Bab 7: Chapter 7 :The Screaming Statue(2)
Naruto's mind was going through a range of different emotions, most of them not good. Looking at the pictures on the screen and in his hand, he couldn't help but see his and Gaara's faces overlapping hers, as if they were taunting him.
Of all the things he was expecting to hear, this was not one of them. A troubled young girl, that had issues but died, would have been sad but not that big a deal. A girl that had live a similar life he had, and was now trapped in a prison of her own making, how was he supposed to ignore that? He could hear all seven voices talking over each other in his head, clambering over each other to be heard, talking at the same time. His head felt like it was splitting open and the world around him seemed to be spinning, images of a mountain covered in large stone frogs flashing through his head. He could hear his own heart beating in his ears, banging the inside of his head like a drum.
Grabbing the sides of his head and gritting his teeth, he looked at the live video again, right into the stone eyes of the statue. That was when he started to heard a girl screaming. It wasn't fair; all he wanted was a normal life. Why did this have to happen now! Seeing the others looking at him with worry in their eyes, he turned his back to the video, his right hand still clutching his head and his face scrunched up in pain.
And just as soon as it started, the pain was gone, the spinning and the voices stopped, and he could once again think clearly. Letting out a breath, Naruto turned tired eyes to the worried faces of the Titans and forced a smile to form over his lips.
"I think it's time I go home."
Looking to Robin for a moment as if to be sure it was ok, Raven stepped over to the blonde and rested a hand on his shoulder and they both disappeared.
XXX
Raven had them appear inside the store; the lack of light giving it an ominous feel to it as she watched Naruto stumbled for a moment before regaining his balance and leaning against one of the shelves. After taking a few deep breaths, the blonde smiled towards the blue haired teen and let out a small chuckle.
"Well, I had a great time hanging out with you and your friends. We should do it again sometime."
"... Are you ok?"
"I'll be fine. I'm just a little tired. You should get back."
After a moment of hesitation, Raven nodded her head and left without another word, using her aura to teleport back to the tower.
Right after she left, Naruto seemed to shrink into himself slightly. He leaned back against the shelf for a moment to catch his breath, before he made his way to his underground home.
When he got there, he stopped with one hand on the door to his library where he kept the books from this world, taking a moment to think about what he was about to do and what might come from it.
One of the first things he had learned, when he had started collecting these books, was that he was unable to use magic. From what he could understand, magic and chakra just weren't compatible. This was one the reasons he had decided it was his duty to keep them locked away. He may be able to read and memorize them, but he could never use what he learned.
The thing that worried him was that if he went through with what he was thinking, it would mean he might have to explain a few things to the Titans that he really didn't want to get into. Letting his mind stray back to the live video of the girl, and the screaming in his head, Naruto steeled his nerves and smeared a little blood on the handle to open the door.
The inside of the room looked more like a high tech vault, then it did a library, with bright florescent lights, steel lined floors, walls covered in drawers, and a large box coved with more drawers, bolted down to the floor in the middle of the room. On the wall, just on the inside of the door, to his left was a security pad.
Reaching over to the keypad, careful not to step on the floor, he typed in a six digit code. He watched as the floor flashed for a moment, before bending down and wiping more blood on the ground four inches away from the doorframe. He watched as a large seal matrix came to life over the whole room with a blue glow.
Waiting until it faded, he walked into the room and closed the door behind him.
XXX
Naruto spent the next two weeks straight in that room, reading through book after book and taking notes on anything that might be relevant. Because of his healing ability, the blonde could go up to a month straight without food or water and, if needed, could get by with only an hour of sleep for every three days. It was an ability he couldn't help but associate with bad memories, because they were all things he had discovered while he lived on the streets as a kid.
He had done this because he was looking for anything he could find on Earth Elementals, as they were called in this world. He had remembered seeing several references to them in a couple of his books when he had first acquired them, before putting them into storage. He had been hoping to find a cure for the girl within his collection.
It took him two weeks, and 57 books, but he had finally found it.
From what he had read, Elementals were a race of powerful natural wizards and witches that were so in tune with nature that they were born with the ability to control one of the four elements; Wind, Fire, Water and Earth. He didn't know what happened to them all, but whatever it was they almost all died out around two thousand years ago.
From what he had learned, what had happened to Terra was not uncommon among Earth Elementals. It was some kind of last resort defense that they had, that would activate automatically when their life was in danger. Back in the times when Elemental had been more common, this wouldn't have been a problem because it was common knowledge how to release them. For Terra, however, there had been no one that knew how. Another thing he had read was that, while in that state, the Elemental was completely self aware. Meaning that she was literally trapped in her own skin, which might explain why he had heard her screaming.
Because of his training with Jiraiya and the toads, Naruto was highly tuned to nature in a similar way to how the Elementals of old had been. Not exactly the same, but enough for him to connect with her on a subconscious level.
Ever since he had heard it, Naruto hadn't been able to get the scream out of his head. No matter how hard he tried, it was constantly there. Not even his sins had been able to quiet it for him, and it had made it all the harder to concentrate on finding a way to help her.
The moment he had finished, the blonde left the room, reengaging the security system. Using a seal he had planted near Titan Tower in a blind spot of the cameras, the day Raven had taking him there, he disappeared in a bright flash.
XXX
Appearing next to Titan Tower in a flash of yellow light, Naruto walked straight to the door and banged on it loudly. In the back of his mind, he took note of the fact that it was dark out, but all things considered he really didn't care. After a few minutes of waiting, he heard a small beeping noise and looked to his right to see an image of a half asleep Robin on a video screen next to the door.
