'Normal Speech'
'Thoughts'
'Bijuu/Summons/Gamer/Techniques'
'Bijuu/Summons/Thoughts/Techniques'
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, The Gamer, or any series for that matter. If I did the last thing I would do is write fanfiction for your amusement. I am also way too lazy to come up with new creative and funny disclaimers to post on every chapter, so I'll be copying this one and pasting it on every chapter. I've got better things to do with my time, like reading fanfiction, write fanfiction, eat, do work, work out, read fanfiction...you get the idea.
(P.S. Did you guys know I like fanfiction?)
This one is a bit earlier than usual but I hope it finds many people. Enjoy!
Chapter 18
I took a deep breath in…
And exhaled.
With my eyes opened and my mind sharp, I sent my chakra beneath the ground and spread it out. Next, I magnetized the granular mineral I had been searching for before pulling.
I felt a tug with my chakra before a glitter of gold dust erupted from the earth.
Immediately after…
My hold slipped.
The minuscule amount of gold dust crumpled to the ground and lay there while I stood above it in thought. "As I thought…it's much too difficult to control such fine particles. It's like trying to control every single grain individually. I would need a much faster processing capability in order to achieve that effect as I am now…"
With the rate that I was improving, even with clones, it would take years for me to tweak and improve upon my Sunagakure Style Magnet Release enough that it would be combat applicable. It made sense considering that it had taken the Sand village decades of trial and error to create this style and ingrain it into their DNA.
I lowered my arms with a sigh. I knew that some bloodlines had a strong biological component but I had been hoping that I would be able to create my own soon enough. As reality dictated, nothing worth having came easy and considering the fact that many villages (Konoha included) had spent many more years developing their own Bloodline limits than I had been alive, it stood to reason that I wouldn't be able to perfect it so quickly or easily.
I had an idea of what was wrong, but in order for me to "fix" the issue, I would have to induce a mutation upon my own chakra. Wasn't even sure how I would go about doing that, but I did have an idea of someone who would…
"I guess I can't avoid him forever…"
With that thought, I stood up.
I looked around the empty training ground I had been practicing in and walked away.
"Let's just get this over with."
I already knew where Orochimaru's lab was so I began my slow and dreary walk over there.
If it wasn't painfully clear, I wasn't quite keen on being near the guy. I mean, his emotions were all so weird and just a bit twisted. I could barely understand most of what he was feeling as it was all an odd jumbled mess of screwed up emotions.
"I'm just going to take my time getting there. Slow and steady wins the race…"
Any moment I could put off meeting with him (even if I desperately needed to) was welcome.
As my mind delved into those kinds of thoughts, I continued to walk towards the outskirts of the village before I arrived at the Konoha Impervious Detention Facility. There I could sense Orochimaru's chakra signature below.
After showing some ID to the guards, I made my way inside the building and walked to the stairs leading down to the Building's lower levels. With my hands against the walls, I flared my chakra a little before a tremble sounded out. The wall shifted before slowly opening up, allowing me access to the extra layer within.
After making sure everything all clear, I stepped inside with the wall closing up behind me. This area wasn't too much a secret, but only authorized personnel could access it which only included shinobi of the Village.
I walked down the long corridor before stopping in front of a steel door near the end of the tunnel. With one more sigh, I knocked.
I waited for a moment for a response before the door clicked and opened a crack. An eye looked at me through the opening in the door and asked, "Can I help you?"
I noted that the voice sounded feminine before replying, "…I'm here to see Lord Orochimaru."
The eye blinked, "Sensei?" The door was then fully opened, allowing me the full view of the person behind. It was a girl with light brown, pupil-less eyes and violet hair styled in a short, spiky, fanned-ponytail. She wore a brown-red t-shirt with bracelets, white-shorts and fishnet leggings.
The girl looked at me up and down before blinking. "What do you want with sensei? He's a little busy at the moment."
I looked at her carefully and noted something very important.
She
Was
"…cute."
She looked at me blankly for a moment before beaming. "Thanks, you too."
And here I was thinking that my charms no longer worked…
Though seeing as I spent the majority of my time around people who saw me on a daily basis, It made sense that they wouldn't be as affected. Either that or they just didn't want to give me the satisfaction…
I decided to focus on the matter at hand, "Yorudan, orphan though you can call me Yoru." I said, sticking out my hand.
