Chapter 6: Wait, that one?
Disclaimer: Disclaimers don't actually mean or do anything, but tradition is tradition. I do not claim any ownership of Naruto.
Preceding Authors Note: - Well I fucked this one up bad, whoops. Anyway enjoy chapter 6 version 1.0. (That's what we call foreshadowing *wink*)
November 28th Mid Morning, 2016 RY
Courlaburgh, Capital City of the Westeri Clandom
Docks
"Now you boys, keep safe, okay!" A grizzled man yelled at Sasuke as I descended the boarding ramp of the Lucky Dice. The ship we had taken all the way from snow country to Greenwater Lagoon, the land of the Westeri. The man in question was the captain of said vessel.
"Don't worry about a thing Captain, I'll make sure this knucklehead stays safe!" I yelled back.
"He means you numbskull or did you forget who got kidnapped in Port Westpoint," Sasuke sniped, a grin curling his lips.
"I'm sorry, did you forget which one of us got drugged and nearly married off to a foreign princess? Because if my memory's not failing me I'd swear that happened to someone with spinning eyes and a god complex, not a handsome and dashing redhead." I said, stopping and turning my head to affect a heroic pose. This earned a couple laughs from the crew of the Lucky Dice. The ship that had been our de facto home for a month.
Despite several misadventures, Sasuke and I arrived at Courlaburgh, with all of our limbs still attached, our spirits high, and our risk of melanoma only slightly raised. It was after a day our two in snow country that we had stumbled upon the Lucky Dice, who luckily enough was heading where we were going. Unfortunately, they weren't taking passengers so Sasuke and I had been forced to sign on as temporary crew for the voyage. One month later, we had managed to not make friends with the crew, but survive a couple little "incidents" that otherwise would've been the end of us.
What mattered was that we had made it, and in one piece no less. I turned back to the Captain and watched the crew.
"You bastards better buy my biography when I'm famous!" I yelled at the crew who were watching us from the railings. This sparked a chorus of laughter.
"If ya give it to me for free, I'll make sure to use it as my favorite paperweight!" One of the crew members teased, causing the others to laugh even harder.
"Go shove it!" I yelled back in mock outrage. This prompted more laughter.
"Good luck you two!" One of the crew yelled, as they waved to us. We waved back as we continued to head into the city.
"Thanks!" I yelled back.
Over the past month we had been through a variety of adventures being crew members of the Lucky Dice. Now we had to execute our plan of figuring out who the hell this Chiron guy was and if we could find him.
We went to a tried and true method of searching, Bar crawling and asking around. It was morning, but in a big port city like this the taverns always had patrons. So Sasuke and I went around and caruoused through the various establishments of the city.
In our carousing I learned several things both directly and indirectly from our interactions with the folk of the city. First off there was some definite meaning to the shared last names a lot of the people all shared.
I mean to say that when we introduced ourselves to people they would go first name, last name, and then middle name or what I guess was middle name. Though, there were some who only introduced themselves with first and last names.
Secondly, the way people would treat us before and after we had spoken our names was odd. Some would go from the usual fake politeness to being standoffish almost immediately, while others would go from the same fake politeness to a more relaxed posture and demeanor. The real kicker was that almost perfectly those who used 3 names would be standoffish, while those with two would relax. There was some real importance to those who had 3 names and those who didn't, it's just that no one seemed to want to talk about it.
Though that oddness aside, Courlaburgh was a normal city in this world. Electricity was widely used for both lighting and appliances. Architecture was a mix of both traditional and contemporary styles. Though, the traditional style seemed to be more in line with Mediterranean fashion rather than the usual vaguely eastern aesthetic that other cities had. In short it was like any other city I had visited in my time here in this new world.
Our fact finding took a majority of the morning and midday before we were able to get a lead. A bearded fisherman recognized the name Chiron and gave us a location and directions to the apparent abode of Chiron. He was some sort of hill hermit that lived on one of the bigger islands in the south of the archipelago, Manckestor Cay.
We spent another hour trying to secure transport to Manckestor Cay. The real interesting part of that experience was how varying the ships that sat in the harbor, catamarans, trimarans, clinker constructed long boats, and ocean worthy caravels. It was a total showroom of every kind of sea going vessel that was constructable with non-modern materials. It was like a meeting of every Yacht club in the world minus the collared shirts, and ugly sunglasses.
