Dynamite ~ 19
N was crouched down on the roof top, serving as a look out over the small town while everyone rested. It was night time, and the team's plan was to work in shifts. He chose to work alone for the night, since he needed time to piece together a plan of action for their unwanted guests. His eyes scanned the town repeatedly, hoping to find even the slightest disturbance.
After being stationed on the same roof top for hours and finding nothing, he was starting to lose hope. He sighed and shut his eye lids, preparing for another scan of the small village. He decided to move from the roof top and find another spot, jumping away without any second thought. The boy bounced along the roof tops with ease, landing in the street, and mentally decided to patrol the town on foot.
As he strolled through the village, he couldn't help feel like someone was following him. His head snapped back in the direction he had just come from and stared intently. His eyes narrowed while he searched for anything out of the ordinary, but found nothing.
"You're going to be looking for me all night at this rate."
N leapt backward and immediately threw shuriken at the newcomer, and the bandaged man dodged them with ease. He swiftly maneuvered through the projectiles, his shape shifting to dodge the attacks, and thrust his arm forward. It stretched outward, catching the boy by surprise, and grabbed his throat. The man lifted him into the air, smiling as he did so; evident by his eyes scrunching.
The blonde haired boy clenched his teeth and tried to pry the man's hand off of his neck, "I thought you wouldn't get anything from killing us!" N yelled out after realizing his attempts to free himself were futile. "I don't know anything about the gemstones."
"You're right, I won't get anything from killing you, and I don't plan on killing you," He tilted his head and stared at N. The boy was interesting, and the bandaged man would be lying if he said he wasn't intrigued by him. He smirked, "But I saw something in you, so I decided to circle back around and find you. Luckily you fell right into my lap, and I think we can help each other out."
The genin was barely choking out words, "How the hell can you help me?"
"I know who you really are, and you know who I really want," The bandaged man explained, releasing N from his iron grip and dropped him onto the ground. His arm retracted to normal size and he folded it over his other arm. He couldn't feel any killing intent from the boy, meaning he had caught his interest, "But I guess I should start by introducing myself, my name is Bali, and I'm an alien." He chuckled when N rolled his eyes at the revelation.
"You seriously think I'd believe something like that?" N questioned, coming to stand with a smirk on his face. He felt calm once the tension in the air disappeared, and when he saw Bali was completely serious, he narrowed his eyes. The boy looked him over once more, "Wait, really?" Something did seem off about Bali, and his abilities were 'out of this world' so to speak.
He simply nodded and smiled at N, pointing his index finger at the boy, "And so are you... to an extent," Bali admitted hesitantly. He didn't like keeping people ignorant, "Well, you're half-alien, and normally I'd be packing you up and sending you off to an inter-galactic prison, but I think you're special." Bali was surprised to see N taking the information calmly, standing there while lazily pulling on the draw strings of his sweatshirt. "Ha, you're a cool kid."
"I have no reason to blow my cool," N admitted in a smooth manner, "But what do you mean inter-galactic prison?"
"I work for the Akatsuki," Bali told the young boy and grinned. "We've been working to capture all the renegade aliens running around on Earth for the last few decades. All they do is bring their other world drama with them, and that's no good for the actual inhabitants of Earth."
N was piecing things together in his brain, and then looked up at Bali with a furrowed a brow, "So my actual parents, you imprisoned them, didn't you?" There was an air of killing intent carried with his words, and he was growing angrier by the second. He could cope with the fact that he was part alien, but the fact that his family had to be destroyed because the actions of others infuriated him to no end.
"No, our race is too wily to ever be captured," Bali laughed to himself. He took a few steps forward and looked down on N, "They're probably somewhere in Kirigakure hiding like they were before."
The half-breed alien nodded his head in understanding, still pulling his draw strings and staring blankly at Bali. He took a deep breath and tried to hold in any anger he had building up. The boy didn't have any reason to be mad at Bali anymore, so he cracked an insincere smile, "So, you helped me out with that information, now how am I supposed to help you?"
