Sorry for not updating in what seems like centuries but as life would have it I have a job again, money to buy food, I'm no longer bummed out of my creative writing, getting enough sleep that I'm at least not bleary-eyed when I get up
I also got myself a large order of anime and manga which is like Christmas for me, which has also put me in a tremendously good mood so you have been forewarned that the first person to flame me for this chapter will be tracked down and killed
Other then that alls good
Disclaimer- does anyone actually read this or is it just wasted space like infomercials on the shopping channel
--
Book incept
-Ecology-
In my travels I had seen many wondrous things ranging from the bizarre to the most outrageous but the one classification that had always stumped my scientific genius had been the terminology of the 'demon'
I was always unsure as to how they came about or even if their existence was entirely natural
Few people delved into the past instead choosing to make their own assumptions of the facts given, an example that most would find surprising is the fact that there had been quite a period where humans had not ruled the earth, in fact it took a highly trained scholar to uncover this fact.
Hidden miles below ground were the remains of long dead creatures their fossilised bones the only reminder of their existence
It was troubling to find such a fact locked away so far underground and the implications it had for the civilisation of man
I often wondered how it was that humans came about
Oh there were many 'theories' as to how humans came about, some idolised through fictitious notions like gods or devils and such nonsense, my own theory of evolution which I had believed most possible had crashed upon the earth scattering as I reviewed the added information of the unknown scholar.
Humans would have had to come about sometime during or after the collapse of these colossal beasts that had been unearthed but if that were so then there would have been similar remains of those ancestors
Even written records only go back as far as four hundred years and even then some of their records are farfetched
I had ruled out possible settlement from across the seas as redundant and entirely unlikely
Oddly enough insight came to me from the ramblings of some poor fool who constantly whined and bemoaned about his existence claiming to always be lost, I had almost had enough of him coming close to tearing him apart when he said something that had struck a nerve in my thought process.
Shortly after blaming some man named Saoto-something for all his life's woes he had mentioned that no one believed or listened to him when he had tried to find his way back to his home, some foreign place named Tokyo
Getting the depressive man to talk had been painfully easy as the man had almost no resistance to alcohol and was happy to unload his life's concerns with a complete stranger
He had mentioned that nothing in this land was familiar to him commenting that even the ground didn't feel like Earth, this had struck me as odd as to my knowledge that except for mineral composition all earth was relatively the same
I had asked about this but the man replied that he had not meant the ground but rather the name of the planet, not giving time to ask him to reiterate or explain his statement he brought out a map of the world or to be more precise the map of another world
It was a detailed map but completely foreign to all landmarks and worst of all there was nothing remotely suggesting that the elemental countries even existed on this map
Now it could simply be that whoever drew up this map had no knowledge of the elemental countries but I had found this hard to believe seeing as the man had claimed to never once board a ship of any sort.
It also could have been some cruel joke being played on the poor man but I also found this hard to believe as the man declared in all honesty that he had been to many of these places and no Genjutsu was so all encompassing that allowed you to believe something was real even after it had worn off, pain may still linger afterwards but your mind would still recognise that it had been tampered with
I recalled during the conversation one of things my first teacher had taught me of, the man was a philosopher by nature; he strived to find purpose or reason to everything questioning every act until he had thought of every possible reason for each action
He had told me of a concept of multiple realities, this was not something new as it had been common fact that summoned creatures had to come from somewhere else but it was always conjecture as to 'where' they came from, even the summoned beast were unsure as to their origin in most circumstances
Could this man had come from another world, had our own civilisation sprung up from somewhere else, if it had then where did we come from, how did we get here, why was it that we left in the first place
In the end solving one mystery simply opened up a thousand more.
--
Naruto sighed as he put down the dairy he had been reading over the past week and looked down the length of the table in his kitchen to look at 'his' bed barely a metre away from him in his sparse apartment and barely caught himself from sighing again
"An entire week huh" the formerly blond muttered idly stretching what could pass for muscles at a quick glance, that is if they didn't squirm and writhe and adjusted his clothes again to cover himself and what he considered to be his very unappealing body
He had gotten new clothes the day after he saved Hanabi, loose fitting long-sleeved shirts most lightly coloured as well as several pairs of camo pants, they wouldn't last as they were considered civilian wear as they hadn't been reinforced but unfortunately being extremely poor Naruto couldn't afford the expensive clothes that he would like to have
It didn't help that not only he had two mouth's to feed and clothe but he also had a due rent payment withstanding, the payment was already taken care of but it had left him with little money to spend on actual living and he would have to go without hot water for a week or two
His eyes drifted towards the diary of his mysterious saviour
The man's name happened to be Kakuzu, no last name or titles from what he could gather and there didn't seem to be any public records of the man from what he could tell, it was like he didn't exist.
