Chapter 45: Falling Action

Axel picked up the notebook he had been drawing in earlier and opened it to a blank page, not sure what else to do in this situation. The pair of unexpected visitors were speaking to each other in hushed tones, but he had no idea what they were saying: he wasn't sure if he just didn't know the words they were using, or if they were talking in code.

So, left to his small cot and feeling rather alone despite the fact that he technically wasn't, Axel decided to put his thoughts to paper. Writing or doodling, either way, it always helped him clear his head.

He needed that right now.

It all felt so surreal. But then again, everything these past few days did, really.

(Everything this past year did, really.)

Looking at things objectively—having been kidnapped and subsequently locked up by a mad scientist—by all rights he should probably be scared out of his mind at the moment. But instead of being properly terrified when faced with his warden, his brain would just randomly chime in with stuff like 'purple eye shadow is a bold look' and 'huh, guess my sister was pretty spot on with that cosplay'.

Or maybe it was just the isolation and general captivity getting to him, either way.

The cosplay point was particularly thorough in derailing his sense of self preservation, though thankfully so far he'd managed to keep those complete-nonsense-in-this-context comparisons to himself.

He sighed, glancing around for his one wooden pencil.

"Blacksmith-san?"

"Hm?" Smoothing out his thin sheet with his hand—the uninjured one, of course—revealed the pencil had snuck away into one of the folds. Axel grabbed it and looked up. "What is it, Shee… er, Shizune?"

She held out her hands. "Do you mind if I check as well?"

It took him a minute to connect what she was asking for with the cut on his palm, and when he did he reluctantly set his notebook aside. The young apprentice ninja took his hand and her fingers lit with a green glow—as fascinating as ever, even though he'd seen it quite a few times in recent days.

He simply watched, holding very still as the weird itchy-scab sensation passed through his palm. And, once again, nothing else really happened. That's five non-starters out of five on attempting to heal him.

"That is so weird," Shizune murmured. "It's like you're a ghost…" a suddenly nervous pause, and she added, "er, you're not, right?"

"No," he replied, trying to remember if the word she'd used meant 'ghost', 'spirit', or something more like 'demon'. Not that the distinction really mattered, since he's just a garden-variety human.

Actually, given the whole alternate dimension situation, by some standards he might technically qualify for a few of those labels. Weird thought.

"You know," Tsunade spoke up, eyeing him with curiosity, "you were interrupted earlier, before you could give us a good answer."

It took him a second to remember what had been asked: "Why I am here?"

She just nodded.

Axel opened his mouth to reply, but stalled out when it came to actually choosing the words. In part that was because he wasn't sure how much he should say, but to be honest the bigger sticking point was that he still only had a vague idea why himself.

Then, deciding it'd probably be best to just jump into it, he matter-of-factly said, "It's because I don't have chakra."

Tsunade's expression pulled up into open surprise.

Her apprentice was less quiet, blurting out an incredulous: "Wha— how?!" She openly stared at his hand, still resting palm-up with the cut plainly visible.

"A ninja was at my shop," he continued, deciding to ignore the follow up question for the moment, "and they must have tried something that didn't work on me. So I was brought here."

"No, no, back up." Shizune raised a hand, calling for a stop. "Seriously. What do you mean, 'don't have chakra'?"

He shrugged. "I just… don't have chakra."

"You don't even have chakra coils," Tsunade added, with a distant look in her eyes that probably meant she was reviewing her earlier attempt at healing his cut. "How is that even possible?"

"I wouldn't know." Feeling like perhaps he should say something else, Axel carefully added, "It's never been a problem before, and other than the healing thing, it's not really an issue now."

Accurate enough, and all strictly true—though that skipped over the additional 'issue' that it had gotten him kidnapped, of course.

"Civilians would be less likely to notice, I suppose. But even so, I can't imagine there are many others with the same condition—if any."