"Tell me everything you know about Son Goku," Bali ordered firmly. His original mission given to him by Kakuzu was complete from what he could tell, so now he could continue on with his actual job, which was hunting down runaway aliens, and one had waltzed right into the town he was working in. His senses were much better than Deidara, and Pepper was probably too focused on making sure Deidara wasn't fucking up, so for him to spot Goku before anyone else served as no surprise.
"Why don't you just ask me?" A voice sounded off from a roof top, and both Bali and N looked up to see who it was. Standing there in all of his bandaged glory was Son Goku in the flesh. He removed the bandages from around his head, letting them fall down to the ground slowly, revealing his slightly burned face, and his spiky hair that had been taken out of a ponytail. He was visibly smirking, "I probably shouldn't be doing this, but it's just too good to pass up."
Bali didn't hesitate to thrust his arm forward and try to grab Goku from the roof, but N's loyalty to the boy was evident once he lunged himself out at Bali and tried to tackle him to the ground. The man exploded to bits, and the boy groaned, before jumping off of the ground and onto a roof top. The whole street flared up once the explosion sounded and he shot a glance toward Goku.
"You shouldn't be out here, this is my mission," N said sternly to his fellow genin.
"I decided to take a walk and ended up here," He lied through his teeth, but still managed to smile. It felt good to be around his peers once more and not sulking about his grandfather. It was unlike him, "I didn't plan on stepping in until he said something about me." He protested, but he knew N would give up the argument sooner rather than later, since they were about to fight a high class criminal.
The alien man re-adjusted his coat and groaned, standing on a roof top not too far from Goku and N. He rolled his neck and looked between the two of them, "You're a smart kid, so you know why I want Goku, right?" He asked N with a raised brow.
"Yeah, I figured it out, but that doesn't change the fact that he's my friend," N stood up and looked at Goku, and the two of them nodded at each other. They both braced themselves for the inevitable battle, and Bali was taking his time, cracking his knuckles.
"That's a silly way to think, kid," He leapt from the roof top at break neck speeds, and got to Goku way faster than N would have ever imagined. The man reached his hand out to grab the boy and make a break for it, but an invisible force crashed into his side and exploded; sending him flying across the buildings and crash landing into the street.
N stared at his hand in awe, his previous action was merely him acting on instinct, and it worked. The wave of chakra he sent at Bali literally exploded, and he tried to fight back his childish excitement. He jumped from the roof top and swept Goku off of his feet, because he was currently standing there in shock. Apparently the boy was in no condition to try and fight anyone.
His path of escape was cut off suddenly when a large, white clay bird rose up from the ground and none other than Bali stood on top of it with his eyes fixated on him and Goku. The boy groaned and pivoted on his foot and tried to run the other way, bouncing from roof top to roof top with great speed, but found himself cut off by an identical clay bird, but this time Deidara stood on top of it with Pepper in tow.
"So these are the pesky little kids that have been fucking up our plans," Deidara laughed and cracked his knuckles, preparing to beat the two children to a pulp. He was solely focused on N, "I saw what you did back there, that's pretty amazing, un. If I didn't already have Pepper, I would have recruited you to my division."
Pepper looked up at Deidara with a frown, "Seriously?"
"Yeah, he can make stuff blow up with out even touching it, it's beautiful," Deidara complimented despite the major amount of killing intent he had focused on N and Goku.
"This would be a great time for K to make one of his grand entrances," Goku closed his eyes and silently prayed that his sensei would pop up.
No one came to the rescue.
"Fuck life."
. . .
(Abandoned Warehouse)
"Father, you can stop pretending now," A deep voice bellowed through the warehouse, and the doctor's blue eyes locked onto the orange haired adolescent standing before him. Deidara and Pepper 'killed' him and added him to the collection of dead bodies that had created. The doctor pushed himself out of the pile and removed the bloody kunai from his forehead, "That goes for the rest of you as well."
The large boy speaking was quite tall, and had a menacing figure. He almost looked like a monster, with his face having stitches all across it, and his eyes had black irises with yellow pupils. He ran a hand through his messy orange hair, staring intently as a lot of the dead bodies sprung up and started stepping forward.
