Chapter 5: Lighting the Match

Disclaimer: Disclaimers don't actually mean or do anything, but tradition is tradition. I do not claim any ownership of Naruto.

Preceding Authors Note: Got this chapter out quicker than I expected. I expect to be doing a bunch of shadow edits however, so if you see a small error or stupid mistake feel free to call my dumbass on it.

September 24th Afternoon, 2016 RY

Hidden Valley Vault

Medical Lab

"Identify yourselves! Who dares cross Albert!" Shouted the towering man in golden armor. He was broad shouldered, clad head to toe in a suit of radiating gold plate armor, that was studded with a massive gem in the center of his chest.

"Do you dare try to steal my book of truths? The book that I detailed in that silly cookbook?!" He yelled with even more ferocity. His eyes darted between Sasuke and me.

"What's he saying?" Sasuke asked. This was apparently the wrong thing to say, because Albert's face twisted into a sneer.

"Oh, you're just some local gutter trash that lucked their way in. Big mistake," He sneered before raising one of his palms. A bright glow began to emit from the palm as he aimed his palm at Sasuke.

That's when out of nowhere Orochimaru sprung at him, snarling. There was a collision and a small explosion of light and sound. I had to shield my eyes from the dust that was kicked up.

I was stunned. Orochimaru, jumping Albert was not something I had foreseen. The pair had already blown down the wall and were off somewhere in the complex. I looked at Sasuke.

His eyes were wide, but I didn't see any of the fear or shock I expected from someone who almost got their head blown off.

"Well, this just became a bit complicated," I said.

"So do we run or go after them?" Sasuke asked.

"Go after them?!"

"We need that book; everything depends on it!" Sasuke growled.

"What everything!?" I hissed back.

"The weapons, what else would I be talking about?"

"Fuck, I don't know. How do you propose we swipe it?"

"Go back to the armory, load up on those weapons. Win." Sasuke stated with finality.

"That isn't much of a goddamn framework to go on. Hell I barely even know if I can operate those guns, I've only ever shot my uncles .22 varmint gun. Which is a far cry from a full machine gun." I snipped back.

"You can figure it out. You haven't acted like a moron yet." Sasuke said.

"Yet…" I said, before sighing and taking a shaky breath.

"Okay, if the weapons in their work. We might have a chance, assuming I can figure them out." I relented.

"Good, let's go." Sasuke whispered before standing up and running for the doorway.

"Fucking nutjob," I cursed as I followed.

The main hallway was already clear, the battle having progressed deeper into the complex. We returned to the armory without incident.

Inside, we raided all the weapons we could reasonably carry and use. Fortunately, I had once binged a series on World War One guns on the internet, so I was actually able to identify and operate (at least in theory) most of the guns we found.

In summary, I was able to equip myself with a Lewis automatic machine gun, two Colt 1911 handguns both tucked into my pockets, and a bandolier of hand grenades. There were rifles that were tempting, but I figured that having to work a bolt for every shot would be a near death sentence. The automatic fire of the machine gun, and semi-automatic fire of the pistols would prevent me from too defenseless between shots.

Sasuke was leery about taking the metal contraptions into battle, having hoped for more contemporary weaponry. Though, he was happy to also carry a bandolier of grenades once I explained their usage and effects.

"So these things fling little lead slugs really fast? How is that any different from a kunai or shuriken?" Sasuke inquired as I stuffed away extra ammo clips and drums on my person. I thought about the question for a second before answering.

"Do you know the formula behind kinetic energy?"

"Kinetic energy is the energy in moving objects right?" Sasuke answered hesitantly.

"Yeah, so your kunai weighs something like 300 grams right? And let's say you can get it up to 150km/h. So it's gonna hurt if it hits something. However, kinetic energy is equal to half the mass of the object multiplied by its speed squared. So if instead you're able to throw a kunai that weighs 150 grams at 300 km/s, that will hit with double the force. So if instead if I hit you with this," I held up a loose rifle bullet. It may only weigh 10 grams, but it's lobbed at 3000 km/s it will have a hell of a lot more energy to hit and kill you with, you see what I mean?" Sasuke's eyes began to widen as he mentally crunched the numbers..

"That could really do some damage."

"Damn straight, now let's go find ourselves a book," I said, hefting the Lewis Gun.

"Do you have a plan?" I asked as we left the armory and proceeded down the main corridor. Our newly acquired gear rattling as we walked.

"We try to prevent either of them from winning too easily, and hope whoever wins will be too worn down to beat us," Sasuke said.

"Got it, what if they focus on killing us first?"

"We die. So let's hope that doesn't happen," Sasuke said.

"Cheery, well that's a comforting plan." I griped. Sasuke only shrugged in response.

The sounds of battle reached our ears as booms, yells, and clangs. We picked up speed as the sounds intensified.

In front of us the hallway opened up into a massive throne room. Grey stone columns lined the edge of a long white marble pathway that led up to a golden royal throne. Hanging oil lamps provided a flickering illumination of the room.

Inside two figures were engaged in a hand to hand struggle, though dust obfuscated who was who in the melee.

"Who's winning?" I whispered to him.

"Doesn't matter," He whispered back as he plucked one of the grenades from his bandolier. He looped one of his fingers around the pin ring and looked at me. I nodded and made a pulling motion. He pulled the pin out, cocked his arm back and threw.

The handle sprang free as the metal pineapple flew on its graceful arc disappearing into the smoke. The noise and movement inside the cloud came to a stop. A heartbeat later a deafening boom stabbed into my ear drums, the force of the explosion scattering the dust cloud.

Albert stood perfectly fine atop the epicenter of the explosion, though Orochimaru was nowhere to be seen. He was glaring daggers at me.

"I think you just pissed him off," I noted as I lifted my Lewis gun to point right at Albert. He smirked. I pulled the trigger.

The gun barked and nearly jumped out of my hands as the recoil and mass of the device fought against my chakra enhanced muscles. I guess my low level delusion of being just like Rambo hadn't prepared me for the recoil of the gun. Bullets danced all around Albert, who just stood and stared.

Six rounds wasted I let off the trigger, reformed my grip, aimed, and fired again. This time the bullets were on target. To my shock, they didn't seem to do anything. Small bursts of blue light being my only indication that the hot lead wasn't poking him full of holes.

Albert chuckled, lifted one of his open palms, and a gem implanted in the palm of the gauntlet flashed bright white.

I was catapulted sideways as a blinding white beam of energy seared the air; I had just been occupying. I could smell the ozone and feel the hot flash on my face as I stared dumbfounded at what had almost killed me. I sprawled onto the ground.

"Here comes another!" I heard Sasuke growl from behind me, so I scrambled to my feet and lunged forward. Clearing yet another beam of energy that would've killed me.

This time I was able to recover quickly from my fall to the ground and jump into a full sprint as another beam followed me.

"Shit!" I yipped as the beam got uncomfortable close to my back, before petering out. Surprisingly, a new beam didn't follow. I turned to look at the man who was trying to kill me. He was staring at me.

"Do you speak the language of Old Earth?" He asked in English. I stopped in my run; his palm was pointing downwards.

"Yes, I am from Earth," I responded in English. Albert looked at me and laughed.

"Ha, good to hear it. So why did you not speak up, when I spoke in our language?" He asked, seeming genuinely perplexed.

"I didn't have the chance," I answered. Before Albert could say anything a hissing laugh came from on the other side of the throne room. We both turned to fix our gaze on the seemingly intact Orochimaru.

"Let us switch to the barbarian tongue of these lands," Albert said in English.

"Works for me," I said nonchalantly as I switched back into the local language.

"So what country are you from on old Earth?"

"I'm an American." I said. He laughed.

"You mean the cowards who didn't do anything, but profit off the bloodletting in Europe?" He said with a sneer.

"But, we did participate in World War One. Though, if the book's numbers are correct it was after your ship disappeared," I answered, hoping to mollify him.

"World War One? Does that mean there was a second one? Did my British folk win?" He asked, genuine concern in his voice.

"Yeah, both times. We helped you guys both times as well," I said hoping to further ingratiate myself.

"What year were you born and what year was it when you came here?"

"2002 and a white sphere abducted me in 2016." He mulled those numbers over for a bit and then started muttering.

"If it's truly been 100 years since we first set out at least on Earth time that must mean the timestreams are back in sync, though I didn't expect the factor of time speeding up in this world by such a large factor. Still, it would make sense," He muttered to himself, seemingly fully lost within his own head. Using this short break I swiveled my head from side to side, taking in the situation.

Orochimaru and Sasuke were doing similarly, our eyes glancing over each other, sizing each other up, determining who was the biggest threat. Sasuke was further down the axis we had already been running, Orochimaru was opposite to me on the other row of columns, and Albert was in the middle of the throne room in between all of us.

The standoff was broken by more noise coming down the entrance tunnel, that of running and yelling. To my great annoyance, it was the squad of Leaf ninja that I thought we had lost over the waterfall. The new noise broke Albert out of his mumblings, and he stared down the new witnesses.

"More friends of yours?" He said shooting the question my way. Before I could answer, Orochimaru stepped forward and spoke.

"Apologies, I believe there has been a terrible misunderstanding between us. I am Orochimaru, I am here for that boy," He pointed towards Sasuke, "Not that one," his finger shifted towards me.

"Though, I must know if it was you who broke my Cursed Seal of Heaven," he accused.

"Yeah, it was me, and it was easy to do so," I boasted.

"I see, will you tell me how you managed such a feat?" He asked.

"Trade secret, so no I won't." I said with a lot more confidence than I felt. He chuckled, sending a shiver down my spine.

"We'll see if you're so funny, when I'm busy learning what color your insides are," He said. But, before I could fire off a witty comeback Albert spoke over me.