It was only through dumb luck that Sasuke chanced upon a captain who was going to the island of Manckestor Cay, the supposed home of Chiron. The three hulled outrigger canoe that the captain called his own cut gracefully through the waves. We passed other boats of varying shapes and sizes as they cut their own path across the calm waters of the lagoon.
The term lagoon was a bit of a misnomer, when describing the area. In reality, it was a 100 mile wide archipelago that was enclosed by barrier islands to then form an inland sea that was itself populated and dotted with islands and smaller lagoons, but the whole overall enclosed sea area was shallow and fertile, so it was easier to call it a lagoon, rather than the nerdier and more accurate inland sea label. Because technicalities were for chumps.
It only took two hours for the canoe to navigate itself onto the white sandy beach of Manckestor Cay. We helped the captain pull his canoe ashore and into his reserved spot. He gave us directions to Chirons cabin and bid us farewell.
Manckestor Cay's main township was a place of incongruities, three storied white buildings flanking paved streets which thrumbed with people. Stalls lined the streets as merchants peddled all sorts of foods and wares. The building architectural style was something akin to Mediterranean coastal cities. Tiled roofs, white painted stucco, and open air balconies featured prominently. Oil powered street lamps lined the sidewalks, while lanterns hung from balconies.
The locals were very friendly, as evidenced by the fact we had to ask at least 4 different people for directions as we were continuously getting mixed up in the mess of winding roads. Eventually though we made it out of what the locals called White Sand Cove and began following a winding path that seemed to snake up away from the coast and go into the foothills that seemed to make up the interior of the island.
As we walked we saw small farms, and ranches dot the countryside. We saw farmers out in the fields along with ranchers herding sheep, goats, and cows. It looked a bit like the fairytale countryside of England. It was starting to get into the late afternoon, as the sun dipped ever closer to the horizon.
"Well, this is quaint," I quipped. Sasuke grunted in acknowledgement.
"You know if this where we need to hide out for a while, I'd be a-okay with that," I mused as I took in the countryside, my eyes tracing the rolling hills, the wooden fences, and the animals that grazed in the green pastures.
"What makes you think this place is worth it? All I see is country bumpkins and fishermen, not really a prime location to find a trainer," Sasuke responded.
"Weather seems to be nice and the people are relaxed. It could be a good environment to set up shop so we can search for whatever was left here," I reasoned. Sasuke nodded in acknowledgement before craning his head left and right in an apparent search.
"Do you honestly think we can find the other thing that's supposed to be here," He asked in a low voice. Eyes widening I scoured our surroundings to see if we were alone. Fortunately, the only thing that surrounded us was unblemished hills and open fields.
"I thought you said, we had to be more careful talking about those things," I hissed back. During our journey on the Lucky Dice my carefree attitude towards information had gotten me in a bit of trouble, when an overheard statement drew the attention of the wrong person. It all turned out fine, but after being kidnapped and almost ransomed off to the highest bidder I was now doing my utmost to try and have tighter lips. In response to my concern Sasuke only rolled his eyes.
"We won't be overheard, I'm sure of it."
"You weren't the one who got kidnapped and beaten silly," I sniped. Sasuke just stared at me impassively, I sighed.
"Fine, secrecy aside. I'm pretty sure we are at least in the right place to start searching for whatever Alberts posse of mad scientists left laying around. Though, I have a feeling it's going to be a bit harder here than with that lab near Koham," I mused.
"How so?"
"Well, for one thing I've already seen hints in the local names and words which indicates that there were definitely people who were with Albert here, the problem is that there are a lot of fucking hints. That means we are going to have a lot of dead ends and false leads before we catch the scent of the correct trail," I explained. I already had some guesses of where we might start our search, but didn't voice them. No need to get into weeds before we figured out our situation.
"Makes sense, we can talk more though later. I can see someone coming down the road," Sasuke murmured.
I snapped my eyes up and spotted the figure, who was an indistinct mass of tan cloth.
"What do we do?" I whispered.
"Act natural," Sasuke murmured.
"How the hell am I supposed to do that when you point out how unnatural I'm acting."
"Forget I said anything at all," Sasuke replied.
"Oh yeah totally why didn't I ever think about just forgetting things. It would've solved so many of my life issues," I snarled.
"Are you incapable of not acting like a moron," Sasuke hissed.
My reply died in my throat as the figure who approached us raised their hand, came into more clarity.
Rapidly closing the distance was a tall girl. She had curly red hair, freckles, and a wide smile on her face. The local dress style of loose airy shirts and shorts did its job to highlight she was a hard working athlete. In short, she was kinda cute.
