A/N: Gai/Guy's name will be spelled interchangeably, usually with locals using Romaji and Coalition-affiliated ones using Romanization.
Counting actual 3849-modern INFANTRY armour (instead of ACU Pilot Armour where the boots are basically just everyday shoes) Hannah goes from 195cm (192-193cm barefoot) to over 2 meters tall. Killer B is 192cm tall, so Hannah about on par with Killer B when barefoot, and Ariel is a little bit taller. Obviously Naruto anime/manga exaggerated the size differences between people, but the point remains that these are BIG LADIES. "Bigger moms, smaller babies" was the most foolproof way to make childbirth safer after all… an approach most animals have taken to increase reproductive success, as bigger females = more eggs, whereas sperm are cheap enough for even tiny males to make enough of.
This by the way explains the death rate of kunoichi in childbirth, because training from a young age stresses the body and stunts growth in a way that, to say the least, results in usually not getting as large as they could have. Remember that early humans had much tinier females and higher unassisted maternal death rates than now with larger females… Stress really kills!
Chapter 7: They Are People, Like Us
March 26, 12 Years A9, 75 PWC (Post-Warring Clans)
"So, Kakashi, Hiashi? Are you contemplating what I am contemplating?" Hiruzen had sent Hinata home after the debrief to reassure the rest of the Hyuuga Clan, though she was to come back after lunch at the latest, when they convened the Jonin that led the teams Hinata would be most likely to work with, namely Kurenai, Kakashi, Asuma and Gai. Others could be brought in on the secret as needed. The ANBU team sent to scout had returned with the report of having been confronted by a group of golem-like patrolling machines several kilometers short of their original target and loudly told by speakers on the machines to note the size of the cleared area of forest, that this was the location of an outlying expansion base, and that they really shouldn't go further since there were too many units rolling around and if they jumped in front of one they couldn't see while it was marching around on patrol… that would be bad, diplomatically.
"The number of bricks the Council will shit when they learn of Hinata suddenly bringing such powerful prospective allies?" Kakashi suggested, for once being completely serious.
Hiruzen snorted "I was thinking more along the probability that the Council gets us all killed by panicking and being hostile to this Coalition, but that comes after them shitting bricks, so I suppose we thought the same. I suppose we will just have to act as if everything's normal, but advise them on how to flag the bases they build, nearby or otherwise, as restricted areas, to make sure neither our nor any other village's ninja show aggression… I'll have to send Danzo a notice on the matter in case his lackeys decide to be stupid… would be bad if they were provoked into blasting craters in Konoha wherever his ROOT bases are, given the size of their smallest and weakest combat unit other than infantry…" Sarutobi wasn't stupid, he knew Danzo didn't really disband ROOT, but at least the number of ROOT operatives was kept in check this way, and sometimes Danzo DID spot something that Hiruzen didn't.
ROOT also brought in a LOT of money, which had been exceedingly useful in repairing the damage from the Third Ninja World War and more so for the aftermath of the Nine-Tails Attack. There was also the concern of dealing with the morale of the regular ninja force if ROOT agents were assimilated into them, because the Will of Fire depended on morale and moral advantage to a great extent. When people felt they were fighting not only for themselves and their own interest, but also as part of something greater than themselves, something righteous and superior to the other guy's reason to fight, there laid some measure of strength. And in ninja combat, all too often the smallest measure of strength, of unity, could tip the scales.
Tearing open the façade and exposing Konoha's sins to the world, as Hiruzen was sure Danzo had contingency plans for just as life insurance, would depress that morale, hugely. Unless they could afford to spend a year or two getting over it while sending ninja on less than their level of missions, among other things, ROOT wouldn't be uprooted until the day Danzo died of old age. The old war hawk would probably not activate his life insurance if he died naturally, since deep down Hiruzen was still reasonably sure he was a Konoha fanatic. But if he did… well… that was why Hiruzen was still hanging onto the hat until an appropriate generation of legends could be groomed to handle the aftermath.
Hinata returned oddly quickly, long before the Jonin-sensei were to show up. This gave Hiashi the chance to lose his composure for the second time in an hour, because how the hell did she get away from the Elders that fast with that exotic armour? Even if they didn't question the armour too much, at the very least her grandfather would probably have clung to her like a limpet for half an hour. I remember too well how we had to pry his wailing, drunk form off Neji a couple times in the first few days after Hizashi died, before he suffocated the boy by accident… He didn't know that Hinata had physically towed her grandfather around with trivial ease thanks to the power armour around the Compound while the man blubbered away.
