The Hub ~
Goku didn't know what to expect when Yugito started leading him through the whole village. To any normal person, it would have seemed like she was lost, but she appeared to know where she was going. Since he didn't want any more trouble on his head, he kept his mouth closed and let her do whatever it is she was doing.
The woman was walking with confidence, and in the short amount of time they were together; she had led Goku through parts of Kumogakure he had never seen before. Similar to his trip to Iwagakure, he was seeing brand new technology he had never come across, and everything was quite foreign to him. However, Yugito knew everything about it.
They stepped into a very low-key building that immediately led to a descending flight of stairs. Yugito opened the door that was at the bottom of the stair case, and revealed a room that was full of different looking creatures wearing lab coats, standard shinobi attire, or basic civilian clothes.
Before Goku could take another step forward, he was cut off by a fairly large, and quite green man with an unapproving look on his face, "Yugito, who is this?" He asked, pointing at Goku, who was new to this location, and wasn't to see it. He had strong facial features and strange antennas on his head, and his dark eyes were fixated on Goku. "We don't allow visitors here."
"Calm down, Band, this is Goku," She explained and he still didn't appear to be pleased. Yugito groaned and brought Goku to her side, "Or as you would know him, GA-734." The woman bit her lip and instantly regretted revealing his project name, because the boy looked up at her with an upset expression, but it gave her clearance to bring him into the secret building.
Band stepped out of the way and eased up, "Welcome to The Hub, 734, I almost didn't recognize you without your tail." He offered a green hand and Goku accepted is hastily, "I hope you find your stay fulfilling." The large man turned on his heel, leaving Yugito and Goku to handle their business.
She instantly turned to smile at Goku, bowing in a respectful manner, "I apologize for that, Goku-kun." Yugito stood up straight and signaled for him to follow her through the underground base, meant for research and experimentation that might better Kumogakure. They passed a lot of things on their way to what she wanted to show to her guest, "There's something I think you deserve to see, since you've been through so much these past few weeks."
Goku was far too distracted to even hear what Yugito was saying as he blindly followed her. With every step, he was crossing paths with an alien creature and it amazed him to no end. His legs were leading him and his eyes were all over the place, but he was slowly halted when he bumped into an imposing figure that he couldn't put a name to.
Yugito was frozen in place, turning her head slightly to see Goku stuck in the middle of a criminal transport. A man was heavily cuffed, with chains draping all over him, and surrounded by multiple men. His piercing yellow eyes locked onto Goku and nearly lashed out at the boy as he was being forcefully dragged across the ground.
The boy felt like he was stuck in time, there was something about the man standing before him. He didn't feel safe for the first time in his life and he backed away.
"I'm going to kill every last one of you! You're all abominations and don't deserve to ruin our plane-" The man was forcefully dragged out of Goku's way and the room was brought to silence after the man's tantrum, since a majority of The Hub's inhabitant were alien.
"Don't listen to him, Goku, he's sick, and we're going to help him," Yugito held her hand out toward the shocked boy and tried to offer a comforting smile.
"Why did you bring me, because I'm starting to feel like I'm not wanted here," The boy said half-jokingly as he continued to follow the woman through The Hub.
Yugito led him through a pair of double doors to reveal a large room full of computers. The biggest screen was in the center of the room and showed a map of the shinobi world. There were countless different color dots moving around the map, "I wanted to give you peace of mind." The woman turned to face Goku, "All of those dots are aliens that were processed by Kumogakure."
Goku watched her type in the code NT-734 and raised a brow while doing so, "So that means you know where N is?"
"I have a general location, but we're working on bringing N back home, and we don't need to lose you in the process too." Yugito pointed at two red dots on the screen that were in Kumogakure and grinned, "See, and then there's you and I."
"You're an alien?"
Before their conversation could go any further, Band, the man from earlier entered the room and pointed at Yugito, "Nii Yugito, 734, The Director wants to see you both immediately."
Yugito simply blinked and then looked at Goku, "That can't be good."
"I'm ready to leave this place."
. . .
N had his hands lazily wrapped around the drawstrings of his sweatshirt as he strolled through the thick forests of Hi no Kuni behind Hashi the 'ghost.' He didn't know where exactly she was leading him since everything was foreign to him, but he trusted her judgement for some strange reason. As they walked, he noticed that they were getting closer and closer to civilization, "Is that what I think it is?" N asked with a raised brow.
"Yes, it is," Hashi cooed quietly as she floated toward their unspoken destination.
"How did you even know where to find this place?" He questioned further with a hint of curiosity in his voice.
"I'm aware that they're called Hidden Villages for a reason, but I know everything," Hashi tried to say in a non-narcissistic tone, but failed miserably. She continued to float quietly toward the village while N followed. "734, are you ready?"
"What . . . ?" N stopped walking and looked at Hashi cautiously, "My name is N and you know that." The boy took another look around and noticed things losing color, and the area becoming more desolate.
"Oops," slipped from Hashi's ghastly mouth and the enemy shinobi gave up on their ruse. The image of the female ghost faded slowly and revealed a slim man with his eyes shut. He brushed his black hair out of the way of his face and turned to look at his captain.
Itachi sat on top of a branch with his legs crossed and a slightly displeased expression plastered on his face. His eyes were glowing red and staring a hole through N's chest, "You had one job." The man leapt from the branch and landed beside his partner, "Yeruslan, subdue 734 and let's get out of here, we have to be back at the fifth division base before night fall."
N furrowed his brow and tried to back away, but soon found himself constricted by a large snake that wrapped around his body. It's one, sharingan eye stared at N and slithered its tongue out. The boy reared his head back, but felt the snake's grip around him tighten, "Why me?"
The snake's deep voice startled N, "We probably would have let you walk if didn't try escape to Konoha."
Yeruslan broke a piece of a branch from a nearby tree and started to drag it through the dirt. He went around N and the snake and etched out a square, once he was finished he threw the stick to the side and slammed his hands together, the ground lighting up an electric blue, "Buh-bye!"
A barrier erected around N and the snake, and the two within the barrier started to break apart into particles and be sent somewhere else. Before they completely vanished, a small explosion rocked the area, and when the smoke cleared; they were gone.
Yeruslan looked at the ground and saw droplets of blood and white bits of snake skin covering the area he had just transported them from. He looked at Itachi with a raised brow, "Uh-oh, I think we gots a problem, Itachi-kun."
"We'll figure it out, for now let's return to base, I'm sure everything is fine." Itachi walked off before Yeruslan could say anything else, giving him no choice but to follow.
The slim man looked at the bits on the ground and then walked off after Itachi, hoping his partner was alright.
. . .
Short chapter, but I'll update more frequently from here. Holiday season was busy. :)