Ramen Doodles
By Andrew J. Talon
Disclaimer: I do not and probably never will own Naruto or any other copyrighted works mentioned in this story. I am not writing this for profit.
Author's Note: When I have writer's block, I often write a lot of random snippets of ideas, omakes, and continuations of other author's ideas that kind of petered out. As I'm afflicted with a bit of writer's block regarding Key Through the Heart (again), I've decided I'm not going to leave you guys in the lurch. Therefore, enjoy some writing I've been doing over at The Fanfiction Forum.
This is a bit I wrote for my other Naruto story, Stargate: Konoha. It's how I intend the main story to occur, but I'm having trouble writing the bridge between the beginning to this part, as I'm not sure how much to show of the time between Naruto falling through the Stargate and Sakura figuring out how to get it working so they can go after him. With that in mind, please enjoy this bit and tell me what you think.
"Symbol 1, encoded..."
The seal array hummed beneath Sakura's feet, the carved lines into the stone glowing with power. She took deep breaths, shifting her equipment vest and pack again. Sasuke nearby stood in silence, as did Kakashi, the epitome of control.
She envied them. She couldn't stand still, fidgeting in nervousness despite the fact that all of her equations had checked out five times.
"Symbol 2, encoded..."
Getting the Stargate here from Snow Country had been no easy task. Nor had figuring out how to power it, or even operate it. The dialing device was both computer and power source, and the damage it had suffered had rendered it inoperable.
But she'd pressed on. She'd understood how it worked, as though by instinct. Pumping her chakra into the control crystals, she'd traced the energy, how it reacted and flowed.
With Jiraiya and Tsunade and the research division of ANBU behind her they'd put together a working, chakra-seal based system to both power and control the chappa'ai. The Stargate.
"Symbol 3 encoded..."
Team 8 stood nearby, all equipped with vests, all with specialized packs and brand new gear. Hinata was looking determined, trembling every so often in anxiety-Not in fear, but in impatience. Shino was cool and collected as usual. Only Kiba and Akamaru seemed visibly anxious, the dear little pup looking apprehensively at the Stargate.
There had been so many volunteers for this. Every Rookie, a number of jounin, Shizune-Even Gaara of the Sand and ninjas of Snow Country had been willing to go.
All just to go and find Naruto. To bring him home.
"Symbol 5, encoded..."
Tsunade, however, had been adamant-Team 7 and Team 8 would go. One due to their familiarity with Naruto, the other because they were a recon team. The training for the last six months they'd all gone through had been difficult. Hell, she'd come up with a lot of them herself, drawing knowledge seemingly out of nowhere.
Training for arriving in a vacuum. Training for desert climates. Training for arriving in a volcanic hellstorm. Training for how to interact with the natives, and learning the strange language that had been found on the walls of the chamber the Stargate had been found in.
Sakura was, unfortunately, the only one actually fluent in this language. Even with their Sharingans, learning languages was difficult for Sasuke and Kakashi. Hinata and Shino had learned a fair amount but nowhere near conversational, and Kiba had just said the hell with it and not bothered.
Which left Sakura as the person they would rely on for communication, potentially with the very people who created the Stargate.
"Symbol 7... Locked."
A mechanical whine sounded twice in the underground chamber, and with a burst of energy the Stargate flared to life, a water-like surge leaping out of the alien artifact and being drawn in, coalescing into a watery, shimmering surface. Sakura let out a held breath, and smiled-It worked. It worked!
"Good job," Kakashi murmured.
"See? Nothing to it," Kiba grinned, as though her anxiety had been the only one. Shino nodded, Hinata smiled brightly at her. Sasuke grunted and nodded, which was absent of the heart fluttering such an action would usually cause in Sakura. She blinked and rubbed her eyes.
It had been a while...
"Okay, Team 7, Team 8," Tsunade stated over the intercom from the control room above them, protected with seal-reinforced glass. She stood behind several ANBU researchers and technicians, channeling their chakra energy into the seal array.