The man was the Branch House's favourite elder since he was a family-obsessed nut and was known to badly beat (rarely by Drunken Fist, on days such as the anniversaries of Hizashi's death) anyone who actually tried activating the Caged Bird Seal on a family member barring self-defence. Hiashi only wished that his father had been so kind as to use Drunken Fist after that one time Hizashi had glared at Hinata with hostility after Neji was sealed and he prodded his twin's curse mark for it. Going out shopping had been ominous enough… but coming back with a paddle gift-wrapped for Hitomi and telling her about what her exceedingly stupid husband had done to deserve a spanking… the man must have been a sadist. Of course Hiashi's father was also a masochist given he'd beaten himself up literally after learning he'd blabbed Neji and Hinata into mental ruts by accident on one particular anniversary of Hizashi's death, but maybe having a crazy father was why Hiashi was consistently confused and scare-roused by his wife before her untimely death. Then again Hitomi's reputation and mental scarring capacity had been considered on par with Mikoto Uchiha and second only to Uzumaki Kushina, all from the same demented Genin team… That in turn might have something to do with how most of the Elders really wanted Hinata sealed as soon as possible. The girl looked a lot like her mother… but more dangerously had Hitomi's usual all-loving personality. This put her at exceedingly high risk of turning out to be a bipolar avatar of death.
Hinata's quick return gave Hiruzen a chance to ask about the bipedal machines the scouts had reported, without Hinata's sensei or her not-so-secret boyfriend present. Hinata fiddled around with her holographic computer interface for a moment, before… "Golem-like… let me think… uh… does the description match this?" She brought up a hologram of a Mech Marine.
"Indeed, Hinata-sama." One of the ninja who the ANBU had allowed to tag along on the missions reported. Uzuki Yugao was familiar enough with Kurenai to know Hinata, and through her know of her frequent babysitter Kou Hyuuga, so when the overeager Hyuuga pacing outside the Hokage Tower had tagged along asking if he could come, since it involved Hinata—how he heard that so soon Yugao didn't know… never mind, the gossip machine traveled faster than light—she'd agreed because it was good to get a Byakugan on the team.
"It is good to be back, Kou. They must have deactivated the Active Camouflage on their outermost perimeter patrol units to make sure that you didn't accidentally run into anything face-first, even if it stopped moving to avoid ramming you, in case no one came with a Byakugan. This is a Tech 1 Light Assault Bot, representing the technology and aesthetics of the United Earth Federation and standing only about three storeys tall. The Light Assault Bots are the lightest and weakest dedicated combat unit the UEF fields, which is kind of surprising as Hackett should have Titans and Percivals on patrol already, even around outlying bases…" Hinata said, frowning. "I think he just didn't want to cause anyone any undue alarm… that might also be part of why he called dibs on the outer expansion areas to the north of their main base, to ensure Konoha scouts are presented with somewhat less alien-looking or dark and menacing aesthetics on first encounter."
"But it ran toward us at something around seventy-five meters a second despite its size, and it was no illusion either!" Kou clearly didn't understand that there were technologies and powers far beyond the imagination of most ninja.
Hinata blinked, that was a pretty good estimate… "Full speed for a Light Assault Bot is eighty meters per second… regardless of terrain." She corrected. "They are the Tier 1 pursuit and raiding unit of the Coalition armies, among other purposes."
Kou gaped, then clarified "No, I mean if they weren't looking to cause alarm it could have run a little slower!"
"Oh… well… uh… I guess Hackett didn't set them to move slowly…" Hinata shrugged, making Hiashi shiver at her already showing a telltale phase of every one of her mother's transitions from demure all-loving saint to tailed beast in disguise, that of steadfast impassiveness. She wanted to mention that the slowest Coalition vehicle was the Scathis, which moved at 20 meters per second, or 72 kilometers per hour top speed, both on land and at sea, but the sheer weight and power of that would probably break some minds…
"Your lack of detail on the technologies was probably good for my heart, if that's the weakest combat unit they field." Hiruzen observed. "I did not expect you to return nearly so quickly though… shall we go to lunch then?"
"Well, I kind of scared grandfather into being catatonic when I told him about the problem with the Caged Bird Seal relative to my new friends… who can burn a planet to ash within a day if they felt like it. Thus I was able to get him off me faster, about halfway through checking in with everyone, than merely dragging him around the Compound would have done." The previous Hyuuga Clan Head's family man tendencies were a well-kept clan secret. His popularity combined with the strength of his faction meant the dominant faction among the Clan Elders couldn't get rid of him in any way.