"Hello there! Are you two heading to Master Chirons house?" She asked as she came up to us.
"How did you-?" I began to ask how she knew we were trying to find the Chiron guy before she cut me off with a laugh.
"The only time strangers ever visit her is if they are trying to convince Ol'e Chiron to train 'em. And, yes it's clear you're outsiders, the clothes give it away," she answered with a grin that made my stomach do a flip flop.
"Ah, I guess it makes sense," I mumbled, suddenly interested in the pebbles near my shoe for a bit.
"My name's Moira, Moria Manckestor. And you guys are?"
"Sasuke Uchiha, it's nice to meet you," Sasuke held out his hand, which Moira shook. Her eyes then turned towards me.
"And what's your name?" She said, turning her gaze towards me.
"Oh, me? Uh, I'm Roger. Nice to meet you." I mumbled, my gaze drifting downwards. I heard a snort come from Sasuke.
"Well it's good to meet both of you, are you two perhaps heading to Master Chiron's place?" She asked. We both nod.
"Good, this is the right road to take. I can show ya the rest of the way, I take lessons from him. It might help you two if I make introductions" Moira offered.
"We would appreciate that," Sasuke answered.
"Great! Let's go," Moira said, turning around and leading us up the path. She chatted happily with us as we walked. Mostly about the town, local places of interest, and all the nice hiking trails.
Sasuke was surprisingly pleasant for once, being a relatively active participant in the conversation. Though for Sasuke that was him just making the all perfunctory hmm's and oh's of interest, and asking the occasional follow up question that kept Moira talking.
She was a bit of a chatterbox, though not in the airhead way. She just seemed to have a lot of pride in her community, and was eager to share about it.
Moira acted as our guide, taking us up the winding trail to where Chrion lived. She was curious as to what would bring a couple of outsiders to see Chiron, we answered in vaugeries. Thankfully, the tales of our misadventures at sea stole her attention and spared us from more difficult to answer questions. The fields and farms gave way to a lightly wooded forest.
After another 30 minutes of walking the forest gave way to a wide clearing.
In the center of the clearing stood a moderately sized compound, surrounded by gardens. The compound had several buildings all ringed by a chest high wall of white stucco. The architecture style continued to go with the classic mediterranean that seemed to be the norm in the area.
In front of the house were two figures, one of them practicing with a wooden sword, and the other sitting on the porch watching him.
"Master Chiron!" Moira yelled while waving her hand. The figure on the porch raised his hand in acknowledgement.
"Come on, let me introduce you to him," she said, her pace picking up to a light jog. Sasuke and I followed after.
"Who are these friends of yours Moira?" The sitting person said. With a head topped by white hair, brown eyes crinkled in humor, and a wry smile on his face. Draped in brown robes, he looks like the ideal figure of a wise old mentor stereotype.
"Two guys who have apparently come a long way to meet you, I just met them on the road returning home," Moira replied.
"Ah, so they've finally arrived. Thank you Moira, I can make sure these two young gentlemen are taken care of. If your father scolds you for being late, tell him to chat with me," Chiron said with a warm smile. In the meantime, alarm bells were ringing in my head. What the hell did, "so they've finally arrived" mean? I could think of several implications and none of them were explicitly good for us. I glanced over at Sasuke who seemed similarly tense at the connotation.
"Thanks Master Chiron!" Moira said before turning on her heels and jogging back down the path. Chiron's eye lingered on her for a moment before moving onto a different focus.
"Owain, is practice over yet?" Chiron asked in a sarcastic tone, following his gaze I realized the boy who had been practicing with a sword had stopped and was watching us.
"No Master Chiron, sorry." Owain answered before resuming his practice. Now Chirons eye's settled on us, his gaze carrying a weight and power I had never felt before. His eyes seemed to bore right down to my very core, understanding all that I was as a person in a singular instance. It was disconcerting, but also comforting at the same time.
"Did someone tell you about our intentions to visit you?" Sasuke asked, snapping me out of my reverie. Chiron's smile widened in apparent mirth.
"No, not in the way you worry about young Uchiha," Sasuke stiffened, this caused Chiron's smile to widen even more.
"But how?" I blurted out.
"The world around us can tell us many things, if only one actually listens to what it tries to share. The winds and the waves can carry much, and tell the secrets of those who think them hidden. I understand why you are here, young Uchiha. You come in search of the strength and power to strike back at the one who wronged you. And you," he pointed at me.
"A stranger in a strange land. Gifted in both mind and body, yet you have nothing to drive you. You drift like a boat without a rudder, always moving but never getting anywhere." Chiron's eyes darted between the two of us, the crooked smile plastered on his face.
I was caught in a mixture of astonishment and anger at the old man's words. He didn't know me or what I had been dealing with, where did he get off on being such a know-it-all prick. Anger was good because it let me happily ignore the small voice in my head that said there was deep truth in his words.
"Names?" He said snapping me out of the fugue.
"Huh?" I said dumbly. He laughed.
"Can I know you two fine young men's names?" He asked, his eyes twinkling in amusement.
"Oh, uhh. I'm Roger, Roger Walker." I stammered out, Chiron nodded.
"Sasuke Uchiha," Sasuke said in a seemingly perfectly calm voice. Chiron again nodded.
"You wish me to train you," He stated with absolute certainty. I blinked. I blinked again.
"I never said that," Sasuke responded.
"You didn't have to say anything at all. I will train both of you under two conditions" Chiron said.
"One. Throughout the course of your training you will act as a loyal and blood member of the Embradi, taking on all the obligations and responsibilities that are entailed with such a position. If you are to reside here and learn from me, you will pitch in as a good citizen of the community." Chiron stated with steel in his gaze.
"If these obligations interfere with my goal, then I can't accept your offer," Sasuke replied.
"They won't, and if you disagree at any point you can leave."
My head was spinning from how quickly things were progressing. This old man seemed to have it all planned out, it was scary how quickly the idea of training with him seemed to be growing in my mind.
"Wait wait, slow down here. So you're saying you've been expecting us, and have planned for us to already accept your offer. Despite us not knowing your nor you us? Furthermore, we have to join in whatever weird clan thing you guys have going on here?"
"Yes," Chiron replied with a small smile plastered across his face.
"What's your second condition?" Sasuke cut in before I could explain where Chiron could go shove his predictions.
"You will follow my directions as they relate to training and acting within the community without hesitation or question. Now you can ask me questions, but when I say jump I expect you to be in the air before you ask me how high, clear?" Chiron stated, any trace of humor absent from his voice. His face formed into a steely mask of sternness. The change was dramatic and a complete non-sequitur.
I stiffened at the tone change as my heart started to race. Chiron stared right back at me, his expression unchanging. I didn't waver and stared right back. We stayed like that for almost 10 seconds before Chiron broke into laughter.
"That never gets old, there's just something about that line that makes every single pupil just freeze up. Some things just never change. But, I am serious about that condition. I've been doing this a long time, and what may seem pointless or ridiculous at the moment can have real importance down the line. You understand?" Chiron asked. Sasuke and I nodded.
"Good, I accept your request to be trained," Chiron said with a nod and self-satisfied smile.
"We never actually asked you, you know that right?" I said doing my best to offer up a small amount of token resistance.
"Oh you would, I'm just speeding things along considering we all know this is going to turn out. Now before I fully commit to teaching you, you must prove yourself worthy to me," Chiron said, rising to his feet.
"Wait so what was that whole, 'I know every move you're going to make before you make it' shtick? First you railroad us into accepting you as a teacher, and now you're going all stingy and 'I only teach the worthy' to us?" I complained, the antics of this old guy were already starting to really grate on my sunny disposition.
"That knowledge is why I am the master and you the student," Chiron said with sagely depth. The act was only slightly weakened by the fact he had a shit eating grin plastered across his face.
"Now, follow me so that you may take the first step on this mountain you need to climb," Again, he spoke these words with all the wisdom and depth of all the oceans combined. He added to the performance by struggling to bring himself to his feet, his cane seeming like the only support for this Atlas who barely managed to hold the world' worth of wisdom on his shoulder. Sasuke and I looked at each other, shrugged and followed Chiron as he shuffled along his wooden cane being the only thing that seemed to keep him upright on wobbly legs.
He led us along the length of the domicile to an open dirt clearing, roughly the size of 4 basketball courts laid out together. He pointed down at the edge of the clearing.
"You two stand here," he muttered. We did as we were told, as he continued to hobble his way into the clearing. When he got to roughly the middle he turned around and faced us down, his legs and arm wobbling as he seemed close to teetering over at any moment.
I groaned as what I had half expected seemed to be coming true
"Really? You're pulling the whole attack on the weak old man who is actually a badass cliche? Lemme, guess we are gonna rush you and you'll artfully dodge out of the way with minimal effort. Hell maybe you'll even have a cup of tea or chicken egg in your hands that you keep perfectly safe while we do our best to try and kick your face in? I wasn't born yesterday dude," I accused. The seemingly drained and tired looking expression on Chiron's face morphed during my rant first to annoyance then to mirth.
"How can you be so certain that's what I intended for you?" He inquired, his mirthful tone doing its best to instill doubt in me. I had seen far too many movies and tv shows for that to work. I simply raised an eyebrow in response and stared right back at him. Chiron held the smug look for 6 seconds before sighing in disgust.
"Damn kids these days, taking all the fun out of everything," he muttered, as he morphed from leaning on his cane to standing straight up. All hints of his age vanished as he turned from the frail old man to a dangerous combatant.
"Fine, you win. Yes, I do want you two to attack me with everything you've got, and yes, I am going to kick your uppity asses so hard you'll be tasting rubber for a month," Chiron taunted as he slid into a ready stance. He crooked a finger at us.
"Bring it kiddos."
Unsurprisingly we got our ass kicked, it was the whole nine yards too. Chiron first was able to pull the whole dodge with eye closed shtick before then dissipating the ranged fire jutsu Sasuke and I tossed his way using his palm. He then closed the distance with the speed of a cheetah before taking us apart with his fists. For an old guy, he packed a wallop.
Sasuke and I were thoroughly dismantled over the course of 10 minutes of combat. Even with all my new jutsu and skill, that Sasuke had hammered into my skull over the course of our journey was not enough to make me be more than a slight road bump to Chiron. Sasuke fared significantly better, with his Sharingan, experience, and lifetime of training proving to be vastly superior to my mostly theoretical education. It still wasn't even close to being enough, Chiron seemed to do what should be impossible. He simultaneously seemed to be basically unpredictable for Sasuke, while also predicting Sasuke's every attack with near perfect accuracy.
The only positive I could take away from my performance is that I was able to leverage my better physical skills to at least somewhat keep myself in the fight, still the few jutsu I knew along with my substandard application of them mostly prevented me from having a real impact.
When both Sasuke and I were splayed out on the ground, groaning from our beat down, Chiron let out a contented sigh.
"That never gets old," He chuckled.
"So now with that out of the way, would either of you want to back out?" His gaze swept over Sasuke and I.
"Nope, I'm good," I wheezed out. Sasuke said nothing, Chiron's eyebrow raised in response.
"I've trained a lot of warriors and heroes, and it never works if you don't think I can get you to your goal. So last Uchiha, do you think I can get you to where you want to be?" Chiron asked, his voice firm and face flat. A moment passed before Sasuke coughed and answered.
"If you can teach me how to take apart other Sharingan users like you did to me, then I will do whatever it takes," Sasuke answered. The flat expression on Chiron's face curled into a grin.
"Good to hear it. Now get up. We need to get you two settled and cleaned up before we introduce you to the clan tonight. Owain! You're done for today, go run down to town, tell Headman Arnold that I have taken two students and shall be introducing them tonight."
"Yes Master Chiron!" The boy who had been practicing with the sword said as he broke form, bowed, and ran into the house.
"Intro-what now?" I asked, suddenly getting a falling feeling in my stomach.
"What you didn't think you could ease into this did you? You two agreed, and there's a clan feast tonight." Chiron said with a crooked grin as I scrambled to my feet.
"Well shit."
Post Chapter Author Note: Well, to say things did not go exactly as planned with my writing schedule is an understatement to say the least two weeks of my ass. I had 90% of the chapter done for like 4 months and I just kept staring at it like a cow on train tracks. In better news I'm finally employed now, which should paradoxically make me write more by removing the soul grind of job applications. Anyway, the version 1.0 tag at the top is to let you know that as of right now this chapter is an 80% finished piece of flaming trash that I pushed out to just get something on the page so I can move on to another chapter that will hopefully give me more inertia. In the meantime there is gonna be a set of rolling revisions and edits to previous chapters as I go, I need to tighten up Roger's character and make him get his ass kicked more while making him less of a blank personality. I will similarly add version tags to these chapters to denote when changes are made, similarly I will be adding an omake to this chapter, eventually-ish. Either way, my apologies will get fixed, and the general plot thread will become a lot more firm. Thanks for reading.