"..." Normal chat.
ABC. Thought.
Chapter 2
"No.9...?"
My heart skipped a beat the moment he mentions that name, which I have left fallen into the void for a long time ago, together with the memories from that place.
"Who are you people? What do you want from us?"
Seeing the blonde haired man wearing black sunglasses approaches, I reach for the twins daggers hanging on my hips.
There must be at least ten of them here. While the rest are hiding somewhere nearby.
Of course they would wait for Ryu to leave the village to initiate the attack. Without him, we're already at our big disadvantage. And now these people are completely outnumbered us, with high-tech weapons no less.
"Nina, just go! I'll be fine!"
Despite Momiji's callings for me to escape, I charge forward with daggers in hands. Hoping to at least knock down some of them and free her from their grips, so that we can leave this place together.
"Don't let her escape!"
That man in golden hair aims his weapon and shoot an giant orb, which core sparks out some kind of deep blue-colored electric energy, at me. And I dodge it in time but that thing, it follows me wherever I go.
Figured that one isn't enough to hold me down, he begins sending more of those energy balls toward me. And they're not slowing down but also getting faster in seconds.
Eventually they catch up to my pace and I have to endure the impact. From all of them at once.
"Nina!"
Momiji tries to get out of the enemy's grip to save her, but these guys refuse to move.
"Don't worry. We're not here to kill her."
That man picks the unconscious Nina up onto his shoulder. After a short moment confirming to someone through the phone, he walks up to the helicopter's ladder, which is now approaching closer to their spot from the sky.
After successfully capturing the target, the helicopter flies away. Leaving his subordinates behind to deal with Momiji's outrage.
After for god knows how long, I'm awoken by the sound of crashing metals going around me. Doesn't have enough strength to get up by myself, I keep laying on the spot and pretend to be asleep.
"Back to where she belongs..."
Soon those loud noises are replaced with people's voices. But they're too far away so best I can hear are some broken words or sentences here and there.
"...My greatest creation!"
Though I recognize that cunning voice. Despite haven't heard of it for a long time.
"Where is she?! What did you do to her?!"
Then, another voice appears and I know that it's Ryu.
Wait! Ryu nii-sama is here?!
That's when I jolt up from my day-dreaming and realize that I am now locked inside something that looks like a small, transparent room. Floating in the middle of the air inside a huge high-tech facility.
Apart from these strange looking machines and large tubes full of colorful liquid from the past, I recognize nothing more about this place.
On the glass floor I see a pool of blood and body parts of something that is much bigger than a human being. Kneeling in the middle of the room is an injured Ryu with a sword in his hand.
While standing in front of him is an average looking Japanese man, seems to be in his 40s. Wearing lab coat and grey pants. Short brown hair and eyes, Having glasses and a golden ring on his left hand, at the thumb.
For some reasons, his voice is the only thing I can recall of.
"Years ago you destroyed my lab and took her away from me. I only came to retrieve what was originally mine."
That man's pointing a strange looking gun at him while speaking of the past.
Destroyed his lab? No wonder we were being hunted down by those weird looking bots.
But why? And more importantly, why didn't Ryu tell me anything about it?
Still, this is not the time to question Ryu's motives. I have to get out of here and help him escape so that we can talk about it later.
Strange. How can this thing stay afloat?
When searching around the room, I see no door, no window, nothing looks suspicious but a small bed and an empty desk. There are some small holes at the top for air supply but that's it.
"Ryu nii-sama. I'm up here!"
As an attempt to alert Ryu, I start banging my hands against the transparent wall and calling out for him. And it's not until the floating room shakes horribly and about to lose its balance that Ryu pinpoints where I am.
"So she's awake, huh? Much sooner than I thought."
The moment that man shifts his attention away.
Ryu kicks the gun off his hand and launches at him. Successfully stealing a remote hidden inside his pocket and clicks the button. The four walls floating on the air start falling apart and I land onto the ground below, unharmed.
Then, Ryu releases the man and dashes to where I am to get me out of here.
"Oh no, you don't!"
The man in lab coat approaches one of the machine nearby and start typing on them. Releasing an army of white armored robot which are around human size, two metallic hands that sharped like swords and legs, no face or neck but a huge red eyes in the middle of its round head.
It's those bots from before!
They look similar to the ones that chased after us back then, but much more upgraded in combat and smaller, more agile than it used to be.
Despite having destroyed anything that gets in his way. More of them keep coming and Ryu's surrounded before he can even reach to where I am.
This isn't good. I have to help him!
