And we're back! A huuuuge thank you to all who have reviewed!
To answer a few of the general questions:
-Yes, other Naruto characters will make their appearances, but I'm not gonna tell who or when or how they will fit into the series (don't wanna ruin the surprise and all) (But here's a sneak peek: Kakashi will be making an appearance soon *commence fangirling*)
-I haven't decided how the AI's will fit in yet, so that'll be a surprise for me and all of you haha
-Originally I planned on keeping Sakura and Itachi as the main characters... but obviously I failed at that haha. Every chapter so far seems to be from a different POV. I'm just writing from the POV of the character that fits into how I want to present the story. Sooo... Everyone is game.
To be honest I'm making all of this up as I go along. I never really planned for this story to grow as it has. What is a surprise to you guys is probably also a surprise to me lol.
STANDARD DISCLAIMER APPLIES
/:/../:/ ONI/ENCRYPTED/ONI - FILE - CLASSIFIED LEVEL RED/:/./.:/
/:/::/../SPARTAN PROJECT - GENERATION 1/:/./::/
./:/ {Test Subject 099}:/./:/
Origin: System 234 - Planet 1028 - Mizu Colony
Name: Kisame
Code Name: Shark
Acquired: Taken Fed. Year 309 (orphan)
Age: Acquired at 7 Fed. years, currently 31 Fed. years
Training: 90% success rate - 9/10 kill rate
Augmentation: Success - 155 of 300 survivors; 49 terminated [insert] Skin turned blue after Augmentation
Eyes: Grey
Hair: Black
Height: Biologically 1.95 m / 6'3ft - After Augmentation 2.4m / 7'8ft
Weight: Biologically 83.1kg / 204lbs - After Augmentation 150.1kg / 332lbs
Status: Active - Alpha Squad
Position: Heavy Armor - Heavy Weapon - Hand to Hand - Close combat
Comments: Cruel, bloodthirsty, and more intelligent than people give him credit for. He's big, but he's fast. The Augmentation did wonders - he's nearly 8 feet tall! Only side effect was the strange pigment of his skin. He is more than the super soldier that we asked for, he's practically a walking tank. Obliterates anything and everything in his path without mercy. Request for Alpha team, but pair him with a level head. He is prone to berserking.
1,000.
One thousand participants.
That was a lot of men and women for a top-secret special operations try out. For the people who had volunteered to risk their lives for even just the chance to join the ranks of the SPARTAN soldiers. There were no established prerequisites in order to qualify for the try out, but there still were some that went unsaid: you had to be a good fighter and you had to be hella stubborn.
It took more than just good health to survive the Augmentation.
The participants had come from all walks of life and various military branches and ranks. Airforce, Army, the Naval and Marine Spacecorps, men, women, cadets and sergeants. Previous rankings were wiped and all were equal in the eyes of the SPARTAN scientists. The only thing that mattered was physical endurance and intelligence.
The trainees spent their first year building up their physical prowess. Each day they trained, pushing their bodies past its limits, forcing themselves to improve or go home. They were fed steroids with each meal, they were in every meal and drink that they consumed. Body aches became a constant as growing pains accompanied the stress of training, their bodies growing taller and more muscled as if they were teenagers again.
Any sign of weakness, and you were dismissed, never to dream of special ops again. By the end of that first year, the program had weeded out all who were weak in body.
900 participants.
The next year the training doubled. In addition to the physical labor every morning and every night, the trainees went through schooling. They learned about every weapon in existence, human-made and bijuu-made, familiarizing themselves with every bullet, every barrel, and every screw that went into the firearms. From warthogs to tanks to jets; from pistols to SMG sidearms to H1 sniper rifles. The bijuu weapons were far more confusing than human weapons - there was no gunpowder or bullet, instead they either used a plasma power source for short and controlled bursts, or strange rapid-fire rifles that used needle-like shots that were made even deadlier with heat-seeking attributes.
They learned piloting, both in atmosphere and in space, intermediate hacking skills, AI creation and development, spaceship command and detail, as well as the known biology of the bijuu aliens. The sheer amount of knowledge that the program was cramming into their skulls would have been overwhelming even without the physical training regime. But combined with the morning and evening workouts (read: torture) participants were constantly exhausted. They were lucky to receive five hours of sleep in one night, and weekends were unheard of. Every day they were pushed harder and harder, and every day another trainee either quit voluntarily or collapsed from exhaustion and removed from the program.
800 participants.
Two years of physical and mental preparation and the SPARTAN program was ready to move to it's most crucial step: Augmentation. While the training for the Spartan hopefuls was no where near over, the rest of it could not be completed without the genetic enhancements.
The participants were gathered in the cafeteria, which had been cleared of tables and chairs to accommodate the crowd. They were lined up alphabetically, and a group of twenty at a time were separated from the group and taken down to the lower levels were the labs were. No one know what the process of Augmentation was, or how it operated. The people who entered the labs were never seen from again - either they had died in the surgery, or survived and were taken away by ONI.
During this time, Ino and Kiba had not been able to speak to Naruto or Sasuke, nor to each other. They had been separated alphabetically into different training groups at the beginning of the program. Only Naruto and Sasuke were placed in the same training group, having last names that began with the same letter. The friends had only caught glimpses of each other between training and eating periods, just long enough to flash each other reassuring smiles.
Kiba was the first of their group of friends to enter the labs.
As his group stood to leave the cafeteria, he glanced back and made eye contact with his friends. Naruto and Sasuke were sitting next to each other, the blonde flashing him a nervous thumbs-up and Sasuke looking grim. Ino's eyes were bright and filled with worry when he met her gaze, and they silently nodded to each other in farewell - just in case either of them died.
Kiba swallowed hard and followed the group of silent and nervous men - and one woman - filed into a wide lift. The door lowered behind them, and the floor beneath them jerked before they felt themselves being lowered. The base had two official sub-levels.
The elevator passed both of them.
Kiba's eyes trained on the digital number above the buttons that reflected what floor they were passing. When the numbers read 'SubLevel -2', the lights flickered and suddenly the sign went black. No one spoke, but there was a rising tension in the air around them, stifled by the close quarters.
The person next to him shifted and brushed his shoulder. Kiba glanced at them and met dark brown eyes that were filled with grim determination. It was the one woman in their group, a brunette with her hair cropped close to her head. Kiba remembered seeing her at the beginning of the program, before they had all been forced to shave their heads. She had had longer hair back then, which he had noticed because she had pulled them into twin buns on either side of her head.
She nodded at him gravely, exchanging encouraging looks before they focused on the door. The floor beneath them continued to lower, long after they had passed the last floor. The minutes stretched on, until finally they felt the lift slowing down, and the floor jerked to a halt beneath their feet.
The doors opened, but no one moved to get out.
A man in a lab coat exited from a doorway down the hallway and began walking towards them.
"Don't just stand there, move." He griped. "Come on, this way."
The trainees filed out of the lift, following the man down the hallway. They arrived in what appeared to be a central lab or hub, screens on every wall and glowing with semi-neon light. Various charts and diagrams were displayed, human body pictures with medical charts off to the side of them, various beeping noises filling the room, interrupting the constant hum of medical and scientific jargon.
The scientists did not bother to look up at the participants as they were ushered into the room and out the other side into a long hallway.
"Each of you take a room." The scientist that guided them ordered, turning to leave. He paused at the doorway as the participants wandered further down the hall. "And, uh, good luck."
He sounded rather pessimistic.
Most of us are not going to leave here alive. Kiba thought to himself as he entered one of the doorways.
The room was a small laboratory, with various needle and surgical machines surrounding a reclining table. Kiba guessed that was where he was supposed to lie down, on the white medical table in the center of the room. It was not completely flat, but had indents on its surface to accommodate the human body, slightly angled upwards so that it sat up slightly.
One of the previous trainees probably died on that table not five minutes ago. Chills ran down his spine.
Kiba climbed into the contraption just as a door slid open at the back of the room and a small team of masked scientists swarmed in. There were four of them that he counted, not speaking a word to him as they began to tap the machines, fingers flying across the keyboards. He felt like a lab rat, resisting the rising panic in his chest as they leaned over him, strapping down his wrists and ankles into metal cuffs. Cold steel pushed against his abdomen as another metal restraint was placed over his torso. He couldn't see their faces, hidden behind a mask that covered their nose and mouth, and their eyes hidden behind goggles that flashed ominously in the light.
