The Next Dimension Over

Chapter Two

He'd had more time to think about it now, and he was sure. He really didn't like this girl. She was weird and annoying, and while she didn't do anything to get him almost killed this time, he still had to go running down a flight of stairs after her.

Maybe he didn't need to, but if she actually ran away, they'd have to go out looking for another girl. And she would have to steal his boat, which meant he'd be forced to ride the killer cloud again. He might not survive the next girl.

Once they actually got outside the building, though...it turned out she'd simply stopped a few feet from the building, and when they arrived was simply staring up into the sky. He found it kind of disconcerting...but then he probably shouldn't have been too upset, since it meant his boat (and escape route) was still within his grasp.

Goku was the first one to actually speak. "...Are you looking for the cloud you came from? We're a big distance from where you fell, but maybe if you called it...!"

She turned her gaze toward them, expression serious and determined. "How far away?"

Wait. Had she really fallen from a cloud? Were there cloud people now? How was that even possible?

"Uh...I dunno. You were past that water and the mountains on the other side. But I don't think it would stay still..."

She walked up to the edge of the water, and for a moment he thought she might just jump in and try to swim across. Everything about her had been weird enough that he couldn't say he would have been surprised if she did try to do that. But he definitely also wouldn't try to save her if she then started to drown. It would be her own fault trying to swim when there was a perfectly good boat she could steal sitting right beside her.

She didn't, though. She just walked up there and stopped. She muttered something he didn't quite catch, but one of the words almost sounded like 'weak'. A moment later, though, she spoke louder. "I really am stuck."

"Ahh, 'stuck' isn't the right way to look at it at all!" The old man appeared at his side. It couldn't have taken someone of his renown that long to go down a simple flight of steps, so it must have been that he had been sitting back and observing the situation for a while before he actually spoke. Now the old hermit made his way across the sand toward the strange woman, sun gleaming off of his dark glasses. "It's a private tropical island, with excellent company. If you'll stay as my guest for a while, then you could consider it a vacation instead!"

She frowned and shook her head. "I don't have time for a vacation."

Geez.

If it wasn't for the way Goku almost let him die, and the way he almost took his student position, and the way that Goku couldn't even find a good girl on his own...he'd dislike her even more than Goku. That really just wasn't fair. Why couldn't the first person they met be sweet and innocent and...busty?

"Well it doesn't matter! You're stuck here either way!"

A sudden thunk of wood to the top of his head shot brilliant stars through his vision. "Augh!" Instinctively, he ducked down and cradled his wounded head.

"You're not trapped here! You're...a guest! In fact, you'll be my third student!"

That sly old devil-

"But you said you weren't taking any more students!" Goku frowned and looked between the woman and the master, apparently completely unaware of the motivation behind the bogus offer. The turtle hermit harrumphed, and waved his accusation off.

"That's...that's right! You should think of yourself as blessed for such an opportunity to be trained by the great Turtle Hermit!" He didn't really want her to stay, but it was still less trouble just to back up the hermit master than go out looking for another. "He's the strongest person in the world, you know!"

Up until that point, the woman had been...apparently ignoring them, staring off across the sea and into the sky. When he said that, though, her green eyes turned toward them finally, and she frowned. "Strongest?"

(*)

She still didn't understand. This was the furthest thing from her best dream come true, and yet...she could have believed that more readily than the idea that Kaguya somehow held a pocket dimension full of children that would...do almost nothing toward furthering her goals. Honestly, if she hadn't had the day she'd gone through so far, she wasn't sure what she'd think.

The fact was, though...wherever she had ended up, unless this was the most underwhelming dream world she'd ever conceived of, she couldn't rely on being rescued by anyone. Kakashi and Naruto didn't possess the ability to travel dimensions on their own, Obito...wouldn't last the battle no matter what happened, she was sure. She couldn't understand quite what Naruto had done to sustain his body beyond his separation from the beast, but she could see it was fading quickly.

And...Sasuke...

She wasn't a little girl any longer. She knew better than to think Sasuke would come looking to rescue her, even if he somehow had the ability to. She had to rescue herself. Without a Mangekyou Sharingan (or a Rinnegan, apparently), though...it wouldn't be easy. And she needed more information.

She frowned at the three in front of her. The old man wouldn't be the first powerful person she'd met of an advanced age or fragile appearance. He would be the most fragile looking of them all, though. Even Lady Chiyo looked healthier and younger than the hunched over and thin figure in front of her. But if he was the strongest person wherever...this was...then maybe her best chances of finding a way back was with the strange people she woke up with after all.

The man straightened slightly, and sunlight gleamed off of his glasses. "Well...I suppose I do have a reputation." He chuckled to himself. "But as a resident of Kame house, training comes free of charge!"

She shook her head, and waved his offer away. "I don't have time for that."

"Well, you wouldn't take the full course like these two, of course!" He linked his arms behind his back as he spoke. "I wouldn't expect a lady like you to keep up with something so severe. But well supervised exercise would do you well in recovering from your injuries!" He paused a moment, and then nodded to himself. "And it would do wonders for your good looks, as well."

At some point, her teeth grit without her even realizing it. Whatever this world or place was, she had no idea, but she already didn't like it. "'A lady like me'?"

"...Eh?"

"Do you mean to say a woman can't handle your training?" She didn't know, completely, whether she were angry at the insult, or amused and too tired to laugh, considering the threat she should have been helping to face right then.

Primarily it was anger, though.

"Ho?" The old man huffed, thoughtful. "Do you think you can handle my training?"

...She didn't have time for any kind of training (neither did she really want to learn anything from someone with such a narrow mind), but his presumptuousness aggravated her, and she had been running on very little sleep for...an alarming amount of time. "You don't have anything to teach me."

His expression was inscrutable behind his glasses. Of the two boys, the one with hair looked excited, while the bald one looked offended. For a moment or two, he simply watched her. Eventually, he harrumphed. "Very well then. If that's the case, I retract my offer."

She turned away from him after that, as the two began to speak to him. Admittedly, this was...probably still the best place for her to be if she wanted to find a way home (and she did). That didn't mean she had to put up with wastes of her time, though.

The air stirred around her, and she spun on her heel instinctively, drawing one of the only kunai left on her person. Metal flashed in the midday sunlight, and she caught a downward swing of his innocuous looking cane with the weapon.

Was this a trick after all?

She'd barely recovered a trickle of chakra with however long she'd been unconscious, but it wouldn't stop her from putting up a fight against whatever trick Kaguya tried to use to keep her away from the rest of Team 7. Chakra summoned to her fist without thought and she swung an uppercut at the falling figure of the old man with an angry shout.

She wasn't sure what to expect of the old man-turned-enemy...but the fist connected with his midsection, and in short order, the force of the strike sent he and his cane spiraling off into the water somewhere to her left.

(*)

What

What the hell did he just see?

Because he definitely didn't just see the stranger intercept a sudden attack from the esteemed Master Roshi and then counter attack him into the sea. Today was not the day which he would see that. He refused.

In the distance, he heard a splash.

Awww, damn it.

"Whoa!" He wasn't actually sure if he was surprised that Goku just sounded impressed, instead of worried for their teacher (or themselves). "That was a great reaction!"

"Are you insane?!" It didn't matter whether or not he named the recipient of his admonishment, because it probably applied to both of the people still on the island with him. "You can't just attack people in their own homes! The ocean is dangerous! H-He invited you here!" Honestly, whatever he'd just seen was so bizarre and sudden that he was having difficulties pinning down one single response.

Belatedly, he realized she was still in an aggressive stance, and his shout drew her attention to him in the form of an angry glare. "Are you next?"

Was...that a threat...? It sounded a little like an accusation. That didn't make sense, though, so it must have been a poorly veiled thread. From the person that just sent his prospective master into the sea rather handily.

"U-uh..."

"Ka-"

She turned in the direction of the distance voice a moment before he did. He couldn't make it out very well, considering the distance, but it looked like...his master? In the air? "What the...?"

"Me"

In the corner of his vision, he noted the pink haired girl shift in the sand. It made him a little bit nervous. Maybe. If this weirdo and his master were about to actually fight, just how destructive would it be in a little island like this one? It'd be a one-sided fight, probably...but even so, she had to be kind of strong if she sent someone that far.

And he didn't want to be collateral damage. That was on his rules of unacceptable behavior.

"Haa-"

"I can't see..." Goku appeared next to him, shielding his eyes against the sun. "Is he all bulky? I don't want to be standing in the way if he's doing that again. Last time he blew up a mountain when he was supposed to put out a fire like that..."

"He what?"

"Aw, man...I can't tell!" The kid didn't even look worried, just...annoyed. Why was he surrounded in weirdos all of a sudden? What did that have to do with learning martial arts?

"Meee-"

The woman shot across the sand with alarming speed toward the distant figure (who was gradually falling down back into the ocean, from the look of it). Was she seriously planning to swim over to him? Because that couldn't be very efficient. And also the ocean was full of dangerous things! Did she even listen to him at all?

Brilliant blue light shone from where his master fell, and for a moment, it looked as if she actually ran so quickly she managed to run over the water.

Before he could decide whether she'd managed to do something like that, though, the light-which was a beam of energy, apparently-overtook where she stood, and she vanished.

A moment later, so did his boat.

"My boat!"