Title: Technicalities
Rating: T
Character(s): Naruto Uzumaki
Summary: Ninja technology had to come from somewhere, even it was the very distant past. Because they weren't the ones who created it, they obviously couldn't be familiar with everything. How disastrous could it be if Naruto was raised by someone who was?
Disclaimer: I own no one but my OC. You'll know her when you see her.
Warnings: It's a bit of a rant/flashback/cram chapter. It turned out kinda not what I was hoping for... Plus, the part I really wanted to get to didn't quite make it. So, I left a bit of a cliffhanger. Sorry. Oh, and somewhere in the story the POV kind of shifted. It didn't really change, just shift... Ugh.
xXx Chapter Six: Ctrl+A Ctrl+X Ctrl+V xXx
"Shut up! Just, just – fuck you, you asshole!" Naruto slammed the door as he charged out of the house. He ignored the shout of his teammates. He pretended he didn't hear his sensei. He pushed away the guilt and chagrin for possibly destroying the door of his employer and host. He threw away the promise he made to himself to not let himself feel shame or disappointment about his announcement...
"This is complete bullshit." Naruto complained quietly and without heat. He coughed at the suddenly itchy feeling in his throat and wiped his eyes as they misted over. Catching sight of the fishing village, he slowed his fast stomping to quiet baby steps. Taking a moment more to compose himself, Naruto took a breath and flipped his cap to shadow his face. The red tinted glasses, which had been resting on top of the plain cap since he left Konoha, were placed over his eyes for added discretion.
x
Twenty minutes of entering Tazuna's home country, a Jounin level nukenin had ambushed the escorting party. He was introduced by Kakashi-sensei as Zabuza, and Naruto had a feeling the bounty on his head was worth a lot.
The following scuffle was, quite frankly, a disaster.
Kakashi revealed his Sharingan eye very early in the fight. Naruto had wondered then if the man hadn't practiced with the implant in a while, or had done so in a rigorous training session he hadn't yet recovered from. He had an advantage with it, but in the fight, Naruto didn't think it was worth it.
Bored and unable to really feel threatened yet, Naruto found his attention wandering. And he very quickly spotted the one thing he was looking forward to the most in his trip to Wave.
There was a computer servicing building (crumbled and near unrecognizable from age and weathering) right in front of him (and behind the fight).
He Kage Bushin'ed himself a scout and when that clone dispersed, he left his spot before remembering to make another clone to take his spot. Oh well, no one was going to notice anyway. And no one did, until he cheered when his Flip Book was accepted by the once-store's in-port docking connection drive.
"Dammit Naruto."
"What's this, Hatake? A slow student?" Zabuza chucled lowly. Naruto's voice was echoing in the trees as he celebrated his discovery with a cheer. "Slow students are dead ones!" Instead of becoming worried, as Zabuza had been hoping for as he was honing in on the suicidal Genin, Hatake slumped a little in embarrassment with a sigh.
"More like an insane genius." Kakashi admit freely with a defeated look in his stance. Zabuza noted the annoyed and exasperated looks from the other two newbies, and how his target was trying to look relieved, but was more confused than anything. The focus of the situation was no longer on the Demon of the Mist. It was on a child Zabuza knew nothing about.
At that, cued from a sudden flood of water dragon jutsu, Naruto disappeared and started playing as revenge. Connected to the server, which he realized was actually the lands between Wave and Fire, not Wave like he had first thought, Naruto was able to use his glasses in a way he didn't think he'd be able to without an upgrade. His glasses were synched to his Flip Book, and since Tolerance was hooked to a server (something Konoha seemed to be lacking now that he thought of it), his glasses were thus super-powered!
All of Zabuza's statistics could be revealed with a though. Some things took longer (like how many A rank missions he'd done) but Naruto figured he just had to 'explain' with a focused thought what he was trying to find out. After all, his glasses and the server they were synced to were last used in an era missing shinobi lingo.
So Zabuza could run as fast as 63.4 mph on average? Who cared? Naruto could teleport. In another place of the woods, Naruto connected to a functioning speaker to 'prove his point' as well as to get the enraged missing ninja away from him.
Zabuza could survive for three weeks without food? Naruto gleefully congratulated him for destroying more than half of his strength and more than a quarter of his mental capacities. Great job for surviving, good luck on your next battle.
