Chapitre 3: Chapter 3: Dispersion 1/2
Dispersion
"Master Bruce, a situation has arisen." Intoned the voice respectfully from the speaker.
Batman flipped a switch on the Batmobile's dashboard. "What is it, Alfred?"
There was a slight pause. "The computer has picked up… 'dimensional rifts,' it says, worldwide."
"What dimension?"
"The code is 1739, sir."
Batman's eyes narrowed to slits. "I see. That should have been sent to the League automatically, but inform them just in case. Now where is the rift?"
"Sir…" Another pause. "There are several."
"Several?" Batman paused. "Very well. Where is the one closest to my current location?"
"At Whituckney Ave, 8743." The voice replied. "Over on the other side of town. Sir, perhaps you ought to…"
"Forget it Alfred." Batman flicked the switch off. "Batman out."
It was the pain that awoke Ino.
The last thing she remembered was the sudden realization that there was someone behind her, moments before everything went black. The next thing she knew, she was being awoken by the pain. It felt unbearable, as if every part of her body were being twisted, shrunk, and re-expanded. Light was exploding in her mind, stars and shapes of every size and color, like a kaleidoscope of burning pain.
Just as suddenly as the pain had appeared, it disintegrated, and all Ino could feel was the cold wind blowing against her face. Her body felt curiously light, and she could feel nothing with her hands and arms.
Groaning, she cracked her eyes open and stared into the blinding wind. She could see a great many lights ahead of them, and they were swiftly coming closer. In fact, they were coming so fast…
"Whoah." Ino's eyes widened as she realized two things. One, those lights were the tops of buildings. Two, she was falling. Towards them.
Now, it was possible—even likely—that this was a dream, and that she would wake up just before she hit the ground. But on the off chance that it wasn't, she was utterly screwed. Even in the time it took her to think this, the buildings were already screaming past (dimly she noted that they were very odd buildings), and her mind was already identifying the thing coming closer as stone (perhaps concrete?).
This didn't feel like a dream.
There was a nasty taste in his mouth—blood, he realized—and there were definitely some odd smells around—smoke, mostly. But what bothered Kiba most were the bizarre sounds. Rumblings and squealing, and some sort of blaring noise that he couldn't identify. And every so often there would be these high-pitched whining noises that would fade in and out of his listening range. It bothered him, because at the moment all he could see were stars, and his body wasn't really responding.
Slowly feeling came back into him, and he groaned. Loudly. He was suddenly aware of thousands of burning cuts in his arms, legs, hands, feet, and head. That silver-haired psycho certainly hadn't left much untouched.
It hurt to move his arm, but he slowly maneuvered it into his pouch and found his pills. Then he crawled his hand back to his mouth and popped one in.
The effects took a few moments, but gradually he felt his energy returning. His body still hurt like anything, of course, and he was bleeding all over, but at least he could move. Akamaru was probably…
"Akamaru!" Kiba jolted up, a little faster than he should have, and hissed in pain. "Akamaru!" He called again, looking around frantically.
He didn't see Akamaru anywhere. What he DID see was a narrow, dark alleyway, and a few trashcans that he had apparently crashed into and knocked over. A few bright glowing light just outside of the alleyway made it impossible for him to see further.
Kiba pushed himself up, bracing against the wall for support, and began to limp forward. Last thing he knew, he and the others had been fighting Sasuke in the forest. How had he gotten here? More importantly, where on earth was "here?" Still more importantly, where were the others?
Most importantly, where was Akamaru?
"Akamaru!" Kiba called again, weakly now, as he stumbled out of the alleyway into the glaring light. Shielding his eyes, he looked up and gasped.
He stood upon a long avenue of black unbroken stone, with lights piercing the darkness at regular intervals. With a roaring sound, a strange beast of metal rushed past him, leaving an odd scent of smoke behind and letting out one of the odd blaring noises Kiba had heard earlier. On either side and in front of him rose towering columns of smooth steel and glass. They were tall, far taller than anything he had ever seen. Little lights blinked on their edges, and above them he could see stars twinkling in the sky. But they looked… different.
