章 8: 2/3
The suffocating light shot into her, pushing itself through her every pore. She felt as though she were being twisted, almost as if someone were pushing more life into her than her body could hold. Her mouth burned. Fire danced along her skin, and every nerve was alive…
Hinata shot upward in bed, gasping and clutching at her chest. The tingles of the strange fire still shivered up and down her spine, and she had a faint sensation of unreality as she glanced about the room.
A hospital. Why was she in a hospital… oh… oh. The fight. She remembered now. Of course she was in a hospital. Were the others here? They must be, someone must have brought her here from the battle. Had they won? Or had they drawn back for her sake? Had she failed them all again? They weren't supposed to… she remembered Shikamaru telling them to keep fighting regardless of who fell. But maybe, she had… she had just…
Naruto-kun… had Naruto-kun found out? Was he mad? Or maybe… had he been the one who found her? Perhaps even carried her back here? Held her close and…
Her stream of thoughts was interrupted by the creak of the door. She glanced up, half-expecting to see Naruto.
But instead of the unmistakable blonde's whisker-marked face, she found herself gazing at a placid-faced young lady with long dark hair. The woman was clad in an elegantly simple coat and skirt, and was currently sizing Hinata up with a pair of clear, piercing eyes.
"You're awake." She commented, in a lightly sardonic tone. "That's impressive, the doctor's didn't think you'd be out of it for a while."
Hinata blinked at the woman.
"Suppose you've had some experience with injuries, in your line of work. That was quite the set of scars you had, the doctors didn't know what to make of them." The women pulled a chair up next to Hinata's bed and looked at her curiously. "Are you a new Titans member?"
Hinata's confusion tormented her face. "Um…" she whispered. "I-I'm sorry, but… where am I?"
A wrinkle furrowed the lady's brow. "You're in Jump City, kiddo. Don't you remember that?"
"N-no…" Hinata shook her head slowly. "Forgive me, but… what is Jump City?"
The wrinkle became more pronounced and the lady stood up. "You don't remember that either?" She leaned forward and placed her hand on Hinata's forehead. "I wonder if… What's your name, kid?"
"Oh! Forgive me. My name is H-h-hyuuga Hinata." Hinata attempted to bow but found it difficult in the hospital bed. "Pleased to meet you."
"Well, she doesn't seem to have amnesia, at least." The lady muttered, sitting back. "I'm Lois Lane. Daily Planet." She added, as an afterthought.
Hinata attempted another bow. "P-pleased to meet you, Lois-san."
The woman looked bemused. "Just Lois is fine. Well then," she said, picking up her pencil. "We can talk about where you are later, maybe. What about the fight? Do you remember that?"
"Oh… yes." Hinata nodded, shivering slightly.
"Great!" The woman brightened, looking at her in an almost predatory fashion. "Mind if I ask you a few questions about it?"
Confused, Hinata tried to puzzle things out. Why was the woman asking? Hadn't Shikamaru or one of the others told her already? Maybe… maybe had they all been killed, and she had been the only survivor… But no, she was the weakest, if she was still alive the others must be.
Had she been captured? Was this woman questioning her? She was obviously in a strange place. But the lady was being too nice, and she wasn't being held prisoner. Plus, she was asking about the fight. She hadn't even asked about Konoha. She couldn't be interrogating Hinata.
Maybe… yes, she must be asking for a mission report! They must be in one of the allied villages. One of the other villages—this 'Jump City'—must have found them and brought them to their hospital! Obviously they would need to send a mission report to Konoha as soon as possible.
Nodding firmly, Hinata opened her mouth and began. "Our mission was to locate and eliminate the Akatsuki member Uchiha Sasuke…"
Sakura groaned and blinked blearily as she sat up. Perhaps Lee was right about the cardboard making things easier—it'd certainly made them cleaner—but at the moment it was hard to appreciate the difference. Sleeping on sheet rock was not wholly unfamiliar to Sakura's ninja career, but she still missed her bedroll.
Sakura glanced around the room feeling something slightly… off. Some small part of her subconscious nagged at her that there was something wrong with the light gleaming through the doorway past Chouji..
Light. Doorway. Chouji.
Groaning, Sakura staggered up to the Akimichi nin. "I thought we were all going to take shifts. Why didn't you or Lee wake me for my turn?"