"You are clear to proceed."
Kakashi nodded and stepped towards the Stargate. He briefly glanced at it with his Sharingan, and shook his head.
"What can you see?" Sakura asked, as she glanced to Hinata. The Hyuuga girl nodded and activated her Byakugan.
"Nothing... My gaze can't penetrate it," Kakashi spoke. Hinata shook her head.
"N-Neither can mine..."
"Good," Sakura stated. Kakashi glanced at her. Sakura shrugged.
"Well, if you could, then my calculations would be wrong..."
Kakashi nodded, point made. He recovered his eye and took a deep breath.
"One small step," he murmured with a shrug, and stepped through the Stargate. He vanished into the event horizon (as Sakura had dubbed it), the tension returning to Sakura's shoulders.
A few seconds later...
"I'm through."
Her sensei's voice over the radio elicited a sigh of relief from Sakura, and cheers from the control room. Tsunade smiled.
"Excellent, Kakashi... Status?
"Wooded area... Blue sky... Green grass... Looks like... One sun, and I can see a small moon nearby," Kakashi reported. Sakura grinned.
"Yes! That's exactly how the wall carvings described it!"
"Very well... Team 7, Team 8? You have a go."
"Well then... LET'S GO, AKAMARU!" Kiba laughed in glee, running and leaping through the Stargate with his partner barking in agreement. Sasuke snorted and leaped through as well without a second glance backward. Shino headed through in much the same way. Sakura and Hinata stepped up to the 'Gate, and looked at eachother, as one.
"We're... We're going to bring him home," Hinata said quietly, smiling at her. Sakura returned it, and nodded.
"We are," she stated firmly. She took a deep breath, and entered the Stargate at the same time as Hinata.
There were stars, the briefest glance of countless stars, a tunnel of light, an impression of the deepest cold imaginable-
"UWAH!"
And Sakura found her face meeting soil, tumbling out of the Stargate. Her skin was freezing, and she shivered violently alongside Hinata, who had rolled against her.
"Oh, you're here," A familiar voice said. Sakura, rubbing her arms, looked up slowly to see her sensei giving her his traditional eye smile. She narrowed her eyes angrily at the frost all over Kakashi's mask and clothing.
"Y-Y-You didn't mention th-this!" Sakura got out through chattering teeth. Kakashi shrugged.
"Slipped my mind," he said cheerfully.
"I h-hate you, s-so much," Sakura got out. First things first...
Sakura got up, trying to ignore the icy chill clinging to her skin, and walked over to the dialing device. Passing the cringing Kiba and stoic (as ever) Shino, she looked over the controls. Frowning, she scrutinized each symbol, withdrawing a small notebook and thumbing through the pages. Kakashi silently came up behind her, as did Sasuke. Team 8 clustered on the other side of the device.
"Well?" Kiba asked. "Can we get home with it or not?"
Sakura nodded, pulling a pencil out of her weapon's pouch and writing down some information. "Yes... See, here? This is the final symbol needed... The Point of Origin."
"Point of origin?" Kiba asked, blinking. "I thought this was like a... A telephone or something. Just dial a specific number."
"Yes, but the symbols also refer to specific stellar coordinates," Shino spoke. "Point of origin is where the wormhole forms from."
"Kind of like alerting the other Stargate where you're coming from," Sakura explained. She finished her notes and memorized the coordinates, before tucking her notebook back into her pouch. She turned to Kakashi.
"Well, shall we begin?"
"Hinata," Kakashi stated. Hinata activated her bloodline, familiar veins emerging around her eyes as she scanned... But she began to tremble.
"S-Something's... Something's wrong," she said. "I..."
"What? What can you see?" Sakura asked.
"I can't...!" Hinata's Byakugan abruptly gave out, and she slumped to the ground. Shino and Kiba stooped to keep her from falling.