Zabuza actually freaked out and started yelling out defensively. Naruto guessed that statistic was only shown to him because it had happened. He supposed Zabuza had a reason to be creeped out.
Then Kakashi got with the program and started taking his own advantage to Zabuza's lack of attention and focus. Naruto noticed with his glasses that Kakashi's chakra levels were rapidly declining. The Sharingan he had was wasting more chakra than it used, and soon both Jounin were exhausted after throwing high level jutsu at each other.
Then Naruto's glasses alerted him to another figure in the trees. He quickly hid himself from that person as well.
When the two Jounin held each other in a standoff, all Naruto could do was yell a startled 'Hey!' when the other person threw a senbon at Zabuza and caused Kakashi to tumble over the other man when he suddenly collapsed. Naruto put away Tolerance and appeared just as quickly as the other teenager before arguing with him. At Naruto's unrelenting demands for an explanation, the other teen was quickly flustered and couldn't get a word out anyway.
Before Kakashi could stand up, the white masked shinobi threw a quick excuse about being a hunter nin before disappearing with Zabuza. Naruto yelled after them.
"You liar! I have your scent! I'll be hunting you down you cheater!" His voice echoed morbidly before Naruto ruined his image by pouting.
"Naruto, volume please." Kakashi groaned from the ground.
"Sorry."
"What do you mean by liar, anyway?" Sakura asked.
"That wasn't a hunter ninja. Real hunters dispose of their targets where they died, no matter who else is around." The group was quiet as that information sunk in. Kakashi sluggishly tugged his hitaiate over his Sharingan eye and both he and Naruto sighed. "Okay Kakashi-sensei, you can relax. I'll make sure everyone makes it safely to Tazuna's house.
"Nothing against you, Naruto, but I'd rather not chance anything." Kakashi said as he struggled to stand and ignore the dark spots in his vision. He would have fallen on his face for his efforts if his three cute little Genin didn't pile close to catch him.
"Damn you're heavy, sensei." Naruto swore. Kakashi didn't say anything. He was already unconscious.
"Lead the way, please, Tazuna-san." Sakura grunted as she tried to work with the other two boys to position Kakashi in a better position to carry the tall man.
After a day of rest, Kakashi was well enough to talk his team through a plan of action. He was going to train them harder, become more critical in their techniques and harsher in their conditioning. He started drilling them in scenarios and possible situations. He started educating them on tactics and pointers they could use for themselves. He quoted a lot of what he taught them with 'what I learned in war' and it made the three children realize what they were preparing for. Against Zabuza, who they all knew was still alive, they could die.
Well, the other two Genin could. Naruto was more prepared than they were, and it was becoming more obvious every day. Naruto knew his strengths, and he knew what Kakashi was trying to introduce them to. He never claimed to be an expert, but Kakashi used him often as an example or assistant in demonstrations.
Naruto should have known his teammates would get jelous or something. They were only kids. After nearly five days, though, Sasuke finally snapped.
"Yeah, so I know things. So what? You know this already. Information is my specialty." Naruto frowned cautiously as he took another bite of food. Sasuke scowled and clenched his fists over his chopsticks.
"You know things you shouldn't know! Shinobi or not, you're just a Genin! You're not a genius or a prodigy! You're just a loser who can barely pass the Academy Exam after how many tries! Three, was it?" Naruto carefully kept his expression neutral to Sasuke's taunting sneer. His failing the Academy as often as he had was a sore spot for him. "You're grades this year had been the worst yet, I hear! How do you know so much when you suck at the most basic of things!"
Sakura squirmed in her seat and tried to eat quietly. It was a lot harder than normal to ignore her two teammates as they argued though. The atmosphere with a yelling Sasuke and a calm Naruto, as well as the topic of conversation, made it impossible to focus on her food. She heard the slow thunk of Kakashi's crutch moving upstairs, and quickly used that excuse to leave the table to help her sensei.
"You know, there's a reason my grades sucked this year. You wouldn't happen to know my grades last year, would you? Or the year before that?" Naruto asked hypothetically. Tazuna and his family weren't as fortunate to have an excuse to leave the argument or send it away. They sat uncomfortably at the table as they tried to pretend there wasn't an argument going on.
Last year, Naruto remained perfectly average in his class. His teachers consisted of one man who hated his guts, and a woman who was fair to him. He failed because he couldn't do the Bushin correctly yet (after a little more than a year of trying), and the man had 'lost' his written test. It was the first and only deliberate action he had taken against Naruto, and so Naruto hadn't seen it coming.
The year before, Naruto had two teachers who openly hated him, but never did anything to sabotage him. Naruto was near the top of his class that year. He just couldn't do Genjutsu at the time (his control and sensory was deplorable) so when it was required that he create one and dispel a foreign one, he had failed.
His wrist had been sprained in a badly caught tumble the year before that, so he failed the weapons section as well as the written for 'ineligibility' and he couldn't do anything with his chakra other than summon it and make hand signs.
He wasn't even going to think of the years before he made it to the final classes. He had no problem proving his potential to get into class. It was the teachers and the test part Naruto struggled with the hardest.
"Those years don't matter anyway. You're still a failure. I know you failed this year too! How did you even get a forehead protector! I bet you cheated your way into this team!"
"I don't see you being a very good teammate, Uchiha." Naruto said coldly. He didn't appreciate the accusations thrown at him at all. He didn't look away from his glaring contest with the boy, even when he knew Kakashi had arrived with Sakura standing timidly nearby.
"I don't think you're a good teammate either, Uzumaki." Naruto snorted.
"By all means, bastard, tell me how you really feel." He said with as much sarcasm as he could afford. Sasuke growled.
"You don't care about us. You spy on us and hold our secrets over our heads without regard to what we feel about it. You never train or hang out with us after meeting days, but I've seen you with other teams and groups. What, too good for us, Uzumaki? Are you talking about us to everyone in the corps?" Sakura gasped, suddenly red as her imagination obviously took over. Naruto's hand finally snapped his chopsticks.
"Hey! I'm a better person than that! I don't see you being a social butterfly either, so don't go around making me out as the bad guy! You're the one who ignores Haruno-san and Kakashi-sensei's attempts to spend bonding time together! I at least accept if they off to me! So sue me for spending time with friends outside of your clique! After being brushed off the first five times each, I got the hint and stopped bothering to initiate anything with this team! I spend time with people who want me around, not that it matters to who whether I'm allowed to!"
Kakashi and Sakura had flinched at the accusatory glances thrown their way by the Wave family. After Naruto spent a day in Inari's room, gently trying to get the boy's side of the story about why he didn't think Team Seven was going to live, he counseled the boy about grief and mourning and the strength of belief. Naruto had thrown a little about his own problems into the air to get the boy to open up, and Tsunami was surprised by the sudden change in her son. Having eavesdropped on Naruto's stories, she was grateful and saddened. She was even more so, humbled as well, when Naruto showed her the groceries he brought with him for everyone. The family appreciated Naruto, and seeing how much his own team didn't really upset them.
"Didn't you used to be in the years ahead of us?" Sasuke asked, ignoring the words Naruto said. Naruto crossed his arms and glared.
"What of it?"
"I remember hearing a rumor back then." Naruto glared. There were many rumors about him, none of them necessarily polite and most of them wrong. "Yeah, something about how you wanted to be Hokage." Naruto snorted in disregard. Him, Hokage? Pft. But, he knew exactly where the other boy was coming from and what he was trying to do. It wasn't going to work.
"Like I want to be in charge of every ungrateful son of a bitch in the most wonderful and prosperous and envied ninja village of all elemental nations! You must be hard of hearing, Uchiha!" Naruto spat. He was fed up with the other's petty anger. "I can admit to being vocal in my determination to know exactly how my future career functioned as a whole and everything that could pertain to it. It was a side project I was working on outside of school; one that will start being included in the damn Academy in three years if you're curious! I hate a lot about Konoha, Uchiha! I can freely admit to that and I don't care what anyone thinks about it! I hate our village because of what we do, what we don't do, and what we say we do, and what everyone thinks we do! We're so blind to everything, and your ignorance only proves my point!"
Kakashi was very pale, immediately thinking of everything Naruto could be implying. His thoughts ran to his sensei, the man's seal, Naruto's fate, and the tenant no one was supposed to know about yet did. He thought about the three years of Naruto's life where no one knew where he was. There was a lot of speculation when the boy reappeared, about what happened to him, what he lived through and what he could have seen that allowed him to live for so long alone and stay sane...
"Naruto, I think that's enough." Naruto cut the man off before he was finished.
"You want to know our life span now that we're a part of the illustrious corps of our country's pride?" Naruto snarled. Kakashi himself was a little curious. Those statistics were the most guarded of any ninja village. "Twenty-nine and a quarter years, Uchiha! You're either lucky, genius, or a strong believer of human sacrifices if you live past that, and no one has ever done anything to better prepare potential shinobi for this reality! You can cram information into the heads of little kids and tell them stories hardcore enough to give them nightmares, but how is that going to open their eyes to the shit they signed up for! I'm not aiming for Hokage! I'm making a bigger impact than that! And I know I'm going to make enemies in my life, so I know what branch I'm aiming for to stay strong, anonymous and alive! I know my goals! Don't you dare pretend like you know them to, because that's just going to piss me off!"
Sasuke started yelling louder, much less coherent. Naruto could admit he probably should have responded differently, but he was pissed off. He hadn't had time to wind down since arriving in Wave, he could hardly afford to be by himself so he hadn't gotten a chance to look into what he really wanted to while in Wave. He knew he wasn't supposed to mix his personal goals and pursuits to a mission, but he did and he was greatly disappointed. He hadn't connected to the local server in Wave since connecting to the one outside of it. He was cranky, annoyed, and Sasuke chose the wrong night to start accusing him of something vaguely similar to cheating. As if being a ninja didn't include such a thing.
That was the only reasonNaruto could think of for screaming the last thing that really had anything to do with anything.
"Just shut the fuck up you asshole! You don't know me and I don't care what I know about you! Dammit, you insensitive prick I can't believe I ever liked you!" and just like that, all the yelling in the house went mute. Naruto was pissed, even more so now that everyone seemed to catch exactly what he meant – being the like like as opposed to camaraderie likeness."
"You what?" Sasuke asked, looking mortified. And that was exactly what Naruto didn't want to see. He may not have liked the other boy the way he used to, which was borderline fanatical and maybe a little stalker-ish (Naruto blamed it on the fact that he knew it was his first crush), but he did still admire him. One of the last things he wanted from Sasuke was a rejection of any kind, be it love, friendship or just acknowledgement.
"You like Sasuke-kun?" Sakura echoed like a whisper.
"None of your business!" Naruto had shouted defensively. Everyone started talking then. His teammates tried to get a word from Naruto while the Wave family tried to get everyone else to calm down. Tsunami approached Naruto in an effort to calm him down and walk him away from his teammates. She was protective of him for all his polite behavior and sweet insight and stories.
Naruto wanted nothing but silence and solitude. He tensed, ready to hit something, and with a glare at the boy who started it all, Naruto screamed.
"Shut up! Just, just – fuck you, you asshole!"
Naruto bolted.
x
Now, about a good two hours later, Naruto was simply fuming. He wasn't as angry as before, but he was still upset. Just thinking about returning sent large waves of nausea through his stomach and throat. He only had his glasses, Flip Book and Wristband; his weapons pouch was still at the house. Even his new storage seal was at the small house. Naruto sighed and glared at his feet in the dirt. The town was mostly deserted at the time, so no one noticed him.
His eyebrow twitched.
Sakura's feet stepped into his view and she stood in silence.
"What?" He asked grumpily. He watched as Sakura's shoes nudged the dirt nervously before she knelt to his eyelevel. She looked guilty.
"Kakashi-sensei is really angry." She announced timidly. "He gave me and Sasuke-kun," Naruto's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "a lecture about teamwork and trust. He's more upset that you left though. We split up about thirty minutes ago to find you. Will you come back Naruto?" Naruto didn't answer immediately. He felt a little hurt that it took his team more than an hour to even start looking for him. Against his will, he felt tears in his eyes.
"I'm gonna be court marshaled, huh?" He asked, his voice hitching. Sakura bit her lip in sympathy.
"I don't know." She answered truthfully. She sat next to him and remained quiet, not wanting to push the blond into anything. Naruto sniffled once, but didn't move.
Sakura would readily admit tonight was a bad night. There was too much anger for everyone to simply ignore this incident, and a big uncomfortable secret had been revealed that wasn't going to be forgotten. Looking at the way Naruto dealt with the aftermath, though, Sakura was worried and also very sad on the blond's behalf.
When Naruto first admit to liking Sasuke, she felt angry. She was the one on the team who was going to earn Sasuke's affection, not some other boy! Then Naruto got angry, and Sakura realized the boy may not even like him anymore, and she felt very smug. Except, a part of her was indignant. You can't simply stop liking Sasuke, after all. He was the last Uchiha!
Then Naruto ran, and she felt helpless in the mess that exploded after. Tsunami started yelling at Kakashi-sensei about child psyche's and development and how she knew Naruto was more fragile than most children because of a nonexistent support circle. Or something like that. Sakura felt guilty even though she didn't completely understand. She was glad Kakashi-sensei seemed to understand Tsunami-san. Their hostess looked ready to murder if their sensei decided to argue.
Then Kakashi gave her and Sasuke The Lecture. He started off with his disappointment and his confession to wishing he could spank them all, which was uncomfortable to hear so bluntly. Then he explained how Naruto's affections are not uncommon, and that their reactions were childish and inappropriate, more so that they were in the field rather than home base. This sort of distraction was more deadly in the field, and he fully expected them to reconcile as soon as they were in the same room together.
After that, Kakashi confessed that Naruto and he himself may be in the most trouble due to protocol. He didn't elaborate, but let the two genin chew on that for a few minutes. Then they discussed search patterns and a time limit before setting off to find Naruto.
Sakura didn't apply the search pattern. She headed to where she thought the blond may go instead. She was wrong, having guessed the dock, but he was closer than she thought besides. After ten minutes of silence, she spoke again.
"Ano, we should head back." Naruto glared at the road defiantly.
He didn't want to. He knew he was supposed to, having been given an indirect order. But he didn't want to. He didn't trust himself at the moment, and he didn't want to chance speaking until he knew he wasn't going to say something else stupid. He needed to relax and be alone, as opposed to just being alone and seething. He couldn't exactly ditch Sakura though. She had found him and deliberately losing her would be looked at as an action of defiance. He didn't want to get in even more trouble.
Maybe he just needed to keep her with him.
"Not now, please?" He asked with a swallow. His throat was sore and irritated.
"Okay. Do you want to walk around?" Sakura asked, looking at the boy carefully. Seeing how hurt Naruto was really hit home Kakashi's lecture. She felt guilty now, and really hoped Naruto would feel better soon. She knew whenever she was upset she just needed to take a walk with Ino. The walks helped her, and having company with a set of ears and a shoulder for support wasn't too bad either. Naruto seemed to perk a little at the suggestion, even if the town was worn and iffy.
"Yeah. Thanks Haruno-san."
"Sakura. Please, call me Sakura." She said gently. Naruto looked at her, pushing his glasses down a little to really look at her.
Naruto didn't call anyone by their name, opting instead to remain polite if distant. He hadn't once called his teammates by their name, only their family name in all the time they'd worked together. He never even gave them permission to call him by his name, yet Sakura always had. Sasuke called him Naruto or Uzumaki depending on his mood and how he wanted to belittle or taunt him. That Sakura was offering him a closer relationship after their recent team mess was like acceptance and repentance from her.
Naruto really wanted to be friends with his team...
"Okay, Sakura." She beamed gratefully at him. "I just want to check out the Odd Hole around here. The one at home always calms me down if I go there upset." Sakura's smile faded.
"The Odd Hole? I heard that Wave's Odd Hole was dangerous. It's not like normal ones." She said, worried.
"Yeah? I hear that too. I think it's all rumors though. I just wanna see. Please?" Naruto asked, trying to wipe his puppy dog face off so as to keep what dignity he had left. It was too late though, as Sakura had still caught it. And then she just caved.
"Okay, fine. But just a quick look. Kakashi-sensei was really upset and we should report back soon."
"Rodger that Sakura-san." Naruto gave a quick salute and dusted off his pants from the small damp stones clinging to him. She smiled in relief as the blond was starting to look better already. The two started walking.
X
Naruto led himself and Sakura to the other end of town. There was a temple dedicated to a type of deity sitting along the road, but it was obviously abandoned and greatly neglected. Naruto took a mental note to send the coordinates to Tari-chan. She liked learning about spirituality and religions of his era.
"Naruto, are you sure we're not lost?" Sakura asked.
"Positive."
"That tree looks familiar." Naruto glanced at it.
"It's a lesser oak." He informed. There were plenty of those species of trees around Wave. Sakura scowled and Naruto flinched when he heard her knuckles crack.
"I meant that it looks like we passed it before." She forced out of clenched teeth. Naruto turned around to observe the tree more closely. He tilted his head.
"I guess so." He agreed lightly.
"Arg! We're lost!"
"No we're not!" Naruto defended himself. He flourished his hand towards the large poles beside him, nearly completely camouflaged with leafy vines and a fair sized tree growing close to one of them. "We're here. I've been following the path." He added with a glance to their feet. Sakura looked down to the slightly shorter grass and imbedded stones of the trail she didn't realize could be a trail. It was nearly invisible.
"Oh."
"Come on!" Naruto urged suddenly as he pulled her through the open gates by her wrist.
"But, Naruto, the demons!" Naruto laughed, laughed!, at her and pulled her into the rusty door. The large room was dark, only a few beams of light striking through the darkness, though they were mostly dim and flickering. Sakura shivered at the creaks and echoes of dripping something in the deeper, inky darkness. She had no idea how large this Odd Hole was, and she wondered if Naruto was clinically insane to be as excited as he was. Naruto had started bouncing in place as he observed everything with her. There wasn't anything coming out of the shadows for them, and Sakura was ready to go back now.
"Sakura! This is it! This is really it! Sakura, you gotta play with me! Please~!" Naruto suddenly yelled as he shouted in joy and excitement. Sakura placed a hand over her racing heart and glared at the blond as he suicidally screamed in the den of demons.
"Naruto, shut up!" She whispered furiously, inching backwards to the door behind her. The darkness didn't hint towards anything awaking or moving. "What are you talking about now?" She couldn't help but contradict herself. Naruto getting excited over something had to mean something big.
"Battlefield. It's a game I like playing, and this is the final level! I never thought I'd be able to finish the game, and I've only played by myself. Please say you'll play with me Sakura! Please please please! My last level in my game said that the final level was actually a theme park, and I never thought I'd find it! This Odd Hole isn't full of demons or monsters! It's the final level to Battlefield!" Naruto was bouncing on his feet, from what Sakura could tell. Though she was relieved to know she wasn't in danger of being eaten, she still had no idea what Naruto was talking about. She was grateful that he wasn't as morose as earlier though.
"Fine. How do we play and how long will it take?" Naruto didn't answer as he cheered and promptly dashed into the darkness and disappeared. Sakura stayed in her patch of light from the outside. She wasn't supposed to follow him, right? If she was, she wasn't going to. After a moment of Naruto bumping into things and swearing, his face was suddenly lightened up by a bright rectangular light floating around. Naruto squinted in the darkness and Sakura could hear him pushing buttons that clicked.
"Just give me a minute, Sakura-san." Naruto said as he continued to click buttons as it typing on a computer keyboard.
"Sure." She answered as she shifted her feet and looked around her. A whirring and loud humming had started up. A few things clanged and crashed as sounds shifted and became louder in movement.
"And done! Ready Sakura-san!" Sakura wished he just called her Sakura. Then the lights came on and Sakura screamed. There was a monster, red and hairy and multitailed in a lupine body just six feet away from her! It wasn't moving towards her, in fact it was disappearing into the floor, frozen in a stalking position as it seemed to fall slowly into nothing, but it was still frightening to see. It could have been the Nine Tailed Fox Demon!
"Naruto! What's going on!" Sakura demanded as she realized there were all sorts of monsters and creatures melting into the floor. And the floor itself was even shifted and rising up like a macabre parody of a child playing with clay to build a city. She was going to have nightmares, she just knew it!
"Just resetting the game." Naruto replied as he hopped over another counter, with broken glass and a corner of black-blue moss spread everywhere. Naruto approached a red and blue metal cabinet and kicked the rusted lock. The doors creaked open and after a moment of rummaging, in which Sakura wondered how Naruto knew what he was looking for, he pulled out two weapons that were reminiscent of her dad's hunting rifle, only thicker and shorter.
"What are those for?" She asked as he handed her a red one, keeping the blue one for himself, and took off a few clips she didn't realize could come off of the guns.
"These," He gestured to the odd rifles, "are our first weapons. We can find more in the game and use them as needed, but we can only use these from now on. Our kunai and shuriken won't affect the aliens. I guess that's where the rumors of invincible monsters came about for this Odd Hole. These are programmed to be shot by these." He pointed to the disappearing monsters and odd guns. "And these," He pointed to the small clips he was putting on his neck, head, arms, torso and legs. "Are to let us know if we get shot at by the smarter aliens. We get a leeway if hits are nonlethal, like a hit to the arm, as opposed to instant kills like a blow at the neck or heart. Ready!" Sakura looked between the 'ready' Naruto with various blue spots all over him and smiling, and her own gun with the red clips still not on her own body.
"I have no idea what you just said." She replied as she smiled back and held her red gun the way Naruto was holding his. "How do I put these on?" Naruto laughed good naturedly and helped her as the last the monsters disappeared and the land continued to shift and morph. She noted that the metal platform she and Naruto were standing on was taped off with grey and white tape that may have been black and yellow at one point. Their platform wasn't shifting around like the rest of the field around them.
"So, scores of what you killed and how many are recorded until the end of the game. Since this is co-op, there is no winner so much as qualifying scores for certain items and weapons in the game until we achieve the objective, which it to infiltrate the alien spaceship and destroy their home base. The closer we get, the harder it'll be. Are you ready now?" Naruto asked, a little calmer than before. Sakura shifted the gun in her hands before feeling comfortable enough to take a few steps with it. It was lighter than she thought it'd be.
"Yeah. Just us against them?"
"Yup. We are the last ditch effort to save the world." Sakura grimaced.
"No pressure." She mumbled. Naruto chuckled. "I'm ready." She smiled. It really did sound fun. And Naruto knew what he was doing, so she was going to follow him.
"Yes! System Start!" Naruto called in English. Sakura looked at him oddly before a loud voice stole her attention.
Starting Battlefield system. Player One, Blue: Uzumaki Naruto. Player Two, Red: Haruno Sakura. Uploading previous accomplishments from hand held device Tolerance memory storage. Uploading...
"Naruto, it knows are names." Sakura whispered, suddenly realizing she was hiding near Naruto and clutching his sleeve.
"Yeah, I put them in. I'm actually surprised it pronounced them properly." Sakura didn't know what Naruto meant by that, but he wasn't freaking out, even said he was the reason the bodiless voice that controlled the monsters (based off rumors) knew their name, so she wasn't going to let it bother her. Much.
Upload complete. Mission set. Start.
That didn't mean she was going to stop getting startled whenever that loud deep voice spoke in its demon tongues.
The whole area echoed with a beep and Naruto started walking to a street. Sakura followed him, suddenly realizing that the environment had changed completely. The ruins of what once could have been an amazing city were now rubble and debris. The sky, which was earlier a really high ceiling with many bright lights, was clear blue, brighter than outside, cloudless and maybe a few spots of black where the illusion was broken and incomplete.
"This is old technology." Sakura realized, thinking of the odd rainbow discs her mother liked to collect. Some of the thicker ones played a moving 3-D picture the way her distant uncle could do with his chakra. Only, the images the thick discs could play were so riddled with obvious technology, Sakura couldn't imagine there was any space to actually live. It was a wondrous world to think about though. "This is all old technology." She repeated softly as she looked around herself at the environment that had just been created around her. Naruto looked back at her and smile.
"Yeah. Cool, huh?" Sakura hitched her gun higher and smiled back. With the setting looking less broken and more amazing, she was feeling more confident.
"Yeah." She agreed. Naruto looked at her before looking around them.
'Girls looked cool with guns.' He thought before starting to crouch near the edges of the side panel of a downed cement tower. Sakura followed him readily. 'Though, maybe I should explain some gun safety tips...' He wondered as he noticed Sakura's fingers on her trigger already.
xXx TBC… xXx
HK: Blah! I was so ready for the next chapter! I hope no one got too much of a feeling that this was a filler chapter. It really is the next one that I'm looking forward too, but I had to push the story forward somehow in order to get there. I guess I should apologize right now though for leaving you all at a cliffie... Sorry! This chapter was important too! I needed the team to split for a bit so Sakura can get her first introduction to technology!
Yay video games!
Posted: 07Jun11