In the midst of preparing himself for his ninja registration photo, Uzumaki Naruto shivered as if his very soul was trembling in terror at the prospect of future violation. Sadly for him and for the world, Hyuuga Hinata had just partly awoken to the thrill of frightening disturbing, dismaying, or otherwise discomforting people. The worst part was that she would do so with facts, and facts alone.
A/N: The Snoop has a gun which looks like a 200mm cannon in in-game scale. It does 2 damage per shot. The Mech Marine has two guns by the same name (so same general mechanisms) doing 7 damage per shot. 3.5 times as much damage is more than that many times firepower by my scaling system. 40 kilotons TNT-equivalent energy directed into the target is 6000 damage so that's 3000 times the damage of a 200mm shell which has like a hundred kilograms TNT-e in energy at best even in this tech era given the SLOW velocity of only about 400 m/s for stealth reasons. So 800,000 times firepower, accounting for the directed energy issue, is 3000 times the damage to structural fields. Think about this for a moment. About 6-8 times as much explosive plus kinetic power as a 200mm shell would be… something on the order of a 350-400mm shell. This is actually sane and reasonable according to the scale of the units' guns in-game, the Mech Marine's barrel openings really do look at least twice the diameter of the Snoop's!
A lowly Mech Marine fires 350-400mm slugs, all high explosive squash head (as armor-piercing is pretty much nullified by a structural fields and more difficult to nanolathe in replenishing ammo), at or over 300-some m/s, at a rate of 3 shots per second (1.5 per second per arm). Think about this shell calibre. The amount of explosive should be about enough to dig out a crater about 40-50 meters across… except for the fact that as basically a chunk of hurled explosives and at a very shallow angle it would not pierce enough into the soil to do that. Oh, and yes, the technologies in units might let a unit be hurled in combat, but they'll help maintain orientation.
Now, the Snoop has a longer gun barrel relative to calibre, and higher range, so let's suppose it fires its slug faster… The ammunition nanolathing system… I'll have to make mass extractors relatively expensive to make this logical, in the sense that units don't serve as mass fabricators because to include secure material transmission systems would be so expensive in mass/energy cost that it just wouldn't work, and the actual production rates of mass/energy from unit reactors aren't nearly high enough to be worthwhile… Bleh, I'll just have units fighting gather their ammunition mass from, say, the dirt under them, while fighting.
Ichiraku Ramen, a short time later…
"Yo!" Hinata stiffened at that voice, so did the ANBU at it being a stranger's voice without a visible source.
"Hannah?" She looked around, then remembered to activate her Byakugan… still nothing…
There was a chuckle from thin air "Relax, this is just a sex doll stuffed in a Cybran Infantry Armour set. I'm getting sensory feeds from it and using it as an avatar. I originally bought this and remodelled it to look like me to troll people. It'll probably be years before I get gutsy enough to use it for the purpose it was originally designed for, which is to have an orgy with fewer real participants than typically required." The ANBU, Hokage, Hiashi and Kakashi were all looking at the stool next to Hinata, which was where the voice was coming from, though none of them sensed anything besides the sound… "Speaking of which, it would be nice if I could get a test of the typical strength of trained people in this world, so please feel free to throw things at my avatar's head once I drop cloaking, consider it restitution for sneaking up on you all." Unsurprisingly, when the doll that was mentioned materialized next to them, no one so much as threw a shuriken, only disappointed looks for suggesting such a stupid thing.
…
"…Uh, are you SURE that's a sex doll and not actually you?" Hinata asked, since she couldn't see—or feel, now that she reached out and felt what seemed to be warm flesh, there was even a pulse…—any indication to that effect other than the woman's claim, and the fact that she wasn't wearing her helmet, yet had suggested people throw things at her head. On the other hand, the fact that she was looking over the armour set—with only Cybran logos instead of all four factions like Hinata's—led the Coalition woman to be reminded of her… inadequacy. The reminder came mostly as when she'd bought the doll they simply didn't have options for sizes as small as hers, without going into their loli products… which completely failed to represent her in height and mass.