"Sorry, but no you won't in fact none of you will leave here alive. Your life will be the longest," He pointed towards me, "But, it will be measured in hours while the rest of yours will be measured in days. His icy blue eyes locked on to me before sweeping over the Leaf ninja and Orochimaru.

I tightened my grip on the Lewis gun. The next second my eyes and ears were flooded with sensory information, chirping and a bright light illuminated my periphery. Albert had turned his back to Sasuke, and now it seemed that Sasuke had a trick up his sleeve.

Sasuke zoomed across the stone floor, a concentrated bundle of light and sound being concentrated in his palm. He shot forward like a cannonball and slammed the concentrated ball of energy into the back of Albert. Or at least he tried to.

I saw everything happen, but I only understood and comprehended it after I had been able to mentally re-watch the events frame by frame from my memory. When Sasuke and his energy punch had been roughly 6 inches away from impacting. A blue shield appeared and seemed to stop the energy punch dead in its tracks. At the same time, the gem at the center of Albert's chest seemed to pulse a light yellow. The blue shield held then pulsed backwards while simultaneously holding onto and absorbing the chakra in Sasuke's hand.

This all happened in under a second, and the end result was of Sasuke being flung away from Albert and slamming into a pillar. This drew the eyes of everyone except Orochimaru, who took the momentary distraction to weave a quick series of hand seals and then shoot a snake out of his mouth which itself had a sword extending out of its mouth. Creepy.

"Look out!" I shouted in alarm.

Asuma reacted drawing some sort of trench knives and deflecting the sword upwards. This left Orochimaru wide open, allowing Asuma to leap in for the attack.

Simultaneously, Albert was raising one of his open palms to Sasuke. One of the Leaf Ninja saw this and threw one of those Kunai with an explosive tag attached. This detonated on contact with the shield, but the concussive blast spoiled Alberts aim and the beam that would've turned Sasuke into a pool of hot slag went wide.

Unfortunately, this drew Alberts attention back to the now Asuma-less Leaf ninja. Albert cracked a wicked grin leaped for them, murder in his eyes. Another kunai with an explosive tag impacted him dead on and managed to halt his momentum for a second. This apparently opened up an opportunity for the Shikamaru guy to use his Shadow Possession jutsu. Albert froze in-place, Hinata, the blue haired gal, took advantage and closed in on his flank. She let loose a palm strike while also releasing chakra, this did something interesting.

Instead of bouncing clean off his shield like every other attack we had thrown at it, the chakra from the palm strike seemed to disrupt the structure of the response shield. Punching a small hole in his shield, the remaining energy didn't do anything to his direct person. It got his attention.

Albert roared, flexing hard before breaking free of the possession jutsu and then swinging his left hand down and backwards in an open backhand that caught Hinata straight in the head and sent her flying backwards. The sudden violence of the act broke me out of my observing stupor.

I raised my Lewis gun and squeezed off a burst of rounds, at his head. Most of them missed, but they had the desired effect. The crack of supersonic projectiles flying over his head caused him to flinch and duck slightly. I guess the instincts to take cover when bullets were flying was a near universal reaction.

A jet of howling wind sent Asuma flying at high speed, directly into Albert. Who was also caught by the wind and sent careening into the wall. Turning my gaze to the right I spied Orochimaru, who was now wielding a sword. His eyes flicked to me then the stunned Leaf ninja, Shikamaru and Ino in particular were close together and exposed. I dropped my machine gun and full out sprinted towards them at full tilt.

Time slowed down as I took in the entire situation in its totality. Orochimaru had planted his foot and was beginning to swing his sword, in an effort to bisect both Shikamaru and Ino. Shikamaru and Ino were both facing Orochimaru and the incoming sword swing.

I had closed the distance and was now within arms of them. So I reached out with both my arms grasped one of their shoulders each and yanked with all my might. Since both of them had their backs turned to me, it was easy to pull them off balance into a backwards fall.

That task completed. I kicked out my heels, and let their weight drag me down with them. In the world's deadliest limbo game, I watched with sick fascination as the glinting steel blade slid above and by me. It clipped off a single rebellious curly red hair strand.

Mimicking a scene right out of a bad action movie, I reached my hand down to my pocket to draw the first of my stored handguns. Managing to not fumble or drop it, I have the gun in my hand and aimed in the general direction of the extended arm that held the sword that almost chopped my head in two.

I slammed into the ground and fired. Once, twice, three times. I just shot wildly at the extended arm above me. I squeezed the trigger over and over until the gun made a worrying click.

The screech of pain and the mist of red that came out of the arm of Orochimaru was satisfying, until I saw his murderous eyes glaring down at me. He still held the sword, and had followed through completely. He was now in perfect position to slash downwards at me and turn me into the human equivalent of a hotdog bun.

My free hand raced for my other pistol, but with the speed he had already demonstrated I knew I wouldn't make it on an intellectual level.

"Shadow possession complete," the voice to the left of me announced. I saw the eyes of Orochimaru widen as his movement halted for just a pair of heartbeats, all the time I needed.

As if guided by the best choreographer in Hollywood, my hand grasped the other pistol, pulled it out of my pocket while also raising the muzzle to point directly into the man standing before me. I squeezed the trigger.

A hit, center mass right in the chest. My arm fought the recoil perfectly, I squeezed again. And again, and again. His body jerked and spasmed as round after round of .45 acp turned his insides into jelly.

Before I knew it I had squeezed off 7 rounds in the pistol, all dead center into the chest of the still standing Orochimaru. His eyes still locked onto me, a collage of pain, hatred, and surprise. His howl of pain and rage failed to cut into my fear induced high.

The moment was brief as a flash of light and heat filled my vision, obscuring the form of the man. One second he was there, the next my eyes were filled with fire.

The blindness was brief as the ball of fire shot out of my perception and towards the wall. My eyes darted to the origin of the fireball. Sasuke and Hinata were both running towards us, their eyes focused on us. A gasp hissed from behind my line of site. I flipped my body, my back now facing upwards, while simultaneously I raised my head and pistol towards the sound.

Orochimaru leaned against the entranceway, staring at me.

"You've proven to be more interesting than I would've expected. I think I'll go claim my prize from an alternate source, if it doesn't work I'll just claim the original Sharingan again. So long for now." He hissed. He quickly ran through a set of hand gestures, before slamming them into the ground.

A wall of stone rose up and sealed the entranceway into the throne room. The fear that had consumed me drained away and I sagged in relief. I released a breath I didn't know I had been holding in.

I had somehow managed to not die against a guy who by all accounts was one of the meanest and deadliest people on the entire continent. Go me. Now all that was left was somehow dealing with Albert before he killed us all, and not getting captured by the Leaf ninja sent to scoop up Sasuke. Maybe, I could just let them have him. I mean he was just running away, and we didn't kill any of them so he might be fine. Heck, they could even let me go scot free. It could make life so easy.

No, like it or not I was tied to him by our shared knowledge of the hidden relics left behind by the people of my world. If I was the only one who could read and understand the language, then the village wouldn't let me just scamper off. They would keep me as a way for them to secure whatever was actually left, and at this point I wasn't so sure it was a good idea for anyone to have access to whatever had been left behind. I would have to think on this more, but for now Sasuke and I were riding and dying together.

"Ahem," a female voice prompted, snapping me out of my thinking. I looked over to see the miffed face of Ino staring at me. I raised a questioning eyebrow to her silent judgement. She tilted her head downwards, drawing my eyes to the fact that my shoulder was smashed into her side. I must have rolled a bit too much in my panic, and not noticed the close contact.

"Oh shit my bad," I yammered as I scooted backwards and pushed myself into an upright sitting position. Before she could respond, a pair of hands clenched under my armpits and yanked me up into a standing position.

"Fights not over," muttered Sasuke. This drew all the eyes of the Leaf Ninja in front of me.

"Uchiha," Shikamaru growled icily, his eyes hard and focused. Ino just glanced between Sasuke and me. Shino, who had been shielded from the entire scuffle just stepped forward, no discernable emotion marking his face.

"Nara," Sasuke responded with equal coolness. The awkward silence lasted ten seconds before I grew impatient.

"Alright enough's enough, you guys can finish the dick measuring contest later. Right now, we need to figure out how to not get vaporized by Mr. Shiny and Angry." I flicked my thumb to the general mass of dust that Asuma and Albert were located within. My profanity breaking the spell of awkwardness, everyone's eyes focused on me.

"We?" Ino asked, the question dripping with incredulity.

"Yes, WE. Listen, I frankly don't really have anything against you guys, we may have started off on the wrong foot. Right now, whatever conflicts and history are between you guys and us," I pointed to them and then to Sasuke and myself. "Those conflicts are irrelevant, Mr. Shiny there will kill us all regardless, so it's in our best interest to work together and defeat him. Then, we can settle whatever issues are between us. Got it?" I prompted. A pregnant silence followed my browbeating, before Shikamaru sighed.

"Your right, it does us no good to die in here. Do you have a plan already in mind?" He said, the tense atmosphere evaporating away.

"I do," I said before looking around and spotting the person who would have the information I needed.

"Hey, you have the chakra seeing Byakugan thing right?" I said pointing at Hinata. She shrunk back from my attention.

"Y-yes," she whispered.

"So did you see what happened when you did that palm strike thing against Mr. Shiny? I swore you punched a hole through the shield," I continued.

"Yes, the gentle fist did seem to weaken his shield," She answered.

"Did you also see the gem in the center of his chest pulse right after?"

"Yes, that was the origin of the chakra that reformed the shield."

"Okay, good that what I hoped for, if that's the case then we might have a way to beat him." I said before I quickly laid out the details for the rest of my plan.