"Anko Mitarashi, also orphan." She said, gripping it with a smile. "You can call me the cute and sexy Mistress Anko."
My lips twitched before the first part of what she said registered. "Orphan…"
"It seems like being cute isn't the only thing we have in common." She stated with that ever-present grin on her face.
I think I was beginning to like this girl.
Suddenly, a voice from within the room called out.
"Anko, let the boy in. I've been expecting him for some time."
Anko looked between me and Orochimaru before before fully opening the door. "Welcome in." She said as she stepped to the side.
I nodded and entered the room before taking everything in. Monitors covered the sides of the walls attached to which were tubes that connected to whatever was on the hospital beds below. Cabinets and shelves were littered with vials/beakers containing suspicious fluids while life size tubes filled with a green fluorescent fluid contained within them grotesque animals.
I gazed at the creatures intently, noting how they seemed to be a a fusion of different kinds of animals.
"Like a Chimera…"
"Do those interest you as well?"
I stopped staring at the messed up animals at the sound of Orochimaru's voice and turned around towards him, "A little, but they aren't why I'm here."
Orochimaru wore a butchers apron and a pair of long rubber gloves and had a disturbing smile on his face, "I'm quite aware. Do give me a moment." Saying so, he retreated to the corner of his lab and took off his apron and gloves before searching through piles of papers.
"Sooo, how do you two know each other?"
I turned to Anko who was looking at me in intrigue. "I gave him something and as a result, I asked him to help me."
Her eyes widened, "Ohh Wait! You're the guy who can make people regrow limbs?!" She looked at me up and down with a smile, "I thought you'd be older but you're definitely cuter than I had imagined."
I raised a brow, "What exactly did you imagine?"
"A creepy man who spends all his time studying medicine and chakra in a basement alone with corpses all around as test subjects for his cruel experiments." She said without missing a beat.
Wasn't she just basically describing…
"Here is the information you wanted." Orochimaru said from behind me as he handed me a small pile of papers.
I took them before looking at him, "Didn't the Hokage tell you not to let anyone know of my identity? I doubt she has enough clearance to know of me."
"There's no need to be so jumpy." He said with a smile as he walked around me and placed a hand on Anko's head, "This little one is with me so the old man wouldn't mind, besides, she figured it out on her own. I never told her who you were specifically, only that you exist and gave me something."
Anko grinned, "It wasn't that hard to piece together. I watch you all the time you know?"
Looking at those two, I decided not to bother.
With that, I opened the report he had written on my genetic material. With my reading speed, I quickly went through the pages of materials, my eyes rapidly shifting from left to right as I read each page.
"An interesting phenomenon I found about your genetic material." Orochimaru began. "I had been testing to see what you were made of on a Molecular level so I had retrieved some DNA samples from your blood and tried to denature their strands."
He walked over to a microscope, causing me to turn towards him, and he looked within with a smile, "Imagine my surprise when the denatured strands began to adjust to the temperature and rapidly anneal. I had tried to increase the temperature again, but, once more, your DNA quickly stitched itself right back together."
He grinned as he adjusted the scope of his microscope, "I decided that this time I would start at a much higher temperature than necessary with a fresh sample of your blood. I was wholly prepared for your DNA to be destroyed and I wasn't surprised when it had, but…"
His arms trembled with excitement, "Who would have thought that your own DNA could heal itself? This wasn't a body part or a damaged cell but your own DNA reversed the damage that had been done to itself to a. It was fascinating! Do you know what this means?"
He turned towards me, beaming brightly in glee, "If one is able to repair DNA at the cellular level, it's possible to reverse cellular abnormalities and stop not only the progression of skin cancer, but also sun damage, collagen, and elastic damage that causes wrinkles and lines. You would effectively stop aging once your body fully matures…or at least that's my conjecture."
I looked at the documents in thought. I had come across that part of his notes already and didn't quite know how to feel, but then again, I couldn't really feel much anyway.
"But that's not the most interesting thing!" Orochimaru stated. "Remember the first strand of DNA I talked about? The once that had rapidly adapted to the intense heat and had reannealed itself? Well, I wondered if that adaptations could be transferred to fresh DNA samples."
I looked back up in interest.
Orochimaru's grin furthered, "Do you know of bacterial conjugation?"