Kiba hissed suddenly as he realized what was wrong. They were the wrong stars!
As a survivalist, Kiba knew how to identify the constellations and from there, how to work out his general position. But these stars… Kiba couldn't read these at all. There were no constellations. No Rikudo the Great Hunter, no Great Inu, nothing at all! Rinhabi and his brilliant sword were nowhere to be seen! He could not even find the brilliant Juubi's Eye. No, these stars were altogether different. And they looked darker, less clear than the ones back home.
Kiba swore quietly. He had no idea where he was, or where the others were, or where Akamaru was.
Hearing a step in the street, Kiba turned to see who it was, and froze as three huge men emerged from the shadows.
The explosion was the first bad sign Larry had. Then again, it had been what woke him up, so perhaps there had been others, but that was the first one he noticed.
Larry had been on his guard post, catching a quick forty winks, when the enormous explosion knocked him out of his chair and landed him on the floor. Shortly afterward, three guards ran past him, screaming. That was the second bad sign.
The third, oddly enough, was the twenty-something security guards that came running back from the other direction, armed with their intensity lasers. If Larry'd been thinking, he would've hidden under his desk until it was all over, but unfortunately the captain caught sight of him and yelled, "Come on, you! Get your ass down there!"
So Larry had broken his own intensity laser out of the locker and stormed down there with the others.
Then he'd heard the roar. That'd been the fourth bad sign.
Larry wasn't exactly certain what all the bad signs added up to. After all, he didn't usually deal with odd-looking teenagers covered in glowing red energy who could rip through an entire platoon in thirty seconds.
Well… maybe he had. Kid Flash, at that job three weeks ago. But that kid hadn't actually ripped people apart, like this guy was doing. And he hadn't had any glowing red tails sprouting from his back either.
That was about as far as Larry's thought process went before the teenager in question suddenly materialized in front of him and knocked him back forty feet into the wall.
As Larry began to pass out, he was dimly aware of the approaching stomp of many feet. "Get it! Stop him!" He heard, and then all was blackness.
Sakura woke up fairly quickly. Her sensei's technique had kicked in shortly after she had passed out, and already it had regenerated most of her damaged cells. A large rip running across the front of her dress and a diminishing scar beneath it were the only souvenirs of the life-threatening gash that had been there when she'd gone unconscious.
Still, Sakura was surprised to find herself alive. She'd gone into that battle fully determined to kill Sasuke, and fully hoping to die in the process. It had almost worked, too. Sasuke had underestimated her—thought her to be the same weepy child when he'd left—and she'd managed to land quite a few blows before he'd managed to recover.
Of course, once he did recover and started taking her seriously, it'd been all over. Kakashi had saved her momentarily when he'd leapt in and started throwing kunai all over the place, but once Sasuke'd sent him flying with that Susanoo thing, she'd known it was over. He'd broken through all her defenses and sliced her open before she'd even managed to land another solid blow.
Sasuke…
A lone tear traced its way down her cheek. Silly, really. She'd known, even going into that battle, that Sasuke would attack her. She'd expected him to. Almost wanted him to. But the coldness and effectiveness with which he'd done it…
Not a hint of hesitation. Not a hint of regret. She'd looked into those eyes and seen nothing but darkness.
A groan to her left suddenly brought her back to the world. A badly wounded Neji was lying next to her, along with a surprisingly thin Chouji. Just to her left, she caught a glimpse of a green-clad arm sticking out of a pile of trash at an odd angle.
Eyes widening, Sakura quickly set to work. She dug Lee out of the trash and assessed his condition. Lee had opened up six of the eight celestial gates, she remembered that. But had he opened any more?