In short, I would distract Albert enough so that Hinata could close in and deliver one of her Gentle Fist strike's to Albert's shield, preferably the front facing part of the shield. Shino would use his chakra eating bugs to get inside and eat at the chakra that would rush to reform the shield, while Shikamaru used his Shadow Possession to hold Albert still. Hopefully, long enough for either Ino or Sasuke to deliver a blow to shatter or break the gem that seemed to be powering his armor.

It wasn't a good plan by any means, and it had a million ways it could go wrong. But, it was the best I was able to come up with that seemed to have the best chance of negating the shield that Albert was using.

It wasn't a second too late either, because just as I had finished explaining the plan. A cry came from where Asuma and Albert had been battling. Looking over, I saw that Asuma was down and was almost about to be finished off, so I sprung up and yelled the first insult that came to mind.

"Hey! Tommy! Did I tell you that your fellow black and tans got their ass kicked by the Irish!" I hollered as I broke into a run for my dropped Lewis gun. This seemed to get him riled up and he whirled towards me.

"What!" He howled in outrage.

"Yeah! That's right your tea drinking buddies got their ass beat by Paddy O'Flannigan and his catholic buddies!" I egged him even further.

"You impudent simpleton!" He roared. I reached and scooped up my Lewis gun, training it on him. I opened fire.

Bullets pounded into the shield, doing nothing but annoying him further. He leveled his palm at me, forcing me to roll to the side as a beam of searing energy attempted to cut me down.

"Were you one of those poor bastards who lost to a bunch of Dutch farmers?" I taunted resuming my firing. The gun chattered and bucked in my grip, but I kept it on target. My taunt earned me another beam of energy I had to dodge. Before I could rise to start firing again a gauntleted fist came out of nowhere and planted into my gut.

I found myself flying for a moment, unable to breath, my machine gun lost in the blow. This brief experience as a cannonball ended when I slammed back first into a wall. It felt like I had been whacked with a baseball bat in my guts before being hit by a speeding train. My vision went blurry and I felt the unpleasant sensation of every organ in my body doing their best to escape out of my body. I crumpled to the ground.

Time and feeling seemed to melt away from my conscious mind, though my memory still continued to work and feed me clear information the second I experienced it. It was odd, I wasn't able to access the conscious streams of data my senses were gathering. But, I was able to access the memory of those senses the very moment they were written to my memory. It was as if I was experiencing things through a stream that had a half second delay.

This delayed experience allowed me to feel myself be grabbed and lifted up by my neck. My limp body was raised to eye level, so my eyes could meet those of Albert. Fear bubbled up from my guts, and I felt the claws of panic try to tear their way into my emotional state.

"When I'm done with you and your friends, I'm going to make sure your pathetic excuse for a country is razed to dust. I'll make sure that everyone knows which impudent little child insulted me to do such a thing. Your parents, friends, and family will all know your big mouth will be responsible for their deaths." His eyes flashed a crimson red.

"Up yours," I gurgled in response. His face twisted into even more enraged sneer before twisting into a wicked grin.

"For that insult, I'll kill you, then resurrect you so you can watch your family die before I kill you again," He snarled, tightening the grip around my neck. I lost the ability to suck in air for the witty response I had planned.

My vision started to close in as I felt the pressure around me tighten, all sensory information being drowned out by the pain of my neck. Even the dispassionate analysis and recall of my memory started to be fuzzed over as recalled pain layered over more recalled pain.

I was going to die. I was 100% going to die. This truth fractured what little control I had over my own mind and I was flooded with the experience of every second of life since I had started to remember things.

All of the sensations, feelings, experiences, and ideas all crashing together at the speed of thought inside my squishy brain. I was subsumed, and overwritten.

Fear and pain vanished. Their experience being diluted to nothing, by the combined force of my pasts. In their place the feelings of safety and confidence filled my soul. I was Roger Walker, and I had been confident and safe for a lot longer than I had been scared and in pain. I would not die afraid, I would live!

The sense of closing and despair that had sealed me off from my senses evaporated, and I came awake to the present. I was Roger Walker; I was being choked to death by a crazy Englishman in golden armor.

My reawakening must have been evident on my face because Albert flinched backwards. My body ached, my neck felt like it was in between a pair of pliers, and I had a bitching headache, but I was not dead yet.

My arms felt heavy, but I still had control of them. I focused on my left arm and I demanded it respond. Putting all of my anger, defiance, and raw spite into my command I order it to punch back. I willed the muscles to tense up and strike back, my chakra pulsing and flowing to aid the tissue in its task.

"Fuck you," I gurgled though it came out as a generally intelligible string of grunts. I swung an upward flowing left hook. I put everything I had into the fist. It came inches from his face before being stopped by his damned energy shield.

His eyes widened and darted to the fist. I kept pushing, putting all my reserves of strength and emotion into getting that fist to meet his face. The shield pushed back, so I pushed even harder. The shield shuddered and started to spark. I pushed harder. His eyes widened in alarm. I put every last ounce of energy into my arm. The shield sparked and bowed inwards. I was going to get him!