"Hinata!" Sakura rounded the dialing device and knelt down next to her. "What's wrong?"
"I dunno! She just..."
"Arf!" Akamaru barked warningly. "Arf arf!"
Kakashi and Sasuke turned around, looking ahead, away from the Gate. Kakashi's eye narrowed.
"We're being watching," Kakashi spoke. He made handseals, and knelt down.
"SUMMONING JUTSU!" He cried, slamming his hand into the ground... But nothing happened. Everyone's eyes widened.
"My chakra... There's something wrong with it," Sasuke growled.
"I cannot access mine either," Shino stated as though only speaking about the weather. Kiba growled, forming handseals. No effect was produced from whatever jutsu he was trying.
"Just what the hell is going on?" Kiba demanded. Kakashi's answer was garbled as a shot of purple energy lashed out, striking him dead-on. Men garbed in gray armor and featureless masks rushed out of hiding, firing more purple energy blasts from cobra-shaped weapons.
"Sakura, look-AUGH!" Sasuke cried out, his throw of a kunai stopped by a single shot. Shino and Kiba rose, throwing kunai. Akamaru rushed out to attack with his teeth. Shino's insects rose up and scattered, a disorganized cloud that still obeyed the command of their master.
It didn't help. Nothing helped. They all went down, Shino's insects being blasted by staff-like weapons spouting yellow flames. Sakura trembled as the warriors surrounded her, and now she began to note the details on their masks.
Dull gray, flat, and only with thinly cut eyes to otherwise mark them, they reminded her uncomfortably of Haku's mask.
"I... I surrender," she spoke in the language she had learned from the Stargate's tomb. "We are peaceful explorers from-!"
"Silence! You are trespassers," barked one of the soldiers, his mask slightly lighter in color than the others. "You are in Ama no Uzume-sama's domain. You are to be held prisoner until she determines your fate."
"But we-We're from-!"
She was struck in the back of the head, and went down, stars in her eyes.
"Silence! Bring them!"
Sakura heard the shrill cry of one of those cobra-shaped weapons, and felt intense, horrifying pain. She screamed loudly as her body mercifully shut down her conscious mind, fading into darkness.
The Tok'ra cargo ship was long gone, but Naruto could still feel the tingle of the ring beaming system as he stealthily made his way through the forest canopy. He grimaced-He'd never liked being beamed. The idea that his entire body was being "shifted" and converted to energy, and then reconverted at the end of the process?
It didn't bother him that the Stargate did that, but for some reason the rings always did.
Let's see... Naruto checked his map, pausing on a branch. He verified where he was going and as he resumed his journey, ran his mission briefing through his head again. Ama no Uzume, Japanese goddess of persuasion... Currently a minor Goa'uld who has been working on a new type of Deathglider for her forces using unknown technology. While fewer in number, her fighters are supposed to be far superior to Deathgliders and Stargate-capable. Mission is to investigate reports and bring back intelligence on these fighters, as well as find out how Ama no Uzume has been finding the infiltrators who get into her fortress.
The Tok'ra had personally requested Naruto for this job-And only Naruto. The rest of SG-1 and General Hammond had protested, but given his abilities and the fact that five Tok'ra operatives had been found and killed trying to get in, they thought he was the perfect man for the job.
He'd been with the SGC for seven months, and had been training in how they fought for at least six. Thanks to Kage Bunshin he could pick up Air Force tactics and order of battle while he himself trained physically. Granted, he couldn't learn everything easily (Carter teaching him mathematics had been very difficult, even with a group of clones to all work out the problems she gave them), but General Hammond had pronounced Naruto as someone who could qualify for the US Air Force Academy pretty easily.
Hence why they decided to send him in, though they hadn't been too happy about it.
"Hey, don't worry Colonel," he'd said cheerfully to Jack, as he got ready for the mission in the locker room. "It'll be easy. In and out, right? Not a problem, believe it!"
Jack raised an eyebrow, and Naruto coughed.