By sneaking behind the giant tubes and crawling my way toward to the weird-looking machine that man has used earlier.
If I remember correctly, he hit some of the buttons to activate those robots.
While looking at the large screen full of weird symbols and buttons for a clue, my eyes land on a giant red button and a level, two of which are sitting next to each other at the top of the table nearby.
Perhaps I can deactivate them with these?
Therefore I activate them both. And among the indecipherable words pop up on the screen, there are yes and no options. So I pick yes, multiple times, without thinking.
"Beep! Beep!"
Right after, the machine suffers from over voltage and shuts down. When seeing black smoke coming out of it, I back away in case of any explosion.
"Buzz! Buzz! Warning!"
Alarms starts ringing and the whole room turns red by the lights on the wall. Then, the ground beneath my feet trembles horribly.
"Get out of there! Now!"
The man in lab coat shouts to me before retreating to a place to cover himself.
"What?"
All of a sudden there's a black hole, which is tripled my size, generates on top of my head and sucks me into it. Everything happens too fast that I don't have the chance to grab onto something to save myself.
"Nina!"
Ryu rushes to help her but she's picked up into the air and vanishes.
..
...
"...Hey!"
..
How noisy, leave me alone...
..
"Hey! Are you alive?!"
Who...? That's not Momiji's or Ryu's voice...
As my vision is getting clearer, I see a boy who looks awfully familiar. Blond, spiky hair and blue eyes and three whisker markings on his cheeks.
Wait, isn't that Naruto? Am I still dreaming?
Too tired to care, I close my eyes to fall back to sleep. However, sharp pain starts to kick in and I jolt up from my spot. End up hitting someone who's sitting next to me.
"Ouch! That's hurt, ya know!"
That person falls backwards, holding his head in pain.
"Huh? You are..."
The moment looking at his face and colorful attire, I realize that he is Uzumaki Naruto, in flesh. Not something that is created by some special effects or an illusion that I usually see on one of the TV shows.
What in the world?! Is this guy real?
I try to touch Naruto's hand and much to my surprise. His skin feels warm and real. Just like any other human being.
"W-What are you doing?!"
Getting a weird feelings by the sudden contact, Naruto backs away from me.
What's going on? What is even happening?!
While I'm too stunned to speak in this situation and keep staring at his face. Until a bit of sunlight shines into my eyes that I realize, this place is no longer the strange lab but an open space area. With fresh air and stuff.
A forest? Why am I inside a forest?
From above my head, I can see white clouds and blue sky. There are sounds of birds chirping and rustling leaves. Even feeling the wind carries the scent of wild flower blowing against my skin.
"Please don't move around too much. You're badly injured."
Then, a pink-haired girl approaches to check on me. And much to my surprise, she looks exactly like Haruno Sakura.
What's with her? Do I have something on my face?
Sakura feels awkward when being stared at so intensely.
Lying before them is a girl that they've never seen before. Average body figure, age and height seem to be about same as them. She has her hair let loose down to her neck, yellow eyes and fair skin. For some reasons her face is covered in blood and dirt, dry lips with several cuts.
A shinobi pocket? Is she a shinobi as well?
She's wearing an orange kimono, which is the same color with her hair, and butterfly hairpin on the left side of her head. A shinobi's pocket on her right leg, a couple of daggers on her waist, gloves, stocking and knee-high boots.
"These wounds must have been caused by falling from high places, I'm surprised that she still make it out alive."
Then appears Kakashi, who is speaking to the other members in his group while checking my pulse and limbs.
Wait, what? Hatake Kakashi?! The soon-to-be Sixth Hokage, is checking my pulse?!
At this point I'm too shocked to speak and just sit there, following with the flow.
"What the hell? Are you saying she fell from up there?! Was she trying to kill herself or something?!"
Naruto shouts in disbelief. Pointing at the top of the hill, which is conveniently lying nearby.
"Perhaps she was being chased by someone, or something."
Kakashi frowned as he watches the deep cut and broken bones on her body mending without medical help. It seems that she is healing herself. Not at fast as Naruto but still recognizable.
"Judging from her attire, this girl must be a shinobi. And yet she has no headbands on. I wonder if she belongs to any village around here."
Not being bothered as much as the other three, Uchiha Sasuke just stands nearby watching. Throwing comments here and there.
"I.. I..."
Overwhelmed by everything, I fall back down and let darkness takes over me. Praying that it will end this madness quickly so that I can return to my reality.
"Ah! She fainted!"
Hours later inside one of Konoha's hospital rooms.
"Gasp!"