From the looks of it, no. His body had taken a substantial beating, and there were quite a few burns and slices on him, but he was still alive. For the moment, she stopped all the bleeding and stabilized his condition, then moved on.
A quick diagnosis of Chouji made her gasp. His body was rapidly deteriorating. Quickly she fumbled in his pouch and brought up his pill container—empty. He must have taken the last shortly after she went down, she'd told him strictly not to use the red.
Fortunately, Tsunade had dealt with these pills before, and the Akimichi now had an antidote to counteract the effects. Sakura dug around in his pouch some more and brought out a syringe. Unbuckling Chouji's armor, she stabbed the needle down into his heart. Chouji cried out and thrashed a little.
"Wha… What are you doing?"
Sakura glanced over to meet Neji's troubled gaze. Obviously unable to move his head, the most he could do was stare up at her.
"Chouji took the red pill." She replied evenly. "This antidote should stop the degeneration." She turned to him. "Let's get a look at you."
Neji was easily the least wounded of the three. Hardly surprising, given his fighting style. The Gentle Fist relied more on subtle jabs than on hard, straightforward attacks, and was largely a defensive school of combat. Still, his left arm was completely broken, and more than a few ribs on his left side were cracked.
"That big fellow with the orange hair…" He muttered as her hands lit with green fire. "I was heading toward Sasuke and I was focusing for an attack, I wasn't watching him. Stupid mistake…"
"Don't worry about it." Sakura whispered. "Just stay still for now."
"Ugh." Neji turned up his head. "Where are we, anyway?"
Sakura shook her head. "I have no idea. Turn on your Byakugan and see if you can find the others. And watch our perimeter." She cast an anxious look around. "I don't like this place."
Ino was just deciding that this probably wasn't a dream when there was a blue blur just to her left, and suddenly there was a man, falling right next to her. Smiling, he babbled something and grabbed hold of her.
How bizarre. A man, spouting gibberish, who appeared out of nowhere and now was falling alongside her. There didn't seem to be anything supporting him. He was wearing a tight blue suit similar to Lee's training outfit. And he was had a… cape? Was that a cape?
Perhaps this was a dream.
Suddenly Ino realized they weren't falling anymore. In fact, ever since the man had grabbed hold of her, they had been slightly slowing down and were even now drifting gracefully to the pavement. She now also noticed that the man was holding Sai in his left hand and Shino in his right while supporting her in the middle.
Gently he lowered them to the street. Ino was dimly aware of people gathering around and murmuring, pointing at the man. The world was growing dark, though, and as the ground rose up to meet her she faded back into oblivion.
"Anyone yet?"
"No." Neji responded. He was standing up now and looked to be fully recovered.
"Found any of the others?" Sakura asked, pumping chakra into a now-conscious Lee. Beside her, Chouji had pulled out a bag of chips (from where, she couldn't imagine) and begun eating.
"No."
"Try a wider range then." Sakura frowned. "I don't understand why the others wouldn't be nearby. You're sure they're not anywhere near?"
"I'm sure." Neji responded, a trifle annoyed. "Believe me, I wouldn't be able to miss them in this world."
"How so?" Sakura turned her head to look at him.
Neji snorted. "Sakura, I can identify nearly two hundred people within fifty feet of us, most of them asleep. None of them have any chakra."
"What?" Sakura stopped for a moment. Chouji looked up in surprise. Lee's eyes widened and he let just the tiniest "oooooh!"
"Precisely. No chakra coils at all," nodded Neji. "Either the entire population of this city can disguise their chakra flawlessly, or they cannot use it. If our friends were anywhere nearby, I would be able to seek them out simply by the color of their chakra."
"Neji-san! Are you saying that no one here can use chakra?" Lee's face had suddenly brightened.
"That does seem to be the case, yes."
"Ooooh!" Lee's eyes shone with manly tears. "How glorious! An entire city of people exploding with the springtime of youth! I must meet with the inhabitants so I may spread my youthful enthusiasm! Yosh!"