The grip around my neck tightened to unbearable levels. I didn't care, I was going to knock the stupid son of bitch silly. His eyes narrowed in concentration, before shooting wide open. His mouth opened.

A flash of light, and a familiar sound cut into my single minded focus. The sound of birds chirping, and a brightness that mirrored the sun. It appeared for a moment, then disappeared, then reappeared in front of me. The noise and light blinded me, the grip on my neck grew tighter then slackened.

A hand protruded from the spot where the gem had lay within Albert's chest. A hand covered in dripping red blood. My eyes snapped back to Albert's, I saw panic, fear, and pain cross his expression in a single moment. Then, the icy unnatural blue in his eyes seemingly poured away and I was left staring at unfamiliar brown eyes. The grip on me loosened, and gravity pulled me to the ground.

My chest heaved drawing in fresh air before expelling in it a fit of coughs. My vision widening as a black tunneling that I hadn't noticed until now receded. Albert collapsed to his knees then crumpled onto this side.

Behind him stood Sasuke, and the others all of their gazes fixed on me. I coughed again, before sucking a deep breath of cool refreshing air. I was alive. A noise pierced the dreamlike fog that had settled over my mind. It was sobbing.

My eyes tracked the sound to the face of Albert, who looked nothing like he had just moments ago. His face contorted in pain and fear.

"H-H-help," he whined, "Maa, Help!" T

He didn't sound like a crazed ancient man, he sounded like a scared boy.

"I don't wanna die mom!" He burbled. Something in me twinged, and before I could realize it I had dragged myself over to him. He was face down in the ground, his body sideways. Unthinkingly, I rolled him over to his back and held his head up.

Brown eyes focused on me.

"Help me! h-he put me in that machine and then I wasn't in control. I was trapped - had to watch! He made me do evil things!" He wailed in English.

"It's gonna be okay," I found myself saying as I cradled his head. Tears streamed down his face.

"Nuh, I'mma die here! I'mma never gon' to see my ma or da again! Ma'll think I died a coward. I'm not a coward, I'm not!" He wailed.

"You're a brave boy, they know you're not a coward," I soothed.

"I was just a tryna be brave, me brother was fighting in the war. They said they needed sailors, so I snuck onto a ship, was gonna show how brave I was," He blubbered.

"You are brave. It's going to be okay," I lied. Lies that tore into parts of me that I didn't know I had. His eyes locked onto me and they cleared for a moment.

"You gotta stop them! You have to stop them!" He said in a panic yelp.

"Who? Who do I have to stop?" I said.

"The other's, the ones Al put to sleep, but now that he's dead they're gonna wake up! They're gonna go home! Ma's in danger!" He stammered in panic.

"Others?"

"In the book! This book!" He patted the book attached to his belt.

"You gotta stop em, you gotta save me ma and da!"

"I will stop them; no harm will come to your parents."

"Promise, you gotta promise," he begged.

"I promise," I said solemnly.

"If ya can, tell'em I wasn't a coward, tell'em I was brave. Tell'em Sean Hooper was brave and didn't mean to hurt anyone. Please!" He begged. I felt tears of my own threaten to spill, but I swallowed them.

"I'll tell'em you were the bravest, don't worry Sean. I'll tell everyone," I said, my voice warbling. This seemed to ease the panic and fear in him, as his expression became serene and unfocused.

"Thank you, there's a tunnel behind the throne. It goes to the surface, this place is gonna fall now," he murmured.

"Okay, I'll escape and stop 'em. I'll tell them it was thanks to you Sean Hooper that everyone will be safe," I stammered tears streaming down my face. He smiled a distant forgetful smile.

"Thank you, I trust you now I'm gonna take a quick nap to rest my eyes," He muttered, his eyelids closing. His chest rising one final time before exhaling and smiling the calmest smile I had ever seen. He didn't move again.

Something deep inside broke, and I let out a wail of grief. My eyes blurred over as I mourned the death of a person whose spark of life had died in my arms. Time melted away for a terrible moment. Sean Hooper, brave boy, was dead. He was dead because of me.

A firm grip rested on my shoulder, snapping me back to the moment I looked up. Seeing the firm gaze of Sasuke Uchiha staring down at me, he saw something and looked away. I swiveled my head and met the gazes of the Leaf ninja who had hours before been trying to hurt me. I took in the looks they gave me, but I didn't process them. I was numb.

*Crack*

A loud cracking emanated from all around, and I snapped back to reality.

"We need to get out of here, there's an escape tunnel behind the throne." I said dully.

Sasuke being the person of action reached down and snapped up the book that had been held to the belt. He gave me a pair of shoulder squeezes, and then threw a smoke bomb into the ground. He yanked me upwards onto my feet.

"We need to go!" He ordered.