Granted he didn't have access to most ninja records and anyone below chunin couldn't access the ANBU Bingo book but it still felt odd, was the man so secretive that no one even knew who he was
'Regardless it doesn't change anything, if I see him again I can get an explanation and if not I'll just figure things out myself, it's not like I've never had to do everything myself before'
Naruto looked out his window as sun trickled through a half broken and mended window 'suns come up huh, well the little princess is gonna wake up soon so I might as well get something ready'
One of the first things Naruto had found out hidden in notes of Kakuzu's diary were points and paragraphs of writing that detailed his assumptions and things he had found out about his transformation
The first fact had been an excessive reduced need for sleep and rest as the only thing that still needed down time was his mind and without a weaker physical body which would cause more stress on his brain as a ways to cope he now need approximately half the sleep of a normal person and could survive on two maybe three hours a day and because his body no longer got tired he wouldn't sleep longer then his brain needed.
It was partly creepy and slightly refreshing waking up feeling exactly the same he did going to sleep
His second startling titbit of information came as the fact that he had, due to the transformation had very strict dietary consumption and it seemed Kakuzu had been a survivalist in nature or at least designed the transformation with survival in mind
Naruto almost bemoaned the fact that he could no longer get sustenance from anything except meat and calcium, granted it also meant that he could consume an entire rump streak to regrow a lost arm or to reform the faux skin that now covered his body
It was at this point that he had stopped reading that part of the book an if he was still capable of it he would have probably thrown up when it labelled the uses of different organs when consumed
A shuffling of feet and a yawn drew attention away from his morbid thoughts as turned to stare directly at Hyuuga Hanabi whose normally pristine silk like hair was tussled and sticking up at odd angles from rolling around in his uncomfortable bed
"Mornin'" the pale girl muttered half asleep her eyes bleary and unfocused, the half finished seal on her forehead had mostly healed over now but there would be an unsightly scar there that she would carry with her for her life
The girl was odd as her posture made her look like she should be sitting on a throne or be looking down her nose at everyone and sneering at them but the next minute she would shake or look around herself and generally act like a scared mouse
Her behaviour was even more prominent when it came to a meal as she always looked torn between accepting the food meekly and pompously throwing it in his face and demanding better, her nice side at least for now seemed to be winning hands down as her current state of perpetual fear stopped her from falling onto old habits
She had opened up to him three days after saving her of what had happened, before that were frightened questions and heated accusations of what Naruto planned to do with her
From what Hanabi said her older sister was partly the cause to her current situation as she had taken advantage of her fathers absence during a trip to have a cursed seal branded on her skull as it seemed the Hyuuga council had given the choice to her sister whether to have the seal placed on her own head or Hanabi's
In the end sisterly love gave way to corrupted power as little more then the puppet heiress to a clan, the elders of the Hyuuga had been anticipating this very scenario right from the start
It didn't really matter too much to Naruto either way as he'd just have to make sure he kept her hidden, he wasn't sure why he wanted to do this, maybe it was a way of saving his inner child or something but when he had seen what was happening he had just... snapped, come to think of it had been remarkably similar to when he lost his temper in the hospital.
Well there was no point thinking too much over it now and he wouldn't abandon her now that he had saved her, he'd just make the most of it now and handle problems when they arose
"-Ruto, Naruto hey are you even listening to me you thick headed jerk" Hanabi glared at him her cheeks flushed with anger over her almost anorexic pale face
"Hmm oh sorry what was it you were saying" Naruto apologised sheepishly rubbing the back of his head and ruffling what passed for hair on his head
"I said what are you going to do about this, me, why aren't you handing me over to my family or even the Hokage, you realise you're taking an enormous risk hiding me here so there's got to be a reason why you're doing it"
Naruto shook his head slightly looking away as he leaned back in his chair before letting out a loud snort of amusement
"Feh who cares what's risky and what isn't, your family seem like arseholes and I hate arseholes, The old man is probably planning something with me as I'm pretty sure him and a lot of others have been keeping lots of shit from me and as for a reason anything that could develop into something to piss anyone else off in this village is considered pretty good for me, guilty pleasures and all"
To say Hanabi was shocked would be an understatement, to take such a risk on what? A whim? an idle thought of petty vengeance on people he had never and probably would never meet, the mere thought of the illogical pattern of his actions were appalling, so why couldn't she stop smiling?
