This chapter contains trigger content for self-harm
Falling Ridge is a mountainous town located five kilometres north east of Konoha. It is predominantly a transient locality inhabited by tourists, temporary workers and a handful of long term residents. And for the very first time, the Annual General Meeting between the lords of six neighbouring countries will convene within the surrounds of this quaint town.
Her group is first to arrive. Tasked with the initial set up, the vast majority of the day composed of security measures in preparation for the first guests.
By ten past midnight, the adrenaline wanes to an ember of willpower that barely sustains her stamina.
"How is it that I am always stuck with incompetent people?" Izumi sighs.
She stares lifelessly at the blank ceiling of her inn room.
No sounds.
The town may be picturesque, but the silence is loud. She is used to the hustle and bustle of Konoha's lifestyle. It is what keeps her mind sane and her motivation tenacious. Perhaps the tranquility of this place has its own essence of abnormality? Regardless, her conscious is too preoccupied with the frustrations of today's work to fully notice.
I really must be tired.
Clack.
She mumbles something.
Clack.
Her eyes are dazed.
CLACK.
And Izumi is fully awake.
"What was that? Who's there?"
She lets out a pitched yelp.
Nothing amiss. Externally that is.
The discomfort is minute. A brief twitch of a muscle and a tinge of heat. Then, it heightens. The familiar unease - a repulsive sensation akin to burning flesh. She senses the nausea, the distortion and the rapid withdrawal of her conscious.
It's her again.
What are the possibilities? She recalls the spore extraction and profusely memorised the chakra feats that would anchor her to this world. Yet her physical can barely hold to the spinning commotion that tugs viciously at her internal.
For several minutes, the distortion halts, then it migrates to the tip of her head and encases it whole. The pain is excruciating.
Without thought, she staggers across the room and plummets heavily to the ground.
"Argh!"
No! She's pulling me back to that world.
Conscious as she may be of the physical agony, her body shifts itself to the walls. From there, it subconsciously hits itself against the cold wooden timbers. Five times. Ten times. Twenty times. Harder - until her arm is bruised and swollen and the pain finally detracts itself from her head.
Pain against pain. Her body is on autopilot as a countermeasure against torture tactics. She never thought she would use it against herself.
The affliction may have ceased but her reality is deformed.
She did not make it on time.
The intrusive sensation returns and her world is suspended somewhere in the infinite darkness. No sounds. No movement. No time. An empty black hole devoid of anything organic. This is the limbo world that sits between the connecting parallel worlds. Her conscious has transmigrated as a manifestation of her own chakra.
For quite sometime, her reality is here. The familiarity of this space is nothing more than a repulsive sensation that raises uncertainty about her existence. To what world does she truly belong if there are so many of her that can cross between universes? Doubtful and inquisitive as she may be, her memories of this place will never follow her. It will remain here until she returns to this vast emptiness again.
"…wanted to make sure."
A voice.
The outside world.
Greenery.
"Then why, why are you here?"
An argument perhaps?
Itachi. She hears the fluctuating vibrations in his tone and the saturating aura of his anger.
And then his towering presence before her.
She shakes her head. The action is automatic, yet she feels the proximity of another internally. It is her. The older Izumi, syncing as one with her fourteen year old counterpart of another world.
"You merge with your existence if you attempt to enter another world."
She hears the echos of Shisui's words.
But neither Izumis are from this world. Itachi had killed the Izumi of this world. That could only mean one thing - whichever alternate Izumi enters this world first will the be the dominant one. And this older Izumi had been here for quite some time.
"I…just…I couldn't…"
Her response is barely a whisper.
The embroiled emotions, the chaotic hesitancy - she feels it all. And the memories of that night before her presence departed from this world. They come awash with antagonising confusion.
Itachi was unwell. She tended to his ailment in that darkened cabin. Their close proximity that bordered intimacy. And the presence of something else she cannot recall. She remembers her reluctance to leave and the humiliation she felt as her mind returned to its rightful body in the hospital. She had always wondered what had happened thereafter. The answer returns in blurs of a thousand images and feelings, and the longer her soul remains merged with this older Izumi, the clearer the memories.
"Izumi, do you know what we went through to get you back home?"
She flinches at the words.
"I couldn't leave knowing your condition."
Her composure holds but her voice trembles between words.
"Why…are you like this?"
Itachi's question bears no underlying understanding of Izumi's actions. He is genuinely confused at the contradictions in her behaviour.
"We talked about this," he continues quietly, "you cannot stay here. Your chakra cannot sustain being in another world for this long," he briefly pauses, "not without pulling chakra from the other worlds."
At his words, her body falters uncomfortably.
Itachi steps close and gazes vacantly at her.
"You've been doing it again, haven't you?"
Given the seriousness of his tone, she is surprised at how patient he is at her ruminative silence. When she finally speaks, her response does not repudiate his suspicions.
"There is nothing left in my world. If you had the chance to change fate, would you not take the opportunity?"
"This is not about fate," he answers coldly, "the trajectory of this world is vastly different to that of your world, and the world of the Izumi you keep extracting chakra from."
She flinches again. His statement blends uncomfortably with the veracity of the matter.
"Her world is following a similar trajectory as your world now. Did you know, Itachi? I can see and feel her memories as she merges with me. Even though I cannot assimilate the memories of the Izumi of this world, the events you have told me so far of your world coincides with that of the younger Izumi's world."
Internally, within a separated space, Izumi is well aware of the older Izumi's reference to the world she came from. As the two Izumi's merge - one of fourteen and one of twenty one - they see the other's memories, both from their worlds. And it is this moment, Izumi of fourteen is able to grasp the dire situation of older Izumi's world. War. Death. Genocide. Destruction. They blur like a billion amalgamated photographs. And feelings she never knew she had, troubled and viciously turbulent, emerge to silent the doubts she had of older Izumi's predicament.
What kind of world did you come from?
Yet to the man before her, those horror-stricken images that are concurrent with the agonising despondency, does not translate into words that would warrant his understanding of older Izumi's reluctance to leave.
"Would you really be changing fate by vandalising yourself from the other worlds? Sabotaging the other worlds would inevitably destroy our existence in the other worlds. Is that what you truly want?"
He steps from her and averts to the horizon.
"Itachi, there is more to it than what we know. How these universes operate and how they impact each other. I cannot guarantee that my actions would not destroy our existence of the other world, but I am here to find a solution to the plague of my world. I cannot leave without knowing. And I also cannot…" she hesitates and falters her remaining sentence, "…I cannot leave knowing of your condition. I lost you once, I cannot lose you again-"
"I'm sorry Izumi."
Itachi's firm interjection provides a rare glimpse into the disintegrating aspect of his composure.
But this time, Izumi does not allow his refute to transpire.
"No you are not!" She cries, "whether it is my world, your world or the other Izumi's world, you are always like this! Why can't you see that there are people who care about you too? Are you punishing me because it is easier for you?"
"I'd rather send you back to your world than watch you disappear from this one. Once your chakra can no longer sustain itself in this world, you will disappear. Extracting chakras from yourself in other worlds can only last you so long."
"Must it always be on your terms and your agenda?"
Without an immediate response, Itachi closes the distance between them.
"Izumi, you do not belong in this world. You will never belong here."
His tone radiates an ambience that is vastly incongruent with that of the cerulean skies. Itachi's actions, whatever they may be, can often be an unsettling force against her resilience. Yet it is his words that would always, effortlessly, destroy the core that holds the fragility of her sanity.