Working on Autopilot I followed his grip as he led me out of the smoke to the throne. The Leaf ninja were all shouting and stumbling around. Reaching the throne, I spotted a track that had been etched into the ground. Sasuke grabbed the edge of the throne and pulled. It swung out like a door revealing an illuminated passage that angled upwards.

I turned back to the Leaf ninja we had left behind. They had gotten their bearings and had just noticed the appearance of the escape tunnel. I saw Asuma being helped along by Shino.

"Will they be okay?" I asked.

"Yes! Now let's go or else we aren't going to make it very far!" Sasuke growled giving my shoulder another tug. I turned and followed him.

We ran up the tunnel as quickly as our battered bodies could take us. At the end we reached what looked like a pair of double doors that were latched with a crossbar. Sasuke lifted the crossbar out of the latch and pushed on the doors. They swung open revealing a lush forest ahead.

We took off into the forest. The one concession I earned was that we waited behind a tree out of sight. When the exhausted and disheveled voices of the Leaf ninja reached our ears we bolted. We put several miles between us and the exit doors before turning about and setting course for the Land of Waterfalls and hopefully Tsunoda. Sasuke had readily agreed that hiding out with a trusted ally would be ideal until we could plan our next move.

We traveled in silence. It was a pleasant silence.

Side Story: The Debriefing

September 24th Near Midnight, 2016 RY

Konoha

Conference Room

"So in summary, they got away?" Tsunade asked as her mouth contorted into a frown.

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Asuma Sarutobi confirmed with a small head bow. Tsunade sighed, reaching over, and taking a swig of her Sake. It was late.

Asuma's team had arrived a couple hours after sundown, battered and bruised. Tsunade had been just about to call it day when they had stumbled through the gates of Konoha. This forced her to call a meeting of the minds, to debrief the returning team. They met in one of the main conference rooms that were sprinkled around the Hokage Tower.

In attendance were the clan heads, Anko, the jounin sensei, Homura, Koharu, and Danzo. In short, everyone who mattered was present.

"Anyone have any questions?" Tsunade said, yielding the floor.

"Can you confirm if the cursed seal was really removed?" Anko asked immediately. Asuma looked over to the hunched over Hinata Hyuga and gestured.

"A-as far as my Byakugan could tell I could see no trace of any foreign chakra within Uchiha-sans body," Hinata stammered, glancing at her stern faced father.

"We have to find this kid and figure out how he did it," Anko muttered.

"Did you gain any hint as to how he removed the seal in the first place?" Kakashi inquired. Asuma shook his head.

"No, the fact that he had broken the seal was only mentioned twice. Once when he had him captured and another when he was taunting Orochimaru," Asuma stated.

"Kid must have had balls of steel or be really stupid," Anko murmured.

"Can you confirm that Sasuke Uchiha is not in the possession of Orochimaru?" Danzo probed.

"No, but it seems highly unlikely. Whatever weapon that kid used did a lot of damage, I would highly suspect that as of this moment, Orochimaru is not in a position to make another play at Sasuke," Asuma explained.

"Which brings up another question, who is this person with Uchiha? Where are they from? Why do they speak in a language that no-one has ever heard of? How are they using amazing weapons capable of matching the strength of one of the Sanin? And how did they stumble upon a hidden underground place in a valley that has been surveyed at least a dozen times?" Homura rattled off. Tsunade cut in.

"All of those are good questions, however I suspect approximations to answers can only be found time and self-reflection. We can do later debriefings to piece together the information, for now let's just stick to the basic facts," Tsunade said gracefully shutting down a line of questions that would go nowhere fast.

"I have a question, what do you mean the boy had a perfect memory?" Kurenai piped up. Ino didn't need any prompting to speak up.

"It is common knowledge that the Yamanaka Mind Possession Jutsu, does not access memories. Controlling a body is a difficult thing, and adding in a component that would allow for accessing memories would stretch the concentration and abilities to the breaking point," Ino glanced at her father, who nodded in approval.

"When I possessed Roger's body. I was immediately flooded with a stream of perfectly recalled images, sensations, and feelings. I had full access to every sight, smell, and sensation he experienced that morning and many other mornings. I was able to count the number of leaves on every tree we jogged by during my part of the initial trap plan. It made controlling him extremely difficult," She relayed.

"Ah, so is that how he broke free?" Kurenai followed up. Ino shook her head.

"No, it was difficult, but I was managing to keep in control of him. Then, he did something to himself." She trailed off.

"Did something?" Kurenai prompted.

"It's like he had actually conscious control of his memory recall, and he opened the floodgates fully. For a moment it was like I experienced every second of Roger's life in perfect detail, and then he found me inside him, and he beat me out of his head." Ino said almost to herself. A far off look clouding her eyes.

"Concerning, Inochi I trust you'll take care to examine and observe Ms. Yamanaka to ensure she has no issues that could be lingering?" Tsunade asked, focusing on Inochi.

"Yes Hokage-sama, I will ensure she is thoroughly checked and observed." Inochi said.