Well, Axel could agree with that. The surprising number of trans-dimensional coins notwithstanding, dropping anything from one world to the other must need energy, perfect timing, and sheer dumb luck.

His current theory—though unfounded, it's not like he could test it—was that a sufficient force at the right (wrong?) time could knock things through. The 'evidence' was really just a half-formed thought that coins are regularly dropped and lost, along with the fact that he had been hit by a truck. It was as good a guess as any.

Plus, it's just funny to blame universe shenanigans for the fact that sometimes it feels like things straight-up vanish when accidentally dropped.

That's beside the point, however; basically, getting something as large as a person through the dimensional cracks (and have them still be alive on the other end) had to have really beaten the odds.

Out loud, Axel just lightly shrugged and said, "I wouldn't know."

Looking from his injured palm to the bandage loosely coiled into a pile on the cot beside him, he vaguely considered wrapping the cut back up. He probably should, but he'd rather not reuse the old bandage and he didn't have anything else. Even if he did, he wasn't sure he could manage it with only one hand anyway.

Apparently Shizune had been thinking along the same lines, since she swiftly pulled out a clean roll of bandages from somewhere and tore off a small strip. She made quick work of re-dressing the cut.

"Still, the fact that your lack of chakra affects medical jutsu is concerning, for obvious reasons." Tsunade flexed her hand and, from the flicker of green, her chakra as well. "It wasn't entirely ineffectual, however. I wonder…"

"Er, he definitely didn't bring you here to help with my… being here." There were so many better ways to say that, but alas Axel couldn't draw any of them up. "It's a big problem to solve, so… uh, save your energy? But also if you can help me that would be very much thank you—appreciated, I meant 'appreciated'."

Tsunade tilted her head to the side, a vaguely amused glint in her eyes. "You are certainly a weird one, I suppose."

"So I have been told."

She snorted, then swiftly sobered as she sent a glance around the small gray cell. "I heard you earlier, Blacksmith-san. You said that you know some of why Orochimaru actually went and hunted me down.

"I'm… not the best to explain," Axel offered, haltingly. Even if he'd had a truly fluent grasp of the language—and while he was getting there, science discussions were the far edge of his vocabulary and biology was largely beyond the pale—he still wouldn't want to be in the position of discussing whatever Orochimaru had been up to in his labs.

Tsunade crossed her arms, her gaze unwavering. "Unfortunately it seems that, for the moment, we don't have anyone else to ask."

"Didn't he… give anything to you? To read?"

"Perhaps," she hedged, "but right now, I'm asking you. I want… well, not an outside perspective. But as close as we can get, given the circumstances."

That was daunting in it's own way, but at least she would be able to get more reliable answers later on—either from whatever Orochimaru had handed over to her, or from the man directly. She would have to find out the depths her old teammate had ventured at some point.

(Though he'd rather not be in the room, honestly.)

Axel closed his eyes, sending a silent prayer up to whatever entity might be listening for that kind of thing, and then began choosing his words very carefully. He didn't know the whole story—and he certainly didn't want to try filling any of the gaps with anime-sourced information—so he tried to just give a general overview. But even with just a vague description, talk of human experimentation was more than enough to see Tsunade's scowl darken into a veritable thunderstorm.

"…I don't know it all, of course," he finally finished, "that's just what I've been told, or just worked out from guesses."

Tsunade looked ready to throttle her old teammate. Understandable, of course, though Axel was feeling mighty fragile to be sitting in such proximity. He couldn't help but shift just a bit further back on his cot, though the extra centimeters would make no difference if her anger turned violent.

Her hands curled into fists, white knuckled. "What was Jiraiya even doing while I was gone?" she fumed, and if looks could kill… well, nobody would have died, luckily, but only because she wasn't really looking at anything here and now. "How could he have— Did he not notice, how did Orochimaru get to this— this—"

Then Tsunade breathed out, all at once.

Breathed in.