"I never woke Lee." Chouji shrugged. "Like I said last night, the two of you need rest a lot more than I do, and I was fine with staying up all night."
"The idea of shifts is that all members of the team rest adequately so they can all be at peak capacity in the morning. You staying up all night kinda ruins the point." Sakura slumped to a seat next to him.
"I've stayed up nights before. And with all the eating I've been doing in that time, I'm about as close to peak capacity as I'm going to get." He glanced momentarily at the bag. "Though this garbage doesn't really seem to be doing it."
He was right. And Sakura, still sore from her sleep, felt almost inclined to be mad at him for being right, but sense and sheer gratitude won out in the end. "I guess so."
There was a companionable silence for a few moments before she finally said, "Thanks Chouji. For… keeping it together and everything. I should be more on top of things than I am, it's just… Neji being lost like that, it… it really…"
"It's a shock," nodded the chubby teen. "I get it. I think we're all a little blown over by it."
"You seem to be handling it all right." There was just a hint of accusation in Sakura's voice.
Chouji did not respond for a moment, he appeared to be thinking of something. "It's… different for me, I guess. I mean, I don't know Neji that well. It's not as bad. At least…" he added quickly, "…not anything like my dad, you understand."
Sakura didn't. "Your dad?"
"Don't you remember?" Chouji glanced over at her. "Oh… right. You weren't there." He heaved a breath. Well… you remember, during the Pain invasion? How… Kakashi-sama kinda died and then came back?"
Sakura nodded slowly. "I only heard about it afterwards, but… yeah."
"Yeah, well, my dad and I were there when it happened."
"Oh." Suddenly Sakura wished she were thirty thousand miles away. "Is… that it then? You've dealt with this kinda stuff before—people dying in battle—so it's not so new to you?"
"No… or well, yes, I guess, but not… not so much with Kakashi-sama." Chouji sighed. "You see, he died helping me and my dad attack the one… gravity-Pain fighter. He came up with the plan, even—Dad and I were supposed to charge at him from both sides as a distraction, and then Kakashi was going to pop up and put a chidori through him. Almost worked, but another one of the Pains got in the way and blocked the blow long enough for the gravity one to send out a huge pulse."
Chouji heaved another big breath. "So anyway… he knocked us all back, sent rubble just crashing down on top of us. Kakashi-sama was trapped, I was badly knocked about, but Dad…" he swallowed. "Dad…"
Sakura stared at him.
"I thought he was dead." Chouji finally managed. "He'd shielded me from the majority of the blast, and he was just laying out there, all limp and senseless… I had to drag him out myself, and I checked him over… I was sure he was dead."
Chouji looked down and swallowed a couple times before continuing. "Kakashi-sama finally pulled me out of it…"
"He wasn't dead?"
"Not yet… He'd just been trapped. He told me we needed to let Tsunade know about the gravity Pain's weakness, and that I needed to go. So I ran. I didn't think, I just ran. One of the Pain bodies tried to stop me, but I think Kakashi-sama took care of that one before he died. When I finally got to Tsunade, she was the one who finally told me that Dad… that Dad was okay." He shook his head. "I just… broke down when I heard that… I thought he'd really…" He swallowed and said nothing.
For a moment neither one said anything, but simply sat there, staring out at the gradually lightening sky. "I see." Sakura finally said. "I guess… after something like that…"
"After something like that," Chouji shook his head, "Everything else is pretty much… nothing."
Sakura nodded. "For what it's worth," she answered. "I'm glad. I don't know where we'd be if you hadn't kept things together last night."
"It's okay." Chouji glanced over at her. "Just don't expect me to come up with anything. So, what're we gonna do today, fearless leader?"
Sakura smiled in answer. "First, we'd better wake up Lee. Then, let's get to work on figuring out where Neji and the others are."
Shino was aware of a vaguely uneasy feeling even before he fully awoke. Doubtless, he considered, part of this was due to lingering emotional effects of his defeat at the Uchiha's hands. Perhaps also the emotions of his insect allies were transferring to him in some way, expressing their distress at the death of their compatriots. In any case, he should do his best to locate and eliminate the source of this unease as expeditiously as possible.
