The Next Dimension Over
Chapter Four
He couldn't immediately think of a time he felt more in peril of death than the few moments after she had ripped the clothes and boxes in half. In one quick movement. He could feel the way that her battle aura sparked. It was the second time she'd done something bizarre and terrifying, counting the time she knocked his recent master off into the sea with one hit.
He didn't feel too bad about being frightened under the circumstances, though, because even his master immediately cowed once she started in with her angry threats. It was extra jarring that she'd been mostly quiet while she was just lying in bed eating and sleeping.
Really. Somewhere out there, if they'd just gone looking a little further and let this girl fall like she was doing before they came by...they could have found a sweet and innocent hot girl. She'd be cute, she'd cook dinner, she'd go along with whatever his perverted old master came up with so they could start training already, and she wouldn't be scary at all.
If his master would stop finding ways to delay training them, anyway.
He frowned as the old man returned the house to a capsule. To the left of him, he heard Sakura gasp in shock. As if she'd never seen a capsule before.
"It's weird, huh?" Goku said, in a stage whisper. "I tried to crack one open before to see if it really made everything tiny inside it, but it just exploded."
"How...does it work...?"
This was his fate, wasn't it?
He was surrounded by idiots with freakish abilities. Excluding his master, of course. Though...the old man did kind of qualify for that. But he'd never admit such a rude sentiment out loud! (It'd probably get him kicked off the island) Seriously, how did anyone find capsules new or weird? What else would people transport things with?
"I have a more important question." He crossed his arms and leveled an unhappy frown on his master. "How are we gonna get to the other island? You blew up my boat..."
"Don't be stupid." Master Roshi fished out another capsule from his shorts. "I have my own boat, and it will fit all of us."
For a moment, it looked as if Sakura were about to say something, but then she simply placed her hands on her hips and frowned.
With a flick of his thumb, the old master sent the capsule spinning off into the sea and unlocked it at the same time. Just as the device hit the surface of the water, it unraveled and in a puff of white smoke, a...kind of impressive looking hovercraft appeared.
The girl did speak then, though it was with a tone of bewilderment, rather than the annoyance he expected out of her. "What...the hell is that?"
(*)
Goku's explanation of whatever it was that made the house vanish wasn't exactly satisfactory, but she didn't expect much out of him. Naruto wouldn't have been able to give complicated explanations for things at his age, either. Naruto...probably still couldn't give them, actually. Even now, he was still...
She shook her head slightly to dispel those thoughts. She couldn't get sad and homesick. She was going to get home. She couldn't do that if she spent all of her time being sad that she wasn't there already. She needed to focus. Perhaps the...what did she hear Goku call them? Capsules? If they were moving things through dimensions somehow, then they might be necessary for finding her way back to where she belonged. Which meant she needed to find someone who actually understood them.
The trouble was...Neither of the two children or the old pervert in her company seemed to suit that description.
That, and apparently it wasn't the only strange thing in the world to investigate. The so called 'boat' that appeared out of nothing looked...almost nothing like a boat at all. Why?
"What do you mean 'what is it'?" The bald one frowned up at her in annoyance. "Don't tell me you've somehow never seen a boat before."
"I've seen a boat!" That didn't actually seem to be a boat, other than that it clearly floated. What was the thing at the back of it even for? It didn't look shaped in any way to avoid or solve capsizing, and it had too many holes to be an unconventional sail. It didn't even look like an engine like some of Lightning's boats had looked when she'd seen them.
"It's a boat." The old man glanced over his shoulder at her. "Which we will need to ride to get to the larger island we'll be training on."
Upon hearing this, Goku immediately sprinted forward and hopped into the 'boat' with a shout. "Alright! I'm ready to start the training right now!"
She wasn't exactly suspicious of the boat. Primarily, she was just confused by it. However...she did suspect she'd get little better answers than these even if she demanded them. On a larger island, at least, there was a chance of civilization and therefore sources of knowledge better than two children and an old perverted recluse.
She gave a small shake of her head, and moved over to sit in the available seat next to Goku. It stood to reason that the old man would be manning the ship, and in such a case, she didn't feel like sitting next to him. She might have to drown him if she did that, and then she wouldn't learn his technique.
The ride, as it turned out, didn't take very long at all. If she'd wanted to (and gone in the right direction) it probably wouldn't have been too much trouble just to run there. Of course, if she'd done it the first day there was a better than average chance she'd have depleted her reserves and drowned herself halfway through.
The island was considerably larger than the other...but then, Wave would have been considerably large compared to the island she'd been confined to since her arrival in this dimension. From the look of it, though, there were paths and possibly even roads worn into the island. That meant there was a definite possibility of a population of some sort on it. Which meant other, better, sources of information.
The first of them to leave the boat once it floated up to shore (and the large fan on the back of it ceased to spin - she still wasn't sure what purpose it served, other than somehow causing it to move quickly, as if it were some kind advanced sail) was Goku, who leap-frogged over the front seat and the bald one (what was his name...?) to the ground.
"Ahh! My legs were starting to get cramped sitting in there so long!"