"Please do not point out the fact that I am barely more stacked than a rather short twelve-year-old." She said past Hinata, at the adult males present who weren't fully masked (i.e. not ANBU), all of whom were considerably shorter than she was. Even the tallest among the three, Kakashi, at 181 centimeters standing—as he was now after being surprised—was almost a hand-span or so (20 centimeters) shorter than the Cybran when she had her boots but not helmet (which added even more). Hiashi's 176.5 cm and Sarutobi's 163.1 cm frames seemed almost dwarfish in comparison. "I am sensitive about the issue of breast envy. We are mostly here to observe and make gradual contact with your civilization… so, on that note, I am Hannah Shepard, representing the Cybran Nation. It is a pleasure to meet you." She extended her hand and Hiruzen shook it, then she shook Kakashi's hand.
Both men introduced themselves as the avatar shook their hands.
Then she retracted her hand instead of shaking Hiashi's hand. "I won't shake hands with you, Hyuuga clan head, for reasons that I'm sure Hinata has made clear enough. The Cybran Nation's view on slavery regardless of all glorifications is very, very dim indeed. Don't feel too pressured though, we aren't insisting you do anything…" She frowned and scratched her scalp "though I admit that sounds condescending, in the sense that someone doesn't insist the blades of grass on their lawn do anything… I'm not very good at this diplomacy thing, as you can see."
"You're good at comedy." Hiashi and Kakashi both noted, then looked at each other in surprise.
Hannah smirked "Why thank you."
"Kakashi, kindly do not use sign language if possible in front of a diplomatic guest, especially something that literally reads 'where your pole up behind'. And Hiashi, single-fingered sign language in response is also unnecessary." Sarutobi stopped the two who had been staring (and were now glaring) at each other for having noted the same thing earlier at the same time. Then the two seemed to realize what they were doing and both facepalmed.
"I'm guessing life is normally less facepalm-worthy lame in comedy around here?" Hannah asked
Sarutobi nodded "Yes, but I suppose we're all a bit jittery at suddenly feeling very small and insignificant."
She waved it off "Perfectly understandable, so… you should have lunch! Wasn't there going to be a meeting after lunch for Hinata-chan and the team leaders she's likely to work with?"
"I'm guessing you heard through her armour?" Hiruzen said.
Hannah shrugged "Yeah, although we'd kindly ask you to not experiment on it, in terms of materials science and such."
Hiruzen chuckled at the non-request, and waved Teuchi over to make his order.
Meanwhile Hannah was pawing at her hair some more "Oh hey the sensation feedback from putting on that sensory relay suit is really realistic from this doll… a good purchase, I guess, for these occasions, better than those skeleton-like avatars some people use…"
No one asked for more information on the alternative avatar choices, because they strongly suspected they didn't want to, or need to, know. An attractive young woman's face was certainly better to negotiate with than a skeletal robot. So, the humans present (except ANBU) ate their meals in silence, while Hannah toggled the sensory feed and the full mental commands of the sex doll off, putting it on simple remote control. While running a separate thought thread wasn't difficult for a Cybran, running her bases was still more important, along with…
"Hey, Hackett, when the hell did you get a Support Commander assigned to your operational group?" Ariel Williams, who'd taken over the Aeon side of the joint expedition from Fran in the game if gender balance, asked first, before Hannah had the chance.
Steven Hackett shrugged "Well the higher-ups felt there were too many Aeon on the Elite Four Battle Squadron to not assign me an SCU pilot. Meet David Anderson, everyone!"
"Well I'll have to send Dostya a message that any SCU pilot sent to me should be female if possible." Hannah stated, not happy about the extremely high probability of another chest melons woman showing up. Most of the Cybran Nation was descended from people who were genetically engineered to be aesthetically… gifted… to be used as self-maintaining sex dolls. While Hannah's front and back ends both looked okay, she was basically the nearest equivalent Cybrans had to being flat-chested. This was one of the least favourite subjects of the Cybran of the Elite Four Commanders… unless being used to tease her lover into giving her a little more attention, or to go at it harder, or to let her have her way in pampering him on the occasions where she felt a bit too spoilt in their relationship. Oh, and it was also good for making jokes.
Which was why…
A little later, after the four Jonin in question are welcomed to the Hokage's Office…
"That's not a Genjutsu…" Kurenai noted, since the others all seemed to be waiting for their new guest—in the same style of armour that Hinata wore on her return, but a whole third taller than the girl—to explain the dark cloud over her head, complete with apparent visible rain and sound effects, but without any actual water.
The woman under it, who wasn't too dissimilar to Kurenai in overall description looked up with glowing red eyes "Consider it a manifestation of being an angst-ridden brat by the standards of my civilization. You can tell that if I light up this doll's eyes like so and dim my facial circuitry patterns, I kind of, from a very long distance, physically resemble a scaled-up version of you with straight hair, right? Yeah, one part didn't scale properly." She jammed a thumb to her matte black chest plate, which was in a masculine style of slab-like plating (though not many males in the Coalition were so tall and broad) compared to Kurenai's sizable bust. "Alright, I'm turning off the hologram and eye glow, sulking is over, time for business." The image over her head blinked out of existence and the sound effect turned off as well.