He breathed in deeply in an attempt to calm his heart rate as someone's hand pushed his head back onto the surface of the table, and a metal circlet was lowered down to press against his forehead, locking his head into place. Someone else inserted a mouth guard between his teeth.
A smaller, more harmless-looking needle appeared in the hands of one of the scientists and they quickly shot its contents into Kiba's bicep.
"The maximum dosage of morphine has been applied. Two minutes until commencement."
He couldn't tell which scientist said it, nor the gender of the speaker.
"Subject is ready to receive Augmentation."
The voice was dry, robotic, its owner detaching themselves from caring about the number of men and women who would die during this process.
Kiba swallowed and sent up a small prayer to a god that no one prayed to anymore.
The machines came to life with a whir of movement and beeping signals. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the metal of the needles flashing under the fluorescent lights, and suddenly he felt very, very afraid.
He felt like a small child, wishing that he could run home and crawl into his mother's arms. Oh god, would she be notified if he died here? Or would he just disappear, as so many others had before him?
The machines hummed as the needles aligned at various points of his body. He could barely see the scientists as they ran around his frozen body, checking each device and its alignment before the Augmentation could commence.
"All clear."
An emotionless voice spoke, and Kiba felt the dread rise to a fever pitch within him as he heard their footsteps retreat, the sound of a door sliding open and the scientists leaving the room.
A hum, and the door slides shut.
All he could see was the white ceiling above him, and the glinting metal instruments that hovered around and above in a sick imitation of vultures waiting for its prey to breathe its last.
He was alone.
Oh god, he didn't want to be alone. Not for this! He wanted someone to hold his hand, so tell him he would be alright, that he would live -
Bzzzzzzzzzz
The Augmentation commenced.
.
.
.
All thoughts scattered and he screamed.
He screamed and he begged and he cried and he prayed for death.
Pain was all he felt, filling every pore of his being.
The needles drilled into his body, further and further, not stopping, through flesh and through bone. He felt his entire body wrack uncontrollably, and he would have thrashed like a possessed man had he not been bolted down.
The needles drilled into his head, minuscule yet unbreakable as they were inserted into his skull, somehow bypassing his skull without cracking his cranium. The needles stopped when they had just barely pricked the surface of his brain and began applying whatever enhancement the SPARTAN program used.
Larger needles prodded every inch of his body. He cried out hoarsely when the needles hit his bones and did not stop.
They drilled further into his bones, the shock reverberating up and down his limbs, numb yet at the same time, on fire. He could feel the liquid being inserted into his bones, filling the cracks and going further, spreading into every pore of the marrow, coating his entire skeleton.
Elsewhere, he could feel other serums being inserted into his body. His flesh felt like it was on fire as other chemicals were introduced to his body, his muscles spasming under the combined stress of pain, tension, and alteration.
He would have bitten his tongue off by now if it wasn't for the thick rubber mouth guard locked in his jaw. Bile rose in his throat from the torture, coating his tongue with a sharp and bitter taste, with a hint of iron that told him there was blood mixed in it as well. The mouth guard managed to stay in place despite that he was hacking and coughing up bile, blood, and saliva in between his screams and moans.
Oh god please -
Make it stop -
Anything but this oh god -
I'm gonna die please just -
Make it stop -
I'm dying -
It hurts so much oh god -
How can anyone survive this -
I can't... I can't... I wanna die... please...
.
.
.
No.
No I refuse to die.
I WILL NOT DIE HERE.
To: Dr. Tsunade (####Senju ### )
From: ||||||||||| (####ONI ###.gov)
Subject: SPARTAN Generation 2
Congratulations, Senju. Another round of guinea pigs still alive.
The report states that there were 200 survivors this time, which meets expectation. They have a week to recover before they're put into squads and attached to an active cell. I want them up and running ASAP.
To: ||||||||||| (####ONI ###.gov)
From: Dr. Tsunade (####Senju ### )
RE: Subject: SPARTAN Generation 2
A week? A WEEK?
Their entire biological systems have just been pulled inside-out and you want them up and running in A GODDAMN WEEK?
It will take them AT LEAST a month to recover! Let alone be combat ready you twat!
This is my program. They aren't going into the field until I say so!
To: Dr. Tsunade (####Senju ### )
From: ||||||||||| (####ONI ###.gov)
RE: Subject: SPARTAN Generation 2
You will not address me in such a manner, Dr. Senju. Do not forget who funds all of your research. If it wasn't for ONI you would have been labeled a mad scientist and thrown into jail for 'inhumane experiments'.
We have a war to win, doctor. Now is not the time to baby your precious lab rats.
I want my supersoldiers in a week.
To: ||||||||||| (####ONI ###.gov)
From: Dr. Tsunade (####Senju ### )
RE: Subject: SPARTAN Generation 2
Shove it up your ass old man. If it wasn't for MY research, humanity would have never been able to stand against the Bijuu.
MY Spartans are no use to you if they drop dead in the first five minutes of a battle because their bodies have not adapted to the Augmentation yet. They will be combat ready when I say they are.
End. Of. Discussion.
He was floating.
Everything was darkness.
No light, no sound, no smell... just a deep ache that seemed to echo throughout his body.
Beep.
Something... something was there...
Beep.
He struggled to remember. Who was he? Why was he here? What... What happened? Why was he in pain?
Beep.
He remembered... white. Red. White and red. Why?
Beep.
He breathed in. Metal. Blood. The familiar smell of nothingness, sterile and dry. His mouth felt raw like sandpaper, and his tongue tasted like iron.
Beep.
The darkness lightened and sound returned to him. Muffled shuffling. Whispers. The flutter of paper. Tinkling metal. A cough.
Beep.
He was alive.
That was his first thought. He shifted, and let out a hiss when a sharp pain flared up in every limb.
"He's waking!" Someone exclaimed softly. "Get Dr. Senju!"
He heard the sound of clothes rustling that accompanied movement, and he sensed more than heard a person approach his side. He felt his heart speed up as mild panic set in. Where was he? Who were these people? What had they done to him? Everything hurt, why did everything hurt?
"Sir, do not be alarmed." A gentle voice soothed him, picking up on his discomfort. "You are safe now. We're gonna take care of you."
His breathing slowed and he calmed down a bit. Though his muscles were still tense, he forced his body to relax as he felt the person sit down next to him.
"Nod if you are thirsty."
He tried to swallow and found his throat parched, glued shut with a sour taste. He nodded slowly, careful not to move too much for fear of the pain.
"Good, good." The voice encouraged, their gender unidentifiable. "I'm bringing a glass of water to your lips. You need to drink very slowly, no matter how thirsty you are, ok? Your body has been under a lot of stress."
He felt something cool touch his lips - glass, he remembered - and felt the pressure increase as it tipped. The most heavenly sensation trickled between his dry lips, cooling his body almost immediately. The water flowed into the back of his mouth, washing away the aftertaste of blood and bile. He wanted so very much to chug it all down, but he heeded the voice's warning about drinking too fast. He swallowed slowly, savoring the feel of fresh water traveling down his throat.
"There we go." The voice crooned. "You're doing very well."
He shifted, wanting to open his eyes, wanting to see the world, wanting answers, why why why?
"Don't move!" The voice rose in pitch, worry evident in their tone. "Your body needs rest, a lot of rest. Keep as still as possible, at least for the next few days. Just let us take care of you."
He was so tired, so very tired. The aches were becoming harder to ignore, the pain flaring up more frequently and with increasing intensity. The darkness beckoned him.
Whoooooshhhh...
A door slid open somewhere behind him, and he heard another pair of footsteps enter the room.
"The doctor is here to see you now." The voice reassured him. "She's gonna check up on you, ok?"
He heard more movement, and then another presence was at his other side. He could feel the warmth radiating from their body, smell their scent and feel their eyes on him.
"Hello Kiba." A woman's voice greeted him, gentle yet impersonal. "My name is Dr. Senju. I'm just here to check over your stats, ok? Try not to move or think too much. Just relax. If you feel like sleeping, go ahead. You will need a lot more rest before you're strong enough to get up."
He heard fingers tapping across a screen, with very faint pinging noises. He listened to the sound of their breathing, counting their breaths in and out, settling back down. The doctor and the other person began to whisper in hushed tones, further away from him now. He couldn't focus long enough to understand their words, though he had the feeling that it was all medical jargon anyway.
The darkness beckoned.
He gladly embraced it.
Whoooo another chapter done!
Tell me what you think, leave a review!
~Lilithia