"Damn, I can't… shouldn't…" Tsunade very purposefully loosened her hands, leaving her looking almost limp. "I shouldn't have left."

"…Sensei?"

"Uh, it's not my home to say," Axel started, and although the raised brows told him he got the saying wrong, he just pressed on, "but you are not responsible for what other people choose to do." After a brief pause, he added, "Though coming back might be for the best, too."

Her incredulous brow lifted a touch higher. "Oroc-" She cut herself off. "…A lot of people in the village probably saw it more like a betrayal."

"…So?"

She simply regarded him for a long moment, perhaps faintly puzzled, and then her gaze sharpened with an odd sort of realization. "Hah, I see now." It was a dry laugh. "I suppose this is why he's so interested in you."

Axel reviewed what he had said, wondering what about it had brought out the insight she'd apparently snagged: other than likely tripping up the idiom, he wasn't sure what could have been noteworthy.

"Sensei, with all due respect… What are you even talking about?"

Tsunade was still looking at him, considering, and for a moment he thought she wouldn't bother to answer.

But then: "Let's put it this way, my old teammate never asked for help." She shook her head. "Not in as many words, anyway. We had to be very… proactive, on that front, to catch him whenever it looked like he'd go too far."

That tracked with what he could recall of the anime, and even more so with what he'd seen himself since the show became reality.

With a sigh, eyes just a little bit unfocused, she looked at the stretch of gray wall between them. "And he actually went out to find me for this. I doubt he would have independently chosen to reach out—though how you convinced him to do it, I have no clue."

Her glance was a questioning one, but he could only shrug. "I just told him that having experts on something would make it go smoother."

"And what are your thoughts on this particular… 'something'?"

Axel frowned, unsure what she thought she'd get out of this. "It's bad? Wrong and horrible?" He shook his head at the familiar frustration: "I don't have a strong enough word, really. But at least he's trying now, I guess."

That last was more of a token consolation than anything else. Orochimaru had done—was doing—terrible things. Even so, the fact that he was willing to adapt to a more humane method did say something about his character, even if Axel was certain he wouldn't have made any change if the utility of the new approach hadn't had sufficient merit.

A morally bankrupt mad-scientist, certainly, but Orochimaru wasn't exactly an evildoer villain-type running the experiments purely to inflict pain and suffering.

Had he been Stockholm-ed into defending his captor? Maybe, but probably not. He still didn't like the guy, after all. He'd blame his attitude on the influence of half-remembered rants about the ninja, courtesy of his sister. Orochimaru was definitely a twisted antagonist in the show, but his sister had rambled about him before Axel ever watched the anime; his first impression was already established before he ever really met him.

(The fact that he actually had met him now was one of those surreal things Axel tried not to think about too hard.)

Tsunade had gone quiet and thoughtful at his reply. "He's trying," she echoed, before giving him a look he really didn't know how to interpret.

Before he could reply, however, a tremor through the concrete at his back had his focus immediately shift to the opening wall.

Orochimaru stood in the newly made doorway—if it could be called such without any real door—and considered all three of them for an inscrutable moment. Though his arms were relaxed at his sides, there was an undefinable tension in the air.

Well, Axel couldn't define it. From the almost resigned sigh he heard from Tsunade, plainly still angry but willingly setting it aside, she had a much better read of things.

"I didn't think it would fall apart like this when I left," she said, arms crossed.

At that remark, Orochimaru actually turned to face Axel, brow raised.

"They asked—of course I would tell them what I know about… everything. Even if it's not much," he found himself saying, somewhat defensively. Then he frowned, and slapped a hand to his forehead. "Why justify myself."

Tsunade snorted, amused, and added, "Yes, I got him to tell me what he knows. It's your own fault for getting him involved at all." Then her grin dropped. "That said, I still need to teach you a lesson for getting into this crap in the first place. Luckily for you, we can put that off for now—there's more important things to focus on."

There was a long pause, as if Orochimaru needed a bit of time to process that, and then he simply nodded. "Indeed."

"For one thing, what's going to happen with this guy?" She jerked a thumb back in Axel's direction and he winced a little, not exactly comfortable being the topic of discussion again.

Orochimaru regarded him, gold eyes revealing nothing. Nervously, Axel grabbed for the notebook—not to actually write or draw at the moment, but just to have something to hold tight to help ground himself.

"Generously," the ninja said, finally, and the word was positively dripping sarcasm, "Brandt will have four more days."

That's… concerning. One of the more concerning things he could have said, in fact. An inkling of panic began to curl in his gut, reaching icy fingers up his spine. Papers crinkled as his grip on the notebook tightened.

"Who's—" started Tsunade, before her eyes darted back over to him and made the connection. Her expression hardened.

Somewhat distantly, he noted that Shizune had shifted to stand in front of him, placing herself between him and the two older ninja. It might be embarrassing to need a teenager's help to stave off panic, but he had to admit that the unspoken defense was touching.

"Four days," Axel repeated aloud, voice steady but only because it came out too quiet to crack. "Until what?"

He almost didn't want to ask. The immediate and obvious assumption was that he had just been given his execution date—autopsy or dissection, given the context. An optimistic voice in the back of his head murmured that he would not be killed, not so soon. He hadn't been dismantled yet, after all, so there had to be something other than his biology that had caught Orochimaru's interest.

(If there wasn't, he probably wouldn't still be alive.)

And while that was alarming in its own way, it meant he'd been kept largely intact.

Hopefully he would remain that way.

Oddly, despite the fact that his expression hardly changed, for some reason Orochimaru looked nonplussed. "It would seem you have made skilled friends during your time here in Konoha," he said, sounding weirdly congratulatory. "Namikaze has managed to arrange for your release."

The words were slow to process.

For one thing, who was— Wait, did he meant Minato? Somehow, Minato had managed to learn what had happened and had been able to arrange to get him out.

What? How?

Tsunade slapped a hand to her forehead. "You— Then why didn't you lead with that, Orochimaru? Honestly, you and your dramatics are more trouble than its worth."

Axel was kind of in a daze, still not sure he'd understood correctly. He'd resigned himself to the present situation, given there was nothing he could do about being trapped in a concrete box.

(Axel had expected to die here, thoughts whispering that he was a year overdue anyway.)

But perhaps, somehow… he would survive this.

Maybe there would still be something for him; it wouldn't have to end in a gray cell.

The next few days—presumably, time was still mutable and hard to track—passed in a blur. Where before he had spent long periods of time alone with his thoughts, now the new deadline seemed to have brought on a surge of activities. There were a lot of discussions taking place, some including him and many more that he couldn't follow that simply happened in his vicinity.

It also seemed like Orochimaru was dead-set on insuring he would have sufficient materials going forward. He collected a few more locks of hair, for some reason Axel could only guess at—and to be honest, he didn't really want to think about it too much. And the mad-scientist took a lot more blood: too much, probably, given how dizzy and lethargic Axel felt. Thankfully Tsunade put her foot down and made sure her teammate noticed he should stop.

This was all as unsettling as ever, but, as he had decided early on in this situation, at least loosing blood wasn't quite as permanent as chopping off body parts in the name of biological research. It may not be much of a silver lining, but it's still something.

Between everything else, though, it was a lot of waiting.

Axel would have been counting down the days or the hours if he had any real way of measuring time, but as-is he just did his best to guess from meals and interactions with the various ninja. Though he doubted that was very accurate, knowing how his own routines tended to get totally upended by flurries of work.

Another day left, maybe? A few hours?

His head thunked back against the concrete and he winced slightly; he hadn't thought the wall was that close. Slumping down into an atrocious half-sitting-half-lying posture, he just took a second to breathe. Things were feeling a bit floaty again, after that last blood drawing.