I had read a lot of Orochimaru's books on biology so I nodded my head. "Conjugation is like bacterial mating where two bacteria temporarily join in order to exchange their genetic information."
Orochimaru smiled. "Correct! Your DNA did something similar when it interacted with fresh samples of your other DNA, except it was obvious very different…I had never seen anything like it."
"Hmm…" It seemed like biological adaptations that occurred in only a single part of my body could be spread to others.
"Wait…"
Was that the reason why whenever I gained strength, my entire body gained strength proportionally? Wait did that even make sense? I mean if my body had to adapt to the strain and that adaptation could be passed on, it could makes sense of that. Did it have to be the DNA that was passing on those changes? Or did DNA only pass on adaptations about genetic alterations? Maybe my muscle cells could pass on those changes to other parts of my body proportionally…or something.
"One other thing." Orochimaru said as he moved towards one of the hospital beds and removed the sheets that were covering whatever was underneath.
I looked at it intently. It was a body so deformed that it's gender could no longer be identified. Despite this, I could see the expression of pain and terror on its warped face. "What am I looking at?"
"This one was one of the test subjects I used to see if I could splice your DNA inside of another being-"
I turned towards him with narrowed eyes, "You what?"
"Mah, mah, calm down." Orochimaru said with a grin as he pulled the covers up over the corpse, "I just wanted to see what your odd DNA would do in a completely foreign environment, but I hadn't quite expected this."
He turned towards me. "Your genetic material was very…prideful if I had to say."
At my raised brow, he continued.
"When spliced with another person's cells, it immediately tried to take over the host's body and 'convert' it for lack of a better word, almost as if it found the vessel too weak and unsuitable for its habitation. Unfortunately…" Orochimaru glanced back at the hospital bed, "This rapid and forced change was too much for the subject's body to handle and the result was…Well, I don't have to explain that."
I looked to the bed before asking, "And who was that?"
"Don't worry about that bag of flesh." Orochimaru said dismissively, "We have plenty of prisoners from the war. I won't be running out of test subject anytime soon."
"I see."
I then continued to read through the information that Orochimaru had given me before I reached near the end.
My eyes tightened.
"I see you like that bit of information I gathered?" Orochimaru said as he noticed my expression. "I figured that if I couldn't splice your DNA into another person, maybe I could add someone else's genetic information to your own."
I glanced up from the papers and looked at him.
He grinned, "Your DNA 'chewed up' the foreign material and 'spit' out the rest like they were useless scraps. Its chakra signature also slightly mutated towards that of the foreign Genetic info if your DNA found it useful." His grin then dulled slightly, "Unfortunately, this process seemed to destabilize your genetic information into something less recognizable. If it was to be done on you at this moment, your physical body might change drastically in ways I couldn't understand."
I closed my eyes in thought. "So if I wanted to obtain certain bloodlines…"
"I would advise against it for now, nevertheless…" Orochimaru took a few steps forward and stood in front of one of the incubation tubes that contained one of the grotesque looking animals. "I might be able to fix that issue in the near future."
I turned to look at the tanks as well before commenting. "…What are those? Did you try to splice my DNA with animals or something?"
The Sannin chuckled before shaking his head, "I would never use your DNA on such base creatures. No, these were actually the remains of an experiment that the 3rd Hokage had deemed forbidden many years ago."
"Then should you be telling me about it?"
He shrugged, "Consider this reparations for telling my student about you." He then placed his arms to his side and continued, "The experiment was on a jutsu called the Chimera Technique and judging from the experimental data unearthed from it in addition to the corpses of the mutated beasts, a conclusion was drawn that the technique was meant to combine separate living bodies of organisms into one combined organism bearing the original characteristics of all the organisms, and therefore creating a synthetic body, but…"
He looked at the tanks seriously, "All the data collected also pointed to the conclusion that the creator of this technique could integrate the bodies of others with his own, allowing him to obtain any special traits they possessed, such as…"
"Kekkei Genkai." I completed.
Orochimaru looked at me with a nod and continued, "Correct. Based on what I have gathered, the user would be able to absorb the bloodlines of others as well as any other physical traits and their chakra, still…" he narrowed his eyes and looked at the green fluorescent glass tanks, "The technique is not quite complete. The 'absorption' is not at all stable and could cause serious irreversible changes to the body of the individual in question. They would need to have a very unique body capable of handling these immense alterations or else they would not be able to 'digest', for lack of a better term, the absorbed bodies. If not…"
I looked at the messed up Chimera animals and nodded in understanding. "I see…the name is quite fitting."