"Er, it was the closest translation I could find... We all need catchphrases, right?
"And where did you learn that?" Jack asked flatly. Naruto shrugged.
"Television, where else?"
"For crying out loud," Jack muttered. He sighed and shook his head. "Look, Naruto. You don't have to do this."
"What do you mean I don't have to do this?" Naruto asked. "I mean, won't this make the Tok'ra owe us one?"
"Yes, but they don't really think of it as owing us... They just think we're their cheerful little tools." Jack snorted. "Like a kinder, friendlier version of the Goa'uld-"
"But still assholes," Naruto said with Jack at the same time. He grinned, and the colonel allowed a smile back.
"Just be careful out there," Jack stated. "And come back alive."
"I always am... What's that look for?"
Naruto smiled and did a forward flip as he caught sight of the Goa'uld's fortress-A weird blending of Japanese and Egyptian architecture that made the whole thing look very sinister.
There we are...
This mission would be easy. Get in, snap some pictures, and get out. He was a ninja, after all! The best ninja Konoha had, the first ninja Konoha had going out to other planets!
Albeit unintentionally, but still! He'd make them proud. And when he got back, he was going to be so awesome...
A flicker of chakra lit up in his senses, and he paused. "Huh?"
He turned in the direction of the contact and focused. Nothing.
Coulda sworn... Naruto shook his head and resumed his trek. It was probably his imagination...
The Jaffa had actually managed to spot him before he jumped him. The ANBU-like mask he was wearing had given Naruto enough of a shock for the warrior to spot him sneaking up behind him.
He'd still kicked his ass regardless though. He then henged himself into the guard, and waltzed on in.
But still... It was freaky.
Like Haku... Lots of Haku... Only not looking like girls, he thought to himself as he traversed the compound, mimicking the body language of the other guards. He turned off into a section of the fortress, trying to recall how to find the computers.
Computer terminal, computer terminal...
Naruto glanced around casually, seeing that no one was taking much notice of him, and ducked into another corridor.
"Mar'ika... Mar'ika, come in," Naruto muttered into his radio.
"This is Mar'ika. Naruto Uzumaki, what is your status?" The tight-beam communications signal came through.
"Lost and in the middle of Jaffa Central, you?" Naruto quipped. The Tok'ra on the other end smiled a bit. Yes, that was SG-1's work all right...
"I have your location. You are nearby a computer terminal. Go down to the third door on your right, and enter."
"Thanks."
"In addition, there were some people who came through the Stargate and were immediately captured," Mar'ika went on. Naruto frowned even as he went down the hallway.
"People?"
"Yes. They seemed to be wearing headbands similar to yours, though it was difficult to spot without my full sensors," Mar'ika continued. He checked his sensor readings and frowned-His cargo ship was cloaked and so far, Ama no Uzume's defenses had not detected him. But even with the tight-beam communications...
Naruto frowned. "... Where were they taken?"
Sakura groaned as she slowly came to, feeling a soft, silky bed beneath her bare skin. Instinctively she snuggled into the covers, thinking she was back at home.
"You awaken," a strangely modulated voice said. Sakura opened her eyes, and sat up, looking around frantically.
One, this was not her room-It was gold-colored, opulent, with silken bed sheets and elegant murals drawn everywhere. Second...
"Who... Who are you?! Where am I?" Sakura demanded of the red-headed woman sitting before her. She wore a mask like the ones the warriors had been wearing, only pure white and with red streaks on either side of her cheeks. Like whiskers, she immediately connected.
The woman stood up, showing off her impressive height and equally impressive figure, barely concealed by a flowing garment of deep reds and sheer silks. She looked at Sakura intently, and spoke again.
"You are not like the others..."
"The-? Where are they?! What have you done with them?!" Sakura demanded, standing up herself and ignoring her nudity.
"... And where are my clothes?!" She demanded after she noticed, yanking up a sheet to conceal herself. The woman laughed.