He should have gotten a packet of cookies and a juice box, his brain blearily supplied; the mental image of Orochimaru handing over snacks made him chuckle.

Then—

A pneumatic hiss.

A shift in the air.

It took a second to process what that meant.

Axel couldn't see anything different, but there was a chill weight when he breathed in: a knockout gas. Or at least, he really hoped it was a knockout gas. Whatever the case, the jolt of adrenaline at the thought had him scrambling for the thin blanket on his cot to hold it over his nose.

He wasn't sure why he bothered, it probably didn't help at all.

A wave of dizziness made him nearly tip over despite the fact that he had been sitting still, and he decided it'd probably be best to just lay down. Safer, at least: better than collapsing and potentially injuring himself. Which would be a concern in the case that this isn't a deadly poison and he's just going to pass out.

(Please.)

There was nothing he could do, either way.

Nothing.

He dropped flat on his back on the cot with the sheet still uselessly pressed over his nose and mouth, just staring up at the plain ceiling.

(Nichts.)

He was starting to feel rather disconnected from himself, even with his heartbeat thundering in his ears. Everything was blurring into an indistinct mess of gray. His eyes blinked shut and then open again, as if in slow motion.

Blink, shut, open.

This is a lot worse than being hit by a truck, he thought to himself, somewhat nonsensically. Painless, but it's so slow. Waiting.

Blink, shut. Open.

Axel pulled the thin sheet away from his face. It didn't help anyway, and he didn't want to accidentally suffocate himself.

(Helpless.)

Blink, shut.

Darkness.

=X=X=X=

Axel woke slowly, blearily wondering why things felt so… off. He was warm, comfortable, and by all accounts that should be considered normal when in that blissful space between being asleep and waking up.

Blinking his eyes open, squinting, Axel stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom.

His bedroom?

He pushed himself upright, still looking around his familiar room with a mixture of alarm and surprise and no small amount of shaken relief.

Four walls—undecorated and plain but not that barren gray—a window, a shelf with a few knickknacks, his desk: it wasn't quite the way he'd left it, but it was still undeniably his home. Of the three doors, only two were closed at the moment.

The door to the hallway was wide open.

He could leave.

But instead, he collapsed back onto his bed.

Axel was pretty sure he might be in shock right now, all the stress of the past few days suddenly jumping him now that he had a safe-ish space to process. Because he was back home, back in his bedroom above his shop, and he was alive.

And honestly, despite having just woken up, he was so tired.

Author's Note:

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Freedom!

Originally there was going to be a big breakout sequence to free Axel, but then Minato was just "Hm, I should inform the Hokage, I'll take things into my own hands if he can't correct this" like some kind of sensible person.
That said, the whole Root situation is still very much a fluster cluck that will need to be sorted out at some point. I have concepts, but I am nonetheless curious: what do you think?

Next chapter will be Under the Veil in May, and then back here for June. The optimist in me says that maybe I'll be able to post more once we're into the summer, but we'll have to wait and see!
(I'm a math teacher, and while I still help with summer school there's a lot more time).

Also, I've been experiencing incredible brain-rot (meant in the best way) for another fandom—if you've seen my tumblr lately, you know. I promise nothing, but things have been floating out of my brain and into text documents so… yeah.
I won't let it disturb the monthly updates, but there may be a new story dropping at some point. It'd be nice to actually have something written completely before posting, and since it'd be a shorter story that may actually be doable! (You may have noticed I have a tendency to write… long.)

Anyway, that's all the news out of the way!

As always, thank you so much for all the support: every favorite, follow, and review is greatly appreciated! When I'm struggling with or nervous about a chapter, it's good to have that extra motivation.

Translations:
"(Nichts.)" = "(Nothing.)"

If you're interested, feel free to visit the Discord server to chat about whatever, canon or headcanon or fanfiction or anything else.
Here's the invite code: m3CFXnC

Stay safe out there, and I'll see ya on the flipside, everyone!