"Lee!" All three hissed at him. "Quiet!"
Lee quieted down immediately. "Sorry." He whispered. Stealth and silence had never been strong points with him.
"All done with you. Take it easy for a bit, though." Sakura's hands stopped glowing and she stepped away from Lee.
Lee nodded eagerly and promptly began to strap his weights back on. Apparently, for him, 'taking it easy' did not include leaving his enormous weights off.
Rolling her eyes, Sakura turned to Neji. "You said we're in a city. Do you recognize it?"
There was a slight hesitation. "No." He said finally. "As a matter of fact, I cannot recall seeing anything like it before. If I had to guess…" he stopped suddenly.
"What? What is it?" Chouji glanced over.
"There is a man approaching us." Neji answered, quickly and calmly. "He has no chakra, but he is moving at a disquieting rate of speed toward our exact position."
"Crap." Sakura grunted, pushing herself to her feet. "How'd he know where we were?"
"I don't know."
"Too late to do anything about it now anyway," shrugged Sakura, feeling around in her pouch. "And I'm out of soldier pills. He all alone?"
"For the moment." Neji nodded. "Still…"
"Where there's one, there's bound to be more," agreed Sakura. "Probably a ways behind, if you can't see them yet, but they've got to be coming. This one is likely just a scout. We'd better get lost."
Neji eyed Sakura. "There's only one of him and four of us. And he has no chakra."
Sakura snorted as she hauled Lee to his feet. "With what we've been through, most of us might as WELL have no chakra. I'm about drained myself, Lee's still recovering from the six gates he opened, and Chouji…" Sakura paused as she pulled Chouji upright. "…well, look at him."
"I hate being thin." Chouji studied his flat stomach despondently.
Sakura gave a little smile before turning to face Neji. "We don't have the resources to take this guy out, at least not before the others get here. The best we can hope for is to lose them in the city.
Neji looked about to say something, but stopped and tensed suddenly. "Too late. He's here." He announced, pointing toward the roof.
As if on cue, a dark figure swept down from the overhanging darkness and landed directly in front of them. "Not bad." A gravelly voice remarked in perfect Japanese.
"Leave us alone." Sakura gritted out. "Who are you, anyway?"
The man's gaze turned onto Sakura. "I'm Batman."
"Nani? Nani o hanashiteiru? {What? What did you say?}" Kiba asked, backing up a step.
One of the men nudged the other. "Dumb kid don't even speak English."
Glancing from one to the other, Kiba stumbled back another step. They were uttering strange sounds and pointing at him. The only weapon he could see was a knife, but if they were threatening him, a clearly-marked shinobi of the Leaf, they could hardly be mere mercenaries. And Kiba was not really feeling up to a full battle, especially without Akamaru.
"You from the Yamato clan, punk? You edgin' in on our territory?"
Yamato? As in, the Mokuton guy? They knew him?
"Hey, he understood that alright." One of the men snickered. "Man, Yamato's gotta be pretty dumb to start hiring punks like this kid."
"No kidding." Grunted the other. "Can't even stand up straight."
"Shut up." The one in the front ordered them. "Okay kid." He said. "We got a message for your bosses, but we ain't got no paper, so we're just gonna cut it into your face, okay?"
"Wakaranai.{I don't understand}" Kiba shook his head. "Wakaranai. Nani o hanashiteiru?"
"Let's just get on with it." Grunted one, and dashed forward.
Kiba had no choice. He leapt at the man and attacked.
To his utter astonishment, the man used no jutsus whatsoever, and did not even appear to be good at taijutsu. He simply gaped at Kiba as he flew over his head and was completely unprepared for the roundhouse kick that hit him in the face.
"Ah, man, a Karate kid." Groaned the head man. "I hate the karate kids."
"Does it matter?" Returned the other, drawing a pipe from his coat. "They bleed like everybody else." They rushed at the teenager.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone