Chapter 42 — Implementation

A/N: Sorry for being late; I had to run to the store for milk.

When I was young, like many kids, I decided I would run away from home. I sniffled, packed my little knapsack, and walked into the woods with the unearned confidence of your average six-year-old.

I must have only been walking for thirty seconds before I stopped, paused, and realised the enormity of what I was trying to do. In that instant, I realised I had no idea what I was doing, had never known what I was doing, and was entirely lost on my own. It was a humbling experience. I walked back home in shame and told nobody. (Well. My sister probably knew. She always seemed to know.)

That was approximately the way I felt now, except I had no big sister's bedroom to go to hide from authority figures.

Even as I carefully made my way through the woods, avoiding sentry points and keeping a tight air pocket to cover my scent, even as the image of different maps bloomed in the back of my mind, I knew exactly how much trouble I was in.

I took a quick break in a treetop to double-check my orientation and that my air pocket hadn't sprung any "leaks" from concentration lapse, but I'd done well. I was also compressing my chakra signature as much as possible after Neji had so kindly pointed out it was a weak point for me. If I had managed to get past Sasuke's detection, I'd be okay― barring any Neji-level chakra sensors in the area.

In that case, I'd be in trouble regardless.

Having reoriented myself against the sun, I set back off. Back when I was first planning a journey like this, I considered sleeping in small towns at night, but now the risk was far too high. Instead, I had several good potential campsites marked out.

Fortunately, now that I was older (and also a ninja), I had a better chance of making it in the wild than I did as a little kid. Still, that was a problem for down the line― for now, the only absolute priority was getting out of the proper borders of the village and into the greater Konoha area.

But despite all of my paranoia, I still managed to be overconfident.

I didn't know where, when, or how I had slipped, but I got caught. I sensed a presence slowly approaching me from the back and right; it would be upon me soon. I had little time to plan an escape route; they probably didn't realise I could sense their chakra, which was likely the only thing giving me this tiny pocket of opportunity.

A replacement chain would be the fastest, but it was difficult to do without making sound, and that would give away my new location― and I couldn't replace with anything further than I could see.

I thought back to my blast earlier. I'd been trying to prevent a soundwave from hitting me using my air pocket; perhaps it could work the other way. Carefully, still moving steadily, I tried to expand the chakra shield around me to stop sound from escaping. Then, letting my eyes flit around the trees several times, never letting my eyes settle in one area too long, I quickly darted my hands up and signed lightning quick to do a replacement with a log as far in the distance as I could see.

Unfortunately, despite my ideas, this still generated sound, so on the subsequent replacements, I tried to will my chakra shell to go out before me (which failed).

Then I tried to replace with the air instead, since solid matter seemed like an arbitrary constraint― which also failed, and this time, my lag time cost me.

Something large and solid slammed into my back with an impact that reverberated in my bones, knocking me flat to the ground. With my cheek grinding into the forest detritus, I rolled my eye to its corner until it ached, trying to see what was on me.

I had an odd moment of cognitive disconnect. It looked like an ink drawing on paper had come to life. It took my mind a moment to process that the strange beast pinning me down wasn't a hallucination or a genjutsu. It was real, and it was exactly what it looked like―

And then I saw the ninja casually approaching and panicked.

Typically, in a fight or flight situation, panic is your downfall. "Fear is the mind-killer", as they say. This time, fortunately, my instincts were good; the chakra response must have been honed into my body.

Unable to make handseals, my body automatically searched for a safe zone, and with my air pocked already in place, I sank into the dirt and underground. The pressure seemed unbearable for a moment as the air pocket adjusted, actually using the weight of the beast to help push against the soil's natural resistance as my chakra played into the chakra of the soil.

I am part of you; I desperately tried to convince it. Let me in, let me in.

There was a moment of instinctive panic about air, and I held my breath. I needed to move; I was barely below the dirt. For a terrifying moment, I couldn't do anything but sink deeper down, the pressure building, dirt grinding, and cold increasing― but I got past some mental block, and my chakra surged in the shell around my limbs, and my body came free. Then I realised I could breathe; it was an air pocket, and I began pushing myself through the dirt, swimming my way through and away.