"Naruto...? Is that you? How the hell did you get here at four in the morning? Where have you been? Raven's been worried sick about you."
Taking in the blondes agitated movement as he shifted from foot to foot constantly; Robin took a moment to look at him. His clothes were all ruffled, and looked to have multiple sweat stains on them. What he could see of the blonde's hair was dirty and tangled into knots . The bags under his eyes gave him a haunted look and his skin was so pale, the bird named hero was worried he might be about to collapse on their door step.
"I need to talk to all of you. Can you let me in and gather the others?"
"What's this about?"
"I'll tell you when you're all in one place."
After seeming to think about it for a moment, Robin nodded his head.
"Ok, I'll get the others and then come get you. Wait there."
About fifteen minutes later, the door opened to show Robin standing in full gear with a small frown on his face.
"What happened to you?"
Naruto shook his head and motioned for him to lead the way. The boy-wonder gave the blonde a worried look, before turning around and leading him back through the tower to the common room. When they entered, Naruto saw all the Titans in different states of awareness, with Cyborg being the most alert, followed by Raven , Starfire and a lastly Beast Boy, who was stood in the middle of the room, eyes closed and a large snot bobble coming out of his nose.
The second they saw Naruto, all three gasped, with Raven quickly making her way over to the blonde and Cyborg hitting his green friend in the back of the head to wake him up.
When she reached him, the grey skinned teen pulled him into a hug, slightly shocking the others, before yelling at him.
"Where the hell have you been? I was worried sick about you! I went to the store and it was closed! I waited in the tea shop, but you never came! Now you show up here in the middle of the night, looking like you've been in a hole for the last two week. What the hell is going on?"
Taking a moment for his sleep deprived brain to understand everything she said, Naruto let a small, tired smile form on his lips and mentally laughed at just how close she was, saying things about him being in a hole.
"It's good to see you too, Raven-chan."
Letting out a frustrated growl, she punched the blonde lightly in the arm. She let out a shout of surprise when he fell over, lying on the floor limply.
"Naruto!"
Rushing over to look at the boy, the Titans leaned over him and saw he was staring at the roof with tired eyes. The small smile was still on his face as he chuckled lightly.
"I'm fine, just tired. Could one of you help me to the couch? I don't think I can move."
Bending down and lifting the limp Naruto over his shoulder Cyborg carried him over to the couch and set him down in the seat facing them all.
"Thank you very much. Might I just add that your shoulder is extremely hard and painful."
Sharing a worried look between each other, the Titans turned to the obviously delirious boy and took a step back so that Robin could look him in the face.
"Naruto, what are you doing here? How did you even get to the island?"
At his question, the blonde shook his head and adapted a serious expression that surprised the five teens watching because of how he had been moments before. Looking Robin in the eye, Naruto let out a sigh and ran a hand over his face.
"I need you all to understand. There are some things I can't explain to you right now, and I have good reasons why. I need you all to trust me."
After sharing yet another look between themselves, the group of teens reluctantly nodded their heads.
Smiling at them, Naruto reached into the bag he had slung over his should, that the others had only just realized he had, and pulled out a piece of paper. He held it out towards Raven. Taking the paper straight away, she quickly read what was on the paper and gasped, turning shocked eyes to the boy in front of her.
"Where did you find this?"
"I already told you. There are things I can't explain. Just know what's written on that paper is the reason I've been off the grid for the last two weeks."
Turning to look at her, Robin let a small frown cross his face.
"What's on the paper?"
Without answering, Raven wrapped the group in her aura, including Naruto. Before they knew what was going on, they found themselves outside a very familiar cave. Without stopping to explain why she brought them here, Raven walked off in the direction of Terra, leaving the others to follow. Luckily, Naruto seemed to have caught his second wind and didn't need to be carried anymore.
As they got closer, Naruto started to hear the screaming again. Only this time louder and clearer than before. He kept grabbing onto the side of his head with a small grimace of pain on his face that didn't go unnoticed by the others.
The moment they arrived at the statue, Raven sat down on the ground with her legs crossed and started to mutter under her breath too quietly for the others to here. When Robin turned to ask Naruto what was going on, he was met with the blonde giving him a hard glare and a finger brought up to his lips in a hushing motion.
Nodding his head, they all turned back to Raven just in time to see her surrounded by her aura. A moment later it, moved to spread over the Terra statue, connecting them. When the statue was completely engulfed by the dark aura, Raven started to speak louder and faster, in a language none of them except Naruto could understand. Suddenly, without warning, she opened her eyes to show that they were glowing white like fire. Not a second later, the cave was filled with smoke.
As the smoke appeared, they had heard a scream coming from the direction of the statue before it faded into silence. They held their breath and waited for the smoke to clear so they could see what had happened.
As it got thinner, two human shaped shadows could be seen coming into view, one being supported by the other, and the sound of coughing reaching their ears. Without thinking, Beast Boy ran forward before the smoke was completely gone and let out a gasp at what he saw.
Right before his eyes, with an arm slung over Raven's shoulder for support, was Terra, her light blue eyes drooping slightly in exhaustion as she sent him a small smile.
"Beast...boy..."
At that moment, she fainted, going limp in Raven's arms.
Just as the green teen got to the two girls and picked the blonde girl up into his arms and held her close to his chest, tears in his eyes, the other Titans and Naruto arrived. The other three teens eyes widened in shock and the blonde sent a tired smile to Raven.
Closing his eyes for a moment to revel in the silence that settled around the cave now that the screaming had stop, the blonde teen started to slowly back away from the group, as they gathered around the unconscious Terra.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone