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: So, yeah. You know how life just seems to be against you? I won't offer any excuses, or reasons, but I'll just leave with that question. This chapter does not make up for the long wait… I sowwy...
xXx Chapter Seven: Right Click xXx
Naruto panted, wondering when Sakura would be done. It had been almost three minutes since they split up to trap the ringleader. He could hear the rapid fire of her gun in the distance, so she was still in the game. She wasn't supposed to be shooting though. She was supposed to be setting up her half of the trap.
"Dammit." Naruto carefully peaked over his chosen hiding spot and yelped as the edge blew up. He was grateful for the goggles he found. He probably would have gotten injured or something. Scrambling back, Naruto disappeared just as two demons – one gelatinous blob of red with boney spikes around a spine with two arms of weapons, and the other a reptilian lizard with too large of eyes and a tiny set of knives in four clawed hands – surrounded his former spot and proceeded to investigate. He flinched when they almost set his part of the trap, a stretchy line currently hooked to a corner of the boulder he had been hiding behind.
He heard Sakura yell loudly as she fired off some sort of loud weapon. Naruto wondered if she found a rocket launcher or something and hoped she was okay. It sounded like she was really into the game, so he counted that as a plus. Especially since these monsters were twenty times harder than they were in Tolerance.
Forty minutes to launch
The game warned loudly from the cloudy ceiling. Naruto snagged his radio as he slipped away from the two monsters in front of him. They crowded close to his former hiding spot and started sniffing the ground. Naruto felt his heart stutter at the realization and turned tail.
Trackers.
Naruto dashed a little farther in the shadows and held the side button of his radio. He let go in a loud click. Sakura clicked hers in reply twice after a moment. Naruto couldn't hear her trailing explosions, so he assumed she was safe and no longer causing any mayhem and destruction. She may be a little trigger happy, but she had great aim.
"Sakura. We have less than forty minutes left."
"How do you know? Did you find a timer?" She asked in reply.
"Yeah. It was a quick glimpse though, before the aliens destroyed it. What time do you have?"
"My watch reads 0646. I'm still not sure if it's a watch though." Sakura read. Naruto had given her a digital watch before they separated.
"Don't worry. I'm sure it is. When it reads, say, 0705 we should hurry up and meet at the base of the ship if we haven't before. I'm heading there now. My parts are set up, unless the aliens manage to disarm my parts before we can spring everything."
"I'm almost done. I'll head to you soon."
"Roger, out."
"What? Oh yeah. Out" Naruto wished they covered radio communications at the Academy.
X
Kakashi was getting worried...
Well, okay, he can be honest to himself.
Kakashi was panicking! On the inside. He didn't want to worry Sasuke.
After searching as far as he would allow himself to think Naruto could reach, he had doubled back to meet his team and hopefully have someone find his littlest genin. Sasuke had arrived, without Naruto, a few minutes after he had. Sakura hadn't arrived on time, so Kakashi assumed she had found the blond and was in the process of dragging his pre-teen angsty self back.
That was more than thirty minutes ago. Now it was thirty minutes after the predetermined meeting time. And just now, Kakashi received a rush of memories that caused him to tense a fist and hold a curse on his tongue.
Sasuke was already pacing and obviously distressed. There was no need to tell him that his teammates weren't at Tazuna's home, the place Kakashi was hoping they were at before his Kage Bushin alerted him otherwise.
Sasuke growled and looked at him, face sullen and hands in pocket, no doubt in fists.
"Kakashi-sensei?"
"Hm?" Kakashi looked at him from the corner of his visible eye. The Uchiha glanced at the trees before looking at him again.
"I... I don't want Naruto to leave." It wasn't the normal apology Sasuke had normally offered during training breaks in Konoha, but it was one.
"Well, when we find Naruto, you can tell him that yourself." Sasuke looked uncertain.
"But where is he? And Sakura?"
"Hm, good questions. Let's go exploring. No use splitting up again. I might not have any students left if we did." Kakashi nearly kicked himself. Sasuke's wide gaze told him he was too insensitive this time. Naruto's departure had shaken him a lot more than he thought if he was reverting back to his cynical personality normally reserved to far stressful times than these. Well, he was missing half his team. Maybe he was allowed this much stress for the situation. "Come along, Sasuke."
Sasuke kept close, to Kakashi's relief. The boy has had bad luck with his family dying around him, and having his second family, Team Seven, all but falling apart around him was no doubt bringing back nightmarish fears. Kakashi could be honest with himself. He didn't want to lose his team either. Dead or alive, he was going to find his genin.
If this was Zabuza's doing, Kakashi planned to destroy the man.