After waking up from that creepy nightmare, I find myself lying on a hospital bed. With a body full of bandages. And surrounding me from closest to farthest are Kakashi, the kid version of Naruto, Sakura (still keeping her hair long) and Sasuke.
It's team 7 again! Am I still stuck in that dream?!
Though my hopes and dreams are shattered the moment feeling Sakura's gentle touch on my shoulder.
"It's alright. Everything's fine now."
I know that she wants to comfort me, but it's too hard to stay calm right now.
"No! This is not alright. Why am I here?! I am not suppose to be here!"
As I try to get out of the bed, my body refuses to move. How can I be resting in one place when Ryu is still out there, waiting for my return.
"What do you mean you're not suppose to be here? What happened to you?"
Curious about my sudden outburst, Kakashi approaches my bed to ask me a few questions.
It must be that black hole's fault! It brought me into this place!
Having recalled to what happened at the lab, I figure out the culprit who has brought me into this bizarre place.
"Well, I-Uh..."
Hold on. If I tell them everything. Will they think that I'm insane? Not to mention that I have nothing in my hands to prove that what I say is real.
"It's... too hard to explain. And I don't remember the details."
In the end, I give into fate. Since everything's too much for my tiny brain to handle.
"Anyway, my name is Haruno Sakura, and this is Uzumaki Naruto."
Then Saskura starts introducing herself and the spiky yellow-haired boy standing next to her.
"Hatake Kakashi. I'm their teacher."
Kakashi states and points his thumbs at the grumpy black-haired guy standing at the corner of the room.
"Over there is Uchiha Sasuke."
The very one that hasn't spared a glance at me and keeps staring at scenery outside the window ever since the beginning.
"Nina. Twelve years old."
Therefore I introduce myself to them.
"Just Nina? No surname or whatever?"
Naruto's head tilts at my short name and I nod.
"And where are you from? Your parents?"
Then Kakashi takes his turn to ask.
"Somewhere far away. And I don't know anything about my parents."
And I answer what I thought was best.
My parents, huh? It's the first time someone questions me about them. Though I recalled nothing about my life before waking up as No.9 and following Ryu into his village.
Hold on. How come no one mentioned of my parents? Did they not care or were they hiding something from me?
"Is there anyone from your place we can contact with?"
Kakashi's question pulls me back to reality and I shake my head in response.
Actually, there are but I doubt that any of you will be able to reach to them.
At least not with the technology from this period, where Team 7 is a bunch of kids struggling with B rank missions and the Third Hokage is probably still alive.
"Is there anybody who survived?"
After spending a short moment thinking, Kakashi asks me again.
Survived? Did he think that my village was attacked by bandits?
And somehow I was the only one who managed to get out alive. Judging from both of my messy mental and physical states, blood-stained clothes and mysterious background.
What should I say? If he knows that I lie to him, I'm busted.
And regardless of my answers, Kakashi's going to run a background check on me in secret anyway. At least to make sure that I'm not a spy or bear any intention to harm Konoha.
Since nobody knows who I am or where I'm from. It's not truly a lie to say that I have no relatives here.
Therefore I shake my head again and he sighs.
Perhaps it would be best to play along with Kakashi's temporary theory as much as I can. Saving myself a long way from having to explain about crazy stuff like coming from another world.
"Poor girl..."
Both Sakura and Naruto show their sympathy after learning about my miserable situation.
"Do you remember who raided your village? Like their faces or anything special about them?"
Then, Naruto asks me for more info of those attackers.
"Sorry. I don't have any memories about them."
After hearing my answer, he sighs again.
"What are we going to do with her?"
Suddenly Sasuke speaks up, gaining our attention almost instantly.
"First thing first, we need to wait for her to completely recovered."
Kakashi suggests everyone to go home to rest since it's almost night.
"Then we will bring her to Sandaime and let him decide from there."
The next day at the Hokage's office.
As I've expected, the Third Hokage is alive and well. Sitting behind the table full of documents with a cigarette in his mouth.
After having explained everything to him, including the not so informative data about my identity that Kakashi learnt behind my back in the same day he found me and so on. Hiruzen smokes his cigarette for a several times before speaking to the team 7's leader.
"Since you're the one who has found her..."
Somehow I have a bad feeling about this. Kakashi gulps in silent, waiting patiently for the old man's instruction.
"... I'll leave her in your care, Kakashi."
And Hiruzen smiles leaves the whole team in shock.
"But first, We have a test for you."
Not waiting for any complain or objection, the old man turns to me.
"Eh?!"
I'm only here for no more than a day and you've already decided to test me?! Are you for real?!