Seconds or hours could have passed in those moments of fear and strange meditation.

The next thing I knew, something constricted around my middle, and then I was torn from the earth, the light burning into my eyes as dirt and rock crumbled off my body in clumps and loose grit. I shook more dirt from my face and hair to see a massive ink-sketched worm wrapped around my body, holding me aloft.

The ninja did not smile nor frown as he approached at a measured pace. Something about him was oddly familiar, but I couldn't place the face. He gave a blank smile that did not reach his eyes.

"Hello, Sakura-san. Sorry for my forcefulness in gaining your attention― you seemed in a hurry, and I didn't want to lose you."

I stared.

"Let me explain. I am Sai, a ninja from Kumogakure, the Village Hidden in Clouds. I was sent to keep tabs on Konohagakure. I was given orders to act as your lifeline to the village." His expression did not change; he still smiled blandly as though we were discussing the weather. "With the current circumstances, my standing orders are clear: I will escort you to Orochimaru to help strike a deal."

There was a pause as I blanked out completely.

"Oh?" I asked, buying time as my brain frantically tried to figure out what he was talking about. A contact for Cloud? A deal with Orochimaru? How was this―

It clicked.

Danzo was an elder of the village for a reason, and he was not an idiot. I had been outmanoeuvred. Hell, I had only started considering manoeuvring and had still done precisely what he wanted.

Maybe the trick to strategy was to start before anyone else realised it was necessary.

Sai was clearly working for Danzo; it was too much of a coincidence and insanely random to be anything else, considering his earlier rant in the courtroom. On the surface, it seemed like complete nonsense, but his phrasing was specific.

The ninja was likely waiting in the forest for a fleeing attempt before the trial even began. Perhaps not the explosive exit I'd made, but something more stealthy after the trial.

If I was an Orochimaru spy, I'd want to see what "Cloud" was offering.

If I was working for Cloud, I'd reveal something, possibly even allowing him to uncover an entire spy network.

If I was innocent, he got a danger magnet out of the village and fed to an evil ninja as a sacrifice.

… Or possibly a bargaining chip, judging by Orochimaru's infiltration and attempted kidnapping. If Danzo wanted something from Orochimaru OR Cloud, depending on who or what I was, depending on what I knew, I could be a valuable commodity to be sold.

"Ohh," I said slowly: an honest response but just as vague and versatile. Slowly, all the little pieces started to make more sense.

Shit.

I winced at the curse as I thought it. Right. I'd been scribbling in notebooks in public all over Konoha in English and Dutch― AKA, Cloud and Rock, as far as this world was concerned. English must have been the language similar to Cloud― I used it the most often, and it would make sense they'd assume I'd be from that village. That, or the existing tensions with them were worse, and they were making a gamble. Didn't Ino say something about Konoha having a bad relationship with both Rock and Cloud? Heck, maybe they were working together, or presumed to be, and my using both just made me look worse.

I shook my head again, the dirt crumbling away even more as the ninja patiently awaited my response.

Okay, the most important thing was… What the hell should I do?

It would be utter nonsense to try to fight the ninja. I had only just begun my ninja career and hadn't been on any actual missions, and while I trained often, that was not the same. If Danzo sent this ninja― even if he didn't look too much older than me― he was likely highly trained. He might even be a Chunin, or a Jounin.

Ninja didn't care how old you were; they cared about how much you'd done. And I was both young and hadn't done much.

I could try to escape again. I could try to fight anyway― what would he do to me? Kidnap me instead? That was the same result as me going willingly anyway, so wasn't it better to fight back?

Only… I could never win. The only real fight I had been in, I'd managed to kill my opponent because I could do something unexpected. And, and…

I didn't want to kill this boy. Even though he was now my enemy, even though he may even have orders to kill me, I didn't want to kill him. I didn't even want to try.