In pursuit of this end, he opened his eyes, only to quickly snap them shut. Someone had apparently removed his glasses, and the sudden onslaught of light had temporarily overloaded his sense. Regrettable. His sunglasses gave him a desirable edge in hiding his emotion, and he had noted more than once the detrimental psychological effect they had on his opponents. Also, he would not be able to see well.
If sight was (temporarily) denied him, he should resort to other methods. Immediately he ordered his allies to examine the surroundings, but they nearly instantly returned with the distressing information that they were encased in an airtight suit of some kind. The ease of breathing and overall coolness of the suit indicated that there was some kind of ventilation, but his allies could not discover it. This, coupled with the fact that his hands were chained at the sides, indicated some kind of deliberate imprisonment. He immediately set his bugs to eating away at the suit.
By this time, Shino was able to open his eyes without pain and gazed through the clear panel of the suit to the room outside. A cursory evaluation indicated that he was in a hospital of some kind—a logical position, given his last known condition. However, a more detailed survey revealed several key features that made the likelihood of it being a Konoha hospital extremely low.
Chief among those features were the three men currently clustered around his bed. The one's dark skin designated him as a member of the Lightning Country, the other looked more or less normal, but the third was... green.
Shino had no experience with green ninjas, and rather unfortunately could not remember any aspect of his training that had covered them either. Such a lack of information implied an unknown ability—possibly a hidden kekkai genkai of some kind.
"He's awake!" said the first man. Something about his voice disconcerted Shino.
The second man's voice was equally disturbing. "Heartbeat is normal, brain waves consistent..." there was a short pause, "…the bugs are��� moving too…"
"That's… good. Right?"
"Yes, that is good," said the green man. "That is excellent. Monitor their activity, however. We do not yet know what they are capable of."
"Yes sir."
Suddenly Shino understood the source of his discomfiture. The man should have replied 'Hai.' Instead he had said, 'yes sir,' an utterly meaningless combination of sounds that Shino had never heard before.
So how had he understood it? For that matter, how had he understood the rest of the unintelligible sounds they were saying?
The green man spoke again. "His condition is stable, you say?"
"Yes sir."
'Very well. Leave then. I wish to speak with him alone."
The two others glanced at each other, then quickly gathered together a few items and retired. Remaining behind, the green man spent a few moments collecting his thoughts, studying Shino intensely. Shino, for his part, did his best to avoid the man's gaze. Certain genjutsus depended on eye contact. Of course, the possibility existed that he was in a genjutsu already—that would explain the green man—but his insect allies gave him no indication of such a state.
The man finally spoke. "Your name is Aburame Shino, and you are from Konoha."
Shino merely inclined his head. The man's information implied a source, most likely a bingo book of some kind. While Shino had not been aware of this, the knowledge that he had a Bingo Book profile was at once gratifying and disturbing.
"I suppose I owe you some explanation for those," said the man, indicating the cuffs which bound Shino to the bed. "You will forgive us, but we have no way of knowing whether you are friends or enemies, and the fact that several of your friends attacked Batman makes your status somewhat… difficult to determine."
Shino consulted his memory for a nin named "Batman" but came up sorely lacking. And while the man's caution was understandable, his overall behavior seemed rather odd. If the man knew they were from Konoha, how could he not know whether they were allies or enemies? More to the point, why had he not dispatched a message to Konoha to demand a reason for their presence?
"We are unsure of how to contact Konoha." The man interrupted his thoughts. "And therefore are at a loss to explain your presence here. I believe you were involved in a battle with a fugitive of some strength, correct?"
Shino evaluated his options. While he was clearly imprisoned by a presumably hostile village, the mission he and his friends had set out on was no secret. And of the different intentions they could be suspected of, bounty hunting was definitely one of the more innocent. So he chose to nod.
"I see." The man nodded, apparently relieved at his cooperation. "Who was this fugitive? How many allies did he have?"
This decision was easier to make, as all were internationally wanted criminals and had no allies outside of Akatsuki. Shino opened his mouth and was surprised to find how easily the strange language flowed off his tongue. "Uchiha Sasuke. He was accompanied by his three subordinates."
"And who is this Sasuke?"