"It is isn't it?" He stated as he chuckled to himself before continuing, "This technique and your own body's genetic makeup could complement each other like two perfectly fitting puzzle pieces." He smile then disappeared replaced with a gaze of seriousness as he gazed ahead. "Who would have thought that Hiruko would have it in him to create such a mess? I always took him for such a timid harmless child."
I paused and turned towards him questioningly, "You knew the creator of this technique?"
"Yes. You could in fact say we were quite closely acquainted." Orochimaru said with a nod. "Unfortunately, some years ago I and my teammates found out that he had been conducting experiments with this technique in secret. Such a thing could have unknown ramifications, so the Hokage has tasked us with bringing him in for questioning. Hiruko escaped, leaving his research behind which the Hokage promptly destroyed."
I looked at the tanks placidly, "Then these creatures…?"
"He resurfaced again during this war and another lab of his was found. This time the Hokage allowed me to understand what Hiruko was trying to accomplish. If this technique was used, it would be quite difficult to defeat under normal circumstances so I was tasked with finding the weaknesses in it."
My glance turned back to Orochimaru, "And after all is said and done?"
The man frowned in displeasure, "The concept is actually quite sound, even so, the way Hiruko went about it was quite flawed. Too much destabilization could occur to a normal shinobi's body if they tried to absorb the genetic information of multiple individuals. If I was to improve it, I would make it so that I force my information into someone else instead of taking theirs in. Much higher chance of success, especially if all the right conditions are prepared."
I glanced at him for a while causing him to smirk. "Don't worry, If anyone tried to take over your body, it would quite literally kill them. It would be like a parasite trying to infect the sun…It would get burned."
I turned away and looked the data about my blood, "How many copies of this do you have?"
"Only one other."
"Let's keep it that way then." I said before burning the information I had in hand with a simple application of Fire. "Don't for a moment let that other one out of your sight."
Orochimaru grinned, "I wouldn't think about it for the world. You're much too interesting to let out of my sight."
I nodded and turned around only to see Anko standing there with a lollipop in her mouth as she glanced between me and Orochimaru with a raised brow. "What? I couldn't understand most of what you guys were talking about. I just help him move bodies."
"Whatever…" I thought before heading to the door.
"If that's all you wanted, I'll be taking my leave." With that, I opened the door slightly-
"You never did tell me what your second request was?" Orochimaru's voice sounded out.
I paused and partially turned my head towards him, "Once you can figure out how to give me bloodlines without disfiguring or killing me, I'll let you know."
Orochimaru's eyes widened before his lips curled upwards, "It would be my pleasure."
With that, I turned back ahead and walked out the door.
-Yoru: Gamer-
"Now then, Now then, what to do…" I thought as I left the prison.
A couple of months had gone by since the mission at Kannabi bridge and the 3rd Great Shinobi War was basically over after the peace treaty between Konoha and Iwa had been finalized. With that, (along with the fact that Suna were our allies) there was no longer a "Great Shinobi War", howbeit, aggression between Konoha and Kumo along with some interference from Kiri still existed.
Even if there was no longer a war, that didn't mean that all the fighting in the world had magically ceased to exist. Though, because there was no longer a war, I had been going on less and less missions.
It was fine for a period of time as I had dedicated my newfound free time into training and fuuinjutsu research. Unfortunately, the first one was slow as ever while the second one was a major time sink even with clones. Having multiple clones learn the same thing at the same time did not improve the rate of learning so there was a requirement for them to dispel periodically.
That wouldn't be a problem except it was a nuisance to deal with when I wanted to leave them to do something while I focused on something. The constant influx of memories from their dispelling daily broke my concentration numerous times and was frustrating since I had to then replenish the clone only for the cycle to repeat itself.
Rant aside.
"I guess I'll contribute to the village's prosperity…"
With that decision, I made my way towards the Academy. The amount of times I had ever gone to that place could be counted on 1 hand and those were all times that I had met up with Itachi, however, located within the academy was a place called the Mission Assignment Desk.
During the war, (and because I was ANBU), my missions had been given to me directly from Danzo and/or the Hokage. They were mostly dangerous missions that required me to work with a large team of other ANBU in order to accomplish or assassination missions against high priority enemy targets.