"They are unharmed... And will continue to be so, if you cooperate," she stated. "I am Ama no Uzume... This is my world, my dominion. And you... You are a Haruno, are you not?"
Sakura glowered. The woman laughed again, turning and walking to the side of the bed.
"There is little you can conceal from me, child... I have been to your world... I ruled it once, with my siblings," Ama stated, regarding Sakura through her mask.
"Many were slaughtered when the Beasts arose... But some, like myself, were imprisoned for disagreements with the Three... Such as the one who gave birth to your line... Harcesis," she ended in a hiss. Sakura blinked, confused.
"'The one who knows the secrets'?" Sakura translated. Ama chuckled.
"Indeed... You possess fragments of the knowledge of the Goa'uld... Contained within a ghost of a god..." She raised her hand up, the elaborate golden jewelry adorning it lighting up. Sakura gasped and tried to back away, but the power of the device froze her.
"Speak, ghost," Ama ordered. Sakura's eyes widened as her inner rose to the surface of her mind, and assumed control. She bowed her head, and raised it, and Sakura could do nothing but watch through her own eyes as her Inner took charge.
"What the hell do you want, false god?" Inner Sakura snarled. Ama laughed.
"Ah, you are a spirited one, made bitter through each generation... Kiyohime, I name you," the Goa'uld stated. Inner Sakura lunged forward to punch Ama, but the Goa'uld caught her fist and shoved her back onto the bed.
"DAMNIT!" Inner Sakura roared.
"That you have discovered how to operate the Stargate is alone impressive," Ama spoke. "Due nearly entirely to you, no doubt... I could make use of one such as you."
Sakura reasserted herself, as though pushing a revolving door and arriving in control of her body, as she looked up and glowered at the Goa'uld.
"To do what?"
"I would think of something," Ama replied, a smirk in her voice. "In fact, your companions would all be very useful to me. I am creating an army, after all... An army to crush the System Lords."
"System Lords?" Sakura asked, even as the knowledge appeared in her mind. Rulers of the Goa'uld...
"Yes... I will give you time to consider my offer... Have no fear, your companions will be kept safe... I require them, after all."
"And if I refuse? ... If any of us refuse?" Sakura spat back. Ama chuckled.
"I have in my possession four of the most powerful bloodlines from Konoha, and a Harcesis. You will serve me, one way or another... Whether that service is pleasant or not, depends entirely upon you."
With that, Ama vanished in a puff of smoke, and Sakura was left alone. She stared at the spot the Goa'uld had stood... Before getting up and searching her room for a means of escape.
... As well as some clothes.
Jack O'Neill could be patient when needed. You don't survive being in USAF Black Ops without developing that skill.
But situations like these were never covered in his training. Hell, this wasn't even considered as a possibility.
Your "adopted son" off-world, on a solo reconnaissance mission pushed by a bunch of snakes... He sat in the mess hall, food untouched.
"Jack..." Daniel said. Jack turned and looked over at Daniel.
"Mm?"
"You're tapping again," he stated. Jack looked down at his fingers, and stopped. Carter, across the table, offered him a sympathetic look.
"He still has five hours before his first scheduled check in, sir. There's been no indication that the mission isn't going as planned..."
"Yeah, but these are the Tok'ra we're talking about. Remember? Happy to screw us over if it suits their purposes?" Jack stated. He turned his eyes to Carter.
"Your dad excluded, of course."
"Right sir," Carter said. "Still, this is Naruto we're talking about..."
"Yeah..." Jack looked down at his untouched food, poking at his Jell-O with his spoon. "How's Teal'c?"
"He hasn't reported back in either, but-" Daniel began, as Jack interrupted.
"He still has plenty of time. Right..."
Yeah, the problem with Stargate: Konoha is that I have so many ideas for how to take the story but I need to bridge them from the beginning to this point. So, I may just write the story from here in "Ramen Doodles" until I can put the whole thing together.