Shino had not expected that question. How could the man not know of the last Uchiha? He stared at the man, who inclined his head in apology. "I fear we do not know much of the doings of your world here."
The data did not make sense. The fact that the man knew Aburame Shino, a chunin-level nin, implied a strong familiarity with not only the ninja world, but with Konoha in particular. How could this man know his name, but not the Uchiha's? One might assume him to be lying, except that such a lie was so unbelievable as to be patently absurd.
Given, though, that the information regarding Uchiha was common knowledge, Shino saw no reason to withhold it. "Uchiha Sasuke is an S-class missing nin of Konoha." He responded. "He is one of the few remaining members of Akatsuki and was declared an international criminal following his attack on the Kage summit and subsequent murder of the Hokage pro tempore." For a moment he wondered where the word "pro tempore" had come from, but brushed that aside as another inexplicable oddity. "Why were we pursuing him? Because certain elements decided that if outsiders were to kill Sasuke, it would result in an undesirable cycle of hostile relations between villages. Therefore prudence dictated that we handle the matter ourselves." The last bit was NOT public knowledge, but Shino felt it important to emphasize the conciliatory nature of their mission.
"You… intended to kill the fugitive then." The man was staring at him in an odd manner.
"If necessary, that was the optimal solution, yes." Shino nodded, somewhat puzzled at the man's question. "Why were we intending to eliminate him? Capture was determined neither practicable nor important due to the great skill of the target and the kill-on-sight warrant issued on him. If elimination proved impossible, secondary objectives were to maim or incapacitate the target, preferably through irreparable damage to his eyes. The elimination of his subordinates was also desirable, though not necessary, to the fulfillment of the mission. We…"
He stopped. The green man's gaze had become truly disturbed, and his mouth was slightly open in what Shino could only judge to be surprise. "I see." The man finally managed. "Kindly excuse me while I relay this information to my comrades."
She had been lying in the bed for about three hours now. During that time, no one new had entered the room, no one had spoken to her, and no one had done anything of the remotest interest. Fortunately, they had left her bed in the upright position, so she was able to survey her room and the two men standing by the door, but outside of that Tenten had nothing to do.
Unlike Shikamaru, Tenten hated having nothing to do. For as long as she could remember, she had never been content with sitting still. She had always wanted to go higher, farther, larger than anyone else ever had. It'd stood her in good stead as a kunoichi. Among other things, working on a team with a revenge-driven genius and an enthusiasm-driven psycho nearly demanded it. But more than that, she'd always admired her teammates (and her sensei, despite everything) for the things they shared—an unflinching quest for self-improvement.
That's why she had selected the Sannin Tsunade as her model. As the ultimate kunoichi in the ninja world, there was no one better for Tenten to aspire towards. Gai and Lee might choose to motivate themselves by choosing formidable rivals, Tenten motivated herself by choosing a formidable model.
Would Lady Tsunade have gotten beaten by a pitiful water swordsman, been captured somehow, and ended up strapped to a white table in a purely white room? Tenten greatly doubted it. And certainly, if she had been, she wouldn't spend it doing nothing. If Lady Tsunade were in her position…
Well, okay, if Lady Tsunade were in her position she would break the cuffs off like clay, punch her way through the wall, summon a few dozen slugs or so, and then proceed to destroy the entire complex.
But Tenten could do none of those things. So she focused on what she was good at. Weapons.
For starters, there was the bed, which was apparently able to conduct Raiton energy. She'd found this out the hard way when the bald man had shown up and she'd refused to answer any of his questions. That had… hurt. But she'd kept her silence, and she was proud of that. A good shinobi was never to reveal information, no matter how trivial. She just hoped she could keep it up.
The bed, unfortunately, would make a poor weapon, as Tenten was fairly certain it was mounted to the ground. There was no way to employ its Raiton-conducting energies as a weapon. Perhaps if she had been a lightning type… but no, no sense dwelling on that.
The cuffs that bound her to the bed, while not strictly weapons, were mechanical, and could be employed as brass knuckles in a pinch. Tenten's taijutsu was average, she might be able to handle the guards at the door.
Those same guards, though, were the chief objects of her attention. They had come in shortly after the bald man had left, and were standing there, muttering back and forth in some weird jargon. Both, though, carried some odd devices that they clearly considered weapons, and Tenten had spent the last half-hour trying to figure them out.