The black-armored woman cleared her throat before saying what was a grammatically less than perfect version (translator issues) of "Greetings, team leaders that Hinata will likely work with in the relatively near future! I am speaking to you through this doll fitted in Cybran Infantry Armour, to avoid potential communication of diseases and such being too much of an issue. Hinata has been disinfected well enough before being let back into your society, so don't worry there. My name is Hannah Shepard, representing the Cybran Nation among the Elite Four Commanders of the Coalition of Species. We seek to make peaceful contact with this planet and trade for cultural artifacts and tourism, but will not tolerate outright hostility. Since Hinata was the first one from your world to come into contact with us and seems like a decent person, we decided that she will function as a liaison of sorts as we observe how this world works and what sort of cultural or tourism artifacts we can trade for. The Coalition bears no ill intent, as you will see clear proof of later on when you may receive support from us on various missions as Hinata judges necessary and persuades us to lend a hand with. We are always monitoring her condition and surroundings, so anyone trying to coerce her in any way, shape, or form… will not like the consequences."
"Um, which Experimentals would be used to make these consequences?" Hinata asked.
Hannah shrugged "Any one would be more than enough. You know this well, Hinata, so never fear anyone's attempts at coercion."
Sarutobi cleared his throat "In other words, please conduct business as usual as much as possible, despite Hinata's new suit of armour, which I am told will remain absolutely secure and for her use only, and her rather terrifyingly powerful new allies, who may send forces at times to help her. If Hannah here allows it however, then experimentation is permitted, and if she asks for help with something within reason, then treat it as a request from a valued ally and give it due consideration and an explanation if it is denied. Of course, we would like to ask that flow of information and techniques be at least partly a two-way street, Diplomat Shepard."
"That about sums it up, and I readily agree. We want a friendly contact, not bullying the locals into submission…" Hannah agreed. "Hinata can inform you as to reinforcements she plans on bringing in to a particular task, I think. Or we can do a run-through of the Tier 1 units now? At least the land units?"
"For the purposes of not dumping too bad of a shock on anyone who might have spies or seals listening in and inciting something really stupid, I personally think it might be best to give information on a mission-by-mission basis… or at least let them test out your armour's abilities first." Hiruzen stated.
"I think that Dad just wants to see our shocked faces upon every new revealed item." Asuma stage-whispered exceedingly loudly to Kurenai, who rolled her eyes.
Hannah chuckled and looked at the elder Sarutobi "I believe your son is correct."
Hiruzen shrugged "Since the weakest combat unit you have is, as Hinata confirmed, a walking war machine three storeys tall that can run at eighty meters per second, it's not a bad way to get a free show semi-regularly from some of the most unflappable ninja in Konoha." He thought of what Hinata had told him about the most powerful regularly fielded units of the Coalition "Until you finish with all the Experimentals at least, but that…"
"…Will be when Hinata-chan reaches Jonin in a way that we find reasonable compared to her peers." Hannah finished for him, both nodding to one another in agreement to such terms. Sarutobi had had no issue with that, since he didn't want to give too much stress to his troops. "We are interested in life as usual, so please treat Hinata-chan in a manner she recognizes as normal, alright?" She smiled.
Everyone else in the room suddenly felt very small, as if being looked over by a superior predator. This may have had something to do with Hinata stating they could burn a planet in days. It could also be how Hannah (and her avatar too) was about a head taller than any of them and was looking literally down at them, so feeling small was not an unreasonable response…
"Now I should go investigate the largest energy signature our sensors could pick up in this town. Some blonde brat called… uh, the civilians we've overheard so far call him 'demon brat'."
"His name is Uzumaki Naruto!" The older ninja shared a knowing look when Hinata was first to snap this at their visitor.
"Well, it was the villagers' chatter we managed to pick up, so don't blame me. Thanks for the information, Hinata." The intermittent use of honorifics over the past period of conversation told the older ninjas that they shouldn't be surprised if she missed even a -san for, say, Hiruzen "We don't want anything funny to happen to him lest an Othuy or similar energy being, residual or otherwise, be let loose in this town, because his readouts have some passing similarity to an Ythotha's reactor core. If he is so hated as the villagers seem to suggest… it would be most dangerous indeed if he vents his energy."