I wasn't cut out for being a ninja, was I? I guess it's just as well they stripped me of my ninja titles, even if it means my team is… My brain fled that line of thinking. Later.

All the same, even if I didn't want to, I may well need to kill this boy if I wanted to get out of this unscathed.

"Well?" The ninja asked as I continued fretting and getting nothing resolved.

I couldn't exactly call a time-out to let me think longer and come up with something clever. Just this moment of decision― cooperate with his offer or defect?

I thought of Danzo's self-satisfied expression, and the answer was obvious.

Remembering the fight with the ninja I had killed, I took a deep breath, focused the chakra in the air pocket, and put a tiny, tiny thread of my healing chakra in it.

Not the stuff Tsunade taught me, but my homebrewed chaos chakra that healed trees and tore the earth, combining healing with force.

Just as my chakra had tried to convince the earth that it belonged, it now seeped into this ink beast, whispering into it. The ninja's brows furrowed, and right as he opened his mouth, I pushed force into the chakra.

The ink creature started to practically boil around me. Maybe because it was not a living creature, the reaction was different: instead of falling apart as I'd hoped, it seemed entirely destabilised, much like my earliest attempts at seal-making. The creature swelled up as the boiling under its surface increased. Hidden under the creature's bulk, I felt its body loosen its grip; I took the chance to make my hand seals.

I don't know how the thought even entered my brain, but with my chakra minimised and blended into the environment around me, I cast a transformation technique. All I can remember was desperately thinking that I must not be seen, and I transformed myself to be ghostly and faint. I couldn't just transform into air; after all, I only learned how to transform into a person― and it worked.

And if that worked, I realised, then why not invisible? I'd still be a person, just not a visible one.

… Holy shit. That worked, too.

Unfortunately, this was not the time to reflect on why that worked when it was a visual jutsu.

This didn't resolve the fact that I was still a solid creature stuck in a mass of writhing worm. Worse, as I was no longer focused on the creature and completely pulled my chakra from it, it seemed to get a chance to― well, it didn't stabilise, but it stopped getting worse.

And then it was gone.

The boy and I frowned at each other― well, I frowned at him; I wasn't sure what he saw. I couldn't see myself, so I hoped he couldn't see me, but how could photons reach my eyes like this and still pass through me? And oh crap, I'd stopped suppressing my chakra―!

The boy swivelled his head left and right, searching.

Had… had he really not sensed me?

I took a small, hesitating step back, and his eyes shot toward my foot, and oh no, it didn't matter that I used silent foot; I was still solid. Of course, the foliage would have movement―!

He reached for the tanto sword from his back, and my brain instantly went on a terrified strike. My hands flew up, and I was crying, "Replacement!" because this time, it didn't matter if he heard me.

And then the chase was on again, right back where we started, with me frantically trying to get far enough from his detection. My earlier attempts taught me I couldn't use clever tricks to prevent the replacements from generating sound. It was all I could do to keep my chakra tightly bound to my body, to try to be as precise as possible in the execution of the technique and to prevent the tell-tale noise and smoke seen in sloppier work as much as possible.

The invisibility meant nothing and was actually a detrimental drain on my chakra; by the time I noticed this, it was too late, and I was exhausted. My lungs felt like they wanted to burst, my body was covered in hot sweat that clung, unable to evaporate through the membrane of the air pocket, and my chakra ached worse than I could ever recall feeling. It was like every sinew of muscle in my body had been lined with lead, or my bones had been turned to iron and the ground was magnetised.

This must be what a rabbit felt like after being pursued by a persistence predator. The strolling, nonchalant death.

I couldn't run.

I couldn't fight.

I couldn't think my way out of this.

There was only one thing I could do.

I stopped running and replacing, hunching over in a clearing to catch my breath. I heard the crunching of leaves, and I raised both hands in defeat, raising my head to see the boy approaching me, still smiling so blandly.

"Okay," I rasped, too exhausted to even mind the icy-acid barbs of fear that clawed at my insides.

The only real chance I had was to play for time and give myself a chance to think of something really damn clever.