"You put your life in danger to save me and for that I'm grateful, I'm indebted to you now more then I can ever hope to repay but I'll try my hardest to make it up to you Uzumaki-san"
"Hey what's with this Uzumaki-san stuff, you'll make me feel like an old man"
'Hanabi is odd but she is still a good person, perhaps a better person then I can become and she seems to accept me even though my body is that of a monster
--
"Did you hear?" one villager whispered almost covering his hand with his mouth as he leaned towards another villager
"Hear what?" the villager replied in slight interest moving his body forward idly wiping the sweat that had condensed above his brow
"Refugee's and immigrants of all things and I hear they're coming from the tea country of all places"
"Ere Tea country, where's that" a construction worker muttered joining the conversation as he noisily scratching the stubble on his chin as small flakes of dead skin fell from his aged face a clear sign that the man rarely bathed
"It's up north from 'ere and I heard they were starting some ninja village there or so's I heard"
"I hear ol Yuna saw a runner from their country go straight through the gates real urgent like so I bets ya anythin' that we'll get more people ere soon enough ya know"
"Probably those damn Kumo dogs again, I heard from Ishta that one of them tried to get some academy student the other week an nearly got 'im too, poor kid don't think I've ever seen 'im around before, practically covered in stitches"
"Damn Kumo doin' that tha' just a kid"
"Pretty weird kid though, real weird hair and the bluest eyes ya ever seen maybe he's a Yamanaka or somethin'"
"Oi you lazy bums get back to work"
"Yes sir"
--
A girl no older then eleven stared down with a slight smile at the crippled form of her father as the man feebly tried to get into a standing position, small puddles of blood leaking from cuts all over body and from his mouth and nose
"You, You bitch, you monster do you know what you've done" Hiashi, the man lying in the pools of his own blood cursed at the girl standing over him
"Oh what's this Oto-san, calling your eldest a monster" Hinata looked at her father her slight smile turning into a cruel sneer as she lashed out with a kick striking her crippled father and sending him sprawling "How utterly hypocritical of you"
Hinata pale blue hair reflected off the moonlight casting an eerie shadow over her face as she languidly turned away from her birth parent in contempt and gently sat back down on the raised cushioned seat at the end of the Hyuuga main meeting hall, the meeting hall as much of the main family housing was built like a traditional palace of the Japanese
It was built with all the flair and functionality in mind and probably cost more then all the money in the all of Konoha but nothing was too good for the royalty of the Hyuuga who themselves were direct descendents of the Lord of fire
"Lady Hyuuga what do you wish done with the former Head of clan" a boy only a year older then Hinata spoke kneeling in front of her with his head bowed and his face strewn into a mixture of contempt, hate and of all things love
"Neji-niisan" Hinata spoke softly leaning forward softly cupping his face with both her hands "Neji-niisan" she spoke again drawing closer and tracing his lip with a manicured nail and tilting his head up "Neji-niisan" a third time she spoke eyes glinting as her finger pressed down hard enough to draw blood and her mouth neared his ear
"I. Want. Him. Dead."
Ignoring the cut on his lip Hyuuga Neji smirked before bowing his head to hide his mirth "And what of the elders, Lady Hyuuga" he inquired not tearing his eyes from the polished floorboards that required a special sap grown only in the coldest parts of the frozen wastelands to the north deep within enemy territory to keep the unearthly gleam of the wood
"Have them disposed of, I don't want their wrinkled carcasses littering my precious home any longer" Hinata waved a slender hand over the room vaguely pointing at the poisoned bodies of the Hyuuga main family still writhing in pain on the ground, their hands still holding poisoned sake cups
"Oh ho ho ho ho, what stupid foolish people they were thinking old fossils could hold me back, oh well they'll have more use as fertiliser"
Hinata cupped her cheek in her hand and relaxed, there was nothing that could control her any longer as the four main houses Eraclea, Dagobert, Bassianus and Hamilton had been completely erased from existence leaving her the only ruling Hyuuga among the hundreds of the branch families and vassals of the main house and because of the cursed brand not a single one of them could attack her without incurring their own death before they even managed to strike her
Except for Neji that is, his seal was oddity, possibly a fault in its making as Neji's father had most assuredly managed to change it ever so slightly so it would not work the way it was supposed to
The cursed seal of the Hyuuga branch was as intricate as the finest machinery produced from Hyogakure as the seal created a three fold layer of loyalty to the main family, or to be more precise given the present circumstances, Her.