Doctor Gero dropped the kunai onto the ground, and his wound began to stitch itself back together. He retied his torn bandana around his head and smiled at the boy before him, "Thank you, son," The doctor placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and offered a smile. "I'm glad you came to look for us, I didn't think you'd know where to go."
He bowed respectfully toward his father, "I apologize for taking so long." The man stood up straight and focused on Doctor Gero, "I got sidetracked by the criminals, they're destroying our town, and if we let them continue we'll no longer have a place to call home."
"I understand," Doctor turned to face the rest of his creations and smiled. "That is why we'll take back our home, and get rid of them in the process." He looked through the room and nodded, "Everyone, move out!"
All of his experiments and creations disappeared in a flicker, leaving only him and his son in the warehouse. The boy was still focusing intently on his father's every move, and Doctor Gero could tell that his son was unsettled about something. He simply raised his brow, and that prompted him to speak, "Why am I back in the world of the living?" The boy questioned, looking at his palms now, which were also tightly stitched back together. "I died months ago, why am I here today?"
The Doctor simply grinned, "I summoned your soul back from that realm and sealed it into your body once more," He patted the boy gently. "You're better than ever now, no man shall ever take your life again."
"I can feel this new power coursing through my veins, but I still don't understand why you chose me." He stared at his father once more with a puzzled expression. The boy had found peace in death, so being forcefully summoned back into this realm was quite disturbing to his mind set. "There had to be a better candidate for this."
"There's no one better than my only true son," Doctor Gero complimented as he walked past his child and began moving toward the exit of the warehouse. "Besides, you're the only one capable of retrieving Lapis and Lazuli. They've fallen into the wrong hands."
"Is that my mission?" The doctor's son asked with a raised brow.
"Yes, but for now; let's focus on getting rid of these Akatsuki characters."
. . .
(Elsewhere in Hi no Kuni)
The cloaked man bounced from branch to branch, covering a lot of ground in mere seconds. He didn't even pay attention to what was going behind him. His main focus was escaping, but his pursuers were obviously going to make it complicated for him. He dropped from the trees and landed smoothly on the ground.
Soon after he landed, an explosion sounded above where he once was. When the burning tree limb fell to the ground, he saw that it was covered in explosive tags, and they were still set to go off. He leapt backward and put some distance between him and the branch.
The bombs rocked the area and filled it with smoke, obscuring his vision for the slightest of seconds. A slim figure moved quickly through the smoke screen and tried to punch the cloaked man, but he couldn't connect. The man had disappeared, and the strength behind his punch created a fissure in the ground.
He attempted to get away once more, but a flock of crows appeared from behind different trees and started circling him. The man groaned and dodged the attempts to stab him with their beaks by jumping up and away from them. As he ascended higher, the crows twisted and followed him into the air. He was displaying his own ability to fly, stilling dodging, and knocking various crows out of the air with quick punches.
A white crow moved wistfully through the other birds, its eyes were red with three tomoe, and they were spinning rapidly. The cloaked man was unfortunate enough to make eye contact with it once it passed by his range of vision, and suddenly felt himself freefalling toward the ground. The illusion he was trapped in was constantly changing and it made him nauseous, as he broke through many walls in his never ending descent toward the ground.
The colors were extremely vibrant and constantly shifting. Abstract objects popped out at him and sliced him into pieces with random weapons, strangely shaped hands tried to grab his body parts, but he finally fell into a pit of black fire at the end of his free fall. While his whole body felt like it was burning to a crisp for an eternity, he watched with awe as two giant, white hands swept through the flames with ease and picked up the bits of his body and shook them up between its palms.
The hands threw him back into the air, and his vision was restored. The strange, pulsating colors continued to change and pop out at him, but a giant white figure with long white hair tied into a ponytail was looking up at him, and he discovered that's who threw him into the air. He had constantly rotating sharingan eyes, which were focused on him.
The man took notice of the clouds on the giant figure's cloak, which were simply black outlines on his white clothing. He took a deep breath, which created a giant vacuum of wind that sucked the man into his mouth, and he ended up swallowing him in the process. He tumbled down the giant figure's throat and fell into his stomach, which was filled with more black flames.