"Good, so this leaves us with a final question. what do we do now?" Tsunade asked. The question hung in the air for a moment.

"We track him and recover him. We cannot afford for the last Uchiha to fall into the hands of another village," Koharu stated.

"That's assuming we can even find him again, what if they go completely silent. We don't have the manpower to search an entire continent," Tsunade countered.

"They're two kids, how well can they hide from the entire espionage apparatus of a great village?" Homura responded.

"That remains to be seen. Although, if they do appear again I support another capture attempt," Shikaku commented.

"So we wait for them to just pop up again? For all we know Iwa or Kumo could already know where they are! It would be cataclysmic if Onoki got his hands on the Sharingan!" Koharu objected.

"I doubt Iwa, Kumo or really anyone else knows where they are at the moment. If they did they'd be mobilizing a massive force to secure them. We haven't seen any movement from either of them," Tsunade placated.

"So then what do we do!" Koharu exclaimed, throwing up her hands.

"Enough!" Tsunade commanded. The room fell silent, small side conversations died away.

"The facts have been laid out; we're not going to get any closer to a solution by arguing all night. It's been a long day; we can sleep on the facts we know and pick up the discussion again tomorrow." Tsunade fixed everyone with a glare. A chorus of nods met her declaration.

"What do you think?" Tsunade asked. The meeting had adjourned, and she had returned back to the Hokage tower. Jiraiya, leaned against a wall staring out at the night skyline of the village.

"About?" He said.

"You damn well know what!" Tsunade snapped. Jiraiya sighed.

"If he's well and truly out of Orochimaru's reach and can remain so, it might be better to let him remain outside of the village," Jiraiya mused.

"You can't be serious," Tsunade accused.

"I am. The old man perhaps gave some people too long of a leash in his later years," Jiraiya noted.

"Danzo? He wouldn't dare try anything."

"Wouldn't he? He'd have the justification to make a push for taking Sasuke under his "personal" tutelage. He's had a long time to cultivate relationships and gain favors," Jiraiya said, pushing away from the wall and walking up to the Hokage desk.

"I'd still block it." Tsunade defended.

"I'm not sure you'd be able to, there's a lot of antipathy from the clans towards the last Uchiha. I would be convenient to a lot of them, if he could be leashed and used to build a more "loyal" Uchiha clan. Your position is still unstable, and if he was willing to cash in enough favors I could see him pulling it off," Jiraiya said as he picked up Tsunade's bottle of Sake and took a long pull from it. This gave Tsuande time to run through her head to the hypothetical, she blanched.

"Gimme that," She snapped, swiping the bottle from Jiraiya, and taking an even bigger pull.

"What the hell do we do?" She said after downing a fortifying amount of the liquor.

"Depends, I think I'm going to go on a little "errand" out of the village for a bit." Jiraiya mused.

"If you find them?"

"I'll improvise. If they seem like they're gonna be able to keep away from Orochimaru, I'll see if I can work something out so they can stay in contact, but out of reach of Orochimaru, Danzo, and the other villages."

"And if it seems like they won't?" Tsunade asked.

"I'll improvise something else," Jiraiya said with a shrug. Tsunade barked a derisive laugh.

"You don't do much to instill confidence," Tsunade grumbled.

"It's a difficult situation," he responded with a shrug.

"Will you bring Naruto?"

"No, the last thing he needs is more chaos. Let him simmer down and go on some more missions here. It should put him in the right mood for the training trip," Jiraiya replied.

"You're a crafty bastard, you know that?" Tsunade said with a chuckle.

"It's one of my best traits," Jiraiya said with a smile before he disappeared out the window.

Tsunade frowned, she hated it when he did that.

Post Chapter Author's Note: And there marks the end of chapter five! Hopefully, the story and its characters are really starting to take shape. I know my understanding of where I want to go with this is much greater compared to when I finished the previous chapter.

Similarly, I hope you enjoyed the "little" side story that I tacked on at the end. The world keeps turning even if our protagonists aren't there to see it. I hope little stories like this among other supplemental material will help in firming out the details of the story and world I'm doing my best to mold and tell.

Anyway, I think Ino is going to play a much bigger role in the story than initially planned, definitely in relation to Roger. I'm not sure if I'm willing to call it a pairing, or indicate that it's an endgame, but the more scene's I write them in, the surer I get that it will at least be an interesting dynamic. Though, if that changes based on what the exact situation is later in the story I'm not sure.

Finally, I would like to thank you for hanging around this long to read this little passion project of mine. I hope my skills to write and entertain are rising with each passing chapter. I do intend to go back and bring the old chapters up to a higher level of quality I'm sure I can do now. I also plan on adding more side stories, addendums, and other little goodies at the end of previously posted chapters to add more juicy details to the story. Anyway, thank you for reading this far! If I've captured your interest please I want to hear your thoughts! Engagement is what keeps me motivated to keep writing.