X
Naruto and Sakura frowned as they crept forward. The lighting was bright, the hallways were clean, and the entire floor was silent. If Naruto didn't know any better, he'd say they walked out of the game and into someone's business building. Except their equipment would have stopped working and they would have been alerted by their hit zones if that was the case. As it was, their weapons, a laser gun and tazer launcher, were still humming in standby and ready to be used.
"Naruto? Something doesn't feel right." Sakura whispered.
"Yeah, I feel it too." He murmured back at her. They froze when they heard the sounds of conversation. They could understand it. Sakura looked at him with inquiring eyes. Naruto looked back before looking ahead and readying himself. Sakura followed his lead easily and stood close, also ready. They traveled close to the wall, despite the fact they stood out easily, and made their way to the sounds of people.
"-even do that! A curse to Konoha! My money is on the line!"
"Aw shut up! I heard you the first five times! My payroll is in trouble too! Stop complaining and just sign the damn petition!"
"No way! Gatou will send Zabuza after us and then we get no money at all! I'll take my pay cut, and life, thanks!"
"Idiot! If Gatou loses all his guards, he'll have to pay us all to keep us! It won't work if only some of us strike!"
"I'll sign when Zabuza signs!"
"He'll be signing after-"
A creaky metal door was slammed and the shouting continued in a more muffled tone.
'Gatou? Zabuza? Here in Battlefield?' Naruto wondered. He was suddenly very aware of the fact that he didn't have Tolerance or Revenge on him; as per Battlefield rules. Because of this, he also realized he'd been relying on his gadgets too much. Tari-chan warned him about this... He hated it when she was right.
"Naruto?" Sakura asked. He was reminded of the fact that his hearing was always better than everyone else's. Sakura probably didn't hear the conversation as well as he had. Naruto noted that she at least had her weapons pouch. He had left his own when he ran out of Tsunami-san's house...
"I think Gatou is using the Odd Hole for his base." Naruto murmured, biting the corner of his lip in growing anxiety. Sakura turned pale and suddenly seemed to stop breathing.
"Those guys said Zabuza. Zabuza is here." Sakura let out a quiet squeal as she realized this. Naruto wondered how much she heard, but didn't care to figure it out. She made out the words that mattered.
"Yeah, but Kakashi-sensei did a lot of damage to him, remember? And Kakashi-sensei is still healing himself, so I don't doubt Zabuza is also less than 100%. We just need to avoid everyone as we try to find the Ringleader and spring the trap on it."
"Naruto, do you hear yourself?! We are in real danger! Forget the game, Zabuza is here and anyone else can catch and kill us!" Sakura whispered furiously. Naruto shrugged.
"Not if they think we're also a part of Battlefield." He grinned at her blank face. Sakura blinked once, twice, and scowled.
"Na-ru-to…" She growled. Naruto tried not to show how unsettling that tone of hers was.
"Yeah?" She glared at him for a moment more before sighed in defeat and hitching her weapon over her neck.
"What's your plan?" She asked.
Naruto patted himself on the back, and made a note of how badass Sakura looked right now. When he did make a plan, he definitely wanted to make sure she stood just like that.
"Okay, first, this is what we need to keep in mind." He started rambling.
X
"See them?" He whispered, extremely conscious of the elite and high level how-could-he-not-sense-me murderer just a few feet away. Granted, those few feet also had a wall and a couple of arguing people between it, but still. Yelling distractions aside, there was a high level how-could-he-not-sense-me-yet Jounin or higher blade wielder just a few feet away.
"Yes." She whispered back. She glanced once in Zabuza's direction, but only for a moment. Naruto wondered what she knew about the much stronger and capable than them how-could-he-not-sense-me-yet rougue nin that allowed her to dismiss him so easily. He wanted to be able to do so as well.
"See it?" He whispered again. He could feel the air around them. It felt stale and smelled old. Or was it felt old and smelled stale? Regardless, he hated lookout. The hallway was thankfully empty and they may have their targets in position for the plan… Maybe.
…
Maybe.
"Ne?" He turned a little. Sakura had her gaze trained in front of her, her weapon charged and aimed. She had a frown of concentration and her eyes narrowed as she shifted her weapon slightly. She gave a silent gulp and then her attention sharpened before she breathed a word.
"Yes." She smiled a crooked eager smile that, while wasn't directed at him, Naruto felt like she was still smiling at him.
'Sakura-chan is badass with a gun.' Naruto mused to himself again. 'A bit creepy, but still.'
"On your cue then." He replied, briefly glancing over his own weapon to make sure it was fully loaded and ready.
"Wait, I'm starting this off?" She nearly spoke louder than a faint whisper. Naruto just rose an eyebrow and gestured to his weapon. His laser gun was awesome, but she had the freakin' tazer launcher. That thing was much better at startling attention grabbing entrances ,and she had a pretty good aim with it. She didn't seem to understand that but after a loud gulp, she glared at the door before aiming and kicking it open.
"HIT THE DECK!" Naruto screamed as loud as he could as he shot at the ceiling from behind her.
"FIRING ROUND ONE!" Sakura screamed louder, above the crashing and screaming and threatening, and her weapon gave a shrill whistle/howl before clicking and booming a large ball of white crackling electricity.
The alien, a spidery white limbed thing with rings of red and green alternately glowing, screamed in distress and pain before collapsing from its perch near the ceiling. It had been pretending to be a statue, no doubt waiting for the signals of a players' hit zone to act. It probably didn't even register the meeting that was going on around it by Gatou's flunkies and cronies. They likewise probably thought it was a creepy statue.
"Out of the way!" Naruto demanded as he shoved past Zabuza – 'I'm fucking insane!' he thought as he did it– and darted to the computer. Sakura played her role beautifully and kicked the twitching alien as if she wasn't breaking a thousand rumors by making it move away from her. It finished its dance of death and gave a guttural moan of agony before dying in the corner it landed in just as Sakura loudly reloaded.
"It doesn't seem as if there was anyone else in here." Sakura mused before shutting the door. It clicked closed, surprisingly. The bottom half was still missing a good portion of a corner.
"Good." Naruto replied absently as he methodically revealed the motherboard computer to the alien spaceship. There were a few seconds of whirring and sounds of a waking up computer as Naruto typed in all the codes he knew to bring the computer to the camera angles he wanted it to show him. Yes, the computer wasn't even on yet, but it was made in an era where computers were actually slower than the people that used them simply because it wasn't advanced in processing speed yet. Which probably worked for the best, since Naruto knew he knew what he was doing, and the other could tell he knew what he was doing, but no one (even Sakura-chan) could understand it.
"Hey now," Zabuza's gravelly voice said after a couple long seconds of stunned silence. "You two, you're Hatake's brats." He growled. Sakura aimed her launcher at him just as he seemed ready to move towards Naruto.
"Listen here you eyebrowless freak." She said clearly. "I don't know who this Hatake guy you're talking about is, but you dare interrupt my partner on our mission and you might as well destroy all of humankind." She clicked her weapon to be safetyless and the sound of a whistling howl started to become audible. "I refuse to let you do that." She hissed angrily.
"Saa, saa, Kura-chan. They're just civvies. Lighten up." Naruto spoke in a distracted tone. Zabuza visibly bristled at that, and Sakura's twitching eyebrow was more of worry than annoyance. "You can't fault them for not knowing about these hard times. After all, how can anyone without this technology know about the world news just seconds after it happened?" Just after those words, Naruto finished his command and hit play. The sounds of a waking up computer stopped and Naruto stepped back.
The screen, a bland white that blended into the wall, suddenly darkened to black, then blue, and a myriad of characters from at least fifteen language flashed through as it started up and immediately started playing the clip that Naruto selected.
The scenes around the mothership showed a destroyed city, then it flashed to a burned down forest, and then a barren, dried up lake. Sakura and he had passed through such terrain just to get inside the hip, but to the rest of the people in the room, it looked like the sudden destruction of the world.
"What the hell?" One of the men whispered. Naruto gave a solemn sigh.
"This is the world." He spoke just as the scene flashed to another camera around the mothership to where there was a gathering of the alien varieties, and they seemed to still be hunting.
"We don't know how many of us still exist, but our numbers are rapidly decreasing." Sakura informed before she gave an angry look at her weapon. Then her expression softened to something a little more remorseful and she seemed to lean into the butt of her gun as if she were hugging a teddy bear. Being that both she and he were only twelve, no doubt it had some kind affect of the group in the room.
"There mothership is nearby." Naruto informed them. "I remember hearing rumors of a computer that may have existed from long ago, so I had hoped it was still safe. This is it, and I'm glad it still works. Are you guys willing to help us take back our planet, as pointless as it may seem?" He asked.
"I didn't think the monsters in the Odd Place could actually touch us." A soft voice pondered from behind Zabuza. Naruto thought the voice was familiar, but imagined that he'd know as soon as he could use Tolerance again. Actually, the outfit did sort of look familiar too. When did he meet an associate of Zabuza's?
"You must have met just the ProtoAliens. They are like scouts and information gathers. Anything they touch that is sentient, they copy the memories of. At least, that's what my Mother used to say. They weren't created to be harmed unless certain criteria were met." Naruto looked at the floor for a moment before turning back to the computer and starting to type. Sakura glared at the boy standing just behind Zabuza before moving to stand next to Naruto. She wasn't going to let anyone take a shot at them with their back turned.
"What are you doing kid? And what's your name?" Zabuza asked after another moment.
"Name's Arashi." Naruto replied with his distracted tone. "You?"
"Zabuza. So, we're the planet's last stand?"
"Hopefully not, but I know we're the most informed."
"Arashi here grew up using all this technology we think of as old and advanced." Sakura stated. "He knows better than anyone in the world how to do this. Since most everyone else in the world is dead, make yourself useful and don't distract him." She snapped.
"Man, there goes our paycheck!"
"Oi! What did I just say!?"
Zabuza gave a disgusted look at the five or so men who brought him to the room and clearly dismissed them by stepping to the other side of the room. The boy next to him followed like a shadow. He paused thoughtfully at the corpse of the alien before continuing to his station. Naruto sent a prayer of thanks to the makers of Battlefield. The aliens actually gave off a rancid smell of death that was pretty convincing. If an alien corpse actually had a stink, it was stinking just like the one in the room.
Fifteen minutes to launch
The voice in the ceiling was actually pretty loud, and the rest of the group on the room blanched.
"Was that, was that the voice of an alien?" One of the hitmen asked. The others in the room looked in the ceiling with various expression of realization or incredulity.
"Yeah." Naruto and Sakura replied. Sakura glanced at the watch on her wrist.
"Er, Arashi, what time did you want me to wait for the watch to say?"
"When it says 0721, we need to abort everything and run as fast and as far as we can."
"Well then. We have about ten minutes until that time." Sakura announced.
"What happens then?" Zabuza asked, seeming incredibly calm compared to the panicking others.
"Well, then the alien's transportation will set off and the area will be completely destroyed." Naruto answered with a shrug.
"Fuck that!" One guy yelled quickly before darting to the door and throwing himself out the room. "We're all gonna die!" He screamed hysterically. Sakura quickly closed the door after the other four non shinobi ran out.
"Pussies." She scoffed. Naruto had to hold back a snort. He quickly typed in his questions into the computer for a reason to give Zabuza to betray Gatou and help them instead. He couldn't help the gasp that escaped his throat when he found one.
"What?" Sakura asked. Zabuza watched the computer screen in obvious curiosity, and Sakura hoped that he could read it just as much as she could; which was none at all. She made a mental note to ask Naruto where he learned the Old Language.
"Zabuza, I'm glad you decided to help us. Your previous employer was planning to betray you so that after you finished the mission he hired you to do, he wouldn't have to pay you the money he promised." Zabuza's dark gave glared at Naruto's head, and Sakura hoped he wouldn't get killed because of the suddenly nonalien related information.
"Is that right?" The boy in the dark green and white outfit asked, looking much calmer than Zabuza's killing intent felt like.
"Ah. Look." Naruto pressed the enter key to play the selection he hoped for and found.
With this, he hoped Zabuza would no longer be a problem for Wave.
X
Sasuke was pissed. He was done being chastised, apologetic, and even worried. As soon as he saw Naruto he planned to punch the asshole in the face and then kick him at least once. Hopefully over the bridge Tazuna was working on.
After waiting for Naruto and even Sakura for more than an hour, Kakashi said that the two of them had to continue on with the mission. Tazuna had to work on his bridge, so after the drunkard was done for the day, Kakashi would use the time that would have been spent training his team looking for the other half of them instead.
And Sasuke wasn't allowed to go along.
"Damn you, dobe. You better have a good reason to be staying away." He grumbled to himself as he practiced applying chakra to his feet. While Kakashi afforded a couple kage bushin to help with the bridge building (the sooner the mission was done, the sooner they could spend more time looking for Sakura and Naruto) Sasuke was slowly getting used to preparing himself for wall walking.
"Traditionally, Tree Walking is done on, well, trees. It easier for chakra to find and connect to another source of life, even if that life source is a plant. Once a person has the confidence to consistently walk vertically over trees, the wall walking shouldn't be too difficult of a transition. Unfortunately, as we no longer have training time, we need to skip a step." Kakashi-sensei explained as Tazuna gave a safety talk to his workers before the start of the work day.
"Can't I just look for the others while you guard him?" Sasuke asked. He was useless, especially in a Jounin battle, and he could care less of the mission if his teammates weren't even present. Kakashi shook his head.
"You're not leaving my sight. And you need to be prepared if Zabuza decides to attack Tazuna here on the bridge. Walking along the edges of the walls over the water, or even under the bridge, would give you an advantage to staying alive should the need arise that the walkway become deadly. You'll be training while I continue the mission. If Zabuza does arrive, focus on staying out of his attention. You let me handle him." The deep tone his sensei used let Sasuke feel comfortable enough with the instructions to obey. He couldn't do anything to the man who hurt his team, but Kakashi had the ability and resolve to do so.
"Hai, Kakashi-sensei."
Sasuke glanced at Tazuna, who was working with two other men to turn a large wheel thing for dragging a steel beam thing to a pocket under the bridge. Or something like that. He sighed silently before seating himself on the edge of the wall, dangling his feet over the water. He concentrated and placed his chakra engulfed feet against the vertical wall. His shoes were off to help him get an idea of what his chakra was doing.
'Potential.' The word floated in his head as he thought of everything he knew about chakra. He knew that chakra was a type of energy, and that it could be considered sentient, or even defined as extension of a soul. It was a base of an element, and that was what made it malleable. It's what let it become so diverse.
Somehow, he needed his chakra to become 'sticky' so that it would hold onto him and the wall enough for him to stay on. And he needed to control that 'sticky' ability so that he could take a foot off and take a step. So that he could walk. He didn't know about running yet, since that would require both feel to let go of the wall, but, maybe the way to run was to glide that sticky point ahead of his feet instead of keeping a 'shoe' of chakra over his foot?
He put his 'sticky' foot on the wall and pulled it away. He concentrated on the feeling his chakra was giving him and what his body was telling him. He pat his foot a few times, trying to figure it out. Trying to ignore his teammate's situation, keep a small attention on Tazuna, and an awareness of Kakashi's many clones.
The voices and sounds around him blurred together.
'Potential.'
He will learn this chakra exercise. He will become proficient as a shinobi. He will never let his team down.
'Potential.' He remembered his mother talk about that, now that he thought about it.
"Sasuke-chan! Sasuke-chan! Where are you?" His mother called from the door of their back yard. Sasuke poked his head out from the bush he had been crawling under.
"I'm here, mommy!" She looked surprised to see him, but smiled her beautiful smile at him and walked over as he quickly made the ground look as much the way it had been before as he could.
"What are you doing there, Sasuke-chan?" His mother asked as she knelt down just a foot away from the bush. Sasuke crawled out and gave her a hug, even though he had dirt all over his hands and face.
"Nothing." He said into the hug.
He had been four years old. His mother, Uchiha Mikoto, had just quit the shinobi forces to be a stay at home mother. She had been a Jounin, and Sasuke knew she worked longer hours than his father. He had believed her to be stronger than his father. At the time, he didn't wonder what made his mother stay at home, but he liked being with her more now.
"Nothing? Then why is there dirt all over you?" Mikoto asked in a light voice as she brushed some clumps of dry dirt off his hair.
"I was looking for Chakura!" Sasuke said as he looked up at her with a smile.
(Sasuke liked this memory, and he was glad there was no one around but his mother.)
"Chakura?" Sasuke nodded.
"I like the way your hands glow when you rub my tummy. And when Ita-nii-san starts to glow his hands, he can make fire that doesn't burn him! I wanna use chakura too!"
"Ah, you mean chakra!" Mikoto said with a grin as she picked him up. "And who told you chakra could be found in a bush?"
"Well, plants are always glowing near the ground. I thought it was the same thing." She stopped walking to their koi pond.
"What, Sasuke-chan?"
"I always see the same glow that's on your hands and sometime's father's eyes on the plants. Like there." He pointed to the largest tree in the yard. Mikoto looked at the tree, and didn't seem to see anything unusual about it.
"Sasuke-chan, is my hand glowing?" She asked instead of commenting, showing her four year old child her right hand. Sasuke barely glanced at it before shaking his head. She gathered a small amount of chakra into her palm, just barely enough to make a leaf stick onto her. "What about now?" He nodded with a smile. She was silent for a moment as he traced the borders of what she gathered with a curious finger.
"I wanna glow." He said in his childish voice.
"Sweety, let me tell you something about chakra. It holds a lot of potential. Do you know what that means?" Sasuke nodded. His father pushed him in his vocabulary, probably more than should be done, but Sasuke excelled regardless.
"It can do a lot." He defined. His mother smiled.
"Yes. And potential is a lot better to have than chakra. You know mommy was a shinobi, right?" Sasuke nodded proudly. "Do you know what mommy did as a shinobi?" He blinked a couple times before shaking his head. Mikoto smiled. "Mommy used potential to make her chakra do a lot of things no one else could." She said before kissing his forehead and setting him on his feet in the grass.
"Like what?"
"You know mommy doesn't have a Sharingan?" Sasuke nodded. It was a well known secret even he was aware of. He didn't understand the implications of it, not until he was much older, but at the time he knew enough to understand that his mother wasn't like the clan, and that some of the clan didn't like her because of it.
"I know. I love mommy still!" Mikoto gave him another kiss.
"Well, Sasuke-chan. Mommy may not have a Sharingan, but she has a secret not even daddy knows. Can you keep a secret, Sasuke-chan?" Sasuke nodded solemnly. "Look at mommy's eyes."