He was violently thrown around the figure's stomach and through the flames. The man was immense pain, after being literally cooked, eaten, and now he was being thrown up. He was forced upward and back out the way he came, and was sent flying down toward the 'ground.' Despite the great pain he was in, he finally found some focus, and withdrew a kunai knife from his equipment pouch.
He stabbed into his thigh and bit his lip in pain, but was pleased to see the genjutsu collapsing in on itself. The whole scene faded to white, and slowly transitioned back to the forest they were in. His eyes were filled with greenery, and realized he was still freefalling toward the ground.
The man flipped in mid-air and landed perfectly on a branch, tossing the bloodied kunai to the side. He took a deep breath and jumped off of it, narrowly dodging another powerful punch from the real life, slim, white figure. It moved so fast; he couldn't make it out, and tumbled onto the ground. Once he sprung back up to a stand, a compressed bullet of fire nearly hit him in the face, but he quickly ducked.
"Aw, Itachi-kun, you missed!" A voice cried out from above, dropping down on the ground, and creating a crater upon landing. He had a smile plastered on his face, and his eyes were completely shut. It was the slim, white figure from before; who looked exactly like what the man imagined. He was unnaturally skinny, with short, spiky white hair, distinctive black lines trailing from each side of his mouth, and a white cloak with black cloud outlines. His color slowly started to return to him, and he had fair tan skin, with black hair. The cloak was black with red clouds.
The one known as Itachi was standing in front of the unidentified cloaked man, who was wearing a hood to conceal his identity. He broke away into a flock of crows, "No I didn't." The cloaked man had disappeared as well, and that left Itachi's partner standing there with a confused expression on his face, before he realized what was happening, and scrambled away from the area.
The ball of fire exploded outward and swallowed the whole area in flames. The cloaked man had only used a simple shushin to get away, but he hadn't gotten far. Everything was being caught in the flames, and it was only expanding wider and higher. He tucked and rolled, before leaping up and flying quickly through the air and tried to escape the range of the expanding fire.
He tried to outrun it, but it soon caught him as well and he was nearly burned alive.
Itachi and his partners sat safely at the peak of one of the many trees in the forest. They watched as the fire continued to rise upward, and it was shaped like the tip of a kunai. The Uchiha took a deep breath and wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead calmly, as a white crow landed on his shoulder. He furrowed his brow and looked at it, "I thought this was nothing more than an Arlian, why is he so strong?"
"I may have been wrong," The crow's voice was extremely deep. Its sharingan eyes watched as the man emerged from the giant pillar of flames with a burnt cloak, taking notice of the completely armored man. He couldn't make out any other distinctive traits to prove himself wrong, "I won't be able to tell unless we crack his armor."
"Split," Itachi said calmly and they all broke away from the branch and soon after a beam of energy tore through everything in its path. The beam stopped, and the man's hand was still smoking afterward. He looked at his work, seeing a deep crater after he was finished, and nothing left of the forest. The man shifted his gaze and saw what Itachi had caused, burning the other half of the forest to a crisp.
The slim man appeared out of no where and latched onto the other man's back, and threw him into the ground. His body smacked against the ground with a thud, and the slim man landed on him with a lot of force, "Hey, alien-chan!" He pressed even harder and tried to crack the man's armor but couldn't muster enough force to break it, "You're pretty strong for an Arlian!"
The Arlian's head was concealed by a sleek helmet, and he curled upward and smashed his head into his opponent; sending him flying across the forest. The Arlian was freed and he jumped up with quickness, but found himself in the same predicament; avoiding another barrage of attacks from the trio. They worked together seamlessly, and Itachi sent balls of fire in the alien's direction.
He moved swiftly and skillfully while dodging, and saw that the white crow followed up to attack next. It moved though the fire balls with ease and tried to peck at the Arlian's head from different angles, but he was too fast to target.
The crow finally caught him off guard and flew around the Arlian's body, surprising him by extending in size, and shifting into a full length boa snake. It wrapped tightly around his entire body and tried to squeeze the life out of him, but his armor was too durable for it to affect him. Under his helmet his breathing was ragged, but he appeared cool and collected on the outside.