"I won't hurt you, of course," the boy said.

Actually infuriating.

I let my hands drop anyway, letting out a sigh. I looked over the boy; no headband, pale as a ghost, hair dark and shaggy… wearing a crop top? Well, I guess armour is almost superfluous on a ninja. But his dark eyes, inky-black hair, and paper-pale skin seemed to fit his strange sketched creations.

Everything about the boy felt not quite right.

I studied his face, his hollow smile. "Hey," I said. "You need to make your eyes scrunch up more. Otherwise, your smile doesn't work."

He blinked. "Do I?"

"I mean, assuming your goal is to look like you're actually smiling. If you're just trying to be a sarcastic jerk, you're doing just fine."

I winced internally at myself― both at the half-baked, flippant attempt at easing tension and for antagonising someone who may well still be debating killing me.

He showed no signs of this, though, simply humming thoughtfully. "Ah, thank you. Like this?" he asked, pointing at his face and scrunching the upper half.

… Huh. "Not quite," I said. "You need to be gentler and like… okay, these muscles here?" I asked, pointing under my eyes. "You want to focus on those ones and maybe avoid the ones around your nose; those can look contemptuous real easily― okay, that's a little better, but still overkill around your inner eye, okay? And don't furrow your eyebrows so much. Are you thinking of something cheerful? It's easier if you do. You may need to practice in a mirror; don't feel bad, I had to do the― same… thing…" I trailed off.

He was adjusting his face precisely as I had instructed and seemed to hang off my every word.

In other words, he was being utterly sincere. I had meant to just joke with him when I first brought up his smile, but the guy was practising as hard as I had when I was eight and making faces in the mirror.

There was an absurd innocence to him. Which would make it really, really difficult to talk my way onto his good side and then smother him in his sleep.

Actually, the fact that I had already relaxed so much on my general "no-killing" policy so much that it was basically "don't kill unless it makes things more convenient" was probably not a good sign. Especially considering I had to worry about being an Orochimaru experiment or clone.

I blamed Danzo.

"Alright," I said. "Enough about that. I guess we should be on our way, right?"

He tilted his head. "Do you have anything to report first? I promise I was sent here in good faith."

Ah, right, that.

Unsure it was a good idea, I decided to go for pure honesty. If nothing else, it'd be easier for me to keep up with. "Look, I don't work for Cloud, Rock, or Orochimaru," I said firmly. "But if you insist on taking me there, I can't fight you."

"Of course you aren't," he said blithely. It should have sounded sarcastic, but his tone had an even, non-committal quality. Huh. Maybe having a blank expression and manner was helpful in being a ninja or spy? I wasn't sure whether to admire the emotional control or if it actually was control.

If it wasn't...

"You'll have to lead the way," I pointed out. "I don't exactly know where his secret base is."

He didn't budge. "Yes, you do. Please lead the way."

… Right. I had uncovered potential areas for Orochimaru's secret bases and had even tried to get in on an infiltration mission. Of course, Danzo knew about that, and of course, he thought this was further indication that I worked for Orochimaru.

It was a fair assessment, but I wished cross-referencing already-existing data was even an option for these people.

"I'm not sure if I know where they were; I was mostly hypothesising. Even if I got the right locations, I don't know if they're still active, and even if they're active, I don't know if Orochimaru is actually there."

"I insist," the ninja― Sai― said. The same expression, the same airy tone. I half-wished I hadn't helped him with his smile; it being only on the edge of artificial made it infinitely more unsettling.

Well. Damn. "Well, what choice do I have?" I asked cheerfully, screaming inside.

A/N: Long note! Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments and responses. I'm sorry for not replying to them all, but know that I read and re-read my comments regularly for motivation and to remember how y'all feel about different aspects of the story.

I read them and then I watch the story hit counter with wide-eyed fascination. Where'd all these readers come from? Thank you!

A/N 2:

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." ― Frank Herbert, Dune

A/N 3: The canonical rules to Transformation Technique are even more bullshit. As the fanfic DM, I'm still determining how much I'll allow, lol.