He did. They were closed, but Sasuke could, then, see that they were slowly glowing. Like daddy's eyes did when they became the red Sharingan. His mother opened her eyes, and even though they were still glowing, they remained the same dark brown eyes that Sasuke knew her to have. They didn't change. "What did mommy do?"
"If I want to, I can see things." She said cryptically. Her eyes stopped glowing and she made her hands glow instead. "If I want, I can make things stay. Or," Sasuke saw her make an open palm with closed fingers. He felt as if her hands became more, willing to let go or push. "I can make things go away." She walked backwards to the pond, and her feet glowed. Before Sasuke realized it, she was walking on the water. "Now, I can walk on things." Sasuke stared, quickly thinking of what his mother was saying and really meaning with the other earlier demonstrations. "And like this, I can pull things." She said, making both hands glow and a 'string' started to form between them. From the string of chakra, a line started to snake out. Sasuke stared in amazement as it fell onto a leaf and made it start to float back towards his mother.
"Wow! I want chakra, mommy!" Sasuke exclaimed, before reaching out to the string. It stuck to him, but he wanted to control it too. Before realizing it, he pulled his own chakra out and his 'string' tied to his mother's. Who laughed.
"You have your own chakra, silly." In a sudden move, many more of his mother's strings appeared and lifted him into her arms. "Remember, love. Our secret. When you graduate the Academy and become a shinobi, I'll show you all I know."
"Okay!"
"The Sharingan is good, yes. But I prefer to have potential. Remember that, Sasuke. No matter what you have or can do, your potential is what determines you. And soon, I'll teach you to use your potential for everything." With a tight hug, the two went back inside.
Sasuke wondered when he stopped seeing the glow of chakra. Remembering about the brief time he could see chakra, he wondered if his mother had a bloodline limit that she kept a secret from everyone. Does that mean he will never awaken a Sharingan? With his mother gone, did that mean he would never learn everything there was about this 'potential' of his? Did he even still have it?
"I know two bloodlines never mix well. You either have one or none." He noted. "I have a bloodline. I am an Uchiha. Uchiha have had the Sharingan since forever... But I haven't awakened mine yet, and I know that whatever mother had, I had too. I have potential, like she did..."
Having kept it a secret for so long, he had forgotten about it... And going by the definition, it was possible to lose potential. If only he knew what his mother meant!
"Which do I want?" He scowled. "Which do I have?"
He looked hard at his foot, knowing there was chakra on it, and unable to see anything. He pat his 'sticky' foot on the wall, before deciding to stop being cautious and just trying what he wanted to do. With a glance at Tazuna and his sensei, Sasuke stood on the edge, gathered his chakra, looked at the water, and glanced again at his sensei who had his back to him.
'Whoops, looks like I left his sight.' A rebellious part of his mind snickered.
He took a step forward.
X
The room was silent for a while. The screen just finished the previous video and Naruto decided to look for the answers to a few questions while Zabuza pondered the information that had been shown to him.
'I wonder where the self-destruct button on this ship is?' He asked the computer, which, being a part of Battlefield was a piece of equipment and a question he was allowed to use.
The screen flashed red and green after he input the question.
With a sound between a gasp, a choke and a word that may have been 'erk', Naruto quickly tried every override code he knew.
"A-ra-shi..." Sakura-chan warned. Her angry question didn't even need to be vocalized.
"Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have tried that." He admit sheepishly. Slowly, the blinking of the screen spread to the room, and a slow siren started to become audible, and louder with each second.
"Arashi!" Sakura screamed as she darted towards a satchel in the corner. "Just for the record, I hate you so much!" She snarled before snagging the bag and pulling out the five rounds of ammunition for the both of them.
"Your weapons are ineffective against the aliens and we don't have time to look for a weapon for you. I know where we need to go now. Either follow if you want or get the hell out of this country!" Naruto said to the two before hurrying to an impatient Sakura by the door.
"We barely have five minutes!" Sakura said after a quick glance to the watch on her wrist.
"This way, Sakura-chan!"
"How do you know where we're going if we're in this building!?" She asked as the siren got louder and aliens started to morph from out of the walls. "Out-of-the-way!" She snarled at the many opponents before switching her setting from the highest level to the medium one for a more rapid fire.
"Oh, you're right!" Naruto hadn't taken the directions given to him with the building that had been built around the mothership part of the game. Hoping for at least some help, he yelled as loud as he could over the sounds of Sakura yelling and the 'patta patta patta' of her weapon. "Computer,reveal quickest route to self destruction button!" He wondered why he didn't do so before.
The hall glowed blue before returning white, leaving a thin inch thick line along both walls with glowing white lights blinking towards the direction they had been heading.
"Hurry!" The two skid to a stop as a group of hitmen suddenly turned into their hallway.
"You, brats, are you responsible for all the demons crawling around!?" One screamed after really looking at their clothes.