Itachi dropped down and stepped forward to speak with the alien, "You're under arrest," He said sternly, but in a mellow tone. The Uchiha looked him over once more and noticed something strange, "His chakra signature doesn't match any of the Arlians I've encountered. Our information is wrong." He shot a glance to the snake that was holding the alien back.
The slim figure landed next to Itachi and looked up at him with a raised brow, "If he's not an Arlian, then what is he?"
Before the conversation could continue, the ground began to collapse in on itself and turn into mud. All of them except for the wily alien slowly began to sink, and he shook himself free and ascended into the air with great speed. He raised his hands and aimed them at the ground, they slowly illuminated, and he didn't hold back his barrage of ki blasts; intending to kill any and everything that was trapped.
The trio of Akatsuki members had disappeared once the smoke cleared, and the only thing left was Itachi's bloodied hand trying to reach out from under the mud, but it slowly sunk within, and the Earth hardened once more. The alien's head snapped toward the trees, and he finally spoke up, "I told you not to interfere."
"You looked like you were in trouble," another man made himself known, wearing the exact same outfit as the renegade alien. He raised his hands in a placating fashion, "We only came here for you, so I wasn't going to let you die on your personal mission."
The alien dusted himself off and rolled his neck, "I was fine." He scoffed and rolled his eyes behind his helmet, "These Akatsuki guys just don't give up. At this rate, they're going to arrest and deport any connection we have to finding her." He sighed, and his partner came and patted him on the back.
"Don't worry," He offered sincere words and embraced his partner. "You're going to find her, and everything will be okay. For now, let's just focus on that, and not get sidetracked by these Akatsuki guys." The alien looked at the ground he trapped Itachi and his partners under.
"They're starting to become a real problem though," The arlian sighed placed his hand on top of his head. "No runaway alien is going to be safe as long as they're around."
The discussion was cut short when the ground began to flare up, and they had no choice but to both jump away as it exploded upward. Chunks of earth and debris were sent flying everywhere.
"I can't believe this shit…"
. . .
(Unknown Village ~ With Goku & N)
There was no where to run, no one to turn to, and nothing they could do. N and Goku truly believed these were their last moments, and they were both praying for different things. Naturally, N was hoping, and actually thinking of a useful escape plan, while Goku was praying for a decent final meal. Both boys opened their eyes after making their selective wishes and watched as Deidara jumped from the clay bird onto the roof.
N was still holding Goku in his arms until he could sustain himself, and both boys felt their heart drop lower with each step Deidara took. The blonde-haired-bomber had a sly grin on his face, and was nearly radiating a killing intent so thick; the boys could see it. He raised his only visible brow and stopped right before N and Goku, "You're actually worth some money, I hope you know." The terrorist patted Goku on the head, "Your DNA is gonna make the Akatsuki a killing, un."
"That's actually kind of sick," Goku grinned and looked up at N. "How much is he worth?"
Deidara simply shrugged his shoulders and turned his back on the duo of genin. He held his hands up toward Pepper and the boy tossed two pairs of hand cuffs back. The blonde swiveled back around with a wide smile on his face, "Doesn't really matter, his race isn't extinct, but they'll lock him away anyway." He stared the two of them down, not really expecting getting them in hand cuffs without force. "Now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way, which one do you two prefer?"
Goku stared at the cuffs long and hard before gritting his teeth, dropping down from N's grasp. He felt a strong sting throughout his whole body, but wanted to at least help N fight, even if they were outnumbered three-to-two. The two boys got into fighting stance, and Deidara rolled his eyes before groaning extremely loud. Goku furrowed his brow, "We're not going down without a fight."
"Don't be idiots, we're too strong for you, kid." Bali reminded them from behind and N turned his head.
Before N or Goku could open their mouth to retort, an orange blur sped through the air and delivered the strongest kick they had ever seen to Deidara, and sent the blonde flying to the other side of town. When he became fully visible, they saw the rough stitching across his body, and his skin was slowly starting to darken. His deep yellow eyes locked onto Goku and N, "You're safe, children, this is my fight from here." He aimed one hand at Bali and the other Pepper on their respective clay birds.
