little abode. I don't take kindly to snakes or intruders." The voice was in a language I hadn't heard anyone, but myself speak in a long time, in an accent I had only rarely heard. It was English, it was English that was spoken in a British accent. I whirled on the new voice and my eyes widened in shock. It was a man. He wore bright golden armor and focused his murderous gaze right at me, his unnaturally light blue eyes piercing into my very soul. He spoke.
"Unfortunately, for you I don't foresee you leaving this place alive."
Post Chapter Author's Note: God what a chapter to write. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, which is when the story really begins to kick into gear. Honestly, I didn't intend for the internal mindscape scene of Roger's to take so long, but I did really enjoy writing it. Nor did I intended for the Ino social trapping scene to go on so long, but it was a really fun dynamic to write so it's kind of just dragged on. I might feature her more; she seems like an interesting character to write and interact with. Please if you can tell me what you think about how I'm molding Roger's character to be something other than "haha I am an oc from da real world haha", It's a goal of mine to make him one of the good ones. Similarly, I hope that my characterization of Sasuke was similarly pleasing and entertaining. I feel like he's a character that has great potential to still be dynamic and active while also not being on his own side story that is irrelevant to the main progression of the plot from Roger's point of view. I hope to also have some more interactions between Sasuke, Roger, and Asuma's retrieval team.
Also I intend to start writing little side stories either as add-ons to chapter or as standalones. The single limited perspective that Roger has makes it extremely difficult to really inform what's going on in the rest of the world. I mean the ripple effects of it being known that Sasuke is actually out of the control of Orochimaru and is running around with some rando, doing god knows what and somehow triggering ancient buried artifacts to start fucking up the world. I intend for it to be a catalyst for some of the rookie 11 to change their actions and mindsets going forward during the "time-skip" era. Which by the way I do intend to go through, so no this won't be a case where we warp forward 3 years to the beginning of the Shippuden era. I fully intend to have Roger and Sasuke be active during the time skip era, in their own adventure growing, learning, and overcoming the challenges I place in their way. I hope to make it so that during the dead air that is usually wasted between the end of part 1 and part 2, is actually the prelude to a part 2 that is jam packed full of events. Anyway, thank you so much for reading this long disaster of a chapter. Every review helps me immensely, so if you wish please do leave them. Also I'm sure there are going to be a bunch of stupid mistakes I won't catch before I post this, so feel free to point them out and mock me for them so I fix them. Thank you and have a nice time.