They must be projectile weapons, that was clear. There were no sharp edges and the handle didn't make it easy to swing. Plus, the overall form, especially the "trigger" on the handle, was reminiscent of a crossbow. What puzzled Tenten, however, was that there was no room for an arrow to fit, or indeed of any kind of projectile. Nor, for that matter, did the men seem to be carrying any kind of additional ammunition for the weapons.
Perhaps ammunition was supplied through summoning scrolls? But what kind of ammunition would even work in a weapon like that?
Tenten decided to try an experiment.
Taking a deep breath, she lunged as far forward as the cuffs would allow her and let loose a stream of invectives at the guards. As she expected, the guards glanced at her, gestured, and returned to their discussion. Undeterred, she continued to shout at them, thrashing about in her cuffs a little for good effect. She didn't expect they could understand her—she certainly couldn't understand them—but she did her best to make the import of her words very clear. Working up a sizeable wad of spit, she shot it at the nearest guard.
Tenten hadn't been a weapon's specialist for five years for nothing. The spittle hit the man full in the face and he sputtered. With a yell, he turned to face her, waving his weapon.
It was all Tenten could do not to grin. From the way he handled it, it was obvious that the projectiles came from the tube-like protrusion at the front of the device. Shaking the observation from her mind, she continued to rant and scream, drawing on more and more insulting terms.
The man continued to advance on her, shouting back. Unsurprisingly, Tenten could not understand him either, but again, the essence was clear. He pointed the tube-like protrusion directly at her face, still shouting. The other guard was next to him now, shouting at him and attempting to drag the weapon away.
Tenten felt a touch nervous. The fact that the bald man had left her alive meant that the men would not be allowed to kill her. She had gambled on that fact and the hope that these men would obey their orders. But these men seemed poorly disciplined…
Suddenly she noticed the man beginning to lower his weapon. That couldn't happen! Again, hastily, she spat.
Her aim was not quite so good this time and it caught the man on the front of his jacket, but it was enough to reawaken his anger. Again he raised his weapon and began to shout. The other shouted something intelligible at him and he froze momentarily. With baited breath, Tenten watched the two of them.
Finally, with a scream of frustration, the man jerked his weapon away and pulled the trigger.
Faster than Tenten's eyes could follow, light burst from the front of the tube and shot toward the opposite wall. It exploded against the whiteness, leaving a sizeable hole and an impressively large burnt area.
Tenten's eyes grew large and darted back and forth from the hole to the weapon.
She HAD to get one of those.
The Mangekyo Sharingan was not a well-understood kekkai genkai, due in part to its incredible rarity. Thus, little was known about its jutsus and their precise inner workings. Tsukuyomi, for example, while a genjutsu-like jutsu, clearly had several features far beyond the extent of normal genjutsus.
Sasuke's Mangekyo Sharingan had recently gained a new ability, of his own design. It was able to seek out and replay various memories within the victim's mind. It was incredibly draining of chakra, so Sasuke didn't use it often, but in this case he felt he would need it.
Sifting through painful memories in the blink of an eye, Sasuke found one he felt would suit admirably. Immediately he began to replay it.
"You are trapped in a Tsukuyomi." He informed the obviously disoriented boy. "It is a state in which I control space and time."
Robin did not reply, merely looking about. "A circus, eh?"
Sasuke was not sure what a 'circus' was, so he simply nodded.
The boy was glancing around at everything in their surroundings. His eye caught the figures on the trapeze. "You idiot. You're going to make me relive my parent's murder?"
"For the next three days," Sasuke responded, "we will continue to replay these events." They suddenly whipped forward and now they were floating in air, just across from the figures whirling on the trapeze. "This entire process shall take no more than a second in the real world, but I assure you it will be a very real 3 days for you."
The two watched silently as the two figures went flying through the air. They watched as something went horribly wrong with the trapeze. They watched the man and woman fall and smash against the sand of the circus. They watched the crowds, the police, the sobbing boy…
The image froze, shifted apart, and reconstituted. Again they stood in the circus. Again they watched two figures go flying through the air. The trapeze went wrong. The man and woman fell, smashing to pieces. Crowds, the police, the sobbing boy…
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