N didn't need to be told twice and quickly grabbed Goku by the collar of his shirt, and the battle ignited from there. Bali attempted to give chase to them, but found himself blown away by a powerful blast of ki, and Pepper got the same treatment. The duo of genin speedily jumped off of the building and started running in the opposite direction.
The boy's skin had completely darkened and his orange hair had grown even messier than it was before. He took a few deep breaths as he got used to the new power he had recently acquired through reincarnation. His attention was brought to the center of the village, where Deidara rose back to the air with an even larger clay creation than before.
Being attacked was one thing to be ashamed about, but a random teenager getting the drop on him definitely ruined what was supposed to be a good day. Thanks to him, Son Goku had escaped with his half-alien friend, and they would probably be long gone by the time he was done fighting this newcomer. He cracked his knuckles and a took a deep breath, "That was really annoying, un," He admitted and dusted his clothing off.
"Your presence in my home village is equally irritating," The boy detached his hand and revealed a cannon within his arm. He furrowed his brow and took aim on Deidara's giant clay creation, firing away a powerful beam, and it landed directly in the stomach of the creature. It tore through it with ease, and he discovered that the creation was full of hundreds of smaller bird-like clay creatures. They all shot through the sky and attached to his body, completely covering him in a matter of seconds.
Deidara couldn't fight his grin, "KATSU!" The explosion that followed rocked the entire area and brought the building the boy was standing on down to its foundation. It collapsed from the explosive force and the newcomer was buried under a pile of debris. The blonde looked around for his teammates, and Bali and Pepper slowly crawled back into view.
Bali had a fresh and bloody hole in the middle of his chest, where his heart should've been, and he appeared to be calm, "That damn kid caught me by surprise." He scoffed and rolled his eyes before fully standing up and stretching out.
Pepper was completely unharmed, but the clay bird he was on had been blown to bits. Pieces of clay were still stuck to his face and he was struggling to get them off. He gave up and sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets and looking over at Deidara, "I think it's time for us to leave, the gemstones obviously aren't here."
"You're right, u—" Deidara's jaw dropped, and everyone's attention was brought back to the collapsed building in the center of the village. A pillar of yellow light erupted from the debris and shook the entire village. The raw power coming from it sent a chill up the terrorist's spine and he grit his teeth, "But I guess we're not done here."
. . .
(Unknown Village)
Through all the madness, an old man was walking calmly through the village with a satisfied smile on his face. People that looked like something out of a sci-fi story were running to join the battle in the center of the village, and he couldn't help but notice the two boys running away from it all.
N shot a glance at the old man and stopped running, "You can't go back there, you need to evacuate." He urged him, but the older man shook his head.
"I'm sure I'll be fine," Doctor Gero grinned at the two younger boys. "I did start this after all. I plan on taking control of my town once again and getting rid of the Akatsuki's presence for good." The old man placed his hands behind back and looked up to his son tearing through the town trying to battle Deidara and partners.
"Wait, you started all of this?" Goku asked with a raised brow.
"Yes, I created this little town called Hoseki and everything within it. I'll die to protect it," Doctor Gero kept all of his best experiments in this town and he couldn't afford to lose them. After losing Lapis and Lazuli all those years ago, he couldn't let something of that nature happen again. The doctor looked down on Goku, "And now I suggest you leave before things get messy, I'd hate to see such a promising young saiyan go to waste." The old man walked off calmly and left Goku and N standing there in shock.
Doctor Gero was a complete stranger to him, yet he knew his secret. Other than N, he didn't know who else knew that he was alien, but he was truly starting to question how much of secret it was, and how long it had been kept from him. He furrowed his brow and looked at his comrade, "Yeah, let's get out of here. I'd hate to be caught up in that."
N nodded and Goku took off in the direction of the inn his whole team was staying in. Although he hesitated, he ran off after Goku, but had his eyes locked on Doctor Gero the whole time. He was nothing short of suspicious, and he watched as the old man walked into what had become an all-out war for the village of Hoseki without an ounce of fear in his step.
That man was up to something.
. . .
It's lit.