"He has the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed in him, which is the most likely cause for the unusual energy signature." Hiruzen informed their guest hurriedly before she prodded too far without knowing and caused excess unpleasantness (he was worried about a diplomat punching a civilian's face in for sheer assholery). Then he asked the academy graduate… "Hinata, I am sure you already know this and that it is to be kept secret unless Naruto or I decide to tell someone?" He suddenly remembered something, man, he must really be getting old if he could forget something like this… "Oh yes, when you mentioned proper advancement earlier, Hinata had passed the Academy Graduation Exam just before she ended up going missing, so here is her headband." Hiruzen checked in his drawer, then gave Hinata the headband he'd retrieved "Iruka dropped it off after the exams were finished yesterday, when he came by to see if Hinata had been found yet."
"Well, congratulations, Hinata." Hannah said it out of obligation "May I go now to take a gander at this Naruto Uzumaki? Hinata might want to come too?" Looking at the much smaller girl poking her armoured fingers together at the invitation was hilarious and told a lot about what the girl thought of him. "I'll wait outside for her then."
After the door shut behind Hannah and the privacy seals reactivated, Hiruzen prodded "What is an Othuy?"
"When an Ythotha, one of the most powerful land units in the Coalition arsenal, is destroyed, its special reactor core cannot shut down safely enough." Hinata recounted what she remembered "Instead of venting as one huge explosion, it becomes a floating energy signature that shoots out extremely damaging and powerful beams and lightning bolts in various directions, all eventually arcing to ground themselves in the ground. It vents this way at friend and foe alike for about thirty seconds before fading from existence. Thus, letting an Ythotha charge alone into enemy lines is actually a good strategy. After all, replacements aren't that expensive or slow to build…"
Sarutobi groaned at the thought of a Tailed Beast being compared to something that could be mass-produced… "And to think that I was glad there seemed to be nothing nastier happening around the village this year than Naruto painting the Monument…"
"What the hell are they feeding probably the most important asset this village has?" Hannah muttered as she gawked down at the ridiculously short kid who'd just rounded a corner and run into her, holding a photo of some sort. The kid was holding his face after running face-first into her upper abdominal plates due to his puny 145 centimeters. "Kid, do you even eat vegetables?"
"No way, vegetables are gross!" Naruto shouted at the rude lady in the black armour before he pulled his hand away from his face… wait… he looked up… and up… Wow she's tall… Bah, damn bitch probably doesn't know that none of the grocers would sell me fresh products, bah. Best I can usually do is depend on Ichiraku's for some nutrition while getting by on instant noodles that are at least a year past their supposed expiry date. Oh, and dumpster diving, never forget the dumpster diving.
As their world wasn't all that industrialized overall, food production levels still meant that, while the Hidden Villages were generally well-fed, the dumpsters were not in fact full of good food with damaged packaging. It was thanks to the Nine-Tails that Naruto had survived his desperate eating habits.
"You won't grow tall if you don't eat vegetables, kid. Look, if you ever need food, come to the top of the ridge with those face sculptures. I'm going to be putting up an agricultural tower up there to grow local vegetables experimentally and you could probably use some food from the looks of you. I'll buy you food until our first crops are ready in a few days' time." Localized Time Manipulation wasn't that hard for a species who had a flak technology named the Temporal Fizz Launcher which did EXACTLY WHAT THE NAME SUGGESTED.
The crop yields and quality would be rather meh at best without enough human attention and in many plants' cases some active Psionic influences. Those were actively suppressed by non-civilian Coalition buildings to prevent combat use of Psionics—disrupting it was much easier than using it, and passive energy diffusion just wasn't enough for certain types of plants to prosper in. Regardless, one agricultural tower for one kid was a vastly excessive amount of food energy, even if the kid seemed like he had something similar to an Othuy sealed away in him, so the yields should be fine…
Naruto stared up at the woman, who had creepy glowing orange lines along one side of her face "I'm going to ask Gramps about it first." He said, scrambling up and scurrying past her, or trying to before he stopped before being clotheslined. "Hey, why are you blocking my way?!"
"If I'm not very much wrong, you are talking about the Hokage, right? He's in a meeting right now with the teachers for this year's three teams and Hinata's cousin's team." Hannah leaked some information on purpose, to probe for knowledge.
"What? But Genin teams are usually three students and a Jonin-sensei, and there are like thirty students in my class alone! Is the passing rate that low for the teams that so many have to go to the Reserves?" Naruto panicked.