"Their everywhere because of you!" Another said, aiming a bow at them.
"Scram, scum." Zabuza's voice said from behind Sakura, who screeched in fright and aimed her gun at the man, who tensed, but did nothing else since she didn't fire.
"Momochi-san..." The group look at each other before Naruto decided the situation was taken care of and started to continue following the line.
"Na- Arashi," Sakura corrected as she barely glanced toward Zabuza, who was following them. "I think we have only-"
Five minutes to launch.
"Five minute mark." Naruto finished for her.
"Yes."
"Alright, decision time. Run ahead, or run away?" He asked as they suddenly came to a stop. The lines continued through a building section that was obviously broken down and reconstructed in later times. They just lost their lead.
"Where here. Let's keep going. It shouldn't be too far away, should it?"
"It shouldn't, but I don't expect them to have the button without protections."
"Then smash through them, kid." Zabuza said gruffly before taking his sword and using it to demolish the obstacle that was in front of them. A few feet away, they saw the continuing lines.
"Hai! Arigato!" Naruto grinned at the man before the group continued.
Barely a minute later, they reached a door. They had lost their guiding lines twenty feet ago, but the direction had been predictable so they were confident of their destination. Sakura kicked the door open (Naruto thought she liked doing so) and the four ran inside before pausing.
"What is this!? What do you think you're doing!? Who the hell are you kids!? Guards! Destroy them!" Gatou ordered as he cowered behind his desk. The seven men with him paused and hesitated before the boy following Zabuza stepped forward.
"Gatou, I'm afraid the building must be evacuated for our safety. Would you please hurry?"
"Are you nuts!? There are demons all over the place! You were supposed to kill the bridge builder and guard me from the demons of this place! You worthless shinobi! I'm glad I was never planning to pay you! Guards, whoever kills the Demon of the Mist will get not only his paycheck, but his bounty!" Urged by fear and money, weapons started to fly.
"Hey! Watch it you creep!" Sakura yelled before her weapon was turned to full power and shot was fired just as more aliens started to come out of the walls and from out in the halls.
"They're congregating here!" Naruto warned his teammate as he decided to stand door duty and take care of the jumping and ferocious aliens in the hall.
"You two may take care of the demons. We will take care of the humans." The boy said as he suddenly held senbon that glittered in the multicolored lighting.
'Hey! He was the fake Hunter-nin!' Naruto realized just before Zabuza and his own partner massacred the people in the room. Naruto tried not to let it bother him yet, focusing instead on his own targets and the fact that with Gatou dead his mission would be easier. Sakura, unfortunately, immediately got sick in the corner she was in.
"Wh-Why did you have to kill them?" She tried to scream, obviously, as she had been doing so for the most part lately. Her words were instead whispered in horror, and Naruto remembered that his other Genin teammates weren't as immune to effects that their job brings. He studied the realities of his job thoroughly. They probably didn't.
He slammed the door and barred it against the aliens that couldn't melt through the walls and quickly lifted her out of her corner to the far side of the wall.
"Not now, Sakura-chan." He murmured to her as he aimed towards the aliens inside the room and quickly killed them before they could get any of the other three. Room cleared, he started shoving furniture away so that he could observe the floor. "Sakura-chan, look for some ammo for now. Hurry."
"H-hai." With a gulp, she stumbled towards the walls and started searching for signs that an item was waiting to be picked up. No one commented on the dry heave she made upon realizing just how close to a corpse she was at. Naruto was surprised at Zabuza's manners.
Three minutes to launch.
"Shit. Where is it?" Naruto stood in the middle of the room, hoping that his presence would kick start something like in previous levels.
The floor rumbled and started to separated digital block by digital block. Naruto backed up and the four waited as a small pole rose up and a black ball revealed a red button with a hole just under it. Naruto recognized the hole.
"We need a key!"
"This is all I found." Sakura said, holding a single weapon with ten rounds for it. She didn't look like she wanted to be in that room anymore, so Naruto gave her a sad smile and nodded to the door. She nodded mutely and after giving him the weapon, walked to the corner. "Guard her, please." He said to Zabuza and the other boy. They didn't look confused or sorry, but they complied.
Naruto walked up to the pole and the button on it. Just as he knew, the ceiling started to shake and just as he darted away, and key fell and a the alien queen arrived with a roar.
It was big, looked scaly and not only strong but durable.
"Damn, and I don't know what kind of weak point it has." Naruto said before it roared at him. Following that, it spat out globs of glowing blue fluid that Naruto barely dodged. Unfortunately, as he regained his balance and bearings, he realized he didn't quite dodge.
As he tried to aim for a first shot, he realized that he could move his arm. With a worried look, Naruto saw that he had been his in the shoulder and hand. From the hit zones on his right arm, the normal green lights were red, and from those zones, red liquid was slowly tinting the sizzling blue spit.
