Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Sonic The Hedgehog.
ITAOJ
A Village Of A Clan No Longer Lost
Previously on In the Aftermath Of Judgment,
"This fog is ridiculous!" Kiba shouted, simply the only thing that he is good at for the time being. "What are we supposed to find in this stupid mist!?"
"It was a stupid mist that made a certain bastard a threat because he could kill a squad with a fog lighter than this." Sasuke brought up and Kiba just huffed stubbornly.
"Enough you two. We only have a few more blocks to explore then we can move on." Kakashi said with an empty scroll that he brought along to make a map of the Mystic Ruins. And anyone that could see him in the dense fog also saw that the map was nearly filled out.
"I sure hope so because I have been trying to tell Ino san about this for a while since we started. And I have been getting nothing but static." Shino said with his fingers at his neck, where Shinobi communication bands were placed. And in the fog, the others tried to get to the village too but they heard the same thing as Shino. "That is odd."
"Maybe we are just too far and once we are done with Sensei's map; we will get back to Konoha." Sakura said but those hopes were dashed when,
"Hey! I can't see where Konoha is!" Kiba shouted and pointed at the sky and everyone didn't see the large shape of their floating home either. No matter which way they faced their eyesight to. This drove them to slight panic so they used some of the ruins and other foot lifts to get some attitude. And they saw it,
"Hey! It is leaving! Without us!" Lee shouted when he finally saw where Konoha was floating, away from the Mystic Ruins!
"WHAT!?" They all shouted once they were alerted to such news. What was the meaning of this?
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By the time Kakashi and his team had finally got back into range of the floating Konoha, they tried to get in communication with them. But instead. They found the island floating above some kind of city that was above a lake by multiple pillars. It was like the village was made of stone and built over the lake for some reason.
"Look at the water!" Kiba shouted, about something other than 'his girl' and Naruto so everyone was slightly shocked at that. But soon the Konoha team from the Mystic Ruins had seen what Kiba was doing as well; whirlpools. The entire surface of the lake, around each other pillars were whirlpools!
"How are we going to get there and why hadn't they moved closer to us!?" Sakura screamed and her teammates just shook their heads. They had no idea and they don't know if they want to find out or not.
"Well we need to think of something. Check yourselves out." Kakashi brought up and his company had started to panic. The skin and clothes on their bodies already started to fall off, like flakes from a cocoon. It won't be long before someone's finger starts to fall off like in Station Square. "Relax…"
"Relax!?" Kiba was not relaxing. He was in an outcry along with the rest of the scouting team. "The last time someone said that, there were twenty kunai at my neck alone! Relaxing is not going to happen to me!"
"I can see that but you are not faring any better than the rest of us by just panicking. That is a lot deadlier than what you are making up the word 'relax'." Kakashi tried his best to settle Kiba down but he must have gotten a failing grade in psychology, given such words.
"I actually agree Kakashi-san. How is relaxing going to get us out of this fog, onto that village and to stop our arms from turning to dust? Relaxing sounds more like taking this gruesome way to go." Everyone knew that voice and refused to believe that it was Lee, actually speaking in a tone of voice that was the direct opposite to his usual loud and childishly optimistic attitude.
"YEAH! HE'S GOT IT CYCLOPS!" Kiba then let it all out and screeched worse than a banshee or anything close to one, like a certain pink haired kunoichi. "We are stuck in the stupid marsh, with this stupid fog and worthless ruins; the water has whirlpools everywhere! And then there is the village, without a…"
Kiba was silenced and so was the rest of his team, from arguing with him, when the water started to rumble. Then some of the whirlpools moved to form a strait, clear line from their location at the edge of the lake to the village. Finally, the lake surface revealed a straight line of pillars a lot like the ones holding up the village; and each one was connected by three bars of what seems to be the same material as the pillars.
"What do you think this is?" Kiba finally asked, breaking the ice of silence.
"I think that this is an invitation." Kakashi said. "You can stay if you want but I rather not turn into dust again." The cyclops said and soon, he was followed by the Genin on the pathway up to the village above the lake of whirlpools. They too didn't want to be piles of dust on the edge of the lake. But what exactly is there that leads the Konoha Nin away from the ruins in the marsh?
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Meanwhile, on the flying Konoha,
"Are you sure we should go down there? I never even seen the design of that village." Ino asked. "How are we even sure that we should be here?"
"Shinobi don't talk in questions, Ino. Our enemies do." Asuma said sternly. "And I have no idea why we moved before our scouts came back but I know that the Tikal girl wanted us to come here."
"Sorry Sensei." Ino muttered, the feeling of being seen as a fool for the umpteenth time in just one week was very harsh. She didn't even want to say another word.
"Well it seems that whatever is moving and lifting our village has finally stopped." Kurenai spoke up. "How about it? I hate to sleep on a giant lump of flying rock while not even saying hello to the village below. It seems rather rude."
"Yeah." Choji replied. "Like standing outside a restaurant just opening but not going in. Or when someone was offering a bowl of dango but not even being touched. Or…" Choji was wondering if he was being scolded or praised when he felt a bash on the head before a woman's hand rubbed it very roughly.
"You need to think of something in this giant pebble you call a head, brat!" Anko shouted. "But you have goo imagination, especially with the dango." No one knew what to make off this woman either. She is so carefree and can't choose on how to handle the Genin.
"I think that the answer is clear!" Everyone groaned to listen to the loud voice, Mighty Guy just can't help himself. "We were invited to this youthful village so let's not keep them waiting!"
"Whatever." Now Guy felt down, with the cold shiver from the wind of regret. But this man always had some reason to be so excited that he was worse than a blowhorn. No doubt that this village will be no different.
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And so,
"Where is everyone?" Sakura asked after her team spent a good ten minutes in the village and hadn't seen anyone but themselves. Thankfully for them, this village had the same effect as their village somehow; the flakes off their bodies had fully healed and hadn't turned to dust at all.
"There is not even the scent of trash on the streets. It is like this place really is a ghost town." Kiba replied rather calmly compared to recent encounters. Akamaru just kept poking the ground with his nose, having no better luck at getting a scent too.
"That is weird. I have been sending in my bugs to scout out the city and yet they seem to be backtracking." Shino finally spoke up. "Every alleyway, every corner, every road, they all just turn around. And they don't seem to know why."
"One thing that I am not understanding is this strange flux of Chakra." Neji said. "Or to better say that this energy around us is somewhat like Chakra but at the same time, not so. It is almost like a variation of Chakra, just not the type we use for the basis of our Ninjutsu."
"Then it could be a lot like the chakra Naruto used against that match of yours in the Chunin Exam Finals." Sakura suggested but that was dashed when Neji shook his head soon after.
"No, I never forget the feeling of that energy. What I am seeing, getting a massive headache, is an energy that was stranger than even that." Neji said before yelping loudly and grasped his eyes. "Damn, it was getting too painful to keep up. I almost popped a blood vessel."
"All this seems to be some kind of illusion." Kakashi muttered. "The clean and scentless streets, Shino's bugs being sent in backtrack and the flux of energy blinding Neji." The cyclops added, "But if it is a trap then why isn't my danger sense going off? We have been in this illusion for ten minutes and nothing has happened. Not even a nick to the leg." Kakashi was just walking back and forth until he had the crazy idea of taking out one of his kunai and stabbing himself in the leg!
He was used to the pain, but he was still taken by surprise when he ran into someone in the very next instant. "Watch it! I don't run into people like you, I just mind my business!"
"Honey, please not in front of our kids." Kakashi could have sworn to recognize those voices but he couldn't make out where they were coming from when his senses were being fooled with voices, scents and images of a crowd during a festival. "And especially not those kids. Nobody wants to see a man like this anymore than us."
Kakashi just couldn't take all this in and felt like he was some kind of clown with everyone staring, moving in blurs and whispering rather loudly. It was enough to make even a man like him to faint, all it took was a rather hard shove.
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"It is strange." Guy said causally. "If this crowd had been here this whole time then most of us would have heard it."
"I agree Guy." Asuma said and the other Konoha Shinobi nodded. The streets covered with people and litter were the last that any of them expected to find. "So where did they come from?"
"Look at the silly people Mommy~!"
"Yeah, don't they know that this is our home and they came out of nowhere~!?" Giggles were followed by similar, innocent statements of children that appeared from every angle to point at them like they were zoo exhibits.
"I am not sure but those symbols are definitely bad news." Adults soon joined the commotion of kids,
"Yeah, like in the history books from some time four millennia ago or something."
"And what about the ones we found in the town square looking like idiots?" The scout team from the flying village soon heard that and hurried over to where the roads seemed to meet at one point; that is the one usually called the 'town square'. Too bad they never heard this last statement which could have led to a much better encounter.
Because when the Konoha Shinobi made it to where their initial scout team were located, they were also being rounded up by soldiers. Each one wore strange armor that were smooth and slender but seemed to be thick and heavy too. Their armor, in question, was in pieces on the shoulders, elbows, wrists, kneecaps and ends of the legs. Underneath, their entire bodies up to their necks were a full body suit of chains with cloth around the joints and ends of the limbs. In their hands were both a shield around their height, spears about half longer and a short sword seen on their belts.
And then there was the commander of the soldiers, by a glimpse of a similar but much more ornate version of the artillery outfit. He was saying something of 'disturbing the peace' and that 'they are in the presence of the Uzikage'. And so, the crowd made way for a woman in a very expensive outfit that fitted queens of lore, with the symbol of a whirlpool for the world to see.
But then came the reaction from the ground team that got the attention of everyone watching. "Naruto!?" Sakura gasped but Kakashi's made hers sound more like a quick breath of air. And what he said startled them all,
"KUSHINA-SAMA!?"
End of Chapter 11.
*Hey everyone! By the time I publish this, it be during my Thanksgiving break so remember, eat to your hearts content and think of what you are grateful in life. I know that I will! *