Hannah frowned while contemplating the possible reasons "Relax, kid, surely there are other classes in your year, and the prospective sensei for the teams likely to pass in those classes, or others in your class, just aren't here because Hinata isn't familiar with those students, so is less likely to be assigned to work with them. The Jonin should be done meeting with him in a few minutes, since the only thing that he should be telling them is to strictly enforce business as usual despite Hinata's… changes."
"Hinata… oh, the white-eyed girl in my class! She's nice, but really weird! She doesn't dislike me, which is really creepy…" Naruto shivered at the incredibly disturbing idea of someone not hating him for existing. Even Sakura had become hostile once he'd become quite bothersome enough, but that was okay, she kept his fire alive by making sure he knew his place as less than the shit on the roads of the village.
Iruka-sensei, Mizuki-sensei, the Ichirakus and the Third were practically abominations by this standard, but Naruto liked abominations. They were nice to him. They cared. Perhaps then, he really was what the villagers labelled him, an abomination, with how he adored his own kind…
It would taste all the sweeter then, when one day he could make the hateful scum known as Konoha villagers turn their hatred back, and hate themselves for what they'd done to him all his life. Killing them or letting them take their own lives in guilt would be too kind, but to force them to live, filled anew with regret every time they looked at the Hokage Monument… that was why he wanted to be Hokage. He'd protect the village… protect the few people he cared about and who cared for him—even Sakura was fairly neutral when he wasn't actively trying to be obnoxious… better than neutral if Sasuke wasn't exerting his baleful presence at the time—he'd protect it even from their own desire or actions to absolve themselves of their guilt!
"Hinata is an associate of mine, so I would appreciate if you didn't speak so rudely to her." Hannah's eyes glowed red to intimidate him a bit more, though the kid's back-story sounded horrid if he thought people who didn't hate him were weird.
Naruto thought of who Hinata had mentioned in public before that had red eyes and black hair. "Are you the Kurenai-sensei that Hinata sometimes talks about with other people? Hinata said she had black hair and red eyes…" On the plus side, the Hyuuga heiress never seemed interested in talking to him after that time with his scarf, when she was just starting school. This thought of one of the few nice girls he'd met ignoring his existence completely helped him stay grounded on occasions when Sakura was neutral or frighteningly actually reasonably friendly, if he hadn't harassed her recently.
"Nah, Yuuhi Kurenai has bigger boobs and fluffier hair, and if I dim down my circuitry and eyes, my base eye colour is brown. She's also not even close to my height, weight and general size. Name's Hannah Shepard, pleased to meet you."
It was at this time that the four Jonin and Hinata emerged from the Hokage's office. "Hello there Uzumaki-san." Kurenai said. Gai was busy being pensive over the merits of intellectual and scientific hard work versus the physical. He was also eying Hinata's armour while contemplating how best to break Neji of his emo-ness toward the Main House without having the boy break his head on Hinata's new suit at any point. Kakashi and Asuma simply waved lazily, because they couldn't be bothered to be more active.
"Ah, hello Kurenai-sensei, Uncle Asuma" Given he called Hiruzen "Gramps", and Hiruzen had pointed Asuma out on family photos that was inevitable and Asuma shrugged acknowledgement… "Dog, and the Hulk!" Kakashi twitched slightly at being called by his old ANBU mask.
Gai on the other hand had a somewhat worse response "Why does everyone call Konoha's Green Beast the name of a comic book character?" He lamented while using a thundercloud Genjutsu over his head. "My explosions of YOUTH are not nearly so destructive!" Never mind how the thundercloud Genjutsu exploded the moment he yelled that word… As a side note, yes, he had read said comics just to see what people were talking about. Contrary to popular belief, Gai and Lee did not in fact spend every waking second shouting about Youth and doing crazy physical stunts. After all, mental development was also a critical part of YOUTH!
Ahem… please disregard that mental shout of YOUTH that was practically visible in sparkling letters above the man's head.
…
…Please also disregard the "practically", because even Hannah's doll's camera eyes were registering the image.
"…That's a good holographic projection put out by pure Psionic energy. So… uh…" Her eyes fixed on Hinata, who seemed noticeably smaller now than a moment ago, and who was looking at Naruto occasionally and pushing her index fingers together. "I'll go ask the Hokage for permission to set up an Agricultural Building on top of Hokage Mountain to help handle Naruto's nutritional needs… and ask him why the most valuable asset this village has is malnourished." Hannah said, smirking evilly, before pulling Hinata forward, causing the girl to stumble a bit, and pushing her face to face with Naruto "You have fun chatting with Naruto, Hinata-chan!"