As a result of this, I had never gone to the Mission Assignment Desk where regular shinobi went to receive their missions. Now, though, since I wasn't a part of ROOT (though I still had to take ~75% of the missions Danzo gave me), I had to go to the Mission Assignment Desk to get missions and make some cash.
"And here I am…" I thought as I looked at the Academy in front of my view and walked into the building.
"Now then, if I remember correctly I should be going this way…" What was I thinking? I had a perfect memory, of course, I remembered correctly.
With that little bit of narcissism out of the way, I walked down the halls of the building towards my destination, seeing children around the halls along the way.
That would have been fine if that was all, but, whenever I walked down the hall, the students would give me a wide berth and open a path for me like the Red Sea. It didn't help that with my hearing, I could hear their muttering.
"T-That's him…!"
"The white demon of the leaf…"
"Really? He doesn't look too tough to-"
"Shh! Are you nuts?! Remember what happened to Cho's group?!"
"W-Wait that was all him?! He can't be much older than us!"
"Ahh! White Demon-Sama!"
"Over here!"
"Please look my way~!"
"Does anyone even know his name?"
You get the general idea.
I had to walk through this awkward and embarrassing scene.
As for the reason why?
Well, they were in front of me.
A few meters in front of me was a group of 4 kids around my age who were huddled in a group. One of them peeked his head out at the sudden silence surrounding them and looked at me.
His face paled. "U-um, guys!"
"Huh? What is it Atomu." One of the other kids said before he turned to look at me.
His face turned pale as snow. "Fuji! Choki!"
Fuji was already frozen as he looked at me.
Choki stood up straight with his larger than normal 9 year old frame and turned to the guy who had called his name. "Dai, What is it?"
Dai pointed behind Cho causing him to slowly turn his head towards me.
He completely froze. "D-D-"
"DEMON-SAMA!" They chorused as they made way.
"Please shut up." I thought before walking past them and ignoring their antics.
I could feel their fear elevate to intense levels and could smell the cold sweat dripping down their bodies and I walked by them.
Of course, I wanted nothing to do with them and simply continued on my way.
I heard their sighs of relief as I made my way to my destination.
"I almost thought I was going to die…"
"Me too…"
"I don't feel safe here…"
"Let's go the complete opposite direction of wherever he's going."
"Thank god they didn't make a scene. So annoying…" I thought before walking ahead.
Remember when I said I was going to think about coming here to socialize more?
Yeah, that wasn't going to happen.
What had I done to incur such infamy?
Well, It was actually quite an…interesting story.
I had been waiting for Itachi at the entrance of the school one day since I hadn't had anything else to do at the time.
After waiting for a while, I had thought that he was doing extra work like the good student he was. Come to find out that Itachi was being "bullied" and because he didn't like fighting much, he wasn't hitting back as often.
Under normal circumstances, I would have allowed Itachi to solve things on his own because I knew he could easily slaughter every kid in this academy with his eyes closed and a hand behind his back.
Despite this.
His mom was Mikoto Uchiha.
And I was in a rush to see her.
As a result, I thoroughly crushed his would be bullies and dragged him off to his home. Unfortunately, ever since then I had been met with this annoying scene every time I made my way across the school halls.
It was very irritating.
I broke myself out of my thoughts as I came across a room at the far end of the academy. I didn't have an appointment or anything, but I was more than sure that I would be pardoned if I just entered.
They weren't doing anything in there anyway.
I could sense their chakra.
With that, I opened the door and entered the room.
The Mission Assignment Desk was located within a huge, wide-open space with six windows and high ceilings with two stick-like lights. The ceiling also had the kanji for the word "shinobi" printed on it. There was a long table where the Hokage and other ninja sat and was where the missions were distributed.
The talking between the Shinobi, Hokage, and their advisors halted at my appearance before Danzo commented. "Yoru, I was not expecting to see you here."
I looked between Danzo and the Hokage before bowing, "Sorry for my intrusion." I began, "Recently I've been quite lax and have been focusing on other aspects of my non-physical training, however…" I stood up and glanced at them, "I feel as if my skills will rust if not used consistently and I've had plenty of time to rest myself. I was wondering if there was a mission available to me."