Said bald one sighed. "...You were crawling all over the back of the boat anyway."
"Nimbus!" Goku shouted as if he hadn't even heard the comment. "You can come out now!"
She blinked, as she climbed out of the boat. Not more than a few moments after his shout, a brilliant, golden cloud descended from the sky and hovered next to him like an obedient dog. He patted it appreciatively, and then clambered onto it much like a slightly elevated chair.
What.
"Why'd you even ride in the boat if you could just call the dumb cloud anyway?" The other child gave an annoyed huff as he made his way to the shore, frowning up at the cloud.
Goku frowned, and scratched at his cheek. "Well...uh...I didn't think of it."
Before more could be said, the old man dispelled the boat and spoke up. "Enough chattering about that, now. We still have a trek ahead of us to get to where we'll be staying!"
It didn't really matter to her where he re-created his house, so she simply followed after Goku, watching the cloud with some curiosity. She might have been inclined to believe it was some sort of summon creature the likes of which she'd never seen before...but he'd made no attempt to summon it. At his age, even if he knew the Kuchiyose jutsu, he couldn't possibly provide a constant flow of chakra long enough to have kept it present so long that she never saw him summon it today.
"What is it?" She didn't really mean to speak, the question in her mind finally became loud enough that it simply came out.
"Huh?" Goku looked back at her, confused. "What is...what?"
She squinted at him. Just how quickly did he lose track of things? Naruto could be absent minded, but even he would have known what she was talking about under the circumstances. "What you're floating on."
"Oh! This...is Nimbus!" He looked down and patted it like one might the flank of a prized horse. "Grandpa Roshi over there gave it to me!"
She glanced at the old man who walked ahead of them, and then back at the...cloud. Perhaps it only looked like a cloud? Kaguya was strange enough, maybe a normal denizen of a dimension she created simply looked like a cloud. Strange as that was, a pet would explain the lack of a summoning jutsu involved in its presence.
"Here!" The old man tossed the house onto the ground at the top of one of the island's hills. "Now...we have plenty of time left in the day, we may as well spend some of it training before we settle down to sleep for the night."
"Finally..." The bald one breathed, barely audible, before he clapped his hands and bowed. "I look forward to working hard!"
"Hm-Goku!" The hermit shouted up at Goku, who had floated quite a distance into the air since she'd finished speaking with him. "Training is about to begin! Get back here!"
The child perked up immediately, and jumped from the golden platform to the ground. Whatever else, clearly he had some training and skill himself, to make that kind of a jump safely. She was...a little impressed, considering his age. "Hey! There are other people here!"
"Which direction?" Much as she was interested in knowing the skill of the three people she was surrounded by, other people might also have information she needed to escape. They might not...but the more she understood this strange dimension she found herself in, the better her chances of figuring out how to get away from it. And understanding Kaguya herself, if...that was necessary...
Goku pointed to the west. "Down that way, there are houses."
"Mm." The old man huffed. "There are about three hundred other people living on this island. Now...should we have a tour of the island, or will we begin the training today?"
The two boys chimed 'training!' loudly before she could speak. Frankly, though, she had little doubt she'd have the time to do both in the day anyway, so she was in no great hurry. After hearing such a fuss from her companions about it for so long, she was at least curious about what his training consisted of. When it was serious, and not just an excuse to be a pervert, anyway.
"Now...before we begin...Krillin." Ah, that was the child's name. "You've had some martial arts training, haven't you?"
The child beamed. "Eight years at Oorin Temple, Master!"
"Ah, I had suspected. None of you three need training in the basics, then. Still. It's best we show each other our level of skill so that we know where we're working from!" His gaze turned to her, then. For once, she felt a challenge radiating from the old man, rather than foolishness, or perverted intent. A moment later, he turned and pointed at a distant tree. "From here to there it's three hundred feet. That's an even distance to measure how swift of feet you are."
"Well if that's the case, I'll go first!" Krillin patted his legs and began to stretch in anticipation. "I'm more than swift enough to-"
"No." She wasn't at all surprised by the old man's interjection, nor by the measuring look that had returned to her by then. "I've seen Goku in action, and I'm confident of the level of skill a student of Oorin Temple should be at. As for Sakura...it's only fair that she goes first, given that she's yet to have a chance to prove herself."
Or, as was actually the case, he simply wished to see how much skill and power she was concealing.
"Wha-?" Krillin blinked, and then settled a disgruntled glare on her. "...Oh. Fine."
"If that's what you prefer." She placed a hand on her hip, and returned the old man's stare with a level one of her own.
"Very well then. Let's consider this a preliminary test!" He dug out a pocket watch. "Anyone who can't make it to the tree in thirteen seconds doesn't possess skill worthy of my effort."
"Wh-What?" Krillin gasped, and looked between the old man and the tree, nervous.
"Awww! But you said you'd let me train if I brought you a girl!" Goku huffed, and crossed his arms, looking sour. "You keep changing the rules..."
"Thirteen?" She couldn't help quirking a slight smirk at that, as she turned toward the tree. "If that's the case...I'm not sure your training is worth my time after all."