"Shit." The mother screeched again before moving with startling speeds toward him. Naruto dodged completely and though he wasn't left-handed, he would still hit. Naruto switched hands and fired a shot to the head. The beast roared and snarled and dripped its acidic spit everywhere as it turned its large body around, still standing over the pole, and whipped out a tail that apparently could stretch.
Kunai and senbon rained upon its head, mostly fazing though as most Odd Hole monsters were known for and only a couple sounded like they were registered as effective. The beast looked towards Sakura and the missing nin, and Naruto had an idea.
Two minutes to launch.
Battles were determined in seconds. Naruto hoped he could do this in his timeframe.
"Hey, ugly!" Naruto fired a shot, startled when the second glowed blue instead of the white it had been earlier.
Shit. Did that mean different shot effected different areas, or only a certain type would actually do what he wanted?
Crap.
The alien hissed at the shot and its neck bulged before another smaller alien spawned. Naruto fired at it, relieved that it died easily. Except that there were more coming. Frustrated, Naruto continued to fire at the aliens, trying to find a method of reason that was with his main weapon. While he shot at it, it spit at him, spraying its glowing blue spit everywhere. Since Sakura and the others weren't making a sound, Naruto glanced at them really quick.
They were still safe, watching avidly (which was embarrassing) but safe.
After running around dodging spit, which was gross, firing almost all his ammunition, and getting out of breath, Naruto still had no idea what he was supposed to do to defeat this final boss.
One minute to launch.
"Shit!" Naruto could feel his adrenalin raise. Then the alien spit a waterfall into the air and Naruto pushed chakra into his feet to run away when a though came to him.
"I'm an idiot."
"Naruto!" Sakura called in worry. Naruto refused to swear again when his distraction cost him a foot. Hobbling now, Naruto waited for the alien to turn towards him, towards the door and his teammate before calling out.
"Sakura-chan! I need you to fire at that thing when I say! Ignore what I do, just keep firing!" He ordered without looking at her.
"Ha-hai!" She sounded a little better, which was good. Naruto was going to give her the same advice that Tari-chan gave him when he worried about killing for the first time. He waited, and the alien seemed to wait as well. The spawns on its back growing in number, but none of them moved either.
"So, I guess that's what the mission really meant. Destroy the mother ship. Doesn't really matter if we kill the boss or not." Naruto mused.
Ten.
The alien roared the loudest it had and stood on its hind legs to do another tidal wave spit attack.
"Now, Sakura!" Naruto yelled as he ran towards it.
Nine.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!" Sakura screeched. He was thankful that her tazer launcher was rapid firing on the aliens.
Eight.
Naruto pushed chakra in his feet, even though one of them made him feel off balanced, and darted and weaved through the aliens the best he could to get to the pole.
He hoped the key was still there.
Seven.
He hoped the key was the right key, actually. Maybe the real key was in the alien and he did have to destroy it?
"Gah!" His doubt made him hesitate, and an alien took a swipe at his side, his right side thankfully, so he didn't lose his other arm. Regardless, he was thrown a good way towards the wall and away from the pole.
Six.
"Naruto!"
"Keep firing!" He yelled back as he pushed himself up and gathered his chakra just a little more.
Five.
"Come on." He said to himself as he ran/hopped/hobbled in a fairly quick speed towards his destination.
Four.
With his good leg as a pivot, ducked and rolled as necessary.
Three.
"Whoa!" And he even jumped over some of the grey green aliens that were as tall as he was.
Two.
He landed in front of the pole, the mother alien standing over him and taking a breath. She was going to spit on him again. Grabbing towards the golden glint, Naruto nearly cried when he saw it really was a key and not some shiny scale. (Which had tricked him in previous levels.)
One.
Throwing himself on the pole, Naruto jammed the key in the hole.
The alien opened its mouth and glowing blue came out.
Ze-
Naruto hit the button.
The room was stained red.
xXx TBC… xXx
HK: 'Throwing himself on the pole, Naruto jammed the key in the hole.' Snort… Snicker. Did I really just type that?
Anyway. This chapter has been haunting me for the past year, wanting to be typed, really, but never coming out the way it wanted to. You could probably tell by the sporadic page breaks.
(Can you really call it a page break if it's in web format?)
Anyway, good? Bad? Should Zabuza had more interaction? (I'm thinking yeah) Should Haku have been introduced? (Just realized there was no proper time to fit it in...) Should Kakashi have had more of a pov? (I think he's still a bit flat, personally) Who doesn't like Sasuke's own twist of the past? (I'm actually excited to go into his character.)
Let me know what you're thoughts are, even if it's a simple: This should have been out twelve months ago!
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