There was a silence at that as the shinobi around the table looked to the Hokage whose eyes were closed in thought. For a moment he stayed there in silence before opening his eyes, "Actually, there is something that I might have for you."
I looked at him intently, "What would that be Lord Hokage?"
He looked down at his pile of mission documents and shuffled through them for a moment before seemingly finding the one he wanted. "Not too long ago, I sent Minato out on a mission to hold back Kumo's aggressive front. As you should know, their Jinchuuriki is quite the problem and the 4th Raikage is a little impulsive." He then looked back up to me. "In any case, with Minato gone, I sent his students out on a simple reconnaissance mission, hopefully, to give them something to do and clear their mind." The Hokage outstretched his hand, the mission document still within it.
I took a few steps forward and accepted the document.
"Those two are two watch the border between Konoha and Kiri. I've been getting reports that the Land of Water has been moving suspiciously for a while." Hiruzen shook his head, "It seems like the lesson we taught them after the mission at the Tsuchigumo clan wasn't enough."
"I see…" I said before reading through the mission.
I froze.
An odd, indescribable foreboding feeling welled up within me.
Hidden Quest!
Mission: Save Rin
Reward: Rin lives, 50 stat points
Failure: Rin dies
Y/N
"What…?"
"Yoru, is something the matter?" The Hokage asked as he watched me.
I looked at the screen that only I could see and mentally selected 'Y' before focusing on the Hokage, "…Pardon my impudence, but is this mission really that safe?"
The Hokage looked at me seriously, "Are you frightened?"
I shook my head, "Far from it, however…" I looked down at this paper, "I have an odd foreboding feeling…I don't know why that is."
"Of course I do, it's from the pop-up telling me that Rin was going to die if I didn't save her. What exactly is going on…?"
"A shinobi must trust his instincts to keep themselves alive. Many have died because they ignored their better judgment." Danzo stated gravely. "If you feel as if something is wrong, then I can send a few reinforcements."
"That won't be necessary." I stated as rolled up the mission statement. "I feel like I'll be sufficient to handle whatever may come my way during this trip."
Both Hiruzen and Danzo looked at each other before nodding. "Very well, I'll trust your judgment."
I bowed at them before quickly exiting the school. I body flickered towards the gate and handed the guards my mission statement before they signaled me ahead.
With a nod of appreciation, I ran.
My body rapidly carried me through the trees as I dashed towards my destination, yet my mind was preoccupied. "What exactly could be going on with them?"
The Hokage wouldn't lie about this being a simple mission, therefore, a change must have occurred during the time after Kakashi and Rin left.
But what?
"In any case…" I thought as I hoped from tree to tree onwards towards my destination, "I just have to make it there in time."
Don't get me wrong, if Kakashi and Rin both died, I wouldn't necessarily feel anything. However, I would very much prefer that they don't die, especially if I could prevent it.
I hoped they didn't die…
I hopped off another tree before a drop of sweat fell down my forehead. "Maybe I should have brought my teacher? She has a much longer detection range than I do so she could find their chakra signatures much faster…"
I suppose I had been in a rush to save them and hadn't quite considered that.
Was I perhaps worried?
That couldn't be…
I shook my head from those thoughts and decided that my speed wouldn't work out as it was.
"ID Create: Empty."
With that, I dropped to the floor.
There were a few reasons why shinobi didn't move at their very fastest when they were traveling to their destinations. For one, the enemy would be able to easily pick up their movements and for another, jumping between trees at their fastest possible speed wasn't really the safest thing.
Luckily in here, I didn't need to worry about that.
With my body enhanced by chakra and my high HP, I wouldn't suffer too much damage from this.
I blurred, my legs carrying my body at hypersonic speeds. Running this fast prevented me from effectively turning and changing direction which was near impossible in a dense forest anyway.
Good thing I never planned to do so.
I bulldozed through the trees in my path with my hands up and traveled as fast as I could towards. The wind tried to claw at my skin while the trees crashed against me, however, with my durability, I was able to easily handle the strain of traveling this quickly.
In a few minutes, I began to slow down before my feet ground to a halt. I looked behind me only to see that a large path of destruction had been created as a result of my traveling speeds
"Good thing it was inside the ID…"
With that thought.
"ID Escape."
The mirror dimension shattered, dumping me in an area within the border between Fire country and Water country.
"Now then…" I thought as I looked around. "Where could they be?"