"You don't have to if you don't want to!" She heard Naruto saying loudly as she entered the office again. "Hey, Hinata, are you alright? Do you have a fever? Ah, I think she fainted! Oh good, your armour's keeping you up… How's it doing that? Well, I'm glad anyhow… I don't think I could catch you without getting crushed with how bulky that suit looks…" There were four meaty smacks as all the Jonin present introduced their faces to their palms in disappointment at the boy's obliviousness. "Oh, you're probably allergic to me, whether in chakra after that incident yesterday—sorry about that—or smell… guess I should stay well clear of you in the future then whenever your armour isn't sealed. I hope it is chakra-proof though… what the hell am I doing talking at an unconscious girl like this?" There was another facepalm, this time by Naruto.
Hiruzen kept smiling at Hannah as she held the door open for him to hear Naruto's rant, then very slowly lowered his forehead to his desk, and equally slowly raised it up a bit, before lowering it very slowly and quietly again, several times, to express his disappointment. Meanwhile, outside, Kakashi watched his sensei's son showing mind-breaking stupidity, and felt a disturbance building in his skull. It was as if trillions of voices were crying out in despair, each and every brain cell crying out in agony… before he abruptly silenced them by forcing the crushing hopelessness away. Meanwhile a strangled noise that may or may not have been a moan about lack of proper understanding of YOUTH made its way from the general direction of Gai.
It only took a brief time before Hannah secured the local government's permission to cordon off a relatively small (compared to what Hiruzen had expected) area on top of the small plateau known as Hokage Rock to the locals and build an Agricultural Building there, along with a suitable "fence" and unit patrol to keep curious idiots out. It seemed the Hokage did not want to ruin Konoha's general genteel façade by forcing the merchants into submission in selling to Naruto, because unlike the samurai class, he actually appreciated the value of the merchant class.
Thanks to the Psi-nullifying technology incorporated in every structure and unit the Coalition fielded except the ones earmarked as "civilian", climbing over the walls surrounding the "Agricultural Center" would be impossible. The walls would be unbuilt and rebuilt by a Sparky Tier 2 Field Engineer whenever someone needed to pass through, and any would-be intruders would be "kindly" escorted out by Mech Marines on standby. It would be one of Hackett's outposts for aesthetic reasons, since the blocky UEF construction would probably be more familiar as human to the locals than the curvy, lithe Aeon structures or jagged, angular Cybran ones. Why Seth wasn't ever going to be put to the task of being the public face when making contact with other humans should be patently obvious to anyone with a working intellect.
Fortunately for them, every loyal Konoha ninja and civilian was smart enough to obey the Hokage's announcement that an area was being cordoned off over the Hokage Monument for everyone's safety and the establishment of a diplomatic outpost. Unfortunately for them, some "blank-masked idiots" as Hannah put it were quite dumb enough to be sent afoul of the handful of Light Assault Bots patrolling the perimeter. While the very limited splash damage of Ariel's Flares to Hackett's units (the Aeon LABs' weapon splash didn't harm their own, but did hurt units from allied armies) was quickly repaired by the Sparkys on site, and Hannah treated this as a perfectly natural and expected probe of the Coalition units' abilities, Hiruzen remembered to remind Danzo to not meddle in affairs he did not understand.
Oh, and Hiruzen had also managed to persuade Naruto into accepting the diplomat's hospitality, despite the boy's great suspicion he still ate ravenously… and was thoroughly astonished to not have died of poison after eating. Hannah was glad this was one of Hackett's outposts, because she'd have seriously loudly contemplated putting a couple Soul Rippers on patrol to politely ask the idiot villagers to treat the boy better.
A/N: I am contemplating eventually making Anko go all the way to Echidna (from Queen's Blade) levels of outfits, complete with snake. Please comment on this idea. On a side note if that planet exists in this universe (or the Eva universe which they have access to through Alpha 7 Quarantine) then Hannah is going to SCREAM in sheer breast envy…
Review Replies!
BH18: Why thank you!
Uzukage-of-the-Storm: And Psionic energy being Chakra is completely logical since that's exactly what chakra translates as conceptually. About the SupCom ME revival… you DO notice the character names, right? Hannah Shepard, a female Williams (most Aeon families use matrilineal last names…), Steven Hackett, and now David Anderson?
FaerieKnight197: Quite simply, it's almost purely for my own reference benefit.
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