The first part of the seal was simple enough causing pain and discomfort to the recipient whenever the person refused an order or attempted to usurp authority of the main family they were bonded to
the second part was much like the first as it allowed a main family member to cause tremendous pain in the central nervous system making the brain cells erode and decompose at an alarming rate, while it was capable of being activated with a single hand seal the effect could be passive as the seal would activate as soon as the branch member acted out any activity it believed to be harmful to a main family
The third part was more subtle as it destroyed or converted memories and thoughts of discontent and malice to the main family into notions of servitude quashing rebellious ideals and hopes and quietly whispering words of submission when they slept
Neji's seal however had none of this Hinata could tell, it emulated the pain but not the lasting effect, he was in effect the freest a Hyuuga could be but had ultimately sold himself to Hinata in return for delivering his father's murderer on a silver platter
She laughed unable to hold back pent up emotions and laughed, eyes watering as she clutched her sides barely keeping herself upright, she heard many of the branch members calling out to her in worried voices asking if she was alright but she ignored them for the moment and continued to laugh.
--
End chapter
Hanabi, Hinata and the Hyuuga's - they are going to play a large part later I'll just keep it a secret what part they will play hu hu hu.
I don't particularly like Hinata, or most of the cannon Kunoichi in Konoha in general as they tend to be depicted as shallow two dimensional card board cut outs, probably the three most characters that fit this roll are Sakura, Hinata and Ino
Sakura is for the simple reason that for practically a hundred and eighty friggin episodes all she does is stand around doing shit all as she had no reason to be a ninja in the first place as she could have chassed after Sasuke as a civilian and I think that's the whole point is that 'if' she hadn't been on a team with Sasuke she would have simply quit or got some desk job
Hinata enrages me especially with thousands of people screaming abuse saying that she is powerful or stronger then what she shows, truth is she isn't, despite having a hard upbringing she still had a relatively pampered lifestyle within the walled confines of the Hyuuga estate
That is not, to say that she isn't just as likely to snap and go Itachi on everyone, anyone is capable of snapping when under stress but the thing is compared to her cousin Neji she is pitifully weak in ninja competency
this can be attributed to a mixture of self loathing an inability to reach out and take grasp of situations where she could have benefited and grew stronger, she had access from a young age to anything from tutors to trainers and an entire clans worth of resources and an entire library of knowledge as well as an effective bloodline to make use of, as you can see in this fan fiction what I don't like I change and what I can't change I get rid of.
Ino is a terribly complex but unexplored character, she has so much potential yet she gets tossed asides for the characters with the flashy bloodlines or cool skills, mind transfer aside there are hundreds if not thousands of ideas that can be worked on when you have the infinite possibilities of the Yamanaka mind techniques
for example Genjutsu tend to disrupt or distort one perception on the world but have to be initiated via one of the fives senses which can be blocked or overcome to dispel the Genjutsu, this however wouldn't work if you pushed the Genjutsu straight into the brain synapses and the end result would be an unstoppable technique having the effect of the Tsukiyomi
Ino is also an outgoing exuberant person, so far we don't know much about her lifestyle, family dynamics even relationships with other clans or even if there are other members of the Yamanaka clan, it'd be a simple matter to write her off as a Sasuke crazy fan girl but that seems like such a waste
About the book incept- well from a logical point of view even ninja would become introspective at times and begin to wonder how they came about and given that science is merely the most accepted view or theory at the time such as Darwinism and so forth
Kakuzu also never caught me as a man who would let sleeping dogs lie and would wish to uncover any truth he could find, as they say knowledge is power and the powerful are the ones to survive
I also left this half open so it would leave people wondering, the fact I've made subtle references to suikoden occasionally has opened me up for the possibility for even more things, and it also allows me to mix and match technology and magic
Looking at the elemental countries from the viewpoint of ecology it is hard to imagine them surviving long, considering there are demons prowling their world which are capable of levelling an entire country if they get ticked off
Given that there are also ninja out there that can do acts of destruction on similar scales then I have to wonder how such a world couldn't have simply exhumed itself through repeated wars and such
my only solution was that either humans or demons, or both had come from other worlds and it kind of makes sense, the demons have been around longer then any records of history if what can be quoted from the cannon is true, also the rise of the ninja haven't been around that long, only when they figured out how to harness chakra
-Rant-
You know re-watching the Naruto series made me realise another thing that Kishimoto overlooked, Sasuke after having Tsukiyomi used on him was in a coma for about two weeks with complete bed rest and absolutely not physical activity
Now unlike in the movies when someone goes into a coma for more then a couple days and they wake up their body is in a really bad condition, someone who had been in a coma for a week is practically unable to even lift their arm let alone walk
They usually have two to three weeks of physical therapy just to get their body back into working order, now as I see it Sasuke was in a coma for at least two weeks, counting the travel time to getting Tsunade and getting her back
So from a realistic view Sasuke would have been in no condition to even knock Sakura's platter of sliced apple away let alone engage in a strenuous activity and fight with Naruto
-End rant-